The Next Window

<b>ALERT — The U.S. Copyright Office is planning Internet Explorer-only site functions!</b><br />
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The U.S. Copyright office has posted a request for comments — <b><i>and they need to get them!</i></b> Consistent with old pre-computer ways, and of course to limit comments that would pour from computer users, email comments are not accepted. <br />
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<b><u>Their posted requirements are that you send an original and 5 copies of your comments by hand delivery, commercial courier or mail — and FedEX, UPS, Airborne and such are specifically excluded. I imagine that they would be surprised to learn that they are not commercial couriers!</u></b>!<br />
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Anyway, I sent them the following email via their website — but I'm sure it will go nowhere. <br />
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SUBJECT: IE-Only website plans are UNACCEPTABLE!<br />
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I just read this notice about IE-only support for copyright preregistration — <br />
<a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=555&amp;entry_id=121" title="http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr44878.html" onmouseover="window.status='http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr44878.html';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2005/70fr44878.html</a><br />
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You people must be living in a different world. It is totally unacceptable to require the, let's say, security-challenged Internet Explorer for any use other than processing "Windows Updates."<br />
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I have used anything other Internet Explorer for years. I avoid it because of its history of security problems, proprietary Microsoft technologies and non-standard "extensions" to HTML.<br />
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I object strongly to your intent to create an Internet Explorer-only system. If this is not the intent, but is the unintended result, then FIX THE BUGS. IE-only is not acceptable.<br />
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Terry Stockdale — Baton Rouge, LA</blockquote><br />
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It's time to put it to paper, sign it and scan/copy 5 copies for the mail.<br />
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<blockquote>Comments are due no later than August 22, 2005… If sent by mail, an original and five copies of any comment should be addressed to: Copyright GC/ I&R, P.O. Box 70400, Southwest Station, Washington, DC 20024-0400.</blockquote><br />
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The full notice, which is available at the Federal Register's website indicated above, is quoted in the "Continue Reading" section. <br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/121-IE-Only-website-plans-are-UNACCEPTABLE!.html#extended">Continue reading "IE-Only website plans are UNACCEPTABLE!"</a>

Last Tuesday was Microsoft's "Updates" release day for August. If you haven't done them yet, ,it is past time. There are already "exploits" circulating automatically on the Internet. <br />
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Microsoft classified three updates as <i>critical</i>, one as <i>important</i> and two as <i>moderate</i>. One of the critical updates is actually cumulative update to Internet Explorer, designed to apply new patches and to get you up-to-date on all the fixes for I.E.<br />
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There is a already a worm circulating automatically on the Internet to take advantage of one of the holes. It is a variation on another worm. In addition to being a self-spreading problem, it is a spam-sender and a "downloader" — it will download other malware onto your system.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/exit.php?url_id=554&amp;entry_id=120" title="http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/08/worm_exploiting.html" onmouseover="window.status='http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/08/worm_exploiting.html';return true;" onmouseout="window.status='';return true;">Security Fix</a> column at the Washington Post's website has some good information about this workk and links for more information.<br />
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Do your Windows updates now!<br />

In case you haven't noticed, AMC is broadcasting old James Bond flicks this week and next. <br />
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Even better, they are doing nightly double-features of the same show. Well, not exactly the same show. The second film each night is the restored, wide-screen version of the same picture.<br />
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That's right — you can see the full-screen version, to which we have all been subjected countless times by now. And (OR) you can see a beautiful wide-screen version of the same film.<br />
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AMC is broadcasting the first full-screen version at 8pm EDT (7pm CDT). The wide-screen version follows it immediately.<br />
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For Dr. No and From Russia with Love, I recorded the full-screen and the wide-screen to watch later. I quickly found that I had no interest in watching the full-screen versions again.<br />
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Bond, James Bond, in Wide-Screen — the way it was meant to be.<br />
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For those who have read some of my earlier thoughts on the subject of Star Wars Dark Chocolate M&M's, I wrote to Masterfoods USA, the division of Mars, Inc. that produced the treasures.<br />
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Anyway, the response I got was good news of a sort — this was just a limited campaign of dark chocolate M&M's for Star Wars, but reportedly, there is still some inventory in Baton Rouge, and they told me where! <br />
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Better news, <i>they are going to have another Star Wars Dark Chocolate M&M's campaign when Episode 3 is released on DVD</i>, which is scheduled for November 1st. <br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/114-Star-Wars-Dark-Chocolate-MMs.html#extended">Continue reading "Star Wars Dark Chocolate M&amp;M's"</a>

The SciFi Channel's new season started three weeks ago, with back-to-back episodes of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. Stargate SG-1 is in its ninth season and is slowly transitioning to new actors. Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica are beginning their second seasons.<br />
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First the bad news: Battlestar Galactica is rapidly deteriorating. The show can't seem to decide if it wants action (defined as individual Cylons shooting hand weapons at the good guys) or character development. <br /><a href="http://www.thenextwindow.com/index.php?/archives/113-Review-SciFi-Channels-SciFi-Friday.html#extended">Continue reading "Review: SciFi Channel's &quot;SciFi Friday&quot;"</a>