Whispers from the Wild

Unlike most people, when my Vista laptop says it’s updated itself, I follow the links about each update and see what they do. In Windows XP they utilised an anti-piracy component called WGA which tried to sell people a new license for Windows XP if it thought there was anything wrong. While I’ve nothing against this in principal, the problem was that it often reported ‘false positives’ – identifying a copy of Windows as counterfeit when it wasn’t.

A perfect example of this is my father-in-law’s IBM laptop. He worked for IBM for 20 years, and during his last years there bought through staff discount this laptop. It’s totally genuine, and the XP on it is genuine OEM XP supplied by IBM. Now here’s the thing. The laptop is pre-wifi and so he uses a USB wifi receiver to link it to his home network. Despite the USB receiver not being an upgrade, whenever it’s in a USB port, the WGA system identifies the laptop as having a pirate copy of Windows. Remove the usb receiver, and the same WGA correctly identifies the laptop as legitimately licensed.

In XP the worst you get is nagged. In Vista, it shuts you down. I noticed today this update sneaking in, called nothing more than “Update for Windows Vista” – from the Microsoft site:

This update enables Windows Vista to detect activation exploits that bypass product activation and that interfere with usual Windows operation. An activation exploit is a form of software that replaces or modifies authentic Windows components. When activation exploits are present on a system, it indicates that a software or hardware vendor may have tampered with genuine Windows to enable the sale of counterfeit software. Therefore, the security and the privacy of the computer are put at risk. After this update is installed, you will know if activation exploits are present on the system.

This update for Windows Vista detects activation exploits that may be present on a system. An activation exploit bypasses licensing and activation. This behavior allows for counterfeit copies of Windows Vista to run without ever having to be activated. Activation exploits make alterations to key Windows system files. These activation exploits affect both system stability and security.

When the update is installed, no functionality of your operating system will be affected. If no activation exploits are detected, the update silently exits. If activation exploits are detected, you will be provided a link to a Web site that describes how you can remove the activation exploits. When the activation exploits are removed, you may be asked to use a valid product key to activate your copy of Windows. If you do not want to remove the activation exploits, Windows may disable the activation exploits and then ask you to use a valid product key to activate Windows.

So surely we’re talking about a situation where genuine license holders who have a valid product key won’t have any problems, right?

Wrong.

The additional problem that gets in the way here is the way Vista will lock a product key to a machine in its original state. For me with HP that wasn’t much of a problem even when my HP Pavilion got sent away for repairs. They changed the motherboard (and of course that meant the processor and memory were changed too) and this triggered the ‘machine change’ state where Vista demanded a valid product key. Not a problem, you might think, it’s written on the certificate on the bottom of the machine – and indeed it was. The problem was that Windows would no longer accept that product key, because it belonged to a configuration of machine that was no longer present. HP were very good about issuing a new product key and I was able to continue as normal.

Other manufacturers aren’t so ethical. When Vista’s technology was first discovered, it seemed like some manufacturers were purposefully loading more copies of the program then they’d paid Microsoft licenses for. Companies like Dell that charge people $40 just to ask a question or Acer whose support is at best questionable (their site is very much like their laptops – it doesn’t work half the time) leave their users in PC Hell and Microsoft don’t help by adding things like this.

Okay, so if you’ve interfered with the licensing system you’ve only got yourself to blame… but what if you haven’t? What if you’re a false positive in this identification system? Microsoft did sort of promise to get rid of the abhorrent RFM (reduced functionality mode) in Windows which basically disabled the entire operating system in the event of a positive hit with their antipiracy system; I’m not sure if they’ve done that yet. This update description avoids talking about RFM at all.

Microsoft have always said that windows that enters a questionable state has 30 days to re-register or fix the state, but again that isn’t always the case. I’ve been to systems where the 30 days has been from original activation of the legitimate product, so a reinstallation doesn’t give another 30 days if a problem is detected, it straight away says the 30 days has expired, so you HAVE to activate now to use Windows at all. Stuck in this situation a business that needed the data stored on that machine would be left with a choice that was no choice. Have the machine out of commission or pay another license fee. In affect, the data would be being held to ransom by Microsoft – you pay us what we demand or you can’t access your data.

I wouldn’t be as annoyed if Microsoft were honest about what they’re doing, but they’re not. “When activation exploits are present on a system, it indicates that a software or hardware vendor may have tampered with genuine Windows to enable the sale of counterfeit software. Therefore, the security and the privacy of the computer are put at risk. After this update is installed, you will know if activation exploits are present on the system.” it chirrups happily. Ignoring for a moment the bait that is to a virus writer to cause absolute havoc by writing a virus specifically to interfere with licensing files knowing that Windows would then join the virus in acting against the user, these two sentences dumb down the description of what the update does. They suggest that it will tell you if it finds an issue but won’t interfere with the normal operation of Windows. This is further reinforced by the “Note Installing this update does not affect the functionality of your operating system.” just below it.

“When the update is installed, no functionality of your operating system will be affected. If no activation exploits are detected, the update silently exits. If activation exploits are detected, you will be provided a link to a Web site that describes how you can remove the activation exploits. When the activation exploits are removed, you may be asked to use a valid product key to activate your copy of Windows. If you do not want to remove the activation exploits, Windows may disable the activation exploits and then ask you to use a valid product key to activate Windows.”

Here we get as close to the crux of the matter as possible.  Activation is started again, but there is no guarantee that the supplied product key will work any more; after all, the whole reason for the re-activation needing to happen is interference to the license, right?  So maybe the license belongs to the machine that Windows thinks exists prior to the interference, as in the above example.  In this case, even though the user has paid for a license with the machine, they are offered no option but to buy another license.  “Windows may ask you to use a valid product key” is the key phrase here, since there does appear to be discrepancies in what is a valid product key and what is an invalidated product key.

At the end of the day, this update is not to increase security.  It’s not to increase stability.  Those two claims are outright lies.  This update is to protect one thing and one thing only – Microsoft’s profits.  It’s one reason why Vista is still not a popular operating system, and until Microsoft learns that whilever they hold their users to ransom they’re not going to be popular, we’re stuck with the Orwellian reversals of bad and good.

When Bush came for the Al-Qaeda’s,
I remained silent;
I was not Al-Qaeda.

When they locked up the terrorists,
I remained silent;
I was not a terrorist.

When they came for the political activists,
I remained silent;
I was not a political activist.

When they came for the unpatriotic,
I remained silent;
I was not unpatriotic.

When they came for me,
There was no one left to speak out.

Is it corny to take a well known poem about those who didn’t speak out against the nazis and paraphrase it for today’s America? Not really. The associated press reports:

On June 23, 2003, Bush declared al-Marri an enemy combatant, which stripped him of those rights. Bush wrote that al-Marri possessed intelligence vital to protect national security. In his jail cell in Peoria, however, he could refuse to speak with investigators.

A military brig allowed more options. Free from the constraints of civilian law, the military could interrogate al-Marri without a lawyer, detain him without charge and hold him indefinitely. Courts have agreed the president has wide latitude to imprison people captured overseas or caught fighting against the U.S. That is what the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is for.

But al-Marri was not in Guantanamo Bay.

“The president is not a king and cannot lock people up forever in the United States based on his say-so,” said Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer who represents al-Marri and other detainees. “Today it’s Mr. al-Marri. Tomorrow it could be you, a member of your family, someone you know. Once you allow the president to lock people up for years or even life without trial, there’s no going back.”

But most worryingly is the governments reason. From the same article:

The full appeals court is reviewing that decision and a ruling is expected soon. During arguments last year, government lawyers said the courts should give great deference to the president when the nation is at war.

“What you assert is the power of the military to seize a person in the United States, including an American citizen, on suspicion of being an enemy combatant?” Judge William B. Traxler asked.

“Yes, your honor,” Justice Department lawyer Gregory Garre replied.

This is just what the Nazis did. They imprisoned those whose philosophy differed. They send them to concentration camps. They put them to death.

We now have lawyers for President Bush standing up in court and saying that the kind of behaviour everyone is horrified over when the Nazis did it is fine for President Bush purely because his country is at war. We now have an attempt to say that Bush can, at any time, without justification, strip someone of all rights and imprison them without charge or appeal for the rest of their lives, just because he believes they’re an “enemy combatant”.

Of course it’s not just Bush. It’s the government as a whole. If you make the wrong enemy, you get the equivalent of a 21st century witch hunt. How is a person imprisoned without access to any evidence against them, supposed to know how to defend themselves from their accusers? Answer: They’re not. Burn the witch. America is a Christian country.

While right wing blogs like this one trot out pseudo-military hymns (while its authors still dodge actively serving themselves) and are happy to fall in line, America strays further and further from being a “land of the free” and closer and closer to being a land where the illusion of freedom can only be maintained by saying and doing the “right patriotic” thing at the right time. Albeit a few decades late, we are finally reaching George Orwell’s vision, in a land where the populace blinds itself to the changes rather than let go of a long dead dream of what their country once was.

How long will people stay silent? Until Bush comes for them?

From the BBC:

An audit of some $8bn (£4bn) paid to US and Iraqi contractors has found that almost every payment failed to comply with US laws aimed at preventing fraud.

In one instance, $11m was paid to a US company without any record of what goods or services were provided, the US defence department audit said.

US spending of another $1.8bn in seized Iraqi assets was also poorly handled.

Why does this not come as a surprise?

Bush and his partners in crime don’t WANT accountability.  They make a nice little earner from backhanders from “appreciative” companies allowed to screw the American taxpayer by charging the taxpayer $50 for a can of soda and $5 for a toilet roll.  We all know how it works, a politician turns a blind eye to corruption and the company gives that politician an “appreciation donation”.  And it’s rife in Iraq.  Always has been in this war.

Yet try and hold them accountable, and suddenly it’s all “Executive Priviledge” and “can’t see these documents on the grounds of national security”.

It’s quite deliberate fraud on a massive scale.  Fraud against the American taxpayer, and fraud against “appropriated” money belonging to the citizens of Iraq.  Far from being liberators, the Republicans have turned America into a gigantic defrauding scam, a kind of Nigerian 419 scam of international proportions.  Taking Iraq’s money and paying it to contractors who did everything they could to avoid using it for the purposes it was meant for, and everything they could to line their own pockets with it.  They are so corrupt they aren’t even spending the money on the US Marines’ health and safety, leading to a number of Marines dying needlessly in their own showers because safety isn’t an issue for these contractors.  If it comes to a choice between safety and cost, they’ll choose cost every time.

So much for “support the troops”.

Many jobs that used to be done by the corps of engineering have been taken from them and given to contractors, and in almost all these cases instead of the efficient, complete job the army corps of engineering would have done the end result has been a half finished, half assed, double charged job that in many cases wouldn’t pass inspection in the US and hasn’t been up to the job it’s supposed to do.  How is this efficiency?  Granted, it’s draining on resources for the army to rebuild what it’s destroyed, but that’s part of the job and part of the purpose of the corps of engineering.  Instead the jobs have been given to contractors who the average American probably wouldn’t trust to resurface their car drive, and all because these contractors have known the right politician to bribe.  And it’s all taken place under the Corruptor-In-Chief “Preznident” Bush.

This is getting ridiculous.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

Source: Reuters

Firstly, America has absolutely NO jurisdiction over any other part of the world. With its opting out of the international court of justice (in case said court wants to prosecute members of the Bush administration) America has declared that no organisation or country can override its own supreme court, so what the hell does America think it’s doing trying to dictate to other countries?

Secondly, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. America is reliant on OPEC’s oil. There is still a misconception that OPEC’s reliance on America as a customer is far worse than America’s reliance on OPEC as a supplier. This was once the case, but not any more. OPEC has China, Russia, Japan and the EU as customers. Yes, it will hurt if there is an economical war between OPEC and America, but it won’t destroy OPEC. It will, however, destroy America.

Thirdly, I’ve heard it often trumpeted “When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold”. Well, not any more. The US economy isn’t #1 in the world any more, and it is seriously reliant on countries like Saudi Arabia keeping selling their oil in US dollars, trading in US dollars and most importantly pinning its currency to the US dollar. If it decides to go with the stronger Euro, America is screwed. Already, if someone in Saudi Arabia coughs about depinning the currency the US has to be rushed to hospital with severe financial respiratory distress.

Fourth, how do they intend to enforce this? Which part of “f*** you Mr Bush” which is basically what Saudi Arabia said the last time Bush went cap in hand to beg for cheaper oil, don’t they understand? So an American oil company successfully sues OPEC in the US courts – who’s going to enforce it?

And last but not least, the “support the troops” mantle so apparently important to Republicans is harmed spectacularly here. If they piss Saudi Arabia off so much that it unpins its currency and starts trading oil in the stronger Euro, that leaves all the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan stranded, as there isn’t either enough oil for fuel to fly that many home, or enough money to charter other people to do it (since the dollar would become worthless in days if Saudi Arabia, and OPEC, decide to ditch the US Dollar.

This is really a huge sign of the way America has become; litigious and blame-shifting. That it would appear to be a solution to sue someone else still comes as a more palatable option than trying to find alternatives to the reliance on oil, speaks volumes about how America has buried its head in the proverbial sand.

And to put icing on the cake, the only really stupid piece of legislation that really deserves Bush’s threatened veto and it looks as if they would override it. You couldn’t make this stuff up…