Gallery of CSS Descramblers

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 27 Feb 2001 13:00:00 GMT

Skinning Your Knees on God

Little by little,
You will turn into stars.

Even then, my dear,
You will only be
A crawling infant,
Still skinning your knees on God.

Little by little,
You will turn into
The whole sweet, amorous Universe
In heat
On a wild spring night,

And become so free
In a wonderful, secret
And pour Love
That flows
From a conscious,
One-pointed
Infinite need for Light.

Even then, my dear,
The Beloved will have fulfilled
Just a fraction,
Just a fraction!
Of a promise
He wrote upon your heart.

When your soul begins
To Ever bloom and laugh
And spin in Eternal Ecstasy -

O little by little,
You will turn into God.

(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

Sean Hackbarth's blog, The American Mind, has moved to http://www.theamericanmind.com. [latte]

The Sports Illustrated swimsuit 2001 issue, Goddesses of the Mediterranean, is online. Not the whole thing mind you, for that you'll have to cough up some coin of the realm at the newstand, but a very nice teaser...

I'm a lumberjack, and I'm OK: a 600K mp3 of the classic Monty Python song. "I cut down trees. I wear high heels, suspenders, and a bra. I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear mama." [brent]

Amber Eden - Frickin' donut eating, gun toting goons: Ms. Eden experiences a "Papieren, bitte" stop from an Amerikan Nazi.

OOOooo that blonde one- pulling into her driveway- she's a real threat to public safety. Better make sure she's got her registration card on her person. We can't have people feeling they have the right to move about unimpeded simply because they've paid their taxes and broken no laws.

I received the following story in email from my high school buddy in Wyoming. Don't get me wrong. I'm no fan of the new president. He is, after all, the leader of the most dangerous and powerful criminal enterprise in the world. But it shows how at least one marine views the difference between GW and Klinton.

Military courtesy change
I picked up on something very funny this morning. CNN showed George W. leaving HM-1. The marine at the front step saluted, GW returned it, and as he walked away, the marine executed a right face to stand facing GW's back...something that was missing in eight years of the Clinton presidency.
The traditional Marine Corps mark of respect was rendered to the new president. That one goes back to the days in the rigging, when the marine orderly to the ship's captain always faced him, no matter his direction of movement, to be ready to receive an order. Who says that enlisted men can't hold back when they don't respect someone?
...And for eight years, they did.

Dave Wedge at the Boston Herald - Jail nurse speaks out after Oct. MCI sweep: Calls prison life `sadistic': The Department of Corrections guards at the Shirley, MA prison like to beat the inmates. A nurse finally couldn't take it anymore. [unknown]

She said she wanted to return to Shirley after her suspension but was instead transferred to MCI-Framingham women's prison. Frustrated with what she called the DOC's "Gestapo-like tactics," she resigned last week.
"The DOC is a dirty, nasty operation. They're very secret and just don't want anyone making waves," she said. "They function in the dark and there's some dirty, squishy things in the dark."

Dave Winer's Davenet - Workflow: Dave expounds on the reason all the expensive web content systems include extensive workflow capabilities but Manila doesn't. Workflow's purpose is to slow down the flow of information to the web. Manila's purpose is to speed it up.

Elliotte Rusty Harold - Java 1.4 and Beyond: notes from talks Rusty gave to the UK Unix Users Group (UKUUG). [cafe]

Dan Lyke at Flutterby - More on the 16 categories: Dan points out a primary economic flaw in the Open Source philosophy:

Economically it still costs to develop software. Unless someone finds the nirvana of business models Open Source software will never make good end-user software because end-users aren't paying for it. Programmers and highly technical people pay for Open Source. Not in dollars, in sweat and effort, and in the end it's no cheaper than closed source software, just better evolved to that particular customer base.

Peter Norvig - Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years: debunks the "learn x in y days" mentality. It takes 10 years to develop real expertise. Some advice for the serious student. [cafe]

Alan Perlis put it more succinctly: "Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught how not to. So it is with the great programmers".

Peter Norvig at Software Development Magazine - Extreme Rapid Development: reviews four integrated development environments (IDEs) for dynamic languages: ActivePython 2.0, Allegro Common Lisp 6.0, Macintosh Common Lisp 4.3, Functional Developer 2.0 (Dylan). Includes this good description of one of the nice qualities of truly dynamic languages (some Java IDEs work this way, but most use a conventional batch compiler).

For example, I once ran a command-line Lisp program, interrupting it when I realized I needed a better understanding of the output. I then spent two furious days coding to replace the printed output with a GUI editor. Once I had the GUI working, I noticed the breakpoint from the original interrupt was still active. So, I let the program continue from the breakpoint-and the rest of the output was displayed perfectly in the GUI. This isn't standard practice for Java or C++ environments.

How to decrypt a DVD: in haiku form: somewhat entertaining, until you get to the tables. Whew! [xray]

Dr. David S. Touretzky of CMU has a Gallery of CSS Descramblers, a "scholarly publication", including versions in C, SML, Scheme, a new language with no current compiler, plain English, interspered code and English, the haiku I linked to above, cryptanalysis, the CopyLeft T-shirt, a dramatic reading, the code set to music, the movie, a logo, hidden in a PNG file, hidden in a JPEG file, encoded on a DNS server, as a Yahoo greeting card, and an entire Steganography Wing. The two links I've included here may get me my very own letter from a lawyer. [grabbe]

Response to MPA Threat Letter includes lots of details about the gallery page that were not mentioned in the MPA's letter and includes:

In order for me to consider the allegation you raised in your letter, I request that you specify the URL for each of the files on my web site to which you are objecting, and for each such file, give the legal basis for your objection. It would also be helpful if you would explain, for those representations of the DeCSS algorithm to which you do not object (such as, perhaps, the recording of someone singing the source code), why you do not object to my publishing the algorithm in that particular form.

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair