Camera phones in Iraq; digicams and truth in wartime

By Xeni Jardin at 9:21 pm Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST

London's "The Business" newspaper (aka the Sunday Business) reported this weekend that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered a ban on camera phones and other mobile imaging devices in US army installations in Iraq. The story was subsequently cited in numerous online news reports, including UPI and AFP, and blogged abundantly.

Quoting a Pentagon source, the paper said the US Defence Department believes that some of the damning photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones. "Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq," it said, adding that a "total ban throughout the US military" is in the works.

This morning, I asked a Defense Department spokesperson whether or not the reports of a phonecam ban were true. This spokesperson said that these reports were technically inaccurate -- that the Pentagon is not issuing a new ban on camera phones per se, but that a Directive 8100.2 was issued on April 14 establishing new restrictions on wireless telecommunications equipment in general. The text of this directive is available online here in PDF format: Link. The intent of this April 14 directive, and how commanders in the field will be expected to enforce it, are matters I'll be reporting on in more detail for the NPR program "Day to Day," later this week.

Link to cameraphone ban report, Link to full Rumsfeld "running around with digital cameras" quote. See also this Chicago Tribune editorial by Clarence Page, "Weapons of Mass Photography." (thanks also to Joi's blog and Smartmobs)

WiFi surveillance cams in London

By Xeni Jardin at 8:33 pm Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

From the BBC News today, a story about the unwiring of (overabundant) surveillance cams.

In the UK there is one CCTV camera for every 14 people. If you are in London, you could be caught on camera up to 300 times a day. But the cameras are expensive, and once you have installed one, and laid all the wires back to base, it is fixed and cannot move. This means if a crime hotspot moves round the corner, you cannot see it. Westminster City Council in London have come up with a solution - CCTV cameras without wires, which broadcast their pictures back to base using the council's new wireless network.

Link

Brazilian heavy metal video game theme cover band

By Xeni Jardin at 5:49 pm Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

What's that you say? You came to BoingBoing to find a link to a Brazilian heavy metal band that performs covers of videogame music? Well, that is good. Because "nino" from the Brazilian band MegaDriver tells us

"We have released two albums. "Metal Beast: Rise From Your Grave!" A tribute to the game Altered Beast, launched by Sega in 1988. The album contains the complete soundtrack from the game recreated in Heavy-Metal style. And "Metal Axe," A tribute to the game Golden Axe, launched by Sega in 1989. The band have also released an emulator project called "Metal Mame", based on the most popular Arcade emulator, MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). With "Metal Mame" the fans now can play the original Arcade game with their entire soundtrack remixed by the MegaDriver band. At the band's website there is also available their first "Demo CD", "PUSH START BUTTON", with classic songs from "Castlevania", "Streets Of Rage", "Top Gear", "Street Fighter", etc.

What I really want to know is -- como você diz o "mullet" no Português? Link to band website, and UPDATE: Link to "mullet-in-Portuguese" answer.

Blog-checking a congresscritter

By Cory Doctorow at 2:53 pm Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

My pal Pat Berry has decided to keep a close watch on Wally Herger, the rep from California's Second Congressional District, who is Pat's congresscritter. So Pat's sending him letters, asking him to answer for the government's mess in Iraq -- and other messes -- and blogging the congresscritter's form responses, with detailed, hyperlinked critiques. Pat doesn't expect Herge to stop talking bullshit as a result of being fact-checked, but he has high hopes for being a prominent search-engine result for the query "Wally Herger".

While there are no obvious points of contention here, it is meant to misdirect us from the fact that prisoner torture is wrong by pointing out that people want to hurt us. There will never be a time in history when somebody, somewhere will not want to hurt the United States or see us fail. In no way does this condone the torture of prisoners. It never has and it never will. Trying to associate the investigation with American weakness is a dirty trick. Compassion and a show of humanity is not weakness, nor is showing concern for a group of people other than ourselves. Also we must not let the fact that good things happen shield us from the horrors that happen in Iraq, they must be dealt with. For those honestly curious about the progress being made in Iraq, USAID has a site with extensive records and archives.

Link

Hardening an httpd for the rapture

By Cory Doctorow at 1:27 pm Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

RaptureReady is a site devoted to getting ready for the end-times: this is from the FAQ:

How do you plan to maintain this site after the rapture?

I have no master plan for maintaining Rapture Ready all the way through the seven-year tribulation. After the big event takes place, I expect RR to last several months. After all, the internet was designed to survive a nuclear war. It should be able to survive the great catching up of all believers.

Link (Thanks, Harley!)

Tiny, wicked Disneyland uniform pieces on eBay

By Cory Doctorow at 12:51 pm Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

This Disneyland Parking Attendant coat and shirt on eBay look great, but they're way too small for me. Link

MP3-ringtone converter

By Cory Doctorow at 4:18 am Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

There's a new app that will convert your MP3 to ringtones and the music industry is freaking out (despite the fact that phones like the P800, which can play an MP3 without any conversion as a ringtone, have been around for at least a year)

``It's problematic, because it has the potential to eviscerate the business model early in its development,'' said Ted Cohen, EMI Music's senior vice president of digital development and distribution.

Link (Thanks, Tom!)

Recursive documentary

By Cory Doctorow at 4:11 am Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

"The Making Of: The Documentary With This Tagline" is a recursive documentary -- a documentary about the making of itself. The trailer is a scream. Link (Thanks, Nick!)

Nude coaster record

By Cory Doctorow at 3:19 am Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

A group in Surrey have set the world's record for largest group of naked people on a rollercoaster. Hope they sterilized the seats afterwards! Link (Thanks, Patrick!)

Info-page on arrested Japanese P2P developer

By Cory Doctorow at 3:15 am Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

Here's a page with public information and a fundraising appeal to help Isamu Kaneko, the developer of the Japanese anonymizing P2P app Winny -- who was arrested for what amounts to "abetting infringement."

Isamu Kaneko, a very well-known software engineer and a research associate of Tokyo university, was arrested for creating a P2P software called 'Winny' which supports anonymous bulletin board and file-sharing.

Creating file-sharing software is completely legal in Japan. Therefore, police is justifying his arrest as for 'assisted two persons who illegally uploaded copyrighted materials using Winny'. This kind of stretch of the rules is a very serious threat to our freedom and rights.

Isamu was arrested May 10, 2004 in Tokyo, by Kyoto prefectural police. And still under detention without accusation.

Link (Thanks, Goshuke!)

EST at Infinity Plus

By Cory Doctorow at 12:48 am Sunday, May 23 • Comments • Share

The wonderful online sf mag Infinity Plus has just published an excerpt from my novel Eastern Standard Tribe. Link