June, 4, 2003 archives

unless i'm misreading things, the riaa's latest suit against the makers of morpheus is basically for ripping music that they never distributed. can i expect them to sue me for the 300+ albums i have ripped? (note: i own copies of all of the albums.)

copyright needs to go back to being about publishing (distributing), not copying.

apple's isync now supports the nokia 3650 along with a bunch of other devices. (looks like just the address book right now, not the calendar or todo items.)

i would not notice the latest windows/outlook mail virus (w32/sobig.c@mm), except for the problem of all those people with fundamentally broken virus checking software that blindly replies to the reported sender. if you know it is a virus that spoofs the sender, don't bother the sender! (and better yet, do your virus checking in your smtp server before ever accepting the message for delivery by using an smtp dæmon like qpsmtpd.)

spike lee is suing viacom over the new name for its tnn cable channel. i just hope i'm not next.

on my cable network, the network formerly known as the nashville network still shares a channel with country music television.

rfc 2821 (the successor to the venerable rfc 821, the original smtp standard specification) is quite clear in section 6.1 about where to report delivery failures after your smtp server has accepted the message: The recipient of this notification MUST be the address from the envelope return path (or the Return-Path: line).

(and note that Return-Path is not a header sent to you -- outgoing SMTP servers SHOULD NOT add one according to section 4.4 of the same specification.)

perhaps there should be a bounces-to-wrong-address.rfc-ignorant.org. perhaps a uses-braindead-virus-scanner.rfc-ignorant.org would be useful, too.

on friday morning, i go under the knife for a microdiscectomy. i’m skipping the epidural cortisone injection treatment option—any success would only be temporary. nuts to that.

i mentioned before that my physical therapist had told me that my herniated disc was between L4 and L5, which turned out to be wrong. it is actually between L5 and S1, and is compressing the left S1 nerve root.

i had images of the mri printed that i ended up not needing to bring to my initial appointment with the surgeon (he was able to see me earlier than planned, and the prints were not ready, so he was just able to pull them up online—i didn’t ask why it was necessary to get them printed at all). i’ll have to remember to pick them up and see if i can scan them in somehow.

things i look forward to:

• working while actually sitting at a desk (i’ve been standing for the last few weeks)
• sleeping through the night (and actually keeping a normal schedule)
• no longer taking vicodin

update: two months after the surgery, i am almost totally pain-free (just a little twinge now and then to keep me honest). it only took about a week to get back to work after the surgery. if you find yourself in a similar situation, do not fear the surgery.

hot on the heels of the recent w32/sobig.c@mm menace comes another generation of the bugbear worm.

i choose to blame mike greenwood, who played gilbert in revenge of the nerds iii: the next generation. damn him and his not being anthony edwards!