From the Washington Post:
SoundExchange, the organization that represents performers and record companies, said it supports the higher royalties for Internet radio because musicians deserve a bigger cut of Internet radio profits.
Aw, it sounds almost like the artists are actually going to get a dime of those increased royalties… how adorable. Too bad internet radio has to pay more in royalties per song than satellite radio by a gag-inducing proportion and most artists are still getting a pittance per song compared to the amount collected.
This industry needs a revolution. The middlemen are the only ones taking home a real profit.
thanks, carmen!.

I’ve been avoiding looking at my grades this summer. Until 10 minutes ago, I didn’t know what, if any, classes I passed.
At the beginning of last quarter, I recognized a pattern in my classes. If I took 3 classes a quarter, I’d do badly. If I took 4, I’d do reasonably well (still not great). If I took 2, I did very badly indeed. Unfortunately, because of my dubious academic standing with the school, I was always encouraged to take fewer classes by my advisors, under the logic that more free time would allow me to excel.
So last quarter I threw caution to the wind, signed up for 6 courses, and became a recluse.
I’m very pleased to report that it worked better than expected. I definitely overshot the point of maximum return (which appears to be around 4.6 classes in a quarter), but I did pass everything: A, B-, C+, C, C, Pass.
My 3rd A in college.
shut up.
I just noticed that I didn’t get credit for tutoring CSE70. So: 7 things.

I have a lot of family who send me virus warnings and the like to see if they are valid, and spend enough time on the internet to get into trouble, but not enough time to be able to really be resistant to the kind’s of psychological attacks that script kiddies use these days.
This is intended as a reference for them. A first place to look if you get a message that isn’t obviously a message from a friend.
The best scams will appear to come from a person you know. Maybe even a friend. This is usually because they got trojaned successfully themselves, and the payload gained access to their address book, friends list, or what have you and sent itself to all of them. If it comes from someone you know (especially someone you haven’t spoken with recently), that doesn’t make it safer.
The next test for “how suspicious should you be” is the quality of the language used in the message. If the spelling and grammar are different than messages you’ve received from that person in the past, be suspicious. If the message contains egregious crimes against the English language, you probably already have your answer.
Now that you’ve been slightly primed, an example. Do yourself a favour and do not click or browse to anything you see in this message:
hi Scott, wow.. you could be tht naughty i didnt knw :D
have a luk urself…
http://www.google.com.id.lsldoosh.0nv3v7.56982a17.cn/gallery.php?id=vvlrvczf5&auth=9984053&cyua=wh32fimg8h
(click open or run when prompted)
First, note how this person doesn’t know me. I’m naughty? That’s news to me too. Most of these types of message try to lure you in with the idea of free pornography, which this message cleverly alludes to ? the person is reciprocating a link after finding out how naughty I am. Sometimes this backfires: I got this message from a guy I barely know on Facebook; I’ve got no intention on seeing his homemade porn, thanks.
BUT LOOK AT THE LANGUAGE! I would drive over and slap someone I knew who wrote me a message like this, assuming I would slow down enough to get out instead of running them over.
The message also tells you to “click open or run when prompted”. Now remember: you’re already suspicious, and if you clicked on the link you’ve already done enough to get hacked. Don’t change your browsing styles because some suspicious message told you to. NEVER CLICK RUN.
Lastly, the link is the final straw (it usually is), but you have to know the structure of a link to really know if it’s dangerous or not. It starts with www.google.com, so it has to be good, right? Wrong. That’s not how links work, and I’ll show you why.
Links have multiple parts, and the most important is the domain, which translates directly to the address of the Other Guy. This is the portion between the http:// and the next /. The whole thing, not part of it. Let’s remove everything but the domain for the message I just got:
www.google.com.id.lsldoosh.0nv3v7.56982a17.cn
Domains are like a family tree, but they read from right to left, with each part separated by a period. maps.google.com is a site under google, under com. The domain from the hacky link I was sent today was a site under google, under com, under id, under ?, under 23652a17, under cn. That’s not the same google.com that you know… it’s an imposter! If you don’t recognize all of it, or it doesn’t make sense when read right to left, don’t click it.
Links are great, but sometimes they can be hidden from you. If you see a link in an email that says “http://happyfunplace.com”, it might not point where you think it does. Right-click on it, and copy the link. Paste it in a document (NOT YOUR BROWSER) and have a second look. It’s probably not what you thought it was. Does it look like snot? Trash it.
Lastly: Unless you know exactly where it points (you recognize every single letter in the link), do not click a link in your email. If you get a message from your bank saying that you have to fix some issues with your account, call them (more effective if there is actually a problem) or (if you use online banking) log in the same way you usually do. Do not follow the link.
I know that’s quite a bit to absorb, but really, this is all you need to know to keep yourself from getting infected as you frolic around the wonderful internets. Go have a good time now, and never click “Run”.

So, yesterday there was a lot of talk about VMware’s ESX bug. Yes, there was a time bomb. Yes, we didn’t mean to ship it. I can’t really provide any information you don’t already know on this topic, and I won’t.
The most surreal part about being part of something like this from the inside though, is seeing the actual effect it has. A lot of people reported this to us, starting in Australia. Big people. With affected systems like? “Payroll”, and some of them with names containing “Government”. Wow. I’m not sure folks have any idea how badly we actually feel about this bug (because, I really do want everyone to get paid on Friday), but a few friends of mine were able to point out a silver lining which is worth mentioning.
This is a business, so this kind of bug is unlikely to happen in free software. That’s been beaten to death. The point is that this bug is a people-forget-bug, and not a there’s-a-bug-in-our-code-bug. ESX sells because it is stable. We have good code practices internally, and bugs have a hard time making it into new code. The result is a fantastically stable product that does what we say it will do, which (for me) is a breath of fresh air from a software company. It’s why I’m here.
VMware has the best code practices of all companies and projects I’ve worked with, including (especially?) my own. A clear engineering guidelines document. Reviews for all commits (made especially better by Review Board, which had its start here). We get the highest score on the Joel test of any place I’ve worked or visited. Our release branches are all super-stable, and you can tell ? just try using one of our products. Even the betas go through rigourous testing and release procedures (check your release notes!). There’s always room for improvement, but the things we have written are very reliable.
It really sucks that this has affected so many people, and hopefully people will forgive us the mistake, and judge us based on our reaction as a company. After all, it’s how you solve problems (especially in crisis) that shows your true colours. If you’re affected, patches are already available.
This incident has had two effects for me: first, I am just as confident in our code as I was on Monday; second, we all get to eat some humble pie. It’s not a bad thing to do sometimes.
Delicious, delicious pie.
Now where did I leave that code I was working on?

So.
I’m not really sure what is going to be my success rate in law school. The process of applying, getting in, and now starting in less than 2 weeks has been unreal (and daunting).
I’m not sure if I’m ready. Do I have the skills? Am I going to fail? Everything is so hazy that its making me uneasy. I’m not sure if I have the strength to accomplish everything I have mind set on. I want to have fun, but I am really, truly scared.
And I think that was the first time I admitted that I was “scared” about school. Sigh.