Digital “Rights” Management Proven Useless Again

I’ve always found the term digital rights management to be an idiotic one. You don’t need your rights managed. But alas that’s the name that became popular and many companies used it. For instance Amazon uses it on downloaded e-books for their Kindle. Its use is an attempt to prevent copying of the material but alas an ingenious hacker has cracked it.

I have no problem paying for e-books so why do I care about this? Because I want to be able to use my documents on other devices. Maybe somebody in the future will build an e-reader that I like better than the Kindle. What will I do? Re-purchase all my books for the new platform? Well that’s the only option unless the Kindle’s DRM gets cracked, which it just did. I’ll try out the tool and report back on it this weekend (not a copy is available at the link, get it before Amazon pulls a DMCA notice and gets it removed).

Oh and here is a link to the blog of the person doing the fine work.

And for the sake a clarity I just want to make it clear that this tool allows breaking Kindle books obtained via Kindle for the PC. Cracking Kindle books on a Kindle has been possible for quite a while now.

Glock Lawsuit

I found this one in a Glocktalk thread last night but didn’t get to posting it. Some guy ran into trouble with his Glock 36. He sent it into Glock, they replaced a part and it was sent back. The problem continued. He sent it in again and after six months they returned it saying the gun was within specs. In the end he had to take them to small claims court where he did end up winning.

That’s a pretty pathetic way to handle your customers Glock. Just saying.

It’s Official Everybody is Making a 1911

For a 100 year old design the 1911 sure is popular. But it should be because it’s an amazing weapon platform. These days everybody is making one and now we learn from The Firearm Blog that Magnum Research is going to release one next year.

It appears as though Magnum Research isn’t producing them in .50 AE sadly. Yeah sorry I’m not more excited about this but a new 1911 coming out has become the news of the month kind of thing and I just expect it now.

Congress Members Trying to Bar Posting of Sensitive Government Documents

Remember the lead of the TSA Standard Operating Procedures document a bit back? Well it appears as though three jackass congressmen want to make it illegal for websites to post such materials. From the article:

In their letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (.pdf) on Wednesday, Reps. Peter T. King (R – New York), Charles Dent (R – Pennsylvania) and Gus Bilirakis (R – Florida) asked, “How has the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration addressed the repeated reposting of this security manual to other websites, and what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?”

They also asked if DHS is “considering issuing new regulations pursuant to its authority in Section 114 of Title 49, United States Code, and are criminal penalties necessary or desirable to ensure such information is not reposted in the future?”

That’s right Peter T. King, Charles Dent and, Gus Bilirakis want to bar websites from posting leaked government documents because our transparent government by the people and for the people doesn’t want citizens to see such documents.

Because I’m in a rather prickish mood I thought I’d do my duty and post the document on this site. So here it is everybody a copy of the TSA Standard Operating Procedures [PDF] document. Enjoy.

Alan Grayson is an Asshole

That’s my official stance since Random Nuclear Strikes has reported Florida Representative jackass Alan Grayson has threatened to give fives years of prison time to somebody who dares criticize him.

Well when I see somebody doling out threats to people using the first amendment I like to help by exercising my freedom of speech. Mr. Grayson I provide you with this:

Go fuck yourself with it. Also you’re an asshole.

Glock Generation 4 Pricing

No this blog hasn’t become the all Glock all the time blog. But they are popular and they are brining out something somewhat new (kind of?). Anyways The Firearm Blog has obtained pricing information on the next generation of “perfection” (that just happens to need improving every few years). They found dealers, MSRP, and law enforcement prices. It doesn’t look like the prices between current Glocks and the next generation ones is all that different.