From an interview concerning Microsoft’s new mobile phone software:

“Free is not a business model,” he said. “We are a commercial company, we will look to gain revenue and profit from our activities. You’ll have to ask our competitors if they’ll make money on free things.”

So it’s Microsoft’s official stance that free isn’t a business model, huh Steve? Maybe he meant aside from browsers, search apps, malware removers, and the hundred or so other downloads that Microsoft themselves offer.

Ok, maybe he meant “free as in speech” isn’t a business model? I guess not.

Either Steve has been calling in sick for a very, very long time or as I’ve long suspected, he’s just a complete idiot that is still employed only because he knows the boss.

Way to go, Steve.

that he wouldn’t receive any money from the reissues, released on November 2,

“Morrissey does not approve such releases and would ask people not to bother buying them. Morrissey receives no royalty payments from EMI for any back catalogue, and has not received a royalty from EMI since 1992.”

and in case you’re not clear on his stance:

“Morrissey last received a royalty payment from Warners ten years ago and, once again, he would ask people not to bother buying the reissued LPs or CDs.”

After reading the article, it’s clear that the people with the warm-fuzzies just aren’t paying attention.  Morrissey doesn’t give two shits about EMI and Warner suing your dead relatives and pets.  He’s just not getting any more money from it, so he asks that you please buy an album that he will make money on.

The long and short of the issue is this.  All of you that are posting and commenting in regards to artists being trodden upon in this, just give it a fucking rest.  They signed the contracts with their eyes wide open.  The labels have been fucking the listener for a long time and the artists that signed their rights away further empowered them to fuck us harder and in larger numbers.

If it weren’t an RIAA supporting label, I’d buy the albums he’s not making money on and toss them.

Well, I sure wouldn’t keep them.  Have you ever heard a Morrissey song?

Dustin Kolodziej proved it. He went so far as to video tape the trip.

Woops.

Mr. Mason claims that his offer was simply hyperbole and was not to be taken seriously.  See, Mr. Mason is worried about paying a million bucks to some dude.  His client on the other hand is probably a little ticked that his attorney just paid someone a million bucks to prove that he was completely capable of committing the crime.

I have commented on some seriously retarded lawyers and as you all know, I don’t hold the profession in very high esteem.

That being said, I would like to congratulate Mr. Mason on putting himself securely at the top of the steaming pile.  If I ever find myself in a legal dispute, I pray to God that Mr. Mason is heading the opposing team.

The first thing I thought of after it happened was this guy.

If I dwelt on this for an extended period of time, I would quickly realize that there’s a part of me that didn’t develop sufficiently somewhere along my intellectual growth cycle. So I choose not to dwell on it, instead giggling every time I look at that picture. In fairness, it could be worse. It could have resulted in my being a serial killer, but it didn’t. I cause no more than the most minor of inconveniences in the lives of a few people. In exchange, I get a warm-fuzzy. As well, in most occasions, I brighten the lives of others. Maybe the guy who posted below bannedalt said it best:

Lol, this bannedalt guy was pretty funny while 4u2nv was pretty hostile and got banned. Wonder why bannedalt was banned as well

Nah, I’m just kidding.  It’s just a bunch of blow-hard asshats that have found yet another scenario that will never actually happen to hear themselves talk.

The Register(UK based) wasted one more page on it than I will, allowing these devil’s advocate dipshits a platform to play what-if. I’ll give you the straight-up scoop, condensing the notice to a minimum length, while retaining the implications:

If Google wanted, they could use the javascript embedded for Analytics to do bad things on your site.

Left unsaid, but equally important are these notices:

1) If your webhost wanted, they could do bad things on your site.
2) If your ISP wanted, they could do bad things on your site.
3) If an employee with access wanted, they could do bad things on your site.
4) If someone is looking over your shoulder when you access a restricted portion of your site, they will be able to do bad things on your site.
5) If someone finds your password cheat-sheet, they will be able to do bad things on your site.

I could keep going, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t come up with any more asinine possibilities than our quoted security experts have come up with.

It’s true.  If Google wanted to alter their code to introduce a malicious payload on a site using their analytics system, they could.  They could also hire ninjas to enter the NOC and steal your physical server.  They could also beat you up for your lunch money.

Dinis Cruz states “If I wanted a backdoor into the website, this would be one of the best ways to do it. It would allow somebody who knew about this to drop a payload in a way that almost wouldn’t be detected.“

For those that missed it, Dinis is proposing that the easiest way to compromise a site is to get a job at Google cleaning cubicles, work your way up to a position in which you have unmitigated control over the production code that Google uses and then alter it to access a restricted area on a site via a vulnerability you introduced.

An added bonus to this method is that you get to ride the Segways on the Google campus and have a certified organic vegan salad for free.