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Ed reports

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Ed reports (at YULblog) on Les symponies portuaires, literally, “Port Symphonies.” I went a couple of years ago and it’s pretty cool – they take all the boats in the Old Port of Montreal – and anything else that will make big sounds – and develop an original score that they play together. The whole piece is played by ship’s horns, train whistles (on the tracks just up from the water’s edge), and the bells of Notre Dame Basilica, among other things. Be warned though – it’s not classical music or pop or anything – it’s most similar to electroacoustic music, so you should have a taste for the avant-garde if you want to go and listen.There’s more information at the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum’s website, including a clip from last year’s event.

I’ve been harping on this

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a lot, but in Declan McCullagh’s article on the Hanssen, the alleged double-agent for the Russians, he includes a quote which calls the whole accusation into question. On page two, he writes, “Freeh, who once lobbied for a permanent ban on the distribution of encryption software without a backdoor for his agency, could use this case as justification for restrictions that Congress would have to approve. In a statement, Freeh stressed that Hanssen used a ‘variety of sophisticated means of communication (and) encryption.'”

The problem for me is that these guys have shown for years that they’re not trustworthy. How do we know that Hanssen wasn’t a plant from the get-go who has been brought out now to further the anti-crypto agenda?

Update: The Times has posted an excerpt of the FBI affadavit about Hanssen. It doesn’t clarify much, but it’s fascinating reading.

New weblogger

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Don Melanson pointed me towards Feed’s latest special issue: Video Games 2001, with good articles by Steadman, Hall, Johnson, and more. Carl‘s up to his usual high standard: “But a 3-D shooter mapped into 2-D space also means an end to the paranoia — it’s no longer about what lurks around the next corner or who’s fixin’ to gib you from behind. The game isn’t necessarily easier, but — for me at least — it’s more like playing a game. If 2-D is less visceral, well, I eat enough Xanax as it is.”

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