Buzz: Creating the buzz today - Paris riots, AJAX, Bush, Kristof and John Tierney

The following people and topics are creating the buzz today.

Dawn Yang: Dawn Yang, from Singapore continues to be one of the top searched keyword on Technorati for yet another day.

Kristof: Nicholas D. Kristof is also being searched a lot in the blogosphere. His recent article, Iraq in the Rear-View Mirror, on the New York Times Select, is available here.

Ajax: Many seasoned developers hate the term, but what can you do. AJAX, a set of technologies (Javascript, XML and DHTML) continues to become more and more popular. The idea isn't new (Javascript RPC, or Remote Procedure Call) but the term definitely was coined this year. OpenRico and Dojo AJAX (official Dojo AJAX toolkit site) are two popular open-source AJAX libraries. Recently, a tutorial on using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and AJAX together was published by IBM. For more information on AJAX, see AJAX article on Wikipedia and AJAX.

Bush: No surprise here on why Mr. president is being searched so much. In fact, he should be searched more than Dawn Yang. TimesOnline is reporting that Senate allies of President Bush are demanding an exit strategy from Iraq for a withdrawal of 160,000 American troops.

John Tierney: Making buzz from the Sixth Congressional District is Congressman John Tierney for his recent article "The Mansion Wars" published in NyTimes select (requires reqistration). John Tierney writes:

In the town where I live, a once-placid Washington suburb, the mayor has just sent out a letter asking the natives to stop throwing eggs at each other's homes. Such is life on the front lines of the anti-mansionization war.

David Ludwig: David Ludwig was recently charged in a murder case. See Faeriebell's post on David Ludwig for more.

The Mansion Wars: As pointed above, "The Mansion Wars" is the latest article by John Tierney

Sony rootkit: In case you had missed the "online riots" against Sony when SysInternals engineer reported about Sony rootkit, here is a brief update for you. New copyright protection CDs by Sony Music with DRM (Digital Rights Management) software installs XCP rootkit to prevent unauthorized copying of images. On Amazon.com many people called for a Sony boycott, and last time I checked there was even a petition online regarding this with about 250 signatures. More on Sony XCP rootkit.

Anyways, the latest in the case of Sony rootkit is that there are now new false reports about some Sony digital cameras (Sony Cybershot DSCP515) also doing the same stuff, i.e. installing a rootkit. These reports seem to be false and have no merit.

Things just get interesting from here on. Sony Music provided a software to uninstall the rootkit (reportedly the process involves: registering, downloading, waiting for a call from Sony, downloading again, finished uninstalling). If you uninstall the Sony rootkit using the tools provided, you will not be able to play the CD either.

Now Microsoft has come as a hero to consumers rescue. News is that Microsoft has announced that their malicious software detection software will be finding and destroying Sony's rootkit. More about Sony rootkit and Microsoft from Faeriebell's blog.

Paris Riots: Quiet but persistant Paris riots have had people worried all over the world. Earlier, Paris riots prompt Mosque attacks. Latest news about Paris riots is that France is pondering on whether to deport foreigners involved in the riots. More on Paris and deporatation of foreigners from ScienceDaily.com.

What started the Paris riots?
In case you are wondering what started the Paris riots, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia

On Thursday 27 October 2005, a group of 10 high school teenagers were playing football in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. The teenagers allegedly ran and hid when police officers arrived to conduct ID-checks.

Three of the teenagers, thinking they were being chased by the police, climbed a wall to hide in a power substation [5] [6]. "Bouna Traore, a 15-year-old of Malian background, and Zyed Benna, a 17-year-old of Tunisian origin" [7] (photo) were electrocuted by a transformer in the electrical relay substation. Muhttin Altun, 17, (whose parents, Haseyin and Aïcha, are Turkish Kurds) was injured and hospitalized. A friend of the three stated, Clichy-sous-Bois "has three principal communities, the Arabs, the Turks and the Blacks. The three victims represented each one a community". [8] [9]

The New York Times reports, citing two police investigations, that the incident began at 17:20 on Thursday, 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois when police were called to a construction site there to investigate a possible break in. Six youths were detained by 17:50. During questioning at the police station in Livry-Gargan at 18:12, blackouts occurred at the station and in nearby areas. These were caused, police say, by the electrocution of the two boys and the injury of the third. [10]

"According to statements by Mr. Altun, who remains hospitalized with injuries, a group of 10 or so friends had been playing football on a nearby field and were returning home when they saw the police patrol. They all fled in different directions to avoid the lengthy questioning that youths in the housing projects say they often face from the police. They say they are required to present identity papers and can be held as long as four hours at the police station, and sometimes their parents must come before the police will release them." [11]

There is controversy over whether or not the teens were actually chased. The local prosecutor, François Molins, has said they believed so, but the police were actually after other suspects attempting to avoid an identity check [12]. Molins and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy maintain that the dead teenagers had not been "physically pursued" by the police. This is disputed by some: The Australian reports that "Despite denials by police officials and Sarkozy and de Villepin, friends of the boys said they were being pursued by police after a false accusation of burglary and that they 'feared interrogation'" [13]. There were initial Police accusations that the boys were thieves, which were withdrawn. Inconsistent statements by police and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy have fueled public mistrust of the authorities since the riots began.

This event ignited pre-existing tensions. Protesters told The Associated Press the unrest was an expression of frustration with high unemployment and police harassment in the areas. "People are joining together to say we've had enough," said one protester. "We live in ghettos. Everyone lives in fear." [14][15] The rioters' suburbs are also home to a large North African immigrant population, allegedly adding ethnic and religious tensions which some right-wing commentators believe contribute further to such frustrations.

At least two unnamed internet bloggers have been accused of possibly inciting the violence and encouraging the French youth to rise up against the government and riot. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was cited by CNN as stating that "some of the violence had been organized through Internet blogs that have now been shut down."

Nicolas Sarkozy's comment on a television programme, "clean them out with a Kärcher (pressurized water)", generated intense controversy and it has been suggest that it aggravated the violence in the early days of the riots. Before the riots, Sarkozy also called the teenagers living in house-projects "racaille", sometimes translated as "scum", which has been condemned by many French politicians.

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Buzz

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Creating the buzz today - Paris riots, AJAX, Bush, Kristof and John Tierney

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