ALW, Dogsbody, and Audrey

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I finished the book I was reading to day; The Andrew Lloyd Webber Story by Michael Coveney. This was a great book. I learnt a lot about ALW as he is apparently known. It certainly made me want to see some more of his shows. I’ve seen Joseph, Cats, and Phantom the last two twice. I hadn’t realized just how much he has done. Michael Coveny’s writing, whilst a little too fawning at times, did make me want to understand the music a little more. I’m a geek, so I am very interested in the technical aspects of what he does with his music. Recommended.

The book I read before ALW story, was Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones. This was an (older) kids book, but one which I really enjoyed. I read several of her books before but this one was quite a departure from my previous experience of her style. Rather than kids and magic, this book is about Sirius, a Luminary who is/inhabits the star of the same name. He is accused and convicted of a terrible crime by his contempories and sentenced to inhabit the body of an earthbound dog (Sirius is known as the dog star) with a normal dog’s lifespan to recover the weapon he is supposed to have used. It is a an unusual tale being written mostly from the dog’s viewpoint. Recommended.

I am now reading Audrey Hepburn by Barry Paris. More when I’ve finished it.

Ladies

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Having listened to Stripped by Christina Aguilera, for the last few days, I’ve also been listening to some of the other female singers I have in my collection. First was P!nk – M!ssundaztood. As soon as I had refreshed my ears to that album, I needed to investigate just why Christine Aguilera sounds so much like Pink on half the album. Easy! Linda Perry wrote or co-wrote and produced four of the tracks on Christina’s album (including Beautiful) and six or seven of the tracks on Pink’s! Linda Perry was the huge voiced lead singer from 4 non blondes. More on Linda here, here, and here.
I’ve also listened to Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman, Melanie C., Avril Lavigne, Norah Jones, and Marianne Faithfull today. Of course I’ve got lots more ladies to listen to tomorrow.

Stripped

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I finally got around to buying Stripped by Christina Aguilera after several recommendations. I really didn’t want to like this but after three singles which I did like I finally succumbed. There are some really good tracks on this album, the production is nice and crisp if unadventurous, and Christina’s voice is great!
Recommended!

Microsoft XBOX Console Security Vulnerability

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Aargh! I was reading about this story on LinuxFormat about an XBox unchecked vulnerability in the font loader which allows you to execute arbitrary code. The proof of concept of the exploit is a font and set of files which allow you to boot into Linux without hardware mods!

“Free-X had been trying to negotiate with Micro$oft, and was requesting the release of a “signed” Linux boot loader, which would allow Xbox owners to run the open source operating system without any hardware modifications or the exploitation of the console. Micro$oft would not negotiate, so they released the exploit, which unfortunately means that not only can this console now run Linux, Micro$oft’s rival OS, but every version of the console can now also run pirated games out of the box. Ooops.
Another blow to a console that has yet to make a profit for the company”

What is interesting is the rest of the article which goes on to ponder about the very serious security implications of future Microsoft products:

“This actually has serious implications for the credibility of Micro$ofts security in light of recent events.
The XBOX console’s security is in fact a prototype of Palladium, a new “trusted” architecture which Micro$oft developed to help save the music industry from the threat of being reduced to fair pricing by uncontrollable peer to peer networks.
The idea is to have hardware which will only run “trusted”, or “signed”, well more precisely Micro$oft code.”

If Microsoft cannot be trusted to check the validity of all files on it’s own products, there is no hope that they can ever produce a secure product. This isn’t a bug (although it explots a bug) it’s is simply poor design, and poor programming, lack of attention to detail.
All this on top of the second password reset exploit in Passport (see this internet week story and this Seattle Times story about disclosure), just serves to confirm my complete lack of trust in the security of anything Microsoft produce.

Original link from Mark over at Flat8

Pictures from Honk!

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I’ve put up the photos from the performance of Honk! by George Styles and Anthony Drew by members of the Alicia Bardsley Centre of Performing Arts, of which Jamie is a member.
(Click the image to view the photo album)
Drake and Ida