I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

I’ve been reading through the most recent Symantec MessageLabs Intelligence Report (April 2010), and one thing I noticed is that the top 5 botnets in the world generate over 80% of the total amount of spam being sent over the Internet, with the top 2 botnets (rustock and grum) getting a combined share of over 50%… And these botnets now spread over millions of computers worldwide (their estimate for the total number of computers that are part of a botnet is between 3.7 and 5.6 million).

The report is full of some pretty cool pieces of information. All in all, quite an interesting lecture.

So true.

It is sad but predictable to see John Prior (Letters, August 10) trotting out the old fallacy about music that we buy a product encumbered with a licence.

Let us walk through my most recent purchase. I strolled into the store, located the CD I was after, paid for it in cash and left. At no stage was I asked to sign a licensing agreement – not even a post-sale agreement like those for software. It was a simple transaction of cash for a physical product.

”No,” cries the music industry, ”you are bound by the licensing agreement that you did not sign and that we cannot produce for inspection.”

Fine – let’s suppose I now have a licence for personal use applying to all the CDs I own. I should be able to take advantage of that. A CD I bought 10 years ago now has a scratch down the middle so that five of the 10 songs refuse to play. Luckily for me, this problem is solely with the physical medium. After all, my licence for personal use should allow me to reacquire ”my” content, especially since it is digital data and can be reproduced an unlimited number of times at virtually no cost.

”No,” cries the music industry, ”you bought a product, not a licence. You are not entitled to a free replacement, you need to buy it all over again. And when you do, you will be covered by another identical licence. Until something happens to this new physical medium.”

David Jack Leichhardt

via smh.com.au

The Perseids are back, just like every year. Even though I’m a bit late with the announcement this year (the peak occurred last night, Aug 11th), I’m still a few hours early for tonight’s show, so I hope this helps…

In short, both tonight (Aug 12th) and tomorrow night (Aug 13th), you might want to grab a reclining chair or a blanket, go out in a place outside the city where you have as little surrounding light as possible, and look at the sky. If you have a clear sky, the show will most likely be spectacular.

With the Moon out (Last Quarter Moon occurs 23 hours after the Perseid shower peak), you’ll need a clear, dark sky to see more than just a few Perseids. “Dark” means at least 40 miles from the lights of a large city. You won’t need a telescope – in fact, the eyes alone work best because they provide the widest field of view.

In order to see the Perseids shower, you just have to face east, and look about halfway up. After midnight (around the time of moonrise), you may want to shift your view overhead. Glancing around won’t hurt anything. In addition to your chair/blanket, you can bring some bug spray, cookies/fruit, and a non-alcoholic beverage (alcohol interferes with the eye’s dark adaption as well as the visual perception of events).

How many Perseids will you see? This year, with a half-illuminated Moon in the sky, you can expect to count between 30 and 50 meteors per hour from a dark site during the peak period (Aug 11-13).

More details on NASA’s 2009 Perseids page.

Comet C/2007 N3, also known as Comet Lulin, is a non-periodic comet. It was discovered by Ye Quanzhi and Lin Chi-Sheng from Lulin Observatory on July 11th, 2007. On the morning of January 31, observers estimated the comet’s brightness as magnitude 6.5-7.0 (which means barely visible with the naked eye under close-to-perfect conditions). However, it’s getting closer… and brighter!

How much closer? Comet Lulin’s closest approach will be on February 24th, 2009 at a distance of about 61 million kilometers. Calculations indicate that by then, it will have an apparent magnitude somewhere between 4 and 6, and it’s tail will likely be as long as 8 times the Moon’s diameter.

The most interesting thing about closest approach, however, is the comet’s ridiculously high apparent velocity. Comet Lulin will be speeding along at more than 5° per day! This means that in a telescope or binoculars, one will actually be able to see the comet’s apparent motion against the background stars! This effect is a must-see, and does not present itself often.

The comet will also appear to pass near Saturn on February 23, and near Regulus in Leo on February 26 and 27. You can check out it’s trajectory on the dedicated NASA JPL small-body page.