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ermahgerd ah verted

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I come from a heavy Gentoo background in GNU/Linux land, so on OS X, I prefer Prefix Portage. YMMV, but I think it’s a great environment. I mainly use it to install the few extra UNIX utilities that don’t ship with OS X.

Wanting to get spell checking working, I read the Emacs Wiki, and thought all I had to do was install aspell. I even added my prefix portage paths to my Preferences.el file:

While the above did change my path, it didn’t make spellcheck work. The following code did:

The peculiar thing is that I had to specify the full path to aspell, and not just “aspell” with the above PATH additions. Very strange; I’m no Lisp programmer (yet!), so any suggestions would be appreciated.

I was having some issues trying out the rubyosa gem, and found this useful japanese blog.

If you see an error like the following:

… when you are attempting to generate documentation, then you need to install an older version of the libxml-ruby gem, and modify rubyosa slightly.

If this issue is fixed in rubyosa, a simple gem update will override the sed line you just ran, so you don’t need to worry about it again, unless you reinstall rubyosa-0.4.0.

First, I’m glad Apple began support of multiple workspaces with the release of Leopard last year. Workspaces was a feature that was truly lacking from an otherwise feature-rich user interface in OS X.

Having spent a long time with GNU/Linux — long enough for it to shape my formative computer development years in high school circa 94-98 — I’ve spent time with the various desktops that implemented workspaces. None — and I really mean none — have done workspaces better than wmii. While the window-manager-that-actually-manages-windows-for-you concept might be strange to some (indeed, not being able to resize windows freely is strange to most), the concept of workspaces via tagging is so amazingly powerful.

It’s how workspaces should be done.

I’ve begun looking into implementing this on OS X using a combination of AppleScript and QuickSilver, or something similar. Research so far isn’t promising. The numbers of workspaces in Spaces.app really does correspond to an underlying data structure, so tagging — especially tagging of windows that should appear on multiple, but not all spaces — will have to be stored seperately.

I wonder how much fighting I’m going to need to do, to implement this? Would anyone out there like to start an open project to collaborate on with me? Contact me, and let’s get the ball rolling.

If you’re running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, and you see a somewhat frightening and terse error message that says “Your wireless network has been compromised“, then you’ve probably entered into a world of annoyance. If you’re in the situation I was, this message begins to pop-up every few minutes. Every time it does, your network access is disabled for 60 seconds. if you’re in a Mac-centric office, and many of the developers run VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop, you probably noticed this issue begin to appear by now.

You might have tried the following:

• Disabled security on your WiFi network
• Regressed to WEP security
• Told everyone not to use the wireless

Clearly, none of these work-arounds is ideal. There is hope.

The problem is among OS X 10.5 – VMWare Fusion / Parallels Desktop – the TKIP WPA2 security protocol. For some reason, installing the VM programs creates a situation on the wireless network that causes a TKIP MIC (or a “Michael“) message integrity check error. In short: OSX and your router think that the network is being cracked, because of a way that the VM programs use or abuse the networking interface stack.

The solution is to regress the security, but by as little as possible. Simply turn of TKIP or “TKIP+AES” encryption on your wireless device, and only allow AES encryption. This is not ideal, because the Michael check is trying to warn you about network intrusion, however, it simply does not work.

Caveat: if you find that AES encryption does not work on some devices, you are probably use the stock Linksys firmware on your router. Consider upgrading to the DD-WRT firmware. Read the docs, go over notes for your router model, and take the plunge. The stable Linux-based environment for your router will make your network work, as well as offering you more features, such as local DNS, for example.

I had a small issue getting vmware tools from VMware 2.0 beta 1 working under OpenSolaris 2008.05. I don’t know if it’s an issue in previous versions of either software.

First, when installing OpenSolaris 2008.05, choose VMware setup options for “Solaris”, and either 32-bit or 64-bit depending on your preference. I wanted, 64-bit, but “Other / Other 64-bit” setup option resulted in strange errors at vm boot time.

You can now mount the VMware tools via the menu option “Virtual Machine” -> “Install VMware Tools”. A CD icon will appear on your desktop. Double-click the CD, and the tar file inside there. Untar the files onto your desktop. Open a terminal. Become root. Before you run the script, we need to create some directories to help the installation complete.


# su -
(password)
# mkdir -p /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d
# mkdir -p /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d
# cd ~/Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl
(run the script)
# cd /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d
# ln -s /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/9999.autostart-vmware-user.sh


What we did above was create and old directory the install script wanted to use, a new directory that will be used by gdm (the login manager), and then linked the files accordingly.

If you log out (or reboot), and log back in, you will now see:


$ ps -ae |grep vmware
794 ? 0:03 vmware-m
868 ? 0:07 vmware-g
12428 ? 0:04 vmware-u

The vmware-u is the vmware-user process that needs to get launched, so that features like autoresize and copy & paste will work.

Now — on to play with ZFS!

So, pretend you have:

• a new Mac laptop with a fast hard drive, but one that is smaller than all the data you need to backup
• A backup hard drive you’ve used on Windows and Linux, but is formatted NTFS, and is much larger than your new laptop’s HD
• You have files named on your system that needs to be backed up that aren’t kosher for NTFS

So, being a Linux geek, you realize “Ha! I’ll just tar my files up, copy it to the backup drive, over to the new system, and untar.”

Yes – you do just that, but then you need to use your laptop for work; so instead of waiting to untar the file, you copy the very large backup tar files from the external HD to your new laptop.

Now, here’s the problem: you can’t untar the entire tar flle w/o running out of space. What do you do? Un-tar a bit at a time; delete; continue.

Untar a bit of the archive you want, delete it from the tar, and continue until you have more space on your HD than the rest of the tar file.

# tar xf MYBACKUP.tar This/directory/I/want
# tar --delete --file=MYBACKUP.tar This/directory/I/want


This method works surprisingly well, considering the tar file crossed all three major operating systems.

If you are unsure of what is inside the archive, you can use:

# tar --list --file=MYBACKUP.tar


What follows are some choice quotes from the Al Roney show were Wafaa Bilal and Robert Mirch talked about Wafaa’s art piece and Mirch’s planned protest. I’ve decided not to include caller’s comments at this point. They deserve to be highlighted in an entirely different fashion.

You can get the transcripts, if you like (.doc format).

Al Roney:: Robert Mirch says, he is disgusted that they’re going to host this exhibition that includes a virtual videogame portrayal of a suicide-bomber sent to assassinate President Bush and his quote is, “It’s completely inappropriate for any organization in Troy to stage an exhibit that features a portrayal of a suicide-bomber sent to kill the President. The Sanctuary For Independent Media should cancel this exhibit immediately allowing for the portrayal of the assassination of a President to be staged is wrong, un-American and destructive. I support free speech, but this exhibit goes beyond the bounds of what is decent or acceptable.”

Wafaa Bilal: I don’t know Al, I don’t know if that is true, because whenever I talk about the war in Iraq, it seems [xx] people are very polarized. Either you are {of} the President Bush, either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. And it’s — the issue is not that simple. Let’s disagree with each other, but the disagreement has to go to a second level of a dialogue. We cannot pretend this doesn’t exist. We cannot say we are anti-war, but we like it too. There’s so many conflicting things at play here and I think people need to understand. If the war is wrong, they have to voice their opinion to stop it. It’s not enough to say, “Well, the war is wrong and our government is right, doing the right thing.” There is a contradictory here and hypocrisy and I think people need to understand it is waged in their name and it would never stop because somebody is benefit [xx] and I don’t want it to water down the issue to just one — the war to one or two issues here, but I think what’s at stake here is our democracy in this country and the bigger issue our stand in the world. If we are the world leader, if United States is the world leader, it has to act as a world leader and people have to engage, otherwise, there are so many crimes have been done against other nations in the name of the people here. And I think people are closing their ears and eyes, saying, “We don’t hear this”.

Wafaa Bilal: Well, I think people have the right to protest and they — as much as I have the right to protest, they should give me the right to show my work and come and talk. And I think Robert Mirch is absolutely wrong when labeling art as terrorist or terrorism. He is, I think, he is completely wrong and went out of his way that show me how extreme people could be and unfortunately, people on top, the leadership, supposed to be open-minded and supposed to bring people to their consensus, talk to each other and I think Robert, by labeling art as terrorism is extremely unfortunate and extremely dangerous.

Robert Mirch: Well thanks for having me and good morning and I agree with virtually everything you said and I thank you for your service to our country. And I agree, this is part of the two-way street of freedom of speech, where I disagree, I think this video Mr. — I’m not sure how to pronounce his last name? Bayal?

Robert Mirch: OK, I’m just – it’s hard for me to understand him, I’m sorry. Well, the [xx] is… A), I have not seen the game, B) I only know about you from what I’ve read in the paper and I’ve seen on TV.

Robert Mirch: What I was saying is you’re missing the very center of freedom of speech. If in my view I believe and I do, your video is a piece of terrorism, I’m allowed to say that just as you’re allowed to go out and say the things that you’re saying that you want to open up dialog. Well this is part of the dialog. From my point of view this dialog is that a video showing play a game to assassinate the President of the United States in my view is nothing but terrorism. You can call it art, I can call it terrorism and therein lies our disagreement.

Wafaa Bilal: We’re so bombarded by images and news to the point we become desensitized for it and some people don’t even understand, there is a war is being waged in Iraq. And let’s be realistic when we said, when you said people, nobody likes war in this country, I completely disagree, when we ever did not wage war in the history of this country, always, because I am not talking about the people here, I am talking about leaderships. Leadership who wage war to either get a personal benefit from it or to get more control and I wanted to speak to the people even though the message may irritate them, may educate them, but that is and to my right to speak that is a peaceful process meant to engage and I think you calling the process is greatly unfortunate while what you should do is to call people to support this.

Wafaa Bilal: Yeah, I mean — let me go back a little bit and answer the guy who said this is not art. Well, that’s his opinion and I don’t see he is an expert in that. But that’s I think besides the point and then he is missing the point — I didn’t object to the FBI or the CIA to come and investigate me. That’s their right to protect the citizen of this nation including me. But also I’m outraged by the censorship of RPI, not the censorship of the FBI. Let’s face it. FBI, the CIA, the Homeland Security did not censor me, but what censored me is an educational institution is supposed to give me the right of a peaceful person to put my art out there and to share it with others.

Al Roney: They flipped the game over, you took the game that they did and then inserted yourself as the character, so you’re not the complete originator of the game, you’re the modifier of the game.

Wafaa Bilal: Exactly, and that’s why it’s my way to protest terrorism ….

Robert Mirch: That’s insanity.

Wafaa Bilal: I’m saying because of the war, unfortunately Iraq become safe haven for terrorists group like Al-Qaeda, which I very much don’t support at all. Not their rhetoric, not their message, not their approach as well.

Wafaa Bilal: I’m sorry Bob, I didn’t interrupt you so — I let you talk and now you have to let me talk. This is the second time you provoked and make a parallel between the game and the terrorist attack on 9/11. I completely did not support or agree with the attack. I thought it is and I believe it was an act of terrorism, but let’s be clear, this as a piece of art, does not support terrorism and it’s a protest. So I’m really sorry to see leaders that still provoking the feeling out of September 11, every time we try to speak our mind here. This is very dangerous turn for this country. We become so afraid about talking — talking about any issue that attacks our freedom and democracy and whenever we speak against, whenever we are trying to gain our democracy back, we get back pushed in the corner and 9/11 is provoked.

Wafaa: Bob, you don’t represent America, you don’t represent America the way I know it.

Bob: I represent me.

Wafaa: Yeah, exactly, so, speak of yourself, don’t speak of America, don’t [xx].

Bob: Well, I’ll appreciate if you don’t tell me…

Wafaa: I’m proud to be an American. I was rotting in the desert when United States of America gave me a second chance in life and that’s what I don’t want to lose. I’m proud to be an American and ashamed for what to see people like you putting the wrong rhetoric and instigate and heat [xx].

Wafaa: And I’m saying it goes to a bigger issue, I am saying let United States of America start supporting dictatorships, and that’s where the most anger is coming out from in the Middle-east. You have so many countries dictators are imposed on them in the Middle-east and United States is supporting these dictators and the dictators are doing very good job in directing the anger against United States, not against their regimes.

Al: Well let me ask Bob this question. Bob you’re not planning on going down there and throwing rocks or stones or causing any mayhem, right?

Bob: No we just plan on having some signs, some American flags and giving our point of view to us.

Wafaa: Al, thank you very much for asking this because that was my second question to Bob, I have not heard him saying its going to be a peaceful protest and I would appreciate very much for him to say that on the air because essentially I was a little bit afraid of what’s going to happen tonight and I appreciate of Bob very much if he could tell his supporter to be peaceful.

Wafaa: I greatly appreciate the comment and I need to let the listener know two hours later as the planes hit on 9/11 I was in the hospital in Chicago donating blood. So I am a citizen of this country and as I said I am proud of it.

This is the latest in a horribly ridiculous sequence of events that started at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institue in Troy, NY, and spread into the greater City at large.

Wafaa Bilal’s other recent art piece was blogged about at BoingBoing: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/11/shoot-a-real-live-ir.html

Order of events over the last week. Sorry, I need to assign dates and times to each item. If there are any factual discrepencies I will fix them as I get a better documentation of each item. As of the evening of March 12th, I feel I am arriving at a nicely documented collection of items.

I have audio clips, videos, articles, emails, and others items archived on my site. I have copied audio and video pieces for archival purposes, as well as printing out online newspaper articles in PostScript format. If you feel that I am inappropriately infringing on a tangible piece of work that you bear the copyright on, please let me know, and I will remove the item from the public archive I am offering.

Before 2008-03-05

• RPI Republican’s student group blogs: The RPI Arts Department: A Terrorist Safehaven

2008-03-05

• ~1:30PM: members of a local mailing list are notified that RPI is taking down Wafaa Bilal’s installation.
• ~3:00PM: It becomes known that RPI would like the installation taken down soon; the exhibit is temporarily closed as the Arts deptartment tries to hash things out.
• Time Union article: RPI suspends exhibit over terror fears
  • “It feels like a military camp, not an educational institution,” Bilal, 41, said Thursday night.

  • The origin of his work is a video game called “Quest for Saddam.” The game, where players target the ex-Iraqi leader, prompted what RPI’s Web site describes as an Al Qaeda spin-off called “The Night of Bush Capturing.”

    Bilal hacked into that game and created a work that puts “his own more nuanced spin on this epic conflict,” according to the arts department. In Bilal’s version, unveiled at RPI Wednesday, the Iraqi-born artist casts himself as a suicide bomber who gets sent on a mission to assassinate President Bush.

  • The College Republicans excoriated RPI for sponsoring the exhibit and encouraged alumni to speak against it.
  • That afternoon, RPI students in a class taught by media arts professor Branda Miller were interviewing Bilal when he was pulled out of the room by RPI officials.
• The exhibit is shown once, and then permanently removed from RPI.
• iEAR presents Wafaa Bilal
  • A video of the exhibit (requires Microsoft Silverlight plugin)

2008-03-07

• newsday.com picks up the story
  • RPI Arts Department Chairwoman Kathy High said administrators told her they’re reviewing the piece because of its use of al-Qaida material and because it shows the assassination of the president. So far, she said, she hasn’t been given a timeline for that review.

2008-03-08

• The Sanctuary for Independent Media announces that they will host the exhibit on Monday, 3/10.
  • An art installation that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute slammed shut on Thursday will open this week at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, with a reception for Iraqi-born digital media artist Wafaa Bilal at 6 PM on Monday (3/10) followed at 7 PM by a presentation about his “Virtual Jihadi” project.
• William N. Walker, Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations, from RPI sends a release to the RPI Employee’s list doing what most would describe as damage control for the university.
  • After becoming aware of and discussing concerns expressed by some members of the Rensselaer community about a lecture and associated exhibit by digital media artist Wafaa Bilal, the university decided to allow his March 5 lecture to go forward. Most observers agreed that he presented a stimulating and thought-provoking lecture.
• Igor Vamos, a member of the RPI faculty and Arts department, responds to William Walker.

  • Wafaa Bilal’s art show is not illegal. He has been very open about the “origin, content, and intent” of the work, as have the Arts Department who invited him to RPI. There is no need for an ‘investigation’ unless of course you are not going to listen to any of us.

    The administration shut down Bilal’s show after a student blog post (reprinted in the press) proclaimed the arts department a “safe haven for terrorists.” By shutting down the exhibit after speaking to the artist and the Arts Department the University has affirmed the original blog post, insinuating that they agree that Bilal could be a terrorist and that we–the faculty and employees of RPI–are harboring terrorists. The administration’s reaction to this art show is highly irresponsible. It endangers Bilal and undermines RPI faculty and staff.

2008-03-09

• RPI closes the RPI Republicans RPI-Union funded/operated web site: http://republicans.union.rpi.edu/ for abuse of the RPI computer conduct code.
  • In addition to alleged violations of the Electronic Citizenship Policy (GDA #17), other Grounds for Disciplinary Action may also prove relevant, specifically, GDA #2, 6 and 9 as stated in The Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities, 2006-2008 (pg. 8). As posted on the College Republicans blog, February 22, 2008, the College Republicans’ statement that “The Arts Department – A Haven for Terrorists” is slanderous, blatantly untrue, and can be construed to endanger the health, safety and welfare of members of the Rensselaer community. Because these allegations are serious, egregious, and may pose an imminent threat to Rensselaer’s educational mission, the College Republicans web site is hereby temporarily suspended on the Rensselaer Computer System, effective March 9, 2008, and remains suspended pending the outcome of a judicial inquiry.
    
• Rumblings about a protest against/at the SfIM are heard.
• Article at wgy.com

  • THE LEADER OF RENSSELAER COUNTY’S REPUBLICAN MAJORITY IS HEADING UP A PROTEST MONDAY AT 5:30 OUTSIDE THE SANCTUARY FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN TROY.

    BOB MIRCH IS UPSET ABOUT AN EXHIBITION CALLED “VIRTUAL JIHADI.” IN IT, CREATOR WAFAA BILAL REVERSES A VIDEO GAME ABOUT HUNTING DOWN SADDAM HUSSEIN AND INSTEAD TARGETS PRESIDENT BUSH AS A SUICIDE BOMBER.

• The SfIM hosts a planning meeting to discuss how to interact and deal with the protestors.

2008-03-10

• A demonstration against the art piece is held in front of the SfIM
  • Bob Mirch, the Public Works Comissioner of Troy, NY is in attendance.
  • Photos from the protest and inside the event
• RPI officially declines to reopen the exhibit, in an email from William Walker.
  • After extensive and careful deliberation and consideration of the origin, content, and intent of the “Virtual Jihadi” video game exhibit by digital media artist Wafaa Bilal, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has decided not to reopen the exhibit on the Troy campus.
• A TimesUnion blog article referncing Bob Mirch’s statements

  • Bob Mirch, the GOP majority leader in the Rensselaer County Legislature, is for free speech, according to his latest press release.

    But Mirch says he is not in favor of pretending to blow up the president of the United States.

• InsideHigherEd.com runs a piece Art and the College Administrator, reflecting on the RPI/Bilal incident as well as similar incidents at other colleges.
  • Even a few days later, Branda Miller’s voice rises with anger as she recalls what happened in her course Wednesday at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. An artist-in-residence — whose presence had been approved through all official channels — was in the middle of a discussion with her students when three administrators arrived, told her they needed to take the artist with them at once, escorted him to another classroom, and refused to let Miller enter or to offer any explanation to her or her students. Shortly after the disruption of her class, RPI ordered the exhibit set up by the artist — a video game based in part on an Al Qaeda video game involving attempts to kill President Bush — shut down pending a review.
    
• freerepublic.com new aggregation site discusses TimeUnion article from today. Quotes from contributers:
  • evets: Send this loser back to Iraq.
  • 1Old Pro: This guy thinks he has the right to be herd, he doesn’t.
  • ml/nj:

    Very sad.

    I graduated from RPI in 1968.

    The last time I stopped by the ‘Tute on my way from a business trip to Vermont, I wandered into the Student Union. Down near the pool tables and bowling alley, I saw lots of people going into an adjacent meeting room. It turned out to be some kind of Islamic Swine Koran reading or something. There were even some babes in hajib getups. I know other schools are also have their “MSAs” but it was particularly disgusting to me to see this going on at my alma mater. I’m sure some of this is the fault of the now president Shirley Ann Jackson. She seems to have turned the place into a bastion of political correctness. Among other evidence I cite the disgraceful invitation to the Commodities Scam Queen to speak at Graduation a couple of years ago.

  • thefactor: RPI is an engineering school. i went there on a recruiting trip to play sports when i was a senior in high school. it was so lame. the school was 90% guys, and every girl i saw was asian.
  • I find it important to point out that if you follow the links on the above site to each user’s “about” page, they do not use or disclose their real names or contact information.

2008-03-11

• The SfIM receives a phone message stating that the building is out of code, and deemed “unfit”.

  • “I work for the City of Troy code enforcement. This is regarding 3361 6th Ave. Ugh, I was told to call you and speak to you about the front double doors that have not been replaced, and the existing 30 inch door, and the existing 29 inch door, that all need to be replaced to widths of 32 inches. Uhmm, the front doors are double … double doors, and must swing out, and they need panic hardware — all doors need panic hardware on ‘em.

    “Uhmm, we’re not going to be able to assemble anything down there, nobody’s going to be able to uhhh have any kind of assembly down there, for anything, until these … these uhh violations have been corrected; so, sometime today, this morning, I am going to ugh, put a placard on the front door stating that the place has been posted “unfit” and no … there should be no uhhm assemble there at all, for any reason, until these doors have been taken care of.”

• Troy shutters site of ‘Jihadi’ video game.
  • Doors at issue
  • “They put us out of business,” Steve Pierce of the Media Alliance
    said. “They said we had doors that were not up to code.”
  • Just last night city Public Works Commissioner Bob Mirch and others
    held a protest outside the Sixth Avenue site condemning the exhibit.
• gamepolitics.com runs an article about Bob Mirch leading a protest against the SfIM
• InsideHigherEd.com runs another article: ‘Virtual Jihadi’ Leaves RPI; Controversy Doesn’t
• I filed Freedom of Information requests at City Hall, requesting (paraphrasing what I recall writing down on the request):
  1. Any and all initial/original documentation related to code violations/enforcement for 3361 6th Ave / the Sanctuary for Independent Media.
  2. Any and all official extensions SfIM was given related to violations noted above.
  3. Any and all paperwork/documentation related to the events of closing/threatened closing regarding the happening of 3/10/08 and 3/11/08.
  4. A tabular list of all city violations posted within the last year: 3/11/07 – 3/11/08, including: ID, Property Address, Property Owner, Date Posted, Type of Posting.

  #4 might seem mysterious of mean, but I clearly explained the motivation behind it to the Deputy Mayor — I’m looking for trends that prove or disprove that code enforcement handles their jobs fairly, and efficiently. While it sounds like a lot of work, if the City of Troy has their records computerized, this is an extremely easy SQL statement to write.

2008-03-12

• gamepolitics.com catches quickly on to the fact that a City official might be improperly wielding his bestowed authorities: Troy City Officials Wield Building Code to Shut Down Game Art Exhibit
• The Schenectady Daily Gazette runs a story Sanctuary displaying ‘Virtual Jihadi’ closed

  • Sanctuary spokesman Steve Pierce said he received a call from a city code enforcement official Tuesday morning. He taped the call.

    On it, an unidentified official said the city will not allow anyone to “assembly” inside the building until code violations are fixed. The official said the Sanctuary must replace 29-inch-wide doors inside the 108-year-old building with 32-inch-wide doors and install panic bars.

    Deputy Mayor Jeff Buell said the city did not close the building. In a statement, he said, “We have allowed them 30 additional days to resolve these problems. All we have asked it that they do not have public gatherings until these issues are resolved, for the safety of all involved.”

• The TimesUnion stays on the story with Troy closes ‘Virtual Jihadi’ venue

  • After a demonstration — organized by Public Works Commissioner Robert Mirch, who oversees city code enforcement — was held earlier in the day, city spokesman Jeff Buell said several complaints came in Monday afternoon that the sanctuary lacked proper zoning variances.

    “When they received those zoning variances, they were told they have to make improvements to the building in order to meet the code and New York state fire standards. They were sent a letter to comply approximately 14 months ago and they have failed to comply,” he said.

• Wired picks up the story: Officials Shutter Gallery Displaying Virtual Jihadi Exhibit

  • At that point Troy’s Sanctuary For Independent Media invited Bilal to display the piece at their gallery, bravely risking the wrath of those who find the art distasteful (or hoping to profit from the controversy, depending on your point of view).

    That’s when Mirch seems to have stepped in.

    Regardless of the content or value of the art on display, the possibility that government employees are using their responsibilities as public servants to further their personal or political beliefs is simply disgusting.

• The story makes it all the way to a blogger from finland: In Soviet Troy, the Government sanctions art (but seems to be from NY)
  • Quoting a caller-in from the Al Roney radio show: (link from post now down): I’ve been told that Muslims – all Muslims – are liars. That’s from a Christian Arab who grew up in the Middle-east. And secondly, that all mosques should be closed. You’re not doing very good, man. You’re creating hatred for your kind. You guys have been warring for thousands of years. You ain’t gonna win this one. You ain’t gonna soft shoe your way into this country. You’re goin’ down. You and your like are goin’ down.
    
  • gamepolitics.com retraction — some of the quotes may have been from callers, and not Mirch.
  • I am getting the radio show transcribed, and will be able to verify the quote, or disprove it, as well as give a time index it played at, in the show.
• Letter from an (Almost) Alumnus – a blog entry at a somewhat anonymous blog demanding that RPI (and Troy) offer apologies, for reasons of both reason and morality.

2008-03-13

• A firsthand account of the exhibit at SfIM (from gamepolitics.com).
  • Bilal said he created the game in order to “hold up a mirror” to an American society which believes that such a game is perfectly fine when it is an American killing Iraqis, but which finds itself outside of its comfort zone when it’s the other way around.
    
• ACLU May Sue Troy, NY in Game Controversy…
• Why does this man hate America? — a blog entry from another site.
• The local alt paper, The Metroland, reports

  • On March 5, Bilal was removed from an RPI class where he was lecturing by three administrators and “interrogated” for nearly 30 minutes. His exhibit was put on suspension and the gallery locked to the general public. On Sunday, he found that West Hall, the arts building on campus, had been locked down and an outside security firm had been hired specifically because of “that artist.”

    “I asked a security guard,’ he didn’t know who he was talking to,” Bilal said. “I asked, ‘What artist?’ And he said, ‘The artist . . . that is doing terrorist propaganda.’ ”

    The guard told Bilal that if he saw the artist, the guards were supposed to call campus security.

• I change the title of this article to reflect my desire to keep this blog post as neutral and fact-dense as possible. While I have opinions on this matter, I will keep them in other, seperate articles. The permalink for this article still reflects the original title; that is not something I feel technically comfortable in change at the moment.
• Based on a quote from the TimesUnion article Troy closes ‘Virtual Jihadi’ venue:
  • “After a demonstration — organized by Public Works Commissioner
    Robert Mirch, who oversees city code enforcement — was held earlier
    in the day, city spokesman Jeff Buell said several complaints came in
    Monday afternoon that the sanctuary lacked proper zoning variances.”

  I decided to send an email to the Mayor’s Office requesting some information. If I don’t hear back by Tuesday, I will file another set of Freedom of Information requests.

  • Exactly how many complaints came in?
  • By what medium did they come in: face-to-face, phone, e-mail, postal
    correspondence, other?
  • At what times did the complaints come in?
  • Did any of the complaintants identify themselves?
  • Do any of the complaintants hold public office? If so, who are they?
  • If they are private citizens, but did not request to be anonymous, can
    you tell me who they were?
  • Just what were the complaints? (I find it difficult to imagine a
    layman could eye-ball a two-inch door variance from code, especially on
    TV or from photographs.)

  The above questions might seem inherently accussational, but frankly, as this issue progresses, what I really want to know is were there any actual complaints from the public at all?

2008-03-14

• TimesUnion – Shut exhibit raises questions about the role of provocative art on campus
• The Upstate Artists Guild (UAG) sends out a strong statement to Bob Mirch, Mayor Tutunjian and the City of Troy government
  • First, we consider this attack to be a direct violation of Mr. Bilal’s First
    Amendment rights. Second, we condemn Mr. Mirch’s scare tactics and believe
    that he has made specious use of City office in order to execute a personal
    witch-hunt against the artist. That Mr. Mirch’s personal interests are completely
    unconnected to the closure of the Sanctuary by his own subordinates the very
    next day after he organized his protest strains all reasonable credulity. Further,
    that this untoward tactic should result not only in the censorship of the work of
    several artists, but the closure of the Sanctuary for Independent Media is doubly
    regrettable and an inexcusable affront to the greater arts community. We call for
    public apology from Mr. Mirch and the reversal of Code Enforcement’s closure.
• PostStar – Exhibit offensive, but powerful

  • The whole thing is highly offensive and horrible. I hate video games that involve shooting and killing people and have never played one. I would not play Mr. Bilal’s.

    But you can see the point he is making by reversing the roles of the original game. And you can see the point he is making by showing how traumatized Iraqis like himself are ripe for recruitment by Al Qaeda.

    And you can see how he is challenging people’s views about violence, real and virtual, by inviting them to play.

  In my humble opinion, a piece with a clear opinion, well reasoned, and simple

• It is brought to my attention that the original RPI Republicans blog post — the act that really started this whole mess — has been changed to “The RPI Arts Department Crosses a Line”. I think it’s incredibly important for people to be able to express their opinions, so I’m glad to see that the RPI Republicans haven’t removed that article, but have changed the title to reflect what they believe to be true, in a way that expresses belief and not slanderous falsehoods.

2008-03-15

• A TimesUnion editorial submission: Safety? Or censorship?
  • Then what’s Mr. Mirch going to say about an exhibit that troubles him and troubles some others as well? For all the hats Mr. Mirch has, none designate him as the city censor or arbiter of public morals.
    

2008-03-16

• A demonstration to protest the actions of the City, and it’s fear mongering tactics is called for by the new group “Capital Region Committee for Free Expression”. Their itemized list of issues is:
  1. Stop Abuse of Code Enforcement Power
  2. Reopen the Sanctuary for Independent Media
  3. End Racist Fear-mongering
  4. No Censorship of Art and Dissent

  The demonstration is to be held in Monument Square in Troy, near City Hall at 5:30PM on March 18th, 2008.

2008-03-17

• TimesUnion – Arts center secures alternate venue
  • “We do not dispute the need to respect city laws and ordinances. Prior to this incident, the city knew we were operating in good faith to comply with the building codes and we had made and were continuing to make ample improvements to this 108-year-old structure. There wasn’t any conflict,” said Sanctuary spokesman Steve Pierce.

    “Mr. Mirch has been allowed to abuse his official position to enforce his own political views — to use alleged code violations as a pretext to stifle political dissent. … His behavior has violated the civil rights of Mr. Bilal to express himself through his art …”
    

2008-03-18

• The YesMen to appear at the “sanctuary for the Sanctuary”, Christ Church United Methodist in Troy, NY for the second piece in the series “Art, Freedom, Democracy”
• TimesUnion – Rights group plans protest
  • A new group, the Capital Region Committee for Free Expression, plans to picket City Hall today to protest city officials’ shuttering of a media arts center last week.
    
  • Opponents, including city Public Works Commissioner Bob Mirch, have said the exhibit is sympathetic to terrorism.
    
• TroyRecord – Game creator cries foul
  • “Quest for Saddam” is a first-person shooter in which the player takes on the role of a U.S. soldier fighting Iraqis to hunt down dictator Saddam Hussein. It was the basis for Chicago artist Wafaa Bilal’s creation, “Virtual Jihadi,” which caused a firestorm of controversy when it arrived for an exhibition at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute two weeks ago.
    

  • “It’s satire. It’s completely harmless humor,” Petrilla [ed: the original game's creator] said of his original game. “It’s nothing worse than what you would find on “Saturday Night Live.”

    “It’s poking fun at the dictator with satire and humor,” he added. “It was something to alleviate an otherwise stressful situation and gave people an outlet to let off some steam.”

  • The exposure Petrilla’s creation received after the supposed al Qaida version surfaced prompted Bilal to in turn take the new version and change it into an art project, he said. Bilal stressed that he does not support terrorism and that his work was based on Petrilla’s game and the altered al Qaida version, which he did not create, to speak out against violence.

    Bilal’s artwork irked Petrilla not only because of the content but because he said someone took his work and passed it off as his own.

  • Steve Pierce, spokesman for the Sanctuary for Independent Media, said Bilal gives credit to Petrilla for creating the original and that fair-use laws allow someone to use another’s work to make an artistic statement or a critique, similar to quoting another author’s writing in a book review.

    “You’re allowed to appropriate other people’s work for artistic purposes and to comment on it,” said Pierce, who added that Bilal did not create the work for profit and that it can only be viewed at an exhibition.

  • Mirch labeled Bilal’s work as plagiarism and insisted that the closure of the Sanctuary was entirely in the interest of public safety.

    “The issue with the sanctuary is public safety,” said Mirch. “It’s no more, no less. It has nothing to do with plagiarism. It has everything to do with making sure the public is safe, even if it’s the public that likes to view plagiarism and terrorism.”

    Mirch said he has not planned anything in response to tonight’s protest against code enforcement’s closure of the Sanctuary.

• Looks like the RPI Republicans Union sponsored web site is back up.
  • I’m glad the editted their headliens to be more clearly opinions and ones that are actually debatable/defensible.
  • Technophiles should note that their blog is now an iframe to blogspot
    <iframe src="http://rpicollegerepublicans.blogspot.com/"
    I am not sure if this is a way to subvert RPI computer code — e.g. Well, it’s not on RPI’s server, or not. I hope not.
  • The GOP Pledge:
  • We believe that good government is based on the individual and that each person’s ability, dignity, freedom and responsibility must be honored and recognized.
    
  • We believe in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, age, sex or national origin. I believe that persons with disabilities should be afforded equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity as well.
    
  • If anyone sees violations of the above quotes — in class at RPI — the RPI Republicans club would love to know about it, as you can report bias against the groups they claim to protect above.
• WNYT.com Protestors cry censorship over art venue shutdown
  • “The citizens of Troy have had enough. They want a more free Troy. They see their civil liberties dwindling,” said Professor Branda Miller of Media Art at RPI.
• TroyRecord reports Free speech rally at Troy City Hall
  • Passing motorists honked as protesters shouted chants of “free art, free speech, we don’t want your thought police.” Demonstrators held signs reading “stop abuse of code enforcement power.” Other signs read, “fire boss Mirch” and “don’t succumb to Mirch’s power,” referring to city Public Works Commissioner Bob Mirch, who runs the code enforcement department and led a protest last week against the Sanctuary’s hosting the exhibit. Mirch, an elected Conservative, is the leader of the Rensselaer County Legislature Republican majority.
    
• Photos from the protest

2008-03-19

• CBS 6 Albany reports

2008-03-20

• A metroland article covering the protest

  • Many in the crowd join Pierce in finding the timing entirely suspect. Mirch has a reputation in the city of Troy for using the code department to exact revenge against political adversaries, and the current violation of the Sanctuary seems to follow that pattern.

    Troy Mayor Harry Tutunjian finds that idea absurd.

    “Bob Mirch,” Tutunjian claimed, “had nothing to do with the shutting down of the Sanctuary for Independent Media.” He said that this was not about the art itself, but the building.

2008-03-22

• A video recording of the main speakers from the protest, as well as shots from marching with signs

2008-03-23

• A video podcast (relevant stuffs start ~5:18 in): It’s the End of the World as We know it #30

Bob Mirch has been accused of abusing his — err, one of his three — offices previous to this fiasco. Here’s some links and background on Mirch:

• http://wfpjournal.blogspot.com/2007/04/investigate-bob-mirch.html
• http://www.thealbanyproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=582
• ”Politics is a blood sport in Troy,” is a favorite comment of Robert Mirch — no, kidding, huh?

More resources on this issue:

• rpi freeculture wiki site.
• A gamer’s review of Quest for Saddam and Night of Bush Capturing, from a fairly non-biased perspective (if that’s even possible in this case).
• Wafaa Bilal’s bio
• Video of the introduction Bilal gave at the SfIM
• YouTube Videos
  • A Video Timeline of events
  • Wafaa Bilal interviewed about RPI censorship
  • First Protest Video
    • Elephant shitting on an Iraqi flag depicted at 0:40
    • “He should go back to his own country” stated at 2:30
  • Second Protest Video — note Bob Mirch at 2:00 in
  • Third Protest Video
• WGY.com / 810 AM – Al Roney show Podcasts
  • Free Speech or Terrorism? Video Artist Wafaa Bilal and Rensselaer County Majority Leader Robert Mirch. 1 2 3 4 5 6
  • Free Speech or Terrorism? RPI pulls plug on”exhibit”. 1 2

Recently there was written an article in the Metroland (Albany’s local alt paper) cataloging the Troy Night Out / dance party / social scene that goodship (a local collective of persons) puts on.

Specifically, Kevin Luddy, Jason Steven Murphy, and Ryan Jenkins rock the music / dance / video / party aspects of goodship, which is very much so the most visible side of goodship. Troy, where a good number of goodshippers are located, is definitely an up and coming (read: gentrifying) town, and there are a number of pro-Troy groups. So …. is one of them behind this image? Some sort of who-do-these-young whipper-snappers-think-they-are kind of thing?

Jason pointed it out to me today; the image was located on a lamppost outside of Spill’n'the-beans. It depicts Jason’s head on Kevin’s body and Ryan totem-poling as the crotch. I don’t yet understand the significance of the drawn-on hipster beard/goatee things.

Yeah, I really don’t understand the context of the hate — so I’m thinking it’s just weird.