8 Ways to Sunday

The American Medical Association wants doctors to own your electronic medical records. The reason? Their “tremendous economic value.”

(Props: The Medical Blog Network)

A pair of docs from Vanderbilt cut the crap and tell it like it is: you’re simply not in much danger from bird flu. At least, not yet.

The bottom line here is “don’t panic.” There are very good reasons that the medical establishment is worried about the possibility of a pandemic, but it’s nothing to get yourself worked up over right now. It could happen next month, or it could be another twenty years. They just don’t know.

The most interesting find in this article for me is the fact that modern science has traced the three flu pandemics of the twentieth century (even the infamous “Spanish flu” of 1918) back to bird flus originating in Asia. Apparently this thing rears its head every so often, and we’re just now catching on.

(Props: Notes from Dr. RW)

There’s finally an easy way to protect yourself against Sony Music’s security-crippling copy protection rootkit. Anyone with recent Sony CDs in their collection should check this out pronto.

If the security scare about Sony’s over-zealous DRM efforts is news to you, Les Jenkins offers a good run-down in a recent entry. The very latest news can be found at Mark’s Sysinternals, where they’re waging an all-out crusade against Sony’s actions.

Other noteworthy links about the Sony rootkit fiasco:

• The latest release of Microsoft’s anti-spyware tool will also remove the rootkit.
• The state of Texas is suing Sony for breaking the state’s anti-spyware law.
• The Electronic Freedom Foundation has a list of CDs that are affected by the rootkit.
• Sony is pulling CDs with the controversial copy protection from store shelves, and offering customer’s who’ve already purchased “infected” discs a swap for clean ones.

(Props: Stupid Evil Bastard, Talking Spyware, Mr. Tweak, and SEB again)

Soon you’ll no longer have to use IE to download files protected by Microsoft’s “Windows Genuine Advantage” program. According to an entry on the Internet Explorer dev team blog, a Firefox plugin is in the works that will allow you to use the popular alternative browser from the Mozilla Foundation instead.

The plugin doesn’t seem to have been released yet, but it’s something for Firefox-loving Windows users to keep an eye on. You can get the plugin here.

(Props: eWeek)

Some guy with a lot of extra time and money has synced the Christmas lights on his house (thousands of them) to a tune by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Must be seen to be believed, so here’s the video.

Les Jenkins has more info on this over-the-top display of holiday cheer, which required tens of thousands of computer-controlled lights.

(Props: Sirbular in the TextDrive Forums)