Houblog

Steven Den Beste slips up again and for the second time in a month, posts a semi-serious subject on Chizumatic. (Blogging is an addiction, isn’t it? Looks like someone’s slipping off the wagon.) Although this post is scientific, rather than political, it’s still an interesting look at why flywheels aren’t so great for energy storage after all.

Even though he said not to nitpick with “it would work if we tried. . .” suggestions, I just can’t resist. You see, I think it just might work– really! We simply need to use scrith for the bearings and flywheel. Nothing like a material that’s more frictionless than teflon and stronger than carbon nanotubes.

(Not to mention entirely fictional. So — in case you’re too humor-impaired to notice, this post is very much tongue-in-cheek.)

Sony realizes just how stupid its attempt to control their property rights (and sabotage a competitor’s game?) by sabotaging customer’s computers is. Microsoft chimes in to say they’re going to treat it as malware and remove it.
(Edit: fixed a double reference & clarified MS’ role)

Sony BMG’s patch does not remove the program, which installs itself on a Windows-operated personal computer when consumers want to play certain Sony BMG music CDs. According to programmers it still leaves a security hole.

According to anyone who understands computer filing systems, that is. I’m not a programmer, but even I understand that if you alter the operating system in such a way as to render any program starting with four specific characters totally invisible (nothing you can do will make it show), you just invited the world to install itself on your hard drive. Stupid jackasses. I hope someone in the military just forbade playing of all music CD’s in military PC’s. Yes, I said all. Sony’s caught, but it doesn’t mean someone else isn’t doing it too.

Hat tip to Chizumatic.

Update: 2005-11-16 10 :50:02 (again, hat tip to Chizumatic:)

Oh. My. Fucking. G-d!!!!!

When you first fill out Sony’s form to request a copy of the uninstaller, the request form downloads and installs a program – an ActiveX control created by the DRM vendor, First4Internet – called CodeSupport. CodeSupport remains on your system after you leave Sony’s site, and it is marked as safe for scripting, so any web page can ask CodeSupport to do things. One thing CodeSupport can be told to do is download and install code from an Internet site. Unfortunately, CodeSupport doesn’t verify that the downloaded code actually came from Sony or First4Internet. This means any web page can make CodeSupport download and install code from any URL without asking the user’s permission.

A malicious web site author can write an evil program, package up that program appropriately, put the packaged code at some URL, and then write a web page that causes CodeSupport to download and run code from that URL. If you visit that web page with Internet Explorer, and you have previously requested Sony’s uninstaller, then the evil program will be downloaded, installed, and run on your computer, immediately and automatically. Your goose will be cooked.

Do you understand why I have refused to have anything to do with Sony products for months now???

I mean, if the Houston Texans are going to suck so bad that the entire offensive line tops ESPN’s “most overpaid player” list, then at least the cheerleaders could could distract us with sex shows at halftime. Or at the neighborhood bar.

I’d buy that for a dollar.

Update: Here’s the original link. Hilariously, the blond gave the name of a different cheerleader (Chris Owen, I think), whose name was published in all the articles until corrections were made. She was at a wedding though (not her own, heh.) Don’t you just know there’s going to be a second fight at practice today?

I got the hot dog concession. But hurry, before there’s a run on wieners…. (*snicker* * chortle* AAAAAHHHHHHHHHGGG!!!! NOT THE HAMMER! NOOOOOOO– *wham!*)

Ow. That smarts.

Oh, and the roster seems to be a bit…. absent right now.

Update 2, 11/8/05: Unsurprisingly, they’ve been kicked off the the team. And I was close on the name of the third cheerleader, it was Kristen Owen. Seems she was 22… and Renee, the near-twin blonde was 20. Which explains how and why Renee had Kristen’s ID in a bar, doesn’t it?
–Ubu Roi

Seen on a thread about stopping bot swarms from hitting your server over at LGF:

#rm -r /bin/laden *
nuff said!

I’m pretty sure that one’s made the rounds, but it’s still funny.
More:

“Have you heard about the object-oriented way to become wealthy?”
“No…”
“Inheritance.”

–

Unix are internexuals who have had their servers removed.

I saw Serenity this weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a crowded theater. Making barely another $4 mil, Serenity has so far not even made back 50% of it’s cost, which has to be one of the greatest box office crimes of the century.

This movie is everything Sith (and 99% of other so called science fiction) wasn’t. It was paced properly, something few movies seem to be anymore. It was dramatic. It was tense. It was suspensful. It was exciting. It had great acting, a twisty plot (do not fall asleep in the first five minutes!), a unique soundtrack, and characters you learned to love . . . . or fear. You don’t have to have seen the first episode of the series. Personally, I have seen a whopping total of 40 minutes of one. Everything you needed to know about everyone was in the movie, and it never felt like I was being spoon-fed.

What I’m trying to say is, go see this damn movie. If you like any of the following catagories: Drama, Adventure, Horror, Westerns, Action, Comedy, Combat, Science Fiction — you will like this movie. Notice I put Science Fiction last.

What was this movie about? Simple (well, sort of). Take the Magnificent Seven, only have them together for years. Flip the sex of a few of them. Now have them be disillusioned losers of a civil war, operating beyond the edge of the law.

And in posession of something they don’t want, but the government does. Very, very, very badly.

Wash: “This could be interesting.”
Mal: “Define interesting.”
Wash: “Oh God, Oh God, we’re all going to die?”

Don’t wait on a damn DVD.