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::: Tuesday, September 30 ::: |
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w00t: danelope - 9/29/03
Dan posted a snapshot of a Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children poster, so I just had to make wallpaper (1024x768) out of it. I had to deskew it, remove the lip of the easel, and expand it vertically, but I think it turned out ok for screen use. The easel partially obscured Sephiroth's right foot, but I was able to work around that.
Share and enjoy.
10:26 AM CST ::
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::: Friday, September 26 ::: |
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::: Thursday, September 25 ::: |
Whee: Federal Court Rules Against Do-Not-Call List
You know, I always had the feeling that the Do-Not-Call List was too good to be true. Luckily, I'm still on the Indiana list which has withstood numerous such legal appeals in the last year or so. Eventually I'll probably just turn the ringer off on our phones. If anybody needs us they'll have to leave a message.
4:58 PM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, September 23 ::: |
Hmm: A Killer App That Could Kill the Competition
I never really considered it before, but this article hints at Microsoft's real reason for being interested in the anti-virus sector:
But Microsoft badly wants to protect its virus-battered reputation. It could do so by convincing users to take advantage of antivirus software and regularly download its patches.
The emphasis is mine. Microsoft has been trying for years to get people to enable automatic updates. This is a key step in their march toward subscription-based software. If everyone is using auto-update, the morning Bill decides to take action on his EULA's Microsoft can simply throw a switch and start charging per-use (or per document?) instead of per-license.
Another very strong pull for Microsoft is public image. They desperately want to be publicly linked with doing something, *anything* to staunch the flow of money being extracted from businesses by hostile programs. Fixing Windows is going to take five to ten years and even then they have to figure out a way to get people to upgrade from Win98 and Win2k. Being praised in the main-stream press for bundling an anti-virus engine with Windows would be quite a windfall.
Lastly, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing if, by bundling, Symantec and all the others were forced into other markets or shut down completely. Such security organizations shed light on areas that Microsoft would rather the public not be aware of. Why let Sophos, et al trumpet your short-comings to the world when you could silently ship an update and never have the vulnerability exposed publicly?
I don't really see any way to stop any of the above from happening. People will use whatever is bundled particularly if it remains cheaper to do so. All the comments in the world about industry killing and foxes guarding the hen house can't override the basic truths, economic or otherwise.
[thanks to Narilka for the link]
4:19 PM CST ::
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Indeed: MP3s Are Not the Devil
I've read quite a few articles about this subject. The best ones, maybe one out of fifty, I've shared here. This one, however, is a must read for anyone who cares about the issue.
Every argument put forth by the RIAA and the MPAA is refuted line by line. Historical examples are used to illuminate rather than to discount. All in all, a measured, well thought out piece which deserves to be read not only by those who already agree, but by those who believe the Hype.
[thanks to Mike for the link]
3:46 PM CST ::
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::: Monday, September 22 ::: |
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Hee: Police Find Artillery Range Gone to Pot
- Talk about your high explosives.
- Now we know why green is the official Army color.
- That would certainly make "roll" call more interesting.
- No wonder their serpentine pattern looked more like a "zig zag".
That's enough from me, now it's your turn...
4:32 PM CST ::
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Dumb: Dell thinks small with Windows server
<sarcasm>That makes a lot of sense. I know if I bet the success of my business on a piece of server hardware, it better cost less than $1000.</sarcasm>
When it comes down to brass tacks, even if this is the most stable and trouble-free $1000 server in the market, it's still a $1000 server. There are simply times when price should take a back seat to other factors, you know? Dell, of all people, should know this.
4:20 PM CST ::
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::: Friday, September 19 ::: |
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Amazing: E-Voting Audit Ready for Public
Jim Pettit, spokesman for Maryland's board of elections, said "Before going forward with the system, all of these recommendations have to be implemented."
I wholeheartedly applaud the Maryland Board of Elections not only for commissioning this audit, but actually standing behind the results. They are even going to have the system re-audited after the required changes are completed. Diebold, of course, is still claiming that its system has "no security vulnerabilities".
[thanks to Jake for the link]
4:04 PM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, September 16 ::: |
Hmm: Court scrutinizes P2P subpoena process
This article sparks a very dim spark of hope that the DCMA may eventually be ruled unconstitutional. I appreciate the judges steering clear of moral judgements and concentrating instead on the intent of Congress when enacting the law. To do otherwise would invite further appeals.
4:58 PM CST ::
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Duh: Anti-piracy suits make labels look like the bad guys
Everyone is more than sick of reading about this issue, but this particular article does a pretty good job of covering all the salient points. It also contains some interesting quotes. It all comes down to a fundamental dichotomy between what consumers want and what the record labels are willing to provide.
It's shockingly simple really. Consumers want digital delivery of a wide selection of content in a completely open, non-DRM format for a reasonable price. I fully believe that people would be perfectly willing to pay for such a service if it existed, but we'll never know because it will never happen.
And, no, a couple kiosks at Tower records is not the answer we're looking for here.
9:35 AM CST ::
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Ugh: All your Web typos are belong to us
It's a sad, sad day for the web.
Update: After being asked by ICANN to review the Verisign hack, the Internet Architecture Board is not amused. I've tried to test this for myself, but it appears my service provider, SBC, has already blocked the offending domains. I can't say I'm disappointed.
8:56 AM CST ::
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::: Friday, September 12 ::: |
Amen: MobyBlog [9/5/2003]
Moby runs down his thoughts on why UMG's price cut won't amount to a hill of beans when it comes to stopping P2P. He says a lot of the same things everyone else has been saying for the last two years, but if it's the truth there's no harm in repeating it. If it is repeated often enough eventually someone is bound to believe it.
4:35 PM CST ::
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Wow: IE patent endgame detailed
Nobody is really talking much about it yet, but I would think that Macromedia is going to be the one most dramatically affected by this case. If browsers can no longer use plugins, then I'm not sure how Flash and Shockwave would survive. While you can create stand-alone applications with both products, their use as a site navigation tool will be halted completely.
Then again Eolas might just squeeze a couple hundred-million out of Microsoft and then grant Mozilla, Opera, et al a royalty-free license. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants?
12:15 PM CST ::
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Interesting: A day in the life of a Microsoft security patch
I'm somewhat impressed by the mechanisms Microsoft has in place to react to a possible security flaw. Getting a patch such as 03-026 out in 17 days is quite remarkable. This does nothing, however, to correct the myriad of flaws which Microsoft has completely ignored or simply pronounced "unpatchable".
I'm still not very happy with the secrecy issue. Not releasing exploit details until a patch is ready seems fine to me, but at least let people know what the workarounds are as soon as you are aware of them. Microsoft's current practice is to include workarounds in the patch notification which is a bit like applying a tourniquet after the wound has been stitched up.
12:09 PM CST ::
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Zoom, zoom: Extreme Makeover
How long do you think it will be before we see pics of the "AMD Big Block" mod in somebody's full page ad? Not long I'd wager. I'm sure one of the big hosting firms will snap that right up.
That said, I'd love a full-size poster of it for my office.
11:35 AM CST ::
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::: Thursday, September 11 ::: |
Update: Rude Awakening for File Sharers
Wired explains a little more what consumers get when they pay the $29.95 Kazaa service fee. More or less, it's just an ad-free version of the client. What's more interesting is how many people don't realize that when they run Kazaa that they are opening a two-way street and offering their music to other people.
1:56 PM CST ::
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Ugh: Sobig-F is dead
"Although Sobig-F isn't spreading any more, infected machines still need to be identified and decontaminated."
That's the understatement of the year. If contaminated machines are not cleaned, then the author of the worm is free to use this army of drones to flood us all with untraceable spam at will. Perhaps the saddest statistic of all is the staggering number of companies which would pay big bucks to leverage this resource to sell us generic viagra.
1:48 PM CST ::
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Fascinating: Bill Joy's greatest gift to man - the vi editor
Gotta love Bill's quotes in this one. To wit:
"[vi] was optimized so that you could edit and feel productive when it was painting slower than you could think. Now that computers are so much faster than you can think, nobody understands this anymore."
Bill obviously hasn't ever right-clicked anything on a WinXP box. Not only do you have more than enought time to think, but there's often time to make a pot of coffee. Well, perhaps not, but it's slow.
1:31 PM CST ::
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Hmm: Nintendo Teams Up With AOL
This is somewhat puzzling given Nintendo's earlier assertions that the U.S. market was ill prepared for online gaming. It does, however, give Nintendo a nation-wide dial-up network with more POP's than you can shake a stick at. Add that capability to AOL's burgeoning broadband initiative and it doesn't look quite as crazy.
I wouldn't expect to see much more about this until the as-yet-unnamed successor to the Gamecube is announced. I may be wrong, but it looks like any developer who wants to offer online play in the next 18 months or so has already thrown their chips into the Microsoft and/or Sony pile.
12:10 PM CST ::
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Scary: I, Cringely [9/11/03]
As a programmer I am far from immune to the lure of the social security number. If you've ever had to try and match up personal information between disparate data sets by Name, for instance, it becomes clear that some sort of unique identification number is a huge win. The problem is when that ID number becomes the only check performed and photo ID's are removed from the equation.
I think advanced biometric testing will solve this problem in the future. That said, we're perhaps a decade or more away from ubiquitous availability of such testing and this problem is going to get much worse before it gets better.
12:02 PM CST ::
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::: Wednesday, September 10 ::: |
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::: Tuesday, September 9 ::: |
Memories: OldComputers.net
An encyclopedia of rare, vintage, and obsolete computers. This guy (or more likely group of people) has a remarkably complete collection of photos, ads, and other artifacts about the classic computers of yesteryear. They have a page for every early machine I ever programmed on: VIC-20, C-64, TI99/4A, Atari 800, TRS-80, and the Apple IIgs.
Good times.
2:28 PM CST ::
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::: Monday, September 8 ::: |
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Sigh: Wipe out for graffiti artists
While I agree that tagging the Sydney Opera House exhibits dreadfully poor taste, it's a shame to squash such a beautiful art-form. It's particularly sad since tags are one of the very few sources of art to which inner-city kids will ever be exposed. I think it would benefit both sides if a compromise could be reached.
2:38 PM CST ::
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Yep: Man's horror firecracker injuries
"AN horrific firecracker accident which left an Illawarra man incontinent and unable to have sex has prompted warnings from police and health authorities."
Not to be insensitive about what is so obviously a grave injury, but I have a hard time considering it a tragedy that this guy can't reproduce. If only more like-minded individuals would voluntarily remove themselves from the gene pool the world would likely be a better place.
[thanks to Jen for the link]
2:15 PM CST ::
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Interesting: Garage door makers battle over DMCA
Although it may not seem like it from the surface, this court decision is pretty exciting. The judge in the case has declared:
"The homeowner has a legitimate expectation that he or she will be able to access the garage even if his transmitter is misplaced or malfunctions."
Which sort of throws a wrench in the "copyright circumvention" clause of the DCMA. Let's hope the decision can be applied to more than garage doors.
9:32 AM CST ::
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::: Friday, September 5 ::: |
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Shiny: endquote.com
Josh redesigned again. I think I liked the Dynamic Ribbon Device™ version better, but this one is quite nice too.
I really should look into learning some CSS at some point. Writing html which looks decent in Netscape 3 isn't as marketable as it once was. I still don't see anything wrong with using tables for layout, but CSS is certainly smoother for the dynamic display of database driven content.
11:41 AM CST ::
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Sweet: Listen To A Movie
They've just relaunched with more selections including Pulp Fiction, American Beauty, and Army of Darkness to name but a few. I still don't understand how this is legal, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
10:36 AM CST ::
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Hmm: UMG Forced to Face the Music
I suppose we'll have to wait and see how this turns out. In my opinion assuming that a drop in the wholesale cost of an item will translate into an equal drop in the retail cost of said item is probably a bit foolish.
CD stores like Tower and fye have been complaining about razor thin margins for the past few years. I'm not convinced they will forego the profit boost and pass their savings on to the consumer. Particularly since the other major labels haven't yet dropped their prices. It would be somewhat difficult to explain why some new releases are $12 while others are $18.
Let's just say I'm cautiously optimistic.
10:07 AM CST ::
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::: Wednesday, September 3 ::: |
Wow: Levitated.net
I've linked this before, but, man, has the selection ever increased since then. Predictably, the ones which use words are my favorites, but there is a simple grace to some of the more math-heavy, geometric items.
On a side note, it has always disturbed me that things which occur in nature often result in the most complex mathematics. Catching a ball for instance. The sheer volume of equations necessary to intercept a moving object and grasp it with a moving utensil (like a hand) is mind-boggling. Yet a child can work these equations and actually catch the ball in the merest fraction of a second which elapses before the ball can no longer be caught. As Douglas Adams said, calling it instinct gives a name to the phenomenon, but does nothing to explain it.
I've often considered the probability that we, as a species, have gotten things terribly backward and that a world described by science is needlessly complex in comparison to what might be our natural state. A state where the necessities of living are handled much closer to the self rather than being outsourced in exchange for a life of relative convenience.
People who discount this theory often remark that, if left to nature, our lifespan would be tragically short. I obviously can't refute this claim, but speaking from a strictly realistic point of view who really wants to live until their mind and body are useless and their existence is void of meaning? Worse yet, who wants their mind to live on imprisoned in a useless husk?
I certainly don't have the answers, I'm just musing here.
5:07 PM CST ::
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Sweet: New SSX 3 Information
They seem to have retained nearly all my favorites from SSX: Tricky with the possible exception of Brody. Not a huge loss, but I loved Brody's comments. My guess is that the new integrated challenge format forced them to abandon the alpine specialists.
40 days and counting...
11:44 AM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, September 2 ::: |
Sneaky: Turn Back the Spam of Time
It finally makes sense. This guy is nailed for spamming his own products, so in order to get his name out there he starts sending these Time Travel spams. Any time he is contacted about a new spam contract, all he has to do is mention that he is single-handedly responsible for the infamous Time Travel spam. Since everyone has either knows someone who has received a copy of his letter or received a copy themselves, it gives his company instant credibility.
Either that or he's a nutjob.
5:13 PM CST ::
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Classic: AnyDVD is a must have utility
"If you have any trouble with the settings, you probably are to stupid to avoid choking to death, gumming a DVD, while mumbling 'shiny' over and over."
I think this guy has a bright future in technical writing.
9:46 AM CST ::
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dinoneil[at]newdream[dot]net
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