Saturday, May 08, 2004

A chicken or the egg dilemma...

So, a 18 year old kid is currently in custody in Germany, suspected of creating the Sasser worm. Great, right? He was arrested Friday and according to reports, he told the authorities he created the worm, which caused quite a bit of trouble in Britain, among other places. So they have him, but now what? The damage is done. And we are left with a dilemma on two fronts - first, what do we do with the suspect? What will the charge against him be - and will he be subject to only German law and prosecution, or will other countries get a crack at him? Second, and actually the bigger problem here, who do we REALLY blame? The kid who exploited a vulnerability in Windows - or the makers of the Windows? I'm not talking in a legal sense, it's not reasonable to hold Microsoft responsible for viruses (although, it is tempting). I view this more as a morality problem - this kind of activity is becoming more and more common, and it's really becoming more and more difficult to prevent. No operating system is 100% safe, but it seems that Windows is the worst of the bunch by far. Is this just the price to pay for being the most widely used operating system, or is this all due to bad programming and a corporate mentality that simply pushed products out before they were adequately tested and hardened against tampering and vulnerability? And back to the morality issue - is this simply due to a culture that has too much curiosity and to little supervision? Is any one person REALLY to blame here - or any one corporation - or is this a problem with society as a whole? Too many questions here, and not enough answers. Time, I suppose, will tell what will happen here.

Friday, May 07, 2004

TechTV staff - You're Fired!! (copyright Donald Trump)

Well, this is unfortunate news. Leo Laporte, TechTV personality and host of Call For Help announced on his blog The Laporte Report that TechTV's new owners G4 TV have fired TechTV's staff (Comcast owns G4). I really liked TechTV, and the posted info on G4's website about the TechTV/G4 merger leads us to believe that some of the best TechTV shows will continue - but will the finest part of those shows, the talented hosts and other on-air personalities - be involved? I, for one, don't think I would want to watch Call For Help without Leo, or The Screensavers without Patrick Norton. In fact, there was a short time recently when Leo wasn't on Call For Help (due to a disagreement with the management of TechTV) - and I didn't watch the show because he wasn't on (They reached an agreement April 15th, he was back on the air on Call For Help on April 20th). Well, let the protests begin, I say.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Don't. Just... Don't.

I'm so sick of hearing about Friends. Ooh, it's the last show, what'll I do without my Friends? Bah. It's been like this since last summer - I'm sick of it. All this hype of a show that hasn't been any good in years. What a waste. I mean, there is a good show coming to the end of it's run this year - Angel. Sure, it was never as big a deal as Friends, and it hasn't been on the air as long. But it was a good show, and it deserves some rabid media attention, right? Wait - maybe if had received some media attention, it wouldn't be cancelled. And now it also occurs to me that sarcasm really doesn't come through when I write something. Trust me though, if you heard that sentence the way it sounded in my head - you'd have TOTALLY got it.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Penn & Teller : Bullshit!

I love this show. It's simply one of my favorite things to watch on TV. I watched the first season and thought it was great, but somehow kept missing episodes of the second season. Well, thanks to Showtime On Demand, I am now all caught up. They did some great stuff, talking about recycling, PETA, safety hysteria, the War on Drugs, even the Business of Love. Their next topic is The Bible : Fact or Fiction? - man, that sounds good. I love the way Penn & Teller present facts and prove to the viewer that this stuff is, well, Bullshit! I think one of my favorite things they did was an experiment they conducted the first season. The topic was Environmental Hysteria, and they went to a big environmental rally and circulated a petition to ban a chemical - dihydrogen monoxide. Folks, that's H2O - water! They didn't lie to people, they told them straight up it was a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide, and told them some of the bad things water can do - all true information. The best part was that about 70% of the people they showed signing the petition were holding - bottled WATER!! And they got a LOT of people to sign the petition - it was hilarious!! See - this is a great show! Be sure to watch it, if you don't already - Thursdays at 10pm, or do what I do - wait a couple days and catch it On Demand. Love it!