Check it out!!

Look over at the sidebar - nope, below the archives... below the iTunes banner... you see it? The Official George W. Bush "Days Left In Office" Countdown Clock from Backwardsbush.com!! Gotta love the ingenuity of some people - it's what makes America great.

So, boiling him in oil was out of the question?

A Federal judge sentenced Minnesota teen Jeffrey Lee Parson to 18 months for modifying the Blaster worm and releasing it to, in Parson's own confession, "launch a distributed denial-of-service attack against a Microsoft Windows update Web site as well as personal computers". U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said in her ruling that Parson's neglectful parents were to blame for the psychological troubles that led to his actions in the summer of 2003. Parson made a statement and apologized to the court and to Microsoft, saying, "I know I've made a huge mistake and I hurt a lot of people and I feel terrible." He will still have to pay restitution to Microsoft and to people whose computers were affected in an amount to be determined at a hearing set for Feb. 10. Okay, sure, that'll be a bite for a 19 year old kid, but I personally think that maybe a better idea than subjecting him to prison time would be making him work for Microsoft for 18 months. Have him use his l33t ha><0r 5ki11z (that's "elite hacking skills" for the leetspeak challenged) to rid Microsoft's buggy bloated Windows code of problems. Maybe such work would be beyond his ability, I don't know - but I think it's more useful to the thousands of affected Windows users to have an operating system that is protected against such problems than having the kid pay a fine and go to jail.

This bites - thanks a lot, MGM!

This is just terrific. All of MGM's theatrical "wide screen" DVD releases for the past few years have, in actuality, been pan & scan versions with the top and bottom cut off. SO, MGM is now in a class action lawsuit. Here's a link to the PDF file that lists all the affected movies. Jesus, now I've gotta go through all my DVD's and file a claim - this sucks!!

Long live Firefox!

Quite high praise is heaped on the coolest web browser around, Mozilla Firefox, in this article from Wired. It's no secret that I use Firefox and love it, I've written about it before and suggested people make the switch. If you haven't switched yet, what are you waiting for? Click the Firefox graphic on the sidebar - you won't be sorry!

Academy Award Nominations

The nominations are out for the 77th Annual Academy Awards, and does anyone think that Jamie Foxx won't win Best Actor? Cause I think he's a sure bet. Ray was an outstanding movie, and he was amazing in it. I also thought it was really cool that The Incredibles is nominated for Best Original Screenplay - it's a bold move to nominate an animated movie for one of the big awards. It was also a bold move on the Academy's part to not nominate The Passion of the Christ for Best Picture or any acting awards or for Best Direction. This was a very cool move in my opinion - although I didn't hate The Passion, I didn't think it was as incredible as a lot of people who saw it thought it was. I could only watch it once, not several times like some people. And I thought it was overly violent, drastically so - and it really wasn't necessary. The extreme violence changed the tone and impact of the film, from a movie about a man who struggled with the enormous expectations laid upon him (whether you believe Jesus was the son of God or not, if he was a real man and the things that he went though are true - he was under some incredible pressure and stress) and turned it into a movie about a guy who gets terribly, violently, sadistically beaten for hours and hours. I kind of felt like Kyle from South Park while I was watching the movie, sitting there covering up my face during the torture of Jesus. So I guess it's sort of cool of the Academy to not reward that kind of film. What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the nominations, good or bad.

Some info on the next generation of game consoles

According to this article, the next generation of game consoles (Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox2 (code name Xenon) and Nintendo "Revolution") are expected to be arriving within the next 18 months. The studio General Manager of EA Europe, Rory Armes, says they have already received development kits for the Xbox2, and says "We know maybe what the PS3 will do, but we can only guess". It's always an exciting time in gaming when right before the new console get released and the rumors are flying - should be an interesting 18 months!