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!

Good news TAR lovers!!

CBS announced a few days ago that the next season of the Emmy award winning The Amazing Race is set to premiere on March 1st - just 3 weeks after the current season finale. That's a really quick turn around, I think they're hoping to capitalize on the good ratings the show has been getting. And there's a rumor going around that Survivor : All Star winner Amber Brkich and her fiance Rob Mariano (runner-up of Survivor : All Star) will be racers next season. Don't know how I feel about that, but hey - at least it's not Rupert Boneham.

(The last?) UPDATE : The Great iPod Debacle

I got a chance to talk to the representative from Apple's corporate office a couple days ago. He wasn't very helpful, and it was kind of a shame. I informed him that the general manager of the Apple Store had contacted me and offered a $50 iTunes gift certificate, and that I thought that would help me feel a little better about things but I wanted to know what he could do from a more corporate standpoint. And he basically said the same things the store manager did, and didn't really offer anything else. I also mentioned to him the problems I've had with my laptop since the whole problem - see, my laptop hard drive has now completely crashed since I did all this adding and removing software to try and fix the old iPod and adding and removing iTunes and songs to try and fix it. I certainly can't PROVE that it's related, but it's one hell of a coincidence. He just sort of blew it off, saying that I could have used my iPod to back up the data on my hard drive. Ummm, right. That's a brilliant idea - back up files from my laptop to my iPod... except the old one DIDN'T WORK because it's hard drive died (so anything I would have backed up onto it would be lost anyway) and I don't think I trust iPods as storage devices now to ever try that in the future. What a crap answer. Oh well, I guess I'm just out all the songs I lost minus the $50 they gave me, and all the irreplaceable data on the laptop hard drive (although I'm hopeful I'll be able to get some of it off - I'll have to wait and see). Plus, of course, my time and trouble to make three trips out to the Apple Store. Oh well, I guess you live and learn, right?

UPDATE : The great iPod debacle

So I get home last night to find a letter in my mailbox from Apple's corporate office. When I get in the house and open it, it's from a representative of Apple offering to work with me if the problem is unresolved, and giving me his number. I called but he wasn't in - so I left a voicemail for him. Hopefully I'll actually get a call back. But then, later that evening, I'm eating dinner and the phone rings. The wife answers it, then hands it to me - and it's the manager of the Apple Store at Easton on the phone! He's calling in response to the copy of the letter I sent to him(I sent copies to Steve Jobs, and the Exec VP of the iPod Division, and the Exec VP of the Retail Division too). He did at least apologize, and offered me $50 to use at the iTunes Music Store, which is cool - but he also kinda tried to point fingers at the one tech at the Apple Store who was actually helpful (and fixed my problem), and I didn't think that was very cool. Anyway, we'll see if the guy from Apple calls me back. More updates to come, possibly...

The Dude abides...

This is pretty funny - Lebowski Fest West 2005. They've been doing Lebowski Fests since 2002, and have pictures from past Fests on the website. Maybe his Dudeness himself will be there...

Flaw in Internet Explorer exploited

A known flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer has been made even worse. The flaw used to require some user action, like the user dragging an image from one part of a Web page to another before it was able to affect the computer - but no longer. Now the flaw can be exploited with no user interaction. Making Internet Explorer an even bigger security risk. If you haven't yet, maybe now is a good time to Get Firefox!.

Casting the new Superman movie

It was announced a few days ago that Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth would be joining the cast of director Bryan Singer's new entry into the Superman movie franchise. So, Spacey will be Lex Luthor, Bosworth is Lois Lane, and newcomer Brandon Routh was already cast as Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman. I'm interested to see what Kevin Spacey can do as Lex Luthor - and he's done his best work ever in another Bryan Singer movie (The Usual Suspects), so it's a great thing to have them work together again. I don't know about Kate Bosworth - I haven't seen her in Beyond The Sea (with Kevin Spacey), but she wasn't that great in that surfing movie Blue Crush. I haven't seen any of her other movies, so I'll just have to reserve judgment for now. I'm really hoping this movie is great, it's been a long time since the Superman movies were great - it's definitely time!

New bugs found in Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird

Some new bugs in Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox (browser), and Mozilla Thunderbird (mail client) were recently identified. The first allows the source of a download to be spoofed, generating a fake URL. The second was created by the way that Mozilla's browsers handle news:// links to newsgroups, hackers can easily create false links and create a buffer overflow. And the third affects machines with multiple users. The way that Firefox and Thunderbird store files allows every user to see them and to probably catch the other user's surfing habits. But here's the difference between bugs in Mozilla products and Microsoft (like Internet Explorer and Outlook Express) - the latest version of Firefox and Thunderbird is already patched to prevent the second bug and may not be vulnerable to the third. Here's hoping the first bug gets patched quickly.

Sony PSP handheld launch in March

March 2005, but no firm date or price point, was announced at CES 2005 about the North American launch of the new Sony PSP handheld system. The system has shipped 510,000 units in Japan since it's launch there. Read the article on PSP411.com.

Star Wars Episode III : Return of the Sith Pictures

A couple of small pics available on this site, the site the article mentions doesn't have anything on it - it's just a placeholder page. Maybe all-mighty Lucasfilm put the smackdown on them...

If you use P2P networks - beware...

This is just lovely. Modified files, uploaded to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks that install spyware on your PC, the latest tactic of the RIAA and MPAA. And the ability to do this is brought to us by our lovely friends at Microsoft, thanks to a loophole in Windows Media DRM (Digital Rights Management)that allows companies to create bogus media files and link them to adware. Read the article here for more.

Christmas website scam

So this guy, Alex Komarnitsky, started a website two years ago purporting to let people turn his Christams lights on and off over the internet. But he really wanted to see if he could use computer tricks to make it look as if the thousands of Christmas lights adorning his house were blinking on command. This year he went even further - when a local news channel did a story about his site and had a news copter hovering over the house, he had is wife in the house turning the lights on and off manually. He has now come forward and admitted it's a hoax. And here is the link to the site itself - if you are interested. Sounds like a pretty shifty thing to do, if you ask me.

The great iPod debacle

That's what I've decided to call it. It's been all taken care of for over a week now, so I believe I have enough perspective on the whole situation to be diplomatic when I write this - so here goes...

It all started on December 8th. The iPod I've had since February started acting up a lot - it would skip a song, play the next and maybe one more, and then it would freeze. Totally locked up and it would just sit there till you reset it. Very annoying, and it got worse on Sunday the 12th. I was at the gym, and it did the same thing - skipped a song, played the next, froze up. It wouldn't reset, though. It just sat there, then turned itself off after a few minutes. But it wouldn't power back on. So, I made a trip out to the Apple Store at Easton Towne Center, and figured they could look at it for me. If you haven't been in an Apple Store, they have this thing called the "Genius Bar". If you are having problems with an Apple product you can take it there and get assistance. So I go to the Genius Bar and consult the "Genius". He was able to get it started, and says "Looks like the battery is dead - it'll need to be charged, but it works OK." I pointed out to him that the battery had just been recently charged, and was in fact half charged when it quit. He didn't seem to think anything of this, and said again "The battery is dead. Just give it a good charge."

So I took it home, recharged the battery fully and tried again. And it still did it, no different than before. So I took it back to the Apple Store again on Sunday the 19th. And when I talked to the next "Genius", he said it was probably software corruption, and suggested we return the iPod to factory default. So he offered to do that for me, and we did it. It also deleted all the songs off the iPod - but I could reload them from my PC. He got it to load a couple songs off the test Mac they use, and they played back OK. So he gives it back to me, "There you go. When you take it home, it'll need to reset again and reload the system software since you use a Windows PC." All well and good, I said - but I was still worried. And with good reason.

I get home, and later that night I try to reload my songs on the iPod. It detects that it's connected to a Windows PC, and wants to reformat again - good so far. After it's done, it loads the system software. So far it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. The firmware update works fine, and it seems to be OK - so I try to upload songs to it. It starts OK, tells me it's loaded 900 songs - then it freezes. Locks up totally - and locks up my computer too. I disconnect the USB cable to the computer, and the computer is OK again. I had to restart the iPod though. But it did restart, and I tried again. It didn't work - again. I tried several times, and even tried the iPod restore and firmware download again. Nothing worked, and I was getting rather pissed off at it. It seemed to always stop on a certain song - so I deleted it. And then it would stop on other songs, so I deleted them too. I got rid of about 200 songs and it still wouldn't download correctly. Now I was really mad.

So I make ANOTHER trip to the Apple Store on December 21st, and went directly to the front desk and asked for the manager. Suffice to say, that was absolutely no help, as she didn't even express concern over the problem and just directed me to go to the Genius Bar. Lovely customer service skills. I went to the Genius bar, and met the ONLY person who actually cared enough to help. And he quickly diagnosed the problem - a faulty hard drive in my iPod. You know what he did? He LISTENED to it - because it made an odd noise when he started it up and tried to look at the system settings. No one else had even though of this, but I guess I should not have been surprised. He went to the stockroom, and returned with another iPod to give me in exchange for the faulty one. I left the store and went home, tried the whole procedure again - and it worked. Flawlessly. Because this time, it WAS FIXED.

So, I've written letters to the manager of the Apple Store, the Senior Vice President in charge of Retail for Apple, the Senior Vice President in charge of the iPod Division, and to Steve Jobs himself. I've expressed my concerns to them, and hopefully something will happen. We'll see, I suppose. I'll keep you informed if anything comes of it.

Merry day after Christmas

It's been a very interesting last few days. Wednesday afternoon a huge snowstorm started and it covered the area with quite a lot of snow by the time it finished the next day. Around Delaware (where I live) we had at least a foot of snow. And since part of the storm included freezing rain, the snow had a nice ice coating over it. We couldn't get out of our driveway Thursday or Friday, so I didn't go to work either day. In fact, I spent a large portion of time both days shoveling snow with my wife - loads of fun. The city finally got out our way Friday evening and plowed our streets. It was a good thing too, because we needed to be able to get out of the house for Christmas - we'd already committed ourselves to be at my mother's house Christmas morning and at my wife's parents house for Christmas evening. We made it out to my mother's house OK, got there about 7am (my 3 nieces get up VERY early even when it's not Christmas), and had a great time opening presents and having breakfast all together. We left around noon, went back home to get the things we needed to take down to Cincinnati (where my wife's parents live) and get the dog ready to go. We loaded up the car and got on the road, had a decent drive into Cincinnati and had a second present opening extravaganza - no kids this time, but 3 dogs. Because we have Lucas (our golden retriever), her parents have Molly (a chocolate Lab), and her sister has Tanner (a beagle). Having 3 dogs also makes for an interesting Christmas time. The dogs get presents, of course - but also seem to monopolize picture taking in the same way children do. Although, with the scenes straight out of Sodom and Gomorrah our dogs got into, these pictures aren't quite as family friendly. Molly is female, Tanner and Lucas are male, and even though Tanner and Lucas are fixed, they were all trying to go at it. It was actually pretty funny! Anyway, just wanted to post a bit about what's been going on recently. I really need to post an entry about the huge problem I had recently with my iPod - but I'll need to compose my thoughts and come up with a way to write about it without just typing expletives constantly. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas (or whichever celebration you subscribe too)!!

A match made in the Islands of Fire

Survivor host Jeff Probst has announced he is dating Survivor:Vanuatu - Islands of Fire contestant Julie Berry (read the article here). Probst is 43 and Berry is 24. As recently as a week ago, he had been denying rumor that they were dating, rumors that had emerged earlier in the season and were strengthened after the broadcast of an episode in which Julie was shown at a challenge wearing a hand painted tattoo of a heart with the word "Jeff" in it. Hee. Maybe he fell in love with her after seeing her sun bathing naked in front of the rest of her tribe. True love, yo - you can't knock it.

Pictures (but not of Julie's naked ass - thankfully)