If you use Windows, be sure to go to Windows Update on Tuesday...

13 security vulnerabilities in Windows will get Security patches on February 8th. Or be prepared to get hit by whatever viruses are out now (or are currently being created) to take advantage of these latest security holes in Windows. As a wise man once said - "To be forewarned is to be fore-armed"...

Napster's plan to take on iTunes

Yes, you read that right - Napster. They're still alive and have just announced their plan to take the iTunes Music Store on. It's called NapsterToGo - basically unlimited song downloads to a compatible portable MP3 player for a monthly fee of $15. But - the Apple iPod is not compatible. So I guess we'll have to see how this works for them, since they don't directly support the most popular MP3 player out there.

Not quite sure if this is brilliance or stupidity...

A sixteen year old kid has been charged with a misdemeanor for hooking up a keystroke logging device to his teacher's computer. He's a student at Clements High in Sugar Land, TX. The dumb thing he did that got him caught was offering answers for sale to other students. School district police (who knew there was such a thing?) referred the case to the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office, which has charged the teen with breach of computer information, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail. Oopsie! I'd say the teacher isn't really observant, but these things are really small and unobtrusive - apparently the one he used is about the size of a pen cap and connects between the keyboard port on the PC and the cord leading to the keyboard. Who'd think to go rooting around back there looking for something like that...hmmm, maybe I should check MY work computer!

State of the Union

Don't care about the State of the Union address, like me? Well, do what I did - watch JibJab.com's Second Term cartoon! Keep counting down, Countdown Clock - man, I can't wait till that thing hits zero...

Finale of The Amazing Race airs next Tuesday

It's coming down to the wire - the two-hour finale of The Amazing Race will air Tuesday February 8th on CBS. It's been a great season (especially since Jonathan and Victoria got the boot), and I'm really hoping that Kris and Jon win. They have really run a good race, and have had a great attitude throughout the race - got a little down last night during all the trouble they had with cabs in Shanghai - but ended up pulling out a 3rd place finish for the leg. Can't wait for the finale - but the wife and I are bummed that we can't go to TARCon again. TARCon is a big party thrown at the end of each season by some of the fanatics over at Televisionwithoutpity.com, and it's going to be held at Play By Play, the sports bar inside Madison Square Garden just like it was after last season ended. It's a huge party - a lot of past and present Racers come by, as well as tons of fans. And occasionally, Phil Keoghan himself makes an appearance. Oh well, eventually my wife and I will get to go to a TARCon, we hope!

Have you ever played Price Is Right...on WEED??

So when I'm home from work on Monday and Tuesdays I like to watch The Price Is Right. Sure, it's a guilty pleasure, but I've been watching it for years and I'm not about to stop now. So anyway, on the show today, a college kid gets called to "Come on down!" and be a contestant. The first thing he makes a bid on, he tells Bob Barker "I've waited my whole life to do this" - and bids $420. Oy. Of course, he's not even close. Next time up, he bids $1420. Oh, hardy har har. Of course, he's wrong again. Next time up - it's the last chance any of these people have to get up on stage because it's the last round - and he bids $420. AGAIN. And of course, before he did it, says "I guess I have to bid $420, Bob." And, also of course, he's wrong. AGAIN. For a stupid pot joke. God, what a tool. I'm pretty sure Bob didn't get it, but from the reaction of a lot of the audience members, they sure got it. Wonder if they were high too?

Fame! I wanna live forever...ah, who am I kidding

I'd never ever heard of webpronews.com till a couple days ago, when I found out that I'd been quoted in it. My post on Saturday about the ruling against Jeffrey Lee Parson was quoted liberally in the article (big thanks to rio for the comment that brought it to my attention). Weird to see something you wrote linked to on some other website like that, kind of cool as well! And it's increased traffic to the site - 24 hits yesterday alone. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but I'll take whatever I can get. So, thanks all for stopping by, and thanks to webpronews.com for the exposure!

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.