Hopefully Not Stupid
Friday, December 17, 2004
Headlines Over IP (HOIP)
Wow, four months since the last installment. Not a lot of good stuff here either, though #3 is quite odd.
1. TechWeb : Microsoft Moves On Spyware To Stymie Firefox
http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/55800866
See class? Competition is good!
This is just funny. How many months has Microsoft blithely ignored spyware, and Internet Explorer, to do something about it only when a percieved rival has made threatening gains upon their position?
And note that instead of coding up something in-house, they actually bought out someone else! Microsoft makes the operating system that most spyware is hard-coded to take advantage of (like the Run and RunOnce registry keys), but instead of simply cooking up a weekend-project applet to check these keys for new entries, they just bought someone out and had done with it.
Okay, enough tech stuff. What else is there in this magic flash box...
2. ABC News : Politics : More Uncounted Ballots Found in Wash.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=339998
We've entered the age of the fractional percentage point. I so wish I was living in one of those areas instead of throwing my vote against the bulk of laughably dumb, horrifyingly red, Fox News-in-public-places Georgia, a land to prove to anyone interested in knowing that the minds of human beings can be twisted around to accept any damnable idea as gospel. What we have here is proof of the inevitability of humanity's extinction. Ain't it swell.
3. CBC News : Texas city orders strippers to wear permits
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/12/17/texas-041217.html
A city in Texas has passed a law requiring strippers to wear permits on stage...
Um, can you say “missing the point?” If you have to wear a permit on-stage to be nude, then you aren't really nude now are you? Though I'm sure some of the more creative women in question could make much of, shall we say, stragically-placed documentation.
Congratulations San Antonio, for enacting the 21st century's first bona-fide blue law. Really, what does this do to aid law enforcement? What problem can be fixed by forcing nekkid ladies to wear permits notifying folk of their legally-allowed public unclothedness that couldn't be solved by merely keeping them (the documents or the women, take your pick) off-stage? And what is it that caused San Antonio's entire city council to vote in favor of it?
I can't shake the feeling that this was passed inreaction to a specific, highly-secret, probably hilarious, incident. Coming soon to an adult mag near, yet not close enough to arouse suspecion, you.
Wow, four months since the last installment. Not a lot of good stuff here either, though #3 is quite odd.
1. TechWeb : Microsoft Moves On Spyware To Stymie Firefox
http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/55800866
See class? Competition is good!
This is just funny. How many months has Microsoft blithely ignored spyware, and Internet Explorer, to do something about it only when a percieved rival has made threatening gains upon their position?
And note that instead of coding up something in-house, they actually bought out someone else! Microsoft makes the operating system that most spyware is hard-coded to take advantage of (like the Run and RunOnce registry keys), but instead of simply cooking up a weekend-project applet to check these keys for new entries, they just bought someone out and had done with it.
Okay, enough tech stuff. What else is there in this magic flash box...
2. ABC News : Politics : More Uncounted Ballots Found in Wash.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=339998
We've entered the age of the fractional percentage point. I so wish I was living in one of those areas instead of throwing my vote against the bulk of laughably dumb, horrifyingly red, Fox News-in-public-places Georgia, a land to prove to anyone interested in knowing that the minds of human beings can be twisted around to accept any damnable idea as gospel. What we have here is proof of the inevitability of humanity's extinction. Ain't it swell.
3. CBC News : Texas city orders strippers to wear permits
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/12/17/texas-041217.html
A city in Texas has passed a law requiring strippers to wear permits on stage...
Um, can you say “missing the point?” If you have to wear a permit on-stage to be nude, then you aren't really nude now are you? Though I'm sure some of the more creative women in question could make much of, shall we say, stragically-placed documentation.
Congratulations San Antonio, for enacting the 21st century's first bona-fide blue law. Really, what does this do to aid law enforcement? What problem can be fixed by forcing nekkid ladies to wear permits notifying folk of their legally-allowed public unclothedness that couldn't be solved by merely keeping them (the documents or the women, take your pick) off-stage? And what is it that caused San Antonio's entire city council to vote in favor of it?
I can't shake the feeling that this was passed inreaction to a specific, highly-secret, probably hilarious, incident. Coming soon to an adult mag near, yet not close enough to arouse suspecion, you.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Link: Quitting the Paint Factory
Found on BoingBoing, a very cool article about the necessity of not working. I'm unemployed currently, in a town and at a time in which unemployment is rather more common that I'd like, but a lot of this strikes a chord with me. I simply cannot function if every waking moment has some purpose attached to it. Insight and reflection require unoccupied moments, and this is not an indication of mental sluggishness or stupidity, but of wisdom.
Quitting the Paint Factory
Found on BoingBoing, a very cool article about the necessity of not working. I'm unemployed currently, in a town and at a time in which unemployment is rather more common that I'd like, but a lot of this strikes a chord with me. I simply cannot function if every waking moment has some purpose attached to it. Insight and reflection require unoccupied moments, and this is not an indication of mental sluggishness or stupidity, but of wisdom.
Quitting the Paint Factory
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
I'm Back!
I just got finished with a wild month, participating in Nanowrimo, the yearly 50,000-word-in-a-month thing. My project is a humorous story about alien worlds, Cthulhu-esque preschool teachers, the end of time, and plenty of other things. So many other things that it's not anywhere near finished at 50k words, and even when it is finished, then comes the editing, oy the editing. But one thing at a time.
Anyway, found on Metafilter was this really cool thing: Einstein's Theories of General and Special Relativity, explained entirely in words of four letters or less! Now the length of the words used is no excuse to not understand these things! Enjoy.
I just got finished with a wild month, participating in Nanowrimo, the yearly 50,000-word-in-a-month thing. My project is a humorous story about alien worlds, Cthulhu-esque preschool teachers, the end of time, and plenty of other things. So many other things that it's not anywhere near finished at 50k words, and even when it is finished, then comes the editing, oy the editing. But one thing at a time.
Anyway, found on Metafilter was this really cool thing: Einstein's Theories of General and Special Relativity, explained entirely in words of four letters or less! Now the length of the words used is no excuse to not understand these things! Enjoy.
