Mistakes happen. All the time. It’s no big deal. But put together a web site that tracks mistakes in print, and hilarity ensues. I’ve just started reading the site, but some of the media corrections and retractions are side-splitting funny (to my easily amused lazy rear). Go to Regret the error to find such corrections as:
Category: Interesting Reads
The psychology of the psychopath
One of my recent reading kicks has been the various books by the primary creators of the FBI’s behavioral sciences unit (BSU). This is the group you watch working every week if you watch Criminal Minds. One of the things that is covered in every one of these books is some of the background on how criminal profiling is done, and how that work was built up. Psychpathic behavior plays in to some of the work these folks do. And since I’ve been reading so much about that, I figured when I saw this Science News article on the nature and roots of psychopathy. After with a brief section on Derry Mainwaring-Knight, the article has:
Mainwaring-Knight wasn’t just a con man. By all accounts, he had a psychopathic personality. Psychopaths lack a conscience and are incapable of experiencing empathy, guilt, or loyalty. Descriptions of psychopatchs callously manipulating, intimidating, or harming others go back hundreds of years.
I would like to use this article to point out that Martin Blank isn’t quite correct when he says “No, no. Psychopaths kill for no reason. I kill for *money*. It’s a *job*. That didn’t come out right.” In fact, psychopaths do kill for a reason. It’s just that reason is completely their own.
[tags]The psychology of psychopathy, Pychopaths kill for no reason – I kill for money[/tags]
Dead musicians sign copyright extension petition
Over in the UK, the legal folks decided to not extend current copyright protections from 50 years to 95 years. Naturally, some musicians were upset. Moreover, some businesses that benefit financially from the legal monopolies they hold as a result of copyrights were upset. In response, they all banded together to sign a petition asking the legal muck-mucks to reconsider.
Normaly, such a thing would be one good way to go about trying to institute change. The folks behind this push, however, might get in a little trouble. I’m not sure if they’ll get in trouble for zombification of the dead, or for forging signatures. One way or another, however, those folks got some long dead musicians and artists, as well as quite a few non-British musicians and artists to supposedly sign on. And then got caught. Ooops. (via boingboing)
[tags]Undead musicians sign copyright extension petition[/tags]
Finally, some potentially good news for PS3 fans
There’s been a lot of negativity around the PlayStation 3 (I’m guilty of some, since there have been a lot of problems with the PS3 so far), but here’s something that honestly seems like good news to me (if it is true). According to an Electronics Arts exec, current games for the PS3 are only using around 20% of the consoles potential. That means that these games, as good as they look and as well as the play, are truly just a very early glimpse at what PS3 owners have to look forward to. Given the difficulties of developing for the PS3 that I’ve read, I’m inclined to believe this. Maybe 20% is a low guess, but it is potentially accurate. So think what the PS3 will be offering you in 3-5 years.
“The whole industry knows it’s been a challenge; the PS3’s a very complex piece of equipment. On one hand it’s a challenge, on the other hand there’s tremendous potential in that box. I think it’s going to take developers a little while to figure out how to unlock that power.
We’ve got games coming out now where we feel we’ve hit maybe 20 per cent of the potential of PlayStation 3. We know the power’s there, but like any new platform it’s going to take us a little bit of time to unleash it.
So we shall see what 2nd and 3rd wave games are like and see how accurate this is, shall we not? (via Kotaku)
[tags]PS3 games well short of full system potential[/tags]
Like Chuck, it brings t3h pain
Developed in secret for 10 years, announced in 2001, and secretly tested so we don’t really know how non-lethal it is, here comes the pain gun. Or, as we like to think of it in the Blahg-o-bunker “t3H Pa1n gunz0r!!!1!”
The crowd is getting ugly. Soldiers roll up in a Hummer. Suddenly, the whole right half of your body is screaming in agony. You feel like you’ve been dipped in molten lava. You almost faint from shock and pain, but instead you stumble backwards — and then start running. To your surprise, everyone else is running too. In a few seconds, the street is completely empty.
You’ve just been hit with a new nonlethal weapon that has been certified for use in Iraq — even though critics argue there may be unforeseen effects.
Personally, I’m all for trying this thing out (on bad guys, not myself). I’m one of those soft-hearted people who prefers breaking up minor uprisings without mass elimination of life. Of course, when serious conflict arises, I’m all for havy doses of lethal retaliation, but “t3H Pa1n gunz0r!!!1!” sounds perfect for those instances when less than massive response will do. (via Engadget)
[tags]The pain gun, Non-lethel crowd control, t3H Pa1n gunz0r!!!1![/tags]
We’re not just smarter, we’re evolutionarily *better*
Well, that title might be giving lefties too much credit, but some researchers are saying lefties are better for some tasks – gaming and flying jets, for example.
Continue reading “We’re not just smarter, we’re evolutionarily *better*”
Israeli military: D&D = t3H weak-willed
I thought this kind of thinking went out of fashion 15 or 20 years back, but apparently the uppity-ups at the top of the Israeli Defense Forces think fantasy gamers are automatically suspect for security clearance.
Does the Israel Defense Forces believe incoming recruits and soldiers who play Dungeons and Dragons are unfit for elite units? Ynet has learned that 18-year-olds who tell recruiters they play the popular fantasy game are automatically given low security clearance.
“They’re detached from reality and suscepitble to influence,” the army says.
Although that is annoying, I must say that looks like a way to reduce your risk in the military. After all, who wants to send a security risk out on the dangerous missions? On the other hand, I guess the folks who don’t want to risk losing a soldier with high security clearance might see the weak-willed gamer losers (like me) as more disposable. Hmmmmm. Impass. Never mind.
[tags]Israeli military is anti-D&D[/tags]
I thought “No!!!” was the key
According to the January 1959 issue of Sexology magazine (sadly, no longer published – I learned of it from the always wonderful Modern Mechanix blog), the key to a mutually happy marriage is The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex. Thankfully, you can order it from the fine folks at Cadillac Publishing Company in New York.
Here are some of the things you can learn from this book, along with my guesses for the answers:
The climax in women
Typical male: They can do that?
The sex drive in women
Moderate to high when single. Non-existant after marriage.
Frigidity, its cause and cure
Code is law
On the Internet, Code is Law. This book is a guide to regulation of and in cyberspace – ultimately, what is allowed online is controlled by the code running everything. While available in dead-tree format, it is also avaible via bitstream for local viewing or (soon to be available for) reading and updating via wiki. The digital version is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License, so you can redistribute it modified or unmodified, provided you give proper attribution and release with the same license. (via boingboing)
[tags]Code is law, Lawrence Lessig book[/tags]
Yahoo top searches
OK, since I have nothing better to do with my life than track down useless stats, I decided to check what the most searched for phrases or words are on the top search engines. I just find the results interesting to check on some times. As of the time of this writing, here are the top Google and Yahoo searches. There are tons of search stats on these pages. This is just a glimpse of what you can find.
So what does this all mean? Nothing really. I just find in interesting. Note that Google does their searches week-by-week (although you can also check out a monthly top searches, and even a full year once the year is complete) while Yahoo seems to just do a “to-date” top searches, with no obvious starting date for that. Perhaps they track top searches since the inception of Yahoo?
I do wonder about all the people travelling to France, looking for a hotel. But that’s just my curiousity, I suppose.
[tags]Top searches, Google and Yahoo top searches[/tags]
Don’t open Microsoft Word documents
News of this vulnerability is available in many places. I’ll point to the Secunia posting about the latest announced security vulnerability in Microsoft Word. Opening Microsoft Word documents with Word can lead to your computer being taken over by hostile programs – almost assuredly without your knowledge. Until a patch is available from Microsoft, do not open documents unless you know and trust the document creator.
A vulnerability has been reported in Microsoft Word, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user’s system.
The vulnerability is caused due to an unspecified error in the handling of Word documents and can be exploited to cause a memory corruption.
Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code.
I’m not even going to do my standard Microsoft rant here. Designing security into a program as complex as Word is hard. Going back and trying to add security to a finished application which wasn’t designed with security tenets in mind is almost impossible. I am almost certain Word was not designed with security as a key component, which means there will probably always be problems like this. And consumers are to blame, as they don’t demand secure applications by withholding money from vendors who don’t design for security. In other words, the buying public is largely to blame for this – Microsoft is just doing what the customers indicate they want with show of dollars.
Microsoft has additional details on MS TechNet and on TechNet blogs.
[tags]Don’t open MS Word documents, Latest big security vulnerability news – MS Word[/tags]
Hacking Vista’s registration lock
Thanks again to TimG for the heads up on this one. I didn’t figure it would take long, but I hadn’t paid attention to find out when Microsoft Vista’s activation check so anyone can fake a valid Vista installation. Using the newly released crack, anyone can install an enterprise copy of Windows Vista and have it function as a valid installation.
Hackers are distributing a file that they say lets users of the corporate version of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system get around the software’s anti-piracy mechanisms.
. . .
The software Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Local.Activation.Server-MelindaGates lets users spoof that KMS process, allowing them to activate copies of the enterprise editions of Vista, its creators say. The hacked download is available online on sites including The Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites.
An article on Yahoo including a link to The Pirate Bay is just an extra touch of funny, to me.
[tags]Vista activation hack, Vista enterprise installation hack[/tags]