Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Winternals Software sues Best Buy/Geek Squad

I hadn’t even heard of this until I read about it on Mark Russinovich’s SysInternals blog, but apparently Winternals Software is suing Geek Squad and Best Buy for admitted and ongoing illegal use of the Administrator’s Pak from Winternals.

From the story, my understanding is that Best Buy and Geek Squad have been illegally using the Administrator’s Pak software for providing system recovery services to Best Buy customers.  After doing this illegally for a while, Best Buy approached Winternals Software about licensing the software.  After a few months of negotiations and free training at Best Buys’ corporate headquarters, Best Buy made the decision to not license the software.  Oddly, though, Best Buy and Geek Squad continued (and presumably continue) to use the software.  So, a lawsuit has now be filed.

As outlined in our Complaint and Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (which can be found, along with all other legal documents filed in the case, at http://www.winternals.com/legal/), Best Buy and Geek Squad initially contacted us and said that a license was needed to come into compliance. Rather than focus on the degree to which Best Buy and Geek Squad had previously engaged in the unauthorized copying and use of our products, we entered negotiations for a software license and to establish a long-term business relationship. To educate their employees on the software and facilitate these negotiations, we even held a training session at our expense on the Administrator’s Pak at their facilities in Minneapolis and offered an eminently reasonable software license for all Geek Squad employees. While surprised that they ultimately decided against a license, we were willing to go our separate way with the hope that they would someday change their mind.

However, after receiving information that Geek Squad employees continued to use ERD Commander frequently in repairing customers’ computers we decided to investigate the situation on our own.

[tags]Best Buy, Winternals Software, Administrator’s Pak, Software Piracy[/tags]

Hourglass clock

(via boingboing)

As I’m catching up on a lot of missed web-surfing, I’m finding all kinds of coolhourglass_clock.jpg things.  The latest neat gadget I want is an hourglass shaped clock.  It’s no better than a regular clock, just cooler (for values of cool defined by geeky me).  And it’s a steal at $36.95 plus shipping (free shipping on orders over $75).
[tags]Clock, hourglass clock[/tags]

City of Heroes 60 day subscription for $21.27

Yes, this really isn’t terribly of interest to anyone that reads my site, but I like this game so much I feel the need to point this out.  If you go to Amazon.com and search for “City of Heroes Subscription Card” you can find a 60 day City of Heroes (and City of Villains) subscription card for $21.27.  Since the normal subscription price is $14.95 a month, and even for a 12-month subscription you pay the equivalent of $11.95 a month, this is a pretty good deal.  I’m going to order a couple to extend my subscriptions further out.

[tags]CoH, CoV, City of Heroes[/tags]

Could this be why we’re fat?

(via boingboing)

A new US study shows that kids eat calories equivalent to one bag of chips for every hour of television watched.

Children consume nearly as many calories as are in a packet of crisps with every hour they spend watching television, according to US research.

Watching TV also encourages children to eat more junk foods, particularly soft drinks and takeaway fast food, the researchers found.

The study is the first to demonstrate that watching television directly influences intake of calories. Its main author, Jean Wiecha, said the survey showed that excessive TV viewing was in itself a health risk.

[tags]American obesity[/tags]

If I were king III

All airlines would be required to have a certain minimum percentage of passengers carrying firearms on the plane before being allowed to take off.  With this precaution in place, other passengers would no longer be denied the opportunity to carry such dangerous objects as butter knives and nail clippers on flights.

[tags]TSA idiocy, If I were king[/tags]

RIAA sues family with no computer

(via boingboing)

In the unending quest to stomp-out illegal filesharing, the RIAA has now sued a family that does not own a computer. Clearly, the RIAA *must* be correct, right? I mean, there’s never before been a lawsuit about illegal file sharing against someone who didn’t commit a crime, has there?

“I don’t understand this,” Walls said. “How can they sue us when we don’t even have a computer?”

Walls also noted that his family has only resided at their current address “for less than a year.” He wondered if a prior tenant of the home had Internet access, then moved, leaving his family to be targeted instead.

However, the RIAA’s lawsuit maintains that Carma Walls, through the use of a file-sharing program, has infringed on the copyrights for the following songs: “Who Will Save Your Soul,” Jewel; “Far Behind,” Candlebox; “Still the Same,” Bob Seger; “I Won’t Forget You,” Poison; “Open Arms,” Journey; “Unpretty,” TLC; No Scrubs,” TLC; and “Saving All My Love for You,” Whitney Houston.

[tags]RIAA, P2P[/tags]

Game based movie no good? Unpossible!

Well, Nick at 4-color rebellion didn’t like Silent Hill. Nor, for that matter, do the reviews at RottenTomatoes give much hope with a 25%. Oddly, the IMDB score sets at 6.9 right now. That does sound fishy (IMDB login required to see this link).

So, back to Nick’s commentary:

Worst movie ever. Please, for the love of all that is holy, do not see this movie. I kid you not, this is the worst movie I have ever watched. And I rented the Doom movie.

The movie is a trainwreck. The story makes NO SENSE whatsoever. The acting is horrendous. Characters do not stay consistent in their actions throughout the movie, let alone a single scene.

More in the story at 4CR.

[tags]Silent Hill, movie review[/tags]

Darth Vader game on the way

(via Kotaka)

Lucas Arts is working on a Darth Vader game.  So the article is really about the turnaround Lucas Arts has seen from the bleh game production of a few years ago to becoming a top-10 publisher (with a goal of being a top-5):

“We can do this ourselves,” Mr. Ward recalled Mr. Lucas telling him. “We will put our resources behind this.”

LucasArts is not No. 5 yet. But last year it ranked No. 8 in sales, up from No. 13 a year earlier, according to the NPD Group. And, Mr. Ward, 46, is being credited with a turnaround. While No. 8 may seem low in an industry obsessed with No. 1, LucasArts got there selling a fraction of the games its competitors did.

. . .

“The ‘Star Wars’ brand is a massive advantage, but they are going to have to market new innovation,” said John Riccitiello, a partner at the video game investor Elevation Partners, who has known Mr. Ward for several years. “It’s early. It may take another five years for their story to develop, but it is going to be interesting.”

But down here at near the end of the article, we see this tidbit that will surely be off interest to a lot of Star Wars fans.

Their excitement was palpable on a recent afternoon, when Mr. Ward, Mr. Hirschmann and Haden Blackman, the project leader of a forthcoming “Star Wars” game, reviewed all of the company’s recent projects. Mr. Blackman outlined a new storyline that delved deeper into Darth Vader’s history.

Mr. Hirschmann later demonstrated a test game, shouting and jumping each time a storm trooper tumbled onscreen, the character barely catching his fingers on the pixel ledge. And he gleefully explained how researchers had tracked down images of San Francisco buildings from 1915 for the future Indiana Jones game.

[tags]Lucas Arts, Darth Vader[/tags]

Fish to make you freak out

(via boingboing)

When frogs and ‘shrooms are no longer enough for you, it must be time to graduate to Ichthyoallyeinotoxism via fish.  As will be covered in the journal of Clinical Toxicology:

The effects of eating ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes, such as certain mullet, goatfish, tangs, damsels and rabbitfish, are believed to be similar to LSD, and may include vivid and terrifying auditory and visual hallucinations. This has given rise to the collective common name for ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes of “dream fish”.

Pommier and de Haro of the Toxicovigilance Centre Antipoison at Marseille’s Hospital Salvator, who undertook the study, said that the men had both eaten a fish called Sarpa salpa, and subsequently suffered from CNS disturbances including terrifying hallucinations and nightmares.

[tags]Hallucinagenic fish[/tags]

NASA presents: Black-hole simulation

(via boingboing)

Well, if there’s one thing I can think of worth watching, it’s got to be a good black-hole simulation.   Well, actually, I can think of a lot of things worth watching.  But it’s still pretty cool to tell other people you like watching black-hole simulations.  Just try it and you’ll see I’m right.  All the wondrous details are at NASA’s home page.

[tags]NASA, Black-hole[/tags]