Category: Random Ramblings

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

Next-gen Hi-Def disc formats cracked?

We’ll let the torrent freaks give us the scoop on this:

The HD-DVD has been cracked, and high definition content is now being distributed freely over BitTorrent. We all knew this would happen sooner or later, looks it was “sooner”. The first HD-DVD to be uploaded to BitTorrent is Serenity, the Firefly movie.

One of the functions of these new formats is the ability to lock out players with known cracked keys.  I wonder if somehow this (mighty damn early) break of the “security” of the formats will lead to some players not working with future discs.  The crack occurred because those distributing the movies were able to find decryption keys for the movies, and I’m just wondering if this somehow will cause changes to keying in future movies that will break compatibility with current players.

[tags]Next-gen Hi-Def “security” cracked, Hi-Def movie rips being distributed on via torrents[/tags]

The greatest threat you face when you fly is the federal government

Thankfully, I am not the only person who thinks airport security is getting worse instead of better.

Are you more afraid of airport security procedures than of terrorism? Do you think the Department of Homeland Security is out of their minds? If so, you aren’t alone. Here are three reports from recent air travelers of the lunacy they encountered at the airport security checkpoint.

Stories of loss of a Disney doll, confiscation of two nearly-empty tubes of toiletries, and noticing the disposal of threatening moisture in trash bags a few feet from the screeners.

[tags]More stories of airport travel stupidity[/tags]

What a brilliant idea

Dear {$diety}, the more I post, the more I realize I need to add a “Stupid” category for entries here. The latest news article which would make the category is I had it is this bit of insight into the 2nd amendment (and a shorter link if that one is broken) from the Detroit-based think tank Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Let’s see what ISPU tells us about our 2nd amendment.

The idea of terrorist cells operating clandestinely in the United States, quietly amassing handguns and assault rifles, and planning suicide shooting rampages in our malls, is right out of Tom Clancy’s most recent novel. If not for the fact that the 9/11 attacks were also foreshadowed in a Clancy novel, I would have given the idea no further thought.

However, rather than facing this potential threat publicly, the Bush administration is only focused on terrorist attacks involving missiles, nuclear devices and biological weapons. Stopping terrorists with WMDs is a good thing, but what about the more immediate threat posed by terrorists with guns? The potential threat of terrorist attacks using guns is far more likely than any of these other scenarios.

Continue reading “What a brilliant idea”

City of Heroes – an almost numbers free MMO

I’m a gamer. Perhaps you’ve picked up on that if you know me in real life, have read my meaningless posts for long, or been in some of the forums where I post. When people ask me what games I play, my answer for well over two years has been City of Heroes (and along with it, City of Villains, although I’m not much for playing the bad guy). I like the super-hero theme, I have a lot of folks I know in game now that I enjoy teaming with, I find that I can have fun playing solo or teamed, I don’t feel obligated to join 120-person raids (something folks in World of Warcraft, and I believe Everquest, know all too well), and I can sit and play with my kids since it isn’t a bloody and excessively violent game. If you aren’t a City of Heroes/Villains player and you’ve made it before, you’ll probably want to skip the rest, as it only applies to folks playing those games.

Continue reading “City of Heroes – an almost numbers free MMO”

On the iPhone

Let’s pretend for a minute that Apple successfully defends the iPhone name from Cisco’s claim of ownership. Instead, focus on the features and benefits of the phone. apple-iphone-specs-narrow.jpg With a 2 year contract, the iPhone basic runs $499, which gets you a 4 gig iPod+phone combo. For $599, you get an 8 gig iPod+phone combo. Of course, that’s not all the features of the phone:

Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that’s frickin’ thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it’s close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow out of the gate. A partnership with Yahoo will allow all iPhone customers to hook up with free push IMAP email. Apple quotes 5 hours of battery life for talk or video, with a full 16 hours in music mode — no word on standby time yet.

What I’m wondering on this, though, is why get a phone with all those features if it is going to cost that much? I’ll admit that I’m probably not the target demographic for this whiz-bang gadget. I like to get single task gadgets for the most part – I want a phone that is just a phone, a camera that is just a camera, and an MP3 player that is just an MP3 player. For a geeky, dorky, gadget-whore like me, that probably sounds bizarre, but I want functionality at reasonable prices. What happens if next year you want to carry around more music? What if you decide you really want a 6 megapixel camera? Sure, you can choose to carry around those in addition to the iPhone, but why would you given what you’ve spent on the multi-function phone?

Continue reading “On the iPhone”

Death by too-much-water

Trying to win a Nintendo Wii for her children, Jennifer Strange dies from water-intoxication.

28-year-old Jennifer Strange of Rancho Cardova, CA was found dead inside her home on Friday afternoon after competing in a radio station-sponsored competition which pitted hopefuls against one another for the prize of Nintendo’s latest and greatest. Instead of competing on the playing fields of Wii sports or the Japanese streets of Red Steel, however, contestants gathered inside the studios of Sacramento’s KDND The End to see who could drink the most water without urinating. The ridiculously-titled “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest had entrants imbibe eight ounces of water every fifteen minutes for 90 minutes, after which they were given larger portions until a winner emerged. Ms. Strange — who did not win — left the studio in tears, and she was last heard from by her employers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento complaining of a terrible headache. Autopsy results released yesterday showed signs of water intoxication, wherein the body’s electrolyte levels are dangerously unbalanced due to a rapid intake of the seemingly harmless liquid.

No jokes from me – that’s pretty tragic. I’d never even heard of water intoxication until I heard this story on the radio this morning.

[tags]Woman dies trying to win Nintendo Wii, Death from drinking too much water?[/tags]

The Chronicles of George

I realize there are not many techies left who haven’t read The Chronicles of George, but if you happen to be one of those techies, get over there and read some. This site is a collection of support desk tickets recorded by the hapless site subject, George, as received by one of the techies who had to work them. A lot of identifying information has been removed, but the value of the tickets remains intact with what is left.

Here are some sample tickets – George’s ticket entries are in bold, while the site’s maintainer’s comments are standard text.

[Unknown user] is getting explannation mark on her anti norton virus service

We begin with a lovely example of how George’s tickets usually are. Note the strange spacing, the awful grammar, and general weirdness. However, I can’t fault him terribly over-much, since there are some days I wish we really did have an anti-Norton virus.

[Unknown user] called and said [other user] is havening problems printing ,he says the firing is saying canceled printings.

One of the printers is acting weird. George is typing weird. Note the use of the word “havening”. This is a word that George uses often–hey, at least he’s consistent. I believe “firing” refers to the Fiery printer controllers we have at work, but who the hell knows?

she is getting error message that say undliveriable messages,her hole area cannot send externail emails

Oh, man. This one gets my vote for “Best George Ticket of All Time”. My hole area can’t send e-mails either, but I don’t consider that a problem. Perhaps I’m just different.

My older brother introduced me to The Chronicles of George many, many years ago. I periodically revisit the site just to get some laughs again. The site maintainer also points out that George was born and raised in Houston, TX and is a native English speaker, so you can’t blame this on a foreign language to English issue. Trust me – if you’ve ever worked in tech support, you can appreciate the troubles involved in working these tickets, and will probably get quite a few laughs from them.

[tags]Chronicles of George, The joys of tech support[/tags]

Messed up theme

I’m not quite sure why the site is showing up with a lot of theme settings missing. I’m trying to clean up the display and get it working correctly. I can’t remember changing anything to throw things off, but it appears that I have done something, so I have to track it down.

UPDATE: Fixed it.  And in the process got some ideas of some changes I want to implement.  Look for a few minor tweaks in the near future as I have time to work.

Things to do with a CD when you are bored

I’ll have to leave most of the cool pictures on the original site. Here’s just a teaser image out of several really neat pictures.

tesla-coil-cd.jpg

This trick really requires more than just a CD – you need a microwave and a Tesla coil as well. (via Neatorama)

[tags]CDs and Tesla coils look great together, Another visually appealing use for those AOL discs[/tags]

Early contender for parent of the year?

Sometimes, you just find people who have an almost supernatural talent for parenting. I’m thinking these folks are on the other end of that spectrum.

A 12-year-old girl’s account on her MySpace.com page led to her father and stepmother’s arrests yesterday on child abuse charges, Maryland State Police said.

The girl, who lives in Florida, wrote on the Internet site that the couple had given her cocaine and marijuana several times while she was visiting them over the holidays at their home in Kent County, according to police.

. . .

They were charged with two counts of child abuse and one count of contributing to delinquent conditions of a minor child. He was being held yesterday on $10,000 bond and his wife on $3,000 bond.

Unfortunately, current laws do not appear to allow charging people with additional counts of stupid, nor adding fines for idiocy. Hopefully this young girl doesn’t have her life screwed up because of this.

[tags]Early parent of the year voting, Parents share coke/week with daughter[/tags]

Google and the power of satellite photography

In case you ever wonder just how well we can see from space back onto the planet, check out the Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth to get an idea. It probably won’t be long before these images are even clearer and the subjects possibly identifiable.

Lest you get too excited at the thought of viewing old satellite photos of naked people though, perhaps you should see a sample of just how clear these aren’t currently:

google-toplesssunbathing.jpg

[tags]Naked people via Google Earth, Satellite photos of t3h naked chixx0rz[/tags]