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Douglas Muth's LiveJournal
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by dmuth
A colleague of mine got this e-mail sent to him earlier today:
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 10:11:54 -0400
From: Roger Smith <Roger.smith@maila1.com>
To: John Levine
Subject: John, Maximize your database by adding Email addressesHi John,
Does Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail have records without email addresses in its internal database? Would you like to acquire that information? If your answer is yes, in just a few weeks, your organization can substantially increase - even double - its number of valid email addresses in its database using our email appending service.
Email address is one such information that most of the companies do not have in their database and in today's World email is the most economical way of communicating to people. It simply helps you save money on postal charges or telemarketing for that matter which is expensive.
John, If you do have a business database and want to append email addresses to communicate with your customers, we can help. We assure a fast turnaround and you pay only for appended records that don't opt-out ? Send us 50 records from your database and we could do a test append ? at no cost!
If there is someone else in your organization that I need to speak with in this regard, please let me now [sic].
Regards,
Roger Smith
800-886-1838
http://www.emailappenders.net
by dmuth
Okay, so like, there's this medium-risk bug in PHP 5.0.3, but we're not going to tell you what it is. Never mind that it's trivial to diff the sources between it and 5.0.4, we're just going to instead ask you to upgrade to 5.0.4 without telling you what the vulnerability is and actually--you know, make an informed decision as to whether any workarounds can be applied, or, if an upgrade is necessary, how soon we need to perform that upgrade.
Twits.
by dmuth
So, my day job has me working for a large(ish) company on one of their anti-spam products. I'm just a Software Engineer, so I don't much else than write code. This means that not very many people have my work address. (Besides, I check Gmail while at work anyway)
Imagine my surprise when I got the following in my work mailbox:
Dear Doug,
(Tyler Durden) here in (New York City). I am an executive recruiter.
Today I am working on an exciting opportunity with a client of mine
that is involved in the security, messaging and anti spam software
space. They are headquartered in (Another Country) and have been in business
since (199x). They are seeking a CEO ideally to be based here in the
states. This position will offer a very competitive compensation
including a competitive base, bonus and of course significant equity.If you have an interest or know anyone who may be intrigued please
get back to me at (xxx-xxx-xxxx) or my cell phone (xxx-xxx-xxxx) or
reply to this email.
Certain details removed to protect the identity of the recruiter and the company.
The whole thing is a little well, weird. I can't decide if it's good or bad, though. Nobody else in my office got that e-mail. I know. I checked. This means that I was targetted specifically. Also, there are no current copies of my resume online, which means he must have done some research to find my current employer. Finally, the e-mail was sent to a seperate (non-existant) address at my company, which means that he must have done some Googling on me to make such an educated guess for that username.
Besides, I'm happy at my current job. :-)
by dmuth
DAY 752 - My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant.
DAY 761 - Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded, must try this at the top of the stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair...must try this on their bed.
DAY 762 - Slept all day so that I could annoy my captors with sleep depriving, incessant pleas for food at ungodly hours of the night.
DAY 765 - Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their hearts.They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was ...Hmmm... Not working according to plan...
DAY 768 - I am finally aware of how sadistic they are. For no good reason I was chosen for the water torture. This time however it included a burning foamy chemical called "shampoo." What sick minds could invent such a liquid. My only consolation is the piece of thumb still stuck between my teeth.
DAY 771 - There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in solitary throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and smell the foul odor of the glass tubes they call "beer." More importantly I overheard that my confinement was due to MY power of "allergies." Must learn what this is and how to use it to my advantage.
DAY 774 - I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit. The Bird on the other hand has got to be an informant. He has mastered their frightful tongue (something akin to mole speak) and speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal room his safety is assured. But I can wait, it is only a matter of time.
-Anonymous
by dmuth
So, the problems with my Powerbook's hard disk that I spoke about before came back with a vengeance last night. My hard disk started spinning down randomly which made it a bit difficult to get work done. I tried resetting the PRAM but didn't have any luck. After not being able to boot the system at all, I tried booting off of my installation DVD and running Disk Utility, only to be greeted with this:
Note the lack of a hard disk in that list. :-)
I decided to sleep on it, and when I woke up I decided to call the Applecare phone number. the tech on the other end walked me through resetting the Power Management Unit (PMU). This seemed to fix the problem, since when I rebooted and started up Disk Utility, the disk came back. I ran a "Repair Disk" and everything turned out okay. I've been using the Powerbook today, and it seems okay so far. *crosses his paws*
In other news, my parents stopped by to visit me this evening. They didn't understand how a UPS worked, so I demoed it for them by unplugging the unit and holding up the disconnected plug while my computer continued to operate. :-)
by dmuth
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Sami reindeer herders in northern Sweden found about 140 of their prized animals dead in a bloody heap after the herd apparently was chased off a 700-meter (2,300-foot) high cliff by a predator, a Sami spokesman said Tuesday.
The reindeer had been grazing for bait on a mountain near Kvikkjokk, a small town just north of the Arctic Circle, when a lynx or other predator made them panic and run straight down the cliff, said Nils Petter Pavval, a spokesman for the Sami village of Tourpon.
"Reindeer do not normally run off cliffs when they are grazing on the top of the mountain," Pavval said, adding that fresh tracks of lynx had been found in the area.
by dmuth
According to http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/20/delay.judges.ap/index.html, Tom DeLay really said this:
"Absolutely. We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous," DeLay told Fox News Radio on Tuesday. "And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous."
Let me see if I understand this. Mr. DeLay is upset because a judge actually... did some research before deciding on a case? Holy self-empowerment, Batman! Stop the presses! Using the Internet for a legitimate purpose, who'd have thought!
Tommy boy, do us a favor and quit while you're far behind, okay?
by dmuth
From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7587388/:
Pope Benedict XVI gets e-mail address
VATICAN CITY - Got a prayer or a problem for the new pope? Now you can e-mail him.
Showing that Pope Benedict XVI intends to follow in the footsteps of
John Paul II's multimedia ministry, the Vatican on Thursday modified
its Web site so that users who click on an icon on the home page
automatically activate an e-mail composer with his address.Vatican spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment on how
many messages Benedict may have received already.The English version of the pope's e-mail address is:
benedictxvi@vatican.va. The Italian one is is:
benedettoxvi@vatican.va.John Paul, who died April 2, was the first pope to use e-mail, a
medium that made its debut during his 26-year papacy. The Vatican said
he received tens of thousands of messages in his final weeks as he
struggled with illness.In 2001, sitting in the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall, John Paul
used a laptop to tap out an apology for Roman Catholic missionary
abuses against indigenous peoples of the South Pacific.The Vatican also used e-mail to notify journalists of John Paul's death.
The Holy See often issues news or documents to journalists via e-mail,
and its labyrinth of obscure offices and councils are online in half a
dozen languages. Even the Sistine Chapel, with its famed art
collection, offers a virtual reality tour.
I find this kind of amusing that the Church is getting into e-mail. Keep in mind that back when I was in high school and still went to Church, I would go into the confessional and confess about pirating software. That usually resulted in a strange look from the priest, followed by being told to say a Hail Mary as penance. :-P
by dmuth
I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but there is quite a bit of corruption in my country's government. I spent the last hour or so reading this rather long paper:
A Guide to Conflict of Interest in the U.S. Government
One thing that really impressed me about it was that it actually went into some details of why Osama bin Laden hates us. (hint: It's not about religion)
The author also made an interesting comparison with Brazil:
Contrast the U.S. government with the Brazilian government. Brazil is about the same size as the U.S. without Alaska. Both countries have large areas of less useful land. Brazil has the Amazon region; the U.S. has the Sonoran desert. Both countries are populated by people of European descent. In Brazil there is a higher percentage of Africans. In both countries, Caucasian people of Christian religion are dominant.
My understanding is that the last time the Brazilian government initiated violence in another country was 1878, during its invasion of Paraguay. Why is it that the European descendants in Brazil find ways to live peacefully in the world, and those in the U.S. find peace largely impossible?
Also discussed were:
- Comparisons of our administration to alcoholism. (Both Bush and Cheney have been arrested for DUIs, for example.)
- Since World War II, the USA has used violence in at least 24 seperate countries. We're regular playground bullies, here!
- Corruption is not specific to Liberals or Conservatives, Reuplibicans or Democrats. It's present in all parts (and parties) of our government.
If you have a spare hour to read, I recommend checking it out. If you're short on time, then please just read the section called Quick Tips for understanding U.S. government corruption.
by dmuth
Talk about a poorly run ISP. Check this out:
traceroute to muck.furry.com (66.154.101.42), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 10.0.0.1 (10.0.0.1) 2.032 ms 0.793 ms 0.973 ms
2 adsl-gw.oldcity.dca.net (216.158.26.1) 8.283 ms 39.372 ms 8.726 ms
3 core-1-pos5-0-0.sdfc.dca.net (216.158.30.66) 8.655 ms 9.736 ms 38.249 ms
4 fe7-3.cr01.phl02.pccwbtn.net (63.218.31.1) 23.784 ms 21.473 ms 28.196 ms
5 pos5-1.cr02.sea01.pccwbtn.net (63.216.14.41) 99.813 ms !H
That !H means that said router thinks that the next host it is trying to reach is administratively down, so it just stops. What's worse about this than a simple timeout is when a router thinks that a host is unreachable, it sends back an ICMP Host Unreachable packet, which tells my machine to terminate the connection. So rather than my connection to FurryMUCK being extremely laggy, it just gets terminated without warning.
In a bit of irony, I tried to go to http://www.pccwbtn.net/ to complain to them directly but guess what? Traceroute to their website times out, too! Let's hope that capitalism takes its course and gets these schmucks out of the ISP market soon.
by dmuth
http://www.teamindia.net/news/index.php?action=fullnews&id=45866
London, April 24 : Dustin Hoffman has developed such close bonds with his pet dogs that he takes the furry friends to bed with him.
The acting legend credits his relationships with his pet pooches for helping him understand what "kind of animal" he is. He believes in rewarding them for their companionship with healthy doses of affection, reports Ireland Online.
"The first time I realised what kind of animal I was, through my first dog...(and) by talking to my dogs, playing and petting and taking them to bed. We have a tactile connection, a non-verbal communication," the actor said.
by dmuth
Wow, what a quick week that was.
Monday greeted me with a pretty nasty headcold. Now, I don't get sick often, and cannot remember the time I last had a headcold. But, there I was all stuffed and sneezing all over the place. It took me until Thursday night to (re)discover what an amazing difference NyQuil and Sudafed can make when dealing with The Common Cold.
Despite being in a fog (moreso than usual, that is), I managed to get some pretty interesting stuff done at work this past week. I really can't talk about it in too much detail here, but it did involve learning how to use a new tool and writing infrastructure for using that tool. Was quite fun.
I finally beat that cold in time for the weekend, and met up with ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
dragonf86 and Eternal for some DDR on Saturday evening. It's not like I'm an objective judge, but I think I managed to do a little better at DDR than I did before. i.e. I didn't screw up some of the steps that I blew when playing it in the past. Seeing that my feet held up pretty well, I think I should start trying to do DDR more often.
I've been watching Dead Like Me over the weekend too. I rather like the show with its black humor and some of the themes about fate and pre-destination that are in it. I don't necessarily agree with them, but I think it's good brain food, and that is what's important. (I'm not just pimping it because the actress who plays the main character has the same last name as me, either!
by dmuth
Chances are that you are surfing the web right now thanks to something that went on sale 24 years ago today. On April 27th, 1981, the first computer mouse hit the market when it was sold with the Xerox Star 8010 personal computer.
Granted, the mouse was development for many years before the date, but I think this particular date is the most significant in its history.
(Source: TechRepublic)
by dmuth
Being 28 years old, I'm an old man! I expect parts of my body to break, or at least cause me aches and pains.
So, a few months ago when there were barely noticeable blobs floating around my field of vision, I wasn't too concerned. I figured that it was an "ache or pain" in my eyes and that the problem would either go away or get worse.
This past week, it got worse. The blobs became more noticeable and I began having difficulty focusing, which led to me squinting and getting headaches. Not good.
I visited Dr. K today, and he examined my eyes. It turns out that I have a condition called vitreous separation. He explained that the tissues involved have several layers and that sometime the topmost layer will fall off and cause the spots that I've been seeing. This results in one of two outcomes:
1) Nothing happens at all. The cells completely fall away and vision returns to normal.
2) The vitreous separating is the first stage of retinal detachment which, if left untreated, can lead to total loss of vision.
Fortunately, the treatment of #2 is simple. I just need to see an Eye Physician with a frickin' "<Dr. Evil>LA-SER</Dr. Evil>" attached to his head. He can then use this LA-SER to scar a portion of the retina which will result in it being firmly attached to the back of my eyeball. From what I read, the procedure seems pretty painless. Either way, I still need to see an Eye Physician, since it takes one to tell the difference between #1 and #2.
As far as risk factors for retinal tears go, I don't have any, such as near-sightedness. I've been told by Dr. K that it is very likely #1 and completely harmless. However, he also told me that anything that causes "bouncing" or elevates upper body blood pressure can aggravate the condition. This means the following for me:
- No DDR
- No rowing machine
- No upper body lifting of more than 5 pounds
So I guess I get to alter my workout at the gym to use the bicycle more, do only lower body lifting, and use 5 pound barbells with lots of repetitions for upper body stuff. This is gonna suck.
But it's a lot better than losing my vision.
by dmuth
I'm quite relieved.
I managed to get an appointment earlier today with Dr. K. Hmm, That won't work, there can only be ONE Dr. K. I'll call this guy Dr. K-2. Anyway, I dropped by the office a few hours ago and, did I mention it was the first time I ever visited an eye doctor? They put me through a bunch of tests including tests for color blindness and standard vision tests. Turns out that my vision has gone down to 20/30, but they said that's perfectly normal with age and I will not need glasses. I even managed to have a little fun on the paperwork I filled out. Under the heading that said "constitution", I wrote down "3d6". The nurse who interviewed me actually got it, but "didn't want to talk about things she did in her 20s".
Somewhere in there I was given eye drops to dilate my pupils, and then was taken into a darkened room, where the doctor shined a very bright vertical light into my eyes to examine the retinas. He said that the vitreous detachment was happening for me at a younger age than normal but other than that, my eyes are just fine. We discussed my workout routine, and he said that I was probably using the rowing machine at too high of a setting, which would cause increased inter-cranial pressure, and that's just not a good thing. He gave me a bit of a reality check by pointing out that I'm just not built like a weightlifter, and I should be doing more light exercises and cardio to build definition, rather than trying to build bulk. I think he has a point.
So, I'm going to take tonight off from the gym, and then resume my weight training tomorrow. I'll try a lower setting on the rowing machine for a longer period of time, along with lower amounts of weight at higher repetitions, and I'll see how it works out after 6 weeks.
Well, my focus is starting to return (yay for touch-typing!), so I guess that means I should resume working now.
Thanks for the well wishes, folks.
by dmuth
by dmuth
| giza's LJ stalker is zenmouse! |
| zenmouse is stalking you because they heard you are awesome in bed, and they want to find out. They are also prank calling you regularly! |
by dmuth
On April 25th, I signed up a Disposable Email Address(DEA) with the site www.retailreportcard.com. This is what has been sent to that address since:
05/05/2005 15:52 -0500 Received Message from Consumer.Feedback@mdm50.org
05/05/2005 12:20 -0500 Received Message from flowers@bestpriceguarantee.net
05/05/2005 00:08 -0500 Received Message from grouplotto@etrebs.com
05/04/2005 22:18 -0500 Received Message from caa@leasesy.com
05/04/2005 22:03 -0500 Received Message from fw@leasesy.com
05/04/2005 21:19 -0500 Received Message from BarNone@leasesy.com
05/04/2005 16:10 -0500 Received Message from Limited.Promotion@mdm49.org
05/04/2005 14:15 -0500 Received Message from debt@bestpriceguarantee.net
05/04/2005 03:26 -0500 Received Message from EZTracks@etrebs.com
05/03/2005 23:10 -0500 Received Message from iwon@leasesy.com
05/03/2005 20:46 -0500 Received Message from Mktg.Wiz@dmail01mx.org
05/03/2005 15:31 -0500 Received Message from Market.Research@mdm48.org
05/03/2005 14:29 -0500 Received Message from hoodia@bestpriceguarantee.net
05/03/2005 01:23 -0500 Received Message from vip@etrebs.com
05/02/2005 23:13 -0500 Received Message from caa@leasesy.com
05/02/2005 22:40 -0500 Received Message from BarNone@leasesy.com
05/02/2005 16:59 -0500 Received Message from christianmortgage@bestpriceguarantee.net
05/01/2005 18:54 -0500 Received Message from mcc@etrebs.com
05/01/2005 13:43 -0500 Received Message from healthcare@bestpriceguarantee.net
04/30/2005 15:28 -0500 Received Message from hrs@etrebs.com
04/30/2005 12:47 -0500 Received Message from rw@leasesy.com
04/29/2005 17:32 -0500 Received Message from ezt@etrebs.com
04/29/2005 16:25 -0500 Received Message from consumersurveygroup@leasesy.com
04/29/2005 14:25 -0500 Received Message from surveys@bestpriceguarantee.net
04/28/2005 21:28 -0500 Received Message from caa@etrebs.com
04/28/2005 19:27 -0500 Received Message from cip@leasesy.com
04/28/2005 13:25 -0500 Received Message from advisor@bestpriceguarantee.net
04/27/2005 18:51 -0500 Received Message from mc@leasesy.com
04/27/2005 17:09 -0500 Received Message from mcmi@etrebs.com
04/27/2005 15:59 -0500 Received Message from moneywiz@bestpriceguarantee.net
04/26/2005 20:08 -0500 Received Message from cs@leasesy.com
04/26/2005 19:18 -0500 Received Message from pch@etrebs.com
04/26/2005 15:07 -0500 Received Message from rethink@bestpriceguarantee.net
04/26/2005 10:12 -0500 Received Message from FactoryDirectRewards@rewacclk.com
04/26/2005 04:12 -0500 Received Message from FactoryDirectRewards@rewacclk.com
04/25/2005 22:12 -0500 Received Message from FactoryDirectRewards@rewacclk.com
And worst of all, there was no obvious way to "opt-out" of any of the spams that I've gotten. Twits.
I think I'll be turning off that address in a few days.
by dmuth
Well, those wacky religious people are trying to teach creationism in school again. I read through the comments on the Slashdot article, and someone pointed out that this has been going on since the early 80s. In fact Isaac Asimov wrote an article about it way back then. It was called The 'Threat' of Creationism. I thought this passage was particularly striking:
There are numerous cases of societies in which the armies of the night have ridden triumphantly over minorities in order to establish a powerful orthodoxy which dictates official thought. Invariably, the triumphant ride is toward long-range disaster. Spain dominated Europe and the world in the 16th century, but in Spain orthodoxy came first, and all divergence of opinion was ruthlessly suppressed. The result was that Spain settled back into blankness and did not share in the scientific, technological and commercial ferment that bubbled up in other nations of Western Europe. Spain remained an intellectual backwater for centuries. In the late 17th century, France in the name of orthodoxy revoked the Edict of Nantes and drove out many thousands of Huguenots, who added their intellectual vigor to lands of refuge such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Prussia, while France was permanently weakened.
In more recent times, Germany hounded out the Jewish scientists of Europe. They arrived in the United States and contributed immeasurably to scientific advancement here, while Germany lost so heavily that there is no telling how long it will take it to regain its former scientific eminence. The Soviet Union, in its fascination with Lysenko, destroyed its geneticists, and set back its biological sciences for decades. China, during the Cultural Revolution, turned against Western science and is still laboring to overcome the devastation that resulted.
As we now, with all these examples before us, to ride backward into the past under the same tattered banner of orthodoxy? With creationism in the saddle, American science will wither. We will raise a generation of ignoramuses ill-equipped to run the industry of tomorrow, much less to generate the new advances of the days after tomorrow.
We will inevitably recede into the backwater of civilization, and those nations that retain opened scientific thought will take over the leadership of the world and the cutting edge of human advancement. I don't suppose that the creationists really plan the decline of the United States, but their loudly expressed patriotism is as simpleminded as their "science." If they succeed, they will, in their folly, achieve the opposite of what they say they wish.
There are two major problems I have with teaching creationism, or any kind of religion in school:
1) As stated above, discouraging learning in our schools is just plain silly. Burying your head in the sand and saying, "The Bible says this happened, and that's all there is to it. (Amen)" does a huge disservice to our society and our children. It prevents people from doing their own research, their own critical thinking, and *gasp*, drawing their own conclusions based on the available evidence. Now if what you really want is to raise sheeple who will never question your authority, then maybe it's not such a bad idea.
2) It seems to me that the creationists are trying to teach some variant of Christianity, as laid out in The Bible. Well, what about the other religions? What about Hinduism, Muslim, Greek Mythology, and Norse Mythology? Are those religions less important? Shouldn't they be taught too? I suspect that the same people who like to say "freedom of religion" really mean "freedom of OUR religion".
by dmuth
I've been carrying my digital camera around with me lately and taking pictures of interesting things that I stumbled across. I figure that providing pictures of things that happen in my life will be more interesting than just writing about them.
First interesting thing is this little electrical code violation that I saw in a local business. I sure hope the owner gets that cleaned up soon:
I scored 118,580 points in Pac Man. I would have done better, if not the stupid joystick not responding properly to my commands. I need a version of Pac Man that's wired into my BRAIN.
Seen at a local supermarket. That's uh, something you just don't see every day. Kinda caught me off guard.
At first, I wondered if the owner of this vehicle worked for Comcast, the cable company that services the area. But now that I think about it, maybe the owner is commenting on some of the semi-fascist things that Comcast has done. Such as telling users they are using too much bandwidth, but refusing to tell them how much they used, or how much is too much. Pricks.
And finally, while idly walking around a mall tonight, I spotted this cheetah plushie in a Hallmark Store and stepped in to buy it. My very first cheetah plushie.
It would have been cooler if he didn't hump my Powerbook.
by dmuth
[Edit: I fixed the broken link. Sorry about that.]
by dmuth
(COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. OK, forget that. Can I watch movies on the Internet?
ABBOTT: Yes, you want Real One.
COSTELLO: Maybe a real one, maybe a cartoon. What I watch is none of your business. Just tell me what I need!
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: If it's a long movie, I also want to watch reels 2, 3 and 4. Can I watch them?
ABBOTT: Of course.
COSTELLO: Great! With what?
ABBOTT: Real One.
COSTELLO: OK, I'm at my computer and I want to watch a movie. What do I do?
ABBOTT: You click the blue "1".
COSTELLO: I click the blue one what?
ABBOTT: The blue "1".
COSTELLO: Is that different from the blue w?
ABBOTT: The blue "1" is Real One and the blue "W" is Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: But there are three words in "office for windows"!
ABBOTT: No, just one. But it's the most popular Word in the world.
COSTELLO: It is?
ABBOTT: Yes, but to be fair, there aren't many other Words left. It pretty much wiped out all the other Words out there.
COSTELLO: And that word is real one?
ABBOTT: Real One has nothing to do with Word. Real One isn't even part of Office.
COSTELLO: STOP! Don't start that again. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on "START".......
(Source: Author Unknown)
by dmuth
I've been doing some reading during the past week, and here are some things I'd like to share:
Visits to Makes of Dungeons and Dragons - Many photos from a trip that was made to TSR's headquarters before they were bought up by Wizards of The Coast many years ago.
Visiting TSR - The author's account of the above trip, along with some commentary on TSR's politics and how he get involved with the company.
The Gary Gygax FAQ - Gary was one of the people who founded TSR in the early 1970s. the FAQ covers who role in the company, and goes into much more details about politics, greed, and petty bickering.
Enjoy.
by dmuth
Being a geek, I see this one a lot. Some random person will come up with what they perceive as the "Final Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem". If everyone would just listen to them and rework the SMTP protocol, that would magically fix everything! Never mind that the person proposing their radical solution doesn't have an actual experience running mail servers, doing sysadmin, or any silly stuff like that. They have far more pressing ways to spend their time than doing any of THAT geeky stuff.
So, I snagged this witty form letter that has made the rounds on Slashdot and figured I'll post it here, too. Very handy to have when someone says that they found "THE SOLUTION" to the problem.
Your idea advocates a
(x) technical ( ) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses
( ) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
( ) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money
(x) It is defenseless against brute force attacks
( ) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
( ) Users of email will not put up with it
( ) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
(x) Requires too much cooperation from spammers
(x) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
(x) Many email users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers
( ) Spammers don't care about invalid addresses in their lists
( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or businessSpecifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
( ) Lack of centrally controlling authority for email
(x) Open relays in foreign countries
( ) Ease of searching tiny alphanumeric address space of all email addresses
( ) Asshats
( ) Jurisdictional problems
( ) Unpopularity of weird new taxes
( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money
(x) Huge existing software investment in SMTP
( ) Susceptibility of protocols other than SMTP to attack
( ) Willingness of users to install OS patches received by email
(x) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes
( ) Eternal arms race involved in all filtering approaches
( ) Extreme profitability of spam
( ) Joe jobs and/or identity theft
( ) Technically illiterate politicians
( ) Extreme stupidity on the part of people who do business with spammers
(x) Dishonesty on the part of spammers themselves
(x) Bandwidth costs that are unaffected by client filtering
( ) Outlookand the following philosophical objections may also apply:
( ) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown practical
( ) Any scheme based on opt-out is unacceptable
( ) SMTP headers should not be the subject of legislation
( ) Blacklists suck
( ) Whitelists suck
( ) We should be able to talk about Viagra without being censored
( ) Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or credit card fraud
( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public networks
(x) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually
( ) Sending email should be free
( ) Why should we have to trust you and your servers?
( ) Incompatiblity with open source or open source licenses
( ) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) Temporary/one-time email addresses are cumbersome
( ) I don't want the government reading my email
( ) Killing them that way is not slow and painful enoughFurthermore, this is what I think about you:
(x) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it.
by Jay Garmon
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!
Brilliant!
by dmuth
Thanks to Co-Worker R (and WMMR 93.3), I got to see Star Wars Episode 3 earlier tonight.
The Good:
- Special effects
- Fight scenes
- Samuel L. Jackson
The Bad:
- Some of the "romantic" lines. I've seen better on Hallmark cards
The Ugly:
- Chancellor Ovaltine
Oh yeah, there's a Naruto Dating Sim out, for anyone who really has a hardon for Naruto, Sasuke, or Thick Brows Rock Lee. :-P
by dmuth
I don't know why a fox would do such a thing, but I really didn't have a chance to think about it on the way home tonight. While driving down a back road, a wild gray fox darted out right in front of me and ran across the road. At first I thought it was a rabbit, but after watching it move and seeing its tail, I quickly realized what it was.
After it crossed, I drove ahead and stopped the car so I could get a better look. But all I saw was it running deeper into the woods.
First time I ever saw a fox in the wild, too. Made for a nice end to the week.
by dmuth
Just some random photos that I took over the last couple of weeks...
While on the way to work the other morning, there was a big fire that was all over the local news. In fact, this is what I saw from nearly a MILE away:
And, while stopped at a traffic light on the way home one evening, I noticed this sign:
I had to do a double-take, because at first I thought the name on the sign said "tgeller" on it.
I think I need to get out more. o.O
by dmuth
I load up CNN, and what do I see? Two furry-related stories right on the main page:
Voice of Tony the Tiger dies - Thurl Ravenscroft, who provided the rumbling "They're Grrrrreeeat!" for Kellogg's Tony the Tiger ads and voiced a host of Disney characters, has died. He was 91.
Snow Leopards Spotted on top of the World - For the first time in more than 40 years, scientists have spotted the elegant and endangered snow leopard on the southern slopes of Mount Everest.
(Let the obscene remarks about snow leopards topping anything begin!)
by dmuth
On one of the anti-spam lists I'm on, a colleague of mine was getting lots of bounces from enter.net in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Not having sent the e-mails that triggered the bounces, he figured he was getting backscatter from poorly written anti-virus software, and inquired about enter.net on the list. So I finally had the opportunity to get THIS out of my system:
No, but I'm not surprised. When I lived in up in Allentown, I knew
folks who worked for and did business with enter.net. All I heard
were complaints about unprofessional and rude behavior on the part of
the owners. (One of the owners went so far as to try and get a former
boss of mine fired when he canceled his company's contract with them
because of the affore-mentioned rude behavior)Word also is that their rating with the Better Business Bureau leaves
much to be desired.Draw your own conclusions about their level of clue.
I've also got horror stories from techs who used to work there. Those are available on request. :-)
by dmuth
Anyone who has been following the news is likely aware of the latest virus making the rounds. It password protects files on your hard disk, and then demands that you send money to the author in order to get the decryption key. The thing is, it's not like this is a first. Would you believe that this was done before in *1989*?
Straight from Rob Slade's History of Computer Viruses:
The disks contained an installation program and a very simplistic AIDS information "page turner" and risk assessment. The installation program appeared only to copy the AIDS program onto the target hard disk, but in reality did much more. A hidden directory was created with a nonprinting character name and a hidden program file with a nonprinting character in the name was installed. The AUTOEXEC.BAT file was renamed and replaced with one which called the hidden program, and then the original AUTOEXEC. The hidden program kept track of the number of times the computer was rebooted, and, after a certain number, encrypted the hard disk. The user was then presented with an invoice and a demand to pay the license fee in return for the encryption key.
Here are some simple steps for staying virus/spyware-free:
Step 1) Make regular backups. The more you have documents that change/are updated, the more frequently they should be backed up.
Step 2) Run anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Keep it updated.
Step 3) Avoid virus replication factories Microsoft Software. Use programs like Firefox for web browsing and Thunderbird for e-mail.
by dmuth
From Oddly Enough:
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The source of the world's biggest sperm bank may soon run dry if Danish authorities decide to tax donors, Cryos International Sperm Bank said Wednesday.
Denmark, with the world's highest income tax levels, wants sperm donors to pay tax on the 500 crown ($84.59) reimbursement men receive for their services.
"It is a special kind of work and therefore the fee cannot be compared to normal working income," Cryos said in a letter to the tax authorities, adding it risked losing donors, most of whom are students.
Cryos receives between 30-60 donors a day at its three branches and each year Danish men contribute to around 1,000 pregnancies around the world.
by dmuth
Cross posted from the Anthrocon Message Boards:
After an enormous amount of deliberating (and sleepless nights), we have signed a contract with the Westin Convention Center Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA, for 2006. After this year, Anthrocon will be held at the David L Lawrence Convention Center (to which the Westin is attached) from June 15-18, 2006.
I cannot begin to tell how many venues we have considered and dismissed. We had to find a place that was (a) available, (b) big enough to hold us, (c) laid out in a fashion that was appropriate for our needs, (d) affordable for us, (e) affordable for our members, (f) not so far away that the commute for the organizers would be impossible, (g) easy to get to for the majority of travelers (airfare from most destinations is comparable to Philadelphia) and (h) not a dump.
There will be more information later, but we wanted to give a heads-up to the folks who are starting to plan their summer activities for next year. Please note that we are jumping ahead by a few weeks for 2006. We plan to return to our usual early-July timeslot in 2007.
by dmuth
Bible-belt town bans blasphemy
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The name of the Lord may no longer be taken in vain in the Dutch village of Staphorst.
Staphorst, in the so-called Dutch "bible belt" of eastern towns where religion holds sway, approved a ban on swearing by 13-4 council votes.
But the caveat that swearing is not banned when it is an expression of the constitutional freedom of speech may make it difficult to punish offenders.
"A ban on swearing can be seen as a signal," the council's proposal said, adding a change in moral values was needed to address the underlying problem.
Past swearing bans in bible-belt villages were declared in violation of the right to free expression in 1986. One other town has such a ban -- Reimerswaal, in the southwestern province of Zeeland.
The Dutch association against swearing, which runs national billboard campaigns to admonish the bad-mouthed Dutch, says the Bible outlaws swearing.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain," it quotes Exodus 20:7.
And there I was, thinking that the USA had a monopoly on the Jesus Freaks. Whoops, did I just take the Lord's name in vain again? Silly me.
by dmuth
From http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0517-35.htm:
...
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.
"Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.
(Note to self: Brits get PISSED when lied about)
by dmuth
by dmuth
So... I'm listening to the Classical MP3 stream from mostlyclassical.com, and suddenly the "Rogue" theme from Diablo 2 starts playing!
I guess this is what old age feels like. o.O
by dmuth
I just had a conversation with employee "M" about a bug he found. It went something like this:
M: I just filled out a bug report on what we discussed.
M: You got bug 999.
M: Next one's the winner!
Giza: Cool. I'll go break something...
by dmuth
I had a rather strange day today.
- First, on the way into work, a firetruck overtook me and passed me. Then it turned onto the street that I normally perform my commute on. After I turned onto said street and went about a mile (with no sign of a fire), another firetruck came towards me and passed me. I'm not quite sure where they were going.
- I found out that one of my co-workers helped out with RFC 3888. How cool is that?
- Speaking of work, I discovered a new way in which MSIE really sucks. It seems that one of my PHP scripts, when there is an abnormally large number of records in our application, will take about 15 seconds to load. In FireFox, that's no big deal. But not IE. It will assume that you misttyped the URL and send a TCP RST after about 15 seconds. Then it will display "this page cannot be displayed" with... a DNS error! WTF?
Strangely, it only does this when clicking on a link. It does not do it when a form is submitted or a meta refresh is taking place. Very strange.
- Some tractor trailer got in a wreck on 476 Northbound tonight. Not only was traffic backed up for 10 miles+ down the Northbound side, but US-30 and all of the back roads were clogged with people getting off of 476, too. What a pain that was.
I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe, when someone gets in a wreck and backs up traffic for miles, that they should be held liable for wasting peoples' time. A class action lawsuit would sure be an interesting thing to try. If only I went into law...
by dmuth
Well, I finally found something about Macs that I don't like very much.
Awhile back, Kito (dude, get an LJ!) was asking me some questions in IM about how to fix his iMac, which had been having some problems lately. When I was unable to help him fix it through "remote hands", I asked him to bring it over.
The first thing I did was to try starting it up normally. That didn't work so well. It just hung when the progress bar was about halfway through. So the next thing I tried was starting it up in Single User Mode, done by holding down Command-S when starting the machine. As the machine booted, I saw some lines like this about halfway down the screen:
In case it's hard to read, the above text says:
BSD root: disk0s3, major 15, minor 2
jnl: replay_journal: from: 8385024 to: 3450880 (joffset 0xe1000)
jnl: replay_journal: bad block list header @ 0x7400 (checksum 0x100077 != 0xfec6734d)
jnl: journal_open: Error replaying the journal!
hfs: early jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0).
Okay, that's not so good, especially since it would only mount the disk in read only mode. However, this is the sort of thing that the fsck can fix, right! In fact, the message right before the bash prompt appears even tells me how to run fsck. So I gave that a try:
** /dev/rdisk0s3
** Root file system
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
** Checking Extents Overflow file.
** Checking Catalog file.
Invalid sibling link
(4, 12533)
** Volume check failed.
Well, that was interesting, unexpected, and a little depressing.
I tried running fsck a few more times, but didn't have much luck.
I then figured that since the problem is apparently in the file system's journal, maybe I could turn off journaling and run fsck against that:
Again, very interesting. When I tried using hfs.util to turn off journaling, it said that the volume isn't journaled. When I tried using it turn journaling on, it said that the volume was not an HFS+ volume.
At this point, I investigated the idea of booting from the OS/X 10.3 install CD and reinstalling OS/X. One would assume that the volume is formatted in the process and this problem would go away. But lo and behold, when I got the list of volumes to appear, the icon for the hard drive was there, but it was grayed out and could not be selected. I guess the installer doesn't like messing with file systems that are in an unstable state. That's a bad design choice, IMHO.
I finally did some Googling on those errors, and discovered only one way to fix this problem. Other people suffered the same thing, and the only fix was to purchase and use a program called Disk Warrior. Disk Warrior comes with a bootable CD, which you can start from and use it to fix your file system.
I'm not happy that this problem could not be fixed with the tools that came with OS/X. I hope that Apple does something about that soon.
by dmuth
From the case of Bradshaw vs. Unity Marine Corporation and Phillips Petroleum Company:
Before proceeding further, the Court notes that this case involves two extremely likable lawyers, who have together delivered some of the most amateurish pleadings ever to cross the hallowed causeway into Galveston, an effort which leads the Court to surmise but one plausible explanation. Both attorneys have obviously entered into a secret pact -- complete with hats, handshakes and cryptic words -- to draft their pleadings entirely in crayon on the back sides of gravy-stained paper place mats, in the hope that the Court would be so charmed by their child-like efforts that their utter dearth of legal authorities in their briefing would go unnoticed. Whatever actually occurred, the Court is now faced with the daunting task of deciphering their submissions.
With Big Chief tablet readied, thick black pencil in hand, and a devil-may-care laugh in the face of death, life on the razor's edge sense of exhilaration, the Court begins.
[...]
Defendant begins the descent into Alice's Wonderland by submitting a Motion that relies upon only one legal authority. The Motion cites a Fifth Circuit case which stands for the whopping proposition that a federal court sitting in Texas applies the Texas statutes of limitations to certain state and federal law claims. That is all well and good -- the Court is quite fond of the Erie doctrine; indeed there is talk of little else around both the Canal and this Court's water cooler. Defendant, however, does not even cite to Erie, but to a mere successor case, and further fails to even begin to analyze why the Court should approach the shores of Erie.
Finally, Defendant does not even provide a cite to its desired Texas limitation statute. A more bumbling approach is difficult to conceive -- but wait folks. There's More!
Defendant submitted a Reply brief, on June 11, 2001, after the Court had already drafted, but not finalized, this Order. In a regretful effort to be thorough, the Court reviewed this submission. It too fails to cite to either the Texas statute of limitations or any Fifth Circuit cases discussing maritime law liability for Plaintiff's claims versus Phillips.
Plaintiff responds to this deft, yet minimalist analytical wizardry with an equally gossamer wisp of an argument, although Plaintiff does at least cite the federal limitations provision applicable to maritime tort claims. Naturally, Plaintiff also neglects to provide any analysis whatsoever of why his claim versus Defendant Phillips is a maritime action. Instead, Plaintiff "cites" to a single case from the Fourth Circuit.
Plaintiff's citation, however, points to a nonexistent Volume "1886" of the Federal Reporter Third Edition and neglects to provide a pinpoint citation for what, after being located, turned out to be a forty-page decision. Ultimately, to the Court's dismay after reviewing the opinion, it stands simply for the bombshell proposition that torts committed on navigable waters (in this case an alleged defamation committed by the controversial G. Gordon Liddy aboard a cruise ship at sea) require the application of general maritime rather than state tort law. See Wells v. Liddy, 186 F.3d 505, 524 (4th Cir. 1999) (What the ..)?!
The Court cannot even begin to comprehend why this case was selected for reference. It is almost as if Plaintiff's counsel chose the opinion by throwing long range darts at the Federal Reporter (remarkably enough hitting a nonexistent volume!). And though the Court often gives great heed to dicta from courts as far flung as those of Manitoba, it finds this case unpersuasive. There is nothing in Plaintiff's cited case about ingress or egress between a vessel and a dock, although counsel must have been thinking that Mr. Liddy must have had both ingress and egress from the cruise ship at some docking facility, before uttering his fateful words.
Further, as noted above, Plaintiff has submitted a Supplemental Opposition to Defendant's Motion. This Supplement is longer than Plaintiff's purported Response, cites more cases, several constituting binding authority from either the Fifth Circuit or the Supreme Court, and actually includes attachments which purport to be evidence. However, this is all that can be said positively for Plaintiff's Supplement, which does nothing to explain why, on the facts of this case, Plaintiff has an admiralty claim against Phillips (which probably makes some sense because Plaintiff doesn't).
Plaintiff seems to rely on the fact that he has pled Rule 9(h) and stated an admiralty claim versus the vessel and his employer to demonstrate that maritime law applies to Phillips. This bootstrapping argument does not work; Plaintiff must properly invoke admiralty law versus each Defendant discretely. Despite the continued shortcomings of Plaintiff's supplemental submission, the Court commends Plaintiff for his vastly improved choice of crayon -- Brick Red is much easier on the eyes than Goldenrod, and stands out much better amidst the mustard splotched about Plaintiff's briefing. But at the end of the day, even if you put a calico dress on it and call it Florence, a pig is still a pig.
Now, alas, the Court must return to grownup land. As vaguely alluded to by the parties, the issue in this case turns upon which law -- state or maritime -- applies to each of Plaintiff's potential claims versus Defendant Phillips. And despite Plaintiff's and Defendant's joint, heroic efforts to obscure it, the answer to this question is readily ascertained.
The Fifth Circuit has held that "absent a maritime status between the parties, a dock owner's duty to crew members of a vessel using the dock is defined by the application of state law, not maritime law. Specifically, maritime law does not impose a duty on the dock owner to provide a means of safe ingress or egress. Therefore, because maritime law does not create a duty on the part of Defendant Phillips vis-a-vis Plaintiff, any claim Plaintiff does have versus Phillips must necessarily arise under state law. Take heed and be suitably awed, oh boys and girls -- the Court was able to state the issue and its resolution in one paragraph ... despite dozens of pages of gibberish from the parties to the contrary!
The Court, therefore ... applies the Texas statute of limitations. Texas has adopted a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury cases. Plaintiff failed to file his action versus Defendant Phillips within that two-year time frame. Plaintiff has offered no justification, such as the discovery rule or other similar tolling doctrines, for this failure. Accordingly, Plaintiff's claims versus Defendant Phillips were not timely filed and are barred. Defendant Phillips' Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED and Plaintiff's state law claims against Defendant Phillips are hereby DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. A Final Judgment reflecting such will be entered in due course.
[...]
After this remarkably long walk on a short legal pier, having received no useful guidance whatever from either party, the Court has endeavored, primarily based upon its affection for both counsel, but also out of its own sense of morbid curiosity, to resolve what it perceived to be the legal issue presented. Despite the waste of perfectly good crayon seen in both parties' briefing (and the inexplicable odor of wet dog emanating from such) the Court believes it has satisfactorily resolved this matter. Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED.
At this juncture, Plaintiff retains, albeit seemingly to his befuddlement and/or consternation, a maritime law cause of action versus his alleged Jones Act employer, Defendant Unity Marine Corporation, Inc. However, it is well known around these parts that Unity Marine's lawyer is equally likable and has been writing crisply in ink since the second grade. Some old-timers even spin yarns of an ability to type. The Court cannot speak to the veracity of such loose talk, but out of caution, the Court suggests that Plaintiff's lovable counsel had best upgrade to a nice shiny No. 2 pencil or at least sharpen what's left of the stubs of his crayons for what remains of this heart-stopping, spine-tingling action.
In either case, the Court cautions Plaintiff's counsel not to run with a sharpened writing utensil in hand -- he could put his eye out.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Clearly the judge was a bit bored and decided to have some fun with an otherwise frivilous suit.
[Edit: Some people have asked if this was a real case. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know where to look ot find out for certain. But, this Google search does bring up the case on what looks like some reputable .edu sites. Draw your own conclusions.]
by dmuth
On June 15th, 1752 (253 years ago today), Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous experiment where he flew a kite into a rain cloud and changed the way we saw electricity forever.
You might know that yes, he did this to prove his theories about static electricity had the same properties as lightning (though on a smaller scale), but it wasn't the "suicide mission" that legend makes it out to me. First, the kite did in fact have a metal key attached to the bottom of the string to serve as an attractor. However, Franklin made sure that he stood on a fairly well insulted position to keep any current from running through him. Second, Franklin ran his experiment during the early stages of the thunderstorm, before lightning could reach his position.
When the kite traveled through a few of the leading clouds in the cell, Franklin noticed that the strands of the string were standing on end, indicative of a static charge. He checked this hypothesis by placing his knuckle close to the hanging key, which caused a spark to junk to his knuckle. His theory proven, he finished his experiment and got out of there before the main body of the storm arrived.
Franklin used his findings from this experiment to invent the lightning rod, which has saved countless lives and structures since it was introduced.
For further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_rod
(Source: Tech Republic)
by dmuth
I had quite a uh, varied weekend. The first interesting thing I did was see this lovely leopard painting last night:
The really interesting thing is that this painting is in a service corridor at the Valley Forge Hilton in King of Prussia, PA. For the observant furs, that is the same hotel that Anthrocon was held at in 1999 and 2000. That painting has been sitting there ever since then. I kinda wish that someone would buy it and display it in a more prominent place.
Here's another pic. I'm sorry about the poor quality, but the corridor is only about 3 feet wide.
When I was trying to drive to Philly today, it seems that some dumbass thought it would be a great idea to do a construction project on the Surekill Distressy. On Sunday afternoon. On fathers' day!
Traffic was backed up for MILES. I actually parked my car and got out of it to take this picture. It's the ramp from 202 North to I-76 East:
Many drivers were pissed off at the fact that traffic wasn't moving, and rightfully so! Some brave people decided to drive back the way they came. On an expressway, mind you.
Musical cars:
One guy is going in reverse on the shoulder, one guy is going forward on it:
This picture was taken about 2 miles later. I was sitting in traffic for close to 2 hours at that point.
Whoever it was from PennDOT that scheduled the construction during that day needs to be fired. Seriously. There was no advance notice given that this would be happening. If there was, I would have taken another route. Jeeze.
by dmuth
Police: Lions free kidnapped girl
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.
The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, some 560 kilometers (348 miles) west of the capital, Addis Ababa.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.
News of the June 9 rescue was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in southwestern Ethiopia.
"If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.
"Everyone ... thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people," Wondimu said.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said that it was likely that the young girl was saved because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.
"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they (the lions) didn't eat her," Williams said. "Otherwise they probably would have done."
[Edit: Just to clarify before anyone jumps to conclusions, I thought it was cool that the girl was saved from further beatings or worse by wild animals. The beatings preceeding that were, of course, uncool. I'm glad that the police later caught some of the perps.]
by dmuth
Grandfather kills leopard with his hands
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A 73-year-old Kenyan grandfather reached into the mouth of an attacking leopard and tore out its tongue to kill it, authorities said Wednesday.
Peasant farmer Daniel M'Mburugu was tending to his potato and bean crops in a rural area near Mount Kenya when the leopard charged out of the long grass and leapt on him.
M'Mburugu had a machete in one hand but dropped that to thrust his fist down the leopard's mouth. He gradually managed to pull out the animal's tongue, leaving it in its death-throes.
"It let out a blood-curdling snarl that made the birds stop chirping," he told the daily Standard newspaper of how the leopard came at him and knocked him over.
by dmuth
So, I was working on someone's computer last night. They had just gotten the DSL self-install kit from Verizon and needed help getting it hooked up. The first problem was that their computer was older and didn't have a network card. I figured I would test out the circuit while I was there, so I hooked up the modem/router and plugged my Powerbook into it.
Well, that didn't work out so well, since DNS would not resolve. The DSL circuit appeared to be okay, since the DSL LED was solid green. I then did a traceroute to a specific IP and saw something that looked like this:
1 192.168.1.1 !H !H !H
So the router was actually rejecting my packages for some reason. I then took a look at the manual that came with it, and the troubleshooting section pretty much boiled down to "you must install our custom software to 'activate' your router". But I couldn't do that since there was no NIC on the Win XP box that the people had.
What a pain in my arse. Contract with the DSL circuit I got from DCA Net. I told them my MAC address ahead of time, and when I got the modem, all I had to do was plug it in to the phone line and plug my computer into it. It took about 30 seconds for me to get online.
Moral of the story: If you don't like the idea of having to install special software on your computer to use DSL, avoid Verizon. I highly recommend DCA Net's services, though!
by dmuth
500 Anthrocon registration confirmations + 160 Super Sponsor Luncheon invitations + 7 hours =
I'll bet the post office worker who empties the mailbox that these were stuffed in is gonna be pissed. :-)
In other news, I stumbled across this article on how networking and being connected can really help your chances of getting a job:
http://www.job-secrets-revealed.com/job-secrets-revealed.php?page=3
There's lots of other job-related resources on that site. Good reading if you're looking for work or think you're about to get the axe.
by dmuth
I've been getting these in my mailbox all day:
From: "L-Soft list server at LISTSERV.DFN.DE (1.8e)"
<LISTSERV@LISTSERV.DFN.DE>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 19:11:38 +0200
Subject: Output of job "SPAM-L" from LISTSERV@PLUM.EASE.LSOFT.COMSerious error occurred - traceback follows
------------------------------------------
>>> Error X'00B000E3' closing output spool file <<<
-> Severity: Error
-> Facility: POSIX/unix error codes
-> Abstract: Unspecified error (28) - See errno.h
-> strerror: No space left on device
No, it's not what you think... I have nothing to do with that site. Turns out that when a LISTSERV machine has a serious problem, it sends out pleas for help over the entire LISTSERV backbone. (And since I'm listed as the owner for SPAM-L, which is on the backbone, I get a copy)
If anyone lives near Stresemannstr. 78 in Berlin, Germany, feel FREE to visit them and tell them they suck for not knowing that their machine ran out of disk space.
by dmuth
Yep, it really happened. The company Health Market Sciences of King of Prussia, PA, sued Chip Salzberg (of Perl fame). Police raided his home and confiscated every computer, CD, and DVD, they could find. The man's livelihood has essentially been destroyed because he told his employer that they were breaking the law.
For those who are interested in helping out, Rich has set up a site at geeksunite.net. It's a bit Slashdotted right now, so give it a couple of days. :-)
I also posted MY story with those clowns on Slashdot, and I figured I would repost it here.
My name is Douglas Muth, and I live not too far from King of Prussia, PA.
Back in 2001, I was laid off from my previous job and looking for work. I interviewed with Health Market Sciences sometime around that July for a Software Engineer position, and it was an interesting experience. I met some of the people from that company and was finally interviewed by one of the Vice Presidents, a guy by the name of Rich Ferris. Rich seemed pretty impressed with my resume and said something to the effect of "we'll get you an offer by the end of the day".
So, I went home and gave Rich a call at the end of the day. But suddenly his story changed, and it was, "I had problems getting the offer through HR (or somesuch), I'll have one for you on Wednesday".
Wednesday came, and I was told, by Rich, to call back again on Friday. Friday came, and they were having money issues and would get back to me on Wednesday. Finally, next Wednesday rolls around and I'm suddenly told, "Well, we really want to hire you, but we don't have the money right now, so we cannot make you an offer".
So what it boiled down to is that I was led on by that company for over a week with the promise of employment, only to have it yanked out from me because they didn't have their stuff together. It was a total waste of my time, and the time of the job recruiter I was working with. If they didn't have the money, they shouldn't have been hiring in the first place. The whole experience left me rather bitter.
I hope Chip sues that company into oblivian.
by dmuth
This was an interesting set of fortunes that tailen and I got at a Chinese restaurant:
His is the first one, mine is the second.
I ended up paying for dinner. :-P
by dmuth
It is finally time for Anthrocon, and I will be leaving for it tomorrow. It'll be nice to see old friends again, and purrhaps meet some other folks who I only know online or through LJ.
Just a gentle reminder to folks, since I'm such an old man, I'm pretty bad about matching names up with faces. If you come up to me and I look confused, it wouldn't hurt to wave a conbadge in front of my face to help jog my memory.
For folks who aren't going (or haven't left yet), I've left another picture for your amusement.
Caption this picture:
by dmuth
I have returned safely from Anthrocon 2005. Commentary and pictures will follow later, but first I will unpack!
by dmuth
[while shopping]tailen: These onions are huge!giza: We have a real size fetish in this country.tailen: No wonder all the macrofurs are American!
[in the checkout line]giza: Say, ever try altoids before?tailen: Altoids? Sounds like a medical condition.
In other news, I'm going through my AC pictures, trying to choose what I want to put on my website. I'll have those online in a few days.
by dmuth
As I mentioned in a previous entry, Saturn of Devon is no more. So I had to find a new dealership to get work done on my car, and that dealership ended up being Saturn of Westbrook Park, just on the outskirts of Philly.
When I showed up, it first looked like a really small dealership stuck in the middle of an urban setting. It seemed even moreso when I walked into the tiny and cramped service area. But once I got inside, I found a very comfortable waiting area for the customers. It was carpeted, with several leather chairs and a couch in the corner. There was fresh coffee and in addition to local newspapers, there were copies of National Geographic available. Overhead was incandescent lighting instead of fluorescent lights. It had a nice feel, unlike the "sterile" look at Saturn of Devon.
Oddly enough, I had intended only to get an oil change, but last night my "check engine" light came on. Seems that an oxygen sensor died, so they fixed that during my visit. My cost for that little repair was $0 out of pocket. Yay for warranties.
by dmuth
Spam encouraged by email retards
Security Don?t ignore it and it won?t go away
By Guy Matthews: Thursday 14 July 2005, 10:54
HONESTLY, you?d think people would know better. Research published by security vendor Mirapoint indicates that 11 per cent of email users have bought products and services from spam emails, while nine per cent have lost money to an email scam.
The research, carried out by research company the Radicati Group, reveals that, even if they aren't buying products, 39 per cent of users admit to clicking on embedded links within spam. The fools.
"If the promotion in the spam sounds too good to be true, it probably is," said Marcel Nienhuis, market analyst at the Radicati Group, something you?d think would be obvious to all. "User education and implementation of smart practices when dealing with spam, such as not opening unidentified messages, will be crucial in discouraging spammers. If people stop buying products from spam, spam would probably go away."
The basic gist of the article is that spam remains profitable because some dumbasses people actually buy stuff that's advertised in spam. And even more people click on links that are in spam.
Seriously, what is so hard for the end users to grasp? Why do people click on links in emails that they receive from total strangers?? *bangs head on desk*
by dmuth
tailen just de-fragged my entire kitchen. There's like, so much free space now. I can even see some of the counter space again. Simply amazing.
I think I'll keep him. :-)
by dmuth
We discovered today that if you leave Mountain Dew sit in a cabinet for 3 years, all of the CO2 goes away. I shook a bottle of the stuff for a good minute and did not get any gas whatsoever.
I guess the moral of the story is that I should drink my soda.
by dmuth
It's a bit belated, but I thought I'd write about the con anyway.
What was cool:
- Seeing old friends in person again
- Meeting new friends in person for the first time
- The hotel. They were really good about working with us. I tip the hat on my bald head to Ashley Cox and "Big Dave" from Wyndham's Convention Services department. They were a pleasure to work with.
- The elevators. There were very few problems with them. On the day when we had the fursuiter games in the Rooftop Ballroom, the hotel even set up one of the elevators as an "express elevator" that went just between the lobby and ballroom, to make for efficient transportation of fursuiters. That was a most excellent idea and it worked out really well.
- The Dorsai Irregulars. This was their 4th year with Anthrocon, and this year was their best performance yet. Every year, we usually have a few people who cause problems of one sort or another. This year, they handled many of the problems in their own, without having to contact unclekage or Operations. It was SO nice coming into Con Ops in the morning and just being able to flip through the logbook and read about any incidents that happened and were handled.
- My capable and professional Operations staff. You guys did a great job in the Ops Office. I don't know what I'd do without you! Thank you mach, tchall, vt_komainu, evil_dwagon, and Decker.
- duncandahusky and takaza for doing such a great job running Artists Alley.
- Three words: "Magic Tom" Hughsted.
- An individual by the name of "RB" who bought pizza and donuts for the Ops Office on at least one occasion. You rock!
- kellicjtiger, for volunteering a number of hours in Ops and other departments. We have plans for you next year, yessssss. :-)
- kageghostwarrior.com. We had made a minor typo on our badges. The back of the bades were supposed to say kaZeghostwarrior.com. But since "Kaze" is one letter away from "Kage", that one got by our. Our fix was to register the typoed domain name and point it at Mr. Albee's website. Problem solved!
- The free Internet access for members of Wyndham by Request. I just plugged my laptop in and clicked the link to get access. It was really nice to be able to check email once a day instead of coming back home to a big deluge of email.
Things that sucked:
- Galaxo Smith Kline for jacking up the parking prices to $20/day. We hate you.
- People who came down to Con Ops and complained to me about the parking situation, as though it were my fault. Yeah, that'll make me happy!
- Our attendance figures. As unclekage outlined in his LJ, our onsite registrations suffered this year because of a number of external factors beyond our control. Oh well.
- I was under a lot of stress during the con for some reason. I was really short when dealing with a few people and probably offended some people. I'm really sorry if you were one of the people I snapped at. I found that actually stepping out of the Ops Office and wandering around the con helped lower my stress levels.
The weird:
- The buttons nius made up that said, "Giza Made Me Do It!". I had nothing to do with the creation of those. That was Nius's idea!
My pictures are online at:
- http://www.claws-and-paws.com/furry/conventions/ac2005/
- http://www.claws-and-paws.com/conventions/ac2005/ (Use this one instead if your employer filters URLs on the word "furry")
I for one, welcome our new Pittsburgh Overlords!
by dmuth
In honor of the first Moon landing, which took place 36 years ago today, Google has used their mapping technology to make a map of the moon's surface available. It includes the landing locations of Apollo 11, 12, and 14 through 17.
by dmuth
Russia's biggest spammer found brutally murdered in his own apartment. It was rather brutal, as he had suffered repeated blows to the head.
And these were the final minutes of his life:
"You are receiving *WHAM* this blow to the head *WHAM* because you are part of a *WHAM* specially-selected list of *WHAM* people who agreed to receive *WHAM* blows to the head *WHAM*.
To stop *WHAM* receiving these *WHAM* blows to the head, please *WHAM* email us at no-more-please@optout.blowtothehead. com and *WHAM* we will remove you from our list of *WHAM* blow-to-the-head-club members *WHAM* (heh, we said "club"!) *WHAM* within 24 to 48 hours."
(Source: Slashdot)
by dmuth
You asked for it, you got it! Silverhawks outtakes, done by the same cast that did the crazy Thundercats Outtakes, are now online.
http://www.claws-and-paws.com/outtakes/silverhawks/
Enjoy!
(Warning, LOTS of foul language :-)
by dmuth
Seen in Consumer Health Digest, Issue #05-30:
Sir Richard Doll (1912-2005), who achieved worldwide impact by discovering and publicizing the relationship between smoking and lung cancer, died July 24 at the age of 92. During the 1970s, he debunked bogus claims that fluoridation causes cancer and co-authored a report recommending the addition of that fluoride to British water. He also studied relationships between low-level radiation and cancer; alcohol intake and breast cancer; and vitamin D supplementation and fracture prevention in the elderly.
Wow. What a guy.
For further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Doll
by dmuth
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A man who compared a woman's anatomy to a carburetor won an annual contest that celebrates the worst writing in the English language.
Dan McKay, a computer analyst at Microsoft Great Plains in Fargo, North Dakota, bested thousands of entrants from North Pole, Alaska to Manchester, England to triumph Wednesday in San Jose State University's annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.
"As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburetors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire," he wrote, comparing a woman's breasts to "small knurled caps of the oil dampeners."
The competition highlights literary achievements of the most dubious sort -- terrifyingly bad sentences that take their inspiration from minor writer Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" began, "It was a dark and stormy night."
"We want writers with a little talent, but no taste," San Jose State English Professor Scott Rice said. "And Dan's entry was just ludicrous."
Read the rest of this article.
Those people in San Francisco sure are strange. Maybe it's something in the water. tgeller?
I wonder if The Eye of Argon is this bad...
by dmuth
There was recently a distant object found oribiting the Sun. If Abbot and Costello were alive, I have the feeling that their exchange would be something... like... this...
Costello: "We could call it planet Y."
Abbot: "Y?"
Costello: "Because"
Abbot: "Because why?"
Costello: "I don't know"
Abbot: "Third Base!"
Costello: "Whose base?"
Abbot: "Your base!"
Costello: "It's not mine."
Abbot: "are belong to us!"
Costello: "What the he-"
Abbot: "You have no chance to survive. Make your time."
Costello: "OK, I have no idea WTF you're talking about. You hear that? I'm going home, you fscking maroon."
(Source: Slashdot)
by dmuth
Thanks to some prodding from Ferian and Oryx of FurryMUCK, tailen and I studied for, and passed the Technician Class exam. As soon as our names (and callsigns) show up in the FCC database, we'll be able to start transmitting!
One thing I want to do soon is get a Vanity callsign. I've found a few available ones, such as K3NTP, K3PPP, K3TLA, K3TCP, and K3UDP.
I also need to get a radio. I'm thinking of getting a handheld radio that supports 2m and 70cm, as well as duplexing, so I can use some repeaters. I think I'll be making the purchase in a few days. Suggestions are welcome.
by dmuth
tailen laughs!giza: What's so funny?tailen: This chicken is called 'Perdue'?giza: Yeah, it's a popular brand over here.tailen: In French, 'PEAR-DUE' means lost!giza: That old man in the commercials is gonna be pissed...
by dmuth
Sorry for the short notice ya'all, but some of us will be getting together on this Saturday, August 13th, for cleaning out the Anthrocon Storage Locker. That's where we pull out all of Anthrocon's supplies, repackage them into less space, and finally particpate in the yearly ritual of Putting the Chairman Away:
If anyone is interested in helping out with this year's storage locker cleaning out, please drop me a line. Thanks.
by dmuth
A short while ago, greenreaper started up the most excellent WikiFur Central site, which is a Wiki for furries. For those who don't know, the concept behind a Wiki is that any user can edit any page. This is a really neat feature because any random passer by can update pages with new information or even add entirely new pages. (I recommend checking out Wikipedia, which is the world's largest Wiki)
And, in a very public display that they have no respect for what other people have to say, at least a dozen Something Awful goons stormed onto the site over the last few days and began to vandalize pages right and left. *sigh*
I just don't get it. If the goons want to congregate on their boards and talk trash about us, hey that's fine. It's their boards, and they can mock whoever they want to on them. But going over to someone else's website and vandalizing pages is just a rotten thing to do. I think it's the ultimate form of hypocrisy, because the message it sends is that the Goons are allowed to have their own website and forums, but those other people aren't good enough to have the same, and that it's okay for the Goons to just show up and trash somebody else's resources.
Oh well. I guess that 40-year-old-virgins-living-in-their-parents-basements are always going to be 40-year-old-virgins-living-in-their-parents-basements, and there isn't much that we can do about it. But, if people are interested in helping out with the Wiki, feel free to stop by and join in. One page I recommend viewing is the Recent Changes page, to see what has been changed recently. If you spot an article that has been vandalized, it's pretty easy to load up the history of the page and revert to a previous good version of the page. And then blacklist the IP if you have privileges to do that.
by dmuth
Despite best efforts from the goons, the Furry Wiki has been getting bigger and bigger. Sometime last night we broke 500 pages, which isn't bad for a resource that has only been around for 2 weeks.
Cooperation is such a wonderful thing. :-)
by dmuth
I got this rather strange email the other day. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the questions are, and how to go about answering them...
I would be grateful if I could get information from you about two issues:
1 - Are there any ways for the site owner not to be aggrieved because of the spammers who sent emails of the links of the website from outlook or this kind of programs to get the website closed?
2 - We do not send spam mails. Does the related firm need a minimum number of complaints or proofs to take the complaints into consideration in the condition that some people, with a good or bad purpose, sent the links of our website to other people or made advertisements at forums? Or else, are the complaints taken into consideration and the procedure is done even there is a few number of complaints?
Now to be fair, the person who wrote was from Turkey, so I can be forgiving if his English skills are sub-par. I just... don't know how to answer him. :-P
by dmuth
Random things I've done over the last few uh, weeks and weekends:
- tailen and I purchased ham radios. I'd like to thank folks for their suggestions. We finally ended up going with a set of Icom IC-T7Hs with the RH77CA extra long antennas. We've had range of about a about on the 2m and 70cm bands.
As time permits, I'm going to play around with repeaters and try to find a local club or civil defense group I can get involved with.
- I tried getting a sofa, and that didn't work out too well. The one I ordered was about 90 inches long, and it ended up not fitting through the foyer in my apartment. Strawbridges kindly refunded my money and I ended up finding a smaller sectional sofa there. The bigger piece is about 63 inches, so there should be no problems this time around.
- I had the experience of getting detained, patted down, and questioned by local law enforcement one night. After 10-15 minutes (where they presumably ran a background check on me), they openly admitted that I "didn't do anything wrong". I just happened to be looking through the window at a certain pet shop in a manner that appeared "suspicious". The officers involved were pretty professional about it, and I supposed it's good to know (as a taxpayer) that they are on the ball.
- I got a lovely piece of mail from the IRS today. Turns out that it was a 1040-ES form. Apparently since I owed so much in taxes last year, this is their way of saying "you should really pay some of that earlier". Fun.
- I made my travel plans to attend Conclave in October. Conclave is a predominantly science fiction convention in Michigan, but they are trying to get furries to attend as well. In fact, one of their guests of honor this year is none other than unclekage. I do hope that I'll get to see other furs there.
Conclave is also the "home" convention of the Dorsai Irregulars. So it'll be good to see some of them again too.
That's all the major news in my life for now.
by dmuth
NEW YORK - There is nothing wrong with an unpopular opinion.
Nor is there anything wrong with a subversive one, nor a crazy one. This country was founded on opinions that were deemed by the powers-that-were to be unpopular, subversive, and crazy. Dissent - even when that dissent strays from logic or humanity - is our life?s blood. But if you have one of those opinions, and you express it in public, honesty and self-respect require you to own up to it.
Unless you?re Rush Limbaugh.
On his daily radio soap opera, on August 15, Limbaugh said ?Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents, there's nothing about it that's real?? The complete transcript of the 860 words that surround those quotes can be found at the bottom of this entry.
Yet, apparently there was something so unpopular, so subversive, and so crazy about those remarks that he has found it necessary to deny he said them - even when there are recordings and transcripts of them - and to brand those who?ve claimed he said them as crackpots and distorters. More over, that amazing temple to himself, his website, has been scrubbed clean of all evidence of these particular remarks, and to ?prove? his claim that he never made the remarks in question on August 15, he has misdirected visitors to that site to transcripts and recordings of remarks he made on August 12.
Limbaugh is terrified. And he has reason to be.
by dmuth
I saw this over on a Slashdot comment. It's silly, but it seemed to work:
Someone stole my sisters phone in high school (just about a year and a half ago). I just kept sending the phone text messages like:
"This is the Cincinnati Police. This is a stolen phone."
"Cincinnati Bell Telephone Theft Tracking Services - LAST CELL TOWER CONTACTED: #28302"
"THEFT NOTICE: ALL CALLS ARE MONITORED AND RECORDED"
And so forth... The next day she got it back before her first class started. It passed through six hands all with the note: "Return this to Sadie XXXXXXX"
Yay for Social Engineering!
by dmuth
Ah, another day, another spammer. This one apparently decided to use some search engine software to "target" his spam run. Not only does his targeting SUCK, but he obviously could not be bothered to actually like, visit my website before sending me something about *catsitting*. Jeeze.
So now I guess I'll just post the spam here, searches on Google for "catsitting.net" and "spam" will start getting matches. What a tragedy.
From: jonathanleger@catsitting.net <jonathanleger@catsitting.net>
Date: Aug 29, 2005 4:41 PM
Subject: I'd love to link to your cat page!
Hi there,
I'm writing because I'd really like to link to your site from mine. I
have a site dedicated to locating cat sitters all over the United
States. The URL is:
Each page has a "Related Sites" section where reltaed links go. Your
link will go in that section.
You can add your link to all 16,000+ pages of the site by filling out
the form located here:
http://www.catsitting.net/index.php?addlink=true&url=www.spamcop.net [Munged, hehehe.]
PLEASE do not share that URL with anybody, since I am very particular
about which sites get added to my related sites section and I don't
want that form to get abused by link spammers.
I appreciate the hard work you're doing on your site!
Keep it up!
Thanks,
Jon
by dmuth
I took this picture in Lower Merion Township on the morning of Wednesday, August 24th, 2005:
Interestingly enough, this was the same police department that detained me awhile back. It made me feel just a little better about the cops in the area.
by dmuth
In case anyone was curious, I found this nice overheard view of Glen Echo park (where Pandaguy's Picnic will be held in September):
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=glen+echo,+md&ll=38.966158,-77.138582&spn=0.003527,0.007522&t=h&hl=en
by dmuth
Well, I'm glad I got to see the city before THIS went and happened.
I did some research and, interestingly enough, people had been worried about this exact scenario happening for years. There are some good articles at http://salon.com/books/feature/2005/08/30/mcphee/index_np.html and http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1282151.html. It seems that it's yet another case of the general population and our elected politicians ignoring the experts until it's too late. When will we learn?
Speaking of ignoring people, I also can't help but be really pissed off at the people who stayed in the city after they were told to leave by the government. Now, I'm not talking about "essential" people, such as police and hospital workers, or people who were too poor to get out of the city, or people who were in poor health. I'm talking about average everyday people like OFFICE WORKERS, and TOURISTS. People who had the means to leave the city and chose not to, because they didn't seem to think that a Category 5 hurricane was such as big deal after all. Now they're stuck in a flooding city with no electricity, no running water, and a lack of law and order. Smooth move. Maybe next time you'll actually LISTEN when you're told to get out of the city.
I'm also tempted to make some snide remark about how President Bush should declare "war on mother nature", but I think that's been underway by big corporations and oil companies for a number of years now...
by dmuth
Someone raised a concern regarding me previous post about how odd it seemed of me, as someone who has been doing a lot of Bush bashing to suddenly say, "You should listen to the government". Newsflash: there are many different parts of our federal government, and they are NOT alike. While I'll take anything that comes from the White House with a grain of salt an entire saltlick, I will listen to what organizations like the National Weather Service have to say. Trying to imply that the NWS is anything like the White House (or even has a poitical agenda, for that matter) is just absurd.
So anyway, here's the latest interesting thing that I came across:
Welcome to the Newest Third World Country: America.
It's a different look on the situation, vis-a-vis the government's reaction to Katrina.
Good night all.
by dmuth
I found a nice form at http://gaswatch.energy.gov/ to report gouging of gasoline prices. They also suggest that you contact local authorities to file a complaint.
by dmuth
http://www.nerdshack.com/katrina/ - These are pictures from directNIC, a data center that is located in the city of New Orleans and is still functional.
They are also found on LJ as interdictor. That LiveJournal also contains "breaking news" and additional links to a live web cam in NO and other things.
by dmuth
So... I'm up at my parents' place in Allentown for the Labor Day Weekend. While chatting with my father a few minutes ago, I was idly scanning the 70cm (420-450 Mhz) band on my ham radio. Suddenly, the scanning stopped and I heard music playing. Now, sending music over the ham radio bands is illegal, so that shouldn't be happening. I listened for a few seconds, and it suddenly dawned on my that my father's radio was softly playing the SAME song! I asked him to turn off the radio and when he did, the music stopped.
So we did some more experimenting, and discovered that different stations caused music to be played on different ham frequencies. Here are my observations:
95.1 Mhz -> 425.600 Mhz
98.1 Mhz -> 435.475 Mhz
100.7 Mhz -> 442.550 Mhz
What's really strange is that these frequencies aren't even harmonics. The multiplication factors of each frequency in the 70cm band are 4.47, 4.43, and 4.39, respectively. I've never heard of anything like this happening before.
Anyone ever heard of anything like this happening before? Anything I can do to fix the problem?
by dmuth
First, here's the entirety of the interview that was conducted with Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans on September 1st:
http://filepile.claws-and-paws.com/NO/2005-09-01_WWL-AM_Mayor_Ray_Nagin_Interview.mp3
The whole thing is about 14 minutes long, and I found it to be very sobering. He also some serious questions of our leaders and the Department of Homeland Security (which apparently oversees FEMA); questions which deserve to be answered. (Thanks for the hookup, jlick)
On the subject of my prior ranting about people who stayed in the city, I was pointed to scyllacat, where she writes:
All car rentals, airlines, bus lines and the train station are now closed until further notice. They aren't even sure when they will be operating again. It's only after they are all closed that the Mayor orders evacuation -- then he orders incoming roads closed so no one can come get me out.
So, it appears that one of my assumptions on the matter was wrong, in that I figured tourists could just rent cars to get out of there. Sorry about that folks, I f*cked up.
by dmuth
I've had some fun and exciting things happen in my life lately:
- I opened my paycheck from work the other day to find a line item called "Retroactive Pay", and several hundred dollars next to it. It turns out that my boss gave me a raise at my last review, but didn't want to tell me until the adjustment was actually made to my salary. I liked that surprise. :-)
- I put some of that money to good use, and bought a new electric razor, since I didn't like the shave my current one was giving me. It's a Norelco 7885 XL. It has a little LCD screen that shows how many "shaving minutes" are left. And, what's even neater is that if you hold in the power button for a few seconds, the razor gives you a demo. That's right, it simulates charging the battery by making the meter go up, shaving, and discharging the battery by making the meter go down. All in all, that's pretty neat for a device which isn't supposed to have much in the way of CPU power.
- I finally got my vanity callsign: K3TCP
- tailen returned home a couple of weeks ago. Since I got hooked on his good cooking, I ended up cooking for myself for evening meals. Whole wheat spaghetti rocks!
- There was an article on Slashdot awhile ago about Fuddruckers linking to someone else's flash game without informing them. In the ensuing discussion that followed, one creative individual remarked how he created an annoying flashing gif that he replaced some of his graphics with when people linked to them as page backgrounds and whatnot. He provides links to a few the pages, and the results are pretty amewsing.
That's all for now. Stay furry.
by dmuth
An old Arab lives close to New York City. He would love to plant potatoes in his garden, but he is old and weak. His son is in college in Paris, so the old man sends him an e-mail. "Beloved son, I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden. I am sure if you were here you would help me dig up the garden."
The following day, the old man receives a response e-mail from his son at 3:45 pm: "Beloved father, please don't touch the garden. It's there that I have hidden 'the THING'. Love Ahmed".
At 4:02 pm, the US Army, the Marines, the Rangers, the Police, officers from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, visit the house of the old man, take the whole garden apart, search every inch, but can't find anything. Disappointed they leave.
A day later, the old man receives another e-mail from his son: "Beloved father, I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant your potatoes. That's all I could do for you from here. Love Ahmed."
by dmuth
Two farmers, Jim and Emerson, are sitting in their
favorite bar drinking beer. Jim turns to Emerson and says, "You
know, I'm tired of going through life without an education. Tomorrow I
think I'll go to the community college and sign up for some classes."
Emerson thinks it's a good idea and the two leave.
The next day, Jim goes down to the college and meets
the dean of admissions, who signs him up for the four basic
classes: math, English, history, and logic.
Logic?" Jim says. "What's that?"
The dean says, "I'll show you. Do you own a weed eater?"
?Yeah."
?Then logically because you own a weed eater, I think that you
would have a yard."
?That's true, I do have a yard."
?I'm not done," the dean says. "Because you have a yard, I think logically
that you would have a house."
?Yes, I do have a house."
?And because you have a house, I think that you might
logically have a family."
?I have a family."
?I'm not done yet. Because you have a family, then
logically you must have a wife."
?Yes, I do have a wife."
?And because you have a wife, then logically you must
be a heterosexual."
?I am a heterosexual. That's amazing, you were able to
find out all of that because I have a weed eater."
Excited to take the class now, Jim shakes the dean's hand and
leaves to go meet Emerson at the bar.
He tells Emerson about his classes, how he is signed
up for math, english, history, and logic.
?Logic?" Emerson says, "What's that?"
Jim says, "I'll show you. Do you have a weed eater?"
?No."
?Then you're gay."
by dmuth
The rest are at http://www.sun.com/emrkt/rejected/.
by dmuth
"Yot are we gonna do tonight, Brain? Try to take over the world?"
"No, Pinky. We are going to try to find a pharmacy and cure this *hack* damn cough!"
(Source: Slashdot)
by dmuth
From ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
thefridayfive:
1. Who is your mobile phone provider, and how many minutes are in your plan?
Verizon Wireless, and I get 300 day minutes and something like 3000 night/weekend minutes. I don't talk on the phone all that much, so those minutes are more than enough for me.
2. What program do you primarily use for instant messaging?
I use GAIM on my Linux box at the office and Adium on my Mac at home. Both are free, both speak just about any chat protocol out there, and both do not have ads like the proprietary products do. I highly recommend using them.
I also use Trebuchet for MUCKing on FurryMUCK.
3. Who do you send and receive text messages from most?
If you count hanging out in a room on FurryMUCK, I'd have to say that I've chatted the most with tailen. triggur and unclekage would be tied for second place, and unciaa is on the bottom in third place.
4. What area code do you live in?
I live in Philly. How many area codes would you like to hear? :-)
5. What year did you first get an e-mail address and do you still use it?
Um, 1995, I think. I was briefly doug.muth@father.com through a local BBS, the now-defunct Father and Son Information Service. After a few months, I went and got a terminal account at the also now-defunct Oasis Telecommunications, where I was known as dmuth@ot.com for many years. I finally abandoned the address sometime in 2003 or so because of all the spam I was getting there. :-/
by dmuth
Happy Yerfday greenreaper!
Greenaper is the founder of WikiFur, and a regular contributor to that most excellent resource.
by dmuth
Mark your calendars today: The Save Ardmore Coalition is Having a Party!
The hottest grassroots in town is throwing itself a party with a purpose: fun and fundraising! And who said fighting eminent domain abuse couldn't be fun?
When? Saturday, October 1st, 2005
Where? Brownie's 23 East on Lancaster Avenue in downtown Ardmore, PA
The details: Saturday October 1st, 5-9 PM - Silent auction fundraiser at Brownies 23 East. $20 admission which includes food, drink, and music. Thousands of dollars worth of items, services and gift certificates from Ardmore businesses will be bid on in the silent auction. Actually, Businesses from all over are giving us amazing stuff for the silent auction! (You are going to have to come check out for yourselves what fab treats we have to bid on in the silent auction!)
C?mon, check it out! It is going to be a great time! If you live in the city, you can take the R5 Paoli Local out to Ardmore, and walk a block to the party on Lancaster Avenue! You can even take the train if you live locally and don?t want to waste gasoline & let someone else do the driving!
We appreciate all of your support, and for just a small $20, you can help us out, help out our businesses, and have a really fun, early evening! Come see for yourselves that Ardmore ISN'T blighted! If you are on the fence about the "Ardmore Issue", here's an inexpensive way to have fun & get to know the gang! You might enter a stranger, but you will undoubtedly leave a friend!
Questions? http://www.saveardmorecoalition.org/contact/
Or... saveardmore AT aol.com
Please note that proper ID is required at the door of Brownie's
Visit their website at http://www.brownies23east.com/
Thank you friends, for your continued support!
If you would like to contact us via postal mail and/or send a donation, you may do so at the address below:
Save Ardmore Coalition
P.O Box 453
Ardmore, PA 19003
(Disclaimer: Not only am I a member of SAC, but I am also the webmaster of www.saveardmorecoalition.org, and am SO totally biased :-)
by dmuth
by dmuth
I just realized that when I posted my last entry, I didn't explicitly ask for captions. But I found it interesting that folks went ahead and did them anyway. Pavlovian reaction? :-)
Anyway, while I'm writing this entry, I might as well make a public service announcement:
What to do if Steve Ballmer Has Vowed to Fucking Kill You
Yeah, I love Uncyclopedia, lots of informative articles on there. :-)
by dmuth
Today's episode of The Daily Shark just isn't humorous, it's also instructive, as it illustrates why keeping a record of tasks that you do at your job can be a very useful thing:
by dmuth
This past weekend, I drove down to Virginia to visit film2edit, golum, procy_raccoon, sirkain, and others for their housewarming party. So Friday night and Saturday mostly consisted of hanging out around the house, watching movies and videos, and consuming food and drink. It was a nice way to get away for the weekend.
On Sunday, most of us went to Glen Echo Park for the picnic that was there. I got to say hi to some folks I haven't seen in awhile, includeing rigelkitty, "xydexx, stahi, "ryvex, denimwizard, vt_komainu, and stripeswaterkat (write in your LJ more often, dude!). I brought my ham radio along, and used it to find shortwave81 and electropaw, who also had theirs. Ham radios are fun.
Random other things of interest lately:
- Live Journal has a new feature called schools, where you can set up what schools you attended and for what years. I managed to find the LJ of a classmate that way.
- Someone mentioned on Saturday that my ham radio callsign of K3TCP looked like the word ketchup. I never intended it to resemble an actual word, but I found it amewsing anyway.
- sirfox made this awesome post about his thoughts on the personal development and the current state of the furry fandom. I've found myself feeling the same way over the last couple of years (part of the reason I rarely go to public meets anymore), but I was unsure if it was just me or if others felt this way. I'm glad that I'm not alone in what I've been noticing. If you find that you're not being invited to certain peoples' parties or that certain people don't talk to you or even acknowledge your existance, you might wanna give his post a read.
I took a few pictures over the weekend. I'll post those here as soon as time permits.
by dmuth
golum shows us how to properly marinate steak with Guiness:
It's a snake! Oh, it's a snaaaaake!
Later, the snake began serving drinks to unclekage. It's true, I saw the whole thing!
Singlespeed Cheetah doing ah... something:
Part of the group shot at the picnic:
by dmuth
I got to go to last night's auction that was put on by The Save Ardmore Coalition and generally had a blast. I ended up being the guy at the door who was collecting money and helping people sign up for the auction. There was free food, music, and an open bar. Definitely worth my time to go.
Here are a few pictures. They are sized to 640x480 so as to be kind to peoples' browsers.
People socializing.
More people socializing
Our emcee for the evening. Yes, it is who you think it is.
One of the tables holding items that were up for auction. It was a standard silent bidding auction where people had bidder numbers, so they could bid silently.
by dmuth
Eminent Domain
Sung to the tune of "Yellow Submarine"
Heretofore I owned my store,
And my friend, the one next door.
Then they came, them pirates be,
To take it all away from me.
(Refrain)
We all live under Eminent Domain,
Eminent Domain, Eminent domain.
We all live under Eminent Domain,
Eminent Domain, Eminent domain.
It's the blight they say I have,
I' been here since my granddad.
It's not yours anymore,
Take by money's whore.
(Refrain)
But it's old, it's history,
Protected for posterity.
Not no more, now it's for me,
See I got an RFP.
(Refrain)
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