Planet 無 Web Logs

Filthy cock jackal Eliot Spitzer has written another one of those columns for the online Slate magazine, and he’s already mastering the “Slate Style,” which is to take a widely accepted belief (e.g., “Dogs make good pets”) and write a cool 600 words arguing why its opposite is SECRETLY truer (”Why all dogs should die”). In this column he tackles Obama’s big infrastructure plan, saying that instead of funding immediate road repairs and stuff for short-term stimulus’ sake, we should invest in transforming the foundation of America’s infrastructure. It is a stupid article because, um, Obama’s plans do include all of that, which is kind of the point. This leads us to Spitzer’s ace-in-the-hole, which is of course the massive federal funding of Robot Construction.

Has he never seen a MOVIE, at all? The whole point of robots is to kill humans, idiot!

In education—just as much a part of our infrastructure as bridges and roads—here is a small investment that is one of my favorites: Provide funding for robotics teams at every school. If you ever want to see intellectual competition in the arena that matters today—technological wizardry—visit the robotics competitions that now exist in some schools. Make these competitions as universal as football. Make it cool to design the next cutting-edge video game or iPod.

!!!

Yes, the point of this program should be to make new video games and iPods, rather than your lame-o green hydrogen solar trolleys or whatever the fuck boring, job-producing thing that Al Gore is always crying about. It will be a true sign of the transformed, suddenly productive American economy when, in 10 years, we all have new generation consoles and music players on which to exhaust our last lines of credit.

So who wrote this article again, Christopher Hitchens or Jack Shafer or some such? Oh, right, Eliot Spitzer, so we better make a sex joke. Umm, he only wants to have sex with lady robots, har har har, bwah.

Robots, Not Roads [Slate]

by Jim Newell at January 06, 2009 06:27 PM

PLAYING PANETTA POLITICS.... Leon Panetta's leaked introduction as the next head of the CIA has drawn some complaints from key corners, but the transition office is apparently not too worried about the nomination. "I think he's going to be fine,"...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 06:25 PM

Apple today announced a handful of new products at Macworld Expo '09 in San Francisco. It may be the company's last time attending the trade show, but Apple had a collection of both new software and hardware products to show off on stage.

Read More...

January 06, 2009 06:23 PM

Wow, this guy is a jerk. Here, in this exclusive CNN report on some old public-teevee food show in Chicago, we see that Barack Obama was being a fancy show-off even way back when he was a lowly state senator a few months ago. This restaurant-review episode never aired because Smooth Barry just shamed these poor slobs, who no longer had the will to talk, or even live. [CNN via Wonkette tipster "Bill Slider"]

by Ken Layne at January 06, 2009 06:01 PM

nelson : HIV Denial in the Internet Era - Review of how the Internet creates a community of nutjobs who argue HIV doesn't cause AIDS

Tags : via:metafilter aids hiv community internet culture

January 06, 2009 06:00 PM

nelson : Avoiding fake torrents - Practical advice for thieves who want to avoid being scammed

Tags : torrent malware bittorrent

January 06, 2009 06:00 PM

Andy Baio : Screenshot: 4chan hacks MacRumorsLive feed of the Apple keynote - the 4chan thread shows how they found the admin interface, password hashes, and finally cracked a user's password

January 06, 2009 06:00 PM

Compare and contrast: a map of the center of the world's population (currently located in the northern part of south Asia) and a global accessibility map, which shows the travel time to major cities. (via lone gunman & stamen)

January 06, 2009 05:59 PM

Compare and contrast: a map of the center of the world's population (currently located in the northern part of south Asia) and a global accessibility map, which shows the travel time to major cities. (via lone gunman & stamen)

January 06, 2009 05:59 PM

PERRELLI AND SCHIAVO.... Republicans on the Hill want to re-litigate the Elian Gonzales affair and the Marc Rich controversy, so it stands to reason that some conservatives still want to talk about the Terry Schiavo matter. Social conservatives and pro-life...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 05:35 PM

Here’s a heartbreaking interview with a prisoner at Gitmo, about how the terrorist Hussein did a fascist thing to these seven weird ladies. COMMENTER CHALLENGE: Are you funny enough to avoid the really obvious, mean/tragic joke here and somehow transcend basic fat jokes? [YouTube via Hart88]

by Ken Layne at January 06, 2009 05:33 PM

あるAnonymous Coward 曰く、

Google 謹製の写真管理ツールとして有名な Picasa に、ついにMac 版が登場しました。現在はまだ β 版ですが、一通りの動作は確認できるようです。

Picasa はまず Windows 版がリリースされ、続いて Wine を利用した Linux 版がリリースされていましたが、Mac 版はまだリリースされていませんでした。この Mac 版は Mac OS X ネイティブで開発されているようで動作速度もキビキビとした感じ。また、iPhoto との統合も実現されているそうです。なお、動作要件は「Mac OS X 10.4 以上、Intel CPU 搭載機、256MB 以上の RAM、ハードディスクの空き容量 100MB 以上」とのことで、PowerPC マシンでは動かないのでご注意ください。

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by reo at January 06, 2009 05:30 PM

A black person named Roland Burris — who carries the weight of an entire oppressed race on his shoulders — went to the Capitol today to be sworn into the Senate, just as Rod Blagojevich asked him to. He had his papers all lined up, a sharp suit, a positive frame of mind. It was to be a new day for America’s African-Americans, this day was. But then racist old Harry Reid told the Capitol guards that he didn’t want some colored walkin’ on his shiny marble floors unless he had a mop in his hands. Old Roland has seen this all too many times, over the years. It’s been his life. But it’s the life he’s chosen, you see! Hope for America’s blacks will have to endure yet another sunset, and Burris, yet another sunrise. [MSNBC]

by Jim Newell at January 06, 2009 05:04 PM

TUESDAY'S CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP....Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers. * Roland Burris went to Capitol Hill this morning, and introduced himself to the media as...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 05:00 PM

nelson : LiveJournal on the skids - LJ is a great example of a hugely valuable service that has never quite been a hugely valuable business

Tags : livejournal blogging business

January 06, 2009 05:00 PM

nelson : MacBook Wheel - Very well executed parody

Tags : funny video apple hci

January 06, 2009 05:00 PM

deusx : Autopope! - Uh-oh - "I don't know, honestly. And for my purposes, I have a real headache if LJ goes titsup.com. I use LJ for private venting/diary/blogging to a restricted audience rather than my main public blog -- that's a business proposition and I can

Tags : livejournal stross writing authors

January 06, 2009 05:00 PM

deusx : Archbishop of the Land of Me - Rest In Peace - "I always joked about it, but I never actually wanted it to happen... Janine was laid off today, along with a number of other employees in the SF office of LJ, Inc. She has the rest of the week to work and then she's done. They are giving her n

Tags : xb95 livejournal sup metablogging

January 06, 2009 05:00 PM

ある Anonymous Coward 曰く、

マイクロソフトが全世界の従業員の 17% にあたる 1 万 5 千人規模のリストラを実施するとの話が Fudzilla にて報じられている (CNET Japan・本家 /. 記事より) 。元記事は「マイクロソフトの従業員は同社が大規模なリストラを準備しているとの情報を知らされており」、リストラは「もはや噂ではなく事実」であると報じている。リストラとなる部門は明らかになっていないが、EMEA (欧州・中東・アフリカ) がより大規模な対象地域となるのではないかと見られているとのこと。また、最近業績が上向きなXbox 360 部門は比較的安泰と予想されるとのこと。

なお、今回のリストラ計画はマイクロソフトの第 2 四半期の決算発表の 1 週間前にあたる 1 月 15 日に発表されるとの話である。

まあもちろん噂の域を越えないお話で、CNET の記事の最後にもあるが、金融アナリストの Henry Blodget 氏は対象となる範囲には同意しながらも「突然これだけの規模のコスト削減を行う理由はない。」としてこのリストラの可能性は低いとしている。

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by reo at January 06, 2009 05:00 PM

Overcaffeinated teen with drink: I need to blend this. I wish I had blenders for hands.
Serious friend: Some people would want to be able to fly or read minds... I guess that's a pretty good super power too.
Overcaffeinated teen with drink: I'd used my blender hands to stir up the air and fly, like helicopter propellers.
Serious friend: Come on, think about the physics of that. If anything, you'd just create two devastating vortices on either side of you and suck everybody in. No flying.
Overcaffeinated teen with drink: If we're already asking for blender hands, I think a minor change in the laws of physics would be workable.
Serious friend: True. (spins hands like blender-propellers)

--6 Train

Overheard by: Lynne

January 06, 2009 05:00 PM

Ars Technica will be reporting live from the 2009 Macworld Phil Schiller keynote. A full running transcript of the event will appear here once the event starts.

Read More...

January 06, 2009 04:49 PM

Sports Illustrated named 2008 the best year ever in sports. In my best links post, I said that three 2008 sporting events stuck out in my mind but this article reminded me of one more: Jason Lezak's amazing anchor leg in the 4x100 freestyle.

January 06, 2009 04:39 PM

Sports Illustrated named 2008 the best year ever in sports. In my best links post, I said that three 2008 sporting events stuck out in my mind but this article reminded me of one more: Jason Lezak's amazing anchor leg in the 4x100 freestyle.

January 06, 2009 04:39 PM

• IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE PUMA BLOG: “Oh, and BTW, Wonkette readers, someday, if you’re lucky, you will live long enough to be old. Your tits will sag, your scrotums will lose their perky tautness and young, stupid adolescent males will make fun of you, unless, of course, the PUMAs make them insignificant. Someday, you may thank us.” Jesus, do you type to your mother with those hands? What does this even mean? Our tits (they’ll have to be yours by default, Sara, sorry) will get saggy and then adolescent males will make fun of us until PUMA KILLS ALL OF THE ADOLESCENT MALES ON EARTH? These people should be in prison. [Confluence]

by Jim Newell at January 06, 2009 04:31 PM

As usual, we’ll kick off the new year by reviewing the predictions we made for the previous year. Here now, our 2008 predictions, in italics, with hindsight in ordinary type.

(1) DRM technology will still fail to prevent widespread infringement. In a related development, pigs will still fail to fly.

We predict this every year, and it’s always right. This prediction is so obvious that it’s almost unfair to count it. Verdict: right.

(2) Copyright issues will still be gridlocked in Congress.

We could predict this every year, and it would almost always be right. History teaches that it usually takes a long time to build consensus for any copyright changes. Verdict: right.

(3) No patent reform bill will be passed. Baby steps toward a deal between the infotech and biotech industries won't lead anywhere.

Verdict: right.

(4) DRM-free sales will become standard in the music business. The movie studios will flirt with the idea of DRM-free sales but won't take the plunge, yet.

This was basically right. DRM-free music sales are much more common than before. Whether they're "standard" is a matter for debate. The movie studios haven't followed the record industry, yet. Verdict: mostly right.

(5) The 2008 elections will not see an e-voting meltdown of Florida 2000 proportions, but a bevy of smaller problems will be reported, further fueling the trend toward reform.

As predicted, there was no meltdown but we did see a bevy of smaller problems. Whether this fueled the trend toward reform is debatable. The problems that did occur tended to be ignored because the presidential election wasn't close. Verdict: mostly right.

(6) E-voting lawsuits will abound, with voters suing officials, officials suing other officials, and officials suing vendors (or vice versa).

There were some lawsuits, but they didn't "abound". Verdict: mostly wrong.

(7) Second Life will jump the shark and the cool kids will start moving elsewhere; but virtual worlds generally will lumber on.

Second Life seems to have lost its cool factor, but then so have virtual worlds generally. Still, they're lumbering on. Verdict: mostly right.

(8) MySpace will begin its long decline, losing customers for the first time.

I haven't seen data to confirm or refute this one. (Here's one source.) Comscore said that Facebook passed MySpace in user share, but that doesn't imply that MySpace decreased. Verdict: unknown.

(9) The trend toward open cellular data networks will continue, but not as quickly as optimists had hoped.

This one is hard to call. The growth of Android and iPhone unlocking would seem to be steps toward open cellular data networks, but the movement has not been rapid. Verdict: mostly right.

(10) If a Democrat wins the White House, we'll hear talk about reinvigorated antitrust enforcement in the tech industries. (But of course it will all be talk, as the new administration won't take office until 2009.)

Verdict: right.

(11) A Facebook application will cause a big privacy to-do.

There were Facebook privacy issues, but mostly about non-application issues. Overall, interest in Facebook apps declined during the year. Verdict: mostly wrong.

(12) There will be calls for legislation to create a sort of Web 2.0 user's bill of rights, giving users rights to access and extract information held by sites; but no action will be taken.

Verdict: right.

(13) An epidemic of news stories about teenage webcam exhibitionism will lead to calls for regulation.

Verdict: wrong.

(14) Somebody will get Skype or a similar VoIP client running on an Apple iPhone and it will, at least initially, operate over AT&T's cellular phone network. AT&T and/or Apple will go out of their way to break this, either by filtering the network traffic or by locking down the iPhone.

Various VoIP clients did run on the iPhone. Apple said they would allow this over conventional WiFi networks but intended to prevent it on the cellular network, presumably by banning from the iPhone App Store any application that provided VoIP on the cell network. Verdict: right.

Our final scorecard: six right, four mostly right, two mostly wrong, one wrong, one unknown.

Stay tuned for our 2009 predictions.

by Ed Felten at January 06, 2009 04:21 PM

Greg Storey : With no fear of the unknown, Jason takes a bow from Happy Cog. - Roger Black to replace him as Zeldman's sidekick.

Tags : Internet

January 06, 2009 04:01 PM

Cameron Moll : How-To: Sizzle Ride Conversion - How-To: Sizzle Ride Conversion, a Flickr photoset. One of my projects over the holiday break.

January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

Cameron Moll : Flickr: fading light at round valley - Flickr: fading light at round valley. Love the colors in this photo.

January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

Cameron Moll : Trailer for Objectified - It's all over the internets by now, but I've not been able to post until today: Trailer for Objectified, a new documentary by Gary Hustwit on industrial design, in the same vein as Gary's previous film on graphic design, Helvetica. Looking forward to new

January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

A CLOWN'S GOTTA DO WHAT A CLOWN'S GOTTA DO.... Apparently, Ann Coulter has a new book out. This does not come as a surprise. The book makes a series of ridiculous claims that are obviously false. This, too, does not...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

Cameron Moll : Greg Storey on sustainable business in 2009 - Greg Storey on sustainable business in 2009: "To those who own their own business: I challenge you to push harder. If you need $50k to keep your family under house and home then do everything you can to bring in $150k. Chances are you won't make the large

January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

It is always sad to learn that a respected public thinker has spent any time at all reading new modern trash like Wonkette. Doesn’t the famous New Yorker critic and Internet porn addict David Denby have something better to do, like have lunch at the Algonquin Round Table, or floss his cat?

Denby has written a new book about “snark,” a word that should just be fucking BANISHED from modern usage along with expressions of approval that involve shooting liquids from the nose and ruining keyboards/computer screens. UGH NOT FUNNY.

Anyhow, David Denby does not care for this “snark,” and for “snarky” publications such as Private Eye and Spy and basically anything funny. Wonkette is lumped in with this group and called “proudly idiotic.” AWWWWW.

[UPDATE: We just read the comments on this article and saw that our esteemed editor Ken Layne made basically the same two observations, which is surely evidence of Wonkette's idiot hive mind.]

Snark Attack [New York Magazine Book Review]

by Sara K. Smith at January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

deusx : Icrontic Gaming » Decals - When are you going to grow up? - "There have been far too many advancement in real-time computer graphics to leave the simple decal at such an archaic state. We shouldn’t be excited when I still see tire marks after lap three or bullet impacts remain after a firefight. Those are h

Tags : gaming graphics decals icrontic

January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

Jim B. stared wistfully in the mirror at the wrinkles near his eyes and the few stray gray hairs that he’d accumulated over the last six months. On the way back to his desk, he stopped by his friend Mike's desk. “Point three six,” he said as he banged his head against Mike's cubicle wall. “Point three six.”

His work was about as high-stress as it gets – he was on a team building a security system that was responsible for keeping ne’er-do-wells out of data belonging to nine-figure financial companies and an array of three-letter government organizations, many of which Jim had never heard of. But if he failed and a hacker got into the data, Jim would be sure to find out exactly what the FQD was when they had him deported.

Security at the company was no joke – all employees were subjected to a drug test, three separate interviews including one where they’d be grilled on ethics as they apply to IT, not to mention the extensive seven-page document he’d had to fill out for his background investigation to be conducted. Every door had a keycard lock, all passwords (mixed-case, special characters, minimum 10 characters) expired every 30 days, and all electronic devices (iPods and cell phones) had to be approved by management before they could be brought in. This was serious security.

Mike was really Jim's only friend on the inside. Most of the salaried staff was skeptical of contractors like Jim, but Mike didn’t subscribe to their groupthink. Jim and Mike shared in the pain of looming deadlines, the middle-school-esque giggling at management gaffes during meetings, and the sadness of the vending machine running out of Dr. Pepper. Mike was always willing to lend a sympathetic ear to the dangerous levels of silliness Jim encountered on his projects.

With security stopping just shy of cavity searches at the beginning of the day, Jim was amazed when he figured out how to break into the system with ease. Their impregnable system had just been impregnated.

Emergency Meeting

Jim called up an emergency meeting. “I was able to crack the security and get root access,” Jim began. An engineer audibly gasped.

“But how?” someone cried.

“All I had to do was modify the cookie and the lock file, and…”

“That’s stupid. Why would anyone ever do that?” His boss, Paul, shot a glare at him.

“I don’t know,” Jim said, “curiosity? Ignorance? Malice?”

“We can’t guard against malice.”

“We can’t guard against malice?!” Jim’s jaw dropped. Guarding against malice was the whole point, and the entire reason that the company existed. This would’ve been excusable if it came from a PHB, but this was a very experienced engineer.

“Guarding against malice is exactly what we're here to do! If we’re not going to guard against malice, we might as well just put post-it notes on the data that say ‘Please Don’t Look.’”

A young developer scoffed. “You can’t put post-it notes on data!” Several people around the table exchanged smirks.

Jim exhaled deeply and could feel another wrinkle forming near his eye and another tuft of hair turning gray. “Look, this is what hackers do. They dig around and find all the loose threads and try to use those to exploit the system. If I’m capable of doing it, then certainly a professional hacker paid by a government or well-funded competitor can.”

“But if they wanted to get to the database, they’d just have to do ‘psql –d xxxxxx-db-name’ and they’re in. Like I said, we can’t protect against malice!”

Joe briefly wondered if he looked half as horrified as Mike did at that moment. “You… didn’t encrypt the database?!”

“…No…”

The room remained silent, and Jim’s mouth remained agape with horror. Aside from Mike and Jim, everyone just looked bored. Jim tried to size up the situation – it didn’t make sense that no one had his back. His colleagues certainly weren’t curious, but they were perhaps ignorant or malicious. Jim scanned the room with eyes imploring someone to have his back, but no one made any eye contact except Mike, who was apparently too stunned to speak up.

“Look, I have real work to do,” one complained. “Are we done here?” A few quiet “yeah, me too”s echoed throughout the room. All of the bigwigs in the room scowled, packing up their notepads and folders. As they filed out of the room, a few stink-eyes were shot Jim’s way. “What a colossal waste of time,” one said under his breath.

Eventually only Jim and Mike remained in the room. Jim was still dumbfounded. “What the hell just happened?!”

“I really don’t know, Jim. I can’t believe it either. But hey, I have to run to CompUSA. You’ve got that meeting with management now, right?”

Jim’s heart sank. He had almost forgotten that in 15 minutes, he’d have a three hour meeting with some of the bigwigs that had just turned against him in his last meeting. At this rate of wrinkle and gray hair accumulation, he'd be looking about 30 years older by the end of the day.

Can’t Wait

After the meeting, Jim was feeling numb. He hobbled over to Mike’s desk for some consoling.

“Man, I have to say, I just want to get laid off.”

“You know, most engineers would’ve stopped that sentence a word earlier,” Mike replied with a chuckle. “I got you something from CompUSA.”

Mike had picked up a beanbag keyboard rest, that he set in the spot where Jim would beat his head against Mike’s desk in moments of intense frustration.

“Point three six, man,” Jim said while banging his head against the wrist rest. “Point three six.” It was his way of reminding himself that August 22nd (or 8/22 ≈ .36) was the end of his contract.

January 06, 2009 04:00 PM

Is there a mini Stonehenge under the waters of Lake Michigan?

In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered a series of stones - some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon -- 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan. If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old -- coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.

January 06, 2009 03:34 PM

Is there a mini Stonehenge under the waters of Lake Michigan?

In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered a series of stones - some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon -- 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan. If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old -- coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest.

January 06, 2009 03:34 PM

Barack Obama is very young, but he will be working with a Congress full of codgers who say, “Ennnh?” and urge him to speak louder into their ear trumpets. The average age of a senator is 63, while the average House member is 57. That, in layman’s terms, is “super old.” It should be noted that Robert Byrd continues to exert a heavy drag on the average age of Senators. (Byrd recently celebrated his 113th birthday.) [USA Today]

by Sara K. Smith at January 06, 2009 03:30 PM

THEY CAN'T TWITTER THEIR WAY OUT OF THIS MESS.... When the six men hoping to lead the Republican National Committee weren't promising to build a religion around Ronald Reagan, they were talking about how hip they are to the tools...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 03:10 PM

As promised, Comcast has turned off its "P2P specific technique" throughout its network, the company says. Now, it will handle congestion by identifying the problem, not the protocol.

Read More...

January 06, 2009 03:01 PM

Female driver to chubby crossing pedestrian: You gonna die, honkey!

--City Island Ave

Overheard by: Sam

January 06, 2009 03:00 PM

WWRD?.... The six men hoping to lead the Republican National Committee got together yesterday, at Grover Norquist's behest, to describe their vision for the future. They were, however, stuck in the past. Luckily, all six RNC candidates agreed on a...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 02:30 PM

Photographs of an abandoned London. Turns out that the streets of London on Christmas morning are extraordinarily empty. Details here. (thx, peter)

January 06, 2009 02:15 PM

Photographs of an abandoned London. Turns out that the streets of London on Christmas morning are extraordinarily empty. Details here. (thx, peter)

January 06, 2009 02:15 PM

Cuentan en Ciencia Kanija que: «En un estudio llevado a cabo recientemente, un equipo de investigación multidisciplinar franco-estadounidense con expertos en arqueología, clima antiguo y ecología informó que la extinción de los Neandertales fue principalmente el resultado de la competición con las poblaciones de Cro-Magnon, no por las consecuencias de un cambio en el clima. El estudio, del que se informa on-line en la revista de acceso público PLoS ONE del 24 de diciembre, entra en el debate en curso sobre las razones tras la eventual desaparición de las poblaciones Neandertales, las cuales ocuparon Europa antes de la llegada de poblaciones de humanos como nosotros hace unos 40 000 años». Precisamente, días atrás, Eudald Carbonell (Atapuerca) comentaba la falta de evidencias de la coexistencia en el mismo territorio.

by rvr at January 06, 2009 02:00 PM

OBAMA'S LEAP OF FAITH.... The president-elect sat down with bipartisan congressional leadership on the Hill yesterday, and made a pitch for an economic recovery package. Despite significant Democratic majorities in both chambers, Barack Obama gave every indication of taking Republican...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 01:45 PM

While the RIAA has dropped long-time P2P investigator MediaSentry, the music industry actually needs such services now more than ever. Denmark-based DtecNet will be handling the P2P identification chores in future.

Read More...

January 06, 2009 01:20 PM

As of 1st January 2009, the Netcraft Toolbar community has blocked 1.9 million phishing attacks. To show our appreciation for this effort, Netcraft has a number of goodies to give away.

Related Netcraft Service: Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar

by Paul Mutton at January 06, 2009 01:14 PM

PUSHBACK AGAINST PANETTA.... Barack Obama's selection of Leon Panetta as the next head of the CIA has generated a wide variety of responses, but some of the most aggressive pushback has come from a few Senate Democrats. Sen. Dianne Feinstein...

by Steve Benen at January 06, 2009 01:05 PM

Un pobrecito hablador nos cuenta: «Telefónica reconoce ante la CMT que no da más velocidad de subida en sus conexiones de ADSL porque manteniéndola baja consigue contener el tráfico P2P. El efecto colateral de esta medida es que luego nuestro ADSL no da talla al compararlo con el de los países desarrollados. Telefónica explica en este artículo el impacto que el P2P tiene en su red en forma de más tráfico, lo que acarrea mayores costes».

by rvr at January 06, 2009 01:00 PM

"That's nothing to smile at, Brett," writes David Robinson, "EntityName parsing errors are serious business."

(currently live at NBC Sports)

"That's okay," Zack notes, "I can wait."

"We're all familiar with the 'marketing' prices of $299.99 instead of $300," Alexandre Hetu writes, "but I'm not quite sure how the random question mark is supposed to work."

Translates to "Condos from"

"I would like to comply with their demands," writes Tim, "but I'm not really sure how. Maybe these guys need to rent a coder?"

"When setting up Windows on a new HP desktop," Andrew noted, "it seems they like to crush your high hopes with an offer you can't refuse."

Aaron writes, "I was playing word scramble with the AIM chatbot SmarterChild, and I got this:

SmarterChild: That's correct.
  You are 3 for 4.
Try this one: LVIDI.

Aaron: livid

SmarterChild: Right again!
  You are 4 for 5.
Here we go: QEREU.

Aaron: queer

SmarterChild: I don't like the way you're speaking now. These are awful words to use.

"Asking why it had me unscramble a bad word didn't yield any meaningful answer."

January 06, 2009 01:00 PM

Heavy-set and sweaty bus driver to woman with pizza: Lemme...uh...have that pizza. (woman smiles awkwardly, thinking it's a joke) I wasn't kidding. Lemme have that pizza. (woman holding a bag of cookies gets on bus with child)
Heavy-set and sweaty bus driver: Oh, lemme just...uh uh...have one of these...uh uh...cookies. (takes cookie)
Small Asian woman (taken aback and extremely confused): What? You can't take these.
(bus driver stuffs cookie in mouth and ignores woman)
(later)
Bus driver, on PA: Lady, these are some good cookies.

--Uptown Bus to Met from Port Authority

January 06, 2009 01:00 PM

The developers behind the Debian Linux distribution have voted to proceed with the release of the next major version despite ongoing controversy over the inclusion of binary firmware in the kernel.

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January 06, 2009 12:35 PM

Good quote:

"In the hurly-burly and the infinite variety of travel, you can end up with nonsensical results in which the T.S.A. person says, 'Well, I'm just following the rules,'" Mr. Hawley said. "But if you have an enemy who is going to study your technology and your process, and if you have something they can figure out a way to get around, and they're always figuring, then you have designed in a vulnerability."

by schneier at January 06, 2009 11:51 AM

ZOMG, did you hear about how British cops are elite haxx0rz in ur base killing all ur d00dz!!!1! Let's all take a deep breath, shall we?

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January 06, 2009 11:30 AM

Girl, telling joke: A seven-year-old daughter said to her mother: "Today in school I learned where babies come from."
Mother: Oh, really?
Daughter: Yea, a mommy and daddy take off all their clothes, the mommy makes the dad happy and his thingy stands up a little. Then the mommy puts the thingy in her mouth and the thingy stands up all the way and explodes, and that's where babies come from.
Mother: No, honey, that's where jewelry comes from.
(laughs)
Guy listening, with horrified face: Wait a second, my mom has a shitload of jewelry. Oh, goddammit, eewwwwwwwwwwwww!
Girl: I'm never going to look at your mom the same way ever again.

--Arthur Avenue

Overheard by: Reza Daneshvar

January 06, 2009 11:00 AM

rijiの日記 曰く

GIGAZINEで紹介されている「よく使われる危険なパスワードトップ500」が興味深い（What's My Pass?に掲載されている元ネタ）。

さすがにそれはマズいだろって感じのものが多いが、「8675309」のようになぜそれがよく使われるのかわからないものもある。このリストに載っていなくても、辞書に載っているような単語は避けるのが基本でしょうか。

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by riji (posted by hylom) at January 06, 2009 10:28 AM

joshua : rameniac - i miss tenkaippin

Tags : food

January 06, 2009 10:00 AM

joshua : Cloudera Hadoop & Big Data Blog » Blog Archive » State of the Elephant 2008

Tags : dist

January 06, 2009 10:00 AM

Simon Willison : Update on the "antipatterns for sale" Twply auction - Update on the “antipatterns for sale” Twply auction. The collected username and password database is NOT included in the auction.

January 06, 2009 10:00 AM

manmos 曰く、

以前のストーリにもあった民事再生法の適用を申請した九十九電機ですが、大手家電販売のヤマダ電機に事業譲渡を行うと発表されました（九十九電機のプレスリリース、ヤマダ電機のプレスリリース）。

一般人向けに営業展開を行うヤマダ電機はアレゲ系の九十九電機をどう経営していくのでしょうか？　関西人であまりアキバには足を運ばないタレコミ子としても心配です。

プレスリリースによると譲渡契約は1月31日を目処に締結するとのこと。

まずはスポンサーが見つかって良かった、というところだが、九十九電機も家電量販店グループの一員になってしまうのかと思うと複雑な気分ではある。

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by hylom at January 06, 2009 09:24 AM

Drunk hipster guy #1 (screaming): Let's see who can make out with the fattest girl tonight. Whoever makes out with the fattest gets ten dollars from everyone else.
Drunk hipster guy #2 (also screaming): Yeah, and if there's a close call, she can judge.
Drunk hipster girl: Hey, I want in on this action! That could be 50 bucks.
Guy #1: Okay, okay, you can play too. But if it comes down to a close call between us guys you have to decide which girl is fatter.
Drunk hipster guy #3: And she can have a good personality.
Drunk hipster guy #4: Why are we screaming?
Drunk hipster guy #1: Because we're Italian.

--LIRR

Overheard by: revolted

January 06, 2009 09:00 AM

Greg Storey : A story of Electric Pulp's experience during the previous economic downturn. - Keith, check out the bit regarding billing.

Tags : Internet

January 06, 2009 08:00 AM

En plataformaSinc cuentan que La televisión invita a la ciencia a su horario de máxima audiencia: «De los cinco países analizados, España ocupó el primer puesto en tiempo de emisión de información científica, con 67.862 minutos, seguida por Francia con 63.832. Reino Unido con 32.870 minutos y Alemania con 28.554 son los países que menos tiempo dedicaron a los temas de ciencia, medio ambiente y salud. Por otro lado, los telediarios de España (TVE y Telecinco) y Francia (France 2 y TF1) fueron los que más informaciones emitieron, con 733. La diferencia estuvo en este caso en la cifra de noticias científicas, ya que mientras en Francia la ciencia (entendida como ciencia básica, tecnología, salud o medio ambiente) estaba presente en un 13,5% de las noticias, en España este porcentaje se quedaba en el 5,2%».

by rvr at January 06, 2009 08:00 AM

Bartolome Sintes nos cuenta: «Desde el lunes 5 de enero están disponibles las recopilaciones de enero de cdlibre.org, que contienen en total 658 programas diferentes. En las últimas 5 semanas se han publicado nuevas versiones de 124 programas (entre ellos, Eclipse PDT 2.0.0, Hugin 0.7, MediaPortal 1.0, Python 3.0 o Songbird 1.0.0) y he añadido 10 nuevos programas (entre ellos, varios lectores de cómics, el programa de diseño de interiores Sweet Home 3D o el convertidor de vídeos WinFF). En cdlibre.org se puede consultar el catálogo de software para descargar los programas individualmente o descargar imágenes ISO de CDs y DVDs con recopilaciones de programas libres para Windows».

by rvr at January 06, 2009 07:00 AM

Girl to friend: Hey girl, come over here and let me see your new grillz. (friend comes over and smiles, Flavor Flav style) Daaaamnnnnnnn girl! Where did you get those? They some nice grillz!

--Flatbush Ave & Lincoln Rd

Overheard by: xtina

January 06, 2009 07:00 AM

soltiox 曰く、

ノーボスチ通信の報道によりますと、ロシアは2009年に、39回の衛星発射を予定しており、もし、予定通りに打ち上げが実施されると、過去最多の年間発射回数となるようです。そのうち、半数は商業・民生目的であり、ISSへの4回の有人ミッションと6回の補給宇宙船の打ち上げも予定されているそうです（エルエルの記事）。

でも、以前はソユース残機2機でピンチ！とか、言ってなかったっけ？
疑問に思ってエネルギアのサイトを見てみると、別にそーゆーネタで盛り上がってもないっぽい。あれっ？

もしかしたら、ロシアは手間ヒマ金のかかる有人ミッションを縮小して、衛星打ち上げで稼いでいこうという、思惑があるんじゃないでしょうか？

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by hylom at January 06, 2009 06:14 AM

We're headed out to CES in Vegas this week, so here's a quick heads-up on what to expect. And as always, we'd love your input as we roam the show floor looking for the ultimate gear.

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January 06, 2009 05:30 AM

capra 曰く、

ブルームバーグが報じるところによると、オバマ次期米政権はNASAと軍との間にある垣根を下げ、両者が協力し米国の宇宙研究開発を支える体制を検討しているとのこと（本家記事より）。

この構想の背景には、このまま中国の宇宙開発が発展すると米国の国防衛星などもいずれ脅かされる恐れがあるという状況があるようだ。2008年度にはNASAの予算より3割増の220億ドルが米国防総省の宇宙計画に使用されており、軍の研究開発で蓄積された技術や知識を利用することで、現在の厳しい財政状況の中、すでに大幅な遅れを取っている次世代有人宇宙飛行計画を文字通りブーストさせようという計画とのことだ。

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by hylom at January 06, 2009 05:09 AM

Ads by Pheedo

January 06, 2009 05:09 AM

Al menos en España, el día de hoy muchos niños y no tan niños se levantarán pronto para ver qué regalos les han dejado los Reyes Magos. ¿Y tú, qué regalos 'geek' has recibo estas navidades?

by rvr at January 06, 2009 05:00 AM

Hipster teenage girl: Yeah, trust me you'd know if you'd seen me disgruntled.
Hipster teenage boy: I haven't?
Hipster teenage girl: Nope. Well...talking online, maybe.
Hipster teenage boy: Oh, you're always disgruntled online. You always have some huge, massive crisis.
Hipster teenage girl: Oh yeah, once I was really pissed off at you. I scream a lot when I'm disgruntled.
Hipster teenage boy: At me?
Hipster teenage girl: No, just in general. At my room mostly.
(long pause)
Hipster teenage girl: I'm bored. Let's go to my house and do some lines!

--Park Slope

January 06, 2009 05:00 AM

Will Google aim its OS sights at the PC market? A recent port of Android to a common netbook suggests that Google Linux could become a reality.

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January 06, 2009 04:35 AM

あるAnonymous Coward 曰く、

TechCrunch JapanによるとAppleは米国時間1月5日に同社CEOのスティーブ・ジョブズ氏からの手紙を公開した。これによると、癌が再発したとの噂は事実ではなく、原因不明のホルモンバランスの異常により体重が減ってしまっているとのこと。

以下はTechCrunch JapanのLetter from Apple CEO Steve Jobsの日本語訳である。

MacWorldでのキーノート演説をPhilに任せることにしてから、私の健康問題に関する噂話が再燃し、一部には死の床にあるとするものまで現れました。

...多くの方がご存じのように、2008年を通して体重が減り続けました。理由は私にも、そしてかかりつけの医者にもよくわからないようです。数週間前に私は、根本的な原因を探ることを決め、そしてこれが最優先事項と相成りました。

検査の結果、医師は原因を突き止めたようです。ホルモンバランスの不調により、健康を保つために必要なタンパク質が失われてしまっているとのことです。詳細な血液検査もこの診断を裏付けています。

この病状の治療方法は割合に簡単なもので、既に治療を始めています。但し医師によれば、数週間ないし数ヶ月で体重の減少やBMI値の改善はあっても、完治は今春以降になるだろうとのことです。尚、治療中もAppleのCEOは続けて行くつもりです。

よくも悪くも、まだまだAppleのCEO職にはしがみついて行く模様。

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by hylom at January 06, 2009 04:04 AM

New information from an economist's deposition suggests that Microsoft made around $1.5 billion from the Vista Capable program, but shoving that number around without some perspective as a garnish changes the entire situation.

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January 06, 2009 03:30 AM

あるAnonymous Coward 曰く、

朝日新聞、NHKニュース、TBSニュースの報道とJR東日本のプレスリリース(PDF)によると、昨年末12月29日にJR東日本の全新幹線を管理するシステム「COSMOS」のトラブルにより、東北や上越など5新幹線が3時間不通となり、112本が運休し、帰省客ら13万7000人が影響を受けた問題で、原因はダイヤの変更作業の遅れだったと判明したそうだ。

このシステムは列車のダイヤや乗務員の配置などを管理するもので、ダイヤなどの変更が必要な場合、それらの情報を当日の午前5時までに入力する必要があるということだった。ところが先月29日は、悪天候の影響で前日に大幅に乱れていた山形や秋田の新幹線のダイヤを元に戻したり、年末の列車を増発したりと、入力するデータが、運行するほぼ全ての新幹線(389本)の車両のやり繰りを変える「過去に例のない作業だった」(JR東日本)と膨大になった。

終電後、29日分のデータの入力を終えたのは始発直前の午前5時45分頃。しかし、午前5時を過ぎていたので更新ができなかったという。このことを同社は事実上知らず、更新に手間取ったのだそうだ。そして復旧までにさらに3時間を要した。

JRの運輸車両部長は「システムの運用の仕方に齟齬があった」と謝罪した。JR東日本では、今後、システムの入力を担当する人員を増やすなど再発防止を進めるとのこと。

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by hylom at January 06, 2009 03:05 AM

Jersey chick: I mean, what do I do? He is like all over me but wont have sex with me. What do I do?
Girl peeing in bathroom stall: I think you should just say, "fuck me or you're gay!" I mean, that's what I would do.
Jersey chick: I just don't get it, you know. And seriously, he is the hottest guy I've ever made out with, like hotter than anyone I've ever made out with.
Girl peeing in bathroom stall: I mean seriously, just say, "fuck me or you're gay. If you don't fuck me, you are gay." that's what I would do.
Jersey girl: But he can't be gay, he's too hot.
Girl peeing in bathroom stall: But there are a lot of hot guys who are gay. It's probably because he's so hot.
Jersey girl: I just don't know what to do. He like comes up to me and is dancing with me and telling me to come home with him. But like, I don't know what to do. I mean, I'm from Jersey! I live in Jersey, I can't just stay with him, can I?
Girl comes out from peeing in bathroom stall: I don't know dude.

--Bar, Park Ave & 27th St

Overheard by: Shawn

January 06, 2009 03:00 AM

A wide-ranging and carefully considered list of the top 50 special effects shots in movies. The Matrix bullet-time effect doesn't make this list because:

An effect extraordinarily limited in what can usefully be done with it, it has nonetheless been flogged to death in the 10 years since The Matrix.

The Burly Brawl from the second Matrix movie thankfully didn't make the list either, likely because the whole thing looks like a cartoonish video game (and not in a good way). The only quibble I can think of: maybe Titanic should have been on there somewhere? (via fimoculous)

Update: Titanic actually made the worst effects list. (thx, rob)

January 06, 2009 02:41 AM

A wide-ranging and carefully considered list of the top 50 special effects shots in movies. The Matrix bullet-time effect doesn't make this list because:

An effect extraordinarily limited in what can usefully be done with it, it has nonetheless been flogged to death in the 10 years since The Matrix.

The Burly Brawl from the second Matrix movie thankfully didn't make the list either, likely because the whole thing looks like a cartoonish video game (and not in a good way). The only quibble I can think of: maybe Titanic should have been on there somewhere? (via fimoculous)

Update: Titanic actually made the worst effects list. (thx, rob)

January 06, 2009 02:41 AM

Domestic film box offices broke multiple records this year, grossing an estimated $9.78 billion. Thanks to both major and not-so-major releases this year, films from studios like Warner Bros, Paramount, and Sony all contributed to the highest-grossing year in film history.

Read More...

January 06, 2009 02:25 AM

hide.jikyll 曰く、

Apple が手袋に関する特許「High tactility glove system」を取得した (The Registerの記事) 。この手袋、iPhone のようなマルチタッチスクリーンのデバイスを極寒の環境下でも快適に使えるようにするのが目的で、記事のイラストでは、親指と人差し指、中指の先端がデバイスを操作しやすいように加工されている。

タレコミ人はあまり必要性を感じないが、日本でも北海道の人たちには需要があるだろうか。

最初は単なる穴あき手袋かと思ったけど、よく読んでいくと確かに極寒環境でのマルチタッチデバイス操作には便利かもと思った。日常的な iPod とかの操作のためにこの手袋を買うとかいうのはありえないでしょうけどね。

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by reo at January 06, 2009 02:00 AM

ある Anonymous Coward 曰く、

本家記事によると MIT の大学院生 Erez Lieberman 氏は NASA でのインターンシップ時、宇宙飛行士が帰還後に歩行時のバランスを取り戻す研究に携わったことをきっかけとして、人がバランス良く立てているいるかどうかを見分けるアルゴリズムを開発した。彼はこれを用いて歩行時にバランスが崩れがちな高齢者などをサポートする中敷「iShoe」を開発し起業しようとしたが、彼の発明に関する特許を取得していた MIT から特許使用料として 7 万 5 千ドルの支払いを求められたとのこと。

1980 年以前は大学など学術研究機関が取得した特許は年間 250 件にも満たなかったが、1980 年に大学や研究機関に特許権の帰属を認めるバイドール法が制定されてからはその数は増え続け、現在では年間 3,000 件にも上るとのこと。NY Times によると、大学などが特許使用料や企業へのスピンオフから得た金額は 2006 年では総額 450 億ドルにも上る。強力な研究組織のあるスタンフォード大学は 6100 万ドル、またニューヨーク大学は 1.5 億ドル以上の利益を上げたとのことで、大学や研究機関の重要な財政源となっているようだ。

ちなみに Erez Lieberman 氏および iShoe の開発メンバーは MIT, ハーバードおよび NASA と合同でこの技術に関する特許を取得しているので「学生の頃に思いついた件について、いきなり MIT から特許使用料を取られた」とかそういうお話ではない。

大学が知財で収益を得ようとするのは別段不思議なお話でもない。ただ、学生の身分だと知財に関する取り扱いに詳しくないため、知らない間に自分の研究成果が大学の知財になっていたよ ! などという事もあるかも。起業する意志のある学生はそのあたりをきっちり調べておいた方がいいでしょう。ちなみに日本国内の大学で特許収入が一番多いのは名古屋大学で、2005 年度実績で 1.99 億円とのこと。

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by reo at January 06, 2009 01:30 AM

Over the holidays, video hosting site Veoh won another victory under the DMCA safe harbors, this time against Universal Music Group (UMG). The ruling should put to rest the argument that transcoding and other activities necessary for making content accessible on the web are not covered by the DMCA's Section 512(c) safe harbor for storing material on behalf of users (i.e., hosting user-generated content). This is good news not just for Veoh, but also for YouTube and every other site that hosts material uploaded by users.

Like many other companies that host content on behalf of users, Veoh has been bedeviled by copyright lawsuits. The copyright owners make the same argument in each of these suits: the hosting service should be liable for every infringing bit uploaded by naughty users and responsible for the full cost of policing for infringement. Fortunately, Congress enacted the DMCA's safe harbor provisions back in 1998 to protect service providers from exactly these risks, offering immunity from copyright damages to those who implement a notice-and-takedown system. In August 2008, Veoh won a big victory against adult video purveyor Io Group, relying on these provisions.

Veoh's latest victory was against UMG, which sued Veoh because Veoh users allegedly uploaded UMG music videos without authorization. The issue before the court was whether the DMCA safe harbor for hosting only covers the actual act of storing bits on a server, or whether it also covers related activities, such as:

1. automatically transcoding video files uploaded by users into Flash format;
2. automatically creating copies of uploaded video files that are comprised of smaller “chunks” of the original file;
3. allowing users to access uploaded videos via streaming;
4. allowing users to access uploaded videos by downloading whole video files.

Relying on the statutory language, as well as the legislative history, the court concluded that all of these activities are covered by the DMCA Section 512(c) safe harbor. Lots of online service providers will greet this ruling with relief. If the court had accepted UMG's arguments, every web host would lose the safe harbor as soon as it made web pages available to the public. The ruling should also help YouTube in its ongoing battle with Viacom, which also turns on the continuing strength of the DMCA safe harbors.

But the Veoh ruling also points out a surprising irony: while YouTube and Viacom are fighting their interminable litigation trench war, many interesting DMCA legal questions are being resolved in smaller, faster-moving cases involving companies like Veoh. At this rate, the highly-anticipated Viacom v. YouTube lawsuit may end up a footnote in the legal fights that define the rules governing user-generated content.

by fred at January 06, 2009 01:29 AM

Today, Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the United States District Court in San Francisco denied the government's third motion to dismiss the Al-Haramain v. Bush litigation. The ruling means that the case can proceed and the court also set up a process to allow the Al Haramain plaintiffs to prosecute the case while protecting classified information.

Al-Harmain Islamic Foundation, the Oregon chapter of an Islamic charity, sued the Bush Administration for the illegal surveillance of the organization and its attorneys as part of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program. The case was based on a secret document that was inadvertently disclosed by the government that, according to the plaintiffs, demonstrates that they were subjected to unlawful electronic surveillance outside the scope of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

In late 2007, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that despite the disclosure, the "Sealed Document" itself was a state secret, but sent the case back to the District Court to determine whether the FISA law nonetheless allowed the case to go forward, under a doctrine called "preemption." Last summer, the Court had ruled that FISA does preempts the state