May 2007 Archives

Lame, lame, lame.

VPD: Virtual Police Department

The Vancouver police officers involved in the recruitment on Second Life have their own avatars, or Second Life persona, dressed in a specially designed VPD uniform, badge, belt and radio. They're also trained in the other-world customs and commands of the virtual society.

The rationale for the sci-fi approach to recruitment is simple, says Insp. Kevin McQuiggin, head of the department's tech crimes division: If people are on Second Life, they're likely to be web-savvy, a quality the police department is looking for in new recruits.

Internet and technology-related crimes, from fraud to harassment, are common, McQuiggin says. In fact, he says, almost every major crime involves technology in some way, shape or form.

Doesn't it seem weird when people in virtual worlds want to meet in real life?

There Fun Times: Official There Real Life Gathering 2007

It's that time again! We are pleased to announce that this year's Official There Real-Life Gathering will be in lovely Laguna Beach, California (a.k.a. "There South") on the weekend of August 11th.

The weekend will start on the evening of Friday, August 10th. From 5pm -8pm, we will have a cocktail mixer for people to come and check in and to mix and mingle. On Saturday, August 11th, the day will start at 9:30am. There will be fun events throughout the day, ranging from staff presentations to games. We will have lunch together in the afternoon, and there will be a 2-hour break before dinner. We will meet again for dinner at 7pm at a location to be determined. The gathering will wind down on the morning of Sunday, August 12th, with a come-and-go breakfast from 9am-11am. We'll say our goodbyes, or you might also make additional plans with new and old friends.

Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University created this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms.

A Fair(y) Use Tale | Stanford Center for Internet and Society [beta site]

YouTube - BOOGIE NIGHTS- STAR WARS EDITION

BBQ manufacturer BeefEater has created the ultimate in backyard bling – the world’s first fully operational gold-plated barbecue. All parts of the US$12,500 grill except for the cooking surfaces have been individually plated in 24 carat gold. BeefEater tricked out one of its range-topping Signature Series 6 Burner SL4000 to create a uniquely lavish gold plated barbecue, “for those who want to make a statement with their barbecue and have the money to burn.”

According to BeefEater Managing Director, Peter Woodland, “it’s for the man who has everything and wants more.” The one of a kind barbecue features six high output burners plus a wok burner, roasting hood with viewing window and warming rack, quartz ignition, vaporizer grid and reflector system.

Pimp my Grill - the BeefEater gold-plated barbeque - gizmag Article

#10: Nothing But Trouble (1991)

THE PITCH: Dan Aykroyd writes, directs AND stars in a new comedy with John Candy and Chevy Chase! (This was back when then name "Dan Ackroyd" still meant "the guy who wrote Ghostbusters and Blues Brothers," not "that really fat guy playing Britney Spears' dad in Crossroads.")

THE PAYOFF: Either Aykroyd has a different sense of humor from other humans, or it's possible he just vastly miscalculated the hilarity that would ensue by having grotesque, freakish psychotics attempt to viciously murder people in a nightmarish premise involving transvestites, cannibals with detachable penises for noses and Demi Moore attempting to act. John Waters would have looked at this script and thought, "Wow, that's fucking insane."

THE PROBLEM: Aykroyd apparently based the concept of the film around a real-life incident where he was pulled over for speeding in the back woods, then taken in the middle of the night to the mayor's house to be terrorized by hicks. If you're thinking, "That actually sounds kind of unsettling and horrible, and not a good idea for a laugh-romp comedy," you probably would have come in handy patiently explaining this to Aykroyd before he filmed a joyless, Deliverance-like movie about people getting pulled over for speeding in the back woods, then taken in the middle of the night to the mayor's house to be terrorized by hicks.

CRACKED.com - Comedies That Should Have Been Awesome (And Weren't)

#16: KEITH DAVID

You Might Know Him From...
Men at Work, Road House, Platoon, Barbershop, Armageddon, the 1980 blockbuster Disco Godfather.

Special Moves
Not giving a fuck about anything other than completing the duty/assignment/trash pickup assigned to him.

Is a Poor Man's...
Louis Gossett, Jr.

CRACKED.com - The 20 Best "That Guys" of All Time

This might just make Vader cool again.

Star Wars: Community | Underground Artists Take on the Sith in The Vader Project

Pop surrealist, graffiti, tattoo, lowbrow, comic and underground artists Shag, Paul Frank, Tim Biskup, Frank Kozik, Marc Ecko, Amanda Visell, Tim Biskup, J. Otto Seibold, Gary Baseman, Joe Ledbetter, Urban Medium and Jeff Soto, among others, show their allegiance to the dark side by customizing Darth Vader helmets in landmark gallery exhibition called The Vader Project, to debut at Star Wars Celebration IV on May 24 to 28 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The Vader Project is presented by Master Replicas, and curated by Dov Kelemer of DKE Toys, one of the largest designer vinyl and art-toy distributors in the world, exclusively representing over 50 companies, artists, and designers. Kelemer gathered the hottest underground and pop surrealist painters, artists and designers and gave each artist a Master Replicas 1:1 scale prop replica of the Darth Vader helmet used in the Star Wars films. Each helmet served as a blank canvas for each artist to paint, design, mash up and customize in their own unique style.

There have been two strategies employed in CGI animation more recently to avoid going the way of Final Fantasy. One is to deliberately choose an exaggerated, cartoonish look for characters in order to avoid the potential pitfalls of the Uncanny Valley by staying well to the left of it on Mori's graph. This is precisely what Pixar did for 2004's The Incredibles, whose characters are recognizably human but not much more realistic than a two-dimensional cartoon. The other strategy is to do exactly what Hiroshi Ishiguro did: to "jump the Valley" by working backwards from real human beings. In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for example, the character of Gollum was animated based on the captured recorded motions and voice of actor Andy Serkis. Moral of the story: it is very difficult to pull off creating a realistic animated human being from scratch - and perhaps even foolish to try.

Overall it seems clear that there is something causing the anxiety epitomized by Hiroshi Ishiguro's daughter and the uneasiness experienced by many viewers of computer-animated human beings. Whether this is all based in an Uncanny Valley of aesthetics and movement or based in something else, it will likely have to be thoroughly explored and resolved if humanoid robots are ever required to become a part of human society. Masahiro Mori, although of course not at all skeptical of his own theory, agreed with the need for further study in order "to know what is human [and] to establish the design methodology for creating familiar devices through robotics research".

Damn Interesting - A Walk in the Valley of the Uncanny

... or Chuck Norris is a silly circular-reasoning right-wing fundie. Even though a recent poll in the U.S. suggests that 82% of Americans believe that God created the Earth, old Chucky here thinks us bad Atheists are going to ban religion. He seems so happy that the "U.S. Constitution outlaws religious discrimination," but wants to stop a bill which will "deter and punish acts of violence committed against an individual because of the victim's race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc."

WorldNetDaily: How to outlaw Christianity (Step 1)

All recent versions of Movable Type include a number of plugins for blocking spam, including a set of plugins called SpamLookup. We wanted to update you about a third-party service that’s affected the performance of one of the plugins, along with some easy steps you can take to fix the issue.

Recently, an IP blacklist service known as Blitzed ceased its operations. Movable Type’s SpamLookup plugin uses this service to process incoming comments and TrackBacks to determine if they are spam or not. With Blitzed shut down, a lot of you might be experiencing delays when publishing your readers’ comments.

Though we’re sorry to see Blitzed go (and thank the team for their efforts), the good news is that a free replacement is available. The SpamHaus Project has been in operation for over 9 years and has a long track record of providing excellent protection against known spammers. In addition to their technology that they allow people to use for free, Spamhaus works with Law Enforcement and cyber-crimes teams worldwide, helping them not only to block these miscreants, but also to bring them to justice.

Six Apart - Movable Type News - Important Update to Your Spam Filtering

With scarcely a mention in the mainstream media, President Bush has ordered up a plan for responding to a catastrophic attack.

Under that plan, he entrusts himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. And he gives himself the responsibility “for ensuring constitutional government.”

He laid this all out in a document entitled "National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51" and "Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-20." The White House released it on May 9.

But it says flat out: “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.”

Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency | The Progressive

Why would Hitler and his associates turn a blind eye to an impending terrorist attack on their national congressional building or actually assist with such a horrific deed? Because they knew what government officials have known throughout history — that during extreme national emergencies, people are most scared and thus much more willing to surrender their liberties in return for “security.” And that’s exactly what happened during the Reichstag terrorist crisis.

Suspending civil liberties

The day after the fire, Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to issue a decree entitled, “For the Protection of the People and the State.” Justified as a “defensive measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the state,” the decree suspended the constitutional guarantees pertaining to civil liberties.

How Hitler Became a Dictator by Jacob G. Hornberger

That was evidenced by the 409 people who clicked on an ad that offers infection for those with virus-free PCs. The ad, run by a person who identifies himself as security professional Didier Stevens, reads like this:

Drive-By Download
Is your PC virus-free?
Get it infected here!
drive-by-download.info

Stevens, who says he works for Contraste Europe, a branch of the IT consultancy The Contraste Group, has been running his Google Adwords campaign for six months now and has received 409 hits. Stevens has done similar research in the past, such as finding out how easy it is to land on a drive-by download site when doing a Google search.

Hundreds Click on 'Click Here to Get Infected' Ad

File this under "Humour" as well. It's hilarious.

Fuck the South

Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.

And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard?

Watch a map showing Flickr images showing where they are being uploaded from. Fun to watch for the whole family. Well that is if your family is your cat...http://flickrvision.com/

I am a sucker for interesting mods. http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

Quote:
We built this system because with all the oil cooled projects out there, no one built a system that looked good and functioned well! After seeing all the other projects, we had a lot of ideas of how we could do it better and more easily. Many projects used vegetable oil, which would go rancid after a short time. The mineral oil does not have this problem, and is completely clear. We also wanted to use an appropriate enclosure -- the Toms Hardware system used a clear acrylic case, and they had to painstakingly seal each rear connector to keep the oil from leaking.

Impossible Mission will be the first non Virtual Console title to be downloadable from the Wii Shop Channel.

Confirmation came from the pages of the official Nintendo Power magazine, backed up by Nintendo UK.

The remake of the classic Commodore 64 game was announced earlier this year. System 3 will be re-writing the game for today's technology, but will include a retro mode if you wish to lose yourself in gaming's glorious past.

News - Impossible Mission to hit Wii // Wii /// Eurogamer

Dun Dun Duh... Crime of the century

Proposed Crime of the Century: Attempted Copyright Infringement

A bill authored by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that would stiffen criminal penalties in copyright cases has sparked a furor, but if history is any indication it may face a tough haul in Congress.

Before the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 can even go to Congress, it will need to be sponsored by a member of the House or Senate. The Justice Department has yet to find a sponsor, although it's hoping that a meeting with Hill staffers will flush one out. And while the DOJ claims to have bipartisan support for its bill, a similar measure introduced last year failed to make it to a vote.

"We're still reviewing the bill, but based on our initial review, we have some concerns," said Corynne McSherry, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "One of our biggest concerns is that it criminalizes attempted copyright infringement."

McSherry said this is unprecedented in copyright law, and noted that the bill is ambiguous: "It’s not totally clear what would count as attempting copyright infringement."

Much to our chagrin, on the heels of our being forced to block virtually our entire international listening audience, we now have to add Canada to the list (beginning May 16th). We had been hopeful that the licensing situation with our Northern friends might have some hope of imminent resolution. However, after a tough week, and in the wake of the substantial attention the blocking has clearly brought to this issue, it's been made clear to us that we cannot continue streaming into Canada.

No need to reiterate just how difficult this is. It's just a terrible thing for music that there's not even a licensing structure available that would allow a webcaster to stream legally outside the U.S.

I'll reiterate our commitment to fighting as hard as we can to fix this absurd problem - we only hope that reform will come soon so that we can get back to the business of listening and discovery.

My sincerest apologies.

Tim (Founder)

Pandora: Canada

Canadian artist Kristan Horton revisists Dr. Strangelove stills with household objects.

The Morning News - Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove

All of these styles can be fantastic assets for your blog, but figuring out how to get them from this site to your own blog can sometimes feel overwhelming. Fortunately for Movable Type users, Stylecatcher makes the whole process painless, especially now that Movable Type now comes with Stylecatcher built right in.

The Style Contest: For Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal

"The book had a bunch of very bad language in it," Diana Verm said. "It shouldn't be in there because it's offending people. ... If they can't find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn't have a book at all."
Alton Verm filed a "Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials" Thursday with the district regarding "Fahrenheit 451," written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953. He wants the district to remove the book from the curriculum.

"It's just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read "Fahrenheit 451." "The words don't need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class."
He looked through the book and found the following things wrong with the book: discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, "dirty talk," references to the Bible and using God's name in vain. He said the book's material goes against their religions beliefs.

Houston Community Newspapers Online - Parent criticizes book 'Fahrenheit 451'

Is it me, or does the German in this intro make it a little creepy?

Mein Führer! I can walk!

YouTube - The Bionic Woman (German)

YouTube - six million dollar man intro

Pretty spooky. I'm thinking of getting this for my bar. It would be even better if it opened up.

Sleek and Graceful construction. This pool table will compliment a contemporary upscale decor. High polished black lacquer, exotic hardwood. Choose black cloth and mother of pearl coffin shaped inlaid sights. Play on a 1.25" one piece slate playing surface. Make this table the center of attention anywhere!

The Manhattan - Casket Gaming

All signs point to "yes".

Will Pope Benedict become a Mormon after he dies? | Reuters

Pope Benedict was baptized at birth and will most likely be baptized again one year after his death, not by his Roman Catholic Church but by a Mormon he never met.

The Mormons, a U.S.-based denomination officially named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), encourage members to baptize the dead by proxy in the belief they are helping the deceased attain full access to heaven.

Church members are told to focus on their ancestors, a rite understandable in a relatively new denomination founded in 1830. But so many now perform the rituals for celebrities, heroes and perfect strangers that the practice has spun out of control.

When the Pope says that a few words and some hand-waving causes a cracker to transform into the flesh of a 2,000-year-old man, Dawkins and his fellow travellers say, well, prove it. It should be simple. Swab the Host and do a DNA analysis. If you don't, we will give your claim no more respect than we give to those who say they see the future in crystal balls or bend spoons with their minds or become werewolves at each full moon.

And for this, it is Dawkins, not the Pope, who is labelled the unreasonable fanatic on par with faith-saturated madmen who sacrifice children to an invisible spirit.

This is completely contrary to how we live the rest of our lives. We demand proof of even trivial claims ("John was the main creative force behind Sergeant Pepper") and we dismiss those who make such claims without proof. We are still more demanding when claims are made on matters that are at least temporarily important ("Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction" being a notorious example).

So isn't it odd that when claims are made about matters as important as the nature of existence and our place in it we suddenly drop all expectation of proof and we respect those who make and believe claims without the slightest evidence? Why is it perfectly reasonable to roll my eyes when someone makes the bald assertion that Ringo was the greatest Beatle but it is "fundamentalist" and "fanatical" to say that, absent evidence, it is absurd to believe Muhammad was not lying or hallucinating when he claimed to have long chats with God?

Those fanatical atheists

Yeah, right. Canadians with *nano-bots*...

Hamilton Spectator - Search

Call it Canada's contribution to the 21st century Cold War.

This country's poppy quarter sent the intelligence community into fits last year after the U.S. issued a warning about radio transmitters concealed in a coin. That alert had Canadian intelligence officials scratching their heads. Which Canuck coin was the U.S. talking about?

Just declassified information obtained by The Associated Press now indicates that it was Canada's commemorative quarter -- the world's first coloured coin -- that set alarm bells ringing in Washington.

YouTube - James Randi on Astrology

The Spider-Man 3 blog is full of the kind of content you’d expect — links to trailers, feeds for fans to subscribe to, and behind-the-scenes videos that show off the making of the film. But innovation abounds all over Sony’s efforts on the blog. There’s smart use of Movable Type’s categories feature to highlight content that includes rich media. You can find extensive use of embedded video to include clips right within the blog. And the team has reached out to the entire blogosphere by providing beautifully designed templates for use on your blog, including Movable Type templates, exclusive designs for LiveJournal users, and the first independent designs we’ve seen any major film create for the Vox community.

Six Apart - Movable Type News - Web-Slinging: Spider-Man 3

Be it a lack of games, poor strategy, or inadequate marketing, a majority of video game consoles are commercial failures. Here are the 10 worst selling consoles of all time in terms of high-profile systems that stood a viable chance. Other lesser-known consoles are sure to have sold worse, but the below represent the notable platforms that never met expectations.

6. 3DO

The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was the first legitimate 32-bit console to hit retail. Engineered by EA founder Trip Hawkins, the system was released in September 1993 by Panasonic. Despite its highly promoted launch, unprecedented power, and attractive development terms, the machine flopped because 3DO was unable to convince consumers to pay an exorbitant $700 price tag (and you thought the PS3 was expensive!).

The 10 Worst-Selling Consoles of All Time Feature on GamePro.com

The Naga Morich 'snake or serpent chilli' is one of the world's most sought after and fearsome chilli peppers. A recent sample of this rare Bangladeshi chilli was tested* using High-performance liquid chromatography and registered a mind blowing 1,598,227 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), that's 3 times hotter than the previous World Record Holder - the Red Savina Habanero or 300 times hotter than a Jalapeno pepper!

In its native Bangladesh, it is used sparingly (and with great care) to add a searing level of heat to dishes by simply rubbing green unripe pods on ingredients. Even the fiery food loving Bangladeshi's are not stupid enough to eat a whole Naga pod.

naga morich or dorset naga chile pepper seeds

The Army appears to be backing away from new regulations that require soldiers get their approval from their bosses before they blog and send e-mail. In a fact sheet and in comments to the Associated Press, Army officials are saying, in essence, not to worry about the precise wording of the rules. The service won't enforce 'em anyway, they promise.

Danger Room - Wired Blogs

Because nothing says "I love you" like a big box of meat.

The All-Meat Gift Guide - MSN Lifestyle: Men

Government employees in Ontario can no longer access Facebook, the popular social networking website, on their computers.

To the chagrin of some of the thousands of workers -- including Liberal aides, backbenchers and cabinet ministers -- the 21-million member site is now blocked by the provincial ban.

As of Tuesday, when workers tried to access the site, they were greeted with the same "access denied" message that pops up if someone tries to access a pornography site, according to the Toronto Star.

Facebook is the latest website to be banned by the province, joining YouTube, online poker gambling websites and hardcore sex sites, Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips told the Star.

CTV.ca | Ont. government employees blocked from Facebook

While the Internet still retains some of the “wild wild west” feel, increasingly Internet activity, and particular blogging, is being shaped and governed by state and federal laws. For US bloggers in particular, blogging has become a veritable land mine of potential legal issues, and the situation isn’t helped by the fact that the law in this area is constantly in flux. In this article we highlight twelve of the most important US laws when it comes to blogging and provide some simple and straightforward tips for safely navigating them.

Blog Law - 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

It's hard to believe that the average American consumes around 3,800 Calories per day. That's more than all the food shown on this page. Highly processed foods are very easy to overeat.

Here is a selection of 10 meals that are in the 300-400 Calorie range. The visual representation gives an idea of portion size.

What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like?

I thought we already had giant robots... this is a cool website showing how people viewed the future at different times during past decades.

Paleo-Future: 1930s

The article "Gigantic Robots, Controlled by Wireless, to Fight Our Battles," from the April 29, 1934 Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) was exceptionally sensationalistic.

Professor [Felix Gaston] Gauthier disclosed in his address that two pacifistic-minded nations are today secretly (and supposedly unknown to each other) planning to construct gigantic fighting robots, controlled by wireless.

"These mechanical soldiers," declared Professor Gauthier, "will be of unexampled proportions. My informants, whose authentic statements I have never had reason to question before, have conveyed to me the startling news that each of these nations hopes some day to build robots 1,000 feet high!"

Huh. I always thought "Different Kind of Tension" by The Buzzcocks sounded just like "Bruise Violet" by Babes in Toyland.

Thomas Irvin.com | Similar-Sounding Songs

Ever notice a song whose melody sounds remarkably similar to some other song? I’ve compiled this list of songs that sound like other songs. In compiling this list, my goal is to present excerpts of the songs in question and leave any other determinations up to you, the listener. I make no claims that anyone here ripped off anyone else, because I (as a songwriter myself) have borrowed ideas and techniques from other artists many times. Those interested in the legal issues surrounding music copyright infringement and music plagiarism should visit Columbia Law School's excellent site on the subject.

For some of these songs I’ve been able to find audio excerpts, others I haven’t yet found or gotten around to editing. I'm always looking for suggestions, as well (see the contact section at left). With each excerpt, I have attempted to present the part of the song that sounds like the other song, plus enough extra to present the song in the author’s context.

Heh. I think I used to work with this guy.

YouTube - Code Monkey

"Who's Your Daddy?" is a clever counterpoint to Jack Chick's "Big Daddy?" tract, an anti-evolution propaganda piece. It's hardly a parody, though. It contains some clever rebuttals to ID and Creationist arguments. But it is funny. So everyone make some copies of this and scatter them around the bus station.

Who's Your Daddy - 01

Last night, Digg.com underwent a user rebellion. Digg removed many posts -- and terminated the accounts of some of its users -- for posting a 16-digit hexadecimal number that is used to lock up HD-DVD movies. The number -- a "processing key" -- was discovered by Doom9 message-board poster muslix64, who was frustrated by his inability to play his lawfully purchased HD-DVD movies because of failure in the anti-copying system.

The AACS Licensing Authority, which controls the anti-copying technology underlying HD-DVD, sent out hundreds of legal threats to sites that had posted the key, including Digg. It appears that Digg took a pro-active stance and began to seek out new examples of the key and delete them immediately, instead of waiting for notice from the AACS-LA. It's likely that their lawyers advised them to take this course of action, since the penalties for posting "circumvention devices" can be stiff.

At 9PM last night, Kevin Rose, Digg's founder, posted about this on the Digg blog, and said that he would no longer take material down, even though it could very well cost him the site. It's a brave stance, and it seems to have quieted the Digg users' protests.

Boing Boing: Digg users revolt over AACS key

Did you know that you could get into really big trouble if you post the code beginning with 09 F9 11 02 on your website ? It is very likely that a takedown notice will be send to the owner of the website as soon as the RIAA, the AACS or some of their lawyers find your website. You might be wondering why they are making such a big deal about this code that continues to be 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 which only some users might identify as the code to rule them all.. aka the processing key that unlocks the content of every HD-DVD available up to this point.

09 F9 11 02 T-Shirt | gHacks tech news