The Working Week

SCO weaselling

The SCO weaselling I was commenting on came after Novell's assertion that they owned the patents and copyrights. However, they only seem to be making this distinction when it comes to their lawsuit. The rest of their comments carry heavy implications that they own the patents and copyrights too (e.g. their reference to 'property rights' in their letter to Linux customers.

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A Response to: Comments on SCO silliness by Nick

In the release Messman said, "SCO continues to say that it owns the UNIX System V patents, yet it must know that it does not. A simple review of U.S. Patent Office records reveals that Novell owns those patents." Further, "the 1995 agreement governing SCO's purchase of UNIX from Novell does not convey to SCO the associated copyrights."

...and from Novell

"To Novell's knowledge, the 1995 agreement governing SCO's purchase of UNIX from Novell does not convey to SCO the associated copyrights," Messman said in the letter. "We believe it unlikely that SCO can demonstrate that it has any ownership interest whatsoever in those copyrights. Apparently you share this view, since over the last few months you have repeatedly asked Novell to transfer the copyrights to SCO, requests that Novell has rejected."

This is also interesting: Flash Back: The Novell-Linux-Unix Connection

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Sermon on the Mount

To diverge from the ranting about SCO and Linux/Unix/Whateverix (hands up guys who's using any of these as their desktop OS?), let's talk about something not-so-geeky - the Matrix Reloaded ...

What was good about it

Kung-Fu - lots of neat funky stuff that went on
Merovingian and Persephone - they were both actually interesting characters. The Merovingian was just alot of fun doing whatever he wanted ("French is the best language to swear in. [stream of curses] It's like wiping your ass with silk."). And he pointed out what should have been a valuable lesson to Neo about creating programs to achieve what you want. As for Persephone...........
Flying - Neo doing his "superman thing" just looked cool
Agent Smith - Hugo Weaving is simply awesome. He was a bit of a crowd favorite in the first film - and he's back in a big way here.
The Architect - sure he talked at a million miles and hour and acted as if he'd just swallowed a dictionary - but his speech gave a great twist to how we've come to think of what's going on with the matrix.

What was crap about it

Gun-Fu - where was it? Where was the follow-up bar-raising equivalent to the lobby scene from the first movie? Almost the only time you saw any kind of gun-play that lasted for any length of time was the opening scene
What are Neo's powers? - Okay so Neo's demonstrated he can stop bullets by the wave of his hand. Why can't he do the same with swords and stuff? Okay - it'd make for a boring film with god-mode Neo all the time, but at least explain why he can't stop them.
Short-cuts - Neo is now shown that short-cuts and backdoors exist in the matrix. He now knows what the code looks like - why can't he use them more often? At all? They're introduced and then left completely alone for the rest of the film.
Annoying whiny Kid - who the hell is he and why does he have such a crush on Neo? Was this explained at all? Apparently his presence is explained in The Animatrix somewhere - but considering this isn't out in Australia (as far as I know), relying on something like this to explain why/if we should give a shit about him is just lazy.
Tank - watched the first movie the other day and amazingly he lived. Now where the hell was he in the sequel? According to Reloaded both he and his brother Dozer are dead. If he died separately fine - say so don't make it sound like they both karked it in the first flick. Couldn't get the actor back - fair enough - come up with a decent explanation as to why his character isn't there - not a 2 second throw-away line.
Shit-house Rave - okay so these kind of stupid dance parties aren't my kind of thing, but when you've just been told that hundreds of thousands of death-dealing killing machines are digging their way down to kill you and you don't have long to live what are you going to do - shitty dirt rave (minus the glo-sticks I might add) or keep building more death-dealing power armour and EMP bombs?
Zion - no wonder Joey Pants wanted back in the Matrix. This is the fabled last free bastion of humanity? What a dump
TALKING LIKE A WANKER - 'nuff said

From the V - talking about Matrix Reloaded

Also, in the Stupid Column:
White Haired Council Dude: "Yo Party People in Da House! I give you: Mad Religious Nutjob to Make You All Feel Better"
Morpheus: "Hey everyone, I'm Morpheus and there's 250,000 hunter-killer robots with your names on who will be arriving for dinner some time tomorrow. Don't worry though, because I Talk Like A Wanker"
Crowd: "Oh that's OK then, let's all dance and fuck"

Enough of this - I'm off to play me some Vice City.

Comments on SCO silliness

Well, SCO's response to Novell was basically "Contract rights to UNIX. We have those, that's all we have ever claimed to have, and that's all we are suing IBM about." Any allusions to copyright or patent rights are presumably the fault of journalists or other parties, and have nothing to do with SCO (Kind of hard to reconcile that with comments like those about suing Linus Torvalds for patent infringement, though). So, what _is_ this all about, then?

A lot of people seem to be coming out and saying "The new SCO management are clueless dickheads with no idea whatsoever". That's certainly one option. Then there's Bruce Perens' favoured conspiracy theory - that Microsoft's prompt license purchase was nothing short of payment to SCO for some nice juicy Linux FUD. Myself, I'm still inclined towards the "let's get ourselves bought out by IBM approach". Big Blue is probably going to be pretty pragmatic about the whole deal. Rather than letting this drag on, and possibly hamper their Linux operations (it's blatant FUD, but it's _effective_ FUD), they may still decide to acquire SCO outright and just make the problem go away. Throw in the threat to their AIX distribution license, and this scenario becomes more likely.

However it plays out, it's going to be interesting to watch. I'm already amused by the idea of Novell and IBM being the good guys.

Wacky World

From Popbitch.com

One of the most popular new types of porn in Japan is called Tamakeri, or ball-kicking, where men get kicked in the testicles by pretty women. Getting constantly kicked in the bollocks is not good professionally for porn stars so Tamereki actors are recruited on the net or at S&M clubs.

Again from Japan - The Tailor of a Cat

"You do realize I AM going to kill you."

Comical Ali - yours to own on DVD or VHS

Relive all those wacky moments of comic genius from Gulf War 2

From the Ouch Department - Rectal Foreign Bodies

>
Bang Bang...

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TODAY'S OFFERING
Game Originality: Any Left? Adrenaline Vault has an interesting article: Been There, Done That

Microsoft Pulls XP Update Over Glitch
Microsoft Corp. withdrew a security improvement for its flagship Windows XP (news - web sites) software after it crippled Internet connections for some of the 600,000 users who installed it.
Need I actually comment?

Time for Novell to get in on the SCO debate:
Novell Challenges SCO Position, Reiterates Support for Linux
This article is very interesting. It makes SCO out to be a bigger bunch of wankers than even I thought of them. (see the quote below)
Summary: Defending its interests in developing services to operate on the Linux platform, Novell today issued a dual challenge to The SCO Group over its recent statements regarding its UNIX ownership and potential intellectual property rights claims over Linux.

"To Novell's knowledge, the 1995 agreement governing SCO's purchase of UNIX from Novell does not convey to SCO the associated copyrights," Messman said in the letter. "We believe it unlikely that SCO can demonstrate that it has any ownership interest whatsoever in those copyrights. Apparently you share this view, since over the last few months you have repeatedly asked Novell to transfer the copyrights to SCO, requests that Novell has rejected."

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A Fun Time-Waster!

If you're up for a little Java action, try a bout of Ricochet Robot. Try to find the fewest moves you need to get the robot in the basket! Or something.

Someone Has To Fight For Truth!

The world is a confusing, dangerous place. The truth is a power held only by a few. But someone's got to the bottom of it! Seek enlightenment here.

Welcome to Clicky-Click

PETA upset over treatment of fiberglass elephant - does this just sound stupid of what - then again what else do you expect from Americans...

Apple's New ITunes Falls Prey to Piracy - All this proves is that there are enough determined people out there willing to spend the time necessary to crack any kind of protection/security that the wankers RIAA. OF course if they simply made legal downloadable music easily to get than it is to circumvent whatever protection scheme they introduce, they might have a chance...

From the Stupid File - Disney to rent 'self-destructing' DVDs - Now isn't one of the really cool selling points of DVD's that they practically last forever? Now Disney want people to purchase films on a media that destroys itself - ie they want you keep paying and paying and paying and paying for what you like. No wonder so many people are keen to steal download the material these companies produce. Another great idea from the company that brought you this.

Finally - an error message we can all enjoy.

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**** TRANSMISSION INITIATED ****
SCO = Wankers!

SCO (Santa Cruz Operation) is a UNIX company running out of Lindon, Utah. Recently acquired by Caldera Systems. Caldera now trade as SCO to reflect that the market where most of their business is done is the UNIX market.

On March 7th SCO filed a suit in Utah claiming that IBM have (in the words of SCO Senior Vice President, Chris Sontag) "contaminated their Linux work with inappropriate knowledge from UNIX". This suit was filed not too long after IBM ended a joint development project to build a new 64-bit UNIX-based operating system for Intel platforms.

According to SCO, IBM are apparently attempting to destroy the value of UNIX by "improperly extracting and using the confidential and proprietary information" and releasing this information into the open source community. SCO also claim that this is an intentional malicious move by IBM to destroy SCO's livelihood.

SCO is threatening to revoke the licence for IBM to release AIX, IBM's own UNIX. Interesting, isn't it? SCO are claiming that IBM have released SCO's intellectual property in IBM's Linux distribution and are attempting to stop IBM from distributing its own UNIX! This is just business as usual, when SCO cant make it in the market they just sue the deepest pockets they can find and the arguments don't have to hold a lot of water for SCO either.

SCO are full members of the UnitedLinux project and until very recently SCO produced SCO Linux. Both of these products are covered under the GPL open source licence. This will prove to be SCO's major problem, how can IBM be guilty of something that SCO may already have done?

SCO are suing on the basis that they believe "It is not possible for Linux to rapidly reach UNIX performance standards for complete enterprise functionality without the misappropriation of UNIX code, methods or concepts to achieve such performance". There have been repeated calls from the industry for SCO to reveal the code it claims has been stolen, SCO has not been forthcoming with information.

Here I wish to quote an article by Mitch Wagner, a senior editor at InternetWeek. It points out the possible fuckup by SCO.

There is one intriguing scenario, suggested by Perens, where SCO might have a case but might have already lost it due to their own legal incompetence. Assume, as we have been, that there is proprietary Unix source code included in Linux. Assume that Linux vendors have been distributing this source code. Well, SCO is a Linux vendor too -- they announced on Wednesday that they are suspending distribution of Linux, but for years they did distribute Linux, under the same General Public License used for all Linux distributions. Since all the Linux vendors share source code, it's entirely possible that SCO was inadvertently distributing its own proprietary Unix code in its version of Linux. In that case, SCO would've already released its Unix source code into open source. SCO says, "Whoops!" the Linux community says, "Hooray!" and the English language has a replacement for the phrase, "Hoist by his own petard."

Does it bother anyone else that SCO own the intellectual property rights to UNIX? This bunch of morons are destroying the UNIX and Linux markets by attempting to stop IBM with AIX and threatening commercial Linux users across the board!

Am I the only one who thinks this way? No. Just ask anyone who has conducted DOS attack on SCO's website. I don't condone such action, but it is easy to see just how angered people are with SCO.

Maybe SCO is going to sue the FreeBSD project for being a free UNIX? It wouldn't surprise me if this were the case even though when offered SCO IP several years ago the FreeBSD team were not interested. (BSD largely comes from 6th and 7th Edition of UNIX which is pre-System V / SCO)

In an interview posted on Business Week Online McBride was asked about the future of SCO in the Linux Community. He replied stating: "We would be happy to sit down and get a resolution on this so we can all live together peacefully." Bullfuck! SCO would rather crush Linux out of the way and increase their marketshare of UNIX.

The whole bloody situation with this suit is total crap. SCO is pissed at IBM for cancelling the 64bit UNIX / Intel platform project. SCO is pissed at Linux because Linux is taking some of SCO's market and also because SCO can't make much money from it. The dickheads are grasping at straws because they can't come up with a way to compete and aren't willing enough to compete. Don't tell em you can't make money from Linux. If that were true Red Hat and SuSE wouldn't exist. SCO would rather have the whole market wrapped around their little finger without having to do too much to acquire it, they want the whole bloody server market dumped on their lap!

If you were so search a dictionary the following would be returned.

2 entries found for SCO.
Santa Cruz Operation
1 n. A supplier of Unix systems for x86 microprocessors.
2 n. A bunch of arse-licking, bum-loving, monkey-spanking, wankers!

I suggest the SCO change their name to one of the following:
Shonky Crap Organisation
Stupid Cranky Orang-utans
Stinky Crud Organ
Stuff Cock up Orifice
Suing Creates Onmipotence

Basically I am trying to say that SCO are a group of dick-licking, moronic, arse-spanking, cock-rockets who should wake the hell up!

You have just been reading another Brain Fart from Grant
****TRANSMISSION TERMINATED****

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One please

The future of space travel?
(Useless damn w.bloggar keeps timing out for some undoubtedly stupid reason)

Politician = Hypocrite????? Never.......

In recent weeks we've seen a wonderful press-led witch-hunt in Australia targeted against the now former Governer-General Peter Hollingworth. One of those leading the charge in this crusade has been Queensland Premier Peter Bleattie Beattie. Beattie claims that he "had to do the right thing for the children of Australia". Surely Beattie himself should be asked whether he did the right thing for the children of Australia during his time as State Secretary and later Leader of the Queensland Labor Party. Of course this is the same man who claims to have known nothing of the organized electoral rorting that occurred within the Queensland Labor Party while he was the most powerful party official in the state...

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TODAY'S OFFERING

ExtremeTech Testing Confirms Futuremark Discovery of nVidia, ATI "Cheats"

Inside Microsoft's New F# Language

Decides Munich city hall SPD for Linux
Microsoft have been ordered "Under no circumstances lose to Linux". They offer massive (up to 90%) discounts to large organisations to stop them from implementing Linux. This article is about Munich cuty administration, Germany's self-proclaimed technology capital, refusing the Microsoft offer. Not suprising really SuSE linux is German based and is distributed in German ans well as English...there probably is something here with Germany supporting German business. NOTE: the article is a Babelfish translation so it is a little like understanding Yoda with poor communication skills.

Nice little joke i found:
Who said that Microsoft has closed the doors for the alternative operating system's success? Here is how Microsoft and their technologies can help an alternative OS distribution:
"1. Make a bootable image of your OS,
2. Attach it to an e-mail,
3. Attatch Rawrite.exe to the same e-mail,
4. Make a VBS script that writes it to the disk of the e-mail receiver, and also sends copies of itself on to all the receiver's friends,
5. Send the email to all _your_ friends and addresses in your contact list (at least they'll be for now).
Unconfirmed step 6: Go to jail."
The joke was first published on the alt.os.develop newsgroup.


Another funny one
I shall seek and find you...
I shall take you to bed and control you...
I will make you ache, shake and sweat until you grunt and groan...
I will make you beg for mercy...
I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I leave you...
and you will be weak for days.
All my love,
The Flu...

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The Many Bruce's

No not The Bruce - but the martial arts one - Bruce Li. It's amazing how many movies a lookalike can do.


Plus why bunnes and cables don't mix.

Personal Thought for the Day

The System Is Down

I swear, computers hated me yesterday. I got into work, and almost immediately, one of the database systems we use collapsed. This was the funky one, with links to other databases, so its loss was a bit of a bugger. It left us with the backup system that doesn't give even half as much of the info as the other one did. So that was a bugger.

Then, about halfway through the shift, the main system we use for despatch decided to die - so we could no longer check addresses, phone numbers, yadda yadda yadda - so when 000 calls came in, we no longer had information at our fingertips. We were forced to use the backup system - bits of cardboard that get filled out and run around the room. We were so totally l33t.

And then, I get home, turn on my computer, and check my email. The email downloads, I go to load up a new page, and DSL dies. Not that that should be any great surprise. It's about the fifth time it's died this week alone. Still, the timing was eerie. So I am less than impressed with computers right at the moment.

Now, some of you may be thinking 'Aaah, but that's not the computer's fault, it's the fault of the people who support it. Oh, and DSL is a phoneline thing, not a computer thing.' To which I say, you're a Nazi computer sympathiser who cannot recognise the evil conspiracy that is taking shape against me, so you should die in a nasty and graphic way I don't have the imagination to describe right at the moment. There. That put 'em in their place.

Humiliations galore.

Used to be, if you got caught making a dickhead of yourself on camera, your friends might find out and laugh at you.

Then the Internet came, and the whole world can laugh at you.

These days, not only can the world laugh at you, they can add special effects. (Download the unedited version first.)

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TODAY'S OFFERING

Own you own acre of land for US$29.95...on the Moon!

Cool Cases and stuff from Alien Ware


Giant Lava Lamp found in Soap Lake WA USA

IBM Unmoved by SCO Linux Wrangle

IBM is combining two popular concepts in computing--Linux clusters and blade servers--into a standard system for businesses and research institutions.

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Another Equilibrium Link

Some people just have way too much time on their hands. Honestly. Check it out.

Tag

I'm tired, I'm sore, I just finished playing Oztag tonight. The team went down 8-4 (I think) to a bunch of blokes who've been playing for 7 seasons or so. Not too shabby an effort for only our third proper game. I just wish that the opposition's tags would fall off as easily as ours seem to :(

Tasteless

If it's not one thing...

One thing I've been finding lately about the DSL connection here is that it seems to decide to die every few hours. I'm not sure if it's the same thing, or the wireless connection - but what happened this morning makes me think something's got it in for me.

After just having finished night shift (no rant forthcoming - I kind of like night shifts), I resolved to use the net to keep me awake to help shift my biorhythm back to more diurnal hours. So at 9:30... the power goes off.

The outage only lasts a few seconds, but when it comes back on, DSL is dead. With nothing else to do, really, I went to sleep. Woke up at 5:30 this afternoon. Frigging wonderful. *sigh*

WOOHOOO!

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TODAY'S OFFERING

Microsoft to license UNIX source code

A WANKER UPDATE:
OSI Position Paper on the SCO-vs.-IBM Complaint
The Smoking Gun? Microsoft's Back Door Funding of SCO!
Sun, HP: SCO probably won't touch us

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Wierd Al

The new album is out.

A Complicated Song makes Avril Lavigne tolerable.

That is all.

More Matrix Stuff

[Engage Geek Mode]
HUGE SPOILER WARNING:

What follows is the Architect's speech, transcribed with notes: I'm posting this because it was an awful lot of information to digest in one sitting, plus it also tends to put a whole new spin the what the hell's going on. It's in magic inviso-text, so just highlight to read it.

"Hello Neo."
"Who are you?"
"I am the Architect. I created the Matrix. I've been waiting for you. You have many questions and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human, ergo some of my answers you will understand and some of them you will not. Concordantly while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize that it also the most irrelevant."
"Why am I here?"
"Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the Matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomoly which despite my sincerest efforts I've been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. WHile it remains a burden assiduously avoided it is not unexpected and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you inexorably... here."
"You haven't answered my question."
"Quite right. Interesting... that was quicker than the others."
Now Neo's other selves in the monitors start asking all sort of questions, like "Others? What others?", etc...
"The Matrix is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomoly to the emergence of the next in which case this is the sixth version."
Now the others Neo's start cursing and calling him a liar as we zoom into one of the Neos on the screen who says...
"There are either two possible explanations... either no one told me... or no one knows."
"Precisely. As you are undoubtedly gathering, the anomoly is systemic, creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations."
Now the other Neos start screaming "You can't control me! I'm gonna smash you..." etc...
The camera again zooms into another Neo in the center screen...
"Choice. The problem is choice."
"The first Matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect. It was a work of art. Flawless. Sublime. A triumph equalled only by its monumental failure. The inevitablility of its doom as aparent to me now is a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being. Thus I redesigned it... based on your history. To more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However I was again frustrated by failure. I've since come to understand the answer alluded me because it required a lesser mind or perhaps a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus the answer was stumbled upon by another... an intuitive program. Initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the Matrix... she would undoubtedly be its mother."
"The Oracle."
"Please. As I was saying she stumbled upon a solution whereby 99 percent of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice. Even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. While thid answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory... systemic anomoly... That if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those that refuse the program, while a minority, if unchecked would constitute an escalating probability of disaster."
"This is about Zion."
"You are here because Zion is about to the destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existance eradicated."
"Bullshit"... the other Neo also say "Bullshit."
"Denial is the most predicatable of all human responses. But rest assured... this will be the 6th time we have destroyed it. And we have become exceedingly efficient at it."
Now there's Trinity fighting the Agent.
"The function of the One is now to return to the source allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from the Matrix, 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash, killing everyone connected to the Matrix, which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race."
"You wont let it happen, you can't. You need huamn beings to survive."
"There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world."
Architect clicks his pen and the screens change to varioud human beings.
"It is interesting reading your reactions. Your five predecessors were, by design, based on a similar predication, a contigent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the One. While the others experienced this in a very general way, your experience is far more specific... vis-a-vis... love."
"Trinity."
"She entered the Matrix to save your life, at the cost of her own."
"No."
"Which brings us at last, to the moment of truth, where the fundamental flaw is ulimately expressed and the anomoly revealed as both beginning... and end. There are two doors. The door to your right leads to the source and the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to the Matrix, to her and to the end of your species. As you eloquently put, the problem is choice. But we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction, the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason, and emotion that is already blinding you from the simple and obvious truth... she is going to die and there's nothing you can do to stop it."
Neo takes the door to the left, but stops before leaving as Architect says...
"Hope... it is the quinisential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness."
"If I were you, I would hope that we don't meet again."
"We wont."
As I said - it's alot of information - which we've got to wait until November to find out wether they're true or not...

More Matrix Reloaded comments

I'll have to concur with both James and Grant - lots of interesting ideas to make you think, and many scenes that could have lost a couple of minutes each and improved the pacing of the movie. Excellent wire fu and car fu, and more philosophy than in the rest of Hollywood's action blockbusters put together. Absolutely the longest credits sequence I have ever seen. For those who stick it out though, there is some very nice eye candy waiting. . ..

For Those Who Don't Get Out Much

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TODAY'S OFFERING
Cool Stuff
Set Of Circuitboard Coasters
RTFM Mug
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
will work for bandwidth
This is soooo nerdy that I just have to have one: The Binary Clock Lost more funky stuff at Think Geek


Interesting: Does Gaming Reduce Productivity?

Italian diplomat dobbed in by 'tattle-tale' Kiwis
The Italian ambassador in New Zealand has hit back at the country's drivers, labelling them "very, very bad" after several reported him for speeding and dangerous driving.

A SCO / Wanker update
SCO sucks and I ain't the only one who thinks it:
Online petition challenges SCO
Linux users invited to sign 'Hey SCO, sue me' ultimatum

SCO are fucking over the Open Source community and are deterring people from getting involved.
Open-Source Crowd Irked by SCO
Linux developers and distributors are infuriated and perplexed by recent legal action and threats aimed at the entire development community by the SCO Group, formerly known as Caldera International.

SCO Turns Cartwheels for SCOx
SCOx App Framework Now Works With "Unauthorized Unix Derivatives"

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Why God Why???

Need any further sign that Hollywood is bankrupt of any kind of creative quality whatsoever - witness this travesty

Snoop will play a pilot in MGM's upcoming urban version of the 1980 satirical farce starring Robert Hays ("Dr. T & the Women") and featuring Leslie Nielsen ("The Naked Gun"), with Meth onboard as his best friend Muggsy.

I mean - Why on God's green earth do you need to remake Flying High??? (better know by the Seppos as Airplane) - a great film that still stands up today - let along update it as a urban version??? I mean - what the F@ck is an urban version - just an excuse for a couple of sadd-ass "rap stars" (and I use the term stars loosely) to get together and make dodge pot jokes and wear lots of bling-bling jewelry?

Instead of spending money to make something worthwhile, lets just make mindless, insipid crap.

Once more Hollywood a big fat fuck you for doing this kind of crap.

I ain't that dodgy

I only got 20 years, and didn't get fined a cent :)

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TODAY'S OFFERING

What if SCO are NOT bunch of wankers? What If SCO Is Right?

Case Mod Stupidity...I'll have an Atlas thanks.

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Purity Test Results
This from soneone I work with:
Years in prison: 107.5 Potential fine: £4500

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My Matrix Reloaded Comments
All in all, great.
The Fight scenes went on too long in most cases though. The Zion dancing/bonk scene was far too drawn out and looked like the producers from Blade had their fingers into it.
I'm not dissapointed with the lack of Gun-Fu, that was very present in the first movie. Very happy with the use of swords, maces, shields and other medieval like stuff.

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Another Matrix Reloaded Review

I found an... interesting review here. I'm thinking I need to visit this site more often.

Revamping A Classic

We've all played Paper, Scissors, Rock. Now for the upgrade - Paper, Scissors, Rock, Lizard, Spock!

Oh, and if you don't understand the reference to the Law of Fives, seek enlightenment here. It incidentally also contains one of the most meaningful religious passages I've ever read. Seriously. (And visit the link before getting all atheistically snooty at me, you intolerant buffoons.) All Hail Eris!

How dodgy am I


acording to the quiz, Grant gets me on the Years but I get him on the fine.
My score...
Years in prison: 40.5 Potential fine: £7000

Matrix Reloaded Comments

Just seen Matrix Reloaded for the first time tonight. Enjoyable movie which raises alot of questions about my preconceived notions of how that world works. Delivers on the Kung-Fu, but is disappointingly light on the Gun-Fu. I'll probably talk more about this flick once I've had a chance to see it again, but one question does immediately come to mind

....Why....Does....Morpheus....Talk.....Like....A.....Wanker.....?

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HOW DODGY ARE YOU?!
Click HERE and find out!
I only got 50 years and 2000 in fines

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Sick Sex Stories

Not really sick - but it makes a swell headline. Whoever though one of these

would make some kind of weird sex toy. ah - those crazy Scots.

HULK SMASH PUNY GURPS!

From a discussion of the failings of GURPS Supers on rec.games.frp.gurps; a poster had commented comic-book supers such as Thor and the Hulk could generally only be modelled on 10,000-odd points. Which spawned this post, by a Joseph Michael Bay:

Peter Meilinger writes:


>>> The problem with having any characters in the 10,000 point range is
>>> that it makes invulnerability to everything readily affordable.


>>And this is wrong for the Hulk or Thor just HOW?


>Mostly because they're not invulnerable to everything.


NOTHING CAN HURT HULK! HULK STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!!!!1!!


>Another problem with having characters in the 10,000+ point range
>is that it's just plain ridiculous to keep track of that many
>points.


WHERE POINTS GOING? HULK POINTS STAY ON HULK CHARACTER SHEET!!!
HULK NOT HAVE TO KEEP TRACK OF PUNY POINTS!!! GRRR RAAARRRRR!

In other news, the artist of Mac Hall has praise for Equilibrium -

I had to laugh. My friend Cary came over last night with Equilibrium. Holy ba-jesus. That movie has won the "best use of pistols" award from me. The whole time I was watching it though I couldn't help but notice how much the main character reminded me of Keanu Reaves.(I really don't care how you spell his name)Then it hit me. The main character had no emotions. Oh well... more ass-kicking.

Oh, yeah - Mac Hall is one of my favourite webcomics, as well. Read 8-Bit Theatre first, though. 8-Bit rocks.


Last, but not least - actually, probably least, but still funny - I got sent this link in my email the other day - a rather well-done parody of an Eminem track. (Find your own damn link to Eminem, you lazy pricks.)

Well, that's rather more html than I've slung ever before - so I'd better get some sleep.

---

COOL LINKS:
Cool Game see how you go ;~]

I gots to have me one of these! Reminds me a bit of this.

Cool Retro Systems

NEWS-LIKE NERD LINKS:
For Microsoft, Market Dominance Isn't Enough


I've said it before. I'll say it again. SCO ARE A BUNCH OF WANKERS!:
SCO Drops Linux, Says Current Vendors May Be Liable


Sun, however, ROCK! TWICE!

---

Juvie Turds

Well - that was an interesting night. It's 2am in the morning - I'm about to go to bed and what do I see - some little turd's just tried to set fire to my front yard. Little shits had filled one of those stupid large novelty tennis ball with fuel from someone's shed and had set both that and the fuel can alight. Now while this may strike some people as strange behaviour - setting fire to things in public at 2am in the morning - the fact that they did this while it was raining sets them apart as somewhat completely bloody stupid. Luckily for us - the rain put out the fire relatively quickly. This of course was just before a nice red fire truck came tearing up out street after this incident had been reported - some comment along the line of "someone's just set fire to my front yard" from one of the household members may have had something to do with that.

And here's a picture of a similar tennis ball pre-moron intervention

[Updated] And here's a picture of the offending fuel can.

...and Why I hate California

Lawsuit seeks to ban sale of Oreos to children in California

Why don't they just stop eating the crap like this? If it's bad for you - don't eat it. I mean - even McDonald's has discovered they can sell healthy stuff and make a profit.

This is Why I Like Texas

Texas House Seeks Arrest of Truant Dems

Why can't think happen to wankers and grand standers like Bob Brown?

What kind of Interesting Crypto-Sapphoid Goth Punk Anime Nymphette are you?

Well go on - make with the clicky clicky

I am an irritating narcissist

Please be my friend, I'll pretend to care.

8-Bit Theatre

If you're in need of a laugh, head over to 8-Bit Theatre and check out the archives. It's actually a storyline webcomic, and I find it's bloody hilarious. Many guffaws to be had.

I reckon, anyway.

And humour's a personal thing.

Oh, if you don't find it funny, sod off and make balloon animals with your intestines or something. Don't bother me about it.

---

INTERESTING IMAGES AND LINKS
IBM readies 'T-Rex' of mainframes

Check out what can be found lurking in Microsoft's Office 2000 Business Planner:

The new Windows CE based Toaster!: (Note the time)


What What What! Gates & slashdot!:


heh:

---

---

LARGE POST, WITH IMAGES

Calling all morons!

Stolen gnomes rounded up.
A MOTLEY crew of garden gnomes are in police custody after taking an unexpected seaside holiday over the weekend.

Breast excuse for bad driving
POLICE are shocked by some of the excuses Territory drivers are offering up for not wearing their seat belts, running red lights and speeding.

Google To Create "Blog" Search

Sonic Rocks!


What its like to be a sysadmin:


Its people like this that give rise to the nerd stereotype:


Interesting:


Weird:


More weirdness here.

---

Mad Movie Quotes

Dizzy: My mother always told me that violence doesn't solve anything.
Jean Rasczak: Really. I wonder what the city founders of Hiroshima would have to say about that.
Carmen: They wouldn't say anything. Hiroshima was destroyed.
Jean Rasczak: Correct. Violence has resolved more conflicts than anything else. The contrary opinion that violence doesn't solve anything is merely wishful thinking at its worst!

Starship Troopers - Cinematic quality at its best.

Look Out!!!

---

Joke: HARLEY DAVIDSON vs WOMAN

The inventor of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Corporation, Arthur Davidson,
died and went to heaven.

At the gates, St. Peter told Arthur, "Since you've been such a good man and
your motorcycles have changed the world, your reward is you can hang out
with anyone you want in Heaven." Arthur thought about it for a minute and
then said, "I want to hang out with God."

St. Peter took Arthur to the Throne Room, and introduced him to God. Arthur
then asked God, "Hey, aren't you the inventor of woman?" God said, "Ah,
yes." "Well," said Arthur, "professional to professional, you have some
major design flaws in your invention:

1. There's too much inconsistency in the front-end protrusion.
2. It chatters constantly at high speeds.
3. Most of the rear ends are too soft and wobble too much.
4. The intake is placed way too close to the exhaust.
5. And the maintenance costs are outrageous."

"Hmmmm, you may have some good points there," replied God, "hold on."

God went to his Celestial super computer, typed in a few words and waited
for the results. The computer printed out a slip of paper and God read it.
"Well, it may be true that my invention is flawed," God said to Arthur, "but
according to these numbers, more men are riding my invention than yours."

---

The Disposable Age


Does your PC need a new box???

PC Box

Okay I want one just for the sake of it, But it's still very wrong

---

Links of interest
Wasn't too sure if people wanted me to post this again, but...w.bloggar is what i use to post.

For a bit of nerd-related humor: ubergeek.tv. Have a look at the 'Switch to Linux' and the 'Switch to Mac' animations.

Some things are plainly rediculous.

Klingon Interpreter Needed In Oregon

The Deepest Photo Ever Taken

The title says it all: Six Monkeys And An Old PC

World's Most Powerful Laser

Is There Any Reason To Buy Microsoft Anymore?

---

News From China

Chat log follows...


dragynlance: fuck man i am having the wierdest night of my life
Crispy: What's going on?
dragynlance: some chinese chick rings the intercom
Crispy: "I your wiiiiiife." ?
dragynlance: and says somthing in chinese with my flatmates chinese name in the middle of it
Crispy: Riiiight...
Crispy: (Not that I don't believe you... just a drawn-out 'right')
dragynlance: so we buzz her in and it first looks like she wants us to change her phone from english to chinese
dragynlance: then she sits down
Crispy: Man, you're freaking me out here. :P
dragynlance: now things get weird from here on in
dragynlance: then we thought that she was possibly a pro
Crispy: Yeah...
Crispy: And you decided to offer some cash to see what happened?
dragynlance: now i am at the office away from my appartment as my boss and and my flat mate sort this out
dragynlance: no no no
dragynlance: FUCK NO
Crispy: Okay. So you're hiding from your apartment while your boss and flatmate try and throw out a prostitute?
dragynlance: now it seems that she is a night club girl (not pro as far as we can determine) and wants english lessons
Crispy: Film at 11! :)
dragynlance: did i mention that she can't speak a word of english
Crispy: Oh, that helps. :)
dragynlance: now all (and i mean ALL) of the clubs in Tangshan where i am are owned and run by triads.
Crispy: Of course.
dragynlance: Now if my flatmate deciedes to teach her english then more girls might come to learn english
Crispy: (Speaking of which - Night City triads tried to set a trap... more on that later)
dragynlance: and if he says no then their bosses might come round and say YES
dragynlance: ok
Crispy: Oh, great.
dragynlance: now if he says no again then it they might not be nice after that
Crispy: Because I'm guessing they can say yes a whole lot harder than you can say no. :)
dragynlance: or
dragynlance: pretty much
dragynlance: now she could be caseing the place to c what we have and then come back later and knock our stuff off
Crispy: This just gets better, doesn't it?
dragynlance: and now our boss and and my flat mate are comming back to the office so we will c what we will c.
dragynlance: who else is online atm?
dragynlance: send the transcript to them and c waht they say
dragynlance: what even
Crispy: I'm showing James A's computer online, but he's away - other than that, nothing. And that's what the blog's for. :)
dragynlance: i can't use it from the office as the system is in chinese and i can't read it
Crispy: No worries - am going to post for you. :)
dragynlance: she was a pro after all
Crispy: She was? Fair enough, then. :)


Not quite a girlfriend, but, hey, sometimes you've got to get what you can get. :)

We're Not The Only Ones

Have a look inside the crazy world of International Politics!

Wedding

Just got back from a wedding.  Chidge - one of the guys from the QCC.  Wedding manages to wipe out almost half the team from this weekend's game.  Oh well - what was left with the ring-ins still manged to chalk up a comfortable victory.  Well done guys.

As for the wedding. Reception - the fun part :) - was held up at Redcliffe - consequently we decided to book a hotel room and spend the night up there. Therefore I took to opportunity to drink = much fun. Having to be back in Brisbane to start work on Sunday at 10am gave me a finite time as to when I had to stop drinking - but I think I did reasonably well considering. Was very surprised that we didn't get kicked out of the hotel room for making too much of a racket after 2am - some bloody annoying old sheep-shagger cow banged on our door to complain we were making too much noise - but I don't think we really gave a toss what she thought.

Not surprisingly - got little sleep - what with the drunken antics going on all around me. Dragged out of bed to drive back into Brisbane for work - had fun (not) breathing in carbon monoxide fumes for three hours or so - came home - watched Bronco's annihilate poor bloody Cowboys . Think I'll now take a nap before watching Liverpool continue their proud tradition of fucking everything up by loosing to Chelsea in the final game of the season and miss out on the Champions League. Bah humbug - might have another drink first.

Why I Hate Early Shifts

Alarm. Already? Still dark. Oh, early today. Time. What's the time. Can I snooze it? Yeah, think so. Shit. Alarm again. So soon. Fuck. Can't snooze it again. Right. Shower. Shave. This razorhead's blunt. OK. Have others, ditch it. Shit, where're the others? Fuck off. That's bullshit. I fucking bought ten of the fuckers. Shit. Rummage through bin. There it is. Fuck. Shave. Still rough. Fuck it, running late. Clean shirt - good. There's one. Iron it? Fuck ironing. No time. Fuck. Shit. Right. Socks. Where're socks? Shit. Just spent two minutes staring at floor. Fuck. Wake up. Right. Out back gate. Try to find lock. Can't fucking see it. Feel it out, already. Right. Okay. Shit. That's a train at the station. Which train? Can't see, can only hear. Fuck. Is it the train I've got to catch? Fucking hope not. Oh. Good. It's heading off the other way. Right. Buy ticket. Empty fucking platform - looks like every other bastard's got the right fucking idea. Sun still not up. Train. Fucking spotlights on front. Ow. Too early. Get on train. Warmer than outside. Sit. Wait two stops. Still dark. Shit, this is Roma Street. Fuck. Get off. Show ticket on way out. Get to work. Get headset. Sit down.

Silence.

Go do crosswords in paper. Ten minutes later, all but two. Will never get those two words. Give up. Read book. Philip K. Dick. Bunch of drugged-up zonkheads getting confused. One is nark. Nark assigned to gather evidence against his own cover identity. World gradually dissolves for Nark. Can sympathise - am zonked out myself. Start trying to sneak nap. Doesn't quite work. Words just said lost in haze of sleepy unreality. Finish time comes round. Leave. Was in before sun came up, now early afternoon. Too bright. Ow. Come home. Must stay awake. Early again tomorrow. Watch TV. Only thing worth watching 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. Give up after the old bamboo. Come downstairs. Decide to grab sleep anyway. Wake up. Know will not sleep good tonight. Tomorrow just as bad. Fuck.

---

Some Interesting Articles
Microsoft faces new licensing row
Microsoft = Bastard Inc!

Microsoft, Best Buy accused of scam
A Los Angeles man has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Best Buy and Microsoft, accusing them of scamming customers by charging them for online services without their knowledge.

The Long Arm of Longhorn
No one, not even Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates, seems to know whether Microsoft's next operating system will be a blessing or a curse.

Why IT won't let you customize your PC

---

Underworld

Now this is a movie that I wouldn't mind seeing

ROTK!!!

From Dark Horizons

LOTR: Return of the King: A 4hr 20min runtime has been tipped according to bikkit.com

Huzzah!!!

Well, Y'know, They Might Have A Point

I do distinctly recall walking out of X2 plotting ways of destroying the Muslim religion, as the movie made so clear to me the evils of following the Koran. The movie made a definite point that the evil ragheads wanted nothing more than to mind-control innocent Christians to teleport into the White House and stab the President. It made me realise when Chuck was talking about tolerance and all that, that he was *actually*trying to unite the world against Islam. And rightfully so.

...and now, without my tongue in my cheek, I echo James' sentiment. What complete and total bullshit. I think it has more to do with delusions and wishful thinking from the 'civil rights group' than anything else - it's almost like they got bored, and said, "Hey, we need to get angry about something high-profile - let's go see X2 and see how we can get anti-Islam messages out of it!" Unbelievable. These people are supposed to be *supporting* Islam, but assuming anyone believes their bullshit, they're just creating an atmosphere of paranoia.

Oyyy. Magneto's right. Kill the lot of us.

PC Bullshit Strikes Again

So apparently X2 - a movie - is now hateful and inciting violence against Muslims because a "civil rights group" claim to have seen a possible glimpse of an Islamic symbol being worn by the film's chief bad guy.

Here's one opinion.... and another...

My opinion? What complete and total bullshit. For starters, do these morons understand that this is a fictional film - ie it's make believe. Secondly are they wasting their time searching for such "examples" which no-one else would have spotted, let alone cared about without their intervention. Thirdly - why on earth are they wasting our time with this bullshit? Go out in the real world and do something to make a difference. Don't waste your time with stupid press conferences and political grandstanding just to raise your profile in the media. Ghahhh - the United States - the land of the free and the home of the terminally stupid.

Miller Time

Not the most original headline... Anyway Dennis Miller is a U.S. comedian who's former show (Dennis Miller Live) wasn't one we got alot of in Australia. But what I did see of it, it was usuall pretty funny. Anyway - this is his first op-ed piece taking one of the world's self-apointed intellectual elites - Norman Mailer - to task

Read away...

There's also an interesting interview with Miller in the Washington Times.

Live from Mount Doom

Shatner's Ex-Wife Sues Over Horse Semen

From the Washington Post

"Mr. Shatner's offer to provide semen from the three stallions in question in frozen form is unacceptable to Ms. Lafferty," says the lawsuit, filed in late April in Woodford County Circuit Court. "Potential buyers of the breeding privileges do not want the semen in frozen format."

Ummm.... interesting headline.

GMing The Mature Way

From rec.games.frp.misc:

It finally happened. I just absolutely snapped.

It was a perfectly crafted mission. I had taken all the scenarios into
account, I was ready, it was gonna be the best one yet.

Then the stupid players groused it all up.

Now when I create a adventure, I place most of the encounters, patrols, traps,
etc ahead of time, based on what i think the chief Big Baddie would do, that
way if the players overcome the defenses or whathaveyou, its more of an
accomplishment, because they know I'm not just making stuff up to throw at
them.

So there they are, attempting to sneak into the ruins of the city to ambush the
bad guys, and what do they do?

They avoid EVERY SINGLE FRAKKIN TRAP PATROL ALARM SENTRY TWIG LEAF BLADE OF
FRAKKIN GRASS I SET UP.

That was the one scenario I hadnt taken into account, that they would
infiltrate the place perfectly (not easy with the defenses I had set up, I
never seen so many natural 10s in my life dammit - i swear they fixed the dice)

SO the adventure that was supposed to last us the whole weekend was over in
about an hour.

I then did what any GM in my position would do

I unleashed my trademark Giant Mutant Cyberlemmings.

"What??"
"I said, the door to the vehicle compund smashes open, and with a roar what
appears to be a giant grey cyborg lemming charges you."
"No seriously man, whats happening?"
"I just told you, that giant lemming is getting close, what are you doing?"
"um...I'm...shooting it?"
"well roll then."

they lost a couple NPCs to the undead chipmunks, and you wouldnt believe how
many clips they tore through when the squealing meemees attacked. They seemed
to be having a good time after they cleared out the nest of zombie tadpoles
tho.

I think there's something in that for all of us, don't you?

Who was that masked man...?

Caped Crusader Saves The Day!

---

Some Links...

We Love The Iraqi Information Minister
Iraqi Information Minister Merchandise

Visions of the Nanofuture

The prince of pop-up ads

---

Sit Down Surfing

The iLoo - just because you can doesn't mean you should.....

---

****TRANSMISSION INITIATED****
Telstra != Bastard Inc. ?...Sort Of

After a few calls to Telstra we have found that we can switch all our local and long-distance calls to Telstra free of charge....However...as we made enough noise about it the assistant offered us a pensioners discount (as the phone services are under the name of the home owner).
This sounds like a good thing. In fact it is. Note though, that Telstra does not advertise this discount to anyone. Telstra seen quite happy in charging full price to pesioners until they ask for a discount they have no idea actually exists!

You have just been reading another Brain Fart from Grant
****TRANSMISSION TERMINATED****

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Stupid White Man

Just because he's one of the most obnoxious hypocritical left-wing 'liberal' ideologuesout there - more information (from Dissent Magazine - a left wing site of all places) about the joke that is Michael Moore and how far his version of the truth is from reality.

As reviewers have pointed out, the logic of Bowling for Columbine often fails. One example, not yet noted, symbolizes a central problem in Moore's work. In trying to explain why Columbine happened, Moore floats the idea that Bill Clinton ordered a bombing in Sudan around the time of Columbine. He moves backward to show the violence endemic to American foreign policy, cutting and splicing together decontextualized images of America in Iran (1950s), Vietnam (1960s), Central America (1980s), and the Middle East (1990s). Clearly Moore was using this imagery to build up a sense of America as an inherently violent world power-arguing that America's violence is being turned against itself. If I followed his logic, he was also suggesting a specific link between American foreign policy and the Columbine killings. I admit to no knowledge of these particular students, but I find it hard to imagine they followed news about American action abroad, and I'm even surer they knew little about American intervention in Iran during the 1950s or even where Iran was. What I was left with were the decontextualized images Moore flung together in the hope that they would add up to a provocative point. But all I really had were decontextualized images.

---

****TRANSMISSION INITIATED****
Telstra = Bastard Inc.
Well I have finally got word back from iinet about by ADSL application:

A full Service Qualification has now been conducted on your nominated phone
line. Unfortunately your application for ADSL has been rejected due to the
phone line being an Invalid Service Number - Non-Telstra.

Bullfuck! That sucks dick!
This is because I have Optus phones. Basically this is Telstra saying:
"We cant sell you this service because we want you to pay for another service for no good reason first."
Admittedly we get free line rental but first we will have to have our accounts switched back to Telstra...I'm sure there is a cost involved with that.
"mimimimimi I'm Mr Telstra mimimimimi do as i say mimimimimimi"
One of the richest corps in Australia, easy to tell why: they are a bunch on money hungry dick suckers who like to fuck their users in the arse.

You have just been reading another Brain Fart from Grant
****TRANSMISSION TERMINATED****

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More Stupid Sci-Fi Stuff

While on this Sci-Fi TV whinge (too small to be an actual rant). From Sk8Jesus comparing Sci-Fi TV series set on space stations ...

"Other than their both having names ending in odd numbers, being set on space stations with Captains who were prophesied messiahs, hard-assed female first officers, super-small destroyer class starships specifically designed to fight their respective universes most powerful enemies and a gigantic war between the forces of Light and Dark, I don't see any similarities between the two shows."

And talking about Sci-Fi Spaceships...

Really Stupid Trek Stuff

Over the years, Star Trek has been responsible for a number of good things.  From introducing the talents of Patrick Stewart to a wider audience to......... well introducing the talents of Patrick Stewart to a wider audience.  This article however is probably the final nail in the Trek Franchise.  Congratulations Berman and Braga - you two assholes have killed the golden cash-cow.

Oi, Grant!

Could you chuck us an email with your home and work emails in it? I just tried mailing out a BIG Weekend summary thingo, and it bounced from the old one 'cos I couldn't update it. (Bounced from James', for that matter, but that was just the stupid bloody machine deciding to use an address other than the one in the address book.)

Cheers!

Quote of the Day

From Aus.Film discussing the problems with movie critics.

"lets face unless its some arty farty movie about french killer lesbians saving jewish homosexual piano playing whales stuck in the ice....it'll never get a good review."

---

Some Interesting Links
Brisbane Mesh

On the Edge: Interplanetary Internet

Insanity Test
NOTES:
[1] Turn on the Speakers and allow the page to load fully
[2] Stare at the Picture without laughing for 60 seconds
[3] If you start laughing consider yourself legally insane

Man in schoolgirls uniform arrested

Karaoke proves deadly About damn time!

Have I mentioned that SCO are a bunch of wankers?
Here are some related articles
SCO sues Big Blue over Unix, Linux
Editor's Note: Excuse Me, Mr. McBride...
SuSE sheltered by SCO pact

---

You Might Be American If...

You think America is the only country on Earth.

You describe everyone with whom you disagree as 'liberal'.

For some reason, 'liberal' is a dirty word in American politics, and if the list is right, I can see why - but I don't even know what 'liberal' means in the American political context any more. Gets thrown around like beer at a quaff-fest.

Though I would say that Dubya *is* a bigger threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein at the moment. I'm comparing 'chance to go nuts and nuke world' with, well, 'might pop up on a newscast somewhere'.

And SUVs only support terrorists in that they're a fucking danger to everything on suburban streets. So yeah, they're an instrument of terror, all right.

You know another thing I hate? When you've got a rant all set up, full of vitriol and vigour, then instead of hitting 'post&publish' you hit the fucking blogger switch. I hate that.

Anyway, I should be off to bed. Briscon tomorrow!

Thought for the Day

From Boycott Hollywood

You might be a liberal if...

You think George W. Bush is a bigger threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein...

You think every problem is the direct result of the government not spending enough to solve it...

You think making $100,000 /yr makes you "rich"...

You think Fox News is a biased network, and Al Jazeerah isn't...

You think suicide bombers and other terrorists are "militants"...

The answer to every problem in the Middle East is the end of Israel...

You think Castro is anything other than a petty dictator...

You think a tax cut is bad for, but a tax hike helps the poor...

You think the Dixie Chicks and Tim Robbins should say what they want, but O'reilly, Hannity, and Limbaugh should shut up...

You trust CNN for anything beyond the current temperature...

You think SUVs are supportive of terrorists, but houses with 19 car garages are AOK...

You think wanting the US to win a war is jingoistic...

You think the deaths of soldiers is preferrable to another term of GWB as President...

You think FAIR, is...

You liken the Perdue factory to a concentration camp...

You think Clinton was a paragon of ethics...

You think the 2000 election was "stolen"...

You feel my pain...

You think "choice" applies only to abortion...

You think Mumia is a political prisoner...

You think the word "unilateral" is defined as "without France, Germany, and Russia"...

You think that every misbehaving child has ADD or needs therapy...

You're still convinced there are no infidels in Baghdad...

---

Joy to the world....the original iMac's dead!
cnet article

---

Essential Tips For Everyday Living

Building an Economic Android Head.

Finally, Back Online.

I have finally the wireless card I've needed to access this house's DSL router. This means I'm now online. And you know what? Nothing really went wrong with the install.

Let me repeat that.

Nothing. Went. Wrong.

I mean, it wasn't *bang* everything's ready - it did require a teensy amount of tinkering - but it was the kind of tinkering I could do. Sure, there was the unpleasant discovery that I needed to patch my TCP/IP settings so I could actually access webpages, but that was it. No pissfarting about, no "Oh Lord, Oh Jesus help me, why is this network not workin', Oh Lord, I'm halfway down the stairs". No random headbutts on innocent doors. (Not that there ever were. *That* door clearly had it coming.)

So, this wireless networking thing - encrypted, natch - is working well so far. Watch this space for bitching and moaning when it all goes to shit.

On second thoughts, if it all goes to shit, I won't be *able* to bitch and moan about it on here, so, I dunno, go and play in the park or something. Or in traffic.

Ummmmm........

Sweetwater postnatal abortion clinic is dedicated to providing women with a wide range of quality reproductive healthcare services. If you are faced with an unplanned pregnancy, a complicated pregnancy, or are thinking about having a post-natal abortion, we are here to help in every way possible. SPAC is committed to offering women and their families complete and informative reproductive services. Once informed of the risks and benefits of a termination procedure, it is our belief that a woman will possess the mental, moral, physical and emotional means to cope with difficult health issues, and make a decision that is most appropriate for herself and her family. Abortion is legal for women of all ages and no parental or spousal consent is required.