Thursday, 14 March 2002

A bit of theological relief - Several friars at a monastery decided to start a business so they could make donations to a local charity which they deemed a worthy cause. After much deliberation, the friars decided that, due to their gardening expertise, they should start a flower business. After a couple months, the friars' flower business was doing extremely well - so well, in fact, that the local florist was beginning to suffer. The florist, realizing that his livelihood might be in jeopardy, approached the friars and asked them to find another business so that he might continue operating profitably. The friars politely said, "No." After a couple more months, the florist's business was very bad and things looked bleak. Realizing that her son's business was failing, the florist's mother approached the friars and asked them to cease the floral business so that her son could continue. The friars were polite but once again said, "No." A couple months more passed and the local florist had lost most of his customers to the friars. His family was suffering badly since the florist had practically no income. In desperation, the florist hired Hugh McNally, a local strongman to "convince" the friars to stop. Hugh went to the monastery and asked the friars to please discontinue selling flowers because they had taken most of the business of the village florist. Once again, the friars politely said, "No." Hugh, a man of great actions but few words and less temper, beat up a half dozen of the friars. He destroyed their flowers and trampled their gardens. Immediately, the friars had a meeting and decided that it was in everyone's best interests to terminate the business. The moral to this story is very simple: Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars. 8:09:19 PM    Comments ()

I'm referenced - I just discovered I've been referenced as "Zalakos, V. (1991)". Check it out! 8:03:19 PM    Comments ()

Google mentalplex - Just love this new technology. The web is advancing in leaps and bounds! Read the extracts bwlow of the whole scoop here. Makes you kind of proud to share the same planet as these guys. New!  Search smarter and faster with Google's MentalPlexTM Instructions: Remove hat and glasses. Peer into MentalPlex circle. DO NOT MOVE YOUR HEAD. Project mental image of what you want to find. Click or visualize clicking within the MentalPlex circle. Some extracts from the faq 3. Does MentalPlex search read minds? Don't be ridiculous. Mind-reading is impossible. MentalPlex technology senses electronic field variations created by concentrated thought and can interpret those field variations as broad categories of content. Mind-reading? Really now. We're talking about science here. 9. Who should NOT use MentalPlex? MentalPlex works well for almost everyone. There are a few people who may experience some difficulties with MentalPlex until they become accustomed to the interface. skeptics, cynics and doubting Thomases will likely find their queries cannot pass through their internal defense mechanisms the imaginatively challenged. MentalPlex requires fully formed mental pictures to function most effectively. Those who are unable to visualize the object of their desire in detail may receive disappointing results 3:17:25 PM    Comments ()

Super Virus Cover - Just received this email infected with the W32.Gibe.dam virus. Sneaky! From: "Microsoft Corporation Security Center" <rdquest12@microsoft.com>; To: "Microsoft Customer" <'customer@yourdomain.com'> Subject: Internet Security Update Reply-To: <rdquest12@microsoft.com>; Date: 13 Mar 2002 19:45:35 -0500 Microsoft Customer,      this is the latest version of security update, the known security vulnerabilities affecting Internet Explorer and MS Outlook/Express as well as six new vulnerabilities, and is discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-005. Install now to protect your computer from these vulnerabilities, the most serious of which could allow an attacker to run code on your computer. Description of several well-know vulnerabilities: - "Incorrect MIME Header Can Cause IE to Execute E-mail Attachment" vulnerability. If a malicious user sends an affected HTML e-mail or hosts an affected e-mail on a Web site, and a user opens the e-mail or visits the Web site, Internet Explorer automatically runs the executable on the user's computer.   - A vulnerability that could allow an unauthorized user to learn the locationof cached content on your computer. This could enable the unauthorized user to launch compiled HTML Help (.chm) files that contain shortcuts to executables, thereby enabling the unauthorized user to run the executables on your computer. - A new variant of the "Frame Domain Verification" vulnerability could enable a malicious Web site operator to open two browser windows, one in the Web site's domain and the other on your local file system, and to pass information from your computer to the Web site. - CLSID extension vulnerability. Attachments which end with a CLSID file extension do not show the actual full extension of the file when saved and viewed with Windows Explorer. This allows dangerous file types to look as though they are simple, harmless files - such as JPG or WAV files - that do not need to be blocked. System requirements: Versions of Windows no earlier than Windows 95. This update applies to: Versions of Internet Explorer no earlier than 4.01 Versions of MS Outlook no earlier than 8.00 Versions of MS Outlook Express no earlier than 4.01 How to install Run attached file q216309.exe How to use You don't need to do anything after installing this item. For more information about these issues, read Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-005, or visit link below. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/default.asp If you have some questions about this article contact us at rdquest12@microsoft.com   Thank you for using Microsoft products. With friendly greetings, MS Internet Security Center. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft is registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Windows and Outlook are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. 11:51:24 AM    Comments ()

Therapy #5 - Motivation KR writes - Lately I have been going through a hard time ... the main thing that is going wrong rite now is School, I started year 10 this year and i HATE it, i have had some really hard time's with school work, it isn't that i cant do the work it is that i have a lack of motivation ... Well KS, motivation is an emotional state. That means you can feel motivated or not feel motivated at any moment of any day - just by choosing to. It's like deciding to feel happy or sad, friendly or hostile, co-operative or painful :-) Sometimes it helps to think about what you would like to end up doing, and how what you are doing now is important to help realise those longer term goals. Completing year 10 is pretty much essential to any kind of longer term study. Also you might like to think about what you enjoy about specific subjects or teachers or friends etc right now. There is sure to be something there you can like! Then think about what you don't like. And ask yourself why. If you don't get a good answer (like "I dunno") then ask again - you do know why, you know. Then see if those reasons are really important, comapred to your long term goals and ambitions. Here's a tip to help you get motivated at any time - any time! think of a time when you were totally motivated, a specific time as you think of that time, do you have a picture [in your mind] step into the picture [in your mind] and fully associate with the memory - see what you saw, feel what you felt, hear what you heard now - guess what: you are motivated! go do what you need to do! 11:44:48 AM    Comments ()

But where are the pictures? - Ever since Allan's return to blogging there have been no pictures posted to his site. I really like Allan's photographs. Perhaps he'll find his camera after the move... 7:12:56 AM    Comments ()

Space Web - I don't think so. AKMA discusses others observation that the web is really like space. The impetus for my question, the one I want to stick with, derives from my caution that all the ways in which "space" suits our exploration of the Web--and I don't dispute that fitness--may insulate us from the weirdness of the (non-)spatial or even placial features of the Web. The weird part is the Web I want to explore, and I don't want to have trouble recognizing it because I'm wearing "space"-colored glasses. I don't think so - isn't it more like crawling round a big cave in the dark. Not too sure what your hand or foot may touch next? And then being surprised when you find a cavern with beautiful stalactite and stalagmite structures. 7:05:50 AM    Comments ()