Wednesday, April 10, 2002

Morons in the News: PetsWarehouse.com Doesn't Like When You Say Mean Things About Them. I'm a little scared to say anything about this... Robert Novak of PetsWarehouse.com has decided that he doesn't like it when people talk about the quality of his products, and as opposed to providing competitive service, he chose to sue them, and won! This sets a horrible precedent for freedom of speech online. [Morons Dot Org] We covered this story a few weeks back, but some of you said you missed it, so here’s a quick redux. The short of it is if you think you can say anything you want online without consequences, you’re wrong.   Cheers,   Dusty   10:38:18 PM

Russia Says It Has Uncovered an American-Run Espionage Ring. Russia said it has broken an espionage ring that officials said employed a mind-altering drug in an effort to recruit an expert from a top-secret military plant. [New York Times: International News] Here’s a weird one from the “And You Thought the Cold War Was Over” file. US uses mind altering drugs make a zombie doc? Disappearing ink? I think we’re gonna need a little more detail before this wire report is credible.   Cheers,   Dusty   10:36:56 PM

Two Stars Have Astronomers Believing in New Form of Matter. An orbiting X-ray telescope has found two bizarre objects that may form a new star class and are perhaps filled with a new form of matter. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Science] Here’s more big news from outer space. Check out the Chandra websites for more views.   Cheers,   Dusty   10:32:34 PM

Astronomers detect 'cosmic web'. Astronomers chart the mysterious "dark matter" in the Universe. [BBC News: sci/tech] You know, I once saw something just like this. But that was a long time and a lotta mics ago. Still, fascinating stuff. Cheers, Dusty 10:25:37 PM

F.A.A. Is Still Mailing Its Newsletters to a Sept. 11 Hijacker. Nearly seven months after Ziad al-Jarrah crashed United Airlines Flight 93 into a field in Pennsylvania, the Federal Aviation Administration still includes Mr. Jarrah on its mailing list. By Dana Canedy. [New York Times: National] Yeah boy, the Bush administration is right on top of things, you betcha. Sheesh.   Cheers,   Dusty   10:21:59 PM

Virginia G.O.P. Director Accused of Wiretapping. The executive director of the Virginia Republican Party was indicted on four counts of breaking the state wiretapping law. By The New York Times. [New York Times: National] From the “Hypocrisy Gene In Action” file, we told you about this latest fetid GOP dirty trick a few days ago. Today a grand jury indicted the lying rat bastard Virginia GOP boss on 4 counts of wiretapping.   His hired weasel’s attempt to have the charges dismissed was laughed out of court. The weasel tried to claim the charges were politically motivated, though the truth is the investigation was begun by a GOP attorney general. Is there no lie the GOP won’t try?   Cheers,   Dusty   10:17:31 PM

Enron Offered Management Aid to Companies. Enron did not just find creative ways to manage its own cash flow and profits. It marketed that expertise to other major corporations. By David Barboza. [New York Times: Politics] Going to Enron for financial management is like hiring the captain of the Titanic to tech you to sail. So far we’re only seeing the string, but the tiger’s tail is just around the corner.   Cheers,   Dusty   10:09:45 PM

In New Rebuff to U.S., Sharon Pushes Military Sweep. A day ahead of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's arrival in Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to continue Israel's military sweep through the West Bank. [New York Times: International News] So, what does Bush say, now? “Come on, guys, I really mean it. Honest.” After 15 months of doing nothing, how can he expect to be taken seriously now? Considering we give the Israeli military $3 billion a year, he’s gotta be pissed. Let’s hope Colin Powell can accomplish something, ‘cause nobody is paying attention to Shrub.   Cheers,   Dusty   10:03:41 PM

Bookstore Cannot Be Forced to Divulge Buyers, Court Says. A bookstore does not have to turn over customer sales records to help police determine who bought a book on how to make illegal drugs, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. By The New York Times. [New York Times: Books] Let’s here it for the CO Supreme Court! They have unanimously ruled that individuals have the right to privacy when buying books. Seems like nothing more than common sense, but in these times of uncommon paranoia and ridiculous “Homeland Security” initiatives hidden from Congress, it’s nice to see basic rights protected.   Cheers,   Dusty   8:02:30 PM

Kazaa may contain a 'New' surprise. Some users were not aware that software which allows a browser to see New.net domain names is included in downloads from P2P sites such as Kazaa, BearShare and Webshots. [ZDNet Tech News] More frickin’ KaZaA spyware? Put this one in the “I Told You So” file.   Cheers,   Dusty   7:58:45 PM

Microsoft issues "critical" server fix. The cumulative patch for the company's Internet Information Server software fixes many older problems as well as 10 vulnerabilities found recently. [CNET News.com] Gee, a MS security fix for IIS that causes as many problems as it solves? You’re kidding, right?   Cheers,   Dusty   7:55:37 PM

pellucid: Dictionary.com Word of the Day. pellucid [Dictionary.com Word of the Day] 7:53:54 PM

Anomalies hint at magnetic pole flip. Strange variations in the Earth's magnetic field spotted in satellite data could be early signs of the poles swapping [New Scientist] At first glance, this might not seem like a big deal. But you’d be amazed how much of our current technology relies on stable magnetism. If we lose the poles for any extended period during a polarity swap, we’re in deep technical doo-doo.   Cheers,   Dusty   7:53:29 PM

Sonic Foundry debuts media management suite [IDG InfoWorld] Looks cool and hey, only 30 grand. Cheers, Dusty 7:47:52 PM

Random: Did NYC's Mayor Smoke Pot? "You bet.". The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will be running ads containing rather embarrassing quotes from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg... [Morons Dot Org] If you’re in the Big Apple in coming months, look for the new NORML campaign using NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg’s own words about his dope smoking to push for reform of the Draconian MJ laws that cost American citizens billions of dollars per year.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:40:44 PM

Random: Police Dog Bites Off Robbery Suspect's Penis. Chomp. [Morons Dot Org] Steal a pack of smokes, lose your dick. Yahoo is reporting a police dog pulled a Bobbit on a shoplifting subject. Ouch.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:37:27 PM

A trio of MS-Office security vulns. IE integration again [The Register] Here’s yet another new entry - 3, actually - for the massive “MS Security Holes” file.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:36:10 PM

New breed spam filter slashes junk email. On New Scientist [News Is Free: Popular Items] Razor, a free P2P anti-spam tool, promises to drastically cut the volume of unsolicited e-mail advertising by sharing ID markers for spam via public servers. The next generation is Folsom, which uses probability indexes to scan message content for spam, automatically identifying spam with an extremely high degree of accuracy and virtually no false positives. Encourage your ISP to give Razor and Folsom a try.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:32:00 PM

Microsoft Tries to Discredit Antitrust Testimony From SBC [ActiveWin] Jeez, this is like watching Sadam Hussein v. Osama bin Laden on one of those cheesy celebrity bad boy boxing matches. It’s hard to know who to root for when both sides suck.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:15:57 PM

Asteroid Impact Possible in 2880, Astronomers Conclude [Scientific American] Scientists are currently tracking a kilometer wide asteroid that calculations show has a reasonable chance of hitting Earth in 2880. A rock that big could spell catastrophic devastation for all life on Earth, but 900 years is a long time to prepare.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:14:38 PM

Morons in the News: States Want to Circumvent First Amendment With License Plates. Three states have teamed up to allow drivers the option of "Choose Life" license plates... [Morons Dot Org] State sponsored sloganeering? The KKKristian conservadolts at the American Family Association and other ultra-right fringe have convinced 3 states to offer anti-abortion license plates for an extra $25. The problem is this is an acute and obvious First Amendment violation. Find out why.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:11:17 PM

Cray's New Solid State Storage [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters] Wow! 224 gigs of storage and 80 gigs/sec bandwidth? Sign me up. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be quite a while before super high performance solid state disks make it into systems other than super-computers.   Cheers,   Dusty   6:06:23 PM

© Copyright 2002 Dusty Rhodes. Last update: 4/10/2002; 6:06:27 PM.