samedi 22 mai 2004

Out on a limb Among others at Brutally Honest Personals, Laine Doss is to be congratulated for sheer courage: "Buried under a mountain of credit-card bills and debt from spending like Paris Hilton on a bender, I live in the lousy part of Jersey City with three dogs and two rats, named Ratso Rizzo and Albino Andy. My dogs misbehave and are small toy poodles—the kiss of death for any man. (...) But I can probably kick someone to death with my legs of steel." Since I agree 100 percent about the three little monsters -- I've yet to mistake one of those horrors for a football, but the day will surely come -- I suspect it was in defending them that Laine discovered her thigh power. This pair may look inoffensive, but cross the Kid and you'll find that she can not only swear the hind leg off a donkey but kick like one too. I found those ads via Will Pate, and they come as a timely warning that if I was idiotic enough so much as to mention Lady E.'s elegant legs, I may not even live to rue the day. Until yesterday, I was convinced that I was in such deep trouble this time that about all I dared to listen to on the iPod was the J. Geils Band at a volume sufficient to empty my brainbox of anything else. Marianne considers this to be "de la musique de grabataire" and if you don't know what that means, it wasn't kind. Unlike Lady E. But that's another story. Out of Senegal, I'll soon be exploring the sound of King Ibu and his wife Tyia (thanks to Mike at WorldBeatPlanet). "No deadlines and no labels for King and Tyia. They are completely independent, musically, and loving the fact that there won't be 'some large entity coming in and telling you what to do, and to sell mass quantities,' Tyia said (talking to Californian journalist Christina Reed in January last year). 'The record labels colonize you,' King added." The write-ups remind me to drop a long-overdue link to the Britain-based 'African Musicians Profiles', good on links as well as some of the less well-known performers. Will P. also attracted my attention to 'What's Wrong with the Music Industry in One Long Sentence (annotated)' at the 'Big Picture'. "Annotated", be warned, is an understatement. There's so much wrong with the music industry that you could spend a couple of hours reading that sentence on it. While both Lady E. and the Wildcat both merit bouquets rather than simple blooms for things recently said, I'll keep quiet for now. With a flower of her own, 'Ataegina' reminds me that: "Parfois il faudrait juste se taire, parce qu'il n'y a rien à dire, parce que tout a l'air parfait, trop parfait, comme de l'eau immobile..." You don't need to understand French to admire her superb photo gallery. 8:48:45 PM  link   your views? [] OS X-men (and women) warned of hOle '"What, me worry?" — Alfred E. Neuman "That about summarizes the attitude many a Mac user has had about security. In recent years, Apple's relatively small user base looked on smugly as the horde of Windows users struggled with a plague of worms, viruses, and Trojan horses that rivaled anything Jehovah rained down on the Egyptians in the Book of Exodus."' Much excitement, it would seem, took hold of the technical blogosphere on Thursday. In the piece quoted above, Eric Bangeman "takes on security" at Mac.ArsTechnica, for those of us who can no longer luxuriate in being superior about our "safe operating system". Since many of my Mac OS X-using friends don't generally read all this technical stuff, simply take note that there is a big security hole in it. Apple has released a software update, Unsanity has turned out Paranoid Android for free and Jason Harris's whitepaper explains why they've done this. In the unlikely event that your software update panel fails to fetch you Apple's plug, the Panther one is here and the Jag version is here. I understood less than half of what I read at Mac OS X Hints, but have installed the android, since Apple's update appears to be insufficient. The PA works (several people have written nasty little things to frighten you and test it). One unknown remains why the Apple patch is dated May 24, but they think so different that I don't expect to be told. Oh, and should you decide that an iPod Mini just has to be your latest fashion accessory, but don't like the colour, Think Secret has revealed that the salesperson has been instructed to try to bribe you with "a free iPod case as an 'appeasement' or token of goodwill (via the "unofficial Apple blog"). Odd that. Thursday was the day when the clip on my leather iPod holster finally snapped. The iPod survived the fall without harm... I have also been through three Apple remote controls in less than six months. Is it just me, or have they stopped making things like they used to? 3:33:40 PM  link   your views? []

nick b. 2007 do share, don't steal, please credit under artistic licence terms; contributing friends (pix, other work) retain their rights.