ADVERTISEMENT:

Get strong 128-bit SSL security for your online business - To secure your servers with 128-bit SSL encryption, download a copy of the free VeriSign Guide, "Securing Your Web site for Business." You'll learn everything you need to know about encrypting e-commerce transactions, securing corporate intranets, and authenticating your Web site.

Example: I invited all of my friends to sign up for Orfuckster this week, despite having just come down with a bad case of SNOT.

It has be...

The...

Reptile has been reported prone to a remote denial of service vulnerability. It has been reported that this issue ...

Pounder - A deal with $1,000 profit in it. "Doctor comes in and buys the top of the line model, fully loaded - and he pays sticker! That'll be a two pounder for me."

Rip their heads off - This describes taking a customer to the cleaners. "I stole their trade in, I sold them the car at a grand over sticker - I mean, I just ripped their heads off."

Roach - A customer with bad credit. Not to be confused with the "roach coach" (see entry below). "The guy looked good. But we ran his credit and he turned out to be a roach. We're talkin' a 400 credit score here."

Right now, it looks pretty much like an iteration of the Tribe.net system, with an eye on Friendster's apparent main function as a dating system. (Which means, oddly, it requests your business profile at the same time as it's asking you where you like to be fingered.) (...) It's faster than Fuckster and Tribe, but it shows that all these friend-of-a-friend things have really hit a wall. I mean, what can you actually do aside from invite all your friends and piss about on a couple of small message boards? Message boards that, unlike Tribe, allow anonymous postings and therefore devalue the message board experience? What happens after that? After you've gotten all your friends in -- whom you send email to or IM regularly in any case, presumably. That's it. All done. Until, I guess, yet another social network system opens and you start all over again.

These things want to be a hub for your Internet community experience, but they're just not necessary enough. Tribe gets closest, but it's nothing you're going to leave as an open window on your desktop all day. The first new social network system that builds an IM program into its structure may have a shot. The Delphiforums message boards have Jabber tacked on to them, which would have been brilliant when Delphi was at its height, but has gone pretty much unnoticed in the wake of their self-mutilating half-smart attempts to monetise. The idea was and is sound. The minute you make these things the easiest and most direct way to communicate with the personal network the system's let you build or collate, there's going to be a reason to keep the site on your desktop. And that has to be their goal. I mean, who builds a social network system that doesn't want people to use it all the time?

Pounder - A deal with $1,000 profit in it. "Doctor comes in and buys the top of the line model, fully loaded - and he pays sticker! That'll be a two pounder for me."

Rip their heads off - This describes taking a customer to the cleaners. "I stole their trade in, I sold them the car at a grand over sticker - I mean, I just ripped their heads off."

Roach - A customer with bad credit. Not to be confused with the "roach coach" (see entry below). "The guy looked good. But we ran his credit and he turned out to be a roach. We're talkin' a 400 credit score here."

Link

Don't tell me about one of the requirements of the position and then tell me that you don't want to follow it. "One of the requirements for Summer Internship says that you need to interview in person in New York City. I am interested in the position but I stay in East Nowhere, TN." OK, that's nice, hon, you stay there. Another PS, I thought we said in the requirements "Excellent command of written and spoken English." Oh, yes, indeed, that was our first requirement. So at least do yourself a favor and get someone to check your cover letter for obvious mistakes. Like I said, don't give me an excuse to throw your resume in the trash.

Link

(via /.)

Link

(via Fark)

Do these things have to suck? Damnifiknow. I know that there's a bunch of stuff I'd like from a social network analysis of my own inbox, voicecalls, and so forth. Today, I have an iTunes playlist ("Old friends") that just plays highly rated songs that haven't been played in the past 30 days. Why not a smart to-do list that reminds me to email old friends that I haven't called or written in the last season (credit: Alice)? Hell, how about something that gives me a distinctive ringtone for calls from out-of-touch old pals and the option to define attention-grabbing behavior (a chime, a prioritization, coloring) when they email?

Foe Romeo talks about how Google could have launched a YASNS that actually provided a useful service that end-users could still control but that Google could add a lot of value to: a FOAF explorer:

Google would not create its own closed social network, Orkut, but would instead make FOAF one of its quick searches, so that FOAF:Fiona Romeo would return my FOAF file as the primary search result, with friend and location filtering options. (Content about Fiona Romeo would also be returned but would be differentiated.)

Perhaps Google could add value by introducing a sense of authentication to FOAF, by indicating reciprocal links between FOAF files. I know that this result for Fiona Romeo is the correct one because her friends link to it. Oh, and I know that Matt Jones is really a friend of Fiona Romeo, because he says so too. (Plink, a FOAF search tool, gets this bit right.)

Link

..the feature documentary employes a checklist, based on actual diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and DSM IV, the standard tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. What emerges is a disturbing diagnosis.

Self-interested, amoral, callous and deceitful, a corporation's operational principles make it anti-social. It breaches social and legal standards to get its way even while it mimics the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism. It suffers no guilt. Diagnosis: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath.

Link

"These families of a rural neighborhood called Albo Eatha, south of Baghdad, were awakened at dawn by the 82nd Airborne's Alpha Company, 2nd Platoon, so their houses could be searched and their cooperation requested in stopping insurgent activities. Despite the early hour, the woman and children seemed cheerful. The imposition became an opportunity for them to socialize -- while helicopters and jet fighters flew overhead."

Links: Photos: Women and Children of Albo Eatha, and Coming Home Essay. Discussion forum here.

Five possible reasons there's a stretch limo parked outside

1. Japanese businessmen are considering a leveraged buyout of the Sunset District
2. Little Laotian man around the corner is secretly a rich, hostile pimp
3. Someone's about to receive a giant, novelty-sized check from Ed McMahon
4. The 85-year-old man next door is about to get a Queer Eye makeover
5. I'm actually Bon Jovi

Five ways I tend to feel after speaking with Sprint's Customer Service

1. Like I was just traded to another inmate for 2 packs of menthol cigarettes
2. Like I've been slapped repeatedly with a half-frozen sturgeon
3. Like I've accidentally just agreed to finish the homework of every kid in my middle school
4. Like somewhere in a big Sprint building, there's a fat man with a monocle and a top hat smoking a cigar while dancing a jig and holding a fat bag of five-dollar bills with my bewildered face on it
5. Very, very unclean

Link

ADVERTISEMENT:

Get strong 128-bit SSL security for your online business - To secure your servers with 128-bit SSL encryption, download a copy of the free VeriSign Guide, "Securing Your Web site for Business." You'll learn everything you need to know about encrypting e-commerce transactions, securing corporate intranets, and authenticating your Web site.

A vulnerability has been reported to exist in qmail-smtpd that may allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service con...

A buffer overflow vulnerability has been reported to exist in ELM e-mail client that may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary ...

"When you normally use radio-frequency technology, you get kind of a welding effect, where all the heat and energy are focused on one point," Byrnes said. "We are able to spread that heat over a large surface area -- a couple centimeters square -- which allows us to deliver large volumes of heat deep into the tissue."

A special filter diffuses the electromagnetic waves, so instead of welding the skin, the device can heat the dermis and subcutaneous tissue to about 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Farenheit), which causes collagen to contract.

Link

"For us, we think this is an interesting but natural extension of what we do every day," said Amazon spokesman Chris Bruzzo. "Our goal here was to make it as easy for people to make contributions to presidential campaigns as it is to buy the latest Harry Potter book."

Link

I'm quite taken with this pink art-tank (and the photodocumentary of its transformation) that's now parked near the London Bridge tube. Like a sword beaten into a pink ploughshare.

Link

(via Beyond the Beyond)

A four-day conference on the future of wireless, with full access to SXSW Interactive, that will include esteemed speakers such as:

* Keynote Speaker, Howard Rheingold -- Author, Smart Mobs
* Kevin Werbach -- Analyst/Writer
* Cory Doctorow -- Electronic Frontier Foundation
* David Weinberger -- Author, Small Pieces Loosely Joined
* David Isenberg -- Prosultant

Link

Link

(via Fark)

An increasingly out-of-touch Saddam makes sense. High-level scientists faking programs in order to get money for their own pet causes makes sense. Saddam's attitude toward the inspections makes sense because he thought there really were active WMD programs in place that would take time to dismantle. And it may be that even some of the exiles were telling the truth when they reported that Iraq still had active large-scale WMD programs. They might have been scammed the same way Saddam was.

Link

(via Electrolite)

Video artist and producer Ramiro Torres is best known for his sexy, creepy interstitial clips for MTV Latin America. Wanna see them on MTV USA? Don't hold your breath. Instead, click here. (via Fleshbot)

Do these things have to suck? Damnifiknow. I know that there's a bunch of stuff I'd like from a social network analysis of my own inbox, voicecalls, and so forth. Today, I have an iTunes playlist ("Old friends") that just plays highly rated songs that haven't been played in the past 30 days. Why not a smart to-do list that reminds me to email old friends that I haven't called or written in the last season (credit: Alice)? Hell, how about something that gives me a distinctive ringtone for calls from out-of-touch old pals and the option to define attention-grabbing behavior (a chime, a prioritization, coloring) when they email?

Foe Romeo talks about how Google could have launched a YASNS that actually provided a useful service that end-users could still control but that Google could add a lot of value to: a FOAF explorer:

Google would not create its own closed social network, Orkut, but would instead make FOAF one of its quick searches, so that FOAF:Fiona Romeo would return my FOAF file as the primary search result, with friend and location filtering options. (Content about Fiona Romeo would also be returned but would be differentiated.)

Perhaps Google could add value by introducing a sense of authentication to FOAF, by indicating reciprocal links between FOAF files. I know that this result for Fiona Romeo is the correct one because her friends link to it. Oh, and I know that Matt Jones is really a friend of Fiona Romeo, because he says so too. (Plink, a FOAF search tool, gets this bit right.)

Link

you think your tiny sucky blog makin me feel fear?
I get more hits in a week than you get all year
you cry a tear cuz you're jealous about my fame
talk a good one but never call me out by name (...)
small time dropping small thoughts for small minds
up against THE GREATEST HIP-HOP BLOG OF ALL TIME!? (portentous echo)

Link

Although there is no set profile of an avocado thief, law enforcement officials say many of them are transients or petty thieves who steal to support a drug habit, sometimes selling avocados to naive or unscrupulous roadside stands and restaurants or to wholesalers in Los Angeles. Last summer, in broad daylight, avocado thieves in Bonsall, west of Valley Center, shot at grove workers as they made their getaway. There were no injuries, but he thieves were never caught.

Ms. Cruz of the San Diego County sheriff's office said there tended to be a correlation between price and theft. Although reputable packing houses require documentation showing where avocados were grown, including an authorized signature, she said it was not difficult to launder avocados -- especially around the Super Bowl, which, along with Cinco de Mayo, is the biggest avocado day of the year. "They go anyplace you can think of," she said of rustled fruit. "There's a lot of guacamole out there."

Link

Link

(via Gizmodo)

Link

(via Hack the Planet)

I can't really figure out what's going on here -- Japanese people creating an "experiment" involving 320,000 ping-pong balls and a ski jump. Whatever the science, it sure is photogenic.

Link

(Thanks, Thomas)

The first time we went to lunch, I found out that Burrell's creativity extended beyond his engineering work. He would often try to convince our waitress to concoct variations of the standard fare on the menu, thinking of something different every time.

For example, after he successfully persuaded a waitress to divide his pizza toppings into thirds, he asked her to do fifths the next time. Or he would sometimes try to order mixed sodas as if they were cocktails, in ever varying proportions, like three quarters Coke, and one quarter Sprite. Often, the waitress would balk but Burrell was sometimes charming enough to eventually convince her to comply. He would also obsess on certain foods, becoming fixated on Bulgarian Beef sandwiches from Vivi's for a while, and then a Pineapple Pizza phase (see Pineapple Pizza) , evolving to his most enduring favorite, sushi, which provided a new range of interesting choices and combinations.

Link

(via blogaritaville)

The 1930 edition of the Burlesque and Side Degree Specialties, Paraphernalia and Costumes for Freemasons, scanned and posted to the Web. Now these are practical jokes!

Link

(via Making Light)

Get Your War On tackles the State of the Union speech.

Link

(via Electrolite)

Studying shelters in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1990s, Culhane found that although the long-term homeless made up only 10 percent of the homeless population over three years, they were using half of all shelter beds on any given night. And when Culhane compared the costs of supporting those with and without permanent housing, he discovered that it cost a city just $1,000 more annually per person to offer supportive housing - with services for mental health, addictions, employment, and other needs - than to care for the chronically homeless.

Link

12.2MB Quicktime Link

(via Kottke)

Beautiful, sculptural lamps to admire and buy.

Link

(Thanks, Evan!)

It is a digital pony express: five Motomen ride their routes five days a week, downloading and uploading e-mail. The system, developed by a Boston company, First Mile Solutions, uses a receiver box powered by the motorcycle's battery. The driver need only roll slowly past the school to download all the village's outgoing e-mail and deliver incoming e-mail. The school's computer system and antenna are powered by solar panels. Newly collected data is stored for the day in a computer strapped to the back of the motorcycle. At dusk, the motorcycles converge on the provincial capital, Ban Lung, where an advanced school is equipped with a satellite dish, allowing a bulk e-mail exchange with the outside world.

Link

(via WiFiNetNews)