(Posted, ironically enough, at 11:46 PM, the eleventh hour)
(The first part copied from a friend's journal, at http://dj-jonny-flash.livejournal.com/422999.html#cutid1).

On this day, the 11th day of the 11th month, at the 11th hour, the guns in Europe finally fell silent. The Great War, the War to End All Wars, the war know known as only the first World War, was over. Of all the wars in history, this is perhaps the most tragically pointless. There was no warlord with plans for world domination. There was no great social injustice to be corrected. There were no huddling masses yearning to be free. There was only a massive military buildup and a spiderweb of treaties that carried forward the petty rivalries of the nobility into the modern age, and threw millions of young men into the meat grinding hell of the trenches.

See his journal for a better narration of it than I could, but if you see nothing else, see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VtGbJHXTQ8

Worst ever game...

What would be the worst place ever to find a box of puppies?

The back of a running trash compactor at a grocery store.

As described in this Penny Arcade newspost, the PSP Go is not so much a platform as it is "a campaign of aggression against both retailers and consumers."

Microsoft, not one to be outdone, felt that their approach should be more of an outright war against consumers

This is offensive at its very core.
While Microsoft could claim that they are trying to make sure that the user experience is the best possible, such that the chances of a bad unit ruining a user's data are minimized, such claims would be limited to their vice-like control over what games may be sold on disc, and what games are available through marketplace as community or arcade games, as those games are provided to you with Microsoft's seal on them, either from the retailer, or directly from MS themselves in the case of the marketplace, guaranteeing you that Microsoft is giving this to you, confident that it is safe for your 360. However the purchase of a third-party accessory, like a memory unit, comes with it a lack of said guarantee. It's made by someone else, just like the batteries in my friends' controllers, and the charger that they came with. It should work fine, it might not. But that's YOUR risk.

But this is about a touch more than just Microsoft taking away your choices. This is about extortion. The price, per gigabyte, of a standard SD card is approximately 2-5 dollars at the up-to-4-gigabytes levels, leaving a 4 gigabyte storage card to cost around $20, more if purchased from a price-gouging retail store.

$30 in Microsoft's eyes gets you 512 MB. That's right. One EIGHTH of what you could buy in SD memory, for 1.5 times the price.

Now, is this Microsoft memory card faster? Is it better? Is it cherry-picked to guarantee you high performance and low error-rates?
No.
It is a bit slower than the highest-speed SD cards, uses about the same flash memory, and has the same average MTBF (mean-time between failure, or life expectancy). It even has the same number of write cycles. It's flash memory, nothing more, nothing less.

Oh yeah, and it won't work in anything but your 360. Want to save your stuff off on your computer for additional safe backup? Nope. Not happening.

But it doesn't stop there.

Microsoft sells their 120 GB HDD upgrade unit for around $150. This contains the mounting shell and a 120 GB 2.5" SATA PC HDD, specifically of a particular set of brands/models. The mounting shell converts between the SATA connection, and SATA power, to a proprietary connector. Oh yeah, and a nice etching of "120GB HDD".
For $150, one can buy, from certain unscrupulous sellers, the mounting shell (around $30) and a 1.5 TB HDD.

Not that it would work in the 360, but still.

That's right. Microsoft is charging $30 more, for less than one TENTH the size.

Again, we could ask the questions we asked of MS's memory cards -- and again the answer is No.
They're not faster hard drives, they are not of any special performance compared to other similar brands of hard drives, and they are not by ANY MEANS longer lasting, in fact 360 hard drives receive such strange write patterns that they will wear out SOONER.

---

Conclusion: This update is nothing more than an assault on the consumers, and 3rd parties, one of the ONLY things they have left over the PS3.

http://io9.com/5381153/flesh-blob-robot-makes-its-crawly-debut

Squishy.  Robot.  In your hand.

Freakin' awesome.


RRRRROOOOOOOOBBBBBAAWWWWTTTT!!!!

Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.
-Dan Barker, www.quotationspage.com/quote/26815.html

Do you agree?

Yes/No/Daboo

Saw this terrific movie this evening.  Absolutely fantastic, one of the best I've seen, and one of the best zombie movies I've ever seen.  Really good, recommend, A++++, would infect again, etc.

Must see in theatres.

28 days later, in one minute, in one take...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKnVhdN5rw

It amused me. :)

It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, Matey!  Put on yer eye patches and yer parrots, ye land lubbers, and go out there, and spread the good cheer of all things pirattical!

( Always Remember... )

If you saw ME in the back of a police car what would you think I got arrested for?

Reply with an answer! then fwd this on and see how many crimes you get accused of.

I've never played a more astoundingly amusing game that I've fallen completely in love with in a matter of 3 minutes.

One mission has to do with getting a farmer three farm animals. My first try were sheep cow and pig. Decent choices, decent score.

My second try was ewe, ram, and lamb. Three more choices, all the same type, and I get a good score for that.

My third try I decided on sheepdog. It drops in, but the little green flag saying it matched what the guy wanted wasn't there. Oh well, try something else. I add in a sheep, that gets to work again. Then I think, "Huh, what were animals in 'Babe'?". Now, you must understand, that choosing farm animals for a game based upon movies is probably a bad idea. Sheepdog was in there, and it didn't get picked, but hey, whatever. One of the best animals was a duck. I throw in duck, and drop it in the middle.

This begins the horror. The dog apparently disliked the duck and attempted to eat it. The sheep freaked, and kicked the farmer.

Then the farmer goes apeshit with his pitchfork and kills all three of em with this psychotic spinning of the pitchfork.

I was laughing hysterically and I proceeded to do it another 2 times till I accidentally dropped the DS and the game crashed. Luckily no damage to anything but had to restart. How dropping the DS crashed it, I'll never know.

Anyhoo, now to give some pirates a run for their money!!!

Turns out that a swedish court ordered the shutdown of The Pirate Bay site as of 9:30 AM PDT/12:30 PM EDT/16:30 GMT (17:30? Not sure)

However, they are already "back up" through another ISP, though the tracker is reporting offline and may be so until tomorrow morning.

Interesting development in the news.

Watching it reveals interesting political landscapes.

We've had them for years.

Before you bitch about how the government is going to kill everyone, why not grow a brain and read something true first? And those of you on my F-List, stay off Fox News. Aside from ratings inflation (in some cases over 1000%) and out-and-out slander, they have lied about what the actual words IN the Obama Health-Care-Reform proposal are. They have inserted words into it that are simply not there, to try to sway their viewers. They have also committed the most heinous crime of journalism, that of news generation. Simply put: They pay someone to go to a rally or town hall meeting or press conference, swear and shout obscenities and disrupt things, then report on it as though it is "news" and "proof that the people are tired of the Liberals". What a crock of shit.

The next time you are out there lauding how the private sector health-system is so much better than the idea of a public option, make sure you don't have cancer first. Because you won't get treated by private if you do. However, in the public option, I must stress this: The government cannot turn down life-saving procedures.

BTW, we've had end-of-life counselling for decades. My (very conservative, btw, an AVID Fox News watcher) 80 year-old grandfather just had it paid for by UHC (after about sixteen months of struggling with their bureaucratic bullshit). He's actually said to me that he thinks a public option would have made more sense.

http://gabbybabble.celebuzz.com/2009/06/walter-cronkites-famiy-says-he-is-not-expected-to-recuperate.html

Walter Cronkite ill, family expecting imminent death.

Is this some terrorist attack?
Until our demands are met, your well-known celebrities will suffer deaths within relatively short periods of each other, starting with the whitest black man in the world.

Good News:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw
Hilarity ensues.

Bad News:

Ed McMahon.
Farrah Fawcett.
Michael Jackson.

...

While I was bugged and saddened by those, this is what floored me:

Billy Mays.

Seriously, like 4 days? 4 days of noticeable celebrity deaths?

I mean honestly, who hasn't heard of ALL 4 of those?

EDIT: Billy Mays here for Kaboom! I spray it on myself, and Kaboom!, it wipes the life away!

(Too soon?)

Not embedding, not really work safe and I hate embeds, honestly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DPEKVV7R9k
Tufty the Squirrel is Very Naughty.

And Very Funny.

Please read:
http://pecunium.livejournal.com/416802.html

A quote, emphasis mine:
But the Coulter's, the Savages, the Liddy's, they are making calls to action. O'Reilly will say he never said to kill Dr. Tiller, but he compared him to Mao, and to Stalin, and said, "something has to be done."

Well, here's my response.

These people, those mentioned above, and those who would say such things, are as bad as Mao, and Stalin.

In their words: "SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE."

Fifty bucks. That's probably all it would take.

Welcome to America.

Sexual Harassment Panda!

That is simply awesome and awful at the same time.

That is all.

Today is Towel Day, hoopy froods, so don't forget to stick a thumb out, and for the love of god, DON'T PANIC.

Morphicon has been interesting, and isn't even over, and already one event will outshine any other event for years.

The Spectacle of Doom (Scripted Variety Show) was cut a little early due to a lack of content and altogether getting through our content remarkably fast.

Nobody was leaving.

Katty was eating dinner on stage, randomly.

Then, somehow... well, I won't give NSFW details (you have to be there, or you have to purchase the DVD, or get official reports elsewhere, or get in touch with Jewel or Katty or anyone else who will give you details)...

But we raised $260 for FURS (Ferrets Unlimited Rescue Services) in about 6 minutes time.

Unscheduled, unexpected... and UNBEATABLE.

So, for abandoned stuff:

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/05/05/VACANTHOODS.ART_ART_05-05-09_A1_RMDOR6K.html

A section of the City of Columbus which has an average 20% occupancy rate. Previously there were bad tenants creating a criminal environment, now it's not so bad, if completely empty. Upside: I can see going there and demanding 10% less on rent rate. And getting it. Neato.

However, I'm moved in already to the house that Jack built I mean my Grandmother owned, and so far it's pretty clean and easy. Gotta organize our stuff and move a lot of her old stuff to the basement (after organizing, filing, and protecting it), or to the other bedroom for the community sale.

Then we'll be settled in for about... maybe 2 years at most I can guess.

Hopefully I'll have enough to pay off the utils and prop-tax some, so that we get more consideration for longer stay. I wanna stay in one place for a good long while, and this place has the room I'd like, even if it's not the layout I'd like (split-levels). Although, fewer, less steep steps, are made of win.

Yay win.

What else?

1: I'm posting from Puppy Linux. It's fun. I can actually get my stuff to run - and it's a lot easier to figure out than most Linuxes (Linii?) are. I basically downloaded the iso (100 MB), burned it, popped it back in, rebooted, and was off to running in under 6-7 minutes.
It took maybe half an hour total to find and figure out how to get a working Firefox install, and get Flash and Java put in... now all I have to figure out is why it keeps crashing on some sites. It's 3.0.9 firefox. Any puppy pros out there?;)
Plus I got to watch a movie on my puter for the first time in months.
Hooray working video and sound drivers OUT OF THE BOX!
Still trying to find a good UDF format burner for Linux -- for a format that was supposed to be open source and adopted by everyone, Linux doesn't seem to like it at all.
mkisofs might do it, I keep reading, but I have no idea if it is compatible with Windows too.

Also, funny video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QyYaPWasos

Am I actually really enjoying a Whedon series that isn't Firefly?

http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/102417.html

TL;DR: Kid makes survey for science fair. Posts survey online. Learns many people want to be gender-identified as other, and prefer green to blue. HilarityCensorship ensues.

Venji is now home, and his PICC line (semi-permanent IV line to heart) is removed! He is healthy, and in good spirits, although seems to be bitching about things right now ;). *ow* *stop hitting me*.

Okay I take back that last part. He's in good spirits, and healthy, and not at ALL complainy. :)

Thanks all for your support. :)

So it looks like this was not at all as "menacing" and "terrible" as the internets (onoz, srs business) made it out to be.

Turns out, Symantec released an improperly developed (unsigned) update to allow for update tracking. Probably to do with version statistics, or maybe to make sure that users that have the older versions are told "You should update because of blah".

Problem is, unsigned meant NAV went nuts over it, and started the firestorm.

The real problem came when 4chan decided to take matters into their own hands. A few members created botting accounts and started spamming the board about pifts.exe.

Since the legitimate posts were caught up in this, Symantec removed all posts related instantly.

So, it could have just been a case of "oops, pie in the face" or it could have been Symantec responding very poorly to a legitimate concern.

I still don't use Symantec products, but I remove my suggestion that everyone in the world abandon them for their snafu. That being said, such poor behavior and such a rookie mistake from a SERIOUSLY MAJOR player (can you imagine what would happen if suddenly a MS Windows Update were tagged as malware by Windows' Malicious Software Removal Tool, or any AV?) is just a bad bad thing. Symantec will have a while to go to regain some peoples' trust, and in many cases their money.

Here are three different sources on the same story... simply because I found them all to say something interesting...

All found today using:
http://news.google.com/news?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=excommunicate


http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/humanrights/1206/rdpulpit:_excommunicating_the_victims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7930380.stm
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0901074.htm

This is the end of the Catholic Church.

One: Monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com/) is a great site for cheap cabling and accessories. I like that. Finally a site where HDMI and CAT6 cables are what they are WORTH not what Radio Shack WANTS for them.

Deux: I'm at Venji's parents' house, spending some time at a particular request. They have 3 cats, a female named "Missy", and two males, "Thomas" and "Jerry". T&J were always very shy cats and for the first month I've known Venji's parents I would not see them as they would spend the time hiding while I was around. After about the first month I caught a fleeting (3 second long) glimpse of Jerry, and Thomas took around a week to warm up to me. He still runs off sometimes when I'm walking but mostly it's because the two males are skittish, having been shelter cats before. I can pet Thomas regularly, and he usually likes to visit late at night when watching TV.

The other night, while I was sitting in the living room watching some TV with Venji's parents, Jerry came down the stairs, walked right past me and jumped up onto the living room table. Curiously, I held my hand out, and before I knew it this cat which I got to see for maybe 10-20 seconds at a time was letting me pet him. Most longhairs I know have either dirty fur or slightly rough fur. This cat has some of the softest most lovely fur I've ever felt. Very nice. And over the last two days he has spent more time in the public areas and less hiding under the bed, so it's been quite a treat.

Tres: Saw a few things this week. "W": Interesting. Never quite took some of those thoughts from the whole Bush experience, but this kind of film is important in that everyone will remember "W" as a president, yet this film portrays him as a man. "Death Race": Well, it was Death Race for god's sake. I went into it expecting cars and carnage, and what did I get? Cars and carnage. Statham is by far a much more awesome gruesome action star than Vin Diesel, in my opinion. xXx was a good movie, but the Transporter was just so much cooler. He often presents a good human character, and in this movie he is not quite 2D but he didn't need to be much more 3D, because it was Death Race. The focus of the movie seemed to go a LITTLE bit further into his character than I was happy with, but let's face it, the movie Death Race is about a bunch of criminals driving cars with guns, very fast, and very violently. And some of the neatest stunts, I was very thrilled with some of them. "Lakeview Terrace": Wow. SLJ never fails to disappoint. For the longest time he was a pretty good actor, somehow he did Snakes on a Plane and a bunch of other things (he's Remmy in The Boondocks), but he does have times where he truly takes the chance to shine, and in this film he fucking glows as a psychotic neighbor. Really cool.

So I was infected with a Virus this week. This is actually a variant on an existing virus but it's extremely nasty.

The existing name is called Virut, the new name is called Vitro.

This is known as a Polymorphic Virus - it changes itself regularly to fool detection.
This virus appends its code to the end of existing executables (.exe) and system files to provide itself a nice way to reinfect should it actually be removed. Removal of the code from executables is nigh-impossible as it intertwines itself within different sections.
It can also sometimes infect executables inside archives (ZIP and RAR).

The worst part is that this virus has bugs in it. This may seem like a good thing for a virus to be flawed, but it can also in some cases be very bad.
This virus can, in some situations, infect executed files, such as JPG and DOC and TXT files just to name a few, as well as DLL (library) files used by Windows. This can corrupt (sometimes irreversably) the file in question.

Since the virus has hit my system, using UBCD4WIN and three virus scanners I have identified, to my satisfaction, almost all the executables that this virus has hit. Luckily only 3 data files (jpg's) were infected as well, and they were not of major concern.

Having identified the executables, I can safely say that about 35% of them were windows programs required to run, and the virus has effectively killed my Win Install.

The recommended solution is a complete reformat and reinstall.

So be very careful, dear reader, when on the internet.

Here is a link to a topic I had on this: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=204717

Well I got a virus from some download or other (silly me).

And now I'm feeling like shit because of all the situations in my life.

My computer is scanning right now and finding lots of things.

Hosed.

Someone out there has stolen, yes, Stolen I say, my name on Skype.

I attempted to set up a Skype account this evening, but to my shock and amazement the name Gedrean claimed taken.

Well, I spent almost an hour trying to use all my different passwords, and trying to recover the password using all my email addresses, thinking it was just me, but no luck.

Apparently someone wanted to be me! *Gasp!*

I am shocked, shocked I say!

This is an editorial entry by one Brad Hicks, whom I've just heard of and added to my f-list to watch for more amazing writing.

While I don't particularly feel awesome about his opinion about Obama, I do believe it may be true. :(

However, this is an awesome read and a history lesson for those of us who think that taxes, increasing or decreasing, is the only way to fix our economy.


The Infamous Brad - Yes We Can Put Americans Back to Work. We Probably Won't, Though.

So I'm looking around the room as I put stuff into boxes, and realizing I have a large number of computer parts I bought when they were on sale, back when money was still flowing and I figured within the next month or so I'd have bought everything to build my new computer.
I have a case, which isn't a bad thing, because I can always find a use for it and it won't "Expire".
I have a video card, decent one, bought at a black-friday price which is now today's "after rebate" price, so not a bad deal, but had I waited I'd have found deals like I've seen today which are much better deals and make this card look like a tinker toy. Also it has a warranty that could expire.
I have a hard drive, 500 GB, I bought it a good long while back at what seemed like a decent price (hard drive prices haven't fallen that much but technology has gotten better now), and now I'm regretting it a little because it'll have a warranty and HDDs if left in box can degrade.
I have a 2 GB pack of DDR2 800 and a 4GB pack of DDR2 800 - the 2 GB I bought for Venji's PC then discovered it could only take 667 (fuck you intel), and the 4 GB I bought for my to-be-built computer.
RAM doesn't really "expire" per se but the 2GB has been out of its static sheath before, so I don't know if that causes issues. Plus, again, prices lower now.

And now I realize a new law that I'm going to invent: Unless it's at a price you can guarantee you'll never see again, and the part won't "expire" or become significantly obsolete, like cases, don't buy it early. Just buy it when you are ready to buy everything.

Wishin I had that money now too.

Get packed: Over the next week.
Figure out rent with grandmother: Same.
Move out of a really awesome apartment with really awesome people: By the end of the month.
Get berated because I possibly could have done more to stay where we are even with having had to be away from work while dealing with hospital stuff: Constantly.
Feel bad because I think I could have: Same.
Try'n keep my job: As soon as I stop freaking out about everything and panicking and worrying about money and go in to actually earn more.
Find a new job: Probably very soon.
See if I can't get FMLA to cover lost time: When I can get to a printer and figure out these arcane instructions.
Hope it means my paid vacation time covers it and I get money: Constantly.

NOTE: Anything from Wednesday was pooched because of the ice and snow and wind and rain and dead ability to go anywhere.
Also my monitor just flickered a lot. I don't have $100 to replace a 19" CRT right now.

Visit Venji at his parents' house: I don't know when - hopefully soon - if I can afford gas
Bring pillows when I visit: See above.
Go to HR to pick up FMLA Forms: Maybe Weds if it clears up snowing
Get $ from grandmother to make car payment: Done.
Help grandmother clean up some of the massive mess of documents and bills dating back to 2002: Done.
Go back to grandmother's house to help further with the mess and possibly work off some of the massive debt: Soon.
Help grandmother fully organize all those bills so that all her bills and payments are back to being on time: Soon.
Worry about her recent difficulties doing that on her own: Constantly.
Put that $ into the bank so I can make car payment: Done.
Make car payment: Wednesday EDIT: Done.
Call DLoan Servicing People to extend forebearance: Done.
ADDED: Go to the urgent care place we took Venji and have them reprint receipt: Wednesday.
Take more receipts to my mother to help her with her FSA: Tuesday or Wednesday night.
Visit with mother and pick up any new mail: Same.
Make payment on credit card: Done.
Make payment on cell phone: Done through auto payment by credit card.
Get more groceries: When it gets warm enough and I can find a food bank as well as trip to store.
Get more gas: Probably next week when car runs out of gas.
Get more money: Gotta get back to work to do that.
Earn money another way as well: Hmmm, perhaps some sort of death clock.
Get really rich: Soon?
World domination: Soon.
Adopt a kitten or cat from shelter: When I have an apartment I can have pets in, and we're sure Venji's not allergic.
Get white cat to stroke when I have dominated the world: See above.
Encompass enemies' doom: When the Atreides Duke realizes I have done so.
Make really awesome tuna salad: When I run out of the crappily made 1 minute tuna salad I made earlier - then use the awesome recipe I found. EDIT: Too much red pepper.
Clean Room: Ongoing.
Clean Computer: Ongoing.
Clean Venji's Computer: Oh God.
Clean Venji's Other Computer: Oh God 2 - You Devil You.
Fix Bed: Some day when I'm not tired and falling asleep before 11:30 PM.
Find Circuit City Gift Card: Gah, soon!
Make Cookies: I can't bake!
Think of more amusing yet I'm realizing EXTREMELY dated pop culture references to add to this list: When I can.