Snakes on a Plane!

I'm finally getting to watch this movie. It's so terribly good.

I'm the Captain of this Boat, Ladies...

What the Heck is Wrong with Bush?

I Found this on the Illiniboard

You aren't really emo at all. The closest you get to emo music is Outkast's song Prototype. You wear whatever is in fashion and don't have a particularly emo flair.

AreYouEmo.com

I still have no gnikcuf clue what "emo" means, except that I'm pretty sure I want no part of it.

Month of Apple Bugs Project Fails on Day 2

So this hacker guy and his sidekick have announced that they're going to find an Apple bug a day for every day in January 2007, making it the Month of Apple Bugs, or MOAB. That's cool. Finding bugs or exploits in Apple software, or any other software, can be a constructive way to call attention to a software company's laziness in attending to security issues.

When such an effort is directed at Apple products, people take special note, because of the praise Apple's OS X has drawn for its security in comparison with Microsoft's Windows. If somebody can post 31 Mac vulnerabilities in 31 days, it would lend great credence to the argument that the only reason there are few Mac viruses/trojan horses/malware is because the platform affords less bang for the buck to a fame-seeking hacker. The argument has a certain appeal and probably some truth to it.

But what if the effort came up short? What if, on only the second day, the exploit hyped as an "Apple bug" was merely a bug in a multi-platform, open-source project?

This issue has been successfully exploited in VLC version 0.8.6 for Mac OS X. Previous versions and other platforms might be affected (thanks to David Maynor for confirming the issue in the Microsoft Windows version).

What would that tell you about the MOAB project's validity?

MAJOR UPDATE: The Unofficial Macintosh Weblog has a similar take on this shenanigans.

Sanity Rules in Kansas Federal Court

From: Kansas District Court
To: Amin, Chintan
Sent: Fri Dec 29 14:26:47 2006
Subject: US District Court of Kansas Open January 2

The Court decided this morning to remain open for business on Tuesday, January 2. The decision of the Court was made in part by the knowledge that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals will remain open and the press of Court business in the District of Kansas.

The Court believes that we can best honor the memory of President Ford by continuing to do the people's business.

As always, CMECF will be available for remote filing.



Ralph L. DeLoach
Clerk of the Court
U.S. District Court of Kansas
259 Robert J. Dole U.S. Courthouse
500 State Avenue
Kansas City, Kansas 66101

Color Me Satisfied

The ad I hate the most made Slate's list of the worst commercials of 2006. You know the one: it tries to sell Intel Core 2 Duo processors with bizarre white people dances and awful music and a totally unattractive woman who makes me mildly uncomfortable. And unless you're into some weird stuff, you hate it, too.

Watch it if you dare:



Others on the list include one for restless leg syndrome drugs. I think any drug commercials on TV ought to make a separate list to bad and inappropriate advertising. What morans among us use TV ads to determine what drugs to take? Isn't that the job of your doctor, anyway?

And what doctor's going to admit to prescribing drugs on the basis of TV advertising? I mean, we all know that they prescribe drugs sold by the hottest pharma reps or with the best junkets.

The Christmas Spirit

I visited my in-laws for Christmas this year. It was my first time not being with my parents on Christmas since I knew what Christmas was. I mean, when I lived in India, I spent my first two Christmases without my parents, who had moved to the US and left me in the care of my grandparents. But at that time, Christmas wasn't nearly as important as Diwali, Uttarayan, or Holi.

Anyway, this year it was at my in-laws, without my parents. And boy, did we ever get into the Christmas spirit. We had three separate parties. We had gifts. We sang carols. We had a visit from Santa Claus. And we ate, drank and were generally merry.

What may surprise the reader, though, is that there were only two Christians in the bunch. Everybody else was a Hindu or Muslim. And I guess that's why I entitled this post 'The Christmas Spirit.' What other season would bring all of us together in the spirit of family and love? It was a beautiful homage to the love of God and the blessings bestowed upon us. And it didn't matter one bit what book you think God wrote. All that mattered was the message of peace and harmony in those books.

One thing that fascinates me is this

whole business of the giant squid...

Well, as it turns out, Japanese researchers have filmed a live giant squid possibly for the first time ever. The thing I find fascinating is that nobody's ever filmed a live one before.

Giant squid, formally called Architeuthis, are the world's largest invertebrates. Because they live in the depths of the ocean, they have long been wrapped in mystery and embellished in the folklore of sea monsters, appearing in ancient Greek myths or attacking the submarine in Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

The one in the picture was caught, but died on the boat, I guess. Given that we've known about them for ages, I think it's amazing that we've put a man on the moon but hadn't filmed one of these buggers until now.

Wasn't He Worried About Being Overqualified?

The communications director for Montana's lone congressman solicited the services of two men he falsely believed to be criminally minded hackers-for-hire -- with the expressed goal of jacking up his college GPA -- during an exchange that spanned 22 e-mails over two weeks this past summer.

The doofus in question is named Todd Shriber, a 28-year old graduate (maybe?) of Texas Christian University. Apparently, he went on the intrawebs with hopes of hiring a guy to do a job. Unfortunately for him, he contacted a website that likes to make fun of the technically illiterate. He's been fired, according to the linked story.