Vista's UAC Not What You Think.
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Microsoft Vista’s User Account Control is one of the OS’s most hated features. Whenever a program runs on Vista that required elevated permissions, or Admistrative user access, UAC pops up a window asking the user, “Do you really want to do this?” This could be one of the main reasons what Vista has been getting such a bad rap, its just damn annoying. But could anyone ever have guessed that MS designed it to be just that - annoying?
According to Microsoft’s David Cross, “The reason we put UAC into Vista is to annoy users. I’m serious.” He 
explained at the RSA 2008 confab in San Francisco that UAC was really meant to encourage software developers to write applications that don’t need administrative permissions in the first place. This makes sense because UAC doesn’t do much in the way of security besides pop up a box with an “ok” button on it. The real security enhancement comes when software doesnt need elevated permissions, because then the amount of harm it can do to your computer is minimal.
Linux, Macs and other Unix like operating systems have worked like this for years. One of the main reasons why Windows has always had such bad security flaws is because applications did not need permission to access crucial parts of the system. Now, MS is trying to change that by manipulating software developers to wire better programs. They way MS looks at it is, if you’re going to write a program that needs administrative access, your users will be annoyed. If the competition writes a program that doesn’t, you might lose customers.
Microsoft badly needed to change the way their operating system worked, and although their method is strange, it will probably end up being effective.
Now,
French Cops on Rollerblades Prepare for Olympic Protesters.
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As if we didn’t have enough reasons to make fun of the French, they have to come out with this:
To prepare for the Olympic Torch protesters, the French government has outfitted their cops with Rollerblades in order to… make them look tough.
Bad boys bad boys.
Oooh, aren’t they intimidating?
Wouldn’t want to mess with those… they even have brakes.
Sick moves.
The head of the division says that the Rollerblades “Aid in chasing down criminals on foot.”
I’m so glad I don’t live in France. But I wouldn’t mind protesting there.
Mutant Grapes in My Breakfast
&& [ Entertainment ] && 3 comments
The Cascade food court in Southern Oregon University is notorious for its horrible food. So far I’ve found that it lives up to expectations. Today I made a healthy choice and chose grapes as part of my complete breakfast. This is what I found:
Now let me describe. Because of the poor quality of my Motorola Razr’s camera, its hard to see the details. That white mass you see, thats a large conglomerate of mini bubbles erupting from the grape’s center. I could see a few of them rise and pop as I poked the grape with my finger. The flesh around the eruption is curled back and black. Very sickly looking.
Now, many of you must be thinking that its just a rotting grape and I’m being a puss. Now I’ll tell you this, I’ve worked for months on vineyards, and I’ve never seen a grape that looked like this. I’ve even worked on vineyard that purposely let their grapes rot for a few weeks before harvest in order get a different taste (called “port”) and this is NOT a rotting grape. This is something sinister and foreign. Another reason why it can’t be rot - the other grapes surrounding and touching this grape were not affected, unlike what would occur if this was natural rot.
So if its not rot, what is it? Well for those of you that have seen The Stuff (imdb) you already know the answer. For those of you that haven’t, the movie starts off with an industrial night guard patrolling an oil refinery in Alaksa, who comes across some white bubbling substance coming form the ground. He gets the urge to eat it and, lo and behold, it tastes good. Soon enough “The Stuff” is in every American’s refrigerator. But… are they eating the stuff or is the stuff eating them? Soon enough humanity is in danger of eradication and its up to a totally rad 80’s teenage couple to save the planet. Did their dayglo clothes and mullets save the day? Rent the move and find out.
Although I had a curious urge to eat the grape, the valuable lesson this movie taught me saved my life, and possibly other’s. Maybe even yours. So if you come across this strange substance anywhere, don’t eat it. The stuff will consume you.
The Agony and the Ecstasy: from GIMP to Photoshop.
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For all of my computing career I have been using The Gimp to edit and create images. Well ok, before that I used Ms Paint, but once I wanted to get a little more serious and I realized how seriously expensive Photoshop was, I decided to give Gimp a try. He worked out well for me over the last 5 or 6 years and I have no complaints. Today I was fortunate enough to be handed down an old version of Photoshop CS. Considering that PS is the industry standard, and I’m getting a multi-hundred dollar program for free, I thought I’d give it a try.
Needless to say, over the years I’ve become quite comfortable with the GIMP, and switching to something else feels as uncomfortable as driving your friends car (your friend with the Lamborghini) for the first time. Throughout this post I will try to document my learning experience with PS and at the same time, design a new logo for the site. Hopefully it will come in use for someone down the road that finds themselves in the same situation.
Oh, by the way, I refuse to RTFM. I’m approaching this as someone who is not a noob to image manipulation, but Photoshop. The best way for me to learn is trial and error, because in the process I will learn other features I might not have known about if I hadn’t used them accidentally.
Tuesday, April 8th. 6:04pm
First Impression:
The GIMP, it was always said, is supposed to be a PS clone. Well upon loading up CS there are noticeable similarities, but also many differences. One thing I really like, everything is in one container window. No more windows strewn across the desktop like with the GIMP. :) Lots more buttons!
Failure #1
How the F**ck do I make a drop shadow. Seriously. In the GIMP, it was so simple. Right Click -> Filters -> Drop Shadow. In PS, shadows are nowhere to be found under filters. This would take me a long time to figure out, but eventually it was discovered in a seemingly dark, creepy corner of the PS menu system: Layer-> Layer Style -> Drop Shadow. Of course you have to first have a layer selected.
Failure #2
An even simpler task. Copying and pasting selections. WTF. There is no right click copy/cut and paste. However, keyboard shortcuts work. Acceptable. Now once I have something pasted, how do I resize it? Resize a layer? Seemingly impossible. But wait, edit -> transform, and its great!
Great Success #1
Wow, the options for drop shadows and other filters blow GIMP right out of the water. Its taking me a while to get the hang of just managing everything, but I’ll soon catch up to what I could do in the GIMP. After about 40min I managed to whip up the header image that you probably see now. Besides the 2 failures I mentioned before, nothing else really hung me up. In fact I’m already in love. How did I live without magnetic lasso before? HOLY SHILT this is awesome.
I will update this post as I learn more about my new Photoshop.
A Show That Makes G4 Not Suck.
&& [ Entertainment ] && 2 comments
G4, the television network for gamers, really sucks. Unlike other networks such as Oxygen and Fox that suck because they always have and always will be horrible TV networks, G4 is an even worse kind of suck. G4 is the worst because of what is was, what is is, and what it could be.
In a not so distant past, G4 was known as Tech TV and it had good programming and personalities. I used to watch shows like The Screen Savers and Call For Help every day. People like Leo Laporte and Martin Sargent made these shows interesting and entertaining to watch. But then, for some reason, something changed. The good shows were replaced by horribly amateurish, graphically overloaded, juvenile talk shows that focused more on the hostess’s breasts than actual content. Everything became about video games and stupid internet videos. Most of the old talent moved to other internet networks like Revision3 and Twit.tv where they still create good shows to this day.
By far, the worst part about G4 is the countless hours of shitty syndicated Japanese game shows the network uses to fill airtime because they have nothing else to play. Now, asking G4 to replace shows like Ninja Warrior and Unbeatable Banzuke with good programming is out of the question, because we know they can’t. However, we could ask them if they are going to be playing these shows, to at least get a little creative with them. Make them hold attention for more than 3 minutes. The perfect solution:
Imagine a show that builds on both Japanese game shows and Celebrity Death Match’s success. Celebrities take place of the regular people in these ridiculous challenges and you have yourself a winning formula. Leo Laporte would rock on the bucking bull, and Paris Hilton would be a blast to watch trying to make it up the impossible wall. And there would never be enough time for Matt Damon.
I guarantee that G4’s ratings would skyrocket, and it would replenish some hope in the network that so many of us have lost. Now the only obstacle is to get celebrities to want to participate, but that shouldn’t be too hard. Who wouldn’t want to compete in a challenge where you run away from boulders and get fire extinguishers sprayed in your face? I know I would.
Nigerian Letter Scams and Pets. Online Fraud Increases in 2007, and How They Did It.
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According to a report released on Thursday by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), monetary damages caused by online fraud were up 20 percent in 2007. The total amount of damages reported added up to over $239 million, with a median* loss of an astonishing $680 per complaint. This is an increase of the $199 million caused in 2006.
The IC3, a law enforcement agency which works closely with the FBI, receives and processes complaints dealing with auction fraud, non-delivery, credit card fraud, spam, intrusion, identity theft and child pornography. The report includes some interesting findings:
Perpetrators are predominantly male (75.8%) with half of them coming from California, Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Georgia. The majority of perpetrators come from the United States, with a significant number coming from Europe and Nigeria.
Perpetrators do not seem to be sexist with thier targets, although maybe they should be. Only 57 percent of the complainants were male. However, Male complainants lost considerably more money than females, with a ratio of $1.67 to every $1.00 lost by females. This could be accredited to online spending habits or the types of schemes used against victims. Age also seems to have little or no relevance to victims. Although the stereotypical online fraud victim is a grandma helpless in the ways of the internet, the study shows that you are just as likely to become a victim whether you are 23 or 85.
*Although the median loss for victims was $680 dollars, the mean loss was $2,529. This is because nearly half of complaints received dealt with monetary loss less than $1,000 but 12 percent reported loss of over $5,000. Certain incidents reported losses even larger. The biggest losers in 2007 were victims of investment fraud, with a median loss of $3,547.
Yes, Nigerian letter scams did really well in 2007 - 6.4 percent of total reported loss came from those tricky African scammers, with an average $1,922 dollars lost per incident. Can’t believe people fall for it? Apparently so, and when they fall, they fall hard.
As one might expect, online fraud increases dramatically during the holiday season. In 2005, the number of complaints received between the months of October and December increased to 30,000 compared to the rather steady 17,000 of previous months.
The report also includes some interesting descriptions of the more popular scams used throughout the year. A large amount of them, interestingly enough, dealt with the online pet trade.
When the fraudsters target pet sellers, the fraudster agrees to buy the pet and sends a bad check for more than the amount asked by the seller. They explain that the extra payment is for someone who will be taking care of the pet temporarily, and to wire the amount of extra money to a bank account. If the scam is successful, the seller wires the money before the check is cleared, and the fraudster makes off with the cash before the check is found out to be fake. Tricky buggers.
Romance scam was rampant in 2007. Online dating sites proved to be fruitful hunting grounds for scammers. First, the fraudster browses the site looking for potential targets. Once contact is made, he attempts to gain trust through… romantic gestures. Included in these gestures is a burning desire to meet the person, but they explain that they do not have enough money to make the trip. The scam is successful when the victim agrees to send money to pay for the transport. Then, of course, some unforeseen event occurs that prevents the fraudster with following through with the visit, the dating site account is deleted and they are never heard from again. Not only is the victim out of the money for transport, but they are in danger of shorting out computer keyboards with excessive amounts of tears.
Obviously, scammers love to play on other’s hearts and emotions. Another prominent scam is the Adoption Fraud, or Charity Fraud, in which large amounts of email are sent to email addresses (spam) with subjects such as “URGENT HELP NEEDED” They then of course, ask for donations for causes such as helping orphans, buying medicine for ill people, or saving the rain forest. Sometimes, they even pose as representatives from real oranizations such as the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAFF).
So how are people supposed to defend themselves against these vicious attacks on even the most benevolent human impulses? Stay informed, and don’t believe everything you read. If you really have trouble sorting through what is legit and what is a scam, you can check out websites like www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com or the IC3 website for the facts.
Great Online Radio Stations
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Getting sick of listening to the same songs from you library over and over? Try listening to on-line radio from your favourite music player. It can turn you onto new music as well as freeing you from your old boring mp3s. There are hundreds of radio stations on the net, and the majority of them are commercial free! And because there are no commercials, the stations are free to play whatever they want! You will find some great non-mainstream music on some of these stations as well as the hits. The best places to find radio stations would be NullSoft’s Shoutcast: www.shoutcast.com There you will find tons of unique radio stations from all around the world My favourites are:
Groove Salad Awesome ambient radio station based out of San Francisco. Good coding music.
Radio Paradise A super relaxing eclectic rock station. Some good stuff that I’ve never heard before as well as some good classics.
The BuzzFM If you are into alternative rock, you will LOVE this station. The play list is straight hits, but it does get repetitive sometimes.
Once you start listening to online radio, you will never go back. I swear.
Next Time Bird, Pay More Attention
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We heard a great “BANG!” while going over the days lecture in spanish class. When we left the room, this is what we found:
and closer:
That must have hurt!
Worst Prescription Drug Ads
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We’ve all seen those pharmaceutical ads on tv that are smiles, laughter and sunny skies. But what can be unsettling are those words the narrator spits out usually in the last few seconds of the commercial. The prescription drug industry is one of the most profitable in the world. It seems like drug companies come out with a new cure for a disease every month, and people rush in like crack addicts for rocks. What is surprising is that everyone seems to ignore the warning about how dangerous they are, even though we are bombarded with warning nearly every night while we watch TV. Some of these warnings are straight ridiculous, making you wonder why anyone would take the drug in the first place. Others, have the ability to make you laugh out loud, which is a better cure than any they are selling. Here are three of the craziest drug ads on tv.
Mirapex.
This one is by far the most ridiculous drug commercial I have ever seen. First of all, the disease its supposed to cure, RLS or Restless Leg Syndrome, seems like something a guy in the PR department of Pfizer made up. The ad states that if “you have an uncontrollable urge to move” maybe Mirapex is right for you. Uncontrollable urge to move? Damn that pesky biped body that was built to walk! Maybe those uncontrollable urges have something to do with not using your legs and whoever gets them should, lets think, go for a walk? But wait, the ad keeps getting better. It tells you that using Mirapex may cause serious side effects like falling asleep during normal activities, such as driving. Right. If you thought that was bad, the narrator goes on to tell you to “call your doctor if you experience increased gambling, sexual or other intense urges.” What the hell? Increased gambling urges? Actually, on a second thought this drug sounds like it might be kinda fun…
Youtube link to TV ad.
Celebrex.
This 2 minute ad is made up entirely of a blue background, relaxing music and scrolling text that takes the form of people, dogs and bushes. And you expect that with an ad made entirely from text, the words should be convincing you to buy the drug. Apparently not. Instead, we find words like “abdominal pain” “serious skin reactions” and “internal bleeding.” No, these are not the ailments celebrex is curing, but instead nasty side effects that may occur from taking the drug. In fact, the narrator goes on a long rant about how the risk of heart attack is the same for most pain medications, including celebrex. Hmm, that makes me feel a lot better.
Youtube link to TV ad
Cialis.
For men who can’t get it up. But is it really worth the risk of a permanent erection? Or vision loss? Considering how much spam I get in my inbox for
it someone must be buying it.
Youtune link to TV ad
Ugliest Dogs and Cats in the World
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Now one should not be so shallow as to judge someone by how they look. We all know that the appearance has little to do with personality, so thats why we don’t laugh at ugly people (at least in public). Animals are a little different. Its ok to laugh at a dog if half its teeth are missing on one side so its tongue is permanently hanging out, right? Even if you don’t agree, here are some damn ugly pets to laugh at.
Lets start off with a classic. This has got to be one of the most hideous forms of life I have ever seen.
**Edit: Video is in spanish because the original english one was taken down.
Meet sam, runner up for the world’s ugliest dog alive (but I hope not for long)
Not even the pearl necklace or professional lighting could help this poor best:
Not exactly ugly in the same way as the others. Rat or dog? You decide.
Ok so thats enough of picking on the dogs. Cats can be just as horrendous if not worse! The thing about ugly cats, its almost as if they know how ugly they are, and get all defensive and pissy about it. Or maybe thats just my imagination.
Lets start if off with a video again. No, its not ET thats actually a cat. Yes.
He wants BLOOD!
All I can say is, thats one nasty mug.
This one is actually quite seductive.
And finally, a cat so fat he makes the woman look skinny!
Hopefully you all had a good laugh. Unless one of these pets were yours. If so, I’m sorry.