Thursday, February 4th, 2010
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12:10 pm - Sears Grills for Cannibals
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Last August Sears was using URL data to define categories on their website (explanation for web programmers and security geeks here) and some customers who were probably trying to figure out ways to game the cart/checkout system and get cheap prices (a very common attack) figured out that they could get it to show a page with a funny category title... and whether the customers knew it or not, the Sears website cache was badly implemented, so it would show it to other customers in order to speed up website response time. Worse yet, if a large number of amused Internet geeks went to an example URL link to see a funny title, I'm guessing it would appear as a "top pick" for all customers to see.
The result: Baby-roasting BBQ pulled from Sears site
I wouldn't call the people who messed with the Sears website hackers, crackers, or even script kiddies, any curious user who edited the "address" line on their web browser could do it, whether accidentally or in the course of trying to do something malicious.
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| Sunday, January 17th, 2010
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11:42 pm - Rotten Movies: District 9 is Crazy on the Outside
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Wow, I totally disagree with all the reviews. Brian and I just watched District 9 in the basement, and I'm amazed we sat through the whole thing! Glad Asya didn't come down to watch it, she might've thrown up. Starts very slow, fake-documentary style, very hard to understand the Afrikaans accents, and we couldn't get subtitles working. Sort of like a cross between a politically sensitive film school project with heavy-handed "we call the aliens prawns" BS about apartheid and a low budget 80's Mad Max rip-off. Not quite as well-directed as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but the acting has something of the same overdone stare straight into the camera stupid seriousness. Reminded me a little bit of John Carpenter's film school effort, Dark Star, with the beach ball alien, equally dumb as that bit, but not as good as that movie, either. Wish it had been as short as Dark Star. Some of the effects actually seemed to have a lot of money spent on them, but the whole thing just had spaghetti western low-budget feel. The gross-out bits were kind of funny, if you didn't laugh at this movie you'd have to leave the room... took a VERY long time to get to all the shooting and killing, definitely seems like everyone involved has watched way too many bad action movies. I don't think they meant it to be funny, but this could be reworked into a half-decent comedy if they added some decent actors, and a better director, and a better story. Maybe not the worst movie ever... which my wife says is Toxic Avenger, but at least I think the Troma people know their movies are stupid. It reminded me a little of Kurt Russel's Escape from NY, but you need to have John Belushi as one of the bad guys, maybe the Nigerian, and Sammy Davis Jr as the Alien, so we could have some singing and tap-dancing. Seriously, don't rent this crap, I can't believe rottentomatoes gave it a 90%. Spoilers and gross stuff:( Read more... )
On the other hand, Asya, Yan, and I went to see Tim Allen live doing his stand up comedy routine followed by a screening of his new movie Crazy On the Outside, which was a really fun and entertaining evening out. Sigourney Weaver has gotten really old, but they had a good cast, everyone turned in decent performances, it was so great seeing Tim Allen, and even if the movie was a little poorly written and predictable, it was fun and funny, and a lot more believeable that Tim Allen would have a love affair with a beautiful parole officer than the alien stuff. Why did Crazy on the Outside get like Zero percent on rottentomatoes? People can't stand a fun, silly little movie, but they love shooting and killing and bullshit? Am I just totally out of touch with American culture because I haven't watched television in a few years? If so, I'm glad, it is a sick and wrong culture to get things so backwards.
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| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
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12:16 pm - Manage sexy projects
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- Seek out projects with any of the following words in its description: o Multimedia, Worldwide, Advance, Strategic, Revenue, Market, Technology, Rapid, Competitive. - Avoid projects with any of the following words in its description: o Accounting, Operations, Reduction, Budget, Quality, Analysis.
The worth of any project is based on how it will sound on your resume. Don't get caught up in the propaganda about how important something is for the stockholders. The stockholdders are people you'll never meet. And since most projects fail or turn into something you never intended, the only lasting impact of your work is the impact on your resume. Keep your priorities straight.
- Scott Adams
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| Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
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4:20 pm - Ben Franklin didn't say "Beer is proof that God loves us..."
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As a matter of fact, he said something similar about wine, but wrote at length on how detestable it was to "guzzle" beer. Letter to André Morellet, circa 1779:We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. From his autobiography about working as an apprentice typesetter: I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he suppos'd, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread; and therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that muddling liquor; an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under…
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| Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
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9:50 pm - bike trailer stroller ad
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There's such a thing as TMI when you write an ad on craigslist:We bought the trailer to haul our dog around up north, but she did not like it at all. [she peed in it] It has been used less than ten minutes. [we pulled her out before she finished pooping] It is brand new. [we cleaned it] I bought it from D&D Bikes in Berkley for 269.00. [that's less than I paid for my dog's designer sweater] I will sell it for 225.00. In other words, it wasn't good enough for my dog, but I'll give you 15% off to use it for your kid!
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| Sunday, May 17th, 2009
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9:53 pm - FAANS?
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Does anyone have a good copy of FAANS that we can digitize for the SFOHA archives? We discussed this at a recent meeting, and I just got off the phone with Howard's daughter, who has never seen it, and is sure that Howard's copy got thrown away because they got rid of all the old VHS tapes she didn't recognize... and I've talked to Larry Tucker and all of his copies got destroyed or lost over the years... I have a copy Howard made me, but it's at least third generation, not great quality.
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, FAANS was a video by Larry Tucker, filmed at the 1982 WorldCon in Chicago, starring Roger Sims as the hotel detective and Howard DeVore as JoPhan, with Ro Nagey, Jean Barnard, Mike Glicksohn, Tom Barber, and I don't remember who all else.... Anyone remember who played the dead body and the hotel maid?
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| Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
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10:05 am - Test drive a Ford for the Cure
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Now through June 1, Ford will donate $20 for every test drive taken at a participating Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealership to your local Race for the Cure. Dealers around the country are joining in to match the company's donation.
To participate, log on to www.fordcares.com, sign up for a registration number, then visit a dealership and take a test drive. You'll need to go back to www.fordcares.com again with information from the dealer to validate your drive so the donation is made in your name.
To help out, they're giving me two additional X Plan discounts for Friends and Family to buy cars in 2009. It's easy, all I need is your name and email to get you a PIN, and when you tell the dealer you have X-plan, they have to show you the invoice price.
Over the past 15 years, Ford, along with its employees and family, have contributed more than $100 million to the fight against breast cancer. My wife, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) thelifeofbrian, and I will be running and/or walking in the Detroit Race for the Cure on May 30th - ask me if you want to join us and sign up for Team Ford!
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| Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
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3:19 pm - Fusion Hybrid goes 1445.7 miles on a tank of gas
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That's 81.5 mpg, almost exactly the distance from New York to Key West on one tank of gas.
For the Ford Fusion Hybrid JDRF Challenge, a team of Ford engineers in Virginia with help from hypermiling world record holder Wayne Gerdes and NASCAR driver Carl Edwards (who came in the day after his wreck to drive the 1000th mile) ran a production Fusion to empty, driving in shifts over three days.
JDRF gets $8004 in donations from Ford and BP employees trying to guess the final mileage... I was too low, I guessed 1230 miles, which is about the best I could get with normal city driving and air conditioning.
http://www.thefordstory.com/ for videos of the event.
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| Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
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8:48 pm - More book questions
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Select as many answers as you want.
Poll #1383776 more questions
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6How much would you pay for book club hardcover editions? For a book sale eleven minutes away from the convention hotel, what days would you prefer?
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1:24 pm - Howard's cheap books and Penguicon
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Howard's daughter called me again, looking for advice on selling books after Penguicon (a SF/Linux con). Please answer the poll if you read science fiction, whether you go to cons or not.
Poll #1383504 Psst! Wanna buy a book?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25Do you attend conventions? Would you be interested in buying a grab-bag box of 80-100 random science fiction books? (whether you go to cons or not) Would you be interested in a box of SF books if you got to go through and choose? How much would you pay for 80-100 random paperbacks? How much would you pay for 80-100 paperbacks you got to choose? If you go to cons, would the best day for a book garage sale be:
Howard's family dragged books to Lansing not too long ago and swore never again, they just don't enjoy cons like Howard did... Karol mostly wanted my opinion on selling books by posting flyers at Penguicon. She has 50-75 boxes full of cheap science fiction paperbacks and about 20 boxes of book club hardcovers that she'd like to get out of Howard's house, and she'd prefer to let fans have them directly for a reasonable price. Her idea was to say that people could stop by the house Sunday after the con and buy books by the boxfull, hoping that enough people would stop by 5-8pm to get rid of a lot of them.
I told her it would be great to put some flyers out, at least get her phone number and email address out there so people could contact her, and that maybe advertising a weekend after the con might work out... my thought was that most people at Penguicon were local. Am I right in that?
She doesn't want to cause more mess than she had before by people digging through books and leaving ones on the floor that they don't want, or making it completely unmanageable if there are a lot of people... but then again, I worry that not enough people would show up at the house to make it worthwhile... and people might be upset to get 25 copies of War of the Worlds if they went for an unopened grab bag box. You should probably work it so that you get to open and look at the box before spending your money, just don't get to sort through it, pick and choose unless you pay more.
I'd like to get ideas on how to sell 'em, how to communicate, and dates, plus of course can pass along her contact info if anyone wants to get books for sure or help out! The really valuable books and pulps are already moved to the daughters' houses, if people are interested in particular things... I know there's a signed Dune and a signed Psycho they're thinking of selling.
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| Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
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1:15 pm - Do you actually have ANY cheese?
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Thought I'd drive down Greenfield north of Ford and look for cheap florists... I found one, but, "do you have any roses?" No, waiting for a shipment. "Flowering plants? Lillies, tulips..." no, the shipping... I can highly recommend Eddy's Florist if you want an excuse for not buying flowers.
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| Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
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6:42 pm - The Fiesta Movement
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Ford is giving away 100 new european Fiestas before the US launch... all you have to do in return is post a monthly video blog and talk about the car on social networking sites. The Fiesta has been popular in Europe for a long time, the new one that just came out won car of the year, smaller than a Focus, manual transmission, great gas mileage. The free cars come with free gas and insurance, but probably won't have Sync because it hasn't rolled out in Europe yet. We’re looking for an elite crop of drivers to take the wheel: people with a strong presence on the web, an ability to craft a compelling story through video, and a hunger for adventure. To win, you have to go to fiestamovement.com and follow the instructions to make a YouTube video proving that you can make cool content to help promote the car. The target audience is millenials born after 1980, all drivers must be 21 years of age and US citizens. Entries due by March 13, 2009.
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| Thursday, February 19th, 2009
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11:32 pm - Donate Locally
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Food banks are the best charities for keeping your money in the community and usually have the lowest administrative overhead: Food Gatherers uses 96% of donations to actually buy and distribute food in Washtenaw County. Gleaners is also at 96% but in Wayne County. I have volunteered twice for a day at Food Gatherers, they were founded by the Zingerman's people but are separate now, the food they buy is core nutritional stuff and baby formula, and they get big discounts, plus rescue a lot of food that would go to waste otherwise.
Another good one I've volunteered for is Habitat for Humanity Detroit at 89%, again a good percentage of your money goes to help people.
Compare that to United Way at 72%, Race for the Cure at 78%, World Wildlife Fund at 81%, JDRF at 86%. The big charities spend a lot of money on salaries and advertising, even the best of them, and the money goes all over, whereas food banks are very efficient. A lot of charities are a lot worse, for example the Magic Johnson Foundation at 50%, and scams like the Disabled Veterans Associations at 2%, which makes a lot of money from confusing people with a name similar to the Disabled American Veterans, which is a great charity at 95%. The real charity, the DAV, collected 8 million dollars in 2007, the scam collected (and kept) 9 million. Many "police" or "firefighter" charities are scams, at less than ten percent, the rest disappears as administrative or fundraising expenses.
Data from bbb.org and charitynavigator.org
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| Thursday, December 11th, 2008
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9:40 am - Weeweechu
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 It was a romantic moonlit night when Pedro parked his car at lover's lane and said, "Hey, mamacita, let's do Weeweechu."
Oh no, not now, let's look at the moon!" said Rosita.
Oh, c'mon baby, let's you and I do Weeweechu. I love you and it's the perfect time," Pedro begged.
"But I wanna just hold your hand and watch the moon." replied Rosita.
Please, corazoncito, just once, do Weeweechu with me."
Rosita looked at Pedro and said, "OK, one time, we'll do Weeweechu."
Pedro grabbed his guitar and they both sang.....
"Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."
(Texican hairless shaggy dog story forwarded from my friend Lis in San Angelo)
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| Monday, December 1st, 2008
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3:00 pm - Natural Landscaping
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The EPA Natural Landscaping Source Book has some good quotes - I have been saying for ages that lawnmowers and corporate grounds maintenance companies are a horrible waste of resources - every time I see them doing something like sprinklers running in the rain, I cringe. I'd like to see more natural landscaping, and if we must cut lawns, we should be employing laid-off workers with reel (cylinder) mowers, saving the environment, and creating more jobs!
Our predominant landscaping material today, the green grass lawn, is borrowed from the heavily grazed, short grass pastures and formal gardens of Europe, particularly England. In that moist climate, the closely cropped grasses evolved with the grazing sheep, goats and cows. Understandably, pioneers from Europe, used to the short grasses, brought the grasses as well as medicinal and food plants to make the unfamiliar feel familiar and homelike. Unfortunately, the grasses they brought do not thrive as well-kept lawns without a great deal of effort to simulate the conditions under which they evolved in Europe.
Our area of the country, with its harsher climate of extremes of heat and deep freezes, drought and drenching rains, is an inhospitable atmosphere for short-cropped, short-rooted grass. Therefore, the contemporary weed-free lawn, is maintained at a high price, not only in terms of dollars but also degraded water and air quality, water consumption, and the peace and quiet of our neighborhoods.
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