http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4454738.stm
President George W Bush tried to make a quick exit from a news conference in Beijing on Sunday – only to find himself thwarted by locked doors.
After answering just six questions from a group of US reporters, the president strode away heading towards the door.
President Bush tugged at both handles on the double doors before admitting: “I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn’t work.”
In case you’re one of those wondering, my Amazon wish list can be located here.
For the record, I expect nothing and only put this up because more than one person asked. I WAS going to keep my Christmas low-key this year. :-) Or, rather, as low-key as a Christmas in Vegas can get…
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=1266&PHPSESSID=i2evl9j02aohc2r1hgeol9csl5
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment as the first state in the nation to bring legal action against SONY for illegal “spyware.” The suit is also the first filed under the state’s spyware law of 2005. It alleges the company surreptitiously installed the spyware on millions of compact music discs (CDs) that consumers inserted into their computers when they play the CDs, which can compromise the systems.
The Attorney General’s lawsuit alleges the New York-based company violated a new Texas law protecting consumers from the hidden spyware. The company accomplished this by using new technology on certain music CDs to install files onto consumers’ computers that hide other files installed by Sony. This secret “cloaking” component is installed without the knowledge of consumers and can cause their computers to become vulnerable to computer viruses and other forms of attack.
“Sony has engaged in a technological version of cloak and dagger deceit against consumers by hiding secret files on their computers,” said Attorney General Abbott. “Consumers who purchased a Sony CD thought they were buying music. Instead, they received spyware that can damage a computer, subject it to viruses and expose the consumer to possible identity crime.”
My friend JRF just pointed out this image to me.
As if my respect for Best Buy hadn’t hit an all-new low, they pull this stunt. As MrWhitefolks of TNL just put it, “That’s the biggest croc of shit since north korean propaganda papers”.
*sigh* The sad thing is they’re now building a Best Buy near my home. I’ll have to make sure to avoid it, for the most part…
If anyone would care to see the first new Doctor Who (mini) episode since the first season finale, follow the link below to catch a special scene done for the Children in Need charity, starring David Tennant and Billie Piper. (For reference, it takes place immediately following “The Parting of the Ways” and leads into “The Christmas Invasion”.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/appealnight/doctor_who_special.shtml
~~series one~~
— Name: Scott Bishop
— Birthdate: November 9th, 1973
— Birthplace: Winfield, IL
— Current Location: Spring, TX
— Eye Color: Blue
— Hair Color: Dark brown
— Righty or Lefty: Righty
— Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
— Innie or Outtie: Innie
~~ series two – describe~~
— Your heritage: British
— The shoes you wore today: Black Bostonian dress shoes
— Your hair: Short and brushed back. (It’s my low-maintenance haircut.)
— Your eyes: Large, round, and blue.
— Your weakness: Food, I’m afraid… especially pizza, burgers, or pasta.
— Your fears: Heights.
— Your perfect pizza: Deep dish, with extra cheese, double pepperoni, and ham.
— One thing you would like to achieve: Writing my own novel.
~~ series three – what is~~
— Your most overused phrase on aim: Bleh.
— Your thoughts first waking up: “Do I have time to go back to sleep? … shit.”
— The first feature you notice in the opposite sex: Eyes.
— Your best physical feature: My eyes and smile. (I’ve been told they’re very distinctive.)
— Your bedtime: On work nights, 10:30-11:00 PM. Otherwise, 1-2 AM.
~~ series four – you prefer~~
— Pepsi or coke: Coke… usually Diet or Zero.
— McDonalds or Burger King: Burger King.
— Single or group dates: Single.
— Adidas or nike: Sketchers.
— Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Yuck.
— Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate.
— Cappuccino or coffee: Hot Chocolate.
— Boxers or briefs: Boxers.
~~ series five – do you~~
— Smoke: No.
— Cuss: Yep.
— Sing well: I think I do. Catch me at karaoke and judge for yourself.
— Take a shower everyday: Yes.
— Have a crush(es): Mmmm… yes.
— Who are they: That would be telling.
— Do you think you’ve been in love?: Yes.
— Want to go to college: Ask me later.
— Like high school: Eh.
— Want to get married: Sure. Will it happen? Who knows.
— Type with your fingers on the right keys: No.
— Think you’re attractive: If I lost a bit of weight.
— Think you’re a health freak: *snicker* Hardly.
— Get along with your parents: For the most part.
— Play an instrument: Flute.
~~ series six – in the past 3 months, did/have you~~
— Drank alcohol: Yep… Shiner Bock, mostly.
— Smoke(d): No.
— Done a drug: Technically alcohol and caffeine are drugs, but otherwise no.
— Made Out: No.
— Go on a date: No.
— Eaten an entire box of Oreos: No.
— Eaten sushi: Yes… for my birthday, even.
— Been on stage: Yes.
— Been dumped: No.
— Gone skating: No.
— Made homemade cookies: No.
— Been in love: No.
— Gone skinny dipping: No.
— Dyed your hair: No.
— Stolen anything: No.
~~ series seven – have you ever~~
— Played a game that required removal of clothing?: No.
— Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: No.
— Been caught “doing something”: No.
— Been called a tease: No.
— Gotten beaten up: No.
— Shoplifted: No.
— If so, did you get caught: N/A.
— Changed who you were to fit in: No.
~~ series eight – the future~~
— Age you hope to be married: Who knows.
— Numbers and Names of Children: Let me get marriage sorted first.
— How do you want to die: Peacefully in my sleep, and not screaming in terror like my passengers.
— Where you want to go to college: I’ll decide later.
— What country would you most like to visit: The Netherlands, Australia, and Japan.
~~ series nine – opposite/same sex~~
— Best eye color?: Blue
— Best hair color?: Red.
— Short or long hair?: Long.
— Best height: Medium.
— Best weight: Average to few extra pounds.
— Best articles of clothing: Meh.
— Best first date location: Dinner and a movie sounds good.
— Best first kiss location: Uhm.
~~series ten – number of~~
— # drugs taken illegally: 0
— # people I could trust with my life: 5-10
— # CDs that I own: 186 (not including double CD sets and my OC Remix downloads)
— # piercings: 0
— # tattoos: 0
— # times my name has appeared in the newspaper? No clue.
— # scars on my body: Two or three
— # things in my past that I regret: Meh.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2005/11/10/26933.shtml
Doctor’s deadly foe gets updated for 2006
Filming is now underway in Cardiff for the long-awaited return of the Cybermen. The two-part adventure, written by Tom McRae, sees The Doctor and companions battle against a new, more deadly breed of Cybermen who are out to convert humanity into their own kind.
Producer, Phil Collinson says: “The villainous Cybermen are as much a part of Doctor Who heritage as the Daleks and so it’s a huge personal thrill to see them back. I hope that the evil silver giants will terrify a whole new generation of viewers as they confront the tenth Time Lord.”
The sinister breed of monsters; second only to the Daleks in their infamy made their first appearance in 1966 and haven’t darkened our screens since 1988. Next year will mark their 40th anniversary.
Originally created by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, (also the creators of Doomwatch), the modernised version have been superbly redesigned by Edward Thomas’s design team and Neil Gorton at Millennium FX.
Yep, it’s my birthday today… turned the grand old 32. Fun fun. All things considered, it’s been a very very good birthday for me. :-)
I didn’t go out to dinner tonight, mainly because Mom and Dad took me out to dinner on Saturday night. We went to the Cheesecake Factory, which was excellent as always. As for lunch today… my coworkers and I went to Todai’s, which is a Chinese and sushi place at the Marq*Q Plaza at I-10 and Silber. I had a hankering for sushi, and I figured it was the one place where everyone could agree on. Unfortunately, the CFO didn’t show up and Mike (my IT coworker) got caught in a project that he was given literally at the last minute, so it was just four of us. Still, I enjoyed myself.
As for presents, I got from my parents this morning:
I still need to import the BMG CD into my Powerbook’s iTunes and get it replicated over to my main PC and my iPod. I did get the Logitech Cordless Desktop operational; that took a bit of doing, as the software CD-ROM was missing from the box. I did manage to locate the drivers on their FTP server, after unsuccessfully trying to get them on their website. It’s working nice right now, as the mouse is more responsive than my old one, and the keyboard is working fine. The LCD display on the keyboard’s neat, as it displays information from the system. Right now it’s showing info about the track currently playing in iTunes… heh.
All in all, though, it was a great birthday, and I’m grateful for everything I’ve gotten. :-)
Okay, I damn near had a panic attack this afternoon because I thought someone was attacking the main darquecathedral.org server.
Earlier today Slashdot had posted a story about Lupper.Worm making its way around the net. I wasn’t worried, as my webserver’s installs of Apache and PHP are relatively up-to-date. One of its features was that it copied a program to the /tmp folder and ran it under the username Apache runs under. Anyway, I was talking to CCShadow about it and happened to do a check on /tmp. To my shock, there was a whole shitload of files starting with “sess_” in the /tmp directory owned by the Apache user.
“What the hell???” I thought.
So, what I did was go to the access log, and checked. Sure enough, throughout today there had been a few attempts to make the server download and run a file that started with sess_ in the logs. Problem was… it showed that the requests were for files that didn’t exist on my server. So, I deleted the files. They reappeared… with no trace in the logs.
Curious, I downloaded the sess_ file shown in the logs. Sure enough, it was a Perl script that acted as a zombie IRC bot used for attacking computers. However… I couldn’t see how the files were being run. Every time I deleted the files they reappeared (albeit at zero size). I even rebooted the machine to no avail.
I even went as far as to install a new module into Apache called mod_security. No go. The files kept appearing, with no trace in the audit logs. I tried replicating the command from Safari on my Powerbook, and it got blocked (and appeared in the audit logs). I was stumped.
Then something worried me even more. One of the sess_ files that had appeared wasn’t a script file. It was private mailbox information for someone who uses the webmail on my server. At this point I was even more into a WTF mode.
Finally, I was talking to Sinc and Kanan about it on #Vampire, and Kanan pointed out the obvious: the sess_ files I had been seeing were normal cache files used by PHP. There was no compromise on my system. I tested, and he was right.
Gods, I felt like a fucking dumbass.
On the bright side, I did get mod_security tested and in place on the darquecathedral.org server, and I’ll end up implementing it on the MK Online server as soon as we get it nice and tested. Still… tonight was not one of my shining moments. *sigh*
Well, it looks like email posting is fixed on the site. I ran a couple of test posts this morning using my Blackberry, and the new post-by-email functionality is working. The only thing that annoys me is the fact that the new software will only post under the Administrator account by default, and will not allow you to post from individual usernames. I suppose that can be fixed later on down the road, however. For now, I’m just glad it’s working properly.
I did a bit better than usual at poker last night; I walked away $121 richer as a result. Unfortunately, I also didn’t get home until 1 AM, which means I didn’t get much sleep last night. If it wasn’t for the fact that I have a barber’s appointment tomorrow, I’d be looking forward to sleeping in. *sigh*
Anyway, enough rambling here… I need to take a fileserver to the datacenter. Fun fun…