Breaking Windows

When Adobe speaks about camera raw problems, people listen. And the software giant spoke loudly on Monday when it released an update to the free Camera Raw plug-in for Photoshop CS. The plug-in update adds support for a new Adobe-proposed file format for digital negatives—a clever marketing name the company wants to use to replace the less-friendly camera raw.

Source MacJournals.com

From what I have read, this is great. But why, may I ask, was camera raw released when there is some technology out there (DNF) that surpasses it. I know camera raw came first and DNF is a big improvement, but these technologies don't just sprout over night. My guess is DNF has been in the works for some time now.

All I have to say is this: I hope this does not become another splintered "standard" (which has already happened) that only part of the market adopts. I hope DNG takes off like wildfire, or Firewire, for that matter.

On a related note, MDJ is a great publication that you might want to check out.

The Japanese Supreme Court has upheld a ruling by the Tokyo district court that software company West Side's 'naked Kasumi hack' for the PS2 version of Dead or Alive 2 violates Tecmo's copyrights, according to Japanese news reports. West Side has been ordered to pay two million yen (around €14,500 or £10,000) in damages...

Source: EuroGamer

Did the makers of Nude Raider get sued?

This quiz was a piece of cake. Granted it was only on two chapters this time, but I prepared for this quiz a lot better then the next one. I knew once I took it I had a 25/25, and sure enough I got it back today and I aced it!

Test is Wednesday. We had a review today, and some practice questions. That was easy too. I am fairly confident I will do great on the test. I just need to go over all the slides again and look over the terms for each chapter.

We ordered Stephanie's PowerBook last Wednesday. It arrived last Friday! Now that is fast delivery. The Aluminum 'Books are so much curvier then the Titanium ones. I am very jealous of the backlight keyboard. That is very nice.

But to be honest, since I now have my G5, my PowerBook has been neglected. It just sits on the couch and is used once in a while. Its really sad. Though I would never sell it.

I can live without a backlight keyboard. I have a very front light keyboard sitting in front of this 23" Cinema Display.

;)

OmniWeb 5.1 beta 1 is out, so go download it. They loaded up the latest version of WebCore. So now we can't complain (as much) that OW does not work like Safari.

Oh and by the way. OW 5.1 b1 now works with GMail. So now, I am happy to say, I have no reason to use Safari.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Rodney Dangerfield, the bug-eyed comic whose self-deprecating one-liners brought him stardom in clubs, television and movies and made his lament "I don't get no respect" a catchphrase, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Source: CNN

All I can think of is maybe now he can get some respect? But I know thats bad. Here are some better ones. Thanks to Dan for sending them to me.

$87,400 is what Sammy Sosa is being fined for leaving the season finale early, that also happens to be what he makes per game. Must be nice.

Source: MSNBC

The PHP Function Index for Mac OS X. Check it out! Thanks to Rob for pointing this one out to me.

We are running a national ad on bgnews.com right now for Bush-T.org. Digital Partners does not have to tell us when a national ad campaign is running, but it was nice to allow us to opt-out if we choose because of its political nature.

The image of Bush pissing on the world is a little crude, but it is humorous. We are running the ad on the site, by the way. Our Advertising Manager didn't care for it but the Advisor green lighted it.

The site sells T-shirts for $15 and 50% of net proceeds will be donated to MoveOn.org to help Kerry defeat Bush.

So go buy a Bush-T!

Not only a fun Flash game, but it has great game music! The graphics are amazing. Check it out. They have other Flash stuff at TheCrunge.net too.

What an unreal import collection. Instant import collection. The arcade cabinet alone, wow! Hurry up folks, the bidding starts at $70,000.00. Its worth a look, if only for the photos.

This is for the "Essential Guide to the Digital Home" as well as one (digital) copy of the current issue, dated October 19th. So you get two issues for free. The Guide to the Digital Home comes out 10/08/04. So I have not seen it yet.

The Skin-Arts site has many different case skins for both the PS2 and XBox. How about a rebel flag for your XBox? Or maybe Yuna for your PS2? Most case skins are $12.95 Buy it Now. That doesn't sound like a bad deal.

No cheesy musical numbers. No overly dramatic subplots. No llamas. Oh wait, sorry. It does have a llama. Actually, that's the main character. Relentlessly funny, fast paced, "Emperor's New Groove" is the best film to come out of Disney since the early 90's (excluding the Pixar films).

Honeywell on Wednesday announced that it has filed suit in federal court against Apple Computer Inc. and more than thirty other companies, alleging infringement over a 1994 patent that describes technology used to improve the quality of images shown on a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) panel. MacCentral has obtained a copy of the documents Honeywell filed on October 6, 2004 in U.S. District Court for the district of Delaware.

Source: MacCentral

All I am going to say is this, other then the fact that Honeywell are morons: Apple does not make their LCD screens. They buy them from LG and Samsung. Hello Honeywell? Is Apple on this list of over 30 companies just to juice the media? I think so.

The price of coffee at BGSU is outrageously high. I am not at all surprised by this, but I am disturbed by it and think someone needs to do some re-thinking at Dining Services. The reason I am not surprised is because (almost) every food item at BGSU seems too high. On a slightly related topic, one which does not bother me anymore as I no longer live on campus, but the University grocery stores could have some competitive prices to say Kroger.

You could own this nice piece of wood from the Presidential debate! What a find.

This woman is nuts. She apparently is going to be getting an eBay tattoo, and you have the chance to get your eBay ID inked as well. Fun stuff. It is an eBay UK auction, but you can bid if you live here in the US. That is a killer IRON MAIDEN back tattoo she has.

Sunday at 9 PM (EST) USA Networks has their premiere of their original movie Frankenstein. It looks like someone got a press kit and has a review online already. We usually get press kits like this at The BG News but this one we didn't get anything on.

USA usually puts on a good show with their original movies, and the trailers look great for this one. There is a well done Flash site for the movie with some behind the scenes and interview video to watch.

I cannot tell you much about The Zoom Quilt because quite frankly the web site leaves something to be desired: namely any kind of artist statement or information about the project. It is a shame, because the end result is really a wonderful piece of art. The Shockwave version is great. But be sure to go through the HTML/JPG version as well, so you can see all the details.

Thanks to Matt for sending this link to me.

I cannot wait to get this new design live for bgnews.com. There are a few more small things to fix up. I need to attend to the CSS for the Classifieds module.

Bowling Green's game plan against Central Michigan was simple -- throw the football.

Quarterback Omar Jacobs did just that for BGSU, throwing for 387 yards and four touchdowns in the Falcons 38-14 win Saturday.

Source: Central Michigan Life

Sorry Greg but BG beat the snot out of CM! I thought the least I could do is link to your site's article. Bowling Green is on a roll now. The 70-16 Temple game last week was a joke! Next week is our Homecoming and we host Ball State. Go Falcons!

In honor of the baseball playoffs, I've borrowed the metaphor of a ninth-inning rally to describe the Democrats' October comeback. In the first presidential debate, John Kerry got the lead-off hit. In the vice-presidential encounter Tuesday night, John Edwards singled him to third. I guess they substituted a pinch runner (that's the problem with metaphors), because tonight Kerry was back at the plate. It was a long at-bat, with lots of hanging sliders thrown by President Bush. Kerry fouled off a few, whiffed a couple, and struck out looking.

Source: Slate

I haven't had the time to watch the debates. They first two fell on days when I had to study for tests that were the next day. So I have been looking for commentary on the debate. But I want to hear it...

Not to fret, I have my trusty iPod. Apple has put the debates up on the iTMS for free, which is something I am sure many people are taking advantage of. I know I am. They did the same thing for the DNC and RNC as well, by the way.

Microsoft has finally released Virtual PC 7 (outside of the Office 2004 Pro package) but there is a problem. There is always a problem with MS software, isn't there? If you have more then 2 GB of RAM installed, you cannot run VPC7. MS finally confirmed this fact, and has a fix "expected within the coming weeks." I am not holding my breath.

When the G5 supports up to 8 GB of RAM, why on earth would you not test your software with a full 8 GB of RAM? Doesn't common sense tell you to test all known possible configurations, especially when the big new feature of VPC 7 is support for the G5. It just seems like a rather large thing to overlook. But thats just me, I don't work at the Mac BU.

I have 3 GB of RAM in my G5 and I am not about to take 1 GB out just to run VPC 7. I have grown very fond of having 3 GB of RAM to use, and have just a ton of applications open at once. I await this fix to the RAM problem, then MS can have my money.

We are actually running a banner on bgnews.com for this site, but I notice other bloggers linking to it as well. I noticed Slate had something like this, but the Electoral Vote Predictor is more in-depth.

SpamStopper is a web designer’s utility that will help keep email address harvesting spambots from grabbing email addresses from your website(s). No, I’m not joking — this actually works!

How does it work? SpamStopper encodes the text of your email address so that it no longer looks like an email address in your HTML, which makes all the current harvesting spambots ignore it when they scan internet pages. Basically, indexing spiders look for certain email address-identifying characters, and SpamStopper makes it so that those characters aren’t displayed — it’s pretty much that simple.

Be sure and take a look at this totally free utility. Sure I have found web pages that do this, but having an application with a nice GUI is so much better. Kudos to the developer!

...re-enacted by bunnies. More fun Flash today!

Every generation needs a giant snakehead fish movie. Luckily, we'll go down as the first. In fact, we now have the good fortune to receive two snakehead fish movies in as many months. Fresh off of the "Snakehead Terror," Sci-Fi Pictures proudly presents the next evolution of horror in "Frankenfish." Then again, maybe not. In fact, scratch all of that.

Nothing beats a company celebrating the games that made them famous. How they celebrate makes all the difference. In this case, Capcom should really know better. Die-hard fans really get shut out here, though the more mainstream crowd should be happy.

Once you have parodied the west and the world itself, what's left? Duh. What else but space itself? Though less edgy and a little tamer than his previous efforts, "Spaceballs" provides quite a few hilarious moments. Still, some of the jokes go absolutely nowhere.

Can a single performance carry an entire film? Simply put, yes. "Monster" proves it. Charlize Theron unquestionably took home the best actress award for her performance as serial killer Aileen Wournos, but she's not the only strong performer here.

While some people may consider the Xbox a computer in disguise, it's main function is still a game machine. For a lot of us non-PC gamers, this is a blessing. The FPS genre has always ruled the PC with a few exceptions such as Goldeneye, but Halo has finally bridged the gap and made consoles a major contender in the FPS war.

If you haven't seen the two commercials The Media Group are running for Ohio you can check them out here. They have a article about skyrocketing tuition in Ohio under Bush, I can attest to that one first hand. You can also watch and listen to other non-Ohio specific commercials on their home page.

After the outright disaster that was the American version of Godzilla, Toho studios decided to resurrect their own and try to salvage the franchise. This new film, "Godzilla 2000," would become a movie of firsts for the series. It's not a classic, but a decent if just slight above average entry into the long running series.

Anandtech - the PC hardware site - took the Apple challenge and tried a Mac out for a month. The result was the most indepth Macdate I have even seen. As quoted by Anand, "In the end, Apple has developed a very strong platform."

Source: AnandTech via Slashdot

In-depth? Indeed. Good read? Yes.

Dear Users:

We have a down Internet connection. Someone deleted the Internet when they dragged the little blue “E” to the recycle bin. We are working with our Internet service provider to restore the whole World Wide Web using tape backup. This will take some time, because the backup storage facility is on another planet. With NASA currently grounded, we will have to enlist the aid of the Russian space agency. We appreciate your forbearance.

Thanks to my bro Max for the funny.

Microsoft has won a patent for automatically downloading software using the OBJECT tag, and to strengthen it's claim has relied on none other than the infamous Eolas patent.

Source: Builder.com

CE Lifestyles Magazine targets digital electronics enthusiasts and avid computer users who like all things digital. Each issue of CE Lifestyles includes hardware reviews, buying advise, and tutorials for getting started on a broad range of devices. CE Lifestyles provides all-around gadget hounds with the latest advancements in computer electronics.

Get a Complimentary Subscription to CE Lifestyles

"No Excuses: Get off Your Duff and Vote!" with special guest Jerry Springer and honored guests Robin Weirauch, candidate for U.S. Congress, and Nathan Nickens, candidate for the Ohio State Senate, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in 228 Bowen-Thompson Student Union (Multi-purpose room). Following the event, the College Democrats are sponsoring a presidential debate-watching party. The event is free and open to the public. No outside signs, please.

Microsoft Corp.'s Mac Business Unit (MacBU) on Tuesday announced the availability of Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 1, an update for the latest Macintosh release of the company's popular productivity application software suite. The service pack "addresses potential security issues and bugs that [user] feedback played an important role in identifying," according to Microsoft. What's more, the new version features support for Microsoft Error Reporting Protocol (MERP), which allows customers to send bug reports to Microsoft anonymously.

Source: MacCentral

Here is the full list of changes in Office 11.1.0 a.k.a. Office 2004. I myself notice no change, but considering the amount of bullet points on that change log, it looks like they fixed a lot.

Quark Inc. on Tuesday introduced QuarkXPress 6.5, a new version of their flagship desktop publishing software. New features have been added including the QuarkVista image editing plug-in, native multi-layer Photoshop file import and layer editing and an upgrade to the QuarkXClusive XTensions module used for variable data publishing that's available only to Mac OS X users.

Source: MacCentral

I am mildly impressed that Quark is offering 6.5 free of charge to 6.0 owners. It is more like them to charge us another $700 for the upgrade. This means we will get it. So I will have to take it for a spin once I get it installed. Although I must say the amount of Quark jobs we get at Student Publications is very few and far between these days. Which is a good thing.

So quark can now handle PSD files! And they could not even do it themselves! They had to get the (wonderful) plugin developer A Lowly Apprentice Productions to do the work.

Lets see, InDesign has done PSD files since what, version 1? I do not know what the numbers are like, but from people I have talked to in the various print industries, Quark is looking the stronghold.

I knew I did good after I took it. And I did, I got a 86.5%. I even got the bonus questions right, where we were shown paintings not shown in class, but from artists we had studied. I only got part of the multi-part bonus questions right, but the part I got right was the artist's name. I am pretty happy with an 86%.

Everyone has the occasional slip of the tongue. We've all screwed up a word once in a while, likely making ourselves look stupid in the process. But, when you screw up enough to fill four books and an hour long DVD, you should probably start thinking before you speak. Now we can relive the current presidents worst (or best depending on your point of view) moments on DVD thanks to the fine people over at "George W. Bushims."

The NBA is a mess. Shooting percentages are at an all-time low, teams are moving, the league has reorganized divisions, and the number of truly talented players is pathetic. Maybe that's why "ESPN NBA 2K5" fails miserably on multiple levels. Actually, it's probably because the game is just a sad representation of the sport.

Until I read John Gruber's fairly long post about BBEdit 8, I was not convinced in the $49 to upgrade from BBEdit 7.1 to 8 was worth it. He is a good salesman though (he used to work for Bare Bones). So I downloaded the demo and tried it out. This new version rocks. It gets my vote for the $50 upgrade.

My favorite new features are not even the most powerful. I love the yellow highlight behind the current line of code/text you are working on. The new documents drawer/pull down menu is also very nice. I like having multiple windows open and not having such a cluttered workspace.

Text Factories look to be a very powerful new feature, I will have to look into them more when I have the time. There are so many other new features I like about the new version, but i will stop at those.

Be sure to download the demo. I highly recommend it. Also be sure to read John Gruber's post about BBEdit 8.

There is a lot to explore here. Including a funny on the Atom Films Web site.

Some people have the will to survive. No matter the situation, this small group of humans will find a way to make it out alive. In the case of "The Day After Tomorrow," this seems to be every major character. A simple yet spectacular looking disaster movie in the first hour, the film takes a wild and totally incomprehensible turn in the second half all while leaving logic out of the script.

"I heard there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." —George W. Bush, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004 (Flash video of quote)

This and so many more on the About.com page dedicated to Bushisms. There are even pages for 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. There are a couple funny shots of Dubya too, like that pretzel bruise shot.

Six presidential elections ago, the only time then-Pres. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan met for a debate was in Cleveland.

There, Reagan asked a question that has resonated since:

“Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

It’s a question asked by every challenger about every incumbent, and it’s a question that should be asked today.

Four years ago, many of us were still in college at Bowling Green. Some were early into their first jobs out of college. Most had come of age politically during the Clinton administration. There was little, if any, memory of the Cold War, let alone its flare-ups in Asia. Russia was our friend. Yasser Arafat was one of the good guys. Nobody knew who Osama bin Laden was. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 12,000, and there was talk it could hit 100,000 in our lives, no small feat since it broke 2,000 for the first time in the 1980s. The World Trade Towers were the Empire State Building’s bigger, uglier stepsister.

Since then, the world has changed immeasurably. We are at war with terrorism. We are at war in Iraq. The Dow struggles to stay above 10,000. Everyone knows who Osama bin Laden is. The World Trade Towers are now a hole in the ground in lower Manhattan.

And now, waist-deep in the real world, staffers at 210west ask themselves, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Please send us your story.

Continue reading "Are You Better Off than You Were Four Years Ago?"

This past Wednesday. Jerry Springer, Robin Weirauch, and Nathan Nickens spoke at the Union. Jerry Springer is, in my opinion, a very good speaker. His speech and question/answer session were great, I thought. You can read more about the rally in The BG News article "Springer motivates democrats."

My buddy Mike was their for the Sentinel-Tribune taking photos, though that did not even help in getting a picture of me and Jerry Springer. I got a handshake and an autograph.

It was great to finally meet Robin Weirauch's campaign staff. So far they had only know me as "the guy who does the web site," and now we can both put faces to names, which is always nice.

Afterwards I stayed to watch the 3rd presidential debate. They had it projected on a huge screen. This was great as I had been busy during the other debates. Watching it with a bunch of college Dems in the room also proved to be entertaining.

This is a great example of using bullet lists, nesting bullet lists for sub navigation is tabs, and its all ready for you in a zip file for download.

Matt: You are .html You are versatile and improving, but you do have your limits. When you work with amateurs it can get quite ugly.

Ken: You are .doc You change from year to year, just to make things tough on your competition. Only your creator really has a handle on you.

Which File Extension Are You?

Warning: This review contains useless thoughts and phrases. It also contains numerous segments not even relating to the game being reviewed. You may completely lose interest or fall asleep in that bowl of Frosted Flakes right in front of you if continue reading. You have been warned.

The stories in video games have always been clichéd, historically speaking. Whether it be the save the damsel in distress or make sure the universe stays in one piece, we've seen it all a million times. When a game centers around the murder of a mans wife and newborn child, gamers take notice, especially when the game plays so well that it grips players in it's plot better than any RPG. Max Payne does just this and takes players through an interactive action movie that's better than, well, most action movies.

You better bid quick on this one! It is going for $3000 right now. I dont even like Halo this much.

Biggest U.S. record retailer battles record labels over prices.

Wal-mart wants every CD you buy to cost less than ten bucks. And the nation's largest retailer -- which moved a quarter of a trillion dollars' worth of goods last year -- usually gets its way. Suppliers who don't accede to Wal-Mart's "everyday low price" mantra often find their products bounced from the chain's stores, excluded from being sold to the 138 million people who shop at a Wal-Mart store every week.

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (AP) - Bowling Green scored on five of its first six possessions, with Omar Jacobs passing for three touchdowns and running for another, to beat Ball State 51-13 on Saturday night.

Source: BGSU Falcons.com

I hear people were leaving by half time. I could not make it as I was in Toledo working. But hey, working pays more then going to a football game.

You can't ask for a better homecoming game. BG is really on a roll. Maybe the GMAC and not the Motor City Bowl this year? Next is Ohio University in Athens.

Its like when the electricity goes out, there is nothing to do. Not that fun especially as I had a number of web sites to update! Oh well. It took Time Warner Cable over 24 hrs. to restore both Cable Internet and TV. I could not get online for two days as I don't start using my connection until after 5 PM. But I know it was down at least 24 hrs. I have never had an outage like that before.

BGSU had its 4th annual Technology Fair today. I have gone each year, and this year seemed a little bigger, but only because it was in the Union Grand Ballroom this time and not in Olscamp Hall.

I got to see the new iMac G5 in person. I did not expect it to have think plexiglass like clear plastic around it like it does. I figured it would be more like the iBook finnish. But OK, its fine. The 17" they had on display was amazing. I thought it was the 20" model before I asked.

At the Staples booth I got a $10 off coupon, that will go to good use.

I do not think I have seen the Geek Squad booth before. Their brochure verbiage is very funny, very retro cop lingo. I saw their Bug in the Lot A parking lot. It is a white Bug with a black hood and trunk, and their logo really big on the drivers side door. They gave out a CD that has a Flash presentation on it, well done I might add, with info about them and even a space invaders like game to play. I have never heard of the Geek Squad before, but they are affiliated with Best Buy. Check out their web site for more on them.

The Technology Fair was better this year, as it was in a larger venue and not as crowded. Its always great to see friends in other technology related departments. Give-aways abound and the cookies were exquisite this year! A fun time all around.

There is nothing more painful than watching a comedian turn self-righteous. Unless of course, the comedian is lashing out at smug and self-serving television-news personalities. Jon Stewart could not resist a last dig at CNN's "Crossfire" during his monologue on Comedy Central on Monday night . "They said I wasn't being funny," the star of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" said, rolling his eyes expressively. "And I said to them: 'I know that. But tomorrow I will go back to being funny," Mr. Stewart said, adding that their show would still be bad, although he used a more vulgar expression.

If you have not seen this episode of Crossfire, go find it on BitTorrent and watch (or from iFilm)! You can see John Stewart's comments on The Daily Show after his Crossfire appearance here.

Not only is this info graphic funny, but the photo used in the background is a photo taken by JD Pooley of the Sentinel-Tribune here in BG from when Kerry held a rally downtown. Thanks to Matt Sussman for pointing this out.

BTW, Matt, it would be great if your blog worked in Safari.

Thanks to Rob for making this a Pick of the Week at MacOSXHints.com. I have never heard of it, but I think I will have Firefox open a lot more because of it.

Be sure to look at the detailed list of features, and download this very handy extension today!

Fun with "I'm Feeling Lucky"

Step 1: Go to Google.

Step 2: Type in "miserable failure" (without quotes).

Step 3: Click I'm Feeling Lucky.

You get President George W. Bush's Biography!

Thanks to Max for pointing this out.

Or.... why an IQ test should be required before starting a new website.

Or.... This kid is an idiot.

Or... My IQ just dropped 10 points after reading that.

Or... Why certain parents should not be allowed to have children.

Or.... Everything I learned about video games I learned from fan boy message boards.

Or.... Why AOL sucks #2,875,908,095

Or... Spellchecking gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Or... Why games like Spongebob the Movie become Greatest Hits.

Or... Who says the avaerage age of a gamer is going up?

Or... This is more entertaining than Breaking Windows.... seriously.

[linky]

Thanks to Matt for the link, and oh what a funny read it is!

... your desktop icons might be at war (Flash).

Thanks to Rob for the link. I have seen this before, but do not think I have ever posted the link to it.

It's rare when a company actually listens to consumers anymore. Why else do we still get "Tomb Raider" games? Here is a rare case when a company actually took to heart everything that was criticized about the first game (for the record, it was quite the list) and fixed it, but in the process created a whole new list of unforgivable issues that consumers will again have to wait to be fixed in "RAW 3" (if it ever surfaces of course).

Mech games generally fall into 2 categories: The 100-button, bogged down, control freak type and the "blow sh*t up" kind. "Mech Assault" assuredly falls into the latter category, but has a few minor issues that keep it from absolute greatness. However, most people will still keep it around for its enthralling multi-player gameplay.

Every movie has rules. These are generally included to tell you what you need to believe in order to suspend disbelief and enjoy the movie. "Gremlins" probably has one of the more memorable rule sets in movie history and even though it doesn't really stick to them, it's still one of the best things to come out of the 80's.

Over the weekend, MacInTouch and Slashdot posted information regarding a shell script dubbed "opener" that, if installed with proper authentication on a Mac OS X system, can trigger several vulnerabilities including password compromising and activity tracking. Several publications have since sounded the alarm, with headlines like "Mac users face rare virus" and "Destructive Mac virus spies on Apple users".

Fortunately, there is no immediate threat posed by this, or any other malicious shell script currently in circulation -- running the "opener" script and allowing it to do any damage requires root authentication, which must be locally entered by a Mac OS X administrator. There is currently no vector for this or any other malicious Mac OS X script, i.e. no way for the script to autonomously take hold of the system or propagate itself to other systems without express administrator permission. In other words, it is not spreading, and cannot spread without a vector that is capable of gaining root access.

Say this with me:

must be locally entered by a Mac OS X administrator
must be locally entered by a Mac OS X administrator
must be locally entered by a Mac OS X administrator
must be locally entered by a Mac OS X administrator

There. Do you feel better? I sure do. People need to settle down. There have been many similar malware scripts over the short history of OS X that could compromise a computer, but the password must be locally entered by a Mac OS X administrator.

But since OS X has historically has been virus free, when a potential virus shows up all the moron news agencies start to cry wolf. They all want to be there to break the story when the Teflon coating of Mac OS X is broken and a virus starts wrecking havoc on a mass scale. Well that hasn't happened yet, and its not going to happen with the "Opener" worm unless people just type their administrator password in for no good reason at all.

Sophos, as usual, has a good explanation of what this worm tries to do. Be sure to read it if you want more information.

Sure, its a scary sounding startup script. And Mac users should not feel as if they are 100% safe from virus attatcks, but lets get a grip people! Unwittingly giving arbitrary code the permission to run is perhaps the greatest current security threat for Mac OS X users.

Welcome to using a Unix based Operating System: the OS thinks you know what the [bleep] you are doing.

How did it suddenly become a vulnerability that if you have root access to someones machine, you can write a script that will automatically install a bunch of malware?

1-800-201-7575

Save that number. You will have a very hard time finding it on their web site.

I wanted to cancel an order when I found a better price elsewhere and the web site would not let me cancel the order.

The gentleman I talked to was American, and was very nice and helpful. He canceled my order right away with no problems. I told him the web site said "Sorry" and I was told it must have been a technical error. Duh!

I asked the guy why it is hard to find the phone number on the web site and his response went something like this "we found that people were calling to make telephone orders, and that is not possible, it must be done online." He also told me that they have a limited phone support staff. Well if they in fact do have a limited phone support, ill take it as long as the voice on the other side of the line is that of an American.

Rockstar has announced that they will be releasing a double-CD soundtrack as well as an eight CD box set for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Both of these are set to hit the streets on November 23, almost a month after the release of the game. The double-CD will have 23 songs from San Andreas and a full song list has been released, but there are no details about the full box set.

Source: IGN PS2

You can get an idea of what will be on the 8 disc box set from the in game soundtrack. I assume like with Vice City the box set will not have every song that is heard in game, but most of them. Continue reading to see the list that the radio stations in the game play. Thanks to Maury for pointing me to the list.

Move follows reports of sensitive documents on Internet

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission removed its massive public reading room from the Internet Monday after nuclear safety activists and media organizations found several documents on it containing sensitive information they said could help terrorists.

The information included floor plans for nuclear laboratories at several universities, specifying the types and locations of nuclear materials they use...

And how long has that been online? Critics say this action came too late, three weeks after the problem was publicized. Lets be honest here. It takes a long time to take a large web site down :P

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Roar down city streets in the upcoming "Need for Speed Underground 2" racing game and you'll see a Best Buy store amid the skyscrapers along with bright billboards hawking Cingular Wireless, Old Spice, and Burger King.

I am waiting for GTA to have actual brand names in the game.

What do you think of ads in video games? I would like to hear your opinion.

Matt Paprocki has a good point. If they do not get in the way, and would make games cheaper, then why not!

OCTOBER 20, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Although Mac fans might find it hard to believe, the dual 2.5-GHz Power Mac G5 does indeed exist. The new top-end Power Mac was officially unveiled in June, but only a few of them have trickled into customers' hands, and four months after its debut, it remains one of the rarest Macs out there (with the scarce iMac G5 not far behind).

I just love hearing Mac and most recently G5 reviews from non Mac publications. You just know the people who have to do the reviews secretly want to keep the machine or buy one of their own.

Thanks to Matt for the link. This one is a funny funny, ha ha.

I have posted about OnlineConversion.com before, but I have never seen this slick calculator.

Thanks to Matt for this link.

Cara Zavaleta truly is the girl next door — assuming you live in a neighborhood full of naturally beautiful twentysomething coeds, who get unnatural amounts of enjoyment from knitting, star in two reality TV series and get paid to party it up in bars and nightclubs across the country...

Zavaleta will meet the public Wednesday, Oct. 27 to sign copies of the November 2004 issue of Playboy at the following times and locations: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Leo’s Book Store, 333 N. Superior St.; 4-6 p.m., Mike’s Party Mart, 834 S. Main St., Bowling Green.

Yes indeed there is more to Bowling Green then corn.

Below are the highlights from Apple's special music event with U2, which took place yesterday at the California Theater in San Jose, CA.

- Apple introduces iPod Photo
- Apple unveils U2 iPod
- Apple expands European iTMS; Canada in Nov.
- Apple to offer iPod Socks
- Apple releases iTunes 4.7; iTMS gets 'Artist Alerts'
- Apple launches iPod Store
- Jobs: 'Photos are the next big thing'

Wow what a day! Mostly iPod news... a London Apple Store!

Those iPod socks look cool. I drink the Kool-Aid, I will probably buy those. And this new iPod + iPhoto thing! Take that HP. Yea. I am selling both of my iPods and buying an iPod Photo (odd name, don't you think?)

Game Gear serial #S39023621 led a long and happy life. He was born on a manufacturing line sometime in 1990, or so revealed his autopsy. Discarded by his real parents, S39023621 was rescued at garage sale for $6. His new family was a kind and caring one, but not even they could fix his battle scars, which covered his screen due to a family of kids who found his torture amusing. For years he stayed in seclusion, scared to face a world that rejected him due to his lack of processing power. He would occasionally make an appearance for a quick game of "Earthworm Jim," but then it was back to his shelf underneath the large TV stand.

The 2004 presidential political season has begun in earnest. The nation is deeply and starkly divided on the road ahead on any number of issues. We will henceforth keep a running compilation of our election-related posts - watch it unfold here!

If you just cannot get enough election 2004 coverage, and I know I can't, then you should check out the master post over at Blogcritics.

Halloween week has crept up upon us on little black cat's feet once again. We went crazy-go-nuts with the Halloween stories and decorations last year (over 70 posts - check it out, IF YOU DARE!), but this year we are haunted by the Ghost of Election Present and All Hallow's Eve has been shunted aside a bit.

But with that caveat stated, we are still ghoulishly gathering together stories, reviews, news and the all-important whatnot to get you in the frightful right spirit. BOO!

Not only that, by Matt Paprocki has a bunch of horror/comedy movie reviews for your enjoyment. Look for these soon.

Video games are overpriced. $50 is a ridiculous amount of money for a form of entertainment. Back in the days of cartridges, it almost made sense, but now the standard media is so cheap, there's no reason for it. There's a simple way to fix this: advertising.

I really don't know many people. I'm just not a very big people person. Even in that small group I do hold close, I suspect three of them were not original occupants of this planet. In fact, one of them I'm positive of. Leave it to Hollywood to prove my theories correct with "Men In Black."

Okay, I doubt anyone went into "Men In Black II" expecting it to be funnier than the original. It's a sequel. If you thought otherwise, you should know better. What I know is that not a single person expected to walk out angry at the fact they just wasted $22.50 to see a bomb of a movie.

Some movies are an unqualified success. Others try to make themselves out to be. Take "Evolution," Ivan Reitman's first foray into sci-fi comedy since "Ghostbusters II." It's a fairly standard and predictable summer movie, yet it spawned a short-lived cartoon series (produced by Reitman) and a video game. Only in Hollywood.

It took five years for the sequel to one of 1984's biggest hits to finally get a sequel. Almost everyone returned for the second half of "Ghostbusters" and surprisingly, most of what made the first so enjoyable returns. It's not quite as funny and doesn't quite move as fast, but the improved special effects and great cast make sure this one is a worthy follow-up.

The "Evil Dead" series is an odd little footnote in movie history. With each subsequent film, director Sam Raimi changed the tone completely until we ended up here with "Army Of Darkness," one those dark comedies that's garnered a massive cult following. It may not have made back its cost in theaters, but this one continues to pull in money for Artisan on DVD.

It was an era of radioactivity as monsters both big and small made their way upon our screens. Now we have arrived in a new millennium and these classic creatures from the 1950's have gone digital on DVD. Conveniently in time for a certain upcoming holiday, here's a list of reviews by yours truly to help relive the greatest monster movie era of all time.

After "Gremlins" pulled in some insane box office numbers, it's no surprise that multiple knock-offs were soon to follow. "Critters" is probably the best, not only giving New Line a nice return on their investment, but also spawning three sequels in the process. Though things may be slow to build, it ends up being a highly enjoyable little creature flick.

Not every movie has to be original. There's nothing wrong with taking a standard formula and having fun with it. The sequel to the surprisingly successful "Critters" is one of those movies. Who says hand puppets can't star in a great movie?

...Another major change is that the new iPod Photo extends battery life to up to 15 hours, as compared to 12 hours for 4G iPods and 8 hours for the iPod mini. Our “best scenario” tests (meaning that we fully charged the iPod and had it shuffle songs until the battery ran out) revealed that the iPod Photo is capable of even longer playtime. In those test the iPod played music continuously for 16 hours and 10 minutes...

Given that few of these iPods have made their way into the world, I thought I’d offer a few initial impressions. This isn’t the full review that will follow when we’ve had the time necessary to give the new iPod a thorough going over, but rather what I expected after Apple’s presentation and how this iPod has met those expectations.

If you use a device such as the Belkin Digital Camera Link for iPod or the Belkin iPod Media Reader to import photos to your iPod Photo, the imported photos won't appear on the iPod Photo screen while browsing photos or viewing a slide show.

If you want to view the photos you imported to iPod Photo, load them on your computer from iPod and then use iTunes 4.7 or later to sync them back to iPod Photo.

I am a bit disappointed in the iPod Photo. It had really great potential. I agree that video would not be worthwhile on the iPod, but this new iPod Photo could have truly been a "Photo iPod" if you could import a roll from your memory card with the Belkin iPod Media Reader and then use the iPod to view those photos on that nice color screen. This would surely be a boon to photographers in the field both novice or professional. Imagine having 40 or 60 GB of space to transfer and view your photos with.

I hope, like many I am sure do, that Belkin is in the works of a new iPod Media Reader that will automatically show the photos on the iPod without having to first sync with the Mac.

At first neither Apple or Belkin was saying anything about this, but at least Apple has put to rest the rumors by releasing this KB document.

Like no other, iPod Ashlee Simpson Karaoke Edition stands out. Virgin white, it features the new Apple Fast-Forward Click Button and, on the flip side, complete how to use instructions. Available for just $349, it comes with enough money to use a pay phone for calling your daddy, your agent or both, when you get caught lip syncing live on national television. We have also included some Kleenex for those special times when your entire fan base realizes you're nothing but a talentless hack.

Wow, this is bad.

ShapeShifer 2.0, WindowShadeX 3.5 and FontCard 1.2.1 are out from Unsanity.

What is really amazing is the fact that I bought WindowShadeX and ShapeShifter in their infancy, when they cost $7, and Unsanity has not once charged for an upgrade.

WindowShadeX has grown into a mature version of the OS 9 feature "Window Shade." ShapeShifter has filled another void missing in OS X, Kaleidoscope from OS 9. Version 2.0 of ShapeShifer added a lot of new theme capabilities. My favorite themes are the ones that are dark, for those late nights that I do not want to stare at a stark white screen.

FontCard has been updated by leaps and bounds in its short history. It now works in Carbon and Cocoa apps, showing not only a WYSIWYG font menu, but also if it is TT, OT, or PS. FontCard has really sped up my time finding the font I want.

The Mac community needs more developers like Unsanity. I am glad - and shocked - that Apple has not snatched up their tools, like they have with so many others and added them to the OS. I thought after 3 years that WindowShadeX would have shown up built into Mac OS X. But no, it is still developed by a 3rd party that keeps pushing the envelope of what can be done.

With an obviously reduced budget, "Critters 3" goes farther downhill with every passing minute. It lacks charm, humor, continuity, and decent acting. Oh, and it stars a very young Leonardo DiCaprio. That makes five strikes.

"Every movie series that begins in space must end in space." That was written by, uh, well me. But let's face it; if your monster comes from space, you surely have to realize that they're going to send them back after three entries, right? If it can happen to "Leprechaun" it can happen to the "Critters."

I'm not sure why people choose to live in small towns. Don't they know that eventually a monster is going to come in and ruin everything? Sure, the big cities have their own set of creatures to deal with, but at least they have an army to defend themselves with. The again, the folks over in Perfection seemed to have everything under control in 1990's "Tremors."

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- So much for a perfect week in New England sports, the Patriots' chances for a perfect season and the longest winning streaks in NFL history.

Ben Roethlisberger, a rookie quarterback who seemingly doesn't know how to lose, drove the Steelers to four scores following uncharacteristic New England turnovers and Pittsburgh ended the Patriots' two long winning streaks with a remarkably easy 34-20 victory Sunday.

Being a Falcon fan I hate to say this, but Roethlisberger has done amazing in his rookie year in Pittsburgh. He sure beat the crap out of the MAC when he was running the Miami (of Ohio) offense.

I never though that the Steelers were going to kill the Patriots streak, but these types of things never end the way you think they will. I mean, who thought the Cards would lay an egg in the World Series this year.

So congrats to Big Ben, yet another QB from the MAC taking the NFL by storm. By the way, what happened to Josh Harris? He is listed as inactive.