March 10th, 2010
 Allow me to be somewhat incendiary and clear: as a programmer and as a hardcore techie for more than 10 years, a good many of those years being directly involved with people who have made viruses, there is absolutely positively no “virus” on the Drudge Report, and the Senate Sargeant-at-Arms, Terrance W. Gainer, has no idea what he is talking about. Senator Inhofe is entirely correct.
After the jump I’ll go into specific detail as to my research into the site, but suffice to say there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever there is a virus, and it is virtually impossible to pass on a virus through a website. Further, there is no reason why a good virus programmer would ever bother putting a virus on the Drudge Report to hunt out politicians. Gainer likely got confused based upon the nature of a “tracking cookie”. For my complete analysis, click below.
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Tags: ads, drudge report, house, html, Politics, programming, republicans, senate, technology, virus, web 2.0, web development
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March 10th, 2010
 Newegg, the online computer technology shopping website which is like Amazon.com for geeky people like myself, recently got burned by a supplier and was provided a supply of hilariously fake Intel i7-920s, which run for about $260 each. The thread that spread the news on Overclockers is what makes the story hilarious, particularly in the pictures- the box looks fairly legitimate, except close inspection reveals typos, fake security label printing, and perhaps best of all, a “heatsink” that appears to be nothing more than carved plastic along with a processor with no pins and heat bubbles on it somehow. Of course, Newegg is keeping rather quiet about the entire fiasco and called the fakes “demos”, but this is likely just to keep quiet until their lawyers can effectively figure out how to sue the pants off their distributor, who they dropped almost immediately.
Tags: business, computers, consumer rights, heatsink, intel, newegg, processors, technology, web 2.0
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March 8th, 2010
 Microsoft, possibly to try to begin to carve a niche for themselves in the mobile gaming world, recently demoed technology that allows a single game instance to be shared across a PC, XBOX 360, and handheld Windows Phone 7 device at the same time. The exciting thing about this technology is that the code is ultra-portable between the two machines, to the tune of 90% of the entire codebase- basically meaning that in ideal situations, developing programmers could effectively scale a single title across multiple platforms, all interacting with one another, in an incredibly efficient timeframe. Of course, one can easily see the great caveat to this- the quality and features of the game are going to be unquestionably limited by the weakest link in the chain of technology, specifically the phone technology- but this featureset might be best utilized by doing something along the lines of Sony’s PSP-PS3 integration, which allows one system to act as an accessory (like a rearview mirror or a status menu) while the main console controls the core game itself.
Tags: computers, microsoft, pc, technology, windows, windows 7, windows phone 7, xbox 360
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March 6th, 2010
 Microsoft recently displayed a concept PC- the “Courier”- which is to be something like a mix between an e-book and a tablet. Obviously an attempt to take the wind out of the iPad launch, the Courier is remarkably cool looking and functional seeming- it’s got two screens on a hinge to mimic a book and the core functions will be based around a pen- meaning, basically, it’s going to be a digital notebook, complete with a planner, a web browser, and a variety of other cool things. The size is also appealing- it will end up being, when folded, about the size of a postcard. I have to say, I’d buy this much faster than I ever would the iPad.
Tags: apple, computers, consumer electronics, courier, ebook, iPad, microsoft, technology, web 2.0
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March 3rd, 2010
 Apparently, if you ask people nicely, crazed killers won’t kill people- or, that’s at least what the Brady Campaign is implying. (Somewhat) fresh off the heels of the Maurice Clemmons shooting of four police officers inside of a Washington coffee shop, the Brady Campaign, a campaign against gun violence, has begin specifically lobbying Starbucks to explicitly prohibit guns in their stores. Part of this spawns from Starbucks’ apathetic approach to the entire issue of open carry, as they are somewhat infamous for simply not giving a whit about the entire issue whatsoever because they just want to sell coffee.
The Brady Campaign, on their website, claims that “packing heat” in Starbucks is “intimidating and could be potentially dangerous to our families and communities”. The implication is, of course, that someone could get shot in a Starbucks, much like the whole Maurice Clemmons thing. But let’s be real here: if you’re really going to bust into a public location and shoot up four armed police officers, do you really think that you’ll give a care that a skinny, liberal arts major barista behind the counter is asking you to please leave the store? To me, it just sounds like the Brady Campaign is trying to guilt Starbucks into becoming a poster boy for their political opinions.
Tags: Brady Campaign, coffee, consumer rights, controversy, guns, law, Maurice Clemmons, news, Politics, Starbucks, Washington
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February 28th, 2010
 A while back I posted a small post on here lambasting a visually disabled gamer for suing Sony Online Entertainment, who he alleged violated the ADA by making it difficult for him to play Everquest 2. As I argued, the Internet (and internet games) is/are not a “public accommodation”, and thus is/are not subject to the ADA. Well, it looks like someone agrees with me. The presiding judge for Stern v. Sony Corp. dismissed the case, basically saying that it did not violate the ADA, as the online game was not a place of public accommodation, and Sony had no actual system in place to prohibit disabled people from accessing the game (that is to say, there was no screening involved). You can read the entire PDF here.
Tags: ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, business, computers, law, lawsuit, news, Sony Online Entertainment, sue, technology, video games, web 2.0
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February 24th, 2010
 Greenpeace has recently taken website Facebook to task for locating a new data center in Prineville, Oregon, where the system will be largely powered by coal energy. While coal energy is far from close to anything efficient so far as energy is concerned, an interesting fact complicates matters: Greenpeace also distinctly hates natural gas and even nuclear power.
Greenpeace’s typical energy recommendations? Solar power or wind power, or sometimes earth heat power. None of which are remarkably cheap, available in copious amounts, or (in many cases) stable enough to maintain 24/7 server uptime without some form of gas/coal/nuclear backup available. On top of that, would Facebook locate somewhere else, as the first article notes, they would likely have to install extensive cooling systems for their servers, which would draw lots more power.
Of course, Greenpeace thinks Facebook should demand that the Oregon power company replaces their energy sources with renewable sources before they work with them. You know, because people should just spend copious amounts of money because Greenpeace says so.
Tags: controversy, economy, facebook, global warming, greenpeace, science, servers, technology, web 2.0
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February 22nd, 2010
 As many noticed, the Conservative conference CPAC has marked a deliberate change in the general concept of Republican ideals- filled with people supporting Republican Gay groups and politicians like Ron Paul, it’s fairly clear that the radical fundamentalist “sect” of the Republican party is dying out, something I’m quite happy to hear about. However, this did not stop idiot extraordinaire Ryan Sorba, from the California Young Americans for Freedom, to make a complete idiot of himself in front of hundreds and possibly thousands on TV. In the video, Sorba whines about CPAC allowing Go Pride, a gay Republican group, to the conference, presumably implying they should have been banned from attendance. The response? Virtually everyone booed him off stage. He then decided to attack Jeff Frazee (a Libertarian who started Young Americans for Liberty, supporter of Ron Paul), presumably for not being fundamentalist enough. Then he stormed off stage.
Sorba, in one stupid maneuver, not only made himself look incredibly stupid and antiquated, but he also managed to essentially destroy any chance he’d ever have of being respected inside or outside the party again. In 6 months, Sorba will likely be serving his Republican friends in another way: by serving them fries at the local McDonalds.
Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Sorba, check out the YoungCC website, which includes- I kid you not- posts comprised solely of pictures of Sorba, posted by Sorba. Like the one on the left.
Tags: california, cpac, gay, republican, ryan sorba
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February 22nd, 2010
 Evidently, most people nowadays think they are entitled to the ability to do virtually anything they want on an airline.
As you’ve likely heard on the news, (terrible) director Kevin Smith recently caused a stink after being thrown off an airline for being too fat. The long story short is the director, who usually pays for two seats (which is typically required of fat people who take up lots of space), was impatient and wanted to get where he wanted to go faster, so he chose to fly standby on an earlier plane with only one seat, fully cognizant of the fact that this violated policy. When he was told to get off of the plane, the director began to whine and post on Twitter with photos, claiming he was in the right because he could put the arms down on the seats.
As you can imagine, this has sparked the whole “fat flyer” debate, largely pointlessly. Has anyone had the guts to point out that Kevin Smith knowingly violated policy and was basically complaining because he got caught? Further, has anyone actually thought that Southwest Airlines is not required to provide him (or anyone else) service at all? Has anyone wondered if Smith is just doing this to revive his somewhat dead career? The mind boggles.
Tags: airline, exercise, fat, health, kevin smith, news, southwest airlines
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February 18th, 2010
 As some of you know, Netflix supports streaming some of their “watch it now” videos directly to the PS3- a wonderful tool that I personally use incessantly and love to death. Still, honestly, there are some issues with it so far, and I decided to sit down and make a quick list of things that Netflix could do to improve the PS3-Netflix experience. So here it is.
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Tags: netflix, ps3, technology, video
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Allow me to be somewhat incendiary and clear: as a programmer and as a hardcore techie for more than 10 years, a good many of those years being directly involved with people who have made viruses, there is absolutely positively no “virus” on the Drudge Report, and the Senate Sargeant-at-Arms, Terrance W. Gainer, has no idea what he is talking about. Senator Inhofe is entirely correct.
