Matthias

Up to now, I thought the Sony Rootkit story was ... well, mildly interesting.

That changed when I read this -- there seems to be LGPL code in there.

This shit is so going to hit the fan, methinks.

There is a meme in front of you.

It tries to enter your brain.

You duck.

The meme circles around you. It tries again! You shift to the side, but the meme is faster!

You now have another meme in your head. Ewww. (A somewhat old one, too.)



create your own visited countries map

... of sorts, anyway.

When I'm procrastinating, I tend to read anime fanfic. (Yeah, I now ...)

Some of the better stuff, IMHO, anyway. (So there.) Undocumented Features, for instance. Unfortunately, their site seems to be unreachable. This is bad, as some of it (especially the more recent stuff (which should surprise nobody)) is seriously well written. (NB: Please do hesitate before telling me that I use too many parentheses. (I know that already. (Obviously.)))

Happily, I mirrored the site a few months ago. So, four million words of Eyrie Productions' literary output are now available here.

May they be back soon.

This is stupid. But it's fun too. So ...

RSI again. The fact that I still can't type with my left hand might have been relevant here. Looking for alternatives to too much typing for my abused wrist, I discovered dasher, which works by letting me zoom my way into a large heap of letters, sized by whatever the program thinks is most likely to come next.

It's open source (that's the good news) but doesn't have a Python interface, or an easy way to use it with a joystick. Yet. That's the part where that RSI of mine is likely to get worse before it gets better...

NB: For the not-a-hacker people reading this, Python is a programing language. I trust I don't have to explain what a joystick is. :-)

Yesterday's contest between our glass-panelled swinging door and my left hand resulted in a draw.

I got the glass, and then the glass got me.

After a brief ER visit, my hand and wrist are adorned by seven large band-aids, and I'll have to type one-handed for the next two weeks or so.

It should not surprise anybody that this is more annoying to me than the actual injuries.

OK, so it's Stupid Test Time.
(Probably nothing new to some of you.)
Anyway, the result I got is the only one from that test I can identify with, for reasons which should be readily apparent ...

Take the "How Do You Use Magic?" test!

On a more serious (and interesting!) note, there is this. Please watch it once. You need to count the number of times one of the balls is passed. This is difficult, so pay attention.
Don't watch twice. Then ... ( Read more... )

That is, the next WorldCon -- in Glasgow, Scotland. 2005.

I just booked my hotel room. Unsurprisingly, the best hotel rooms available (i.e., reasonably-priced and close to the convention center) are already sold out.

I don't yet know when it'll be possible to book flights, but I expect the pattern to repeat itself.

Tonight I saw some astonishing cloud-to-cloud lightning.

Imaging five narrow stormy clouds, side by side. There was this one lightning between the first two. That triggered two parallel strokes between the second and third, which triggered four or so between 3/4, which started off almost ten bolts of lightning between the last two clouds. At the same time. One beside the others.

WOW.

With stuff *that* grand, out there in nature, for all to see who look, who needs religion?

So the cat jumped on top of the monitor, like she's done hundreds of times in the past.

This time, the monitor went black. Permanently.

So, I had to chase her off, take the heavy thing to some repair shop, and buy a nice big LCD screen.

No room for the cat on top of the new screen, she's slim but not THAT slim. No Linux drivers for the cool pivot feature either. On the other hand, the thing is actually brighter than the old monitor.

We'll see how much the repair guy wants. It's nominally fixed-price, but ...

My stomach hurts. No, I am not sick, though I have evil co-workers.

http://www.besse.at/sms/smsintro.html

Yeah, I've not been to LJ (nor alt.poly nor ...) for a while.

Stuff Happened.

Anyway, a belated Happy Birthday to everybody, and I'll update stuff when I manage to get it organized enough, in my mind, to actually talk about it instead of rambling, which is what I seem to be doing, which is why I'll go to sleep now.

So I've got a cold. Yesterday it was gone, today it's back.

I am SO happy about that. Had to postpone the dentist too (just a check-up, but still); at least they were somewhat supportive. I guess the fact that you can hear my congested nose on the phone helped. :-/

Came home yesterday. No sleep on plane.

I am not a Nice Person(tm) when 250% tired.

Got 12 hours sleep tonight an this morning. Now not tired, but disoriented. Badly.

The last time I came back from San Francisco, that was much better. *Sigh*.

Next time I'll take a ship, or something. :-/

Watched the Masquerade. Heaps of fun costumes. Some people did the Trumps of Amber, my personal favorite.

After that, listened to Cecilia Tan read a few of her short stories. She's good at that.

Then, listened to lots of filk until too tired.

More panels, more books bought. There's a reason my oversized-duffel-bag-on-wheels (I am not calling it a suitcase) was half-empty on the way here.

Started on Charles de Lint, Onion Girl. That was a mistake, 'cause it's rather big and I like to carry the book I'm reading around, but it's actually too interesting to put down and start reading something else instead. Oh well.

My costume, such as it is (a silver-nylon robe I bought for Burning Man two years ago, now slightly scruffy), drew a couple of smiles, especeially when I put the hood up and let it fall over my eyes. Sort of a good-guy version of Emperor Palpatine, except that I'm not that old. *g*

Actually the most difficult part is not to grin at everyone looking at me (I can somewhat see through the stuff), which would spoil the effect. That reminds me that I could never be an actor...

I seem to need a picture. Maybe I'll be able to cajole somebody into taking one.

Registered. Just my nickname on the badge, did I really tell them not to print my full name there??

Wandered around with Cally (who volunteered) to collect room info and get my general bearings.

Peeved about the con website, where the programming info is available in PDF (not back-convertible to text) or broken HTML (what's with cutting off half the descriptions and replacing part of the rest with '0%' or '0.00'?? Oh yes, the first few weren't mangled, so I suppose nobody noticed). Duh.

Went back to our hotel, still feeling a bit sick. Somebody or -thing turned the air conditioning Way Down. :-(

Decided to read. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, The Godmother. Nice.

Then started in on C.J.Cherryh, Wave Aith A Shore, and noticed that I've read it already, sometime in the dim past. Duh.

Now falling asleep.

Went halfway up CN Tower. More up was a wait of an hour, so I didn't.

I was surprised nobody told me to turn off my cellphone, which worked up there, even though the number of GSM cells it could see probably was illegal (i.e. likely to be interfering with somebody else). I still phoned home and teased Doris about it, who would think twice before going up any slightly-swaying building, much less the world's highest one.

Surprised that the thing is 27 years ols already.

Nürnberg has a tower with a revolving restaurant too, but it's been closed a loong time now.

No, I don't really know why I've set up this journal. Time will tell.