William Gibson is in the house!

William Gibson arrived into our household on Saturday. Our old cat, Leo, doesn't seem to be too happy about it.

William Gibson is extremely sweet. He likes to climb on top of you and burrow his head onto you and then purr real loud. He also does what can only be described as a happy dance on top of you any time you let him. He also likes to be held, unlike Leo, who will only withstand being held for about 20 seconds.

Let's see what happens in the next few months. Leo is a big cat, not fat, but just really big. He's only two years old but weighs over 15 pounds. William Gibson is really tiny. He's about 7 months, not quite 6 pounds yet, very slim and scrappy. He kinda dances around the apartment, sidestepping at every opportunity to jump on a table or whatever. Leo goes in a straight line from A to B and does not stray in his quest to get to where he wants to go. It looks like the cats couldn't be any more different. William Gibson is holding his own though. He's got a mean jab, one which Leo seemingly wants to avoid.

-TPP

Up yours, spammer scum, yet again

Another spammer lands in jail for being a dick. Peter Moshou gets 12 months for violating the CAN-SPAM law.

-TPP

Fuck MBNA

I'm going on vacation abroad in a few weeks. The reservation at the resort we're going to was made in USD.

Today I'm checking my MBNA credit card statement. There's a 3% foreign transaction fee tacked onto that "foreign" transaction. MBNA is charging me 3% to convert my "foreign" transaction to USD. Only one problem with that...THE TRANSACTION WAS MADE IN USD YOU SONS OF BITCHES!

Fuck you MBNA, I'm not using your credit card EVER for any foreign purchase. Being a foreigner I tend to travel quite a bit. Your fucking loss you fucking greedy bastards.

Goddamn it!

-TPP

OGHC - word to yo grandma! um, what!?

Check out Old Grandma Hardcore, an elderly gamer from Cleveland. She's over 50, and she kicks ass!

She got profiled on MTV recently, check out the video clip of the profile. Much carnage, cussing and trash talking ensues.

-TPP

Up yours, spammer scum, pt erm

Peter Francis-Macrae aka Weaselboy was just convicted to 6 years in prison for fraud, making death threats, making threats to destroy or damage property, concealing criminal property and blackmail.

I've written about Weaselboy before.

It's amazing how many spammers have criminal records.

More links about Weaselboy's sentence:

Peterbourough Today
The Register
Times Online

-TPP

Sony pirating software

Apparently Sony's rootkit DRM software contains a statically linked version of the lame mp3 decoder. Lame is licensed under the LGPL license, which would typically only allow this sort of reuse if the application using lame would also be released under LGPL, or Sony bought a non-LGPL license from the authors of lame.

It's highly unlikely Sony did either.

So here we have a company trying to protect their products from being pirated using pirated software. Oh the irony!

-TPP

Sony in the virus manufacturing business

The first trojan to exploit Sony's wonderful DRM scheme has been spotted in the wild. Some enterprising virus writer sent spam overnight with a modified trojan that takes advantage of Sony's DRM security holes.

Apparently the trojan was coded in too much of a hurry because it's not working as intended. Nothing's preventing someone from doing a better job at it though.

More information about the trojan by Sophos

-TPP

We are not in Kansas anymore

The Kansas Board of Education approved new public-school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

And Kansas just moved 2000 years back to neverneverland.

-TPP

Rootkits are a-ok by Sony

NPR recently interviewed Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG's Global Digital Business division, regarding the DRM scheme Sony BMG is using on some of their music CDs.

Mr. Hesse had this to say about their rootkits:

“Most people I think don't even know what a root kit is so why should they care about it”

That comment shows a complete lack of understanding regarding computer security issues. It's not "most people" you have to worry about, it's the bad actors, who are the ones who WOULD know about exploiting the security hole created by Sony. "Most people", precisely because they don't know what a rootkit is, would never know how to protect themselves against exploits helped by Sony's cluelessness.

Here's further evidence of Sony's cluelessness. Mark Curtis' daughter bought a Sony BMG music cd from Walmart. The CD does not play on any music player, including stereo equipment, the family owns. The DRM software is causing the family computer to BSOD immediately after bootup. Walmart is refusing a refund. Sony is saying to install a patch to get rid of the DRM program. How would one do that, if the computer doesn't boot up any more?

-TPP

MPAA stormtroopers invade movie theaters, in Canada

Movie reviewers watching a prescreening of Derailed in Toronto are subjected to detention center type of security procedures before entering the movie theatre. Security guards also record the audience for duration of the screening. Can't wait to go see movies! Maybe they'll give me a strip search next time.

-TPP