Thursday, December 01, 2005

Don't paint your car... skin it


The AutoSkin is a custom-made, digitally colored "skin" for automobiles. High-res artwork can be drawn on the skin, which is then melded to the car. It is supposedly indistinguishable from a conventional paint job and is of photgraphic quality. Toyota's Scion line -- with its heavy emphasis on mass-customization -- ought to be all over this.

Byrd (Lorie, not Robert) let's 'em have it


L Lorie Byrd, operating over at Townhall, has a powerful message for the electorate.

...the actions of the Democrats over the past three years have exposed them as incapable of governing in today’s world of global Islamic terrorism... They have shown that not only will they endlessly debate until it is [impossibly] late but that after a military action has been initiated, in the face of difficulties and waning public support, many will back out and abandon the mission and the troops.


The opposition party, faced with exactly the same pre-war intelligence, failed to act. And, after voting to authorize the use of force, they have now decided to re-spin that vote for the purposes of political gain. They've not only withdrawn support, but advocated surrender and -- in turn -- demoralized the electorate and the troops. That's a lesson all of us must recall in '06 and '08 when we consider letting the mediacrats anywhere near the levers of power.

The $420 million key-logging scam



Early in 2005, Police foiled a $420 million key-logging scam:

...thieves attempted to transfer $420 million from a London branch of Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui. The thieves are believed to have hacked into the bank's computer systems using information gathered from keylogger programs, which allowed them access to sensitive passwords and other account information...

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Another prediction: no traffic jams due to flying cars


This month in 1992, Business Week declared that the computer industry was "on the skids." Thankfully, most investors heeded their advice and never invested in MSFT, CSCO, and INTC during the nineties.

With IBM projected to lose $5 billion in 1992, Business Week describes the computer business as 'an industry on the skids.' The magazine cited layoffs at most established computer companies, such as IBM, as well as newer firms like Sun Microsystems Inc., as evidence that the industry was saturated.

News Flash: Iranian President may be divinely inspired


The invaluable LGF links to this report that Iranian president Ahmadinejad believes himself to have divine backing. Most recently, he claimed that 'light surrounded him' during his speech at the UN:

"I am not exaggerating when I say they did not blink; it's not an exaggeration, because I was looking," he says. "They were astonished as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

...Since the presidential elections in Iran, many bizarre stories and rumors have circulated about Ahmadinejad. Many of them are related to his devotion to the 12th Imam, also known as Imam Mahdi, who according to Muslims has disappeared and will return at the end of time to lead an era of Islamic justice...


In other news, Ahmadinejad, "lashed out at countries that question Iran's nuclear activities and said they have no right to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear technology."

I've got a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that this ain't gonna end well.

Fighting back against Junk Faxes


The Washington Post features some exquisite (and sometimes comical) steps fax owners can take to fight back against junk-mail faxers. If it were only this easy to repel email spam.

When Tyler receives a junk fax, she takes a piece of black paper, puts it in her fax machine and dials the "fax replies to" number or the transmission fax number on the junk fax. Before transmitting, she tapes the ends of the paper together to make a loop. "Your very dark fax will be sent on an endless loop until someone at the other end realizes what's happening and interrupts the transmission," she says...

Trés cool CSS Directory


Looking for some cool CSS templates? A new, free directory provides an easy-to-use collection of style-sheets. The directory consists of work from multiple designers and is indexed for searching. It's useful not only as a quick design center but also as a learning tool for advanced CSS concepts.

Senator Blabbermouth


Betsy Newmark calls out several Democrat bigwigs who can't seem to keep classified info from the press. She notes Harry Reid blabbing on TV about a topic of some importance:

He had been informed just that day that Osama bin Laden was killed in the giant Pakistan earthquake last month... Might it not be possible that we would want to keep that information secret for a whole host of reasons? We could have sources or methods of gathering information that we're protecting.


And let's not forget one Sandy Berger, he of the Top Secret documents stuffed in his pants. Who, if memory serves, pled guilty to ripping off and destroying classified material. In return, he was granted a penalty consisting of, I think, four laps in the pool and ten situps.

I suspect any normal person convicted of this same offense would be serving time in a federal correctional facility. In cell block D. With a couple o' cell-mates named Bubba and Bobby Jo. And would be busy constructing a shiv with some matches, a razor, and an old toothbrush.

Building a firewall with IPtables


Linux has supported a couple generations of packet filtering at the kernel level. The latest, netfilter, provides an extensible framework for building sophisticated firewalls with just about any Linux distro you can imagine. The iptables user-mode application gives an administrator the ability to create, destroy and modify filtering rules right from the command-line. InformIT has an excellent tutorial that explains how netfilter works and how you can use IPtables to take advantage of its sophisticated filtering architecture.

Joe Lieberman


His article in yesterday's Journal is a must-read.

Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. And it is important to make it clear to the American people that the plan has not remained stubbornly still but has changed over the years. Mistakes, some of them big, were made after Saddam was removed, and no one who supports the war should hesitate to admit that; but we have learned from those mistakes and, in characteristic American fashion, from what has worked and not worked on the ground. The administration's recent use of the banner "clear, hold and build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week...


Make sure you read the last two paragraphs. And forward it on to a couple o' dozen of your closest friends.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Gollum - the Wikipedia Browser


If you think Wikipedia is just about the coolest thing to hit the Internet since Tim Berners-Lee invented HTTP, then you'll get a charge out of Gollum. Imagine if your web pages could have appropriate Wikipedia terms hyperlinked, such that when a user clicks on the link, a special popup Wikipedia browser for that term is displayed. Bingo. Bango. Bongo. That's what Gollum is. Check it out and prepare to be amazed. Or at least, pleasantly surprised at the utility of Javascript and Wikipedia joining forces.

Cool. Google. Maps.


Cool Google MapsThere are some pretty neat Google Maps on the aptly named Cool Google Maps blog. Guess there really is something to this whole "branding" thing.

The New York Sun viciously fisks Frank Rich


The New York Sun fisks the misanthropic Frank Rich using everything but brass knuckles and two-by-fours. Gather the whole family around and watch Rich's pathetic disinformation campaign get disassembled, piece by piece, until nothing is left except for part of a foundation and the basement sink. The fact that Rich is still employed becomes more startling by the day. That Rich calls out a so-called "lie" with a thoroughly bogus diatribe -- a veritable litany of omissions and purposeful misinterpretations -- is so ironic that it's, well, off the legendary irony-meter. If there were any justice in the world, Rich would collect his weekly paycheck in cold hard cash: a single Hillary Clinton three-dollar bill. Just read the whole thing and cover the childrens' eyes when Rich gets repeatedly floored.

Unpatched IE Flaw Worse than Originally Thought


IThub's Security site has a pretty good description of the latest IE security hole. This vulnerability rates the rare -- but highly coveted -- "Extremely Critical" award from Secunia. We'll hold the trophy for the ceremony to be held early next year. Since it's currently unpatched on even a locked-down XP SP2 box, you may want to think about downloading Firefox or Opera (if you haven't done so already).

IPTV is breakin' out


The whole concept of IPTV is set to just bust out in 2006. The telcos, cable companies, set-top makers, and everyone in between are all flooring the accelerator to deliver higher quality A/V streams over the Internet. At stake: the television of the future. Check out one of the first directories of IPTV Shows. And don't say I didn't warn you that this whole space is going to be boomin'.

Healthcare in Canada: Did you hear that Thud?


The regional experiment in socialized medicine, a little country we like to call Canada, has been held up as an example for decades here in the States. But... there's a teensy, weensy little problem:

In a recent poll, more than 80 percent of Canadians rate the system “in crisis.” People wait for practically any diagnostic test, surgical procedure, or specialist consult... With just one family doctor to service [Norwood, Ont.], the physician takes only 50 new patients a year. As a result, the town holds an annual lottery with the 50 winners getting an appointment with him...

NATO versus Terror


London Bus BombFormer prime minister of Spain José María Aznar was featured in the Journal Op-Ed section* yesterday advocating for an aggressive change in focus for NATO. The highlight-reel quotes:

...terror has struck many of us: the US, Spain, Turkey, the UK, Russian, to name just the countries which are members of, or related to, NATO. [It must] accept that we hsare a new existential threat in the form of Islamist terror... [which] is global and multifaceted [and] requires a collective effort...

Jihadism has replaced communism, as communism replaced Nazism, as a mortal danger, so NATO must put defense against [religious] terrorism at the center of its strategy... NATO must transform itself into an Alliance for Freedom, willing and able to collectively secure our liberties and democracies before it is too late.


If you have a subscription, well, do I really need to say it? Spritz yourself with the cologne of wisdom and read the whole thing.

* Subscription required

Monday, November 28, 2005

The War that Never Was


The Telegraph features a chilling description of the war that never was: a nuclear holocaust centered in Eastern Europe between the Cold War superpowers.

The nightmare of nuclear war in Europe - a spectre that haunted the world for half a century - stood revealed yesterday in terrible detail.

In a historic break with the past, Poland's newly elected government threw open its top secret Warsaw Pact military archives - including a 1979 map revealing the Soviet bloc's vision of a seven-day atomic holocaust between Nato and Warsaw Pact forces...

Hat tip: Below the Beltway

Ten Things that make Ubuntu Linux Great for Neophytes


If you've been waiting for a really, really easy distro to experiment with Linux, Ubuntu might just hit the mark. The LinuxHelp blog describes ten reasons why Ubuntu may go where no Linux desktop has gone before: your home.

Revenge of the 1980's Video Games


Loverboy. Corey Hart. Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Arcade games. Is there anything more emblematic of the eighties than arcade classics like Pac-man? 1980-Games is featuring a wide range of these games, free. And many run directly off the site. Just watch out for Billy Idol.