C|Net reports on the rise of drive-by spam, wherein spammers drive up to an unprotected, Wi-Fi equipped building and join the company LAN. To the system, they're now a legit user of the company network, so they can use the SMTP server without hindrance, and send out 10 million spams. Unprotected Wi-Fi networks won't last long ( Read more... )

Dinner and music with my date baald, then off to the Starry Plough with him and Roger to see The Mekons, still Mekons after 25 years, without fading and then re-appearing, or having to "get the band back together" or any of that nonsense, they've just always been, though I had never seen them .... raising the question, "What if Donovan and the Clash ( Read more... )

... and as I prattle on about irrational consumption and web technologies, Amy inches ever closer toward the big day. Sept. 17 is the "official" date, but she's full-term as of a few days ago - the baby could come at any time and be perfectly healthy.


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My post Live Larger, Drive Smaller from a few days ago has drawn some very thoughtful responses. An anonymous interlocutor charges me with inexcusable vandalism for advocating the bumper sticker idea, and I answer flippantly that SUV ownership is a far more destructive form of vandalism; the stickers are easily justified. However, s/he has a point ( Read more... )

Seems that permalinks are 'pert near a standard feature in every blogging system but LJ. Part of the reason for that is that LJ is day-based rather than post-based, so you can't have a permalink attached to each post. But you can hack in a link to your day pages fairly easily.

CNN reports that a wildlife park in Siberia is planning to use DNA from wooly mammoths to artificially impregnate an Indian elephant, then repeat with its offspring. Within 50 years, they plan to have a living creature that is 88% wooly mammoth. There are estimated to be 10 million wooly mammoths buried beneath the Siberian permafrost ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago, went down to Morro Bay to pick up a 1950s capiz shell stereo console / cabinet I inherited from my grandmother, who recently went to live in a home. Forgot to write about that trip - went via Amtrak, enjoyable but slow, and also picked up a nursing rocker from my mother - her favorite one, she's sacrificing for the baba, so ( Read more... )

So everything has arrived from Apple for the big landwater changeover - 2 iMacs, AirPort cards, Office X boxes, external FireWire Orb drive, Quicken, AppleCare packets, StudioDisplay. The dual G4 is in shipment now ( Read more... )

Cat amusement by laser has been patented since 1995 (thanks baald).

I'm changing the planet, ask me how! (thanks mrgrape).

Which reminds me, I heard on Click and Clack (The Tappet Brothers) last Sunday that they're running an anti-SUV info campaign. I respect that they have the cajones to take a stand from their position of respect and authority and media ( Read more... )

Caught this at /. yesterday : Fraunhoffer and co. have always charged for MP3 encoders, but have now changed their licensing terms so that MP3 decoders will now cost implementers .75 each. Red Hat has already pulled all MP3 decoders from their distro. This is going to be a big boost to Ogg-Vorbis. But does iTunes support OGG? Nooo... I ( Read more... )