Limewire in iTunes

I'd had given my roomate an old computer to use and one of the things he did was put Limewire on it. I don't run those programs myself. Not because I'm against downloading music particularly but mostly because I can't stand all the junk that it puts on your computer. I'd rather just pay the dollar on iTunes and save myself the spyware. Anyhow, when I went on iTunes after work I saw a Limewire directory. Kinda a neat feature. No setup done or required. I knew you could see other people's iTunes directories if they choose to share them but who knew it worked with other music services?


Limewire in iTunes

NY Times Say's, 'Show Me The Money.'

Been a while since I've posted. I am addicted to the news on the web and one of my favorites has always been the NY Times online. A week or two ago they started charging for some of the services. They call it Times Select. I guess I understand it. They need to make money, but it kinda stinks. I like the advertising model better. I liked the op-ed articles but the majority of them are under the pay service now. I guess it's like everything else in America, you only get an opinion if you have money.=)

Hurricane Mess

It's been a rough week in this country. Once again Bush is showing his talent for driving a company into the ground. After this week's hurricane debacle even die hard republicans I know are having a tough time defending this guy. Bush's policies are pretty much responsible for defending the work that was to be done on the New Orleans levies and dismantling the organization FEMA had become under Clinton. Here's an excerpt from the NY Times on some of the ways the new FEMA "helped out":

When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said. Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish's emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said.

Can you imagine the balls on these people to turn back trucks full of relief supplies? If you're not going to fix things then at least don't get in the way. It's just so sad. I personally believe that anyone living in those areas deserves a refund on their federal income taxes for failure of services. Your taxes are a sort of covenant that the government is going to help you out in times like this and if they don't deliver then what were they taking your money for? I made a donation this week to the red cross at http://www.redcross.org/. Not big money, but everyone should try to just give something.

You know I get a little nervous putting anything political like this on my blog because I'm worried that it might generate some kind of FBI file or something on me. I wonder if there isn't some watch list I'm being thrown on for publicly thinking that this thing was screwed up. Isn't it sad that we have to feel that way nowadays; being scared of retribution for criticizing government? I think it's a pretty big warning flag on the state of our free society. I don't think anyone felt like that before Bush. Now it's practically expected.

This Is Your Computer On Spyware...

Aghhhhhhhhh. I was setting up a bittorrent gmail setup like they showed on G4's 'Attack of the Show' and the site they pointed me to infected my computer with the worst unremovable spyware I've ever seen. I'm a little peeved that AOTS led me to a site that did that. They're probably singlehandedly responcible for thousands of infections. I tried about 6 free and trial anti-spyware programs to no avail. Looking through the registry runservices, CWS shredder, nothing worked. Finally wound up trying Spy Doctor for 20 bucks with a coupon. It seems to have gotten rid of the spyware but The spyware is still popping up this website asking me if I need a home loan. It's the same site everytime. I hope those people die of cancer. IE is opening real slow and opening a new window takes about 10 seconds now which feels like a lifetime to me. At least the spyware didn't affect FireFox. It's enough to make you switch your default browser. I think I'm going to have to do a reinstall to get everything back to normal. It sucks but it's not the end of the world. I have a good data OS partition strategy to make it relatively painless. My Office install has been giving me some trouble for a while and SQL server & tools are screwed up from testing different versions so I'm not feeling too bad about it. MS really has some work to do on IE. Either that or fix up their free antispyware tools so they work.

Google Map Lag

Anyone tried Google maps yet? That and the free Google Earth that was released last week are pretty amazing. Don't count on the pictures being current though. This bridge under construction in North Arlington, NJ was finished at least 3 years ago to my memory. I wonder how long it takes them to get their data and what the turnaround time is. You can tell they concentrate on areas with higher population which makes sense. No use of having a high res picture of the middle of the desert I suppose.


Hey isn't this thing done yet?

War of the Worlds Rocks!

I saw 'War of the Worlds' tonight. It was really good. This is why you go to the movies. Entertaining, funny, scary. Just a great, fun, flick, which is Steven Spelberg's strong point. Go see it this weekend. Bring a cute girl who will hold on to your arm.=)


Cruise and Dakota

NY Times Discusses Foreign TA's

The NY Times did an article on how students are having a problem understanding foreign TA's in their classes. I experienced this as a Biology major at Rutgers. Even if you understand the words these TA's are saying, their cadences and phrasings are different then you're used to hearing. There's an extra layer of thought you have to go through to get to the knowledge you're trying to learn. This is just unacceptable when you're in these desperately competitive classes.
The TA's are saying students are just complaining but I think this is a pretty easy problem to analyze. Let's apply some of this science here. Just compare the scores of the students with American TA's to foreign TA's. You'll need some controls for the different schools, disciplines and such but it can be done. Is there a difference? If there is then this needs to be addressed. The schools seem to be putting their heads in the sand. Maybe they need to stop outsourcing these positions.

Crazy Eyes

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that in every picture the runaway bride takes she looks insane. I read she signed a half million dollar movie of the week deal. The town is still out about 35k of the 50k they spent on looking for her. (She reimbursed them about 10K or so already.) I suppose it's better than the 2.5 million spent on Michael Jackson's prosection and people are still wondering why their property taxes are so hi. I myself rent.


She's a little bit crazy.

Why the N-Gage Sucks

Every once in a while I read something about how Nokia is trying to diversify and it invariably refers to the N-Gage and that project's failure. I can sum up the failure of the N-Gage in one sentence:

You can't expect to put something out that does half as much as the competition at twice the price and still be successful.

You'd have thought that their marketing people would have seen this from the start just like everyone who chose not to buy an N-Gage. I think sometimes business decisions have a momentum that can't be stopped by common sense.

Karoke Pop Star

I just saw Joss Stone's new Gap commercial where she sings 'Night Time is the Right Time'. Is it just me or is she just a professional karoke singer? I know she's hot but her only hit was the White Stripe cover of 'Fell In Love With a Girl' which baffeled me because the original couldn't have been on the radio more than a year before. I dunno, shouldn't you have to wait at least ten years before you can cover a song and still be credible?

Joss Stone

Guy Won't Return Custard Finger

You know, there are some real jerks in the world but we really need to revoke this guys citizenship.
Fight over finger found in custard
This guy found a finger in his custard and he wouldn't return it so they could reattach it because he wanted it as evidence for his lawsuit. He obviously wasn't that traumatized. People in this country need to stop treating incidents without real damages as hitting the lottery.

StopherSpace.com

Well you've read the blog, now visit the website:

www.stopherspace.com

I registered my own domain last week. It's kinda neat because this hosting company has a development plan that gives you an asp.net 2.0 site and access to a sql server and it's only $3/month with the first 3 months free. It's a pretty good deal. I couldn't find anything else for less than 18ish. Don't know how much work I'll do on the page. Mostly just using the space to learn asp.net. I paid an extra 17 bucks to register my domain. I have my own email now chris@stopherspace.com

Beware the AOL Instant Messenger Trojan

Well it's been a while since I've posted, but I saw something interesting today I wanted to write about. Whilst I was goofing off on my computer I received an IM from my cousin Kara with a link that said, "Check this out." Looks like a website. I notice she's idle so she's probably not using her computer. I click the link and it's some kind of executable called funnypics.com. I didn't run it but I saved it and scanned it but my free AVG anti virus didn't recognize it.
My other cousin said he got the same message from her and was immediately suspicious as well. I'm pretty sure it has to be a new Trojan that works through AOL's instant messenger. I'm sure we'll see this one on the news within a day or so. How long before this technique hits the other messengers. I told my other cousin this is the family IQ test.

A Maniac's Maniac

I meant to post this a while ago. It's a Reuter's story about a drunk guy who told all his friend's at the pub he'd cut off his own nuts if Wales beat England in soccer and then he did it.
Well, at Least He Won't Be Fathering More Fans...
Now I've been out drinking before, but you've hit the next level when it seems like a good idea to cut off your own balls. The closest thing to this I can think of is my friend Kenny's story about this friend of our's who got wrecked on a cruise and started punching himself in the nuts. That story alone made me nauseous.

West Wing 2

In my earlier post I had said how I predicted Jimmy Smits would be the winner of the West Wing Presidential Race because of the show's billing. I think the producers have responded to people like me because I was watching the West Wing Corn King episode I had missed and I had noticed that they've switched to an alphabetical billing which now includes Alan Alda and Martin Sheen is back at the end of the list and not Jimmy Smits. Are they trying to keep up some mystery or have they changed their mind. I'm with the former.

Nothing says 'love' like an iPod.

Nothing says 'love' like an iPod.

Sure you just paid 6-10k for the ring, but now you have to come up with a unique way to give it to her. I gotta say, this is pretty hot. The nerd in me immediately swoons at the thought of an iPod initiated life together. Then again, I am a romantic.

The New Robber Barons

If you're ever wondering why the stock market isn't doing as well as it used to and why your 401K statement is just losing money every month you have only to read articles like this one about Grasso in the NY Times.
A good part of the stock market's performance is tied to people's faith in it. The past few years have seen story after story of corporate abuse, mutual funds systematically fleecing small investors, and guys like this justifying the obscene salaries they give each other while they're serving on each other's boards. Is it a big surprise that people are skeptical?

"... Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt." =)

I was watching the news tonight and some psychiatrist did a study and apparently because of certain factors such as how far away the past holidays are and how people are usually in debt this time of year, today is statistically the most depressing day of the year. He's named it Blue Monday.

Coincidently, today is my birthday and while I admit turning 30 is a bit depressing, I don't appreciate someone saying that my birthday is the worst day of the year.

Blue Monday.

Could I have a DNA sample, please?

So I'm reading this Times article on how the cops in this town are collecting DNA trying to solve some murder. I guess they'll know the killer when he refuses to give his sample. Way to go Columbo. I don't know. It just seems kinda rude to ask everyone. They say they're not going to save it and use it for other crimes but would you trust that. Do you think they have female fluffer police officers collecting the samples?

Who Will Take The West Wing

So I was watching my favorite show 'The West Wing' tonight and one of the main storylines this season is the presidential election between Jimmy Smits as a democrat and Alan Alda as a republican. At first I thought they might let Alda win because maybe it would open up some new stories and different points of view. They portray him as a smart, honest, moderate conservative so it wouldn't be a far right point of view.
Tonight, though, I noticed that Smits is in the credits while Alda is not. There was also a scene that had him having an intimate conversation with his wife. I'm pretty much convinced he's gonna win now. Between the character development and billing, they put his name at the end like they used to do with Martin Sheen, I think it's pretty clear who's going to win.
Of course, I could be always be wrong. =)
The Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search also premiered tonight. Finally, a reality show that drops all the pretenses and just concentrates on hot chicks in very small bikinis.

Drop That Laser Pointer!

I feel kinda bad for the laser pointer guy that got caught the other day. I understand he was being a moron and should be punished, but 25 years in jail and half a million dollars seems a tad excessive. I know the far right people are gonna say, "He deserves it. Cut off his arms and legs and kill his family. Lock him up and throw away the key." I just think if we punished everyone who screwed up in a moment of stupidity that harshy, a lot more of us would be in jail.
I also think the law is being misapplied. They know this guy isn't a terrorist yet they're charging him under the Patriot Act. You have to ask yourself, if they really feel this guy is a threat would they send another aircraft to search him out like they did. If a guy is shooting down planes with stinger missiles you don't send a helicoptor to hover around where he is. No, he's more of a distraction and an annoyance than a threat. We have other laws that cover that. He knew it was wrong but he obviously didn't think it through and didn't see it as a big deal. The fact that this happens hundreds of times a year attests to this. He wasn't trying to kill anyone. He was just playing with a laser pointer with his daughter.
They're talking about making laser pointers illegal now. They're already done it in Britian. At least it will get them out of the movie theaters. That gets really annoying. I don't think it's all of them, though. Just the real bright green lasers like the one he was using.