Today the 13 Intertube root nameservers (the things that turn ip addresses into urls and vice-versa) were attacked by a few South Korean hackers, in an attempt to clog up the Tubes so badly we wouldn’t be able to use them. 3 of the servers were overwhelmed over a period of around 12 hours, but the other 10 were just fine, so nobody really saw any of the effects of this attack. Still, it’s apparently the worst attack against the Tubes since 2002. Huh.
A Series of Tubes
An archive of old posts.
His Steveness hates DRM just like the rest of us.
His Steveness posted an article on DRM (Digital Rights Management, the thing that prevents you from putting digital music on multiple computers, or listening to iTunes-bought music on anything but an iPod) on the Apple website earlier today. He says that there are only 3 ways Apple can go with the DRM from here:
or
He (and most of us, I think) states that the third choice is the best, since it would free up music a lot. He calls for the 4 major recording companies to abandon their DRM, and then Apple will drop the iTunes DRM, which would be awesome. This is actually a gutsy move by Apple, since if they did drop their DRM, they would possibly lose some of the people they currently have locked into iTunes and the iPod if their music was playable by other software and players.
I have one thing to say.
GO STEVE!
The Bomb/LED Ad Makers Speak!
I came across a video of the press release given by the two guys responsible for making the Bombs/LED Boards I posted about not half an hour ago. Check it out here.
I love the style and coolness they keep while avoiding any real questions and instead electing to discuss haircuts of the 70’s. Of course their lawyer has to step in and ruin the fun a bit, but oh well.
Boston Bomb Squad Can't Distinguish Between LED Boards and Bombs
Earlier in the week, a bunch of LED Boards (a circuit board with Light Emitting Diodes placed in it to form a picture) were discovered spread all over Boston. They were shaped like the Mooninites from Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
The Mooninites
These boards were guerrilla ads for the upcoming ATHF Movie. What do you think happened when average civilians caught sight of these things hanging on the Green Monster, from bridges, and walls? They did what any average post-9/11 civilian would do, and immediately panicked. The bomb squad was called in to remove them, and they even detonated one to make sure it wasn’t a bomb (what, if it’s a little explosion then it wasn’t a bomb, if it is a big explosion it was?). The whole fiasco cost Boston $750,000. They arrested the man responsible for making the ads, and Mayor Menino is demanding that Turner Broadcasting (the company that commissioned the ads, and, coincidentally, also funds the revival of Uru Live) pay for all of the expenses.
Personally, I find this ridiculous. Yes, maybe they should have notified someone that they were going to hang these things up, but calling in the whole bomb squad for these things is a bit of an overreaction. I don’t think Turner should pay any money to Boston, but that Boston should instruct its bomb squad and police force in the difference between a circuit board with lights in it and a bomb. Any slightly experienced techie would be able to see that these things are not bombs, and might even laugh, if they liked ATHF (which I don’t, but that’s beside the point).
I’m disappointed, Boston.
Windows Vista Unboxing
Well, I got all the pictures I took yesterday up on Tabblo, so here they are:
Yes, I know. There isn’t much of the installation, or any of the actual Vista, because I had to leave before it was finished. Oh well. I went back today and it really is as amazing as they say it is.
Windows Vista released to Consumers
Today Microsoft released the new version of their Windows Operating System, Windows Vista. I went with my friend Matt to pick up Ultimate Edition (he bought it, I don’t have that kind of money). I’m documenting it, and let’s just say it’s been an hour or so since we came back, and we haven’t gotten the installer started yet. Hmm. I wonder what that says about Vista? Just kidding. I’ll post the pictures when it’s fully installed.
Update: Almost 2.5 hours now, still no luck. We’re on the phone with the support person from Microsoft now…
Update 2: She sounds impressed that he built his own computer
Update 3: “You have to run the upgrade version by booting from the disc.” “I did.” *really long silence*
Update 4: Woot, It’s all installed now 🙂 He was running XP 32bit on a 64bit processor, and thus he was trying to upgrade to vista 64bit. Turns out that if you’re running XP 32, you have to upgrade to Vista 32, Vista 64 won’t work. Strange, but hey-it’s installed now.
Shivering Isles Might Make Me Buy Oblivion
So, there’s this little game out there called Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which in reality is actually not very little at all. It’s actually gigantic, and very popular. It might have something to do with the weeks of gameplay content, the good storyline, and amazing graphics. But anyway, I haven’t gotten that interested in it since 1. it’s not really my kind of game (medieval fantasy hack&slash RPG), and 2. my computer can’t handle the über graphics.
Well, the second one can’t be changed, since my computer is a laptop, and a mac one at that, but the first one? Well, there’s an expansion pack that’s been recently announced, called The Shivering Isles, and I have to say, it looks like my kind of game. The world is supposed to be the creation of an insane god, hence the outlandish appearance. I think I’d really like this game, and its release might convince me to buy Oblivion.
Bloody Noses Are the Suck.
I hate bloody noses. They are a very large inconvenience. I just had one, and I had to lie on the couch for like 15 minutes until it stopped. And my hand of course, got covered in blood:
Eew.
Buggy Saint's Row, The Musical
While surfing the net tubes, I came across a very interesting page. I found it on cabel.name, a pretty cool blog in itself, but Cabel’s Buggy Saints Row is probably the coolest thing there.
What the guy did is he bought the game Saint’s Row, hoping for a good game. He got basically a Grand Theft Auto ripoff, filled to the brim with bugs. Really funny bugs. So Cabel got out his video camera and filmed said bugs, then added some extremely well-made music to the collected footage, to make a musical. It features 3 songs: “Where’s my f*cking car?!”, The car door song, and “What is this place?”.
I have to agree with a commenter on there, Cabel does win at the internet.
Package #2 Part 2
Well, here’s the scoop on the mysterious Package #2. It’s a Dell 228WPF LCD, or a 22″ widescreen computer monitor.
Now, I knew a 22″ monitor would be big. But I really wasn’t expecting this. This thing is a BEAST. It dominates my desk, blocking out my view of half the things near the back (Including my ’84 Macintosh 🙁 ). Not that this is a bad thing, as the 1680×1050 resolution gives me a ton of screen space to utilize, and is just mouthwatering to look at.
I took a bunch of pix of the unboxing process and put ’em all on tabblo, check ’em out:
