User: mrBlond

Google: no registration

On: One of Many

Please link to the Google version which doesn't require registration.

Pre-fetching

On: Mozilla 1.2 Beta Released

> Read the specs, please. It doesn't prefetch ALL links, only those explicitly set as such in the web page. Which, as far as I know, accounts for exactly zero web pages in existence today. - Anonymous Coward

Read the FAQ 'n manual, please. It prefetches pages mentioned in the <link rel="next" tag also, which many pages have had for (internet) ages.

Most critical internet security vulnerabilities

On: SANS/FBI Release Top 20 Security Vulnerabilities

2002-10-03 13:22:59 Most critical internet security vulnerabilities (articles,security) (rejected)

The register points to the 2002-09-27 SANS/FBI top 20 most critical internet security vulnerabilities. 2000's top vulnerability, BIND weaknesses, dropped to Unix number 3 last year, and number 9 this year.

Gecko�

On: AOL Releases Client for Mac OS X with Gecko Browser

Mozilla bug 149325 (can't link to it from slashdot) mentions possible trademark problems with the word Gecko. Add that to Toho apparently aiming for a precedent to go after Mozilla by bearing their teeth at Davezilla, and we Moz fans have some interesting times ahead.

Oh, and there's an IE skin for Mozilla, which along with custom splash screens and icon sets, allows you to ease your co-workers into Mozilla.

Re:None v. Atheist

On: Jedi Knight Now (Not) Officially a Religion

Here's my take on it:

1. theist - believes in god(s)
2. strong theist - asserts that god(s) exist
3. atheist - does not believe in gods
4. strong atheist - asserts that gods do not exist.
5. agnostic - doubts that knowledge of gods is possible
6. agnostic theist - believes in god(s) despite a lack of evidence
7. agnostic strong theist - asserts that god(s) exist despite doubts that knowledge of gods is possible
8. agnostic atheist - does not believe in gods because of a lack of evidence
9. agnostic strong atheist - asserts that gods do not exist despite doubts that knowledge of gods is possible
10. strong agnostic - asserts that knowledge of god(s) is impossible
11. strong agnostic theist - believes in god(s) despite the fact that knowledge of god(s) is impossible
12. strong agnostic strong theist - asserts that god(s) exist despite the fact that knowledge of god(s) is impossible
13. strong agnostic atheist - does not believe in gods because ultimate knowledge of gods is impossible.
14. strong agnostic strong atheist - asserts that gods do not exist despite the fact that knowledge of god(s) is impossible.

I'm a humanist, specifically an agnostic atheist: I do not believe in gods and have tremendous doubt in their existence, but do not believe that positive knowledge of gods are impossible. To me 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 are unreasonable.

Mozilla control

On: Advertisers Escalate Banner Ad War

I surf with JS and Java disabled. I make Mozilla ask me before accepting any cookies or images. There are only 5 sites that I allow cookies from, and I always killfile ad* image servers.

About 5 hours ago I went to a site than required cookies to view the content, I closed the browser window and went looking for the info somehwere else instead of mucking with my cookie permissions.

If people don't start boycotting sites that want to force you to browse according to their rules, things like this will simply grow.

legalese

On: IP Theft in the Linux Kernel

The first thing we do, let's kill everyone who writes in ALL CAPS.

Slashdot google

On: Non Photo Realistic Quake

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.cs.wisc.e du/graphics/Gallery/NPRQuake/whatIsIt.html

Back in my day we had to edit the URL, none of this newfangled clicking.

"No more violence!" petition

On: More Links And Updates On Terrorist Attacks

"No more violence!" petition

"Violence breeds violence... Pure goals can never justify impure or violent action... They say the means are after all just means. I would say means are after all everything. As the means, so the end." - Gandhi

Big business cards

On: AOL Time Warner Netscape CNN... and AT&T?

AOL - Time - Warner - Castle Rock Entertainment - New Line Cinema - Fine Line Features - CompuServe - Netscape - Nullsoft - AOL MovieFone - Digital City - MapQuest.com - Spinner.com - The Atlantic Group - Rhino Records - Elektra Entertainment Group - London-Sire Records Inc. - Warner Bros. Records - Warner Music International - Time Life Music - WB Television Network - HBO - Cinemax - Time Warner Sports - CNN - CNN/fn - CNN/SI - CNN Headline News - TBS - TNT - Cartoon Network - Turner Classic Movies - HBO Independent Productions - New Line Television - Turner Original Productions - Warner Brothers Television - Warner Brothers Animation: Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera - Time Warner Cable - Time Life Books - Book-of-the-Month Club (managed by Bertelsmann) - Little, Brown & Co. - Bulfinch Press - Back Bay Books - Warner Books - Oxmoor House - Time Magazine - Life Magazine - Fortune Magazine - Sports Illustrated - Money - People - Entertainment Weekly - In Style - Southern Living - Cooking Light - The Parent Group (Parenting, Baby Talk, Baby on the Way) - This Old House - The Health Publishing Group - Real Simple - Golf Magazine - Popular Science - Ski - Yachting Magazine - DC Comics - MAD Magazine - Atlanta Braves - Atlanta Hawks - Atlanta Thrashers - Turner Sports - Goodwill Games - AT&T (anyone know all their wholly owned subsidiaries?) - ... Capitalist Libertarians (sic): are we having fun yet? Are plutocracies great or what?

Take me to your lizard

On: Congress Plans DMCA Sequel: The SSSCA

> Just always vote against whoever's in office at any given point.
> And while it may make you sick to vote for a republican (or a
> democrat) they're your best bet for getting the current guys
> kicked out. Better that then wasting your vote on some guy from
> the nipplebiter party who will only get 3 votes in the election.
> -- Greyfox

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No", said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. "Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd", said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did", said Ford. "It is."
"So", said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them", said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes", said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But", said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
- Douglas Adams, So long, and thanks for all the fish

"It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it." - Eugene Debs

militia

On: E-mail Overload: Welcome Back to School

> We have some examples of people on University campuses who
> don't use it wisely ... big deal.

[snip]

> Blaming email for the above problems is like blaming knives and
> guns for killing people rather than the people who kill people
> -- Christianfreak

People not using knives and guns wisely is a big deal.

My posted feedback

On: All Aboard The Technological Revolution

Please remove the registration requirement.

"Customer registration forms are the bane of attracting new customers. It's like posting an armed guard at the door to a department store and only letting people in the store after they show two forms of ID and suffer nosy questions about their family tree. Web users often turn away rather than having to register. Quite simply, it's not worth peoples' time to answer all your questions... users will resent being asked to register. Every click is a burden for busy Web users, but more important, users don't like parting with their personal data before they have developed a sense of trust in the site... Qualitative studies have long shown that customer registration hurts usability and makes users turn away... Marie Tahir from Intuit... Too-early customer registration requirement posed a major problem in the earlier version of the site. After this finding, the site was redesigned to allow users to enter valuable areas of the site without having to register. Registration was postponed to a later stage where it was truly necessary to know the user's personal data in order to provide a mortgage. As a result, usage doubled." - Jakob Nielsen

Confucius say

On: High-speed Internet Access: Power Lines For Real

...stop quoting me! Someone put a </q>, </em> or </i> at the end of this article - everything in slashdot light is italic after this story.

"well, what can you do?"

On: Microsoft Fakes Citizen Letters of Support

> when it's Microsoft, most people respond
> with, "well, what can you do?"
> -- sg3000

If you don't want to live in a plutocracy anymore, stop voting for the Democrats/Republicans/Libertarians (sic), and instead vote for parties that will allow protection from economic exploitation - if you choose to be protected. Really, how free are you when big government is replaced with the richest (and therefore most powerful) board of directors who decide things only based on short term financial gain.

parochial

On: Build a Mindstorm Robot to Fly to ISS

> (thats all in Europe)

ObSatireWire: NetNarrow, the note at the end is even funnier than the article.

Some stories told by travel agents:

• A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, "would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?"
• I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts." Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Cape Town is in South Africa." her response....click.
• A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state."
• I got a call from a man who asked, "is it possible to see England from Canada?" I said, "No." He said "but they look so close on the map."
• A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!
• A woman called and said, " I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola on one of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, "Yea, whatever."
• A business man called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked, and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express card."

A common answer to folk from the USA saying that we are rude to them is: "We're not rude to people from the USA, we're rude to imbeciles." There's a difference between someone who doesn't know, and someone too stupid to learn.

I think the reason why the "morons from the USA" meme is so prevalent, is because of their president, their political and social conservatism, and the fact that a lot of them can afford to travel abroad, and countless AOLers and WebTVers have access the 'net. If anything I'd say that the USA has some of the most brilliant and amazing people, but the tourists and politicians unfortunately influence thought about USA folk more.

missing areas

On: Atlas of Worldwide Light Pollution

Anyone know why there's a swath missing between Israel and Lebanon from the Mediterranean eastward? See how stranglely the Africa and middle east maps both ignore it. Compare the DMSP map.

As mentioned before, the milky way is absolutely amazing when you leave the metros, especially here in the Southern hemisphere. Sad to think how few people get the chance to just stare at it in awe.

VCR

On: Best Sci Fi Currently On Television?

You lucky bastards, here in South Africa we have The X files, and, erm, that's it. They used to show The outer limits at the same time (gotta love the programming genii who really know their viewer demographic). Hell, when Voyager was still on (the last season we had was with the introduction of 6 of 9) that was the best sf on tv :(

My VCR is set for Frasier, Dharma & Greg, Spin City, The West Wing, Homicide: LotS, X files (watching The Sopranos on at the same time, missing The knock on at the same time), F1, a very good local investigative news program, and the ecology shows.

Re:First Application Of This...

On: Share The Pi!

Dude, the video of their Mexico show is at Busy Beaver(BB42)+m and it's about 2 gibibytes. My PC is still calculating the best way to represent m, I'll email you in a few minutes.

As for DeCSS, use PiApp -2^120+666 -200

:->
--
mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)

Re:Air Conditioning?

On: Joy of Linux

(ok, Northern hemisphere residents at least) to distract you from the heat of summer and the cost of air conditioning

Are you kidding me? NYC has been freezing this summer!... So much for Global Warming

Southern hemisphere Cape Town was 30 celsius today - and it's supposed to be winter here. Tell Mr. Bush we like the weird temperature changes, and the record droughts, and the record storms...
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mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)

Re:Learn about CG

On: More Realistic Rendered Flesh

>> [Can't access site with Mozilla]
>> -- UberLame
>
> Have you written a polite note explaining this to them?
> -- Mike "Nailer"

Uber, tell them that their target audience: geeks, prefer the latest open source browsers, and that it would be a good idea to have a plain XHTML/CSS version of their site with no javascript/pop ups.

I am Jack's shame in admitting to sometimes using IE: Blue bug eyes, glassy bug-eyed, dead brown.
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mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)

AOL Time Warner...

On: AT&T, AOL In Talks To Merge Cable Systems

AOL - Time - Warner - Castle Rock Entertainment - New Line Cinema - Fine Line Features - CompuServe - Netscape - AOL MovieFone - Digital City - MapQuest.com - Spinner.com - The Atlantic Group - Rhino Records - Elektra Entertainment Group - London-Sire Records Inc. - Warner Bros. Records - Warner Music International - Time Life Music - WB Television Network - HBO - Cinemax - Time Warner Sports - CNN - CNN/fn - CNN/SI - CNN Headline News - TBS - TNT - Cartoon Network - Turner Classic Movies - HBO Independent Productions - New Line Television - Turner Original Productions - Warner Brothers Television - Warner Brothers Animation: Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera - Time Warner Cable - Time Life Books - Book-of-the-Month Club (managed by Bertelsmann) - Little, Brown & Co. - Bulfinch Press - Back Bay Books - Warner Books - Oxmoor House - Time Magazine - Life Magazine - Fortune Magazine - Sports Illustrated - Money - People - Entertainment Weekly - In Style - Southern Living - Cooking Light - The Parent Group (Parenting, Baby Talk, Baby on the Way) - This Old House - The Health Publishing Group - Real Simple - Golf Magazine - Popular Science - Ski - Yachting Magazine - DC Comics - MAD Magazine - Atlanta Braves - Atlanta Hawks - Atlanta Thrashers - Turner Sports - World Championship Wrestling - Goodwill Games
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mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)

Re:Caveat Lector

On: Biotech and the Environment

"I see worries in the fact that we have the power to manipulate genes in ways that would be improbable or impossible through conventional evolution. We should not be complacent in thinking that we can predict the results." - Colin Blakemore

"Once released into the environment, unlike a BSE epidemic or chemical spill, genetic engineering mistakes cannot be contained, recalled or cleaned up, but will be passed on to all future generations indefinitely." - Dr Michael Antoniou

"If we win the battle with nature we will find ourselves on the losing side." - EF Schumacher
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mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)

Re:Where were you?

On: Five Years of Quake

Playing QTest1 over the LAN, and debugging QFront. Only lanning Quake1 with dwang4m8 and start was more fun than those 1st few weeks with QTest1: spawn frag fountains!
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mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)

Life after listbot

On: Get Spam From Your Friends

Listbot, after going overboard with lines of ads, are now going pay-per-mail. Anyone know of a good gratis mailing list provider (not MSN or Yahoo)?
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mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)