Refuse to be terrorized, part II

A follow up to my previous post. An iPod dropped into the toilet on an airplane causes a lot of trouble to all passengers and brings on mild harassment to the guy who dropped it from police and government officials.

Refuse to be terrorized

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. Bruce Schneier writes a nice summary on some incidents due to stricter security measures at airports lately. It would be quite funny if it was fiction, but it's not.

This picture on Ryanair.com is (still) fiction though, and is in my humble opinion rather amusing.

Google in China

A friend advised me to try two similar searches on Google in two different countries.

• http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen&hl=zh-CN
• http://images.google.se/images?q=tiananmen&hl=sv
  

I'm speechless.

Sony helps hackers

Not all people dislike Sony for including a hidden rootkit (named RING0) on some of their copy protected music CD:s. Pepole trying to cheat in the online role playing game World of Warcraft are happy that RING0 helps them to hide their cheating programs from the monitoring software that Blizzard included in their game. As an honest WoW player, I would just like to say "Thank you, Sony".

Sony still refuses to admit that their rootkit is a security risk and that putting RING0 on their music CD:s was wrong. Meanwhile we can start guessing what the next illegal/immoral/irritating thing coming out of creative use of RING0 will be?

Sony offers: security threat

Just having submitted my previous post about Sony, I saw that Secunia has put the rootkit (that secretly installs when playing a Sony copy protected music CD on your computer) on their list of security threats.

I particularly like their suggested solution: Use another product.

Sony offers: Buy music CD - Get Free Rootkit

Mark Russinovich writes about how he discovered that a newly bought music CD delivered more than music. The story begins as he discovers a rootkit installed on his computer. It gets more exciting when he CSI-style starts to gather clues taking him closer to the origins of the hidden code.

Apart from being entertaining reading (well, I had fun while reading it) the story tells a lot about Sonys lack of respect for its paying customers. Actions like this may have good intentions but in reality only makes people more reluctant to buy records and more prone to obtain the music other ways. Sony should consider rewarding the people paying for their music instead of punishing them.

Sky tumbling down, she is married!

Today I'm in a minor state of a chock after finding out that my favourite actress Alyson Hannigan is married! And, on top of that, finding out that she has been married for over two years without me knowing about it!

"Big deal, get a life", you might rightfully say, but the thing is that I take a little pride in beeing a fan of Joss Whedon, knowing stuff about his work that the average Joe doesn't. (When writing this I prepare to be flamed by every other Joss nerd fan that happen to read this blog, for calling myself a fan without having this very basic knowledge about Joss' favourite actress.)

However, in all emotional distress coming from this newly gained knowledge, I find it rather comforting that Alyson's spouse is no one less than Alexis Denisof. Alexis character the stiff-upper-lippy Wesley Wyndam-Pryce took me some time to learn to appreciate when first appearing on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But in the spin-off show Angel he really came through, showing what a great actor Alexis is. In my opinion Alexis did for Angel what Alyson did for Buffy, so it feels just right that the two of them have teamed up together.

Ok, thats 'nuff Buffyism for today. This post was probably, I realize now, old news for those who care and just really uninteresting for all the others. But hey, you get what you pay for! Let me just finally, although a tad bit late, take the opportunity to wish Aly and Alexis a happy marriage with all love and no paparazzis!