Tentacled Monkey

Edouard Chambon of France set the new World Record for the fastest time on a 3x3 Rubick's Cube last month at the Murcia Open in Spain with a time of 9.18 seconds.  This is freaking insane!  I have finished the Rubick's before but never even dreamt of someone doing it in 9 seconds!  In Montpelier 2008 Chambon also placed first in the Rubick's Blidfold competition, well I still bet this guy can't un-hook a bra backwards in the dark while being, umm... distracted.  Yeah.  :-P

Crackers have finally bypassed the ridiculously expensive Vista activation process.  The hack works by emulating a particular BIOS files that were all signed by Microsoft and passes all Windows Genuine Advantage tests. 

Evidently this hack has been around for a few weeks but the mainstream is just hearing about it.  But if you think this should be an app you need to keep handy then the screen shot above should provide enough info for you to find it online.  Maybe now I'll install Windows Vista on my Ubuntu box through VMWare!  Eh, maybe not.

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons with Dave Arneson, has died today. He has been sick for the last several years evidently, apparently suffering from an abdominal anuerism among other things. I never had the opportunity to actually meet the man but I think I speak for people everywhere in saying, "Thank You."

Gary's imagination and vision has saved me from more trouble in my lifetime than any other single event. People always look down on those of us that played tabletop RPGs, mainly because we are an odd & intelligent bunch, but Gary's vision caused all of us to lead the life's we knew we should have. I could finally be a part of Robert E. Howard's sword and sorcery tales, crawling through the jungles after some long forgotten treasure and faced undeniable evil. Then I could laugh with my friends and recall the good ol' days when dragons weren't made of gems.

Gygax made all of us social misfits find a way to focus our energies without going crazy. Even though I never knew him, I consider him a close friend. I can only hope that his next adventure is better than his last, and that'll be pretty damn hard.

We will miss you, Gary.

I understand that artists should be paid for the works that they create.  I recognize that piracy of movies and music has run rampant.  I do not understand, however, how RIAA can justify suing someone because of having music in a shared directory of Kazaa.  They have not attempted to prove that the music was shared to other but that it was simply in a shared folder. 

Similar tactics have been brought up in the past, notably during the Napster case and the Perfect 10 v. Google case.  Both of these were thrown out due to the fact that the Copyright Act does not consider an attempted violation as a violation.  The EFF is doing its part again and is battling the hate-mongering asses of the RIAA for the greater good.  It all goes down tomorrow at 2pm in Phoenix.

A federal district court judge in San Francisco has rescinded the order that shut down the domain WikiLeaks.com which came under fire earlier this year for copyright infringement.  WikiLeaks allows third-parties to post government and corporate documents that display some evidence of wrong-doing. 

I am personally happy to see this site gain ground, I am a great proponent of the complete freedom of information especially when it can uncover some the status quo of illegal activities committed by most of the world's large corporations and governments.

WikiLeaks can still be reached by browsing to IP 88.80.13.160, no word yet on when the domain name will become active again.

I am working on making a GURPS game that is centered around the world of Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files set about 80 years into the future; also comprising themes from Charles Stross's Halting State. I have been waiting patiently for a few years for the Dresden Files RPG to come out and have finally decided to make a go at it using the fantastic GURPS system.

The basic story will be in NYC as opposed to Chicago and there will be a predominant neural interfaces for most of the working public and a "Cop Space" a la Halting State. I am still in the early planning phase but I will be making more and more updates as time goes by. The story will also house beasts from the Cthulhu Mythos but I am not sure exactly sure how yet. I am sure some figures from the novels will arrive also.

I am no a huge fan of opera, in fact I almost never listen to it. Something seems to get lost in a radio broadcast of an opera. Either way, I am a huge fan of Faust in all its flavors and Boito's Mefistofele is not exception. Tonight NPR's World of Opera replayed the entire production from the Royal Opera of Wallonie, in Liege, Belgium.

For those of you who do not know the story, Faust is the story of a German scholar that makes a deal with the devil, Mefistofele, for power and riches. He doesn't, naturally, come to realize the consequences of his actions until the moment of his death.

Either way I truely wish I could see a high end production of this. It would be great fun.