Tentacled Monkey

The BBC, and the AP are both saying that Arthur C. Clarke has passed away this evening. First E.Gary Gygax and now Sir Clarke. I can say that his SciFi was some of the first novels that I read. He was a living legend, a man who helped bring a genre of lit from the pulps up to the mainstream. I... I... well. shit I don't know what to say. Arthur C. Clarke has died.

Funny how sometimes bloggers and Cthulhu Aficionados just have their finger on the pulse of the nation, isn't it?  The Aristocrats blog is right on.

Within the wonderful CRYPTO-GRAM newsletter from Bruce Schneier we are told of a Somalian woman who boarded a plane in Blenheim, New Zealand and stabbed both pilots and a passenger while demanding to be flown to Australia. Schneier's article is below:

"There are a couple of interesting things about the hijacking in New Zealand last month. First, it was a traditional hijacking. Remember after 9/11 when people said that the era of airplane hijacking was over, that it would no longer be possible to hijack an airplane and demand a ransom or demand passage to some exotic location? Turns out that's just not true; there still can be traditional non-terrorist hijackings.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10491291
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4392665a11.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4395723a10.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4395846a11.html
And even more interesting, the media coverage reflected that. Read the links above. They're calm and reasoned. There's no mention of the T-word. We're not all cautioned that we're going to die. If anything, they're recommending that everyone not overreact. Refreshing, really.
http://stuff.co.nz/4414911a10.html"

Funny how people with knives are still getting on planes despite "increased security" and not a mention of terrorism, thankfully. It's nice to see the media actually making the differentiation between random acts of stupidity and crime, and that of actual terrorism.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Well this has just turned ugly. My friend's NewEgg account was closed today and the order for the laptop was completely voided, then they said that the bank told NewEgg that his account was closed, which was a total crock of shite. So all told there will be no laptop coming, and I likely lost my online order buddy. So thanks for nothing you NewEgg fucks.

This kind of shit always seems to happen to me whenever I want to actually buy something for myself. I am not a rich man by any means and any amount of money over abotu $10 that I spend affects my budget in some manner. So, to trust a company with my hard-earned cash and to be treated in such a demeaning manner is fucking typical of my history of ordering tech. I know it wasn't my account that was closed and whatever, but it was my fucking money and, would have been, my fucking laptop. I suppose this is just a way for the man to stomp on my ballz and tell me that I shouldn't be spending $400 on a uber-cheap linux running laptop when I have a perfectly malfunctioning Thinkpad T-23 at home, and gas is over $3.00 a gallon.

Update: Ordering from NewEgg.com has been an exceptionally aggravating process for some reason. I had to order the item twice, cancel both of those and then have a friend buy it from his account. So now the order didn't start processing until late Friday afternoon. Hopefully, I will have the damn thing by about Thursday of next week.

The Everex VA1500V, the Cloudbook's big brother, is now available at Walmart.com for $398.00. But this means nothing to me personally since I just purchased this guy from NewEgg.com. They are processing the order and I should have it early next week. I can't wait!!

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.