BunkBlog

According to this article, the recently uncovered SSL vulnerability in Internet Explorer is actually a bug in every Windows Operating system.

Microsoft officials said it makes sense for the operating system to provide cryptographic services to any application that needs it, instead of each application having to include its own cryptographic technology.

But Culp said that the SSL flaw doesn’t affect any other application outside Internet Explorer and that it’s a client-side issue only.

Sooooo, if the only program that uses the crypto functions is IE, why are the functions not part of the browser again? Please explain this to my poor confused brain…
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current_mood: amused

This is the kind of story that you hope couldn’t happen in North America…
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current_mood: scared

According to the Washington Post story about a study in Nature, scientists have narrowed down the gene that allows humans to speak instead of grunting like chimps.

Now, they’re going to put that gene into mice. Stuart Little?

I think they’ll have better luck putting the gene into something a bit brighter than a rodent, like a chimp or orangutan. What will they think of next?
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current_mood: impressed

Hey, check it out. Space Imaging has a picture of the week page, where they showcase a crisp piece of satellite imagery. This week’s photo is Toronto. Can you see your house? 🙂
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current_mood: happy

I’m going to be in Fairfax next week, for four days. The big problem with my business trips is the lack of daytime free time. Last week, I intended to go up to the city and hit the Smithsonian or one of the monuments. Didn’t happen. Closest I got to playing tourist was going to the Springfield Mall.

Any DC-area folks have ideas of what I can do in the evenings next week? It seems such a waste to spend four days in DC and not actually go to DC except to catch a plane.
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current_mood: curious

Played some more Sims this weekend, after avoiding it as if it were heroin. Maybe crack. Anyway, after much wasted time, I realized the logic behind the game is bizarre. The burglar has this magic bag, which he uses to hold his ill-gotten gains. This guy can throw a lamp, big-screen TV, and a damned chair in that thing and still toss it over his shoulder like Santa Claus. WTF?

And why don’t these morons get to have weekends off? What kind of life involves 7-day work weeks?
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current_mood: amused

Well, the orange shoes were just fun to play with, and the blue was added for an ugly contrast. This pair, though, I set out from the beginning to make UGLY. If you like this design, you have serious problems.

A geek with time on his hands is a dangerous thing. What do you think of my latest shoe design?

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current_mood: bored

People who use my server’s bandwidth without asking are just rude. Someone had linked to the (now departed) Lianna’s Nekkid XXXmas images, so I kept moving them around to foil their off-site linking. Now, someone has decided to use one of the LJ userpics I made as an avatar on some board named “Suddenlaunch” – that one JPEG image is now the most requested file on my site, and is adding noticeably to my bandwidth usage.

Whoever is using that image – it’s been renamed. If I find it being linked again, I’ll delete it. Stop doing things without asking. That’s rather presumptuous.
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current_mood: annoyed

After making userpics from the trailer, I had to go see the movie, right? Not really – I have no desire to watch “A Walk to Remember” for example. However, this movie was exactly as I expected: silly but fun. It was cotton candy and rollercoasters, not Bach and Ravel. But, still fun.
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current_mood: tired

The stupid evaporative cooler has two clogged pipes on the “spider” assembly, from scale buildup. When did the scale build up? When I was in DC of course. Argh! I hate this state some times…
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Back from DC, ready for the 10 days before I go back to the Coast again…

1. Do you have a car? What kind? Yes, 1995 Ford Contour. The crappy one.
2. Do you drive often? Well, I have to get to work somehow.
3. What’s your dream car? 1967 Corvette Stingray. Black, with chrome trim.
4. Have you ever gotten a ticket? Yes, but not since 1994.
5. Have you ever been in an accident? Yep. Some moron rear-ended me at a red light. I had an old piece of crap Mazda, and it dented the previously-dented bumper. The moron ended up with a puddle of antifreeze under the mangled front-end of his car. Gotta love morons.

I’m tired. Can I go lay down now?
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current_mood: sleepy

How is it possible for my hotel to have 45 channels, and not have the Comedy Channel? But, some Spanish-language channel has buxom women in tiny outfits (one is a mesh dress) on some silly game show. A guy is currently biting marshmallows off a woman’s dress. That’s my kind of game…might not stop with the marshmallows though. 😉

Home again tomorrow, thank goodness.
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current_mood: mischievous

I’m a patriot, a veteran, a sensitive person.

But, “America Remembers – Part One” is on CNN next week, and I’m just not going to watch it. We’ve watched memorials every week the past year, and we’ve lit a billion candles in remembrance. Of course America remembers – the media won’t shut the fuck up.

Seriously, let’s remember the events, but let’s also be interested in other news events, ok? Gaza Strip anyone?
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current_mood: annoyed

Flying sucks more with each passing year…

Not only does Reagan National have extra-special security measures that prohibit you from going to the lavatory the final 30 minutes of the flight, but they had an hour-long delay on my flight today. Where did we wait? On the tarmac, loaded into the plane like sardines…

Damn, I hate flying.
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current_mood: tired

Although seemingly on the brink of financial ruin, I still find cool stuff on Salon every week. The Dylan Thomas CD collection is up to the sixth disk now, so I’ll have plenty to listen to while I’m in DC next week. Woohoo!
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Hey, I wasn’t really near a computer most of Friday. 🙂

1. What is your lineage and where are your ancestors from? Fuck if I know for sure, but the name came from Britain and my mom’s side came from Poland, Norway and Germany.
2. Of those countries, which would you most like to visit? If I could only choose one, UK.
3. Which would you least like to visit? I think I could do without Poland.
4. Do you do anything during the year to celebrate or recognize your heritage? After 360+ years in North America, my family heritage is being a U.S. citizen.
5. Who were the first ancestors to move to your present country? I’m still researching precisely, but it was in 1640 or 1643.

Total American mutt heritage. One of my aunts claims we’ve got a lot of freaky stuff hiding in the woodpile, including some Native American and black relatives back through the ages. I’m reasonably sure that no Bunker had slaves, though, since we settled in New England as poor people to begin with.
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If you ask me to make you a userpic, and I send you one and ask, “how’s this?” you are expected to respond. Seriously, how do I know if you like it if you don’t say, “thanks, that’s good.”????

twits.
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From today –

I played my ass off last night. And it was good!

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