US CERT RSS Feed
The Tea Party was started by Republican Ron Paul Supporters as a revolt against big government.
The Real Tea Party is at the “Campaign For Liberty”
Filed under: politics, ron paul | No Comments »
$2.99… talk me out of it. This is much cooler than the “I AM T-PAIN” app.
Filed under: apple, cool | No Comments »
Apple has a fairly infamous track record when it comes to the language it allows in its App Store. Words like “boobs” and “booty” are out. Now “Android” is apparently the latest in a long line of deadly words. According to one developer, Apple has requested that the name of Google’s mobile operating system be removed for an app description.
The original preview for Tim Novikof’’s Flash of Genius SAT flashcard app mentioned that it had been a “finalist in Google’s Android Developer’s [sic] Challenge.”
Filed under: apple, google | No Comments »
This scale wirelessly sends my weight, fat mass, and BMI to a personal web page at Withings.com and to my Google Health page, my RunKeeper account, and my DailyBurn account.
To set it up, I connected it to my computer with a USB cable and filled out some information online. The USB port is hidden in the scale’s battery compartment because you only have to use the cable once. After that, all I have to do is step on the scale. There are no buttons or on-off switch. It’s a very nice looking, solid-feeling gadget, that does one thing and does it flawlessly. It’s a great device for self trackers.
Filed under: cool | No Comments »
Taxpayers might want to pay close attention to this Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast or they’ll miss Uncle Sam’s 30-second, $2.5-million reminder to stand up and be counted.
That’s what the Census Bureau paid CBS to get their message notched somewhere between a National Lampoon reprisal, a weird dude with big glasses, a beer-can house and men without pants.
And, that’s just a fraction of what the bureau plans to spend this year to get Americans to answer a simple, 10-question survey.
Filed under: politics, ugh | No Comments »
Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google — and its users — from future attack.
Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans’ online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users’ searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.
Filed under: google, hax, nsa, privacy, security | No Comments »
I think this judge had the right idea… if the members of a class action settlement are expected to be happy with a card that they have to use at the store that screwed them over in the first place, then why not the lawyer?
Last year, Los Angeles County Judge Brett Klein was presented with a proposed class-action settlement in which the plaintiffs’ attorney would get $125,000, but class members would get only a $10 gift card, usable only at the store that allegedly violated the law in the first place. That is an example of the much-maligned “coupon settlement,” in which a defendant can end up profiting from breaking the law because a consumer must buy something from the defendant to redeem the coupon. These can sometimes be okay, but Judge Klein didn’t think this settlement was fair. A Gift for You! Another L.A. County judge, Susan Bryant-Deason, had tentatively approved the settlement, but she became ill and Klein ended up presiding over the fairness hearing. In a ruling that caught my eye when it came out last year, he ordered that the attorney also be paid in $10 gift cards, just like the people he represented. Under Klein’s order, Neil Fineman was to receive 12,500 gift cards that he could put toward the purchase of any merchandise he liked, as long as he liked the women’s clothing at Windsor Fashions.
Filed under: lulz | No Comments »
Looks like the Borings are upset the Google StreetView car drive down their Private Drive and took photos of their home, outbuildings, and pool. Seems reasonable considering they have a “Private Road – No Trespassing” sign at the entrance. Wonder if it will be appealed.
If I were them I would also be concerned with the images from Microsoft’s “birds-eye” view.
Aaron and Christine Boring sued the Internet search giant last April, alleging that Google “significantly disregarded (their) privacy interests” when Street View cameras captured images of their house beyond signs marked “private road.” The couple claimed in their five-count lawsuit that finding their home clearly visible on Google’s Street View caused them “mental suffering” and diluted their home value. They sought more than $25,000 in damages and asked that the images of their home be taken off the site and destroyed.
However, the U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania wasn’t impressed by the suit and dismissed it (.PDF) Tuesday, saying the Borings “failed to state a claim under any count.”
Ironically, the Borings subjected themselves to even more public exposure by filing the lawsuit, which included their home address. In addition, the Allegheny County’s Office of Property Assessments included a photo of the home on its Web site.
Filed under: google, privacy | No Comments »
Text messages – 6,500% markup
Text messages are short, quick and cheap to transmit. So why are they adding so much to your wireless bill?
The messages are such a tiny piece of data that they cost carriers only about one-third of a cent to deliver, according to computer scientist Srinivasan Keshav, who testified before U.S. senators on the issue last summer.
But on a pay-per-text plan, the 160-character messages typically cost 20 cents outgoing and 10 cents incoming. That’s a markup of as much as 6,500%. OMG!
The others? Check them out after the jump…
Filed under: b3st pract1c3s | No Comments »
Brian Krebs continues to scare the pants off the public with his ongoing series on sophisticated ATM skimmers (devices that capture your card number, working with a hidden camera to catch your PIN). His slideshow of next-gen skimmers has me convinced that there’s no way I’d notice a skimmer on an ATM that I was using: “According to Doten, the U.S. Secret Service estimates that annual losses from ATM fraud totaled about $1 billion in 2008, or about $350,000 each day. Card skimming, where the fraudster affixes a bogus card reader on top of the real reader, accounts for more than 80 percent of ATM fraud, Doten said.”
Filed under: con, exploit | No Comments »
John Scalzi brings the sarcasm and the smarts in this cogent analysis of why it was strategically foolish for Amazon to delist Macmillan’s titles over the weekend, without any announcement, and for reasons that the authors and readers of those books had no control over.
3. Amazon Lost the Author’s Fans. The interesting thing about the fans of authors: They feel somewhat connected to their favorite authors. So when their favorite authors kvetched on their blogs and Facebook pages and Twitter feeds about the screwing Amazon was giving them, what did many of these fans do? They also kvetched on their blogs and Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. So in pissing off a myriad of authors, Amazon also pissed off an exponential number of book readers, many of whom followed their favorite authors’ leads in complaining about Amazon, and who themselves were read and followed by an exponential number of others. Even on a weekend, the traditional slow time for the Internets, that’s a lot of pissed-off people.So, two and a half days of the Internet being angry at Amazon. To be sure, there were people taking the side of Amazon, too. But those people lacked the social cohesion of an aggrieved class (writers) backed up by a mass of supporters — not to mention the relatively high profile of these writers online, which, if you were a journalist looking for reaction quotes while on deadline, made them the go-to sources.
Filed under: news | No Comments »
I visited my friend at her home yesterday. She just had a baby boy, who is the proud owner of this adorable little pacifier that doubles as his very own mute button.
You can buy it on Amazon for $6.
I might have to order a couple just to have on hand for gift-giving opportunities.
Filed under: cool | 1 Comment »
They were a bit upset that all the promotional clips for the iPad showed Flash operating on the webpages. Apple has since apologized and edited the marketing pics. Luckily, Flash has been dying for months.
Filed under: apple | No Comments »
A reader writes, “Australian Classification Board (ACB) is now banning depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. They banned mainstream pornography from showing women with A-cup breasts, apparently on the grounds that they encourage pedophilia, and in spite of the fact this is a normal breast size for many adult women. Presumably small breasted women taking photographs of themselves will now be guilty of creating simulated child pornography, to say nothing of the message this sends to women with modestly sized chests or those who favor them. 
Australia has also banned pornographic depictions of female ejaculation, a normal orgasmic sexual response in many women, with censors branding it as ‘abhorrent.’”
The Board has also started to ban depictions of small-breasted women in adult publications and films. This is in response to a campaign led by Kids Free 2 B Kids and promoted by Barnaby Joyce and Guy Barnett in Senate Estimates late last year. Mainstream companies such as Larry Flint’s Hustler produce some of the publications that have been banned. These companies are regulated by the FBI to ensure that only adult performers are featured in their publications. “We are starting to see depictions of women in their late 20s being banned because they have an A cup size”, she said. “It may be an unintended consequence of the Senator’s actions but they are largely responsible for the sharp increase in breast size in Australian adult magazines of late”.
Filed under: offtopic, wtf | No Comments »
I’m 33 and, with mixed emotions, I play games that star Super Mario.
The people who sell Mario games would say it’s great to play Mario games. Mario is for everyone.
My gut tells me that playing Mario, the adventures of a fat plumber in a Mushroom Kingdom of warbling enemies and happy conflict, is juvenile.
My mind tells me I’m a more ideal Mario player than any 8-year-old kid.
Grown men play Super Mario games, so I feel that it is time for me, a grown man, to figure out why and whether this is a habit I ought to quit.
Filed under: offtopic | No Comments »
Security Alerts
Security Tips
© 2010 LandoftheFreeish. All Rights Reserved.
23 queries. 0.396 seconds. | ¯\(°_o)/¯
Word to our gui, os, http server, database, and scripting language. lamp-for-life.
BeautyandBoost.com
Ruby on Rails blog
