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August 31, 2003
Geektip: MS Security Update 819696 and your daily routine
No, it's not just you.
Every morning I get up, shower, brush my teeth, eat some children's cereal, download and install Microsoft Security Update #819696, and head off to work. Recently, I decided this was too many steps and that I should trim down my morning routine. The teeth thing seemed important and I've been known to skip the shower anyways... that pretty much left the Golden Grahams or the MS Update and I think we know who's gonna win out there.
I did a little bit of snooping and found that other people are having the same difficulty installing. Downloading and installing the patch and then being told that they didn't. Are they still in jeopardy of losing their information to a mean-spirited thirteen year old's code? What exactly could happen if it's not installed?
What it means
Microsoft Security Bulletin (#MS03-030) is entitled "Unchecked Buffer in DirectX Could Enable System Compromise" and is rated Critical. Microsoft Security Update 819696 is a DirectX patch that is meant to prevent malicious code from being executed by way of an unchecked buffer as a DirectX app on your machine. What that all really means is this: DirectX is really nothing more than a series of instructions for your machine on how to process different bit of information. It contains hundred of different sets of instructions and API's (application programming interfaces) which run on your machine, making sense of the one and zeros. One component of DX is called DirectShow. This item controls client-side audio and video rendering. Part of that function would be controlling MIDI. As Microsoft puts it:
"Geez! I'd better make sure I get that patch!"
Turns out that if it's installed, it's installed. You did it and it was successful? Good. You don't need to do it again, no matter what MS Update tells you. Not sure if you did it? Get it here. It seems that since this patch becomes part of the DirectX API set, instead of being catalogued as a separate Hotfix or app, the Microsoft Update site sometimes has trouble determining whether or not your machine has already installed it. Yeah, sometimes MS Update sucks a little.
The only solution I've found is to upgrade to the newest version of DirectX9.0b. That way, MS Update won't be able to miss the fact that your DirectX package is complete. You'll notice that DX9b is not mentioned on the MS Patch entry page as an affected program. Get it, and MS will know your DX is not in danger.
To check which version of DirectX you're currently running, open your RUN dialog in your START menu and type "dxdiag".
Microsoft Security Update MS03-030 (819696)
DirectX 9.0b End-user Runtime
Rock Music: Iron Maiden and Bjork
So we've seen a few shows since we moved. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring my camera into the bigger venues, so I've got no photos to post. In my opinion, a post about a show that doesn't include pictures is kind of a bust, but I guess you can't go see Iron Maiden and Bjork and not tell someone.
On August 11th, Bjork played the Hollywood Bowl and it was amazing. We were far enough away that she resembled a very cute dot, but the show itself was so huge distance didn't much matter. Two huge screens showed original content for most of the set, and fireworks were launched from behind the Bowl during three different songs. There was also a huge ensemble on stage including an orchestra, harpist, and a guy dancing in gravel. It was a pretty impressive affair, all in all. Lots of thanks to our friend Linus who gave us the free tickets.
Oh yeah. Some guy with an acoustic guitar opened up.
We stayed at home for a couple weeks after that. We decided if we were going to go out after Bjork, it had better damn well be able to live up. When some free tickets to Iron Maiden, Dio, and Motorhead at the Long Beach Arena fell into our laps, we decided it fit the bill.
Ever seen Heavy Metal Parking Lot? Apparently not much has changed. I'm such a shitty blogger because I didn't walk around and document the scene, but I was a bit afraid for my life. There were skinny, mustached men air-guitaring, girls dancing in pick-up truck beds... It was the single most amazing thing I've ever seen and this was just the parking lot an hour before the show.
Motorhead hit the stage first and played with the energy and intensity of three 20 year-olds and the volume of thirty. Unfortunately, the mix was not wonderful and the arena was half empty, making for a distorted, bellowing overall sound. Nice long set, killer drum solo. I honestly spent most of the set watching the rather animated crowd around us. No one there had full mental capacity. No shit. These people were not just weird or mulletty... they were honestly all missing a chromosome. You know, that one that causes you to know better.
Dio played second and was... Dio. Boy were they Dio. I just want to stress that there's only one Dio and they were... them.
Iron Maiden finally took the stage around 11:30. We'd already been there for 4 hours and my tolerance for the whole affair was running rather thin. We'd seen people stealing one another clothes and drugs, watched a fat meat-head repeatedly call to the drink vendor and then look around innocently when the vendor turned, and spent five minutes of my like that I'll never get back trying to figure out if the guy passed out in the row in front of us was breathing.
Thankfully, Iron Maiden brought props. Not shout-outs or accolades or whatever, but actual props. Flags and demons and banners. The entire stage, floor and three walls were murals of Eddie and the other Iron Maiden death characters. There was a platform with a cat walk surrounding the entire stage. Every song had a new 60 foot banner in the background. The amps were not on stage and the guitars were all wireless. The players looked like frolicking little girls. It was everything I could have hoped for... Then Eddie appeared. Sort of. He was tall and walked like a geriatric. His arms only moved back and forth and were permanently bent at the elbows. He wandered the stage, almost fell over, waved to the crowd, and then left. And then so did we.
Here are some funny things I came across while typing this blog:
- Blogger's spellchecker has no entry for the word "Blogger".
- Motorhead's web site is located at imotorhead.com.
- Motorhead has a web site.
- Doing an image search on Google for the words "Heavy Metal" is amazing. Doing so returns a lot of things like this:
August 28, 2003
New Gallery: 99 Cent Store
My stepmother is a bargain shopper. She's a sweet lady, but god love her, she's a bargain hunter. Her mop, her breakfast, and possibly her oven, were all purchased at the local 99 Cents Only Store (presumably for a total of $2.97).
Well we just couldn't take it anymore.
We had to know for ourselves.
Know with us.
Wesley Willis dead at age 40
For any who aren't familiar with the work of Wesley Willis, the 6'5", 350 pound, schizofrenic frontman of the Wesley Willis Fiasco, the news of his death will be far less impressive than the news of his life. For, if you were not in the know, you've missed out on one of the most peculiar personalities pop culture has known.
Wesley Willis achieved brief fame in the early nineties with songs entitled "Kurt Cobain" and "Alannis Morrissette", both on albums released by Rick Rubin's American Recordings company. Most of Wesley's fans will tell you his real genius lay in his concepts and titles, rather than the songs themselves. Titles included "Whip the Donkey's Ass", "I'm Sorry That I Got Fat (I Will Slim Down)" and the classic "I Whupped Batman's Ass".
In and out of hospitals for the better part of his life, Willis was sure to use every second of free time on his music. He was known to play upwards of 200 shows in a year and not many can say they're ever seen someone enjoy performing more. When not on stage or in "the studio", he was often to be seen on the Chicago city bus line selling his pen drawings of cityscapes and scenes. On June 2nd he was rushed to an emergency ward for internal bleeding caused by his Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. He was released the following day, but remained in hospice care and in poor health until his death on August 21th.
Willis recorded more than fifty full-length albums during his lifetime including several for Rick Rubin's American Recordings and Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles record company. Most recent was the 2001 Artist Workshop release "Full Heavy Metal Jacket". Alternative Tentacles has announced that they will release the third volume in Wesley's Greatest Hits series on October 7th, and that it will feature video footage, downloads, and an art and photo gallery.
"Wesley will go down as one of the most unique songwriters and entertainment personalities in history," Alternative Tentacles owner Jello Biafra said in a statement. "His music, lyrics, drawings, insight and the way he put them together are like no one else. Ever. There will never be another. As I got to know Wes, what really struck me was his sheer will power, his unrelenting drive to succeed and overcome his horrifically poor background, child abuse, racism, chronic schizophrenia and obesity, among other things. He was the most courageous person I have ever known."
Rock over London, rock on Chicago. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
August 26, 2003
Wastewater. Now on tap!
Several homes in Cape Coral, Florida have unwittingly been drinking wastewater from their tap for up to and over three months. "How did this happen" you ask? Well, it went a little something like this.
Calfornia Supreme Court vs. DeCSS
Norwegian hack-monkey Jon Johansen recently found something out. Then he shared what he found with his friends and them with theirs. Now, anyone who wants badly enough to rip a DVD can go right ahead and do it after using Johansen's now-famoun DeCSS code. Can he withstand the can of legal whoop-ass that will undoubtedly be unleashed upon him?
Apparently, no.
Well, no yet, anyways. The CCA, absolutely shocked that the master coders at Xing could have left a hole so large in their encryption, decided that the only thing to do was sue. And sue the did. The suits filed suits against the code's author, as well as supporters and perpetrators of the crime. Several people who made the code available publicly have been issued injunctions to stop them from serving up the malicious DeCSS material.
Read about it here.
I hope you got your code already if you wanted it. By the way, if you haven't already, go get your copy of the infamous DVD X Copy before that's ripped from the shelves as well.
August 24, 2003
"Who", indeed...
Tony Danza Live on Stage
Sunday, Sep. 7 @ 2:00pm
The Cerritos Center
Gettin' Spacier Than an Astronaut
All this hubbub about Mars coming so close to Earth has got me feeling interstellar. It's actually pretty cool to look up and see this startling bright orange dot in the sky and realize what it is.
But if looking's not enough for you, you can always just go there. A free, opensource program called Celestia allows the user to inspect heavenly bodies without that skeezy feeling or anonimous credit card activity. You can zoom around the galaxy at will and pan, rotate, and navigate around 3d rednerings of stars, asteroids, planets, star clusters, and other spacely notables.
The program is free and runs on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Linux, and OSX.
Get it here.
Thanks to Steve for the link.
First, I'd like to thank my man Jesus...
Recently, I've had a number of kind comments and emails from people who've come across my blog and apparently enjoyed it. I guess I'm a decent commodity on BlogShares, but I think these kids are nice enough to toss their support my way even if my stock plummets =).
I just thought I'd say thanks to Aslam at Mythic Flow, Alex at Irrational Noise, and Joe at ShareBlogs for taking the time to say hello. This is the reason I looked into blogging in the first place.
"Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"
"A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
I flip and flop on my opinion of Al Franken. I think I like him much more in print than on screen. If the title of his newest book is of any indication, I'll enjoy him much more in the future.
"Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" is the new book by Al Franken and it has just come out of a legal firestorm without so much as a dog-eared page. Although originally slated to hit stores in late September, the release was moved up to this past Thursday the 21st in an effort to capitalize on what was apparently a fairly hopeless lawsuit by the Fox News Network. The argument, according to Fox, was that Franken's use of the term "Fair and Balanced" was a malicious infringement on their own network Trademark of the phrase. We can all decide on our own whether or not we think that claim is ridiculous, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin decided for us whether or not it was legal:
August 17, 2003
Miss me?
Just thought I'd mention that Blogger erased my template. Again.
Well, I'll be Steve's monkey's uncle
I swear to God I need to do an entire post with the funny shit my friend Meghan sends me. Maybe an entire web page dedicated to her emails...
Anyhoo, her latest was a link to a wonderful collection of Baptist Fellowship Creation Science Fair projects catalogued online for our collective bemusement. The "science" fair claims that it's goal is to "get kids excited about Creation and motivate them to discover the truth of our Lord on their own." The discovery of said truths have led the children to submit projects, displays, and experiments with titles such as "Pokemon Proves Evolution is False" (Paul Sanborn, grade 4), and "My Uncle is a Man Named Steve (Not a Monkey)" (Cassidy Turnbull, grade 5). Wonderful.
Professor Jonathan Goode (grade 7) has several near-irrefutable arguments as to why "Women Were Designed For Homemaking," including thoughts about their center of gravity and why that benefits them in doing the laundry.
A smirking, sniveling Anna Reed (grade 6) wants to know: "Rocks Can't Evolve, Where Did They Come From Mr. Darwin?"
It even appears that some students have taken the Bapstist Science Fair as an opportunity to show their artistic side. You never know, there could be a critic or gallery owner there as a parent. Take, for example, the abstract yet profound modern installation entitled "Moustrap Reduced to Pile of Functionless Parts" by 7th grader Kevin Parker.
It appears that other students just weren't up to the challenge presented to them and phoned their projects. "Pine Cones Are Complicated" purports to show to us the beauty and complexity of God's design in yada yada yada. Thanks, David Block and Trevor Murry (grade 4).
Other kids decided that praying for bacteria to grow, stuffing an arc-shaped-box with rats, or watering some charcoal briquettes would be a good way to show their love for the lord and their hate for everything else.
Bottom line: These kids are totally fucked.
Fellowship Baptist Creation Science Fair 2001
August 11, 2003
Close Encounter with Mars
I got this in an email this week. I don't normally go in for this stuff, but this could be cool. That is if we can all get past the dreamy lingo:
During July and August, Earth is catching up with Mars, an encounter culminating in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and effects its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years but it may be as long as 60,000 years.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles and will be, next to the moon, the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide.
Mars will look similar to the full moon to the naked eye or at a modest 75-power magnification and will be easy to see. At the beginning of August, Mars will rise in the east at 10:00 PM and reach its azimuth at about 3:00 AM. By the end of August, when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 AM. That's pretty convenient when it comes to seeing something that no human has seen in recorded history.
So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter throughout the month. Share with your children, grandchildren and friends. No one alive today will ever see this again."
Do with it what you will.
Real entries coming soon, I promise.
August 04, 2003
StudioWhiz lives!
StudioWhiz is an amazing resource for designers and developers. Sadly, they left us some time ago. Not sadly, they're back!
Tutorials, contests, forums, articles and open source flash all have their place at StudioWhiz and so can you with a free account. This is honestly one of the cooler sites of it's type on the interweb. Tell them who sent you.
GeekTip: RSS Feed Readers
You've probably already got one, but do you like it? I've been looking and I've found several solutions that are exceedingly okay. Recently, the brilliant Nick Bradbury, developer of TopStyle and HomeSite (now part of macromedia and my web editor of choice), released a beta of his new Feed Daemon RSS reader and it's great.
It is a beta, and it will have bugs.
Try it out here.
You think you're better than me?
Why not take steps to be sure?
What do you have that that guy doesn't? What puts you ahead... give you an edge? A better throwing arm? Keener vision? Memory? Perhaps the ability to regenerate or teleport? What gets you the job, the car, the wife, instead of him? According to the good folks at Wired, one may be able to acquire these sorts of self-given-gifts at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Read here.
Apparently inspired by Dr. Xavier's band of motley mutants, the media has recently been focusing on human embetterment. Not the kind that requires 12 or so steps or the learning of a new language, but the kind that allows one to shoot lasers from one eyes. I recently caught a clip on TechTV about human body modification. They were all hot about memory improvement, brain implants for wireless internet connectivity, and muscle enhancement that would allow for faster running, higher jumping, more Ferrigno-looking humans of the future.
Meanwhile, I'll be underground with a few cases of Jolt; studying X-Men comics and searching for their weaknesses.