Rightfully So

StandardNET/Standard-Examiner:

Kolton Mahoney was shocked when he put the Madden NFL 07 game in his new Xbox 360 console Christmas day and an explicit image popped up on his television screen.

This story is hard to believe. What 14 year old boy would immediately turn off porn and get his parents. It also doesn’t state what kind of porn was contianed on the disc, although I shudder at the thought of John Madden popping up on the screen naked.

PC World - The 25 Worst Web Sites:

The ease with which anyone of any age can create a page, upload photos, share deeply personal details of their lives, and make new “friends” quickly turned MySpace into a one-stop shopping mall for online predators.

And here I thought pink text on a purple background, flashing, was the zenith in web page design.

I received an urgent e-mail message from Professor Mpondwe Nahabuto at the City University of Lagos, imploring me to assist him with negotiating some complex international financial procedures, and I was compelled to respond.

I had heard about other people receiving similar messages, and I was skeptical about why Dr. Nahabuto would have chosen me to aid him. But, I knew it was urgent, and perhaps risky not to help. Why, in April 2003, a Mrs. Edwina McMason of North Larchmont, Vermont, carelessy ignored a similar Nigerian plea, and, four weeks later, she found a bunion on her left foot. Also, in September 2005, 17-year-old Abby Applequints from Pussywillow High School in Highland, Kansas deleted a similar Nigerian e-mail message, and later that school-year, she could not find a prom date, and instead was forced to spend what would have been the most beautiful night of her life at home reading a book.

In my case, I figured I could avoid a similar senseless tragedy by responding to Dr. Nahabuto. We exchanged contact information, and I agreed to help him in any way that I could.

(more…)

So I’m browsing usenet the other day looking for a little info on the behavior of the windows Console API. (On a tangent for work. It was nothing assigned to me, and I have far more important things to work on, but I’m prone to getting lost in the weeds. On no, wait. I think I’m doing it again.)

ANYWAY, I found this amusing posting (from a Finish feller, no less) that I thought I’d share.

The fun thing is, backspacing too far only really crashes the console
handler. However, the NT kernel is so brilliantly engineered, that it
constantly watches the console handler process, and if it notices the
console handler has crashed, it gets all depressed, thinks “Oh no, life
is not worth living any more”, and commits suicide. Just out of spite.

— Joona Palaste