Bloggy, bloggy

[ Blog by Al Chumley ]

Who is this guy, and what is his deal?

Helen Jane has me totally whipped for the US (but G$ only has me slightly beat):

But doesn't have the world, so I'm not sure how I stack up there:

[ create your own visited map or write about it on the open travel guide ]

Designing fonts in Redmond "Microsoft has learned of a mistake in the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font ... we failed to identify, prior to the release, the presence of two swastikas within the font. We apologize for this and for any offense caused." From a statement released in December by Microsoft senior vice president Steven Sinofsky.

[ CNN.com ]

And before you say, come on I'm sure it's not really a swastika, or maybe it's that backwards swastika that is a hindu religeous symbol, or whatever:

Way to go, Microsoft. I'm sure someone accidentally put a swastika in there. Twice.

Update: If this offends, you can remove it with a Microsoft “tool”.

Everybody gets the day off. No, I mean everybody. I don’t want to see any poor saps working at Denny’s or Wal-Mart during Pizza Party U.S.A. – we’ll pass legislation making it illegal to wear a nametag on Leap Day. The only people allowed to work will be the mail carriers charged with delivering the pizzas to neighborhoods around the nation (and each will receive a copy of the Shins’ Chutes Too Narrow for their trouble).

Then, at noon on Feb. 29, citizens from around the nation will travel to their local community centers, present photo I.D. (to prove they chipped in), and receive in return: – Three slices of pizza 

• A 16-ounce soda. And no diet soda, either
• this is a pizza party, people!
• $2 in quarters for the video games

[ The Morning News ]

It will never work. If everyone has the day off, who made the pizza? Who is checking IDs?

The Zappa boys are now 2 for 2 in the lovely lady department.

The Legally Blonde actress and rock-scion beau Ahmet Zappa have capped their six-month whirlwind romance with a walk down the aisle.

[ Yahoo! News - Most Viewed ]

Neither Zappa has struck me as being a “super-stud”, so perhaps they'll combine efforts and pen a book on how to hook a hottie... Not that even a book would help most of us in that department. (Maybe it's just their guitars and general good nature, neither of which I think I could swing...)

The problem: you like women but they don't like games. The solution: get them addicted to the same stuff you are.

Then, one of those roommates introduced me to The Sims. After that offhand introduction, I played that deliciously addictive game until at least 3:00 A.M. every morning for nearly a month—rarely remembering to eat dinner. That was it. I was changed. The genesis had begun.

[ Xbox.com :: Fun With Friends: Gamer Genesis ]

Sure, at first this seems stupid, they'll want to hog the TV and console, and they may even beat you at some games (which is quite embarrassing in front of your friends), but in the end it will all pay off, since you'll have twice the budget for purchasing gaming equipment and supplies.

Another hopeful? Mario Party 5. My baby's momma has the MP5 jones, and it could lead to further gaming...

This, in my humble opinion, is the best news I've heard in weeks:

Saudi Arabia's top cleric called on Muslims around the world Saturday to forsake terrorism, saying those who claim to be holy warriors were an affront to the faith.

[ Yahoo! News - Most Viewed ]

Now that the same message has come out of Cairo and at Mount Arafat during hajj, maybe the international Muslim community will wake up and stop listening to the murderers.

The Orkut wave has hit me, oddly enough through Dari.

The center of the Orkut vortex is Orkut himself.

So far I'm as excited as I was about Friendster, but even more so because Orkut appears to have developed a more solid system and better interface. It also doesn't hurt to be supported by Google, as I expect it makes hosting cheap.

I've sent invites out too my direct family (and assume that they will then invite their significant others) and people in my address book who seem like “friends”. The general rule seemed to be, if I've been inside your house, I added you to the list. However there are people who I haven't been to their houses who likely qualify as a “friend” and there are people who's houses I've been inside, who might not appreciate an invite. (Some folks are a bit paranoid with their privacy).

That being said, if you think you're my friend, and wanted an invite, send me an email and we'll see what can be arranged... (Heh heh heh).

And, conversely, if you did receive an invite and didn't appreciate it, let me know and I won't invite you to these sorts of things in the future...

I generally don't like blogging things that someone tells me, if I know that they have a blog that the item might eventually end up on. It feels like I've scooped them with their own lead. However, in the case of Dari, I expect that he'll not get arround to blogging, or won't think that the item is blog-worthy. Now, recently this has made me feel like I was somehow taking advantage of his observations, but I don't think that should affect me any more, since I'm not the only one who does this:

Eagle-eyed Dari spotted this bit of fun in a video game product description at Amazon...

[ Rants and Ramblings ]

My IE Power Toys have a seriously weak installation process, so I whipped up a little install for the whole set of toys. If figure if I gots the toolz, I should use them.

An evolutionarily advanced human with enhanced physical and psionic abilities. StarCraft: Ghost™, Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming tactical-action console game, refines the epic experience of StarCraft to the level of the individual soldier. Engage the StarCraft universe face-to-face as a deadly Ghost operative in the employ of the Dominion. With the help of determined allies, follow story-driven missions that take you from massive planetary battles through dangerous solo operations to an unexpected turn of events that leaves the fate of the universe in your hands.

[ StarCraft: Ghost ]

My predictions (based on the lengthy article I just read in play magazine):

1. Dari will love this
2. So will Korea
3. This will be a significant “must buy” title on all 3 current platforms
4. Blizzard will get rich

First Disney closed their old-school 2D animation studio in Orlando, now this:

Pixar Animation Studios is ending talks aimed at continuing its relationship with The Walt Disney Co. and will seek a deal with another studio, Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs said Thursday.

[ Yahoo! News - Technology ]

What's next? Studio Ghibli gets the door?

I knew that the Mega Man Anniversary Collection was coming out for GameCube, which was exciting, until I saw this:

Challenge yourself with some of the most extreme Mega Man titles ever released while unlocking a cache of bonus features in this special collection to celebrate Mega Man’s 15th Anniversary.For the first time ever, play the original Mega Man Game Boy games on your Game Boy Advance or Game Boy SP!

[Capcom: Mega Man Mania for Game Boy Advance ]

These are the 5 I'm most excited about, and on the GameBoy Player they should look just like the originals, plus they are insta-portable. Of course N8 will want both, but I think I might just pick up this one.

Update: Apparently the Mega Man Mania games are the 5 GameBoy Mega Man games (4 of which are NES ports) all updated in color. That means any SNES Mega Man titles will only be in the GameCube collection. Perhaps I'll need both...

OK. But what do I get?

Get access to the latest reviews by the most experienced staff in the business! Video Games, Anime, DVD, media, toys, interviews, first reports, trade show coverage, and much, much more!

[ play magazine :: subscriptions ]

Just grabbed my second issue from the Borders, and it strikes me that they have beautiful cover art. I'm sending in the subscription card jobby for a 1 year subscription at $19.95 (which is $5 savings off the website's price). I think I just may enjoy play even more than I enjoyed GameNow.

I'm taking on the link forwarding sites with a twist. You're familiar with shorterlink.com and tinyurl.com, next up? way-too-freaking-long-link.com

We'll guarantee URLs of at least 1,900 characters. We'll use characters that email packages like to wrap or garble. We'll use random static to ensure that 3 out of every 10 links sent don't work quite right. And we'll have interstitials and pop-unders on every page.

I'll be sooooo rich, I just know it.

Nigeria 0-1 Morocco

Substitute Youssef Hadji's late goal secured a shock 1-0 win for Morocco over fancied Nigeria in the opening game in Group D.

[ BBC SPORT | Football | African Cup of Nations ]

1 down, 5 to go.

More details about today's new worm.

An e-mail worm that looks like a normal error message but actually contains a malicious program continued to snarl computers around the world on Tuesday.

MessageLabs Inc., which scans e-mail for viruses, said 1 in every 12 messages contained the worm, called "Mydoom" or "Novarg." Security experts described it as the largest virus-like outbreak in months, one made more problematic by its timing.

[ Yahoo! News ]

I received 10 or 15 of these last night, mostly to an email address that is only listed inside of HTML comments on a website that I built years ago. I've now had to step up my email management techniques to auto-junk all emails with attachments of certain types (based on their extensions), specifically .exe, .vbs, .com, .scr, and .shs. I certainly hope that some of the new email verification efforts led by Yahoo! or AOL (like SPF or Domain Keys) produce something that will stem the tide of unwanted emails, both spam and viruses.

Here's a simple 3 part process, outlined by Bram Moolenaar of gvim fame, that has the potential to stop all virus written emails (hyper links are mine):

VIRUS FLOOD

There is a very busy virus/worm active now. Although my system won't be affected, the number of messages I receive is so big that I can hardly manage to keep up with downloading them from my mail server. A few messages might get lost in the masses (I already got more than 10000).

1. If you have an MS-Windows system, you MUST have a virus scanner and update it daily. There are too many ways to catch a virus or worm now. Don't think it won't harm you.
2. If you maintain a mail server, please install a virus filter. And set it up so that it won't bounce a message back (the From address is mostly fake, it will just generate more traffic and tell innocent people that their system is infected).
3. If you wrote that virus, please report to the nearest police station and go to jail.

[ vim-announceATvimDOTorg ]