A bit more digging and I realize that this isn't truly a bug in IE, but in an ActiveX component that ships with IE.

I set all of my ActiveX, signed or not, approved or not, to prompt and this fixes that problem

[ davidkearns.com - Scary: my little slice of opinion and triviality ]

This means you simply need to disallow the use of that one component. If you have XP SP2, you're in luck, since ActiveX components are a type of add-on, and you can now disallow add-ons. Go to Tools/Manage Add-ons... Change the “Show:” to “Add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer” and find the “DHTML Edit Control Safe for Scripting for IE5” and set it to “Disable”. This is bound to break something somewhere, but better that then having your financial info snagged or something.

Interesting thing to note, though. After the above jerry rigging my IE would no long fall for the test, however my SlimBrowser still happily runs the add-on. Perhaps a reboot or something is required due to some sort of caching of background process or something, but if not this exploit is still obvious due to the brand new IE window that SlimBrowser spawns via the test (and thus alerts me to the odd behavior, since SlimBrowser usually doesn't do that).

Update: After a reboot and an upgrade to SlimBrowser 4.03.007 it still falls for this exploit. One odd bit about the exploit is that although the wee little yellow lock appears, which should indicate that the page has been encrypted, double-clicking on the lock displays a dialog that indicates “This type of document does not have a security certificate” which certainly sounds like an error exists in IE as well.

Anyone know where one can score some Snakeskin Fruit in the US?

The salak, or snake fruit, comes attractively packaged in its own distinctively patterned, leathery hide. The dark-brown skin is tough, but surprisingly thin and easy to peel. Inside you'll find a light-tan fruit divided into three or more lobes, usually with a single seed in the largest section. Salaks are not juicy which makes them especially convenient to peel and eat.

[ Four Seasons Bali Fruit Book ]

They're Yaty's fav, and so far everywhere I can think of (the Korean grocery, Harry & David, Dean & Deluca, Amazon, Yahoo) have come up with nothing.

Big Boi will likely be fine, just have an extra buttery brisket.

pat

an individual serving of butter. In the U.S. food industry, restaurant servings of butter are usually packaged at 48 pats per pound, making each pat 1/3 ounce (about 9.45 grams). In recipes, a pat of butter is typically 2 teaspoons (1/3 fluid ounce, or about 10 milliliters).

[ Units P ]

And if you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky. (Though Wayne Newton is correct, and Snoop's laundry should come out fine.)

I'm confused, I see 4 pros for c# followed by 3 cons against VB:

The differences between C# and Visual Basic .NET are mostly to suit different programmer's backgrounds. Unfortunately, there are some other differences. The following is a list (other than those that were mentioned when I discussed Microsoft's "going back") of some examples of the differences between C# and Visual Basic .NET:

• C# warns you if a function is missing a return statement—This catches a few bugs automatically.

• C# requires XML-tagged documentation to be written in the code—Seems to be a good idea to drag out the comments from the code and use it for different scenarios.

• C# can switch to Unmanaged mode—This can easily be achieved in Visual Basic .NET by just calling a C# class that takes care of it. Still, I find it nice to have the same possibilities in both environments.

• You can use Using() in C# to tell that an object should be automatically Dispose()ed when going out of scope—That is very handy, for example, for connection and file objects that you don't want to wait for being garbage collected.

To be fair, Visual Basic .NET has some advantages over C# too:

• Visual Basic .NET differs Inherits from Implements—In C#, it's written in both cases with a colon.

• The event syntax is simple in Visual Basic .NET—It's as clean and intuitive as in VB6. In C#, you have to take care of more by hand.

• Visual Basic .NET is not case sensitive—This is a matter of taste, but I prefer non–case sensitive. Otherwise, there is always somebody that will have two methods in a single class named something like getData() and GetData().

[ Introduction to COM and .NET ]

Inherits and implements are so similar concepts, why not use :, yet when doing events the extra code is deemed a pain? When it gives more flexibility? And case sensitivity is a plus, not a minus, doesn't everyone know that yet?

So far far away:

Distance between Washington, District of Columbia, United States and Ujung Pandang, Indonesia [ed: now known as Makassar], as the crow flies: 9883 miles (15905 km) (8588 nautical miles) Initial heading from Washington to Ujung Pandang: north-northwest (332.1 degrees) Initial heading from Ujung Pandang to Washington: north-northeast (21.5 degrees)

[ How Far is It ]

Which is just a bit farther than from DC to San Jose, CA, and back — twice.

Electronic Arts is to buy 20 percent of French publisher Ubisoft, the Wall Street Journal has confirmed this morning, at a reported cost of between $85 million and $100 million.

[ GamesIndustry.biz - EA to buy 20 per cent share in Ubisoft ]

I'm not a real big fan of Electronic Arts. Even ignoring their dubious employment policies, they don't promote the type of games that I like, and put tons into their sports titles. They have had, over the years, a few games that I've liked, but many seem to fade never to return.

I am a big fan of Ubi, especially their Montreal office, and I'm even willing to forgive them for rushing Pop:Warrior Within knowing that they have more goodies coming, hopefully some of which are a complete surprise to everyone.

I just don't see EA and Ubi working, and it scares me to think of EA destroying such a great studio as Ubisoft.

I hope they fix this one soon.

Paul has reported a vulnerability in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct sophisticated cross-site scripting attacks against any web site. Please see the test below for an example of how this vulnerability can be exploited.

[ Secunia - Internet Explorer Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability Test ]

I set all of my ActiveX, signed or not, approved or not, to prompt and this fixes that problem, however it then breaks my gmail. (Of course I then just “trusted” gmail, hope they don't abuse that trust...)

Nintendo DS games are already available on GameFly! I'm not sure what type of installed base is required before GameFly makes a decision like that, but that's a great sign...

I've always been a bit fascinated with airplane food. I think most who know me would say I'm a bit preoccupied with food in general, but airplane food is particularly interesting, and I have no idea why. At least now I know that I am not alone:

Last update Fri.17 Dec. 15:35 CET
Next update: Saturday
10,681 images / 436 airlines

[ Airline Meals ]

And I'm sure that Yaty would want me to point out this from their FAQ:

Who serves the best meals?

Any airline with a BusinessClass / FirstClass has good stuff! Though (judging from the images and their comments I've seen on the website) I would say Asian airlines get the best results... Singapore Airlines, JAL Japan Airlnes[sic], Cathay Pacific, Thai Airways International, Emirates... they're all top notch.

It's a brave new world for advertisers. As movies and games and in the future all sorts of products start to rethink how they generate press, and create exciting new ways of getting their name out, I can see that we're all in for a treat. Why pay for crappy TV spots with weak jingles, when you can create entire on-line games, or spoof sites, or both?

Most in the gaming community are quite familiar with Halo2's I Love Bees website. An interactive fiction/game based on the Halo/Halo2 story that helps to link the two. It unfolded over the summer of 2004 up until the launch date. Pretty cool I think, though I didn't have the time to get into it fully, especially since I haven't played Halo and wouldn't catch most of the references.

Here's my issue. What's the point of making this sort of experience and then not getting the word out to those who might enjoy it? Nintendo (apparently) tried the same thing with Metroid Prime 2: Echos, but I didn't hear about it until the entire thing was completed. Apparently something's going on at Channel 51 (with follow up changes to site), even channel 51's sponsors Orbis Labs and Athena Astronautics seem to be in on the joke. Though I think AA is up to something as detailed on the Blogger journal “Athena Astronautics Journal”. Since I've only discovered it now, it loses a bit of it's play-acting finesse, but it still seems to be quality. Next time Nintendo, be sneakier, OK?

And the quick-and-dirty I Love Knees website is quite funny too.

Version Four of their Web Service, and still none work with VisualStudio smoothly.

After a bit of research I came across this helpful post on the official Amazon.com Web Services discussion board which explains how to fix the issues I was having

[ Amazon Web Services and .NET ]

Can't Microsoft just send them a copy for them to test with?