"I love Hot Magma!"

Hell yeah!

Discovery Channel, "I Love the World"

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Trac Ticket Number/Wiki/Link Conversion
Description: Replaces #123 and wiki:HotWork with links to Trac
Author: Russell Jurney
*/

function convert_ticket($text) {
    $link = preg_replace('/#([0-9]+)/m', "<a href='/trac/myproject/ticket/$1'>#$1</a>", $text);
    return $link;
}

function convert_wiki($text) {
    $link = preg_replace('/wiki:(\w+)/m', "<a href='/trac/myproject/wiki/$1'>$1</a>", $text);
    return $link;
}

add_filter('the_content', 'convert_ticket');
add_filter('the_content', 'convert_wiki');
?>

WordPress/Trac Integration Plugin

In the tradition of such financial windfalls as VideoCD and EPSN Baseball, EA and Bioware are now using "copy protection" as a means to ensure that at some future point, every game they make will be able to be forcibly obsolesced in order to manage their own "classics" channel, much like Sony and Nintendo are now selling all their old titles again, which also ensures that their copyrights on these titles never really expire. Ever.

Basically, the deal is this: For both Spore and Mass Effect, which both are primarily single-player games, you will now be required to do an online authorization for the machine you install it on. It's a near certainty that at some point in the future, they're simply going to declare it not worth their time to continue authorizing installs of these games. It probably won't even be a terribly long time before this happens, as EA has a particularly miserable track record for this... How long exactly was it that SSX3 actually retained it's online multiplayer ability?

Me, I'm probably buying them both (didn't have time to finish Mass Effect on the XBox 360 before I realized I should have gotten a PS3) but I'm going to crack the holy thunderfsck out of them. So much for being sure your grandkids might be able to play a game you enjoyed if you hang onto it long enough.

Note, I say "probably" not because I'm hinting at some other method of obtaining them. I say this because depending on how things turn out, I might just skip dealing with either of them at all just because of this online authentication bullshit. If it isn't worth me paying money to support the people who wrote the game, then screw playing it.

Video games get built in DRM-like expiry

Had the need to create some orby icons this weekend and instead of using a resource editor or Google images to "borrow" someone else's I used this tutorial.

Creating a Glass Orb icons in the GIMP

I was working on a project and noticed some odd DNS behavior. Behold:

C:\Documents and Settings\hoffmabi>nslookup google.com
Server:  24-197-160-17.static.gwnt.ga.charter.com
Address:  24.197.160.17

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    google.com
Addresses:  64.233.187.99, 64.233.167.99, 72.14.207.99


C:\Documents and Settings\hoffmabi>nslookup www.memestreams.net
Server:  24-197-160-17.static.gwnt.ga.charter.com
Address:  24.197.160.17

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    memestreams.net
Address:  72.9.237.202
Aliases:  www.memestreams.net


C:\Documents and Settings\hoffmabi>nslookup shouldnotresolvefoooooo.com
Server:  24-197-160-17.static.gwnt.ga.charter.com
Address:  24.197.160.17

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    shouldnotresolvefoooooo.com
Addresses:  64.158.56.56, 63.251.179.56


C:\Documents and Settings\hoffmabi>nslookup fuckyoucharterthisshouldntresolve.com
Server:  24-197-160-17.static.gwnt.ga.charter.com
Address:  24.197.160.17

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    fuckyoucharterthisshouldntresolve.com
Addresses:  64.158.56.56, 63.251.179.56

Fuck! Charter is trying to be helpful and resolving all hostnames, even those that don't really exist. Instead of doing what they are supposed to do and returning an error that thissitedoesnotexistatall.com doesn't resolve, they are lying to me and my project and telling me it does. Hello again SiteFinder didn't we stop all this bullshit 5 years ago?

So, I try this with craziness in a web browser and I get this helpful page:

The search results on the prior page were provided because the domain name you entered into the address bar is either improperly formatted, currently unavailable, nonexistent, or part of a keyword search. This service is designed to enhance your web surfing experience

Only its not, it messing up my program because things that should not exist are being reported as existing!... ... [Grrrrrrrrrrrr]

Note: In order for opt-out to work properly, you need to accept a "cookie" indicating that you have opted out of this service. If you use a program that removes cookies, you will have to repeat this opt-out process when the cookie is deleted. The cookie placed on your computer will contain the site name: ".charter.net".

Great, just freaking great. There is no way to turn it off. They are always going to resolve the non-existent hostname, and then do an HTTP 302 redirect to their bullshit captive portal, only to then see a cookie that tells them to give me an error page, which is an HTML page made to look like Internet Explorers default DNS error page.

Way to consider programs that do DNS resolution that don't use HTTP.

I hate Charter so much right now.

Charter fucks with DNS

The cool thing about eBay's support system is it will always answer your question; unfortunately, that answer will always be a form letter on how to reset your password, as Timothy discovered when he tried to figure out how to sell his laptop to someone who wasn't a Nigerian scammer. Timothy has discovered the awful truth behind today's eBay—something many readers here already know—which is that it's become virtually impossible to sell any sort of medium-to-high end electronics there anymore.

Ugh!

Nigerian Scammers: It's Now Completely Impossible To Sell A Laptop On Ebay

New Nine Inch Nails album - and it's 100% free

nine inch nails: the slip

Ultimately Peekaboo and AT New Media want to do for pole dancing what ‘Guitar Hero‘ did for rock n roll!

Get a bunch of hacks who think they have an idea about how to play guitar, but actually suck, to spend hideous amounts of money? That part is fine, I guess, people want to be the rock star, but who aspires to being a stripper?

MTV Multiplayer » Wii Pole Dancing Game Intended For Fitness, Fun For Men And Women

There's only one catch: We need another wealth-generating economic bubble. And that, said Novogratz, must come -- can only come -- from new energy sources and green technology.

Only Greentech Can Save U.S. Economy, Says �ber-Investor | Wired Science from Wired.com

Stefanie wrote:

David Brooks:
The central political debate of the 20th century was over the role of government. The right stood for individual freedom while the left stood for extending the role of the state. But the central debate of the 21st century is over quality of life. In this new debate, it is necessary but insufficient to talk about individual freedom. Political leaders have to also talk about, as one Tory politician put it, “the whole way we live our lives.”

That means, first, moving beyond the Thatcherite tendency to put economics first.

In other words, their conservatives are becoming... liberals. Although, it's interesting to note that Brooks associates a concern for individual freedom with conservatives, not liberals. Of course, he's referring to economic freedom more than social freedom, but economic freedom is the key to a healthy democratic society. Thatcher was right, and both the U.K. and the U.S.A. could use more of it, not less.

While I think Brooks is correct in assuming that American conservatives would not accept the new British conservatism, he seems to ignore the fact that the Republican Party has already moved closer to the left. That's why so many real conservatives are dissatisfied with the Republicans.

what is regarded as conservative, liberal or socialist has morphed over the decades and centuries
describing any political position as "real" conservatism seems to me simply to indicate a relative idealogical position rather than an objective set of facts

the contempory British Conservative party has certainly moved it's rhetoric to the left and more to the perceived centerground of British politics mostly as a result of its perceived extremism -- failing dramatically electorally will do that -- and as a reflection of Tony Blair's success in moving the Labour Party to the perceived right equally as a result of electoral failure

in British politics first for the left then right there has been a marked shift away from clearly defined idealogical positions and towards pragmatics -- a shift which has caused levels of horror in both major parties -- what has resulted is a softer more amorphous idealogical vision from the ruling elites

it is a real danger for any political movement/philosophy/meme stack when arguments break out about "true" this or "real" that -- the great rallying cry of legitimacy -- the internal struggles within communist parties eg the Chinese; who particularly love these sort of labels with rightists, leftists and splittists; demonstrating a particular sequence almost like a dance sequence or to use a metaphor of something you're more familiar with than I am - chess.

on a personal note i think the assertion that "economic freedom is the key to a healthy democratic society" is dubious when stated as fact

a level of economic freedom goes hand in hand with democracy but the relative levels of economic freedom -- the economic merits of varying levels of unregulated markets and the social effects have been at the center of political discourse since before Adam Smith (1723-1790)(who formalised much of the thinking on the subject) and this discourse completely dominated the history of the 20th century

but there is no such thing as a purely unregulated market - pure economic freedom -- no contract law etc no property -- not much economics would take place in such an enviroment

regulation -- law and the stability it provides is a prerequisite but the optimum level of law and regulation is only provable by time: the success levels of different economic and political models as future and history unfolds
is the only judge

we can argue for different levels but it is a matter of discourse rather than objectivity

RE: The Conservative Revival - New York Times