How much more blatant does it get?

Microsoft steals feature from an independent developer… then patents it. No really, this is the patent claim filed by Microsoft. As you can clearly see from the main article, Redmond is claiming to have invented this feature several months after having admitted that the feature was taken from the other developer. This means that they are out-and-out lying in their patent application. In fact some may claim that the patent application itself is fraudulent. I’m curious to see how that turns out.

Not a market so much as a pyramid scheme?

How much are your Linden dollars really worth? Apparently it’s loads easier to invest in than to cash out, and your real-world profit is unlikely to beat even anemic savings account rates.

It’s about time *someone* said it…

Get a first life! 3D environments, no server lag, and you can make stuff, buy stuff and open your own business… just like in Second Life! Best of all you don’t have to buy genitals from someone else before you can have sex (unless that floats your boat, then you’re free to do that too).

I can’t understand a word they say, but then it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Japanese girls in bikinis throw cream pies at one another while riding mechanical bulls (no, really). It’s exactly the perfect mix of cute, sexy and absurd that makes me love Japanese TV!

That guy’s a hoot, but he probably sleeps on the couch a lot.

Things my boyfriend says. Anyone who would refuse to drink Coors Light even “If you gave [him] a car made of diamonds and blowjobs all day” has to be a luminary.

It’s a neocon must-read! WaPo rightly calls it ‘dim, dishonorable’, so it’s a perfect match for the O’Reilly Factor crowd.

Dinesh D’Souza blames America first for 9/11. He really does, and does so in a 333 page book that’s as devoid of intelligence as the decision to go to war in Iraq. I’ve read D’Souza’s stuff and he seems too intelligent to actually believe any of the crap he spouts in this frankly shitty volume, so I must conclude that he’s written this book dishonestly and with the purpose of increasing sales by creating a false ‘debate’ where none should exist… like the ‘global warming debate’ or basically anything Ann Coulter writes. Shame on him.

Good news for potential iPhone customers. I guess.

Cingular changes its name to at&t. This means that to have an iPhone you no longer need to be a cingular customer, but an at&t customer. Which is the same thing because it’s only a name change, but it’s supposed to inspire confidence, because really as the video explains cingular customers have been at&t customers all along. If this happened in the streets you’d call it a three-card monte or “find the red lady” and it would be highly illegal; however since it happens at the corporate level it’s called business.

An English haiku

My lips form a smile
As to meet hers in a kiss
My heart beats faster

Is your pig diseased? If so, check out this handy online diagnostic tool!

The Online Pig Disease Problem Solver. Now if they could only come up with something like that for humans…

Adventures in Car Rental: 2007 Volvo S40

Renting cars is always a bit of a chancey proposition, because you never know what you’re going to get. Take my previous article about the Ford Expedition, for instance — you just show up at the agency, they give you the keys, and it’s a bit of a surprise every time. Sometimes you end up being stuck driving a horrible piece of dreck, and sometimes you get lucky and drive off in something that ends up being at the top of your list of cars you’d like to buy. And that’s what happened when I drove off the lot in a Volvo S40.

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