It’s like asking a car salesman if you should buy that new coupe.

The dark and questionable world of computer malware research. When one thinks about it, does it really make any sense to completely trust information on malware that’s published solely by companies that know they can make a buck by selling you the cure to the problems they discover? Wouldn’t it make perfect business sense to make up “new vulnerabilities” out of thin air so they can scare more people into buying their wares?

‘Creativity’ is not a trait I particularly want to see in an elections officer.

‘Ohio was as dirty an election as America has ever seen.’ How George W. Bush stole the White House in 2004.

Amir Tofangsazan’s unintentional blog.

If you’re going to rip someone off on eBay by selling them a broken laptop, make sure you wipe the hard disk. Ah, the common con artist held to ridicule… a classic web story.

The Saddest Museum in the World

I know I mentioned as recently as yesterday that I wouldn’t be writing anything here, but something has happened since to make me rethink that idea. I think of myself as a fairly tough guy; I keep a lot of things to myself without showing much emotion at all. Yet sometimes even people like me come across a story so sad, poignant and connected that we just can’t help but have a good cry about it. This moment came for me today at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It came as I read the story of Sadako Sasaki and her origami cranes. Continue reading The Saddest Museum in the World

You can almost see the tumbleweeds going by…

Indeed not much has been going on here recently… the reason is that I’m on vacation in Asia. So far I’m really enjoying Japan generally and Kyoto in particular; tomorrow it’s Hiroshima, then Tokyo for four days, then the Taiwanese capital Taipei. Let’s face it, I’d rather go sight-seeing and picture-taking than staying in my hotel editing pictures and thinking of witty things to say, so this blog will return (for real!) in early June.

That cough is merely your body’s way of saying “hey, this smog is good for me”.

Oil industry think-tank puts out pro-CO2 TV ad. Don’t miss their next ad: “Cyanide: tastier than you think”.

5 years later…

I was thinking about this last night: the first PHP version of this site appeared just about 5 years ago. I’d been laid off by my former employer about a month previously, and had decided to use my free time for something constructive (for a change). That’s when I got into PHP, a hobby that took me the way of certification and, we’ll say, two and a half major updates containing significant functionality upgrades. Continue reading 5 years later…

Cognitive dissonance at its very best.

Is Karl Rove smoking crack? Maybe not, but anyone who actually believes his bullshit certainly is.

Reach out and wiretap someone.

The US National Security Agency has a database listing all phone calls made since late 2001. And guess who was in charge of that program — the man picked by George W. Bush to be CIA director. If you think the warrantless eavesdropping thing was a big deal, the Bush Administration wants to tell you that “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Nice company you have here! It’d be a shame if anything happened to it…

Finding it harder to flog their wares, Microsoft turns to intimidation and coercion to force companies into signing long-term open-ended consulting contracts. It’s apparently all part of a grand strategy too… as an open-source kind of guy I’m always amazed at the amount of crap companies will put up with from Microsoft. And for what, ultimately?