Third World War

I recently came across this article explaining how China's Defense Department is utilizing cyberweapons, in the form of viruses and hacks. It occurred to me how applicable this is in our modern society. Not only in warfare, but also in terrorism.

Think about it.

9/11 poked a sleeping bear, as did the embassy bombings, Oklahoma city, etc. But what if...

A terrorist organization wanted to attack America, for whatever cause/reason/manifesto. Instead of bombs, they attack our economy. They attack the databases at NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ, the numerous banking systems. It's a scary thought. And it COULD happen. A sleeper worm could destroy our economy (for those not of the geeky persuasion, that's a virus that infiltrates other programs, but doesn't do anything until a set date, making it difficult to spot until activated) . Think about it. Credit cards wouldn't work, you wouldn't have access to your bank accounts, investment portfolios, 401Ks... Companies would not be able to sell anything, since nobody can buy. Life would not be the same. Living in a technocratic Capitalistic society definitely has its drawbacks.

I'm curious if our own defense department is working on something similar.


"I do not know what the third world war will be fought with, but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones." -Albert Einstein

Wonder Twins FTW

I needed this laugh.

Maybe I'm Amazed

On my radio during my trip home. Many thanks to Paul McCartney.

And ChaCha... You know.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Baby I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time
Maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you
Baby I'm amazed at the the way you pulled me out of time
Hung me on a line
Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you

Baby I'm a man and maybe I'm a lonely man
Who's in the middle of something
That he doesn't really understand
Babe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman
Who could ever help me
Baby wont you help to me understand

Baby I'm a man and maybe I'm a lonely man
Who's in the middle of something
That he doesn't really understand
Babe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman
Who could ever help me
Baby wont you help me understand

Baby I'm amazed at the way you're with me all the time
Maybe I'm afraid of the way I leave you
Baby I'm amazed at the way you help me sing my song
You right me when I'm wrong
Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you

No Parents Left Behind

The Wombat turned me on to a news article about parents upset about commencement restrictions.

If you don't feel like reading the article, here it is in a nutshell: All students in Texas must pass the TAKS test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) in order to graduate. If they don't, and it's not difficult, they can take it again in July and graduate in August.

A school in Fort Worth was protested by parents angry that the kids wouldn't be able to walk during commencement. IMO, if they're not graduating, they don't walk. Case closed. The test isn't hard at all. It's a test that shows you have the basic remedial knowledge from the classes you already passed.



But the best part of the article?



Wait for it...





Yeah. That cracked me up.

3 Day Weekend

It's Memorial Day time again.

Three day weekend. Free and clear. It's funny how on normal weekends there seems to be just enough time to decompress, but that extra day almost gives you two extra days.

I sat down this morning and wrote out what I wanted to get accomplished this weekend.

• Clean my place (for real this time!)
• Get caught up on laundry (it's scary what I'm wearing just because it's clean)
• Finish at least 4 posts I've been putting off
• Start looking at houses again
• On Sunday ChaCha and I are going to see the new Pirates movie.
• Before that make sure to watch Dead Man's Chest
  
• Reorganize my office in prep for the new computer
• Run down to my storage unit and grab my steamer. If I'm up for it, go through it and throw out most of the stuff.

That's about it for now. The most important part is to spend time with ChaCha and let her know how important she is to me.

Have a great holiday weekend, all!

Yay for new technology

I just bought a new pc.

Or, I should say I just ordered the parts for a new pc.
That's right, I'm building one.

There's nothing really wrong with my old one. Mostly. It's three years old, so the hardware's decent. However, there is something strange happening with it, and as nerdish as I am I can't figure out what's wrong.

Here's the issue: I was having some video issues. Everything would work fine, but the quality was sub par. So I decided the first thing to try was to update the driver. That fixed the issue and everything looked stunning.

BUT...

After that, most videos wouldn't play. Any mpg, avi, mpeg or wmv would freeze the system and shoot the cpu usage to 100% and stay there. I had to shut it down by the task manager each time. Strange thing is, Flash players played fine. I could play flv files flawlessly. At that point I tried to roll back the drivers, at one point even uninstalling the video card and reinstalling. The old drivers wouldn't work and the system only recognized it generically and used the XP native drivers. I reinstalled the new drivers and once again, it looked wonderful but videos wouldn't play. I gave up, and decided to use it as an excuse to get a new one.

I'll still have my current pc, and I'm sure I'll dink with it until I get it to work. My current secondary computer will be reformatted and donated somewhere.

It still makes me cringe to spend that much money on something. But my justification is that I'm spending as much as I did for my tv.

I'm such a geeky tech whore.

I R N UR BLOG

Geek Nirvana

ChaCha and I went to see Spiderman 3 last night. Over 2 hours of Geek heaven.

I do have to say that this movie seems to be geared more towards the true sitting-in-the-basement-action-figures-collecting-D&D-playing die hard Spiderman fans.
Luckily for me, I happen to be one. Ok, so not that bad, but I used to read Spidey comics religiously from adolescence through my 20s.

It's an awesome film regardless, but "true believers" (wink to Stan the Man) will enjoy it tons more.

The visual effects were done flawlessly, and the acting was surprisingly good. I was very impressed, and recommend the movie to anybody that wants pure entertainment. You don't have to be a superhero fan to enjoy this. This is what action movies should be like.

That said, I only have 2 beefs about the movie:

*The first was about the Green Goblin Jr. I had a hard time taking it seriously because James Franco spent half his screen time as a spokesman for post-lobotomy patients (if you saw the flick you know what I mean) and the other half riding around on a jet-powered snowboard. Seriously. As cool as it was, and as much as I would LOVE to have one, it didn't push the dark & brooding image needed. In context, it almost seemed... well, silly. It would be like Clint Eastwood riding into town seeking revenge on a tricycle.

*The only other problem I had was there was too much going on. [WARNING: SPOILER ALERT]
Here are all of the main storylines going on at once..
- The Sandman, Flint Marko (POLO!), and his daughter.
- The Story of Uncle Ben's death
- The Symbiote and the black costume
- Peter getting emo
- Harry getting pissed and emo, then goofy, then vindictively evil, then honorable.
- Eddie (Topher Grace) and his own little issues, then Venom
- Mary Jane's fledgling career
- Peter's thing with MJ, then Gwen, then MJ again
- A weird little dance number
- etc
Too much. I understand why they had to delve, but at times it was hard to keep track.


Other than that, it was pure visual orgasm. It would be a crime for them not to continue the series. Hear me Topher?

Brightening your day...

For something a little more surreal, Try this.

Stopping to Smell the Flowers... Literally

It's wildflower season here in Texas. They haven't really started to mow the grasses beside the road, so the roadside is awash with colors. I've always been a fan of indian paintbrushes, but I dig all wildflowers. You see the buttercups, the bluebonnets, the thistle, almost too many others.

We'll come back to that.

Was heading off to work, and with four days of being totally useless and in pain, I decided to grab some coffee on the way out. FTR, I'm out of coffee (nudge to ChaCha). Sipping on that steaming cup of liquid orgasm, I felt happy. It was one of those happies that spontaneously combust. No reasoning, no purpose. Just a feeling of joy.

In order to get to my office from the coffee shop, I have to loop around the highway, which involves waiting through a light. A couple of times. So I pulled to a stop at the light. As I normally do, I took in my environment. Looking at the people around me. Some talking on their phone (grr), some singing with the radio, putting on makeup, etc. I flicked the ashes off my cigarette out my open window, and as I did, I saw them. I saw the flowers like I had never seen them before.

Without even thinking about it, I undid my seat belt, opened the door and slid out of my seat. I went to a patch of purple and yellow flowers, picked a couple, and held them to my nose as I inhaled deeply. I drank in their sweet fragrance.

Walking back to the truck, the light had just turned green. I looked at the people behind me, ready to give a "I'm sorry" shrug. But those in the cars behind me were just smiling. One waved.

No road rage, no honking. No middle fingers.

They let me get back in my truck and pull away, all of us better for the day.