E-Filler Archives

Well, the heathens over at the Globe and Mail decided that if any of us viewed their site more than 10x per month, we'd have to register...so, I thought we'd give CBC's free headline service a try.

Should we keep CBC or go back to Globe and Mail? (No, I don't think I can get rid of that damned CBC logo...)

This is important:
As indicated in this article (and plenty of others) some pop-up advertisers have had their webservers hacked.

Their pop-up ads have been modified to contain some malicious code that Internet Explorer will automatically download and run. (Thanks MS!) The code will then attempt to steal your banking information the next time you try to log in to your bank's website (some 50 banks are affected), EVEN if you have a "Secure Connection" (SSL/HTTPS) with your bank (since the theft occurs before your username/pin/password are encrypted).

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Check out Mozilla...a browser that's superior to IE in almost every way and most certainly not affected by this problem (nor countless others).

As some of you may remember, the first ever 3D accelerator card was the 3DFX Voodoo. A few years after its release came the Voodoo2. One feature that made this card way ahead of its time was the fact that you could run 2 of them in parallel on one PC, nearly doubling the performance. Each card would render every other line (scan line) on the screen.


Well, it looks like nVidia (the company that pushed 3dfx out of business) is going to revive similar techology. Pictured here are two nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultras connected for SLI. They require a motherboard with 2, 16x PCI-Express slots (no, yours doesn't have this). So, $600 per card, plus a load for the motherboard (and Intel Xeon CPUs)...I'm betting none of us will ever have this in their PC....but cool none the less.

Time for a slight change in subject:
I picked up the new Beastie Boys album, "To The 5 Boroughs". It's not a bad CD (despite the copy protection, I'll get to that later), but wow, what political undertones. Almost every track on the disc has a reference (in a negative way) to George W. Bush. I'm not too sure if that's a good song writing strategy or not...


Also new with this CD is some copy protection software. If you're an average Windows user you can't copy this disc to your iPOD, hard disk or wherever, even though it falls within the relm of fair use. What the hell??? I'm sure there will be a way around the copy protection soon enough. Quite frankly, I wonder why the record labels even try? To them I say: If I can play the disc, I can copy the sounds on it...you're fighting a battle they can never win. Not to mention, the only people really being affected by the copy protection is the people who are going to use the copies legitimately anyways! Anyone who REALLY wants to pirate the disc will find a way.

Screw this debate shit, it is going nowhere and everyone is starting to sound like cranky babied.

I'll sum all the garbage previously posted so no one has to deal with it again...

If you want another term of stagnant government you might want to check out the Liberal Party of Canada

If you want a government that could possibly reduce some of the national debt, support big business but do little to help social institutions such as health care and education aswell as lowering taxes for the rich, you might want to check out The Conservative Party of Canada

If you want a government that will most likely run a deficit but will strongly support social programs by reducing tuition fees and the cost of child care amongst other things aswell as raise taxes for the rich, you might like to check out the New Democratic Party of Canada

If you want a government who cares for the environment and the management of our nation's natural resources (such as increasing the cost of Hydro electricity to force consumers to be more aware of thier energy consumption), will move towards a country that treats marijuana the same way in which it treats alcohol, and do little change to you taxes, you might wanna check out the Green Party of Canada

And that is all that you really need to know to get you started on making your decision. I understand I left out numerous other parties like the communists and whatever because they arn't going to win, lets face it. I also know the green party probably wont win a seat, but I chose to throw them up because alot of people are very confused on where the party stands on many issues.

That's all your gonna get from me.
Brian

Hey
Thanks to party politics, democracy has been destroyed. Let us all realise that the elected members of parliament ought to be acting on behalf of those people in the riding in which they were elected and not acting on behalf of some federally based party who forces words and ideas into the mouths and heads of the political puppets while a select few policy makers pull the strings as puppeteers.

So you are all douches and should quit your political bickering. Its friggin annoying and pretty much useless.

Well, I'm back from the land of sideways stop-lights, gophers galore, dry air and loooooong days. Wow, I can't believe how much sunlight they get out there. It's still light outside at 11:30PM, and the sun comes up early there too. And the West Edmonton Mall is something else...talk about huge! It makes Mapleview look like a corner store....the indoor water park is larger than "Wild Water Works" at Confederation Park in Hamilton/Stoney Creek. The indoor roller coaster is WAAAY bigger than I expected, it's larger than some of the ones at Canada's Wonderland. Anyway, all in all, Edmonton is a pretty cool city, worth a visit sometime.

A cowboy walks into a bar and orders a whisky. When the bartender delivers the drink, the cowboy asks, "Where is everybody?" The bartender replies, "They've gone to the hanging." "Hanging? Who are they hanging?" "Brown Paper Pete," the bartender replied. "What kind of a name is that?" the cowboy asked. "Well," says the bartender. "He wears a brown paper hat, brown paper shirt, brown paper trousers and brown paper shoes." "How bizarre," said the cowboy. "What are they hanging him for?" "Rustling," said the bartender.

Slashdot is running an article with the heading:
First Mobile Phone Virus Discovered
So...first mobile phone virus discovered eh? Don't people write computer virii? Thus, how can one discover it? That would be like saying JRR Tolkin (or whatever his name is) discovered the Lord of the Rings, and that George Orwell discovered the book 1984...hell, by their logic, I just discovered this post!

The parents of an out of control 13-year old put his PS2 for auction on eBay as a punishment for...well, a lot of things. Read the story, it's pretty amusing, but it makes me wonder why the kid is so out of control.

Yesterday someone told me that Michael Jackson really did appear on the episode of The Simpsons where Homer is declair insane and put in a mental hospital. I didn't believe it, but I was wrong. I found this on the web:

"Did MJ ever do a guest spot on "The Simpsons"?

After years of speculations that Michael Jackson contributed his voice to a 1991 episode of "The Simpsons" entitled "Stark Raving Dad," the Series creator Matt Groening finally revealed in 1998 that Michael was indeed the mystery voice, even though even though the credits identified him with the pseudonym John Jay Smith. Up to this time, cast members and producers are legally prohibited from confirming it, but during an appearance at the Second Annual World Animation Celebration in Pasadena (2/18/98), Matt Groening confirmed the rumor and further revealed that Michael also wrote an composed the song "Do the Bartman" that was included on the 1991 disc "The Simpsons Sing the Blues." "It was always amazing to me that no one ever found out that Michael Jackson wrote that song," Groening told a crowd gathered for a "Simpsons" tribute at the Pasadena conference. "He was a big fan of the show."


"Stark Raving Dad" [7F24], episode aired on September 19, 1991in the the 3rd-season of the Simposon's televisions series. In the episode, Bart carelessly tosses his lucky red hat into the wash, turning Homer's work shirt pink. At work, they take Homer's shirt as a sign of a disturbed mind, and remand him to a mental institution. There he meets a fat, balding white man who was committed because he thinks he is Michael Jackson. MJ wrote the song "Lisa, It's Your Birthday", which appears in the episode, but did not sing it or the other songs in the episode because of legal obstacles. There is also a funny MJ reference in the 4th-season Halloween episode, "Treehouse of Horror III" [9F04], in the third tale, "Dial Z for Zombies", which first aired on October 29, 1992. (alt.tv.simpsons episode capsule FAQ might provide more info)"

Matsushita Electric Works has created a "sleep room". It's a special room that they think you won't be able to not fall asleep in. They opened it up to their employees and allowed them 30-minutes each in the room. Apparently, everyone fell asleep.

The room is expected to cost $30,000...I have something that I guarantee will put you asleep in 30 minutes too...my 1st year economics text book. I'll sell you it for $25,000...think of the savings.

If you never worked at McDonald's, it's still not too late to find out what it's like. Check out the McDonald's Employee Simulator...see what you've been missing!

Well, I finally made it. The degree that I set out to earn 4 years ago is finally completed. And I must admit, more than once I thought I wouldn't get it done.

I offically have a 4-year Honors B.Sc. in Computer Science with Software Engineering Specialization.

Kudos to R.K., Micah, Gord, Steve, Nakul (all the way in India), Chronman and everyone else who graduated from CS today.

Apple has just announced a new version of the Power Mac G5. This latest addition to the lineup features dual liquid cooled G5 processors running at 2.5Ghz. It looks pretty sweet to me. I grabbed the following from their site:


The dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 features an innovative liquid cooling system that?s more efficient than a traditional heat sink. This system provides a continuous flow of thermally conductive fluid that transfers heat from the processors as they work harder. The heated fluid then flows through a radiant grille, where air passing over cooling fins returns the fluid to its original temperature.

Finally someone has realized there IS alternatives to Microsoft's over-priced under-developed products: The Ontario Ministry of Education has signed a deal with Sun Microsystems that will put Star Office (instead of Microsoft Office) on every desktop. As a user of OpenOffice (this is what StarOffice is based on, and is free to download if you want to try it) I can say it's about time we gave this a try. The cost of the new deal is said to be "minimal". More details can be found here.

Here's a link to the trailer for Michael Moore's new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. It's critial of George Bush, and as you probably know it won some fancy award in France.

Will it be as "good" as Bowling for Columbine? Quite frankly, I'm not so sure the latter was as amazing as people said it was. Yeah sure, it was shocking, but some parts seriously lacked continutity.

Guess who the greatest fictional couple of all time is. Romeo and Juliet? Nope. Try Homer and Marge Simpson. According to this article R&J came in second place. Of course the article doesn't say who ran the poll or whatever, so for all we know, it's just plain made up...but I thought I'd post it anyway.

As many of you probably know (some in a more direct way than others) the Royal Bank has had a major problem with a software upgrade. The problem is causing transactions to be delayed, many of which are paycheque deposits.

Judi Levita, a Royal Bank media-relations officer, had this to say about the problem: "I honestly don't know. As I say, I mean, it's one of those tech things."

Well said Judi, carry on.

With the election drawing ever closer (Monday, June 28, 2004), it begs the question, who will you be voting for? Liberals, Converative, NDP, Misc? Will you be voting at all?

Do some research (these are in no particular order):
• The Liberal Party
• The New Democratic Party
• The Conservative Party
• The Bloc Québécois
• The Absolutely Absurd Party (I am not kidding here...)
• The Canadian Action Party
• The Christian Heritage Party
• The Communist Party I have no idea what the difference is between these guys and the next.
• Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
• The Freedom Party
• The Green Party
• The Grey Party (Geocities? Com'on now...)
• Libertarian Party
• Marijuana Party
• Parti Populaire des Putes, PPP
• Progressive Canadian Party
• Rhinoceros Party of Canada

Dan

Best Burns sound clip ever.

Warner Brothers has sent night vision goggles to movie theaters in Great Britian. The idea is that when the new Harry Potter movie opens (4 days before the rest of the world gets to see it) the theater ushers can keep an eye out for movie pirates. Looks like movie piracy is becoming a huge problem...well, with theater tickets over $13 it's easy to see why some people have taken a more cost effective approach to see the latest films.