Blag

Ok, I lie. Grown up girl.

(In-joke follows, sane people can ignore)

Brianna says:
ouchies
Brianna says:
badbadbadbadbad
Brianna says:
then again
Brianna says:
apple could totally transform into the awesome company I claim it is, once he dies!
Brianna says:
I did not just say that
Brianna says:
I did not mean that
Brianna says:
do not blag that quote
Brianna says:
or else

Ah… Mac fanbois (fangurl?) This one does commit sacrilege though, for not worshipping his almightiness the great Steve Jobs…

I looked in the Firefox Help > About menu and guess what I saw?

Firefox raped by Thaksin Shinawat!

As it turns out, the maintainer of the Noia Extreme theme is a Thai. Noia, being one of the Top 10 themes on Mozilla’s extension’s website obviously drew quite a lot of negative attention over it. Yet it still hasn’t been fixed, and users are posting “fixed” or “reverted” versions for those who don’t ish to have their favourite browser adorned by some Botox injecting middle aged Thai man.

I, as with most people consider this adware/political propaganda. Yes, as the author of the Firefox theme he can do whatever he wishes, but a more appropriate manner of expressing his views might have been a link on the theme’s download page, or a tab that opens with related information the first time the theme is used. I don’t see the point of that image actually – clicking on it doesn’t provide any information, or open a new page/tab.

Hopefully the Noia Firefox logo will be restored soon… or I might install the IE7 theme for Firefox in protest

*cheezy grin*

Have some piccies (click to enlarge):

I didn't want to pay $30 for a new phone charger after my chair ate the cable

The Great Wall of Nortons! (Hey, a lot of them were dirt cheap or free)

The cheap way to board up a fireplace, but more importantly, I have found a use for the box of 32 CFL's! (white boxes)

I love pumpkins... especially when you receive them as Christmas presents

And Microsoft opens the first patch Tuesday of 2009 with a critical SMB bug, which is predicted to leave a similar trail of destruction as the Sasser and Blaster worm. I’m surprised such a blatantly obvious (in hindsite) bug was undiscovered for over 10 years. In any case, anyone with even the most basic firewall is safe, but that leaves corporate networks screwed, as typically, they don’t have firewalls on individual workstations.

More: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/272988/microsoft_patches_super_nasty_windows_bugs?fp=4&fpid=762453&eid=110

Edit: 8 million computers infected so far by the ‘Sleeper Virus”, according to CNN US anyway…  Alss there is a variant known as Downadup or Conficker [F-Secure]. It has the potential to create massive botnets, spewing out fake domains andmass infecting vulnerable web domains. So far, most infections tracked by researchers are coming from corporate networks, but due to NAT, each IP could represent 2 computers, or 2000. The worm dictionary attacks users computers, locking them out of Active Directory.

Since when has bondage/fetish clothing been in fashion? Have I not been out of the house in such a long time? Or was it national kids-living-in-an-over-sexualised-society day?

In any case, the number of teens and kids that were walking around Macquarie Center last week dressed in fishnets, rubber, latex, overly short shorts and clothing which leave nothing to imagination was creepy. Reminds me of Harajuku and Shinjuku when I was in Japan last year. Wikipedia has interesting articles on Japanese sub-cultures actually…

Hmm… seems like Symantec are out of stock of boxed retail products. Or perhaps their ad campaign was so successful that they ran out of stock. Either way, running out in the middle of post Christmas stocktake/back to school sale isn’t good. Every retailer I’ve seen has empty shelves – Big W, DSE, OfficeWorks, JB Hi-Fi – and they all reported that they should have received a shipment of stock, which was mysteriously delayed.

*Excludes DVD editions from the Symantec store.

Edit: OfficeWorks, DSE and JB Hi-FI have them back in. Big W… not sure, but seeing as their staff are about as productive as garden gnomes, I doubt the shelves will be restocked until mid-year anyway. Big W’s Norton Internst Security for $79 offer ends today. Cheapest prices now at DSE $88 (Cat. XS1206) (excl $20 cash back).

Nero Burning ROM/Nero AG’s website is useless – there are news articles and mention of a Nero SDK on many the websites, but nowhere on the internet can you actually find information about it, or download it. Nero AG’s FAQ, support and corporate info are all useless waffle. All the links that ARE on Google no longer work since Nero AG took to restructuring their website every few months. Great way for attracting developers there.

…are their web designers that bored? Or are they struggling to lift their image after 3 successive bloatware releases?

At least Roxio tells you upfront that an API is not available, Gear sells their API to developers, and CDBurnerXP redirects you to their corporate website/online store. InfraRecorder and CDRTFE are the only decent open source “burners” for Windows, but are purely front ends (they are based on cdrtools) which has severe limitations and most other free burning applications have no scripting support/APIs available, without contacting corporate sales and ponying up anyway.

Edit: Decent apps with scripting support – CDRTFE, CDBurnerXP, Nero. Still waiting for a reply from Nero about their SDK, and CDBurnerXP has an known bug with the command line that keeps cropping up in tests

Chop chop! Faster faster!

Internode’s been shipping the new Billion 7401BGP R3s (which replaced the Billion 7401VGP-M) for a few weeks now, but they still haven’t updated their website, support section, or the FTP mirror (firmware, user manual, settings). Kinda annoying, as they ship with the 5.53.s5.rc8 firmware yet the latest is 5.53.s5.rc11 I think, but even Billion hasn’t listed the model on their website yet, as it’s so new.

Speaking of which, what should I do with my Netcomm NB5Plus4 and my Acer 56k modem while I’m at it? Thermite? Keep for spares? Throw it out?

Seeing as I’ve been getting a lot of hits from Whirlpool users, for all you those who have ended up here looking for the firmware updates, or help with Bit Torrent and/or NAT, try sending a Whim to Quentin (Rep for Billion/Minitar). His profile is at: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-user.cfm?id=87096

Related: Billion 7401VGP R3 (http://oztecheducate.org/WP/?p=155), Netcomm NB5Plus4 (http://oztecheducate.org/WP/?p=79)

Edit: Updated with correct firmware revisions

Britney’s got a new single out – “If you seek Amy” – which has got many parents rather angry. One of the lines in the chorus “If you seek Amy” unfortunately sounds more like F. U. C. K. Me when sung by Britney. Its apparently an accident… or is it?

Love me, hate me,
Say what you want about me
But all of the boys and all of the girls are beggin’ to if you seek Amy
Love me hate me
But can’t you see what I see
All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin’ to if you seek Amy

But I reckon the phonetic translation makes more sense:

Love me, hate me,
Say what you want about me
But all of the boys and all of the girls are beggin’ to F. U. C. K Me
Love me hate me
But can’t you see what I see
All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin’ to F. U. C. K Me

Ye-ah. Real coincidence there Britney.

Thinly veiled attempt attempt to get past ratings? Or is her bad girl streak coming out again…

Listen: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4zf7nywqYtI

NB: I do not like britney spears songs, FYI

What is this world coming to?

iPod skins, iPod screen protectors, iPod socks, iPod dock, spare iPod cables, iPod lanyards, iPod FM transmitters, iPod battery packs, iPod headphones. Which is fair enough, as their practical and (usually) relatively affordable.

But now the market is being saturated with the dumbest accessories ever invented. Have manufacturers nothing else to produce? Or are they trying to get in on the “i” craze, four years too late? Check it out -

• iPod desk lamps, for when a dock isn’t hip enough
• OhMiBod iPod vibrator for women… OK, fine, but has iVibe been trademarked already?
• iPod fish tanks for fish who enjoy feeling the vibrations from crappy $2 paper speakers (condemned by the RSPCA actually)
• School bags with ipod docks and built in speakers for those perfect children who treat their schoolbags like chinaware or those who feel that everyone in a 5m radius will appreciate their taste in music
• iDog’s – plastic toy dogs with bling leds and built in speakers, for the 9 year old that appreciates sweatshop goods (oh yeah, they also connect to iPod’s )
• iPod fibre optic Christmas trees, for when the good ol’ CD player just aint good enough for your collection of carols
• and the iFish (click here for more marine goodness)

I still have yet to see an iFridge. Perhaps an iFireplace would be good, so that the iPod would catch fire and teach the moron owner not to invest in such ridiculous products.

+1 Symantec

Quite a few months ago, I got a free copy of Norton Internet Security 2009 complimentary of Symantec for beta testin NIS09 and Norton Safe Web Beta when it was released. Now that my 2008 license is running out, I decided to use the provided product key, and after a chat with an analyst, it turns out I got a 3-PC 1 year license worth ~ $98 free. I thought it would have been a 90 day license, or 1 computer only, but who am I to complain? I like free goods… *big grin*

Speaking of which, time for some shameless plugging, just because I feel obliged to. I must confess though, I completely forgot about my free product key and spent quite a while shopping around for the cheapest places. And here’s what I found -

You can get Norton Internet Security or Norton 360 v2.0 dirt cheap by:

• $79 for NIS09 or $96 for N360v2 at Big W, which is $20 below the average competitor store’s retail price (valid till 14 Jan 09)
• Buy any retail pack of 2PC + SNR, 3PC or 5PC license of NIS09 or N360v2 and get $20, $30 or $40 cash back (depending on product)
• Buy online at the Symantec store and get an instant discount of ~$10 on some products
• Buy from any online computer stores, which normally sell Symantec products way below the RRP (sorry, no cash back though )

Haha, am I starting to sound like a salesman yet?

Time for all the frugal, miserly, el-cheapo diehards (damn, whats the name of that guy in the Christmas story?) to rejoice!

Cheap deals selection for the bored geek:

• $9 TP-Link 5dbi Wifi Antennas
• 50% off Scanpan cookware at Myer
• $79 Norton Internet Security 2009 @ Big W + Further $20 cash back!
• $96 Norton 360 v2.0
• $12 24x 375ml Crate of Coke/Diet Coke/Zero/Fanta/Sprite
• $12 250psi Air Compressor @ Big W and K-Mart
• $0.05 Pack of 5x 64 page exercise books at most stores
• 25% Cash back on Microsoft Hardware
• $11 8GB USB Flash Drives
• $20/30/40 cash back on Symantec software
• $7 Cadbury Chocolate Fondue Sets
• $17 50-pack AA batteries
• $29 Wireless-g USB Adaptors
• $22 Verbatim Spindle 50 DVD+R at Dick Smith Electronics
• 25% off TV Antennas at Dick Smith Electronics
• $29 Ex-demo printers
• $179 Western Digital Essentials 1TB External HDD USB2.0
• $0.89 32 pack Sparklers
• $40 Car (Auto) 12V to 240VAC Inverter 150W
• $39 DVD Player
• CD/DVDs from $2+ at JB Hifi
• $105 Billion 7402VGO ADSL2+ VPN Modem/Router at JMG Technology

Of course, there’s the usual boring stationery/clothing/furniture sales on as well.