I've changed some of the layout of my blog, so it looks more unique, rather than like the original template. I've also added a blogchalk to my page. This is my new blogchalk:
United States, Florida, Manatee County, Bradenton, English, Kathryn, Female, 21-25, Buccaneer Football. :)
So the feds have caught one of the people who created a variant of the Blaster worm. The media (at least on cable news) is making it seem like the kid is a much bigger fish than he actually is--the first report I saw on Fox News made it sound like they caught the creator, and only when you look at the details do you discover that this Jeffrey Lee Parson kid isn't much more than a script kiddie. All he did was make a couple of small changes to the worm, and his variant only infected about 7,000 computers, which is nothing compared to the number of computers infected by the original worm. Parson wasn't too bright, because he had his variant contact his website, which he registed using his real name and address. In other words, the feds barely had to do any work to catch him.
The thing is, the only people who ever get caught are teenagers who don't do a good job of covering their tracks, which gives people the impression that the only people who commit these sort of computer crimes are bored and isolated teenage males. We don't know who the people who don't get caught are, and I wouldn't be surprised if the people who don't get caught do not fit the teenage-male-as-hacker/virus-writer demographic. The teenage males aren't the ones I'm worried about, they aren't good enough to avoid getting caught. The people I'm worried about are the ones who are criminally minded instead of just bored/curious, and who have the skills to really create a mess. I don't think that we've really seen the extent of what could be done by dedicated criminals or terrorists.
I saw this story in the paper the other day that Abercrombie and Fitch is suing American Eagle because Abercrombie claims that their Hollister brand owns the number 22 and thus American Eagle can't use it. Abercrombie wants AE to give them the money they made from selling products with 22 on them. According to this story, Abercrombie claims that despite the fact that Hollister does not have a trademark on the number 22, and that they also use other numbers on their clothes, they have a common law ownership right to 22 because they have slapped it all over so many things.
I don't know how they can possibly claim ownership of the number when athletes of all sports have been using the number 22 for ages. Among current players using the number 22 is Duce Staley of the Philadelphia Eagles. What is Abercrombie going to do? Sue the Eagles and the NFLPA? It's simply absurd that Abercrombie thinks that it owns a number. Hey, there's a thought, maybe I should trademark a random number and then people would have to pay me whenever they use it.
A whale crashed into a family's sail boat off the coast of Australia. Don't know who got the worst end of the deal--the people, the boat, or the whale.
The whale in question, post crash.
This weekend I went to see Bend it Like Beckham. I'd already seen it once and liked it, and watching it a second time, it's definitely on my list of movies that I highly recommend. Briefly, it's the story of a British Indian girl who wants to play football (aka. soccer) and be like David Beckham, but who has to fight against her family who doesn't approve of her playing on an organized team. The movie also deals with the challenges of trying to fit in with the dominant culture while retaining your own cultural and ethnic distinctiveness. Because it is a sports-themed movie, there are quite a few soccer sequences, though my dad who used to play and coach soccer wasn't particularly impressed with the soccer scenes.
I don't know whether the movie will make it to all of the US--it's been out for quite a while, my brother saw it in Thailand in December, but it didn't make it to my area till the beginning of the summer, and then I had to drive to the more artsy Sarasota to see it--it only just made it to the theater here. Whether or not it will make it to Chattavegas is another matter all together. I suppose that this is my chance to gloat that I live in a cosmopolitan area that not only has an art-house theater but it has it's own independent film festival, so I actually have a chance to see foreign films before a lot of the country does (if they even make it to the rest of the country).
A few weeks ago I met a woman who has a home business selling home economics textbooks that teach young women how to be traditional wives and mothers by teaching such skills as cooking, sewing, and various other sundry Little House on the Praire type skills like quilting and cross-stitch and knitting/crochet. Oh, and she travels around the country to homeschool conventions selling the books.
Besides the irony of traveling all over the country, away from family and husband (not exactly what a traditional wife/mother would do), to sell books about how to be a good traditional wife and mother, the thing I wonder is whether books like that are missing skills that a twenty-first century homemaker should have.
What I mean is that sure, knowing how to sew and quilt is all well and good (I'm pretty handy with the sewing machine myself), but the question I have is whether focusing solely on traditional skills is shortchanging girls and if it might be better to come up with textbooks that teach other more modern skills as well. It seems to me that it would be practical to include topics such as home networking and other computer skills (ok, maybe that's just the geek in me coming out), basic carpentry, basic auto mechanics, and stuff like that. In this modern era, it's possible to get by without being able to sew an entire wardrobe or knit sweaters for the family, but it seems like even a girl who doesn't want to do anything other than be a wife and homeschool mom should have some of the skills I mentioned.
My mom keeps telling me that instead of complaing about what I think is wrong with traditional textbooks that I should do something about it like write my own home economics book to sell to homeschoolers. Whaddya all think?
The NY Times(motto: all the news that's fit to invent), has an article about the potential wildcard in the whole California recall process--the voting system. Nine counties still use punch cards, which is going to be a huge mess with all the candidates on the ballot. Even with the claim that after Florida, people check to make sure that there aren't any hanging chads, using punch cards is still going to open the door to lawsuits no matter what the outcome of the election is, because someone is going to argue that punch cards disenfranchised voters.
Some counties have recently switched over to the new electronic vote systems, but that may be just as bad. Ann Reed, Shasta County voter registrar is quoted as saying that their machines are so new "We don't even know how to turn them on yet." Also, on top of the problems with the electronic systems that come just from their newness and unfamiliarity is that the electronic voting systems on the market do not have any audit system to ensure that the vote cast is the one recorded. As it now stands, the only way that electronic systems can be trusted is by blind faith. I for one, do not want to put my trust that democracy is working in a system that I have to trust by blind faith.
ESPN had an interesting column by one of their Page 2 columnists Jason Whitlock. He makes the point that in the Kobe Bryant case, just like in the OJ trial, the media cares more about getting good ratings than about actually informing the public about the facts of the case. So, we're going to end up with an endless parade of talking heads, none of whom know anymore about the facts of the case than anybody else, all speculating about every possiblilty, leaving us no more informed about the facts of the case than we were before.
But, despite all the navel gazing that ESPN columnists have been doing over the past few weeks, the network sure doesn't seem to be showing any signs that they aren't going to capitalize all they can off of the case, just like everybody else.
Now, the only question left is, which will be the bigger media circus of the summer--the California recall or the Kobe case? Leno said something last night about how you know you're in trouble when Floridians start making jokes about your elections. I'm not sure though that it's possible to make any jokes that could top the theater of the absurd that's going on out there.
Well folks, this is the first entry on my blog. Let's see, what shall I say?
From the sports department, the start of football season is getting close. Go Bucs!
And, from the I-can't-believe-they-elected-him department, Florida State Senator Mike Bennet (who I voted against), chairman of the Florida Senate Telecommunications Committee, was reportedly seen partying hardy with telecom lobbyists, including being spotted in a hot tub with lobbyists. And we're supposed to believe that he's actually going to have the best interests of voters in mind? Even worse, he's not the first state senator from Manatee County to be in the pockets of telecom lobbyists. When State Senator John McKay was the chairman of the Telecommunications Committee, at the same time that the state was considering telecom deregulation, he was having an affair with a telecom lobbyist, who he later ended up divorcing his wife to marry. Don't ya just love politicians?
And finally, CNN has a story about a dolphin sanctuary that is going to let people call up on cell phones to listen to the dolphins. Wonder what they're saying? Could it be "so long and thank's for all the fish."?