Everything isn't Under Control

Saturday, January 7, 2006

I really got to know that book. In fact, he's my uncle.

A number of prestigious libraries -- including Harvard University's -- have such books in their collections. While the idea of making leather from human skin seems bizarre and cruel today, it was not uncommon in centuries past, said Laura Hartman, a rare book cataloger at the National Library of Medicine in Maryland and author of a paper on the subject.

@ 09:49 PM CST [Link]

Funny Ted Rall comic today. How many of us must be eaten by Tajik's before the madness ends?

@ 09:17 PM CST [Link]

Thursday, January 5, 2006

Taser cell phone a reality. Wow, how much longer until the wearable ATM? There have been other cell phone taser guns, but this one is a real working phone, albiet a phone that looks like it was made in 1985.

@ 10:59 AM CST [Link]

Are we witnessing the death of the paperback book? Sony's E-Ink toy at CES is amazing looking. Works nicely with B&W comics too. I am bit concerned about ebooks. If they really do get off the ground, we can probably kiss the public library goodbye. Everything will be DRM protected to death.

@ 10:53 AM CST [Link]

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

18 body hacks. Nothing like a good 5 after an 11.

@ 07:46 AM CST [Link]

Sunday, January 1, 2006

New windows vulnerability is looking pretty bad. Someone found out how to execute code using WMF files. Its being spread via email, IM, and the web. Whats a WMF file you ask? It doesn't matter. You can rename a WMF into a jpg, gif, or whatever. Until Microsoft releases a fix you can disable the service that executes wmf like so:

Disable: Start > Run > regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll

Cavaet: this will break thumbnail view of images in windows.

After MS releases a patch you can restart it like so:

Enable: Start > Run > regsvr32 shimgvw.dll

Also: Official MS advisory here. And third-party patch.

FWIW, I've unregistered the dll and installed the third-party patch to be extra careful.

@ 02:27 PM CST [Link]

Dig deep brothers and sisters. I thought I'd start the new year right and donate to the Wikipedia. Its my go-to source for just about any piece of information I need. I really believe this is one of the few real modern marvels. Jimmy Wales:

Reporters are always asking me why I’m doing this, why Wikipedians do this? I think you know why.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself. I’m doing this for the child in Africa who is going to use free textbooks and reference works produced by our community and find a solution to the crushing poverty that surrounds him. But for this child, a website on the Internet is not enough; we need to find ways to get our work to people in a form they can actually use.
And I’m doing this for my own daughter, who I hope will grow up in a world where culture is free, not proprietary, where control of knowledge is in the hands of people everywhere, with basic works they can adopt, modify, and share freely without asking permission from anyone.

@ 01:39 AM CST [Link]