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  • Boing Boing: Anti-copying malware installs itself with dozens of games

    Starforce are acting in what I believe an evil manner. For one they are silently (or manufacturers of games) installing their “copy protection” software onto PC’s – this software is not perfect and goes against its mandate to protect the software from being copied. There is also significant risk to people who use any games affected by this nasty piece of software from other sources that can use it to gain higher priviledges than it should have.

    Starforce should cease being evil and release a patch/fix that removes their software until such times as they have got it right so that the only thing it prevents is the protection of the games that it should and does not allow other software to bypass security restrictions.

    M

  • ? Banned Xbox 360 Ad: Best Ad Ever! InsideMicrosoft – part of the Blog News Channel

    This has been everywhere – but it is definatly one of the best Ad’s I have ever seen. Perhaps a very clever guerilla marketing campagin by microsoft, either way, top marks!

    M

  • This car is built in Korea and is a small 3 door vehicle.

    It is powered by a 1500 CC engine hooked up to a 5 speed manual gearbox.

    I rate this car as better than walking, but is the single most uncomfortable car I have ever had the misfortune of attempting to get into a driving position. This needs some serious work. The seats are too high, the clutch action is horrible and only activates right near the limit of the pedals updward motion. The steering wheel has rake adjustment but desperately needs reach.

    If it were not for the air conditioning, I would be in tears over this thing.

    Good points – it does seem light on the fuel, steering is excellent and its brakes bite well.

    M

  • It made me laugh.

    Fox has taken over perhaps?

    American View of the World

  • Calling Telstra to ensure that my mobile and home accounts became one – I first encounted a VR system. I leave out the I in this TLA because its hopeless. It took 1 minute 11 seconds to get put through to an operator, who was able to resolve my issue 1 minute 36 seconds later (including a few seconds on hold).

    My suggestion is that if you get put through to this thing grumble at it until it gives up and puts you through to an operator.

    To make it easier Telstra should also include beeps where you should speak at/to it as it is rather disconcerting when a computer pauses for your input but does not beep.

    M

  • Recently I have been having some issues with power back home. I am away interstate on a contract and access to the macmini, which is this webserver is somewhat difficult. However there is a way to solve this issue. I searched on google how to enable automatic reboot for Mac OS X and for Power mac’s but came up empty. This will allow you to tell your mac to restart onces power comes back after a blackout. (Only tested on a MacMini – should work on most if not all OpenFirmware macs)
    “pmset” is a command line utility that will allow you to adjust the Energy Saver preference pane from the command line.

    pmset -g will list current settings

    pmset autorestart 1 will set it so that the mac mini reboots after a power outage.

    M

  • I recently tried a new toothbrush as my other one began resembling a small unkept dog.

    The Colgate Massager is an interesting toothbrush with all sorts of appendages sticking out of it and a flexible tip. For cleaning teeth this is amasing – it can get to places my other one could not and left my mouth feeling overall much cleaner.

    Highly reccomended.

    M

  • PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY!

    Jim Beam small batch costs approx $50.00 across Australia, and I have only seen advertising for it over the last 18 months or so. The other day I decided to try this bourbon.

    This bourbon is actually a bourbon mixed with the Port liqueur and is somewhat darker than normal jim beams. It is sold in unquiely shaped 700mL bottles which contain approx. 22 standard drinks (40% alcohol by volume) this bottle is sealed with a decent wax seal and numbered according to batch.

    I have to be brutally honest and state that it is on par with black label in terms of quality. If I had to guess I would say that Jim Beam are taking their standard 5 year old white label and mixing it with port to achive this mix. It has some nice flavours to it, but the bourbon is not smooth enough and there are some of the harsher aromatics that come out. If they were using a better bourbon (and port) I believe that they would be on a hard and fast winner.

    That said I cannot be sure on the above as I do not have a bottle of black to compare it to, but rest assured gentle reader that I will not leave this matter unresolved, and hopefully when it is, I will post back here with the results.

    This is a decent “cheap” $50 bottle of spirits that makes a nice change from “the usual”.

    M

  • Coke Zero – is cokes new diet drink on the market. It has some interesting things going for it – first the most important fact of all – it still contains caffiene, which was my biggest worry when I first heard about it.

    Flavour: Coke Zero when it first hits your mouth tastes like coke and does so until you have swallowed the only sensation that may lead you to think that something is different is that it is more bubbly than normal “fat coke” as I am now calling it, these bubbles are finer – between champagne and kilkenny from a pub sort of bubbles. Once you have swallowed there is a slight hint of diet coke after taste, which dissipates fairly quickly. — Overall a win for the Zero over diet. This Zero is shaping up to be a hero!
    Mixer: This is where coke zero shines – you can imbibe your cheap spirits without fear of funny flavours and weird effects to your body chemistry that diet coke was prone to. Not only that it is VERY VERY hard to distinguish Coke Zero from Fat Coke when mixed with bourbon (used for testing purposes only).

    I have to say that coke zero is definatly a winner of a drink, and will soon be making a permanant residency in my fridge!

    M

    Please drink responsibly if you are going to be drinking alcohol! This article is not affiliated with Coca Cola Ammitil and based off my own opinons and experiences.

  • Lasagne is an easy dish to cook and prepare, it is however time consuming and can potentially be messy.

    If you are used to preparing bolognase sauce you should be able to transfer these skills into mad lasagne skills very easily. (Less reduction of the sauce).

    Very basic – and easy:

    You Need:

    • 500gram low fat non preservative mince
    • Two cans of tomato’s diced
    • One jar of bolognase sauce (5 brothers, dolmio, etal) (500-700grams)
    • One bottle of tomato puree not concentrate
    • Some lasagne sheets (i used san~remo)

    Cook the mince – (you may like to add herbs, garlic, chilli at this point even an onion – if you wish to use your own herb flavourings use a second bottle of tomato puree and leave out the commercial bolognase sauce). Once the mince is cooked add all the tomato sauces, cans of tomato and bottle of puree bring to the boil. You need to reduce it slightly, but it still should remain runnier than a bolognase sauce – the lasagne sheets need to absorb this moisture and you dont want to dry out your final product by over reduction at this point. Once you have the consitancy correct (it may take several lasagne attempts to work out the perfect consitancy – the required constistancy also depends on shape and depth of cooking tray and oven style).

    Use a cup to pour 3-4mm of sauce mixture at the bottom of a tray with deep sides (i use corningware with 3″ sides) cover with lasagne sheets, repeat to a minimum of 4 sheets – and a maximum of 8 in a criss cross pattern with sauce between each. The top layer should have sauce placed on it and then covered with cheeze. (I use the pre-grated mozarella, parmasan and cheddar mix called “Pizza Perfection”, but mozarella with a little parmasan is fine) cover with alfoil and bake at 180C for 35-45 minutes. Remove alfoil, reduce temp to 150 and cook for a further 5-10 minutes (depending on how runny the lasagne is at this point – there still should be some moisture). Remove from oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes. (This allows it to cook to edible temperatures and absorb any remaning moisture before serving.). Serve with crusty bread, a fresh garden salad and a nice red wine.

    For alternative toppings you could add: any combination shaved and chopped strips of ham, tomato, diced bacon between the cheeze within the top sauce layer – it adds a little something extra every now and then.

    M