Story o’ da day

A sampling:

“Siettmann’s (500 lb.) body lay inside Steele’s house for 12 hours before Siettmann’s accomplice delivered a truck with a hoist. The accomplice told authorities he agreed to help Steele with the body in exchange for his life. The accomplice also said Steele shot Siettmann after Siettmann had unloaded his gun and suggested a fistfight to settle their disagreement.

“Although it was broad daylight and neighbors were out going about their business, Steele said, he used a pulley system to move Siettmann’s body out of the house through his patio door and into the bed of a pickup truck.”

Heh.

The Next Scion xB?

It is called the Toyota bB in Japan, where it was recently introduced. It rounds and beefs up the look of the current design (which reminds me of one of those G.I. Joe duty caps).

A welcome change of pace, and just in time as it’s getting a tad dated now.

Once the xB is at the end it’s life cycle (five years), hopefully Toyota will consider going retro again!

As Boart would say, it’s a very niiice.

Finally, Something We’ve Been Waiting For

Seagate says they will encrypt hard drives.

How will it work? You will be asked for a password before the OS boots.

Great news for those of us who carry laptops- thieves will find them just as useless as they are (unless they’re qualified techies who can change to a normal, unencrypted drive-unlikely as thieves are by definition lazy no good bums).

And also beneficial for desktops users-

“Even data-recovery specialists would not be able to help if the assigned password somehow gets lost, said Scott Shimomura, a senior product marketing manager at Seagate.”

Brilliant, and I can’t wait.

Oh, one potential downside:Seagate is also testing them for use in digital video recorders; the article does not say toward what end tho’.  8^/

One word of advice: Don’t lose that password!

“Romance is Dead. So is my Mother.”

Someone has collected some very humorous lonely heart ads into a volume for sale. From the ”world’s funniest – and most erudite – lonely-hearts column.”

“Not everyone appearing in this column is a deranged cross-dressing sociopath. Let me know if you find one and I’ll strangle him with my bra. Man, 56.”

Real or ???

This site, fix-a-vote.com, might just be on the up and up. Want a guaranteed outcome? Inquire within.

Only effective where electronic voting is in place.

Photographing Los Angeles

A German businessman who travels to Los Angeles regularly has an eye for some of the architectural wonders in our fair city. His website, you-are-here, has many in color and black and white. They are absolutely gorgrous, even though the subject matter might be a bit tatty. But that’s the charm of LA.

Yes!

70-year-old ex-SAS soldier dares to tackle four muggers and wins.

A MySpace Experience

Wired’s Lore Sjöberg sums it all up in MySpace, Now With Random Crap.

Granted, MySpace is a truly useless phenomenon which only serves the corporate masters (eyeballs = unverified clicks + demographic gold = cash money!) while the populace flirt, drink, play bad music and make the sexy talk; that is, generally behave like Eloi while the Morlocks fatten them up for supper.

Google Map Picture, ¡Muy Bien!

This link to a satellite map in Google with a unique presence.

An Indian with an iPod?

“A Clear Conflict of interest”

…and yet what is to be done about it? Will complaining help? Of course not.

It’s business as usual: the “gatekeepers” stubbornly refuse to let in the the new, which benefits all.

Artificial restraints. Outdated business models. A corrupted marketplace, where fleecing there is rampant of consumers. A push to inform. Information wants to be free. Yet our choices are narrow, and the exploitation of technology has been usurped by those that control the means of production. And we are lagging behind.

Those unpatriotic fucks at your telco and cabelco could care less about America.

“the fact of the matter is that both the phone companies and the cable companies are public trusts. They are allowed to string their wires or dig their trenches by agreement. They have obligations. And as far as I know, screwing the public is not on their list of obligations.”

John Dvorak’s latest column provides some insights, as usual.

“Hey, yes! We’re number 16! We rock!”