| Thursday, November 21, 2024 |
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Twenty-one years ago, Fiddler 1.0 was released. I miss working on it.
A time machine to the 1990s https://lyra.horse/antonymph/
https://www.cyberark.com/resources/threat-research-blog/a-brief-history-of-game-cheating
It's been a while since I've made anything. I miss it.
This is a fun tool: https://confuseit.net/ I𝞃 𝖈𝙤ǹῡḛɽ𝙩𝖘 w𝚑𝖺𝙩𝙚ὖӗɽ 𝔶ὂǚ ẗ𝔶ῥȅ ĭṇȽ௦ 𝘴ΐmῑ𝓁𝒂ṙ 𝑼𝔫ⅈċṓ𝖽ℯ 𝖼𝚑агăϲȽ𝓮𝚛𝘀۰
... and I need a vacation. Only 141 days 'til Christmas!
...it's just not evenly distributed yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQacCB9tDaw&t=535s
I've probably posted this before, but I love it so much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppET8N_-zos
I try hard to avoid paying for web content. One of the few things I splurge on is the Bits about Money newsletter, which is so well-written I can't help myself.
https://david-fong.github.io/detect-devtools-via-debugger-heartstop/
👀 https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/23-big-bucket-list-adventures/ Eric Hmmm.... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/09/world/americas/aconcagua-mountain-expedition-photos.html
+ Comment
I've begun posting the journal of my trip up Kilimanjaro; I have nine more posts to go.
Todo: Read
I did an interview.
https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/
The simple question of "Who said it?" usually isn't. For example: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/10/04/never-happened/
I moved over to Microsoft's Security Division last year. The numbers (revenue, attacks) are bananas.
https://www.timdbg.com/posts/fakers-guide-to-assembly/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/opinion/charity-holiday-gift-givewell.html
With the ongoing implosion of Twitter, I'm starting to play with Mastodon.
I recorded this a while back. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eric-lawrence/id1589875016?i=1000564882806
https://ericlawrence.com/whs/WHS1996SeniorWills.pdf
Commits: 288 Eric That's a lot more than I would have guessed. When I stopped working on Fiddler, it amounted to ~38K lines of C# in total, although I'd probably added and removed somewhere around 3-5x that much over 14 years.
+ Comment
https://github.com/bibanon/bibanon/blob/master/Stories/American-Dream.md
From the highest echelons of tech to the Amazon Warehouse. Philip is a great writer.
I don't need a time machine to know that I'll be sending people this link in the future. https://textslashplain.com/2021/10/01/practical-time-machines/
Ancient memories from my 2nd Microsoft Internship https://web.archive.org/web/20010207161711/http://www.ericlawrence.com/Summer2000/whatsup.htm
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200817-the-batman-effect-how-having-an-alter-ego-empowers-you
https://textslashplain.com/2020/11/16/objectively-the-best-cat/
These videos remain among my favorite content on the internet: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Jonathan+Brenner%22
I presented as a part of a panel on web browser privacy at the Enigma 2020 conference.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/registerProtocolHandler
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/net/docs/life-of-a-url-request.md
https://www.usenix.org/conference/enigma2019/program Emily Stark's talk covers a bunch of the work our team did around URL display.
Historically, CTRL+Shift+V in Office was "Paste only formatting", while in Firefox and Chromium-based browsers, it means "Paste without formatting." You can customize Word to behave more like browsers using Office's powerful macro system: https://t.co/9Khdv0ArqV
RS1: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/51.0.2704.79 Safari/537.36 Edge/14.14393 RS3: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/58.0.3029.110 Safari/537.36 Edge/16.16299 RS4: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.140 Safari/537.36 Edge/17.17134 RS5: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.140 Safari/537.36 Edge/18.17763 Win10 1903 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/70.0.3538.102 Safari/537.36 Edge/18.18362
+ Comment
It's finally here!
This site is amazing. Pick a problem and see it solved in many different languages. For instance: https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Sudoku
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/books/review/personal-libraries.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytbooks
How Congress really gets elected
Want a reasonably up-to-date (2017), mostly accurate set of documentation about how modern browsers work? See the two browser security whitepapers that Google funded. Also be sure to check out the four part (Sept 2018) series of figure-rich articles: Inside a Modern Browser.
From a guy who knows lots about RFCs: How to read an RFC
https://www.chromium.org/Home/chromium-security/corb-for-developers
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/the-man-who-created-the-world-wide-web-has-some-regrets
My fourth NEO was today. Lots of feelings.
https://twitter.com/MicroSFF/status/996449011426037761 "Fight me," the knight called.
https://www.openhub.net/p/chrome/analyses/latest/languages_summary
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. -Eisenhower, 1953
You can take a screenshot of a website from the command line with Firefox with:
You can also use Chrome/Chromium with the same syntax:
h/t https://twitter.com/botherder/status/995277119818293248
https://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2013/06/16/ultimate-tic-tac-toe/
https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/reaching-peak-meeting-efficiency-f8e47c93317a
https://nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/03/magazine/money-issue-iowa-lottery-fraud-mystery.html
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh278941.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
A remarkable, glorious achievement is just what a long series of unremarkable, unglorious tasks looks like from far away.
At some point, posting here started working again. That's good, I guess? Does editing work from Open Live Writer? Yes.
https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/getting-around-the-chrome-source-code
https://dev.to/amit_merchant/build-a-full-fledge-markdown-app-with-electron
http://webdbg.com/test/204/204.aspx http://ericlawrence.com/dl/alert.exe
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/pavely/2017/05/09/packinging-apps-into-single-files/
http://mattwarren.org/2017/03/23/Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-CoreCLR-Source-Code/
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/05/quantum-up-close-what-is-a-browser-engine/
The current You isn’t the real You. You are currently the past, less-awesome version of the future, final, real You. https://www.facebook.com/notes/philip-su/on-career-growth-and-insight/10150804625079981/
JavaScript for old devs: https://trackchanges.postlight.com/modern-javascript-for-ancient-web-developers-58e7cae050f9#.oqze622c3
In which I again remind myself to read everything at https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-thomson-postel-was-wrong-00
I wrote about my first year working on Google Chrome. The post ranges from personal stories to arcane Chrome command line arguments. (Guess which people found more interesting?)
A big, interesting project, aims to ensure that a fully-pwned render process cannot attack arbitrary sites. Video
Switching over to TinyMCE for the editor here. Let's see what it can do! This is nice. Right?
http://littlesvr.ca/apng/
var saved = localStorage.getItem('__keyName__'); if (!saved || saved === '') // <-- why is the second test needed?
No link, Image Only 
HTTP Link HTTP Image
HTTP Link HTTPS Image 
HTTPS Link HTTP Image 
HTTPS Link HTTPS Image
It's the Dell WiFi driver for the Dell 1560 802.11ac card. Uninstall it and fallback to the inbox Broadcom driver.
"As long as you're alive, you have an obligation to strive, and you're not dead until you've seen the face of god." -Joe Biden's mom https://youtu.be/opVaEC_WxWs?t=7m26s
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
I threw together some notes for someone doing a presentation about Fiddler. News · Fiddler 2.5 should be out shortly. Most of the “new” goodies are in 2.4.9.9 but are yet to be discovered by most users. · Hopefully, the second edition of the Fiddler Book will be out in the next month. Things to consider talking about Please ensure that everyone has the SyntaxView Inspector installed. It’s by-far the most useful extension for Fiddler. The ImageBloat extension, of course. The Content Security Policy rule generator add-on
This menu item resolves ~40% of Fiddler support questions:
They’ve been there a while, but Fiddler can import/export Packet Captures (from Wireshark, Message Analyzer, Netmon, TCPDump) and HAR (HTTP Archive files, from browser dev tools):
It’s been there a while, but Customize Columns is possibly the top-requested feature and it continues to get more powerful
Tools > Configure AutoSave…
Direct Filters on the Context Menu
2.5 will introduce built-in WebSockets UI
Support for WebP and JPEGXR throughout the product
Composer now has a Request Log for easy reuse of past requests
Fiddler’s built-in Certificate Maker can generate iOS-compatible certificates using the Cert Enroll engine
“Multi-year projects in a highly political arena with changing personnel contributes to a loss of focus.”
Raymond Chen agrees, Mickens is a must-read: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2013/12/24/10484402.aspx He's also a must-watch: Mickens on JavaScript, w3c, and frameworks
I think my dad would get a kick out of these.
Sebastien Lorion @ 24.53.56.154 Nice article, but another way would be to use classes such as SafeString and UnsafeString (or even simply one of them) and it would not even compile if one is used in the wrong context. Or to be even more nice to fellow developers, the library could have implicit conversion from one type to the other, thought that has its drawback in terms of knowing what the code does just by looking at it.
SL Showing my IP address publicly when commenting on your blog ... really ?? + Comment
http://books.google.com/books?id=1hCo61dbB6QC&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=Umberto+Eco+toilet+olive&source=bl&ots=lTuV1gt_b_&sig=A2hbyn9m19B7ZTNHE3dZstQtFLE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eBLzU8idLZGqyATW_oIY&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Umberto%20Eco%20toilet%20olive&f=false
April 01, 1999 QuickRun has generated Bayden's first $0.42 in revenue, a sales commission from Amazon.com's affiliates program. An unknown purchaser bought "The Art of War" for $8.40... 8-) What an incredible start this software company has had!!! We've generated almost half of a dollar in our first 16 months of operations. We're destined for great things, I tellya. Anson That's roughly equivalent to how much my phone apps have generated, except that I also bought some sounds for the games and ads only pay out if you make more than $50. So never mind about the equivalent thing.
+ Comment
Android user?
From: Eric Lawrence Howdy, Jeff--
I know CEOs are never the first to read their email (if they ever read it
at all), but I’m willing to play along if you are.
As you can see below, I today received an email from Amazon that I don’t
feel lives up to the standards you’ve set for yourselves. In particular,
announcing that you’ve made a mistake and are charging the customer for it is
one thing, but adding “This e-mail was sent from a notification-only e-mail
address” on the end is simply rude. I mean, I’m sure that there’s some web form
somewhere you’d prefer the victim use to plead their case, but you omit that
information entirely in this message. And, of course, it probably wouldn’t take
any of Amazon’s thousands of tech wizards more than a few afternoons to build a
gateway that could carry an emailed response into such a system.
Now, I’m sure this isn’t a huge priority for you since Amazon so rarely
makes mistakes. I mean, it’s been over 13 years since I ordered a pan and you
sent me a vacuum cleaner instead. And I’ve ordered thousands of dollars worth of
stuff from you guys every year since then.
You might ask: “But how do you know that we received your return? Maybe it
was lost in the mail or something?”
And I’d note that it’s probably a good idea for y’all to look at your UPS
logs. But in this case, you needn’t even do that, since I returned two items
from the same order, in the same box, and you properly credited one of the two.
This could have been a lovely conversation that I could have conducted with one
of your Mechanical Turks in customer support.
I don’t particularly care about the 14 bucks, because Amazon kindly sends
me quite a bit of money every month (I’m an affiliate, and a writer you
publish). But I’m also a stockholder, and I know that part of Amazon’s sky-high
valuation is based on having legendary customer service, the better to leave all
of your competitors in the scrap bin of history. So I really hope that you fix
this and avoid alienating anyone who’s less of a loyal customer than I have been
and will likely continue to be.
I’m sure you’re busy, but if you too think that Amazon should stop flipping
off customers with un-replyable emails, would you mind sticking one of your
infamous “?”s at the top of this mail and forwarding it off to the folks who
handle Amazon’s notification emails?
thanks a bunch!
-Eric
After hearing about a recent bug (https://cxsecurity.com/issue/WLB-2014050050) I created a C:\program.exe app to show me if some other applications might also have the same problem. On Windows 8.1 Update 1 with all updates, after using the “Close program” gesture to close Immersive IE, I see my program.exe application runs with the following output:
This link: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=846365 suggests to me that the invoking code might related to the PLM system used for Metro suspension. Repro:
Observe: Program.exe is executed. Arguably, this isn’t an important security issue because writing to the root requires Admin and the program is only executing with user-level permissions, but historically we’ve seen this sort of mistake used as a stepping stone of other exploits. The affected codepath may also allow repro for ANY Immersive browser (not just IE) which could have unknown security impact.
DO NOT PRINT
/FORWARD THIS MAIL ITS AGAINST THE LAW
This e-mail, including any attachments,
is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 10 U.S.C.
2510-2521
[FBI logo]
ANTI-TERRORIST AND MONETARY CRIMES
DIVISION
FBI HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON DC
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS J.EDGAR HOOVER
BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C.
20535-0001
Ref: FBI/DC/25/113/13/2014
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/executives/director
Your attention is needed
immediately
We have been informed through our global intelligence
monitoring network that the sum of $10.500, 000.00, has been released from a
bank in Africa bearing your name as the beneficiary without dist certificate to
clear your name and fund from every terrorist or drug or money laundering
activities
We sincerely apologize for sending you this sensitive
information via e-mail instead of a certified mail, phone call or a
face-to-face conversation,We will also send you a certified email later it is
due to the urgency and importance of the security information needed. To
checkmate financial recklessness, illegal gambling, racketeering and considering
the effect of the global financial crisis rocking the United States, our
government with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I)
Washington, DC and the internet crime complaint center (ic3),alongside the CIA
signed an agreement with U.K police for an immediate release of all overdue
funds presently logged in their treasury and to ensure it is disbursed to the
rightful beneficiaries in all parts of the world. If you the beneficiary would
adhere to our instruction it will help you receive your payment immediately
The bank knowing fully well that they do not have
enough facilities to make this payment from any part of the world to your
account directly, used what we know as a secret diplomatic transit payment
(s.d.t.p) method to make the payment. direct transfers are difficult and secret
diplomatic transit payment (s.d.t.p) are not usually made unless the funds are
related to terrorist activities and we ask why must your payment be made in a
secret transfer if your transaction is legitimate.
We do not want you to get into trouble as soon as these
funds reflect in your personal account, so it is our duty as an international
agency to correct these little problems before this fund reflects into your
personal account.
we advise you to contact us immediately, as your funds
have been stopped and are being held in our custody, until you are able to
provide us with the dist certificate within 3 days from the country that
authorized the transfer to certify that the funds that you are about to receive
are terrorist/drug free or we shall have cause to impound the payment and
subsequently prosecute you for cross border terrorist financial
activites.
based on our findings, our investigative department
wish to warn you against some miscreants, hoodlums and touts who go about
scamming innocent people by claiming to be who they are not and thereby
tarnishing the image of this wonderful country. By sending out fraudulent emails
without our official logo and emblem we shall release your funds immediately we
receive this legal document and we will ensure that you receive your payment
without any further delay.
Note
We decided to contact you directly by email to acquire
the proper verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful
person to receive this fund, because of the huge amount involved. Be informed
that the funds are now with a top bank in the united state in your name and
under the monitoring/custody of the FBI. At the moment, we have asked the bank
not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them, unless we instruct them
to do so, and only if we receive the dist certificate this is to enable us carry
out a comprehensive investigation first before releasing the fund to
you.
hence, you are to forward your dist certificate to us
immediately if you have it in your possession, if you do not have it, then let
us know so that we will direct you to the appropriate authority to obtain
the certificate then you are to send it to our office. And thereafter, we will
instruct the bank holding the funds, to go ahead and credit your account
immediately. If you fail to provide the documents to this office, we will
prosecute you and take appropriate action against you for not proving the
legality of the funds.
Finally if you truly want to receive this funds without
F.B.I troubles then reconfirm the following below
Name………………………………………………….
Address………………………………………………..
Sex………………………………………………………
Age.....................................................................
Contact number………………………………………..
Country of origin of funds……………………………..
Yours Faithfully
Robert J. Holley Special Agent
151 Patton Ave
Room211 Asheville N.C.28801
FOR FBI DIRECTOR
JAMES B COMEY
cc: general intelligence department
(GID)
cc federal bureau of investigation
(fFBIi)
cc .internet crime complaint center
(ic3)
cc: Asia pacific group on money laundering (APG)
cc: international monetary fund
(IMF)
cc: international organization of securities
commissions (IOSCO)
cc: international banking security association
(IBSA)
cc: world customs organization
(WCO)
cc: inter-American development bank
(IADB)
cc: national white collar crime center
(NW3C)
cc: bureau of justice assistance
(BJA)
cc: supreme court of South
Africa(SCA)
LEGAL NOTICE:
Unless expressly stated otherwise, this message
is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended for the addressee(s) only.
Access to this e-mail by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not an
addressee, any disclosure or copying of the contents or any action taken (or not
taken) in reliance on it is unauthorized and may be unlawful. If you are not an
addressee, please inform the sender immediately.
AVISO LEGAL:
Salvo que se indique lo contrario, este mensaje
es confidencial y puede ser privilegiada. Se pretende a su destinatario
(s)solamente. El acceso a este e-mail por cualquier otra persona no estб
autorizado. Si usted no es un destinatario, cualquier divulgaciуn o copia de
lacontenidos ni de cualquier acciуn realizada (o no) en la dependencia en que no
estб autorizado y puede ser ilegal. Si no son unadestinatario, por favor
notifique al remitente de inmediato
DO NOT PRINT
/FORWARD THIS MAIL ITS AGAINST THE LAW
This e-mail, including any attachments,
is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 10 U.S.C.
2510-2521 Dave Worse at punctuation than I am! What value is this: $10.500, 000.00
I know some locales use ',' and '.' differently in numbers, but how can you go from delimiter1 to delimiter2 then back to delimiter1?
not fooled obvious scam ???? just received and will try to get my 10.5 million dollars. + Comment
I charged and turned on my Surface2 for the first time in a week or so last
night. I manually kicked off an update check which failed with error code
80072F8F. I rebooted and left it alone overnight but the error persisted into
the morning.
The UI assured me that more information on this error was available online;
the link took me to a MSFT troubleshooting page that assured me that no further
information was available.
Plugging this code into a real search engine immediately suggested that I
check my PC’s clock/date and sure enough, the Surface thought it was 3/29 for
some reason. After fixing that, the update check proceeds.
This raises a few questions:
1> Why isn’t Surface automatically syncing the clock from the Internet
time servers? My internet connection is fine.
2> Why is there no information on this error code on the troubleshooting
website?
3> Why do I even need to go to a website for this? Why doesn’t WU
recognize this code and force-check the Internet time?
4> How is it that we’re in 2014 and the WU error experience is as bad as
it was in 2001?
This entire experience was, as they say in Redmond, “An Apple
Commercial.”
 Anson You could do that, but if you want people to understand what you're getting at you should make the shed's roof black. We can all agree that almost all sheds have a black roof.
Anson Btw - installed fiddler the other day and couldn't find it because of the icon :) Anson You can have any icon you want; that's the point. Eric ^^^ oops. Max Power You can also have any name you want. + Comment
When your pager goes off, it’s typically after midnight, and the crashing process has been loudly spewing a stream of inscrutable 0x80004005 HRESULTs for a minute or so. Your task is to fix the process without restarting it. WinDBG’s symbols never resolve, so you’re debugging blind. The fact that you wrote half the spec less than a year ago is of little help since the code is polymorphic and it's already evolved since you debugged it last night. The most trying aspect is that, no matter how heroic and valiant your efforts may be, if you can’t get the process quiescent, your boss, the Magnificent Original Maintainer (MOM), is going to swoop in make you look like a putz. She usually does so by merely attaching one of her specialized hardware debuggers. Either of these devices will unfailingly resolve the problem, no matter the root cause. Dave '... wrote half the spec less than a year ago'. Is that what writing specs is like? I should've been a PM
Eric Hehe... It actually should have said "just over a year ago." But anyway... + Comment
Launching unelevated apps http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2013/11/18/10468726.aspx
"If you’ll allow me: the interior life is a sphere of thoughts and implications zapping around, and it’s so chaotic in there that we learn to limit the sphere’s radius because to do otherwise is to let everything we encounter, from broken nestlings to broken dates, reach the level of “why does anything exist?” We spend years working out that perfect radius: rein it in too tightly and life is mechanical, let out too much slack and life is paralyzing."
Julian Great find ! I was unaware interacting with a another process can be so easily done. I should spend some time to read more about C#.
+ Comment
Dear Sir/Madam, I am so glad send email to you. We are a manufacturer in China produce CAR RECORDER. The attach model is a very popular car recorder,with very good night vision,very high definition.Many car driver need them.Because it can recording any traffic accident,and by it can know who are responsible for the accident. For this one the sample price is 63$.Maybe you think it is expensive.I would like tell you a story: One day,when David drive his car go to have a important meeting,when he drive through a traffic lighter,a man by a motorcycle on front of his car,and this man drive the motorcycle slower on purpose,then let the motorcycle fall down on purpose,then roar David let David stop his car,say:"Your car hurt me."David said:"No,I am so slow,have not hurt you."But the man insist let David pay him some money for medical expenses,insist said David have let him bleed.David in order go to for the meeting on time.He pay the man 100$.Then the man permit David leave. It is a real story happed in our coutry.I think if David have this product,he no need pay 100$.He only need pay 63$ for the car DVR. The price for car DVR depends the IC and definition,like the DVR19S,the price for sample only need 26$.For mass products only need 16$. If you are a car supplier,it is a very good promostional gift.
With some interesting points on they different factors that skew numbers. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/windows-8-vaults-past-vista-ie10-continues-to-surge/
WMPlayerPlayStateChange fires as the state changes in the Windows Media Player control. What's your most likely action in response to getting wmppsMediaEnded? Play the next song, right? Except that if you do this (by setting the .URL property) from the WMPlayerPlayStateChange callback, the song will begin to play... for about a microsecond, before another event from the prior play comes in and wipes everything else out. You have to use wmppsMediaEnded to instead queue a callback timer that plays the next song a little bit later, after the original songs events have finished firing. Dumb dumb dumb dumb.
Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division Dave What a bargain!
Jim I know people fall for some seriously stupid things, but this one would take some serious stupidity. + Comment
I have an idea for a new reality show; it'll be called "How Hard Could It Be?" The show will feature everyday people approaching straightforward (but new to them) tasks, for instance, minor home repairs.
For instance, in the kickoff show, a software developer will be faced with filling a gap introduced in his front porch when a professional replaced an exterior door. To make it more interesting, we'll have the work done on the highly-visible front porch, and we'll have the man's wife be pregnant to ensure a steady flow of family and friends visiting over the next few months.
The show will start with the man rubbing his chin and looking at the gap. "I know", he'll say, "I can fill this with concrete. I mean, 'How hard could it be?'"
We'll follow our character as he researches by watching assorted videos on the Internet, wherein a wide variety of workaday joes install concrete successfully in a wide variety of projects.
Confirming the ease of his project, he'll drive over to the local home depot, grab an 80lb bag of concrete, a few stirs, a 5 gallon bucket, and some red concrete dye. That's right, dye. The dye serves two purposes: One-- to attempt to match the final result to the nearby brick and other décor. Two-- so that the viewers at home (and any passers-by) can easily see all of the unintended places that the concrete ends up. To up the ante a bit, this project will begin late on Sunday morning (ensuring that only one day can be spared for the work) and we'll film on a May day in Austin with afternoon temperatures in the mid-90s.
Reading the bag of concrete mix, he'll scoff as he reads "Do not let concrete dry in your hair" and feel confident that this project is going to be trivial: "How hard could it be, if the package needs to warn the typical user of such things."
As the afternoon proceeds, we'll watch our hapless hero increasingly drenched in sweat, as he learns valuable lessons like: 'Why you don't want to pour concrete mix without a facemask', and 'Why do professionals mix concrete in wheelbarrows instead of buckets.' A counter on the screen will track the skyrocketing obscenity count as the afternoon proceeds toward dusk.
The show will end with our red-tinted grimy hero and his very-pregnant wife on the porch looking forlornly at the final lumpy, off-color result.
She'll look on the bright side. "It won't look so bad after we cover it with the welcome mat."
Okay, that's funny. https://twitter.com/dakami/status/336748825723166722/photo/1/large
There is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.
http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2013/04/22/whats-so-quantum-about-that/ Lots of interesting ideas in here. My favorite was "whiplashing"-- making products oscillate between free and pay.
New Parent Idea: 1. Take pictures of you pulling baby out of spacecraft in forest. 2. Hide pictures in attic for kid to find when he's 10.
Someone mailed me off my old IEInternals blog to ask me about IE10's move from index.dat files to the WebCacheV01.dat database file. They had a number of questions and it occurs to me that this probably isn't written up anywhere else. So, for posterity (and with the caveat that I can't speak for Microsoft): Q: Why the change? Why are browsing artifacts are still present in other locations? A: The old index.dat files represented a cross-process memory-mapped index
file for the internet cache entries. This index was designed for optimal
performance on common computers of the mid-1990s; for instance, the data
structures it used were designed to fit in the on-chip cache of a 486 processor.
Since then, processors have grown far more powerful, with larger caches, etc. As
a consequence, the old cache index code was no longer very efficient (especially
for operations that proper databases are good at, like running multi-condition
queries). By moving this cache to a proper database, it simplified code,
improved performance, and enhanced durability/reliability. When you say “why are browsing artifacts are still present in other locations,” I can only assume that you’re referring to the cache files themselves? Keep in mind that the new database and old index.dat are simply an index to those files on disk. You may wonder why browsers store the response bodies in files rather than inside the database itself—this is done for both performance and compatibility reasons. Q: Why is this file loaded when Windows starts even before IE loads? A: The cache is an integral part of WinINET, a core networking component in
Windows. WinINET’s cache isn’t just the browser’s cache—it’s also used by most
Metro applications, Windows components, and tens of thousands of other
applications that rely on WinINET. That’s why, for instance, when you uninstall
IE from Windows, WinINET and its data stores remain on the system. The database
is loaded by the cache service in order to handle requests from applications
that depend on WinINET. Deleting the database would be very bad from a privacy
point of view, because the database tracks which files need to be deleted when
you use the Delete Browser History / Clear Cache commands. If you were to
obliterate this index, these files would be orphaned and present a privacy
risk. Q: Why is there a delay in writing to the database after the browser closes? A: I’m not sure what specific “delay in writing to the database” that you’re referring to, but I assume this is simply related to how most databases work—there’s an in-memory representation that is periodically flushed to disk for both performance and hardware-durability reasons (most SSDs have a limited number of write-cycles, for instance). Q: Why is the extension .DAT instead of .EDB which is used by other Ese databases. As to why the extension is .DAT, I don’t know, but I assume that this is
probably a historical artifact related to the fact that WinINET’s cache indicies
have always been named *.dat.
Q: Do IE10 on
Win7 and IE10 on Win8 cache data in the same way? A: I think the answer
you’re looking for is “essentially.” The one caveat is that Windows 8’s Enhanced
Protected Mode feature uses AppContainers for isolation of content; this
feature is an evolution of the Protected Mode feature introduced with Windows
Vista. Mike Appleby Hi,
Is it possible to flush, close the webcache and terminate the processes correctly so no information is lost?
Thanks,
Mike.
doug diehl Am thinking of EXCLUDING THIS from my PC Backup tool since it changes all the time, is unique, and is very large. Can you think of any (common or likely) scenario where you would want a copy of the .dat file? + Comment
Great talk on fixing America's democracy. http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html
http://techland.time.com/2013/04/02/an-interview-with-computing-pioneer-alan-kay/ There is the desire of a consumer society to have no learning curves. This tends to result in very dumbed-down products that are easy to get started on, but are generally worthless and/or debilitating. We can contrast this with technologies that do have learning curves, but pay off well and allow users to become experts (for example, musical instruments, writing, bicycles, etc. and to a lesser extent automobiles). [Douglas] Engelbart’s interface required some learning but it paid off with speed of giving commands and efficiency in navigation and editing. People objected, and laughed when Doug told them that users of the future would spend many hours a day at their screens and they should have extremely efficient UIs they could learn to be skilled in.
One of many chuckle-inducers: In response to last week's exceedingly polite Canadian Supreme Court ruling on text message privacy, EFF will print a limited edition run of "Sorry if this is a bother, but I'd really prefer if you returned with a warrant, eh" stickers for Canadian mobile devices.
I saw an advertisement that the Microsoft Store at Austin's Domain Mall was running a "SmartPhone buyback" program through the month of March, so I figured I'd stop by and see what I could get for my old WP7 LG Quantum and Jane's old Samsung Focus. I didn't have a great experience last time I was at the store, so I was curious to see whether it has improved over the last few months. On Sunday afternoon around 4pm, Jane and I walked in and looked around. The tables were nicely organized in the front of the store although it inexplicably smelled a bit funky. Within 30 seconds, we were greeted by a 20-something guy who asked how he could help us. I explained what brought us in and he seemed excited to help out. So far so good. We walked to the back of the store where the big desk is (Microsoft apparently decided they shouldn't have traditional cash registers since the Apple store doesn't). Unfortunately, there's no obvious place for customers and staff to stand, a problem exacerbated by the fact that a customer was getting his new Dell All-in-One set up by a staff-member, and his 4ft by 3ft by 1ft cardboard box and the associated packing material were littered around. Our sales guy rummaged around under the desk for a solid 90 seconds before finally pulling out a laptop, clearing some space on the edge of the desk, and putting down a leather pad underneath the system. Finally, he fired it up. Windows 7. Interesting. He chose one of the 5 logged in accounts and typed a password. On the desktop, he found the IE icon and clicked on it. IE8 appeared. The first-run wizard appeared. He considered for a moment, then clicked "Ask me later." He then tried to navigate to http://storeportal or some similar address. "Page cannot be displayed." Hrm. He clicked in the tray to check the WiFi, which claimed to be connected to MSFTINET. Hrm. He clicked IE's "Diagnose connection settings" and waited for it to do its thing. Eventually, the web page appeared. He worked through some cumbersome login process, then opened Word 2013, opened a document, scrolled to the bottom, and copied a URL, username, and password individually from the document into the browser. He spent a minute trying to find the model number for my phone and after I took it apart and read it off to him, he got the buyback offer. $8.90 without the charger, and $9.90 with it. I decided that for under $10, I'd just keep it as a backup. Jane's Focus netted an offer of just under $20, and considering her love for her iPhone, we agreed to take the offer. He tried to print a document, but didn't have a printer installed. We waited for him to browse around the network (going through yet another "Troubleshoot connection problems" sequence, then ask a colleague which printer to use, then install the drivers, and finally start the print job. IE8 locked up at this point and he clicked around fruitlessly for 30 seconds ("ding ding ding") and walked to the printer and back a few times. He apologized for the hassle and noted "this is an original i7 which is six years old and I don't know why we use it anymore." (Note: The first i7s were released Nov. 2008). He then said "Sorry if I seem frazzled. There are only 7 of us in the store today and there are supposed to be 15. I don't know where everyone else is." Considering the relative dearth of customers, the store didn't really seem understaffed to me. Finally, Windows offered "Your job has been sent to the printer" and he walked off to get the document, which turned out to be a signature form whereby you promise that you're not selling a stolen phone, etc. I looked at the large LCD signature pad on the counter and idly wondered what it was used for, if not tasks like this. After agreeing to the terms and conditions, we got a shiny plastic gift card to use on our next purchase. On our way out, I stopped to check out the Surface Pro with the Type keyboard. It was warm to the touch but otherwise looked like a great machine, and I played with it a bit. Across the table, a sales guy was pitching the Surface RT to a 40-something woman. "But this won't run my software, right?" she said. "No," he conceded, "but you can install apps, like Facebook." She seemed unconvinced. I didn't envy him-- the sales guys at the Apple Store have a much easier job, asking their salivating prospects simply "Do you want black or white?" As a former employee, I'm depressed. As a shareholder, I'm angry. Steve @ 24.114.62.154 There's a Microsoft Store opening up in the mall near me too. I'm curious how it will compare/compete with the Apple store less than 250 feet away.
If the staff were trained better, they'd be able to sell the features of Windows tablets/devices and deflect honestly (& provide a balanced counter feature) any omissions.
It's sad that the windows phone didn't provide much in return but I'd like to believe that Microsoft could do a better deal providing $50-100 discount towards a new windows phone?
I've gotta ask though... as someone that knows networking and IE so intimately it must kill you to hold back and not just grab the PC and try to fix the issue... kudos for not taking over.
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...while everybody is talking about high class exploits and cyberwar, four simple stupid default telnet passwords can give you access to hundreds of thousands of consumer as well as tens of thousands of industrial devices all over the world.
My new car logged its 4444th mile today on Route 2222. The Fiddler book has sold 1320 paper copies and 1416 electronic copies.
Snail-mail phishing scams? Cute. My scam letter from "United Airways" and was signed "Juli Cae" at 1-866-318-0557
JustDecompile 2013.1.225.1 public bool IsAbstract
Reflector 8.0.2.313
Eric The trick here is that the code is really just testing for Zero, which is defined *four* different ways in the TypeAttributes enumeration.
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If you can read this without gnashing your teeth, you're probably on valium. http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/ It's an important article, and Democrats and Republicans both need to understand how they're obstructing improvements to healthcare.
The window panes in the Telerik high-rise are literally squealing in pain.
Accept: */* Accept-Encoding: identity, peerdist If-Unmodified-Since: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:04:31 GMT Range: bytes=32768-40638 User-Agent: Microsoft BITS/7.6 X-P2P-PeerDist: Version=1.1 X-P2P-PeerDistEx: MinContentInformation=1.0, MaxContentInformation=1.0 Connection: Keep-Alive Host: fg.v4.download.windowsupdate.com HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/octet-stream Last-Modified: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:04:31 GMT Accept-Ranges: bytes ETag: "804173f0b54ce1:0" Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:44:12 GMT X-CCC: US X-CID: 2 Content-Length: 59694909 Via: 1.1 ironportau.telerik.com:80 (IronPort-WSA/7.1.3-021) Connection: keep-alive GET /msdownload/update/software/crup/2013/02/windows8-rt-kb2811522-x64_58d9bb426d11ced4cd7408710fb4e3a6ce99ba11.psf HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Encoding: identity, peerdist If-Unmodified-Since: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:04:31 GMT Range: bytes=32768-40638 User-Agent: Microsoft BITS/7.6 X-P2P-PeerDist: Version=1.1 X-P2P-PeerDistEx: MinContentInformation=1.0, MaxContentInformation=1.0 Connection: Keep-Alive Host: fg.v4.download.windowsupdate.com HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/octet-stream Last-Modified: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:04:31 GMT Accept-Ranges: bytes ETag: "804173f0b54ce1:0" Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:45:08 GMT X-CCC: US X-CID: 2 Content-Length: 59694909 Via: 1.1 ironportau.telerik.com:80 (IronPort-WSA/7.1.3-021) Connection: keep-alive GET /msdownload/update/software/crup/2013/02/windows8-rt-kb2811522-x64_58d9bb426d11ced4cd7408710fb4e3a6ce99ba11.psf HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Encoding: identity, peerdist If-Unmodified-Since: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:04:31 GMT Range: bytes=32768-40638 User-Agent: Microsoft BITS/7.6 X-P2P-PeerDist: Version=1.1 X-P2P-PeerDistEx: MinContentInformation=1.0, MaxContentInformation=1.0 Connection: Keep-Alive Host: fg.v4.download.windowsupdate.com HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/octet-stream Last-Modified: Wed, 06 Feb 2013 22:04:31 GMT Accept-Ranges: bytes ETag: "804173f0b54ce1:0" Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:46:04 GMT X-CCC: US X-CID: 2 Content-Length: 59694909 Via: 1.1 ironportau.telerik.com:80 (IronPort-WSA/7.1.3-021) Connection: keep-alive Eric It's like BITS can't handle the fact that it's getting back a 200 instead of a 206 and just retries over and over...
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Perhaps claims more credit for Google than due, but nevertheless thorough and informative. http://www.igvita.com/posa/high-performance-networking-in-google-chrome/
In a lot of ways, our new house is great-- it's much newer than our old place (built 1993 vs. 1968). However, at twenty years old, a number of components are due for an upgrade. First and foremost, we had a water heater that was original equipment and it was loudly demanding retirement. Since it was going into our attic, and the thought of having 40 gallons of hot water overhead was sorta creepy, we felt justified in upgrading to a Rinnai tankless unit. It cost a bit more, but between utility company rebates ($600) and US government tax credit ($300) we figured that it was probably worth it. Our last (traditional-tank) heater cost nearly $2K installed (mostly due to work getting the location up to current code). Next, we upgraded our downstairs thermostat to a 2nd-gen Nest unit.
It was a simple install, and while it's pricey, they claim it will save ~7-10% on our energy bills, which would pay for it in the first year. We'll see. If nothing else, it's way less ugly than the ancient Honeywell ChronoTherm III unit it replaced. The website and mobile apps are pretty neat, although they don't yet have a Windows Phone 8 app:
Lastly, I'm obsessed with lights. I've been trying to hold off replacing all of our recessed lights until next winter, because LEDs are rapidly going up in brightness / efficiency and down in price, but I couldn't put it off for two locations: our fancy new master bathroom and in our stairwell. I'd been trying to make due with CFLs in the bathroom but they took too long to warm up and the existing trim was pretty ugly.
The bathroom installs were easy. The stairwell was another matter-- it's extremely hard to get up there (~12 feet over stairs, hard to place a ladder) and I never wanted to have to replace the light. Getting the lights installed in the bathroom was trivial, but the stairwell was another matter. It turns out that these cans were never supposed to be buried in insulation, but naturally the last owners dumped about a foot of loose insulation over them and that had ended up melting the thermocouple that was supposed to prevent fires for their old incandescent bulb. So, I spent a harrowing 40 minutes atop a 6" ladder stripping the wires out of the thermocouple and rewiring it into the new LED. Ultimately, I survived, and the light looks great. I put another LED in the entry as well for comparison purposes (the one over the stairs is 650 lumen while the entry is 575.)
Eric More on LED lighting: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/business/leds-emerge-as-a-popular-green-lighting.html
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You know your system is in trouble when even CTRL+ALT+DELETE doesn't work... ---------------------------
The new Fiddler beta has an improved ImageView extension, which exposes (often surprising) metadata in image files:
http://www.ubasics.com/dighole/
Austin's local "upscale" mall ("The Domain") has both an Apple store and a Microsoft store; I went to both this weekend. The Apple store had perhaps 50 shoppers and a selection of covetable updated hardware, most of which I would be delighted to buy the moment any of my current device fleet breaks. Despite owning three tablets (Kindle Fire1, Nexus7, IPad3), the only thing stopping me from getting an iPad Mini are the rumors that the Mini2 will be out this spring. The Microsoft store was quieter, with perhaps five shoppers walking around and looking at the new hardware. Notably, every device in the store was Win8 and Touch-enabled, which was great from the standpoint of being on message, and terrible from the "appeal" standpoint, since most of the 3rd party hardware is very clearly "v1" targeted and not nearly as compelling as the slick Ultrabooks that have been out for a year. I took a quick look at the Surface in the front of the store, and it sadly didn't leave me with a good impression. The touch cover was falling apart at the seam (literally) and launching IE led to an immediate modal error message (http://twitpic.com/bs8fcv) before leaving me on a white screen. I fired up the new PenguinMark benchmark to find that the Surface scores 0. Zero. Zip. Nada. The iPad Mini (running Apple's older tablet processor) scored better than that. It was a pretty depressing morning. :-( Rob Thanks for the heads up Eric. I've forwarded this along to the Store folks.
Hope all is well man. Miss you around the poker table.
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http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html Although, I really liked my econ class.
Conclusion: The crypto errors I have been complaining about occur if the Private Key in the RSACryptoServiceProvider changes on disk while HTTPS handshakes are taking place. This happened in Fiddler because it was trying to use the same KeyContainerName for all of the private keys for all of the certificates. When the LSASS.EXE process tries to complete the HTTPS handshake (this is always out-of-process to your application), it finds that the private key is unable to decrypt the data sent by the client, which was encrypted using the original private key. Lesson learned: While it's called a KeyContainer, it can only hold one exchange key at a time. If you want multiple keys (e.g. for multiple certificates) you need multiple containers.
2:31:41:4782 !SecureClientPipeDirect failed: System.Security.Authentication.AuthenticationException: A call to SSPI failed, see inner exception. ---> Eric Note: The "Session ID" in the screenshot above actually ends one line before. It's 32 bytes, not 40.
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As mentioned, I've been fighting with this stream for the last week or so.
12:31:41:4782 !SecureClientPipeDirect failed: System.Security.Authentication.AuthenticationException: A call to SSPI failed, see inner exception. ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The specified data could not be decrypted Eric @ 67.79.7.98 Conclusion: This is what happens if the Private Key in the RSACryptoServiceProvider changes on disk. When the LSASS.EXE process tries to complete the HTTPS handshake (this is always out-of-process to your application), it finds that the private key is unable to decrypt the data sent by the client, which was encrypted using the original private key. Lesson learned: While it's called a KeyContainer, it can only hold ONE exchange key at a time. If you want multiple keys (e.g. for multiple certificates) you need multiple containers.
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Anyone have any idea why this call: _httpsStream.AuthenticateAsServer(cert, _bWantClientCert, CONFIG.oAcceptedClientHTTPSProtocols, false);
Might occasionally fail thusly: A call to SSPI failed, see inner exception. < The specified data could not be decrypted The same call with the same certificate succeeded earlier during the process' lifetime; after it gets in the "bad" state, it will continue to occur until I use a new certificate. If I take the cert object's private key, I can successfully .Encrypt and .Decrypt data with it. The clients in this case are all major browsers, so this is definitely isn't the client's fault. If I enable Crypto-NCrypt logging, I see the following in the event log: Cryptographic Operation failed. Anyone have any tips for debugging this? Alexey What you see in CAPI2 log?
Event Viewer\Applications And Services Logs\Microsoft\Windows\CAPI2\Operational?
Eric @ 67.79.7.98 No errors, although a bunch of operations on .CER files that were apparently generated within(C:\Users\lawrence\AppData\LocalLow\Microsoft\X509Objects) matching the self-generated certificates. Kinda odd to see them there, since those certs weren't generated via CAPI (used BouncyCastle). Eric Oh, actually, those .CER Files correspond to those received from the upstream server, so they're not related to either the certs or private keys my code is generating... + Comment
The magic of software is that you can do stuff like this: catch (UglyTrimException) In real life, running the above code takes several hours and requires a $600 trip to Home Depot.
Dave I would have expected more HTML encoding attempts - or does me not seeing those mean they worked? =)
Eric I think they're more interested in getting root than a boring XSS. I fixed the last XSS bug a few months back. + Comment
Jane and I went to a Country bar last night. Observations: 1> Country bars are awesome. 2> Jane can pick up any dance in like, 2 minutes. 3> Jane dancing to country is awesome. 4> I can't dance, regardless of genre. Anson Did you wear a cowboy hat?
Eric Alas, no. Maybe someday. W Did you play the fiddle? Eric Current plan is to let one of the kids learn to play and then call it good. I've never been musical at all. ???? SomeCustomInjectedHeader:injected_by_wvs ???? ../../../../../../../../../../windows/win.ini ???? &dir ???? undefined ???? undefined ???? http://some-inexistent-website.acu/some_inexistent_file_with_long_name ???? ) ???? c:/windows/win.ini ???? |dir ???? ZGLihHh3 ???? 1some_inexistent_file_with_long_name ???? print(md5(acunetix_wvs_security_test));die();/* ???? !(()&&!|*|*| ???? ../../../../../../../../../../windows/win.ini ???? 268435455 ???? undefined' and sleep(4)=' ???? http://testphp.vulnweb.com/acunetix_file_inclusion_test? ???? ${@print(md5(acunetix_wvs_security_test))} ???? ^(#$!@#$)(()))****** ???? À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯windowsÀ¯win.ini ???? 1e309 ???? undefined" and sleep(4)=" ???? ${@print(md5(acunetix_wvs_security_test))}\ ???? ..\..\..\..\..\..\..\..\windows\win.ini ???? undefined ???? '"'");|]*{%0d%0a<%00> ???? undefined' or (sleep(4)+1) limit 1 -- SomeCustomInjectedHeader:injected_by_ undefined ???? /.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\./windows/win.ini ???? undefined ???? acunetix_wvs_invalid_filename ???? undefined" or (sleep(4)+1) limit 1 -- ???? ../..//../..//../..//../..//../..//../..//../..//../..//windows/win.ini ???? 1' ???? add.asp ???? undefined'=sleep(4)=' ???? ../.../.././../.../.././../.../.././../.../.././../.../.././../.../.././windows/win.ini ???? À ???? add.asp ???? undefined"=sleep(4)=" ???? @ 108.172.102.220 unexisting/../../../../../../../../../../windows/win.ini.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\ ???? 1" ???? add.asp/. ???? undefined'; waitfor delay '0:0:4' -- ???? //www.acunetix.tst ???? À¢ ???? undefined"; waitfor delay '0:0:4' -- ???? JyI= ???? ¿'¿" &dir undefined ???? ð''ð"" |dir undefined //www.acunetix.tst undefined http://some-inexistent-website.acu/some_ undefined ) undefined 1some_inexistent_file_with_long_name undefined print(md5(acunetix_wvs_security_test));d undefined !(()&&!|*|*| undefined http://testphp.vulnweb.com/acunetix_file undefined ???? '" ${@print(md5(acunetix_wvs_security_test) undefined ^(#$!@#$)(()))****** undefined ${@print(md5(acunetix_wvs_security_test) undefined ???? '"()&%1<ScRiPt >prompt(947375)</ScRiPt> ???? <!-- ???? OTAzMzYw ???? undefined ???? undefined 268435455 undefined 1e309 undefined '"'");|]*{%0d%0a<%00> undefined '" undefined ???? undefined <!-- undefined acunetix_wvs_invalid_filename undefined add.asp undefined add.asp undefined add.asp/. undefined ???? undefined 1' undefined À undefined 1" undefined '"()&%1<ScRiPt >prompt(933140)</ScRiPt> undefined À¢ undefined OTg0Nzgz undefined JyI= undefined ¿'¿" undefined ../../../../../../../../../../windows/wi undefined ð''ð"" undefined c:/windows/win.ini undefined ../../../../../../../../../../windows/wi undefined À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À®À¯À®À® undefined ..\..\..\..\..\..\..\..\windows\win.ini undefined /.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\./.\\./windows/w undefined ../..//../..//../..//../..//../..//../.. undefined ../.../.././../.../.././../.../.././../. undefined unexisting/../../../../../../../../../.. undefined 1 undefined 2 undefined 1 and sleep(4) undefined 1 or (sleep(4)+1) limit 1 -- undefined 1' and sleep(4)=' undefined 1" and sleep(4)=" undefined 1' or (sleep(4)+1) limit 1 -- undefined 1" or (sleep(4)+1) limit 1 -- undefined 1'=sleep(4)=' undefined 1"=sleep(4)=" undefined 1; waitfor delay '0:0:4' -- undefined 1'; waitfor delay '0:0:4' -- undefined 1"; waitfor delay '0:0:4' -- undefined + Comment
Attention:!!!, Behold, you are reading a letter from your President Barack Obama. Finally, I have received lists of the names of people that are involved in money laundry and terrorism which your name is among the names that was submitted to me and I have ordered to release arrest warrant to the IPA to quickly carry out their duty and make sure that they get you arres ted and summon you to the court immediately which they will be on their duty on Thursday morning as assigned since you are trying to play ball with me. You have failed to comply with them after all the warning and instructions given to you, but since you are also among the terrorist we are facing in the country, I will personal make sure that I wipe away the crime in the state and I promise you that you will definitely pay with your life because I am here to protect the interest of my people and not to put them in shame, you suppose to support this government and not to spoil it. Since it has been confirmed by Nigerian government that this fund actually belongs to you and here the law demands that it cannot be release to you unless you provide the certificate which is AWARD OWNERSHIP CERTIFICATE that is what the IPA has been demanding for a very long time now. For your own good, I am giving you last chance t oday to tell me as the President why you have failed to provide the certificate and why do you fail the IPA that is working under my instruction which you know that once you disobey them you have disobeyed me as well. Do note that if you failed to get back to this office within 24hours, you will be apprehended and charge to court immediately for involving in money laundry and terrorism and there you will see my face. You will only be free if you get back to my office by promising that you will provide the certificate within 48hours otherwise you will be in soup, BE WARNED!. I will advise you further on what to do once they hear from you in other to resolve this matter amicably. Contact unitedbnkafrica.plc@msn.com Kindly respond to this message. From the desk of the President. Barack Obama. Dave The first line makes me lol. First 'behold' and second 'your'.
???? My name too is-Eric Lawrence and you are a disgrace to the name Eric No, ????, your name is ????. + Comment
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh367887(v=VS.110).aspx
Lots of great quotes as well. http://evilbrainjono.net/blog?showcomments=true&permalink=1094
How could I not have known about this valuable service? ua Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_3; en-us; Silk/1.0.22.79_10013310) AppleWebKit/533.16 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0 Safari/533.16 Silk-Accelerated=true
+ Comment
Yay. 81,107 words made up of 541909 characters spread over 329 pages. Total authoring & editing time, just over 7000 minutes.
From: Rae J. Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 3:09 AM Subject: Fiddler Did Not Work for Me and Made Internet Browsing Worse! Hello, I installed Fiddler 2.0 software yesterday at the recommendation of Microsoft Zune personnel and it made my situation worse. I am extremely disappointed! Not only can I not log on to my Zune profile, my other Internet browsing activities are damaged by my having to check certificates for each and every site! This was completely not worth it. I cannot even uninstall this lousy software! If I cannot find a way to uninstall Fiddler 2.0, I'm taking my laptop with me to work ([Elided]) and having someone from IT figure it out and then I will post a caveat on my social media outlets publishing the instructions I received from Microsoft Zune personnel, posting your http:// address and detailing the nature of my resulting problems to warn others away from ever trying Fiddler 2.0 and to speak out against it should they have also come across the same disappointing experiences. [Full name Elided] [Title Elided] [Address Elided] [Email Elided] [Phone number Elided] Dear Rachel, I’m sorry to hear that you’re frustrated. No one likes to be frustrated. Having said that, I think you should talk to your Mom or Dad about proper behavior when you’re frustrated and how to get help from people you don’t know to use tools that you don’t understand. Perhaps they can help you understand how to remain polite while frustrated. Alternatively, they might suggest that if you’re going to threaten someone you don’t actually know, you probably ought not do so in an email that contains both your private email address and your phone number. That’s just not a good idea. Fiddler uninstalls like nearly every other piece of software on Windows—through the Add/Remove Programs control panel. Simply Select Fiddler and select Uninstall.
I don’t know what you mean about “having to check certificates for each and every site” but Fiddler literally does nothing when it’s not running. If you don’t want Fiddler to capture your traffic, simply close it. Just click the Red “X” button:
I hope you have a nice day, Rachel. -Eric
It's amazing how much effort goes into some things. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw Quite funny though.
[Window Title] [Main Instruction] [Content] Can you wait a little longer? If you leave before your connection is restored, the last action you took might not happen. [Leave this page] [Stay on this page]
Beyond the "Don't make a hotkey CTRL+ALT+something" an important lesson here is also "Don't check (e.Control && e.KeyCode==something)" because that will also fire when an international user hits AltGr+Something.
The internet is a wonderful thing.
-----Original Message-----
From: Account/Alert
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 12:59 AM Subject: Re: Personal Information?
Release order of your income
Account owner, The higher authorities that is in charge of international
transaction has this morning declared you promo to receive all your
transaction from Africa,This Notice is brought to you from FBI World
Fund Discovery management, this Bureau was set up by the World Bank and
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over the world through unclaimed Lotto inheritance Email.
The arrangement was made this morning and the Federal High Court Of
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only
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Dear Confidant/Scam Victim,
From: Act Against Fraud®
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 10:38 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Notification On Your Email Account Dear Internet Users,
There is a current upgrade going on as the internet has so many scams going on this days and we are trying to wipe out all fraudulent activities.You may be a victim of fraud.
Please click this link below and enter the required information so you email account will be free from internet activities as Microsoft and AOL with all internet bodies are putting head together to wipe away this activities caused by fraudster.
We are sorry for the trouble and wish to applogised to those whom have loss alot from it.
Regards,
Mrs. Lillian Burton
Interpol/Microsoft
Fraudulent Monitor Dept Dave @ 131.107.0.87 Microsoft, AOL and Interpol have determined that the Internet upgrade will consist of replacing the Internet's existing plastic tubes with new fraud resistant copper tubing. Do not connect your PC to the Internet during the upgrade since the tube replacement will result in pressure changes that could tear your PC inside out.
???? @ 203.122.14.226 Hey, thanks a lot to provide this information; I think being attentive and aware in this regard is highly important to avoid any risk; thanks for this warning. <a href="http://www.usbdrivedatarecovery.com">restore usb </a> http://www.usbdrivedatarecovery.com barcode software This article is really the one that I needed. I really learned a lot by reading the whole content. Thanks for this. free barcode http://www.generate-barcode.com + Comment
Dear Member,
I got a battery to replace the DVD drive, and added in a 80gig Intel 310 mSATA and 4 more gigs of RAM. The capacity for the physical size is pretty amazing: I'm self-hosting daily Windows 8 builds on the SSD, but wanted a “safe” drive for booting to Windows 7 when I need to get some development done. I got another Intel 510 Series since it was working so well in my old X200. Alas, when I went to pull out the puny 320gig hard disk, I found that the SSD was too tall! It's a 9.5mm enclosure, and the T420s only has a 7mm tall drive bay. I naturally realized that I could take the SSD's cover off, so it's just a bare 2mm thick circuit board, but that seems a bit risky-- rattling about in the bay, it's bound to short out or detach from the SATA connection. Hrm. One of my reports pointed out that making this work was a "good project" and shamed me into thinking about how I might secure the board. Seven bucks at Home Depot later, I was ready to embark on the task. I'll admit, it's not the usual equipment you need to install a SSD :-) ... So, I was all set to do some crazy mounting to get the drive secure when I realized that I probably should have spent some more time thinking about the problem first... It turns out that if you take just half of the SSD's case off, and screw the HDD's sliding cage over the other half, the SSD neatly slides into the bay. Fortunately, the cage is shielded electrically so I'm pretty sure there won't be a short, and since the dimensions match the old HDD, it's not going to rattle loose. I'm mildly worried about the thermal implications of losing the 3mm of airgap clearance, but, well, we'll see. When I was done, I had the bare 320gig 7mm HDD (I'll throw that in an external enclosure) and half of the SSD case left over: Now, off to install all of the software I need to make using Windows comfortable...
The one thing she didn’t have as she roared into the crystalline sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to throw at a hostile aircraft. Except her own plane. So that was the plan.
Being married to the USB PM rocks. :-)
Nice to meet you sir, i got your Email from your Fiddle in a not shell sir i need you help sir on how to make use of your software and how to hack host smtp rdp admin login database and others please With the name of God you are serving sir please give me a response sir Thank very much Best regard Dave I'm confused. Did they find a reference to Fiddler on a hacking howto but couldn't figure out how to use it?
Eric I assume that's what happened. + Comment
Who designs these customer experiences? Are major tech companies simply infiltrated by their competitors, agents who sabotage decent products with moronic "features"?
I actually donate to FactCheck, but I’m sad to see the sloppiness here: http://www.factcheck.org/2011/08/romneys-run-in-on-social-security/
He said payroll taxes take 15.3 percent "out of your earnings," but only the self-employed pay that rate. All other workers pay half of that, with the other half being paid for by the employer.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of economics understands that it doesn’t matter whether a tax line is printed on your paystub or not, it’s still coming out of your pay.
Say the government cleverly decided: “Hey, Americans don’t like paying taxes. Let’s just institute a payroll tax on the employer for exactly the same amount as currently paid by the employee, and stop taking any money from the employee directly.”
In that event what do you think would happen to the employee’s take-home pay? If you think it would go up, you should probably find a new line of work.
It’s not an accident that the Social Security tax-rate on the self-employed is the full amount.
I was particularly interested in doing this because I wanted to see how well Apple's "Network boot of Lion" feature works. It turns out that it works fine, but the user-experience is pretty bad-- so bad that I assume they must have done this on purpose to scare off the newbies and force them to bring their Mac back to the store for help. After installing my new SSD and powering the Mac back on, I got the infamous grey screen with a folder icon and a blinking question mark, no text in sight. After searching a bit, I learned that you have to hold Option/ALT while restarting to get to a useful screen. Okay. So I do that. Now I get a dropdown box which my mouse can just barely reach (it only moves vertically for some reason now, wtf?). In the dropdown, I get a list of WiFi access points. Err... okay, my machine is plugged in via CAT6 ethernet cable, but okay, I pick my WiFi network. Only now do I see some text "Network recovery" or something. Cool. I pick that. After a 10 minute download or so, I come to a screen with four options. "Restore from Timemachine" is first. "Install MacOS X" was the second. I click that. After some more downloads and such, Mac shows a screen: "Select hard drive to install Lion" with an empty box. Sigh. I assume that I must have hooked the SSD up incorrectly. But it looked right... Alas, I can't back out of the screen at this point, and I don't have time to reboot and go through the whole process again. The next morning, I repeat the process, this time, reading ALL of the options on the screen. After "Install MacOS X" there's some other option, and Disk Utilities. I click that, and go into a disk manager, and there's my SSD. I click "Make partition." Now I've got a partition, and I can back out and go into the install. There we go, now everything works. I'm amazed and amused that Windows XP (!!!!) has a better-designed user-experience for installing on a freshly installed disk. But, it all works now and I've got a pretty fast Mac on which to play with XCode. Which, hilariously, is absurdly complicated compared to Visual Studio, which is NOT a simple environment. Ah, the joys of new platforms. :-)
ANZ {{Loyal|Valued}} Customer Security: A-Z Review {{As part of|Due to|Regarding our latest additions to}} our {{security|protection}} measures, we {{regularly|often}} {{screen|monitor}} activity on the ANZ.COM Online Banking system. Sign-In to Online Banking -- to {{ensure|preserve}} your {{safety|security}}, please only use this link. Security AdvisorRemember, ANZ is committed to your security and protection. To find out more, take a look at our Security and Privacy statement on the website. Australia and New Zealand Bank. "We Live In Your World." В© Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) 2011 ABN 11 005 357 522. ANZ's colour blue is a trade mark of ANZ.
This message is from the Database Information Technology service messaging center, to all our e-mail account holders. All Mailhub systems will undergo regularly scheduled maintenance. Access to your mailbox via our mail portal will be unavailable for some period of time during this maintenanceperiod. We shall be carrying out service maintenance on our database and e-mail accountcenter for better online services. We are deleting all unusede-mail accounts to create more space for new accounts. In order to ensure you do not experience service interruptions/possible deactivation Please you must reply to this email immediately confirming your email account details below for confirmation/identification. _____________________________________ 1. First Name & Last Name: 2. Full Login Email Address: 3. Username & Password: 4. Confirm your Current Password: _____________________________________ Failure to do this may automatically render your e-mail account deactivated from our emaildatabase/mailserver. to enable us upgrade your email account, please do reply to this mail. Thanks. Upgrade Team
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/22/138576167/when-patents-attack
I am Ms Justina Oge. A computer scientist with central bank of Nigeria. Jim ....
Dave The only thing I will need to deliver these funds to you is a special JET SKI and SPORT BOAT. If interested please send funds immediately. + Comment
I went to the Post Office this morning to send a package.
So, I wait patiently for fifteen minutes or so, filling out one of the two types of customs form (neither of which indicates why you’d choose one over the other) and wait for the lone service person to get through the 5 people in line before me. I finally get to the counter and hand over my parcel. “Ground to Canada please,” I say.
“We don’t send to Canada” she says, pushing the box back across the counter to me and looking over my shoulder for the next customer.
You can imagine the incredulous look on my face. “You don’t send mail to Canada.” I repeated.
“No.” was the terse reply.
“Since when?” I sputtered.
“Today.” she replied.
I stood there dumbly. She saw that I wasn’t going anywhere, so she offered “They on strike.”
Ah. Sigh. Ravi Rao Yeah, see this for more information: <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/06/15/canada-post-strike.html>
+ Comment
ritika this is just fantastic.
i have had the most awful experiences with bing maps in recent times.
+ Comment
In other news, tomorrow is my 10 year anniversary at Microsoft.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0sCCJFkEbE&feature=player_embedded
33. Intel® 5 Series Chipset and Intel® 3400 Series Chipset Not Responding to Cx Request when USB Async Advance Door Bell is Set Eric Intel has updated this errata to claim that this problem only happens with "one proprietary GUI application." Unless by that they mean "Windows", they're lying.
Eric Note: Someone on the USB team in Windows provided me with a script you can run in the debugger to unset the bits that enable the buggy feature. Email me for details. + Comment
I lived here for three years and I don't recognize anything in the entire video. Weird.
Someone from the Oregon Tourism Board was trying to win a Truth-in-Advertising prize:
I wonder where the VHS tapes went. :-) Eric too true: "They have learned to retain massive amounts of trivia that will last them through college before disappearing into the storage locker of things they once knew" :-D
+ Comment
 Sheesh Dear Apple. Multithreading is a hot new technique that makes software suck less. You should really look into it.
mango Is sweet! + Comment
The personal details of your Halifax bank account has engaged error which made your account suspended. <link elided> Thank you
Eric New Fidelity form 3922 makes calculating compensation income for Qualifying Dispositions somewhat simpler. You must still keep track of which lots you're selling and wrestle with Wash sale rules, however. http://www.fairmark.com/execcomp/espp/qualifying.htm
+ Comment
Eric Amusingly enough, today I got a non-spam message starting with "Dear Friend" from a real person who wasn't just reacting to this post.
Keylogger Interesting post, These two words are very common to see in the beginning of the email. http://www.keylogger.in Download keylogger + Comment
Rachel I can't tell if ericlawrence.com is slanted or if I am :-)
Eric You must be running IE9! :-) I did this to make IE crash for a while, but we fixed that bug a long time ago. I need to switch it back... Dave You really do need to switch it back =) Eric You can now click on my face to make the page crooked. Eric I've added an SVG Gradient to the page. Fun! + Comment
I've got a can of Coke in my office from the 2008 Olympic Games; the label is written in Russian which I thought was sorta neat. The can was sitting atop my wall-hanging bookshelf for the last few years. At some point over the weekend, this can sprung a leak, drizzling coke all over my books and a computer sitting underneath. The keyboard's a total loss, and I'm afraid to turn on the monitor which has a broad array of ventilation holes on top.
getComponentVersion says you are running Internet Explorer 9,0,8110,16414.
getComponentVersion says you are running
I'll summarize: "Problem: If we told your browser what we do with our cookies, it would block them automatically. Solution: We won't." Problem solved. sigh.
No thank you. -Eric
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/17/congress-passes-socialized-medicine-and-mandates-health-insurance-in-1798/
Eric Some other goodies here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/technology/personaltech/30pogue.html
+ Comment
Hi, I'm writing this with tears in my eyes,sorry I did not inform you about our trip.I actually made a quick travel to SPAIN and unfortunately attacked and mugged at gun point on the way to my hotel,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off me but luckily I still have my passport with me. I`ve been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and my return flight leaves anytime from now but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let me leave until I settle the bills. Am freaked out at the moment and need help. Help Bill
Poor Bill. He was so flustered he didn't even provide me a Western Union account number to which I could send him enormous piles of money. Eric The day prior, it was Jack who was in the UK for a previously-unmentioned surgery and he lost his wallet. My Hotmail inbox is enormously entertaining as I get a front-row seat for all of the scams. My favorite was the assassination/extortion scam.
+ Comment
 andrewb whats all that white stuff on the ground? I know Ive seen it in movies ... ;)
gktpro nice view! test test + Comment
http://www.zillow.com/blog/homes-of-titans-who-rule-the-tech-world/2010/11/03/
Last week, my lovely wife was singing along... "Take me down to the paradise city, where the girls are green and the grass is pretty..." :-)
andrewb I saw a demo of something similar from Phillips in 2000 where they took the soccer ball out of the coverage of a soccer game in real-time. To see the ball you had to pay a fee.
+ Comment
Eric http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/lift1.html
andrewb Admittedly Im yet to see a 747 fly upside down. Therefore, my parents are santa claus. + Comment
Please you are to follow the Below information to Validate Your Mailbox And Increase Your Quota. First Name: Last Name: Username/ID: Password: Date of Birth: Failure to follow this process to Validate Your Quota may result in loss Of important information in your Mailbox/Or Cause Limited Access To It. *Important* Please provide all these information completely and correctly otherwise due to security reasons we may have to close your account temporarily. We have been sending this notice to all our email account owners and this is the last notice/verification exercise. Thanks HelpDesk Support.
After proper and several investigations and research at Western Union and MoneyGram Office, we found your name in Western Union database amongst those that have sent money through Western Union to Nigeria and this proves that you have truly been swindled by those unscrupulous persons by sending money to them through Western Union/MoneyGram in the course of getting one fund or the other that is not real, right now we are working hand in hand with Western Union to track every fraudsters down, do not respond to their e-mails, letters and phone calls any longer as they are scammers and you should be very careful to avoid being a victim to fraudsters any longer because they have nothing to offer you but to rip-off what you have worked earnestly hard to earn. In this regard a meeting was held between the Board of Directors of The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and as a consequence of our investigations it was agreed that the sum of sixty thousand US Dollars (US$60,000.00) should be transferred to you out of the funds that Federal Government of Nigeria has set aside as a compensation to everyone who have by one way or the other sent money to fraudsters in Nigeria. ***Please note that we will no longer be liable for any loss, cost or expense whatsoever, suffered or incurred by You in connection with the fraudsters. Be warned! We have deposited your fund at Western Union Money Transfer agent location EMS Post office Lagos, Nigeria. We have submitted your details to them so that your fund can be transferred to you. We have paid the Registration and Transfer fees and for security reasons we have also insured your fund to avoid misappropriation. Contact the Western Union agent office through any of the email addresses stated below; wu_nigeria@info.al Yours sincerely, Micheal Randle, Investigation Officer. ****************************************************************************************************************** Please note that e-mails, letters and phone calls are currently been made to unsuspecting persons by fraudsters claiming to have access to their funds. Everyday, people throughout the world are falling victim to scams of one way or the other. It could be an unexpected prize draw or lottery win, or a chance to invest in an exciting new money-making or investment programme . In the circumstance, we unreservedly advice you to dissociate yourself from all correspondence and transactions entered into based on evidently fraudulent and fictitious claims. *****************************************************************************************************************
adimcev I did not use Safari in a while, but I think they complain about not being able to do a CRL check or something(you did not show if you MITM yourself or not)...
If so, their statement is correct from a security point of view(although is not an EV cert), is the Windows CAPI that shows the cert as valid.
Thanks,
Adrian
+ Comment
"lick here" was my favorite part of this mail. Although the explanation of why they cannot deduct the $210 fee from my $7.5 million dollars was sorta funny. As is the fact that the Prime Minister of the UK is sending me American dollars.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI Seattle Division
1110 Third Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101-2904
Payment Code: R5109176K
Reg No: 132731593
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has discovered through our intelligence Monitoring Network that you are eligible to receive the sum of $7,500,000.00 USD
regarding to an over-due Inheritance/Award payment which was fully endorsed to be paid in your favor.therefore,the FBI Seattle Division in conjunction with the
United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Has screened through our various Monitoring Networks and has been confirmed and notified that the
transaction you have with the Financial Institution is Legal and you have the Lawful Right to claim your due fund.
The Prime Minister His Excellency David Cameron the United kingdom Prime Minister(UK) has given us the final approval to pay your fun to you within the next 72hrs,
Your fund valued $7,500,000.00 USD has been deposited into a Gold smart Card number: 5179 1234 5678 personal identification is ATM-7997 this card will enable
you buy and withdrawal cash anywhere around the world this is done for your own security, with this card you will not have to take the risk of sending us your personal
banking details online as you have been strongly advise by your local bank not to send your banking details to anyone online.
For more details lick here http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6793E420100810
What you are required to do now to Pay the fees of $210.00 USD for the shipment
of your Gold Smart card to your choice location, $210.00 USD is the only fees
that has been approved by both the FBI and the Bank that you are to pay as cost
of Delivery of your Card to you by the courier company.Once the fees is been
paid your ATM CARD will get to you in the next 2-3 working day.
Note: Your funds are protected by a hardcover insurance policy, which makes it
Impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it can be remitted to
you.this means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the Funds and
hence must be provided by you before your fund is transferred to you.the payment
for any of the above options should be sent via Western Union Money Transfer in
the name of the Head of accounts Mr. Justin Brown
Find below the payment information.
Name of receiver: Justin Brown
Office Address: 45 Gresham Street London United Kingdom UK (EC2V 7QA)
Text Question: In God
Answer: We Trust
Name of Sender:.....................
Address of Sender:..................
MTCN#...............................
As soon as we receive your payment, he shall proceed with your fund transfer
immediately.We anticipate your prompt response. If you need to contact me at any
stage please do not hesitate to call (+1-206-984-0470)
Sincerely,
Steven M. Dean (Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge)
cc Robert Mueller (FBI Director)
Mr. Levi Edward
Eric They spent an extra 300$ on the "Nickel" finish instead of the "Chrome" finish. I don't think our fancy shower head was more than about a hundred bucks!
Erin It's Jason's father's day gift....Shhhhh....don't ruin the surprise...... + Comment
Hello, Anson Your spam is way more interesting then mine. The best one I received recently was: "I have an investment proposal of $23,995,720.00 for you". Obviously $24 mil would have been over the top.
Tick Tok. Tick Tok.
andrewb its so hard to find a trustworthy reliable hitman these days ... canary you don't follow instructions very well... Eric Indeed, I am a terrible mark. Joe Surprisingly, I received that same message yesterday! Eric Hehe: http://www.scamorama.com/prolite_agnes_hitlad.html + Comment
I finally finished installing the window A/C unit last week. Naturally, the weather is going to be in the low 60s for the foreseeable future. :-P
Sigh. I'm sure this will all be sorted out in 6-8 months. Turns out the DisplayPort standard was just ratified in December.
Later… After disassembling the console, it’s clear that the problem is there’s a stuck line in the membrane keypad. I wasn’t able to surgically fix that, but I determined which of the 8 control lines was stuck and simply unplugged that one. So, now the 1 and 4 button don’t work at all, but all of the other buttons do—including the increase/decrease buttons, which allow me to easily get to 1 and 4 anyway. The ProForm folks aren’t willing to replace/sell me just a membrane keypad—they will only sell a whole new console (>$300). Rats. In fairness, doing a little bit of hardware hacking was sorta fun.
First, a bit of contrast. Your Stock Awards (part of your annual review) are pretty easy to deal with tax-wise. The vested award's value appears on your W2 in Box 1, and shows on your paystub as "Stock Award Spread". Taxes on the award are automatically withheld, and those also appear on your W2 in the appropriate Federal, Social Security, and Medicare tax boxes. They're listed on your paystub as "Stock Award taxes." Easy enough. Of course, you still have to figure your Capital Gains (or losses) when you sell the awarded stock. We'll get to that in a minute. ----------------------- Compared to Stock Awards, the tax rules for ESPP are quite complicated. They're also hard to follow because of how Fidelity and your W2 do recordkeeping. When you actually "buy" ESPP at the end of the offering period, there are no taxes to pay. Great! Unfortunately, when you sell, the world gets very complicated. The first thing to understand is that, depending on when you sell, you either have made a "Qualifying" or "Disqualifying" Disposition. For Microsoft ESPP, if you sell the ESPP shares within 21 months of buying them, it's a "Disqualifying" Disposition. Now, "Disqualifying" sounds bad, but it isn't necessarily a problem and actually makes your taxes a fair bit simpler. When you make a DQDSP sale, you have to account for the "Compensation value" of your ESPP DISCOUNT as "ORDINARY INCOME". For Microsoft, that discount is 10% of the purchase price of the shares. Microsoft keeps track of the DQDSP "Compensation value" on your W2; it appears alone in Box #14, and the value is also added to Box #1. Being in Box #1 means that DQDSP's "Compensation Value" is counted as a part of your taxable income automatically, which is good. The bad part is that Microsoft doesn't withhold taxes on that taxable income, however, which can lead to unpleasant surprises come tax season. In contrast, when you make a Qualifying sale (QDSP), your "Compensation value" / ORDINARY INCOME is the lower of: 1> The Discount you *would have gotten* on the stock, AS IF it would have bought at the *start* of the offering period (aka 3 months before it actually DID buy) Depending on how the stock price has moved between the start of the offering period and when you sell it, a QDSP could provide tax advantages OR disadvantages over a DQDSP. Surprising, eh? It gets worse... ** WARNING **
The "Qualifying" or "Disqualifying" nature of the Disposition controls how much "ordinary" income you have received from the ESPP discount. But when you buy or sell stock, you also have to report the Capital Gain or Loss. To do that, you calculate the proceeds of the sale minus your BASIS cost. Critically for ESPP sales, your BASIS cost IS NOT what you *actually* paid for the stock-- it's what you paid for the stock PLUS the "ordinary" income you reported for the discount. This means your Capital Gain on ESPP shares is smaller (or your Capital Loss larger) than what Fidelity reports on your year-end statement. ** WARNING ** To calculate the CAPITAL GAIN OR LOSS for DQDSP: 1> Use the FAIR MARKET VALUE of the shares purchased (e.g. what you paid PLUS the $ discount) as your BASIS COST To calculate the CAPITAL GAIN or LOSS for a QDSP: 1> Determine how much ORDINARY INCOME you paid on the QDSP sale At this point the record keeping is getting pretty hard, huh? Because you cannot trust the BASIS information reported to you (because it doesn't account for the "Compensation Value" treated as ORDINARY INCOME) you must understand which specific shares were sold as a part of each sale, so that you can properly compute the BASIS. It gets worse. ----------------------- For instance, say you buy 212 shares on March 31st, and sell 212 shares on April 5th. You might logically think that your April 5th sale represents the shares that you bought on March 31st. But if you didn't pick specific shares to sell, and already held any shares before March 31st, it's likely that some or all of those other, earlier shares are what actually sold. So, your order to sell 212 shares might actually be selling shares you bought last year, or whatever. If you sold shares at a loss, it gets worse. ----------------------- In the example above, you failed to specify the exact shares to sell in your April 5th sale. You're not selling the March 31st shares, and hence your March 31st ESPP purchase means that you've acquired "substantially identical" stock (http://www.fairmark.com/capgain/wash/wsreplac.htm). So if your sale of those older shares results in a loss, you don't get to claim that loss directly due to the Wash Sale rule. Now, it's not the end of the world because the Wash Sale rule says that you get to use your loss to adjust the BASIS (price and date) of the new stock that you've acquired. But this means yet more accounting on your part. But it gets worse. ----------------------- And that's a freakin' disaster, because as mentioned 3 sections ago, Fidelity fails to properly adjust the BASIS price of shares ESPP sales, meaning that you have to do it yourself. But since Fidelity has already "helpfully" changed the BASIS price and DATE to account for the WASH SALE, it can be virtually impossible to figure out WHICH shares were actually sold, meaning it's virtually impossible for you to properly adjust the BASIS to take into account the ORDINARY INCOME you recognized. Oh, and keep in mind that the change of the BASIS DATE means that your later sale may be changed from a SHORT-TERM transaction to a LONG-TERM transaction. Confusing. ---------------- Now, the easy answer for all of this is to just give an accountant $300 bucks and a binder full of your documents and submit whatever tax return they prepare for you. But given the utter insanity of the math and the "lossy" record-keeping on Fidelity's statements and the W2, it's hard to imagine that a professional accountant would get this all done correctly either. It's enough to make me wish for a flat tax even if I were to end up paying a lot more. Thoughts for the future: 1> Always specify which tax lots to sell. Even if I choose "wrong" and don't have the best tax outcome, at least I won't spend 9 hours trying to figure out which shares correspond to which transactions. D I thought I was crazy when I figured out that the tax basis on the Fidelity statements was wrong a few days ago. Surprisingly there isnt a lot of hits when you search for this topic specifically for MSFT employees. Thanks for your post, kind of helped me confirm that I am not crazy. I am a CPA and I have to now go back and sort through 5 years of transactions to get the returns corrected. Way to go, Fidelity!
Sharon so is there anyway to know from your fidelity statements which lots you sold or you just have to guess/work it out based on the cost basis that fidelity is reporting? Eric Sharon: The Fidelity statements will typically break your transaction down into the lots you sold with a "Acquired" date on them. The problem is that if you have any WASH sales, they will auto-adjust the Acquired date for you, which makes it hard to tell which shares exactly they were. Hence my advice to keep track of which lots you're selling manually. Tom Nice to know I'm not the only one who feels like an idiot trying to figure this out Don't forget another problem; sometimes the 1099-B just says "various" for the acquired date on some sales :) Selecting "view lots" from the MSFT dropdown when on the "cost basis" positions tab gives a better breakdown. DK What happens if Fidelity sold the shares FIFO? Is there a way the sale with specific lots come tax time? TS If you choose an "accountant", double check the work. A couple years ago, when I sold a bunch of ESPP stock all at once, I went to H&R Block to avoid this mess. The result is that they said I owed IncomeTaxRate * NetProceeds, completely forgetting both (a) short-term vs. long-term, and, more importantly, (b) COST BASIS. W Shouldn't there be an app for that? Dheeraj Yup, I had to deal with all of this this year also - many ESPP lots that were also wash sales. And lucky me - I happened to sell all those fractions of shares dating back all the way to 2003. So I had to put in many, many entries (and do many calculations), for .32 shares, .68 shares, etc. What makes me feel better is that I independently came to the same conclusions as you did in your post :) Brad Further, Fidelity does not let you specify specific lots when you are selling your stock via a covered call option. Those are always FIFO and there is no way to specify a particular lot. You can find the record of which shares you specified (if you entered it on the sell transaction) on the individual trade confirmation slip (available as a PDF on Fidelity's site.) Eric http://www.fairmark.com/execcomp/espp/qualifying.htm is helpful. S Thanks for your very helpful post. This year, I have all of the above including the covered call assignment. When I called Fidelity to inquire, the rep told me the "12/31/2009w" would imply the stocks in the ESPP period ending 12/31/2009. This didn't seem right as my calculations for DSQDSP didn't match what is reported on the W2. Only after reading this post, I realize fidelity "helpfully" tries to adjust the Date acquired too and the rep gave me incorrect information! SS @ 71.132.140.118 Eric, I was wondering what would fidelity do to "Date Option Granted" in case of Wash sale adjustment. Does that get adjusted too like Date Option exercised? If only the date exercised is moved back as basis adjustment but date Option granted is not, there could be cases where the sale may remain DQDSP. Example: you sold ~ 3years old stock for a loss, then got another lot within 30 days which you sold in next month or so. So if Exercise date moves back 3 years but date granted does not, this is still DQDSP though per general wash sale rule, this should have become long term loss. What do you think? mw Awesome! Thanks Brandon Zahl Eric, thanks so much for this advice! I'll be passing it along to people at work. I suspect nearly all of us are "blindly accepting" fidelity's numbers. Brad @ 174.61.170.166 Eric - thanks for this super helpful info! Just wanted to add that Fidelity now adds an extremely helpful "Supplemental Stock Plan Lot Detail" to your 1099 Tax Form (which I can get to from the website). As far as I can tell, this has done the calculation perfectly for my Qualifying dispositions - it has the ordinary income computed with the share price at the beginning of the offering period and the cost basis calculated with that value plus the purchase price. Eric Indeed, the Fidelity Supplemental Stock Plan Lot Detail info they added is useful. Another great resource is http://joshmaher.net/2013/03/19/reporting-espp-taxes/ + Comment
… if the man upstairs doesn’t want my parents at my wedding…
<spam> Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division Fbi Headquarters In Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau Of InvestigationJ. Edgar Hoover Building935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 ATTENTION: SIR/MADAM. For your information, we have been authorized by the President Barrack Obama to get everyone who is involved in money laundry and terrorism; this was as a result of what happened by a Nigerian man with reported links to al-Qaida tried to blow up a US airliner with a new type of explosive device Friday before being tackled by passengers in what officials said was an attempted Christmas Day terror. Now your name has also been included in the list of terrorism and money laundry because you have been taking this matter for granted since but now we have started taking our legal action because no one is above the law and we can not allow anyone to bring shame to our country, since you have decided not to cooperate with us by furnishing us with the required certificate, we have therefore forwarded your name and information including your picture to the office of the Presidency as he required and right now he has warned us seriously and ordered that we should get everyone arrested and charge them to court immediately because this is not a childish play. The best you can do right now is to forward to us the certificate that is FBI Identification Record, Tax Clearance and Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer (DIST) so that we can forward it to the President and tell him that you earned the fund legally and not a money laundry or for sponsoring terrorism because this is what we are going to charge you of course you know the penalty and our government will not tolerate it any longer. For your information, you have only 3 working days to provide it otherwise you will be arrested immediately and hand your case file over to the presidency. The ball is in your court, note that the person you will contact that will help you to get the certificate is Barrister Kayode Dalhatu an attorney to ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION (EFCC) Nigeria or Executive/Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. (EFCC) Mrs. Farida Mzamber Waziri, we are now back and ready to take up this case to any level because seat down and watch not only foreigners but also our own citizens to involve in illegal action, especially in money laundry and terrorism. Be warned and don’t fail to get back to us immediately otherwise you will hear our knock on your door with hand-cuff, on your return to this message, we are going to confirm the email address of Barrister Kayode Dalhatu so that you can contact him for the issuance of the certificate. We look forward to hear from you today. THANKS FOR YOUR CO-OPERATION. ROBERT MUELLER WASHINGTON DCAnti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division Fbi Headquarters In Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau Of Investigation Brandon Wow, email is so useless now. All I get is crap like this, advertisements where to sell my textbooks back to and the random "how the heck am I getting this newsletter" email.
MiName "><h1>xD</h1> + Comment
This step may sound daunting at first, perhaps a bit like reading “remove roof, set aside” as step 1 on the instructions for remodeling your house
Merry Christmas!
http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-is-rsd-making-my-suteki-shop-to.html The WebLog API http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi
Uninstalled the drivers and I'm back to a good state. It's sad that the ecosystem is still shipping junk that makes us look bad. Sigh.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/arts/16iht-design16.html?_r=1&hp Dave "Quiz: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?"L <http://www.ironicsans.com/2009/09/quiz_so_you_think_you_can_tell.html>
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Eric My fortune cookie today read: "Next week, you will find your lost item." I'm kinda hoping I don't, since the HTC Tilt2 should be coming to AT&T in two weeks. :-D
tariq iPhone? + Comment
Domino was deeply interested in the remote control helicopter. Or, more precisely, deeply interested in killing it.
If you can't take it down in-flight, take it out on the launchpad!
Jane and I visited the Japanese Garden in Seattle last weekend.
Jane and I went to "Wicked" last night, thanks to a great gift from a real-world friend (thanks, Nick!). The music was amazing and it was a great show. Rachel Wicked is such a great musical! Have you read the book?
Eric No. But it probably wouldn't sing to me, which seems like it would be a rather big disappointment. Rachel Well, if you're ever interested, you can borrow my copy. It's a great book and it's VERY different from the musical (you won't get bored). :) Eric Well, if it's good, sign me up! :-) + Comment
Go Mariners. :-)
Why software developers hate software: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001289.html
Also a reminder that her birthday is coming up. :-) Of course, I always mix up the b-day date with the Apollo landing date. Doh! Dave NASA has released new restored footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing: <http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/16/nasas-new-restored-f.html>
M I would prefer it if you mixed up how many birthdays I've had with how many anniversaries Apollo 11's landing date has had! :-) Eric :-) + Comment
These days, I have a lot less time to spend working on SlickRun and other stuff. But, now that I know how to actually debug code (instead of slamming my head into the wall for days), the time I do spend is spent far more efficiently. :-) weinelb For a workaround fix see your problem report. Sorry for the delay, but I just noticed your problem. --weinelb
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In related news, we're going to Counting Crows at Marymoor on July 16th. Should be fun! (We saw Rent last night at the Paramount... I'd forgotten how much of the music I like.)
Eric I have the same birthday as "House"... who knew?
Eric And "Pacey" is exactly one year older than me! :-) + Comment
Dave Link to the bug?
Eric oh... http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2803622&group_id=22049&atid=373085 + Comment
When the graphics drivers for my Intel 45 graphics driver (Lenovo X200) are updated to stop constantly corrupting my display, I think I'll be ready to give Win7 a wholehearted recommendation. It feels like the end of a long, grating depression. ;-)
The Microsoft "Campus Commons" area is beautiful and shiny, although if I worked closer to it, I can guarantee a >10% increase in personal mass.
Eric Sadly, I think I'm one of the nerds in this spoof. I /liked/ the new movie, but I didn't /love/ it.
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This is pretty cool.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/nethistory/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/187_(number) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchable_number
Factoids on the effectiveness of the F-15 were pretty neat.
Dave Is this going to come with Windows? I miss QBasic shipping with DOS -- my second programming language. What do we ship with in Windows now: JScript, VBScript, XSLT, PowerShell? Not really anything for beginners <http://kuoi.com/~kamikaze/read.php?id=200>
Eric I don't think so. it's neat though. One difference vs. when we were kids: it's a lot easier to get new languages onto the system now. + Comment
Our master suite remodelling is almost done; we painted, had millwork installed, and completely remodelled the bathroom. It's looking good! :-) Jane and I are getting married in less than a year! :-) :-) :-) Mark I just found out. Congratulations!
Ran into Jim and he told me about the wedding and that I should check out your site.
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Benny I am testing, I am testing, you don't need to count
Eric I do, I do! mbt sandals clearance The ground must be hard to walk in the <a href="http://www.mbtou.com/">mbt sandals clearance</a> city people to create a similar Korean paddy fields or the East African savannah state of soft ground is not flat, after years of painstaking research and development <a href="http://www.mbtou.com/specials.html">mbt sale</a> price finally enter the market in 1996. MBT shoes blue, the most popular casual shoes in 2010. MBT shoes to give large initial feeling blue is ugly, maybe you <a href="http://www.mbtou.com/featured_products.html">mbt shoes outlet</a> are confused why someone would be so like the MBT shoes blue. Well, now I want to tell you the blue mbt masai shoes sold some detail the design, simulation of the beach <a href="http://www.mbtou.com/mens-mbt-shoes-c-201.html">mens mbt shoes</a> walk. MBT shoes blue is a multi-level, the only curve to complete the creation of a natural, but the uneven walking surface. World we live in a wide range of <a href="http://www.mbtou.com/womens-mbt-sandals-c-310.html">mbt mbt sandals clearance The ground must be hard to walk in the [url=http://www.mbtou.com/]mbt sandals clearance[/url] city people to create a similar Korean paddy fields or the East African savannah state of soft ground is not flat, after years of painstaking research and development [url=http://www.mbtou.com/specials.html]mbt sale[/url] price finally enter the market in 1996. MBT shoes blue, the most popular casual shoes in 2010. MBT shoes to give large initial feeling blue is ugly, maybe you [url=http://www.mbtou.com/featured_products.html]mbt shoes outlet[/url] are confused why someone would be so like the MBT shoes blue. Well, now I want to tell you the blue mbt masai shoes sold some detail the design, simulation of the beach [url=http://www.mbtou.com/mens-mbt-shoes-c-201.html]mens mbt shoes[/url] walk. MBT shoes blue is a multi-level, the only curve to complete the creation of a natural, but the uneven walking surface. World we live in a wide range of [url=http://www.mbtou.com/womens-mbt-sandals-c-310.html]mbt sandals womens[/u + Comment
Dave Why should I trust the article, or what I read on your blog for that matter?!
Eric You shouldn't! + Comment
http://www.code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=0811132 http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/08/29/trustworthy-browsing-with-ie8-summary.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/01/27/ie8-security-part-vii-clickjacking-defenses.aspx
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16496-cheap-superefficient-led-lights-on-the-horizon.html
http://edge.technet.com/Media/IE8-Deployment-and-Setup-PM-interview-and-RC1-is-live/
Apparently, there's going to be an online version of Zork. That might be fun.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10110987-1.html
Hehe… someone was playing Space Quest 3. J
Outsouced: Funny, cute, and interesting.
I disagree with the implication that instant messaging / twitter is really the answer here, but there's a fine statement of the problem.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16126-nanotech-clothing-fabric-never-gets-wet.html
hour Anson I think weird is a weird word. Shouldn't it be wierd? And what about bizarre? Shouldn't it be bizzare?
Rachel My weird word of the day was spasticity. Weird. Eric Spasticity is actually a weird word though; you don't have to stare at it. :-) Rachel you do when it's on your master's exam :) 12345 12345 + Comment
Version 2.0... I'm waiting for you! :-)
One of the odd things about Malaysia is that they always give you a plastic bag, no matter what you've bought. Roll of Mentos? Into a plastic bag. A bag of popcorn? Into a plastic bag. A soft drink in a paper cup with a plastic lid? Into a plastic bag. It was pretty ridiculous, frankly. CDenman What about a plastic bag? Does that go in a plastic bag?
Eric When I bought a scarf, that went into a plastic bag. That plastic bag was then put into a plastic bag. + Comment
Eric Butler (elbpdx) Do you use copilot?
Eric Yeah, I've used it to work on family computers from cross-country. Eric Butler (elbpdx) Ahhh, good idea! J Eric, You've not seen CrossLoop yet, have you? CrossLoop is free all the time... Although, personally, I like LogMeIn IT Reach a bit more. It's somewhat expensive, though. But RDP over LMI Hamachi or RDP over IPv6 works well, too, and for cheap! + Comment
Don't forget to vote! :-)
2We've designed Windows Live Hotmail storage to grow with you, but at a reasonable pace. That means you should have plenty of storage unless you suddenly want to store the planet Jupiter on Hotmail, in which case we'll send you a nice e-mail asking you to please not try to store planets on Windows Live Hotmail (although gradual storage of moons and asteroids is ok).
Zoom in close enough and you might see me in the pool. :-) Dave From the title in my RSS feed I was expecting you to be enacting this <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY>
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Of course, I'm the idiot watching the Discovery Channel while half a world away from home, but hey, it was a long day... :-)
Eric Sitting in a free internet lounge outside the Hello Kitty lounge in the Taipei airport. What a strange world it is half a world a way. And yet, less strange than I would have thought...
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Lots of interesting stuff in the world of browser security. I'm headed to Kuala Lumpur for a security conference in a few weeks. Should be very interesting... although I suspect the 17 hour flight is going to be pretty brutal. :-)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition17/chess_earthvsspace.html
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/?em
I'm reading a fun book called "The Undercover Economist" which is thought-provoking and makes me look at the world in a different (or more informed, at least) way. I've really got to stop buying books though; I've probably got two dozen to read that have accumulated over the last few years. Jane and I are watching the Showtime show "Weeds" on DVD after enjoying the Dexter series greatly. While I wouldn't say that Weeds is as good as Dexter (and it's not much like it either) it's a guilty pleasure. Speaking of guilt-- I haven't been making it to the gym nearly as often as I should. Oversleeping is the usual culprit, since I'm not exactly working hard when I do make it to the gym (watching Prison Break on DVD while I spend an hour on the treadmill). Anyway... just some random thoughts today. I can't tell you how often I'm drifting off to sleep or showering and feel like I ought to be putting thoughts to paper (or keyboard, I suppose). I'm pretty sure that if I was born before the computer age, I'd probably end up a writer of some sort. I suppose it's fair to say that I am a writer, considering what percentage of my day is spent writing specs or email. Jason & Erin We love Dexter! What season did you watch? We need to watch Season 2. When did it come out do you know? Check out the show on fx called It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with Danny Devito.
Eric We have Dexter Season 2 on DVD if you want to borrow it. Season 3 just started on Showtime. Jason & Erin Thanks for the offer but we have the monthly pass at Blockbuster. We can rent as many movies as we want as long as we bring the movie with us to trade in. We are already on the second dvd of Dexter. + Comment
Funny 404 pages: http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/siggraph/eoh_projects/eoh2002.html
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you. I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe. This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred. Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds. Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
Dave I first saw this as a delicious link to a Google search for Clbuttic and was totally freaked out when I couldn't find a definition but it had huge number of search hits. I like this quote from a car forum: "Cbuttette tape tray broken(thank god for cd's {not good for clbuttic cbuttettes)."
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Jane posted a ton on Facebook, but here are a few for the non-Facebook crowd...
Eric It amuses me that this layout is so broken in IE but looks fine in Firefox.
Mom These pictures are beautiful. Can't wait to see more! + Comment
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html
For those of you unfamiliar with Buzzword Bingo, here’s what you do: · Go to the site, let the card scramble, click to stop it, and print out a bingo card. You can refresh the page and print several. Bring these to the meeting. · Throughout the videos and presentations, if you hear a word on your card or see it on screen, mark it off. · If you get five in a row, stand up and yell “BINGO!”
Dave I like the interview with Gold Helmet Segway rider <http://www.microspotting.com/2007/11/the-golden-helmet>
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Rachel Just wondering...what was it you liked about Derek's segment in particular?
Eric "Play that as if Mozart was playing it." And he did. That was cool. + Comment
BANK OF AFRICA COMPENSATION UNIT, IN AFFILIATION WITH THE UNITED NATION. Attention: How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family?, You may not understand why this mail came to you. We have been having a meeting for the passed 7 months which ended 2 days ago with the the secretary to the UNITED NATIONS. This email is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATIONS have agreed to compensate them with the sum of US$500,000. This includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc. We found your name in our list and that is why we are contacting you, this have been agreed upon and have been signed. You are advised to contact Mr Jim Ovia of ZENITH BANK NIGERIA PLC, as he is our representative in Nigeria, contact him immediately for your Cheque/ International Bank Draft of USD$500,000. This funds are in a Bank Draft for security purpose ok? so he will send it to you and you can clear it in any bank of your choice. Therefore, you should send him your full Name and telephone number your correct mailing address where you want him to send the Draft to you.Conatct Mr Jim Ovia immediately for your Cheque: you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft. Making the world a better place. Regards, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Rescue Pro software provided by Sandisk crashes on startup due to a false positive Data Execution Prevention. To avoid the crash, go into the Windows Data Execution Prevention configuration dialog and add rescuepro.exe to the exception list.
http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=eric+lawrence+microsoft&m=text
This cracked me up! Paris responds to McCain: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d
http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog
M Thank you very much for remembering my B'day. And thanks for not telling everyone how old I am! :-) Love ya!
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http://wherethehellismatt.com/videos.shtml
Birthday dinner was tapas at the Tu Tu Cafe... there was a roving magician who dazzled our table with some close-quarters illusions that were pretty impressive. I had a blast! Unfortunately, vacation is nearly over; I need to finish up my deck for the Velocity Conference next week!
Eric Lies, damn lies, and misleading charts: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/security/
Look at the year they're comparing. :-O
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There's going to be a Dead Like Me movie. Neat! It should not be 54 degrees in June. Mom It's in the high nineties on this side of the country. By the way, it is 12:30am June 11th so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Galina Dear Eric, We wish you a very Happy Birthday! May all your dreams come true! From Russia with Love! Jason & Erin "Happy Birthday to you" See you next week! Enjoy Disney! Ride the haunted mansion ride for me. + Comment
Yahoo&Microsoft Lottery Incorporation 7 Prauge Palace.Brixton Hill London SWZ SED. REF NO: MSW/56B-672GH/L Batch: Mcs/989/989/#34
The prestigious Microsoft and Yahoo has set out and successfully organized a Sweepstakes marking the new year 2008 anniversary, we rolled out over 4,500,000.00 (Four Million Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) for our end of year the Anniversary Draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected and drawn from a wide range of web hosts which we enjoy their patronage.
You have been approved for lump sums pay out of 450,000.00 GBP (Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling) in cash Credited to file REF NO: MSW/56B-672GH/L and winning number 23-76-06-54-42-100. Selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection machine (TOPAZ) from a database of over 1,000,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.
The online draws was conducted by a random selection of email addresses from an exclusive list of 29,031 E-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the internet. No tickets were sold but all email addresses were assigned to different ticket numbers for representation and privacy. This is to encourage our prominent Microsoft Internet Explorer users all over the world, and for the Continuous use of E-mail.
Your fund (Certified Cashiers Cheque) has been insured with your REF NO: MSW/56B-672GH/L and winning number 23-76-06-54-42-100. To claim your winning prize, you must first contact the claims department by email for Processing and remittance of your prize to you.
Mr. Andreas Georgetown. Email: <snip> Foreign Transfer Manager. Yahoo&Microsoft Lottery Incorporation
You are advised to contact your Foreign Transfer Manager with the following details to avoid unnecessary delays and complications:
VERIFICATION AND FUNDS RELEASE FORM. 1. FULL NAMES: 2. ADDRESS: 3. SEX: 4. AGE: 5. MARITAL STATUS: 6. OCCUPATION: 7. COMPANY NAME: 8. E-MAIL ADDRESS: 9. TELEPHONE NUMBER: 10. STATE: 11. COUNTRY: 12. YOUR PREFERRED METHOD OF RECEIVING YOUR PRIZE (From Below)
Mode Of Prize Remittance.
(1)Cash Pick-Up (You coming Down to United Kingdom Personally to Pick Your Prize).
(2)Courier Delivery Of your Certified Winning Cheque Name and other Winning Documents safely to you.
The Yahoo&Microsoft Lottery lottery has discovered a huge number of double claims due to winners informing close friends relatives and third parties about their winning and also sharing their pin numbers. As a result of this, these friends try to claim the lottery on behalf of the real winners. The Microsoft lottery has reached a decision from headquarters that any double claim discovered by the Lottery Board will result to the canceling of that particular winning, making a loss for both the double claimer and the real winner, as it is taken that the real winner was the informer to the double claimer about the lottery. So you are hereby strongly advised once more to keep your winnings strictly confidential until you claim your prize.
Congratulations from the Staffs & Members of the interative Lotteries Board Commission.
Sincerely, Dr. Vick Abraham. andrewb Hey congratulations! Dont forget to give them your SSN also so they get the money to you quicker.
Anson Wow! You won as well? What are the odds? You violated the strict confidential clause though. You may end up with a double-claims situation. Your best bet is to reply quickly and hope! + Comment
andrewb I recently finished portal on PC. Brilliant game - I like games that make you think rather than just bash buttons. Let us know when you get your cake!
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 Rachel I'm trying to figure out what assignment this was for AP English...hmmm :)
Eric There was some all-senior requirement for "drug/alcohol education" Rachel ha ha ha....we had to do that as sophomores :) Mary High school project, bah! That's just a useful tool. I wanna carry one around like a pocket calculator and use it to dissuade idiots from driving. + Comment
Eric ...and scary.
andrewb ... and unreliable : http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=738043873 + Comment
Dave What is the deal with the circle in webpage transition? Also, whatever happened to the awesome counting?
Eric The circle is awesome. The counting was really annoying to folks on non-IE browsers. + Comment
Daniel Wang Take care, buddy~
Are you "ericlaw" who is talking to me about Drive-by attacks? :)
Eric Yes. :-) + Comment
 Mom Lawrence Happy Birthday to Jane from the Maryland Lawrences! Have fun!
Rachel Happy Birthday! + Comment
I'm not a Facebook hater per-se, but this cracked me up... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZzP_69ZTFk
Dave Cory Doctorow has an article deriding it: <http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204203573>
"I'm inclined to think that these systems are subject to a Brook's-law parallel: "Adding more users to a social network increases the probability that it will put you in an awkward social circumstance.""
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdQj2ohqCBk Dave Teh Kittehs!
<http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/11/17/truth-in-advertising/>
<http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/02/07/funny-pictures-even-softer/>
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Includes speculation on the malformed "Connection" header I see a lot.
We describe lots of interesting protocols, including NTLM and FPSE, in all of their gory glory: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc216517.aspx swati valecha @ 162.158.23.76 Hi! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I genuinely enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you recommend any other <a href='https://sauvewomen.com/fashion-write-for-us/'>Fashion Write For Us</a> blogs that go over the same topics? Thanks a ton !
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http://billhillsblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/never-just-fonts-dont-pirate-them.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/19/AR2008021902617.html?hpid=topnews
Jane and I saw Defending the Caveman at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center on Friday. Very funny, highly recommended. Dave I blame whatever crazy stuff you're trying to sync. I sync my MCE TV shows via podcast on a regular basis with no issues.
Anson Rach has had zero problems with hers - clearly user error :P Brandon Anson, if the product is designed right, user error is impossible... andrewb I love sweeping generalisations! If I drop my mobile phone and it stops working, is that a failure in the product design? If I place a pancake in my DVD player, is it bad product design that means it stops working? I would suggest in both cases its a result of user error. Eric Mmmm.... pancakes! andrewb Ah now we know why the zune crashed. Its not pancake compatible! tariq get an iphone... andrewb Yes, the iphone is fully pancake compatible. I believe it also handles bacon and eggs. + Comment
Part 2 is even funnier.
Brandon I hope Microsoft keeps the brand, keeps the search, keeps yahoo answers. Yahoo competes in so many spaces with Yahoo, their products are better, they should keep them, and keep them Yahoo.
andrewb Apparently it pays big time to lose out at your core business. + Comment
Dave IE Blog readers have a new value of X to put in 'Yeah whatever you just blogged about is fine but when are you going to implement X?'.
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Dave lol
andrewb After I saw that movie I figure not only have I atoned for past sins, but most of those I will comnmit in the future. + Comment
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2008/01/16/1464725.aspx
Leila ClearType made my Slickrun font look funky... ?
Leila Does anyone else have this issue? It only happens in Ghost mode... ? + Comment
Heh... This is hilarious!
Chris Can haz count? <script> var i = 0; setInterval(intervalFun, 1000); function intervalFun(){ i ; window.location.hash=i.toString(); } function doReload(){ setTimeout("window.location.reload();", 100); } </script> + Comment
Chris No more counting :(
Dave Hey yeah! I liked the counting. Bring back the counting! Rachel The counting was awful! It was as if the webpage was judging you based on how long you stayed on the page. Dave So you're saying you got low scores? That's no reason to punish the rest of us by denying precious counting! Rachel I find it amusing that all the girls seem to hate the counting, but the guys seem to love it. It's a battle of the sexes! Who will win? :-) Leila I'm sure you're still counting in the background, right Eric? ;) who has the highest time? i suspect it's me... is it? Eric Heh. Nothing nearly so interesting, I'm afraid. Rachel I was convinced he was still counting in the background too :-) + Comment
Eric These are the same guys that directly ripped off some Fiddler UI, making a typo in the process. http://www.ieinspector.com/httpanalyzer/images/hs_request_builder_l.gif
Rachel Grr...can you make your website stop counting? Leila I also dislike the counting, but go up to the url window and erase the counting part, or the whole thing if you want to. it also makes a very messy history. Dave If I have to pay for their product it must be superior in some fashion. Rachel I erased the whole thing, but as soon as I click on something else on Eric's page it shows back up again...and it's been counting the whole time! Leila When erase just the numbers the whole thing goes away for good :) but of course it may be secretly counting Mary Not working for me either. I hadn't even looked at the url. With all the clicking noises I just assumed Eric's page had turned into a timebomb and was about to blow! Eric It only makes history messy on Firefox. :-) + Comment
Mom Back atcha buddy bear. I hope the new year brings you lots of love and happiness!
Jim Happy New Year! Come play EVE! :) + Comment
Happy Holidays!
EricLaw Better yet, a video interview: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=367207
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I bet all that nonsense about math and "googols" is just a cover story. :-)
Leila Clint has two of your Lost and Dawson's Creek sets (which are also available from the library for free as complete season sets ;)). which dvds are you missing?
Jason Do we have any of your movies? I doubt it since we only have a HD dvd player. What movies are you missing exactly???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Still waiting on pictures of your Thanksgiving trip.................................. + Comment
In the process, I got the following numbers from the TV's status report: 6806 Total Hours On That seems like a lot of TV, although it's over 4 years and does include the watch time of roommates and when we just have the TV on one of the music channels.
Congratulations IE team at continuing to improve while still maintaining your awesome audacity at sucking. Brandon I'm pretty fond of Ie^2.079, though they should carry that out more to...2.07944154.
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I won't bore you kids with the story of upgrading my Pentium 90 from 8 megs to 24 megs, at the bargain basement cost of $175.
But the deadline to file was 4 days ago. Damn you Murphy.
SteveSi doesn't believe in brevity. :-)
For now, a much needed vacation. Expect plenty of pictures shortly! Brandon Well, I hope the IE is working hard, a lot of people think IE8 will never show up, or will show up 3 years from now. Bill Gates did state a 9-12 month cycle between browsers, yet there is no public beta of the next IE yet, it just makes you wonder....
Anyways, when I go to your blog, I hear a clicking sound and I see the URL count up http://www.ericlawrence.com/eric/#74 75 76 77.....
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http://www.enhanceie.com/ie/IOfficeAntiVirusInCSharp.asp Dave You've figured out all the appropriate COM interop magic to get this to work in C#. Yay! Will this go on CodeProject?
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Prison Break: Season 2 has been great so far. I've been watching it on the treadmill. We got our water heater replaced. Getting the installation up to code and filing for the permit cost roughly as much as the tank and install. Sigh. Vacation can't come soon enough!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/338623_transpo07.html
http://reddevnews.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=2371
If you want an @live.com email address, you can grab them now... http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9812002-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Alas, this will be a weekend of catching up at work. Eric Note to self: http://www.webshots.com/support/help/11540.html#4
Eric Note to my other self: This one is free, http://www.flickr.com/tour/upload/ Eric Of course, it's not the same thing... Dave Matt likes SmugMug <http://swannman.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/smugmug-web-part-for-sharepoint/> + Comment
Good speech and even better Q&A though, so I'm glad I woke up early for it.
Dave April 1st RFCs: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day_RFC>
My favorite is still IP datagrams on Avian Carriers: <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149>
andrewb Aww Dave are you saying thats not a real RFC? :) Eric Nah, he's just saying that there are lots of great ideas and coincidentally, they're posted on the first day of April. Eric Nah, he's just saying that there are lots of great ideas and coincidentally, they're posted on the first day of April. Eric Nah, he's just saying that there are lots of great ideas and coincidentally, they're posted on the first day of April. andrewb I heard you the first time :) Eric IE7Pro's ad-blocking MIME handler has a bug. + Comment
     
MS announced 27% revenue growth last quarter. Eric Of course, I should mention that the ~reason~ it went up wasn't our increased revenue, but rather that I sold all of my shares last week. Sigh.
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andrewb are they going to make VSTS a free download too?
Dave Was this targetted spam? =) Eric Vaguely. I probably subscribed to some development magazine at some point. I wrote to the author to tease him about it and he was very kind. + Comment
Leila What is the #1...2....3.... counter thing in the webaddress? :)
Eric A counter thing. :-) D In an internet cafe in a village in India...your page loads pretty fast for a < 56k connection. Leila what is it counting? Eric The number of seconds since page load. Leila Yes but why are you tracking this? :) It seems sneaky ;) Chris Make it not stop when i right click Eric Yeah, kinda funny that context menus block the script thread, isn't it? andrewb Make it not click each time the URL refreshes! :) Eric Pretty awesome, huh? :-) + Comment
Dave I think someone's messing up the curve
Dave http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/ Eric Ah, but they were not unnecessary at all! + Comment
http://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1190803943&count=1 Dave What an interesting idea. Now if my bank provided an authenticated RSS feed of my credit card transactions...
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We'll see if this really turns out to be one of the "Worst Jobs in Science" as Popular Science believes. :-O
Eric They launched it. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/boom/x wing-rocket-launches-disintegrates-mid air-307945.php
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Jane and I saw "3:10 to Yuma" last night. I was optimistic-- an action western/thriller with good actors, and plenty of nice scenery... but it's crippled by a simplistic and rather implausible plot that led to a quantity of laughter and shaking my head in disbelief usually only experienced when watching a comedy. Ah well. Season 2 of Prison Break has been good so far...
=5.1*12850 Dave Wow that's a good one. I thought this would just be demonstrations of floating point math producing results inconsistent with real math. But how do you accidentally get 100000 instead of 65535? Granted 65535 is a special number but where does 100000 come from? Try '=65535*2/2' and '=65535*2.1/2.1'
Dave Err... 1.1 not 2.1 above Chris Hmmm, they (http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/) say its a display issue and the calculation is really working on the backend. Eric Phew, that's a relief. It just ~looks~ like a bug. :-) + Comment
The re-released collection claims to be XP compatible, and naturally, it's not, bailing out on boot. But it wasn't too hard to do an in-place upgrade to the version of the open-source DOSBox that the re-release relies upon for the heavy lifting, and now everything is humming along quite nicely. Thank you, open source community, and thank you, Jim! Dave Cool! I got stuck replaying 5 some years ago because the arcade mini-game where you have to line up your shuttle with a port on a larger craft seems to run as fast as it can. When I had a 386 this was reasonable but now...
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 Leila Eric! Please help me! How do you get rid of the annoying click IE makes when you click on anything, or when you refresh? I am forced to use IE in an IE application and it refreshes every few seconds and it's driving me crazy :)
Leila I see your status is so very frustrated too :) hope you get less frustrated soon Eric Sorry about that. In the System control panel, choose "Sounds and audio devices." Click the Sounds tab, scroll down to "Start navigation" and set it to "None" Leila yay! thankyou!!!!!!!!! + Comment
andrewb I'd be very surprised if the DoD's PR dept had nothing to do with that. Maybe MSFT recruitment could try a similar ploy?
Adam Maybe it's me, but this seems to ring familiar with sounds of 72 virgins awaiting you in heaven. True to form, we want our rewards in this life. Perhaps they need something to combat the top 10 lies recruiters tell list that is floating around the net: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62945/?page=1 Eric I think it's fair to say that "sex sells" all over the world... but it's probably a stretch to equate the two. + Comment
Jane and I had our first tango lesson last Tuesday. It was not as painful as I feared it would be (I suggested that Jane wear steel-toed dance shoes). That said, I must also note that I left the class newly confident that not only can I not dance, but my ability to walk is somewhat in question. We're going to miss session #2 since we're flying back to Maryland for Jason's wedding, but hopefully we can catch up in class #3. - Jane and I liked Ratatouille. Eric Apparently, the $200 nano costs Apple about 83$ to build. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2007/tc20070917_491032.htm
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Dave http://www.matasano.com/log/958/enough-with-the-rainbow-tables-what-you-need-to-know-about-secure-password-schemes/
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Now, obviously, there's a challenge here because screens have different densities, so there needs to be a way to calibrate the relative sizes; perhaps if there's the option to calibrate against commonly found objects (e.g. coins, 8.5x11 sheet of paper, etc)? While we're on the topic of useful useless applets, how about an easy-to-use game timer, dice, scorepad, and other gadgets for playing board games with long-lost accessories? Maybe I'll use these as an excuse to play with SilverLight? andrewb Its a quarter of an inch! For all the weirdness, imperial measurements are much easier to visualise. The metric system is so arbitrary.
Dave The applet should describe the size in terms of how bulky the MP3 player will look in my pants pocket. Leila I have a ruler!! this is why PDFs are so great. you can get a PDF of a ruler and print it out. Or you can use google in find "6.5 mm in in" or "6.5 mm in cm".. or you can use it to find other objects you are familiar with like coins.. for example 6.5 mm is slightly more than 3 nickel widths, or slightly less than the radius of a dime. Eugene Lee I personally think you should just learn the metric system :) Eric The problem here is that I don't really know how big a quarter inch is either. I mean, of course I know in the ~abstract~, but that's not what I want. Printing out a PDF is clever, but sorta defeats the "no new tangible objects" idea. Eric what is the "no new tangible objects" ideas? i think you have to relate the measurement to something you do know.. like your finger etc (check, one of your fingernails will be 1cm or 2cm then you will always have a cm with you :)). esp for when you don't have a computer with you Leila hmm why did i type eric for my name?? Rachel That's funny...I taught this unit to my third graders :-) Eric You taught a unit on Silverlight programming? That's fantastic! Leila yeah I was going to mention this is the sort of thing we try to teach as well.. students seem very resistive to it though, until they've had practice. maybe if they had learned it in third grade from you! + Comment
Albert Einstein's performance review is here: http://norvig.com/performance-review.html :-)
A trivial new version of SlickRun is now available; it resolves a few minor bugs and adds support for displaying the current IP address. Eric In the prior beta, I put in a counter on the SETUP screen showing how many commands had been executed. So far, my work machine has executed 10500 commands. Sheesh.
D Caffeine is good. Without caffeine I would get no work done. + Comment
Dave This sounds like a job for Jack Bauer
Leila We had one of them but I think we gave that back a long time ago? D I bet Nick has them Eric Alas, he did not. + Comment
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/business/yourmoney/26pre.html
leila haha your browser hangs ;) (i must admit i have hung firefox on a few rare occasions, not at nytimes though)
Dave I knew them before they were in a picture on the NYTimes. Eric Yeah, it's sad. But the NYTimes did try pretty hard. + Comment
The Democrats are looking for feedback on their 2008 bumperstickers... http://www.dscc.org/slogan. I like one of them.
Why should you care about this update ? If you ever encountered performance issues running AJAX applications (e.g. Gmail), you should absolutely consider installing this update. This update includes an updated Garbage Collector that used to previously make AJAX appliications run pretty poorly. This update is available on Vista and we are now providing this to all supported OS versions (XP, Win2K, Win2K Server). You will see noticeably better performance on your favorite AJAX applications and with more and more AJAX applications coming on line, you will be very happy you did this. Eric Hrm. This might only be useful for IE6 users.
Eric Alas, yes, IE7 already has this goodness. Rats. + Comment
tariq where are you guys moving to?
Dave Are you getting a window? The spreadsheet I saw... Eric Yeah, I got a window. Sadly, it's a pretty crappy one (looks directly into the other wing of the building). Jane has a non-window office with a better view. Eric Tariq, we're moving to B50. + Comment
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/science/14tier.html?8dpc Heh Or maybe, as suggested by Robin Hanson, an economist at George Mason University, you should try to be as interesting as possible, on the theory that the designer is more likely to keep you around for the next simulation.
leila it's funny that they think having lots of processing power is all you need to code and run a simulation properly. simulations always have limitations Eric Ah, but as components of the simulation, we might not be aware of those limitations. It's sorta like raycasting; you only need to cast rays where the viewer is looking. :-) Leila I see what you mean but I was thinking along the lines of scientific simulations where the results only make sense on certain time and length scales... for example you make space discrete in the simulation. Dave The best part is what you should do differently if you suspect you are in a simulation <http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/13/even-if-life-is-but-a-computer-simulation/>: "If you might be living in a simulation then all else equal you should care less about others, live more for today, make your world look more likely to become rich, expect to and try more to particpate in pivotal events, be more entertaining and praiseworthy, and keep the famous people around you happier and more interested in you." andrewb Nick Bostrom is pretty whacky, in a totally cool way. I first came across his 20% chance of simulation idea in a book by Nicholas Fearn called 'Philosophy', which discusses this and many other ideas. Well worth a look. + Comment
http://www.google.com/services/local-business-referrals/repfaq.html
 Jane Hey, at least they did not charge shipping! :)
Eric Amusingly, they charge you $2.50 to print the ticket on ~your~ own printer, but they are willing to print them and mail them for free. Weird. andrewb You think all those electrons they send down the wire are free? + Comment
There's a lot of really interesting software out there.
Earlier this week, I was happy to have discovered "The Journal" from DavidRM Software. It's quite similar to Logbook, although much more powerful. Fortunately, it offers a smart "import" feature so I was able to utilize to import my 800+ Logbook entries directly. Let's just see if I can make time to start writing again... I was pretty good about writing daily in high school, and okay in college, but I haven't written much at all since I entered the real world...  Dave Its like a blog except no one reads it...
Eric You crazy kids, publishing your diaries all over the interweb for the neighbors to see. What are you thinking?! + Comment
Installation is slow, but totally worth it.
Dave -34.432175
Eric I'm pleased to see that my blog now comes up on top for that particular floating point number. :-) + Comment
http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/does-a-darkened-google-really-save-electricity-104/ Eugene I think it makes sense that there are no tangible energy savings on LCDs. LCDs work by filtering out polarized backlight. So I would expect black pixels to consume roughly the same amount of energy as white pixels.
I think it makes far more sense to sleep or turn off computers to save energy. Also, those 1700 lumens GE light bulbs consume 26W of power compared to a comparable 100W incandescent light bulb.
andrewb Things like blackle just prove that PT Barnum was right. + Comment
We donated about 500 pounds of stuff this weekend to various charities and took ~200 pounds of cardboard to the dump. The garage is slowly starting to get emptied, and the house is slowly starting to come together. The new dining room table arrives on Wednesday, and I'm scared of how much cardboard they might box it in... :-O Chris Anytime! It was fun! Next time though I promise not to make you guys sit through one of my poetry readings (^__^)
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Erin What a great website! Check out the Shower Shock Caffeinated Soap!!! I also like the customer action shots!
Dave I think you meant this alarm clock <http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/91f2/> Dave And writing of time pieces I think this is awesome: <http://www.elevatefilms.com/NOW_Watch_p/watch-001.htm> Eric Heh. Heh. Heh. 6/18/07 Eric said I'll try to post some photos from Vegas, TechEd, and Maryland soon. STILL NOOOOO PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!! Eric True that. + Comment
Eric Also, a web developer's handbook http://www.alvit.de/handbook/
David J Smith I've been using Cropper for a long time. I just stumbled across Fiddler and I'm excited to see which one I'll get more use out of. :) + Comment
I've been driving IE primarily through SlickRun for years. Eric Further discussion of interest: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/ui_breakthroughcomma.html
Leila YAY PINE! Dave YAY VIM! Eric YAY TLA! + Comment
 EricLaw and BillG at EE2007 Rachel Why are you not smiling?
Eric I'm thinking "don't drop the crystal, don't drop the crystal, don't drop the crystal." Before that, I was thinking "don't trip, don't trip, don't trip." andrewb Never mind photoshop - a razor wouldnt have gone astray for a big occasion ;) Eric Hehe... fair enough. I actually did trim a bit from the mountain man look I sported the day before. But my razor is sorta broken from my TechEd trip... need to go replace that. andrewb Getting an award photo with bill makes everything ok! Maddog Hmm.. you don't write what the award is for. It is intriguing. Picture is too small. Congrats anyway (I'll say it now, and again after I know what it is for :) Eric Fiddler won an Engineering Excellence award. This is an internal award at Microsoft given every year to teams (or individuals) that develop tools or processes that significantly advance engineering for us or our customers. + Comment
Chris Ahh, such fond memories...
Eric :-) We chucked about 10 boxes of stuff so far. Dave Let me know before you toss any PSPs, iPods, etc... =) + Comment
andrewb I dont see why people need an opensource alternative to a free tool. I suspect what happened is they built it and then someone said "oh, its just like slickrun".
Leila How do you feel about it? Chris Those thieving bas**rds! They weren’t shy about ripping it off were they? I personally think it’s a very cheap imitation. I'm surprised the "SlickRun" keyword didn't just link to your page. Anyway just consider it flattery; especially after the reviews still put you on top. Vicke Ld You now have competition, and more incentive to improve SlickRun. There's only one truly American way to feel about that: hatred! Buy them and cancel the project, or just make up some reason and invade them and kill them all! Eric Heh. I'm trying to decide whether or not to join them. Maddog LOL, hilarious. I guess it's not the best time to say that I'm building an open source alternative to fiddler. heh. Just kidding :) Eric Given the number of extensibility points it has, Fiddler's more of a platform than a product. + Comment
Jason Do you have a patent on that? You are going to make millions! Way to go bro!
Eric Alas, no millions. ;-) + Comment
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=932716
 tariq waiting for your picture to show up like this with the lucky lady... :)
Eric :-) JAY & ERIN Make sure you put this picture in your basement to scare away the mice! Can't wait to see you guys in Sept. It'll be here before you know it. Oh by the way....you should move to Boston!!!! + Comment
   Mom Congratulations son, we are so proud of you! Enjoy, you earned it!
Dave Woo Fiddler! Go Eric! D I heard the news...congratulations!! tariq good job eric... you deserved it... Anson That's fantastic! Henry Congrats! A few months late... + Comment
Leila I would be careful with discounted name brand harddrives as they are probably an older generation that will no longer be produced and probably only have a 1 year warranty. what is your favorite brand? every single harddrive i have owned has broken except for the one that was stolen.
Eric That's a fair point, Leila. Leila What kind of backup system do you use? Eric I've got an external 320gig drive, and a mirroring RAID array as the primary drive. I back up my source remotely on a network drive and my web server. + Comment
It feels like it's 3 o'clock in the morning...
 Rachel I am SO excited!!!! :-P
Dave Pretty =) Chris That's bloody awesome! *goes to install latest beta and grins* Eric Alas, this won't be ready until v2.1... D Nice. + Comment
I'm sorta happy to be back in the office-- I've flown somewhere around 12K miles in the past month, and I was starting to miss my bed (and my cat!) So far, no more summer plans before I go back to Jason's wedding in September. I'll try to post some photos from Vegas, TechEd, and Maryland soon. Jane It's my Seattle birthday today... One year since I moved to Seattle and left Canada.
D Congrats! Chris & I are approaching our 5th MS year on july 1st...perhaps him & I should split the M&M's? ???? Still waiting on the photot to be posted from Vegas, Maryland, TechEd + Comment
http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/1B0D2AC5-96C0-4A16-9080-06E7D8F4E80C/0/XBLA_Montage.wmv
Eric Many years ago, I believe my grandmother worked in a bank and did something similar. The article in the paper said something like "Spunky teller foils robbery."
leila happy birthday! :) Rachel AHH! Happy Birthday! Jason & Erin Happy Birthday old man!! :P + Comment
It turns out that for the Engineering Excellence awards, they don't tell you if you've won until they announce it up on stage. I suppose it's more "exciting" that way...
 mike I would love to know what program prompts with that message
Eric Windows Vista's version of WordPad if you attempt to open a dangerous OLE package embedded within. + Comment
Please take note: Anson is my friend, and he is now famous because his name and article are on the cover of MSDN Magazine. Therefore, I am cool by association. :-)
leila do you have a del.icio.us account?
Dave You'd think that with all the links he posts on here that he should, right? How can you jump from blog to twitter without any other Web2.0 buzzword activities like link sharing? =) Eric What fun is it if you don't write your own code? + Comment
The photographer was good... Halfway through the shoot, she said "So, you're just a one-man show?" (most of these awards are for groups) to which I replied "Yeah," and she retorted "I guess that makes it easy to get along with your team!" I think she was just going for a natural smile and laugh, but she got it. Alas, the fun is over and it's back to the grindstone... my PowerPoint deck for TechEd 2007 is due at 5pm and I'm severely behind. leila you probably already know your page loads a lot slower because of twitter?
Eric Which browser? The Twitter script is behind a DEFER=TRUE, so it shouldn't actually impact loading of the main content body anymore... Eric I learned today that current versions of Firefox still block while downloading DEFER'd scripts. Upgrade to IE for better performance. :-) leila "upgrade"? ;) I did upgrade to firefox2 :) Eric Ah, but if you upgrade to IE, you'll get better performance. :-) Leila Websites should perform well on all browsers :) sorry, until firefox crashes on me/messes up i won't be using IE. even after that annoying runonce page with the new IE was resolved i still want to be able to put my bookmarks in any order i want, not alphabetical. + Comment
Jane It's too bad Fiddler did not win. These people don't know better. Who needs Apache Ant!!! :)
Mom Congrats! test 123 test2 456 test3 567 test4 4444 test5 5555 Mom Did anyone pass the test? Eric You did, Mom, you did! + Comment
andrewb Its too bad stocks dont have a "if you can find it cheap elsewhere we'll match the price" clause - you could save msft 2.5bn or thereabouts.
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Jane I like the one that says "Don't ever change! I always want to be better than you." LOL.
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It's a pretty big video, so be sure you have a few minutes to download.
If you haven't gone to Windows Update to install the regular monthly patch, you should do so. Lots of baddies in there.
The dentist pulled his assistant in saying "Check out these amazing virgin teeth!" which made me a bit uncomfortable, but hey, it's better than him calling up his financial planner to announce he'd just hit the jackpot. :-) After the x-rays, I had my teeth cleaned with a "Cavitron" a new ultrasonic doodad that replaces the old cleaning method. I gotta say, my teeth feel freaky clean. ERIN So how do you get your brother to go to the dentist before he loses all of his teeth before the wedding??? He hasn't been since he had temp. teeth a couple of years ago!!!! HE needs a new set of dentures before the wedding, please help...gummey the dummey.
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A SlickRun user was curious about whether or not he could post to Twitter from SlickRun. The answer, of course, is yes. So then I got to playing with Twitter. And while it's cheezy and lame, it's kinda fun. So, I've added a Twitter indicator to the top of this page. We'll see if I ever update it. :-D Eugene I actually like the idea behind Twitter. It is a way of officially separating out the kinds of blog posts that I *don't* normally want to read.
Eric hehehe... Dave (12:40am) Hmm... Twitter says you're sleeping right now that can't be correct... + Comment
Body: It is not allowed in. Dave On the next episode of Tek Jansen...
Eric I'm excited and amused and scared that my site is now the #1 google hit for the term "map spread on the frontal armor of a gigantic tank". :-D andrewb If I google for "slob with his hands in his pockets" guess who I find? :) Dave I'm not sure what Google image search is doing but Andrew's phrase has some interesting images there too... =) + Comment
andrewb translation : fiddler rocks!
Dave Doesn't the German language have a single word to express the notion of Fiddler rocking? Eric rofl + Comment
In pretty much every photo of me, I'm modelling the ever popular slob-with-his-hands-in-his-pockets look...
Tracksticks are tiny GPS location recorders capable of continuously logging their own location histories for extended periods of time. The Trackstick records its own location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals. Traveled routes can be viewed directly in Google EarthT. Includes GPX photo stamping feature for adding your favorite photos to you own maps., $169.00
andrewb Call me old school if you will, but I like how the first IE just had one simple toolbar and an address bar. Less is More!
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Slashdot Q: "Ever since Senator Ted Stevens used the phrase 'series of tubes' to describe his understanding of the Internet, I've noticed several stories and comments referencing how silly that is. What are your suggestions for a succinct layman's definition of the Internet?" A: Imagine a giant radish, like a planet sized radish. Now imagine that there's a bunny hopping to the radish, and it takes a bite out of it. But the bunny spits out that bite and kind of smears it back in place on the radish with a paw. Then it rains.
http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semiconductor/FlashSSD/index.htm Flash SSD ----------- HDD ----------- 1.8” (2.5”) 2.5” 1.8” 1.0” Sustained 58/32 25/25 20/20 4.3~7.2 R/W (MB)
We went to Dave's on Sunday to see the classic computer geek movies AntiTrust and Sneakers... Anson and Rachel wimped out as usual :-(, but it was fun anyway. Rachel If by "wimped out" you mean "were responsible and stayed home to get work done" then yes...yes, we wimped out :-)
Eric And just who procrastinated in the first place?!? Leila I thought Anson and Clint were playing WOW on Sunday night? Eric BUSTED! + Comment
Jim Not really sure what to say about this game...apparently one character is irritable because of PMS
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Dave 'Where by “complementary” we mean “the two leading technologies that irritate people when they’re used in lieu of regular web pages.”'. Awesome.
Leila I must the only one who loves adobe and PDFs :( finding word documents in lieu of html is much much much more annoying. or powerpoint slides. Eric Ewww. PDF is evil, but ever so slightly better than Word docs. Leila See, everything I do ends up in PDF, my papers from latex to dvi to ps to pdf... my plots from eps to pdf and posters. I also do all my talks in latex and convert them to PDF. They are much more reliable and better looking than powerpoint slides. It is very useful for documents... so when I click on a link for a journal paper I expect it to be pdf and not html. I agree that pdf is annoying when used in ways it isn't really useful/intended for...especially when they make the file size unnecessarily large. but what other format would you prefer for papers and things? plus, i don't use adobe to make pdfs, it is free for anyone to make them without adobe involved at all. i'm interested in what you computer scientists are attaching to your emails :) andrewb For research papers, there has to be a pdf. A good practice is publish online content as HTML and have a "printer friendly" link to a pdf version. Naturally youre trusting the browsers to layout your html properly, but we all trust the browsers.. right? :) Eric All y'all academics and your PDF-lovin' ways... :-P andrewb I'm a PDF Handling Dude (almost). I like powerpoint when I have to distract people with diagrams in meetings. + Comment
andrewb Happy Birthday Jane, and congratulations to Eric on some impressive cooking!
Chris יום הולדת שמח Chris Yom Huledet Same'ach! Eric Unicode comments are “fixed”! Leila Heyyyy I just turned 25 too, what day is her birthday? Jane Happy Birthday Leila :) My birthday is on April 14th, what's yours? Erin Happy Birthday Leila & Jane My b-day is on April 26th!!!! Jane April Birthdays rule! :) Leila happy birthday jane and erin :) Mine is the 11th :) it falls on easter sometimes, yours must too? andrewb Apparently all the cool kids have their birthdays in april. Mom Not quite all! June 11, June 30, and Sept.14 blow Andrew's theory! :-) Erin Who has the Sept. 14th birthday? Erin: Duh! Jays birthday! But men don't count. This is for cool woman who have birthdays in April. andrewb and me! :P + Comment
http://portal.opera.com/startup/?tip=speeddial Also this page is neat.. Innovations by Opera: http://operawiki.info/OperaInnovations
Jane Jane Aw... Cute kitten... I particularly enjoyed "You May Pull Your pants up now" post. That's hilarious!
Chris One of these days I'm going to get shot, tazed, or beat down by the man. Jim That is indeed hilarious + Comment
http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html Eric ROFL: http://www.reluctantblogger.com/2007/04/how-microsoft-could-crush-google-in-one.html
Eric One of the best articles on software development, ever: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html Eric And one of the best on startups: http://www.paulgraham.com/road.html + Comment
After dinner, the five of us went to Seattle for dinner, drinks, and dancing, joined by Dave, Sarah, Leah, Amar, Mike, Kristen, Jen and Irena. It was quite a party! :-) Jane You misspelled a few names (Terris and Irina), but overall a pretty nice summary. :)
Eric Canadians! Jane Apparently, Americans are the ones that can’t spell! :-P Mary Jane is SO cute! And you look so happy! I haven't met her, but I like her. :) Rachel Dancing? =-) + Comment
Mary You suck. It was nice and warm here. Then it snowed.
andrewb Meanwhile here in Sydney we're breaking out our jackets because summer is over and its only just making it into the 70's. Brrr! D Did you do any yard work when the weather was good, Eric? Eric Of course not. ;-) + Comment
Eric ATI Radeon X1950 Pro with 512mb. I should have spent half the money to get the GT with half the RAM but 90% of the performance. Ah well.
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SlickRun in March: 5000+ installs, after the first updates in years. Venkat and I spent Friday in Texas working with IE's support team. Dallas in March is actually pretty nice, if you manage to dodge the tornadoes. :-) Everything is bigger in Texas-- the roads are huge, the street signs are massive, and even my $19 rental car was a Ford Edge SUV. Jane and I made it to the gym again this morning... three Sundays in a row! Of course, I'm not doing much more than jogging/running yet, but hopefully once my cardio's a bit healthier, I'll be inspired to branch out. Leila Aw I heard you couldn't arrange your flight to visit Austin on the weekend? i didn't like dallas much when i was there for a conference, very smogy like LA. we're smaller than dallas :)
Eric Yeah, the price to go from Dallas to Austin was like $400 more, and even just taking two extra days and driving would have cost $250 more. So, I'll just fly down for a weekend at some point instead? Leila Oh :( I thought it was a time issue because we could've driven up there :) yeah hopefully you can come down sometime :) + Comment
grelly not funny! j.k kiding i dont now what youre talking about when you say this one is funny but it is a nice car
grelly talk + Comment
andrewb I just saw this - what a crock that article is. I dont even know where to start pointing the nonsense.
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MSR just published a paper (http://research.microsoft.com/searchranger/) on blog spam and who profits from it. Their site shows how they used Fiddler to track spam back to those who profit from it. The paper got a nice writeup in the NYTimes and elsewhere.
This week... maybe try to catch Zodiac? Eric Quick plot summary of Zodiac: As dull as real-life, just with slightly prettier people.
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You can use this on your website to combat blog spammers too... see http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/installation.aspx Dave So when are you going to implement this on your site?
Dave How about this similar but non-cat based captcha system: http://www.hotcaptcha.com/ Eric Hehe... That's just wrong. + Comment
Dave Wow! (That was a Vista 'Wow' moment). Now I'm really going to use my Quick Launch bar.
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We went to the gym this morning. Getting up at 7:30 on a Sunday felt pretty brutal, particularly with the time change. :-O Chris I find it hard to believe you were up that early. Way to go E!
grelly you suck, jk , who are you people any i whant to now caus i saw a chat thing and i need to now, and i need to now if this is.im.instant messenger.but any way this is a cool web site + Comment
http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/archive/2004/08/21/218216.aspx andrewb Working for microsoft sounds pretty cool but the 10000mile commute puts me off.
Leila Check out the party Windows Vista is sponsoring at SXSW: http://www.danceright.net/upload/NASA_SXSW.jpg And this user experience microsoft guy is on a panel for SXSW Interactive: http://2007.sxsw.com/interactive/programming/panels/?action=bio&id=136987 You should really finagle your way into the conference next year :) They seem to promoting Microsoft Expression Studio too. + Comment
http://blogs.msdn.com/mswanson/archive/2004/10/03/237228.aspx
PayScale, which gets about a third of the traffic that Salary.com does, says it has information on jobs not usually found in corporate salary surveys like pornographic film actor (average salary: $63,275), rabbi (average salary: $98,610) and crossing guard (average hourly wage: $9.21) Rachel I like that if you double-click on any word it gives you the definition :-)
Eric That's the worst feature ever, to the point that I suffered through writing them a letter to ask them to go back to the old way (alt click). + Comment
Chris Sooo cute! One of the mini lop variety it seems. I use to raise them back home. Hmmm I also use to eat rabbit back home. LOL wait there was that incident with a rabbit and a cat in your back yard that I may have been a part of. Wow I should leave now...
Leila very cute bunny :) what do you use for website stats? Jane What a cutie. Does the bunny have a name? Eric @Jane: Cadbury. @Leila: Google's got some page stat thing, but I pretty much stopped using it. I look at my server logs (my host uses SmarterStats). + Comment
In retrospect, I probably should have shaved first. :-)
Chris Gah! You should have asked me first. I had two free tickets.
Eric Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! + Comment
Dave Woo! New Reflector! Although this new URI scheme is disturbing...
Eric Yeah, I spent a few minutes poking at it for security. Leila hey, i didn't know you got a livejournal account? (what is openid?) anyway i added you as a friend so now you should be able to see my entries :) grelly who are you grelly im seiuos + Comment
Requires: Four chicken breasts, spinich, feta cheese, salt, paper, parsley, meat hammer, PAM. Flatten chicken breasts to 1/3" using meat hammer. Add spinich and feta and roll shut. Tie or use toothpick to hold shut. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parsley, and place in a non-stick pan. Cook for 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Yum.
Yum Tasty.
Rachel That looks VERY yummy :-) Eric Ahem... that's pepper, not paper. Thanks, mom! GP Spinach, not spinich Eric Hehe. Yeah, you might guess that I don't read many recipes. :-) Now, if only my browser had a spell checker... Oh, wait... sunava Mate, this looks like a really good and simple recipie. I'll let you know how it goes! andrewb 375 degrees fahrenheit (since we're being pedantic here :) grelly im new to this place i mean web site, and i whantto now who you people are and i really whant that food! JK + Comment
Meanwhile, Clint, Rachel, and Anson were busy all weekend at PuzzleHunt...
Dave You match. Awww, how cute.
tariq looking sharp :) Chris Ha! Ezri Dax! andrewb Eric, why did you post a picture of a clean cut relaxed guy? Surely thats not you! Jason Are you coming to Tommy's wedding???????? Mary Who's the lovely escort? WooWOo! grelly WHO'S THE PRETTY LADIE JK + Comment
Dave So this feature allows me to filter out communication with irritating Apple zealots?
Chris This is funniest one yet by far. It's soooo true. + Comment
Chris I wanna green bar. Does it cost money to get a EV cert?
andrewb How about writing a BHO that you can have your customers install to turn the address bar green on your site? You could license it to other sites too... I bet this comment gets deleted ;) + Comment
Rachel Why is it green?
Eric Because of my feature. :-) http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/11/07/improving-ssl-extended-validation-ev-ssl-certificates-coming-in-january.aspx Leila It looks like you work in a highly contentious field Rachel Is this something I should be using? Eric Well, pretty much everything we do is contentious with the folks that bother to read our blog. Rachel How does someone "subscribe" to your blog? Eric Click on the orange XML icon at the very top. + Comment
???? I like how the text is big on the screen but typing open everytime doesn't sound good. slickrun is better in that way.
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Dave I don't think their physics model is entirely accurate (863ft)
andrewb (971ft - I clearly have more time on my hands than Dave) Jim 1057...poor kitties Rachel 1205 Rachel 1604 andrewb 1827 ftw! + Comment
http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/rootsupd.exe
A view from a touristy overlook in northern Barcelona Dinner last night. Yum. Rachel Wow! You cooked!
andrewb I love the middle picture. Especially that they wrote the sign in english. + Comment
Google hit 510. Apple has doubled to 96. Sigh.
andrewb The terrorists use metric. If america goes metric, the terrorists clearly win. Stand strong!
grelly ok who ever, wth is this + Comment
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/01/12/100-million-ie7-installations.aspx
Rachel You should post some new pictures!!!
andrewb The oplc's are kinda cool, but I had to ask for help opening the one I tried. Apparently kids open them easily, but adults struggle. Interesting. + Comment
Stolen property. If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless in the same year, you return it to its rightful owner.
andrewb That is a great article. I am starting to suspect the quality of a feature is inversely proportional to the number of slashdotters, OSS geeks and industry competitors who bitch about it. Which means EV rocks!
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Dave Does Newton ever get tired of being wrong?
andrewb Thats clearly a solid. They may as well have said glass is a liquid ... Leila Yeah I use the corn starch example when we do our viscosity lab :) students have a lot of fun poking and then stirring it. + Comment
Eric Unless, of course, you count the fact that they misspelled "Execute". :-)
EricB (elbpdx) It's a poor copy at best Eric...Happy new year! + Comment
Mary Oh no... I'm going to say a little prayer for this film. I love the Indiana Jones trilogy. I'd like it to remain untainted. Lucas already sullied the other Ford trilogy with his prequels.
Jim Weren't we just talking about this? + Comment
We'll see how the parent's DSL handles the 400+ MB download.
I walk over to the Daily Show building to watch the interview in person, and not surprisingly, I see Weird Al on a bike on my way over. I flag him down and ask and sure enough, he's looking for the Daily Show building. I point it out and we both walk in and get on the elevator. The moment we get on, two thuggy looking guys in suits slide out and the door shuts behind them, leaving a suspicious bag in the corner of the elevator. "That's not good" I muse, and Weird Al is rubbing his suddenly tearing eyes, looking very much as if he just got maced. The two of us nervously slide to the far corner away from the bag. I'm pondering the proper course of action for someone about to get assassinated with a B-grade celebrity, and stealing increasingly terrified glances at the bag. Beep.... Beep.... Beep.... Beep.... Beep.... Beep.... "Uh oh" Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep..BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep..BEBEBEBEBEBE And that's when my watch alarm woke me up.
tariq is that new picture from xmas dinner this year or something?
Rachel He he he...I'm pretty sure that picture is from high school! Eric Which picture? The one on the top of the page was from my sophomore year of college, I think. Leila merry christmas! did the package arrive to MD before you left? Eric Yup, it's great! I'm still here till new year's eve Leila yay :) i hope you enjoy the books.. they seemed really funny! + Comment
Leila you have no excuse for not joining livejournal to view my journal now! aha, it's not your laziness... it must be something else...
Eric MySpace is astonishingly craptacular. The fact that something so slow and ad-ridden is at all popular boggles the mind. Leila Yeah I defintely agree.. same with friendster when it was popular. + Comment
People, for the most part, are not playing with their software because they want to. They’re using the software as a tool to accomplish something else that they would like to do. Maybe they are using a chat program to try and seem witty, in hopes that the person they are chatting with will want to spend time with them, so that, ultimately, they have a better chance of getting laid, so that, ultimately, their selfish DNA will get to replicate itself.
I gave blood on Thursday for the first time ever; I wondered what it would be like and I'd pretty much run out of excuses. It wasn't bad actually, and I'll probably do it again in a few months. After that, I went out with folks from my old team; we went to The Parlor, a billiards bar in Bellevue... It's the type of invitation that I turned down for years straight without even really thinking about it. It was a lot of fun, and I don't know what was going on in my head that I always turned down such invites in the past. Microsoft has a lot of really interesting folks working for it, but with a few exceptions, I never interacted with them socially. Strange. It's been a really interesting time since I left for Barcelona; I've been spending a lot less time at work, and a lot less time vegging and geeking out. I don't know where it's all leading, but so far, I'm enjoying the adventure.
Apparently, the worst windstorm in at least a dozen years, and perhaps maybe many more than that. 1.5 million customers without power in the Seattle area-- parts of Seattle, all of Redmond (including my house) and most of the Eastside. As far as I know, everyone's okay, although there are a ton of tree bits all over the place. I'm currently camping out in a Starbucks in Renton, wishing I'd splurged on the extra battery for my laptop. Here's a shot of my parking lot at Microsoft... Fortunately for me, the mighty Corolla survived the onslaught. :-)
leila wow! i hope you guys get power again soon. was the starbucks out of power too? or was everyone already sitting in the plug spots?
leila oh that's funny i'm in san francisco and there was just a news blurb about the electric companies here helping you guys electricity :) + Comment
Leila You still have an Ipod thought right? Let me know how they compare... it's weird that they priced the zune at the exact same price as the ipod... i think they would definitely get customers willing to try it out if it was slightly cheaper than the ipod
???? Why didn't you wait on this gadget? 100GB ipod http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/peripherals/toshiba-announces-100gb-18inch-drive-100gb-ipod-on-the-way-219296.php Eric Ipod doesn't really compete on price; folks looking for cheaper devices have plenty of choices. As it was, Ipod prices fell, and Zune had to fall to match. Leila I'm not sure I understand what you mean? I don't really know any cheaper ones that are just as good, in capacity and capabililty? If the Zune is just as good (is it?) and was cheaper I thought it would have an edge. I wonder what the 2nd selling device is.. the creative zen? + Comment
Chris What's the adoption rate for this stuff? Other than in the demo I haven't seen any sites turn my address bar green. You would think First Tech of all banks would have jumped on.
Eric The new certs aren't on sale yet; they'll probably go on sale sometime around Vista-consumer availability. + Comment
http://blog.andrewbucknell.com/2006/12/07/1165476563979.html
Chris And it makes the perfect holiday gift too! I'm buying one for my mom! Hmmmmm I wonder what else it will blend. *evil smile*
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WPF/E is a cool technology that will compete with Flash for the rich-media space.
Chris I blogged ths quite a while ago: http://www.chaoticvisions.com/aberration/000217.html
Eric You win. :-) Eric From Jim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SCJLlSf21Y + Comment
Chris This is awesome!!! Just want I was looking for.
Mary I'm guessing that says web developers can get free Internet Explorer 6 Virtual PCs??? It's a guess. Even if it's right I don't really understand what it means. Eric It's a geek thing. Basically, you can run a "virtual" computer in software on your real computer. This is neat because the "virtual" computer can run a different operating system than the real computer. Normally, you'd need to have two real computers to do this. + Comment
Unfortunately, while I'm heading back to MD in a few weeks, I really need to get a serious amount of work done before I go. andrewb Dont think, just do! I'm looking forward to watching the firefox fanbois get smacked down when IE8 ships and firefox 3 turns out to be a steaming pile of OSS. So get busy ;)
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Katya and I managed to dodge the radioactive BA plane by one day. We were on flight 479 on the 18th. http://www.britishairways.com/travel/flightops/public/en_us?p_faqid=2432
Happy black Friday. :) Hey what's up with http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx ? It doesn't run once!
Eric :-) -- send me email. + Comment
andrewb And the superbowl party is being held in March? :)
???? People @ Microsoft don't watch football Eric ????: Perhaps not, but we do watch the commercials. :-) andrewb American football is great. Especially when the pitcher makes a slapshot in to the endzone for a three pointer. And speaking of football, have a great thanksgiving! + Comment
A view from the terrace in Parc Güell:
I didn't sleep much last night, but I managed to make it to the Parc today with Katya for a bit. Strange moment of the day: Walking down Passeig de Gracia and passing a (not-altogether-sane) young Spanish woman belting out an Avril Lavigne song... quite well, in fact. First highlight of the day: joining in on Markellos' TechEd talk to demo using Fiddler2 to show how the Phishing Filter works. Second highlight of the day: I was telling Niall (an IE support tech from England) a story about SlickRun and he said oh, you wrote that? Tomorrow night, flamenco dancers, followed by an early flight home on Saturday.
A few highlights: 1. Meeting Mark Russinovich, of SysInternals.com fame 2. Finding instructions and pointers to two of my tools: Fiddler and TamperIE in a book in the bookshop: Hacking Exposed: Web Applications. 3. Staying out entirely-too-late with entirely-too-smart people 4. Tapas
The convention center is right next to the waterfront... there are great pedestrian paths (near the '92 Olympic Village) and the sea was beautiful. After enjoying the sunshine for a bit, I headed over to a nearby mall. American pop music really has conquered the world. It was a little disturbing to hear the Backstreet Boys in a Spanish mall. I wonder if the Spaniards also all (claim to?) dislike boybands too? After a brief staff meeting, Dimitris, Katya, me, and a bunch of other MS folks went out to a Tapas bar across the street. I ate quite a few things I didn't recognize (mostly tasty) and drank quite a bit of wine. Dinner done around 10:30, they dragged me out to a different bar across town for a few more drinks. Katya knocked over a glass of wine onto the poor guy sitting next to me, but I think he got plenty of enjoyment out of making her feel bad about it. :-) At around one (an hour after closing) we finally managed to leave and start the longish walk back to the hotels. It's quite nice here at night. Alas, it's now three am and I've got to be up in 5 hours or so. I tried to tell my colleagues that I'm too old for this, but at 27, I'm apparently not convincing enough. Apparently, heavy drinking followed by little sleep and a full day of work is supposed to be a staple of your 20s. Go figure. Anyway, here's a picture of the conference center where I'll be working the next few days.
Eric Hmm... that was probably the worst possible angle to shoot that building from. I was up on a cool little pedestrian bridge, but there were much better views of the building, it turns out.
andrewb One is never too old to drink too much and then struggle through the next day at work. + Comment
There was a Spanish guy on the plane next to me from London to Barcelona. Periodically, he'd bust out and sing (quite well, incidentally) parts of an opera. By the way, British Airways is the only way to fly. The food was good, the seats were relatively good, and they give you wine at every opportunity. :-) andrewb I am a little distressed by the 'odd' comment! Have you walked along the footpath to the shops yet? :)
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Dave Glad you survived. Whereas during the previous ship party you were thrown in the liquid, this time the liquid was thrown into you. Thanks, I'll be here in Soviet Russia all week. Have fun in Barcelona.
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But first, the Vista ship party! Chris What a coincidence! So will I! Where you going? I'm going to Korea
Eric Barcelona Chris Why? With whom? Eric TechEd Europe. I'm a booth babe. ;-) + Comment
And then I saw the "Get Firefox" rules: http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/identity-guidelines/firefox.html ???? Yeah but their mumbo jumbo is prettier :)
Chris Oooohhh the perfect solution!!! Thanks E! http://www.chaoticvisions.com/aberration/000224.html t3hd00d Actually MS's legalese is straightforward and uncomlicated. Mozilla's is pages long and depends on graphics and such. Just a thought. And now, another one --> The photoblog at the website above is BOMB!!! + Comment
D Hey your RSS feed has been busted for a while...what gives?
Chris I hear that in 6.0 they gonna finally have apps close when X them out instead of keeping them running in the background. That should help out a ton since now its easy to run out of memory. I hope they also wrap TAPI to where they are easier to call from managed code. Eric Dunno. My RSS feed generator is... sloppy... to say the least. Eric Should be fixed now. Dave Don't give in to people's crazy demands about RSS! Resist! Resist! + Comment
Leila Have you seen "The Girl in the Cafe"? I really liked it
Eric Nope. I assume it's related? Leila Yes, I figured you'd google it :) It's a story centered around the g8 summit and ending extreme poverty. http://www.hbo.com/films/girlinthecafe/synopsis/index.html Leila PS - did you enjoy poking around allmusic? it's quite fun andrewb Ending extreme poverty? Sounds like commie propaganda! + Comment
Dave Supposedly he was born in a mental institution and he sleeps only one hour a night. He's a great man. Do you know about Tyler Durden?
andrewb The first rule of geek club - dont talk about geek club. + Comment
http://www.tonychor.com/archive/cat_internet_explorerwork.html andrewb I know this isnt true, but I can't help thinking of this as a subtle variation on Marie Antoinettes 'let them eat cake'. That says more about me than the IE team though.
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andrewb Am I correct in interpreting this post to mean youre going to tech-ed in espana? If so - heres the only two phrases you need : 1. donde estar es el banyo, and 2. cerveza por favor.
Eric Hehe... yes. Thanks for your sage wisdom! Mary Andrew said the same thing my boss told me when I informed her of my trip to Argentina. I took French in high school. It´s a little overwhelming but SUPER fun! + Comment
SciFi in just 6 words: http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html
-----Original Message----- Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 6:44 PM Hallo. I am attractive and easy-going but despite all my positive traits of character:) I am very lonely. I feel so sad about it and if you feel sad - come to see me and let's speak about everything in the world! We can discuss any subject, share any ideas and thoughts! So, I am waiting for you and let's start chatting. Have a nice day! P.S. Forgot to tell you that you can find me here <<link removed>> ta-ta:) Yanaa
http://openpandora.googlepages.com/ Leila "Unfortunately, our music licenses force us to limit the numner of songs you may skip each hour." Why do I always break these things? I still love the allmusic database the best. It would be nice if one of these projects would interface with the information allmusic already has.
Eric Have you used Pandora before? What exactly is allmusic? Leila No not until you posted the link and it gave me that message. I've used a similar program once. http://www.allmusic.com/ is an excellent online database. They started out publishing AMG reference books before they started the online database. The similar artists, genre, styles, and moods are the things I thought could be incorporated. + Comment
Erin Oh No! The impairment of speaking! I wish my boss had this for one day of work! Oh I'm too cruel!
andrewb An alternative is get yourself episodic situational deafness. It impairs your hearing but only in certain situations at certain times. Eric rofl! + Comment
Here are some of the reader-suggestions from the Seattle PI: Seattle: Wired and jacked up If you're left, you're right for us econostupid Welcome to Washington, enjoy your stay, THEN GO HOME!!! We hate Bush. Come join us Seattle: Come look at the monorail Seattle: Because Bremerton is too far away Come visit. You can't afford the condos. If you love taxes, you'll love Seattle Seattle: Left of Bellevue. We're green, mean and a tax-collecting machine Seattle: Irony-free since 1992
As of yesterday, the following are ON NOTICE. Your days are numbered!
Dave Don't worry. Its a sign of affection. Your coworkers want you to take some sick days.
tariq Glad that i was sick that day :) + Comment
andrewb Its interesting how much of an effect the Great Depression had on population growth.
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Dave Eric's got bugs on the brain.
Eric Hehe... yeah, I meant "book". That's scary. Anson Did you notice that people who bought "A million random digits" also bought "CLR via C#"? I guess System.Random just isn't good enough for some people. Eric hehehehe... + Comment
if (person = terrorist) {
tariq are you punishing everyone with person=terroist ?
Eric bingo andrewb Theres another bug - I'm not sure the current administration has implemented an appropriate exit function ... + Comment
At the moment, the only game I'm playing is DOOM. :-) It's funny how great DOOM still is, and impressive at how far we've come.
might come to you as a surprise.I hope you find it of interest. Let me first introduce myself. My name is Magnus Denis and I am a staff of an Auditing and Risk Management Firm, here in Spain, I should like to use this means to ask your assistance in moving some fund over to your country. I have, in the course of my duties come in contact with a good amount of money that have been inactive for some years now and careful investigation proved the original depositor of the fund had died some years back and all attempts to reach the supposed beneficiary of the deposit were fruitless and before it is forfeited to the state, I decided to move it. After legal consultation, I have concretized modalities for a secured way that would guarantee a perfect transaction. But be most assured that for your help and partnership you will get a good percentage of the total sum. It is important to let you know that fifty percent of the rest will be invested over there under your anagement. For a negotiable period of time and we will open a fruitful dialog to that effect. I look forward to our working closely in practically seeing this transaction come to a perfect and successful end. For effective communication, please kindly include in your reply, your complete Names, Address, Occupation, Age and most especially your contact number and I will contact you as soon as I get your reply. I look forward to hearing from you and I express my gratitude for your patience. Jim Do people still fall for this one?
Dr. Lee Chan. It is my pleasure to write you in respect of our Company Wujiang Wanlida Textile Co.Ltd situated at No 6 Third District Nanshan Road Shengze Wujiang City, Jiangsu Province, Peoples Republic Of China. + Comment
http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2006/10/vista-features-that-didnt-make-it-in.html
Halo Wars: http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?type=wmv&id=13532&wm=1
http://punto-informatico.it/download/scheda.asp?i=1682198 Rachel Photos of the MD trip? Photos of anything???
EricLaw http://images.google.com/images?q=anything&hl=fr Rachel I knew that was going to happen and yet I did nothing to stop it...Any pictures of you on your MD trip? You anywhere? (this should be fun :-)) + Comment
Hopefully, I'll finish off the second season of House before I head back to Washington on Sunday.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction. Jim It's not working, but atleast I do look silly
Rachel Why does that work?!? Eric I'm thinking that God took a shortcut in the wiring. Erin looks like the question of moving hand and foot simultaneously is for most people mediated at the fifth cervical vertebral ganglion or above. That's the one that controls motor/sensory reactions below the middle ribs. So if one is trying to move foot and hand in opposite directions, there's a tendency to conflate the signals. Rachel Thanks Erin! + Comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw&eurl= Jim A theme song for me?
Dave Have you heard "Don't Download this Song"? Available free on his myspace page: <http://www.myspace.com/weirdal>. He's really embracing my demographic here. + Comment
I'm heading to MD for a quick trip: 9/27 to 10/1. Rachel Why are you so set on going to MD?
Eric Beats Tulsa? Eric Ennui. Mary You're HERE! Call me if you want to get together for coffee or something! Eric Hehe... Unfortunately, I never see these comments until long after I've returned. :-) + Comment
In other news: Karl Rove, while potentially the devil, is a pretty compelling public speaker. He gave a talk at the MS PAC last Friday. Clint is winging his way back to Texas... see you soon, Clint! Rachel's a smartie.
http://loadingreadyrun.com/showmovie.php?x=480&y=360&url=talklikepirate.mov Jim That's one of the greatest things ever
Dave Type like a pirate: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003590.html#more + Comment
Eric Even better: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/10/20/483041.aspx
Leila Do you have any interesting first computer experiences? Eric Not that come to mind. The first computer we had (a Commodore 4) had a BASIC interpreter, but we only discovered the COLOR command. So you could type COLOR 1 to make the text blue, etc. That was about the extent of my understanding. Of course, I think I was 5... + Comment
Fiddler and SlickRun will appear in a book in November
http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2005/09/17/469941.aspx
At the park...
A picture from a training walk Rachel took before her recent 3-Day...
ArchAngel Hm, if you use the fiddler tool on fiddlertool.com (or just view the source of the webpage, for that matter), you'll notice that the page loads an rss.gif from /eric/images/ instead of /fiddler/images/ ... That and a little bit of directory transversal reveals this blog. O_o. May want to update the source to prevent similar 'accidental' discoveries ... or in some other way secure things you want to keep private.
Love,
A Privacy Advocate,
ArchAngel
Eric As someone who posts all sorts of personal data all over the web, I think it's pretty obvious that I'm not in the tin-foil hat crowd. ;-) leila can you put the high res versions up somewhere so i can make prints for shaun? thanks :) + Comment
http://www.sellsbrothers.com/spout/archive.htm#vs.netfunfacts Anson You're right, that is old :) The tips are mostly useful for VS 2002. If you're looking for tips and tricks fo VS 2005 then look here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ansonh/archive/2005/12/06/500823.aspx. A useful list of keybindings can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/karenliu/archive/2006/06/12/628756.aspx.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/fashion/thursdaystyles/24laptop.htm?_r=1&oref=slogin Rachel No fair! You have to be a member to read that!
Dave Use BugMeNot.com: http://www.bugmenot.com/view/www.nytimes.com Eric user: deltagrp password: omega + Comment
Review: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/ie7_rc1.asp Jim I guess your excited about it hehe
Jim Weird, there were multiple postings of this when I commented. Guess that's IE 6 for ya Eric No, I screwed up the link the first time so I reposted and then deleted the original. But IE6 is junk. + Comment
Eric :-) Alas, here's the simple install instruction for the wireless card.
1. You need to get the compilers and linkers in order to compile the ndiswrapper kernel module and userland utilities:
#sudo apt-get install build-essential
2. You need to get the kernel header files. There are several options here depending on what kernel you are using. Since I use the linux-686-smp, I grabbed the 686 kernel header:
#sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.15-25-686
Note: linux-headers-2.6.15-25-686 depends on linux-headers-2.6.15-25-386. So you will have two linux-headers directories showing up in /usr/src directory. Don't remove the 386 directory!
3. Download the latest ndiswrapper STABLE release 1.19 tar ball from ndiswrapper.sourceforge.org and place it in /usr/src
4. Unpack the source tar ball:
#sudo tar xzvf ndiswrapper-1.19
5. Read the INSTALL file in ndiswrapper-1.19 directory.
6. Build the kernel module and utilities:
# cd /usr/src/ndiswrapper-1.19
# sudo make uninstall
# sudo make
# sudo make install
7. Remove t
Eric Why oh why can't I sleep? andrewb I'm interested in hearing why you chose Ubuntu. Eric Good marketing. Dave http://www.lifehacker.com/software/top/hack-attack-top-10-ubuntu-apps-and-tweaks-195437.php + Comment
Eric Anson and Rachel posted their results. They're not surprising.
Chris I suppose I should have expected as much http://www.chaoticvisions.com/aberration/000204.html andrewb Hrm. http://blog.andrewbucknell.com/2006/08/22/1156183799897.html Jim Apparently I'm angelic...how the hell'd that happen? Chris Ummm, yeah. Inspite of the fact that I'm officially evil, I think I should refrain from answering that :D Chris P.S. way to go Andrew!!! Dave I received the same image as Andrew although I'm not sure why. All of my answers seemed perfectly reasonable... maybe that's the problem. + Comment
Tonight, Chris, Dave, Sarah, John, Rachel, and I saw the movie Snakes on a Plane. And it delivered exactly that! Eric Suggestions for new titles in the "Snakes on a plane" theme... http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14247242/?GT1=8404
Leila they had a "Blanks on a mf Blank" contest at the alamo drafthouse here. they give you an animal and a vehicle.. racoons on a mf shuttle won (and that guy used to be at KVRX). here's the link to view the top 3 http://www.originalalamo.com/downtown/frames.asp?b=/online_tix/show_details.asp?show_id=3900 Leila PS-Do you guys think you could do the Snakes on a Day "endurance event"? i'm not going to see the movie but i was wondering, for those who saw it, how many screenings could you stand? anson maybe? http://www.originalalamo.com/online_tix/show_details.asp?show_id=3991 andrewb I'm thinking mf kangaroos on a mf surfboard, but thats probably cause theres kangaroos in the streets and everyone surfs to work here. + Comment
Brandon Such a random comment. I'm on the Beta 2 build now, it is a pretty good application. It is suffering from performance issues though I think.
Leila what about viruses? Leila PS-How can a hardcore programmer like you use Frontpage??! Eric Perf needs some work, true. Leila, what about them? As for using FrontPage-- it's a syntax-highlighting text editor. What else would I use? Leila You can easily get them when using Outlook because so many people use it? I was wondering if they updated it to include some protection. I guess it makes sense to use frontpage just for the syntax highlighting... but what a large program to load for that purpose? And that really isn't the purpose of Frontpage, right? I use EditPad on Windows and emacs on linux. Eric On a machine with 2gigs of RAM, the load of Frontpage isn't really measurable. But the real value comes from the integration with FrontPage Server Extensions. EditPadPro the new FTP Folder panel is nice, but it's just not the same. As for Outlook viruses, if you don't open attachments, there's no problem. And frankly, Outlook makes it much harder to open potentially malicious attachments than virtually any other program. Leila oh i didn't know there was an ftp folder panel thing. i was using putty to scp. i got a virus from outlook 5 years ago when i used to use it.. it had this thing where it automatically loaded the most recent message without asking. my virus protection program found it but it was annoying. and it kept downloading multiple copies of the emails. i know it's crazy but i still use pine.. i can see how it's not useful for people who need to markup their emails but i can't get a virus :) other people who have switched from outlook tell me to use eudora? andrewb HTML-KIT is a great syntax highlighting editor. And its free, and super stable. Dave vim is the b3st!!1! (Also does syntax highlighting) andrewb see, Dave is a Real Dev. + Comment
http://blogs.borland.com/NickHodges/archive/2006/07/28/26296.aspx Dave Hooray for helping users!
Mom Comment from person you do know. I would proudly join that chant. + Comment
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/c99b53edbf927e1d559111caa704f994/index.html
Of course, there're probably gremlins in the system that I just haven't encountered yet.
andrewb Those guys are my heros!
Mom This was really alot of fun to read and a great commentary on how a business really operates. + Comment
Wed Aug 9th (9:05pm) Wed Aug 16th (8:50pm) Wed Aug 23rd (8:35pm) Tues Aug 29th (8:25pm) andrewb No spoilers from Dave this time, please.
Dave Roger Kint is Keyser Soze. Jim Dammit Dave! andrewb And apparently all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put humpty together again. But don't tell Jim! + Comment
Dave Another one? Is this more TNG? How can they do this? They killed Data. That's it for me.
Dave Another one? Is this more TNG? How can they do this? They killed Data. That's it for me. Dave I'm going to blame IE7 for the double post Rachel Isn't Matt Damon playing Captain Kirk in this one? Jim Darn it Dave. My mom came down the stairs and asked me why they killed Data. Then I had to explain that I haven't seen the newest movie. Dave Is there a way to retroactively add *WARNING SPOILERS* to my post? Eric Hmm... I saw the most recent movie and I'd totally forgotten that they blew him up. No worries, I'm sure they've got a backup on a tape drive somewhere. Jim :'( Mom I just watched a very long documentary on Star Trek and technology that was presented by William Shatner. I still think the original was the best because it was the most inovative and influential. But then again I am from the dinosaur age! Eric Comedy Central is doing a roast of William Shatner on Sunday the 20th. It'll probably be pretty funny. Mom I've seen the ads for it and have every intention of watching it. I bet it will be great! For all of you dorks here you go: http://people.aol.com/people/article/0,26334,1226216,00.html + Comment
15.7.1 Denial of Service Attacks on Proxies
http://bhandler.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!70f64bc910c9f7f3!1231.entry
andrewb all the best code gets written at night. if I ever run a software dev place it will only be open 6pm til 6am.
Mom Have you tried going to bed :-) ? Eric Bed is where you code on the laptop. Mom I tried to make a face with the tongue sticking out but I lost my cheat sheet. Did dad have "the talk" twice with your brother and skip you? Just kidding! Eric "M-awwww-m!" + Comment
Leila are you going to upload jillian? i have a hard time choosing, but it looks like other people are too.. 45-55% of people agree with my votes each time.
Dave Too much cute. Oh God. Chris OMG OMG OMG KITTIES!!!! HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF KITTIES!!! + Comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVCkP8fSmCk Chris Wow Reshma is in the video! That was so random. I can't wait to ask her if she really is a nano-bot tomorrow.
Dave This video has been removed by the user. What was going on there? andrewb Apparently there are concerns about the IRS cracking down on the free soda program - similar to wait staff declaring tips, MSFT employees would have to declare how many soda they drink a year, and pay tax. The video might be evidence, so it was pulled. Eric This was an internal video recruiting had made a while back, featuring Ed Helms from the Daily Show. + Comment
Mom I could use 6 months in a rubber room!
Mom Help, my emails are stuck in my computer and they can't get out! Now you know why I need a rubber room. That's one reason anyway! What happen to that good old reliable little guy that knew how to help dinosaurs? Mary I think you need some noise and excitement. The mountain top would probably just put you to sleep. Clint I'm on a break. No mountains though, damn Texas. andrewb Forget about mountain tops. You need time on an australian beach! Eric Ooh la la. That sounds good! Mary Australian beach. The IDEA makes me jealous! + Comment
Friends help you move.
He's the owner of the license plate HTTPDEV. :-) Clint I wanted to buy a shirt that said WTS wang (the wang was in purple). Leila said no though. :-(
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We saw "My Super Ex-girlfriend" tonight... I'm sorry to report that it wasn't very good. Mom Thank you so much. It was the best B'day present ever!
Rachel Any pictures of your trip? Eric Alas, no juice in the camera. Rachel A likely story... + Comment
andrewb Heh I always had an unfounded assumption they were ex-microsoft or something. Super smart guys though - definitely a good pick-up for msft.
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Was I really this young?
andrewb I call these "before eric worked at microsoft he smiled a lot".
Eric Heh. Mary I wanna know what you're looking at in that last picture. Whatever it is Jeff seems pretty excited about it too! Eric I'm trying to look cool and straight. In retrospect, I failed miserably. :-) Mom You look like you are trying to say "Help, I'm trapped in this tux and I can't get out" + Comment
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8172/image0019ib.gif andrewb Math humour! Love it. I always wanted "Mathematicians find more roots" to be a mainstream joke, but its only really funny for australian mathematicians.
Dave In my first Linear Algebra class in college when the book got to the shearing transformation it had a visual example of an image of a sheep followed by the same image after having a shearing transformation applied... + Comment
Leila your timestamps are off by an hour?
Eric The server doesn't adjust for PDT, I suppose. andrewb insomnia is a sign of genius! (I have no idea if its true, but I'm all for making things up.) + Comment
andrewb Heh. Apparently I am going to die 3 months before Eric. Which I thought sucked at first, until I remembered how much older I am, and got the math right.
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andrewb Its winter here, so we're stuck with sunny blue skies and temps in the 60's. Brr! My lack of blogging has been due to world cup addiction. Normal service will resume shortly :)
Leila i post in my blog, every so often, but you don't read it :p Eric Is your blog public? Leila No :) But it is very easy to sign up to read Clint The weather sucks hear. Way too hot. And I don't post due to a WoW addiction. Eric Clint, get that Orc off your back! Leila So I take it you don't want to read my journal :) that's ok. the myspace blog for my radio shows is public. karen's going to play live at my next show i think Eric I'm just very, very lazy. + Comment
leila hello, how do you make that little icon of the 01010's with the wrench associated with your page? (it's cute)
Eric Hehe... it's supposed to be a lightning bolt. :-) I made the icon using http://www.axialis.com/iconworkshop/ Leila Neat, but how do you associate it with your page.. have it show up for us when we load it. do you code that somewhere in the html. Hehe who else thought was a wrench? Eric These are called "favicons". You have two choices: 1> Put it in the root of your webserver and name it favicon.ico, or 2> use a META tag in the head like so: <LINK rel="shortcut icon" href="myimage.ico" type="image/x-icon"> + Comment
I fully plan to age with grace and dignity... but can I get another twenty years or so first?!? Chris You might as well give it up! I mean the whole reason I started shaving my head was because the thinning became noticeable. You should shave your head like me and continue to fool people (and yourself) into believing that you’re too young to go bald.
Eric :-P andrewb Look on the bright side - your hair will fall out before you go totally grey! I'm here to help. Eric With chums like you, who needs adversaries? ;-) Mary That's alright. Angie was noticing my gray from a good 15ft away on my birthday. I always said I would go gracefully but I've succumbed to the dye. + Comment
http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/25/magazines/fortune/charity1.fortune/index.htm?cnn=yes
So many young people! ... Young people? What? Because you're soooo OLD!? PFFFTT!
Eric Yup, I'm officially old. Mary I don't believe you. andrewb Its true. Eric is an old man. I cant imagine being that old. + Comment
Leila looks like a useful tool? you can already see tax assessor values at your city tax collectors website.. why is it disturbing?
Eric The ease of data gathering is the scary part. The fact that I can recreationally look into how much you paid for your house, and how much the person before paid, and how many square feet, bedrooms, etc it has, is somewhat alarming. Larry Agreed. I think this should be restricted by some license of some sort. Certified Realtor's or CPA comes to mind almost immediately and I'm sure there are other meaningful applications. But arbitrary access to that kind of info will only lead to bad things. Leila But you can already easily get some of that information from the tax collector's website... square footage and bedrooms is hardly something i think is protected? Leila if you look on the website it says they get the info from public records... sure it's easier than looking at a few different websites, but i was able to get this sort of info when i was looking for houses. Eric The issue is that the ~ease~ of correlating records leads to a "database nation". Whether or not that's "scary" likely depends on how much dystopian sci-fi you read. :-) Dave And this is coming from the guy with his cell phone number and a map to his home on his website. omm omm + Comment
andrewb I suspect the usability labs wouldnt go for "Are you willing to debug?". My question with that dialog has always been why debug is capitalised - I didn't realise it's a proper noun.
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I'm trying to keep my excitement in check because this phone's specs are so amazing, it's going to be hard for it to live up to the hype. http://www.samsung.com/Products/MobilePhones/Sprint/SPH_A900ZKSXAR.asp. I'm most excited about the idea that this is a universal modem that I can just plug my laptop into. (My phone number will probably be changing at some point over the next three months as my contract with T-Mobile runs out).
Josh J Because i use Fiddler on a daily basis, i'll let you in on a little secret. You can take your number with you. A little thing called Number Portability.
Eric :-) I'm pretty sure I have to leave my number on my old phone until the contract expires, unless I want to give up my minutes. + Comment
???? I don't think this is the whole story. A guy in my school just finished his Ph.D. in HCI dealing with the issue of online gaming; there is a nice interview with him here: http://www.ogaming.com/data/3451~projectmassive.php.
He's studied this issue quite a bit, and he's come up with some very interesting findings. See http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~afseay/ for more information.
Donna That was donna btw Eric I'm not sure what you mean by "the whole story"? Donna I mean, that article is not painting an accurate picture of the problem. Donna Of course, it is only talking about South Korea, but "it's spreading" seems to imply there's some sort of epidemic. Eric 3 out of 3 of the set {Anson, Jim, and Clint} are hopelessly addicted. This is a pandemic. + Comment
XMen 3 was okay! My internet connection is intermittent! Boo! No work on Monday! Yay!
In totally unrelated news, http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2006/05/microsofts-may-18th-2006-big-turning.html andrewb Congrats on the window! Now remember, if its black outside the window, you should be at home! Or at least, not in the office :) Although I guess you can bend that rule a bit in Dec and Jan.
Eric Heh... It isn't getting dark until 9 or so but yeah, that would be leaving early. As it turns out, I turned down the window office because I like being right across the hall from Venkat, and I didn't really feel like hauling 6 machines and the plasma halfway across the building. Leila I'm pretty sure they have people there who do the hauling for you? Eric Nope, internal moves are self-moves. Otherwise, they have to pay movers like 500$, and most of the stuff in my office is personal hardware, so I don't know if they'd move it anyway. Rachel I think the solution here is to get rid of some of that "personal hardware"... =-) Leila Hmm that's weird.. I remember at Goddard they had people to help with office moves. They carted my computer down the hall, and my office mate had his books moved. Leila PS i like windows! + Comment
it would go something like this. "G'Day mate. Welcome to IE7 and it's bloody fantasic mate!" the AussiePower tools XP add-on will include this update/change "G'Day cobbers and welcome to this fair dinkum IE7 web browser, maaaate. We hope yoooose have a bloody good day, mate."
http://gadgets.fosfor.se/gadgets-now-and-then-part-1/ Trix I know it is off topic, but is there a x64 fix for IE7 yet? With the lsass.exe, it has been a few weeks now. I am refering to where it said a few days.
"If you're running Windows 2003 or X64, you may want to hold off for a day or two to let us fix an issue with WDigest LsaSS.exe"
Eric The buggy update was pulled down, so if you install now, you shouldn't get it. Even if you do, you can uninstall the KB from Add/Remove. The fixed KB will be posted near the end of the month. Probably better to send me email using the link at the top of the page. + Comment
It actually felt like a productive day, which was a nice change. Of course, it's now almost 3am on Sunday, so I'll probably end up sleeping half the day away. Ah well.
someone besides andrewb Yay for not working weekends! <<deliberately misses the point, thereby finding happiness>>
Rachel You should come play softball with us tonight! I think if you'd let me convince you to take time off during the week more often, you wouldn't get so burned out =-) + Comment
1> Invent a threat. 2> Scare the crap out of people with it. 3> Convince users that the only way to avoid the threat is to do whatever McAfee wants.
Wait a second... I think I've recently noticed another organization with this model. I suppose McAfee doesn't get anyone killed though.
They'd probably have a bit more credibility if they hadn't basically purchased Firefox. andrewb From a book about Google "Evil is whatever Sergey says it is." Apparently fighting to hold your market dominance isn't evil after all!
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To table as a verb, with the meaning to place on a table, is seldom used in a literal sense. Rather, it often evokes the imagined placement on a table of an (actual or figurative) document stating a proposal. The meaning varies among English-speaking countries: In British English, to "table" a measure is to propose it for consideration, as in bringing it to the legislative table. See British Parliament for examples. In American English, to "table" a measure is to postpone its further consideration until a later date, as in returning it to a stack of papers on the table. See Congress of the United States for examples. I love this Internet thing.
DareDevil, Wheee!, Fox Fever, This is Hot and Give me the the soap ???? there is also one on the google search page when i open IE. do you see it? it doesn't show up in firefox
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If you're running Windows 2003 or X64, you may want to hold off for a day or two to let us fix an issue with WDigest + LsaSS.exe Eric We're going to ship a Beta-3 after this one.
andrewb Kickass! All the busy-ness pays off when you ship. + Comment
leila oh that looks good :)
RobAsh Hopefully Parked domains will be yellow. I hate parked domains!!! + Comment
I got another patent cube yesterday. andrewb Browser Helper Objects sound really complex. I thought the browser was beyond help. Nyuk Nyuk.
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It's good to be back though... there's lots to do.
Erin WOW! I am jealous you got the hear him speak. Let me know if he will be in your area again or Maryland. I would love to hear him. There have been rumors of him running in 2008, do you think we will be so lucky? Only a little over 2 more years left of idiot in office. Lets get a Democratic back in the house!!
Eric I wasn't sure if I'd vote for him if he ran again until I saw him speak. I've changed my mind. Unless McCain runs, I'd vote for him again. But I suspect it will be hard for Kerry to get the nomination. andrewb Hillary's got the democratic nomination for 2008 sewn up. Eric Yeah, so they said about Dean in 2004. andrewb -I- never thought Dean had it. -They- are often wrong :) + Comment
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/DevelopmentAbstraction.html
The feds will allow you to deduct the larger of either your state income tax or your state sales tax. Since Washington doesn't have a state income tax, it's a no-brainer. Then comes the harder part-- take the "standard" claim or itemize your receipts. The standard claim is based on a formula applied to your income, and the itemized is just that... You save every receipt and total them up. Everyone assures me that I'm a crazy spender, and it's true that I pretty much spend everything that doesn't go into the house or my 401k. So I figure that saving receipts is going to be the best idea ever. I even go so far as to justify big purchases based on all of the sales tax I'm going to get to deduct (not that that makes sense, even as I'm thinking it). So anyway, I end up with this crazy drawer full of receipts that is overflowing and takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 hours to sum up. And all year long, I've got receipts falling out of my wallet and all over the car, my room etc. But, boy, am I going to stick it to the feds come tax day. So, I just finished my taxes. The "standard" claim is within about 5 bucks of my foot tall stack of receipts. Argh.... Does this mean maybe I'm not a crazy spender after all? andrewb Your question makes the implicit assumption that the 'average washingtonian in erics income range' isn't also a crazy spender. 'nuff said :)
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Eric I think Jonathan might even be funnier... http://www.somepreparedremarks.com/Default.aspx?imgid=204
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Dave I enjoyed Thank you for Smoking quite a bit. Very funny. Throughout the movie I was wondering why I recognized the kid. He was on Stargate.
Clint I was wondering if it was Will Wheaton's kid through out the movie. + Comment
Eric The one on the left is the Honda Fit, and on the right is the Toyota Yaris.
leila the scion xA looks a lot like the yaris. Have you seen it? Eric Nope. Eric Wowza. I'd say the xA looks identical to the Fit. http://www.scion.com/showroom/xa/gallery/ andrewb I'd buy one of those if I was wearing a skirt. :) leila ha ha :p very funny :p + Comment
leila oh no! is that from one of your patents?
Eric Nah, it's some random HR form. Mary Lazy lawyers! They just don't feel like changing "he" to "she" or "they." Not that I blame them. Wait. I just realized that I understood that thing the FIRST time I read it. Pre-coffee. Eek. Eric Well, "they" wouldn't be grammatically correct. leila clint has posted the car pictures. i have posted the sxsw pictures. Eric Yay!!!! + Comment
These days, I mostly push bugs around, but sometimes I have to do real detective work. For instance, I have to look at this Korean site and figure out how they managed to break themselves so badly in IE7. Oh, and the whole thing is over SSL, so it's hard to get the source, even if I could read Korean. Sigh.
andrewb Thats awesome. I cant count the number of times I have been out drinking and found myself wishing I had an extra bladder. And I bet every guys thinking of getting one for that special woman in his life.
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andrewb Oh man. Thats gorgeous. Are you car shopping Eric? I'm detecting a trend in your posts.
eric Well, when I bought the Corolla, I told myself I'd get something outrageous when I turned 30. And I've been feeling old lately. Alas, unless I happen to strike oil, these are far more outrageous than I'll actually be looking at. andrewb More patents! + Comment
 245mph for "just" 750k. http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/fastest_1.html
Now, all they have to do is closeout the discs at about 3$ apiece and I'll buy them all. :-D
I got a mail from my boss this morning suggesting that I might need to drive out to Paul Allen's house to check out some IE SSL issues. Heh. leila i'm busy as you can read in my blog... haven't even posted sxsw pictures yet.
andrewb Maybe you could install firefox for him. ;) Eric You went to sxsw? Did I know that? :-D Some of my management food chain was there. leila of course i went :p kvrx even had a day show. i mostly went to the free stuff. pretty much everyone who plays the showcases plays free day shows. i'll post pictures over the weekend i think. were they going for fun or for MS? leila ps -you and gayle should come next year. eric For MS. I assume there aren't multiple sxsw's although I guess I don't really know. leila http://2006.sxsw.com/ Looks like msn video and windows lives spaces are sponsers. thought i never saw them there.. i did see a double decker mitre bus and the toyota yaris was all over the place. Eric The Yaris looks sorta neat. Was it? leila yeah i liked. it's similar to the scion xA. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/02/AR2006030201064.html + Comment
It went okay, but I despise watching myself talk. It's creepy and weird and I'm sorry for all of you. andrewb Its ok - every now and then you say something brilliant that makes the pain worthwhile. (please remember folks australian humour revolves around the concept of 'taking the piss')
Eric I seem to accumulate friends who take the piss, so explanation is not required. ;-) + Comment
Eric Direct link: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=131546&lis=1&kntae131546=9F776A22BFB74BB78B73F154F0F54D50&supId=123894684
Come on folks, Rachel isn't pushy enough to ask you to donate, but I am. :-D
leila doesn't she ask on her blog? :) Eric Asking in person is better. + Comment
leila awesome, so you do like mcsweeny's? i was going to get you an issue for christmas before you said you wanted narnia. their stuff is always different.
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After the show, out for some late-night drinking-- somehow, I missed this experience in my college years and I guess I must be trying to catch up. I've probably had more to drink on this trip than I've had in my life before it. Girls in jeans, boots, and cowboy hats dancing to country music and techno containing a background beat of Gemini mission-control chatter... is someone out there reading my mind? :-D Alas, I need to be at a talk at 8:30am tomorrow. Wish me luck! Mary Morning is always too early. Especially if there are cowboy boots involved the night before! ;)
Eric Yes, mom, the girls were also wearing shirts and jeans. :-D + Comment
Second margarita: Yummy (Pinnapple Rum) Third margarita: Yum. Fourth Margarita: MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm Eric The downside of getting your mom on the Internet is that she starts reading your blog and clucking at entries like this one.
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Mary You're such a boy!
Eric Alas, if only. andrewb Youre not a boy? Or am I misreading this. ??? Eric owns twelve pairs of shoes. Drinks Coke&Malibu. Takes two suitcases for a 4 day vacation. Spends 40 minutes in the shower. Hmmmm.... + Comment
Heading to Vegas tonight. Yay.
British TV refuses to air the word "bloody". andrewb Bloody Poms! The prevailing theory is the people who made the new ad knew it would be banned in britain. If its banned from tv, yu dont pay for running the ad but everyone goes to the website to watch the ad. Mission accomplished.
Eric We call that the "GoDaddy School of Advertising" Eric https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/superbowl06/timeline.asp + Comment
andrewb http://www.australia.com/
fred http://www.trabel.com/brussels.htm Eric I didn't realize that I knew a Fred. :-) andrewb If usenet was still worthwhile, thered be an alt.fan.ericlawrence :) + Comment
Gripes aside, I will admit that flying has gotten ever slightly better since I watched the first season of Lost. Now, every time I fly, I look at each of my fellow passengers and wonder "What skills and secrets would this unasssuming chap or lass bring to the island?" Such speculation certainly beats reading the in-flight magazine, that's for sure. I landed and took the only-mildly insane ride around the beltway (y'all move 4 lanes, without a turn signal?!?) to my hotel at the University of Maryland. Oy... they built a shiny new building for the new inn/conference center right next to the old one. The garage is UMD standard, with parking spaces about 3 inches wider than the shiny Ford Taurus that Avis rented me. Alas, I've forgotten my Avis membership number so I have to restrain the urge to bust out laughing when the Avis shuttle driver says things like "If you don't have a Preferred Customer Number, please board at the back of the bus." Ah, sweet irony. The hotel receptionist didn't offer any sympathetic remarks when I said "I'm getting old-- when I went here, this building didn't even exist." I suppose that's the true hallmark of old age... people don't chuckle or snort when you say you're old. As it turns out, they still use the old building too, and it was with mixed feelings that I took my room in the face-lifted but still cramped hotel where I first moved into UMD so long ago. We'll see what this trip brings. Eric Holy Gigabit, Batman. Speakeasy reports that my downstream speed is 22178kbps and my upstream is 18135kbps. Some things I miss about campus life. :-)
andrewb I have observed that the length of your blogposts is proportional to your distance from microsoft. I am working on a theory to explain this. Although now I think of it, your San Jose posts were short also. I feel a new PhD topic brewing. leila flying might suck but it gets you there faster than driving. what would we do without it? it's also pretty neat to be moved so fast through the air, though you hardly feel it :p have you tried exit row? or upgrade to 1st class with frequent flyer miles.. since you fly quite a bit! invest in a super great pair of closed-ear headphones so your ears don't get tired :) leila ps - whoever thinks eric isn't old, raise your hand. (raises hand) Clint Sorry but I think we're getting old. andrewb I can't believe how old you guys are. Eric I've got a pair of active noise cancelling headphones that I first used on this trip. They're pretty neat. andrewb I think you should wear the noice-cancelling headphones in the next PM meeting. leila ooh what kind/brand? how do you like them? i meant closed ear so you wouldn't bug anyone, as open ear is easily heard, but better sounding and less tiring. Eric They're JVC-- they were about 40 bucks. They're decent. + Comment
We're going to go to Ka in Vegas. Should be a blast! andrewb Open source fiddler, hire a maid, and delegate work. Any other problems need solving? :)
Mary Put down the keyboard and speak English. Really though, I did understand most of that. You'll be fine! Chill out and give me a call when you're in town. :) + Comment
Simpsons vs Government: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11611015/
Leila thanks :) yes all grad students become aware of phdcomics early in their careers :) my favorites are Newton's 3 Laws of Graduation and Grad Motivation Graphs (you find them at the bottom left under 'new to phd?'). they are all SO true....
Eric Heh... I didn't even look at the URL to realize the whole site is about PHDs. :-) andrewb Ah Newtown's laws of graduation. I laughed at first but then the third one made me cry. :) + Comment
Yay.
http://www.chaoticvisions.com/ Mary I don't think I could answer whether or not I'm "into Windows utilities." I mean, I might be and just not know it.
Eric "For a good time, visit download.com". andrewb Hi, I'm andrew, and I'm a "windows utilities"-aholic. + Comment
Australia has changed the regularly scheduled end of Daylight Saving Time in five Australian states from March 2006 to the first Sunday of April 2006 due to the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Install this update to enable your computer to automatically adjust the computer clock on the correct date. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Details...
Bill Gates and Napolean Dynamite (Part 2) Bill Gates and Napolean Dynamite (Part 3)
Shaun, Leila, Clint and I drove to the Johnson Space Center south of Houston today-- after a sidetrip for pastries, we got there a bit too late for the actual tour of the rocket park and other facitilites, but we wandered around the inside of the place for a while. They've got a good shuttle mockup (much better than the one at Kennedy, methinks) but not a whole lot else. We bought the requisite freeze-dried ice cream and I got a shirt and a poster for my (newly painted) office-- assuming the poster survives the trip back to Seattle in my luggage. On the way to the One of the multi-state lotteries (Mega-Millions) is up to 256 million bucks, so I bought a few tickets to bring back for coworkers (under the mistaken impression that they're not for sale in Washington... oops). It occurs to me that the inevitable "what if" that comes from playing the lottery is a lot like software testing-- you try to figure out what would happen in the extreme edge cases. From that, perhaps you can intuit other properties of the system (person)... or not-- sometimes edge cases are just that. This was a really great trip-- the best vacation-vacation I've had in a while... It was great to see leila glad you had fun!! :) i made two more public-for-now photo-posts http://leila1979.livejournal.com/
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Today was a fun day... clint and i woke up pretty late (almost 3:45cst) and we went to Freebirds, a burrrito place, which was tasty. After that we met up with his friend Shaun who's a nice guy and we had a beer at his place before we went to a benefit concert for Monkey Wrench Books... we saw Loxley (sp?) and Shapes and Sizes, a Vancouver, BC band with a cute singer and a cute drummer. ;-) After that we went to downtown Austin for a Mardi Gras celebration and in quick succession i had a buttery nipple, a white russian, a shot of irish whiskey and a rum and coke. on an empty stomach, it was probably the most ineberia... sloshed... I've ever been. it was a good time although i was stumbling a bit and my friends were teasing me about talking like a computer or a robot... but anyway... i was too happy to care. it is great to be silly with friends.
tomorrow we're going to houston for steak and the space center and hopefully il'll luck out of hangvoer....
:-D Eric leila was our desgingated drfiver. thanks, leila!
Eric Sunday morning and I feel grrrrreat! Clint He really does sound like a computer when he's drunk. :-D What a good night andrewb Heh a day out involving steak and space travel. Thats why the USA is the 2nd greatest country in the world. + Comment
I got up late this morning (or was it afternoon) and Clint, Leila and I went to Thunderclouds (A sub shop) for lunch... great subs. We meandered around Fry's for a while but I managed to avoid buying anything. :-)
After a bit, we went to dinner with Clint, Leila, and Clint's parents... Texas BBQ (yum) and then we went to Videoke (sp?) a movie-karaoke event at the local theater (which doubles as a brewhouse-- pretty cool). I drank three beers, but not fast enough to get the full experience, I think.
Tomorrow, we're going to a Mardi Gras experience in downtown Austin... it should be a blast. leila i just did some picture posts http://leila1979.livejournal.com/ they are public posts for now (because *someone* doesn't have an account) but i will lock them soon
eric wow, i look dorky. i suppsoe i always do in pictures which should probably clue me into how i look in real life but that's too scary a possibility. + Comment
So, it's 04:30CST and I'm in Clint and Leila's living room typing away on my laptop while Clint battles the Alliance (or is it the Horde?) in the other room. Leila's at the radio station and she played a Belle and Sebastian song for me (thanks!)
I've decided that I really need to start writing more often-- not because there's any reason to expect the world at large will read my ramblings, but rather because without writing, my days are blurring together and time is passing all too fast. I'm 26, I'm coming up on my 5 year anniversary at Microsoft, and I have no idea where the time went. From 1994 to 2001 or so, I kept a private journal (I once printed it-- >100 pages @8pt font) but I haven't kept much of a record since then, with the exception of occasional entry after victory or heartbreak.
I think my recurring nostalgia has been triggered by my upcoming recruiting trip (March 8) to UMD. I'll be staying in the University Hotel and Conference Center, my "dorm" for my first week as a student at UMD, and the location where I first caught sight of and later met Annick.
That this took place almost 8 and a half years ago is a source of great disbelief and consternation... to the point that I've actually bothered to recheck the math... 3100 days ago, and in some ways it feels like it was just last week.
Clint and Leila are excellent hosts, and we've got a full schedule for the rest of the weekend, so hopefully I'll have more to say again here tomorrow. Sweet dreams! Leila yay you're here, but asleep :) posts more often are great. but you're not old :p but of course i think it's always useful to worry about using every minute of time we have to it's fullest potential. still, worrying too much isn't a useful use of that time :p it sounds like a quarter life crisis ;)
andrewb I think you should retire to a house on a beach in australia. Come to think of it - 8.5 years ago I was 26! It's not all over for you yet! leila where in australia are you from? andrewb Hey just saw leila's question - does anyone read down this far? I've noticed Really Cool Blogs have comment summaries. Ahem. Anyway. I'm currently in Sydney, but consider myself a Melbourne boy as I (mostly) grew up there. leila what are comment summaries? i like how livejournal sends you emails. cool :) i like melbourne the best from what i hear. i hear the music scene is best there and my fav. band augie march is from there. among others. i try to highlight some aus. artists on my radio show. i have a few friends in aus., sydney and melbourne, and i really want to visit.. leila ps eric takes so long to respond to comments i read down pretty far. also i'm a grad student and i read blogs to procrastinate of course:) i'm sure there is a phdcomic on this. andrewb Melbourne is way cool - less of a tourist destination than sydney but an infinitely cooler place. The music scene there is great and they have perfected the 'wine bar' - think lounge chairs, red wine and finger food. Hrm. I'll stop now :) On my blog it shows the last 5 (chronologically) comments people have made in a sidebar. That is what I mean by a comment summary. And as for a grad student procrastinating - I am sure I dont know what you mean. :) Eric Hey, I don't take ~that~ long to reply. I'm too lazy to add any more features to this site. leila what are you favorite aus. artists? others i like from melbourne are sodastream and art of fighting. + Comment
Various leila oh that sucks so much. that happened to me when we came back from visiting you guys. but i was sick.. so i couldn't hear properly for 2-3 days. if you can still hear it might be ok. they say to drink water or chew gum or something?
andrewb nih knows everything - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001064.htm Get well soon!
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Some prepared remarks are pretty funny today. :-)
Various Mary I started reading the comments on that blog and I very nearly got sucked in. No one was saying anything what-so-ever but it had this hypnotic quality about it. *shudder* That was close.
Mary In other news, management sucks! Be a developer.
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AvantBrowser seems pretty stable and feature rich... Almost all of the hotkeys are right and the customizability ain't too shabby.
I just booked my third trip this year on my corporate AMEX. Microsoft is letting me expense four days at the Venetian in Vegas in March for the Mix06 Web Developers conference. Some days, I love my job. Leila You haven't responded to my concert questions emails. Shameful :p ;) I can get free tickets to one of them, but the sooner I let them know the better.
Eric Eeek... These came in while I was on the road. Leila that's fine :) just be honest.. we don't have to go to a show at all if you don't want. Eric I'm up for anything! + Comment
andrewb Buttons and clean shaven?!?! How did you post a picture from a parallel deimension?
andrewb deimension is a special australian spelling of dimension. Yeah. leila bring no buttons to austin :) Clint Yay Austin! Mary WHOA! I know that guy! Now I want one taken in your 'Natural Habitat'. + Comment
 Eric Yay. Image posting works!
Eric In case you're curious, this is my former team. Rachel How'd you post the picture? Eric Magic. I wrote some code this morning. Once it works better, I'll hook you up too. Mary I title this photo "People who are all not Eric" Leila They might not be Eric but they are very colorful. Did you take the picture? ps why do you need special code.. can't you just <img src= ... ? Eric The "special code" is what gets the image files onto the server to begin with. + Comment
test server Test failed. Please try again.
Eric Cute. I'm guessing that's Andrew, unless there's another insomniac in the crowd. andrewb I'd argue that the time difference is a defence against your insomniac charge, but since it was around midnight when the 'test server' posted that, it's not really a valid defence. + Comment
Upcoming trips: San Jose (Feb12-Feb14); Austin (Feb23-Feb26); Maryland (Mar8-Mar12).
Fiddler installs: 12,300
andrewb Very cool animation. It wasnt til I thought to scroll the display area sideways that I could see a download link.
Eric If there's a way to screw something up, we'll find it. http://install7.com goes directly to the installer. andrewb IE7 looks good I have to say. + Comment
http://www.ericlawrence.com/eric/photos/jan06/ - Random pics from the last few months.
andrewb Is that snow outside your house?
Eric yeah, that was from Dec. Mary so WHERE are the pictures of YOU?!?!?!? Eric Heh. This from the girl who just got a digital camera. Eric Why would I take pictures of myself? Mary You could take pictures of yourself so that people like me who live all the way across the country can remember what you look like! As for myself, I post pictures all over the place! I have a dorky myspace account where I regularly post pictures in blogs and a shiny new yafro account. http://marigold.yafro.com/ So there! :P Eric Ouch. I'm forgettable? I'm crying all over my keyboard. Mary Putting words in my mouth! I'm just saying that reminders don't hurt. Updates are nice too. Mary Ps. Sorry about the keyboard. Rachel I'm sure he has several extra sitting around his house. He collects things like that =-) Eric Pfft. Everyone knows that I keep my spare keyboards in the ~garage~. Sheesh. + Comment
leila why don't you write these types of articles? i can see you doing this sort of thing.
Rachel STILL no photos?!?! Eric One day, when I'm retired from MS and I start some little software company (as Joel did) perhaps I'll learn to write. Until then, I'm afraid all of my writing is for work and code is for play. + Comment
andrewb Apparently you're going to some pretty crazy parties.
Mary So who said this? I mean, I like it. A lot actually. I just can't repeat it without a source. Eric Dawson Leary. :-) Clint Nice :-) Mary Ya know, it took me days and a little help from a friend to realize who that was. I'm not sure what that says about me. :P Eric Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you're a closet fan with the entire collection of DVDs. + Comment
Suddenly, I feel a lot better about my patent for copying clipart. :-D andrewb I heard the costs associated with the patent on sleeves is why so many poor people wear tank tops.
Leila what? Eric hehe... Rachel You actually looked this up? Crazy! Eric The list of patents is on the tag. leila you can patent shirts? how do you find out about patents on shirts? what happens, you get to sue people? or does your boss pay you more per # of patents? i'm confused. andrewb I am in the process of patenting several techniques for wearing a shirt. Anyone wearing a shirt the same way I do will have to pay me royalties. + Comment
http://www.digi.no/nerdvana/?id=1002803&uid=1002806 Mary Out of curiousity, does that have enough geek-speak in it for you to make some sense of it? I'm not even trying. It involves two languages I don't know. :)
Eric I think it's an almost direct translation of the text at http://www.fiddlertool.com/fiddler/ + Comment
AndrewB The red line reminds of that thing you see in hospitals on a heart rate monitor - what's it called - oh yeah, a flatline. Like when someone dies :)
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http://www.hanselman.com/blog/pavingmymachineforafresh2006.aspx
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/255219_weather11.html Andrew Time to start building an ark and gathering two of every kind - 2 dev's, 2 pm's, 2 testers, 2 gm's, etc. And of course, dont forget 2 hr reps, 2 marketers, and 2 legal counsels.
Eric Hehehe... Of course, you presume that the intent isn't to wipe out those very people. ;-) + Comment
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5652179487&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:UK:31 andrewb I read the other day that the next 5 years should see a new IT boom. This million pixel march seems to support that idea. IT is the new mining. Yay for boom-bust speculation!
Eric Worth a chuckle: http://blakeross.com/2005/12/26/my-predictions-for-the-new-year/ + Comment
Mary Yeah, well, just don't forget the little people when you're rich and famous ;)
Eric But I don't know any leprechauns! Mary *sigh* Looks like it's already too late. + Comment
Erin Why didn't I think of that! Where do you find these articles! I just shared this with everyone at work. Their mouths dropped open.
erin oops wrong article! DUH! + Comment
ERIN Why didn't I think of that! Where do you find these articles! I just shared this with everyone at work. Their mouths dropped open.
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http://www.itsawonderfulinternet.com/ Eric Geeks @ Christmas: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/23/AR2005122301484.html?sub=AR
leila&clint merry christmas! Mary So how was your Christmas? Did you get lots of cool toys? Rachel You got a new camera a month ago...where are your new pictures??? Eric I haven't yet built an interface to make uploading photos as easy as it should be. Maybe I'll get around to it in the new year. This was a pretty practical Christmas, so no toys to speak of. Mary I'm still with Rachel. I want new pictures! + Comment
My college dorm: http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&ss=college%20park%20md~college%20park%2020742&cp=38.992207~-76.949099&style=o&lvl=1&scene=881952 leila "bird eye images are not available for this area" :(
Rachel I like that you can see our house in your picture as well =-) + Comment
Download Speed: 5868 kbps (733.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
So when it comes to whatever it is I care about, I have to ask myself how much of my time, the ultimate commodity, I give to it. An hour a day? A day a week? A week a year? How many of my remaining minutes on this curious little planet will I invest in what matters most to me? How many things are there that I claim to care about, but haven't spent time on in years? decades? Ever?
Eric Irfaan loaned me some disk recovery equipment. It's running now, and I'm nervously watching it like an expectant father. Cross your fingers!
Eric It's a boy! And a girl! Or 35400 files! Yay! + Comment
http://media.putfile.com/Unseen-Xbox-360-Commercial Mary I think it's GREAT! Can we do it for real? I think it'd be way more fun than a silly ole video game!!!
???? http://news.com.com/Man sues Microsoft over alleged Xbox 360 glitch/2100-1043_3-5982759.html?tag=nefd.pulse Rachel Hmm...that link doesn't work! Eric The correct link for the latter is http://news.com.com/Man%20sues%20Microsoft%20over%20alleged%20Xbox%20360%20glitch/2100-1043_3-5982759.html?tag=nefd.pulse Dave Hooray for percent-encoding + Comment
Clint Do I really have to wait a month?
Eric I'll see you in less than a month. Clint Wow that's really soon. + Comment
Clint Made in Austin and bought by microsoft. You should work on the foldershare team. ;-)
Eric I dunno, I get the impression that nothing ever happens in Austin. My friend would blog more if anything interesting happened. + Comment
Why am I reading your daily journal, and your family activities, when I try to looking for new home, builded by D.R. Horton. The design is unbelievable beautiful. Am I getting a right website for those home? Where are the pictures of the Homes? Whose wedding? Who is EricLawrence? Two names together? Eric and Lawrence? Is Horton your family?
It's funny to think that we'll have to explain the historical context of movies made in the 90s to our kids. :-)
Clint Everybody who reads my blog was there. :-)
Leila Karen, your parents, Donna and I read your blog. But Eric, you didn't post either. Eric Sure I did... I posted from Puzzlehunt. It's not much, but it's something. :-P + Comment
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx Eric I'm sure there's some fun to be had with these new APIs, but alas, I'm just too busy. http://msdn.microsoft.com/msn/default.aspx
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http://charlespetzold.com/etc/DoesVisualStudioRotTheMind.html Eric This is actually a pretty interesting article even for the non-programmers in the audience.
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Clint Yeah last I heard only something and sailors are called Lawrence. :-)
Eric Grrrr. Mary Different topic - So how come you posted pictures of your cat and your brother but none of yourself? Some of us live thousands of miles away and would like to know how YOU are doing! Eric Fat, old, and balding. Next question? Mary Pffft! PFFFTT!!! I say! 1. You're not old. 2. My hair is getting greyer with every passing second. 3. I really doubt you're as fat as you think you are. I have no idea. YOU WON'T POST PICTURES! Tell you what... I'll trade ya. Chris I personally think the cat looks much better. + Comment
Anyone else think Clint should post more often? Anson Yep, Clint should post more often!
Clint Anson doesn't post at all. sheesh :-p Eric Yay! Clint posted a cute picture! + Comment
For the programmers in the audience: Turns out that & doesn't mean the same thing as |. Sigh. ???? i can't delete anything except on the go playlists off my ipod. i would like to delete other playlists... but why would you want to delete songs?
???? do you mean deleting songs without being connected to itunes? my ipod doesn't do that. Eric Hrm... Anonymous comments. Interesting. I'd want to delete songs because sometimes, there's stuff I never ever want to hear again. Hence, the desire to delete. Eric ...And yes, Apple confirms there's no way to delete on the device itself. Laaaaaaame. leila sorry that was me... when i press enter for a new line it just sends my comment away. i regularly delete songs off my ipod and upload new ones by connecting it to my computer. i don't see a function to delete them on the ipod without connecting it to the computer, and it's not a nano. what i mean is why would you want to delete songs "on the go" without the computer? is my ipod supposed to be able to do that? it's playlists that i wish they gave you more power over. Eric Wacky-- I assume you're using Firefox? IE just inserts the newline. Although I think it gets trimmed out. Eric As for why I'd want to delete: Because I have WAAAAY too many MP3s and there's junk in there I despise. I delete them as I encounter them, because I don't want to spend days combing through my music for the junk. Eric i agree that you have some junk :p i'm glad you agree. as clint copied all of your stuff to his drive before he left... there was scary stuff there! i did some deleting myself. i don't keep all of my music on my ipod (apparently a lot of people do?).. i don't have all my music in mp3 either, but either way i like to change the albums all the time, so plugging it in is the best bet. how did you get the junk, btw? Leila haha that was from me. it was supposed to be "Eric," and then my message. + Comment
Eric In other news, I went out for Afghani food last night. It didn't suck.
Mary GASP! You!? New food!?!? What's going on? Did you lose a bet? Are you feeling alright? I mean, I think it's great but I'm a little concerned. Was there a gun to your head? Eric Hey, buster, Greek was new for me too, and I don't recall you packin' heat. Mary So a ridiculously cute girl dragged you out for Afghani food? I mean, I'm pretty cute but, as I recall, your initial response to the Greek restaurant was less than enthusiastic. I'm wondering what kind of goddess could have lured you out this time. Eric Har har, very funny. + Comment
Work has been crazy.
Watched the new movie Serenity tonite with a bunch of folks from work... It was pretty good and worth seeing if you liked Firefly or sci-fi in general. The action scenes didn't put me to sleep, which is saying something. For the picture-hungry, I've uploaded a few pictures of Jim, Jillian, the fall colors outside my house, etc. See http://ericlaw.officeisp.net/Other/Forms/AllItems.aspx leila awww
Mary Please tell me that you doctored the picture of the vanity plates. Please. Ps. Your new girlfriend has purdy eyes. Where'd the name Jillian come from? Eric Alas, no Photoshop is involved. I figured having a nice distinctive plate can only help me meet women. Eric Oh, and my brother has a dog named Jack. We figured it'd be funny that my parents would have Grandpets named Jack and "Jill". + Comment
Specs: Intel 630 HT Processor at 3ghz 2GB RAM 250 Gig SATA drive Eric Ah, my first blue screen. Windows helpfully pointed out that it was ATI's fault. Yay, progress.
Dave That's funny my Windows Media Center says its NVidia's fault. Eric Good review of MCE: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/windowsxp_mce2005.asp Eli Only 250 gigs? So small..... BTW my MCE (well MS owns it) says its nVidia's fault. But I'm thinking the power supply can't handle the load. conan ruff ruff ruff jillian ruff ruff conan grrrrrrrrr Jill Meeeeeeeeeow! + Comment
Oh, and Jim got a cellphone, so you can now call me on mine again.
Clint What do you mean by "finally"?
Conan Ruff Ruff Ruff Jillian Meeeeeeow! Clint Pictures already! Rachel I agree with Clint! Clint Pictures already! already!!! Rachel Pictures...please? Clint Pretty Please??? + Comment
Jonathan is one of the quietest, funniest guys we know. Click "Back-ward" to see older images.
Europe Photos We're so lonely! We know there must be other pictures out there...other pictures like us. But where??? Maybe someday they will come live with us on Eric's webpage...until then, we will be forever lonely :(
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Eric Ahem. For those of you using a HTTP-sniffer, you might notice something interesting about what they send down. Rights-protected WMA would have been a smarter choice.
EEP! That's geek to me! What are you talking about?? Leila donna likes www.radioio.com where you can say what you like/don't like when they play it and it changes for you. Leila i like http://www.moodlogic.com/ but it works with your own music collection Leila but of course everyone should just listen to the shows they like on their local college station ;) (esp kvrx.org). ???? PICTURES?!?!?!?!?!?! + Comment
Eric Lawrences, on the whole, appear to be a geeky lot. My favorites: 1> a tuxedo named "Eric Lawrence", and 2> The Eric Lawrence on the last page who is grinning from ear to ear... in his post-burglary mugshot. Mary I checked it out. Then I googled my name. It freaked me out. One picture. Of me. You took it actually. Congrats.
Eric Say, how did your movie turn out anyway? + Comment
I respect people's right to have their own opinions about liberty, but the current administration is full of morons. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5833764.html. Astonishingly stupid.
As usual, lots of amusing comments from our loving public. :-)
Just Wondering When are you going to add more photos to your site?
Eric Photos of what? All kinds! You. Your life. Places you've been. People you've visited. Why? What do you normally take pictures of? =-) Hrm I'm thinking that maybe anonymous comments weren't such a great idea. :-) Mary Well, I'm not anonymonous and I want pictures! Everybody needs a little mystery and suspense in their lives =-) Eric Now I'm really scared. Who wrote that last comment? Is it just a coincidence that you used those words, or something more sinister? + Comment
Zzzzz.... Hope everyone's having fun.
This is both very cool and very creepy. I just finished reading "The Traveler".
Roughly speaking, if you try to skimp on programmers, you'll make crappy software, and you won't even save that much money. The same thing applies to the entertainment industry. It's worth hiring Brad Pitt for your latest blockbuster movie, even though he demands a high salary, because that salary can be divided by all the millions of people who see the movie solely because Brad is so damn hot.
"I am very aware that minority communities are talking about a shoot-to-kill policy," he said. "It's only a shoot-to-kill-in-order-to-protect policy." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/24/AR2005072400288.html?sub=AR
Spoilsports in the audience need not point out that the daily low is going to be 88F and the daily high a sizzling 108F.
The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.
I need a vacation. Somewhere far away.
Fiddler has reached version 1.0 and I'm going to try to do a first-pass at adding SSL support later tonight. From a SlickRun registration: I use it all the time, everywhere. It`s superb! Thanks. You have to sell it to Microsoft :)
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/AardvarkMidtermReport.html
(If you need a patch for a different OS, please see the Workarounds | Disable section of http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/903144.mspx)
Mary This has nothing to do with anything but it's interesting in a really creepy kind of way: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=353655&in_page_id=1774&in_a_source=..story
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Mark basically threw the garter at me, so naturally I caught it. Other adventures in Florida: GatorLand, Kennedy Space Center, and a bachelor party playing paintball. Fun stuff. leila more details please :p
i want to hear more about the paintball until 430 am.
Eric Leila, I'll send my buddy Clint to Texas to tell you all about it. :-D L but i'm not in TX i'm NM and he's in TN :( Eric Hehe... you globetrotters! The bachelor party was a hot, sweaty, dirty affair that had everyone breathing hard. Of course, that's a bit misleading. :-D Mary Fun! I think it's wedding SEASON again. + Comment
The 14th of 16 children of a Chinese merchant and a Filipino woman, Sin had a sense of humor about his name, often referring to his residence as "the house of Sin." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/20/AR2005062001362.html
We also saw Batman Begins tonight-- I liked it quite a lot, although Katie Holmes doesn't really do much for me. Katie as anything other than Joey just doesn't work.
INSIDE JOB: A squad of newly trained police dogs in Victoria, Australia,
And that's what I call critical. The author is a MS Employee who cartoons and writes movie reviews. Eric Turns out his comic is online. See http://www.bugbash.net/
leila actually, tom cruise's opinion is the minority while mr MS employee the mainstream. from talking to my dad nobody *does* understand the drugs or the 'chemical imbalances'... he is right about that, it just works, as is true with almost all drugs. however his alternative (vitamins) seems kind of lame. he should offer more alternatives. besides that "hormonal" thing could simply be called "chemical imbalance". when this guy said 'training in medicine' i thought this was going to be about well known facts and things. psychiatry? there is plenty to debate and many methods of treating people. Eric So sad. http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/13/people.holmes.ap/ Eric And worse. http://thebosh.com/archives/2005/06/tom_cruise_to_w_1.php + Comment
Clint Yay!
leila yeah slickrun is pretty nifty. it's also one of the few extra things on my computer at home that doesn't screw me up at work (because there's the unix command line). oh yeah you (and anyone else interested) should listen to my radio show.. the info is on my page (http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~lmays/). have fun with clint in FL.. say hello to the shuttles for me. + Comment
Someone registered and gave the following geek blessing: May all your bugs be little ones and easily squashable.
Clint-- Forget the house, move to Washington!! :-D leuka :p redmond town center is hardly a city :p not that austin is very big.. but instead of homicide they steal things.
you inadvertently left your stereo on??
leila haha leuka.. i don't think i've ever mistyped my name like that! + Comment
Until I get it fixed, you can use this URL: http://www.ericlawrence.com/eric/rss.asp Eric Turns out CrystalTech moved my site from one drive to another and managed to lose some files I was working on during the move. Doh!
Eric It's fixed. Note the ugly orange "XML" icon at the top right. Mary You should go to this... <img src="http://allmenlikebirdsmustdie.com/forward/flyers/fremont.jpg"> Mary Grrrr to no picture! It's a funny one. Go look at it. Then go look at more. I would but I can't. Eric That coffee shop is a block from my old Fremont digs. I sorta miss the city at times, although I'll take my current commute anyday. Mary I'm jealous. *sigh* + Comment
Cliff found a doctor who was able to repair his legs. Fifteen surgeries later, doctors told him that he would never walk again. Cliff took that statement as a challenge. He began a regimen of weight-lifting, swimming and outrigger canoe paddling. His coach had to carry him to the canoe. After almost four years of determination, Cliff was able to walk again. He didn't stop there. In 1993, Cliff was able to qualify for the U.S. Kayak Nationals. Two years later, Cliff won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Denver Olympic Festival. In 1996, he made the U.S. Olympic Team. Cliff also qualified for the Sydney Olympics. Before the Opening Ceremonies, he learned that he had been chosen as the one to carry the flag into the stadium. It is one of the highest honors for an American athlete."
Theodore Roosevelt
-Eric
Andrew and I went to a Better than Ezra concert tonight in Seattle... It was a good show-- I'm glad I braved the city. ;-) L are they still singing on fancy rugs? ;) i saw them with donna once. i can't even remember when... i need to go to another show SOON.
Eric Yup, still on fancy rugs. What's up with that? They have a new CD out at the end of the month-- I like the new songs they played. + Comment
Friday 9am-Mon 5pm. Reachable via cell. Mary COINCIDENCE! I will also be in MD this weekend and reachable via cell phone! ;)
Eric :-P L you should be in austin for the weekend :) Mary :P right back atcha! Clint Danger Will Robinson! + Comment
Mary Do you have a nickname? If not I may default to burrito boy :)
Eric I was dubbed "Junior" by a particularly nickname happy co-worker. Others have settled on "The Law", a reference to my Microsoft email alias. Mary Hmmm. I'm not feeling junior and you can't have "the law" because of an unfortunate association with an ex. You better think of something better. Until then it's BURRITO BOY! + Comment
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601144.html
So, I had to write the feds a check for 3100$ for tax day and I was a bit worried about making my mortgage payment for the month. But now I'm just freakin' loving my job... It turns out that another patent application just cleared so I got an extra pile of money in this paycheck. :-D I watched "Danny Deckchair" http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0337960/ tonight... it was surprisingly good. If you like romantic comedies, it's worth a rent. Last night, Irfaan, Tariq, Andrew, and I went to see "Kung Fu Hustle" http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/... It was often hilarious, visually interesting, and very different from the types of flicks I usually see. I've been expanding my cinematic tastes quite a bit lately, I think. Reading "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown... I hate his writing style, but his plots are often worthwhile.
PITHY WORDS OF WISDOM
To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
Mary At least they don't plan on breeding. Cousins or not they're just not the brightest. Honestly, I think they give cousins that marry a bad name. They are truly the physical manifestation of the stereotype.
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Mary I like this guy. He's funny :)
Eric Australians tend to be. It must have something to do with walking around upside down for years on end. + Comment
Yahoo gives dead Marine’s family e-mail info Yahoo has pledged to give the family of a Marine killed in
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=680747&page=1 ???? that was SO on SNL last saturday ;)
Mary "Some people think that what we've got is what we've got and anything new in the mix is bad," ...goes to show whether it's politics, religion, or genetics; people fear change. I know I do :P + Comment
Sigh.
These systems obviously won't work for every situation, but let's just say that the future job prospects of working in a call center aren't too bright. I can't wait for the drive-thru to move to this type of system.
Sheesh.
Probably useful for cell phone surfers. It compresses the target page and removes images/scripts. Note It takes the NYTimes homepage from 238000 bytes in 63 requests to 33000 bytes in 7 requests. Neato.
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It's fun to do new things. Eric It suddenly occurs to me that "it's fun to do new things" is a direct quote from the last episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood that I saw. Scary.
Mary Do you frequently watch Mr. Rogers? + Comment
???? sure.. i didn't know they wrote on their page.. though, it seems like everyone is telling eachother to post more often, or asking if more than one person reads their journals :p
leila ???? = leila Eric Everyone wants to know if they're just talking off into the void. Personally, I'm happy to-- I wrote an offline journal for 6 or so years, so the idea of having any sort of audience is just a bonus. + Comment
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com leila automatic updates suck
Eric Automated exploits suck more. (That said, I came in today and found my machine rebooted itself to install a patch. Grr.) + Comment
Here's an interesting security design question: In Los Angeles, the "HOLLYWOOD" sign is protected by a fence and a locked gate. Because several different agencies need access to the sign for various purposes, the chain locking the gate is formed by several locks linked together. Each of the agencies has the key to its own lock, and not the key to any of the others. Of course, anyone who can open one of the locks can open the gate. What faults do you see with this system?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/09/opinion/09kristof.html?hp&oref=login
leila neat! you know what's weird. when i typed in my address there was all sorts of mixed in text with the photo.. basically said (C) Google 2005 all over the picture. maybe it's one of things that shows up when you photocopy it.
Eric This comment brought to you by Internet Explorer 7 running on 64-bit Longhorn. Go IE! Mary I can't zoom in on my house. Apparently Frederick isn't important enough to warrant decent aerial photography :( + Comment
Only by the greatest stretch of the imagination can I consider staying up until 2:30 am to work on the silly comment feature a "good use of my time". That said, it should now work nicely for both FireFox and IE... XMLHTTP at work, baby! Eric One day, Opera will be able to play too. Right now, Opera doesn't support the setRequestHeader method on XMLHTTP. Silly guys.
Mary I have no idea what all that means. I just like to leave comments :D Eric Yeah, comments are much more fun than me just randomly babbling off into the world. The above comment was just that the web browser named "Opera" won't work with my comment feature because they don't support something that it needs. It's silly because compared to the other stuff that they do support, this is really easy. They'll probably fix it. leila see:)i told you people wanted comments :p Eric Yup, I definitely credit you, Leila, for my obsessive time-consuming effort to add comments. ;-) It was sorta fun, I guess. leila it's weird that it was so time-consuming for you :p i hate making things working in different programs/platforms. anyway, i also did suggest a site that handles the comments for any blog, but i guess someone like you had to make their own ;) anyway, hopefully all of your friends will enjoy commenting! Eric hehe... I was mostly teasing. I hate depending on other sites for stuff because they so often go out of business or try to do slimy stuff behind your back... Mary I did understand the general ideas behind the Opera bit. I mean, I'm not completely hopeless! I just prefer to focus on what I find more entertaining. AKA leaving comments :) + Comment
http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay40.htm Eric Well, it might work?
EricLaw And it might not. Eric M. Lawrence Please let me know how it works for you, 'k? <><><><> EricLaw Alas, there's a bug in FireFox support. This only works in IE for the moment. leila IE leila it's working now :p leila doesn't work in mozilla 1.7.3 Eric Yeah, I'm looking at that. Eric This comment brought to you by FireFox 1.0.1 Leila (mozilla) I disagree... life is just as unpredictable and we still don't choose what we encounter in life. There were people in the past, as there are now, who didn't live 'creative & interesting lives.' Eric Grrr... Well, I found (but haven't yet fixed) the timing bug in IE. Eric Fixed it. Yay. Mary Your thought of the day makes no sense what-so-freakin-ever! The article was funny though. I didn't have time to read all of it cause I'm at work but I liked what I saw. I once broke up with a guy when I realized that I was smarter than he was and I would win in arguments just because I could. Never mind actually believing what you’re saying. Over-rated. ;) Eric "I once broke up with a guy when I realized that I was smarter than he was and I would win in arguments just because I could." Ouch. :-D Eric to Leila Oh, yeah, I wrote a long comment yesterday mostly agreeing with you but then the feature broke so it got lost. So I fixed the feature instead of rewriting the comment. :-) Mary Well... it's true. And it was either that comment or a substantial rant about how wrong I thought you were with your thought of the day. I decided to spare you. Be grateful ;) + Comment
Pretty funny. http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/killerquiz/ EricLaw I scored a 7/10. Frankly, they all looked like language designers to me. :-)
leila i got 7/10 i thought it was kinda easy, by the quality of photograph. Clint 9/10 I missed the soviet hannible lector. My comment didn't post the fist time. Eric Grrrr.... I want repro'able bug reports, Mister! And you call yourself a tester! :-D Mary YAY comments! Yeah... I got 9/10. + Comment
Read on to learn what tampons have to do with robotics:
Indie StarWars films
Eric For sheer amusement factor, Microsoft Fiddler and most Bayden stuff is now digitally signed.
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Instead of going to work last Friday, the PM Team tried our hand at food preparation.
I worry that I'm getting sucked into the machine... but I like it.
Oh well. While the planet may be okay (see below), apparently all the people are screwed. Model airplanes will kill us all. http://jef.raskincenter.org/unpublished/next_time_can_be_worse.html The Bush administration has likened the NMD program to automotive seat belts – you put them on every day knowing that they increase your safety, while hoping that they will never be necessary. The analogy is false: Road hazards do not change their tactics to defeat the protection offered by the seat belts. There is no value to a protective measure when it can be outmaneuvered by a threat that is aware of how the defense works.
Destroying the Earth is harder than you've been led to believe.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Happy Ides of March to you.
So if you're developing technology for money, you're probably not going to be developing it for people like you. Indeed, you can use this as a way to generate ideas for startups: what do people who are not like you want from technology?
...assuming, of course, there still is an audience of some sort. ;-)
GATES: I just finished reading Jared Diamond's book called "Collapse" and I highly recommend it, it's about societies that used up their resources and therefore, went into decline. So he's talking a lot about some of the environmental challenges will face and it's a fantastic read.
JENNINGS: You are a very, very serious man.
So my furnace apparently has stopped working (despite having a minimal load after being kept at 60 degrees to keep my bills down). My house is presently below 50 degrees. I put my hands in the refrigerator to warm them up. Brrrrr.....
Wanna live forever? http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/15/one.mans.immortality.ap/index.html Exciting announcement about my current job: http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/15/technology/microsoft_browser.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
Valentine's day? Bah humbug. I'm not yours, you're not mine, won't you be my anti-valentine?
This is getting pretty nuts. Is everything they do great?
Thanks!
So I'm totally bumming that it's the end of the month and time to pay the mortgage again and I'm gonna be totally broke for the next two weeks. So I check my bank account and the balance is way higher than expected. Hrm. I go to our payroll site and notice I just got an extra K for a patent I worked on that I'd totally forgotten about. Of course, I'm probably going to spend the dough insulating my attic so I can stop having 250$ power bills, but that's not the point. :-)
Cleanup pages you want to read http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html Fidget yourself skinny: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41897-2005Jan27.html
I don't think it's very good yet... but this definitely gives me "in 5 years, people will never believe this hasn't existed forever" vibe.
I don't agree with everything in this, but it's definitely got some good points. What to tell a high-schooler: http://paulgraham.com/hs.html. A distorted version of this idea has filtered into popular culture under the name "passion." I recently saw an ad for waiters saying they wanted people with a "passion for service." The real thing is not something one could have for waiting on tables. And passion is a bad word for it. A better name would be curiosity. --- That's what you need to do: find a question that makes the world interesting. People who do great things look at the same world everyone else does, but notice some odd detail that's compellingly mysterious.
The secret life of your desktop icons: http://www.bootstrike.com/LaughterHell/Featured/iconstory.html
This will quite likely blow your mind. Scroll down for something you never imagined you'd see... http://blog.monkeymethods.org/2005/01/bill-gates-strikes-pose-for-teen-beat.html
2. In a different two-child family, the older child is a boy. What is the probability that the other child is a girl?
I haven't really started on my resolutions yet. :-) I got new sofas for my living room. Yay! I'm uninstalling AIM after years of use... it was simply getting too annoying to have multiple IM clients. Reach me using Ericlaw1979 or E_Lawrence on Windows/MSN.
Gloria Mark, a UC-Irvine professor, has been studying attention overload and multitasking among workers in a financial-services office. So far, she's found that the average employee switches tasks every three minutes, is interrupted every two minutes and has a maximum focus stretch of 12 minutes. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2004/1128/cover.html
Ever have a day like an episode of the X-Files? About a month ago, I had a dream that I lived in the desert and I noticed an odd flash from the desert while driving. I'd stopped by the side of the road and noticed something weird-- a little mirror had been attached to a scraggly tree near a large highway sign. Convinced that there was something creepy going on, I notified the news media (yeah, that's right, apparently I go to them first) who came to investigate. We couldn't figure out anything obvious use for the thing so I took it down and forgot about it. Today, I woke up after 4 hours of sleep, in the middle of a dream. This itself is a bit creepy, since I almost never recall my dreams, and I basically never wake up without an alarm clock. Again, I'm living in the desert. I notice the same flash, and so I stop. The little mirror is back. This time, I notice, there's a VCR bolted to the back of the highway sign. WTF? I quickly notice another mirror, and a camera neatly buried in the ground, pointed into the nearest mirror. Why on earth would anyone want to videotape the highway like this? I try to call the police, but (this being a dream) nothing obvious comes of it, except my paranoia meter is off the charts. I go home (I'm apparently still living with Gayle) and relate the story to her; she seems to agree that something really creepy is going on. So, I get up to go call someone else, and I notice a little mirror on my porch, just like the one on the highway. And while I'm struggling with the door (which seems to be locked from the outside), I notice another little camera, pointed at the mirror pointed into my house. My cell phone refuses to dial out, and then I wake up. As I finished typing this entry, my laptop gave up the ghost (I hadn't recharged it since I flew back to town last night). As the power went out, I looked up and sure enough, it had died at exactly 9:11 am. <<cue the creepy music>> Spookily yours... -E
There's a city in China which makes 9 billion pairs of socks a year. Can you imagine?
Mmm, intriguing: but today, the greatest part of education, thus defined, is surely Google.
I love this guy. ;-) http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html
A request: If you know anyone who's getting a TiVo for the holiday, please consider asking them to enter my email address (e_lawrence@hotmail.com) as a referral... If I get enough credits, I can replace the ancient, dying box with a shiny new one. Thanks!
Anson was on my case for not writing anything lately, so here it is. Something. For you to read. Yay. Now that I'm done entertaining you, it's your turn to help me out. What would you like to see in the next version of Internet Explorer? What killer feature? What mandatory bugfix? Let me know!
School in Moston, Manchester, England, a teacher told students an asteroid was on a collision course with Earth. The stunned children were told they would be able to leave school early to say their "final farewells" to family members. "Unfortunately a small number of pupils took the story literally," says Headteacher Kevin Hogan -- the end-of- the-world threat was meant as a lesson for students to "live each day to the full." When it became apparent that some of the children were crying, "the head of year visited every year-9 class and again told students that the story was untrue and made every effort to ensure that those students who had been anxious were reassured."
Anson and Rachel are buying the house 4 houses down the block from mine... It's gonna be a blast! Who else wants to move to the neighborhood? :-)
Happy Thanksgiving to ya. I'll be spending the day with the Hortons, who are preparing a Turducken for the amusement of their 14 guests. It should prove... interesting. The house is coming together; there's still a ton of stuff I need to get, but at least the beds are in the bedrooms now. ;-)
My favorite toy of the day: http://www.maxthon.com/en/index.htm Most of the cool features of Opera, better performance.
We're moving into the new house! Pictures: http://ericlaw.officeisp.net/house/ Video (15mb): http://www.ericlawrence.com/images/house.wmv
A breakup letter for IE: http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5455092.html. We're working hard to spruce up our old friend.
About 300 pictures from Europe posted. Some even have captions. :-)
Did you know hurricanes increase strawberry Pop Tarts sales 7-fold? http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/business/yourmoney/14wal.html
So, to buy a house, I've sold all of my shares of Microsoft. The price has gone up about $1500 since I sold in October. Sigh.
If you've used SlickRun or PopupPopper, please rate them or write a review on the new Windows Marketplace. Thanks!
Top Ten President Bush Explanations For The Bulge In His Jacket 10. "It's connected to an earpiece so Cheney can feed me answers--crap, I wasn't supposed to say that." 9. "It's a device that shocks me every time I mispronounce a word." 8. "Just a bunch of intelligence memos I haven't gotten around to reading yet." 7. "Mmm, delicious Muenster cheese." 6. "John Kerry initially voted for the bulge in my jacket, then voted against it." 5. "I'll tell you exactly what it is--it's a clear sign this econonmy is moving again." 4. "Halliburton is drilling my back for oil." 3. "Oh like you've never cheated in a presidential debate. 2. "Accidentally took some of Governer Schwarzenegger's 'roids." 1. "If Kerry's gonna look like a horse, then I'm gonna look like a camel."
And yes, this officially means you've now got a friend on the IE team to complain to. ;-)
I'll be leaving for Europe in the morning... two weeks... exciting stuff. In terms of technology, I'm bringing my Rio Carbon and my Dell Axim... No email for two weeks, it's going to be a very different experience. Wish me luck! ;-)
In case any more of you were wondering, alas, no, I do not sell Korean ducks. Sorry for any inconvenience.
This just made my day! http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=9cb23a8d-0a0a-4092-b284-f94297fdf0b1
I've been listening to this for a few years now. Good stuff. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/karenwalters
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040805/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bushism "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
There's something for both sides here, and it's pretty funny. (Discretion advised-- Probably shouldn't watch at work :-)
The expression "the die is cast" means that the outcome is now up to fate... but what is the literal meaning? I can think of two possible meanings... 1> The die (singular of dice) has been cast (thrown) or 2> The die (the stamp from which another object is molded) has been cast (made). Both literal meanings imply the same figurative meaning... Weird, isn't it?
I was picking up some CDs at a used CD store this morning while waiting to get my hair cut. On my way to checkout at the front, a customer came in and approached the counter. I stopped to spin a rack of about 200 deep discount CDs (1$) until the guy is done with the clerk. Customer: Do you have the Rick Fante album? Eric: <something subconsciously clicks> Clerk: Hrm... Never heard of him.... but that doesn't mean we don't have it. Lemme look. <types> Nope. The computer's never heard of him either. That either means that the CD isn't available from the manufacturer, or it's out of production. Customer: Oh. Really? Clerk: Yeah. Lemme search the album name, just in case. <types> Nope. No listing of anything by that name. Eric: Uh, do you mean "Ricky Fante"? Guy: Yeah, that's it! Clerk: <types> Ah, found him. He doesn't seem to have anything published though. Weird. We couldn't order it, because we wouldn't know where to get it. Eric: <plucks CD out of rack> How about this one? Clerk: <looks up> What the...? Customer: <beams> Yeah, that's it! Clerk (to Eric): <amazed> Whoa! You are the man. <turns to customer> Clerk (to Guy): I never would have found that. We don't index the cheapo CDs. And you got really lucky-- this CD isn't out yet-- that one's the advance copy the record stores sent around. It's not even for sale yet. And when it is, it's $10.99. So you're getting it early, and for 90% off. Customer (to Eric): <beams> Thanks! Clerk (to Eric): How'd you do that, man? That's awesome. You're getting a discount! ...And I then proceeded to get two of my CDs for free. What are the odds?
Office had the morning off to go to the movies. Spiderman 2 was pretty good... better than the first, I'd say... and it explored an interesting questions-- how do we make time for what we love?
I've installed the RSS Aggregator "NewsGator" which allows me to subscribe to mentions of Bayden products. Check out this SlickRun ad in Chinese: http://mtgear.net/mt3/archives/2004/06/cn_launcher_uti.php ;-)
Eric: Did you use SlickRun during a presentation at TechEd? Someone registered and said they saw SlickRun during a MS presentation... ;-)
Anson: I almost always keep SlickRun running during my presentations because it gives me a chance to look at the time and make sure that I'm not about to go over :-). Occasionally someone will come up afterwards and ask what the little thing in the corner is.
Actually, it's pretty funny. I'm here in AL working with BellSouth. One of the developers working on the application that I'm helping out with runs SlickRun. He's like "have you seen this cool utility that I downloaded from the web?" Small world.
Eric Matthew Lawrence has been confirmed as Beta Tester for Halo 2
Sadly, the situation at the new apartment isn't so nice... we're going to try 56k dialup...
"Karyn is with us. A West Texas girl, just like me." So spoke the president, pointing out Sen. Bill Frist's wife in Nashville on Thursday. Here's the text of his remarks, which were otherwise largely about health care technology.
Gayle and I biked from Sammamish to Fremont yesterday... it was actually a pretty nice 33 mile ride on the Sammamish river trail and the Burke-Gilman trail around the northern edge of Lake Washington. We probably won't be doing it again anytime soon though... not until we get more comforable seats for the bikes, at least. :-) Oh... I suppose that I didn't mention that Gayle and I are now sharing an apartment in Fremont; it's a neighborhood on the north side of Seattle, a few blocks west of Lake Union. It's definitely very budget as apartments go, but it's actually a pretty nice location; just two blocks to the canal and some cool eateries and shops. The commute sucks (35mins?) but it's honestly not that bad with an MP3 player in the car. I think I'm warming up to the idea of city living, although I'm also keeping my place in Sammamish until November. Alas, I'm at work today-- Memorial day or no, my intern (John) arrives tomorrow and I haven't put together the plan for his summer project yet. Wish me luck!
Shrek II-- Pretty funny, but mostly just amazing to look at. Computer generated characters have come a long way in the last few years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/weekinreview/23lyma.html?pagewanted=1 If Republicans can make insinuations about Mr. Kerry's manliness, and go so far as to call him French, then turnabout is fair play, said Mark Katz, a humorist who served as a speechwriter for President Clinton. Remember, he said, when President Bush showed up with a bandage on his head after he collapsed while watching television and eating pretzels? "My proposal is that the Kerry campaign run a 30-second ad which is nothing but John Kerry sitting on a couch and eating pretzels without involving paramedics at all," Mr. Katz said. "Guys can't help but be impressed by that, if he can get to the bottom of a bag of pretzels without someone having to call an ambulance."
I suppose the old saw is true; in a Democracy, you get the government that you deserve. Please vote this fall... and get everyone you know to vote too! (This is scary as hell: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19040-2004May11.html)
I'll be on the road from Thursday morning to Sunday night... Phoenix, west to California, and then north along the coast. Should be fun, and hopefully I'll get some pictures? Assuming the car makes it, I guess. Think cool thoughts! ;-)
Another weekend has passed... And nothing of note took place. I wrote a tiny scrap of code... I lost at Halo on Irfaan's insane 14 foot screen... I watched Kill Bill Vol 1 (bloody) and Mean Girls (Sorta funny, but too laden with meaning to be great)... I also caught up on TiVo... mostly, that is... That thing is an uncaring slavemaster... Watch more TV! You're missing your favorite shows!! it insists. I bought 4 books this weekend... 3 are related to work, and one is a trashy piece of fiction. I think I might be developing an appreciation for the writing quality one finds in real literature... even if the plots aren't as interesting.
Eric: Hello? Guy: Hey, is this the ex-pirate guy? Eric: Excuse me? Guy: Is this the ex-pirate guy? Eric: Uh... I think you have the wrong number. Guy: Oh, sorry.click Strange day.
I see two possibilities here:
I'll be in Maryland for the Friday-Monday weekend. I'll have my cell.
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