Dysfunctional Care Bear

Nihilist Bear


Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
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Ok now my distraction is over with back to nocking down the back wall :(

RIFIDKills.com

In a misguided attempt to make US passports more secure, the US Department of State plans to put radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in all new passports. This RFID chip will contain the same information currently on our passports, including the passport holder's name, date and place of birth, passport number and photograph.

In a dangerous world where Americans are targeted by thieves, kidnappers and terrorists, the RFID-chipped US passport will turn tourists into targets, and American business travelers will transmit their identities to kidnappers wherever they go, thanks to the US State Department.

Close up, the information broadcast from the RFID chip can be read by anyone with an inexpensive electronic reader. Farther away, the RFID chip can be activated enough to identify the passport holder as an American.

From identity theft to identity death, an RFID-chipped US passport means good news for the bad guys.

now all we need is some RFID guided missile, and some one could do some real damage. Then again they could only do so much damage as only 10% of Americans have a passport and less than that have left the USA.

Flickr Tag Search

Flick "Tag Browser" is a nice little ap that will search flickr for photos with they same tag, don't be confused by the slanty screen. I was leaning over the side of my chair as it loaded and was quite stuck for a minting think that they had some how seen me leaning over and adjusted the screen to match, Silly me.

The Credit Card Prank Two

Have you ever noticed how no one looks are you Signature any more, Well John Hargrave decided to see how far he could take it.

Every time you make a credit card purchase, they're supposed to match your signature against the one on the back of your card. Nobody seems to check anymore, so I tried to see how far I could push it with wacky signatures like "Mariah Carey" and "Zeus," which you can read in the original Credit Card Prank.

"The Credit Card Prank" took on a life of its own, vaulting ZUG into the national consciousness. Since then, some thirty million people have read that article -- some of them, it turns out, from the credit card companies themselves. Surely, then, they must have learned their lesson. Right?

Don't Fuck With Ovid

This morning, I found out that thousands of dollars of charges had been made on two of my credit cards in the past two days. Now, the identity thieves are sitting in jail. This is how it happened. It involves identity theft, a careless thief, one pissed-off Ovid and lots of luck.

This is cool you can read the blow by blow account of how he court the thieves, A great good news peace. It's down to luck and criminal stupidity than any thing else.

XP To Mac

Where to begin, A while ago a messed around with Windowsblinds and to change the way my PC looked. I was happy with the results but one day XP died and I had to do a full reinstall and I never bothered to install it all again.

That was till last night when I came across this article on Engadet, on how to make XP look like a MAC. I thought I would give it ago, Here's what I learned so you don't make the same mistakes.

1st Off lets start with the required software,

• 
  

StyleXP or WindowBlinds (skins the Graphical User Interface of your operating system)

ObjectBar (the white Finder bar on the top of Mac's; has File, Edit, View, etc. on it.)

ObjectDock, YzDock (discontinued), or MobyDock (The dock on the bottom of a Mac that contains icons and shortcuts to programs)

Trillian (chat program that can be skinned to resemble iChat)

YzToolbar (skins the toolbar icons in your Windows windows)

YzShadow (puts a lovely drop shadow under your windows á la Mac OS X)

Rainlendar (popular skinable desktop calendar)

Rainmeter (skinnable desktop system statistics)

Samurize (like Konfabulator for the Mac; can display just about anything, such as clocks, uptime, and the weather)

iTunes for Windows (self-explanatory)

Icons (The pretty little pictures on your desktop that point you somewhere. There are millions out there, but try the link provided for over a 1,000 lifted from Mac OS X 10.3 aka Panther)

Ok So it says you can use Style Xp or WindowBlinds, You can not use window blinds, I tired and ended up with this,




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Now as you can see it look's like a Mac but an old MAC, The Engadget how to recommends the use of the Panther theme by crni’s, Infact it recommends quite a few things by him but does not give one link to his web site.

The Panther theme however does not work with WindowBlinds, So don't bother. This is the point where you uninstall WindowBlinds and install StyleXp, which even comes with the panther theme as the default setting (If you chose the male install) and will install it for you as soon as you install the program.

(Wish I had known that before I spent 4 hours trying to get it to work with WindowBlinds. Not that there is anything wrong with WindowBlinds I had used it quit happily the 1st time I changed my GUI, It just will not work for what we want on this occasion.)



Full Size

You can see the difference StyleXP made, Altought I should point out that I already had ObjectDock installed, which I will talk about next.

ObjectDock is easy to install and work, just some simple words of warning to stop you from making some mistakes I did.

1st of To get ObjectDock to give me a transparent back ground I used a Mac theme I found on their site (I wont link to it as it did me more harm than good), bear in mind at this point in my install I had already moved all my Icons off my Desktop and on to the ObjectDock.

When I installed the theme it changed the look for me but also deleted all the icons I had put on it, here is the tricky part. The only (When I say only I mean lazy easy way) to configure objectdock is to click the config option, which the theme removed. You add Icons to ObjectDock by dragging them on and off, this ability was also removed.

You can make the dock background 100% transparent using the options, I suggest you do this rather than try and use a theme unless you know it works. Also once you have all you icons on the dock, I suggest you lock it, other wise every time you click on an icon you will end up dragging it of the doc which will delete it. As the Dock works on one click not two but you will find you self making the background opaque every time you want to make some changes this can be a pain..

Also the ObjectDock does not start up automatically, you can turn this on however in the options.

All in all ObjectDock is not bad I would still recommend it, Just beware of what you are doing, as always when installing other people's home made add on's or theme's.

YzToolbar (skins the toolbar icons in your Windows windows)

YzShadow (puts a lovely drop shadow under your windows á la Mac OS X)

Ok both of these programs are easy to install, just download them unzip, them. Then create a directory in your C: drive for them something like C:\Program Files\Yz\YzToolBar and C:\Program Files\Yz\YzShadow. Nether of the two of these auto start, as far as I can tell So you will have to make a shortcut for them and then place it in the Startup folder.

Again the Engadget Article provides no link for Y'ZToolBar, So here is site where you can get both the Y'ZToolbar and Y'ZShadow.

AS far as these three go....

• Rainlendar (popular skinable desktop calendar)
• Rainmeter (skinnable desktop system statistics)
• Samurize (like Konfabulator for the Mac; can display just about anything, such as clocks, uptime, and the weather)

I did not bother with them so cannot comment on them. As the point for me was to clean up my Desktop not fill it with crap.

• iTunes for Windows (self-explanatory)
• Icons (The pretty little pictures on your desktop that point you somewhere. There are millions out there, but try the link provided for over a 1,000 lifted from Mac OS X 10.3 aka Panther)

As far as Itunes goes, I don't like it all my MP3's are sorted in folders with Winamp play lists just the way I like it. If there was some way these could be imported into Itunes I would consider using it. I only have it installed because I was forced to, to get the latest QuickTime plugin.

There is however an option for Winamp users who want to go the whole hog, this Winamp plug in makes Winamp look like an Ipod.



Now as far as the icons go they are perfect "Apple design", my only complaints about these are who ever named them gave them the most long winded names they could.

System.Library.Components.Ink.component.Contents.SharedSupport.InkServer.app.Contents.Resources.cmd_locked

The whole thing,



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Annotated Flickr

In the end I think it worked out well. One thing I have noticed is that one you lock the windows task bar inplace the Blue line disappears from under it.

Freebiemp3

Ok so I just want something for nothing, This time it's with Freebiemp3.co.uk, There is however a lot more choice with Freebiemp3.

You can chooses from £30, £50 or £100 in cash into a paypall account, or a 512 or 1gig Ipod Shuffle, or Ipod min, Creative Zen Touch, Gmini XS200 20GB and a creative labs offering.

Each offer requires a different amount of referrals starting at 5 and going up to 10 referrals, This time I have gone for the Cash option £100.

Offers you can chose to sign up for are a little limited but are different from all the over free ipod sites enabling you to do both.

freeipodshuffleuk

While waiting for my Free ipod Mini I thought I may as well sign up for FreeipodShuffleuk, It works like freeipoduk only you only have to do one offer, thought the offers are not as varied as the ipod mini offers and infact are the same as most of the ipod mini offers.

I suspect the offers are fun by the same people, If you are only going to do one I would go for the ipod mini offer but if you greedy like me then why not try and get ipod shuffle too.

If Apple Made A Victrola

Is and experiment in design by Todd Daniele using Apple styling to create a Victrola.

Creative Commons Search BETA

Yahoo has launch a Creative Commons Search (BETA),

This Yahoo! Search service finds content across the Web that has a Creative Commons license. While most stuff you find on the web has a full copyright, this search helps you find content published by authors that want you to share or reuse it, under certain conditions

The search has two extra options of "Find content I can use for commercial purposes."

and "Find content I can modify, adapt, or build upon. "

Code Help

1st of thanks to Mike for fixing my image for me, now I have to move on to my second problem understanding how this blogger code works.

The best I have managed to do so far is to create the mish mash that is the pic above.

If any one can figure out what I need to change to get he image to display any help would be appreciated.

The code for the site.....

Free online TV

Years ago I used to have a program that let you watch over 50 TV channels from around the world but eventually they upgraded it to a pay model, It was Chinese peace of software so I have no clue as to what there web site was.

I used to love to watch Japanese MTV, some of the music videos where stunning and they seem to put a lot of effort into them.

Well no help is at hand while looking at the populicio.us a Del.icio.us based site that list new sites bookmarked in the last 24 and 48 hours by popularity, I found this little gem.

Americafree.tv

Ok so they have a limited show range but I happily watch the snowboarding video for about an hour before it started to loop.

They how ever link to Beelinetv.com which has a selection of on line channel from around the world. Most of the ones in English are American news channels, If you try some of the Dutch TV there is an MTV style channel in their.

No Jpop thou :( If any one has a link for Jpop leave it in a comment, I direct link to the stream if pos as I don't read Japanese.

Star Wars 1337t

You have seen the trailer, but maybe you did not get it? It did not speak to Generation I? Now you can watch it with 1337t subtitles, 1t R0XX0r.

Bloodmobile.

Dave Logan is a high school senior who just finished his latest animation, which is a music video for They Might Be Giants' excellent song 'Bloodmobile.'

Has to be one of the best home made animation videos I have seen, who would have thought blood was so interesting. Very simple animation but it works well, nice and clean, ties in well with the audio too.

Boing Boing

Bunny Rap

Can any one say Hip Hop?

Transparent Screens

Cool or what, The desktop background images are digital photographs, taken to give the effect that the laptops have transparent screens. The effect how ever is ofcurse broken as soon as you move the laptop.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin Needs you!

In this backward age where many in America have decided to turn their backs on science and technology and try and stem progress.

Many in the Christian right seize upon the fact the dawns Theroy of evolution is called Theroy only because that was it's original title. All scientific Studies are called Theroy's to begin with, until they can be verified by other scientists.

Darwin's Theroy of evolution is FACT, and is considered so in the rest of the 1st world, not that any world out side of the USA matters to the 97% of Americans who only consider America to be the world.

With this in mind Swarhmore Collage has launched a ranger of stickers and bookmarks aimed at gathering popular support for Darwin.

So don't live in the dark age, and let your lives be ruled by 2000 year old book. Come join the rest of us in the 21st Century.

Photo Shop, Help!

I have been trying to make a new logo for the site for ages now, but without success I must admit my photshop skills are nill.

I started with this image I found on Flickr,




I resized it and flipped it to make it more of a banner shape,




I then managed to make this, which is far to gothey,



I while messing about I noticed that when you highlighted the text you could make this effect,




Which I think fits in a lot better with the image I want for the site.

I have been told the filter is just one to highlight text and I have yet to find away to apply the green filter to the whole image.

If there is any one out there who can recreate this effect and modify one of the source images in this post, I would appreciate it greatly.

Ipod Imaginings

Business2.0 has some ipod imaginings of what future ipod's might look like, incorporated into various items such as phones and cameras.

The one above is the new ipod, I love it. My only complaint is the little grey bar with the brown lanyard. I feel it total destroys the sleek black image of the new ipod.

If you where to get rid of that bar I would go out and buy one tomorrow, never mind waiting around for a free ipod off the net.

Jeff Weise

On Monday, 17-year-old Jeff Weise went on a rampage, shooting to death his grandfather and the grandfather's companion, then invading his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Armed with two pistols and a shotgun, he killed nine people and wounded seven before shooting himself to death in the nation's bloodiest school shooting since Columbine High in Colorado six years ago.

First of all I would like to extend my sympathies to all those involved in this terrible incident.

A long time school friend of mine has just sent me the following email, It contains links to a film, Jeff Weise made and posted on the internet as he states in the email the film is very graphic and in the circumstances, I would go as far to say autobiographical.

If you or any member of your family has been touched by the tragedy I would NOT recommend you watch the film.

No doubt you’ve all heard the tragic news of yet another teenage shooting rampage in the US.

Well it turns out that he used to post regularly on www.Homepageofthedead.com a website that I used visit on a regular basis. I actually have spoken to his kid in the chat room supported by the site. I've never doubted that there are some strange people on the site... a lot of far right wing nutters attracted by the survivalist image of zombie films.

It seems he had a rather unhappy life… the sites owner brought up some of his old P.Ms (private messages). I was going to attach them to this message but I thought it was a little unethical (if you want to read them visit the site). Suffice to say it is the all too frequent story of abusive and alcoholic parents, lack of friends and the general feeling of being a loner.

It’s quite disturbing reading them… knowing what happened… and while I'll never be able to understand what would drive someone to taking other people lives I could see why he would have wanted to end his own.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=605013&page=1

While this article does not mention HPOTD directly it does mention some other zombie sites.

If you want to see something really disturbing follow this link http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/195194 it is a flash animation by Jeff Weise/Blades11. I will warn you now, it’s not very nice.

There have been a bunch of people signing up to the site, a few people claiming to be reporters wanting information…

If you would like to read some of his personal messages to others on the Homepage of the dead forum they can be read here.

------
Edit

The personal messages from the homepage of the dead have now been taken down due to intense media intrest, Here is a copy.....

Author Message
Neil
Administrator


Subscribed Member
Location: London, UK
Joined: 28-Oct-2001
Posts: 12820

Subject: I've backed up recent/old forums/PMs... Date: Today 02:54:03

His posts on the forum I could find were always straight laced etc...

However, if you look at this article - http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=605013&page=1

It states:-
In one posting, he criticized interracial mixing on the reservation and slammed fellow Indian teens for listening to rap music. "We have kids my age killing each other over things as simple as a fight, and it's because of the rap influence," he wrote.

Checking thru his details, he used an email address of "fukrap666@hotmail.com" once...

Looks like he had a really f***ed up childhood. Here are a few comments he made in PMs:-

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I have friends, but I'm basically a loner inside a group of loners. Most of my friends don't know the real me, I've never shared my past with anyone, and I've never talked about it with anyone. I'm excluded from anything and everything they do, I'm never invited, I don't even know why they consider me a friend or I them...

---

My mom used to abuse me alot when I was little. She would hit me with anything she could get her hands on, she used to drink excessively too. She would tell me I was a mistake, and she would say so many things that its hard to deal with them or think of them without crying.

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My mom got drunk one night and wrecked her car and had to relearn how to tie her shoes, I was too young to fight back or too young to stick up for myself without getting struck down when this was happening.

---

However, nothing can justify the pain and suffering he has put others though.

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Jef Weise also had a blog with livejournal, However it only contains three entries.