Jack Thompson has issued a cease & desist against Mortal Kombat Armageddon because it features his likeness.

What Jack Thompson fails to grasp is that the only way it does is when individuals use the 1,000,000+ customization options available in the kreate-a-kharacter feature, you can make just about anybody in the game (I myself have made a Torgo character, complete with missing hand).

Jack Thompson is an idiot, and this little tirade confirms that...

The problem with today's airport security is two fold: First it isn't actually secure (just made to look that way), second is that any attempt to clearly show the hole (since calling someone never gets anywhere) usually leads to legal retaliation against the whistleblower...

The most recent example of this is Congressman Markey's call to arrest someone who made a tool to produce fake boarding passes for Northwest Airlines.

The site is now down, but this is rather ironic. You see the fact this can even be done is what should lead to an arrest. If a guy having a little too much fun can produce a tool ANYONE can use (and makes it so EVERYONE can see it), then how much easier is it for a terrorist to make the tool solely for their own terroristic desires, and keep the whole thing secret until they manage to exploit it?

When someone makes a method for overriding security and puts it in front of the public eye, all they're trying to do is point out the simplicity and stupidity of the method (which is blatantly obvious in this case). I believe the public has a right to know these types of holes exist, yet people like Congressman Markey would prefer to keep these little exploits buried so only the select few wishing to do harm (with no desire for anyone to find out) are the only ones who will use it.

The end result is literally the government trying to give comfort to the public by keeping them mal-informed as opposed to giving them actual security. Congressman Markey should be fired...

And for anyone who thinks he used the wrong method to show this exploit, think again. The ONLY way to get high ranking officials to bother to open there eyes even for a second is to publicly show it's possible. If I wanted to demonstrate a security hole, it's not exactly that easy for me to try to get into contact with someone who will bother to give me the time of day, let alone take me seriously enough when I say "hey, you guys need to do something about this!" This is the kind of thing where you call security and security goes "you should talk to customer relations" and then proceeds to transfer you to someone who says "you should talk to security"...

Elections are fast approaching, and election ads are all over TV. Of course, one of the most annoying things is that the videos on both sides of a single proposition all seem to indicate completely different things, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle...

The most noticable proposition is prop 87. You see, one side is pushing it saying it makes it illegal for big oil to raise the price of gas and funds alternative energy programs. The other side says it's a 4 billion dollar tax increase that will raise the price of gas and create a bureaucracy of 50 appointees who have no requirements to produce results.

While there are statements with both that aren't 100% on the level (how can a price cap cause the price of gas to go up?), there is one key issue that they both state: You see, the alternative energy programs are in fact run by the bureaucracy. But truth be told, ironically it's big oil properly stating the single biggest item that should be the one to determine weather or not to vote.

The 4 billion dollar tax increase is in fact on the oil companies, not the consumer. However, even with price cap regulations in place, it is likely that at least some of that tax in the end will be passed on to consumers. But that money is then given to the bureaucracy of political appointies (ie: people placed in the position as apposed to people who are voted into the position).

In the end, if the measure passes, the bureaucracy will then be made up of friends of people who were able to put them into that bureaucracy. The bureaucracy will then supposedly research & fund alternative energy programs. However, thoes friends of people also know going into this, that when all is said and done with the $4 billion, they don't actually have to achieve anything. You see, they could go: Hey guys, how about this??? We take $1 billion and invest it into solar energy research and companies, then the remaining $3 billion will go to fund parties, 'research' travel, and other miscellaneous expenses. Does that sound good to you guys? And if they choose to do this, when the bureaucracy is said and done, and the full $4 billion has been spent, they all go and remanis about all the fun they had spending $4 billion...

Regardless of how much you may hate big oil, or be angry over the gas prices, any time you give $4 billion to a group of people then tell them "do some research and stuff", then allow them to do what they want and how they want without any real deffinition of what they should do, you may as well just be taking that $4 billion, breaking into 50 chunks of $80 million, and saying "have fun" to each of them...

Essentially it boils down to a simple idea: Voting yes on 87 to get even with big oil would be about as effective as cutting off your foot so you could no longer drive, thereby eliminating your need to pay any more money for gas... You're doing more harm to yourself than you are to big oil...

This story is Microsoft's response to Apples statement that some iPods had viruses is partially to do with the fact taht Windows is a very insecure and easy to infect system.

Apparently Microsoft believes the rampant virus issues that ALL companies who use Windows has to constantly battle (my work had a major virus issue a few weeks ago) leaves Apple to be solely to blame:

Security professionals, including Microsoft's own product release virus scanning chief, called Apple's efforts to deflect blame onto Microsoft misleading and said the batch of factory-infected iPods reveals a troubling lack of thoroughness in the company's manufacturing process.

Interesting. A couple weeks ago it was found that several thosand Windows based MP3 players given out for free by McDonnalds & Coke in Japan were all infected with a virus as well. I'm assuming this must be Apples fault, because none of the blame can rest on Windows, as this guy states Windows had nothing to do with the virus.

And, damn, Apple must have walked into my work a couple weeks ago and infected our systems which shut several departments down for two days while a clean-up was being done. But again, this isn't a Windows issue, becasue Windows cannot be blammed...

Well, I guess if we really wanted to stop the threat of all these viruses, shutting down Apple would do it. Because the day they shut down is the day viruses will no longer effect Windows based systems...

I origionally typed the following up on the Apple Discussion Forums, but figured I'd also post it here...

I was very excited when I was soon to get a new MacBook. In the past I've gone though a PowerBook 1400, a Blueberry iBook, and a white iBook G3, and this only accounts for the laptops I've owned. Each of these systems worked very well for me in their time, and I was quite pleased to be getting a new current generation laptop...

That excitement at this point has quickly diminished. You see, though each of my prevous machines had their problems (primarily my iBook G3 which needed around 3 logic board replacements in it's AppleCare life span), I could rely on them & use them. Now at this point, I'm finding myself wondering how long it will be until the next hardware glitch has an immediate effect on me...

I just got my MacBook back a little over a week ago, after having been repaired for the random shutdown issue. Since then my MacBook has already shutdown randomly twice, so I'm assuming in a few more weeks I'm going to loose it again for another two weeks, bringing the total time the MacBook has been out of my hands to a month within the 4 months that I've owned it now...

But there are also other annoying issues that also have been occuring, but that I can only get the run around on when I try to report a problem. You see, my monitor on occasion will noticably flicker brightness. This, as far as I know, is still an unacknowledged issue by apple but has been documented by others. A quick search on youtube shows a handful of videos documenting the very issue: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=macbook+flicker

Then there's the problem where I end up needing to zap my PRAM every time I reboot due to the Black Screen 'O Death that almost always comes up durring boot...

I also have to constantly make an effor to check to see weather or not my MacBook has lost connection with my AirPort Base Station. Not only that but I also had to disable the hiding of the Base Station ID because for some reason my MacBook would keep getting errors saying it could not join the network. All the wile my old iBook G3 has zero issues connecting to the same base station.

The most ironic thing came when I brought my MacBook in due to the random shutdown error though. The guy at the Apple Store told me that these machines cannot be used heavily, otherwise they will have problems. What does that mean? I now have to limit how often I use my new MacBook? I've never had to do anything like that before, and now I'm supposed to somehow ration my usage? I can still sit down with my old G3 iBook (nearly 4 years old at this point) and use it all day long with zero issues... Only problem is, that laptop now belongs to my wife who gets to use it as often as she'd like with no headaches... In a way, I envy her at this point.

In short this MacBook is the first new Mac I've purchased in over 3 years & is the 7th Mac I've owned. It's also the first Mac I've ever owned where I constantly have both a perpetual fear of a likely hardware failure, and a fear that in another year (even with an extended AppleCare warranty) the thing will no longer be the least bit usable.

I feel like I've effectively put the $1500 which took me so long to save up into a garbage bin, and in the end I'll end up having to take my iBook G3 back from my wife in order to have a computer that acutally works until the day comes that I once again can afford to buy one...

[update]

The post was deleted by Apple!!! Yes it's true, I just got an email stating that the post had been removed by Apple. It's a little odd being I'm not denoucing Apple, simply this product. Everything I posted is factualy accurate. I've seen Apple delete posts before, but never quite had one of my own deleted...

Maybe I'll go into the Apple Store, list my problems and demand that they get fixed... The email did contain the following info, however:

Although we empathize with the customer in such situations, as
moderators we simply do not posses adequate resources to provide
assistance to customers on an individual basis. Our advice is to have
the customer follow the due escalation path that is available for them
in specific channels, such as Technical Support, Customer Relations,
Education Sales, etc.

I'm not sure how this applies, being I wasn't requesting assistance, rater was expressing my emotional state. I simply wanted it expressed to thoes who are going though the same experiences I am... Go figure...