WGA - Windows Genuine Advantage. A software agent that runs on installs of Windows to make sure that you're not using a pirated copy. Unless you let it install itself, you'll have a hell of a time updating your system because a running WGA agent is required to run Windows Update. Of course, you can go to the Knowledge Base and download the updates one by one, but when you take into account how many updates there are, you may as well install it yourself.
Interestingly, if you refuse to let the WGA hotfix/update/agent/spyware install itself it phones …
Remember those bulletproof windbreakers from Snow Crash? They looked good, they wore well, and they could stop a 9mm round?
I don't know if you'd call this a windbreaker or not, but it's close enough for government work. This jacket weighs only 3kg (about 6.6 pounds) and can stop up to a 7.62mm round from a Tokarev military rifle. On top of that, they say it's also proof against impact trauma, cutting and stabbing, and even hypodermic needles.
Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher who put postmodernism on the map (which isn't the territory) died yesterday at the age of 77 after a lengthy illness. Baudrillard was known for his deconstruction and analysis of global culture in the last decade of the 20th century and what has come to pass so far of the 21st century and the statement that left many scratching their heads - that nothing is, in fact real because we no longer understand that there are choices beyond those They tell us we have. Possibly his most famous essay is entitled On Nihilism (from Simulacra and …
Grassroots lobbying groups and a relatively small number of politicians have been pushing the US government for more environmentally friendly measures to be put in place, particularly in the field of automotive travel. Vehicles in the US just aren't all that efficient, energy-wise, and on top of that, the most popular vehicles are SUVs and consumer Humvees that can be measured in dinosaurs per mile, and not miles per gallon. The hell of it is, there are much more efficient vehicles in use in Europe that get between 40 and 80 miles per gallon of fuel (averaged between city and …
Yesterday afternoon I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff was found guilty of four out of five counts of perjury while testifying before a grand jury. On the fifth count (lying to the FBI) he was found not guilty by the jury. What it boils down to is this: Rather than admit that he found out the name of Valerie Wilson (the CIA operative whom Libby outed to the media, thus destroying her usefulness), he lied and said that Tim Russert of NBC News told him who she was. He told this story to a number of …
Last night at LAX, a man of Iraqi descent was taken aside to be searched in depth because he kept setting off the metal detectors. He kept setting off the hand-held metal detectors even though he'd emptied his pockets of everything even vaguely metallic, so they proceeded to the nightmare of most human beings - the body cavity search.
One Henry Ihejirika developed a web application called Ziinet, which was an expert system for bankruptcy law that provided a service to whomever could pay the $216us charge for 60 days of access. The idea was that you paid your fee to log into the web application and hammer in the information relevant to your bankruptcy proceedings. The application would analyse your situation, draw up affadavits (presumably drawing upon a database of pre-written statements and paragraphs - if you write enough papers of any kind, it only stands to reason that re-using parts of older papers is …
It seems that my body's biochemistry is ever so slightly messed up due to the large amounts of analgesics and antibiotics I've been taking lately in preparation for the peculiarly mediaeval form of torture referred to today as root canal therapy, which feels like anything but therapy if you're on the recieving end for a couple of hours at the very least. It's been difficult to think clearly for the past couple of days, and I seem to have the short term memory of a goldfish. On top of all of that is a general feeling of malaise - much like …
The DNA Lounge will be having a triple header concert you won't believe - the second annual GDC Ultimate Game Audio party, headlined by the 415 Sound Covenant - Kurt Harland/Larson of Information Society, Kurt's brother Kris Larson, Jim Hedges, and Pineapplehead.
All of you need to go to this for me because I'm on the wrong coast. That is all.
