30.6.05
29.6.05
earplugs required
i expect the grunts of tennis star monica seles (fifty-three singles titles, six doubles titles and nine grand slam titles) have been subject of comment for years and now science gives an idea why they bother some so. 103.5 fm in dc reported yesterday that the woman's grunts have been measured to reach 89 decibels... equivalent to the noise made by a freight train and a pneumatic drill. no disrespect intended, but, can you imagine what it may be like, say, in the bedroom?!«quiet, please!»
sizzlin' cold
the beeb reports this morning that bigotted and unapologetic singer sizzla has had six of eight performances planned in france cancelled along with a reggae festival in paris (he was to be one of eleven performers) following complaints about the discriminatory, defamatory and violent lyrics of some of his songs. this takes place after several performances by another jamaican reggae performer, capleton, were shelved after complaints about the singer's violently homophobic lyrics.the "man's" statement? «they've got to apologise to god because they break god's law.» ignorant fool.
france has stringent laws against the defamation of any social groups who have been subject to discrimination.
sizzla has been barred from entering the uk while the home office investigates the complaints against him.
28.6.05
quoatation of the week
«Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.»
~Thomas Jefferson
via wordsmith, featuring archaic words this week. today's word: quotha.
Labels: quotations
popsicle stick humour
«what did the sollicitor name her daughter?»«sue.»
and «what did the hamburger name hers?»
«patty.»
24.6.05
seen round the net
«stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until friday night, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy...»i'd say that one can sometimes consciously choose to be miserable or happy as much as consciously choose to inflict misery or catalyse happiness upon another. i vote for combining both choices for happiness.
daily wishes
«dóna'm el fil, dóna'm la llum que il·lumini el camí que em tregui d'aquest laberint.»
~j.m. serrat
~j.m. serrat
orribile destino? piutosto smetterla...
«che tua madre dovrà
prenderti in braccio
ed alla pioggia e al vento
andar per la città
a guadagnarsi il pane
e il vestimento.
ed alle impietosite genti
la man tremante stenderà
gridando: "udite, udite
la triste mia canzon.
a un infelice
madre la carità,
muovetevi a pietà..."
e butterfly, orribile destino,
danzerà per te,
e come fece già.
la ghesha canterà!
e la canzon giuliva e lieta
in un sighiozzo finirà!
ah no! no questo mai!
questo mestier che
al disonore porta!
morta! morta!
mai più danzar!
piuttosto la mia vita
vo' troncar! ah! morta!»
~madama butterfly, giacomo puccini, illica/giacosa
prenderti in braccio
ed alla pioggia e al vento
andar per la città
a guadagnarsi il pane
e il vestimento.
ed alle impietosite genti
la man tremante stenderà
gridando: "udite, udite
la triste mia canzon.
a un infelice
madre la carità,
muovetevi a pietà..."
e butterfly, orribile destino,
danzerà per te,
e come fece già.
la ghesha canterà!
e la canzon giuliva e lieta
in un sighiozzo finirà!
ah no! no questo mai!
questo mestier che
al disonore porta!
morta! morta!
mai più danzar!
piuttosto la mia vita
vo' troncar! ah! morta!»
~madama butterfly, giacomo puccini, illica/giacosa
tenera speranza
«un bel dì, vedremo
levarsi un fil di fumo
sull'estremo confin del mare.
e poi la nave appare.
poi la nave bianca
entra nel porto,
romba il suo saluto.
vedi? è venuto!
io non gli scendo incontro. io no.
mi metto là sul ciglio del colle e aspetto,
e aspetto gran tempo
e non mi pesa,
la lunga attesa.
e uscito dalla folla cittadina,
un uomo, un picciol punto
s'avvia per la collina.
chi sarà? chi sarà?
e come sarà giunto.
che dirà? che dirà?
chiamerà butterfly dalla lontana.
io senza dar risposta
me ne starò nascosta
un po' per celia
e un po' per non morire
al primo incontro;
ed egli alquanto in pena
chiamerà, chiamerà:
"piccina mogliettina,
olezzo di verbena"
i nomi che mi dava al suo venire.
tutto questo avverrà,
te lo prometto.
tienti la tua paura,
io con sicura fede l'aspetto.»
~madama butterfly, giaccomo puccini, illica/giacosa
levarsi un fil di fumo
sull'estremo confin del mare.
e poi la nave appare.
poi la nave bianca
entra nel porto,
romba il suo saluto.
vedi? è venuto!
io non gli scendo incontro. io no.
mi metto là sul ciglio del colle e aspetto,
e aspetto gran tempo
e non mi pesa,
la lunga attesa.
e uscito dalla folla cittadina,
un uomo, un picciol punto
s'avvia per la collina.
chi sarà? chi sarà?
e come sarà giunto.
che dirà? che dirà?
chiamerà butterfly dalla lontana.
io senza dar risposta
me ne starò nascosta
un po' per celia
e un po' per non morire
al primo incontro;
ed egli alquanto in pena
chiamerà, chiamerà:
"piccina mogliettina,
olezzo di verbena"
i nomi che mi dava al suo venire.
tutto questo avverrà,
te lo prometto.
tienti la tua paura,
io con sicura fede l'aspetto.»
~madama butterfly, giaccomo puccini, illica/giacosa
23.6.05
insider secrets
the entry below considers the serious problems confronting the computer/internet security industry and consumers as there's hardly a product in the market free of vulnerability. and i truly find it odd since software actually comes to us by way of a rather elaborate path and after meeting some of the most rigid quality control on the planet. so here, and via coda coza αι shares for the first time with the general public this side of the pond, the insider details of the software development cycle:- programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
- programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
- product is tested. 20 bugs are found.
- programmer fixes 10 of the bugs and explains to the testing department that the other 10 aren't really bugs.
- testing department finds that five of the fixes didn't work and discovers 15 new bugs.
- see 3.
- see 4.
- see 5.
- see 6.
- see 7.
- see 8.
- due to marketing pressure and an extremely pre-mature product announcement based on over-optimistic programming schedule, the product is released.
- users find 137 new bugs.
- original programmer, having cashed his royalty check, is nowhere to be found.
- newly-assembled programming team fixes almost all of the 137 bugs, but introduce 456 new ones.
- original programmer sends underpaid testing department a postcard from fiji. entire testing department quits.
- company is bought in a hostile takeover by competitor using profits from their latest release, which had 783 bugs.
- new ceo is brought in by board of directors. he hires programmer to redo program from scratch
- programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
20.6.05
quotation of the week
«hateful to me as the gates of hades is the man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.» ~homer
Labels: quotations
who watches the watchers?
as some of you know i've spent the last few weeks dealing with virii, hijackings and malware in general. there are some important lessons to be learned and it's sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees. it's as much about how to protect one's investments in hardware and software, along with one's data, as where the surf would land one. in any case, brilliant and careful surfing habits can only reduce the risk but does not increase protection.yet it's quite disheartening when recovery and related tasks become rather unbearable because it's almost impossible to find safe and secure tools to execute all steps required to identify, clean, prevent attacks, intrusions and infections for most security products are themselves riddled with bugs and plagued by vulnerabilities, making them the conduits for professionally designed malware. and one is supposed to PAY for the commercial releases of these products which are, for all practical purposes, still in beta! we test them suffering the consequences and are supposed to pay again for the patched-up upgrades? this is wrong.
the register reports today that in the fifteen-month period between January 2004 and March 2005, security vendors reported seventy-seven separate vulnerabilities and the rate is rising. based on current trends, a study by the Yankee Group reckons the number of vulnerabilities for security products this year will top 2004 levels by as much as 50 per cent.
at the same time one does not want to lock up the box so tight one ends up unable to step beyond once's virtual backyard.
do have a look at these related stories:
witty attacks your firewall and destroys your data
witty worm traced to 'patient zero'
pc-cillin killed my pc
anti-virus vulnerabilities strike again
bitdefender bug bites gfi
red alert over symantec firewall flaw
14.6.05
mo'fCkrs
this is precisely the kind of rubbish for which i can't forgive software/internet companies nor the government and for which they should all be financially liable:«server error.
gmail is temporarily unavailable. cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. we're sorry for the inconvenience.»
gmail is temporarily unavailable. cross your fingers and try again in a few minutes. we're sorry for the inconvenience.»
cross your fingers? cross your fingers?
quotation of the week
«it was such a lovely day i thought it a pity to get up.»
~w somerset maugham
~w somerset maugham
Labels: quotations
US senate apologises
despite the requests of seven presidents, the US senate had failed to enact a federal law to make lynching a crime, always blocked by filibuster (republican?). until yesterday. but these cowards did so by voice vote (meaning that senator's avoided putting themselves on record). note that there were eighty co-sponsors to the legislation... not one hundred.this apology resolution marks the first time members of congress, who have apologised to japanese(-americans) for their internment in world war II and to hawaiians for the overthrow of their kingdom, have apologised to americans of black african descent for any reason.
popsicle stick riddle
~«what runs all over town but never comes inside?»~«errr, your boyfriend?»
oops! apparently the correct answer is the street. my bad.
predictability and beans
«you're more predictable than a fart after a bowl o' spicy beans.»~the sovereign to the cunt
12.6.05
i espero
fa dies que no sé quants dies fa... fa mesos que es així. fa mesos que m'estic dient demá... i espero, i espero, i espero... vivint amb res. treballant per no res, i un dia com si res morir-me de no res...espero despullant l'horitzó per al meu goig, per la meva pena, pel día i per la nit només que torni ell... ell... i fa també mesos que l'estar així em fa tant mal... creure d'esser finalment dement sembra un bon principi. estic molt cansat de viure de mentida, de viure un present que només és ombra d'un passat. no és per a mi jugar així amb la vida, no és per a mi estar aquí, no és per a mi fingir i sentirme l'anima tan morta.
