Today's Chuck Norris Fact:
Chuck Norris always knows the EXACT location of Carmen SanDiego.
You know, I'm just not that into movies any more. I enjoy my old favorites, and I can always find a reason to watch them. New movies are OK, and I generally enjoy when I see them, but to be honest, I think there are probably a bunch of things I'd rather do now than watch a movie. It's fun going to the theater, but with those ever-increasing ticket prices and $5 cokes and large popcorns, going to see a single movie with my family costs about $50 minimum. Watching movies at home would probably be more interesting if I had that many I was really, really stoked to see, and that just doesn't happen much any more. Plus, I would say I'm a lot more interested in doing something interactive, or even just active, than sitting watching a movie.
I don't know if any of you have ever read Slashdot. Slashdot has for a long time been considered THE ultimate geek news site. Better than CNet or any of those others, Slashdot has editors who find great news stories with a high geek interest factor. Then, they let their users/readers actually comment on the stories. For me, that last feature is the downfall. I grow weary of the continual burst of anti-Americanism, liberal nonsense, and just general goofball paranoia that most of the commenters espouse in increasing numbers. I also tire of the endless anti-Microsoft, pro-Linux, pro-Apple garbage that spews from many of these same commenters. Reading endless holy wars, seeing continual political and technical bias, and enduring the smart-ass comments of these people has taken its toll, and so I have no choice but to officially swear off Slashdot forever. I will never visit the site again of my own free will. Besides, Digg is better for finding good tech news, and best of all, NO COMMENTS.
I've been quite amused by those who believe it's OK to sue gun manufacturers for crimes committed with their product. I'd like to make a few points about these kinds of suits. Second, some liken them to the Big Tobacco suits, but this is a flawed argument. Unlike Big Tobacco companies, who tried to hide the fact that their product is harmful to your health for many years, gun manufacturers are quite open that their product can cause death if used improperly. Can they seriously deny it? Second, guns are tools, just like cars are tools and hammers are tools and knives are tools. Guns, cars, hammers, and knives are all regularly used in serious crimes, and many of those serious crimes involve death or critical injury. But do we clamor to sue Ford, Craftsman, and Schrade because their products are used regularly to hurt people and commit crime? No way. Why do so many then feel it IS justified to use those tactics against Smith and Wesson or Colt? The well-known adage really is true: "guns don't kill people, people kill people", and this is true whether they use a gun, a car, a hammer, or a knife to do the killing. All tools have legitimate uses and illegitimate uses.
But all this got me thinking. Within the last year, I've heard of a few cases of individuals secretly installing (or tricking someone else into installing) keylogger software on computers for the purposes of spying. For those of you who don't know, a "keylogger" is a program that runs on your machine and records every time you hit a key on the keyboard. So, this software basically eavesdrops on everything you do on your computer that is important. This information can then be retrieved locally or even remotely across a network like the Internet. I've been directly involved in investigating at least one of these cases, and my part in that brought up some interesting ideas. In that case, another investigator got information about the keylogger program from the developer by essentially threatening them with legal liability for the use of the program. Did that investigator have any legal ground to stand on there? In other words, could companies that develop keylogger software be held liable for illegitimate use of their software by others, just like many are trying to do with gun manufacturers? Again, the answer should be a resounding "no," but with our crazy legal system, all it takes is convincing one jury it's a good idea.
Nearly everyone on the planet runs an operating system called Windows on their computer, at least part of the time. For a long time, I was also primarily a Windows user. However, I have changed to a different operating system called Linux, and specifically a flavor of Linux known as Ubuntu. Well, Kubuntu, more accurately, based on the specific type of graphical user interface I use on my Ubuntu system. There is a lot of ongoing debate about Linux vs. Windows (remember the Slashdot holy wars referenced above?), but I decided to make a full switch about 4 months ago, and it has been so successful for me that I'm in Linux about 95% of the time now. I do have a few things I still have to do in Windows, like balance my books in Quicken or play games, but most of the stuff I used to do in Windows I can now do with absolutely no trouble in Linux. I can do IM, I can read and write e-mail with no problems, surf the web, listen to MP3s, watch DVDs, and everything works (for the most part) with no hitches. Now, let me note that this is NOT for everyone; I only am willing to make the step because I have a lot of computer experience and can do my own work if I run into problems. But judging by my experience, I would say that a day is coming when everyone really will have a legitimate, viable FREE alternative to running a Windows PC or a Mac. If you're interested, check it out for yourself.
Thanks for reading along.
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