Filthy little fingers

Here's my computing experience of the day. I tried to download Super Collapse 3 from GameHouse. When I ran the application, it gave me this error message:

Cannot install required resources.

Your user account doesn't have sufficient privileges. You will need to run this game once from an administrator account. Afterwards, you will be able to run it from this account. (If you are an administrator, repair disk permissions with Disk Utility.)

Note to software publishers: there is absolutely no reason why your silly little game requires administrator privileges. Keep your nasty little DRM schemes out of my important directories.

Note to GameHouse in particular: Why don't you follow the lead of your new title, Scrabble? It's got an unintrusive, super-easy-to-workaround DRM scheme. But the game is so well-polished, I'm going to throw money your way regardless.

You miserable fuck

Yet another tale of our charming, inspiring Commander-in-Chief.

UPDATE: I'm reminded of other instances of his wit....

Give it up for Zeus

This debate between Sam Harris and Dennis Prager about religion is quite fun.

Naturally, I tend to agree with Sam Harris, but maybe that's just because I'm universally evil and can't distinguish good art from bad art.

Ka-ching!

So last night I had a dream where I purchased something, and specifically noted to the cashier that I was low on singles. When I got to work this morning and purchased my morning Coke, I opened my wallet to discover a big wad of bills, including a bunch of singles!

I attribute the discrepancy to "phantom pay". Just don't let the IRS find out about it.

All you need is love my ass!

I ran into the same problem described in this article 13 years ago.

I just got my first CD player, and I was trying to find a CD of the Beatles. Not being very savvy at the time, I bought what I thought was a greatest hits album. When I got home and played it, I realized that it was a collection of orchestral arrangements. :-(

Factor in the limited purchasing power of an 11-year-old, and you have a ruined Christmas. I hope you're happy, record industry.

Instant message from greasypeso

happy thxgiving

Confidential to V.T.

Even if I did poke your sister (on Facebook, I assume?), it is physically impossible for me to be a "lesbian whore".

So you can stop IMing me now.

For certain definitions of "authorities" and "data"

From Jonah Goldberg's email bag:

...I'm an evangelical in the midwest (Kansas City). I'm well-educated, a partner in a big law firm, and highly active in a large evangelical church. Not saying any of that to boast, but to assure you I'm not a nut.

Here's the problem with Mormonism. In the serious evangelical world, it is seen as a cult. If you carefully study what Mormons believe, it might appear to be absolutely loony. They believe in the absolute truth of thousands of historical data points for which there is absolutely zero historical, archeological, or other evidence except that it's written in the Book of Mormon. Compare that with Christianity, for which there are literally thousands of confirming authorities and data...

UPDATE: Holy crap, even K. Lo got in on the mocking!

Dmg hole

Yellow alert -- there's a new Mac OS X security warning.

UPDATE: False alarm.

Zed

Breaking news: fifteen-year-old "Kirk vs. Picard" debate decided in favor of Kirk.

Details to follow.

That's a software experience

Only I have the courage to ask the question everyone's thinking.

(Confused? Then read this.)

Just like the Daily Show, but not funny!

Ok, I know it's not fair to pre-judge, but this is a really shitty idea:

...Fox News Channel, a primary source of material for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, is teaming with the exec producer of "24" to try its hand at a news satire show for conservatives to love.

Joel Surnow, co-creator of "24," is shooting two half-hour pilots of a skein he described as " 'The Daily Show' for conservatives," due to air in primetime on Saturdays in January.

If successful, the show could take its place on the regular schedule, adding satire to FNC's formula of news and opinion.

"The way I look at it, almost every comedy show or satire show I see uses the same talking points against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney," Surnow said. "The other side hasn't been skewered in a fair and balanced way."...

No? Then thanks for proving my point.

Crazy Uncle Milton

Posner on Friedman:

I mention this example because I find slightly off-putting what I sensed to be a dogmatic streak in Milton Friedman. I think his belief in the superior efficiency of free markets to government as a means of resource allocation, though fruitful and largely correct, was embraced by him as an article of faith and not merely as a hypothesis. I think he considered it almost a personal affront that the Scandinavian nations, particularly Sweden, could achieve and maintain very high levels of economic output despite very high rates of taxation, an enormous public sector, and extensive wealth redistribution resulting in much greater economic equality than in the United States. I don't think his analytic apparatus could explain such an anomaly.

Helping out McCain

Ok, so the news that McCain was for abortion before he was against abortion doesn't look so hot. But I think of myself as a master spin-artist, so here's my best shot:

McCain is entirely consistent! He supports sending more troops to guard Iraq, and he supports sending more troops to guard our nation's uteruses.

Holy...

Here's how low the Christians have gone: not only is profanity unacceptable on TV, but now the mere suggestion of profanity is unacceptable.

"Think of the children! They could be filling in the blanks and beeps with the most obscene words!"

Who's hot? Who's not?

Scott Adams on the rise of the atheist:

Ask a deeply religious Christian if he’d rather live next to a bearded Muslim that may or may not be plotting a terror attack, or an atheist that may or may not show him how to set up a wireless network in his house. On the scale of prejudice, atheists don’t seem so bad lately.

Commie technology

Microsoft gave me the shaft last night -- they took the Vista golden master off of MSDN because of "overwhelming demand".

You know, I think there's an easy solution to that problem. It's called BitTorrent, morons!

DeVosil

Read this article through, and you'll get a good idea why Dick DeVos made me so sick to my stomach.

The teapot

Suck my spout.

Our national shame

Too sensitive!

You stay classy, Detroit!

The legend of Bill Bonds.

Thought-porn

Interesting thought of the day, courtesy of Scott Adams:

I also think we should ban all political advertising. I realize it’s an issue of free speech, but that freedom has always had lots of restrictions. For example, you can’t libel someone, and you can’t lie about your product’s effectiveness, and you can’t yell “FIRE” if there’s no fire. If a political ad sways an election and causes an unnecessary war (just to pick an example) then it’s a lot like yelling “FIRE.” We routinely limit free speech when the alternative is worse.

Patterns!

If you fall in the union of (Weird Al Yankovic fans) ∪ (twenty-somethings who watched Square One TV in their youth), then you'll get an enormous kick out of this music video.

God's gift to man: the "coin" button

Props to Dave Dribin.

Things that made me laugh this evening

• Santorum's family, realizing the head of the household is now unemployed
• How come the loudest gay bashers are always the most queer? (Allegedly, of course)
• Onion: Republicans Blame Election Losses on Democrats
• TextMate vs. BBEdit. The funny part is in the main blog post itself and the first three comments, which I'll summarize here:

  Erik J. Barzeski: I think TextMate kinda sucks.
  Allan Odgaard: Then why did you ask me for a free copy?
  Erik J. Barzeski: Don't bring private conversations into this!

  Note that this blog entry was composed in TextMate.
• Scott Adams: Blame Room Service. Funny if you've ever been threatened with legal action by an imbecile. (Yes, I'm talking about you, L.M.)

Election roundup

The good: Granholm remains Michigan governor, Stabenow remains senator from Michigan, Proposal 4 wins, Democratic majority in the U.S. House, Probable Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, Rumsfeld resigns

The bad: Skinner loses to Knollenberg, Proposal 2 wins

The ugly: Dick DeVos

UPDATE: Senate Democratic majority confirmed.

I feel cheated

Now that I know the "wasabi" they serve in American sushi bars is fake, I really want to try the real thing.

In this edition of "Your Creepy Neighbors"

Ok, this article has been sitting in my aggregator long enough. Time to post it.

Jennifer Pozner on the unacknowledged yet real threat from Christian fundamentalist terrorists.

Who could have predicted this chaos?

Via Matthew Yglesias:

The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.

In its "Desert Crossing" games, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence officials assumed the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.

The documents came to light Saturday through a Freedom of Information Act request by the George Washington University's National Security Archive, an independent research institute and library.

"The conventional wisdom is the U.S. mistake in Iraq was not enough troops," said Thomas Blanton, the archive's director. "But the Desert Crossing war game in 1999 suggests we would have ended up with a failed state even with 400,000 troops on the ground."...

..."A change in regimes does not guarantee stability," the 1999 seminar briefings said. "A number of factors including aggressive neighbors, fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines, and chaos created by rival forces bidding for power could adversely affect regional stability."

Knee-deep in the code

I had better not see the words "concurrency violation exception" for a long, long time.

Also, learn this now: if your schema is even remotely complex, you're going to want to leave ADO.NET's SqlCommandBuilder alone and roll your own UPDATE commands.

The cost of living

Holy crap -- that was the best episode of Lost since the season 2 finale!

I especially liked the Myst influences -- should you trust what Juliette says in her videotape, or what she says in person? Maybe you shouldn't trust any of it?

One and the same

No More Mister Nice Blog on delusions:

..."The only reason we could lose in Iraq is if we leave." That's what he thinks: If we're fighting, we're winning -- by definition. He believes that as long as we're fighting, losing is impossible.

Notice that he doesn't say, "In this war, if you leave the battle, the enemy follows us home to America ... that's one of the reasons why we must stay in Iraq." You and I would disagree with that, but at least it would make sense. What he actually says is "In this war, if you leave the battle, the enemy follows us home to America ... that's one of the reasons why we will win in Iraq." He thinks committing to the fight and winning the fight are inseparable.

He says all the time -- in fact, he says it elsewhere in the interview -- that he's "got a long-term strategy to deal with these threats, and part of that strategy is to stay on the offense." But it's hard to escape the conclusion that that's all there is to the strategy, or all he thinks there needs to be.

This is utterly delusional. He thinks failure simply cannot be happening in Iraq as long as we're fighting -- and he's sacrificing our troops' lives and structuring our foreign policy based on this delusion.

Take what you can get

Finally, Tom Delay actually tells the truth!

In the future, will all political truth be delivered via double negative?

Ordering principled people to do unprincipled things

This is what the Republicans have wrought. Vote them out on Tuesday.

(And for future reference, things may not be as bleak as they look...)