I had some things to pick up from the supermarket, so I went to the local QFC

As I was crusing the aisles, some things just called out to be photographed.

FRIED PORK SKINS

OBERTO BEEF JERKY - America's #1 Beef Snack

SCARY KOALA

12:36:33 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

One of the things I miss from living in Seattle was KNDD 1077 The End.

It is a local radio station which plays most of the music I like.

Right now, I'm listening to Resurrection Flashback Sunday, and the feature artist of the week are The B52's

Yes, I am a tragic

They have a live stream online, maybe I should tune into it when I get back home.

11:43:19 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Geek • Random

Another day, another silly quiz. Not surprisingly, I do like lightning.

You Are Lightning

Beautiful yet dangerous People will stop and watch you when you appear Even though you're capable of random violence You are best known for: your power Your dominant state: performing

10:04:16 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Geek • Random

I took the quiz, because I love taking quizzes.

Your results:
You are Spock

Spock 80% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 80% Chekov 80% Geordi LaForge 60% Data 50% James T. Kirk (Captain) 40% Jean-Luc Picard 40% Beverly Crusher 40% Will Riker 40% Deanna Troi 40% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 40% Mr. Scott 20% Uhura 20% Mr. Sulu 20% Worf 20%

You are skilled in knowledge and logic. You believe that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

10:10:09 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Geek • Random

I just noticed a little milestone was passed - my 1000th post

I started this particular little blog in May 23, 2003

Quick summary of posts over the years:

I need to write a tool to extract my comments and trackback totals so that I can work out my C.I.!

5:03:56 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

Got this email overnight. The class action suit against SONYBMG and their ROOTKIT spreads far and wide, and even to my inbox .

More info at EFF

----- Original Message -----

From: <class.settlement@sonybmg.com>

To: Frank Arrigo

Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2006 12:36 PM

Subject: Class Action Settlement/Software Update Notice

***IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE/SOFTWARE UPDATE NOTICE***PLEASE READ*** (Please do not respond to this email.  Responses will not be read.)

If You Bought, Received or Used a SONY BMG Music Entertainment CD Containing Either XCP or Media Max Content Protection Software, Your Rights May Be Affected By a Class Action Settlement, And You Should Download Updates For That Software.

What is this about?

A settlement has been proposed in a lawsuit brought against SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Inc., SunnComm International Inc., and First 4 Internet, Ltd. ("Defendants").  The lawsuit, In re SONY BMG CD Technologies Litigation, Case No. 1:05-cv-09575-NRB, is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and relates to XCP and MediaMax content protection software installed on certain SONY BMG music CDs.

The Settlement resolves claims that the Defendants manufactured and sold CDs containing XCP and MediaMax software without adequately disclosing the limitations the software imposes on the use of the CDs and the security vulnerabilities it creates.  The Defendants have denied that they did anything wrong.

Who Is Included, And What Does The Settlement Provide?

The settlement provides relief for persons who bought, received or used SONY BMG CDs with either XCP or MediaMax software.  Under the settlement, any person in possession of an XCP CD can exchange it for a replacement CD, an MP3 download of the same album, and either (a) cash payment of $7.50 and one (1) free album download from a list of 200 albums, or (b) three (3) free album downloads from that list.
Purchasers of CDs containing MediaMax 5.0 software will receive a free
MP3 download of the same album and one (1) additional free album download.  Purchasers of CDs containing MediaMax 3.0 software will receive a free MP3 download of the same album.

The settlement also requires the Defendants to stop manufacturing SONY BMG CDs with XCP or MediaMax 3.0 and 5.0 software and, until 2008: (1) make available updates to fix all known security vulnerabilities caused by XCP and MediaMax software; (2) provide software programs to uninstall XCP and MediaMax software safely; (3) fix any future security vulnerabilities discovered in MediaMax and any other content protection software placed on SONY BMG CDs; (4) provide independent verification that personal information about users of SONY BMG CDs has not and will not be collected through XCP or MediaMax; (5) waive certain provisions of the end user license agreements for XCP and MediaMax software; and
(6) ensure that any other content protection software will be clearly disclosed, independently tested and readily uninstalled.

At 9:15a.m. on May 22, 2006, the Court will hold a hearing at the United States District Court, Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, Courtroom 21A, New York, New York 10007-1312, to decide whether to approve the settlement and the class attorneys' fees and costs.

How Do I Participate In The Settlement?
If you bought or received a SONY BMG Music CD containing XCP or MediaMax software and want to receive the relief you may be eligible for under the settlement, you must submit an online claim form at www.sonybmgcdtechsettlement.com, or mail a claim form to:

SONY BMG CD Technologies Settlement
P.O. Box 1804, Faribault, MN 55021-1804

All claim forms must be submitted by December 31, 2006.

What Are My Other Options?

If you bought, received or used a SONY BMG Music CD containing XCP or MediaMax software, and you do not want to be legally bound by the settlement or receive a replacement CD, cash, free downloads or other relief, you must exclude yourself by May 1, 2006.  If you do not exclude yourself, certain of your claims against the Defendants that were or could have been asserted in the lawsuit will be released, meaning you may not be able to sue the Defendants for those claims.
To view the detailed legal Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement, Motion for Attorneys' Fees and Settlement Fairness Hearing and to download the software updates, visit www.sonybmgcdtechsettlement.com.
You may obtain further information by contacting the claims administrator at the address above or by calling toll free 1-800-242-7610.

4:00:13 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

Moira was reading the latest North Shore Times and found an article about Camelot, the house we went to look at last week.

PAKASTANI-born Nausheen Qureshi  had little trouble adapting to the Australian way of life when she migrated here as a young bride 22 years ago.

``We went to Canberra, which is remarkably similar to Islamabad,'' Nausheen said.

She said the architects of modern Islamabad had drawn heavily on the design principles used by Walter Burley Griffin in Canberra.

``So it all felt quite familiar . . . I had no trouble settling down.''

Six years ago, Nausheen and husband Zia  bought a large character house in Pymble.

The luxury four-bedroom home has many unusual features including a turret room, banquet dining room, home gym, inground pool and fish pond with footbridge.

``We get lots of family visitors, so the house is absolutely perfect from that point of view,'' Nausheen said.

``It's so spacious that it can easily cope with the extra numbers.''

The house is always filled with the friends of Nausheen and Zia's two children  Usman, 18, and Amna, 17.

``This house seems to attract young people  they'll watch a movie in the home theatre or swim in the pool, which is gas-heated and warm all year round,'' Nausheen said.

The property at 96 Livingstone Ave will be auctioned on March 1 through Century 21 Cordeau Marshall's Paula Hellstern on 0418 415 033.

So now we know more about the family selling the house. So, the owner is CEO of a local company. The photo on the website has the dude standing in the living room at his house. He was the charman of the Australian Chapter for the  International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, as well as an Honorary Investment Counsellor for the Government of Pakistan (#21),  A dude with the same name was also involved in some dodgy money deals resulting in missing millions. I don't know if it's all related but it makes for some interesting reading.

All from going to visit an open house

1:08:35 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

The following is doing the rounds in the office at the moment. I couldn't resist. I am also trying to think what I would do........

HOW TO RECRUIT THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE JOB

Put about 100 bricks in some particular order in a closed room with an open window.
Then send 2 or 3 candidates in the room and close the door.
Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours and then analyse the situation.

If they are counting the bricks.
Put them in the accounts department.

If they are recounting them.
Put them in auditing.

If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks.
Put them in engineering.

If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order.
Put them in planning.

If they are throwing the bricks at each other.
Put them in operations.

If they are sleeping.
Put them in security.

If they have broken the bricks into pieces.
Put them in information technology.

If they are sitting idle.
Put them in human resources.

If they say they have tried different combinations, yet there's no evidence.
Put them in sales.

If they have already left for the day.
Put them in marketing.

If they are staring out of the window.
Put them on strategic planning.

And then last but not least -

If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved.
Congratulate them and put them in top management.

11:10:33 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Geek • Random

What's going on?? I've got another email

Hi,

secret mugletmaker has created a really funny Muglet and thought you would like to see it.

Click on the link below to view it now.

http://muglets.com/SA3D

We hope it will give you a bit of a giggle and don't forget you can send it to a friend, buy it for your mobile phone or create your own really easily.

All the best

The Muglets

Someone is having a lot of fun this evening.

Here's 10 Gallon Frank. Yeehaaa!

8:15:44 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Geek • Random

Just got this email.

Hi,

secret mugletmaker has created a really funny Muglet and thought you would like to see it.

Click on the link below to view it now.

http://muglets.com/SA2A

We hope it will give you a bit of a giggle and don't forget you can send it to a friend, buy it for your mobile phone or create your own really easily.

All the best

The Muglets

Intrigued, I clicked the link and saw FrankArrStein

Ha Ha - very funny. Ok, who's been playing funny buggers???? Rob?? Dr Neil??

7:41:52 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Geek • Random

It's been far too long since I did one of this things

Your Hillbilly Name Is...

Buster Farmer

11:07:16 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

Michael Moore is making a new movie. Looking foward to see what he cooks up.

From: maillist@michaelmoore.com [mailto:maillist@michaelmoore.com]
Sent: Friday, 3 February 2006 8:50 PM
To: Frank Arrigo
Subject: Send Me Your Health Care Horror Stories... An Appeal from Michael Moore

2/3/06

Friends,

How would you like to be in my next movie? I know you've probably heard I'm making a documentary about the health care industry (but the HMOs don't know this, so don't tell them -- they think I'm making a romantic comedy).

If you've followed my work over the years, you know that I keep a pretty low profile while I'm making my movies. I don't give interviews, I don't go on TV and I don't defrost my refrigerator. I do keep my website updated on a daily basis (there's been something like 4,000,000 visitors just this week alone) and the rest of the time I'm... well, I can't tell you what I'm doing, but you can pretty much guess. It gets harder and harder sneaking into corporate headquarters, but I've found that just dying my hair black and wearing a skort really helps.

Back to my invitation to be in my movie. Have you ever found yourself getting ready to file for bankruptcy because you can't pay your kid's hospital bill, and then you say to yourself, "Boy, I sure would like to be in Michael Moore's health care movie!"?

Or, after being turned down for the third time by your HMO for an operation they should be paying for, do you ever think to yourself, "Now THIS travesty should be in that 'Sicko' movie!"?

Or maybe you've just been told that your father is going to have to just, well, die because he can't afford the drugs he needs to get better -- and it's then that you say, "Damn, what did I do with Michael Moore's home number?!"

OK, here's your chance. As you can imagine, we've got the goods on these crooks. All we need now is to put a few of you in the movie and let the world see what the greatest country ever in the history of the universe does to its own people, simply because they have the misfortune of getting sick. Because getting sick, unless you are rich, is a crime -- a crime for which you must pay, sometimes with your own life.

About four hundred years from now, historians will look back at us like we were some sort of barbarians, but for now we're just the laughing stock of the Western world.

So, if you'd like me to know what you've been through with your insurance company, or what it's been like to have no insurance at all, or how the hospitals and doctors wouldn't treat you (or if they did, how they sent you into poverty trying to pay their crazy bills) ...if you have been abused in any way by this sick, greedy, grubby system and it has caused you or your loved ones great sorrow and pain, let me know.

Send me a short, factual account of what has happened to you -- and what IS happening to you right now if you have been unable to get the health care you need. Send it to michael@michaelmoore.com. I will read every single one of them (even if I can't respond to or help everyone, I will be able to bring to light a few of your stories).

Thank you in advance for sharing them with me and trusting me to try and do something about a very corrupt system that simply has to go.

Oh, and if you happen to work for an HMO or a pharmaceutical company or a profit-making hospital and you have simply seen too much abuse of your fellow human beings and can't take it any longer -- and you would like the truth to be told -- please write me at michael@michaelmoore.com. I will protect your privacy and I will tell the world what you are unable to tell. I am looking for a few heroes with a conscience. I know you are out there.

Thank you, all of you, for your help and your continued support through the years. I promise you that with "Sicko" we will do our best to give you not only a great movie, but a chance to bring down this evil empire, once and for all.

In the meantime, stay well. I hear fruits and vegetables help.

Yours,
Michael Moore
michael@michaelmoore.com
www.michaelmoore.com

10:36:36 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random