A technique originally designed to analyse DNA sequences is the latest weapon in the war against spam. An algorithm named Chung-Kwei (after a feng-shui talisman that protects the home against evil spirits) can catch nearly 97% of spam. Chung-Kwei is based on the Teiresias algorithm, developed by the bioinformatics research group at IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Centre in New York
Microsoft’s Windows XP Service Pack 2 was scheduled to be delivered to users of the company’s automatic update system Monday. But Microsoft warned that the patch could cause conflicts with many programs. And while the MS monkeys are still tooling around, hackers and IT security professionals are picking apart the new update in search of vulnerabilities they can exploit
When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby — around three dozen empty cans of Rainier Beer. It seems he tried the Busch beer, that was also in the cache, but didn’t like it — via Rogue Sun
Optus now uses Telstra’s phone lines for its DSL service, but wants to offer services on its own DSL network by next year. A new network would cost between $60 million and $70 million
Actual letter of resignation from an employee at Zantex Computers, USA, to her boss, who apparently resigned very soon afterwards — via lucie
Dear Mr Baker,
As an employee of an institution of higher education, I have a few very basic expectations. Chief among these is that my direct superiors have an intellect that ranges above the common ground squirrel. After your consistent and annoying harassment of my co-workers and myself during the commission of our duties, I can only surmise that you are one of the few true genetic wastes of our time.
Asking me, a network administrator, to explain every little nuance of everything I do each time you happen to stroll into my office is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of precious oxygen. I was hired because I know how to network computer systems, and you were apparently hired to provide amusement to myself and other employees, who watch you vainly attempt to understand the concept of
cut and pastefor the hundredth time. You will never understand computers. Something as incredibly simple as binary still gives you too many options. You will also never understand why people hate you, but I am going to try and explain it to you, even though I am sure this will be just as effective as telling you what an IP is. Your shiny new iMac has more personality than you ever will.You walk around the building all day, shiftlessly looking for fault in others. You have a sharp dressed useless look about you that may have worked for your interview, but now that you actually have responsibility, you pawn it off on overworked staff, hoping their talent will cover for your glaring ineptitude. In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Managers like you are a sad proof of the Dilbert principle. Seeing as this situation is unlikely to change without you getting a full frontal lobotomy reversal, I am forced to tender my resignation, however, I have a few parting thoughts.
1. When someone calls you in reference to employment, it is illegal for you to give me a bad recommendation. The most you can say to hurt me is
I prefer not to comment. I will have friends randomly call you over the next couple of years to keep you honest, because I know you would be unable to do it on your own.2. I have all the passwords to every account on the system, and I know every password you have used for the last five years. If you decide to get cute, I am going to publish your
favorites list, which I conveniently saved when you made meback upyour useless files. I do believe that terms likeLolitaare not usually viewed favourably by the administration.3. When you borrowed the digital camera to
take pictures of your Mother’s birthday, you neglected to mention that you were going to take pictures of yourself in the mirror nude. Then you forgot to erase them like the techno-moron you really are. Suffice it to say, I have never seen such odd acts with a sauce bottle, but I assure you that those have been copied and kept in safe places pending the authoring of a glowing letter of recommendation. (Try to use a spell check please, I hate having to correct your mistakes.)Thank you for your time, and I expect the letter of recommendation on my desk by 8:00 am tomorrow. One word of this to anybody, and all of your little twisted repugnant obsessions will be open to the public. Never fuck with your systems administrator. Why? Because they know what you do with all that free time!
Wishing you a grand and glorious day,
Cecelia
As amusing as it is, it is completely unauthenticated and more than likely fake. Still isn’t as inventive as the Attack of the Mad Shitter
RSSCalendar, a free tool for sharing calendar data on the net, is one of the first nonblogging uses of RSS
Design for chunks competition, in partnership with Virgin Atlantic.
What a fantastic comp! You design a sick bag, you are one of the lucky 20 winners, Virgin Atlantic print them and passsengers throw up in it! Fan-bloody-tastic!
Needless to say the site is full of double entendres of the vomity kind. I love this sentence in the copyright info:
Isn’t the blatant commercial exploitation of real talent enough to make any true aesthete sick?
Now for something truely sick, the Disney Dream Desk.
zillivisation, a new community website, has gone online. Convert your relatives, friends, and co-workers to use Mozilla products and get finally rewarded for it. zillivisation wants to encourage you as an advanced user to spread Mozilla products into your circle of friends. Every reported conversion earns you some points, which improve your ranking — via mozillaZine
We are close to being able to record our entire lives on a single 3.5″ optical disc that uses ultraviolet light, since focused laser beam is smaller in diameter than other frequencies of light. The expected cost per drive upon production is $570-$750 with discs costing $45
Piers noticed that someone has lined the floor of a phonebox outside a supermarket with a rather nice lawn — via BoingBoing
I have no idea who did it. It looks really awesome, and feels nicer than bare concrete as well. Probably only going to last a couple of days, but I really like this kind of anonymous, socially-focused art. It has a very honest quality to it. It’s in Mount Lawley, Perth, Australia, at the Supa Valu near the corner of Beaufort and Walcott, if anyone wants to have a look.
Playing on the guilt of upscale expat children in America who need to outsource
parental care for folks back home, a service has appeared that handles the little things for a fee — via BoingBoing
So, you’re an Indian living in the United States, making megabucks in Redwood City, California. A big shot. But your aging parents are back home in India, alone. What should you, as a good Indian son or daughter, do? Call or send an e-mail to yourmaninindia.com, who will do everything from paying the family bills to just sitting down and being your mom or dad’s new best friend
The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco this year and ruled unanimously Thursday that the mayor overstepped his authority by issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Proving that homophobic fundie scum aren’t just an American phenomenon, the sheep in the Australian Parliament happily introduced a ban on same-sex marriages in Australia [BugMeNot] that went over like a bucket of day old fish
The NSW Government is on the verge of putting its government-wide Linux plans into action, preparing to go to tender for a raft of enterprise Linux products to be used across state agencies in a project worth up to $50 million. The tender will cover the provision of enterprise level Linux system software, application software and associated services for desktop and server environments
on a whole-of-government basis, according to the NSW Department of Commerce, which runs both the state’s procurement and IT policy — via Triode Internet
A giant colony of ants stretching 100km has been discovered in Melbourne, threatening local insect species. The ants, which were imported from Argentina, are ranked among the world’s 100 worst animal invaders. Although they exist in their usual smaller group size in their homeland, the colonies have merged in Australia to create one massive super colony
Telstra’s ADSL broadband service has been hit with a massive outage, leaving thousands of customers of Telstra’s BigPond service and eleven other service providers unable to log on. Unfortunately the article implies the problem was a one off when it is really a series of long outages over a periods of two weeks that the scum at Telstra take forever to fix
Moronic Trade Minister Mark Vaile, a man up to his neck in dodgy deals with big business, has opened the door to Federal Government departments offshoring IT services work, telling a Sydney function that a vibrant economy and flexible workplace arrangements
would keep Australia competitive
DVD Jon has just announced that he cracked the encryption in Apple’s AirPort Express. I’ve released JustePort, a tool which lets you stream MPEG4 Apple Lossless files to your AirPort Express. The stream is encrypted with AES and the AES key is encrypted with RSA
I’ve made something amusing for work that I’m quite happy with and thought I’d do a shameless plug.
It’s a quirky travel quiz in flash with some toony retro air hostesses and hawaiian shirts.
Check it out for a spot o’ fun.
IBM is developing a new technology that researchers say is one step closer to autonomic computing, by enabling chips to sense their own flaws and reconfigure themselves without outside intervention. The eFuse technology replaces laser fuses, used to heal chips while they are still in the fabrication process, with electrical fuses that can reroute traffic around inactive or poorly functioning areas on a chip
Sharp are introducing a 3D monitor that doesn’t require special glasses. The technology was devised for high end medical instuments and such but this could be the gamers new dream toy
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