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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-09

  • I'm finally caught up on the "Ashes" recaps… hallelujah! Too bad episode 6 is in two days! #
  • @chipvanalstyne Do you know the EXACT meaning behind the Brit slang "shirt-lifter"?? Thanks! #
  • Actual spam subject line: "Hat are your scruples to him, so long as you yourse". #
  • "I once woke up in the National Air and Space Museum with a revolver in the waistband of my jean shorts." #
  • The volume control on the BBC online video player goes to 11. AWESOME! #
  • TRIVIA: Tracey Ullman couldn't hit the "Baby!" note in her cover of "They Don't Know", so they left Kirsty McColl's original vocal in. #
  • I love how the Daily Mail's RSS thumbnails of Gordon Brown always show him eating a sandwich, sneezing, or smelling something bad. #

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Woah!

I dunno if this picture is supposed to be the cover for Summer Starts Now, Katy Perry’s new album, or if it’s for the “California Gurls” single (I’ve seen different covers out there) or just a promo from her website or what, but… wowza!!

Katy Perry - California Girls cover
(Click to enlarge - ya know you want to!)
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Securing Wi-Fi: What NOT to do

Quick: what do MAC filtering, disabling DHCP, and disabling SSID broadcasting all have in common? They’re all terrible ways of “securing” your Wi-Fi network. This article over at ZD Net explains:

These aren’t layered approaches; they’re more like buying overlapping warranty coverage, since any benefit against casual bandwidth thieves is already covered by real security measures. The harm is that people confuse these methods for the real thing, and they spend more money and resources on implementing the wrong security mechanisms and end up skimping on real security.

Amen! Preach it, brotha! As I’ve been trying to tell armchair security experts for years, things like MAC filtering and disabling DHCP only make hacking slightly more difficult for hackers and significantly more difficult for both guests and regular users.

Just use a long random password under WPA2-AES and you’ll be fine. I promise.

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The History of the Restaurant

Inns have sold food to weary travelers for millennia. Pubs and other drinking establishments have sold munchies to drinkers for centuries. But the modern “restaurant” – a place people go to for a culinary experience, rather than out of necessity – dates back only to the French Revolution.

Like most upper classes in the rest of the world, the French aristocracy always ate only the best, and the French in particular developed high standards of quality and presentation for their food. But when the Revolution came, tens of thousands of highly trained chefs found themselves unemployed when their masters met the guillotine.

As this article at Mental Floss notes:

Aristocrats fled to the countryside, leaving behind their highly skilled chefs and the fine wines from their cellars. Suddenly, unemployed cooks and abandoned bottles found their way to the city’s eateries, and within a year, nearly 50 elegant restaurants had popped up in Paris. These epicurean temples catered to the new class of French deputies and businessmen and were featured in travelogues throughout Europe. As word of their deliciousness spread, Parisian restaurants became tourist attractions on par with Notre Dame.

The whole article is worth a read; check it out if you can!

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Simm\Glenister Update

Well, there may only be three episodes of Ashes to Ashes left, but it might soften the blow to know that John Simm (Sam Tyler) and Philip Glenister (Gene Hunt) will be appearing in a new show next year:

Mad Dogs

Called Mad Dogs, the Sky series tells the story of four “fortysomethings” who go to Spain for the retirement party of an old school friend. However, as this press release notes, the party quickly devolves into a “labyrinthine nightmare of lies, deception and murder”. Another of my favorites, Max Beesley (Hotel Babylon, Survivors). also stars along with Marc Warren.

The four-part series is due to air spring 2011.

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Poor Bobby!

Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox has been in baseball for almost 50 years. As you may know, Cox is planning to retire after this season, so senators Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia thought it would be nice to hold a party for him. Imagine their surprise when the caterer showed up with this:

Bobby Cocks

“Bobby Cocks”. Good job, folks!

Ya know, I can understand Shaquanda at Food Lion just not giving a damn, but you’d think that a professional caterer or independent baker would take thirty freakin’ seconds to verify the name of a guy who’s been in baseball since 1968, won the World Series, led his team to an unprecedented 14 consecutive division titles, been NL Manager of the Year three times, and holds the dubious MLB record of having been thrown out of 154 games.

Isakson’s staffers noted the error immediately, but there was not time for the cake to be “professionally” fixed. So one deft staffer cut slices out of the bottom row of the cake and deftly smeared the icing. Apparently Cox didn’t find out about it until yesterday, when the AJC ran an article about it.

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Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, Episode 5

Episode 5 begins with Alex having a dream. The dream is of a TV commercial for Sam Tyler’s “sexy jacket”. The ad copy, read by Hunt, says “He’s stylish. He’s modern. He knows what he wants… and he gets it.”:

ashes_to_ashes_s3_e5_01

She’s nudged awake by Gene. The two are on a stakeout, trying to bust some porn smugglers. He starts up the Quattro and takes off.

Meanwhile, Ray and Chris practice their dance moves while awaiting for Shaz to spot their target. She calls on the radio, and the two take off towards a now-parked truck, where two men look through a giant box of porn videos. Gene and Alex pull up in the Quattro, guns drawn, and the men take off down the street, only to be stopped by Ray and Chris. A third man jumps out of the truck and runs the opposite way. Alex pulls out her gun but does not fire. Gene says that they’ll run the man over instead. Before they can get too far, a black car comes rushing around a corner with the third man grasping to the hood for dear life. The car stops near the Quattro, and the third man flies off. Two men then get out of the black car: DCI Litton and DI Bevan for the Manchester Police CID.

Continue reading “Ashes to Ashes: Season 3, Episode 5”

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For the Breaking Bad fans

A Flickr user from Albuquerque has posted several pictures he or she took from sites all over the city. Each has appeared in the AMC show Breaking Bad, and most have a caption explaining what the site is in real life, how it was used in the show, and what episode it appeared in.

For example, here’s some empty retail space in a strip mall that became Saul’s office:

Saul's Office

Check out the rest of the pics here… it’s worth the stop.

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DOWNLOAD: Steelers 2010 Schedule for Outlook!

Hey peoples! The new 2011-12 schedule is available here!

My apologies for not getting this out sooner. I had a really difficult time finding this year’s pre-season schedule (specifically, the pre-season TV schedule), and also had a hard time finding the playoff schedule. In fact, I gave up on the post-season schedule and just used my best guess… so let’s hope this is right!

The jimcofer.com “Pittsburgh Steelers 2010 Schedule For Outlook” is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 98 or later. It might also work with Google Calendar or any other webapp or calendaring program that can import calendar events from CSV files. However, it has only been tested with Outlook 2007.

The schedule contains all preseason and regular season Steelers games as well as the name of the network airing the game. All times are for the Eastern (USA) time zone. A reminder is also scheduled for 8:00PM the day before each game. Fans of other (lesser) teams can also download the file and use it as a template to create a schedule for their favorite team using any spreadsheet app that supports CSV files.

There are three editions of the schedule available for download: the Steelers 2010-11 schedule only, the 2010-11 Steelers schedule with the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl XLV, and a calendar with the playoffs and Super Bowl XLV only. Pick your poison by clicking the appropriate link below:

Steelers 2010-2011 Schedule
Steelers 2010-2011 Schedule with NFL Playoffs
NFL 2010-2011 Playoff Schedule only

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Continue reading “DOWNLOAD: Steelers 2010 Schedule for Outlook!”