Introducing: the Laredo Lemurs

The Real Story Behind "Black Friday"

Today's the day that we close on a plot of wooded land out in the country. Sure, we own the land our current house is on, but 1/10 of an acre seems more like a technicality - a house has to sit on something, after all - it doesn't really feel like Land. In a few hours, we'll own acres. Sweet.

We're going to put up a strip mall, with a nail salon, a Subway, two dry cleaners, and a space that will rotate between ice cream shop, stationary store, tax prep service and antique store. No skateboarding.

HP has apparently implemented the legendary Kindle Fire in Printer operation!

Printer security flaws have long been theorized, but the Columbia researchers say they've discovered the first-ever doorway into millions of printers worldwide. In one demonstration of an attack based on the flaw, Stolfo and fellow researcher Ang Cui showed how a hijacked computer could be given instructions that would continuously heat up the printer’s fuser – which is designed to dry the ink once it’s applied to paper – eventually causing the paper to turn brown and smoke.

Sounds like they've implemented the "Send all Data to Japan" op, too.

In one demonstration, Cui printed a tax return on an infected printer, which in turn sent the tax form to a second computer playing the part of a hacker’s machine. The latter computer then scanned the document for critical information such as Social Security numbers, and when it found one, automatically published it on a Twitter feed.

Testing!

Frequent guest, The Modesto Kid, had what sounds like an awesome Sunday, last-last weekend: a backyard concert by Robyn Hitchcock.

Amazon.com: Defense Technology 56895 MK-9 Stream, 1.3% Red Band/1.3% Blue Band Pepper Spray

Today's a day for scrubbing. I'm hiding all those Facebook 'friends' who post too much stupid shit (esp companies and bands). I'm deleting unused apps on my phone and my PCs. I threw out a dozen expired cans of food. I'm going to clean the shower.

Ahh... clean.

Made turkey stock last night, so the house smells like roast turkey. But there's no turkey to eat; there's just a quart of rich brown stock, cooling in the fridge. Curses.

But, at least I'll get to make real 100% turkey gravy this year, instead of my usual turkey-flavored but really-mostly-chicken gravy!

The Subjectivity of Perception