I kind-of hope Attorney General "Abu Ghraib" Alberto Gonzales stays, because it's fun to be able to call him 'AGAGAG'. you can even sing it to tune of ABACAB:

Look up on the wall, there on the floor,
Under the pillow, behind the door.
There's a crack in the mirror.
Somewhere there's a hole in a window-pane.
Do you think I'm to blame?
Tell me do you think I'm to blame?

When they do it, you're never there.
When they show it, you stop and stare.
AGAGAG. he's in anywhere.
AGAGAG. doesn't really care.

If he was to leave, we'd have to call him Former AGAGAG, or 'FAGAGAG', which might offend someone.

The Daily WTF, today from CNN:

Oops! Technician's error wipes out data for state fund:

Perhaps you've experienced that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroys hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing an account worth $38 billion.

That's what happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account -- one of Alaska residents' biggest perks -- and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well.

There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense had failed: backup tapes were unreadable.

Needlessly Inflammatory Headline

InformationWeek writes : Adobe Has No Plans To Make Current Products Windows Vista Compatible.

Users of Adobe Systems' digital publishing products, including Photoshop, InDesign, and Dreamweaver, will have to shell out for new versions of the software if they want to run them without glitches on Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, Adobe says.
...
Adobe Photoshop CS2, for instance, requires users to register the software each time it's launched on a Windows Vista PC, even if it's already been registered. Dreamweaver 8, Adobe warns, will crash on some Vista computers when users browse for files. InDesign customers, meanwhile, may get a false error message indicating they do not have enough available disk space to run the product.

?? What the fuck.

I've installed Photoshop 6 on my new Vista box, but I haven't tried running it yet. I have PS CS2, but haven't installed it yet. Now that I've read that article, I can't wait to see what happens when I do!

(via Paul)

First impressions...

First thing, turn off UAC (User Access Control?). I find it almost impossible to get anything done when every program I launch is preceded by an obnoxious panicky confirmation box. That Apple commercial with the PC guy and his security guard/lawyer who interrupts him every time he tries to say anything is spot-on - it's impossible to maintain any kind of 'flow' when you have to keep chatting with the OS. I have a task I want to accomplish, I know I'll need to use Program X to help, I launch program X, Vista panics and makes me think about Vista, instead of the task I was trying to accomplish. So, off that goes.

I don't like the new file Explorer. I'm a fan of the old-style (Win95) Explorer, but this new one, with it's auto-scrolling folder/drive pane and hidden menus just confuses me. As usual, I have to turn off 'hide file extensions for known types'.

The Aero UI is shiny and pretty. For XP and Win2K, I turned everything back to Win95-style. I think I'll leave this one as-is, though. The translucent windows are pretty, but being able to see through a window frame doesn't increase productivity or make anything easier - it's just eye-candy.

The sidebar is nice. I've never been a fan of gadgets and junk on my desktop - I usually skip that because I tend to run certain apps full-screen, and so I never even see the desktop. But I'm going with dual monitors this time so I'll have room for them; and the Vista gadgets are so pretty, I just can't say no: the clocks, especially, are awesome. I don't think the headline ticker will stay - it looks like a little RSS reader, but I don't think you can set it to read arbitrary feeds - MS's only.

The new icons are pretty. The way windows shrink when minimized is clever.

The constant compatibility warnings are horrible. Seems like 2/3s of the stuff I've tried to install has generated a warning - but it can never tell me what exactly is incompatible, so I guess I'll just have to take my chances... MS should've worked harder to make things backwards compatible.

The lack of WinHelp is simply absurd.

It boots incredibly quickly. You expect that on a brand-new system, because there aren't any start-up programs installed. But even with iTunes, Office and AVG, it's still very quick. It's even faster since I re-installed Vista and got rid of a lot of the crap that Dell had installed for me. No more Norton AV!

Rot13agrams

Finally got the new PC (time from order to first delivery attempt: less than 48 hours. time till I actually got the thing in my hands: 9 days).

As I usually do, when I get a new PC, I tried to move the D drive (my 'data' drive) from my current PC into the new one. But, I discovered that the new one is all SATA, no IDE connections available. Total crap.

So, I started to ZIP the contents of my D drive , because it would take years to copy 100,000+ files over the network. While it was ZIPping, I went to Office Depot to get a new SATA drive. They only had 120G drives. I wanted something like 300G.

Went to Circuit City, got a 260G

Took it home, tried to install it. But the drive came with some retarded non-standard SATA cable that blocked the SATA power connector - it requires you to use an IDE-style power connector, which my PC doesn't have any of.

Old PC is still ZIPping the D drive.

Went back to Circuit City for a standard SATA cable. Don't have any.
Went to Office Depot for a standard SATA cable. Don't have any.
Went to Best Buy for an SATA cable. They had one.

Back home, installed new drive. Fight with BIOS/disk management, get it formatted, assigned the right letter, etc.. All set. ZIP finishes.

Start to copy ZIP file from old PC to new PC. Copy takes 1 hour+. (33G ZIP)

Try to unZIP the file. Vista fails multiple times to extract the whole thing, but doesn't give any warnings, it just doesn't extract everything - like, 3/4 of the contents are missing. Download and install WinZIP. That extracts the contents OK. This might be the year I actually buy a copy of WinZIP, instead of clicking the "Use Evaluation Button" every time I use it.

Start installing all the stuff I need... Notice the new PC will freeze every now and then, for 15 or 20 seconds, then start back like nothing at all happened. At first, I assume it's just busy doing something behind the scenes - I'm giving it a good workout, installing all this crap, after all. But after a couple of hours of this, I decide to investigate.

After much searching and event log browsing, I figure out that the iaStor.sys driver (Intel's RAID/HD driver) is timing out every so often. Find out this is a very common problem with new Dell systems, which ship configured for RAID-0, even on single drive systems. Find out the way to fix it is to disable RAID in the BIOS and then reinstall the Operating System (Vista), because changing the RAID setting will wreck the contents of the drive. Swear a lot.

Finally bite the bullet and decide to reinstall Vista. Disconnect new D drive, just in case. Disable RAID in the BIOS. Try to start up, just to see what happens - Vista bootloader tries to start, discovers it has no OS, fails. It tries to repair Vista, and fails. That's expected.

Drop the Vista DVD in the DVD reader, reboot. Nothing happens. Fight with BIOS/boot sequence for an hour. No luck. So now the PC has no OS (old Vista installation is hosed by the failed 'repair' process) and I can't get it to boot the OS DVD. As far as I can tell, it's completely dead.

Call Dell tech support. Spend an hour on the phone, flipping through BIOS screens, Dell's self-test screens, etc.. no luck. Finally figure out that the DVD reader can't read the Vista DVD. It can read other CDs/DVDs, however. Dell tech tells me to run a full diagnostic on the computer - that will take 20 minutes so he says he'll call back in 30 minutes.

Test finishes in 10 minutes. Dell guy calls back 60 minutes later (of course). While waiting, I've copied the Vista DVD on my old PC to a DVD+R - just as a test. While taking to him, I pop the copied Vista DVD into the new PC and... it works fine! Vista re-install proceeding happily. Dell guy says he'll send a new DVD drive. Yay.

Install Visual C++ v6. Can't find the MSDN CDs, so there will be no Help unless I can find a kind soul willing to loan me their MSDN CDs for a couple minutes.... Try to install the VC6 Service Pack #5 (need it for certain things we sell). The install fails due to version issues with MDAC (a database thingy) - hack the installer to remove MDAC dependencies. Not liking Vista so far. Install a bunch of other stuff. Install iTunes, point it at the network storage box, where all the music lives in our house. It spends an hour chugging through the songs, building a playlist.

But, everything's looking good!

This AM, start the old PC, because the new one's not done yet. Sync my iPod. iTunes says it can't sync completely because 100+ songs were missing. Discover that iTunes on the new PC had rearranged a bunch of folders on the NAS for no reason. Swear for 20 minutes. Show up late to work, hating computers.

Talk:Death Star

This song was a favorite of mine way back in '88. It's amazing how many times I've found a reason to sing it to myself in the past 5 years.

They're 5 miles high
As the crow flies
Leavin' vapour trails
Across a blood red sky
Movin' in from the East
Towards the West
With balaclava helmets
Over their heads
YES!

But if you think that Jesus Christ is coming
Honey, you've got another thing coming
If he ever finds out who's hijacked his name
He'll cut out his heart and turn in his grave

Islam is rising
The Christians mobilising
The world is on it's elbows and knees
It's forgotten the message
And worships the creeds

“It's War” she cried
“It's War” she cried
“This is War!”
Drop your possessions
All you simple folk
You will fight them on the beaches
in your underclothes
You will thank the good lord
For raising the Union Jack
You'll watch the ships sail out of harbour
And the bodies come floating back
Watch the ships sail out of harbour
And the bodies come floating back

If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today
He'd be gunned down cold by the C.I.A.
Oh, the lights that now burn brightest
Behind stained glass
Will cast the darkest shadows
Upon the human heart
But God didn't build himself that throne
God doesn't live in Israel or Rome
God doesn't belong to the Yankee dollar
God doesn't plant the bombs for Hezbollah
God doesn't even go to church
And God won't send us down to Allah to burn
God will remind us what we already know
That the human race is about to reap what it's sown

Islam is rising
The Christians mobilising
The world is on it's elbows and knees
It's forgotten the message
And worships the creeds
The world is on it's elbows and knees
It's forgotten the message
And worships the creeds

Armageddon days are here again
Armageddon days are here again
Armageddon days are here again
Armageddon Days Are HERE!!!

-The The , Armageddon Days Are Here, Again

So, that's cheery. But even before that, there was this classic from 1980:

Mojique sees his village from a nearby hill
Mojique thinks of days before Americans came
He sees the foreigners in growing numbers
He sees the foreigners in fancy houses
He thinks of days that he can still remember...now.

Mojique holds a package in his quivering hands
Mojique sends the package to the American man
Softly he glides along the streets and alleys
Up comes the wind that makes them run for cover
He feels the time is surely now or never...more.

The wind in my heart
The wind in my heart
The dust in my head
The dust in my head
The wind in my heart
The wind in my heart
(come to) drive them away
Drive them away

Mojique buys equipment in the market place
Mojique plants devices in the free trade zone
He feels the wind is lifting up his people
He calls the wind to guide him on his mission
He knows his friend the wind is always standing...by.

Mojique smells the wind that comes from far away
Mojique waits for news in a quiet place
He feels the presence of the wind around him
He feels the power of the past behind him
He has the knowledge of the wind to guide him...on.

The wind in my heart
The wind in my heart
The dust in my head
The dust in my head
The wind in my heart
The wind in my heart
(come to) drive them away
Drive them away.

-- Talking Heads, The Listening Wind

Good times.

From AOL News:

It's enough to make any father lash out in anger. A self-professed pedophile posts photos of your young daughters on his Web site, where he describes them as an "angelic duo."

It happened to Senator Barack Obama whose presidential campaign threatened legal action against Lindsay Ashford, a self-professed pedophile who handicapped the 2008 campaign by judging the "cuteness" of several presidential candidates' underage daughters and granddaughters. Attorneys who specialize in free speech say the campaign's handling of the issues raises some questions about the candidate's stance on civil rights.

"Individuals can make comments about the candidates and the candidates' children without running afoul of the law until someone crosses the line into actual or criminal activity," said Lawrence G. Walters, a lawyer who has handled many cases involving pornography and the Internet. "For better or worse, pedophiles retain their free speech rights. If he's a professed pedophile and if he says, 'Let's try to find these kids,' then it could be in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy, then he may be liable."

No matter how distasteful the content of the website, Walters and Jonathan Katz, another First Amendment lawyer, were surprised that the Obama campaign had threatened legal action in this case.

"If Obama knows that his lawyer is doing this, then that's one reason not to vote for him," Katz said. "These are clear free speech issues."

They aren't my kids, and I'm not even a father, so I can only imagine how furious I'd be if some lunatic was doing this to my kids. But, I imagine it'd be just about as mad as I've ever been. And 1^st Amendment or not, I'd tell that lawyer to get where to stick his opinion, and his vote.