A Great looking new movie: “We are…Marshall” based on the 1971 Marshall football team that was pieced together after 75 people (Coaches, Players and fans) died on a Plane Crash in 1970. You can read more on the true story, which the movie is based on, at this link [click here].
The Movie looks great and seems to keep close to the Truth, unlike so many movies that claim to be “based on a True Story” or “Based on True Events”.
I’m still confused as to who, why, where and WHEN did Iraq become the world headquarters of Terrorism?
Apparently the Bush administration used some hillbillies warped knowledge of the “War against Terrorism” and the “War over oil” and came up with this plan of action for their own personal Marketing scheme…
It’s the newest Rave! Everyone is doing it! You can either Start a new Bank and charge your Customers Hidden Fees or you can become a Sheriff and start arresting every Drug Dealer you find, confiscate their Drugs and sell them back to the community you took them from!
OUCH! That’s what I’m talkin’ about….
Oliver Stone has attacked Bush and his Administration and stated that he’s “Ashamed for his Country”.
This is a GREAT Article and I applaud Mr. Stone for his stand up actions. It’s great to see people using their own powers to stand up for what they believe (and know) is right. I’ve been against the Bush Administration since late 2001 when I seen where they were REALLY going with the entire 9/11 aftermath. An excuse for war was an excuse for Oil… I knew the Iraq war was right around the corner and I knew it would be a waste of time and a strain on our economy - mostly Gas Prices. But the fact is - we’re now TRILLIONS IN DEBT after Clinton pulled Bush’s daddy and America out of this debt.
I’ve recently noticed that Clinton is finally stepping up to the plate as well. I commend him for that also… he was probably one of the best Presidents we’ve ever had. Right near Thomas Jefferson, in my opinion.
What I’m most embarassed about is when Clinton was busted for Adultry - they wanted him impeached and barely escaped. Yet Bush has broken the Constitution, become a Mass Murderer, Liar and basically the worst President/Leader not only in our Country (ever) but possibly in the world by the time his term is over. His past seems so screwed up people in the future will not understand how we was even a president… then again - I believe they will finally TELL THE TRUTH on HOW he became president and the History Channel will create a Similar story on 9/11 much like the truth behind Pearl Harbor. 
You can read the Oliver Stone Article/Interview here [Click Here]
I can hear it now “innocent?”. Yes, innocent. They’re creatures like me and you. They are not killers to kill or murderers that murder to do it…they hunt for food. They are some of the smartest animals on this planet but of course they cannot protect themselves from Bullets, Traps, etc. - much like we cannot do the same. If you took the time to learn about Wolves - you would see how beautiful these animals are. There are so many myths about Wolves - good and bad that need to go un-noticed and researched for yourself………
Every once in a while I get into discussions regarding the War in Iraq with some moron who honestly believes the Soldiers in Iraq should stay there and they can’t believe Soldiers are going AWOL… “it’s not being a True American”…
So I’ve been reading alot about Microsofts attempt to compete with the Internet’s new biggest toy: YouTube.com … So what will it take for another attempt to compete with this company? MySpace, the biggest Social Networking Community online, couldn’t compete with YouTube - so what makes a Company like Microsoft who seems to fail while trying to compete with the big web-dogs - want to compete?
Well…
So I was browsing WZ2K today and noticed that one of the Owners, Paul, has stated that Interakt was bought out by Adobe. You can read about the entire Article about the Buy out here.
To be honest, I wasn’t surprised by the buyout since Adobe is notorious for purchasing their Competitors. But my question is: When will it stop? Microsoft has been punished for Monopolies so why wouldn’t Adobe? Over the past year they’ve done enough, haven’t they? With Macromedia they got some of the worlds most popular Software, including:
So a few weeks back (or more?) there was a guy named Rocky Vaccarella that was driving to D.C. to meet with the President… nothing big, right? Well, apparently he lost everything in Katrina and was looking for publicity and exposure for himself for some odd reason. Some were saying “he’s like Cindy Sheehan”…….uhhhhh, something like that.
Mr. Vaccarella was simply looking to get on T.V. and make President Bush look like a saint. Plain and simple.
I truly believe it was setup by the Bush admin. to push all the Non-Republican anti-war aka “non-american” citizens who demanded meetings with Bush to the back of the press. This man made a comment like “It’s too bad this man can’t be President for another term”.
Wow… I hope he paid for everything you lost Mr. Vaccarella! It seems to me that’s what it was all about in the first place!
According to the news, Steve Irwin who is better known as “The Crocodile Hunter” has died from a Stingray wound. Apparently Mr. Irwin was filming off The Great Barrier Reef, shooting a segment of the series “Oceans Deadliest” when he swam too close to a Stingray. Sources say he was swimming on top of the Stingray which carries a poisonous barb. The Stingray moved upwards and stuck it’s barb into Irwin’s chest and poked a hole in his heart.
“He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat at the time.
Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said.
I find the stories interesting… especially the responses the stories get regarding “support” for the Soldiers. My view would be very 1-sided as I am not at all for the war and was against it months before was even spoken about within the media.The responses on some of the stories are always great… people saying things like “un-american”, yada yada. I bet..no I KNOW for a fact NONE of these people who speak about the war and being un-american in these ways would EVER go to war. I know alot of people who support Bush and talk about being “un-american” yet they couldn’t tell you ANYTHING about the war, besides the fact that it’s taking place in Iraq.
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You can read a story on AOL regarding the latest soldier who turned himself in after going AWOL. I support this guy and any other guy who goes awol to keep out of this war. I won’t even express my true feelings about this war besides the fact that I CANNOT WAIT until next election! I just gotta sit and wait… and to all of you “true americans” — keep your comments to yourselves and go to Iraq with your overalls and 30/30’s.
So the war continues between the two Giants of the Tech world. Once again Microsoft and Google have battled it out…this time in the ADVERTISING WORLD? I’ve reported earlier in the month on how Google and MySpace have connected on a $900 Million Dollar Advertising deal but I don’t believe I mentioned that Microsoft was trying to get that deal before Google, so I’ve been hearing. Apparently MySpace said “bug off” and Google got the deal for a “few more dollars”. Well, apparently Microsoft decided to go to “the next big thing”: Facebook.com …but is it REALLY the next big thing? While neither Microsoft nor Facebook.com have given details on the Price of this deal - sources say it was for approximately $750 Million.
I won’t lie… I wanted to purchase one of those GREAT SOUNDING Packages for “AdSense Ready” Websites with 30,000 Articles, ready to go for anybody for only $99.00! Sound too good to be true?
If you thought it did - you are dead on. Made For AdSense website companies who sell these packages are overselling these products like crazy, but lying to you in their sales pitch. Each company stresses that they “DO NOT” Oversell their packages, yet they OBVIOUSLY DO! Everywhere I go I see the same trashy websites with the same overly used garbage articles. And the poor saps who purchase these packages might make $10 back, if they’re lucky enough not to get banned by Google… who is coming down on these MFA Sites.
Some of you may remember Mary Carey running for Governor of California back in 2003… well, she’s back! Now a brunette and a little thinner. Her Slogan is great too: “Finally, a politician you want to be screwed by”.
I say: “Why not?” We’ve got such a Circus of a Government, even in California.
Reuters posted their Article here:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sporting new breasts and draped in a cream-colored, ankle-length gown, porn star Mary Carey, who gained worldwide fame running for California governor in 2003, set out on Wednesday to do what she could not three years ago — beat Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“I think I’m more serious now,” Carey said as she arrived at a Los Angeles County elections office to launch her 2006 gubernatorial campaign. “As you can see I’m dressed more seriously. I’ve got brown in my hair because brunettes are taken more seriously.”
The star of “Boobsville Sorority Girls,” and “Cheerleader School” said her campaign had already hit a snag because she had collected only about 40 of the 164,000 signatures required to register as an independent candidate.
Undaunted, Carey said she would enter the race as a write-in candidate and barnstorm across California colleges in a “shock the vote” tour aimed at her core constituency: young men.
Carey, who announced in December that she had lost weight, replaced her teeth and acquired new, size 36-D breasts, drew a throng of photographers and gawkers as she entered the building, inspiring one man to call out: “Mary, you’re thinner!”
The porn star responded: “Thank you. Smoking cigarettes and quitting birth control.”
Carey said a San Diego college student was serving as her campaign manager and she was accompanied by her publicity man and husband-to-be, Harry Shevlin. Asked by a photographer if Shevlin was being paid, she answered: “Um, in sex.”
Carey said she believed porn and politics went together, inspiring her slogan: “Finally, a politician you want to be screwed by” and was determined to win.
“I’ve actually been sober for five days now,” she said, adding that she intended to give up alcohol until election day in November to focus her energies on the campaign.
Carey’s platform includes getting the FBI to “leave porn stars alone” and concentrate on the war with Iraq and said that if elected she, like Schwarzenegger, would put her film career on hold while she served as governor.
“Although my movies only take a day or two to shoot, so I could probably do them on weekends,” she said.
File it under the category of “be careful what you wish for.” In early August at the Black Hat Conference, an annual meeting of computer security experts in Las Vegas, Microsoft (MSFT) handed out 3,000 test copies of its new operating system, Windows Vista, and challenged attendees to help spot security glitches. A short time later, Joanna Rutkowska obliged. In a packed ballroom at Caesar’s Palace (HET), the 25-year-old Polish programming whiz delivered a devastating presentation in how to hack an earlier but similar test version of Vista. Before a crowd of fellow researchers and hackers, she bypassed security measures and implanted a potentially undetectable piece of malicious code called “Blue Pill.” The presentation, titled “Subverting Vista Kernel for Fun and Profit,” was rewarded with a hearty round of applause.
Microsoft went to full battle stations over PC security four and a half years ago, when Chairman William H. Gates III acknowledged in a memo to his staff that the plague of viruses and worms afflicting Windows and other products had gotten out of hand and something drastic had to be done. Henceforth, Gates decreed, security would be the top priority. All programming was temporarily halted as Microsoft embarked on an effort to make its products safe.
FEAR OF A BLACK HAT. Soon we’ll know if the delay was worth it. The business version of Windows Vista will arrive late this year, with a consumer version due in early 2007. Vista is Microsoft’s first new PC operating system in five years and the first version of its flagship product to get a full security makeover. Hackers are expected to probe Vista relentlessly for vulnerabilities after final versions come out. But already there are signs that Microsoft may fall short of Gates’s goal—at a time when it’s facing pressure from a resurgent Apple Computer (AAPL), which suffers few security problems.
For Rutkowska, the Black Hat Conference was just another day at the office. She works for Singapore-based COSEINC, specializing in technologies used by hackers to cloak their activities. Her job is to anticipate the moves of criminals. “I see this as a continuous process, an endless game of chess, where nobody can really ultimately win. It’s essential, then, to enjoy the game itself,” says Rutkowska. She says she has always been a “white hat” programmer and never created malicious code like “black hat” hackers do.
Toulouse points out that revelations such as Rutkowska’s are exactly why Microsoft engages in a running conversation with security folks: “We realize we don’t know everything. These people hold the keys to making our products more secure.”
SPOTTING FLAWS. Indeed, independent security researchers are fast becoming the tech industry’s first line of defense against viruses and other hacks. They typically get paid for staging test attacks on company computing systems and gain bragging rights by spotting flaws and showing how to exploit them. “You’d rather have the vaccine from researchers than a malicious attacker giving you the real disease,” says Phil Zimmermann, a security pioneer.
Microsoft had received only a smattering of feedback from other Black Hat attendees as of press time. But reviews are trickling in from established security companies, with mixed appraisals. Symantec (SYMC) recently issued two white papers analyzing Vista’s strengths and weaknesses. “Overall, it’s very solid,” says Vincent Weafer, senior director at Symantec Security Response. Still, he warns that the need to make Vista compatible with applications written for earlier versions of Windows “creates some holes.” Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer for consultancy Counterpane Internet Security, is less charitable: “It’s more complex than the last one, and complexity is the worst enemy of security. If you want security, buy a boat, not a cruise ship.”
Even Microsoft admits that Vista won’t be perfectly safe. “You can’t get the code 100% right,” says Toulouse. He points out, however, that Windows Server 2003 was more secure than Windows Server 2000, thanks to an extra year of security work tacked onto the end of the development process. Toulouse believes Vista will do even better.
We’ll see. A few days after the Black Hat Conference wrapped up, Rutkowska was back at her desk in Warsaw coming up with new ways to bedevil Microsoft. And you can bet that others will work just as hard, with less noble intentions.
I know some of you may have heard that Friendster, who filed for a Social Networking Patent back in 2003, won their Patent Award in late June. But the question is: What will they try with it? When? Where? Will MySpace be the first attempt to push this patent in court?
I find it hard to believe that the Friendster Patent will affect anybody, especially MySpace. Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. are very powerful people…how will a patent over “social networking” REALLY affect these sites? I’m curious to see as I own and operate several Social Networking Communities, similar to MySpace. It should be an interesting show!
Here’s what RedHerring.com reported about the Patent:
Friendster Wins Patent
After emerging from debt, Friendster wins a patent on social networking.
July 6, 2006
Friendster said Thursday that it has received a patent that covers online social networks, one the company had applied for long before its decline and recent recapitalization.
The U.S. patent, which was awarded June 27, is extremely general, and would seem to cover the activities of many other sites, especially those like LinkedIn that allow people to connect within a certain number of degrees of separation.
Naming Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams, who has left the company, as inventor, the patent refers to a “system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.”
“It’s way too early to say” whether the company would pursue licenses and litigation from its competitors, Friendster President Kent Lindstrom told RedHerring.com. “We’ll do what we can to protect our intellectual property.”
Though the Friendster patent could be challenged in either the patent system or the courts, opponents would face an uphill battle. “Once the patent is issued there is a presumption of validity that follows with it,” said attorney Bill Heinze of Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley.
Hoping for a Turnaround
San Francisco-based Friendster has had a troubled past, falling from grace after being a social networking pioneer. Though it still counts 9 million to 10 million users, many of them in Asia, the company had lost momentum to younger networks such as MySpace.
Despite its pedigree—with over $15 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, Battery Ventures—Friendster couldn’t hold onto its early social networking lead. Through the end of 2004 and 2005, the site suffered from slow load times, driving many users away. It has also been criticized for lacking the openness and cultural tie-ins of MySpace.
Mr. Lindstrom said of the problems, “I wish I could explain why—I have no idea why it happened. For a number of reasons we had trouble scaling for almost a whole year.”
In October, the company put itself up for sale after seeing MySpace be bought by NewsCorp for over $500 million. By January, it had not found a buyer and was about to run out of capital. In February investor Kleiner Perkins recapitalized the company, pulling it out of debt and giving it the resources to build a new team.
Friendster has never been profitable, but it is now on that track, Mr. Lindstrom said. The company makes money from ad sales in the United States and SMS in Asia, where users can subscribe to pay for phone alerts when their friends update their profiles.
Mr. Lindstrom said that advertisers haven’t been thrown off by the company’s rough times. “The demise of Friendster is a bigger Silicon Valley story than it is for the ad agencies in Minneapolis.”
Targeting Its Audience
The company, which has just under 30 employees, recently moved from Mountain View, California, to San Francisco. It had as many as 57 employees in the past, said Mr. Lindstrom, but scaled down after completion of an operations center in Santa Clara, California.
After the recapitalization, the company replaced most of its engineering team and got to work speeding up the site. Mr. Lindstrom said the company has improved page-loading times from 40 seconds, or even complete failure, to about two seconds.
Friendster is now planning to re-address the U.S. market, where it currently has 1 million to 2 million users. In the last month, the company took a page from MySpace and opened up Friendster to web crawlers, making users’ profiles searchable and accessible without being logged onto the site.
The company thinks it has a niche in users who are older than the teenagers and college users who frequent MySpace and Facebook, respectively. The redesigned site emphasizes what a user’s friends are doing, rather than surfing across profiles.
Patent History
The new Friendster patent covers the basic steps involved in joining a social network: entering a personal description and relationships to other users, mapping relationships and degrees of separation, and connecting to others through these friends.
Mr. Lindstrom said that Kleiner Perkins had encouraged Friendster to file patents when it funded the company in 2003. Another eleven patents are in the pipeline.
The approved patent came as a surprise. “Frankly we’d almost forgotten about it,” Mr. Lindstrom said.
Six Degrees of Separation, another failed social networking startup, had obtained a patent on social networking technology in 2001. It was bought at auction in 2003 by the founders of LinkedIn and Tribe.net.
The Six Degrees patent is cited as a reference in Friendster’s patent, indicating the U.S. Patent & Trademark examiner did not find that the two patents overlap.
The Friendster patent’s main claim applies to networks that limit relationships to a certain number of degrees of separation—for example, you cannot connect to someone who doesn’t know someone who knows someone you know.
That is very likely to apply to networks like LinkedIn that function with such limits, said Mr. Heinze.
However, the patent might also have broader application, to networks without such limits. “Since [the patent says] you can define that maximum number of degrees as any number, that’s a pretty tough claim,” said Mr. Heinze.
LinkedIn and social networks Bebo, Tribe.net, and Tagged were not immediately available for comment.
For a while Google seemed to be at the top of the net and then came MySpace… Google even has their own Social Networking Community called Orkut.com which sucks since you have to be invited (who was the moron who came up with that?). But apparently Google has teamed up with MySpace for a Search and Ad Campaign worth … hold the phone… $900 MILLION DOLLARS!!! Yes, $900 Million Dollars. Of course that’s over 3 years but DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMNNNNNNNNN News Corp. got their moneys worth for the $549 Million they purchased MySpace for!
I could use $900 Million Dollars. 