ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" plays "It rubs the Lotion on its skin song"

So I'm watching Grey Anatomy just for the heck of it and I hear the Greenskeeper's Song "It rubs the lotion on it's skin" as music to accompany a scene in the show. There had a scene with lotion and then they talked about a hose (an enema hose). Nice attempt to time the music to the scene (a tribute to the editing of the video from the song?)

Then they actually discussed THE LINE FROM THE MOVIE! It would be interesting to know what the process was for that. Did the screenplay writer hear the tune and use it in the script and as incidental music or did the writer use the line and then later the person putting the episode together say, "I heard a GREAT Song that used that line! Let's add it to the show!"

It's not as if I found this song on my own. DaBabs sent it to me and it's been out there for months, but I feel a bit of proud the fact that I liked it enough to put in on my blog before it made the big time on network TV.

In other TV news on Family Guy they were at an insane asylum and someone mentioned that Louis' brother was crazy. The doctor said, "We prefer the term mentally hilarious."
What a great line.

Oh, and ABC folks cruising the blogs looking for feedback? Please pass my kudos on the song story line tie-in back to the writer or producer and director involved.

Dear KRON: So you fell for the fake Christmas controversy

Dear KRON:

I know that you are probably understaffed for the holiday, but did you really have to fall for the fake "holiday tree" controversy?

First, the "news" was in Boston. (Clearly you got the feed from someone on the east coast and although I liked the Santa hat graphics, it's not like Gavin Newsom is calling the tree in Union Square a "holiday tree".)

Second, who pitched this story to you? Did you stumble upon it yourself or did you get a call? Is there a viewing demographic you think you are serving with this fake controversy? Are you trying to make a handful of right-wing voting, hate-radio listening, Fox News watching, gay rights bashers happy?

Not only is it non-news, it's only a controversy in the heads of a couple of right-wing nuts like Fox News personality John "Five in the noggin" Gibson and Bill, "Bomb Coit Tower" O' Reilly.

You were played. And played by supporters of Bill O'Reilly. I'll bet if you tracked down the "holiday tree" story origin in Boston you would find the publicist for Gibson's book, "The War on Christmas".

After Bill O'Reilly's comment about SF, I wouldn't want to keep his fake controversial story in the news.

If you need to fill you newscast with more entertaining stuff, just give Gary Radnich a few more minutes, at least his "news" is funny.

Sincerely,
Mr. Spocko

How to talk to Wing Nuts

This is my comment on Atheana's post over at First Draft. Asking, "How do I talk to the wingnuts who bait me at holiday meals?"

I knew there was a reason that I gravitated to you at Eschacon! I also have the same problem. I really don’t like to argue with people, especially with my wingnut relatives. They use all of the tricks of the talk radio hosts like Limbaugh.

Here are some of the tricks they use:

1) When in doubt about some fact, change the subject "But Clinton..."

2) Pull out some fact that you don't know the background of and state it as if it is scientific fact: "According to the Berferdufferler report, Global Warming is part of a larger trend that has NOTHING to do with humans." If you dug into the report you would find it is full of Exxon/Mobil stooge quotes. But you don't know that so you can't dispute it right then.

3) Try and get you to agree with Saddam's policies, "Should we have left Saddam in power? So I suppose you want the rape rooms again?" (That is the one thing they think isn't back in Iraq. They haven't seen the videos of our people raping young boys yet because they have been withheld. Some Senators have seen them, but don’t want to talk about it because it would “embolden the insurgents” not to mention real outrage on the home front.)

4) Give you a yes or no answer with a false premise "Should we Cut and RUN? YES OR NO. Don't be giving me a nuanced answer, YES OR NO?’ This is a typical trick that Hannity uses. "Why must you set up everything in a black and white mode? Can't there be a third option?"

5) Straw men. "Well if Bush hadn't acted and the terrorists had spread Anthrax all over Napa valley, THEN you would be sorry!" "What if there was a TICKING Nuclear TIME BOMB in New York and the terrorist knew where it was and if you didn't get the info innocent children would die? Would you torture then?"

6) Point to some fact that is NOT necessarily related and state that it is in fact related "There has been NO attacks on American soil since 9/11. So whatever the President is doing to protect us is working!"

These are a few of the techniques used. Suzy at Suburban Gorilla said something interesting to me. She said that the reason that we could "lose" these conversations is because we were not attacking. We were in the defensive position. I think that this part of it.

As you said, we don't WANT to be rude, we don't WANT to push them into the ground and make them cry uncle. We aren't practiced at it. It isn't a fun "sport" to us. It is not polite. It is what bullies do, and they were probably bullies as a child (or were bullied by the alpha wingnut dog and they are emulating them).

But THEY DO like to do this. They listen to Rush and Hannity and O'Reilly who use 3 hours a day to create arguments and controversies to use AGAINST the liberals. We don't use 3 hours a day thinking how to attack them. We are looking for the truth they are trying to figure out how to distort it. We don't have think tanks working overtime to create reports and develop techniques like they do because we are more intellectually honest. We think that it is important to know the truth; they think it is important to “win” the conversation.

Also it is about personality. If you are in a family situation old ghosts might come up and bite you. Sure you are now an adult, but the taunting takes you back to childhood and suddenly you are 7 years old and your brother is teasing you and you want to scream back instead of rationally saying, "That is a straw man argument and if you would bother to really know something about torture you would know that the scenario that you are quoting is rare and filled with misinformation. Why not talk about the people who are doing torture right now and what their experience is, not some hypothetical straw man situation. For example in Mark Danner’s book, Torture and the Truth, he talks about what really happens in a torture situation…" I can do it now, but in the moment it's tough. Plus, that is one answer, they will have prepared 4 counter arguments and 3 subject changes based on listening to Rush. They see it as a weakness if you can't dispute the "fact" that they have heard. Since you don't listen to these "facts" you aren't going to be able to said, "Rush is full of shit and here is why..." If you DO get them to admit they are full of shit it will be reluctantly and they will quickly move to some other subject, well Saddam was a BAD MAN! (Actually admitting they are wrong in the moment is VERY rare. These are the kind of guys that won’t ask for directions because THEY AREN’T LOST! These are the people that ADMIRE the president for never admitting he made a mistake. They see that as a measure of strength, not pigheaded ness.

Also if you have a chance, listen to Sam Seder on The Majority Report when he takes on right wing callers. He is REALLY good. One of the techniques he uses is to stop them before they state their entire premise, because usually it is flawed right off the bat. Most of us are too polite and give them time to state an entire straw man. Sam stops them, "Wait a minute. You do know that there WAS NO connection between Saddam and Osama Bin Laden don't you? Your own president said so."
That usually throws them off and then they have to regroup to remember what Rush said. Since Rush hasn't dealt with this before they are lost.

Second, bring up a fact that YOU know and get them to acknowledge it before they move on. If there is some fact that they seem to know, don't accept it at face value. "Really? Who said that? Cheney? Where did you hear that or read that?" Then you can do what they always do and question the source. "Well we know what a great track record he has for continuing to lie even after the truth has been laid out."

"False 'agreed upon' statements.”They all had the same intelligence."
"No, they did not." Stop them before they move to the "Even John Kerry said back in...Well back in X Colin Powell said ...”, now he says that it was the low point in his political career. Don’t let them get you to agree with them on even the most mundane premise, since it is probably wrong and it will throw off the whole straw man.

Appeal to sources that have beaten their "facts" down. "Let's go on line and go over to Media Matters and see what they really said..." They of course will say, "Funded by Soros!" Oh and you want to believe the Washington Times, funded by Moonies? Let’s see what your actual President has said… (on things that he has contradicted what Cheney said.. like the fake link of OSB to Saddam)

I think that witty lines are great, I like to use them too, and if you know me I actually have some of them. Watch Jon Stewart when he mocks the president. Go into an imitation of the president at a press conference. Play him as the petulant stupid child he is. Pull out a few of his stupid quotes. "Pardon me; I'm listening to My Pet Goat."
I'm actually more apt to do this because it makes everyone laugh rather than making my mother cry that her children are arguing.

Here's the thing. Like used car dealers who haggle for a living 24/7 these people prep for this stuff, "winning conversation with liberals" is something they learn all the time by listening to Rush and Hannity.

The "smarter" ones read “books” by Hannity and Ann Coulter (surprise! They can read!). They are using sophist debate tricks against people who don't like to debate them. You can either turn the tables and call out their false premises right off the bat or engage them preemptive on a topic you know about.
You can warn them when they start: "Do you really want to debate this? Because if you do, one of us is going to end up making mother cry."

The people who want to debate, the ones who are spoiling for the fight want to set the agenda. They wouldn't take you on if they knew that you LIKE to argue. They know that the people who argue with Hannity are usually trashed, because Hannity wouldn't let them on if they were going to clean his clock. Hannity wouldn't have on John Avarios of Americablog. O'Reilly won't have on David Brock of Media Matters. They don't WANT to have on people like Phil Donahue who will argue back. It is no surprise that Rush doesn’t have are real guests that disagree with him. They only hear people who can be beat. Polite people don't usually argue on the radio. But sometimes they get sooo upset they call into a radio jerk that spends 3 hours a day making up jerky straw men arguments and uses high-school debate techniques to beat down people who call.

Mendacity ratings (Bush still has YEARS to go!)

If they start this crap call them on what they are doing before it gets farther. "Why are you doing that? Do you really want to spoil thanksgiving? Where are your manners? If you seriously want to discuss this then let's go someplace later and talk, or better yet read my blog and bring your discussion there, I have plenty of time to talk about it there. If you do that, that will shut them up and put them on your turf. They will probably pout, like Turlane in the Squire of Gothos, “You’re no fun!”

Once they are here on the blog they will realize that THEY are the ones with no real arguments.. There are 20,000 of us who can rip their Rush and Hannity crap to shreds with links and analysis. Then you will have a really happy holiday season.

Love,
Spocko

Creepy Video. Amazing Song. Lotion in the Basket

This is the music I listen to before I go out clubbing.
Warning NSFW, creepy images and words.
Great song, brilliant editing, still creepy.
Click on picture or go to http://www.transbuddha.com/mediaHolder.php?id=23#



Tip o' the skull cap to daBabs!

Viruses: Old and Busted. Homepage Hijackers: the New Hotness

This is my note to Brian Livingston who is behind the WONDERFUL newsletter, WindowsSecrets (go to https://windowssecrets.com/info/ to subscribe, it is very good, Spocko approved!) I have been a subscriber to this and some of Woody's newsletters for years, they always have great practical advice and insights on what works and what doesn't.

Hi Brian:

Love your work, bought your book (on Windows 2000) and I think your newsletters are right on target. I read them more closely than a lot of trade pubs. I also came to the conclusion that CounterspyPro was the way to go based on reading reviews. I have the Linksys wireless router on your baseline list (which is good as a wi-fi firewall but actually sucks as a wi-fi product based on my experience. Weak coverage and it also has an uneven signal. However I think part of my problem is that I bought it when it was a brand new standard, one of the first “G” wireless routers out there. I was so unhappy with it that instead of trying to get it to connect with my computer down the hall I strung Ethernet over my roof!) I’ve since updated the firmware, but since I have a wired connection I don’t bother to see if the signal is better.

SPYWARE AND HIJACKERS—ANTI-Makers can’t keep up
But the real reason I wrote is wondering about spyware, malware, stealware and the ability of the various software makers to keep up.

Based on my readings, anti-spyware makers only get about 80 percent of the spyware. You have to use 2 or 3 other products to catch everything. This is TERRIBLE! I just struggled for hours getting one piece of spyware off an old computer (link to my blog entry about my epic battle). I had to use 3 products to kill it. It was a browser hijacker program. After I removed it I came home and found a DIFFERENT browser Hijacker on one of MY computers that was RUNNING Counterspy pro in active mode. What this means is that the people who are making spyware and hijackers are changing their methods faster than the folks at Sunbelt-software can keep up. This was a problem in the early days of the virus world too, but right now it appears that the anti-spyware makers don’t have the infrastructure and staff to keep up. I wrote Sunbelt and asked them what they could do to help me get rid of this hijacker or if they could recommend another program to get rid of it. I haven’t heard back from them. (FYI the hijacker was Search Inqwire and I believe it was using a new Java exploit!)

Viruses: Old and Busted. Homepage Hijackers: the New Hotness
You wrote about Panda trying to actively stop virus’. That is swell, but I’m thinking today, hijackers and malware/spyware have become the bigger problem. The deal about spyware and hijacker programs is that people are paying MONEY to make these. They are not being made by two kids in a basement in Tacoma. They are companies that have assets and that can be sued and put out of business. Maybe they are in other countries. I read that 180Search Assistant, in an attempt to rehabilitate themselves, have gone out and sued the people who were their “affiliates” who used their product to hijacker browsers with out permission in order to get money from 180Search Assistant. The makers of 180Search Assistant are not really a “spyware” maker now they claim. (HA!) It is all a PR stunt, but the point is that we might get the names of these people from around the world because of that lawsuit and then shut them down. We could do this WITH the cooperation of the people who are trying to “go legit”. Personally I think it is a lame excuse for them to say, “We TOLD THEM not to use our product to install spyware in a sneaky way, but they didn’t listen and we couldn’t stop them!” For a while my blog was one of the top search results for the term “180 Search Assistant” so I heard lots of stories about how much pain these people caused.

Anyway, my request is, please address the issue of how we admin type folks and underground computer mechanics can “keep up” when it is clear that the old school anti-Viral makers can’t address the new real problems and the new guard of anti-spyware makers don’t have the skill to even deal with threats from 20% of the established spyware, not to mention the rapidly changing threats.

Thank you!
Mr. Spocko
(Last name unpronounceable to humans)
Star Fleet Academy
SF, CA, Earth
Sector 0,0,1

P.S. To all my readers in the CIA cybercrimes group and the NSA (you know who you are), I know that these spyware/hijacker people may seem below your notice, but the skills they exhibit are just the kind of thing that will draw the attention of the REAL bad guys. They can then hire them and use their spyware/malware/hijacker skills for real nefarious purposes. THAT is why they might be a good target to cultivate/know or shut down. Just a suggestion, and the jerks from 180Solutions did all the spadework and found them for you!

Tony Shalhoub sighting and OCD action figures

I love when TV shows set in SF actually SHOOT in SF, not in Vancouver dressed up to look like SF. This evening I spotted Tony Shalhoub shooting an action scene for the TV show Monk, in front of the St. Francis. I had just come from Cardology in the Crocker Galleria where one of the store’s owners had just shown me their best selling toy—the Obsessive Compulsive Action Figure. I gave her a call after I spotted Tony and asked if he or his crew were in the store buying the action figures today. She wasn’t sure, but noted that she always feels obligated to straighten the shelves after selling one.

Here’s the link to OCD action figure with mini-surgical mask and gloves. I’ve also included my crappy camera phone photo of Shalhoub, America’s most famous Obsessive Compulsive television character.



Obsessive Compulsive Action FigureThis 5-1/4" (13.3 cm) tall, hard vinyl Obsessive Compulsive Action Figure is worried about whether or not you washed your hands after you used the bathroom. Just in case, he’s sure you won’t mind if he wears his gloves and surgical mask when he shakes your hand. Or even better, maybe you could just bump elbows with him. Now, as soon as he finishes counting those ceiling tiles, he can get started on alphabetizing the canned foods. Mini surgical mask included. Packaged with a sanitary, hypo-allergenic towelette to clean off the figure before you touch it. Illustrated blistercard. UPC
http://www.accoutrements.com/products/11561.html

Cardology
Cool greeting cards & gifts
50 Post Street(Crocker Galleria) San Francisco, CA9 4104
Neighborhood: Financial District +1 415 391 1966
(Tell 'em Spocko sent cha! They will probably just look at you like you are off your nut, but what the hay.)

My submission made Boing Boing!

I should really encourage myself to be funnier on my own blog. I see think and say funny stuff a lot (well at least I think they are funny), but when it comes time to translate it to the blog I often over think and overwrite it (kind of like now!) But I submitted two "items" last night and one made it onto BoingBoing.net

Xeni's title for my item was "Pervy his 'n' hers keyholders" (I just thought they were funny, hmmm, what does that say about me?)


The other was a sighting of Tony Shalhoub from the TV series "Monk" in San Francisco and the availability of the Obsessive Compulsive Action Figure at Cardology on Post St. in the Crocker Galleria. I'm posting it above because I might get some traffic from Boing Boing and I'd like people to go to the shop and buy stuff. The people are really nice there and deserve your retail dollars for gifts, cards and stationary (they do all that kind of wedding invitations, business invites and special printing stuff).

The store is Mr. Spocko approved!

Stalking the Ricola Mystery Cougher

So it's a nice day so I decided to go find the mystery cougher. I't pretty interesting I should have done this last time, but certain people thought it was silly. Since I was free today I decided to check it out. I'm sure the marketing people at Ricola are very exicted that a BLOGGER is looking for their cougher. (Buzz, Buzz!)

I don't think I'll win though, there are about 12 people here and I'm sure one of them will tackle whomever shows up and starts coughing.

I felt like going up to them and saying, hey games theory, if we all decide to get together we will have a greater chance of winning. But Games theory doesn't take into account human greed totally. There is also the "I distrust you, I just met you, why should I throw in with you?" issue.

I like the idea of the campaign, at least the odds are a bit less than the lotto. And in a city with the Great Chinese New Year Treasure hunt you would think that there would be more people here. I think they are waiting for after lunch.

Here's a snap of a few of the people here for the Ricola marketing execs. You can get my permission to use if for ... 1 MILLION Dollars. Kidding. Maybe 100,000, Hell just write me, I'd love to add to an Adweek article about the campaign

Spocko


All photos copyright Spocko, Spocko's Brain 2005

Victory! I beat a 2kb piece of code into submission: Or Wrestling se.dll to the ground and DESTROYING IT!

Heroes of the internet: The folks at Major Geeks, Annoyances.org (especially Mr. Charlie for this post )

Extra special thanks to the creators of SpSeHjfix. (http://derbilk.de/malware/index.php) I don't speak Germany but I think they speak English, so THANK YOU! They were part of the epic struggle to remove the piece of shit virus from a friend's old computer.) Also thanks to the diligent people at CW-Shredder http://cwshredder.net/

Other players in the assist? The creators of AVG anti-virus software.
Players who tried in the effort, but failed? Norton Anti-virus.(It's inability to install or offer a method to remove the software from either a CD or online especially pissed me off. McAfee Anti-Virus? To paraphrase the folks over at Fark.com "The tools, They DO NOTHING!"

THE PATH TO VICTORY
The battle involved a nasty virus that hijacked the homepage and sent it to a "search website". It does this by renaming the Internet Explorer default start page "about:blank", to THEIR webpage which they evilly named "about:blank". BASTARDS! Because it lives on your computer and doesn't let you delete it easily, it keeps restarting itself. It also messes with the Active-X controls so that all the great ActiveX programs that could have found and removed it were rendered useless. I went to the website www.bitdefender.com and the online anti-virus program started to load then BAM! I get a message box telling me my active-X controls won't let the program run. ARRRRRRGGGGGG!!!! Sneaky bastards! They won't let me load tools like Norton to remove it (part of the fun of this process was installing and uninstalling Norton like 3 Brazilian times (that's a call back to a joke, folks). Finally I abandoned it and used AVG. It barely runs on the old machine, but it did the trick, but only partly. Based on the info from the good folks at Annoyances.org (bless you Mr.Charlie!) the program would keep reinstalling itself if I didn't get into the registry. That is where the program SpSeHjfix came in. That program in conjunction with CW-Shredder proved the virus was finally GONE!!!! I WON! IN YOUR FACE STARTPAGE.19.J!!!

BAD HUMANS? The creators and funders of the Trojan horse Startpage.19.J.

I think their punishment should be to go around the world and remove the software from every computer they infected. What kind of person revels in the disruption of other's tools? People who don't SEE the damage it does. They only see the stats "Oh! I made it into the list of viruses that the anti-virus makers look for!" Those are the kids. Now if they worked with the makers of the start page search engine to actually make money, then they are a different level of punk. This is the level that should be found and sued into oblivion. These are not some 17 year olds living with their parents who can't empathise with the people whose computers they destroy (and by the way, it is 93% boys who do this stuff). This is not some 16 year old who is angry at the world and says "Screw you computer owners who use Microsoft! I'm l33t! u r pwn3d!"
This is someone where money changes hands in the course of commerce. And illegal commerce. There is a reason we have laws and regulation. It is for the GOOD of the people AND the business community, and when the business community keeps saying, "No regulation! And says, "This is too small to pay attention too." they are hurting their customers and themselves. For example, because spyware makers hide under the cover of outrageously extensive EULAs (end user licence agreements, those things you click when it asks if you agree to this program) they are providing cover for the assholes who will use it for crap like the about:blank homepage hijackers and the 180SearchAssistant jerks.

WHAT IS BEHIND THIS?
EULAs. My buddy Ed Forster's of the Gripeline talks about this with passion, and it feels like it comes down on deaf ears. But all the people who have been infected and spent hours fixing their computers COST something. There is a price to pay for the corporations because they give these people cover or ignore them. So when your business spends millions cleaning computers look to the software companies that forgive outrageous EULAs because they don't want THEIR EULAs to be questioned. If they want to keep using EULAs then you need to hunt down the radicals who use the EULAs for spyware and other programs that damage users computers.

Maybe because the press have been hobbled by right-wing nuts and the corporate media can't go after real corporate criminals, I think that the legal community is our last hope. The technical community works hard, but I think they need backing from the legal community. Where are the corporate lawyers for a big company that says, "This is bullshit. These people are messing up our people's computers. I don't give a shit if they "gave the spyware permission" by clicking on an EULA. And I especially don't care if they used an even sneakier method. We are going after these bastards."

AOL and Microsoft FINALLY went after the spammers and some are in jail now and some had their assets seized. We need the same kind of effort for the spyware makers and the virus makers who are making money off of their evil works.

Hey Lawyers! You want money? Five Words: Class Action against Spyware Makers
When a lawyer somewhere hears a story like, "Virus caused 20 billion dollars of lost time!" Their eyes don't light up because they don't see any deep pockets. There are only a handful of Net police to go after these lawbreakers. But what if the people doing the damage aren't kids living in basements? What if someone made some money on the spyware and viruses? Doesn't THAT make the lawyers eyes light up? And why DON'T we have lots of Internet police? The AGs office is going after PORN makers for God's sake. I know a lot of people who happily pay for PORN delivered over the intenet. I don't know ANYONE who WANTS virus and spyware. Why are they going after PORN in the AGs office? Because the Fundie Xtians scream about it. If people screamed about spyware and viruses maybe something would happen. I can't imagine there is a huge lobbying group who want to protect the virus makers (although there are people protecting the spyware makers, which should tell the lawyers something about who has the deep pockets).

Clinton. Sex. Bush. Money. Who's hurt?
Now the bizarre thing is that, like the Clinton sex scandle, going after sex on the internet seems more exciting and makes for juicy headlines, whereas going after virus and spyware makers isn't as "sexy". But just like the Bush financial scandels where BILLIONS are missing in Iraq, money goes into the hands of the bad people and people's lives are impacted. Maybe what it will take is to combine the spyware maker or virus maker with some kind of porn or sex scandle to get the AG to go after them. Now do I want the AG to drop everything and go after this instead of terrorists? No. But they could go after this instead of porn. And what about the states' AGs? Why can't they be like Elliot Spitzer? He is one of my heros. He is doing what so many AGs could and should be doing.

I know that the police have gotten SOME people, but seriously, this is a weak effort. AOL took the proceeds of a spammer and raffled it off to members. If you seize the assets of these people, put it into law enforcement to catch more of them and pay for the ones that DON'T have assets, but do a lot of damage anyway.

Well this was a rant that I didn't expect to write and it is, as usual, too long, but after I did my victory dance my analytical brain takes over and asks, "Why? What can we do to fix this? And who benefits, who loses? Where can justice be served? What is the route to the good of the many, vs. the good of the few? How can I help?"

In conclusion: the maker of se.dll is a small boy with no empathy for others. This is a black spot on your soul kid. Grow up, turn away from the dark and to the light. Use your powers for good. Pull a David Brock and help the side of creation, not destruction.

Stop harming individual computer users and small business owners everywhere. Offer yourself up to a class action suit lawyer going after the people who paid you to send the traffic to their site. Turn states evidence and convict the jerks making money off of your knowledge of computers. Feel okay to look at your self in the mirror in the morning. Be a man.

UPDATE:
Sadly my efforts were practically for naught. Today I found out that another home page hijacker has sprung up on the machine. Sigh. I should have put counterspy pro on it, but it the machine didn't really have enough memory on it to run both the AVG Anti-virus and the anti-spyware in active mode. The owner said, "Forget it, I won't LET you spend any more time working on it." I understand. At least the machine isn't crashing like it did before, she can still use a few of her applications until she saves up for a new one. And for everyone who thinks computers are cheap, yes they are but they aren't free and the effort to keep one out of the land fill was a worthy one in my mind.

IN OTHER IRONIC NEWS
While I was working on that computer, MY computer caught a homepage hijacker! And I HAD the active mode on Counterspy pro. I did some research on this one. It is new, it uses Java and it is designed to escape the notice of the anti-spyware products!
BASTARDS! I'll keep pushing for a lawsuit at the same time I work on technology solutions to keep them at bay.

Isaac Wang: The Hardest workin' Man in San Francisco Politics

Isaac Wang is working really hard to win the election for San Francisco Treasurer's office. When I talked to him after the debate he told me his schedule for meeting people. I was exhausted just listening to it. He is constantly looking to reach out to the voters and get his name out there.

You know after the debates I listened to Cisneros' slick handlers joke about the other candidates' grasp of English. Which kind of pissed me off since Isaac speaks several and even spoke in them (Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Greek.) I wonder how good Cisnero's Chinese is? How good is Louie's Russian? And, especially relevant to the office, how good is their knowledge of financial software and programming languages? Because make no mistake, in the Treasurer's office today silos of information and legacy computer systems which don't talk to each other is a REAL problem.

Cisneros has the smooth politics down, and I think that is an important skill, especially since if you don't cut deals for endorsements and run around raising money it is hard to win. (Which REALLY makes me sad. I want someone qualified who can do a great job and make the city more money and save it money. I'm less interested in how well they schmooze the money donors, kingmakers and party operatives. But that's the reality.)

So anyway, last Saturday I heard Isaac was going to out driving around in his truck with his Win With Wang sign. I popped over to Clement street to check it out.

Note how I got the groovy flag shadows? Well be sure to vote tomorrow and Vote for Isaac Wang for Treasurer!

BTW, I haven't been paid for my endorsement of Mr. Wang, but I did get a cool WANG hat that might be worth up to $12.95. I mean it's not like the $450,000 that Willie Brown got to help shill for Big Pharm against the prescription drug measure Proposition 79 and in favor of the industry's rival Proposition 78

Spotted on Clement Street in San Francisco

The French have a Word For It

From "Tom the Dancing Bug" by Ruben Bolling. Go read Salon to see the rest of the Super Fun Pax Comix.

Dell HEAVEN: In which I Try To Protect NTodd from a Lawsuit or Worse

NTodd noticed this story about Dell Computer problems from the AP. But he obviously didn't read the Forbes story about how corporations will be going after bloggers who complain about their products (using the GOP tactic of attacking the person not the underlying issue). So I've tried to help him out by disagreeing with him on his blog in the comments section. Then when the Dell people try and shut him down, NTodd will be able to say, "But my blog provides a forum for people to SUPPORT your company! This post shows that I am not the only voice on this matter and I provide a place for regular people (not to mention the PR people hired by corporations to place comments or ads in my blog) to support the companies products. And since Dell has shut down their forums for users comments, they need a place to go -- hot cutting edge blogs, like "Dohiyi Mir"

Here is the comment I put in his blog: (Luckily I'm a g-tier blogger so they probably won't read my post here.)

You just shut your cakehole Mr. Man! The corporations will track you down and sue your ass!

That is the good advice they got from Forbes in their "Bloggers ATTACK!" story and so you better retract your comments. I'M WAITING...

Personally I think that the problems with the laptop are related to you and your use of the Dell (r) laptop . Did you check for dog and cat hair clogging the cooling vents? No. You did not. Did you check to ensure smooth, sweet even power was flowing into your laptop? No. You did not. You simple plugged your laptop into any random outlet like Tom Sizemore's penis into any skanky woman who offers herself.

You are to blame Mr. Man. NOT THE LAPTOP COMPANY. Dell is a glorious company and there is nothing wrong with what they do or how they do it as long as people use the products exactly as they are intended.

If you don't like their products go buy something else like an IBM Thinkpad NOT MADE BY THE CHINESE! (just get one that was made before they sold out to Lenovo which I think is owned by Jay Leno, he's a comedian NOT a laptop maker by the way!)

Dell computers are made in Micheal Dell's very own house! Michael Dell is a great man, an intelligent man and a man for all seasons. If Michael Dell didn't exist we would have to invent him.

You are just lucky I came here to show you the light on your blog, otherwise your website would be shut down quicker than you can say ISO 9001 approved manufacturing facility!

Nuff said!