White Woman Black Dog

Last weekend, I purchased a $10 ticket to the Mega-Millions lottery because the prize was up to $315 million.

This morning, I checked my numbers against the website.

I WON!!!

Of course, I still have to take the ticket in to claim my $7 prize for matching 3 of the 6 numbers, but still…. I”M A WINNER!!

Again with the Sony/BMG blues.

If you were unlucky enough to stick one of their XCP protected disks into your windows PC… do not, and I mean DO NOT make a second mistake and run the uninstaller to remove the rootkit it installs.

It’s now been discovered that the patch released by Sony to “uninstall” the copy protection software can open up a whole new can of worms on your PC.

“Alex Halderman and I have confirmed that Sony’s Web-based XCP uninstallation utility exposes users to serious security risk. Under at least some circumstances, running Sony’s Web-based uninstaller opens a huge security hole on your computer. We have a working demonstration exploit. … In the meantime, we recommend strongly against downloading or running Sony’s Web-based XCP uninstaller.”

In a nutshell… it allows any website to install and execute software on your PC via a webpage. This is beyond bad.

Another way to explain it: running this application to remove something bad will make things far worse. It will unleash the hounds and let slip the gates of hell.

Sony… if you’re looking for a Senior Applications Engineer who can tell you when you’re doing something insanely stupid… you should hire me (though I’m not sure I’d accept… I’m kinda funny about things like company stability and job security).

The internet turned 15 years old yesterday.

Happy birthday!

15 years of free pr0n, viruses, and l337 little fuckwads on IRC.

This is my obligatory “I haven’t posed for a couple days so I guess I better write something” post.

Not that I really have a lot to say today.

I am, however, rubbing my hands together with glee on two fronts:

• Sony BMG is getting kicked in the teeth (warning: popups)
• President Bush is getting the same treatment

If I think of something truely spiffy to write, I’ll letcha know.

Apparently, an email based virus is out that exploits the Sony/BMG DRM software.

That didn’t take long.

A class action lawsuit has also been filed in California against Sony/BMG, one may be filed in New York later today.