George P. Lee does it again

Former LDS general authority and all around scumbag George P. Lee was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in Washington County, Utah.

Lee holds the distinction of being both the first Native American to be called as a general authority as well as the most recent general authority to have been excommunicated and the only one such in many decades.

For those who aren't aware or don't remember, the scumbag in question is a child molester and did so as a general authority, leading to his excommunication.  If anyone dares suggest that this was a smear campaign, Lee plead guilty.

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. (Luke 17:2 KJV)

 

deseretnews.com | Ex-LDS official arrested in sex-registry probe

Pirated Harry Potter Book to be found on the net

So, why am I putting this here?  Because the publisher is trying to bully TechCrunch into actually deleting this post.  I  hate those kind of tactics and am putting it here myself.

Is this for educational value?  I don't really care.  I hate censorship.  They're all bent out of shape because you can find it on The Pirate Bay even though he didn't give a link like I just did.   Oh wait, did I do that?  Oh no!!  I better not tell you that you can probably find it even easier using TorrentScan!!!

So, why is this legal?  Because I didn't pirate anything.  I'm just reporting it.  If I tell you that they're selling drugs down at Main Street and 1st Avenue, I'm not doing anything wrong.  If I take you there, I'm STILL not doing anything wrong. 

I'm so ticked at lawyers right now I could scream, but these scumbags really starch my shorts!  Information is not illegal, people!!!  It's what you do with that information that could be illegal.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, the latest and last of the wildly popular Harry Potter books that is due to go on sale this weekend, has hit BitTorrent. Various torrents of the novel consist of photographed pages (as above) with reading quality that isn’t perfect, but for desperate fans readable enough. Whilst the validity of the hype surrounding Harry Potter may be subject to debate, what the leaking of the book does demonstrate is that the days of the mainstream media and publishers strictly controlling the dissemination of information has well and truly past; simply where there is a fan with a will, there is a way.

For educational purposes only, the Harry Potter book can be found by searching The Pirate Bay.

(via Torrent Freak)

The Latest Harry Potter Book Hits BitTorrent

Eating your own ... dog food?

There's a concept in software development called "Eating your own dog food".  Basically, it means that you use the products that you write.  For example, Microsoft released a beta version of Sql Server 2008.  They're using it on their own sites.  That's what eating your own dog food is all about. 

Having set all that up, here's something I just read on Overheard in the Office: 

Engineer #1: Why on Earth do we have to use this?
IT worker: We're committed to using our own solution.
Engineer #1: Yeah, I understand the dog food rationale.
Engineer #2: The problem is that it's not dog food. It's kitty litter.

Overheard in the Office | It Only Solves the Back End of the Problem

Some things just make you laugh

Every time I see this picture, I just can't help but laugh.  I don't know whether it's the gold paint or just the stupid look on his face.

Kids!  Huffing is bad, mmkay?

(this was used on my most recent blog post over on The Right Side of My Brain.

Official Google Blog: Cookies: expiring sooner to improve privacy

After I read the following from Google's official blog, I seriously had to check what I was reading to make sure it wasn't a parody: 

After listening to feedback from our users and from privacy advocates, we've concluded that it would be a good thing for privacy to significantly shorten the lifetime of our cookies — as long as we could find a way to do so without artificially forcing users to re-enter their basic preferences at arbitrary points in time. And this is why we’re announcing a new cookie policy.
In the coming months, Google will start issuing our users cookies that will be set to auto-expire after 2 years, while auto-renewing the cookies of active users during this time period. In other words, users who do not return to Google will have their cookies auto-expire after 2 years. Regular Google users will have their cookies auto-renew, so that their preferences are not lost. And, as always, all users will still be able to control their cookies at any time via their browsers.

Umm...2 years?  This isn't a joke.  They are serious!  Now this doesn't mean that Google is going to keep their cookies on your system for 2 years, it means that they're going to keep them for 2 years from the last time you accessed a Google site! 

Did you see their reasoning?  "so that their preferences are not lost"  That's NUTS!  Does anyone even remember their preferences after 2 years much less be angry if they're still not on the computer? 

Believe me, I'm not a cookie Nazi.  I don't keep track of what sites put what cookies on my computer and I'm sure I'm tracked all over the internet.  But even for me, this is stupid.  It's one thing to plan on keeping cookies on computers indefinitely as a matter of practice, but it's completely different to make it a matter of policy that you announce and defend! 

Of course, they say that users will still be able to control their cookies at any time via their browsers.  Yeah, and I'm sure spyware companies say that users are able manage their add-ins and apps with the Add/Remove menu, too.

Official Google Blog: Cookies: expiring sooner to improve privacy

Court orders LDS Church to release its finances

This bothers me on so many levels and it infuriates me.

For starters, why is the Church even involved in this?  It's not like the Church told the guy to molest him.  He's a home teacher and yes, he had a responsibility but that's all he is!  Why is it that the Church is being blamed for this?

Oh, right.  Read the headlines.  It's all about the benjamins. 

And that's the second thing that bothers me about this.  The guy's lawyers think it's relevant to the proceeding.  Why is how much an entity makes used to determine responsibility?  The ambulance chaser lawyer says it's for punitive damage consideration, but that's a bunch of bullplop.  Everyone knows that if they see a lot of money or assets they'll think, "they can afford to pay so they should".  It takes the question from one of responsibility to one of "we want to give the victim something and they can afford it."

Third, it's unconstitutional.  They're interfering with a church.  It'd be one thing if the case was over and they were determining damages, but this is nothing more than an attempt to get at the Church and make them look rich and uncaring.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court rejected an effort by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to withhold financial information from the lawyers for a man who claims a "home teacher" frequently molested him about 20 years ago.

deseretnews.com | Court orders LDS Church to release its finances

Mom Arrested for Allegedly Treating Son's Fatal Head Injury With Popsicle

 I don't know what I can possibly add to this.

ARLINGTON, Texas —  A 24-year-old Texas mother is in jail after she treated her 2-year-old son's head injury with a Popsicle instead of calling 9-1-1.

Ebony Thorne's son Joshua later died of the injury.

Arlington police said the boy fell eight feet down a U-shaped stairwell in Thorne's apartment Wednesday morning. Investigators said instead of calling for an ambulance, Thorne placed a Popsicle on her son's head and put him to bed.

When the boy's father arrived later, he found Joshua unresponsive. Police said he called Thorne's mother, who drove to the apartment from Fort Worth and called 911.

Officers found bruises and marks around the toddler's head and dried blood on his nose and mouth.

Thorne's charged with injury to a child by omission/criminal negligence. Her 3-year-old son and 10-month-old girl were returned to their grandmother, who had custody of all three children.

FOXNews.com - Mom Arrested for Allegedly Treating Son's Fatal Head Injury With Popsicle

Jackson & Mary Rose

Mini-Rant: British Terminology

I understand the whole difference in terms like "boot" for "trunk" and "flat" for "apartment" but what I can't stand is the term "row" for a fight.  What's up with that?  One of the news feeds I read is the BBC.  It seems like any dispute, fight, uproar, or brouhaha is referred to as a "row".  You would think that the English (you know, the ones who came up with the English language) could think of better ways to say it than "row".  Heck, I just came up with four right there.

FotoFlexer: Made by Idiots for Idiots

Ok, perhaps that's not completely fair.  I'm sure FotoFlexer wasn't actually made for idiots.  As for the other, I don't think that is really arguable.  I can think of no other explanation for this piece of trash that is calling itself a web application.  Allow me to elaborate...

you go to their web site and you're presented with a choice...

 

 

Let's see..I'll click "Flex This Foto" and what do I get?

 

Wow!!!  That's exciting!!!!  Lest you think that it's a browser or plug-in issue, that's standard IE7 with no add-ins and it does the same on my FireFox, too.

So, I'm thinking, "ok, it's just a little [BIG] bug.  Maybe I just need to register."  So, I click on "Register Now!" and am presented with an intuitive [NOT!] screen, which you see below.  I think to myself, "Hmm...this looks like a login screen.  It doesn't say choose a password or anything else like that.  It just has an email and a password box."  but I forge on and enter my email. 

Oh wait, no I don't...and why don't I???

 

 

Because the stupid email input box only allows 25 characters!!!!!

Just how brain-dead to you have to be to believe that people don't have longer emails?!  I could go on and on about this, but I think the evidence just speaks for itself.  "Arbor Labs" needs to find a way to put out a web application that involves more than bending a fresh biscuit on their web site.

Oh, and thanks to Mashable! for this craptacular link!

How to Deflect Criticism

Something that has always bugged me is the oft-offered platitude, "Don't offer a complaint if you can't offer a solution," or words to that effect.  The intent of it is ostensibly to stop people from what they would call "whining".  One could also say that part of it's intent is to encourage people to "think positively" and search for solutions.  The problem with that logic is that it makes the assumption anyone capable of finding a problem is equally capable to fix it.  This came to mind when I saw the following:

I see a lot of feedback that says (roughly), "X is bad," and leaves it at that. That's not useful feedback.

It's not enough to say that something is bad. you have to say what would be better.

The Old New Thing : It's not enough to say that something is bad; you have to say what would be better

So let's get real for a second.  Is this intended to find a real solution to perceived problems by his readers or is it merely to shut people up?  I suppose a more diplomatic way would be to ask if he's trying to deflect criticism.  I think there's no question of the intent.  That's one of the risks of a) getting popular and b) allowing comments.  Likewise, I also find the statement to be of the tone one would expect of a child, even though it is a common business sentiment.

Is this something we really want to promote?  I'm not talking about him saying it, but rather the attitude and the mentality.  Do we really want to squelch criticism if someone doesn't know the solution or what would be better?  Tell me this.  How many of these should we press the "you have to say what would be better" philosophy?

• "Doctor, I have this pain this terrible pain and nothing over-the-counter is working."
• "I know that factory provides jobs, but they're polluting the water."
• "My air conditioner is broken"

The problem is that people that say that are usually the ones charged with fixing the complaints.  I'm a programmer.  Trust me, I really don't want a secretary offering query optimization suggestions because her process is taking too long.  That's what I'm paid to do.  Yes, it really is enough to tell me that something's wrong. 

That is not to say that you should put up with "I don't like this" with vague complaints.  You could say, "If you have a complaint, you have to be specific as to what you don't like and why you don't like it."  But I guess that isn't as catchy and it still keeps you from being lazy.