Kiteboarding in a Hurricane

I can't describe this one -- you just have to watch for yourself.

Cold War Black Projects

Remembering our Cold War Warriors of NEVADA on the 50th Anniversary of Area 51 - Battleground of the Cold War

In God We Trust -- All Others We Monitor

Interesting Puzzle

I wondered why those two were wearing clothes...

Micro$oft "Genuine Advantage"

Micro$oft began requiring serial number authentication of it's Windows XP operating system in order to gain access to updates. This was an anti-piracy move on The Evil Empire's part. It took hackers 24 hours to break it:

Before pressing 'Custom' or 'Express' buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:

javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

It turns off the trigger for the key check.

I have not verified this hack -- I don't do XP.

Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial System (V-MADS)

Active Denial Technology is a breakthrough non-lethal technology that uses millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy to stop, deter and turn back an advancing adversary from relatively long range. It is expected to save countless lives by providing a way to stop individuals without causing injury, before a deadly confrontation develops.

An energy beam weapon that cooks the skin to a depth of about 1/64th of an inch. Pain is immediate, but no serious damage occurs if you leave the beam immediately. Long-term effects on the eyes and brain are unknown, and I doubt anyone cares, since V-MADS will certainly be less damaging than an M-16. Sixteen have been ordered and sent to Iraq.

Sounds of Saturn

Saturn is a source of intense radio emissions, which have been monitored by the Cassini spacecraft. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet. These auroras are similar to Earth's northern and southern lights. This is an audio file of radio emissions from Saturn.

This sounds like something straight out of an Ed Wood movie, but when you realize you are actually listening to a planet it gets damned sp00ky.

Dude! Yer Goin' ta Hell!

Just one more story about Dell's Customer Abuse Department. This guy claims there are 2.6M angry Dell customers out there, but I can't verify his number. Google for "Dell customer service problem" without the quotes, however, and you get something more like 3.3M -- and you can tell by the site titles these are NOT happy people.

The Wages of SPAM...

... are death. Perhaps. From F-Secure's blog:

Russian media reported today that the owner of the American Language Center, Vardan Kushnir, had been killed. According to the reports, Kushnir's body with massive head trauma was found in his apartment in Moscow... The American Language Center provides English language courses for Russian speaking people. In order to get new customers, the Center reportedly organized the largest SPAM campaign in Russian history.

Why Microsoft AntiSpyware Is Untrustworthy

Just when you think Microsoft did something important the right way, it does the worst possible thing. What is going through the company's head?

Bottom Line: Who in their right mind would trust Micro$oft in the first place?