Joe's Random Ramblings

Gizmodo has a memo from Bill Gates to other Microsoft execs where he rants about his attempts to download Movie Maker from the Microsoft web site.
I am not sure how authentic this is, but it sure has some nice sound bites. My favorite:

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

Classic.

I learned about this via a post on the Usenet newsgroup NANAE (news.admin.net-abuse.email).

Apparently, a former Air-Force captain was able, using what looks like questionable means, to get control of large network blocks that rightfully belong to another company half-way across the continent in one case, and to NASA in another case. It seems he then turned around and sold access to the network blocks to spammers.
Read the whole story here:
http://www.47-usc-230c2.org/chapter3.html

Next time you are pi**ed about the amount of spam you receive, remember, it comes courtesy of NASA.

My trusty old Motorola cell phone finally broke, so I had to get a new phone. I opted for a Samsung A437 phone, which looks nice enough.
I don't care much about Web browsing or accessing email on the cell. These things are highly overrated in the first place, and at almost any place where I want to access my email, I have WiFi access with my laptop, anyway.
As far as the Samsung A437 phone is concerned, I found out a couple days after I got it that it's Bluetooth capabilities are severely crippled. It only supports the headset and hands-free profiles
I have a Bluetooth USB adapter and was trying to get the phone to recognize that, but no such luck. The only way to transfer data from the phone without airtime use is through a direct USB connection.
I think it is rather shortsighted from Samsung to limit the Bluetooth capabilities of this phone. Until they have a firmware update to fix this, the best thing is to stay away from this particular phone. As it stands now, this is my first and last phone from Samsung...

Yesterday, GM CEO Wagoner announced that GM is closing several plants that build SUVs. He also said that they may be looking at selling the Hummer brand. Good riddance. This is way overdue. And as usual, GM and the other American car manufacturers are late in recognizing changes. Years back, GM killed the electrical car EV1, and with a complete lack of long-term vision, focussed on gas-guzzling trucks converted to SUVs. They apparently wanted to get customers who needed the oversized SUVs as penis enlargement. Meanwhile, the Japanese car manufacturers once again ate their lunch.

From The Register comes news that the big US retailer TJ Maxx seems to be completely clueless when it comes to security.
Apparently, they rather fire the person making them aware of their security problems than actually fixing the problems.
They obviously haven't heard yet that "security through obscurity" is a bad thing.
As if people who want to break in wouldn't try blank passwords as one of the first things...
They already had a loss of customer data, which came to light in early 2007. Apparently, these morons haven't learned anything from that. Yet another reason to never buy anything from them.