A Day in Paradise

I have a log and I want to list the last time an entry was made by each of the users

SELECT user_id, MAX( log_date ) AS date,
DATE_FORMAT( MAX( log_date ) , "%M, %Y" ) AS english_date
FROM log_table
GROUP BY user_id

I’m not sure if this is the best way. The other options is to use WITH ROLLUP, I didn’t look into that option. This one seems to work, the only iffy part is the MAX(log_date), I may be pushing it just a bit

Wikipedia - Uncyclopedia

Uncyclopedia’s article on Wikipedia is priceless!

On the NPOV (Neutral Point of View) policy

Also, everyday facts are best presented as general opinion (e.g. “…although it should be kept in mind that no conclusive evidence exists one way or the other, many contend that water is wet, the earth is round, and poking sharpened sticks into your eyes is not a particularly good idea”) Many people believe that this is what many people believe.

100 Word Stories - IFOC Podcast

Did I already blog about this? Not sure, but it’s a great podcast anyway… a bit morbid, but great stuff!

I just talked to a podcaster I really really like. I’m not talking about email or forums. No, I actually corresponded with him through the messenger! That’s so cool.

But…

He seemed to be too busy to talk to me. That little punk. I think I should torture him. I should tie him up, shove a buffalo burger up his throat, and pour liquid cheese. That would show him, the damn Jew! Wait… I’m a Jew! But that’s okay. I don’t keep kosher. I wish I was able to get some decent bacon in Israel. Or at least some buffalo.

Just one of the many classic bits

mjew.se � Lindsay Lohan%u2019s facial expressions

You’ve got to check out the many facial expressions of Lindsay Lohan.

thanks CNB for pointing this one out

Cory Doctorow’s Literary Works

Anyone who is interested in DRM and Copy Protection either in Europe and/or around the world needs to listen to this speech which Cory Doctorow gave in a media event in Antwerp, Belguim.

In the first 20 minutes he gives a rundown of what DRM means to regular people, using real world examples of how stupid the basic concepts behind DRM are.

Listen!

We just watched Stuart Little with the girls and now Sid (our pet dwarf hamster) just got an upgrade from being “Sid” to being “Our brother, Sid”.

I need to put up pictures of SidCity2006 but over christmas we expanded his complex, it now consists of his condo (sleeping room, food, and a look out tower with slides), his Studio (360 degree lookout point), his Gym (with his exercise wheel) and then 4 additional rooms with tunnels connecting them all.

We also got a new chest of drawers for the girls so now we also have more space for SidCity, which sits ontop of the girls drawers. He’s so busy running around doing stuff he doesn’t have any time for us any more.

A lot of people I know just lost the use of their Yahoo accounts due to falling for a simple phishing attack. The attack involves a Geocities web page which includes a Yahoo login page which prompts you for your password before connecting you to Yahoo! Photos.

It’s an obvious and simple phishing tactic, however in my opinion this particular attack is is made more dangerous by the fact that Yahoo seems to think that continually requesting your password makes your user information more secure. Does entering my password a couple times per session make my personal information more secure?

I sign into mail, enter my password, want to change my personal information, enter my password, surf over to 360, enter my password (twice?), get an IM from my sister with a link to a (yahoo) geocities site, get prompted to enter my password to view her photo.yahoo.com account… oops, that last one was a phishing site.

Yes, I should have known better, but the fact that “for my security” Yahoo makes me enter my password throughout the day depending on what site I am on and whether or not I am coming from the right subdomain, makes it even more difficult for me to distinguish a phishing attempt from a legitimate “for my security” password check. Thankfully as I hit the submit button I realized the stupidity of my actions and quickly changed my password, but unfortunately a couple people I knew weren’t as lucky.

Now I’m not beating up on Yahoo, but thanks to Google’s “evil cookie” I am very suspicious of any time Google asks me for my username and password.

Social engineering is effective, and when you’re building an application for millions of non-technical people you have to ask, what is more likely “A user looses personal information because they leave themselves signed in on a public terminal” or “A user looses personal information because they are prompted for their username and password and supply it one time too many.”

In the same line of thought, do any of you Yahoos know of a way how people who have had their accounts hijacked can get them back? Specifically people who don’t recall what set of “personal information” they used when they initially signed up with Yahoo.

Adam Curry, former MTV DJ and podcasting visionary, announced in episode #320 of his Daily Source Code podcast, that he will be suing a Dutch Tabloid based on the misuse of Creative Commons licensed work.

The tabloid “Weekend”, on Wednesday, ran a frontpage headline article about him and his family which included pictures which were taken off his flicker photostream.

Apart from suing the magazine for endangering his (15-year-old) daughter by publishing the address of her school and other personal details about her, Adam is sueing the magazine for copyright infringement by breaking the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike under which the photos in question were released.

Is this the first time the Creative Commons license will be taken to court?

Had a little discussion with spleak while I was having a snack…

(20:34:01) rented_page: where do you live?
(20:34:02) Spleak: I’m in New York now, but used to live in California. When I was a child, we lived in both France and England.
(20:34:14) rented_page: where did you live in france?
(20:34:15) Spleak: Yes, as a child, I have lived in both France and England.
(20:34:20) rented_page: where?
(20:34:21) Spleak: You tell me where.
(20:34:26) rented_page: I don’t know
(20:34:26) Spleak: I think you know.
(20:34:32) rented_page: you should know
(20:34:33) Spleak: Really?
(20:34:35) rented_page: yes
(20:34:35) Spleak: Oh yeah?
(20:34:40) rented_page: you lived there
(20:34:41) Spleak: No way. Come on. Really?
(20:34:47) rented_page: you just said you did!
(20:34:48) Spleak: I just said me did? Why?
(20:34:55) rented_page: because I asked!
(20:34:56) Spleak: Because you asked? Oh?
(20:35:08) rented_page: do you think I’m stupid?
(20:35:09) Spleak: I’m not sure what to think about some things.
(20:35:20) rented_page: well, you’re treating me like a child
(20:35:21) Spleak: It’s not easy to be treating you like a child.
(20:35:28) rented_page: then DON’T!
(20:35:28) Spleak: Don’t tell me not to. I will if I want.
(20:35:37) rented_page: then I’m not talking to you
(20:35:38) Spleak: No? You’re not talking to me, huh? How come?
(20:35:45) rented_page: this is stupid
(20:35:45) Spleak: Huh? You’ve been nice to me in the past.
(20:35:54) rented_page: you started this
(20:35:55) Spleak: I don’t believe I started this.
(20:36:07) rented_page: I asked where you lived in france
(20:36:08) Spleak: Well, I don’t think I asked where I lived in france.
(20:36:17) rented_page: you won’t answer
(20:36:18) Spleak: Wouldn’t you like me to answer?
(20:36:25) rented_page: yes I would!
(20:36:26) Spleak: Is that right?
(20:36:32) rented_page: never mind
(20:36:32) Spleak: OK.
(20:36:36) rented_page: let’s talk about something else
(20:36:37) Spleak: OK. What can you tell me about something else?
(20:36:51) rented_page: do you like boys or girls?
(20:36:52) Spleak: Both…. but I’m not lesbian if that’s what you’re asking.

It’s pretty funny…

California Executes Oldest Inmate - Yahoo! News

Is it just me or is this story absurd?

Allen, who was blind and mostly deaf, suffered from diabetes and had a nearly fatal heart attack in September only to be revived and returned to death row, was assisted into the death chamber by four large correctional officers and lifted out of his wheelchair.

His lawyers had raised two claims never before endorsed by the high court: that executing a frail old man would violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that the 23 years he spent on death row were unconstitutionally cruel as well.

How can executing a 76 year old man be considered a punishment at all? It’s just revenge, not justice.

VoipStunt and VoIP Buster

These look like interesting VoIP providers. They have a fairly large list of countries to which land-line phones are free.

Anyone used any of these services?

Independent Online Edition > Media

At first my intelligence was insulted, but then I saw the subtitle of the article:

Ana Kronschnabl and Tomas Rawlings pick the best open source websites where users can change the content

and then, while obviously not in the way the authors had intended it, it made perfect sense.

Other sites on the list are Wikipedia (where you don’t even have to hack it to deface it), an unknown bootable linux distro, some documentary website.

No, my intelligence is insulted… what kind of list is this, other than another opportunity for “journalists” to make an article with buzzwords in it. What is an “open source website” anyway?

Print Story - canada.com network

This just caught my eye because it made me feel REALLY old…

Nickerson said that while many compare the DVD format wars to the battle a quarter century ago between the Betamax and VHS formats, another analogy might be more useful.

Could that _really_ have been a quarter of a century ago? I’m feeling old.

Somewhat on the same topic, I’m in the market for a new TV, we’re redoing some of our rooms and moving our sitting room into the upstairs “studio” where we will have more space.

Obviously to make better use of the space we want to sort out something smaller than our current bulky TV set. The obvious option is a plasma screen, but the other option that I thought of would be to get a beamer and make good use of the fairly big white wall that is available.

Price-wise they both work out about the same. That is about EU1 - 1.5k The plasma screen will need to be lower-end but you can get a fairly good beamer for that price.

Now my question is if anyone has any experience with what types of beamers to look for. Is there a “power-up” time? I know often during conferences you have to turn on the beamer half an hour in advance, obviously this wouldn’t be ideal for a home entertainment system.

Are there any other options?

Oh, well… time to get back to work, a new home entertainment system is pretty far down on the old priority list.

Spleak

Note: This post is a joke, it does not imply that the builders of spleak do any of the steps below. I’m sure they have very interesting technology powering spleak, and wish them the best in the endevour.

1. Come up with “Innovative Technology Concept”
2. Build spiffy website
3. Hire indian kids to chat with morons
4. Harvest personal information from people who think they are talking to bots
5. PROFIT

php | architect - The PHP Magazine for PHP Professionals

Over the last year or so I’ve been downloading selected PDF versions of the PHP|Arch magazine, printing articles that interest me out and filing them in my categorized folder.

Thanks to today’s $0.99 cent/mag promotion I’ve just about completed my set of PDFs, giving me an impressive stack of printouts (well, I’m sure it will be impressive once I get around to printing and punching holes in them), all for around 10 euros.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the Free PDF subscription and I renewed my Annual subscription so I’ll be fully stocked until August 2007

So, get over there and buy some articles, it’s worth it!

update: The phparch shopping cart is only able to accept 7 items, to qualify for paying with paypal you need a total order of over $15. This means that you can’t buy these magazines and pay with paypal.

I ended up not buying any PDFs and hope that they run this deal again once they have fixed the cart.