Alternate.org

After 49.7 days of use, I'd have to get restarted, too

alternateorg on September 22, 2004

Southern California’s Air Trafic Control system had a glitch in it that stranded 800 planes in the air without contact to Air Traffic Control. Did I mention the system is based on Windows?
The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to prevent a data overload, a union official told the LA Times. To avoid this automatic shutdown, technicians are required to restart the system manually every 30 days. An improperly trained employee failed to reset the system, leading it to shut down without warning, the official said. Backup systems failed because of a software failure, according to a report in The New York Times.
Awesome. Why do people use Windows again?

Home Computer of the Future!

alternateorg on September 21, 2004

The home computer of the future, as seen by scientists 50 years ago.
Also, the scientists readily admit that the computer will require invented technology to actually work…
Such as what the fuck you’re supposed to do with that giant wheel on the left.

Praying For Peace

alternateorg on September 20, 2004

You need to see this.

And then be very, very afraid.

Glucoboy

alternateorg on September 16, 2004

I’m totally getting this for my son, when he’s old enough to check his own levels and understand them.
GLUCOBOY is a glucose meter that can be inserted into a Nintendo GAMEBOY. The product operates independent of the video game system but downloads video game programs that are contained within its circuitry into the GAMEBOY as a reward for maintaining good blood sugar control.

Bush Military Documents "Fake but accurate"

alternateorg on September 16, 2004

Okay, I’m not really prepared to get into the entire thing about the documents CBS got from “trusted sources” that contain variable-width typefaces and superscripts that typewriters from the 70s couldn’t even accomplish, but suffice it to say that this graphic that this guy produced with Word says it all:

I’d read about this before, and now CBS is saying that the documents are Fake, but accurate.

American mass-media proves itself worthless once again!

Sure to make Microsoft Execs Everywhere Happy!

alternateorg on September 15, 2004

Details have been released about several vulnerabilities in Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, and Thunderbird. These can potentially be exploited by malicious people to conduct cross-site scripting attacks, access and modify sensitive information, and compromise a user’s system.

The link in question. . .

*Moves back over to IE on his WinBlows machine.*
I kid, I kid.

Seriously though, this doesn’t even affect the latest version of the programs, and the exploit is miniscule compared to those in IE. So, yeah, not a big deal. I’ve been using Firefox since it was still .5, I forget what it was called back then, Firebird maybe?

The only thing that concerns me here is that any time there’s even a minor security exploit in Firefox, Microsoft will mention it in a Press Release and it will make IE look like it’s on equal ground with Firefox where security is concerned. Psh.

By the way, I have posting privlidges now <3 Kev.

I'll believe it when I see it

alternateorg on September 13, 2004

A near-universal emulator that allows software developed for one platform to run on any other, with almost no performance hit? Hmm.. I have serious doubts about this. And just because it’ll run Mac programs on Windows doesn’t mean it could run OSX or system-level frameworks required by the iLife apps. But shit, if it runs IE6 on my Mac for testing websites for you fucktards and your awful browser, then that’s cool. But again, I have serious doubts.
In demonstrations to press and analysts, the company has shown a graphically demanding game — a Linux version of Quake III — running on an Apple PowerBook.

Um, couldn’t they just run the Linux version anyway? I mean, with a basic port? Why not show us something like Half-Life 2 running on a Mac? Now THAT I’d be impressed by.