Well, frankly, I'm a little astonished to see the German court system taking a reasonable approach to this situation. If this were an American trial, they'd probably still be tallying up the zeros for what they'd be trying to fine him in restitution.

It does appear that the judge took into consideration a number of factors, Sven's (the author of Sasser) age, the fact that he'd been working on code to try and actively hunt down and eliminate other viruses (which old heads know to be a mook's game--but it's nice every now and then to see someone naieve enough to try anyway), and most particularly, that he *isn't* one of the evil criminal mastermind types who would have otherwise probably tried to take advantage of such a bug, if a relatively harmless kid hadn't inadvertently drawn the attention of the entire planet to it first.

I'm not saying it's a good thing that Sasser wreaked havoc world-wide, but it's a far better thing that these incidents happen in a relatively harmless manner, rather than having a worm with a truly malicious payload go 'round the planet scrapping people's spreadsheets, budgets, and other works in progress. I mean, seriously--someone could probably strap a bit of code into a healthy worm that would encrypt all the doc files on someone's system and leave a message with a URL for where to enter a credit card to pay $5 for the key, and make a sizeable sum of money (and billions of enemies). Smart criminals *are* out there. Let's just be glad the worst incidents we're seeing are coming from people who are just a little airheaded. :)

Sasser author gets 21-month *suspended* sentence

Bombs in subways. Bomb in buses. All details fuzzy. Story obviously being managed.

WikiNews is on it. Here is a Google News link.

Here is one particular disturbing pic of some people trapped in the underground in a station filled with smoke.

People in London are saying on IRC that cell phones are not working.

The original BBC story on the explosions said it was an electrical explosion. They recently changed the story's lead to say there was a bomb on both a bus and the underground. It is ironic that in the first hours after the WTC bombing, it was believed to be a transformer explosion.

News stations are now saying it was definitely a coordinated attack. Very little information is being released right now. It is very clear big shit is going down.

Early picture of one bus. At least 20 said dead. Reports of two other bus explosions. Another bus explosion pic.

European markets plummeting.

The London Police Commissioner has asked the media not to speculate. I feel safe making the assumption that this is a terrorist attack, I'll leave it at that for now.

If you work in NYC, I suggest that you wait till noon to go to work.

Blair just gave a statement. Its officially terrorism.

For those picking up on this as they wake up, here is a timeline of events so far.

I don't have cable where I live. grr..

London Terror Attack - 7/7

I have bestowed this award upon you for your ability to craft targeted and strategic posts to piss off the largest amount of people possible. I also award you for your own sexual insecurities that allow you to imply that homosexuals are not "actual human beings." Kudos to you! Oh, and please do not neglect to visit the url below to receive this prestigious award. Thank you for your time...and attention.

And because of your unique disregard for human life and everything that pertains, we will stray from the normal policy of not feeding the trolls. Eat up.

Let it be noted that Vile has generated more complaints then any other user in MemeStreams history.

World's Greatest Poster Award - given to Vile

pjammer wrote:
Looks like a link-farming site. A few 'articles' that regurgitate obvious facts, and a bunch of advertising. What is this?! :P

That's because essmeier is a piece of shit link spammer. Memestreams has implemented measures so the Google bot doesn't follow his links, or anyone's links who doesn't have a "good" reputation (ie their memes are read/recommended by others). Link spamming Memestreams does nothing for him now.

Memestreams is constantly improving. Personally I am working on several security issues with the site, and plan to move to enhancing the Memebox. Decius and I have talked in the past about a kind of killfill for Memestreams, where you simply wouldn't see assholes like essmeier. Regardless of whether he ultimately decides to do this, there are 3 simple ways you can get rid of his posts now:

-Don't read anything he posts if you see it.

-Meme nteresting articles, that people will read and thus are placed on the front page. Link spam only gets to the front page when there aren't any more popular stories to display.

-Get more legitimate users for Mememstreams. The more users we have, the more data Memestreams' presentation and recommendation algorithms have to work with. Shit like essmeier will sink to the bottom and you will not see their posts.

Link spammers are the sux.

Well, apparently someone recently got themselves a Dell and managed to damage it... no big news there, but when the guy got his replacement part in he noticed an odd cable going from the keyboard to elsewhere inside his notebook--which turned out to be a keystroke logger.

I don't know if this is a hoax or not, but if it's not, then Dell has got to answer for some serious issues about the sensibility of integrating a keystroke logger into people's notebooks without mentioning it. ...not that this information appears to be retrievably remotely (although it might be if the right software were part of the installation image), but that if someone's notebook gets stolen and it's got this inside it, no amount of careful choice of passwords or encrypted filesystem use is going to be able to protect their information from the thief.

Anyone out there gotten a new Dell recently and willing to open it up to take a peek? Now might be a good time to break out the lil' screwdrivers and double-sided tape and take a look-see...

Insanity. Just insanity.

This video is a little slow to start up, but worth the wait. Watch it full screen, because you won't believe your eyes otherwise.

Basically, some people have come up with one of the scariest arcade games ever, and are simply waiting for new victims, er players, to step and stick in some coins.

Proof that british people have a strange sense of fun

Well, apparently some nutters nipped a life-size Dalek model and are now holding it ransom until they get further instructions as to what to do with it from Doctor Who.

My favorite bit is how the guy who runs the gallery it was taken from mentions that there was "no torture involved" with the removal of the plunger (weapon arm) from the Dalek model. I think he needs to take a little vacation until he can stop making slips like that. It's creepy.

It could be a relations stunt, but at least I find it nice that the BBC has enough of a sense of humor about it to have contacted Colin Baker (one of the actors who formerly played Doctor Who) to see if he'll talk to the "kidnappers" should the opportunity arise.

Hello, Reality? This is fandom calling... Dalek Kidnapped, news at 11

Well, geez. Yesterday afternoon I got a visit from "The Man" about something that, since "I am not a criminal" (which I would tag with TM if Nixon hadn't already worn it into the ground) caught me utterly flatfooted and left me rather stunned. I've documented it on my LJ but the short of it is that for the immediate to short-term future I'm on "administrative leave" from work. At least I'm still being paid for staying away from the office so it doesn't screw up my financial planning (such that it is).

Hopefully this will blow over quickly and I can get back to doing productive things.

Yesterday's Nightmare

Yes, apparently someone discovered that by pressing two keys on the keypad of a handheld calculator issued for standardized test, the calculator will display the result in fractions instead of decimal representation.

Now the question is merely how long it's going to take them to bring this kid up on charges for "circumvention" or crimes against the DMCA. He's bound to get kicked out of school for this.

Student discovers calculator flaw

Now here's a blog entry from a man with clue who isn't afraid to use it. While some may try and blame piracy for the lackluster list of new and innovative computer games on the market, here's a man who knows that the real reason is a supersaturated solution of utter lameness that is the end result of large gaming companies attempting to squeeze out games by using weighty demographics and narrow-minded ideals instead of inventiveness and a desire to challenge.

If you play games, you must read it! For great justice! Make your time!

A Gamer's Manifesto