As you know, new variants of old viruses are named by using a variable letter. Virus.a, Virus.b, Virus.c...etc.

When we have more than 26 variants of a virus, we run out of letters. Then we roll over from Virus.z to Virus.aa, Virus.ab, Virus.ac etc.

For some virus families, even this is not enough. They've become so large (over 700 members) that we've ended up to variant zz. When we, of course, roll over start over with Virus.aaa, Virus.aab, Virus.aac etc.
...
For reference, here are the virus families that have already wrapped to "three digits", ie. over variant letter ".aaa".

Many Variants | F-Secure : News from the Lab

This is an early access version of the Java[TM] BluePrints Solutions Catalog. Each entry in the catalog is presented in a problem-solution format that presents the key issues in the problem topic and provides various strategies, patterns, and design guidelines for the solution

Java BluePrints Solutions Catalog

Many of you will remember the fanfare and bravado surrounding Sun Microsystems' Sep. 2004 announcement of a $1 per hour per processor utility computing plan. What you won't remember is Sun revealing a single customer using the service. That's because it hasn't.

The missing customers prove quite shocking when you consider that utility computing users must agree to be named in marketing programs as part of their contract with Sun - a fact learned by The Register and confirmed by a Sun spokeswoman. More than one year since it first started hyping the "pay-for-use grid computing services" Sun is still weeks away from presenting a customer to the public. The program has proved much tougher to sell that Sun ever imagined.

Sun's grid: lights on, no customers | Channel Register

In keeping with this trend, Colbert's name is scattered all over the set -- in the background in two places, on a plasma screen in front of him, twice on his desk and moving in a red ticker across the ground, plus his desk is in the shape of a giant "C." During the opening credits, an eagle flies around his head, and words flash across the screen: "POWERFUL," "COURAGEOUS," "EXCEPTIONAL," and also "DOMINEERING," "RELENTLESS," "GRIPPY." Yes, you read that right: Grippy. Soon, Colbert tells us about his own personal brand of no-nonsense, hard-hitting ... well, nonsense. Somewhere out there, Bill O'Reilly is fidgeting and twitching like the villain whose voodoo doll just took a thumb tack to the forehead.

In a nice play on O'Reilly's "No-Spin Zone" foolishness, Colbert wants us to know that even though his name is all over the place, the show isn't all about him. "No, this program is dedicated to you, the heroes!" he bellows. "And who are the heroes? The people who watch this show -- average, hardworking Americans. You're not the elites, you're not the country club crowd. I know for a fact that my country club would never let you in. But you get it! And you come from a long line of it-getters!"

Immediately, Colbert has his finger on the throbbing pulse of right-wing punditry, the dexterity with which they pander to the working class without getting any mud on their Italian wing-tip loafers. "On this show, your voice will be heard," Colbert reassures us, "in the form of my voice."

Which brings us to "tonight's word": truthiness. "Now I'm sure some of the word police, the 'Wordinistas' over at Webster's, are gonna say, 'Hey, that's not a word.'" But Colbert goes on to explain, "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart. And that's exactly what's pulling our country apart today. We are divided between those who think with their head, and those who know with their heart." Next to Colbert, a bullet point flashes "No Thinking." With the glorification of ignorance at its peak, this little rant couldn't feel any more timely. It's soothing, somehow, to witness Colbert tackling the profound absurdity of the times with such unbridled glee.

It was pretty amazing last night.

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | All-spin zone

Buster the German Shepherd could have had a great career as a British police dog had it not been for one flaw: his complete lack of interest in fighting crime.

Lazy British Police Dog Relieved of Duties - Yahoo! News

Jello wrote:

she noticed that many people had attached two or three monitors to their computers. They placed their applications on different screens - the e-mail far off on the right side, a Web browser on the left and their main work project right in the middle - so that each application was "glanceable." When the ding on their e-mail program went off, they could quickly peek over at their in-boxes to see what had arrived.

I am an ion window manager user (no overlapping windows). Last week, I picked up another LCD for my home machine. I totally agree with this usage pattern and sentiment. Overlapping windows don't make as much sense as people think they do.

RE: Meet the Life Hackers

Another amazing film from Jeb Corliss documenting his travels around the world and his conquering of man-made and natural monuments. Jeb Corliss has been pushing the limits of BASE Jumping for years. He is recognized amongst his peers for his extraordinary fearlessness and innovation.

Unreal basejumping.

IFILM - Adrenaline: A Year in the Life - Base Jumping Demo

Now here's something curious: The Map from the NYT shows the various increases in bankruptcy rates on a county by county basis. The results were not exactly what I would have suspected, given how various counties voted in the last Presidential election:

Is it just me, or are is the map above surprisingly similar to those red/blue maps we saw so much of right after the election?

The really curious thing is that the Gore voters from 2000 are filing for less bankruptcies since 2000, while the Bush voters are filing for more. (Does that make any sense to you?)

The comment about how few people can afford to vote Republican? Done in graphical form.

The Big Picture: Insolvency Epidemic

It is about time that we change some of the browser paradigms. Bookmarks/Favorites don't work. We use deli.cio.us these days, and before even going to that we use Google.

Flock also gives you a blogging topbar, aiming to merge our browser needs with our blogging ones.

This looks great. Memestreams integration would be important, because I can imagine straying to one of the other services with that kind of simple interface.

Ajaxian: Flock: The Web 2.0 Browser

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus