+ It’s always been an accepted, but hushed practice, that the liberals have always given prime government contracts to ad agencies that help them stay in power. From the CBC, an indepth article exploring the beginning of political advertising in Canada, and it’s integration into the governing party’s inner circle.. Cockfield, Brown: the original ‘Liberal friendly’ ad agency.

+ President Bush cracking jokes about there not being WMD in Iraq is massively tasteless to say the least. -Bushhole!

+ There are virus writers out there who are way smarter than your average virus writer. These people are writing a new breed of virus called a kernel rootkit. These new viruses are pretty much undetectable by your average to moderately skilled computer user. Kernel rootkits sits quietly hidden inside the very core or ‘root’ of Windows, specifically in the kernel. What that means is that it leaves no indication that anything unusual is happening. It is virtually invisible. No unusual programs running, no noticable processor drain, no memory loss, no slowing, nothing. If however, for some reason there was suspicion and the rootkit discovered through comparing the questioned operating system to a clean one, there is no way to repair it. The harddrive must be erased. Be afraid, be very afraid - Computerworld

+ Also, on a much lighter note (unless you are her) check out chick going off!! Watch her smash cities, kick balls, breakdance, play hockey, etc.

[Both via: david]

+ Need an extension to access hotmail and yahoo for the amazing Thunderbird email program? Webmail is the answer. Don’t click the extension link on the webpage, it will try to install to your browser. To install extensions in Thunderbird you must right click >> “save Link as…” >> save to your computer. Then in Thunderbird, under ‘Tools’ click “Extensions” >> Install >> browse to where you saved the extension and click it/them. A little effort, but well worth it.

+ Another Thunderbird/Firefox extension that I think should be default on every application, is minimize to System Tray (the cluster of icons beside your clock). It looks far too cluttered having everything showing on the Task Bar (the main bar between your Start button and the Clock) as well as in the System Tray.

+ The Scandinavian writer August Strindberg painted. I didn’t know that.

Strindberg had an abundantly rich mental life (perhaps too rich). Contrary to what he said, he painted not in his spare time but in those periods in his life when writing failed him, in times when he was experiencing difficulties in his several failed marriages and relationships, and suffering his intermittent financial and inner crises. Little wonder then that painting, rather than providing solace, should itself reflect his mental state. Strindberg seemed to believe in (or could not see beyond) what Ruskin called the “pathetic fallacy”, which is to say that nature personified his emotional state. When he broods, the sky broods. When he is assailed, he sees the buoy at sea or the landmark on the cliff top similarly beleaguered. When he is lonely or isolated, so too is the solitary plant, struggling on the barren shore (a subject he repeated several times). Wind-lashed, he stands on a clifftop, the bare masts of a ship wallowing in the waves. Strindberg was, after all, a dramatist.

+ If you have an extra Gmail account you can use it as an extra storage space with this application:

Download GMail Drive shell extension 1.0.5 - A Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account - allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer.

GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag’n'drop files to.

Ever since Google started to offer users a GMail e-mail account, which includes storage space of a 1000 megabytes, you have had plenty of storage space but not a lot to fill it up with.

With GMail Drive you can easily copy files to your GMail account and retrieve them again. When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account.

The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the GMail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures.

But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer.
You can copy files to and from the GMail Drive folder simply by using drag’n'drop like you’re used to with the normal Explorer folders.

Because the GMail files will clutter up your Inbox folder, you may wish to create a filter in GMail to automatically move the files (prefixed with the GMAILFS letters) to your archived mail folder.

Please note that GMail Drive is still an experimental tool. There’s still a number of limitations of the file-system (such as total filename size must be less than 40 characters), and it doesn’t make full use of the secure internet protocols available.

If I know you personally, and you need a GMail account, let me know and I’ll send you an invite.

+ Well of course the war crimes case against Rumsfed was dropped. Who could believe that he was responsible for what went down at Abu Ghraib? -not me- Who buys that Alberto Gonzales, “who helped the administration redefine the rules of torture as a White House legal aid in the run-up to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo”, was recently made Attorney General to protect everyone involved from criminal investigation. -not me..

This shit is so frustrating.

+ I posted a link to the Gigabyte Factory Tour on Metafilter yesterday. Seems to be well received. The tour is of a pretty high tech motherboard facility, and it’s very thorough.

+ [via: wired magazine]

..recent invention of small, microprocessor-controlled pumps which bathe nerves in nonaddictive drugs that discourage the transmission of pain signals.

+ [via: Kirstie] ***link fixed.

Joseph Deutch, a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, was the last student to perform a final project in a seminar taught by the performance artist Ron Athey on Nov. 29. According to witnesses, Mr. Deutch, wearing a coat and tie, pulled what appeared to be a handgun from a paper bag, loaded it with a single bullet, spun the cylinder, aimed the pistol at his head and pulled the trigger.

+ I haven’t tried the new TVforus portal yet, but it seems like they’ve collected a good list of free online tv streams.