A Cal State-Fullerton student was told to either quit her job as a stripper or turn in her track team uniform; she didn’t find it that tough a decision to make. You can catch her at the Flamingo Theater, where she’s making the money that puts her through school.

The Economist has a good article on computer forensics (the science of dissecting computer crime), mentioning the HoneyNet project. HoneyNet is a network of computers that are designed to be broken into, so that the hacks and cracks can be analyzed and patched — what a cool idea.

Alas, the answer to my question yesterday (about the Microsoft update revoking the two bogus VeriSign certificates) was in their FAQ. The third certificate included in the revocation list is a genuine one that Microsoft revoked in order to test their update. (If you go to that page, you have to expand the FAQ section to read this answer.)

Did you know that you can’t get within 50 feet of the courts at NCAA tournament events if you’re holding a drinking cup that doesn’t bear the NCAA logo? What mindless twit came up with this rule?

Made some tweaks to the design here today; most of them will go unnoticed by everyone, as they only involved virtually-invisible spacing issues that probably only annoyed the hell out of me. But if I fixed something that annoyed you, too, then I’m glad. (Update: now, one of the tweaks will go noticed by Netscape 4.X-and-older users; I finally implemented a dumbed-down stylesheet for you guys, since I got tired of Netscape’s inability to display most CSS properly.)

I think it suffices to say that Roger Ebert did not like Tomcats.

Damn. I think that the last time that I went a week without updating was when I went to Alaska… and that was a vacation. This time, it was work, pure and simple. I’ve been so tired when I roll in that I spend no more than an hour or two awake; if I’m on call, I come home the next day, eat, and fall asleep until the next morning (usually around 14 hours of sleep). One more call until the end of this block, though, and then it’s on to a much easier rotation.

Lost in Translation is an excellent service. The first paragraph of my last post is translated thusly:

Odierno the day is day of the agreement. The spaces of the United States, doctors of the participants of the category of the code of the 4, anniversaries had been given you exceed them, those to the name of a program of the mechanism contained and to row on the rock their destiny during lucks of the years. Some were elated and scared others, but, beginning in the solved months, cross everything in the hospitals the country like the new doctors of whom the category. Congratulations with all of them.

There are two good Microsoft security patches out this week. The first is an Internet Explorer update that fixes a malicious code-running bug related to MIME headers. The second update warns users if they try to execute code signed by the two bogus VeriSign-issued digital certificates purporting to be from Microsoft. (I love how VeriSign attempts to downplay how completely their fault those two certificates are, by the way.)

(Interesting thing I noticed: the certificate revocation list that’s part of that second Microsoft update has three certificates in it. The first two are obvious — the two forged Microsoft ones. What’s the third, though? It has a serial number of 77E6 5A43 5993 5D5F 7A75 801A CDAD C222, with a revocation date of August 30, 2000. I’ve tried using VeriSign’s search page to no avail. If anyone can figure out how to find out who it belongs to, lemme know… I’m interested now!)

I caught part of an episode of Sesame Street in a patient’s room this week, and noticed that there was a hurricane theme running through it. Apparently, this was a big thing — the writers started this week with a hurricane destroying Big Bird’s nest and then weaved a highly-educational week out of the topic. Justine Henning, a teacher and writer for Slate, liked what she saw, and from the ten or so minutes that I caught with my patient, so did I.

Interesting new tool released by Userland… and even more interesting that there’s no corresponding tool that allows you to restore a Manila site from the XML files.

In the wake of all the recent school shootings (another one today!), a California school asked its students to come forward if any of their peers make threats against people. Kristina Tapia did just that — and got sued for slander and defamation of character. Her family has spent over $40,000 defending her, and the school district is claiming that it doesn’t owe her one bit of help. Pathetic.

The 2000-2001 influenza season appears to be over, and the CDC is reporting that it was a very mild one. As part of its surveilance, the CDC also subtyped all of the flu strains isolated from cultures, and it appears that the clear majority were represented in this year’s vaccine. This is a pretty big indication that, if you got vaccinated this year, you did yourself a lot of good.

Wired has a good story on Rock, the satellite that was launched by Sea Launch two weeks ago. Once its counterpart, Roll, is in orbit, subscribers will be able to tune into over 100 channels of digital satellite radio. I wonder if this will catch on; nobody’s ever subscribed to their radio before (well, except for public radio), and I’m not so sure people are ready to start.

Today is Match Day. In auditoriums across the United States, fourth-year medical students were handed envelopes which contained the name of a residency program, setting in stone their destiny for the next few years. Some were elated, and others horrified, but starting in a few months, they’ll all walk into hospitals across the country as the newest class of doctors. Congratulations to every one of them.

And in other medicine-related news, the Supreme Court ruled that emergency rooms cannot test pregnant women for drug use without their explicit consent. The crux of this case was that the South Carolina hospital did the testing with the explicit intent of turning any evidence over to the police; I’d agree that it is difficult to justify an invasion of privacy this large.

My work in the hospital has been all about consent lately. I have a patient, a victim of some of the most disturbing abuse I’ve seen, and every time I need to do any procedures on the child, I still have to try to obtain consent from the mother. What is shocking is that the mother has confessed to most of the abuse, and yet not only does she still retain the right to consent for the child, she also is no longer in jail. Welcome to the U.S., where children who imitate TV wrestling moves get life sentences but mothers who break seven of their child’s ribs and bite them repeatedly get out of jail in three weeks.

It appears that the original webcam, the University of Cambridge computer lab coffee cam, has finally bid farewell to the net. The Register had a story warning of this recently; it appears that the lab is moving to a new building, and the coffee cam wasn’t slated to travel along.

Salon has a reasonably good (if slightly overdramatized) account of what it’s like to be in an ER when you find out that a big trauma’s on its way in. The author, a trauma doc in Virginia, does a good job of capturing the frenetic pace, as well as the fact that everything’s a balance between what would be best to do and what you have time to do.

The XFL continues to put up wretched ratings numbers. Last Saturday’s game got a 1.6, which is not only the worst rating for any prime-time network sports broadcast, it’s thought to be the worst rating for any prime-time show, ever. Despite the sorry performance, NBC is sticking by its league… for now.

This could be, quite honestly, the worst security vulnerability alert I’ve ever read. Read it carefully, and try to envision a scenario in which anyone could succeed in exploiting the so-called vulnerability. My favorite is the fact that it would require the user to ignore a huge warning saying that they are about to do something dumb; the author of the alert dismisses this bluntly by saying that people just don’t read warning messages. These are the people securing the computer systems of the world?

Apparently, the maker of a log analysis tool decided that all the whois lookups done by the tool should be run through SamSpade (one of the best web-based DNS tools out there). The big problems with this were that (a) they didn’t ask if they could do this, and (b) the traffic brought SamSpade down a few times. It seems that all’s been fixed now.

Does anyone remember how the lander for the Mars Pathfinder mission kept spontaneously rebooting, losing data and cutting off transmissions? Well, engineers finally figured out what the flaw was, and it turns out to have been a common programming problem called priority inversion. Fascinating.

I have such pathetic gadget envy… anyone out there who wants to send me a Palm m505 can feel damn free to do so, quickly.

Forget Ebonics — the future is in Bushonics. “‘We shouldn’t be cutting down the pie smaller,’ Shaw says with quiet dignity. ‘We ought to make the pie higher.’”

Solar Designer (why the hell does this person use a pseudonym?) has published a passive analysis of Secure Shell traffic. I haven’t yet digested the whole thing, but it appears that there are a slew of small vulnerabilities, none of which are huge, but which together could cause problems. Patches are all included.

Who knew that smearing yourself with herbs for two weeks doesn’t make you bulletproof?

It’s time to feel so, so sorry for all of our Congresspeople — they get too much email, and seem to feel overburdened by the need to respond to the people who voted them into office. (Granted, there are a lot of messages from people who aren’t constituents of a particular Congressperson, but still, it’s their job to respond to the people in their districts, and whatever they need to do to make that happen, it’s their responsibility to do so.)

TiVo had a prime time debut on 60 Minutes last night, and its stock shot up 26% as a result. People really are kneejerk investors; that being said, TiVo really is an amazing product.

Fucking Netscape sucks.

First, a resource: Netscape and Windows 2000. Good.

Now, my list of things to modify. First, files and directories:

• C:\WINNT\NSREG.DAT (change the permissions to full control for everyone).
  
• c:\Program Files\Netscape\Users (ditto)
  

Now, a list of registry keys — on all, you need to change the permissions to full control for the User group.

• HKLM\Software\Netscape\Netscape Navigator\
  
• HKCR\Netscape.Help.1\
  
• HKCR\Netscape.Network.1\
  
• HKCR\Netscape.Registry.1\
  
• HKCR\Netscape.TalkNav.1\
  
• HKCR\NetscapeMarkup\
  
• HKCR\aimfile\
  
• HKCR\CLSID\{481ED670-9D30-11ce-8F9B-0800091AC64E}\
  
• HKCR\CLSID\{E328732C-9DC9-11CF-92D0-004695E27A10}\
  
• HKCR\CLSID\{E67D6A10-4438-11CE-8CE4-0020AF18F905}\
  
• HKCR\CLSID\{60403D81-872B-11CF-ACC8-0080C82BE3B6}\
  
• HKCR\CLSID\{EF5F7050-385A-11CE-8193-0020AF18F905}\
  
• HKCR\CLSID\{61D8DE20-CA9A-11CE-9EA5-0080C82BE3B6}\
  

Fucking Netscape.

The Sea Launch platform succeeds again, in launching a digital audio satellite for XM Satellite Radio. I would love to go out on the command ship for a launch sometime.

The Linux wristwatch is getting more and more interesting, although I’m not sure I’m ready to have someone start hacking into my frickin’ timepiece.

It’s funny — my first reaction to the news that some people are trying to get Jedi acknowledged as an official religion was that it was ridiculous. But then I remembered that the Church of Scientology is based on a science fiction book… which, of course, verified that it’s a ridiculous idea.

And on the Scientology subject, I love how Slashdot is justifying the deletion of some Scientology-related post. Those involved are saying that they had to delete it, as it violated copyright — a reason that they specifically fought when they refused to delete a post which contained copyrighted Microsoft code. What a bunch of asses.

Genius: a look at what the future of this Presidency could turn into if Dick Cheney continues to have health problems. “President Bush today threatened ‘to unplug Dick from the respirator’ if House Democrats don’t go along with his plan to privatize Social Security and Medicare.”

Just finished watching the Penn State/UNC game… wow. UNC didn’t end their year very well; Sundays have been particularly hard for them.

It’s so sad when knowledge bases have to cater to the lowest common denominator.

God damn Netscape (again). Today, I spent two-plus hours trying to figure out why a common User (not a Power User, or an Administrator, but a User) can’t run Netscape 4.7X under Windows 2000. Turns out that there are a slew of security changes you have to make, since Netscape doesn’t know how to do multiuser. I want that time back.

I can’t even begin to understand the British Airways policy of not seating men next to unaccompanied minors. They say that they are “trying to balance the needs of the child with the needs of the adult” — huh? Someone needs to explain this one to me.

I’m such a sucker for a cool space picture. I think I’ve found my next desktop image…

Act quickly if you’re willing to pay for a phone call of a guy acting like Abraham Lincoln making monkey noises. No, seriously.

My friend Tim has made another funny. (It’s a PDF, so if you don’t do PDFs, don’t click it.)

Dunno if it’s true, but one computer news source is reporting that Apple has disbanded the team responsible for the G4 Cube, and that the company had to buy back nearly $3.5 million in inventory from CompUSA.

Once again, Dubya demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the policies of the United States. Honestly, I don’t know why his staff lets him talk; he truly is an idiot. (My favorite parts of this article are the notion of an English-to-Bush and Bush-to-English dictionary and the quote from the White House official that “the President is always correct.”)

Yeah, I know that most people think it’s because his brother was a judge on many of the appeals decisions, but I like to think that Justice Breyer recused himself from the upcoming medical marijuana case because he likes to smoke the doobage himself. (Actually, he’s the only one on the Court that I could see kicking back with a bong.)

Wow — a whole article on the religious following that’s developed behind Shiner Bock. (I miss Shiner so much in New York; I have yet to find a reliable source for it.)

The bitching and moaning surrounding Google’s takeover of the Deja Usenet archives has hit the popular press. Whine, whine, whine…

If you have any knowledge about regulations which define the various parameters of the jobs of President, Vice President, and member of the Cabinet — work hours, vacation time, sick leave, and whatnot — please email the Explainer, as he’s stumped.

I never see popups. And I don’t worry about being tracked by advertisers with cookies or in any other way.

That’s because I have a product installed on my system which filters HTML and is set by default to prevent popups from happening (the “Geocities” syndrome) and it is very much a relief. I can override that on a per-site basis if I want.

I also have the ability to control cookies on a per-site basis. Moreover, I’ve actually created firewall rules which block groups of IPs belonging to the major advertisers. I don’t trust their promises to not track me, not at all. But if they never ever receive any communications from me while I browse, because all such are intercepted by my firewall, then I can be sure that they’re not tracking me

Today, while surfing around, an incredibly deceptive window popped up onto my screen, spawned by an ad-supported website. I wonder how many people have been tricked into clicking on it, and installing that stupid app.

For those who tenaciously track the latest religious figure image sightings, Jesus is currently holding forth from a blood-stained Band-Aid. Catch him soon; he’s probably booked to appear on a refrigerator door in Scranton soon.

Did you know that the latest click-wrap license for ViruScan says that you can’t publish a review of the software without prior written approval of Network Associates? Since I don’t own the software and haven’t clicked on the license, I can say without fear that this sucks ass, and I don’t know if I’d ever install software under these rules. (Update: it appears that I have installed software under these rules — Microsoft SQL server, all of Oracle’s software, and even Netscape’s web browser. Hell, there’s even a license of a Linux distribution that bans minors. All of this is such a joke.)

I’m such a rebel to be linking to this.

After admitting a five-month-old child to the hospital Thursday night who had not yet received a single vaccination, I feel a duty to provide everyone with a few good links about the importance of vaccinating your kids.

• Why Should I Immunize My Child?, the top level of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ immunization information site.
• The National Immunization Program of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Vaccine Information Sheets for every vaccine given, in fifteen different languages.
• The current recommended vaccine schedule for children and adolescents (in PDF format).

Ahhh, it’s so nice to see that media manipulation in the name of politics is alive and well in America. (Don’t get me wrong — I’m not indicting any particular party with this one, since I’m sure that the attempts to deceive the media cross lines of every type in Washington.)

Something handy as all hell that’s been floating around the web is a list of the opt-out pages maintained by all the web advertisers. Most appear to do what they claim to (set that advertiser’s cookie to a value which they can’t track).

Once again… what an ass. I was getting ready to wax euphoric about something that he’s doing, but… nevermind. Then I started playing with his new tool, realized that he still is willing to let people use it to steal content from other people’s weblogs and use it on their own sites with only the smallest and most cryptic invisible credit, and stopped using it. (Of course, I only stopped after creating a weblog demonstrating my problem with it.)

As you can probably tell, I’ve started back up on an all-hours rotation in the hospital. I’ll try to keep up, but judging by my performance the other times I’ve been on the inpatient wards, I don’t know how well I’ll do.

Oh, by the way, I can tell all of you that there’s not a chance in hell that any doctor would perform a cardiac catheterization if there weren’t an urgent need. The White House is spinning this one big time. (Update: Salon has the president-elect of the American College of Cardiology saying the same thing, and in addition, pointing out the strategic wording that the White House has used to not have to admit that Cheney had another heart attack.)

Finally, AdCritic has the Nike ad, heavy in rotation right now, with all the NBA players dribbling and squeaking their shoes. I love this ad.

Controversy is brewing in Japan because a woman, the first female governor in the country, wants to present an award in a sumo wrestling ring. The traditions surrounding sumo prevent women from entering the ring, because it is ostensibly a sacred place in which the “unpure” (a group in which all women are included, apparently) are prohibited. Nice to see that the U.S. doesn’t have a solo grasp on ignorance and intolerance.

Gawd, was this the storm that wasn’t. Yesterday, the hospital cancelled many clinics and services in anticipation of the worst of it; today, despite it being much worse out than yesterday, everything was open — probably because it still isn’t that bad out.

Napster gets smacked down by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. Particularly damaging to the service is Patel’s response to the objection that it would be difficult for Napster’s people to ferret out all the attempts to circumvent the banning of copyrighted material — she acknowledged the problem, but noted that “this difficulty, however, does not relieve Napster of its duty.” (The entire five-page ruling is here.)

I still have yet to figure out this parody fan site run by Slate. Why does it exist? I’m confused. It’s not their only one, either, but none of them make any damn sense. (Update: Dan pointed out that all these sites are part of Slate’s Blorple Falls, West Carolina site — but it still makes no sense.)

Cool — it’s my corner. I wonder how much they paid the poor people who had to go and take all these 360-degree panoramas, and how long it took them. (Thanks to Heather for the site.)

Dammit, I just found out that TiVo has released version 2.0.1 of its operating system, but I haven’t received it yet. They claim that, due to its size, the upgrade is being rolled out slowly; everyone will have it “sometime in March or April.” I want it now!

The Washington Post technical section has a decent article on the successful efforts to hack TiVo and ReplayTV boxes. I couldn’t be happier with my 110-hour TiVo — I rarely watch live TV anymore.

I don’t know about you guys, but I sure as hell want a three-dimensional printer.

Salon now has their recap for this week’s Survivor II episode, the one where Mike fell into a fire, burned the crap out of his hands and face, and had to be evacuated out of the camp by medics; it’s funny that the only episode I’ve watched is the medical one. (Also, thanks to Dan for explaining what the anesthetic inhaler was that the medics gave Mike — we don’t have anything like that here in the U.S., so I had no clue what it was.)

For the scary statistic of the day, the number of heart attacks in people aged 15 to 34 rose 10% during the 1990s. Cardiologists blame increasing rates of obesity, smoking, and cocaine use.

I wanna go to SXSW in Austin. I really, really wanna go. Can someone cover the hospital for me?

Today’s GlobeXplorer image: the east tower of the George Washington Bridge, the one that stands on Manhattan soil, a mere half mile from where I work. (And speaking of the Gee-Dub, I think I’ve found my newest favorite picture.)

My friend Phil has been playing with GlobeXplorer, and apparently, he lives just on the edge of a huge broccoli patch.

If anyone gets a speeding ticket in northern Virginia, one of the ones issued because a cop in a plane clocked you as driving over the speed limit, drop Mike a line — he’d love to beat it.

I had no idea that the Richter scale isn’t used anymore in measuring earthquakes. Now, seismologists use the moment magnitude scale, but since that’s such a mouthful, news organizations say that earthquakes are “magnitude X,” such as yesterday’s magnitude 6.8 in Seattle.

For those who haven’t seen home videos of the Seattle quake on the news, here’s a video from inside a computer room at Microsoft (thanks to Z). Damn, it looks like a violent quake.

Oops — a man and his two kids (six and eight years old) were left hanging when workers shut off a ski lift in Austria. The dad realized that the situation didn’t look good, and jumped 18 feet down to go find help for his kids; they got free ski passes for next season as apologies.

I’m so happy — my home city is the latest to tell the Boy Scouts where they can put their anti-gay policy. Well, they will tell them; the New York City Boy Scouts council has four months to try to convince the national organization to drop its discriminatory policies, or else all government support of the Scouts ends here.