Trade Malware Protection for Privacy?

Slashdot reports that the new Firefox 3 includes an interesting malware protection feature.

"As we were discussing, Gran Paradiso — the latest version of Firefox — is nearing release. Gran Paradiso includes a form of malware protection that checks every URL against a known list of sites. It does so by sending each URL to Google. In other words, if people enable this feature, they get some malware protection, and Google gets a wealth of information about which sites are popular (or, for that matter, which sites should be checked for malware). Fair deal? Not to worry — the feature is disabled by default."

Handy C++ Compiler Errors

I love 'em!

This handy error:

node.cc: In member function ‘virtual void Node::initialize()’:
node.cc:14: error: no match for ‘operator=’ in ‘((Node*)this)->Node::neighbours = (((const std::allocator&)((const std::allocator*)(& std::allocator()))), (((std::list >*)operator new(8u)), (->std::list<_tp,>::list [with _Tp = Node*, _Alloc = std::allocator](), )))’
/usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/../../../../include/c++/4.1.2/bits/list.tcc:120: note: candidates are: std::list<_tp,>& std::list<_tp,>::operator=(const std::list<_tp,>&) [with _Tp = Node*, _Alloc = std::allocator]

... simply means: You forget a "*", idiot!

I didn't know the Wii was so much fun...

The Dark Tower Movie

Every now and then, I do some research on a potential Dark Tower Movie. In case you don't know, The Dark Tower is a 7-book novel by Stephen King written in almost 25 years. I really like the books and highly recommend you to read 'em. However, King himself doesn't like the idea of a movie.

I've always resisted that idea because movies have a way of freezing characters and places in the audience's mind whereas in books everybody has their own different idea of, for instance, how Roland or Susannah looks but if you do it as a movie, immediately that kind of gets frozen in place and you say 'Oh, Billy Bob Thornton is what Roland Deschain looks like.' Or you say 'Brad Pitt, that's what Eddie Dean looks like.' You know what I'm saying, or you can say 'Calla Bryn Sturgis from Wolves of the Calla looks like maybe the Universal back lot', and I've always resisted that. The issue with The Dark Tower books is there's so much story, so many incidents, that it couldn't be done in one movie alone. It would have to be done at least as a trilogy the way The Lord of the Rings movies were done or it would have to be done as a TV series, probably on HBO because of the violence, the way The Sopranos was done. I haven't entirely ruled that idea out but for the next two or three years while the books have their initial run, I think that if you want the story of Roland, you'll have to get it at your bookstore rather than the local movie theater.

Last February, King apparently changed his mind.

Remember last week when we told you that JJ Abrams might be directing an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series? Well it looks like this rumor is true...

The other day, I was googling again and found this trailer on youtube:


I was really excited until I found out it's a mock trailer... :)
Here's another one (that clearly says at the beginning that it's a fake trailer).

Google Video Top 100

I was checking the Google Video Top100 the other day. There used to be a lot of funny clips. Having a look at the Top20, I would say that has slightly changed... ;)

What's the worst location to sell your new lip-gloss line?

You're right, an office full of computer scientists. Nevertheless, it just happened that a beautician was around trying to sell a new make-up line. Do I have to mention, that she wasn't that successful?

Time to practice your guitar again...