If an Internet explorer gets tired of all the plugins which would like to install themselves, he can go to security and specify that ActiveX plugins should not be installed.

Guess what happens then? When you come across a page where there is such a plugin, Internet Explorer opens a message box which says:

"Your current security settings prohibit running activex controls on this page.
As a result, the page many not display correctly."

And then an OK button.

So if you don't want Flash installed, you'll get this damn message box on every damn page.

Now it could either be that Microsoft are a bunch of incompetent wankers (which seems likely) or they are just a bunch of amoral twats who wants to force this shit on us (which also seems likely).

So i ask myself, instead of hackers wasting time cracking the latest release of "Little Bo peep and her sheep on vacation", why don't someone make a truly usefull hack and get rid of this annoying behaviour?

(Caveats to spammers: I know you can use proxies, other browsere etc - don't bother)

Ruefull goodbyes

Firefly Support reports that a Firefly movie is now certain. Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne, has confrimed this on the Official Fox board (which is still around). Being a movie this will take longer, it is expected to be ready in 18 months.

A DVD release of the series is set for release later this year.

Or how to predict the succes of your Marriage in several easy equations. These researches believe they have a mathematical model of marriage.
Can Psychological applications of dynamic nonlinear models work? Apparently, because by now they are able to predict who will get a divorce with 90% certainty. From the Chronicle of Higher Eduction

Joss Whedon's 'anti-Trek drama' Firefly, by many called the best new sci-fi series, met with an untimely end last year despite making more money than Whedons two other shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. A hit with the critics and many internet users, the program was Foxed by being preempted, not promoted with episodes shown in a peculiar order (with the Pilot show as the last episode!) Several episodes weren't shown at all, but now the British ScifFi channel has bought the entire series and starts showing it beginning May.
The moderator of the official Sci-fi UK board confirmed this today. Fans are already hoping that the previously unaired episodes will leak across the pond.

A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in shoring up Iraqi defenses against the "human wave" attacks by suicidal Iranian troops. The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague.

Interesting - of course it's a bit of a downside that you can't even start using the stuff before they come running and take it back.

US Diplomate resigns over Iraq Policy

"Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use of force" says John Brown who joined the State Department in 1981.

Eh? Man arrested for wearing a Peace T-Shirt? fascinating....

Sites who reduced readability because of misuse of stylesheets.

http://www.nvidia.com
http://www.asus.com.tw
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.cnn.com
http://www.wiseeye.com
http://www.syfyportal.com