Oh, did you hear about how the DHS came to visit a student who had requested Mao's Little Red Book, as reported on slashdot?

Just one little detail:

Oops ... turns out the story was fake

Personally, I thought it sounded strange. Granted, he called people abroad a lot, which could be grounds for questioning. But Mao's little red book? And the agents supposedly brought the book with them without giving it to the student?
Here's hoping that the student fails, and that his future social engineering jobs are equally stupid.

Five commenters managed to note the lie before the story was archived.

Filed from my university library, where we actually have the damn book available.

Have you ever wondered why slashdot istelf isn't slashdotted?:
Re:Curious

(Comments disabled. Reply to the comment instead :-)

Opera Software, makers of a multiplatform web browser made public that their CEO would swim from Norway to the USA 'if the download numbers of the new Opera 8 Web browser reach 1 million within the first four days of the launch'. A swim to be conducted in the pool of a luxury airliner, or from some unknown Norwegian territory in America?

2005-04-22 09:49:50 Opera CEO might swim from Norway to US (IT,Software) (rejected)

Here's the page where you can follow the tristesse: Opera Swim

Update: Mirror list below. Update 3: removed the mirror list. Their website works now.

Update 2: Official release information. and the Press release

Opera 8 for Windows and Linux x86 and PPC is available for download from the FTP servers.

The voice control is funny.

Also new: Better certificate information.

EDIT: opera.com is struggling for some reason. Here are the files you want:

Win32: ow32enen800.exe

Linux:
The directories are

Opera/linux/800/final/en/i386
Opera/linux/800/final/en/ppc
Opera/linux/800/final/en/sparc

And there are versions with Qt shared and static. Also, versions for other gcc versions are available.

I have opera-static_8.0-20050415.1-qt_en_powerpc.deb i think.

Barring any last-minute faults found, Opera 8 final for Windows and Linux x86 will be available for download next week. The Mac version is still in beta, though.

(I have this from one of the Opera employees, who gave a talk at my campus yesterday.)

Kay has written the AmiTron 2005 show report. Good stuff.

http://ami-tron.org/news

What good is an obscenity trial except to popularize literature? -- Nero Wolfe, "The League of Frightened Men"

I watched a Swedish news report on how some Swedish ISPs -- Bahnhof Internet among them (One of the servers was physically located at their premises, if I have the facts straight.) -- was raided by the police after a court order obtained by music industry representatives.

OK, no problem with that. Sue the uploaders and "sharers" just as you can.

Then one of the employees gets interviewed. He says "Oh, the record industry should't target us. They should encrypt their material better..."

What?

Thanks a lot, you dolt. Go on national TV and push for unplayable CDs and movies that can't be watched on my Linux box. Thanks a lot.

I screamed at the TV. I really did.

I think I'll send them one of those "You're promoting a
(x) technical
( ) social
( ) legal
solution to copyright infringement"

but not while I'm upset. I try to avoid flaming.

Yesterday I faxed my parents a few sheets of an armor recognition manual. They were wondering what all those tanks and APCs were.

My parents are living in Trondia, the southern province of Utopia. And they're living right on the border with Rana, the northern province of Utopia. International forces have been deployed to the area, and hostilities broke out last wednesday. Since my father is from Trondia, and my mother is from Rana, we might get in trouble because of our mixed ethnicity.

Back in the real world, the real problems have been a car run over by a Leopard main battle tank (no injuries) and a few cars driving off the roads. (Slippery).

Here's English news from Exercise Battle Griffin 2005. With a bit more news in Norwegian.

I would be out there driving supplies for the US Marine Air-Ground Task Force, but I got a college deferrment.

EDIT: And near my aunt's place, a CV-9030 APC ran into a house. The house belongs to a driver's instructor who owns the local rally cross track. Oh, the irony.

Who says that tin foil hats can't be decorative? There are some regular ones in the back of the picture.

P.S: The Call to Arms for Babylon 5 viewers is still in effect.

FACT:
The DVDs for the pre-canceled Babylon 5 spin-off "Crusade" was supposed to allow the show creator J. Michael Straczynski to tell the full story of how the show didn't fit the demographics of the TNT channel, and how TNT-Atlanta succeeded in getting rid of the show by sending insane notes to the writers. Like "more sex", "more violence". People at Warner Brothers promised to let JMS tell that story in the commentary, but did they? No, it ended up on the "cutting room floor".

I'm going to send a polite but complaining letter, begging it to be fixed in the region 2 release.

Here's a poll: Poll: What about the Crusade DVDs?

RUMOR:
There are rumors that WB wants to re-cast regular characters from the show for the theatrical movie "The Memory of Shadows". This is comming from industry "insiders", and being reported by respected fans. But I won't be sending off any letters before I get more evidence. JMS hasn't said anything about this situation.

EDIT: I did send off a Christmas card to them, that would work wether or not this (intentionally spread?) rumor is true or not. How I'm looking forward to seeing the film and the regular cast, reminding them they've made millions on DVD sales, etc.

EDIT 2: It's dead, Jim. from jms re: tmos

It's done. Winners have been drawn. The raffle brought in just over $1000. That's in addition to all the auctions and donations were done before.

Old post:
Move sig for grat fundraiser! (November 15th-16th)
Only two days left of the raffle. Posting about this in story comments would be rudely offtopic/trollish behaviour; but most people read slashdot with signatures switched on. So how about you put a link to this site:

http://rbiggsmemorial.starstuff.co.uk/ ...in your signature for these two days, and change it back later?
It's a good thing that you can do without paying.

I bought 6 chances and am looking forward to the prize draw.

As part of the Richard Biggs memorial fundraising effort, the Prize Package Raffle closes soon.
It takes PayPal.

Richard Biggs, who co-starred on Babylon 5, Any Day Now and other series, died suddenly of an arterial rupture earlier this year, at the age of 44. Donations and auctions were held in the benefit of his two small boys, RJ and Hunter. This raffle is the last donation effort I know about. (It's possible to give a normal donation after the deadline, of course.)

I'm not the organizer, but I think people should know about it.

Quick note: Don't flip off any odd person filming you with a camera. It might be tempting, but you could also end up on national TV in Norway.

Norwegian TV news did a story on the US election victory. They showed video from the Republicans' gettogether. Then they visited some hotel where a hypothetical Democrat victory celebration would have taken place. They interviewed some disappointed democrats. And there's a guy lounging in a chair. Flipping off the camera. With both hands. And a smile on his face. Good job.

Don't you dare change your vote because of Osama bin Laden or Michael Moore. That goes for changing it to vote for Kerry, or changing it to vote for Bush.

But I'd be happy to let this tape be an inspiration to get out and vote in the first place! If you feel you don't know who to choose of Kerry or Bush, visit Project Vote Smart and look at some other candidates. Vote on your local issues.

A transcript of the full Osama bin Laden tape is out.
I don't know arabic, but the translators say that he's offering a truce to certain states (not countries, that's a different word). You think he's going to keep that promise?

You know what he wants? He wants to influence the election. In either direction. If his tape is seen as moving the election in ANY direction, he's going to come out and take credit for either a Bush or a Kerry victory, and making himself out to be more important than he is. So don't you dare change your vote because of this.

When it comes to who he REALLY wants? He wants either somebody who will leave the terrorists alone (is afraid of them), or somebody who will come after them too hard (killing lots of civilians etc.). I hope that neither Kerry nor Bush fits either description.

To George W.:

                  I know it's gotta be rough for you right now. Hey, we've all been there. "You're fired" are two horrible words when put together in that order. Bin Laden surfacing this weekend to remind the American people of your total and complete failure to capture him was a cruel trick or treat. But there he was. 3,000 people were killed and he's laughing in your face. Why did you stop our Special Forces from going after him? Why did you forget about bin Laden on the DAY AFTER 9/11 and tell your terrorism czar to concentrate on Iraq instead?
                  There he was, OBL, all tan and rested and on videotape (hey, did you get the feeling that he had a bootleg of my movie? Are there DVD players in those caves in Afghanistan?)

--Michael Moore
(What gave it away, the pet goat references? Or that all the other complaints OBL made were in the movie, except for the references to Israel and Lebanon. He must have seen your website and the anti Moore websites too, because he got your message that it was bad to attack the people who voted against Bush.)

The Kerry campaign says they have released all the military records that they have. (Meaning there are records that the DoD has, that haven't been released yet?)

Brokaw: Someone has analyzed the President's military aptitude tests and yours, and concluded that he has a higher IQ than you do.

Kerry: That's great. More power. I don't know how they've done it, because my record is not public. So I don't know where you're getting that from.

Brokaw: Do you think he's a smart man?

Kerry: I do. Yes, I do think he's a smart man.

The "records" comment is here: Sen. Kerry: Nation 'is polarized'
, but it's not in here: Kerry: 'America can do better'

Did anybody see this interview?

Screen capture

UPDATE: Steve Sailer says Kerry probably didn't know that his test score was part of records posted on JohnKerry.com.