Halffull.org

I’m a programmer by trade. I read a lot of tech-related and programming sites, both for the good tips and the horror stories. We’ve all heard about the IT guy who forgot to backup the production server (oops!) or the janitor who unplugged the AC in the server room (ouch!). All kinds of fun in the world of corporate IT.

We’ve even heard about some commercial software with heinous errors. Games with no sound. Security software that steals your resources. Sony installing rootkits. Microsoft software.

Eve Online, however, has just gone one step beyond. If you installed their new expansion, Trinity, on opening day, it deleted your boot.ini file. You can no longer boot Windows.

Even a rootkit leaves your computer working for a little while.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Eve Online is a space combat MMORPG. There are somewhere around 300,000 subscribers, and 30,000 people online on an average night. Tens of thousands of potential victims.

Of course, there was no warning that this would happen. They did not send out any kind of alert until a day later – today at 5:45pm EST. If you happened to reboot or shut down your system in that time, and you’re not running Linux (my saving grace), you’d be greeted with a unusable computer.

This is simply inexcusable. CCP, the developer of Eve, and whose slogan is “We Care More, We Work Harder,” is a professional software development firm. They should have tested what they’re putting on your computer. My God, you’d think making a computer inoperable would make one of their QA people say “Hmmm… that can’t be right.” There is no conceivable reason for the game installer to even touch the boot.ini file, forget about deleting it.

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Today’s review will cover an “interesting” article from Businessweek on the so-called Wal-Mart Effect. The author’s journalistic skill will be shamelessly torn down and mocked. Enjoy.

Essentially, he says that Wal-Mart’s pricing on a single flat-panel TV in the Christmas season has fundamentally and permanently changed the landscape of the electronics market as a whole. A no-name TV, specifically a 42″ Viore, was priced at $988. A similar Panasonic was priced at $1294. Other retailers couldn’t match these prices – or didn’t want to – as their prices had been nearly double that for some time.

Cleary, this was an evil act. I mean, come on, retailers are going out of business.

The fallout is evident: After closing 70 stores in February, Circuit City Stores on Mar. 28 laid off 3,400 employees and put its 800 Canadian stores on the block. Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, the high-end home entertainment store, is shuttering 49 of its 153 stores and dismissed 650 workers. Dallas-based CompUSA is closing 126 of its 229 stores, and regional retailer Rex Stores is boarding up dozens of outlets, as well as selling 94 of its 211 stores. [...] Circuit City shares have fallen 24%, to $18.76, since the end of November, when the price war started. In the same period, Tweeter’s shares declined 32%, to $1.72, near a 52-week low, and Best Buy’s stock is down 9%, to $48.73. Shares of Rex Stores have been flat, down 0.7%, to $16.98. [...] The carnage has one phrase written all over it: the “Wal-Mart effect.”

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You know things are bad in the world when David Hasselhoff, aka “The Hoff,” can’t get no respect from the press. The Hoff has received a lot of bad PR lately regarding some public drunken appearances. This episode in particular is my favorite – the press claims The Hoff is kicked out of Wimbledon for being totally drunk. As he is evicted from the premises he shouts out:

You should let me in. Do you know who I am? I am the Hoff.

I AM THE HOFF!

Now here he is on July 24 denying the incident, stressing that he absolutely does not drink and that the press will report any lie they can come up with. However, three days later we’ve got another awesome Hoff incident, where he gets so drunk in the airport, British Airways wouldn’t let him board the plane. I commend the travel stewards on prohibiting him from the flight – what happens if the Hoff starts taking off his shirt and singing songs by Chef in the middle of the airplane? There’s nowhere ladies and gay men can go to escape the power of The Hoff.

The shirtless Hoff – causing as much ruckus as snakes on a plane? You decide. dun dun duuun…

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I’ve been struggling with the rehash of the news over the past couple of weeks because what has been happening around the globe has been so horrible that there really is no way to perk it up for anyone’s enjoyment. In fact, if you look at the current headlines listed on Google’s World News section, 18 out of 20 are about conflicts and killing around the world. There’s little to be happy about these days. But I think I’ve found a way to break up the seriousness of our journey – with internet cliches. Let’s get started.

Now, I can’t claim to be an expert in Middle Eastern history and/or policy, so I won’t bother trying to enlighten you with my own commentary with what I think is happening. (In short, I think most everyone out there is crazier than Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch, but that doesn’t really make for good reading.) If you’re looking to read something more intelligent than that, there are some interesting news links that I’ve found. The first is an article ABC News has written up called “What is Hezbollah“. The next is almost a conspiracy theory about what has been happening with the recent attacks against Israel. The journalist connects the dots, looking back with historic events and an interview he actually gave Sheik Sayed Hassan Nasrallah (Secretary-General of Hezbollah) a couple of years ago. It’s an interesting read: Nasrallah’s Game. Continue Reading »

In ye olden days, people used the telegraph or a lone, brave postman to deliver tidings. News was sparse and difficult to come by.

Today, thanks to Dan Quayle and the invention of the internet, news is abundant, not to mention redundant.

Google News is one of my main sources of news. It’s handy because it picks the day’s top headlines in a few different categories and sort of “collects” all of the articles pertaining to that particular headline for you to choose from – and for many headlines, there are anywhere between hundreds to thousands to read all about the same topic.

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We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Now that most of the halffull writers are back, I will reinstitute an old custom: The weekly news update. However, I need a name for my news report. Any ideas? Comment below with your suggestions.

And now for the news.

For those of you who did not follow this year’s “American Idol”, you didn’t miss much. The winner, Taylor Hicks, whom I predict in three years will be relegated to performing lounge acts in Vegas as an opening act for Tom Jones, has been recently voted as People Magazine’s Hottest Bachelor. For some bizarre reason, the masses have been charmed by his gray hair and long, shaggy eyebrows, and have somehow decided that he looks like George Clooney. I assure you, this is not the case at all. Halffull has done some extensive research and has discovered that Taylor Hicks is, in fact, Jay Leno’s mini-me. Our research is guaranteed to be factual because it was done over the internet. By ninjas. Internet ninjas. Yeah.

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The rioting in France escalated to unbelievable heights over the course of a mere thirteen days. (In case you couldn’t detect it, that was sarcasm.) Violence spread to 300 towns in France, people were killed, a 50-year old disabled woman was even doused with “an inflammable liquid and set afire as she tried to get off a bus” and copycat rioting has been occurring in other European countries. The images are unsettling. France’s President, Jacques Chirac, has been largely ineffectual, as he waited a couple of days before even addressing the rioting, and after he spoke the violence escalated even further. Speaking again, he strongly stated his feelings that the rioting reflected a “profound malaise” in the community. Whoa, let’s not break out the harsh words, Jacques.

After the thirteen days of heavy rioting, the police put a curfew in effect which apparently magically made the rioting all better. Officials claim that the situation has drastically improved since enforcing the curfew. I have been especially interested in the rioting, so I have been following this activity closely. The following is a chart I put together to monitor the situation:

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Blogging is on the rise and with big names the likes of Google and Yahoo supporting the growth, a backlash has begun. Professional news sources and politicians alike have been arguing that any individual who reports a news blog should follow the same laws and regulations that a “reputable” and “responsible” news source would. The question then becomes: What is “reporting” and what is “rehashing”? Most bloggers out in the intangible area that has been retardedly named the “blogsphere” aren’t really reporting any new news at all. Instead, they compile reports that they see from known, professional news sources and reinvent it on their own sites – pretty much like what we do here at Halffull. The argument against regulating this kind of news blog is that it is opinion and commentary based on other news sources, and not reporting. Regulating this kind of blog would then become a violation of first amendment rights.

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Although there was not a great deal of participation, last week’s News Haikus turned out to be surprisingly popular. We’ll bring it back again soon and make it a monthly occurrence. Until then, if you spot anything newsworthy that you’d like to contribute to the next haiku news report, write something up and save it. You have about three or four weeks to come up with a little something. Until then, here’s your regular news report.

French President Jacques Chirac decided to stop being a useless tool when, after eleven nights of violent rioting, he finally decided to say something about it. I guess the first ten days of violence and burning are okay, but once you reach that eleventh day, you’ve gone way too far. Reports claim the rioting has spread to 300 towns across France and into Belgium and Germany. Last night a man was beaten to death by a rioter, becoming the first reported death since the violent outbreak. President Chirac is facing extreme criticism for his inability to handle the rioting – why this is such a surprise is anyone’s guess. Reportedly, Chirac has two different plans proposed on how to face the crisis: A) Call in US and UK forces to handle the situation and afterwards harshly criticize them before the UN for occupying France, or B) Surrender. No word yet on what the decision will be.

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This week’s challenge: Write up a bit of news in haiku and post it below in the comments section. Haiku generally has three lines, the first and third line having five syllables, the second line having seven. The only real rule is that it has to include a news link in it, to show its newsworthiness.

Here are some examples:

Alito: New Choice
Democrat Armageddon!
O sloppy seconds…

Madonna is back
Here is a secret for you:
Enough, fake accent!

Stolen photos of
Britney and Cletus offspring
Quick to whore their child

Submit your news haikus in the comments section below! And don’t be a weenie about the comments section – I don’t bite.