The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

Remember how much I love BLTs? Now I can have candles that smell like one.

Mmm, BLT candles.

Because you know I can’t go long without blogging about Windows-based products…

Apparently some Microsoft web-based help content is only available if you have Office 2003 and configure IE to be vulnerable to all the web-based attacks that have been circulating recently. I’d actually be interested in some clarification on this one, because it doesn’t sound like the whole story, though it does square with what little I know about ActiveX.

For those of you who are tired of dealing with the constant IE vulnerabilities and have decided to follow the advice of Homeland Security, CERT, and Microsoft-owned Slate, here are some handy instructions on removing Internet Explorer from your system and keeping it from coming back. Yes, it can be done. No, it does not break Windows or Windows Update. All that crap about IE being integrated with the OS? It’s not integrated- the Windows registry just has a lot of built-in calls to IE, but if you know what you’re doing, you can change them to be calls to Firefox or whatever, and change the permissions on the IE executable so that it will never open. Highly recommended, but be sure to back up your registry first.

My company launched version 4.0 of our product last night. The build to the production servers started at 11:00 PM.

This morning, I arrived at a quiet office, set down my bag, and read an email the Director of Operations had sent at 1:00 AM about the successful release. I went to the fridge to get a Diet Pepsi (hey, you drink your coffee, I’ll drink my Diet Pepsi). I opened the door and saw a Coke can, dented in slightly on one side. There’s a note taped to it:

“Only for the brave….”

Must have been a fun build last night.

I got the Scissor Sisters album last night. It’s…. odd.

“Take Your Mama” is the current US single, and the first time I heard it, I had turned on my car in the middle of the song. I found myself wondering when Z104 had a format change, because it sounds like circa 1975 Elton John.

The whole album is like an homage to 70’s glam rock and disco. And yet, it does not suck. In fact, it’s quite good, especially if you like your music a bit campy.

Here’s what the Post reviewer had to say.

Dear Windows users:

Stop getting viruses already. You’re breaking the Internet.

Not to mention flooding my inbox with crap.

Here we go again.

What kind of guy thinks this is a good idea?

“Let’s see, I’ve just watched some pr0n, so I’m feeling a little pointy… I know! I’ll call downstairs and ask for some fresh towels, and then when the cute little female hotel employee answers the door, I’ll be NAKED! Of course she’ll sleep with me then, who can resist a trick like that?”

And what do you say when she shows up? “But the girl in the movie liked it when the naked stranger was at the door… Come on, doesn’t she look like she’s having a good time?”

Of course, the sad thing for Norwegian hotel employees is that banning pornography won’t keep deluded asshats from being deluded asshats any more than banning guns keeps murderers from being murderers.

Following is a brief IM conversation I had with a coworker that serves as an example of why I have stuck it out at my job even when I wasn’t so sure I wanted to.

Sri German: i’m in [coworker’s] office if anyone needs me
Me: k. we’ll try not to miss you too much
Me: *sniffle*
Sri German: that’s sweet
Sri German: and sarcastic…
Me: I learned from the best!
Sri German: what’s her name? and is she single?
Me:
Sri German: tease
Me: well, I was talking about my dad, actually
Sri German: tease!
Me: hah
Me: I mean, you could try asking my dad out, but I don’t know if he’d be interested.
Me: and I think my mom would be irritated.
Sri German: i do like irritating the women
Sri German: it’s part of my seductive charm
Me: hehehe
Me: there will be no seducing my mom
Me: cute though she is
Sri German: you and your “rules”

Do you not get enough Ankle Biter in your life? Do you feel the need to endure MORE of my incessant chatter? Quibbling and Four Corners still aren’t enough for you?

You can catch more of me, as well as several other writers who are far better than I, writing about life in DC at DC Metroblogging!

So, this Sandy Berger thing (Wow, Tiff with the political blogging today…). First of all, stealing documents out of the National Archives? By stuffing them in your pants?

Sounds like the stuff of a “young adult” mystery novel. Amateurish and silly. But maybe that’s why it worked.

Anyway, I’m not terribly surprised. It’s not that I think our current generation of politicians is any more corrupt than previous generations, I just think the media and the Internet are getting better at catching them. Which is not to say the media is doing an adequate job of covering it- the NYT’s handling in particular is shameful.

But the whole thing is just so entertaining. Donny notes the irony of a Clinton official causing a scandal by keeping something in his pants. Michele is tossing around the moniker “ScandalPants”, leading me to imagine all manner of SpongeBob ScandalPants sketch comedy, Flash movies, and Photoshop images to come.

Maybe this scandal would be less humorous if it didn’t involve pants. Pants give any scandal an innate comedic twist.

PANTS!

Dear Congresscritters:

I know y’all are tired of being second-guessed by those pesky federal judges, who think they’re so smart with their years of jurisprudential (is that a word?) experience and their natty black robes and all. And I admit, I don’t have a lot of love for activist judges who think “judicial review” is carte blanche to make new policy without the input of the legislature.

But come on, guys. Judicial review is as fundamental to our checked-and-balanced form of government as advice and consent, the veto, and the majority vote are. Congress trying to limit the judiciary’s review of anything it does, even if restricted to one particular law, goes contrary to the very obvious intentions of the Constitutional framers, and I think if James Madison and his boys were here, they’d be kicking ass and taking names right now.

Too bad they’re only spinning in their graves.

Love,
Tiff