FoolishPeople

Untitled page from 'Foundling' - Lili Spain

© Lili Spain 2007

The Mighty Boosh

If your not watching the genius comedy of The Mighty Boosh on BBC Three. Why? This has to be the most original comedy the UK has produced in decades. Pure genius. On par and certainly more surreal than Monty Python.  If you live in the UK you can watch every episode of series two online.

 

I wont try and describe the show. Instead I offer below the synopsis to episode three of series two - Nanageddon.

Vince has invited two goth girls he met at a club to the flat. He did this under the drunken pretence that he's some kind of warlock - which obviously he isn't - so in order to maintain the charade, he persuades Howard to 'goth up' and borrows Naboo's book of Black Magic. It's pretty dark. He summons a demon to impress the girls, but all they get is a little old lady... or so it first appears.        

In fact, it is a demon, 'Nanatoo', the evilest demon known to man. Of course, the worst thing that could happen is that Nantoo gets hold of Naboo's book of Black Magic - which of course she does, enabling her to multiply and bring about Nanageddon. And no-one wants that.        

Especially not the Board of Shamen, who suspend Naboo's shamanistic powers as punishment for his carelessness until he can reclaim the book. Instead, he gets drunk. Doubting Naboo's abilities, Saboo and Tony Harrison from the Board of Shaman are also dispatched to find the book, but they're no better: Tony has a gift for strategy, but no body - and even his gift for strategy is drawn into question.        

So who's left to sort it all out? Drunken, powerless Naboo? Two bickering shamen? No, once again it's all down to Vince 'Obsidian Blackbird McNight' Noir and Howard 'Howard Moon' Moon.

You Idiots...

 Sigh. When will these people ever, ever learn.

Two Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after apparently trying to make light sabres by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol.

A man, aged 20, and a girl of 17 are believed to have been filming a mock duel when they poured fuel into two glass tubes and lit it. 

Surely Not?

I laughed at first, then I found out it was true...now I'm just confused...or maybe dismayed. Yes thats a better word.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A 21-year-old man and his parents were killed after the man agreed to be murdered along with his family if he lost a murder-mystery role-playing game, local media reported Saturday.

Authorities said the man and two others were playing characters who might be murdered depending on the outcome of the game. After Thiago Andrade Guedes lost, he allegedly allowed the other men to carry out the killings, just as happened in the game.

Batman Begins Teaser Trailer

Heads up. The Batman begins teaser trailer is up at http://batmanbegins.warnerbros.com/

Complex Passwords Foil Hacks

As more websites demand passwords, scammers are getting cleverer about stealing them -- hence, the need for such "passwords-plus" systems.
To access her bank account online, Marie Jubran opens a web browser and types in her Swedish national ID number along with a four-digit password.
For additional security, she then pulls out a card that has 50 scratch-off codes. Jubran uses the codes, one by one, each time she logs on or performs a transaction. Her bank, Nordea PLC, automatically sends a new card when she's about to run out.

Scandinavian countries are among the leaders as many online businesses abandon static passwords in favor of so-called two-factor authentication.

"A password is a construct of the past that has run out of steam," said Joseph Atick, chief executive of Identix, a Minnesota designer of fingerprint-based authentication. "The human mind-set is not used to dealing with so many different passwords and so many different PINs."

When a static password alone is required, security experts recommend that users combine letters and numbers and avoid easy-to-guess passwords like "1234" or a nickname.

Stevan Hoffacker follows those rules but commits a different faux pas: He uses the same password everywhere, including access to multiple e-mail accounts, Amazon.com, The New York Times' website and E-ZPass electronic toll statements. In such cases, should hackers or scammers compromise one account, they potentially have one's entire online life.

"This is one of these things that if I stop and think about it, it is not good, but I do my best not to stop and think about it," said Hoffacker, an information technology manager in New York.

But it's difficult to remember dozens of strong passwords -- so many sites now require them. Alternatives include writing them down on a sticky note attached to a monitor or in an electronic spreadsheet -- practices security experts also deem unsafe.

Software such as Symantec's Norton Password Manager and Apple Computer's Keychain help store passwords in secure, encrypted form. But if you compromise the master password, you're out of luck. Your entire collection is gone.

Many sites, meanwhile, will e-mail passwords insecurely -- without encryption -- if you forget. A site called BugMeNot.com even encourages users to share passwords for nonfinancial sites like newspapers.

The tools of password harvesting are many: Keystroke recorders secretly installed at public Internet terminals can capture passwords, as can "phishing" e-mails designed to trick users into submitting sensitive data to fraudulent sites that look authentic. Some computer viruses are programmed to harvest passwords and some software guesses passwords by running through words in dictionaries.

Though analysts have no hard figures on password-specific fraud, they blame insecure passwords for unauthorized financial transfers, privacy breaches and even the hacking of corporate networks.

With two-factor authentication, having a password alone is useless.

"We will never play the fear factor here, but still it stays a fact that with our products, phishing is no longer an issue," said Jochem Binst of Vasco Data Security International.

The Belgian company issues devices the size of pocket calculators or keychains. You type your regular password into the device for a second code based on the time and the unit's unique characteristics. That's the code you type into the website.

Someone who steals your device won't have your password; someone who steals your password won't have your device.

MasterCard International. has been testing similar systems in Britain, Germany and Brazil. Swipe a credit card with a smart chip into a special reader, enter your PIN and obtain a password good only once at Office Max, British Airways and a dozen other merchants.

In Singapore, bank customers wishing to designate new accounts for fund transfers must likewise obtain a second password -- through a phone call, e-mail or mobile text messaging. Biometric systems are similar, except a fingerprint or iris scan replaces one or both passwords.

In the United States, use of two-factor authentication remains limited. RSA Security has several products, including RSA SecurID, but they are primarily issued to employees for remote network access and to customers with high-value portfolios.

"There's a delicate balance between maintaining security, but also providing customers with ease of use," said Doug Johnson, senior policy analyst at the American Bankers Association.

Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said banks are "all afraid of making the first step. They don't want consumers going to other banks because it's too hard." U.S. banks and e-commerce companies have focused, for now, on making sure passwords are strong. EBay, for instance, now rejects attempts to create passwords such as "ebay" or "password."

Before two-factor authentication becomes commonplace, laptops must come standard with biometric readers, or manufacturers must bring down costs for password-generating devices.

Outfitting 1 million customers with such devices could cost $20 million, while Internet fraud for those customers amounts to "tens of thousands at most," said Tony Chew, director of technology risk supervision at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Singapore banks thus limit dynamic passwords to fund transfers, he said.

Companies also need to set standards.

Though Jubran enjoys her bank's scratch-off passwords, she wouldn't want the Amazon.coms of the world all adopting them as well.

"It would be too complicated to have 10 different cards you scrape off," the 24-year-old medical student said.

Jason Lewis, vice president of product management at RSA Security, figures companies will have to create services so a single device can work on multiple sites.

Nordea and other Scandinavian banks already have partnered with government agencies and utilities, and an identity-management coalition called the Liberty Alliance Project has begun to explore standards.

People will pay more attention to security as they keep more of their lives online, said Robert Chesnut, eBay's vice president for rules, trust and safety. He offered this analogy: "The more stuff you have in your house, the better the deadbolt lock you have."

The Road To Geekdom

Batman Dead End

Not too many people know that the definitive Batman film has been shot by fanboy and semi-professional film maker Sandy Collora. Collora got his break into film making through working for Stan Winston the special effects maestro.

Batman DeadEnd is an eight minute lesson in how to make a Batman film true to the roots of the character.
The film depicts batman taking on his recently escaped arc nemesis the Joker before going head to head with Alien and the predator. The film is dark, Batman dark. True fans of Batman will understand what I mean by Batman dark. DC comic artist Alex Ross publicly stated it was the best representation of Batman on film.

You can expect to see Sandy Collora's first Hollywood feature very soon. Rumours suggest that New Line Cinema is courting him for Shazams first celluloid outing. Here’s what sandy has to say about Shazam.

“It’s pretty rare when a script captures my imagination and inspires me so much, that I have to read it twice, or even rarer still, THREE times. SHAZAM! By William Goldman is just such a script, but it’s something more… A lot more.

Captain Marvel is one of my favorite superheroes. I’ve always been drawn to him because Billy Batson was like every fifteen-year-old boy I knew… he was like me. The only difference is Billy Batson was given the power of being the mightiest hero in the world, something every young boy hopes to be in one way or another.

But, as so eloquently put in another of my favorite comic book movies; "With great power, comes great responsibility." After the reality of being Captain Marvel has manifested itself in his psyche, Billy is faced with a dilemma that is played out impeccably in this script.

Goldman has truly captured the spirit of Billy Batson’s plight, both as Captain Marvel, and as a fifteen-year-old boy trying to figure out his place in the world. Like it’s tremendously successful predecessors “SUPERMAN” and “SPIDERMAN”, Goldman has stoked this script's furnace with what most comic book films lack… HEART.

I FEEL this film… I SEE this film… every moment, every frame… every ounce of trepidation and frustration Billy feels, every detail of Captain Marvel’s costume, every magnificent beam of magic hour light that bathes his muscular frame with the girl in his arms as he majestically floats skyward.

I had always hoped that someday, someone would make a SHAZAM! movie, now I sincerely hope with every fiber of my being, that someone will be me”

I hope he gets the gig. You can see Batman DeadEnd here.

Chuck D Talks Sense

Chuck D continues to talk sense in the peer 2 peer debate currently taking place at congress.

Old Skool 26k

Ok we were supposed to have ADSL installed at work today, but as allways with these kind of things the line wasnt enabled correctly. It wont be installed until next week, which sucks because I was going to upload some more pictures to the blog tonight, and then watch some movie trailers. Looks like its going to have to be done old skool 26k.

Blackberry Day

I replaced my nokia with the blackberry today. Looking forward to using it tomorrow and posting to the forum via email. It’s not fully setup yet as it takes time to register your handset with the satellite.

I must admit that the fact its GPRS concerns me a little. GSM seems bad enough for being able to locate where you are at any one time, but GPRS makes me feel like Will Smith in that really bad Conspiracy film from the 90's which I currently forgot the name of. Answers on a postcard.

New Mobile Phone For New Mobile Blog

Currently looking at what my next mobile phone will be. I use a nokia 3650 at the moment. One of the first phones to be picture enabled. Its ok but I need something that has a full keypad and will alow me to send updates to the FoolishPeople blog via email.

I have a apple power book which is wi fi enabled but currently the only hotspot is nine miles away.

I looked at the Palm Tungsten C and the Tungsten W, I have used palm devices before. I had one of the first M500 and also first generation Tungsten. I allways found I never fully made use of all the features, and now I have a laptop and that would simply be overkill and greed.

So I think I will be opting for a Colour BlackBerry. The blackberry offers a constant link to email via GPRS.

Hope to pick one up today. Will let you know how I get on.