September 9, 2002.

*** SECURITY ALERT ***

If you are currently running Windows XP, YOU ARE HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO A SERIOUS SECURITY FLAW!!!  This information was reported on TechTV's The Screensavers just a few minutes ago and it goes something like this.

It's possible to set up a link in a Web site or even in an e-mail containing HTML code that could delete crucial files on your system!  The sure sign this disaster may have already happened is when your Windows XP Help window opens up all of a sudden while you're surfing the Web or checking your e-mail.

There are two solutions to this catastrophic hole.

1. Go to Windows Update and install Service Pack 1 which has just been released.

2. Locate a file called UPLDDRVINFO.HTM and rename it to UPLDDRVINFO.OLD or even better, a totally different file name just in case a new virus locates this renamed file, renames it back to its original name, then activates the security flaw.

Option 2 may be the best choice for now just in case there are serious bugs in the newly released service pack.  Also, I wouldn't recommend applying a service pack on any computer that hasn't been fully backed up.

September 1st, 2002.

A Very Big Battery Page Update!

For those of you whose ThinkPad 600 is loaded with the INET series BIOS, we may have a possible solution to your battery problems!  Just be warned it's not entirely risk free since it does involve flashing the BIOS in your computer.  And as you probably know by now, if the BIOS flash fails, your system board may need to be replaced.  It's not something that happens all that often, but it can happen.

While shopping around for components for a new computer, I found out one of the motherboard manufacturers, Gigabyte, resolved potential BIOS flash disasters by having two BIOS chips loaded on the computer.  If the flash fails on the primary BIOS, the backup BIOS is used to recover the computer.

Why don't all computer manufacturers adopt this feature?  It's not like the second chip takes up a lot of room.  And it would certainly avoid a few grey hairs especially now that I'll probably be using the regressing flash procedure to find a better ITET series BIOS for my own 600X series computer.

I Quit!

No, not my job.  At least not my day job.  Instead, I decided to quit my position as president of my building's condo committee.  Without getting into any specific details, the job was really starting to get to me in a really bad way.  So bad that I actually felt like not going home at all just to avoid the phone calls.

A friendly word of warning.  If you own a unit in a reasonably large condominium building and someone from the condo committee would like you to join the team, think very carefully about this.  You'll be dealing with lousy contractors, a few unreasonable co-owners, maintenance problems, budget balancing, some odds and ends... all that with little or (in my case) no financial compensation.  You're a volunteer!  It's a great position if you want to push ahead a personal project, but the daily workload added to your regular job's workload can slowly become overwhelming with time to the point where you feel you live only to work.  It took me a year and nine months to finally understand this.

Battlebot Design Update

I had an idea on my upcoming Battlebot design (scroll a bit lower to see the original concept).  I imagined two designs where one was a ball and the other was a pogo stick.  But now I've figured a possible way to combine the two together!  Imagine seeing a four foot ball bounce around on one leg!

Now I have to figure out how to make it work...

New disc reviews!

Two of them!  "Better Off Dead" and once I finish writing it, "Grand Theft Auto" (the link will eventually work).  You might be surprised which movie among these two I like the most.  I also upgraded the review for "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" to take into account the contents of the newly released Special Edition.

August 11, 2002.

Latest battery update

I've updated my IBM 600X Battery Page with some juicy information I've been sitting on so that I could check out a few possibilities.  I believe I figured out why there are so many bad batteries out there.  If IBM knew of this problem from the start, I'd understand why they would attempt to bury this problem.  The ramifications from this one single problem would have been catastrophic for the entire 600 line.

I was on vacation!

That's why I didn't post any updates for so long.  At most, I added a review or two on my Reviews page, and updated my ever fluctuating DVD list.

So what did I do during my vacation?

NOTHING!!!

Well, not really.  I watched a lot of TV.  A lot of satellite TV!  I discovered so many crazy shows during the weekdays!  Maury, Jenny Jones, and The King himself, Jerry Springer!  The show made me laugh so much that the next time I'm in the Chicago area, I just might drop by for a taping!  "Jerry!  Jerry!  Jerry!"

I also watched generations and generations of Star Trek reruns.  What is it about these shows that made them last as long as they have?  The original series had so many cheaply made sets and props that it's no wonder there was so much overacting!  The Next Generation has decent storylines, but it also has about as much sex appeal as a ship full of Vulcans.  The crew's behaviour on Voyager is a bit more loose just like their storylines, which hasn't always been a good thing for them.  As for Deep Space Nine, I've yet to watch the entire series because of various scheduling problems over the years.  Hopefully, it's not as much as a "space opera" as it appeared to be in the first years.

And broadcast TV's movie offerings?  What's the point?  Just about everything is presented in pan & scan which simply ruins the experience.  And the few movies that are presented in widescreen format appear to be sourced from what looks like old Laserdisc transfers from the early nineties when quality transfers were still in their infancy.  My current movie collection is in much better shape than even the best offerings from the premium service TMN!

Last week I went back to work.  It was about time too.  I was starting to leave an imprint on the couch!

Future Battlebots?

I have a few ideas for a combat robot.  I figure I'd share my ideas in case I never get around to building them and someone else wants to take a crack at it.

This one I'll probably call the Eight Ball.  As you may have noticed, there's no visible external features on it's surface.  Not even a set of wheels.  In fact, the entire structure is nothing more than a rubberized sphere about four feet in diameter.  The drive mechanism is self contained inside the sphere, enabling the entire structure to move just about anywhere it wishes.  And if I can figure out how to do it, it will also have the ability to bounce up and down, stomping any other robot that happens to get in the way.

This one I'll call the Pogo Stick.  It's basically a robot shaped like a round pill, and it's main propulsion is a pogo stick that can be ejected from either side of the robot.  The rounded edges ensure the robot will never sit on it's side, and the bidirectional pogo stick ensures that even when flipped, the robot will continue to function normally.  The robot could qualify as a stomp-bot which will give it a weight advantage over traditional wheel and track driven robots.  As for stomping power, that's left to be determined.  Extra stability will be ensured by two counter-rotating flywheels which I might have sticking out of the edges of the robot, and equipped with sharp teeth!

I know.  Both designs are insane.  They may not even win a battle.  But can you imagine the reaction from the crowd when they see either one of these bots enter the arena and actually move around?  I've already figured out much of the design for the Eight Ball except maybe for the jumping mechanism which needs more research to confirm it'll actually work.  As for the pogo stick design and it's computerized stabilizing mechanism, that's already been created years ago by researchers in the States who wanted to understand how people and animals could walk around so easily.  The researchers found that four-legged travel was very complicated, but one-legged travel was reasonably easy to maintain with the help of a few gyroscopes.  With computers as small as they are, it shouldn't be too difficult to build a self-contained version of the stabilizing device.  But can it stomp another robot hard enough to win a battle?

Any new reviews?

Yes!  The Big Bus!  And if you've missed it, I also had Atlantic City.  Enjoy!

July 7, 2002.

"I'm thinking of something orange..."

That quote is from the movie UHF and best reflect what I saw outside my window this morning.

There has been quite a few forest fires in Northern Quebec in recent days.  And the smoke from those fires has slowly drifted over the city of Montreal.  So this morning, Montreal looked like a city located on the planet Mars with it's orange glow!  Very weird!

At least the heat wave is over for now.  The last few days have been very comfy with temperatures in the thirties and the humidity back to normal levels.  A ceiling fan was enough to keep me cool all day long.

John Frankenheimer

John Frankenheimer passed away on Saturday from complications following spinal surgery.  He was 72.  Some of his well known movies include "The Manchurian Candidate", "Grand Prix", "Black Sunday" and "Ronin".  His specialty was intelligent thrillers both on television and in motion pictures.

It's terrorism!

Ever since September 11th, there's been an obsession for some countries to call every violent incident in the world an act of terrorism.  Last week, a single gunman started firing at the El Al ticket counter at the Los Angeles airport.  For now, the FBI and L.A. police are not ruling anything out because they're not done with the investigation.  Makes sense; gather all the information, study it, then extrapolate what really happened.

However, Israeli Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh declared the incident to be a clear act of terrorism until they receive proof of the contrary.  Talk about being paranoid!  Does that mean that if I look at an Israeli citizen the wrong way, the government will label me a terrorist right on the spot until I can prove to them that I simply questioned what the person was wearing at the time?

Until all the evidence is in, the Israeli government should wait a while before crying "Wolf!"  Other countries may start shutting them out after a few too many false alarms.

July 3, 2002.

It's soooooooo hot!

Here in Montreal, the temperature has reached 35 degrees Celsius in the last four days, 45 degrees with the humidex factor!

It could be worse.  We could be in Toronto where not only the temperature and humidity levels are in the same range as in Montreal, but they also have a garbage strike on their hands making the entire city stink real bad!

June 31, 2002.

Honk!  Honk!

Brazil won the World Cup 2-0 against Germany!  There's honking horns all over Montreal at this very minute!

June 24, 2002.

Brief updates

The review for the movie "Atlantic City" is now posted.  You can find it over here.

The IBM 600 battery page has also been updated with a request for those who are not suffering from the "Sudden Discharge Syndrome" to please send me your information.  You can find that link over here.

June 5, 2002.

Review updates

The review of "The Sixth Sense" is no longer on my list.  In the end, I've come to the realization that the review would resemble very much my review of M. Night Shyamalan's second movie, "Unbreakable" which I've written a few months ago.  That, and the fact the movie has already been broadcast on TV quite a few times.  So if you've loved the "Unbreakable" Vista Series DVD and were wondering if "The Sixth Sense" is also worth the purchase, it is.

Coming soon is a new review for the DVD release of "Atlantic City", a movie which may suffer from a nationality problem.  At least I'll be reviewing something new.

Chrétien dumps Martin

One of the significant pieces of news these days is the firing of finance minister Paul Martin by our prime minister Jean Chrétien, or "Crétin" as I prefer to call him.  There's no other way for me to express how much I really can't stand this jerk.

It's no surprise on how much Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin never got along.  However, it's no surprise either that Paul Martin has shown himself to be an excellent administrator, managing to improve the nation's finances and overall economy over the last few years.  Successive governments have never gained control over our ever increasing debt until Martin finally turn the tide.  Granted he did get some help from the dotcom boom of the last few years, but he also prevented the dotcom bust from trashing our economy in the process.  In the end, Paul Martin is one of those rare politicians who seems to have a good handle on why he was elected in the first place.

Jean Chrétien however is not so much a prime minister as he is a circus clown.  A true buffoon.  Not a single week goes by that he doesn't make some kind of inane comment in front of the cameras, showing the world that he doesn't seem to have a really good grip on reality.  His attempts at humour often turns into insults, making one regret him opening his mouth in the first place.  A good example of this behavior is when he was asked his opinions concerning a crowd of protester being pepper-sprayed by the RCMP during an economic summit in Vancouver a few years back.  His response was how he uses pepper in various dishes.  Totally unfunny and uncalled for.

Already, many Liberals are so fed up of this man that they're already starting defy him publicly.  Last week, the Prime Minister threatened to dismiss anyone who challenged his leadership, and showed just how far he'd go by firing one of the few politicians that actually did a decent job for a change.  And in an act of pure hypocrisy, he sent Paul Martin a letter explaining how he was "saddened" at his departure.  Give me a break!  Chrétien hated Martin's guts from the very beginning!  And now he's "sad"?  HAH!

Many Canadians don't mind that the Liberals are in power.  After all, would anyone really want one of the other parties to be in power?  I doubt it very much.  However, many Canadians don't appreciate having a leader who not only doesn't do a very good job in office as it is now, Canadians also don't appreciate having a leader who's seen as a clown by the world media, making the entire country look bad.

If the Liberal Party wants any hope of maintaining a majority government following the next election, they must at the very least replace Jean Chrétien with a better qualified leader.  It doesn't have to be Paul Martin.  It simply has to be someone else besides Chrétien!

Is a nuclear war about to start?

This one is scary!

Our Prime Minister may be perceived as an nuisance.  But in India and Pakistan, the leaders over there are downright nuts!  Both nations have developed their own nuclear arsenal and are now prepared to use it against each other.  At this time, Russian president Vladimir Putin is trying to negotiate a peace treaty between the two nations before they do something really dumb: poisoning each other's countries with highly radioactive nuclear fallout.

Already, both countries are seriously impoverished as it is.  Can you imagine the death count in a country where the medical facilities are already seriously deficient as it is?  Whatever rescue efforts could be mounted during such a crisis will simply not be enough to rescue the incredible number of people who will be affected by this disaster.  Not only will those located in the blast zones will be affected by such a catastrophe, so will people in the the surrounding areas where the land and water will be poisoned by the drifting radioactive fallout!

An important note to the leaders of both countries.  GROW A BRAIN!!!

Sheesh!  Hasn't the cold war taught us anything?!?