Dvorak News Blog

You’ve been Rickwormed? iPhone worm Forces Pic of Rick Astley as Wallpaper

By McCullough Monday November 9, 2009

A new virus is infecting iPhones – the Ikee – forcing users to look at a picture of Rick Astley as their wallpaper. It’s only affecting jailbroken phones – those modified to run non-Apple approved software – but can jump from iPhone to iPhone with no input.

The hacker that developed the worm has been identifies as Ashley Towns (who goes by the handle ikeeex), who has stated that he initially infected 100 units with the worm. “Due to the nature of it, it’s kind of hard to tell, I know my phone hit about 100 alone but from there I have no idea,” he said.

He said that the virus hit the first wave of people at 4am on 6 November, and has quickly proliferated around the globe. There are reports of it changing the picture it sends as well, so if your background suddenly appears to have another picture, then you’re probably a victim. While some are labelling this attack as ‘mobile vandalism’, others are stating that it shows how unprotected jailbroken iPhones are, especially as mobile virus attacks are on the rise.

Now that is just plain sick!

Officials now claim Fort Hood shooter tried to contact Al Qaeda

By Jacob Galt Monday November 9, 2009

35 Comments

This story is getting fishier by the minute (as John and Adam predicted on the last No Agenda). First, the Texas governor was saying (Youtube clip) that there were 3 shooters, and now this:

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

CIA director Leon Panetta and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, have been asked by Congress “to preserve” all documents and intelligence files that relate to Hasan, according to the lawmaker.

Pic of the Day. UN Troop Replacements

By John C Dvorak Monday November 9, 2009

5 Comments

(Click photo to enlarge.)

What Kind Of Health Care Reform Should We Have?

By Uncle Dave Monday November 9, 2009

111 Comments

The House barely passed a bill that the Senate doesn’t like in it’s current form. Lots of people on all sides want it to either do more or do less or do it completely differently.

Since our current system doesn’t work what with continually rising costs that are unsustainable, millions uninsured, the country’s financial health in bad shape and on and on, what should we do? With so many aspects and facets to the problem to consider, which ones are most important?

From minor tweaks to scrapping it all and starting over, where do you stand?

Look at the question from two perspectives. First, what would you do if you could wave a magic wand and start over without politicians being involved? In other words, the health care system of your dreams.

Second, given where we are and the idiotic political realities of the US these days, what are the politically and monetarily feasible changes to what we now have that you would like to see?

Murdoch considers completely blocking Google to encourage readers to pay up

By honeyman Monday November 9, 2009

36 Comments

Murdoch could block Google searches entirely – The Guardian — The interview with Sky is long but fairly interesting. Clearly Rupert is getting desperate. How’s MySpace working out for you, mate?

Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google’s search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.

In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire – including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal – would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.

In recent months, Murdoch his lieutenants have stepped up their war of words with Google, accusing it of “kleptomania” and acting as a “parasite” for including in its Google News pages. But asked why News Corp executives had not chosen to simply remove their websites entirely from Google’s search indexes – a simple technical operation – Murdoch said just such a move was on the cards.

“I think we will, but that’s when we start charging,” he said. “We have it already with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it’s not right to the ceiling. You can get, usually, the first paragraph from any story – but if you’re not a paying subscriber to WSJ.com all you get is a paragraph and a subscription form.”

Chavez preparing for war with Colombia and US

By honeyman Sunday November 8, 2009

17 Comments

‘Prepare for war,’ Chavez warns Venezuelan military, populace – The Raw Story — It’s clear that the pretence of the wars on drugs and terror could be setting the stage for war in the region. Is Chavez right to be worried about an impending war with the US or is this an Orwellian exercise in managing the Venezuelan people?

The leader of the fifth-largest oil exporter in the world is warning his country’s military and citizenry to prepare for war with Colombia and the United States, according to published reports.

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez issued his warning during a weekly radio address.

“Let’s not waste a day on our main aim: to prepare for war and to help the people prepare for war, because it is everyone’s responsibility,” he reportedly said.

Chavez has repeatedly voiced deep fears of US encroachment in the region.

“Students, revolutionaries, workers, women: all are ready to defend this sacred homeland called Venezuela,” he continued, adding that the best way to “avoid war is to prepare for it”.

Al Gore condones ‘civil disobedience’ against fossil fuel polluters

By honeyman Sunday November 8, 2009

25 Comments

Civil unrest has a role in stopping climate change, says Gore – guardian.co.uk

Al Gore has sought to inject fresh momentum into the Copenhagen build-up, saying he is certain Barack Obama will attend and predicting a rise in civil disobedience against fossil-fuel polluters unless drastic action is taken over global warming.

Amid increasing incidents of climate protesters disrupting the operations of fossil-fuel industries and airports in Britain and elsewhere, Gore suggests the scale of the emergency means non-violent lawbreaking is justified. “Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play,” he says. “And I expect that it will increase, no question about it.”

In his only UK newspaper interview to mark the publication of his new book, entitled Our Choice, Gore says it is crucial for Obama to attend Copenhagen in person, adding: “I feel certain that he will.”

I’m by no means a man made climate change sceptic, and I fervently believe that dissent is the essence of a democracy, but isn’t Gore essentially calling for revolution? I’m uneasy about this guy’s motives.

No Agenda — Ft. Hood Terrorist

By grumet Sunday November 8, 2009

13 Comments

#146 No Agenda For Sunday November 8th 2009
Fort Hood Terrorist

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Who Takes Their Wife To A Strip Club?

By Uncle Dave Sunday November 8, 2009

15 Comments

“Gotta get prepared for tonight’s show.”

I know some couples are more sexually open and adventurous and sharing and whatever than others, but really, doesn’t taking your wife kinda defeat the purpose of going to one?

A Silverdale woman told a Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy that a dancer at Toys Topless attacked her verbally and physically just after midnight Saturday.

The woman said she and her husband were at the establishment when the dancer began talking inappropriately to her about lap dancing.

The pair left, but the woman said the dancer followed them out to the parking lot. The woman said the dancer then punched and scratched her.

The deputy caught up later with the dancer at her Port Orchard home. She claimed that the fight was two-sided.

What exactly could a stripper say to a wife that is deemed “inappropriate” while in the middle of giving her husband a lap dance?

Pic of the Day. Amtrak Cascades

By John C Dvorak Sunday November 8, 2009

16 Comments

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Animated Stereoviews Of Old Japan

By Uncle Dave Sunday November 8, 2009

17 Comments

In the late 19th and early 20th century, enigmatic photographer T. Enami (1859-1929) captured a number of 3D stereoviews depicting life in Meiji-period Japan.

Found by Kevin Berg

The ‘Faked’ Oswald Photo Is Probably Real

By Uncle Dave Sunday November 8, 2009

34 Comments

Even if Oswald was the shooter, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a conspiracy.

Kennedy conspiracy theorists appear to have one less bullet in their arsenal. Hany Farid, a computer science professor and expert in digital forensics at Dartmouth College, spent two months evaluating a photograph of John F. Kennedy shooter Lee Harvey Oswald.

“You can’t really authenticate a photo in all honesty,” Farid said of the image, which shows Oswald holding a Marxist newspaper and a rifle. “But I can say pretty definitively that the things that people thought made the photo a fake, well, those people are wrong. And it doesn’t make them stupid. I was wrong too. But that photo is not the proof they think it is.”

It’s long been the contention of conspiracy theorists that photos of Oswald were doctored as part of an elaborate cover-up after the President’s Nov. 22, 1963, assassination.
[…]
He used a computer program Facegen, to build a virtual 3D model of Oswald’s head. Once that was completed, he added in the background features of the photo. Through a series of computations, he figured out where the camera had to be, the trajectory of the sun and where Oswald was in relation to the camera.
[…]
Farid said given the technology available 46 years ago, there is no way someone would have been able to get the internal and external elements of the photo just right in order to fabricate not only the one photo, but two others in the series.

How to open a bottle of wine?

By John C Dvorak Sunday November 8, 2009

20 Comments

This is actually astonishing. Only the French!

House passes health care bill 220-215

By Jacob Galt Saturday November 7, 2009

99 Comments

In a tight vote, the House passed its sweeping health bill late Saturday, marking the biggest victory yet for Democrats in their drive to create near-universal health insurance.

The bill passed by a 220-215 margin. It came after House leaders made a surprise last-minute concession that blocks abortion from the new government insurance plan in order to win over wavering Democrats.

Its passage moves Congress closer to the biggest expansion of the social safety net since the Medicare insurance program for the elderly was created in 1965. The measure spends $1.01 trillion over a decade to provide health insurance to an additional 36 million Americans and creates a new public insurance plan to compete with private insurers by 2013. It requires most Americans to carry insurance, creates a new exchange where they can shop for it and gives the lowest earners tax credits to help them pay for it.

The Open Office Mouse

By Uncle Dave Saturday November 7, 2009

27 Comments

Click pic to learn all about it

With support for “18 buttons, an analog joystick, and support for as many as 52 key commands,” it’s for people who think the new Apple Magic Mouse has gone a tad too far the other way. Designed for use with the free Open Office suite, the three extra fingers needed to operate it are, well, extra.