Mel's Dad



Mel Gibson's Dad, Hutton Gibson, is a real piece of work. A New York Times profile describes his belief that (a) all of the Popes since the 50's are backed by Masonic plotters who wish to destroy the Vatican; (b) Al Quaeda wasn't behind 9/11; and (c) the Holocaust never took place. We can now surmise the origin of Mel's nickname 'Mad Max'...



"On our first night together, he nursed a mug of sassafras tea while leading a four-hour tutorial on so-called sedevacantism, which holds that all the popes going back to John XXIII in the 1950's have been illegitimate -- ''anti-popes,'' he called them. As Hutton explained it, the conservative cardinal Giuseppe Siri was probably passed over for pope in 1958 in favor of a more reform-minded candidate. Hutton said Cardinal Siri was duly elected, but was forced to step aside by conspirators inside and outside the church. These shadowy enemies might have threatened ''to atom-bomb the Vatican City,'' he said. In another conversation, he told me that the Second Vatican Council was ''a Masonic plot backed by the Jews.''



Hutton flatly rejected that Al Qaeda hijackers had anything to do with the attacks. ''Anybody can put out a passenger list,'' he said.



So what happened? ''They were crashed by remote control,'' he replied.



He moved on to the Holocaust, dismissing historical accounts that six million Jews were exterminated. ''Go and ask an undertaker or the guy who operates the crematorium what it takes to get rid of a dead body,'' he said. ''It takes one liter of petrol and 20 minutes. Now, six million?''



Across the table, Joye suddenly looked up from her plate. She was dressed in a stylish outfit for church, wearing a leather patchwork blazer and a felt beret in place of the traditional headdress. She had kept quiet most of the day, so it was a surprise when she cheerfully piped in. ''There weren't even that many Jews in all of Europe,'' she said."



Mel's Dad Hutton Gibson



Open or closed: which is more secure?



From DevX... an interesting debate on whether open source software is more or less of a risk for organizations than closed source.



"The nature of open source makes security problems an inevitable concern. There are a handful of ways that malicious code can make its way into open source and avoid detection during security testing, making government adoption of open source particularly worrisome.



Open Source Is Fertile Ground for Foul Play



Rebuttal:



"The editorial published on February 11... suggests three areas where security might be a concern for governments when considering open source software. However, all three arguments are flawed "straw men" when subjected to rational analysis. Indeed, some of the author's own arguments demonstrate the strengths of open source when weighed against any closed source alternative. "



Who's Guarding the Guards? We Are



QuickTime must die!



If your systems are anything like mine, they often get saddled with ridiculous system tray icons that are absolutely useless. A good example is QuickTime. If someone can give me a cogent reason that QT shows up on a system tray after installation, I'll wear a skirt and you can call me Nancy. F**king ridiculous. Let's see, there's some content I want to see that happens to require QT. When I click on the content, I want to see it.



Is that clear, Apple? I want to see the content! I don't want to see anything new on my system tray! What possible use can I have for that? "Oh, I'll just fire up the QuickTime player and see what's on! Kewl!"



Okay, the edge is coming off my rant, so I'll let you in on a pretty quick (and standard) way to get rid of your useless system tray icons without pain or needless expense. Start >> Run >> msconfig.exe. Click the Startup tab. Turn off the useless, poorly-thought-out, author-must-be-terminated, brain-damaged-stupid tray icons that you don't need. Click the Apply button. Aahhhhh. Isn't that better?



Sport Sedan Shootout



Infiniti's G35 6MT performs well -- very well -- in Car & Driver's Sport Sedan Shootout.



"Just saw Lord of the Rings II - Why are Orcs so easy to Kill?



Funny FC thread... here are some of the highlights:

why are Orcs so easy to kill?

Which ones are the Orcs? The big trees?

In France, they're called D'Orcs

For the same reason the Storm Troopers in Star Wars are easy to kill. Or the terrorists in Die Hard movies.

Gotcha. They're like Star Trek guards. I just wished these movie makers treated their audience like adults. S**t, why bother.

Ah, yes. The classic aternative universe question. Who would win in a fight between the extras in a Star Trek away team, and Star War Storm Troopers?

I was thinking more like the Star Trek guards vs the French Army.







Why are Orcs so easy to kill?