Security?

I went to the Citibank credit card site today to check my balance. It said that they are upgrading my security, so I just need to answer a few questions. Great! Sounds like fun. (By the way, "if you do not answer the security questions now, you will need to do so in the next week to continue using this website".)

They listed three sets of questions and I had to select one question from each list to answer. The section was labeled "a short walk down memory lane". Sounds wonderful!

Here are the choices they gave me for the first security question:


And the second:

Are you kidding me? What happened to "Mother's Maiden Name"? Are there really criminals out there with a database of mother's maiden names? I don't remember the name of my KINDERGARTEN TEACHER. Nor do I have a FAVORITE FLOWER.

I couldn't even bear to look at the choices for the third question.

I give up, the terrorists have won.

Winkflash is Unreliable

For the first time ever, we decided to skip our usual elaborate creation and order holiday photos from Winkflash. We ordered them in November, and they never arrived, so please tell anyone you know not to ever order anything from Winkflash.

Anyhow, below is our 2006 holiday card. We figured at least someone should get to see it.

Update: They did finally arrive on December 21, and we are supposedly going to get a refund (but hasn't gone through yet). Hopefully our friends and family will enjoy their New Year's cards. At least we said "Season's Greetings" on it, since we had heard that there were some reliability issues with Winkflash.

Rave: Sweet Sounds of Irony

Update #2:
Sony BMG has settled the lawsuits in 39 states for $4.25 Million plus additional damages to consumers who had problems after the BMG rootkit was secretly installed on their computer. I hope this serves as a strong warning to companies about this kind of shenanigans. (Read More...)

Update (May 25, 2006):
Sony BMG has agreed to a settlement of the lawsuit regarding their hidden copy-protection software. The settlement entitles consumers to a replacement of the infected CD's, $7.50, and one album download. They weren't punished strongly enough for their nefarious actions.

Original post (Nov 18, 2005)
Sony BMG has recently come under fire for putting hidden copy-protection software on their music CD's that embeds itself deep inside your computer without your knowledge and prevents you from copying music CD's. Things turned even more sour for Sony BMG when it was discovered that this embedded program is vulnerable to security threats and could allow viruses to attack your computer.

Here comes the ironic part...It has been noticed that this copy-protection software was developed using open source code in a way that violates the open source license.

Too much techno-babble for you? Let me summarize... In order to protect their musical copyrights, Sony BMG violated software copyrights.

I love it.

That really crashes my hard drive!

Parking Idiots

It's about time that somebody provided a fantastic way for you to vent your frustration at moronic parkers. The URL say it all:


http://www.youparklikeanasshole.com/

Rave: 'Tis the Season to Make Excuses

This website makes life easier for you when you need to get out of that holiday party...

http://holiday.enlighten.com/