noogz's blog

Pakistani Prisoner has Light Bulb removed from Anus

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 06:54:20 -0500

Oooh... time to re-start the wtf? of the [insert time period here]. As usual, our wtf? comes from Reuters, who inform us that a prisoner in Pakistan has encountered an illuminating situation:

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass light bulb in his anus.

On Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad's misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.

"Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort. Today, I had my breakfast. I was just drinking water, nothing else," Mohammad, a grey-beared man in his mid-40s, told Reuters from a hospital bed in the southern central city of Multan.

"We had to take it out intact," said Dr. Farrukh Aftab at Nishtar Hospital. "Had it been broken inside, it would be a very very complicated situation."

Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there.

"When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this," Mohammad said.

"I don't know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners."

The doctor treating Mohammad said he'd never encountered anything like it before, and doubted the felon's story that someone had drugged him and inserted the bulb while he was comatose.

You don't read these very often do you?

Free Music

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 02:59:44 -0500

Get your free music - Weird Al's released a new single on his website - so download it!

Today's WTF.

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 03:18:18 -0500

This photo, with caption comes from Wikipedia.
Take a look:

This Dutch protester wants to reset government policies using Control-Alt-Delete.

Oh dear.

Chicken or The Egg

Fri, 26 May 2006 22:59:32 -0500

The Egg came first.

It has been proven, apparrently...

From /.:

'Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life. Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg. Professor John Brookfield, a specialist in evolutionary genetics at the University of Nottingham, told the UK Press Association the pecking order was clear.'

So, let's all celebrate then!

OS X Goes Closed Source

Wed, 17 May 2006 17:18:07 -0500

Well... To compound to what I said yesterday, I think that OS X has just lost another thing that it had going for itself. The fact that the System (was) Open Source.

Well, according to Slashdot, it's no longer:

littleghoti writes "Macworld is reporting that "Thanks to pirates, or rather the fear of them, the Intel edition of Apple's OS X is now a proprietary operating system." Mac developers and power users no longer have the freedom to alter, rebuild, and replace the OS X kernel from source code."

A step in the wrong direction? I think so.

Why I will probably never buy a Mac

Tue, 16 May 2006 21:13:56 -0500

So there's been a bit of a debate on tba and the Web in general on what people think about the Mac Platform. I think it's time I had a bit of a weigh-in, since I consider myself to be neither a normal computer user, nor a partial member of either side of the Mac vs. PC debate. My two cents worth is as follows: I will probably never buy a Mac. Nor will I ever buy a copy of Windows (but that's an entirely different matter). I think it's worth hearing my side of the story, because I, as a UNIX user, have an entirely different side to the story.

(tba and RSS feed readers will have to click the link to follow on (sorry!))

Sun to Open Source Java

Tue, 16 May 2006 16:59:10 -0500

Oh happy happy joy joy-ishness. Soon, I will be able to use the full Sun SDK on my Debian System (sorry GNU people... sometimes GIJ just don't cut it :P)

From Slashdot:

"After resisting for years, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz at JavaOne this morning said that he will release the source code for Java. The company is asking developers to provide feedback on how to best get there and prevent forking and fragmentation."

Here's hoping I'm not the only one who's happy about this!

On the name...

Tue, 16 May 2006 02:17:47 -0500

Found at Revolution-Europe

I entirely agree. I actually like the name now - and I feel comfortable saying it in public.

Someone agrees with me?

Tue, 16 May 2006 02:11:16 -0500

Last time we met, I made an interesting little post about how I thought the console wars are going to play out this coming generation, now that we've seen E3, and I do recall making a point that Sony isn't currently looking like they're going to be dominant in the next market.

Well, a post on /. today tend to agree with those thoughts. "The PS3 Is Doomed" passes comment on how Sony's attitude at E3 is troubling. From the article:

Sony has this "we are undefeatable" attitude, and with 60 percent market share, who can blame them? But do they not understand market trends and how quickly they change? Microsoft was a newcomer in the gaming arena with its original Xbox, Nintendo was ridiculous with GameCube and limited titles, therefore, Sony had the perfect opportunity to enjoy its dominating position on the market. However, the tides have changed.

No Longer A Criminal

Sun, 14 May 2006 02:58:41 -0500

Well, after all of the mounting fines that would inevitably have piled up in my house if the copyright agency saw my computer, I am now happy to declare that I will soon no longer be a criminal in the eyes of Australian Law.

Yes, for the past 40 years, Australia has not had a fair-use copying clause in our laws - the type of law that allows US Citizens to format-shift their music (CD-MP3), or backup their software. Well, they're finally amending the laws, and now, I can breathe easily when it comes to listening to my music.

Here's the portion that the Slashdot article has lifted:

"Once the new laws are passed, 'format shifting' of music, newspapers and books from personal collections onto MP3 players will become legal. The new laws will also make it legal for people to tape television and radio programs for playback later, a practice currently prohibited although millions of people regularly do it. Under the current regime, millions of households a day are breaking the law when they tape a show and watch it at another time."

Yay! w00t! etc!

My thoughts on E3

Sat, 13 May 2006 21:07:59 -0500

Read on for my comprehensive wrap-up/opinion of this week's video gaming announcements, from E3 2006...

Star Wars Original Versions on DVD!

Fri, 05 May 2006 23:58:59 -0500

All of you Star Wars fans who feel ripped off by the way that LucasFilm only releases the special edition Star Wars now days, rejoice!
From Ctrl+Alt+Del

Lucasfilm will be releasing the original versions of the first Star Wars trilogy on DVD for a limited time later this year, despite George Lucas' adamant statements a couple of years back that the special editions would be the only versions available. The DVD's will be go on sale September 12th, at the same time the new Lego Star Wars launches. Lucasfilm will then stop distributing the original version on December 31st, similar to how Disney releases their movies on DVD for a limited time only.

The original versions will feature state of the art remastering techniques as of 1993, the last time the original trilogy was remastered. Meaning it will still be pretty fuzzy.

If anyone can find some more info on this, 'twould be much appreciated... But otherwise, this is extremely cool, and many thanks to LucasFilm for doing it!

Wiiiiiiiiiiii

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:52:33 -0500

Does anyone dislike this as much as me?

http://www.revolutionfanboy.com/2006/04/27/confirmed-revolution-now-called-wii/

Rose-Tinted Myths

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 21:28:42 -0500

You know... I really hate Microsoft... For many reasons. Microsoft's XBox Live "Arcade" Manager commented that “To be honest with you, a lot of those games are fun in your head when you think, ‘Oh, yeah when I was 12, this was really fun,’ and you have these great nostalgic reasons to play them. Then you do play them, and they're just not very fun anymore. But, there are some games like Joust or Gauntlet or Pac-Man that are as fun today as they were back then. ”

The article "Rose-Tinted Myths" at Revo-Europe.com looks at why this guy is an idiot and why many Retro games are as good now as they were then.

Happy Easter

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 02:05:50 -0500

Happy Easter to you all! Enjoy your chocolate and other yummy stuff.

I certainly will!