W wipes out on a Segway

Just in case you don't know what a Segway is yet, their website describes it as... "The Segway™ Human Transporter (HT) is the first of its kind—a self-balancing, personal transportation device designed to go anywhere people do. It gives people everywhere the ability to move faster and carry more, allowing them to commute, shop, and run errands more efficiently while also having fun. It makes businesses more productive by allowing workers greater versatility, mobility and carrying capacity. It does it all by harnessing some of the most advanced, thoroughly tested technology ever created."

How does one manage to wipe out on one of the most stable and well balanced, most advanced and tested creations ever....well, leave it to W. The pictures are kind of old, but most of you probably didn't see them the first time around.

If you have any other pictures of this mishap, please post the location of them in the comments section below, or email them to th3m4yh3m@hotmail.com
- posted by d3pth @ 3:27 PM (0) comments

 
Do you Yahoo?

As you may have already heard, Yahoo upped their storage limit from 4MB to 100MB for their free email service today. In an attempt to answer Googles offering of 1GB of free storage, Yahoo reportedly had a few bugs or problems and was slowing down and/or not being available at all, some say due to the changes, and some say their was other internet issues affecting Yahoo and others including Microsoft and Xerox this morning. I have several Yahoo accounts but have not yet logged on to see the updates.

They also offered a huge upgrade to their pay service. Now users who pay for Yahoo's premium service have had their accounts upgraded to 2GB. But even with a 2GB limit, it lacks the searching and archiving features of Gmail.

I abandoned my Hotmail account months ago when I first started using Gmail, and have no plans of ever returning, Microsoft has plagued us all for years with ads at the end of our messages, constant interruptions of service, and down times, and that annoying little graph that lets you know that you're approaching your storage limit.

It will be very amusing to see which competitor comes out on top in the end, I am putting my money on Google at this point in the game for a few reasons.

Reason 1 - Hotmail and Yahoo will not be able to compete with the 1GB for free offer of Gmail. The reason is that for the last 7 years, all of us have created somany hotmail accounts that it would simply be impossible. Microsofts tactics will come back around to haunt them. They make Hotmail inboxes so small on purpose, so you have to check them all of the time, and they fade away after 90 days of not being checked. So they can assure that you will be in their looking at their ads all of the time. And they let so much spam through on purpose, so you have to keep going in and looking at it so you can delete it and not go over your 2MB. It works in a vicious cycle that has made MS a ton of profit. Yahoo does the same thing but on a little bit smaller scale. I alone have about 6 Hotmail addresses. They forced people to create multiple accounts to handle all of the spam that floods in, and because of that, there are so many accounts, upgrading them all to 1GB would be very very hard. Yahoo offers 100MB which is 1/10th of Gmail, without any of the nice features like tabbed replies, searchable database of email, etc.

Reason 2 - Features the google search feature in the Gmail interface is very nice, as well as the tabbed replies. These are two features that Hotmail and Yahoo lack, and I really cannot imagine them trying to ad. Not to mention Gmail is new and fresh, and you have a great chance of getting a good email address. Users over the last couple of years who have started using email have never known much besides Hotmail and Yahoo, so their email addresses are kind of bad for the most part, like johnsmith13_323@hotmail.com etc. So a new email service is kind of a relief for a lot of people.

Reason 3 - The ads in Gmail are very very small, and they are text ads. Far less annoying and far less frequent than the others.

I guess we will all have to wait and see who comes out ahead in the end. But for now, Gmail is king.

Leave comments below and let us know what your opinions and impressions of Gmail are, and also if you have tried out the new Yahoo interface yet.
- posted by d3pth @ 1:17 AM (0) comments

 
Recycled News

The unabomber may have tried to kill himself using his underwear.

Click here for the full story.

Also, here is a link to the Unabombers complete manifesto for those of you who have not read it.

Its sections are below, click the link above to read the full manifesto.

Industrial Society And Its Future
Table of Contents
# Introduction
# The Psychology Of Modern Leftism
# Feelings Of Inferiority
# Oversocialization
# The Power Process
# Surrogate Activities
# Autonomy
# Sources Of Social Problems
# Disruption Of The Power Process In Modern Society
# How Some People Adjust
# The Motives Of Scientists
# The Nature Of Freedom
# Some Principles Of History
# Industrial-Technological Society Cannot Be Reformed
# Restriction Of Freedom Is unavoidable In Industrial Society
# The 'Bad' Parts Of Technology Cannot Be Seperated From The 'Good' Parts
# Technology Is A More Powerful Social Force Than The Aspiration Freedom
# Simpler Social Problems Have Proved Intractable
# Revolution Is Easier Than Reform
# Control Of Human Behavior
# Human Race At A Crossroads
# Human Suffering
# The Future
# Strategy
# Two Kinds Of Technology
# The Danger Of Leftism
# Final Note
# Notes
- posted by d3pth @ 1:29 AM (0) comments

 
Recycled News

Fast Food Frenzy

A mass shooting begins at a Pensylvania McDonalds

McDonalds worker arrested for selling drugs at the drive thru window

Another McDonalds Shooting

Standoff with a gunman with hostages inside of a McDonalds

Recycled News - Brought to you exclusively by THE MAYHEM
- posted by d3pth @ 8:47 PM (0) comments

 
Recycled News - What the Hell?

THE MAYHEM recovers some older news stories with a common theme.

Michael Jackson to Allred: 'Go to hell'

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has told UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to "go to hell" after Britain endorsed his election rival Morgan Tsvangirai

Hell's Angel Sonny Barger launches cross-country book-signing tour

Judge: Man who gave son AIDS will 'burn in hell'

Bank robbery suspect: 'It went to hell'

Ray Lewis testifies that 'all hell broke loose' when fight began

Arafat's response to Barak's timeout: 'Go to hell'

This has been Recycled news, the best of the archives, brought to you exclusively by THE MAYHEM
- posted by d3pth @ 7:35 PM (0) comments

 
A word about Text Messaging
by d3pth

Do you use the text messaging feature offered by your wireless carrier? I do, and I use it a lot. And when it comes to things like Instant messaging, Wireless communication, web-based email, and message boards, you should never say anything that you would not say openly in a crowded public place. When I email, or text, or anything, I always assume someone is reading it. If you want truly secure communication I would recommend getting a mail client that supports PGP. Just go to www.google.com and search for PGP security and you will get a list of sites that explain what it is and how to use it.

In an article featured today on CNN.com found here, the woman accusing NBA star Kobe Brant of rape sent a series of text messages from her wireless phone shortly after the alleged incident took place. Quoted from the article, "The judge himself said the content may be "highly relevant" to the case."

The Judge could order the wireless provider to hand over the content of the messages, that is the scary thing.
As many of you know, and as many of you don't know, Text messages, like instant messages, tend to be stored on servers. Another Quote from the article ""One of the false assumptions that people make is that when they hit the delete button, messages are gone forever, but nothing can be further from the truth," said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst in Atlanta."

The Kobe Bryant case may be the first case in the US to have text messages entered into the docket, but as you can imagine, already in Europe and Asia many cases have been decided based on their content.

Below are some more highlights of the CNN.com article - All are direct quotes from the article.

AT&T Wireless spokesman Mark Siegel said the company cooperates with law enforcement officials for investigations but refused to discuss its policies on storing text messages.

The company's Web site said messages not immediately delivered are held for 72 hours for more delivery attempts -- then deleted. How messages in the Bryant case would be available four months later isn't known; most likely they were retrieved from an archival storage system.

"It's just a common practice," said Kagan, the telecoms analyst. "I don't know an instance where they delete them."

While some European countries require telecoms to store text-messaging content and other communications for law enforcement purposes no such requirement exists in the United States, said Barry Steinhardt, director of the Technology and Liberty Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. That changes when law enforcement officials obtain a court order.

The large U.S. wireless companies say messages are deleted either when they are sent or after a set amount of time if they cannot be delivered.

Cingular Wireless will wait seven days before purging undelivered messages, spokesman Clay Owen said. "Otherwise, nothing is stored," he said.

Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Jenny Weaver and Sprint PCS spokesman Dave Mellin said text messages are not stored anywhere after delivery.

Travis Larson, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, said information about text messages -- including the sender, recipient and location of sender -- is always stored for billing purposes. The software used to store that information also can store content.

"I think in these days of corporate fraud and in these days of terrorism we're seeing more and more reason to store forever," Kagan said. "Don't ever say anything on e-mail or text messaging that you don't want to come back and bite you."

End Quotes from CNN.com article found here.

It makes me wonder which providers and which programs store messages and which do not. Does AOL? Does Microsoft Instant Messenger? ICQ? Hotmail? How do you know for sure that the delete button is for sure? If you have any information on the deletion practices of any of the above mentioned sources, please post in THE MAYHEM's comments and this story will be updated.

To tell the truth, I don't really care if they keep my messages or not, I never say anything through the computer that I would not want people to see. And if I ever do, PGP will be used, or I would simply say it to the person the old fashioned way, face to face.

This is in no way a paranoia piece, just a helpful warning for people that may not realize that things are most often archived and saved, even after you press delete, and it does take a court order to have them retrieved, but nonetheless, they are there forever.
- posted by d3pth @ 8:24 PM (0) comments

 
How to make the most of CNN.com
by d3pth

CNN.com appears kind of plain, and they don't really update their page as much as they should, in THE MAYHEM's humble opinion. So if you find yourself bored, and roaming around their website, consider a few tricks to finding content of interest.

OFFBEAT - CNN.com offers offbeat news daily. It is the most funny and humorous stories of the day. But there is no direct link to it from any of their other pages as far as I can tell. Once in a while a story labeled Offbeat will be on the front page somewhere in one of the secondary headline groups below, but they never link directly to the Offbeat section. It can be found at http://www.cnn.com/offbeat/

TRANSCRIPTS - If you love watching CNN on television, but are stuck at work with only web access, or you just didn't get time to watch Larry Kinf Live last night or something, head over to the Transcripts section. Like the Offbeat section, you can find links to Transcripts of certain shows and segments, but rarely ever, if atall, is their a link on the site to the Transcripts main page. It can be found at http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ Transcripts are updated frequently and are even posted for shows that aired hours before, quite an archive.

INTERNATIONAL - Interested in more detailed and obscure stories in the international community. This is another section that is not well linked to within the CNN.com site. Head over to http://edition.cnn.com/

Hopefully this makes the place a little bit more interesting for you.
- posted by d3pth @ 8:22 PM (0) comments

 
The band Creed has finally broken up.

CNN.com article found here. We are safe for now from their horrible sounds, at least until they find out that they cannot make any money on their own and form again for a reunion tour in ten years. Maybe and maybe not.

Ever since I turned on MTV about 10 years ago and saw Scott Stapp in his Jesus pose falling backwards into the crowd, I have shivered when I hear the name Creed. The lead singer has an ego the size of the Atlantic Ocean.

Directly Quoted fro the article.. "Stapp's first solo recording will be on a soundtrack of music inspired by the film "The Passion of the Christ." He's working on a solo album with the Canadian band the Tea Party."

Also quoted from the article "Three former Creed members immediately announced they were forming a new band -- minus singer Scott Stapp -- but were quick to say it was not "just Creed with a different singer."

Sure…….
Was it Stapps wife-beater and long hair tucked behind his ear with leather pants, or the ultra-cheesy video for "Arms Wide Open", or the fight between Stapp and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst that made us all despise Creed so much. Who knows, but they finally broke up, so although we will forever have to put up with their hit songs being played and played on the radio rock stations, at least we don't have any new ones to hear.

Here is a funny article about Stapp being too drunk to perform and Creed fans rebelling.

- posted by d3pth @ 8:20 PM (0) comments

 
Man goes on rampage in an armored bulldozer

Just in case you didn't hear about this already….A man in Denver spent months making an armored bulldozer, and then went on a rampage with it in his small town of Granby Colorado. An article on CNN.com found here, says that the man was angry at the city over a zoning dispute that allowed a concrete company to expand around his location instead of forcing it to buy his property. He targeted many city buildings and the homes of the board members who were involved in the decision.

As always you can rely on THE MAYHEM to get straight to the good stuff, so here you go.

Statements appearing in quotes are direct quotes from the above mentioned CNN.com article.

The Bulldozer - "The man owned the bulldozer, and had modified it inside a building he owned near the concrete batch plant." "The machine had a half-inch steel plate with a layer of concrete, and another steel plate," he said. "On the front of the machine, there were two rifles mounted where he could shoot straight ahead." SWAT teams had to use explosives just to get into the bulldozer.

The Damage - "At the height of the rampage, the bulldozer demolished or heavily damaged a concrete batch plant, the town hall, a bank, a library and the local newspaper offices. The property of the former mayor, who held office at the time of the zoning dispute, was also damaged."

The Outcome - "The assault ended after an hour and a half when the vehicle became stuck in one of the buildings that it plowed through." From reading various articles from around the net, it appears that after the bulldozer became stuck, he exchanged some fire with authorities, and then shot himself. Police and SWAT teams used explosives to get through the doors of the armored vehice and recover the body at around 2 a.m.

More quotes from the CNN.com article:
"Every indication is that these were all targeted hits," said Granby Town Manager Tom Hale. "They were all properties that people who worked there were involved in the zoning decision."

Tim Neal, another Granby resident, told CNN he watched the bulldozer target specific buildings and homes -- homes of town board members who were involved in the zoning decision.

"Everybody knew he would go after everybody on the town board," Neal said in a phone interview.
It isn't often that someone spends that amount of time plotting their revenge in an armored bulldozer. It almost makes you have to wonder at what point did the idea happen, was he in line at the grocery store, maybe standing in the shower one morning, and he thought.."I've got it! I'll make an armored bulldozer and go on a rampage with it and then kill myself."

It just makes you wonder.
- posted by d3pth @ 7:50 PM (0) comments

 
Recycled News - The best of the Archives
Brought to you by d3pth.

DUI's all around - In this edition of Recycled News THE MAYHEM has unearthed a series of stories from the past, all are very amusing, and deal with the subject of Drunk Driving.

Family Ties Actor gets a DUI - Brian Bonsall, who played as the youngest Keaton, gets a DUI after a cop sees someone vomiting out of his passenger window and pulls him over.

Oliver Stone - Driving Drunk, marijuana, and other medications.

Princess Diana's Driver - BAC put him at 3 times the legal limit

W. John Brennan, 57, chief judge of state district court in Albuquerque New Mexico - After avoiding a police checkpoint, he was pulled over, they found cocaine, and he was also driving drunk.

DUI coordinator arrested for Drunk Driving - A man who was the leader of a DUI program that helped offenders avoid incarceration by following a strict probation regimen was found driving drunk without his headlights on and a BAC of almost twice the legal limit.

Nick Nolte - Being drunk wasn't enough, he was also on GHB

President George W. Bush - DUI in 1976.

Queen Latifa - DUI at 3:15am.

Oregon woman facing a DUI charge shows up for court drunk. A quote from the article " SALEM, Oregon (AP) -- A woman with seven drunken driving convictions looked a little wobbly when she appeared in court to answer the latest charge. So a judge ordered her to jail for a blood test. She registered a blood-alcohol content of .31 percent -- more than twice the legal limit for intoxication in Oregon, according to court records. At her court appearance Monday, Gail Yvonne Leos, 52, denied she had been drinking. The judge ordered her held in jail without bail following the blood test. Leos was in court on charges of driving under the influence of intoxicants, driving with a suspended license and driving uninsured.

Diana Ross - Drunk driving in Arizona.

America West Pilots - Drunk Flying.

Atlantic Southeat Airlines - Drunk flying

Continental Airlines - More drunk pilots.

Mesa Airlines - Flying under the infuence.

This has been Recycled News - brought to you by THE MAYHEM.

And in a suprise update to this article..... David Hasselhoff has recently been arrested for DUI. Click Here to read all about it.


- posted by d3pth @ 2:07 PM (0) comments

 
New Michael Moore Film FAHRENHEIT 911 Trailer Realeased

After a battle with Disney, and receiving the top award at the Cannes Film Festival, Michael Moores new film "Fahrenheit 911" is set to debut in US theaters on June 25th. You can go to his website www.michaelmoore.com to view the trailer.

Early on Disney refused to release the film, which is a harsh criticism of President George W. Bush, and opted to have it's Mirimax films division release it. The Weinstein brothers bought the movie personally, and are distributing it through a partnership with Lion's Gate films and IFC films, according to a CNN.com article found here.
- posted by d3pth @ 2:05 PM (0) comments

 
THE MAYHEM reviews MONSTER
by d3pth

THE MAYHEM Reviews MONSTER - (Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci)
As most of you already know, this film is based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a hitchhiking prostitute who killed six men in Florida in the 1990's. She spent 12 years on Death row and was executed in 2002.

I will have to watch more real footage of Aileen and read up about the true story some more before deciding how accurately the story was told. Writer/Director Patty Jenkins spent a lot of time corresponding with Aileen Wuornos during her time on death row. Wuornos even shared letters that she had written to a close friend. As far as I can tell the accuracy of the film is very good. Read here for more on the making of the film and the background information.

The director does a good job making the viewer feel bad for Wuornos and at the same time realizing that what she is doing is wrong. If you have ever seen The Talented Mr. Ripley, then you will understand the type of sympathy that you feel for Theron's character.

I also, like everyone else, admire Theron's courage to look so hideous. They make up artists did a great job making her look almost exactly like Wuornos. She put on over 30 lbs. for the role, and it was well worth it, she really looked scary.

The only complaint I had, is that I think they should have done a few more takes and altered the dialogue a bit in the first part of the film. The scenes of Ricci and Theron in the bar when they first meet do not seem like they are anywhere near the rest of the film as far as the acting goes. Ricci does a fine job in the film but is far surpassed by Theron as far as acting ability.

Overall it was a great film.
Likes: Great acting besides the first 10 minutes. Charlize Theron's desire to accurately portray her character, moving plot, excellent ending.

Dislikes: Some bad dialogue and so/so acting in the opening scenes of the film. And I feel that the director wanted us to feel a bit too much sympathy for Wuornos, almost making her story seem tragic, when she did in fact murder several people in cold blood, for no reason other than money.

7 out of 10
- posted by d3pth @ 7:25 PM (0) comments

 
The American Diet

There is an interesting article on CNN.com today found here that details the american diet and where most of our calories come from. Things like soda and potato chips make up almost one third of the average americans diet accoring to surveys done by the University of California, Berkeley.

Here are some interesting results from their studies. (Directly Quoted from the above article.)
1. Soft drinks and pastries pile on more calories in the daily diet than anything else.
2. Soft drinks and alcoholic beverages account for nearly 25 percent of all calories consumed by Americans.
"It's important to emphasize that sweets, desserts, snacks and alcohol are contributing calories without providing vitamins and minerals," said Gladys Block, a professor of epidemiology and public health nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study. (Quoted from the above article featured on CNN.com)

She also went on to add "You can actually be obese and still be undernourished with regard to important nutrients. We shouldn't be telling people to eat less -- we should be telling people to eat differently."

In my own life, I have found that I feel better when eliminating some things from my diet.
1. Soda and Juices that include carbonation and sugar.
2. Any and all candy.
3. Most dairy products. Things like yogurt are fine on occasion if you do not add anything to them and eat the plain flavor in its raw form.

4. Any and all fried foods.
5. Sugar in general.
6. No caffeine.
7. Make an honest attempt to significantly decrease the amount of bread and grain that you eat.
The other thing is to make sure that you get adequate exercise, which most Americans view as 15 minutes on a machine of some sort, but that is far from actual exercise. If you are doing cardio, and you want actual results, I would suggest at least an hour or more per day of actual moving, sweating cardio activity. Try to burn around 300 to 500 calories per session.

Also change from 3 meals per day to two meals, and one snack per day. Things high in protein and as low in fat as possible, and a lot of fruits and vegetables. Try only drinking water for a while, you will feel great.

I think the main probem in this country is that no one wants to work for it. If you don't spend at least an hour per day at the gym, you cannot complain about your body. Plain and simple.
- posted by d3pth @ 1:27 AM (0) comments

 
Simple Passwords no longer acceptable
by d3pth

An interesting article on CNN.com today regarding electronic passwords for things like bank accounts, website subscriptions, and many different access codes at work. The article can be found here.

A simple tutorial from THE MAYHEM is this. When creating a password;

1. Use a combination of letters, numbers, capital and lower case letters, spaces, underscores, and symbols when allowed.

2. Never use the same password for any two things.
3. Use a mathematical equation such as an Algorithm for creating your passwords at random if you have the means.
4. Do not store your passwords anywhere besides your own mind if you can manage.
5. Never include any data that has anything to do with yourself or your life such as birthdays, anniversaries, lucky numbers, your name, name of your company, name of friends or pets, type of car you drive, favorite music or sports team, etc.

6. Never use the auto-fill feature on your computers browser. If someone happened to sit down at your computer while you were not around, they would automatically have all of your usernames, and then only have to guess at the password. Having to also guess at the username would make it a near impossible task.

7. Never use the "save password" feature on your browser, or use the "Automatically log me in" feature on any websites.

8. Designate one or two passwords that are to always be used for things that you do not care about. Such as the username and password that you use to log into the New York Times website to read news, or something like that. That password and username means nothing, it may as well be johndoe and the password "password" or something like that.

Using a few of these guidelines should help you to maintain a nice level of security as far as your personal passwords are concerned. And also remember, if a hacker wants to take a lot of time getting into something, there had better be a pay off, and what most people forget is that they do not have anything of interest to anyone. But nevertheless, we should all try to be as careful as we can.

If you absolutely have to have your passwords stored somewhere like a spreadsheet, or on a piece of paper somewhere, make sure that it is also encrypted. Something like a monoalphabetic cipher, a Caesar shift, or a piece of keytext that is unknown to anyone but you, so that if your master list is found, it will appear to be there, but in fact will be encrypted in a method unknown to the predator.

One method mentioned in the CNN.com article above is distributing to users a sheet or booklet of one time passwords that theya re to use each time they log in to their accounts. The Germans used a method like this with the Enigma machines, they distributed a book to each operator, and were instructed to use a different starting point for their encryption each day. But one of the long time problems of cryptography has always been Key Distribution, and a sheet of one time codes can be found easily. In the case of a bank account it offers higher security against cyber criminals, but offers no additional protection from the common thief. If you have to use your sheet of one time codes each time you access your bank account, chances are you will have this sheet on your person at any given time, so if someone steals your personal effects such as checkbook, wallet, purse, chances are they will also have your sheet of codes in their possession.

As the article also mentions, companies like Norton offer programs that archive passwords for you, but, there is one master password that lets you at all of the rest, so this is also relatively dangerous. The safest method of course is to remember them.

Also, many public internet terminals have Keystroke recording systems that can monitor and "phish" out passwords. So if you are forced to use a public internet terminal, change your password as soon as you can from a trusted computer.

Many countries and companies are now setting higher standards, at the least requiring passwords to include numbers, and/or upper and lowercase letters, and at the highest requiring retina scanning or fingerprinting, also known as Biometric Systems.

It is painfully obvious that as we start to keep more and more of our personal information on the internet, we will have to have better methods of electronic security. We also need ot balance strong security with ease of use, some people feel that carrying around a sheet of one time codes is simply not worth the hassle. THE MAYHEM suggests using your common sense when creating passwords, and also realizing which passwords are important and which are not, you will be able to simplify your list quite a bit.
- posted by d3pth @ 1:41 PM (0) comments