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Author: Bryant

Anti-spam tool

Tagging this for later use — it’s an implementation of a newish anti-spam concept, designed for qmail but I believe it could be adapted to procmail fairly easily. I want to let it go through a little user testing before I install it, though.

Young and wealthy

What’s it like, being young and suddenly rich? Hard to imagine, for me at least, particularly if you were poor before. The seminar discussed in that article probably comes four years too late, though; you want to catch the rookies before they hit college, because that’s where the special privileges start.

The techniques the NFL uses to guide these kids are nothing special. Not that different from what you read about in “scared straight” programs. They even bring in a former player and current felon to talk about the hell of prison. What’s interesting to me is the reaction of the rookies. That’s where the sociology is.

Oh, and the advice on women. It reads as abominably sexist, but do I think the NFL is deliberately allowing sexist rhetoric in their training sessions? Or do I think that these guys do get targetted by predatory women?

Turn it around. Do you think rich women get targetted by predatory men?

Weird little view into a very weird little world.

Grunt grunt mod_perl install grunt

Grunt grunt mod_perl install grunt grunt hackery. Man, Apache is a pain in the butt. Anyways, works now. I can’t get the supposedly superfast Movable Type as a handler method to work, but it’s running OK as a CGI, and seems to be marginally faster. I’ll take what I can get and look forward to moving onto the G3.

Street uses

The BBC had an article about interesting multi-region DVD players, which perhaps holds clues about the inevitable clash between the people who make content and the people who make devices to display that content. If DVD manufacturers can’t hold the multi-region line, what are the chances that computer makers will care long-term about Hollywood’s digital rights management demands?

Full Frontal probably goes down

Full Frontal probably goes down as a daring failure, but I can’t fault Soderbergh for experimenting. The problem is mostly that the experiment doesn’t have a center. The cinematographic tricks work well, and the acting is solid. But when all’s said and done, the lines between strata of reality have been blurred to no visible end.

Punches and kisses

Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie is called Punch-Drunk Love, and is due to hit theaters in October. As per normal for his films, he’s released little information about it — it’s a romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, and that’s about it.

The site linked above now has three trailers, hiding behind the three words of the title. They are the most non-spoiling trailers I’ve ever seen. Cool stuff. Can’t wait.

Fear of flying

Wired does an admirable job of covering the laws regarding air travel and government ID. In short, it appears to be the case that the airlines must request a valid form of ID, but it is not the case that the airlines must turn away a passenger who does not present a valid form of ID. Airlines can, of course, refuse to allow passengers to board for any reason.