For the record, Vernor Vinge was right (original). I want that slogan on a T-shirt. Last February, it was .bmp files that carried the hack. This time, viewing a JPG on a Windows XP computer that is not running Service Pack 2 can cause your computer to execute arbitrary commands. This is horrible. Imagine what would happen if I stuck an worm image in a bunch of Flickr photostreams. Imagine what would happen if I used one for an LJ icon. Do you read a bulletin board that allows people to upload their own avatars? ...

Ranchero Software released the beta of MarsEdit (original) the other day. My preliminary feeling is that it’s nice and slim and practical. As Ginger has noted more than once, ecto is kind of getting increasingly bloated. The latest version, 2.0, has a WYSIWYG editor that isn’t quite there yet, and it’s all about autoformatting for you, and so forth — and I don’t really want my weblog editor to be a RTF editor. Sure, I can switch into a simpler mode, but why should I buy into all the overhead? ...

The Green Party is floating an interesting scenario (original) for the California recall election. It’s possible that the Republican candidates will split the vote among them, and that the Democrats will hold firm behind Davis and not field another candidate. In that case, Peter Camejo, the Green candidate, picks up the Democratic vote and waltzes into the Governor’s office. I don’t think it happens, because there are too many things that have to fall the right way. If Camejo becomes accepted as an alternative to the Republicans, the Democrats lose any advantage they have by not running a candidate, so they go ahead and get Feinstein to run. Also, you have to assume the Republicans don’t pull together behind Riordan. ...

Anyone know what happened to the blog known as “Frank Booth”? I was really digging his movie writing and then poof up and vanish.

OK, let’s stop dicking around, shall we? Here’s what it is. Bronson Arroyo has a 4.01 ERA. His K/9 is 7.2 and his BB/9 is 2.4. Derek Lowe has a 4.91 ERA, a K/9 of 5.2, and a BB/9 of 3.4. Arroyo’s K/B ratio is 2.95; Lowe’s is 1.53. Finally, Arroyo’s RSAA (Runs Saved Above Average, a measure of how many runs the pitcher has allowed versus the league average) is a very average -1… but Derek Lowe’s is -25. Second worst in the American League. ...

So Matthew Leutwyler and the people in his production company put together this movie. Michael Mosher and Richard Redlefsen were all like “yeah, we can bring the gore” and Ever Carradine went like “I can bring my uncle” and Oz Perkins was all like “I’m related to Anthony Perkins” and Jeremy Sisto was definitely all like “I am going to hold this goofy movie together with the sheer force of my charisma” until he gets whacked, oops. But he was way successful up until then. ...

“We’re not Oingo Boingo, but it’s a dead man’s party.” This is a pain for some, because it’s Flash, but here’s what you do: go to the Dead and Breakfast official site (original). Click on the poster. Blah blah lengthy Flash intro which you can skip some of. Stick with it. Eventually it comes through with a menu. Select “Music”. Woo hah! Hit “comin to kill ya.” That’s what I call a country/rap splatterpunk groove, baby.

Followup: the Navy turned down (original) Judicial Watch’s request for an investigation of Kerry’s medals. This came after an examination of the available evidence.

There are three basic approaches one could take to a documentary about Jandek, and none of them are what one might normally attempt in a documentary about a musician: the man is nearly a complete mystery, so you can’t tell the story of his life. You could delve deeply into his music, performing an extended critical analysis that serves as an introduction for newcomers and a reaffirmation for the loyal fans. You could film the mirror, capturing how people react to him and what they read into the Jandek blank slate. Or you could try and unearth the answer to the mystery. ...

Criminal, the remake of Nine Queens with John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Ju-on, one of the best Japanese horror movies of recent years; Shaun of the Dead, zombie comedy; Bright Young Things, Stephen Fry doing Evelyn Waugh; and of course the three Boston Film Festival flicks I want to see this weekend. Kontroll is getting mixed (original) reviews (original) from Toronto, but who doesn’t like “ a cute girl in a bear costume (original)?” This is what I get for, um… deliberately rekindling my enjoyment of movies.