Random Musings - Day #151

I almost forgot that Daniel Craig was in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
Nadal is out of the French Open. I am tired.

Random Musings - Day #150

Britain's got final
Well a turn-up as dance outfit Diversity beats Susan Boyle and sax player Julian Smith. The first two were the first and second from the first heat only reversed, which shows how unlucky the likes of Sue Son and Natalie Okri were in that heat. I was really surprised that Diversity announced the winners. Though on the night, they gave the perfect performance. Boyle performed better than her heat which I thought would be enough to win. But the negative press this week have caught with her. She was gracious in defeat. Surprised Stavros Flatley failed to finish in the top 3. They got one of the best reactions. My personal fav Aidan Davis' performance looked too much like yesterday's awesome performance and that cost him. Whether he had enough to make his set even better is another thing. Remember it was less than 24 hours between performances. While the likes of Diversity and Susan Boyle had almost a week to get ready. Maybe next time, they should have the final a week later after the semi-finals.

Random Musings - Day #149

Britain's got last semi
I just finished watching the last semi-final heat. I was looking forward to seeing the break-dance kid, Aidan Davis and wasn't disappointed. If it wasn't for Susan Boyle's popularity he would be favourite to win the final. Also the comparisons between him and last year's winner George Sampson may stop him.
Boyle is courting controversy particularly with her recent outburst which made her sound like Rab C Nesbitt.
The other qualifier was wee Hollie Steel who actually broke down during her performance. But she got to have a second crack and did well. She got through the judge's vote, which wasn't surprising and considering what happen to fellow contestant Natalie Okri...

The final, for what it's worth, this is how I think it might finish...
1. Aidan Davis
2. Susan Boyle
3. Stravos Flatley

Mascot cheeky jab
Funny video of a mascot getting a swipe in on a football player.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8073437.stm

Thyroid Cancer
Shame to hear that BBC's Clare Balding has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Those of you who know, a family member recently had that and is still need precautionary treatment. It's no laughing matter. So I wish Clare well.

M&S Bra
They have been selling well of late due massive billboard posters of an ample woman with a green bra. The woman in question has been revealed as Natalie Suliman. This campaign has been compared to the 'hello boys' wonderbra poster from 1994.

Computer bits
Here's a list of IP Numbers which relate to the transport layer protocol which of course the popular TCP and UDP. And for those of you who might forget how to unzip and untar a compressed tarball...

Random Musings - Day #148

I had a lot to say today but too tired now. Station has been open twice this week after yet again being closed the first work day of the week. Also I don't always agree with Lily Allen but her comments about Susan Boyle were right on the money. Her timing in her performance was slightly off and she got away with it with her hype! Ryan Giggs has been prolonging his career with yoga. Soup is apparently the best way to lose weight as it gives your body the illusion you have been fed with not a lot of soup. Found out there are 33 ways to tie a shoelace.

I have the strangest dream where I found I had a pain in my nose and then I woke and found I really had a pain in my nose (due to my sinuses flaring up)

Random Musings - Day #147 (Shockwave Remix)

Shocked by shockwave
I picked a bit of a virus/malware infection arguably when looking for software to decompiling shockwave flash files. I am assuming that was what caused it. Sophos did a poor job as the last line of defense. It found the malware software too late. Anyways how do you stop it? It's very easy to pickup a malware. It could be disguised by legit software. It can be picked up via drive-by downloads, i.e. when visiting a site, it tries to direct to another site (using Javascript). If you are paranoid, you should really use Noscript for firefox.

Shockwave decomposition
For now let's have a look at some articles about securing Shockwave flash files. Flash is of course made by Adobe and they have their guide to securing shockwave flash files. Passing arguments into the flash files could be liable to code injection so knowing how it works is a good start as seen in the flashmove.com and the actionscript forums. Allow networking is another parameter that ideally shouldn't be set.

Shockwave Vulnerabilities
There are some articles about vulnerabilities with shockwave flash files. Examples of vulnerabilities found in common applications using flash can be seen on xssed.com. Flash has an advisory as well.

Shockwave Decompilers
There are a number of tools to decompile flash. Some of these may or may not contain MALWARE! Be warned!
SoThink SWF Decompiler (latest version is 5) is available from softpedia. Flare v0.6from HP is another readily available decompiler. There is an open source version sitting at OWASP called SWF intruder. But there is code out there to access there. More details about SWF intruder can be found on the OWASP site and the google code. Also can use a combination of answers.
Flare 0.6 is available for use. HP has a search for swfscan machine. swfscan is a free scan with some restrictions. Decompile flash is another tool that focuses in on the deompiled flash code. Same thing for Free Flash Decompiler gold

Random Musings - Day #147

147
When I think of 147, snooker is usually what I think of. But the highest break in snooker is actually 155.

Votes
The recent events about the MPs from both major UK parties over their expenses has caused for people to look politician alternatives. As a consequence, the BNP are looking to do well at Euro-elections. But the Church of England. But also Joanna Lumley (fresh from getting the government to relax the rules for gurkha veterans) is backing the green party.

Cyber times
Shoplifters are now to be judged by cyber court. Security news can be found at dark reading.

Barcelona won the Champions League Final

Random Musings - Day #146

Race for life
On Sunday, there is the race for life, which a woman's 5k around the country. I know of at least 4 ladies who are doing the run, one of them is my cousin.

Canada Seal
There's something about Canada and seals that leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Maybe it's the clubbing. Anyhow a Canadian politician has caused some controversy for eating a seal heart.

Random Musings - Day #145

24/7 DVD
Well I saw the season finale (a week after the States) and was pretty good. I am looking forward to getting the DVD although it looks like it is not released until October 19th. In the states, it's already released!

Burnley up
So the team that played the most games in the football league aside from Manchester United got up to beat Sheffield United 1-0. They did well against Premiership teams in the cup competitions and I fancy them to stay up next season.

UK Singles Chart
Dizzie Rascal scores his 2nd #1 following on "Dance wiv me", he teams up with another former #1 act in the form of Armand Van Helden. Together "Bonkers" is the new #1. Black-eyed eyes and Tinchy Stryder drop down to #2 and #3 accordingly.

Random Musings - Day #144

Football
In the end, I got it wrong, Hull managed to stay up despite losing once more as Newcastle and Middlesborough both drop into the Championship. Moving up to join them are Scunthorpe who beat Millwall. Millwall will stay with a whole bunch of teams from the South East. Sunderland have a job opening available. I predict either Avram Grant or Alan Curbishley will take over. Oh yeah and Ayr beat Airdrie to get promoted in Scottish League 1.

Britain's got talent
Start of the semi-final. A hard semi-final as it turned out with outright favourite Susan Boyle, Diversity, Sue Son and little Natalie Okri all in it. The former two qualified. But I have to feel sorry for little Natalie who lost in a judges vote to Diversity.

Random Musings - Day #143

Here and Now
Well went to the London leg of Here and Now tour. All in all quite enjoyable. First, there was Hazel O'Connor who I thought was ok. My mate really didn't like her at all. To which I replied it could be worse, it could've been Hazell Dean. It also made me wonder whatever became of Tom O'Connor. Next it was Brother Beyond which these days appears to Nathan Moore only who got a white bra for his troubles. Following that was Altered Images who's music was way to early for me to remember. The fact that I am more familiar with Clare Grogan as an actress (in Gregory's Girl and as I pointed out to my mate, the original girl to play Kochanski in Red Dwarf) says it all really.
Before the interval, we had Kid Creole and his coconuts. His set was arguably the best. Maybe it was just the coconuts but Creole still the coolest cat in town.
After the intermission, Howard Jones. I only seem to remember "What is love" and "Pearl in a shell". Strangely enough I remember a song called "Left me up" which never charted in the UK in 1992 but was top 40 in the states.
Kim Wilde was the penultimate act and brought her family with her. There was brother Ricky and niece Scarlett. Liked her set only really because of her songs including, "You keep me hanging on" and "Kids in America".
And then there was Rick Astley...
... to be fair, it was a good set. I forgot how well he sung "When I fall in love" and jazy composition complimented his voice well, best song of the night.

90s Here and Now
I was trying to rack my brains as to which bands should be called upon if there was a 90s version. The best I have come up with is all Swedish. You have to have Roxette and Ace of Base. Possibly the Cardigans. Boyz II Men would have to be around and if Eternal got back together throw them in. Not sure about have 2 Unlimited though.
Back to the 80s, you have to have Erasure and Madness there.

Water
Talking of Madness, in a Marks & Spencers, they had a 750ml bottle of water for 98p. But there was a 1.5 litre bottle for 49p. You do the math!

Gills
It's funny that the Gills of Gillingham got promoted after winning their play-off final at Wembley against Shrewsbury. However, as we got to Wembley, it was the Shrews fans that looked happy that mistaken I came to conclusion that Shrewsbury won!

Random Musings - Day #142

Gatorade
I was told because of its replenishing properties, it's original purpose was a cure for the old hangover. Apparently, Gatorade is available in the UK. But I've failed to see anywhere. It's far popular in North America where my favourite is the grape favoured edition.

Tennis
You can get your latest tennis score at tennis.com. Been following Anne Keothavong the last few months. She's been playing well enough on the LTA circuit to get into the top 50. Unfortunately for her, she's drawn world no.1 and well rested Dinara Safina.

Private Prosecution
I find it funny that someone has decided to personally give Jacqui Smith a private prosecution

Google
Just to show how reliant the Internet is on Google, there have been couple of instance where the Internet has grinded to a halt due Google servers going down. The first occasion last week was due to routing mistake. This affected all Google services. Now a lot of websites use google analytics for instance and as a consequence those websites were performing slowly. Another outage took down most news-related sites down for 15 minutes. Not clever.
Also Gumblar is on the prowl!

5 C's
Car, Career, Cash, Condo, Credit Card?

Random Musings - Day #141

Trains
The local train station has so far only been on Tuesday this week. So it's 3-1 this week to 'closed', making the running total 7-6 to 'open'.
South East Trains sucked big time as I was delayed getting back from work. I saw some workmen on the way to Gravesend.

T-Shirt
Just to make the day really more sucky, I was hoping to have received t-shirts from stolli clothing. As it had not arrived, I checked my email and sorry an email left a couple of days ago saying they had a problem with the order (Due to a technical error on our web site your order has come in incomplete.) Not pleased particularly as I needed the t-shirts for Saturday when I am going to the "Here and Now" concert at Wembley Arena. I so badly wanted to surprise my good buddy that I've been left quite disappointed. May have a crack at 8 ball

Streaker at the UEFA Cup Final
Did you know there was a naked streaker at the UEFA Cup Final, yesterday.

Virgin sells
Not sure if you should tell your kids this but you can still make a bit of cash
selling your virginity. Mind you, it's probably now a regular occurrence as that girl got a mere 8000 pounds for whereas another girl got bids of 2.5 million pounds

Coke - bad?
I read somewhere in the newspaper that coke wasn't good for. We know it's sweet and sugary and fizzy. The thing that popped in my head, Coke makes you explode! It does if you add a mentos mint. There's an urban legend that suggests it causes death!
I think I found what I am looking for... too much coke can cause complications later on in life such as liver damage and parkinson's disease.

Random Musings - Day #140

Shakhtar Donetsk won the UEFA Cup after extra time. With Sunday being the last game of the Premiership season, much has been said about Manchester United who are alledgedly going to put out a 'weakened' side to play Hull. Hull are in the relegation zone as Newcastle and Sunderland. However, I think it's a much ado about nothing. Manchester United have strength and depth and quite easily handle Hull. Let's not forget they (2nd/youth team) drew with Everton in the FA Cup. Furthermore Newcastle and Sunderland's opponents, Aston Villa and Chelsea have nothing to play for.

The expenses issue with politician has gone too far. To me, it's stealing public money. If average joe like me did that we'd probably go to jail for it for fraud/theft. Also I wonder if this 50p tax on high earners include MPs...

Random Musings - Day #139

Wolfram Alpha

Random Musings - Day #138

Station Update
It looks like the station is closed every monday. Last week it was closed monday as well. So score at moment 6-4 to station open.

24/7 Finale leaked
It looks like the plot for the season finale of 24 has been leaked. I was reading wikipedia's page and synopsis has already been entered. It could a false spoiler

Random Musings - Day #137

UK Singles Chart
Black-eyed peas score their 2nd ever UK #1 with "Boom Boom Pow". Tinchy Stryder and L Roux both slip down a place to make room for the group whose other #1 was "Where is the love?"

Brandy Wrap-up
Found a good spectrum of reviews of the Brandy gig at the o2. In general, everyone is in agreement that Brandy's performance was great and the only real bad thing is the fact it lasted short of an hour, which certainly not used to a gig being so short. But apparently that the way it works in the states. Can also check out Brandy's twitter too.

Sparrow Heights
I'm still trying to figure out the play/comedy, Sparrow Heights was good or not. You know me, I'd like to try anything once and I got some very cheap tickets from lastminute.com but I decided to chance an off-west-end production at the Greenwich Playhouse.
It was completely off-the-wall from start to finish. The opening scene was someone flying a model airplane around the stage and I thought crap what the hell I paid for. Anyways after the initial shock, I settled down and some funny remarks, particularly saving General George Jeffrey Bungle and the sausage (which is essentially the plot). The acting was very good despite the plot being too simple and too many distractions but hey if it's categorised as comedy that's ok especially when it seems not to dissimilar to Allo Allo. The lead, Adam De Ville (who suspiciously looks like Anthony Head and has appeared on the Bill, played a captain who was forte was well drinks. He acted the part well, too well perhaps! I was also impressed with the talents of the sole lady in comedy, Carole Carpenter. She sung a very good German rendition of "Wind beneath my wings". One of her characters reminded me of Frau Farbissina from the Austin Powers movies.

Random Musings - Day #136

Eurovision Song Contest
Norway with the singer/fiddler Alexander Rybah won it with Fairytale. Not a total surprise as the video had been viewed by 650,000 people compared to other countries who had 40,000 to 50,000 hits. Norway have won 3 times in all.

Snooker Comeback?
Well flicking through the tv and I saw Jimmy White win a snooker match. He's now through the semi-final of the World Serijavascript:void(0)
Publish Postes of Snooker but now face another player looking to make a comeback, Ken Doherty.

New Song
I heard a song on radio which seem to sample Eiffel 65's Blue. It's Sugar Candy by Flo-rida. I would fancy that going close to reaching #1 whenever it is released.

Random Musings - Day #135

Government HoneytrapOh the sweet honey that is the form of a femme fatale is still used today. Chinese agents managed to get ahold of a UK government aide's blackberry. That's interesting. What also is interesting, it was not very secured. tsk.

Homes with the perks
Smartnewhomes is a place to look for new homes. Freebies are being thrown in to attract first-time home buyers. These are direct from the builders. But for most people, the cost of the house is still over the top considering how much has to outlaid for a mortgage! MOrtgage freebies used to be served up by mortgage lenders.

Random Musings - Day #134

Tired. Station update. It was closed on Monday but it's been open every day since. 5-3.
Man Utd are 1/250 to win the premiership. 1/250 is 0.4% which is better than some bank's interest rates.
Always do anything with the proper equipment. I think I bashed my toe up for not playing with football boots instead of trainers!
It's emerged that Tony Blair of all people asked Joanna Lumley to run for mayor
Is it O sole mio or is it now or never or is it just a cornetto.
Look out for the husband hunting bra. Women fight off colds better than men.

Random Musings - Day #133

Super Mario - No nonsense
Let's not mess but the original can be done in just over 5 minutes as shown. OK let's muck around and corrupt super mario! Super Mario 2 can be done in 10 minutes.

Bra Size
If you really wanted how bra sizes stack up here's a cup size guide. (Just to add, the biggest boobs seen is size KKK.

My pussy
Continuing down the dirty road here's some mrs slocombe's pussy quotes from Are you being served.

Computer Guide
Some good tips and guides from Computerhope.

Random Musings - Day #132

Asian Girls...
Some blogger has site especially for Asian Girls. But surprisingly Liu Yang is not even mentioned.

Creatine
Creatine is found in meat and provides energy to the muscle. But the question is how to take creatine supplements. Maybe you should take a teaspoon of the stuff.

ID for teaspoons
The teaspoon itself is apparently dangerous in it's own right.

Anti-static
My pussy has been giving me shock. Presumably it was caused by the cat rolling around the fool. You can use sprays but more can be found here

Random Musings - Day #131

A is for...
Funny game, my sister came up with whilst in the car. Go through A-Z of food-types. For some reason, we kept coming up with animals instead... e.g. Dog, Frog, Llama, Orangutan!

Engineering works
I was annoyed on Saturday that there was engineering works to work. I lost 30 minutes waiting for a replacement bus. Another 15 minutes waiting at one station and another 20 minutes waiting at another one. So that sucked over an hour of my life away.
But engineering works weren't done yet. They were overrunning and hence this morning, my train was cancelled. Another half hour of my life... gone!

Mashup
If I haven't mentioned it before but this is a great mashup of Need you tonight.

Javascript is your friend
You can write text using fromCharCode. Very useful, if your quotation marks are escaped and you need to bypass it (cough). There is a comprehensive list of charcodes. Javascriptkit offers additional string functions.

Google hacked / Cassie naked?
I was looking for more details about Google getting hacked instead I got Cassie getting naked...
Seriously though, there was a universal xss issue with ALL google services which looks like has just been fixed.

Acai Berry Scam
It's the second time, I've got a random offline message from a contact.

I got so many messages about those acai berry pills that I decided to order them and guess what? I lost 23 pounds so far and its only been two weeks. I am living proof that they work and best part was, they only cost me five dollars to try over at http://weekcome.com

I've not seen anything specific relating to ads in msn messenger... The actual pills themselves are apparently a rip-off!
The Wicked Fire hints the problem could with account being hacked. This blog claims it's a msn virus of some description...

Whatever happened to...
90's divas, Dina Carroll and Shola Ama?

Random Musings - Day #130

UK Singles Chart
1. Number 1 - Tinchy Stryder Ft N-Dubz
2. In for the kill - La Roux
3. Tiny Dancer - Ironik/Chipmunk/Elton John

Random Musings - Day #129

Articles in brief
Got a Net Addiction?
It's a Dog eat dog world!
Never mess with the Russians!
Be careful of your security questions
Successful face transplant

Security stuff
Encryptions to SQL Server
CISecurity benchmarks for Cicso!
Persistent Rootkits on hardware?
There are ways round it including dual bios

Movie
HK movie I was watching last night is translated as Lady Iron Chef.

Random Musings - Day #128

Someone told me, should look into buying a house again as they are getting cheaper. There are contrasting views, some experts say there is still more of a downturn to come. Some say there is some new signs of life in the housing market. I've nearly always used rightmove to look up prices. But just seen a useful guide in the form of mouseprice which can tell you how long the property has been on the market.
Also if you are looking for a bargain or as they say a BMV (below market value) then you would want to check auction houses. But they are notoriously difficult to get into. Have a look at this site and see if you can find any property without having to give any information away. However, with the downturn, auctioneers are opening up. Have a look at Harman Healy.
A good resource to find out about property auctions is propertyauctions.com

Random Musings - Day #127

Brandy
I got a phone call from my sister. Her friend had bailed out due to sickness. So a ticket going a spare. Help a family member out and go to a gig at the same time. So off to the Indig02, we went to see Brandy perform. First up was a warm up act, who I thought was called 'S-stream' but I can't find them on google. Anyhow, Brandy didn't mess about straight into 4 songs including "Afrodisiac" and "What about us". She next did "Almost doesn't count" before a medley of her early stuff. Then some new material from latest album. But the best bit was perhaps when she got a guy from the audienc and serenaded him with the song, "Long Distance". I think this was the first leg of her tour. But she was very appreciative of the audience especially you read what's happened to her. The audience btw were standing throughout the show and Brandy's performance was pretty slick (let's not forget, she can act too). My only real gripe was that the show was too fast. It only lasted 55 - 60 minutes, which isn't good value for money. Brandy's performance just about makes up for it. After her set, she came back out to the audience, meet and greeted a few people, signed a few autographed and actually wanted to go up to the balcony!

Station Update
It's 2-1 to 'Closed' as today the ticket office at the local station was closed. Yesterday, it was open.

2.19 is not my favourite number
The FTSE-100 was up 2.19 pts today, which is nothing much. But that doesn't tell half the story. It opened 50 pts up and then went up. I had feeling it would go down so I put in a very small binary bet just to see what would happen (sell at 82). It didn't look good so I just ignored it until after lunch. When I did look it was only 60pts up and I thought it may go down, so sold again this time at 92). The market went down and about 15 minutes left it was down by 15pts. I had already hedged my bets by buying back at 59, earlier, to put me in a no-lose situation. However at close, it looked like it was down by only 7.73. I should have won but about 5 minutes after the close it jumped to finish above the previous close. I just wonder if that was fixed. It like someone scored a late goal to knock me out of the champions league final...

Random Musings - Day #126

Hack me from a distance
Laser Pens used to pick off laptop keystrokes from 100ft.

Bite me!
Awful story as a guy gets caught in the act, the hard way from the register whose tagline is "biting the hand that feeds it", which is ironic you consider biting part of the story!

Britain's fixed talent
I am starting to not like Britain's got talent because it would appear that Jamie Pugh who appeared on the show has *already* performed on the West End stage. Combined with Shaheen Jafargholi, the kid that performed the Michael Jackson track so beautifully as he was in the Thriller musical.

Random Musings - Day #125

The Facebook Experience
I got love it, I was called to look up my mate's facebook page. But I soon discovered that there were other people with the same name as him. One page is a musician. One group page is urging him to come out of the closet! Another one has a description of:

For all people who have met the infamous XXXX and feel that they can now experience life to the fullest after witnessing first hand his ridiculous antics!

The names have been changed to protect the innocent!

Arsenal vs Man Utd
Just like John Higgins in the World Snooker final, it was pretty much over by the first 20 minutes. Disappointing as a neutral.
Reminds me whatever happened to Dean Ashton?

Local Station Office
New feature here. I am monitoring if the local rail station office is closed. Today it was closed.

Random Musings - Day #124

League 1 next season
Well well it's looks League 1 is the place to be because half the league will be from the south east area. As Charlton and Norwich sink into this league. They'll playing such opponents as Southend, Colchester, Leyton Orient, Brighton, Brentford and Wycombe. They may even face Gillingham if they make it through the League 2 play-offs and MK Dons or Millwall if they get promoted through the League 1 play-offs.

It's weird that the Premiership still has 3 games left whereas the Championship, League 1 and League 2 is done and dusted. Even more so that the premiership play 38 games and the other leagues play 46!

Jose is JR not Dr Who
Have a look at this week's episode of special1tv.

Quote of the day
As seen on someone's facebook...

May the 4th be with you!

Random Musings - Day #123

123
123 seems to be related with domain registrations like 123domainnames and 123-reg.
Don't forget the Gloria Estefan song, 1-2-3. Then there was the wrestler, 123 Kid.

Jury Service
I know someone that's up for jury service but unfortunately is going on holiday (again) and in her own words, a little sick. But you can have it deferred for up to a year or even totally excused as seen on cjsonline and adviceguide.

Boxing
With Manny Pacquiao destroying Ricky Hatton in less than two rounds. That leads the way for Pacquiao/Mayweather superfight. Especially considering Floyd Mayweather Jr has come out of active retirement.

UK Chart Singles
Same top 2 as last week with Ironik/Chipmunk and Elton John at #3 with Tiny Dancer

Random Musings - Day #122

Camping
Here's a good checklist to chip at if you are planning to go camping. A deeper one can be found at the camping manual.

Quilt Cover
It always the case when you replace your quilt cover, the last thing you do is put on a new (or reuse the washed) cover. Annoying when it's late at night and you rather be in bed. There are quick methods to put on a duvet such as at about.com. But it looks better and easier to follow videojug's method of reverse and flip.

Random Musings - Day #121

Tupac alive?
I've always wondered about Tupac as he kept coming up with a 'new' single for years after his 'death'. But here's a rumour that he may be alive. The inquisitr reports the same thing.

Junior
I mentioned this Frenchman's breakdancing a long while ago and he's back in London as part of the Breakin Convention at Saddler's Wells on Monday.
That said there are other breakdancers to look out for and looking at some battles here and here
Birds can dance too
Talking of dancing. It looks this parrot has got the groove!