09 Apr 2004
Mac OS X Trojan Horse Infects MP3s

I'm not sure that this one's deadly, because the transfer method would require preservation of the resource fork, and very few MP3's come packaged in Stuffit - it would be counter-productive. Also it should be trivial for Apple to fix this - nonetheless, it's pretty disturbing. Beware of audio bearing [unwanted] gifts.

The Mac News Network reports that Intego has anounced an update to their anti-virus app for snagging the first Mac OS X Trojan horse, MP3Concept (MP3Virus.Gen), which exploits a weakness in Mac OS X where applications can appear to be other types of files.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Downloaded Music Gets More Expensive

I commented yesterday on the content industry's attempt to kill that golden egg laying goose, but this has to go into the category of trying to kill it twice!

The thought that executives with this kind of brain power are in charge, essentailly forever, of our cultural heritage is a thought to give the most jaded among us the shivers.

Just as the online music market is starting to gain traction, what to music execs want to do? Why, raise prices, of course!

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

The Passion of the Bunny

I have come to expect, every Yuletide, stories from loony fundies about how "Santa = Satan" (the names are even anagrams). I expect to read stories at Samhain (Halloween) about the evil pagan holiday and how it turns small children into demons. But I never, in my wildest dreams, expected to see something like this...

A church trying to teach about the crucifixion of Jesus performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs, upsetting several parents and young children.

(link) [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] via Secular Blasphemy

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Angry cows make tough steaks

Hey! I got an idea! Why don't we stop giving them an attitude! We could begin by feeding them what they're supposed to eat (grass, not other cows), and maybe even go so far as to not transport them across the country for slaughter in cramped cattle trucks. We might even stop prodding them with electric prods to force them down the chutes!

They'd certainly be happier, and so, apparently, would we. What a concept!

Steers with a bad attitude -- those that are difficult to handle in pens and race out of handling chutes -- will likely be tough eating, according to a cooperative study between Texas A&M University System and Mississippi State University researchers. "The correlation between high-exit speeds and toughness was substantial," said Dr. Ron Randel, researcher with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at Overton.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link