For some reason I ran across a bunch of minor celebrity news this morning:
- This is a pretty good profile of Heather Armstrong, who runs the Dooce empire. I agree with Gruber that “mommy blogger” is a bit condescending – whatever she chose to write about would be interesting because she’s a hell of a writer.
- I had no idea that it was possible to live in Austin, MN (home of Spam), write prolifically, and be wildly successful on Amazon without a traditional publisher, all at age 26. (also via DF)
- Linus Torvalds and his wive Tove went to an Oscar party (via):
The good news was, that as Tove said, there was no real downside. Nobody knew us, and nobody would ever remember us the next day. So we could go whole retard quite openly, and brazenly just ask people “You look really familiar, who are you?”. Which we did. With some discreet google image searches when we could guess, and just wanted to verify it (“John Cusack or Paul Rudd?”).
Everybody seemed to take it in good cheer. We interrupted David Spade chatting up Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis (that’s what Tove says, I was oblivious – it’s those famous geek social graces again. I told her I’m sure I’d have noticed Natalie Portman and that she can’t possibly have been there, but whatever), and Tove pissed off Warren Beatty by asking his name not just once, but twice.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
Asking famous people “who are you, again” is a gag Howard Stern used to do, with his idiot reporter, “Stuttering John” on the red carpet, and boy-o-boy it used to piss off celebs.
it was pretty funny, watching them lose their shit.
And not to be intentionally ironic, but who is Linus Torvalds?
christian mistermix
@Mike Kay (Chief of Staff): Linux is named after him. I added this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
Just Another Geek
Linus Torvalds is the creator of the Linux operating system.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
@christian mistermix: I’m so not an elitist.
Now if you had named Theo Epstein, I would have been with ya.
I don’t know who Armstrong and the spammer guy are, either. Though, I do watch Brooke Alvarez on IFC.
David Koch
That Natalie Portman is a piece of ass.
JD Rhoades
We live in hope…
http://tinyurl.com/64df7jk
geg6
Heh. I would love to do that. Just to watch them lose their shit.
batgirl
@JD Rhoades: Do you have an ePub version for those of us Kindleless?
JD Rhoades
I do.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/43619
And a Nook version as well…
http://tinyurl.com/4f6zj3j
Joe Konrath, who’s mentioned in the article about Hocking, is the guru of this sort of thing (and a hell of a thriller writer, too, check him out). He’s been encouraging me to do this for a while. He actually turned down a pretty good print contract because he was making more money with the e-pubbing and they wanted to lock down his e-rights. Brave new world….
Jean
I just clicked on the “without a tradtional publisher” link in this post and picked up some terrible malware.
When I type in anything with the word “malware” in it, trying to get to the Microsoft malware clean-up site, I’m redirected to stupid places. I use internet explorer.
If anyone has any hints for how to recover from this, they’d be much appreciated….
russell
god bless linus torvalds, and his wife tove also.
Maude
@Jean:
Go to the Microsoft site. It sounds like a browser highjack.
Or you can type into the search box.
It is easy to see if there is a hijack.
If there is you just delete it.
Type something like,
Windows (version) how to remove browser hijack.
I used that all the time on production machine to check.
Roger Moore
Of course Linus didn’t recognize Natalie Portman. She wasn’t naked, petrified, and with a bowl of hot grits down her pants.[/slashdot]
sb
Shorter Linus: The wife and I acted like assholes just because these people are famous. Wanna know what we did? Do ya?
demz taters
@JD Rhoades: A book about surveying … cool!
gbear
I clicked on that link to the Austin story and immediately got a warning from my anti-virus program (AVG). Anyone else get a warning?
edit: obviously I didn’t read any of the previous comments before I posted…
Jean
@Maude:
Re. the hyjacker on my computer: every time I try to access any of the Microsoft security downloads, I get suspicious pop-ups or I get redirected.
What if I go into safe mode and try it? Can this malicious software get into safe mode? Can it sabatage my computer if I try?
What is the worst thing that it can do to me??? (I’m using an old upstairs computer to go into online banking, etc.)
Thanks for your (and anyone else who can offer advice)help with this —
Cliff in NH
@Jean:
use the old computer to dl this: http://www.ubcd4win.com/
and burn it to a cd, it has malwarebytes on it.
malwarebytes and adaware are the programs you want to use to clean up…
you may also be able to put one of those on a usb drive and run them from there..
some newer computers can also boot from a usb drive so that may be a option for the rescue disk as well.
canuckistani
I briefly met Linus at a Toronto Linux Conference a decade or so ago, and my Kevin Bacon number has just plummeted.
Jean
@Cliff in NH:
Cliff- For some reason I can’t access the internet on the upstairs computer.
I can go to the ubcd4win site on the hyjacked computer but can’t find malwarebytes on it.
I started to download EZPCFIX from the site but got to a “Ready” pop-up with a “Load Hives” button which I don’t understand and am afraid to click on. Is it OK to proceed? Will this program remove hyjackers?
If anyone can tell me what to do, it would be great —
Nutella
Irony alert: I just started reading the article about Heather Armstrong and her problems with her over-priced, over-engineered, and unreliable appliance when my over-priced, over-engineered, and unreliable appliance known as MacBook Pro crashed.
Macs never get that blue screen of death Windows PCs do: Theirs is grey.
Or maybe the malware got me.
Cliff in NH
@Jean:
ezpcfix is powerful, but for experienced people, I’ve never used it. I prefer malwarebytes, adaware, Spybot s&d
maybe try the spybot one:
http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=14
http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=1
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
“we could go whole retard”? that didn’t bother anyone else?
Jean
@Cliff in NH:
Thanks, Cliff.
I’ve got a day’s work to do in programs that the hyjacker can’t affect, so I’m going to wait until tonight and try downloading Spybot.
I really appreciate your help —
Jean
@Jean:
I moved to New Brunswick in 2005. Before that I lived in Northfield (just north of Canterbury) for 20 years. NH is lovely —
Jean
@Jean:
Now it’s right!
I moved to New Brunswick in 2005. Before that I lived in Northfield (just north of Canterbury) for 20 years. NH is lovely—
Cliff in NH
I’m in the MWV:
http://mollymaesden.blogspot.com/2011/02/nice-sunset.html
Jean
@Cliff in NH:
So nice where you are! I love Canada, it’s my home now, but I’ve always loved NH….