Rock Band features Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld as a bonus track, makes irony laugh

For those who haven’t seen it, the full track listing for Rock Band, including bonus tracks, has been released at IGN. The bonus tracks include songs from Harmonix-staffed bands and Harmonix staple Freezepop’s “Brainpower.” One of the lesser known artists supplying bonus tracks is Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. As far I’m aware, this is a band with just one, self-titled song, so it wouldn’t be surprising if you didn’t know who they are.

Also in case you weren’t aware, South Park recently aired an episode about Guitar Hero that has Stan and Kyle living a somewhat stereotypical rock band rise to stardom in Guitar Hero form.

In other news, sweet irony laughed and laughed and laughed…

You Blog = Fun, Relaxing - Blogging about your job = Workless (Remove “Priceless”)

A Nintendo contract employee found herself on the unemployment line recently over blog postings. The news of this was reported on Seattle alternative paper The Stranger, Jessica Zenner was let go by Mario & Co. on August 31st. Just when you thought it was safe to blog.

Zenner… can now be added to the ever-growing list of casualties in the workplace war on blogs… All they did was participate in the great American pastime: bitching about work

Zenner says she was never informed of any blog policy at Nintendo, but even so, she wrote under the pen name “Jessica Carr”—although she posted pictures of herself on her site—and never mentioned her employer by name. Somehow, Zenner’s bosses at Nintendo still found her site.

Pokerstars Software For The Mac

A friend of mine got me hooked on playing poker at pokerstars.com. Our other friend has a Mac and Pokerstars software works ok with virtual PC or an Intel based Mac running boot camp or parallels. And then along comes PokerStars for the Mac it is currently in development, and is expected to be released within the next few months. No release date as yet for the Mac version but keep checking the PokerStars for the Mac site for any news along with getting some useful poker tips.

OffTopic: Great Deal on some DVD-R Media

We just got back from vacation and took some great videos of the kids. Well you know how it goes all the family wants a copy. (They don’t want to see us it’s the kids) I went to put them onto DVD and crap I was all out of DVD’s so I run down the local store and holy cow almost .50 cents each, even in the 100 pack. I asked the sales kid if that’s all they had he said yes so I went home did a little search and came up with some Taiyo Yuden DVD-R’s real cheep as low as 24 cents a disk. They have Great deals if you just know where to look.

OffTopic: A Little Footbal League Any one?

Are you into football or do you play in some fantasy football leagues? Lots are free most are offering some kind of prize at the end of the season going to the top winners. I have seen up to $100,000 in REAL money, going to the winning team. With real time stats and up to the minute game information anybody could run a fantasy team now days. Give it a try I might just whoop you butt in a league.

OffTopic: “Halloween the Movie” Get Your Popcorn and Get Inline!

I love horror films ever since I was a kid. The first Horror movie I ever saw was Halloween. It had just hit theaters in 1978, I was 8 years old at the time. Me and my two best friends wanted so bad to see this move, but our parents would never let us go. We bought tickets for some “Kid Move” we knew they would allow us to see by our selves and we snuck in. That was the move that started it all for me. It was not till about 5 years later that I saw the whole film since the first time I was trying not to piss my pants.

Now I see that Rob Zombie is directing the new “Halloween the Movie” Rob Zombie’s vision of this film is an entirely new take on the legend that will hopefully satisfy fans of the classic “Halloween” movie, while opening a new chapter in Michael Myers life.

Let’s get a little background on Mr. Myers him self.

After being committed for 17 years, Michael Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, is mistakenly released from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger.

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Here is the trailer to get the hair started standing up on the back of your neck waiting for Halloween the movie August 31^st release date. I can’t wait it like being 8 years old again, but now I have to seek out with out the kids and not the other way around.

Your iPhone Is Not Safe!!!

(As the NYTimes Reports) A successful vulnerability has been found. Working with the iPhone’s architecture (which also includes some tools from the #iphone-dev community), and proof-of-concept exploit capable of delivering files from the user’s iPhone to a remote attacker. Apple has been notified about the vulnerability and proposed a patch.

The exploit is delivered via a malicious web page opened in the Safari browser on the iPhone. There are several delivery vectors that an attacker might utilize to get a victim to open such a web page. For example:

• An attacker controlled wireless access point: Because the iPhone learns access points by name (SSID), if a user ever gets near an attacker-controlled access point with the same name (and encryption type) as an access point previously trusted by the user, the iPhone will automatically use the malicious access point. This allows the attacker to add the exploit to any web page browsed by the user by replacing the requested page with a page containing the exploit.
• A misconfigured forum website: If a web forum’s software is not configured to prevent users from including potentially dangerous data in their posts, an attacker could cause the exploit to run in any iPhone browser that viewed the thread. (This would require some slight changes in our proof of concept exploit, however.)
• A link delivered via e-mail or SMS: If an attacker can trick a user into opening a website that the attacker controls, the attacker can easily embed the exploit into the main page of the website.

When the iPhone’s version of Safari opens the malicious web page, arbitrary code embedded in the exploit is run with administrative privileges. In our proof of concept, this code reads the log of SMS messages, the address book, the call history, and the voicemail data. It then transmits all this information to the attacker. However, this code could be replaced with code that does anything that the iPhone can do. It could send the user’s mail passwords to the attacker, send text messages that sign the user up for pay services, or record audio that could be relayed to the attacker.

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By God, Could You Please Clean Up your Code

How many times have you upgraded your hardware in the last 5 years? Was it really needed? If software makers would do the job correctly you would not “Have To” upgrade as often as most do. Gone are the days of having or trying to make your source code efficient and small, trying to fit it on a floppy or better yet One CD. Why would we do that now we can use a DVD (or more) there is no need to give the Code a smaller footprint.

The more lines of code make the hardware requirements even larger. Take a look at any MS Windows OS after Win95, it was all built on the same Base Code structure. They have not built an OS from the ground up since Win95 and even that was a Hack job of WinNT. Every release of the OS gets larger and larger but it does not necessarily get better, bigger yes, but better? …. Hmmm I will let you work that one out. Full Story »

* Update * Did the ‘Day of Silence’ Work? Did you even know about it?

Today SoundExchange issued a press release stating that the organization has proposed a voluntary cap on the minimum fees charged against royalties for sound recordings played on Internet Radio. According to the press release, SoundExchange proposed capping such advance payments at $2,500 per service.

Recently enacted regulations (due to go into effect on July 15) require each webcasting service to pay a $500 minimum fee “per station or channel” regardless of the overall number of stations/channels they are streaming.

Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of the Digital Media Association, issued the following statement:

DiMA would agree to a $2,500 per-service cap for the entire term of the CRB ruling (through 2010), but not the partial-offer presented to us in writing, which would terminate in 2008. Any offer that doesn’t cover the full term is simply a stay of execution for Internet radio. The looming 2009 billion-dollar threat is destabilizing and inhibits investment and growth. DiMA, like thousands of artists and millions of consumers, wants a solution that promotes long-term industry growth. A billion-dollar “minimum fee” is equally absurd in 2007, 2008, 2009 or 2010. It should be eliminated – period.

If something is not done soon (We have 16 days till the new laws take effect), this will spell the end for most internet radio stations including the big guys, all the way down the line. Little independent ones will no longer be able to get the hosting service from the streaming services providers any more. Most will not be able to invest the cash for dedicated servers for hosting. I fear the next time the internet goes quite it will be for good.

Did the ‘Day of Silence’ Work? Did you even know about it? *Part 1*

Win a trip to Las Vegas to see Monty Python’s SPAMALOT!

I know this has nothing to do with gaming but I LOVE THIS SHOW. I will tell you it is one of my favorite movies and one of the best Broadway shows I have ever been to, even if you don’t like Monty Python you will love this show. It was a 3 time 2005 Tony Award winner for best Musical, Actress in a Musical and Best Director of a Musical. I just received this little piece of SPAM err Email in my inbox today and thought I would pass it along.

Click here for your chance to win the Las Vegas Royal Treatment Package! If you’re the lucky winner, you and three of your knights could head off on a quest to find your grail in Sin City! The trip, sponsored by Sirius Satellite Radio, includes a two night’s stay at Wynn Las Vegas, backstage passes, a feast for four, autographed memorabilia and much more. Don’t miss out on your chance to be treated like royalty!