solarbird | Aliens have taken over Sony's brains.

Seriously, that's the only explanation for this. Aliens. Decline the EULA, Sony spyware installs anyway. Decline the EULA twice, it installs permanently.

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/28/sony_cd_spyware_inst.html

Sony CD spyware installs and can run permanently, even if you click "Decline"

Many Sony CDs install a piece of spyware on listeners' PCs. The program, called MediaMax, from SunComm, has received less attention than the rootkit that made headlines on Hallowe'en, but it is even sneakier, in some ways, than the rootkit was.

Previously, Princeton researchers revealed that the MediaMax software installed itself even if you declined the EULA (the pop-up license agreement). However, the researchers concluded that if you declined the EULA, the software was only active until you restarted Windows.

Now Princeton's Alex Halderman reports that if you insert another MediaMax-infected CD (or the same CD again) and decline the EULA a second time, the software can activate itself permanently.

I'm so glad they're getting so very very sued. They can't be sued enough.

In other news, September 2005 was the fourth straight month of a negative US savings rate.

I've finally hammered out a c.v. that's small enough for UW's admissions form. It's hard, cutting out fun stuff, but, well, time to stop whinging and get it done, and I did. Yay!

Sunday's miles: 2.1
Monday's miles: 2.2
Miles out of Hobbiton: 527
Miles out of Rivendell: 67.2
Miles to Lothlórien: 399.2

And another, less common feature:

Pedestrian:Car counts, Goat Trail Road (the walk to the shops), between the "no through traffic" barriers:

Sunday, to shops: 5:4 ** FIRST case of pedestrians outnumbering cars!
Sunday, from shops: 4:4 ** First tie! First positive tip net, too.
Monday, to shops: 2:0 ** zomg again!
Monday, from shops: 4:5 (close!)

This is a big swing, and it's during the winter on top of everything else. I've also noticed that the drivers seem a little bit more used to seeing people walking it, but that's highly subjective. The ratio has usually been twice as many cars as pedestrians - 1:2, 2:4, and such. I honestly don't know what's caused the shift.

I know, no Monday politics. Sorry, I was lame. It's coming. Meanwhile, have a leafpic:

Holdout