Já não vou salvar o mundo

Yesterday was an important anniversary for Russian hero Stanislav Petrov, the Soviet missile commander who saved the world from nuclear destruction in 1983. Sadly there are plenty of other examples of this kind of thing. How long will we keep getting lucky?

From Slashdot.org:

The GPL Violations Project, based in Germany, have won (subject to appeal) a court case against D-Link, who had allegedly distributed parts of the Linux kernel in a product in a way which contravened the GPL. D-Link had claimed that the GPL was not 'legally binding' but have now agreed to cease and desist, and refrain from distributing the infringing product, a network attached storage device. Expenses, including legal expenses, were received by the plaintiffs; they did not request any damages, consistent with their policy. They have previously won a number of out of court settlements against other companies.

Another win for Free / Open Source Software!

Some time ago I made a module for Drupal called Stop IE.

The purpose of this module was to detect if my site visitors were using Internet Explorer and if so, send them to a page that warned them that my site may not work with IE and about the dangers of using it as their webbrowser. Well, time passes, Drupal has had quite a few revisions since then, including the launch of version 4.7.

I could rewrite my Stop IE module to work with Drupal 4.7 but I found out that someone else had already picked up this idea and wrote Explorer Destroyer, a script which does basically the same mine did but with a twist - it allows you to enter your Google Adsense ID so you can generate revenue from people who follow your links to download Firefox.

Be warned, though: if you don't want to generate revenue for the maker of Explorer Destroyer, you will have to replace his/her referral ID in the code with your own.

Some people criticize Explorer destroyer (see here and here for example) and they make some valid points but I still think this is a good tool, as long as you don't force people to use Firefox to visit your site (use the Gentle or Semi-Serious mode, don't use the Dead-Serious mode) and you use your Google Adsense ID instead of letting Explorer Destroyer creator gather the money generated by your visits.

Also, besides a Drupal module, Explorer Destroyer is also a standalone script (which the Drupal module uses), so you can use it on your site even if you don't use Drupal.

So, bye-bye, Stop IE. Hello Explorer Destroyer.

One other interesting site to visit about this is http://www.stopie.com/ and while you're at it, check this image ;)

A Liga Portuguesa dos Direitos do Animal vai comemorar, pelo 19º ano consecutivo, o Dia Mundial do Animal.

Aqui fica o comunicado que recebi deles:

Caros Amigos e Amigas:

Vamos realizar, nos dias 07 e 08 de Outubro, pelo 19.º ano consecutivo, O “Dia Mundial do Animal”.

O DIA Mundial do Animal – dia de S. Francisco de Assis, patrono dos animais e da ecologia, celebra-se a 4 de Outubro; porque acontece num dia de semana adiámos para o fim-de-semana a seguir, 07/08. Isto, para que possam assistir o maior número de pessoas, não só pelo acto em si da comemoração, mas, porque pretendemos, tal como tem acontecido nos anos transactos, que nesta data muitos animais possam vir a ser adoptados possam encontrar um dono que os acarinhe e os tire do sofrimento de abandono ou os salve de um canil.

Para que este grande, o maior evento de adopção, possa ser realizado contamos com o apoio da: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, da administração da Praça Sony, das Forças Militarizadas, que irão estar presentes com os seus animais na Bênção, de escolas de educação e obediência de canídeos e de vários médicos veterinários que procederão ao rastreio dos animais, aplicarão a vacinação anti-rábica e o microchip aos animais presentes.

Vamos ter um pavilhão de exposições sobre a problemática animal, distribuição de informação, espaço infantil, etc.

A concretização desta iniciativa tem contado, com o importante apoio dos nossos jovens e menos jovens colaboradores. Assim, mais uma vez apelamos à boa vontade e espírito de ajuda de todos para mais uma vez nos ajudarem a concretizar com êxito este evento em pról dos animais.

Precisamos de voluntários para:

A adopção dos animais
Para ajudar no stand de exposições e distribuição de folhetos
Para ajuda aos veterinários (se possível com conhecimentos ou estudante de veterinária)
Para stand das crianças, animação, palhaços, malabaristas, pinturas faciais, etc..

Turnos das: 9,30 às 12,30 das 12,30 às 15,30 e das 15,30 às 19,30 horas

Contamos consigo: Venha a esta grande festa, traga os seus filhos, os seus animais a festa é para eles. A BÊNÇÃO DOS ANIMAIS È DOMINGO DIA 08 PELAS 14,30H

Divulgue o evento por conhecidos e amigos.
Esta é a melhor altura para adoptar um animal, para além de lhe estar a proporcionar um lar, também, ganha um bom amigo.
Porém, antes de o fazer pense bem se tem condições para o ter; um animal deve fazer parte integrante da família. Se tem condições então esta é a melhor altura para ajudar um animal adoptando-o.

A adopção deve ser uma adopção consciente e responsável. Não adopte um animal hoje para o não querer amanhã.

Para além dos animais das associações zoófilas e de particulares, irão estar presentes animais para adopção da Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, de Sintra, e do Seixal.

Agradecemos que confirmem a v/ presença até ao dia 30 do corrente mês, se possível para melhor delinear o programa.

Informações através do nosso Mail ([email protected]) ou para 969827999 MC Sampaio - 9827997 Jorge Santos ou telefone 214578413 das 1 às 14 das 15 às 18 de 2.ª a 6.feira.

Adicionalmente, fica aqui o programa que recebi posteriormente:

Yahoo is releasing the new Ajax-powered version of Yahoo Mail to all users in the US and across 18 international markets. The interface has somewhat the same feel but is improved by several orders of magnitude. The launch of the renewed service has been reported on several websites, such as ZDNet's Web 2.0 Explorer, PC World, Techcrunch, Slashdot, Ajaxian and dotnetjunkies.com Paul Mooney's blog.

To access the new version of Yahoo! Mail, go here and click the big yellow "Try It Now" button.

This webdesigner made the switch from Windows to Linux a few months ago and chronicled the changes they went through in order to make it work. This is an update on how things are going and on any changes made in order to successfully perform webdev on Linux. The article is aimed specifically at using Linux for Web development instead of average use.

read more | digg story

An interesting point of view, on which I've been pondering for some time. I no longer see kids playing catch or hide-and-seek these days. They don't play with marbles, they don't fall and hurt their knees when running from the old lady they stole those juicy apples from. They don't know what it is to be a kid. Did we kill childhood?

This is an easy way to convert those pesky flv's to something useful with our favorite open source operating system, Linux (or anything else ffmpeg will compile on for that matter - maybe Windows and Mac as well..but I dont know because I don't use them). FFMpeg makes it simple, and using just a few easy steps, you'll be converting in no time.

CEO Steve Ballmer has issued a threat by phone to European Commissioner Neelie Kroes that MS will not ship Vista to Europe if regulators don't "cooperate." Microsoft made the same threat to South Korean regulators, but did not follow through when they lost that battle.

internetnews.com has the story

Since this is probably the most annoying thing Microsoft has ever put into their operating systems, here's some links to sites that teach you how to disable it:

Download everything from Microsoft without WGA Check

Disable and Remove Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Nag Screen

For those of you in a hurry, here's the quick answer:

1. Download mgadiag.exe
2. Start mgadiag.exe and copy the download center code
3. Visit a download page at microsoft.com
4. Append &Hash="download center code" to the url (example &Hash=6VJPCR9), no quotation marks needed
5. Hit enter