K-Squared Ramblings

Dark Angels

Two bits of news on some of the less conventional “Angels” of comics.

Writer Jeff Mariotte reports that Joss Whedon and Fox have approved a second Angel comic book miniseries to come out late this year, which may interest fans of the show who want to know what happened after the final episode:

While The Curse is strictly an Angel solo story with the other characters just showing up in flashback, this one will include most of the gang (those who survived NFA, anyway)—although some of them in unexpected ways. More than that I will not say. It’s the only approved, official continuation of the TV series, though

Meanwhile, Peter David has confirmed that the new artist on Fallen Angel is J.K. Woodward, and posted this sample of his art style. This isn’t just a cover—this is what the interior art will look like!

Spinning Beach Balls of Death!

The Mozilla-based Camino web browser for Mac OS X has just launched 0.9 alpha 1, and the release notes* include this item:

Rarely see “beach balls of death”.

I don’t remember whether I’d heard the term before (I recall the “spinning pizza of death,” or maybe of doom), but I knew exactly what it meant.

*In spring 2007, they restructured the website. The release notes for the 0.9 series have been incorporated into the notes for 1.0.

A Visit to Kilauea

Picking up the oft-delayed vacation photos series, here’s the first half of our trip out to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park and the volcano Kilauea.

Kilauea is often referred to as the most active volcano in the world. To give you an idea why, its latest eruption started in 1983… and is still going!

We got to the park fairly late in the day, partly because we underestimated the amount of time it would take to drive there from Kailua, and partly because we stopped at various points of interest along the way. It was mid-afternoon by the time we got to the visitor’s center, where Katie stood transfixed by the lava videos and I checked out the maps.

We stopped for a late lunch at Volcano House, an old hotel built on the edge of the Kilauea Caldera. Check out the view! (The image links to a slightly larger copy.)

The crater Halema‘uma‘u, which contained a boiling lava lake from 1823–1924, is visible near the center. The southern slope of Mauna Loa rises in the background. The whole caldera is roughly elliptical in shape, and Volcano House is one end of the longer axis. I don’t remember exactly how far it is from one side to the other, but judging by the map I’d say it’s about 2×3 miles.

Off to the right, behind a tree in the panorama, are the steaming bluffs. Groundwater gets heated by the magma below the volcano and seeps out through cracks all over the caldera.
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Opera and Acid2

The WaSP Buzz writes that once the Opera web browser passes the Acid2 test on the desktop, the mobile version will pass it too.

OK, that makes sense. AFAIK they have one rendering engine that they use across platforms. If the Windows, Linux and Mac versions display sites identically (aside from fonts and form controls), there’s no reason to assume that the version for cell phones and PDAs will be any different. What’s interesting here is the link to a forum thread on Opera’s Acid2 progress.

The Perfect Couple

A perfect pairing on a movie marquee:

Allergen-free? Try again!

Saw this sign on a display in Whole Foods the other day:

Okaay… but what if you’re allergic to fish?

Watch where you point that thing!

This roller coaster ad was supposed to say, “Ready. Aim. Scream.” But when we got stuck waiting for a long turn signal, the view from the passenger’s seat suggested that the Silver Bullet gets some people a little more excited than that.

What it all Mean’s

Katie spotted this example of apostrophe abuse in an office parking lot.

The best service mean is…? Statistical analysis of dumpster service?

Is there any *ahem* meaning for which this would actually make sense?

Lava Graffiti

Amid the old lava flows on the west coast of Hawai‘i, locals have a tradition of arranging coral on the jumbled rocks to create temporary graffiti. It tends to be “friendly” graffiti, more like carving one’s initials in a tree than tagging a freeway wall with spray paint.

We drove past a beautifully drawn whale several times before we finally decided to stop by the side of the road, and Katie stepped out to get a picture:
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Beware of Invisible Cows

Up at the visitor’s center for the Mauna Kea observatories, there’s a sign that says, “Beware of Invisible Cows.” It was dark when we were there, and I tried to get this picture without using the flash since there were people with portable telescopes ten feet away, so it’s really blurry:

Fortunately someone in charge recognized the humor value, and the visitor’s center sells bumper stickers:

Of course, it turns out other people, visiting during the day, have snapped better pictures of the sign.

Note: Our visit to Mauna Kea was on Saturday, April 9, 2005.

Spike and (Fallen) Angel

You know, I should have made the connection when Fallen Angel moved to IDW that it’s the same publisher that picked up the Angel (as in the vampire with a soul™ from the Buffy-verse) license. And I should have remembered that Peter David is writing a Spike one-shot comic book that should be out soon (August, apparently).

So it really shouldn’t surprise me that Spike: Old Times will feature a full-page ad for the new Fallen Angel series.

Jedi vs. Sith, Order vs. Chaos

I was thinking about Star Wars, the “bringing balance to the Force” prophecy, and RPG character alignments, and realized that while you can neatly map the Jedi and Sith to good and evil (Anakin’s confusion notwithstanding), you can’t map them so neatly to order and chaos.

The Sith are a chaotic organization. They thrive on emotional chaos, they spread chaos to meet their ends… but when they get in charge, they impose order on everyone else.

The Jedi are extremely ordered. They try to purge emotions, they deny attachments. They’re hidebound by tradition. The organization is very structured. And yet they fight not to impose order but to protect it. The Jedi actually strive to preserve the balance of law and chaos.

I’m actually reminded a bit of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, in which the cosmic balance between order and chaos is treated as its own faction. The Eternal Champion, in his various incarnations, always fights for the Balance, bringing order to Chaos worlds and chaos to Order worlds.

So the Sith are chaotic, but impose order, while the Jedi are ordered, but fight for balance. The problem, of course, is that the Jedi are not balanced themselves. Anakin does three things to correct this:

1. He destroys the old Jedi order
2. He destroys the Sith (two decades later)
3. Destroying the Jedi ensures that Luke and Leia, heirs to the Force, will grow up as people first, Jedi later.

Luke and Leia have the opportunity to re-create the Jedi without all the baggage that dragged the old Jedi order down… and they can rebuild it with Jedi who are actually in balance themselves.

Viruses: They’re not just annoyances anymore

If you’ve been paying attention to computer security, you already know that spam, viruses, and organized crime have been in bed together for at least a year. The recently-discovered theft of 40 million credit card numbers [edit: originally linked to Yahoo News] illustrates this point clearly:

CardSystems was hit by a virus-like computer script that captured customer data for the purpose of fraud, [MasterCard spokeswoman] Gamsin said. She said she did not know how the script got into the system. The FBI was investigating. (emphasis added)

Given the current porous state of many networks and operating systems, and the general public’s attitude that catching a computer virus is as inevitable as catching a cold, I’d guess it got into the system the same way most spyware does. An email attachment squeaked by the filters. Someone installed a tool that claimed it would make their web access faster. Someone got a well-designed phish, followed the link, and got infected by a backdoor because their browser was behind on security patches. Someone brought a laptop home, plugged it into their insecure home network, and brought back a virus.

Sadly, I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of this.

Update June 20: Netcraft is reporting that it was indeed lax computer security that did them in:

MasterCard International said it “worked with CardSystems to remediate the security vulnerabilities in the processor’s systems. These vulnerabilities allowed an unauthorized individual to infiltrate their network and access the cardholder data.” Officials at affected institutions were not specifying the vulnerability and exploit used to breach CardSystems’ security. (emphasis added)

Netcraft seems to think it was likely their website, which runs on Windows 2000 and IIS 5, and they go on to promote their own security consulting services. So it’s not entirely an unbiased look at the incident.

Sequelitis is profitable

An interesting read on the Most Lucrative Movie Franchises, not so much for what it gets right, but for what it gets wrong.

Tonight’s premiere of Batman Begins marks the sixth in the series. And that’s only counting the “modern” era of Batman flicks, dating from 1989’s Batman from director Tim Burton.

Sixth? Are they including the cartoon Batman: Mask of the Phantasm? If so, why not Batman: Sub-Zero? (Curiously, the table on page two only indicates five Batman films.)

And where do they get four Lord of the Rings films? I suppose they could be counting the Bakshi cartoon, but what about the Rankin-Bass Return of the King and The Hobbit.

Where are they getting their numbers?

Is that a promise?

A mortgage spam:

THIS IS OUR CLOSING TRY

We have made an effort to speak to you on many occurences and now is the time to respond! … However, based on the fact that our previous attempts to speak to you have failed, this will be our last notice to gain for you the lower rate. [Emphasis added]

Please!