I was reasonably happy with Piranha 3D.  It was a classic nature versus human bloodfest. 

Every year the population of sleepy Lake Victoria explodes when Spring Break descends.But this year, there's more to worry about than hangovers, STDs and complaints from locals. An underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, a mix of locals and Spring Break visitors must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the areas new razor-toothed residents.

Staring a group of great actors:

• Richard Dreyfuss
• Christopher Lloyd
• Jerry O'Connell
• Ving Rhames
• Elisabeth Shue
• Eli Roth
• Steven R. McQueen

It is worth seeing if only to see Jerry O'Connell deliver the line of the movie.

I bought an LG 50" Plasma and home theater system just over 2 years ago and have never had a problem.  Recently I thought that the cost of Blu-Ray Players and discs had dropped enought to buy one at my local JB Hi Fi store in Indooroopilly.

I spoke to the sales man about the LG Network Blu-Ray Player and was assured that I could play movies from any machine on my local network and that teh machine was 100% compatable with my existing hardware.  In good faith I forked over $300+

I got home plugged it in and everything seemed to work fine.  I manually ejected the dics draw put Braveheart into the player and watched it with pleasure.  Fantastic sound and picture. Exactly as expected.

When the movie finished, I used to the remote to try and access something on my network only to find that I could only access BDLive and software updates.  I though if I did the updates maybe I would be full network access. so I told it to do the updates the player asked for. 

I don't know what sort of network card they have in these devices but I'm assuming 10Mb only cause it took 2hrs to download and update (1 have a 2MB ADSL 2+ connection).  When it had finished I restarted and no still no network access.  Check the manual and nothing. It appears that the salesman either lied to ne or did not understand what I was asking.

So I decided to turn off the unit and did so with the remote.  To my surprise so did my home theater.  I turned back on the Blu-Ray and so did the home theater.  I ejected the Blu-Ray and again so did the home theater. 

Looks like there is a slight problem with the remote codes.

So I ring LG Customer service and get a very polite lady on the other end.  After explaining the hardware I have, the Conversation goes soemthing like this.

ME: When I use the remote on one devise it controls the other

LG: Yes this is correct.  Because LG Remotes run on the same frequency this happens.  Sorry about that.

ME: So is there a workaround for this?

LG: No.  Sorry about that.

ME: So your telling me that I either have to take it back and buy a non LG Player or get a universal remote?

LG: Or you could use a cloth to stop the signal.

I find it hard to believe that companies are doing so well they can force their loyal customers to buy other brands because they cannot seperate the frequencies.

Reuters Reported - A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a California ban on same-sex marriages as unconstitutional, handing a key victory to gay rights advocates in a politically charged decision almost certain to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

I think the law should be passed so that 50% can have their failure legally recognised just like straight marriage.

Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 would be launching in 17 more countries on July 30th 2010.

There is no information on the pricing and other details from Apple as yet.

The 17 countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland

I got this album thinking it was another great GNR album only to find that its not really.

Only about half the songs are from the gunners and even then they are not actually sung by them.  It should be called An album of Rock Covers. Below is a track listing.

1. Anything Goes-Hollywood Rose 
2. Welcome To The Jungle-Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & Kevin Dubrow (Quiet Riot) 
3. No More Mr.Nice Guy-Slash & Roger Daltrey (The Who) 
4. Sex Action-L.A. Guns 
5. Sweet Child OMine-Gilby Clarke 
6. Killing Time-Hollywood Rose 
7. Elected-Duff Mckagan, Matt Sorum, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) & Billy Duffy (The Cult) 
8. My Michelle-L.A. Guns 
9. It's So Easy-Tracii Guns, Gilby Clarke & Fred Coury (Cinderella) 
10. Last Cigarette-Hollywood Rose Feat. Teddy Zigzag (SlashS Snakepit) 
11. You're Crazy-Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & Stevie Ranchelle (Tuff) 
12. Nice Boys-Guns N' Roses (Rare Track - Original Lineup: Axl, Slash, Duff, Izzy & Steven) 
13. Pour Some Sugar On Me-L.A.Guns 
14. Rocker-Hollywood Rose 
15. Mr. Brownstone-Bang Tango Feat Tracii Guns & Gilby Clarke 
16. Toys In The Attic-Tracii Guns & Stephen Pearcy (Ratt) 
17. Jailbreak-Hollywood Rose Feat Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones) 
18. Used To Love Her-Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & John Corabi (Motley Crue) 
19. Gypsy-Slash & Tommy Shaw (Styx) 
20. Wanted Dead Or Alive-L.A.Guns 
21. Patience-Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & John Corabi (Motley Crue) 
22. Don't Cry-Spike (Quireboys), Tracii Guns & Gilby Clarke 
23. Shadow Of Your Love-Hollywood Rose 
24. Lay It Down-Stephen Pearcy (Ratt) & Tracii Guns 

Late last week Stephen Conroy, Communications Minister, announced the government would hold off on its proposed internet filter whilst the refused classification rules have been ironed out.

Telstra, Optus and Primus will voluntarily block child abuse content. The government is hoping that other IPSs will follow. Interestingly Internode said it had significant concerns with administration of the blacklist of child porn URLs used for the voluntary filter, and refused to apply it.

''It covers a tiny proportion of the content that would need to be blocked for it to be effective and has already been shown to contain URLs of legal content that Australians would expect to access,'' Internode's regulatory and corporate affairs manager, John Lindsay, said.

The list of child porn websites is maintained by the government's Australian Communications and Media Authority, which will add web addresses of child abuse imagery obtained from lists maintained by reputable overseas agencies.

I think that this is not really a backdown by Conroy but rather removing the topic from public discussion in the lead up to the Federal Election. 

Whoever wins the election can go back to the filter after the year-long refused classification review, and make the arguement these ISPs have been running it voluntarily and solved all of the technical issue.

The filter could then be sold as a child porn filter only. 

We will need to keep a very close eye on this.

My real concern is not really the act of filtering but the way it could be abused. 

I keep thinking of the senario where the government wants to get some legislation passed and requires the support of a minor party. 

The minor party agrees to support the legislation is this list of sitess is added to, or removed off the filter. 

Especially since this list is secret. Lets not forget that this list is managed by an indepenant board staffed by people appointed by the government.

New fraudulent emails are circulating which pretend to be from the Australian Government. Using social engineering tricks the criminals behind these emails try to trick you into providing personal information as a pretext to receiving a tax refund. This personal information can be used by the criminals to steal your identity.

The subject of the email may contain wording the same as, or similar to:

 Australian Taxation Office

 Australian Tax Refund Agency

 Australian Taxation Office (backcharge)

The from line of the email may contain wording the same as, or similar to:

"refund@ato.gov.au" <refund@ato.gov.au>

"TAXE" <service@ato.gov.com.au>

"Australian Taxation Office" <support@ato.gov.au>

"support@ato.gov.au" <support@ato.gov.au>

This is a scam.

The emails may include links to web sites that attempt to trick you into supplying personal details.

Providing the information requested is likely to mean that your personal and/or business information may be accessed for fraudulent or illegal purposes.

If you receive an email similar to this one, do not reply or click on the links in the email.

If you have provided personal information that includes your credit card or bank account information in response to an email request regarding this matter, the information you supplied has been captured by a criminal. Please notify your bank and the Australian Taxation Office.

Further information about detecting and preventing being fooled by phishing attacks is here:

SSO Factsheet Protecting Yourself Against Phishing Attacks.

Alert Source: Stay Smart Online Alert Service

Software and platforms affected

Adobe Reader 9.3.2 and prior
Adobe Acrobat 9.3.2 and prior
Adobe Reader 8.2.2 and prior
Adobe Acrobat 8.2.2 and prior

on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux

What is the problem?

There are several bugs in the above Adobe products which, if not fixed, could result in your computer being attacked by criminals. Your personal and/or business information may be accessed for fraudulent or illegal purposes (eg, identity theft).

According to the below Security Bulletin Adobe categorizes these as critical updates and recommends that users apply the latest updates for their product installations.

What to do?

1. Open Adobe Reader

2. Go to Help

3. Click on "Check for Updates..." 

or 

Download Adobe Reader for Windows or Mac 

Download Adobe Acrobat Standard and Pro for Windows

Download Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended for Windows

Download Adobe Acrobat Acrobat 3D for Windows 

Download Adobe Acrobat Acrobat Pro for Macintosh

More Info?

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb10-15.html

Alert Source: www.ssoalertservice.net.au

Before I start let me say that I am an Apple Fan.  I have been since I started programming on the Apple II

I upgraded my iPhone 3G to iOS4 yesterday.

After a two hour upgrade process I started playing with it and all seems OK initially.

My parents where visiting so we decided to go to IKEA and being that I don't normally drive I thought I'd use the Maps app.  Entered the From and To Details and up pops the map and off we go.

Two screens down the road I stop getting map updates however the GPS is still moving.   I am in Brisbane, Australia, and have never had an issue with maps before.  

I think maybe its an app problem so I close and reopen the app and not only am I not getting a ny map refreshes but the maps I had are gone as well. Looks like the cache has been flushed. Maybe that's to do with the update that came through.

So, what to do now. I open the web browser thinking i'll use the web version of maps.  Safari stalls, or should I say does not respond to touch at all. Absolutely no interaction.

Last resort, shut the phone down and restart. 5 minutes later the phone starts back up open Maps, no joy, open the browser no joy.  Give up using the phone for now.

3 hours later get home.  Plug the phone into the Mini Mac because the battery is red lining even though I haven't even made a call, suppose location services is still trying to tell me where I am.

Several hours later pick up the phone and start testing thing.  

SMS Messages stalls before opening
Contacts Stalls before Opening
Phone Dialer Stalls before opening
Can't get to Task Manager to view running taks.  This may be because my home button is starting to fail
Restart the phone as a last resort again several minutes pass before the phone restarts.

Mozilla Firefox version 3.6.4

Fixes Bugs in prior versions on

Windows (all versions) 

Mac OS X (all versions) 

Linux (all versions)

What is the problem?

Mozilla Firefox version 3.6.3 and prior contain several bugs, which if not fixed, could result in your computer being attacked and may make your web browser unstable and crash.

What To Do?

To find out which version of Mozilla Firefox you have, open Mozilla Firefox and from the main menu select 'Help' and select 'About Mozilla Firefox'. The problem can be easily fixed by selecting the "Check for Updates" menu item under the "Help" menu. Alternatively you can download and install the update from:

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

More Info

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/3.6.4/releasenotes/