index I was saved by the pinchers of power

I always thought there was something a little fishy about how Pwn2Own was run. Pwn2Own is part of the annual CanSecWest Security Conference. Basically it goes down like this they setup computers with the latest browsers all patched and up to date. You try and break into them through the browser. You earn points for a security breach and the team or person with the most points wins a laptop. What I didn’t know is that they are awarded without having to fully reveal how it was done. This itself seems like a hack to me. But I digress, Google has pulled out of the contest as a sponsor and said that they are going to do there own contest. Below is the reason they pulled out.

“We decided to withdraw our sponsorship when we discovered that contestants are permitted to enter Pwn2Own without having to reveal full exploits, or even all of the bugs used, to vendors,” said Chris Evans and Justin Schuh, two members of the Chrome security team, in a Monday post to the Chromium blog . “Full exploits have been handed over in previous years, but it’s an explicit non-requirement in this year’s contest, and that’s worrisome.”

MacWorld has more of the story.

I don’t know how many of you can tell, But I in general am fed up with my lack of choice about how I receive my content from cable providers. I am glad that someone else has felt my pain and animated it in a way that makes me smile so hard I could cry a little.

Head Over to The Oatmeal for a little truth in treat form.

Horace Dediu over on Asymco posted a cool chart showing Pretty much all Apple sales over the past 28 years. An interesting look for sure head on over and have yourself a gander.

The iOS platform as a whole reached 316 million cumulative units at the end of last year. The iOS platform overtook the OS X platform in under four years and more iOS devices were sold in 2011 (156 million) than all the Macs ever sold (122 million).

Mountain Lion Apple’s next operating system was announced today with little hoopla, and little fanfare. What is interesting is that they held private meetings last week with journalists, and writers of the mac world.

John Gruber over at DaringFireball has the best writeup of the whole event, or non event.

We were sitting in a comfortable hotel suite in Manhattan just over a week ago. I’d been summoned a few days earlier by Apple PR with the offer of a private “product briefing”. I had no idea heading into the meeting what it was about. I had no idea how it would be conducted. This was new territory for me, and I think, for Apple.

It’s a good read and an interesting take on the thought behind why apple has chosen to change things up a little bit. I downloaded and installed Mountain Lion minutes before this post and havent really had a lot of time to test anything on it but the install process. I am excited about the expanded iCloud integration and about Gatekeeper. Ill report back when I have used it for a couple days at least and got a feel for the OS, Until then read up what other people have to say.

• Wired’s Mountain Lion Coverage
• Macworld Talks about Gatekeeper
• PC Magazine’s 10 things to know about Mountain Lion
• NY Times coverage
• MacRumors talks about iCloud Integration
• MacStories talks about the new software update

Dear Media companies,

If you don’t let me buy your show in whatever format I want I will steal it.

Sincerely yours, The Whole Internet.

P.S. you really suck at this

I woke up today. This is a good thing, and I hope to continue that. I did something that could have ruined that perfect streak. I was mugged and I took the gun away from the mugger. Is that technically even a mugging? WHat do you call it when someone attempts to steal from you and you steal from them?

I was walking home after installing a printer for a client. Nothing out of the ordinary. Its 2pm and daylight, I live in a decent area, and there are people around. A man turns up the street as I’m walking down he is 30 paces from me. He has an agressive walk and thats not unusual for this neighborhood, he has a mask on and a hood, It’s 27 Degrees so neither of these details are unusual. As he approaches me he makes a move that I barely register as agression. As I tell this now, in this situation I tell people to take a step back and put your hands up.

My only instinct is to react. I didn’t think about it I just reacted. Yes I believe what I did was stupid, and even though I have years of training, its not worth it to even risk your life for a wallet, keys, bag, whatever. His hand comes out of his pocket with something but he is so close to me I grab the gun with my right hand backwards. I twist the gun and put it in his stomach.

To step back a second as I walk down the street I have some Headphones in my hears that do not allow me to hear any outside noise. I’m listening to Build and Analyze and these guys are talking about the latest news in the apple universe and my mind is thinking about the privacy of users address book on the iOS platform. As this is happening the guy pulls a gun on me and I’m sure he said something, I couldn’t hear it.

As I twist the gun I and point it at my attacker. I realize that he is trying to steal from me and I get mad. I’m not releasing this gun and I’m not going to be a victim. I am no victim. He tries to punch me knocking my headphone loose. I now hear him say, “are you fucking crazy! Give me my gun back!” This is the last thing I am going to do. I push his head down with my left hand, the right still holding the gun aimed at him. He must have realized at this point in time that he cant muscle his way out of this, and this guy on the other end isn’t letting go.

I yell as loud as I can, “HELP! This guy has a gun!” I yell it a couple times and it startles him. His grip releases, and he looks back like I’m nuts as he runs away.

I call the cops and spend the rest of the afternoon explaining to different people what happened. The cops say I should have just took the gun in and said I was there for cash for guns. It would have got me a couple hundred bux. I’m just glad I’m breathing without a hole in me.

A quote from Hunter S. Thompson

Breakfast is the only meal of the day that I tend to view with the same kind of traditionalized reverence that most people associate with Lunch and Dinner. I like to eat breakfast alone, and almost never before noon; anybody with a terminally jangled lifestyle needs at least one psychic anchor every twenty-four hours, and mine is breakfast. In Hong Kong, Dallas or at home — and regardless of whether or not I have been to bed — breakfast is a personal ritual that can only be properly observed alone, and in a spirit of genuine excess. The food factor should always be massive: four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned beef hash with diced chiles, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of Key lime pie, two margaritas, and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert… Right, and there should also be two or three newspapers, all mail and messages, a telephone, a notebook for planning the next twenty-four hours and at least one source of good music… All of which should be dealt with outside, in the warmth of a hot sun, and preferably stone naked.

Looks like I need to eat Breakfast regularly.

About a month or two ago I signed up to have my google mail analyzed and put into a fancy charts, graphs, and laid out so I could see what I’m actually doing with my mail.

I forget now where I heard about this service, but its pretty amazing. The site is toutapp.com click on thru for a sneak peek.

And lastly but not leastly if you want your own report from last year click on thru

So this is my first post of what may be many or few. I’m working on getting this thing setup here. Trying to learn a new posting syntax markdown, and an entirely new language, ruby, rails, and whatever else I need to get this site rocking from minimal to something a little more functional.