The new episode of The IT Crowd -- the ass-kicking nerd comedy from Graham Linehan, creator of Father Ted -- aired this week. Season two, episode four ("The Dinner Party") is another in this season's even-funnier, even-weirder installments -- this time, Jen and her new boyfriend are having a dinner party with her three single female friends, and his male friends cancel out, meaning that the IT department have to fill in. I watched this last night in the hotel room and nearly woke up the neighbors laughing.

As usual, I watched this by downloading the torrent. Channel 4, the broadcaster, has its own streaming service, but it won't run under Linux.

In other awesome news, Mike noticed that The IT Crowd Season Two DVD is already listed for pre-order on Amazon UK. Last season's DVD featured many excellent gracenotes (including leet subtitles), and I've just ordered the new one.

Link to ISOhunt Torrent, Link to Mininova Torrent, Link to "The Dinner Party" on YouTube (Thanks, Dave, Tian and Mike!)

(Disclosure: I was an unpaid consultant on series one of The IT Crowd, and my fiancee is about to start work at Channel Four)

See also:
IT Crowd Season 2, Episode 3: Great anti-piracy PSA sendup
IT Crowd Season 2, Episode 2 -- keyboard-destroying nerd sitcom
The IT Crowd -- season two, episode one

RIP, Robert Jordan, author of the monster bestselling fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Jordan had been suffering from a chronic illness for some years now, making it hard for him to finish new installments in the series -- he died with the books unfinished. Some of his friends and colleagues are discussing his life and death on Making Light. He was 58. Link

(Photo credit: Jor dcon2005.jpg, by Wikipedia user Valorian, released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image.)

Kim sez, "I was shopping in Toronto's Kensington Market on Saturday afternoon, when I ran across a CD stapled to a hydro pole, promoting a band's upcoming show. I ripped it off, listened to the tracks, and checked out the band's link on the CD. Anyways, I thought this is pretty cool - they're giving the album away for free (downloads on the website), selling a physical CD (with handmade covers), licensing it under a Creative Commons license, and using free CDs stapled to poles as a promotion gimmick. And the music is pretty good too." Link (Thanks, Kim!)

Remember Mark's post about TD Ameritrade customers receiving weird pump-n-dump stock scam spam from TD Ameritrade? Turns out the company was hacked, and those spams resulted from that data breach:

Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Friday one of its databases was hacked and contact information for its more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. A spokeswoman for the Omaha-based company said more sensitive information in the same database, including Social Security numbers and account numbers, does not appear to have been taken.

But Ameritrade has known about the problem at least since late May when two of its customers sued the brokerage in federal court because they were receiving unwanted e-mail ads on accounts used only for Ameritrade.

The data on Ameritrade's servers may have been vulnerable for an extended period of time dating back at least to last October, according to the lawsuit filed by lawyer Scott A. Kamber. The company said Friday the problem had recently been fixed.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit had wanted the court to order Ameritrade to tell its customers about the data problem, but Ameritrade issued its release before a hearing could be held. The plaintiffs are also seeking damages and are trying to qualify as a class-action lawsuit.

Link.

Boing Boing reader jere7my says,

My mom painted these Converse Chucks in the Attic red-figure technique as a gift for my fiancée, the classics prof. Each of the four sides displays a different scene from a different Greek vase — that's Odysseus bound to the mast in the foreground there. (If it were really in the red-figure style, of course, the red clay would be the only unpainted bits. But why be a noodge?)

Hey, everyone! Osama Bin Laden's corporate website expires on 9-11-01, and it's up for sale on eBay.

Boing Boing reader Dave Kha says, "While staying at a hostel in Prague I noticed this graffiti on one of the doors. I'm not sure if they're just taking the old "there's no place like home" joke and mistranslating it, or making a statement about the life of a wanderer."

Moment of tabloid video zen: OJ Simpson (who's since been arrested) leaves a Las Vegas wedding where he reportedly served as best man -- on the way out, he's singing "If I only Had a Brain," from the Wizard of Oz. Some bystanderdude yells, "Hey, I got a brain!" Video Link.

Steve Wozniak attended the Emmys tonight as the date of comedienne Kathy Griffin.

Every phrase that appeared on Judah Friedlander's trucker hats from season one of 30 Rock.

Sometimes, cybersquatting does not pay. A Las Vegas man faces about 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud for impersonating an intellectual property lawyer and threatening lawsuits against the owners of Internet domain names.

Bill Dube, inventor of the electric 'KillaCycle' motorcycle, crashed while demoing a burnout at Wired NextFest. The accident takes place about 70% of the way through the video at this link.

Over at StreetTech, BB pal Gareth Branwyn has a neat post up today on a tribe of Steampunk bellydancers. Gareth says, "I especially like how the belt apparently says 'Not Yours.' Gotcha." Link.

In this very odd YouTube video, worshippers at a Syrian mosque witness what they believe to be a holy miracle (the details are in the video description). Everyone holds their cellphones up in the air, hoping to phonecam video the sacred apparition.

(thanks, chris curry, Andrew Breitbart, patrick, Sharelle, Sharelle, Darrell Cadwallader, Humphrey Cheung)

Did you see Alan Greenspan on 60 Minutes tonight?

What a revelation, one of the most powerful political and economic forces, but until now, basically silent. There were so many interesting things in the interview, but one of them left me with an urgent action item. Lesley Stahl, the interviewer, asked what currency he got the advance on his book in? He said it didn't matter, because he could convert to whatever currency he wanted, begging the question. She pressed, and he volunteered that the best choice is to be diversified. Which of course is a conclusion every money manager would reach on their own, it's just like stocks and bonds, you never want to have all your eggs in one basket, the best strategy is to be diversified.

I've wanted to be diversified in currency for quite some time, but have found it's not so easy. I have an investment account and a checking account, both are in US dollars, and neither offers the option of anything other than that. I just spent a couple of hours with Google trying to figure out where I could open an account that would allow me to keep cash in euros, yen, yuan, dollars (Canadian, US, Australian or New Zealand), pounds, or... ? I found that I could become a currency trader, which is absolutely not what I want. What I'd like is something like a mutual fund for currency. Or failing that, a certificate of deposit that allowed me to specify what currency it would be in.

So I thought I'd ask the smartest people I know, the readers of this blog. Do you keep your savings in more than one currency? Is there an online bank that does this well, one that a US citizen can use (that is, it sends 1099's to the IRS). Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Over at CNET, Chris Soghoian (huh, he's blogging there now) blogs:

In a recent blog posting, a German operator of a Tor anonymous proxy server revealed that he was arrested by German police officers at the end of July. Although he was released shortly afterwards, information about the arrest had been kept quiet until his lawyers were able to get the charges dropped.

(...) The police were investigating a bomb threat posted to an online forum for German police officers. The police traced one of the objectionable posts on the forum to the ip address for Janssen's server. Up until his arrest, Alex Janssen's Tor server carried over 40GB of other random strangers' Internet traffic each day.

Showing up at his house at midnight on a Sunday night, police cuffed and arrested him in front of his wife and seized his equipment. In a display of both bitter irony and incompetence, the police did not take or shut-down the Tor server responsible for the traffic they were interested in, which was located in a different city, over 500km away.

Link

That hash/checksum mentioned previously on Boing Boing has apparently been broken: Link.

Dr. Eggman writes "Gamasutra has the recent announcement; Intel has purchased Havok. 'As the firm noted, Havok 5 features enhancements to its core products, Havok Physics and Havok Animation, and introduces new features for Havok Behavior, a system for developing event-driven character behaviors in a game. Some of the games using Havok technology, particularly its Havok Physics solution, include BioShock, Stranglehold, Halo 2, Half Life 2, Oblivion, Crackdown, and MotorStorm - the company is also rapidly developing and marketing further tool products.' No word on what (if anything) Intel plans to do with its new acquisition."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

siddesu writes "The BBC has a nice high-level overview of some technologies for surveillance developed in the US and the UK. 'The US and UK governments are developing increasingly sophisticated gadgets to keep individuals under their surveillance. When it comes to technology, the US is determined to stay ahead of the game ... But it [a through-the wall sensing device in development] will also show whether someone inside a house is looking to harm you, because if they are, their heart rate will be raised. And 10 years from now, the technology will be much smarter. We'll scan a person with one of these things and tell what they're actually thinking.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Congrats to Hugh MacLeod on his new deal.

Mark Cuban: "I love me some MacBook." He says Macs don't have two-button mouses, this is a common misperception. I use two-button mice for all my Macs. They "just work." Honestly, I think Apple ought to give up the fight on this issue, two buttons are no big deal to master, esp compared to other much more complicated concepts you have to master to use a Mac.

I just ordered a new Logitech keyboard. Impulse purchase.

Yesterday I took a twitpic with my iPhone in the Apple store in Palo Alto. This guy was following, at a cafe across the street. Of course he came over, and we had a nice schmooze.

Alien54 writes "Comcast has finally clarified what 'excessive use' is when it comes to their cable internet service. A customer is exceeding their use limit if they: download the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures or 13 million emails in a month. '[A Comcast spokesperson] said that Comcast's actions to cut ties with excessive users is a "great benefit to games and helps protect gamers and their game experience" due to their overuse of the network and thus "degrading the experience."'" Maybe they could put that limit in terms other than 'email' or 'songs'?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Visitors to the two Bay Area Maker Faires will remember the amazing supercomputing cluster made from recycled PCs running on a veggie oil-fueled generator, and Silicon Death Valley, a fun cemetery of computer industry cast-offs. Those were the work of the good people at the Alameda County Computer Recycling Center, a fantastic Berkeley, California-based non-profit group that recycles anything that plugs into the wall. Its director, James Burgett, is a champion of DIY culture, opening his doors to makers looking for old gear for projects, but their primary focus is "the charitable placement of computers in the hands of those who do not have access." As the ACCRC slogan goes, "Obsolescence is just a lack of imagination." Now though, the ACCRC is in trouble. The Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency has issued the ACCRC a violation that could make it very hard for the group to stay in business. And, quite frankly, that's a damned shame.

MAKE: founder Dale Dougherty has more at the O'Reilly Radar blog. From his post:

Let's imagine that you set up a non-profit to recycle electronics and divert computers from going directly into landfills or otherwise being destroyed by a grinder. You look for ways to refurbish these components and possibly recombine them into functional computers that go out to areas and institutions that have difficulty obtaining computers. You might even collect some of the vintage electronics that comes through the door and hang on to this stuff because you think it's cool and somebody may want it someday. Yes, your place looks a bit like a junkyard but it's one that employs people to do something with the junk you collect. And while you have organized these efforts as a charity, you have figured out how to break even from providing these recycling services and you don't need donations or government support.

You do all this and then a government inspector drops in one day. This is an inspector from the Department of Toxic Substance Control of the California Environmental Protection Agency . You've had inspectors before and the visits have been cordial. Your operation is not unlike the Salvation Army or the Goodwill. You have worked with the DTSC in the past. You think you're a friend of the environment because you repurpose equipment that would otherwise be waste.

You expect to pass the inspection but no. Instead, you get written up. Perhaps it's because there's a new inspector in town with something to prove. No matter, you've now been handed a Section 1 violation, which means they can shut you down or make it very hard for you to stay in business. The inspector says that you don't have a proper inventory of all the parts. The inspector says that you have to get rid of equipment after a year, so you'll have to clear out your museum of collectibles. This is the letter of the law and you're expected to follow it. You're given 30 days to comply.

Now, if this really was you, you might get upset. You'd see all the work you've done about to be undone, unravelled. It seems nobody cares that you're in this mess and the government, which seems to promote and support environmental cleanup, is using narrow interpretations of its regulations to block the operations of a group engaged in precisely this kind of activity.

Link to O'Reilly Radar post, Link to James Burgett's blog, Link to ACCRC

Conferences are in the air, it's that time of year again.

Sorry to be missing the TechCrunch 40 conference which starts tomorrow. I love demo-type conferences, I was one of the originators of the Demo conference, started by Stewart Alsop in the early 90s. The idea then was to take the drudgery out of going to huge shows like Comdex, where you'd have to walk past miles of meaningless booths to find the really interesting products, which often weren't even on the show floor.

And even when you found the gems, the demos usually weren't very good. So Iobbied Stewart to do a conference that would flip the equation around. Do a conference where there were no booths. The demos would be done on computers at a desk, and the demoer was seated, as were the people receiving the demo, usually two or three at a time. Ideally, the demo would be done by the person who developed the product, or the CEO of the company, so that when you asked a question, you might actually get an intelligent answer. And limit the number of people showing to 30 or 40, people chosen by Stewart, who really has a love for intelligent and interesting products. The mind of Stewart of course was key to the process. I wrote the guide to demoing software for the first Demo, which was given to all the demoers and presented at dinner the night before, by yours truly.

When Stewart left, a succession of people ran Demo. At one point, I was offered the job, but I turned it down because I was running a company. I don't think I would have been good at it anyway, because I'm more of a product developer than a connoiseur. Better to have someone like Stewart or Mike Arrington, who live to receive demos, do the choosing. In some sense I have been trying to create the perfect demo, to be a Demo God (a term I coined btw). I've not been to a Chris Shipley Demo, but I hear they're good. I'd like to go someday. I know Mike and Jason are trying to change things in this area, and change is good, and I don't doubt that Demo will adapt.

It is a shame to be missing the TechCrunch conference, but I guess there's a good reason for it, although I sure don't know what it is. Jason got very very mad at me for interrupting his speech at Gnomedex, and scorched my earth in every way he could think to. I think a mensch would regret doing that, and would say so publicly. I would like to get that out of the way so I could have fun at the conference like everyone else. But since he made me his bitch, it just wouldn't be fun being there listening to him present the demoers, thinking how mean he had been to me, in such a public and humiliating way.

Anyway, be glad when people respect you, and try to shrug it off when they don't. That's the best advice I can give. And bless the demoers, people who have the guts to put their ideas to the test.

5/21/99: Never demo on a development server.

Chooka makes cool women's and children's rain boots styled after motorcycle boots and emblazoned with fun tattoo graphics and pop designs. You can see the whole range at the Chooka site or pick up a pair from Amazon for around $21 to $65, depending on the style.
Link to buy, Link to Chooka

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Meridian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a single-engine research aircraft with fixed landing gear designed by engineers at the University of Kansas. According to Technology Review, it will be used to see what happens beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Two units are currently being built for a cost of about 3 U.S. million dollars. The Meridian will fly for up to 13 hours over a distance of 1,750 kilometers. The first flight over Greenland is forecasted next summer. And a second flight will take place over the Antarctic later in 2008."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Jeff Jarvis, whose mind occupies the intersection of mainstream media and the blogging world, perhaps more than any other person, is having a conference in mid-October in NYC to bring together people from both worlds to present constructive ideas for working with each other.

Me, my feet are firmly planted in the blogging world, but I've spent a lifetime reading and watching MSM, starting with the NY Times at the kitchen table with my parents and brother, when growing up. Some of my fondest memories as a child were our discussions of the days events, and the Times was our common structure. Everyone in our family read the newspaper, often from cover to cover.

As Jarvis councils us, never mind the mistakes, what can we do to make things work better? And I have a couple of proposals in that direction that I will try to present at the October 11 conference. In all cases, they involve the MSM opening up more to include not only the ideas of blogging, but also the bodies of the bloggers.

1. I've said it many times before, it's worth raising again. Any newspaper or radio or TV station with a good reputation in its community could embrace the fresh ideas of the bloggers in their community by offering free blogs to members of the community, who may be new to blogging. I suggested this to the Times in 2001 -- when a person is quoted in a Times article, a few days after the piece runs, contact them, and ask if they'd like to have a NY Times hosted blog. There would be no control over what appeared on the blog. It would have a nytimes.com domain (something like bullmancuso.nytimes.com). Build an aggregator, something very much like Twitter (which is after all, a river of news, not exactly a new idea, heh) that shows all the new posts from members of the community. Encourage (but don't require) your editorial people to read the blog posts. Let whatever happens happen.

2. Here's a new idea that I haven't proposed before. Open your newsroom to bloggers. Set aside a half-dozen desks for people who blog in your community, people you've gotten to know, and provide them with wifi, a water cooler, your coffee (no matter how bad it is) and chance to work alongside your editorial people and (very important) with each other. It's an incredible thing when bloggers get together in a physical space, the sparks can really fly. Now imagine what could happen if those sparks got flying between the remaining editorial people in a professional news organization and the bloggers. I believe the secret of scaling the news is right there, you just have to open the door and see what comes in.