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Arrr. Looks like people have already figured out a way around Microsoft’s latest product key check on Windows Update

Before pressing ‘Custom’ or ‘Express’ buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:

javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')


It turns off the trigger for the key check.

[via Boing Boing]

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Assuming you haven’t been living under a rock for the past couple weeks, you’re probably well aware of the fact that J.K. Rowling unleashed the sixth book in the Harry Potter series, titled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I received this as a birthday gift (pre-ordered from Amazon), it arrived with my regular USPS mail on Saturday. Amazon made up a special box to ship this book - something I suppose is worth doing when you’ve pre-sold 1.3 million copies of the thing. Due to what some would call poor planning on my part, I didn’t actually get to start reading the book until Sunday afternoon… it was a long wait indeed :)

I thought this read much quicker than the prior books - it is 652 pages long but still possible to sit down and read the whole thing. I’m not a particularly fast reader, but I’d guess that it only took me about 5 or 6 hours to read this book. Compare that to the prior book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which was 870 pages and took me a couple days to read.

After reading this book and thinking about it for a while, I believe Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is still my favorite in the series. Many interesting things happen in the Half-Blood Prince, but I was just disappointed with the ending.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

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I recently upgraded to nVidia’s latest drivers (v77.72) for my GeForce 6800 GT and noticed a horrible gamma problem when playing any movies with VLC or Windows Media Player. Everything was flooded and oversaturated, could barely make out some scenes.

So, I did some looking into the issue and it appears that the default gamma setting through some type of bug in this particular version of the driver is 3.something - way, way too high. You can view the setting by going into the video card properties, Video Overlay Settings, then clicking on the Adjust Colors button. You’ll need a workaround to fix this bug because the gamma slider won’t let you put it at 1, the proper gamma level. Instead of Overlay in the dropdown selector, choose All. Then, put the slider on 1 and hit the Restore Defaults button. That should set the overlay settings back to 1 - don’t try to adjust the overlay gamma setting directly, it just doesn’t work.

I’ve been noticing the declining QA in commercial software, but I was still somewhat surprised that something like this made it past nVidia’s QA process. Only after much searching did I find this solution - I wonder how many people have been bitten by this bug.

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I got in a bit of a debate yesterday with a few Bush-haters (of the canadian and european variety) that was sparked by this whole G-8 meeting and the focus on Africa. I was told that I’m a “typical selfish American” for beliving this aid is not a high priority when compared to the war that we’re fighting. Apparently liberals just plain don’t believe that people are capable of achieving for themselves and that they need the aid to survive. I can understand the emotional argument, as this is really a bad situation for the people of these African countries, but I don’t think hand-outs will do anything to help them back on their feet.

Today I ran across an article [via DailyPundit] that puts my thoughts about our whole foriegn aid policy into a very simplistic perspective.

Key quotes:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa…

Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

This is true, and Shikwati goes on to explain why.

Shikwati: I am afraid, though, that the money will still be transfered before long. After all, it has to go somewhere. Unfortunately, the Europeans’ devastating urge to do good can no longer be countered with reason.

This is such a gem that I had to include it. He speaks volumes of the UN’s policy and the bleeding-heart liberal’s attempts that can “no longer be countered with reason”. I love it.

Shikwati: Why do we get these mountains of clothes? No one is freezing here. Instead, our tailors lose their livlihoods. They’re in the same position as our farmers. No one in the low-wage world of Africa can be cost-efficient enough to keep pace with donated products. In 1997, 137,000 workers were employed in Nigeria’s textile industry. By 2003, the figure had dropped to 57,000. The results are the same in all other areas where overwhelming helpfulness and fragile African markets collide.

I suggest you read the full article.

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Last night was our first ‘Fun Night’ in league. There weren’t many people playing, being this close to a holiday and all. So, our league organizer decided to change things up and have specific rules for each hole, as follows:

1. Heckle Hole - Normal Golf, with the exception of: talking, whistling, yelling, burping or whatever noise you can make come out of your body, while the player is making a shot, chip, putt, or whatever! Each and every shot until the hole is completed.
2. One Club Hole - On the tee, pick a club out of your bag. This is the club you will use on the entire hole. Teeing, chipping, and putting.
3. Two Club Hole - Pick two clubs out of your bag. These two clubs are the only clubs you can use on this hole, including your putt(s).
4. Girly-Man Hole - Everyone gets to tee from the Women’s tees. If you’re too manly to hit from the women’s tees, then you must be a real man and thus tee from the blue tees.
5. Silence Hole – Normal Golf, with the exception of; there is to be NO talking from the time the first ball is teed until the last putt is made. Anyone who talks, is assessed a 2 stroke penalty. If you happen to talk and take the penalty, the penalized person may treat the hole like a heckle hole, to try and make the other players slip up and get penalized also. You may yell FORE as a warning if there’s an errant ball. No penalty. Don’t abuse it!!
6. Bonus Hole - Regular golf, except, you get ONE FREE KICK and ONE FREE THROW. You may kick the ball once to advance it and you may throw it once to advance it. You do not need to count these as strokes. However, you are not allowed to kick or throw when the ball is on the green. So, get your kicks and throws in early!!
7. Advantage Hole - Once on the green, you may move your ball 2 club lengths closer to the hole without incurring a penalty. However, you must putt the ball one handed. Stance doesn’t matter. But only one hand can be on the putter! ( 2 stroke penalty if you don’t)
8. Penalty Hole - Failure to hit your ball in the number 8 fairway with your tee shot, you must add 2 strokes to your score. Do whatever you need to do, to get the ball in the fairway on your drive!! Bonus: If you hit the ball in a sand trap, subtract 1 stroke from your score!
9. Heckle, Silence, and Bonus Hole - Heckle hole on the tee and green. Silence hole ( 2 stroke penalty if you talk ) immediately after the last player has teed, until you reach the green. Once on the green, and you have to be on the green, Heckle away!!. Bonus hole is in effect ( free kick and free throw ). Refer to holes 1, 5 and 6 for further details.

Special Bonus – You may deduct a total of two strokes off your score, if you attempt and hit your tee shot like Happy Gilmore. You must tee this way twice to earn your deduction.

It was actually a lot of fun - especially since I did fairly well. The scorecard there does not include the Happy Gilmore bonus -2 that I think nearly everybody received. I did see some entertaining swings and misses though - I watched one guy who hit 3 off the first tee because of misses.

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