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System76
System76 provides and supports Ubuntu pre-installed laptops, desktops, and servers with a commitment to the ideals of open source software.
http://system76.com/
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To help increase awareness of Firefox, Mozilla would like to produce a high-quality, innovative 30-second ad that introduces Firefox to mainstream Web users.
In line with its history and orientation, Mozilla is opening up the creation of its initial advertising creative to film, TV, advertising, multimedia professionals, students and aspiring pros as part of the Firefox Flicks Ad Contest.
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Online Arcade
Awesome Flash Games at The First Post!
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Nokia's awesome new Nseries phone runs on the Linux OS!
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Picasa
Picassa 2 is certainly better than the software that came with your digital camera! Works with Windows and Linux...
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The PC Chat Computer Show - Articles
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Doofuses I Met This Week on the Internet
02-24-2007 |
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Welcome back to another exciting installment of Doofuses I Met This Week on the Internet.
Starting off this week in Kalamazoo-because it's fun to say Kalamazoo-and the Gazette newspaper Web site, I learned about former Alcona County Treasurer Thomas Richardson. The operative word in the previous sentence is “former.”
Yes, poor, dumb-as-a-stump Tom, the County Treasurer mind you, was accused of embezzling more than $1 million, at least part of which was used to cover expenses he incurred falling for… are you ready? That’s right, a Nigerian banking scam on the Internet.
According to the Michigan Attorney General's office, the 56-year-old doofus also spent $72,000 of his own money in the scam.
County officials first suspected something was amiss late last year, when bank employees informed them that Richardson had sent six payments totaling $150,000 to overseas accounts associated with perpetrators of the Nigerian scheme.
Bank employees had warned him that the investment was a scam, but the brilliant former treasurer ignored the warnings.
Folks, here’s a tip from your good friends at PC Chat: If you get an email from some supposedly wealthy Nigerian duke or dukess—which coincidentally, rhymes with Doofus—saying that they need your help moving millions of dollars and asking if they can just park a few mill in your checking account, AND that they’ll give you a hefty percentage for your kindness…. Run like the wind.
Trust us, nobody is out there wanting to give you even ten cents for helping them, so smarten up and don’t be a doofus like the former County Treasurer of Alcona County, Michigan.
Everybody who’s on the Internet hears about scams like this all the time, and the first question asked is always, “Who would be dumb enough to fall for something this stupid?” Well, folks, say hello to Tom Richardson.
Oh, and since he lost his job as County Treasurer, rumor has it he’s now into financial planning. If that’s true, I have a feeling we may be seeing Tom back here in Doofusville very soon. I’ll be sure to leave the light on.
From Michigan, I scrolled on over to beautiful downtown Cleveland. Those of you not familiar with Cleveland should know that one of its claims to fame is the beautiful Cuyahoga River, which was so polluted years ago, that it actually burst into flames. That’s true! That was a long time ago and in the spirit of fairness, I should note it has been cleaned up considerably since that time.
From the legendary Cleveland Plain Dealer Web site, I learned that if you’re a major brand of bottled water and you decide to ridicule someone else's water on your Web site, it might be a good idea to make sure that YOU’RE not selling water containing the highest levels of arsenic and other contaminants.
That’s exactly what happened when Fiji Water apparently thought it would be a good idea to use the slogan "Fiji, because it's not bottled in Cleveland" in their print and Internet-based advertising. I guess they may have overlooked the fact that since the burning river incident years ago, Cleveland has a world-class water-testing laboratory, and they’re not afraid to use it.
So Cleveland investigated and found that Fiji Water had the highest content of arsenic and other contaminants of any water they tested, either municipal or bottled. In fact, Cleveland tap water, Aquafina, Dasani and Evian had NO measurable arsenic, while Fiji had more than six micrograms.
Snarled surly Cleveland Water Commissioner Christopher Nielson, "Before you take a cheap shot at somebody, you’d damn well better know what you're talking about.” Go get ‘em, Water Boy!
Fiji didn’t take the rebuke particularly well and a Fiji Water spokesperson said that they do not accept Cleveland’s analysis because it wasn't done by an independent laboratory.
And in the "not-knowing-when-to-give-it-a-rest” category, Fiji went on to explain that they picked on Cleveland because people in Cleveland are used to getting picked on.
Nice going, Fiji Water, you are officially our Corporate Doofus of the week!
From the heartland known as Mishawaka, Indiana, I learned from the South Bend Tribune Web site about police officer Charles Huntsager who forced the evacuation of a local restaurant this week after he mistook his Mace dispenser for a cigarette lighter.
Huntsager was attempting to light a cigarette with his mace container, when he shot himself in the face and spewed a cloud of mace in the restaurant. 20 customers and employees at the American Pancake House had to I-Hop their butts out of there after becoming sick.
To make the incident just a bit more bizarre, Doofus Huntsager has been involved in THREE previous mace-related incidents during his time with the local police department.
Oh, and the Pancake House is a non-smoking establishment, in the first place.
Nice going, Captain Doofus.
From the heartland, I headed to Tokyo where I learned that Hiroshi Ichigaya has invented the world's first air-conditioned shirt. Ichigaya's invention creates circulating air to enhance the evaporation and dissipation of body heat through the use of two small battery-operated fans.
All electrical parts of the shirt can be removed for washing, and the shirt can even be powered by plugging it into a USB port, for those hot, sweaty, Internet pornfests we all know and love.
The shirt reportedly offers the wearer a pleasant breeze with one slight drawback: When the shirt is enabled, it inflates.
Yes, what could be more attractive to the young women in the singles bars of Tokyo than that come-hither “Michelin Man” look. A less pneumatic version is supposedly in the works.
Hiroshi has expanded his product line from the initial shirt, which sells for $93, to his flagship garment, a pair of air-conditioned overalls, for $186.
What well-dressed doofus wouldn’t want a pair of A-C enabled overalls? I’ve requested a pair to test—and I’d like to get them by summer, if at all possible—but so far I haven’t received any response. Go figure.
From Tokyo, I headed back to the Florence Recorder newspaper Web site in Florence, Kentucky, where I learned about a safe that was stolen from a health club.
Jennifer Stanfield, an employee at the club, and her doofus-in-crime Stacey O’Conner, paid an unauthorized, two a.m. visit to the club and were surprised to find a cleaning crew inside.
Stanfield and her trusty moron-sidekick hung out for a while and then started asking the cleaning crew when they would be leaving. The cleaning people had a lot of work to do, so the two brain trusts got tired of waiting. That’s when doofusdom blossomed and they asked the cleaning crew if they (the crew) would help them put the safe in their car.
The cleaning people agreed to help, but then left a note for the club owner which included Stanfield’s license plate number, and as they stated in their note, “in case this wasn't allowed.”
In case it wasn’t allowed? That’s right, the cleaning people, undoubtedly from Doofusville Office Cleaning Service, weren’t sure if two people showing up at two o’clock in the morning, removing the safe from the premises, were ALLOWED to do that. I wonder what tipped them off?
The owner of the club promptly reported it to the police, of course, and when officers got to Stanfield’s house, they observed scuff marks along the sidewalk and bits of broken concrete where they bounced the safe off the steps. Stanfield and her idiot friend were arrested and immediately confessed to the health-club caper.
The safe was recovered—still locked, by the way, since our Doofettes had no clue how to open it. In true Doofus fashion, they just hadn’t planned things out that far in advance.
I think we can safely say that there was no “master-mind” behind this incident. Morons.
Last, but not least, from Kentucky, I moused all the way to the Kremlin, and our PC Chat International Bureau, where I learned that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to do an Internet-broadcast interview. Once it was announced, online users, and more than a handful of Russian Doofskis submitted more than 162,000 questions for him. He answered about 40.
In the Webcast, Putin declared that the United States is "one of our main partners in the world," (yeah, right) but dodged questions about when he lost his virginity, whether he'll legalize marijuana, what he thinks of porn, various sexual escapades, and a host of other grotesquely inappropriate questions.
There are no future Webcasts scheduled for President Putin. Go figure.
Note: Incidents recounted within this segment are based on true events, though names, locations, and incidences themselves may have been enhanced for dramatic effect, or to obtain a few chuckles, smirks and/or chortles from the listening audience.
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Linux Ready Computers
If you're planning on buying someone a computer this year, why not get them a desktop or laptop with GNU/Linux pre-installed? If you don't know where to buy one, you can check out the Pre-Installed Linux Vendor Database. The database lets you filter on laptops or desktops, and you can see what city the vendor is in.
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