Surfing The Web So You Don't Have To
First off, don’t believe anything you see on the Web on April 1, as there’s it’s going to be hard to believe anything. I had planned a pretty good April Fool’s Joke for this and Bend Blogs, but didn’t have time to implement anything.
That being said, you can keep track of the tomfoolery here, which will be updated throughout the day, though Zug‘s prank on both Harvard and MIT to see who has the best sense of humor was pretty well played.
Update on 4/1: TechCrunch has a good summary of the day.
I’ve already been asked several times the last 48 hours about the Conficker worm that’s supposed to activate tomorrow. Thanks to many doomsday scenerios being protrayed on TV news shows about what this thing could do, people are in a dither about it. Granted, it’s finally good that folks are being forced to think about their computer security, but it shouldn’t take some sensationalist news story to do so.
But the worst thing to do would be to panic, so don’t. I’ve already talked to several folks who said they’re just not going to turn their computer on tomorrow because they’re afraid this thing is going to hack into their computer, steal all their credit card information and passwords, take nude photos of their first-born child, and sell it all to the Iranian government or something ridiculous (somebody’s been watching too much Fox News).
For what you need to know, and what this worm is going to try to do and what you can do to prevent it, just read up on here, follow the directions there, make sure you’ve fully patched your system on Windows Update, check your system now, and sleep a bit easier. Also make sure your apps on your computer are fully up to date and patched with tools like Secunia (PSI) and the FileHippo Update Checker. As a precautionary measure, I’m making sure the systems here at the office (at least the ones I’m in control of, as there are real-estate agents here as well that I don’t work with) are not infected.
And the April fools jokes are already hitting the Web, like this one detailing Internet Explorer 8.1’s new features.
Because they don’t look for the important things.
Nevermind, there’s nothing redeeming.
While I picked two of the Final Four teams in the pick ’em, I’m still basically at end of the pack since I couldn’t seem to pick any of the other games properly. Right now, GoldenBearsInBend is holding onto a slim two point lead heading into the final weekend of play, but with the two final four games worth eight points and the championship game worth 13, there are easily 10 people that could still win this thing.
(Note: The tournament scenario generator that Yahoo! made appears to be perpetually broken, so I don’t know the possible ways this could turn out — I’m basing this all on the “possible points” listed on the tournament page. Why they switched from a completely functional Java version last year to a never-seems-to-work Flash one is beyond me. But I digress…)
I’m just hoping Michigan State wins their game, at the very least, so I can at least beat Jack (right now we’re tied, but he has nobody in the final four picked).
The spreadsheet has been updated.
I want to apologize to all of Central Oregon (but mostly to the folks who live south of Bend) for the weather today and the icy and snowy conditions (especially the bobsled run that is US 97 and South Century Drive down by Sunriver). You see, I took my studded tires off yesterday, in preparation for the deadline to have them removed, and because of that, it snowed, froze, and became a skating rink last night.
This author regrets the error.
Good tips for keeping things civil:
So the round three of the pick ’em is over, and the leadership has changed since yesterday: Tasmanian_devils has regained a part of the lead along with Club Ed (who, full disclosure, is from Discover Sunriver, and isn’t eligible to win the towels he contributed). That being said, there are still several folks who could win the thing, and with the four games this weekend each worth five points, things will start to separate a bit more on top (be sure to play with the scenerio generator to see how things could end up). The spreadsheet has been updated with the latest scores, and remember that there are tie-breaker rules if it comes to that.
I’ll post scoring updates for round 4 on Sunday after the games are all over, and combine them into one column on the spreadsheet.
But not by much.
He was tied for the lead after last weekend in the pick ’em, but several folks are still within striking distance. Playing with the pick ’em Scenario Generator, there are still ways he can lose, so this thing is certainly not over yet.
Update with a different link for the Scenario Generator. If that doesn’t work, try just clicking the Scenario Generator link on the group page. It’s a slow-loading Flash, regardless.