PunkAssBlog.com

My computer recently died. I pouted, and then, I moved on.
And by “moved on,” I mean, “started to build a new one.”
So! I’m going to do a series of posts about diagnosing a problem with my computer and building a new one. I think this is a pretty Punkass thing, but if you don’t want [...]

And for me, and also anybody else who has a love-hate relationship with their computer.

My computer stopped turning on over the weekend. (* cue sound of sobbing children *)
I push the power button. Nothing! I unplug her, wait a minute, plug her back in and push the power button. Nothing! I pray whilst pushing the power button. I am struck by lightning*, but my computer does not turn on.
So, [...]

Water ice and evidence of historic rainfall on Mars.
Smaller, rocky exoplanets near the habitable zone around their stars are being found. For a totally awesome exoplanet slideshow, click here.
(Because I need to think about something other than people right now. Ugh!)

Seriously, I had all the ones in the Solar System memorized when I was six years old. Yeah, back when Pluto (a) was not only a planet but the smallest planet and (b) didn’t have a moon, and when Jupiter only had 9 moons and Saturn only had 12 moons…oh, those were the dayz…
Of [...]

Everyone who is queasy about RealID will find this post to be helpful when explaining to people why:
The story of Fidencio Estrada, a drug runner who bribed Florida Customs agent Rafael Pacheco to (among other things) access multiple federal law enforcement databases on his behalf, suggests that when it comes to the government collecting data [...]

I finally installed Google Analytics on PAB this weekend. We used to be on a dedicated server that gave me a fair number of standard reports on views, etc., but Google Analytics has much more usable data. For example, it’s cool to know that we’ve got peeps in places like Bahrain and Kuwait [...]

Via N4G, Britain’s Sky News is up in arms over a playground location in the video game Second Life in which child avatars perform sexual favors:

Getting off on pixelated children humping your digital avatar is both twisted and sad. I get that. If someone I knew confessed to this sort of behavior, I [...]

The Ninth Circuit court of appeals has made a decision that has serious implications about your online privacy:

Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect’s computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
…In Friday’s ruling, the court said computer [...]

If AT&T starts doing this, I promise to start calling them twice a day every day.
If you persistently insist the Sprint fix their numerous errors you will be dropped as a customer, according to reader Michael. He’s been having trouble with Sprint but instead of resolving his problem, they’ve decided to drop him [...]

After months of foreplay, the iPhone failed to bring America to orgasm, although not for lack of effort:
My old phone, one based on Windows Mobile 5.0, had almost every feature the iPhone has - point by point. The differences between the products (like the differences between their desktop cousins) have to do with how functionality [...]