Blog

by Wade Williams

Randy Moss: One Clap

During Randy Moss’ tenure with the New England Patriots, he scored 50 touchdowns, was part of a legendary 18-1 team, and went 0-1 in Super Bowls, bringing the Patriot’s Super Bowl Record down to 3-2. Above 500, but not the 4-1 we were looking for.

I picked Randy Moss early in both my Fantasy Football leagues this year because I was planning on him being traded to the Minnesota Vikings. Brett Farve simply has been in the league far too long to never have the opportunity to throw to #84 (or #81, or whatever his new number is).

The fact of the matter is that Moss was the proverbial Turd in the Punch Bowl here in New England. As a captain, he failed to motivate the players around him. For a guy with so much raw talent, the only thing that keeps him playing on the field is making catches — which, all too often, he is unable to do with his butterfingers.

That being said, he’s a hall of fame receiver, I’m a true fan, his press conferences are pure gold, and I have a lot more respect for him after this compilation by DJ Steve Porter.

by Wade Williams

Firesheep Exposes Security Issues On Websites, Wireless Networks

Firesheep captures cookies on wireless networks

On Sunday, Eric Butler released Firesheep, and in doing so has unleashed a new security risk that applies to anyone logging into websites on public Wi-Fi. It is now disturbingly easy to masquerade as a facebook or twitter user, for instance.

After you log in on a website, that site transmits a cookie to your computer. This is how you stay logged in as you travel from page to page during your session. The Firesheep extension allows anyone using it to sniff out and capture these cookies as they are transmitted from the wireless router you are connected to.

Firesheep lets you log in to Facebook as someone else
With a few clicks of the old mouse, if you’re logged into any wireless network, as the packet goes through the air containing your cookie information, Firesheep reaches up to grab it, and lets you double click to log in on someone else’s Facebook account.

There is a way to Protect from Firesheep using Firefox, although it’s not guaranteed to work across all sites. Your best protection is to abstain from logging into no SSL encrypted sites when you’re on a public wireless network. Some websites, such as your Bank or PayPal always use SSL (look for the ‘https://’ and not ‘http://’) are immune because all communication between your web browser and the server is encrypted.

by Wade Williams

The Malibu Open: Water Skiing is Not a Sport

In 2005 the water ski world and the rest of the population of Earth who chose to pay any attention (for some reason) were entertained to hear that a rich self absorbed dentist orchestrated one of the greatest debauchles in the history of “professional sports”. He managed to cheat in a way that no other team or player has been able to do — A few pulleys and hand cranks later he was able to maniuplate the rules of the game for whomever he so chose. Skiers who have a combined total of hundreds of years of experience on the water saw the buoys move, blew the whistle, and “Buoygate” was in born.

Malibu backed off and shipped their event overseas, to France and eventually to nowhere.

After several years of work on a different thread, a Pro Slalom Event was scheduled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Malibu stepped up to the plate to foot about a third of the bill. The participants in the tournament picked up 1/6 of the tab. Other sponsors picked up the other half of the budget.

Apparently the only way to promote water skiing is to ski at night. This is illegal, uh, everywhere, but, hey, we’re not trying to set a good example or anything. We’re strictly into making up the rules as we go.

Why are we going 35.5 mph?

Because it’s dark.
Why are we skiing in the dark?
Cuz it looks way cooler man. Plus people are drunker.
What are the rules?
Working on that one still.
What are the conclusions?

Waterskiing is not a sport. It is a recreational activity. Some rare breeds decide to put the effort in like it is a sport. They are not paid. They are not on the a list at high class night clubs. They have other jobs. They can’t afford to buy a boat, OR they are independently wealthy OR they made life choices in order to become independently wealthy in order to water ski as if it was a professional sport, with all the sponsors, contracts, fans and ego cases that are found in basketball and baseball — even though no such fans, contracts or sponsors even exist. These people are mostly delusional, european, or both.

The US Olympic Ski Team’s sponsorship levels have fallen by 46% since 2002. People think that Water Skiing is in trouble because we don’t have a sponsor for the pro tour — DUA. Give it a few years and there will be no coporoate sponsorships. This is due to a variety of reasons, mostly economically and technologically. The bottom line is that sponsors realize that the value of those sponsor dollars has decreased significantly since the pre-internets era (PIE).