Damn. Damn damn. At least these guys and Salon are still up and running. And, this is really funny. Like anybody should be surprised? The funny thing is that they quote the capital management guy as saying that they won’t go after anybody who has a $1,000 laptop because it costs too much in legal fees. Enjoy the equipment, guys!

I have scientifically determined this morning that any 24-32 year old male driving a late-model black Honda Prelude is a jerk. And should have his license revoked. And my nose is running nonstop this morning. Blah.

Another note on the Blackhawk Down thread from yesterday- I was not aware that there was a movie being produced on the subject. Ridley Scott is directing, which means at least it will look good. They’re saying March 2002 for a release date- we’ll see how recent events shape that decision.

I downloaded the Real player yesterday to see some of the video that the Philly Enquirer had made available for the Blackhawk story. Let me just say that I’ve never had to deal with a more intrusive, annoying and deliberately misleading install sequence just to use a media player in my life. I wish I had counted the number of screens I had to go through to simply install the player, or the number of hidden checkboxes I had to hunt down and find just so that I could avoid hidden “channels” and “subscriptions” for “alerts” that I don’t want and don’t need. What are they thinking? Don’t they realize that after they bombard their unknowing users with daily email updates about Britney Spears’ hair color that they’re going to alienate and ultimately drive away their users? This wouldn’t be so bad if the software actually worked, but when I played the video, it loaded, buffered, and ran, and 1/2 to 3/4 of the video was obscured by artifacts or just plain dropped out. Why don’t people just use Quicktime? Plus, 3/4 of the application acreage was taken up by all manner of stupid banners, flashing geegaws or useless text that I don’t want to see.