soapbox

1) you’re watching the steam collect on the lid of the pan you’re cooking dinner in, and you think, “Hmm. Wonder if I can model that….”

AND

you keep thinking about it……modeling circles of steam centered at random spots hitting the lid, building up to a certain density which will make them fall, including a “sticking” factor on how well the water clings to the lid….etc.

2) you suggest that we should have a “you know you’re a geek when….” category.

Apparently a new virus is playing on the “accident voyeurism” tendency, with the message of the email claiming to have links/pictures of Bin Laden’s capture – one version claims to contain pictures captured from a military TV channel, another links to a website with videos of the capture, but (naturally) opening the attachments or loading the site will give Windows boxes the Psyme trojan. Suckers

The messages, which use several different subjects — including “God Bless America!” and “Finally! Captured!” — claim that Osama has been snatched, then goes on to say that while CNN or the BBC don’t yet have footage, a military channel does. The attachment, the message continues, are images grabbed from that channel. The images are compressed and collected in a .zip file.
The Psyme Trojan is tucked into the .zip file, and when run, notifies the attacker that it’s in place, and scans a number of pre-set URLs to download additional malicious code.

I mean, seriously, if you’re opening an unsolicited zipped email attachment, you deserve it – maybe a ‘net version of a Darwin Award? I know that’s harsh, but oh well.