Brian Shumate

My seven-year-old has quite literally used a basic combination of simple techniques to compromise my iPod Touch. What's even funnier is that she did this in just thirty minutes flat.

I think this is just wonderful! For months, I've wondered about the consequences of incorrect passcode entries on a locked iPod Touch. Having gone through the nightmare of locking myself out of my cell phone once, I was a bit leery of finding out how the device would defend itself.

A country band from Saint Petersburg? A group of cowpokes by way of Russia and calling themselves the Leningrad Cowboys? Nah- these guys are neither actual cowboys, nor do they hail from Russia.

If you haven't yet met these chaps out on the vast digi-sprawl of our intartubez, then please kind visitor, allow me to introduce significant tilt-o-whirlage to your plane of reality in the form of a downright freaky musical act hailing from of all places...Finland?!

So — in case you do wonder: my viral marketing, search engine optimized, solar-powered Aibo dog ran the Godin Banarama algorithm to generate the working title for this bit of entertainment courtesy of the fine folks at The Web Standards Project.

I know: how in the hell might web standards be entertaining?!

Well, if you take the latest Web Standards Project Acid test in your browser of choice, you'll very likely see some funny and interesting results, especially once you see the reference rendering depicting what the browser ought to be rendering.

We've had sightings of a man armed with a gun near campus at approximately 4:45PM today, and that has prompted issuance of an emergency alert on the website at www.appstate.edu. I do not have a lot of details about the situation at present...I am just posting here to let my family know that I'm OK.

I'm currently in my office with four co-workers, and we're doing fine with our doors locked. If I have to be here for a while, I'll try to post additional updates when possible.