Therese and Bill were conspicuously absent.

<friend> says: Hey, isn’t this YOU?? :S http://mainmsn.com/images/viewimage.php?=your@email.com

Clicking this message downloads a virus onto your computer (except that the link above goes to VirusTotal’s results for the file). This virus appears to take control of MSN and send the same message to everyone on your friends list. However, it may do other virus-like things on your system. I’m not running Windows so I can’t see the full effects, but the person who sent it to me is now contemplating a full reformat of their hard drive to eliminate the infection.

If you have any further information, please leave it in the comments.

• Who is mainmsn.com? There’s scant information on the internet.
• The downloaded file name is PIC006.JPG-www.photoshare.com. Besides program code, the file contains a section of HTML code that appears to display a hardcoded error message:
  • “Warning: fopen(cnt) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/a7095595/public_html/images/viewimage.php on line 9″
• What does the virus actually do? Among other things, the payload seems to contain a variation of the IRCBot worm, which causes your computer to monitor a remote IRC channel for commands from a hacker. Depending on the commands given, this could have dire consequences.
• How does the infection happen? My friend had to run the file, not merely download it, but use caution if you do decide to download a copy.

Here’s an object lesson in security: trusted sources are the most dangerous attack vectors. This virus - in the grand tradition of the ILOVEYOU virus - relies on personal relationships and trust to make people perform a typically dangerous action unawares. Keep your shields up and beware random messages!

Entire flocks were imported to Japan from the UK and Australia then sold by the internet company as the latest must have pet.

The bizarre scam was rumbled when Japanese movie star Maiko Kawakami [Ed: topless pics, NSFW] complained on a talk show that her new poodle refused to bark or eat dog food.

News.com.au ran with the story on their front page (and the delightful tag line “Japs tricked into buying lambs they thought were poodles”), but later backed off (though the original story has not been updated). Meanwhile Fairfax is hedging its bets by referring to how ‘the story goes’, a revealing abstraction.

The facts, according to Cerebral Soup, are much more mundane. Kawakami apparently recounted the story, as a joke, on TV - a far cry from having to be told that her dog was a lamb.

So why has this rolled into such a big story? It’s certainly ridiculous enough to warrant the coverage if it was true. I think the reality is that the western world tends to think of Japan as a strange and somewhat unreal place, divorced from nature and obsessed with technology. “Surely,” one might say, “it’s not that far-fetched that somebody as boneheaded as an actress could be taken in by such a scam.”

As with all assumptions, this one reveals more about those who made it (the editors who ran this story on the front page of their websites) than about those featured in it. A little bit of prejudice goes a long way - in this case, a lot further than the fact-checker did.

“I realised that Id rather not have to recount my movements to a complete stranger just for the privilege of running an RSS reader. Im also worried by the fact that a licence I thought was perpetual can be revoked so arbitrarily.” - Charles Miller

“Dave is a very arrogant, self-centered, egotistical (you get the picture) asshole who listens to his users and responds exactly 1% of the time. The rest of the time he will insult you or perhaps not respond at all. Do a nice search around the web and youll see what I mean. I PAID for his product and it stopped working a week later. After not responding to three emails, he finally responded to the fourth saying that for technical reasons and fear of piracy, he would be unable to repair my registration. This is no joke. DO NOT give this asshole your hard earned $.” - George Bezel

“Inquisitor, great app. Asshole developer. I flatly refuse to pay for his applications. (and therefore I don’t use them anymore)” - anonymous

“I think I can easily sum up the sentiments of many when I say “this guy is a fucking jerk for charging us to use a program that is predominately used to steal other software”.” - dook

“If you look at my previous reviews I have recommended this Application whole-heartedly. I still think it is a good piece of software, but when a “developer” completely ignores all your emails and bans you FOREVER from posting on his “feedback” site, all because I want a new serial number that works (I’ve still got the receipt) it makes you want to warn everybody what a dishonest thief David Watanabe really is.” - twelveightyone

“His customer service sucks ass. He’s an asshole. I have no real axe to grind so to speak, I am merely pointing out that my service with that individual is horrible.” - UnLogikal

“I sure wish I’d discovered NetNewsWire or NetNewsWire Lite before I paid the registration for this POS. The app uses a phone-home authentication scheme, which broke for me when I tried to manually sync my data to another mac (the app has no built-in sync). Despite having shelled out $20 to use this, my repeated emails to the developer to get my valid registration reactivated were unanswered. Totally unacceptable. If he’s going to charge for his app, he at least needs to take responsibility for making sure the application works. Also, the application was slow, and hogged resources with anything more than a small number of feeds. I wouldn’t recommend it even if you don’t mind dealing with a**hole developers. Get NetNewsWire if you want to actually use your software without being nagged.” - Jesse Gillespie

“The problem is the developer. He specializes in software explicitly designed to facilitate software and music piracy, and charges exorbitant shareware fees. Not only does he charge for his pirate-ware, he also uses some of the most ironclad anti-piracy schemes in existence to protect it. There is something singularly hypocritical about Watanabe’s entire endeavor. Worse yet, Watanabe offers what is easily the most rude, arrogant, and conceited software support I have ever experienced in my life. I have had the misfortune of dealing with his odious personality with time and again, in relation to his software and other matters.” - Central Scrutinizer

“Just to echo what others have said, David’s software is nice, as in takes full advantage of the Cocoa APIs, etc., but after you get past the glitz, it’s pure crap. Acquisition doesn’t, and hasn’t, worked decently in a very long time. NewsFire is, well… Vienna, with about 10 extra minutes of GUI work. Snore. Inquisitor is his one good piece that I use daily. Fortunately, it’s free.” - Christian

“I made the horrible mistake of purchasing one of his programs (Xtorrent) and it completely hangs my system. I politely requested a refund, then again, and again and then escalated it in PayPal — then was denied as it didn’t meet their requirements as they can’t guarantee the ‘quality’ of goods.” - Marty Z (by email - Apr 08)

“After purchasing an Acquisition Lifetime License and finding that it doesn’t appear to work I sent polite but repeated e-mails over a period of four months without once receiving any kind of acknowledgement or help needed. I feel ripped off and foolish and I want a refund.” - Gareth M (by email - Dec 08)

Wow. Talk about bad press - David’s got it in spades. Have you had a David Watanabe experience? E-mail me.

To be fair, some people have had quite positive experiences:

“In my experience, David can indeed be impatient, terse and blunt when replying to support requests but (a) he has fixed everything I had a problem with and (b) AcquisitionX works perfectly for me, so people are not being fair to him when they report that it just plain doesn’t.” - Steve R (by email - May 08)

“i have lifetime to subscriptions to NewsFire and Xtorrent and Inquisitor is awesome too, he’s one of my fav mac app developers.” - The Architect

“Yesterday, around 4:00pm, I received a phone call telling me that Richard (Dampe) has been in a fatal car accident…”

What a tragic accident. A 15-year-old Melbourne boy is struck and killed by a car that lost control on a wet road. Richard Denton, developer of Ocarina of Time 2D, is dead, and with him a highly anticipated game is no more.

Except I don’t believe that for a second. In fact, I think it’s bullshit. Here’s why.

Richard is supposed to have died on the 23rd of March. The announcement was here, but those forums have since been closed down, with not so much as a memorial message remaining. A final post from the forum is preserved on Digg.com:

Unfortunatley, On March 21st, We lost our great man, Richard (Dampe)

The official police record has read that Richard was hit by a car that had swurved on the wet road, the car WAS NOT speeding. Richard was knocked unconcious and shortly after passed away.

So, did Richard die on Wednesday the 21st, or on Friday the 23rd? News sites invariably quoted the 23rd, which was on the original message. Why was the first announcement off by two days?

Well, we could turn to local newspapers for some clarification. Diligent googling has so far failed to reveal any relevant articles. Never mind, not every single death gets reported. What about death notices? A search of news.com.au and Fairfax classified notices reports no deaths by the name of ‘Denton’. Well, if Richard isn’t going to get himself into the papers, we’ll just have to go to the government.

Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission has an excellent road toll statistics tool, searchable by date, location, victim and injury type. Let’s see what happens when we plug in a search for “pedestrian fatalities, 21-23 March”. Results: One fatality, an 18-20 y/o female killed on the 22nd between 2am and 4am. That… doesn’t sound much like Richard at all.

For a ten-point explanation of why faked his death, let’s pass the microphone to Nihiljin in the Kotaku comments:

1. No rain in his area for several days, ruling out death by a car that swerved off the road to hit him. [NB there was 1mm of rain on Wednesday 21 March]

2. No local news in his area mentions the death of a teenager named Richard Denton.

3. No info at local police stations about an accident.

4. There were several Ocarina of Time 2D projects. His was being done in Gamemaker and it was the least impressive.

5. Months and months of work and we get a few screenshots of the Deku Tree.

6. Only 15 years old. I’m the same age and I frequently move from different stuff, getting bored quickly with the same things. He could’ve gotten tired of it.

7. Pressure. People would expect great things from anything with the words “Ocarina of Time” in the title. He might have cracked.

8. “Mention OoT2D on the forum and you’re banned. Forget about it. His family doesn’t want you to talk about it.” ^Short version of what was posted on the site. Why would mentioning it be bad? Why would his family care so much about a project they probably didn’t know or care about? Why would they be so desperate to eliminate all traces of it if they were grieving so much? If I died I think my family would have other matters besides shutting down my accounts on the Sony and Nintendo forums.

9. His account was acessed a few hours after his “death”.

10. A bit too perfect. The brilliant young developer is tragically killed and his last words were “I love you” to his girlfriend.

In addition to point #9, Dampe’s YouTube profile shows that ’someone’ was logged into his account as recently as March 28th.

Ask yourself what happens more frequently: a 15-year-old boy is run down by an out-of-control car, generating no press coverage, or a 15-year-old boy gets bored with a project and gives up on it. On the facts available, I can’t accept that Dampe is dead.

This is abhorrent - the gaming community has mourned his death, and this news has upset many people who knew Dampe through the project. The record needs to be set straight. Prove me wrong, if you can.

Digg this

Update: Solitary Angel posts on Gaming World Forums:

The thing that kind of makes this topic worse is that Dampe’ is very much alive…

By signing on with an older MSN account (not just me), a few people found out that he was in fact still online…

His reasons for wanting people to think he is dead was so that they would stop adding him and asking about OoT2D, and to also kill his reputation, stopping whatever pressures he may or may not have been under to complete his game…

Nonetheless a lot of us are pissed off and I just thought I’d say this before more RIP posts pop up.

Update 2: Hello, Destructoid! Here’s a list of 8 games the Wii will never get.

Update 3: There’s a new YouTube bulletin. And in response to a forum post saying this article is ‘bullshit’, the former host of Dampe’s site has this to say: “But he isn’t dead. [He faked his death] to make sure no one bothered him about OOT2D, he couldn’t take it, his parents were getting angry at him, people were actually calling him.” Well, I hope that Richard’s learned a valuable lesson: being caught in a lie has worse consequences than telling the truth to begin with.

The upshot of this is that you can read the full story here and click here to see a nice photo of Lara Bingle sans clothing (not safe for work!):

A fishing crew has caught a colossal squid that could weigh a half-ton and prove to be the biggest specimen ever landed, a fisheries official said Thursday. The squid, weighing an estimated 990 lbs and about 39 feet long, took two hours to land in Antarctic waters, New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said. - Yahoo News, NZ Fisheries

According to Dr. Steve O’Shea, a squid expert at the Auckland University of Technology, the squid would make calamari rings the size of tractor tyres if cut up.

Here’s a list of the hottest ten chilis on the Scoville scale:

1. Naga Jolokia (855,000 - 1,041,427 SHU): Also called Bhut Jolokia (’ghost pepper’), this hybrid from India’s easter Assam region recently tested as the most potent chili in the world.
2. Dorset Naga (876,000 - 970,000 SHU): a relative of the Scotch Bonnet (see below), this exceptionally hot chili is named for its British county of origin.
3. Red Savina (350,000 - 577,000 SHU): This former world record holder is still claimed by some to be the world’s hottest chili. It is a variety of…
4. Habanero chile (100,000 - 350,000 SHU): Habaneros extract is used in Dave’s Insanity Sauce.
5. Scotch Bonnet (100,000 - 350,000 SHU): The name refers to the chili’s resemblance to a Tam o’shanter.
6. Jamaican Hot Pepper (100,000 - 200,000 SHU): As its name suggests, this variety hails from sunny Jamaica
7. Thai pepper (50,000 - 100,000 SHU): A variety of these grows Sydney’s Circular Quay public gardens. It is a source of late-night entertainment for drinkers, who add them to their hamburgers or eat them as a dare.
8. Malagueta pepper (50,000 - 100,000 SHU): A popular chili within Brazil, to the extent that ‘malagueta’ is synonymous with ‘hot peppers’ in Portuguese.
9. Chiltepin pepper (50,000 - 100,000 SHU): According to Wikipedia, this wild pepper is perhaps the ancestor of all modern chilis.
10. Cayenne pepper (40,000 - 90,000 SHU): This common pepper has been used for centuries as a digestive stimulant.

(source: wikipedia)

And in case you were wondering, the active ingredient in chilis is capsaicin, which stimulates a heat-sensitive pain receptor. It’s also the ingredient that gives police capsicum spray, or ‘pepper spray’, its kick: at up to 5 million SHU, there’s little wonder that being sprayed with this stuff is one of the worst kinds of pain imaginable. Even Marines hate it.

De Beers, the world’s premiere diamond producers, was incorporated to control the majority of the world’s stones. Hence they were in a position to strangle, I mean, manage the supply, driving up price. But they did something else quite brilliant in 1947: the ‘A Diamond is Forever’ campaign. By convincing the world that diamonds were a symbol of eternal love, De Beers made sure that a diamond’s resale value would remain, ahem, rock bottom.

Then there’s the problem of blood diamonds, recently the subject of a Warner Brothers movie. As laid out by Amnesty and Global Witness, the problem of conflict diamonds isn’t going away [pdf link]. Diamond-fuelled wars are reportedly responsible for over 4 million deaths in Africa, as well as displacing many more people from their homes and livelihoods.

And in any case, earth-gotten diamonds will be made obsolete by increasingly-advanced methods of synthetic diamond production. A diamond, don’t forget, is simply carbon in a dazzling crystalline structure. And its electrical and industrial properties mean that the search for affordable synthetic diamonds will continue regardless of the effect on luxury goods markets.

In short: a diamond is a beautiful stone (though moissanite is prettier in every way) with a huge cost attached. For most couples, dropping a large amount of money on a ring so early in life is a major financial burden. Money causes more stress in relationships than just about anything else. And this is all to conform to a tradition that’s a mere 70 years old! (Not that older traditions are necessarily more worthwhile, I’m just saying that this ought to be one of the easier shackles to throw off.) If you’re buying a diamond, do it because you’re foolishly wealthy and can afford to splash out on silly sparkly things. As we move on up to Valentine’s Day, think about what love and commitment really mean to you; I hope it’s more than some overpriced hunk of rock.