8 Ways to Sunday

Caught by my spam filter today: “Bush Averts Albanian Uprising by Invading Alabama”

Seems the spammers stole the headline from this satirical “news” article, but it still made me giggle.

One of the most interesting announcements to come out of Microsoft’s E3 press conference was was the upcoming release of Portal: Still Alive in the fall of this year. This is great news. In fact, one might even say that this is a triumph.

Don’t just take my word for it; here’s the scoop from GLaDOS herself, courtesy of GameTrailers.com:

But what’s this about an Xbox 360 exclusive? No love for PC gamers like myself? Well, like most statements from GLaDOS, the devil is in the details. Here’s exactly what she said:

Hello. We hope you’ve enjoyed your brief detention in the press event room. The Aperture Science Enrichment Center is pleased to announce the worldwide debut of Portal: Still Alive, a 2008 exclusive for the Xbox 360. Due to the previous tests being solvable, we are currently manufacturing new test chambers for only the most highly qualified test subjects. Good Luck.

“A 2008 exclusive” for Xbox almost certainly means an early 2009 release for other platforms. Joystiq places the release in the fall of this year, and claims that the game will continue the original story rather than just being a pack of new levels.

It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction at this announcement.

Update: Like a lot of people, I got the wrong idea from this announcement and the blog hype that followed. The official word from Valve’s Doug Lombardi is that Portal: Still Alive is just the original game with some bonus levels and no new story content. Hopefully PC gamers will still get a shot at the new maps in 2009 as a cheap add-on via Valve’s Steam service.

My favorite WordPress anti-spam plugin is now open source software. Dr. Dave, Spam Karma’s original author, is bowing out and releasing the code for maintenance by the WP user community. I sincerely hope the project succeeds, because I’ve always found Akismet completely inadequate.

You can read Dave’s announcement here. He’s already set up a project on Google Code to track future development, and a Google Group for discussion.

I use an antivirus program called BitDefender. It’s effective, and it doesn’t slow down my computer like Norton and McAfee. What I didn’t know until this afternoon is that you can upgrade from version 10 to version 11 (AKA “2008”) for free.

Hidden away in the BitDefender online knowledge base is an article that reveals this free upgrade option. You can find a download of the new version and upgrade instructions in this BitDefender forum thread. I’d also recommend downloading the bootable rescue CD image. You’ll need the registration key from your version 10 purchase to install upgrade.

I haven’t yet made the upgrade, so I can’t tell you anything about the new version. If you’d like to learn more, this CNet review might help. I’ll probably run a full backup of my computer tonight, and upgrade tomorrow.

Update: Back to Version 10

My attempted upgrade to BitDefender Antivirus 2008 didn’t go so well. After an hour or two of use my computer would slow to a crawl, eventually freezing completely. A search through the BitDefender forums confirmed my suspicion: the new version suffers form a memory leak.

The bug has been a topic of discussion on the user forum since at least February. BitDefender’s support staff has apparently been non-responsive, and some users are annoyed enough they’re abandoning the product altogether.

I’ll be checking up on this again before my update subscription expires. If the problem hasn’t been fixed by then, I’m going to be looking for another antivirus program. Any suggestions?

Today’s quote was inspired by the yard work I did early this afternoon:

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

— Henry David Thoreau

When it comes to weeds, I have to admit that I’m a branch-hacker rather than a root-striker. It’s just too much trouble to pull the weeds out by the root when they make up about 60% of my yard. Besides, if you mow the lawn down close enough it’s hard to tell the difference between the grass and the weeds.

No doubt Thoreau and his transcendentalist cohorts would find my approach lacking in moral and intellectual rigor.