Author: DOuG pRATt

Reeling Me In

Facebook wants me to watch their subscriber-submitted Reels. These examples are tame compared to others that have been appearing in my newsfeed.

Being an ‘Arlo and Janis’ fan must be the reason why Facebook’s AI is tempting me with scantily-clad young women. Not wanting to encourage the algorithm, I don’t watch them. The option to “See fewer posts like this” seems to have put more clothes on some of the girls.

Here’s one that YouTube recommends. Guitars and the straps holding them up immediately come to mind. I watched it because she’s left-handed. 😉

What hath TikTok wrought?

Doughboy on Dope

Heroes for Sale is a 1933 pre-code movie from Warner Brothers, the studio with a social conscience. Directed by William Wellman, it stars silent film actor Richard Barthelmess, who found some success in talkies.

Wellman directed the silent epic Wings, and he displays his skill with war scenes in the opening of Heroes for Sale. Barthelmess plays a WWI soldier who suffers from inoperable shrapnel in his spine and becomes a veteran with an opioid addiction.

He gets out of rehab and finds love with 20-year-old Loretta Young. The always excellent Aline MacMahon is along for the ride that includes a Capitalism vs. Communism theme.

Tripping With Doctor Who

In this clip from The Late Late Show on CBS, pre-James Corden host Craig Ferguson tributes the time-tripping Doctor Who, with an appearance by the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith.

To Ferguson’s delight, Smith’s Doctor regenerated into his old pal, Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor. Here they are talking about dropping acid. Which I assure you I never did, or ever had any interest in doing.

Ferguson is about to go on a short tour, and one of his stops will be at the gates of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

https://www.aomtheatre.com/event/craig-ferguson-the-fancy-rascal-tour/

My old Western Mass newspaper cohort and friend Mike Dobbs spoke with Ferguson by phone a couple of days ago.

https://www.thereminder.com/dining/features/craig-ferguson-to-perform-at-academy-of-music-sept/

Picking up on my Cuckoo Month post from a few days ago, you can add Doctor Who to the list. The series premiered on November 23, 1963.

The Cuckoo Month

Rootkit Canal

The story of Sony’s notorious rootkit deployment, as told by Dave Plummer, the Microsoft developer whose code made the hack possible.

Credit for the deep digging to uproot the rootkit goes to Mark Russinovich, a founder of Winternals. Before becoming one of the voluntarily unemployed, I was very familiar with their Sysinternals Suite of utilities. Russinovich’s work was so outstanding that Microsoft bought Winternals and brought Mark on board.