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I’ve long believed that 1984 was a pivotal year… more on that another day. Today I want to mention 1985… or at least the effect of one movie released that year, “Better Off Dead.” Though I didn’t see it until it’s release on video a few years later, one scene in particular has always stuck with me. I call it “the Camaro scene.”

Lane pulls the car out of the garage for the first time while Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy” plays (I mistook that for “Hoochie Coochie Man” for the longest time… guess I should watch the movie again soon…) Anyway, I believe that I, at that moment, fell in love with 1.) Camaros and 2.) the blues. Come on, that scene is great… it’s also the reason that Gina loves the Camaro.

I guess I’m a little sleep deprived or something, but I decided that I need to own the version of “Mannish Boy” used during that scene from Waters’ 1977 release Hard Again (re-mastered last year). In looking for more information about that scene, I found a few great websites:

• A site dedicated to “Better Off Dead”
• An entire site dedicated to the car from the film, tracking it down, and restoring it

- Duane

First, let’s start on a happy note. I pimped my G5. For less than a super-sized lunch, I snagged a set of cold cathode lights from ThinkGeek and installed them in my G5. The results are quite stunning.

On Monday, I installed Apple Security Update 2005-003 on my OS X Server. Tuesday night, my father called me to let me know that his email didn’t work. I assumed that it was a hiccup related to rebooting the server following the security update. When I looked into it further, I discovered this was more serious. I rolled back to 10.3.8, with no luck. However, I found this MacFixIt article [google cache], followed the instructions from the Apple Knowledge Base link and viola, Mail is back.

Apparently this is related to an update to the Cyrus mail subsystem. If I’m feeling masochistic tonight, I’ll try re-installing the security update with the cyrus DB fix (above) in place. If it works, I’ll post my success, if it fails, I’ll drown my disappointment in bourbon.

- Duane

One of Gina and my favorite comedians, Mitch Hedberg passed away. Initially, I hoped this was a twisted April Fool’s prank. Gina and I followed Mitch’s career, own a few of his performances on CD, and recorded several of his television appearances. We also had the privilege to see his routine in person a few months ago. The audience was drunk and acting the part. I remember feeling bad that the crowd wasn’t more laid back.

- Duane

It looks as though somebody is trying to comprimise my server. Dozens of attempts from 59.120.66.41 to login as root via ssh on several ports were captured in my server logs. The netblock owner (hinet.net) appears to be a Chinese site. I promptly banned the ip address and will continue to monitor my logs. George noticed that a network security consultancy was trying to get into his site… I don’t see any relationship here, but vow to take further action if the attempts continue.

Update: Ben tipped me off that this is most likely a worm that’s been floating around.

- Duane

Gina got me GT4 last week. Though the time I’ve been able to dedicate to the game has been limited, it’s pretty freakin’ awesome. Better graphics, better a.i., and more gameplay features make this one of the must-have titles for the PS2… duh. One of the new features is the ability to play B-spec mode… where you are the racing team manger and direct your driver when to pit, overtake, etc. If you’re a racing geek like me, this will add a whole new dimension to the game. Playing GT4 made me long for warmer days… and inspired me to write a new article. This one goes out to my homey… Brad.

- Duane