Bluffbot is Alive!

No, not Johnny 5! Bluffbot!

BluffBot 2.0 - Strategies for Heads-Up No Limit Holdem

Bluffbot is a world champion poker "bot" designed by Teppo Salonen for the purpose of competing in AI poker tournaments. In 2007, the new BluffBot 2.0 went undefeated!

Now you can learn the winning strategies behind Bluffbot. When to Make a continuation bet on the flop, Draw against the odds, Make blocking bets on the river and more.

You can even download an earlier version of Bluffbot at the official Bluffbot site.

Hackers Attack Power Grid. Sorta.

Hackers armed with computers attacked a power grid, causing an electrical turbine to spin out of control, shudder, lock up and explode in smoking ruin.

Or at least it would have, if this had been real.

The event was essentially produced by the Idaho National Laboratory for top policy makers in Washington.

"They've taken a theoretical attack and they've shown in a very demonstrable way the impact you can have using cyber means and cyber techniques against this type of infrastructure," said Amit Yoran, former U.S. cybersecurity chief for the Bush administration. Yoran is chief executive for NetWitness Corp., which sells sophisticated network monitoring software.

"It's so graphic," Yoran said. "Talking about bits and bytes doesn't have the same impact as seeing something catch fire."

My question would be; "how did a hacker cause such an event to occur?"

Call me cynical, but I have little faith in our government enough as it is and barely any trust in their motives or their objectives. Could this be a legitimate threat or more fear mongering to justify an ever-increasing budget windfall for any group involved in so-called "national security"?

The full story from Yahoo and AP

Apple Sucks It Up

Your money, is usually what they're sucking up, but in this case, they're stepping up and sucking up their pride to offer early adopters some of that money they scammed off of them.

After their initial announcement that they were going to lower the price of their flawed iPhone's by $200, those Apple-blinded minions who slapped down $600 to be the first to have the dimly lit phones were pretty pissed off that they ponied up such a hefty fee, only to have Jobs lower the price a month later. Have to admit I'm finding it difficult to feel sympathy for people would would spend that kind of money for a phone, but I still feel pretty irked that the obvious "real" price of the item versus the cynical "market" price of it is so clearly uneven.

Announced today, Jobs is offering $100 to those who bought iPhones early on, to mitigate the damage he's done to his legions of faithful minions. Personally, with the kind of mindless and blind product loyalty Apple engenders, I don't even think it's necessary, but it's good to see Jobs doing 'almost' the right thing.

Full Story from Wired Online

- interestingly, the $100 he's offering to early adopters is not cash, but store credit. Crafty bastard.

Pfizer's Computers Are Zombies

Pfizer's computers have apparently been infected by malware and are spewing out spam to millions of users everywhere. The irony is, out of shear coincidence, the ads being spammed are for their own products. I guess that's not quite that ironic considering they are the reason for a majority of spam in the first place.

The full story from Wired Online

Board Deals

Board Deals sells Skate Shoes, Element skateboards and sweet ramps and rails. they also offer skateboard parts and full-on decks.

Checking out the site, it's pretty well set-up. I liked the simple but edge graphics and the easy navigation. All of the brands they carry are right smack in the middle of the page and there is a clear, convenient menu to the left. Basic but simple. The last thing I want when I'm trying to buy stuff is a confusing flash-animated maze.

I checked out a couple of brands and categories and they were as simple as they seem. The selection for the particular product line, Billabong, was a little light, but they did have a few products and I would think they'd have more soon.

Overall, I give Board Deals a 4 out of 5. The sheer number of brands available almost makes up for the lite offerings within each brand's page.