This is not a man with a blog.

Blackberry = patent lawsuit magnet

By Shabbir | May 2, 2006 | Comments Off on Blackberry = patent lawsuit magnet

Honestly, if you’re a Blackberry user, don’t buy another one.  Go get yourself a Windows Mobile 5.0-based phone (like the HTC Wizard) and stop freaking out about the patent lawsuits.  You need a company the size of Microsoft (with their patent portfolio) to protect you from idiocy like this. Link: Another Patent Lawsuit Sours BlackBerry.

The first rule of the Big Game: don’t talk about the Big Game.

By Shabbir | May 1, 2006 | Comments Off on The first rule of the Big Game: don’t talk about the Big Game.

It’s really true.  If you found a wonderfully loose card game full of poor players playing for decent stakes, you’d keep your mouth shut. And I will, mostly, except that I’m going to crow a little bit.  I won’t talk about where it is, who’s hosting it, or anything else that might allow you to…

Zarqawi Taunts U.S. in Video

By Shabbir | April 27, 2006 | Comments Off on Zarqawi Taunts U.S. in Video

A couple of things that hit me as I worked the 3am shift before an out of town pitch today: So we finally know what the infamous terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi looks like.  He disturbingly resembles Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) of Clerks fame.   Link: Zarqawi Taunts U.S. in Video. Zarqawi said in his latest video…

Iran official threatens to hide nuke program

By Shabbir | April 25, 2006 | Comments Off on Iran official threatens to hide nuke program

The headline writers at CNN are idiots, honestly.  When the president of Iran says: We’re going to hide our nuclear program, which we’ve been doing for 12 months now, and We’re going to start giving nuclear technology to failed states. What do you think the headline should be?  Apparently, #2 isn’t scary enough for the…

Things that rock: poker games where everyone calls too much

By Shabbir | April 25, 2006 |

I’ve started to pick my poker carefully.  I don’t mean picking games that are only so easy that I can beat, but picking games online that I can’t find in real life.  Like Omaha/8.  As the kids say, "It’s hard out here for an Omaha player", and finding a a varied selection of O/8 games,…

Things that suck, being sick for 10 days

By Shabbir | April 24, 2006 | Comments Off on Things that suck, being sick for 10 days

So for 10 days I have some sort of obnoxious intestinal flu.  And now it’s gone.  I’m six pounds lighter and a bit less energetic, but it is over thank god. I’m posting from the Amtrak and have just switched seats with a family of two women and their two daughters.  I gave them my…

“Micksican” and other new ethnic slurs

By Shabbir | April 20, 2006 | Comments Off on “Micksican” and other new ethnic slurs

I’ve got a set of friends from Burning Man that I haven’t yet stopped speaking to who are wonderful in both their sense of humor and their self-deprecating approach to life.  Recently they were talking about their ethnicities, and since they’re all a mish-mash of different ones, what the appropriate slurs were? For our friend…

Poker raid in South Carolina

By Shabbir | April 14, 2006 | Comments Off on Poker raid in South Carolina

Another absurd poker raid.  Mount Pleasant police dealt a wild card when they raided a poker game Cheseborough was attending Wednesday night, handing out citations and seizing nearly $6,000 from 22 stunned players who had gathered for some Texas Hold ’em. … Four people gathered at the house Thursday [the day after the raid], all…

Terrorists’ Web Chatter Shows Concern About Internet Privacy

By Shabbir | April 14, 2006 | Comments Off on Terrorists’ Web Chatter Shows Concern About Internet Privacy

While cleaning out my inbox, I found this Washington Post article about how terrorist groups are doing their best to be careful about our surveillance. When terrorist groups learned that the National Security Agency could track electronic communication only when it was in transit — not when it was sitting in an inbox — users…

Poker bots sharking the one table tourneys

By Shabbir | April 12, 2006 |

On one of the noted poker discussion boards, 2+2, players have been discussing the discovery of poker software ‘bots’ that have been playing the $22 one table high speed tournaments. What’s scary is that these robots were only caught because of an obvious pattern in their betting which was so unusual it drew attention.  Once…