WTF FTW LOL@ITBW!!1! (and Flash Portal)

Rabbits, white rabb-it's IT Blogwatch: in which the world goes to heck in a handbasket. Not to mention Portal in Flash...

Sir Richard Branson is over the moon:

I'm delighted today to announce Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google ... [its] goal is simple: the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. Larry Page, Sergey Brin and I feel strongly that contemporary technology is sufficiently advanced to make such an effort both successful and economical, and that it's high time that humanity moved beyond Earth and began our great, long journey to explore the stars and establish our first lasting foothold on another world. In the years to come, we'll be sending up a series of spaceships carrying (along with the supplies and tools needed to build the new colony) what eventually will be hundreds of Mars colonists, or Virgle Pioneers -- myself among them ... See you on the north side of Kasei Valles!. more

Michael Arrington is his usual shy, retiring self:

My own personal brand has risen ... to the point where I believe I can say without hubris that I am a very important person ... My agent has told me numerous times that I need to be more careful with how I leverage my personal brand, and to be aware of others who are using/abusing it ... So we’ve been increasingly concerned about developments at Facebook over the last few months that allow advertisers to post ads using my picture and name to endorse their products without my explicit permission ... When our team of lawyers offered to settle for a mere $50 million, [Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly] told me Facebook would “bury you and bury your ****** blog” if we filed the suit. He then threw his steaming hot triple soy latte espresso at me, which caused extensive second degree burns over the top half of my body. Later on, he also unfriended me. more

The Pirate Bay's Tr1n1ty deserts us:

Due to the new copyright legislation that are going to take effect from today we had to move all of the system outside of Europe. We decided to move to the desert of Sinai in Egypt since we feel that we'll be safe there. Tiamo has already got himself a permanent place to live and will reside in Sinai from now. Those of you who need to get in contact with him can use the contact page. In Sinai we've set up the systems with three redundant fibre links. Besides local connectivity in Egypt we also have connectivity to Saudi-Arabia and Israel. Jordan is quite close and we hope to install a link there as well as soon as our budget will reach that level. This way we're actually hosted in Asia as well as Africa ... Everything will be the same as before, we will have slightly higher latency for European and American visitors. A special note to Ifpi: Moses walked in the desert of Sinai for 40 years. Our servers will be active for at least another 40 as well. moar

Allen Stern has shocking news for Robert Scoble fans:

It's official, just weeks after we broke the story that Robert Scoble went live with Fast Company TV here in NY, he has left to start a video site around his passion, ice cream. He worked in an ice cream store growing up with over 80 flavors and he tried every single one of them. He was fired for eating too much ice cream and giving it away to the young ladies who visited. From what I understand rather than Seagate sponsoring this tv show, Baskin Robbins will be sponsoring the series. He will basically be equal to Rachael Ray with Dunkin Donuts. Look for banners to go up in your local ice cream shop next week. The Ice Cream Library TV site goes live once the current ice cream melts. please make it stop

Desire Athow does the twist:

Microsoft's monthly patching exercise took place one week earlier this month as the software giant is preparing for the simultaneous launch of Windows XP Service Pack 3 and its Internet Explorer 8 web browser. Amongst the thirteen patches released is what observers describe as an unexpected upgrade that allows Genuine Windows user to change your default interface from Windows XP to Windows Vista, adding what observers call, a Pseudo Aero look. "The Aero interface is all about eye candiness and a free upgrade from Microsoft was what Windows XP (or 2003) users have been clamoring for", said a senior source at Microsoft who wanted to remain anonymous. let's twist again

Veronica Belmont is reeeeally excited, Apple fans:

After releasing the Stevenote in 60 seconds episode, we were contacted by Steve Jobs himself, who enjoyed the video. After much scheduling conflicts, we finally managed to arrange a time to talk to the man himself. And trust us, it was worth the wait! watch it, buster

Jimmy Wales's shadowy cabal informs:

Did you know ... that the 24 Hours of LeMons includes such penalties as tarring and feathering a racer's car and crushing a car via audience vote? ... that John F. Kennedy was shot dead in an ambush by government agents who had foreknowledge of his whereabouts? ... that in a few villages and towns of southern France and Spain it is illegal to die? ... that Weber kettle grills were actually made out of buoys cut in half? ... that men are able to be insured against alien impregnation? ... that American entrepreneur Timothy Dexter defied the popular idiom and actually made a profit when he sold coal to Newcastle? ... that six latrines at Black Moshannon State Park in Pennsylvania are listed on the National Register of Historic Places? WP:RS, my ***

And finally...

• Portal: The Flash Version
  

Buffer overflow:

• Ryan Stewart: AIR Linux Is Out - It Could Change How I Use a Computer
• Michael Santo: McAfee: Super Spam Us!
• F-Secure: Shift happens
• Nick O'Neill: The Twitterfication of Profiles
• Henry Blodget: Hey, Sarbanes and Oxley, You Killed Our IPO Market--Are You Happy?
• Evil Bits: PWN to OWN's Two Casualties
• Valleywag Calendar: Happy 10th anniversary, Mozilla!
• Mike Masnick: Sony BMG Caught Pirating Software
• Data Center Knowledge: The Oprah Effect: Equal to Slashdot or Digg?

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Michael R. Farnum: No regrets on your egress
• Ken Gagne: Old school tax refund
• Bert Latamore: The PDA Guerrilla: Net neutrality and freedom of speech
• Seth Weintraub: Blackberry 9000 isn't a cheap iPhone knock-off - or is it?
• Frank Hayes: Frankly Speaking: Beating the net
• David DeJean: Is XP Really Necessary for UMPCs?
• Robert L. Mitchell: Hannaford breach hurts credit scores
• Preston Gralla: Windows Search 4.0: Faster, but still needs help
• Mark Hall: Wishing RSA away
• Douglas Schweitzer: Not only do government laptops disappear, firearms do, too.
• Shark Tank: Seen one, seen 'em all
• Shark Bait: Monty Python and the Holy Bank Account

"Dr." Richi Jennings is a complete waste of space, specializing in not blogging, pigeon post, and tasty luncheon meat. A 200 year, barely-functional veterinarian, he is also a rider of the Ferris Wheel. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Farcebork, or just use boring old email: it.blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• OOXML probably passes at ISO (and Error'd)
• MacBook pwned in two minutes (and fly me!)
• Asus Eee PC 900 breaks cover (and EG2)