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28 February 2006

News from the Net

An article stating that there is a lower percentage of predatory behavior on MySpace than on other similar networks

Since I don't use Ruby or Mac, this tutorial from Apple is more for Tony :)

Create a good virtual appliance and win up to $1000

The UK is trying to decide whether you can copyright an idea

Well, it appears that Diebold has figured out how to fight the allegations that they broke the law... they are sending the whistleblower to jail for 4 years for stealing the memos. Guess that proves their innocence, eh?



Sylkwyrm
Fucking diebold!

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Mon Feb 27 23:37:00 PST 2006

27 February 2006

Image File Hosting

The other day, mypimpfiles or pimpmyfiles, or whatever the hell I was using lost everything.  Then, today, I get more errors than from M$ and MySpace put together. Needed a better solution.

Went back and checked out Googles' Page Creator again. It gives you 100MB upload space for free :)  Not really using it for the webhosting right now (though I guess I could) -- but already posted an image to Lauren's comment section using it. Much easier solution I think.



Silver
Google Page Creator has experienced extremely strong demand, and, as a result, we have temporarily limited the number of new signups as we increase capacity. We will notify you as soon as we are ready to add new accounts. Thank you for your patience.

Posted by Silver on Mon Feb 27 11:37:00 PST 2006
Malachi
Damn. Well, I did sign up a week or two ago when I first mentioned it. Sorry mate.

Posted by Malachi on Mon Feb 27 14:59:00 PST 2006

News from the Net

The Justice Department has decided that Google has no grounds for thinking that the Bush administrations' request for your search history violates your privacy. But then again, take a look at an email sent to the "consultant" responsible for this decision from back in 1997:

Dear Professor Stark, I am writing regarding the contract that you signed with the University of California. I believe that, in said contract, you specifically agreed not to use any students in any experiment without their prior consent. To the best of my knowledge, the students currently enrolled in Statistics 2 were never asked to sign a waiver giving their consent to be a part of your evil Javascript experiment.

Looks like our military is finally clueing into MagLev technology which has been out for... what? 20-30 years?

I know we all like to think it is fictional, but some embalmers loot bones and tissue to sell.

Looks like Google is getting busted for copyright infringement for indexing pictures

Want to know what software the NSA is trying to buy from Silicon Valley? Well, take a look

H&R Block apparently fucked up their own taxes



Sylkwyrm
Google refuses to hand over search historys and is now getting busted for copy right issues.  Coincidence......?

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Mon Feb 27 01:00:00 PST 2006
Malachi

Well, actually, the adult magazine Perfect10 is suing Google for copyright infringement because Google is indexing sites that include pictures from their magazines... IE: if I put a pic on my site that I stole (or scanned) from Perfect 10 and Google indexed my page.



Posted by Malachi on Mon Feb 27 01:37:00 PST 2006
SparrowHawk
You always manage to post the most intersesting articles and info.

.

~Laura



Posted by SparrowHawk on Mon Feb 27 04:05:00 PST 2006
Malachi
Much of it is from Slashdot.org or the Daily Show, but I try to keep my eyes open :)

Posted by Malachi on Mon Feb 27 04:41:00 PST 2006

25 February 2006

Net News

Looks like the Total Information Awareness office is still running. You might remember them from such places as my t-shirt.

Did the Chinese proove that mammals lived in water existed 100 million years earlier than previously thought?

WOW! There is going to be a Dark Crystal Sequel!!!!

Want a free 99cent Snacker from KFC? Then Record but don't skip that commercial

Looks like Google is going to put up all the National Archive videos online for free.

This is interesting... an enzyme-computer for inside the human body.

Political: BlackBox voting has finally won the legal suit to get the audit records of the 2004 Florida election votes... Surprise surprise there were anomolies... things like votes being cast 2 weeks early, machines shut down 128 times during the election, people opening the machine, etc...

Ok, let me just copy one quote here and see if it makes you cock your head to the side like it did me...: "And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works"

Google has released an AJAX WebPublishing app.



WILL POWER!
OK, first of all, I've been lost for 4 days without Net News.
So, the black box thing...that wouldn't suggest CHEATING, would it?
I read the quantum computer thing more than once and still don't get it.
Watching a commercial in slow motion is not worth a 99 cent sammich, especially since KFC is major fucking suxor.

Lastly, and most importantly, I am eagerly awaiting the return of Fizzgig.

Posted by WILL POWER! on Sat Feb 25 02:59:00 PST 2006
Malachi
I apologize for being off my game recently -- working on that ever illustrious "getting a new job" aspect.... It's nice to know the my Net News has avid readers...

Regarding the quantum computer... I started reading this PDF to try to understand the Zeno effect they mentioned, but I think I am going to have to reread it a few times to get it. Overall, I think anytime someone says there is a paradox - what they are really saying is that their model is broken ;)

Posted by Malachi on Sat Feb 25 03:10:00 PST 2006
Sylkwyrm
It the quantum computer thing like when my vibrator is broken, but I use it anyways, so it still technically works?

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Feb 25 03:13:00 PST 2006
Malachi
Only if it gets you off ;)

Posted by Malachi on Sat Feb 25 16:23:00 PST 2006

21 February 2006

News from the Net

I guess the government doesn't like people utilizing the Freedom of Information Act, because the CIA is reclassifying documents that were already public

Looks like there has been some interesting work on magnetic power generators... for implementation details, check here

Unipage seems to be trying to replace PDF... but... I don't get it... I tried their sample, and it gives errors saying it is not compatible with IE. Although I understand why they should promote Firefox, that is not the way to convince people that it is a good alternative. Also, why not just use OpenDocument format instead? That stores all of the pieces in a zip...



Silver
"video is not playable in your country"
awesome...
google is censoring americans... where will the insanity end? (sigh)


Posted by Silver on Tue Feb 21 01:35:00 PST 2006
Malachi
That's pretty fucked up.

Posted by Malachi on Tue Feb 21 03:46:00 PST 2006

What Emotion do you Represent? (with gorgeous anime pictures!)

HASH(0x8dc0f04)
You represent courage. You are determined and care
about your loved ones and would do nearly
anything to save them. You are strong and
hard to be taken down. Some may depict your
determination as being cold, but you're not-
you just tend to get a bit too serious at
times.

What Emotion do you Represent? (with gorgeous anime pictures!)
brought to you by Quizilla


Sarah
I got the same as you did! Go Scorpios!

Posted by Sarah on Mon Feb 20 23:48:00 PST 2006
Sylkwyrm
HASH(0x8d94eec)
You represent sadness. Whether you're naturally
sensitive, or have been traumistized in
someway, you appear (and may be) emotionally
scarred. You have a delicate soul, and are
understanding of those around you. Always
remember that no matter how lost you feel,
someone is always looking out for you.

What Emotion do you Represent? (with gorgeous anime pictures!)
brought to you by Quizilla
Who would have seen that comming?

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Tue Feb 21 04:59:00 PST 2006
Tony
HASH(0x8c8fd08)
You represent magic. You have many beliefs in
things others may be skeptical of, and dare
to dream. You enjoy communing with nature and
you acknowkledge the Earth's natural wonders.
You also love to explore.

What Emotion do you Represent? (with gorgeous anime pictures!)
brought to you by Quizilla

Posted by Tony on Tue Feb 21 10:57:00 PST 2006

What ancient bloodline do you have?

HASH(0x8ea1ba0)
You have Elvin blood: The blood in your veins is
that of the elves. The most noble of all
bloods. The Elves are very honest and wise,
and you share that aspect with them. You are
a very fun and kind person and anyone who
meets you immediately feels safe when youre
around. You are a great person and an even
better friend. Dont ever change for anyone.

What ancient bloodline do you have?
brought to you by Quizilla


Sarah

  Hey, I got the SAME one again! Rock on!

-Sarah



Posted by Sarah on Tue Feb 21 00:04:00 PST 2006
SparrowHawk

It's cool to hear that you got the same response as I did. Take care.

Laura



Posted by SparrowHawk on Tue Feb 21 01:27:00 PST 2006
Silver
A frackin' Gnome? how am I a Gnome?! There wasn't even a drinking question... That's like trying to find out if someone is Irish, but not asking them if their family celebrates Christmas with kegs...

Posted by Silver on Tue Feb 21 01:36:00 PST 2006
Sylkwyrm
HASH(0x8e54a24)
You have Sirens blood: The beauty of a siren comes
in many forms. But yours is by far the most
pure. You are mysterious, clever, kind,
compassionate, beautiful, amazing, wonderful
and so much more. You are the kind of person
that makes this world a better place just by
waking up every morning. Dont let the sins of
others bring you down, you are a beautiful
person both inside and without.

What ancient bloodline do you have?
brought to you by Quizilla
Well, I'm still a deÆlfweald ;-)

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Tue Feb 21 09:00:00 PST 2006

18 February 2006

Retirement? Pshaw!

So, Dino and I were talking today...  We have been planning that someday, after I retire, we would move to the caribbean.  Today, it dawned on us... what is the reason for "someday" instead of "today"?

Most people immediately think money... we did... but that doesn't make sense. It cost more to live here.  Every year I am unemployed and playing catch up.  I haven't had a 401k in a few years, so it isn't like my retirement package is growing all that much... 

Friends and family... sure, that will always be a concern. It is much harder for people to visit each other and call each other...  But honestly, other than Elaine,  we talk to our friends online more than in person. Hell, it would probably be cheaper for Lori to see us than her own parents if we lived in the caribbean.

The real reason most people don't just get up and move? It's scary as hell. Where will you live? How will you make a living? What happens if this or that? Hell, with the caribbean, what about the hurricanes and such?

So, we have decided to do something about it.  Instead of planning on someday in 30 years moving somewhere where we can have a less stressful life.... we are going to spend the next 6 months to a year trying to decide which island we would like to move to and how to go about it... I mean, realistically, if we sell our house when we move, it should give us enough funds to live for awhile while we get off our feet...

So the next step?  Choosing an island... Which country do we want to live in? Economics, politics, scenary, et al... A lot of research to do...



WILL POWER!
Good luck with that. I'll come visit you.
Personally,I could never leave the snow permanently.

Posted by WILL POWER! on Sun Feb 19 02:41:00 PST 2006
Sylkwyrm
The saying goes, "don't eat the yellow snow" no one ever said, "don't eat the yellow sand." ;-)

Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sun Feb 19 04:44:00 PST 2006
Malachi
Yeah, I think I would rather live with 80*F ocean and take vacations to the snow than the other way around... but, I don't play in snow ;)

Posted by Malachi on Sun Feb 19 04:42:00 PST 2006

News from the Net

GeneDesign is some new software to help design artificial DNA

Flexible body armor that hardens under impact

Google is still fighting the Dept. of Justice to protect your privacy

If you live in Houston and like your privacy, don't call the cops or you might have video cameras installed.

Wish I had some money, I'd buy one of Atari's studios

Looks like they are trying to ban internet-based gambling

A new search engine for all you programmers out there

I've mentioned this to others, but... here's what you dream about



WILL POWER!
They better not ban online gambling.  I play alot of that texas hold 'er stuff.

Posted by WILL POWER! on Sat Feb 18 09:58:00 PST 2006
Malachi
I was. I miss it.  I just haven't had the time. Well, and things have been very depressing and hectic lately :(  Hopefully I can start playing again soon.

Posted by Malachi on Sat Feb 18 11:56:00 PST 2006

17 February 2006

Delivery!

Well, after spending an hour trying to find a chinese restaraunt that delivers, we finally found http://bizeats.com/index.html... we'll know shortly how good they are but.... if you are in our area, it definitely looks worthwhile...


Malachi
About 2 minutes after placing our order online, they called us and confirmed our order and price and to say that it would be about an hour and 15 minutes... we'll see...

Posted by Malachi on Fri Feb 17 11:18:00 PST 2006
Malachi
Well, they finally showed up 1/2 hour late.

Posted by Malachi on Fri Feb 17 13:02:00 PST 2006
Layne
Did it taste good?  That is what is important.  

Posted by Layne on Fri Feb 17 14:28:00 PST 2006
Sylkwyrm

The bad thing was that the website gave us options for how spicy we wanted our food, I put "hot" and got mild :-(



Posted by Sylkwyrm on Sat Feb 18 06:32:00 PST 2006
Malachi

It was OK... Have had better, have had much worse...

The interesting thing about the website is that they are not a particular restaurant... They are simply a delivery service that goes and gets it for you :) Did I mention that they have menus online and let your order from these places online -- even if those places themselves don't have a website?

 

:)



Posted by Malachi on Fri Feb 17 18:23:00 PST 2006

Net News

From Slashdot:

"'When News Corp. bought the social-networking Web site MySpace.com last July, the media company got two surprises, one good and one bad,' the Wall Street Journal reports. The good news: Traffic nearly doubled in the last half of last year. The bad news: MySpace is being criticized for exposing children to risqué content and sexual predators. In response, 'News Corp. plans to appoint a "safety czar" to oversee the site, launch an education campaign that may include letters to schools and public-service announcements to encourage children not to reveal their contact information."

It seems that the more education you get, the faster Alzheimer's will affect you.

Want to buy me a gift? How about a 1.2 Petabyte harddrive for $750?


16 February 2006

News from the Net

Sorry for the delay, this machine has been dead most of the day...

 

 

Here's another example of how to build your own home theatre PC

And some Bluetooth Speakers

Looks like Maryland is choosing to paper trail their voting

Can't Oracle quit trying to buy out everyone?

Mazda's new RX8 will run on hydrogen or gas

Hacking Digital Cameras?

Google acquires MeasureMap

Advanced Ajax stuff...


Hardware woes

So today, one of the new harddrives in the workstation failed, causing the RAID array to give errors... I called Asus, who by the way are not very polite, and they had me email some other department that has not yet responded. They also told me to contact AMD regarding the memory problem because evidentally, the memory controllers are in the CPU now instead of on the motherboard... didn't know that.

Called AMD. They are going to set me up to RMA both my CPUs for newer revisions in hopes that it fixes the problems.  I haven't gotten the email yet telling me how to go about the RMA -- but when I do they will take about 14 business days AFTER getting my CPUs before I get the replacements -- which means server and workstation down for a bit...

And I called Hitachi. Since the nVidia controller is saying a drive went bad and I have no other way to test it, they are going to cross-ship me a replacement.  Counter productive to ensuring I don't loose any data, I am using the machine while I wait (using the mirror of the RAID 0+1)... hopefully it doesn't completely thrash all of my data while I wait for the replacement hard drive...

 


GMail / Googletalk / Emoticons

Well, it appears that the Googletalk built into GMail now has a limited set of emoticons. They are kinda nice since they are animated. If you would like to try them, check out https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=34056

Weather

Damn! The news just said that due to windchill factor, it is going to FEEL like it is 10 degrees below zero tomorrow and Saturday... all I can say is DAMN! High of 27? :(



Silver
HA
now you know how I feel all winter. take that!!
FridayFeb 17 

Mostly Sunny
Mostly Sunny
High
22°F

Low
5°F
Precip: 0%
Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. Colder. High 22F. Winds NNW at 15 to 25 mph.
Saturday18 

Sunny
Sunny
High
13°F

Low
5°F
Precip: 20%
details details
Abundant sunshine. Highs in the low teens and lows in the mid single digits.
Sunday19 

Mostly Sunny
Mostly Sunny
High
23°F

Low
17°F
Precip: 0%
Mostly sunny. Highs in the low 20s and lows in the upper teens.
Last updated .. language="JavaScript1.2"> var weekendLastUpdated = mpdDayFLsupObj().getShortNameOfMonth()+' '+mpdDayFLsupObj().getDate()+' '+mpdDayFLsupObj().get12HourStr()+':'+mpdDayFLsupObj().getMinuteStr()+' '+mpdDayFLsupObj().getAMPM()+' '+ mpdLocTz(); ww(weekendLastUpdated) Feb 16 8:06 AM CST


Posted by Silver on Wed Feb 15 23:58:00 PST 2006
Malachi
And that's why we don't visit Chicago ;)

Posted by Malachi on Thu Feb 16 00:08:00 PST 2006