Search This Blog

30 April 2007

Our cleanliness could be killing us?

Considering how many people I know with at least one of these issues, this is kinda a hot topic.

H.R.964

I am sending the letter below to my representative. I highly recommend you contact yours as well. You can copy the text from below, or, ideally become informed on the text of the bill (click the title of this post) and come up with your own views on why it should not pass.


Dear (insert representative),

I am contacting you to inform you that I oppose H.R.964, also known as the "Spy Act".

While the Bill is being presented in an effort to protect the public, the wording of the Bill specifically prohibits such protection.

Specifically:
SEC.5.b.1: This section exempts from compliance the very companies the public has been asking for protection from.
SEC.5.d: This section allows companies to knowingly provide non-compliant 3rd party software.
SEC.6.a: This section preempts any state law that is more proactively protective than HR964. At no point should introducing HR964 reduce the protection the public is given.

Thank you,
(insert name and contact info)

SE Asia and The US may soon have a direct internet connection.

Ok, honestly, the only part of how Google collects Earth images is the model airplanes.

Court rules that ripping DVDs is LEGAL. Maybe that is why the MPAA now says they are fine with it.

Looks like I am not the only one who thinks that voting online could be more secure than Diebold.

Verio censors Cryptome and shuts them down.

I am sure you knew that Scotty was shot into space... Did you know that about 200 other people were too?

Evidentally, there is a direct link between cancer and vitamin D deficiency... Does that mean that the soil around yew trees has vitamin D? I'm telling you, more and more I am thinking that various so-called diseases are caused by vitamin/mineral deficiency and/or intolerance.

Ontario builds a 40MW solar power plant.

For those of you who still are naive enough to think that the RIAA aren't so bad -- they are now saying that they get to collect royalties for artists that are not signed up with them. Need that re-explained? Let's say you are a garage band and go out of your way not to sign with a big label (or any label for that matter) -- the RIAA says THEY get the royalties, not you.

We've got some more advances in Carbon Nanotubes. This could help further solar power as well.

Hehe. Slashdot played a role in an RIAA case.

MIT took 28 years to realize that the Dean of Admissions lied about their qualifications.

This is the MOST creative Mac vs Windows comparison I have ever seen.

Computer simulation of half of a mouse brain.

What is more surprising? That there is more oxygen in the universe than nitrogen (though it is the reverse on Earth) of that the Sun produces oxygen via nuclear fusion?

MySpace assists China is censorship.

Micro$oft NBC wants to ensure that their presidential candidate is only shown in good light.

DARPA is working on a Plasma Shield.

Scientists realize that Black Holes and Wormholes may look the same to us.

It seems the problem with bees is caused by a fungus.

A student was arrested for writing an essay that disturbed his teacher. Good thing that teacher wasn't in charge of my fiction writing class!

What a shocker. Apparently the Diebold system can't handle a lot of concurrent accesses.

The RIAA is once again trying to be exempt from the law. They also won the case against University of Wisconsin-Madison, forcing them to release information.

Are you one of those people who still thinks that the US leads the charge for the internet? India is going to provide 2mb broadband to all residents in the next 2 years.

Once again, a judge bitch-slaps Jack Thompson.

Europe tries to criminalize sites like YouTube as well as "hate" pages. I wonder if that counts pages about me hating Bush, Jack Thompson, et al?

Wow! If I ever loose a limb, I think I want this approach to deal with it!

The evil overlord of the MPAA died at age 85.

The Internet2 approaches its theoretical limit.

The RIAA faces a lot of opposition in Oregon... I really like the laundry list: "Electronic Trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Invasion of Privacy, Fraud, Negligent Misrepresentation, the tort of Outrage, Deceptive Business Practices under Oregon Trade Practices Act, and Oregon RICO"

Here's some interesting science...er, geometry?... er astronomy??

Adobe open sources Flex.

HR333 (1/2 of 666?) submitted to impeach Cheney for High Crimes.

A major Anti-SPAM lawsuit gets filed.

The news (TV) says that Pandas now have a future thanks to Panda P0rn. Evidentally it gets them in the mood enough that they are starting to procreate.

Acer is recalling a lot of Sony batteries.

Potential start of a fix for global warming.

Looks like the RIAA wins against Ohio University.

Oooh. Water as a liquid solid?

As a partial followup to the crap the schools are teaching today -- the UK is encouraging students to drop math altogether.

Would you like an Offline Wikipedia CD? I'm downloading it now.

More Earth-sized planets.

HR964 (Spy Act bill) is designed in such a way to allow spyware to be installed on your computer.

Oooh, now that is a nice processor :)

India joins the space race.

Wow. When it comes to Election Fraud, this is really big!

24 April 2007

Interesting Math Education Video

News from the Net

Time Warner customers will be able to get free WiFi hotspots.

It appears that true kryptonite is not green.

I like this quote: "you can plug non-Intel things into the Intel CPU socket"

So you think I am overreacting to the various patent infringement cases? Apple is being sued for using tabs in their UI.

The FDA is trying to decide whether to allow something without milk and cocoa butter to be labeled "Chocolate". IMHO, I think the cocoa plant should be required to be called chocolate -- but I am OK calling the new stuff "vegetarian chocolate" or something.

It looks like those scientists now agree with the high schoolers on acid.

Hehe. Someone busts Mythbusters stats.

Have you ever thought about running your own ISP? Well, this guy did.

A 64-million year horoscope?

Spiderman hits Broadway.

Soap contains GHB? WTF?

Wow... The addendum to this post is.... well, fucked up... Hey, maybe if I say Wayne Crookes name, he will sue me too and I can counter-sue him for pain, suffering, fraud, monetary loss (for not being able to work on the RSA while in court), wasted time, and for general dickishness...

If you ever get sued by the RIAA, don't forget to ask for this treatment. Especially when they deliver a subpoena for your kid to be at the deposition at 9am the next morning (which just happens to be a school day).

It appears they are trying to start the Cold War again.

Alternatives to GPS?

You ever wonder what the Sun and a Pipe Organ have in common? What about Jupiter and Pulsars?

Text messages fight voter fraud? How about asking hackers to test it?

"Using basic radio equipment and an FPGA board totaling less than $2,000 it was possible for researchers to read text from a laptop three offices away."

More SSN leaks. I love the excuse... It was "the common practice".

Caracas uses airships to patrol Venezuela.

Human blood contains the cure for HIV/AIDS?

Woot! Take that Jack Thompson!

Canada once again tries to be more dickish than the USA.

Dept of Justice, Whistleblowers and IT companies in kickback scheme.

The World Organization for Human Rights sues Yahoo for assisting in torture.

Valve hacked and customer credit card information stolen.

Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine both being canceled. Ah, 80s memories.

Second Life open sources the server code.

So you think the various M$ Word security holes are no big deal? That's how people hacked the US State Dept.

Montana stands firm against Homeland Security! Kudos!

How about planetary study using nanotech dust?

Finally our (well, actually UK) spaceships get actual shields :)

Proof that Judges are not doing their job.

20 April 2007

Burning Calories

I know some of you are working on burning calories, so I found this chart for you :)

18 April 2007

Beaverton vs. Jessica Hull

So for years we have believed that the Cops act like they themselves are above the law. Last year, we saw that it's difficult to fight the system in Beaverton (because we can't prove what the judge said since it isn't a Court of Record)...

And now, they face scrutiny. A Beaverton police officer, Jessica Hull, got caught speeding (10mph over) past one of the Beaverton photo-radars. She was on duty and in a patrol car. Evidentally, that is supposed to justify her breaking the laws that she herself enforces.

And of course, we are expected to trust the judge or mayor or... anyone? They all work for the same "company". I did mention that it is not a court of record, right?

So what's going to be the outcome? Hard to say.

If she doesn't get out of the ticket, the judge's job may be in jeopardy... and of course, I am sure that it would not make the local cops all that anxious to be lenient to the public...

If she does get out of the ticket, I expect that a large number of people are no longer going to recognize the Beaverton Police as an authority in such matters. With the rebellious tension surrounding PDX right now -- with people just waiting for a reason to rise up and revolt -- making a public display of the cops not having to follow the laws they are enforcing may very well be the last straw that gets the public to remove their authority.

We shall see.

News from the Net

Turbo Tax melted down, BlackBerry network went down, and ...

"Posting comments, pictures, or videos attacking other students or teachers outside of school hours will carry the risk of school punishment"

When will they learn that choosing an arbitrary number of dimensions is always going to end up being wrong?

Scientists now think that chimps have evolved more than humans.

Washington is set to get some new environmental laws regarding chemical usage.

Good Morning Oregon just reported that Hillsboro had a funnel cloud yesterday

Looks like Vonage might be dead. Makes me kinda sad that I bought into the IPO.

17 April 2007

New York to Paris

My niece posted this. Step 24 is kinda funny.

News from the Net

Bush's changes to Daylight Savings Time puts kid in jail for 12 days.

Intel demos PRAM.

NASA probe tests Einsteins theories.

This might shock you. The sales of vinyl are up 10%. Maybe it is because of DJs?

Australia works hard to become the poster child for Fahrenheit 411 style censorship.

Canada instituting a DMCA.

We might have a brain tumor vaccine.

Oooh, 324 GHz

Hmm, a BIOS replacement... Oh yeah, Sun and Mac have been doing that for years.

You know, I'd want this 103" HDTV if it wasn't Panasonic. Knowing them, they'd charge $5k just to tell you how much to RMA it. Sorry, still pissed about my last two attempts at RMA'ing Panasonic products.

North Carolina State University is telling students to remain anonymous and that the school will challenge any RIAA threat.

Scientists think that hypertension may lie within the brain itself.

A self-healing house in Greece protects against earthquakes.

You know what is better than detecting blood clots in the brain? Using infrared light that penetrates the body.

The Liberal Party of Norway wants to make file sharing legal and DRM illegal. That would be nice here, since Sony is now making DVDs that intentionally don't work on older hardware. Can't we get a Class Action Lawsuit against them for selling defective products?

Women outnumber men. Woot!

Ever wonder how people get caught downloading p2p stuff? Here's the details.

World Chess Champion arrested.

Are you worried about robots taking over?

What does it take to get YouTube to remove hundreds of videos? Lie about being part of the recording industry.

You heard about Imus getting fired recently... Did you know that we have a 26 year old blogger to thank for it?

It seems that NASA's software isn't even as reliable as CS101 projects.

If you weren't aware, Google bought DoubleClick.

A new law in Oklahoma aims to prevent large corporations from having to report how much power they consume.

Samsung plans on releasing a dual Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player. Told you it wouldn't take long.

Rhesus Monkey decoded.

Democrats have just put their foot in their mouth and lost the support of a large number of the well-informed.

Oooh, I want to make one of these...

Scientists now think that photosynthesis uses quantum effect.

CentOS 5 released.

Wow, this brings back some memories...

Dinosaur/bird link proven.

Oooh, space-based routers.... Seems like the start of subspace transmissions to me :)

The Bush administration is trying to get even more spying powers.

14 April 2007

PayCycle

One of the reasons EOTI uses PayCycle....

Dear Malachi de AElfweald,

Oregon automatically sent out that letter to all of the employers in their state. We do calculate your state income tax and prompt you to make the appropriate deposits, so you can ignore that letter.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us over the Web at https://www.paycycle.com/elink?a=inquiry or by phone during the hours of 6:30am - 6:30pm Pacific Time, Monday - Friday.

Thank you for choosing PayCycle as your payroll partner. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Petch
The PayCycle Support Team
866-729-2925

PayCycle Customer Support has provided this information to assist you in complying with applicable laws and government regulations. This information is not a substitute for legal, accounting or other professional advice where facts and circumstances warrant.

The security and confidentiality of your personal information is important to us. BECAUSE E-MAIL IS NOT A SECURE FORM OF COMMUNICATION, THIS E-MAIL BOX IS NOT EQUIPPED TO HANDLE REPLIES. If you have sensitive account-related questions, please call our support phone number. For all other questions or comments, please use the Web forms available via Ask a Question: https://www.paycycle.com/elink?a=inquiry.

-----Original Message-----

The State of Oregon sent me a letter pointing me to http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/docs/206-430.pdf

Correct me if I am wrong -- but this information is not something I need to worry about since the withholdings are handled by you...?

Thanks,
Malachi

13 April 2007

Bengals

Yes they have arrived.
I am planning for you a brown spotted male and a silver spotted female. There is only one silver female in the older litter. If I do not keep her for a breeder she will be yours. Otherwise there is another litter that had 3 girls in it from my silver girl. I will hope one of the girls will be a silver.
So it won't be that much longer until you will have your new additions.

11 April 2007

Pet Food Recall

If you have pets, you may want to check the latest updates to the lists... they keep adding more and more to the recall list.

JOKE: Confessional

Thanks to Sarah for posting this joke:

A woman takes a lover during the day while her husband is at work.When the husband come home unexpetedly one afternoon,she shoves the lover in the closet, not knowing that her 9-year-old son has been in the closet watching them.
The little boy says, "dark in here."
The man says, "yes, it is."
Boy: "I have a baseball. Want to buy it?"
Man: "No thank's."
Boy: "My dad's outside."
Man: "Okay. How much."
Boy: "$250."

A few weeks later, it once again happens that the boy and the mom's lover are in the closet together.
Boy: "Sure is dark in here."
Man: "Yes, it is."
Boy: "I have a baseball glove."
Man: "Okay.How much?"
Boy: "$750."
Man: "$750? Okay. Fine."

A few days later the father says to the boy, "Grab your glove. let's go outside and toss the baseball back and forth."
The boy says, "I can't. I sold them."
The father asks, "How much did you sell them for?"
The son says, "You won't believe it, Dad-I got a thousand bucks!"
The father says, "That's terrible, to overcharge your friends like that. That is way more than those 2 things cost. I'm going to take you to church and make you confess."

In the confessional booth the boy says, "Dark in here."
The priest says, "Don't start that shit again."

10 April 2007

News from the Net

Blizzard says its a copyright violation to use things like antivirus programs with WoW. The company (The9) running WoW in China for Blizzard will now be running Warhammer Online for EA Games.

Sunspots peak higher than any time in the last 998 years...

Have a favorite calculator memory?

Google admits to using Sohu database for Pinyin. They also release the Website Optimizer (beta).

The US Military invests in a hovercraft/helicopter-combo.

Well they finally found out why the black-hole-creator exploded... A mathematical mistake screwed up the design of one of the superconductive magnets.

Debian 4.0 (codename: Etch) has been released.

Prostitution in space? :) Well, that and IPv6.

Oooh! The L1X-75 is a 600hp carbon fiber electric roadster... 0-60 in 3.1 seconds. Only goes about 175 mph. 10000 rpm redline. 200 mile range and recharges via 110v outlet. Not as pretty as the Tesla Roadster though.

O'Reilly opens an online tech school.

Oooh. 3D Virtual Maps for the Blind.

You know, when I am reading about things like invisibility cloaks only blocking a single wavelength of light, I don't see the point... until now... when I read: against, for example, night-vision goggles or laser target designators

GAIM renamed to Pidgin IM.

Asus.com was hacked to spread an exploit?

Last year BofA bought MBNA Bank... Now, the credit cards featuring the Linux Tux are going to be discontinued... Basically all those Linux folks who had the card will have their cards canceled on June 30th.

The RIAA and MPAA are claiming that they have never and never would assume the identity of someone else -- but at the same time are petitioning California legislatures to exempt them from the laws making it illegal. I think it is clear that any politicians that even consider this are in their pockets and should be removed from office.

To slow down P2P traffic, Rogers Cable in Canada has decided to slow down all encrypted traffic... whether P2P, email, vpn, bank transactions, etc... I'm sure they make exemptions for government/military, right?

OpenBSD vs GPL. BeOS faces a similar situation.

Windows Vista security completely broken again.

Good Day Oregon:
  • There are over 39000 pets sick from the pet food so far, and that the number is growing.
  • Good Day Oregon also mentioned that Washingtonians can now register to vote online?
  • Stream has had 12 more cases of Tuberculosis.
  • Diabetes could be connected to Alzheimer's Disease
  • Smoking+Caffeine fights Parkinson's Disease
  • Cocoa reduces blood pressure more than Tea
The EFF is looking for prior art to counter VoIP patents.

Blogger Wolf finally released from jail after 226 days for contempt.

The Turkish Assembly has decided to nationally censor any sites that insult the founder of Turkey.

08 April 2007

06 April 2007

Arctic Wonderland

You may remember me mentioning back in January that global warming has made a new island appear... I was watching the Colbert Report and he was pointing out that countries are sending flags and warships to claim the new land. And you thought people today were past that... just wait until they can send war-spaceships to claim land.

05 April 2007

Sanctuary

Thanks to Brett for finding this show...

From their FAQ:

Sanctuary is a web-based science fiction series starring Amanda Tapping [Carter, Stargate: SG1], Robin Dunne [Cruel Intentions 2], Emilie Ullerup [Battlestar Gallactica] & Chris Heyerdahl [Stargate: Atlantis]. Fusing stunning visual effects, video game technology and cutting edge web design, Sanctuary takes the viewer into a thrilling world where science meets the supernatural. This fictional online universe fills the void left by traditional network television by providing multiple High Definition resolutions, immersive interaction, and direct communication between the viewer and the Sanctuary creative team.
Although not mentioned, I also noticed David Hewlett [Rodney, Stargate: Atlantis] in the trailer.

04 April 2007

News from the Net

Haha... As people are getting all gung-ho about quadcore... Mac releases an octcore.

Oooh... robotic amoebas...

Although I don't use Google Desktop or Mac, some of you may interested to know that they now have Google Desktop FOR the Mac.

Haha. Verizon's "unlimited" plan is 5GB.

Looks like chimpanzees now have human rights.

Hope you aren't expecting to get an H-1B Visa... The USA is only spending one day this year to provide them.

Windows Vista completely and utterly hacked.

Ha! Diebold looses their case in Mass.

Matrix anyone?

It appears that you too can hack a 108-bit WEP key in under 1 minute.

As I said all along, don't trust someone with a vested interest in oil... The change in time had no measurable impact on energy savings (duh)

Oooh... automated image labeling and search.

Microsoft sued for letting hardware manufacturers label things (inaccurately) as Windows Vista Capable.

I had debated not reporting on this since US Airlines has shown themselves to be racist, but... they are going to be offering in-air wifi.

The company that made Guitar Hero was bought, then the developers were legally prohibited from working on other rhythm games.

A French train (wheeled) almost beat the maglev speed record.

Huge caves found on Mars.

Ooh... New 'input devices' for the brain :)

Vonage signed an agreement to let VoIP, Inc. carry all their calls.

Copyright: Indecision 2008

Dear Shopkeeper,

Thank you for using CafePress.com!

As you may know, CafePress.com provides a service to a rich and vibrant community of international users. From time to time, we review the content in our shopkeepers accounts to confirm that the content being used in connection with the sale of products are in compliance with our policies, including our Content Usage Policy (CUP).

We recently learned that your CafePress.com account contains material which may not be in compliance with our policies. Specifically, designing, manufacturing, marketing and/or selling products that may infringe the rights of a third party, including, copyrights (e.g., an image of a television cartoon character), trademarks (e.g., the logo of a company), "rights in gross" (e.g., the exclusive right of the U.S. Olympic Committee to use the "Olympic Rings"), and rights of privacy and publicity (e.g., a photo of a celebrity) are prohibited.

Accordingly, we have set the content that we believe to be questionable to "pending status" which disables said content from being displayed in your shop or purchased by the public.

You may review the content set to pending status by logging into your CafePress.com account and clicking on the "Media Basket" link. The content set to pending status will be highlighted red.

Please visit our Content Usage Policy (CUP) for additional information regarding your use of the CafePress.com service. Once there, you may access our Copyright, Trademark & Intellectual Property Guidelines and FAQ's for more detailed information regarding Intellectual Property Rights.

We apologize for any inconvenience that the removal of your content may have caused you. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,


Content Usage Associate
CafePress.com
CUP@cafepress.com

03 April 2007

News from the Net

Hacker looses extradition appeal.

iTunes antitrust investigation

If any of you use Facebook (I don't) you might be interested in their new API.

The next XPrize is for a car that can get 100 MPG.

EPA has been given the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

This might interest you. A 1979 Interview with Douglas Adams that has never before been seen in its entirety.

02 April 2007

News from the Net

HR 811 looks like a pretty good idea... except the fact that it bans the use of the Internet, which was one of the primary mechanism of my idea.

Ok, the quote is kinda funny: in the weeks following its announcement to adopt Oracle Linux, upset Linux enthusiasts phoned, e-mailed and wrote about the company online to complain at the decision. "People called us out of the blue to tell us we were idiots,"

Oh look, they finally listen. Children showed no change in behavior due to violent video games. Huh, who'd a thunk?

America gets Swedish government to break the law.

Sega stops repair service for Dreamcast and Saturn, even though new games were released this year.

Are you a Type O donor? No? Well, you will be now.

Canada wants control or blockage of US Sites (like YouTube). How about this -- those of you who don't like our broadcast can just not type in our addresses? How's that? Everyone happy?

I haven't tried Guitar Hero, but for those of you who have, you may enjoy this.

Planning on buying an XBox360 to play HD DVD? Good luck, it appears not to work.

So now that someone has patented the GWT concept right from under Google, you think they will buy them out or rip them a new one in court?

It appears that the WTO sides with Antigua against the United States (in regards to online gambling)... Can I have my Texas Hold'em back now?

And this is why everything on the Internet should be decentralized.

A science fair project exposes lies about a drinks contents.