Feisty Fawn

Hmm.... all the Ubuntu Forums are shut down.
Oh yes, that's right, they moved to the next version. Guess I better too.

Oh look , when I check for updates, a convenient "7.04 update available" button apears , I don't even have to burn a cd with the iso image , I can just press the button.

Hmm... it's gonna be 700 megs at least... press the button and go to bed.

" I have to do groceries !"
Not the ideal way to be woken up , but ok , it's 9:30 am , I've had six hours sleep and my wife is going to work. "All right , all right. Make a list and I'll go, it's just across the street."
No that's not good enough. Wife is getting dressed anyways and getting ready to go.
OH well, back to my computer , press the button to continue the update (sleeping through the download was a good idea , now everything was on the computer waiting for me to press one silly button).
"Are you coming or not ?" wife demands.
Sigh , put on my pants and shirt.
Walk across the street, carrying the cart. She's ticked so she doesn't walk beside me she runs ahead. I don't care i've got the ignore box on (mp3 player) and everything is fine. Wait outside the grocery store, drink some juice. Eventually she returns loads up the cart , and again runs ahead while I drag the groceries back.
I'm actually impressed I can drag the cart around. It's been a long time since I've been this healthy.
At least she holds the doors for me.
Then I get to listen to her complain about how she has to care for a cripple, so I go to the kitchen and start putting groceries away. "What are you doing ! Scoot ! This is my kitchen !"
Hmmm... apears cripples arn't allowed in her kitchen.
Return to Ubuntu , and it starts installing , actually doesn't take very long.
Doesn't look much different than the old version. There's one new app , a tomboy notes thing. The Gjots2 program I use is better though so I ignore it.
Load up 2 cd's full of mp3's and start it playing. This time the mp3 player displays record covers which it presumably is getting from the internet as well as the song name. As well as playing some songs twice in a row (why does it do that ? It's annoying)
" !Come butter the toast on your breakfast!"
Sigh. Make up your mind, am I allowed in the kitchen or not ?


Anyways. Feisty Fawn installed on my old clunker without a hitch. Not seeing much improvement in anything , but not seeing any problems either.

(edit ) Feisty Fawn is the latest version of Ubuntu , a varient of Linux I run on one of my two machines at home. The other machine is an XP dell.

N.L. premier casts Harper as wily deceiver

Article


In St. John's on Friday, Williams said his government — which unveiled a budget projecting a record surplus for the coming year — owed nothing to Harper's government. The major gains in the province's recent budgets are due to offshore oil wealth, as well as the Atlantic Accord negotiated with the previous Liberal government.
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While Newfoundland and Labrador is projecting record wealth from offshore resources, it is also anxious about changes to equalization.


No No ! We know equalization is where rich provinces give to the poor to equil everything out , but we're not a rich province ! Honest ! All that sudden wealth from offshore oil shouldn't be counted ! Thats against the rules we made up that you never agreed to !

Don't you dare touch our equilization payments !

We're having a record year for our budget thanks to suddenly getting rich and we don't want you taking away our welfare checks just because we suddenly have a little cash in our pocket. It's ok to do that for private individuals in canada , but not entire provinces !

Why , next thing you know, if this oil thing gets going , you'll be demanding we pay into equalization like quebec and ontario , instead of just take out from it ! We can't have that ! No way !

Sony announces video chat add-on for PS3

Ok. And we're racing around the track , just me , bob , and Olga, in our ps3 racing game while video chatting. Bob did't get dressed today so he's in his undies and believe me they're filthy. Olga normally uses the avatar of a sexy blonde chick , but on the video chat monitor we see that "she" is actually a 300 lbs truck driver more interested in picking his nose than playing the game, possibly why he's coming in last ...


Video chat should stay in the office. I predict it to be a major disaster in home use.
*Uncontrollable laughter*

Man given 5 years for killing panhandler

Article


The court heard that Tower hit Grismajer on the back with a pair of pruning shears, puncturing his spleen.

The Crown was seeking a 12-year sentence, while the defence asked for two years less a day.


I can just imagine the defence lawyers argument.

"Your honor I protest ! It was just a pan handler ! My client shouldn't have to spend more than two years in jail for murdering such a useless burden on society !"

Yeah , right !

You got drunk , and you stabbed some bum with some garden shears. And he died.
AND YOU ONLY GOT FIVE YEARS ????

So , yah know, my wife is really ragging on me lately. Can I get drunk and beat her to death and only get 5 years too ? That would be awesome. I'll be happy to confess and everything and not cause you a bit of trouble... :)

Casino's : Just give them the money and walk away

Article


MontaVista buys two Linux firms
Posted by Stephen Shankland

MontaVista Software has acquired a business partner and another company, both of which, like MontaVista itself, focus on Linux for embedded computing devices such as slot machines and mobile phones.



Linux is an operating system. You run programs on it.

"Such as slot machines ..."

A slot machine based on program code instead of a spinning wheel or somesuch ... is totally untrustworthy. They can be programmed to do anything, cheat steal the works. And don't think they won't. Our own Casino D'Hull here in (or near) ottawa just got busted for slot machines that rapidly flash a jackpot symbol at the player , trying to subliminally influence them. Not to mention that you have no way of checking what the odds of winning are, the signs up top saying "1 in a thousand" for this machine don't mean diddly. Oh it's out of date , is the excuse , or you were just unlucky , or some such.

A computer slot machine is a bandit, pure and simple. It's just too easy , too tempting , to cheat "just a little bit" , and businesses are notorious for just such things. You see it all the time. Not only in the news, but I bet you yourself has had at one time a friend who openned up a restaurant and decided to keep two sets of books to avoid paying the tax man anything.

My mother , infact , once worked at a company and suddenly had to quit the job because she could see they were "cooking the books" and she didn't want to take the fall for it (she was the book keeper) so just up and quit and never went back rather than take the chance.

And it's these same cost cutting book cooking yahoo's who run these small business's who graduate to running the larger ones. You really can't trust a business any farther than you can throw it.

You might as well just walk in , hand them all your money, and walk away. Saves a lot on the aggrivation and costs just as much.

Helping out a forien Nation

The previous article raises an interesting question of so called International Law ( of which the muslim extremists obviously do not subscribe to).

And that is , If I send troops to help out another nation , and that other nation
has a nasty habit of mistreating prisoners, am I on the hook to protect , forever,
any prisoners I take , because I dare not turn them over to my friendly nation that I'm helping protect ?

The Liberals would say yes I am , but this answer is unacceptable. It puts a huge burden on the country helping out to deal with those prisoners, to the point where I simply don't have the resources to help out in the first place. Even worse, the Liberals will promptly point out that these prisoners did nothing to us , so we have no business imprisoning them in the first place...thus if we catch anyone we should just let them go free ? Yes, that seems to be their opinion.

The Liberal opinion , by Harm Theory , is indefensible.

Harm Theory , by the way , does not look at how fair or unfair a position is , it looks at how much harm it does. The harm imposed by placing such restrictions on western soldiers, is to the point where western soldiers may only assist other western nations. Anyone else , we cannot send soldiers there at all , for any reason , without irking the liberals. And that is such a huge harm as to threaten the existance of the west and thus the existance of our vaunted liberals and their special theories on life the universe and everything else.

Forget it. The position is not defendable.
Soldiers have to go out and defend the little nations that do not share western values. And they have to be able to turn over prisoners to the "proper authorities" rather than being stuck with them forever. Even if they know the "proper authorities" are going to torture and execute them.

It's a rough world out there, but you brought this upon yourself, guys. Lets face it , if you get picked up by a western soldier , it's because you had a gun in your hand and were shooting at them. That means every single prisoner in Guatanama bay is guilty of at least attempted murder , or they wouldn't be there in the first place. And more than half of them successufully killed someone , soldier or civilian , before being picked up.

And the liberals want to just set them free. A whole flock of murderers and attempted murders who want to personally kill us westerners, and believe that torture and painful execution are a wonderful way to carry out thier plans and they love doing it to us as much as possible.

If I could weep tears of blood, I would.

(edit : this part added)
If a private citizen travels to america , and kills a few people , and then passes by a Canadian Embassy , and gets caught by a Canadian Soldier... the canadian government is not on the hook for the criminals well being. The fact that Canada has no death penalty and America does, and if the Canadians turn the prisoner over to the Americans he will certainly be executed is irrelevant. The Canadian is a visitor and was just helping out the American government. He is required to hand the prisoner over immediately. End of story.

It is the same situation in Afghanistan. We are guests helping to protect the Afghanistan government, yes we have excessive influence in their affairs because they'd collapse without us , but still we are guests, we are enforcing THEIR laws, not our own. We are required to hand over prisoners to the afghanistan government just as much as we would be required to hand them over to the american government if we were in america helping out. The fact that their laws are harsher than ours means nothing.

Now Thats Just Silly

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/24/canadian.guantanamo.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories


The U.S. military filed murder charges Tuesday against Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan and sent to the Guantanamo Bay prison in 2002.


Ok. Its an arabic name , and they picked him up in afghanistan.


Khadr, the Toronto-born son of an alleged al Qaeda financial leader, Ahmad Said al-Khadr, was captured in July 2002 after being badly wounded in a firefight near Khost, an al Qaeda hotbed in eastern Afghanistan


Ok, he wasn't sneaking around or anything , it was an out and out fire fight, soldiers shooting at soldiers, with everyone pretty much in army uniforms of one nation or another. (or as close as could be managed). No civilians about.


He is charged with throwing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, 28, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and wounded Army Sgt. Layne Morris of West Jordan, Utah.


Excuse me while I laugh at the silliness of the US position.

(ahem) .

You are , not to be too picky about it , charging an enemey soldier with murder ,for the horrible crime of FIGHTING BACK in the middle of a full blown battle.


The murder and attempted murder charges state that the acts were carried out "in violation of the law of war."


Apparently , defending your home land from US soldiers is illegal , and they now arrest the individual soldiers and prosecute them individually for this.


The wounded soldier and Speer's widow filed a civil lawsuit against Khadr and his father, who authorities believe was killed in Pakistan. In February, a judge awarded them $102.6 million


And while you are denied access to civilian courts to defend yourself , civilian courts are not denied access to you ! You can be sued ! And I bet you didn't get released from Guatuanima bay to attend those proceedings either !

And ... when all is said and done, he was 15 when this happened. And he's been in jail for 5 years now. You sued a penniless 15 year old for a hundred million dollars , in absenteism, while he was languishing in one of your own jails. Yes, I'm laughing at this as well.


Well... after due consideration , maybe it isn't as silly as you think it is. If you think about it.

I mean , who's side is he on ? Al-Queda.

Where is Al-Queda ? Ummm... no where. There's no standing government , it's a collection of private individuals with a religious cause and an opinion that anyone who disagree's with them they're gonna cut your throat , record it , and put it on the internet for all to see.

Do they have a country or anything ? No , no country counts Al-Queda as a political force inside of it, though several middle eastern countries are suspected of providing support to it.

So , how do you deal with this collection of private individuals that leave their own countries and run of to fight a war in some different country, without their own countries say so, or without that different countries invitation ?

They are "interferer's in the affairs of nations" and they get what they deserve. No nation backing them ? They're private individuals , criminals. Arrest them for their actions and sue their butts off , because they weren't following any generals orders , just their own religious notions of what is good and bad.

In this respect the US detention is incorrect in trying them in US courts. They should be tried in Iraqi or Afghanistan courts for their crimes. Both regimes of which will , of course, execute these foriegn criminals for their murderous crimes. Thats what happens when you get caught trying to overthrow a government and fail. Usually they execute you for that.

If I was the US Prez, I'd turn them all over to the countries I captured them in and let them decide their fates.

But sueing a 15 year old enemey combatant who hasn't got a dime in his pocket for a hundred million dollars , because , well , he's an enemey combatant ! I'm still laughing at that one. And charging him with murder because, well, in the middle of battle he shot at some soldiers who were probably shooting at him ... laughing at that one too !

The silliness just goes on and on.
Do we still call this a kangaroo court ? I vote to rename it a Bozo The Clown Court.

The crusade which the Blair regime has launched against the Muslim community,

Article

Really ? What crusade is this ?


...trying to justify their foreign policy through demonizing Muslims who have the fortitude to speak out.


And what exactly did this muslim who spoke out say ?


LONDON, April 24 — British counterterrorism police raided homes in two cities early this morning and arrested six men, including a particularly well-known advocate of radical Islam who once called the London bombings “praiseworthy.”


So ... some radical Iman (Muslim Cleric) said "Hurray" to the london bombings, "Do it again ! " and he got himself arrested ?

I'm not sure if your religion mentioned this to you , but killing people is a bad thing. And someone who represents your religion hopping up and down saying "Oh goodie they died ! They deserved it ! I'd of done it myself if I could !" .... well, you're not being demonized.

You're demonizing yourself.

And main stream muslims who make up the majority trying to protect this radical , is like saying "He's not a radical. Actually we all believe that way. "

Again , you're demonizing yourself.

What is a government to do when all these immigrants show up at the door saying "We're being killed in our home country ! There's no food ! If we go back they'll torture us and put us in jail ! But now that we're here we're gonna start killing you guys, thanks for letting us in. "

Probably not the message you want to be sending to your host country.

But it is the one you ARE sending.

Think about it.

Yahoo sued for informing China on dissidents

Article


"They should not be participating actively in promoting and encouraging major human-rights abuses," said Morton Sklar, executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based organization.

Yahoo has acknowledged turning over data on its users at the request of the Chinese government, saying company employees face civil and criminal sanctions if they ignore local laws.



But ... but ... we have to act like evil pricks and turn these people in so the chinese government can torture , imprison, and execute them ! Otherwise the chinese will kick us out and our profits will go down !!!

Pft !!!

Get out of china , yahoo. Let them wallow in their own filth. Businesses should be out right forbidden to do business with China at all. A communistic regime isn't even capable of feeding it's own people , let alone challenging a technological society. Let them drown in a sea of mayday red tape and bureaucracy, just like russia did.

Phony Cops : A Solution

http://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif


Police: Phony Cop Tries To Handcuff Woman At Wal-Mart

I think this headline explains the problem all by itself without the need of further detail.

They do this in Iraq with false uniforms. They do this in America with false badges, enough is enough !

And how do you solve this problem of counterfit badges ? The same way you solve the problem of counterfit money. You put some cool looking high tech hologram on it that the regular average joe can't possibly immitate , and you put the cops photo on it , maybe as a holograph , so anyone who doesn't look like him can't use it, and you put a radio tag in it , so that if he goes into a cop shop and flashes it , they just look up in the database WHERE IS OFFICER 19445 ? and if the answer is way across town and not standing before you in the cop shop , out come the guns.

Come on guys, the days of a chunk of metal that anyone can carry are over ! Photo ID and some kind of weird holograph or other special effect that the counterfiters can't counterfit are the order of the day here. We're already at the point where a guy with a knife can whittle a badge out of wood and then just paint it up with the correct paints to make it realistic. Those old badges have got to go.

And uniforms, either cop or military , its time to start putting radio tags in them too. Someone swipes them , the radio tags get used to follow them to the source. Then raid the place.

You're not Their Citizen

Article

MacKay slams China's treatment of Huseyin Celil


The Chinese have called the case an "internal affair" and have requested that Canada not interfere with the case. Beijing has refused to recognize Celil's Canadian citizenship.



This is actually an interesting question. Does a foriegn nation have the right to decide who is , and is not a member , of some other nation ? Do they have the right , for example, to decide "You're not a canadian. I don't care what the candian government says. " ?

The reverse question is equally interesting. Does Canada have the right to say "You're now a Canadian Citizen." to a chinese person , even though the Chinese government is saying "No he's not ! He's our citizen not your's !". It should be mentioned that there is the slight mitigating factor that the chinse person must make it to canada and then jump through a number of difficult rings before actually being declared a canadian , Canada does't just pick some random chinese in the middle of china and say "guess what ! You're a canadian citizen !"

The answer , in this case is "BLAHHHHH....".
The right to make your own way in life and decide your own citizen ship is part of most western nations creed, but not part of the chinese creed. And guess what ? There's no ultimate force standing over both the west and china to make final arbritation on the issue , the two sides have to come to some kind of agreement.

And they havn't.

Will they get away with ignoring Huseyin's Canadian Citizenship ?

Unqualified yes.

China is bigger than Canada, and the victem is a muslim, and it just hit the news that some muslims in Turkey killed some helpless innocent Christian's for the horrible crime of working at a bible house, to "protect their faith" ....

The world has little pity for muslims when things like this happen. Our canadian foriegn minister will make the usual noises of outrage, the Chinese will ignore them, and the issue will die.

Is this fair ?

No , the guy was visiting his family in Uzbekistan, which has an extradition treaty with China , and got picked up. His only crime to which anyone will blame him is belonging to some particular religion (muslim). He's not actually accused of doing anything but being a member.

But then , it's not particularily fair to be working at a Bible Publishing House in turkey , and five muslims come in and slit everyone's throat , even stabbing one guy so many times the coriner couldn't count how many stab wounds there were. And when they were caught they claimed they were "defending the muslim faith" from outsiders.

I can just picture both spirits of the victems rising up on the way to their respective heavens , and stopping to talk . "What are you going for ?"
"Oh , the chinese put me in prison for being a muslim , and you ?"
"Oh , a muslim decided he didn't like christians and stabbed me a hundred times."
"Nice."
"But I forgive him ! And pray he doesn't go to hell."
"I just wanted to visit family. I wasn't trying to hurt anyone."

Is this right or wrong ?

Now that , is another question in entirely. What is right and what is wrong , the answers come out different depending on weather you've lived all your life in china , or in the west. And as I said, there is no final arberter on the matter, just a bunch of squabbling politicians from each side giving each other the finger.

Post Script :
China believes it has the final moral right to decide what, ultimately , is right and wrong. And naturally enough beleives it's cause is just and right and the west are corrupt evil capitalists totally out to lunch and it's obvious to everyone in the world they should be ignored.
The west believes china is a bunch of communistic human rights violators who enjoy torturning people , stifling free speach , and generally telling people how to live their lives and shooting them if they don't agree, a practice politely known in the west as "slave keeping". Obviously a slave keeper has no moral ethics at all and their opinion on any such issues is null and void.

*sigh*

Web 2.0 : The Great Make Work Go No Where Project

Article = None ...this is my own opinion.

The Internet.
A group of Interconnected Networks, with each network owned (usually) by a private corperation out there intent on making a fast buck. A lot of these corperations are inside the United States. A lot more are outside the United states.

The United States has hired a bunch of bald guys with big brains to reconstruct the internet to better suit modern times. Security is a major concearn , along with anti-spam , and yes, letting the FBI read your private email whether you like it or not, usually not.

Does anyone see a problem with this ?

Hmm.... let me explain.

Who owns the internet ?
A bunch of private companies spread out over many many countries.

Who wants the internet changed ?
One country's standing government.

Who's gonna pay for these changes ?
A bunch of private companies spread out over many many countries.

Who gets to decide what features do and don't make it into the final product ?
On country's standing government.

Now do you see the problem with Web 2.0 ? It's one government attempting to tell other people what to do with their private property. People that they weren't elected over and people who have no say at all in what that government does, because they belong to some other country. (so much for no taxation without representation)

Love the propaganda , but everyone and the dog is gonna give them the finger and keep the old network. At most they'll make a "translation" gateway or two to communicate back and forth.

I predict the USA will force it's own citizens onto the new network by way of legislation, expecting the world will follow suit, but instead some other large block , like the European Union, will take over the running of the old network and we'll all just keep on trucking same as before. Because the world isn't going to shell out billions and billions of dollars and then tell their customers "This is to make it easier for the FBI to read your email."

Blogger Code Criticized

Article



TORONTO — A proposed code of conduct meant to establish online civility is being met with criticism as debate surges over how best to handle vitriolic incidents such as one that recently shut down a prominent blogger.

Web observers say the disturbing attack against tech writer Kathy Sierra could inspire a chill among some writers and has already fuelled a crackdown by a growing number of bloggers keen to weed out comments deemed inappropriate from their web pages.


The bloggosphere must be anonymous. The best you can do , and should do , is make sure that a particular pseudoname has a reputation behind it, much like in an online game where a charactar has been around for years and is going to guard his reputation because starting over is such a pain.

The reason the bloggosphere must be anonymous is simply because there is no world governments. There are a hundred or so governments and they don't cooperate, so anyone in the world can send anyone in the world death threats, even hire thugs for a few hundred bucks and send them after you , and never leave their home and never get in trouble for it.

The bloogosphere can only be legislated when the real world that lies underneath it is legislated and these people can no longer act with imputy simply because they're in some other country who's laws protect them from recriminations. Talk of polite manners is nice, but if some super rich sheik in saudi arabia decides you're an infidel and starts looking for people to bribe to send to your front door step and beat the will of Allah into you with baseball bats...well...it's not gonna work out too well for you.

Anonymous blogging is here to stay, for as long as there are places in the real world where rich , opinionated people can do as they please without regard of the consequences.

Ads on CNN

I was just on the CNN.COM website, and more than half the articles are videos. And I'm on FireFox , not Internet Explorer, which is annoying because the video news articles will not play on fire fox.

Oddly enough , however, the movie advertisements have no problem at all playing on fire fox. In fact, you can actually go to an archive of advertisements and they all play just fine. So does that annoying mac vs pc ad they have all over the place. In high definition and full color !

so what is the message we take away from all of this ? If you want to watch the news you MUST bow down to bill gates and the mighty Internet Explorer , but we'll advertise to any old person or browser ?

I smell a rat.

Microsoft is giving them money somewhere along the line to do this , arn't they ?

Toronto to Ottawa by Plane

Sister came down from toronto. She's getting a little old and the drive is a little long, and the plane had this great special for 59$ each way and it only takes 45 min.

Baggage inspection. All the lotions and liquids in her bag gotta go. No hand cream no shampoo , nothing. it all goes in the garbage or you dont' get on the plane. Sharp objects. She had a souvineer swiss army knife wtih her company logo on it. Wasn't even a real knife , my thumbnail is bigger than the knife is. Nope. Gotta go. What about my thumb nail ? Apparently that would be allowed. (her nails are longer than mine and they made it through customs, so I would assume ... ) New rule ! Lighters gotta be in a plastic bag. They give her a plastic bag for her lighter.

Oops. The button holding up her pants is metal. M'am, we gotta pat you down.

Finally get through customers. Look , there's a shop where you can buy lighters and shampoo and everything beyond customs, and that stuff you ARE permitted to take on the plane. It is over priced but thats life.

What they don't tell you is that on the trip back, you're not permitted to take it on the plain. You gotta toss all that stuff you bought but didn't use in your short two or three day stay here in ottawa in the trash when you go home. But look ! when you get to the other side there's ANOTHER store that will sell you replacements ! At inflated prices of course.

Sucks to be an air traveller.
Sucks to be a male air traveller with a shaving kit with shampoo, after shave, liquid soap , and (shudder) razors ! But replacements are available for a modest over price beyond customs. :)

Lot of merchants are very happy with this new deal.

Security rating of the air port is not considered much higher because anyone tries to test it they quickly find out you can easily bribe some joe blow baggage handler with a cock and bull story and a bit of cash to put any uninspected bag you like onto the baggage cart and thus the plane. And thus , in theory at least , you can still blow the plane up easy.

Welcome to post 9-11 air travel. Maybe we should take the bus next time ?

Wife Surfs on Linux

My wife was gabbing with her friends on the phone. Sitting at my desk. My computer desk. She'd gotten up for a few moments and I'd sat down , having just come from work. Switched to the Linux box, brought up firefox. Wife shoo's me away.

Then she is told something or other happened here in ottawa and how terrible it was (some idiot beating on old folks, getting arrested for it , etc) and asked me to bring up a news article so she could read it while she and her friend were talking about it. I did so ,and got shoed out again.

And so there she was, happily reading the article , following a few links, gabbing with her friend. She turned to me and asked "Why are you grinning like that ? "

"You realize you're surfing on Linux ?"
Gives me an odd look.
"never mind. Have fun. "

She can't tell the difference between Linux and windows. The buttons are all in more or less the same place, and do more or less the same thing, what am I babbling about ?

Some days , I have to wonder if she's not the one with the correct attitude , not me.

'Porn & Pancakes' fights X-rated addictions

Article


MORTON, Illinois (CNN) -- At 8 o'clock on a recent Saturday morning, more than 250 men gathered at New Life Christian Church in Morton, Illinois, for a breakfast of porn and pancakes.

The event, not as titillating as it sounds, is the brainchild of Craig Gross, founder of the online Christian ministry, XXXChurch.com. Gross concocted the idea of "Porn & Pancakes" as a way to get Christians and church officials to talk about pornography addiction.

It's a problem, he said, that is growing, among Christian communities.


Just like the christians to solve a non-problem.

People think about sex all the time. That's life. Evolution even , since people who can't keep their mind off of it tend to do it a lot and have kids, and thats what Evolution wants. It's how we're built. Live with it.

Isn't the first time christians have come down on the prudish side either. Back around world war II it was all the rage, devices were made to keep men from having an erection while they slept (electro shock if you did) things like that. Then the medical establishment came down on them and said it was all nonsense and no harm had ever been proven to come of just letting it be and not trying to control anything.

And so we're on this circle again. Or they are.

I'm not endorsing anything illegal like child porn or anything. Just pointing out that looking at a few pictures of naked ladies is hardly an "addiction", it's perfectly normal. Despite what the religious types might think.

Virtual feds visit Second Life casinos

Article


NEW YORK (Reuters) -- FBI investigators have visited Second Life's Internet casinos at the invitation of the virtual world's creator Linden Lab, but the U.S. government has not decided on the legality of virtual gambling.


I'm ... speachless. Thunderstruck even.

Second Life is like a giant online game with thousands of users. Except there's no "game" , you all sit around and chat. And write program code, and create virtual objects. Think of it like playing world of warcraft , except instead of going out and slaying monsters , you stay in the city and just chat.

Second life does let yuo make objects , and attach program code to them.

This is the part that renders me speachless. Why ? Because if you were to make such a casino , everything is program code. And that means it's dirt easy to cheat and make sure the house always wins, the slot machine always lets you win when you're testing it but always takes your money when you do it for real , etc etc.

Basically , you're an idiot of you use a "computer" slot machine instead of a mechanical one.

And they're gambling in there ? With real cash ? Gambling against some programmer using HIS program and trusting him not to cheat ?

The gullibility of some people just boggles my mind.
You do understand that online gambling has in fact been kicked out of north america and is forced to operate only off shore sites because they constantly cheat and rip people off even as it is ?

Online gambling should be barred entirely , ESPECIALLY in a virtual world like Second Life, because you can't even trust these yahoo's in the real world with real cards and real slot machines. Now you want to give them the ability to program rigged decks of cards and slot machines that do anything they like and bet real money on it ? Forget it , you're an idiot for stepping into such a place.

I'm just ... flabbergasted that you would even consider giving these jokers a single penny. Of course shut them down. Absolutely.

Ubuntu Crash

Article = None , this is my own opinion, or in this case experience.

You know, that Fire fox for unix ? It's running a little slow. I don't know , maybe because the old clunker I'm running it on only has a 1GHz clock cpu in it , compared to my much maligned windows machine's 2.5GHz clock , but I'm gonna try Opera.

www.opera.com

The site immediately recognized that I was on Linux. The button said press here to download Opera for Linux.

Press button. Amazing, it downloads and installs and only ask's for my password once. And Opera is up and running. An easier installation I have never seen. Not even on windows.

Hmm... opera doesn't have flash. Try the flash site. It recognizes that I have Linux , and only wants to install flash for fire fox. Flash for Opera On Linux is not a supported operation.

30 min of hitting the message forums and looking things up and delving deep into the arcane and obscure linux commands, I discover that if you install flash for Fire fox opera will simply steal it from fire fox and you're all set. So , with great pain and suffering , I do that.

And it works. On fire fox. Not opera. Oh , there's an icon on the top right saying I need to reboot. So I reboot.

And down she goes.

And Up she does not go. Error message, my X-Windows server has failed. (thats the thing that draws all the pretty icons and menu's and stuff for you to run linux like it was a windows machine). Reconfigure your graphics card and try again. Reboot , same deal.

Most users would throw in the towel at this point. But the only thought that crossed my mind was "I always wanted to reinstall Linux. Bet I could do a much better job this time around. "

Reach for the LiveCD for Ubuntu.

11:00 pm , insert CD begin reinstall.
Hmmm... when it looks for your time zone , apparently Ottawa Ontario doesn't exist.
Montreal does and it's only two hours away and in the time zone, I use that.
11:25 pm ... finish installing linux, take the cd out , boot into it normally.

Do a search on EasyUbuntu , and download and install it. This is a utility that installs the most common patches and upgrades that everyone wants. Things like making your DVD , actually play DVD's ! And the music player play MP3's , etc. Careful if you're in the USA apparently this violates all sorts of bizzare copy rights down there and they'll cart you off to jail.

And EasyUbunto isn't glitch free either. The list goes on and on , off the bottom of the page, of packages it wants to install. And the buttons for you to enter your password and say ok are at the bottom of the page of course.

Started doing it in pieces, then I realized that I could simply hit any package name , hit TAB and it would put me in the password field. Enter the password, hit enter (even though you can't see the password field) and off it goes.

12:10 am Installation complete.

1hour 10 minutes for a total reformat and reinstall. Beats the plick out of Windows.
And reboot time is 1 min 20 seconds, and that includes 7 seconds for me to enter my user id and password, from the off on switch to the desk top where you may start your work.

Will EMI unlock music revolution?

Article


More DRM nonsense.

DRM = digital rights management. For music.

Here's the deal. Download music from iApple, pay a bit. it only plays on their iPods , no other device. users are locked in.

Apple has "over solved" the problem. They not only prevented cheating and illegal copying, but they established a monopoly whereby their store is the only music store allowed on line, and their ipod is the only music device allowed offline. Everyone else is locked out.

Customers are still screaming about this "solution" to the problem of illegal copying of tunes.

Just the same as this iRiver device I have hanging around my neck to play my tunes ? it "over solved" the problem of downloading music to it by only working when connecting to a winxp machine. No other operating system is acceptable. I'm still screaming about that , yes, and I will never buy another and obviously recoomend everyone stay away from these iRiver devices.

You know , all of these copying problems would go away very easily if you simply modified the mp3 players everyone has ? Allow them to receive songs, but not upload them again. (Also allow them to erase songs , obviously). Thus they can no longer be used to copy songs from one computer to another. They can play , they can erase, thats it.

Nope, not gonna happen.

Microsoft's take on the Digital Rights Management is to invent a special microsoft only format for this stuff, and it only works on windows machines, locking apple and linux and everyone else out. And no , they're not going to sell the rights to apple to immitate it , they want to drown apple and say "you can't do that. Ever. Get a windows machine instead." backed up with a platoon of lawyers. Yeah , we're screaming about that too.

These people arn't interested in solving the DRM issue. There must be a dozen different ways to come to a reasonable accomidation , but thats not what they're interested in. They're interested only in taking you the consumer for a ride.

The Evil ZDNet

One of the articles on ZDNet I found to be somewhat annoying , so I went to reply to it.

Have to register. Please provide first and last name , email address , street ,state postal code (these are required fields , not allowed to skip) and pick at least 4 of these magazines that we will spam you to death with every day , then you can post a reply to our articles. You think I jest ? Try it sometime.

I decided not to bother.

Place is nothing but a gathering joint for emails so they can spam you to death with junk mail.

Article


How, then, to effect a trade wherein Microsoft agrees not to sue users of Linux in return for a reciprocal agreement from patent-owning companies that might own IP relevent to Microsoft software?


Sue us. Sue us for daring to write software and give it away ?
This is called a spurious legal suit, you can sue microsoft for suing you.

How about you stand up to bat and say THIS IS MY SOFTWARE I'LL GIVE IT THE HECK AWAY TO ANYONE I LIKE AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT YOU CAN SIT ON IT AND ROTATE ?

If you cave in to microsoft and agree that you're not allowed to write free software without permission , you might as well kiss it goodbye, because everyone and the dog will now sue you simply because you're an easy target.

Stand up and take it like a man. It's your ownly choice.

Never Erase an Email Again

I heard recently that Yahoo is offering unlimited email storage. You need never erase an email again.

You talk like this is a good thing.

Considering the cops supena organizations like yahoo and google to take their records and use them in court, one can imagine the mountain of circumstantial evidence that could be amassed on almost anyone , to accuse them of almost anything. A good lawyer can turn a simple "you were in the same park at the same day at the same time as the crime happened" into a conviction. "he was the only one there ! By his own words he admits he saw no one else he was alone" ((david milguard got 11 years by this kind of reasoning until DNA testing showed him innocent))

And the cops are nothing. At least they have a set of rules they have to follow. Your employer doesn't. Log onto email at work once, your boss swipes your password (It's his computer at work , not yours ! He can monitor you perfectly legally ! ) and guess what ? He's in like flynn reading anything he wants, and if you want to keep your job then you stay quiet even if you find out about it.

This electronic age is a security dream if you're a cop. The average citizen , it's another matter.

My advice is that you're emails should be pretty paired down. "Meet you at my house at 5pm" or some such. You don't need your boss reading your girlfriends love letters, or some such do you ?

(edit)
And if you want to express yourself online, do what I do . Make up a fake name and start a blog under it. And becareful not to include anything that can trace you back to work , because you gotta know , sooner or later you're gonna show your blog to someone at work, and they're gonna read the whole thing, and "you said that about me ? In public ???" Let work issues lie until you're retired and it's too late for them to do anything.

:)

Piracy : It's illegal but we're big business so we'll make it legal

Analysts, legal eagles dissect new GPLv3 draft

ACT executive director Morgan Reed who said, "The newest draft of the GPLv3 is clearly designed to build unscalable walls between open source and proprietary software. The rest of the world has decided to make software more interoperable, but Stallman and the FSF are focused on ideology rather than the practical concerns of users."


Wishy washy , what are you talking about , specifically ? And whats wrong with ideology. If the makers of the item in question want to push an ideological point of view, well , it's their property what can I tell you ? Looks like they get to push.


"The new draft seeks to increase restrictions on the use of GPL software used in consumer products that employ technical means to prohibit further modification by consumers. In essence, the drafters are seeking to ensure that if businesses choose to employ GPL software in a device, the businesses cannot then technologically 'lock' that device up and prohibit users from further modifying it -- it seeks to guarantee that if a device uses GPL software the consumer will be permitted to 'pop open the hood and tinker with the engine.'"


Ah , embedded Linux. Now we have something to talk about.

So you take a copy of linux, put it in your TV tuner to run it, and sell copies all over the place. For a profit. But ... the guys who made linux in the first place had no intention of you making a profit. It's only supposed to be used for free. The makers of the device , of course, are worried that you will in fact "pop open the hood" and remove any payment restrictions so that people , in this case the TV scenario , get their TV for free. A valid restriction if it was your property. But it isn't.

Congradulations, Mr TV Company , you have just committed piracy. You've taken someone elses work and used it for something they disaprove of. And since you're a big business with lots of lawyers and stuff , you're gonna make it legal to do this.

And when the linux guys change the copy right (copy left as they like to call it) scheme to forbid this , you start crying foul ! This is interfering with your profits !

(edit)
One of the most interesting aspects of this situation is that the various Linux programmers who make this software seem to have no voice. Since they are giving it away for free, they have no money to pay for lawyers to fight this battle.

But then again , they do have the ability to stop writing code and giving it away. They do have the ability to change the "copy left" terms that they release it under, so that any new stuff they write comes under a more restrictive scheme to prevent such Business Piracy (thus is born the GPLv3, etc). There's not much room for argument here. You can whine and complain all you want, but in the end it's simply not your property.

If I was a Linux Programmer, and I saw my work that I intended to be given away for free, buried deep in somone's TV Tuner, with their brand name on it and everything , and not a hint that my stuff was even there, and they were making a nice profit off of it , how would I feel ?

Not supposed to be making profits off of linux. Sorry. Write your own control software for your TV box and quit being a Pirate.

British Sailors Kidnapped by Iran

15 British sailors looking for contraband, kidnapped by Iran.
Iran claims they were in Iranian waters, but the Brits say
otherwise.

Who's telling the truth ?

The Iranians couldn't tell the truth if their lives depended on it. Already they have tortured the prisoners into confessing anything they want. They're not even trying to make it look like the prisoners words anymore they're openly dictating statements for the prisoners to read.

Needless to say , I don't much believe the Iranians.

Plus, the Iranian President is more concearned with his holy book than with the real world, or he wouldn't be trying to make nukes.

The British Problem is simple.
These people were kidnapped in Iraqi waters.

If you permit this , if you actually bow down to the kidnappers or give in to any demands, tommorow they'll kidnap someone else.

The philipino people found this out when , after much outcry , their government finally relented and paid the ransom on a single kidnapped truck driver. The very next day , guess what ? another truck driver got kidnapped ! Wow, what an amazing thing !

The really big problems the Brits face , however, is that the Iranian President is a religious fanatic who's been siding with the Muslim Iman's and removing any non religous people from the government. People who look to god (any god, not pointing any fingers here) generally seem to be of the opinon that God will protect them and they can do anything they want without consequences.

Rather like that true believer who stepped into the lion's den because he believed god would protect him. Only to find out god loves the lions too, and once in a while throws them a snack, thanks for volinteering.

With a religous fanatic in office in Iran , the odds of a peaceful solution are zippo. He's gonna try and use those hostages to get himself some nukes and toss a few either at Israel or the US or both. (You have to use up your nukes if you're a little power , by the way. They tend to decay over time and become useless very quuickly ... so if you're only ever gonna get a bit of uranium and then never again , you can't threaten with it ,you have to use it before it's gone)

I totally agree. The British should pull their troops out of Iraq.
And send them all to Iran.

The Business Case for WinVista

I am a computer tech.

It looks good on my resume if I can say I built my home computer system from scratch and it works great.

WinVista off the Shelf : $200US
- this is the NEW copy , not an upgrade that eats up your winxp
- upgrades cost 99$ and require you to already have xp, which makes it
useless since you're putting it on a new machine not your old clunker

WinVista for Dell and friends : $50
- yeah , they get a massive discount
- and this is for a NEW machine ,not upgrading an old.

Linux Ubuntu (or other Linux) : Free


But it goes on.
If you buy a computer from Dell , it comes with all sorts of preinstalled software, like Symantec or Macafee. If you want to get rid of these anti-virus programs, you have to phone those companies and PAY to find out how to remove them. Pay , hard cash , to get rid of something you didn't want in the first place. (You don't want it because every Internet Provider now adays gives away a free copy of an anti-virus, so why would you pay for something you're getting for no charge ? )

Oh , failure to remove norton or Mcafee means it locks down your system and prevents you from surfing at the end of the trial period. In short, out and out extortion. I'm sure they've done something , bribed someone , so it's legal in the us for them to do this , but I'm gonna call a spade a spade. It's extortion.

You also have to uninstall a wack of "free 90 day trial software have your credit card ready when it expires" which is annoying.

Linux runs great on your old clunker. (I priced a replacement of my old clunker , which is currently running Ubuntu 61 , at 239$ Cnd)

What do I use my machine for ? As a computer tech I build it , and get it going ... then I just play games.

Hmmm.... 1500$ for a dell computer that just plays games.
239$ for an old clunker , +200$ for a game box of some kind, and I get to say I built my own computer and still play lots of games.

Not looking good for WinVista. Not looking good at all.

Symantec Rant

Article


He said various malware groups may be co-operating with each other and becoming more effective — something that the security industry should emulate or risk losing customers who have lost faith in their ability to defend themselves.

"If the whole industry looks bad or is not able to keep up, it will hurt everybody," Nguyen said. "There's got to be some kind of paradigm shift so vendors can keep up with the game."


This is an interesting statement made by a symantic representative. One has to wonder why did you say this ? Do you know something we don't ? You're not worried about fixing the problem forever ,you're worried about simply keeping up.

I took a call at work from a custumer yesterday from a customer on internet explorer 7 , puportedly the safest browser on the market, according to Microsoft.
It was loaded with "add ons" that produced massive pop ups , tracked his movements , the whole nine yards. It was so bloated and slow he could barely surf the internet. We disabled the add ons and went to getfirefox.com and got him a firefox browser, and suddenly he was surfing quickly and there were no pop ups anymore.

Personal experience tells me internet explorer 7 is a malware disaster waiting to happen. I don't know why this is , both Firefox and Opera are able to surf the internet without allowing third party web sites to upload additions to themselves without so much as a warning box to tell you your browser has now been altered for some advertisers benifit and your detriment. Why this is impossible for Microsoft I don't know , but apparently it is. win95 came out in ... 1995 , surprise surprise. It's 2007, 12 years later. This simple issue has not been fixed, and is looking like it will never be fixed. And because of it , if you do any kind of online banking or work from home through a vpn or anything secure at all on internet explorer, you are an idiot. And you can bet your credit card number and any company secrets will soon be stolen.

And symantec's contribution to all of this ? Make up FUD's (Fear, Uncertainty , Distrust) about any alternatives to try and keep you from switching away from IE7. Because quite frankly , if you don't use the IE , you don't need their services, and thats bankruptcy for them.

And if you're on Linux , you're really laughing at them.

An American War Vet

Yesterday was a slow day at work , so I had lots of time to talk with the guy next to me. I won't give his name , but he was swedish, and he'd moved to canada because his wife spoke lousy swedish and he spoke good english and she was having such a hard time there ... etcet cet.

With a short pit stop in America.

Apparently he worked for the pentagon , setting up computers and networks and the like. In afghanistan no less. Or he did , for a while.

Took a bullet in the chest. Wound up in the hospital.

Luckily he was insured because there is no free healthcare in america.
Unfortunately , his insurance company informed him he was costing them too much money , so they were cutting him off. Goodbye, we don't want you as a customer anymore etc etc. And of course, every other insurance company has this clause called "pre-existing medical condition" so they won't pay for his treatment for his injuries either.

Hello $800 000 US hospital bill (metal plate in his chest and an artificial heart).

His Lawyer in bankruptcy in america sympathized with him , informing him that every single person in america who isn't a billionaire will lose their entire lifes worth to the american heatlh care system at some time or other in their lives.

Declared bankruptcy, packed up his bags , moved to canada , and thats how he happened to be sitting in the chair next to me up here in Ottawa. (His wife is a Canadian citizen)

Apparently the American Government is quick to let anyone into their military, but not so quick to pay up if they get injured. And it is a soldiers job to stand in harms way and get injured.

Rip off !

Free Medical..The American Way !

Article


TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - An 82-year-old man who was caught trying to smuggle 170 pounds of cocaine into the country from Mexico has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's office announced Tuesday.



Hello. My name is Bob. I'm 82 years old. I have a heart condition , my kidneys are failing, I have arthritis, and I can barely drive my car. My pension doesn't cover rent and I have to hit the food bank twice a week and soon I won't be able to drive ?

I know.

I will smuggle drugs.
They will put me in jail for the rest of my life.
AND ....
they will pay all my medical bills and living expenses.

And I'll just sit in my little jail cell , reading books , watching TV, enjoying the free medical.

It's the American way !

AOL takes AIM at location of message 'buddies'

Article = http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/03/19/tech-im.html



AOL is offering users of its AIM instant messaging service new
capabilites to see where people on their buddy lists are physically
located

Thats nice how do you do it ?


The Skyhook system was developed through a seemingly oddball,
laborious process: Skyhook spent the past few years driving a fleet of
200 trucks up and down the streets of 2,500 cities and towns across
the United States and Canada.

These trucks scan for the pulse given off at least once a second by
every home wireless router or commercial hotspot, recording the unique
identifying code for that piece of Wi-Fi equipment. That code is
correlated with the exact physical location where it was captured
using GPS in the trucks, which cruise the streets at up to 80 km/h as
they collect the information


Let me get this straight. You made a map of every router and hub in
the us and canada , and can now track people by what router they're on
?

Did you get permission of these people to use their PRIVATELY OWNED
routers in your system ? No , you just drove down the road at 80 miles
an hour grabbing your info.

My mind is boggling here at the abuse such a map can be put to. One
over eager cop getting a supena , one router I used to run for years
but then last month I gave it to my brother five miles away because I
bought a brand new one, ... when did my own personal equipment start
working for AOL free of charge anyways ?

'Parasites' find a champion

Article


Try as we might, it seems we can't escape the idea that bloggers are parasites. We certainly don't like the notion since we count ourselves among the ranks of those seeking out new...

What is a blogger ?

A blogger is someone who writes a blog. A blog full of things you personally find interesting. And you write it (hopefully) in an intereseting way.

A blog is "Content", that is to say , it is the reason you got on the internet in the first place. You want to read the news, the news is "content" the ads around the news filling the same page are just ads that pay to have the web site up. You want to read so and so's blog , so you put up with the ad's on it to read because you always think he has something interesting to say. Or at least amusing.

To call any form of "content" a parasite is to simply be mis-informed. Or to be "The competition". If you are a news reporter , for example, and the bloggers are always getting there first and making you look bad ... well thats the way life goes.

I suppose you might make a case that my blog is a parasite, since I comment on news stories. But it would be a poor case. I quote only a small part of the article and put a linke back to the original , and then give my own opinion on the matter, which is usually different than what the article is saying.

Such as a reporter puts an article up in the news paper , and the next day you send the newspaper a letter quoting part of it and stating you totally disagree this is why etc etc...

Newspapers are parasites.
Why ?
Because they have to make most of their money from advertising. And guess what ? Leon's pays a lot of money to you for ad's , and suddenly you find dirt on them , and if you run the article you lose this well paying customer ? You are corrupted from the get go. You are Pro-Business, especially any business that buys ad space off of you, and you claim to be neutril.

Money talks. And the newspapers rake it in.
But the blogger gets not a penny , he's in it for the fun. He's the only true "unslanted" writer out there.

Parasite indeed.
Accusations from the grave, from a dying industry that knows it's end is coming.

Transcript: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confesses 9/11 role

Article


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, admitted to those attacks and numerous others during a U.S. military hearing on Saturday, according to an edited transcript of the hearing released by the Pentagon Wednesday.

In a statement from him, read by a U.S. military representative, he said, "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z."


Confessing to it all ,eh ? After what , only 6 years of imprisonment and , how did they call it , not torture , but ... stress positions and strong questioning. Yes, thats it. Strong Questioning.


The 14 detainees (of which Khalid is one) have been given military advisers but they are offering no legal assistance. Detainees are also given only an unclassified summary of the evidence against them but are allowed to have witnesses called in from out of the country to testify in their favor.


How nice. Someone to babysit you. Doesn't give you legal advice though. What does he do ? Not much, it seems.


The ultimate farce of this farcical trial is surprisingly simple.
These people were caught with a gun in their hands shooting at western soldiers when they were picked up and put in this camp. They openly don't like us westerners (they were shooting at us , trying to kill us) and are pretty much our enemies for ever and not much is going to change that.

That being said, do you think this guy did it ?

6 years of torture. Anyone would agree to anything after that. That you're starting with someone who hates us and would love to have done it only makes it easier to extract such a false confession from him.

These guys hate us and I really don't care that they're being tortured. Too bad you picked the wrong side better you dead than me.

but I can't help but notice torture is such a lousy way to collect information. Too many false confessions, too much "Stop the pain I'll confess I'll say anything anything at all !!!!!"

I don't believe a word this guy says.

Kudo's for torturing him though. He deserves it. They're gonna cut the heads off our soldiers ? Turn about is fair play.

You are Sh**ing me !

This article apeared on my google home page.

Article.

How to Pick a Lock

Locked out of your house in the middle of the night? Lost the key to the padlock on the shed? Before you pay a locksmith to let you in, consider picking the lock yourself. Most locks around the home or office are simple pin-and-tumbler locks and can be relatively easily opened using a pick and tension wrench, both of which can be improvised from common household items. While the process is simple and can be mastered with practice, picking such a lock requires a great deal of patience. If you’ve got some spare time and enjoy a challenge, though, why not give it a try?

You have got to be kidding me ! but no , they mean it. It's ... pretty detailed.
Maybe it's time to rethink this whole internet thing.

The Linux / WinVista Paradox

WinXP is behind us. Each copy locks to one computer.

WinVista lies ahead of us. It also locks each copy to one computer.

Windows 3.1 is a long ago dream. It ran my programs. My spread sheets, my word processors. Why did I have to upgrade in the first place ? Oh yes, it wouldn't run on the new hard ware. And why did I have to upgrade to the new hardware ? Becaus they don't sell the old stuff anymore and my computer broke.

did this new hardware give you anything you didn't have before ?

Maybe a faster modem , then later high speed, if you count the jump from no network card to network card standard. Maybe prettier games if you're a gamer. But really , no. My old win31 laptop runs a spreadsheet and word processor that does everything the modern stuff does, and it's 20+ years old.

You have four computers in your house. They want $200 a smack to upgrade to Vista.

Not happening.

They'll break eventually. You'll have to buy vista. It will be bundled. Just look at the dell site, your choice of operating systems is vista and vista alone.

I'll build a custom machine.

Need a copy of windows. A full version since you're not upgrading. Thats $400 smackers. And you can't borrow someone elses because they're all tied to one machine per copy. Just like XP.

I'll go Linux.

Linux won't run your games.

One purchased machine , cheap as I can get. The rest go Linux.

Sounds like a plan.

this is stupid. I don't NEED a new operating system. The old one works fine. I swear Bill Gates sabatages the old ones with those nightly updates as soon as a new one comes out , trying to get you to upgrade.

He probably does. I'm sure he found some way to do that legally without getting sue'd.

Linux Not Ready For Main Stream

No Article : This is my opinion

There's been a lot of talk on the linux news sites lately about linux going main stream , Dell making certain promises, then that Dell has done this before and backed out.

Economically , Dell gets a lot of money from Microsoft and various security and office package companies. All those 30 day trials you see on your desk top on a new computer ? Those company's actually pay , hard cash , for that stuff to be loaded there, thus lowering the price of the computer. Since a Linux box would not have such things on it , it would actually cost more, meanwhile people are expecting it to cost less. That means $NOSALE$ for the company providing linux boxes.

Add to the fact that you cannot make money off of Linux, you cannot really sell something to a linux user it violates the copy right, and Linux has put itself in a niche. An important niche, and a niche I think has a good number of useful possibilities, but it's not going to be able to climb out.

Linux is a techies hobby operating system. And will remain so. You can't go main stream with it, there are too many installation problems with hardware. You could use it in an office , type memo's, spread sheets , run the file and mail servers , no problem (Print server is iffy , going to be a hard ware problem). But if you plan on writing software to sell , you gotta put those programmers on windows machines and give them windows compilers. Copyrigth restrictions force it.
Basically , Linux could be your main infrastructure, but it cannot be part of your value added stream. Any value you add to a linux product you can only give away you cannot sell, and thats not acceptable to most managers.
For private use Linux isn't exactly a game box, you will have to maintain either a second machine or a game box of some kind for that. But if you've ever had a hankering to run a server of some kind, either mail , message, chat , or even a game server (Never Winter Nights has a server version that runs on Linux they give away for free, of course if you want to actually PLAY the game , you need the windows client , which is not free...) Linux is the way to go.

For grama who just checks email and surfs a bit, grandson the computer tech has to set it up for her, and that ties you to visiting her once a week , if you're not prepared to do that get her a windows machine.

Linux is great for techies. But I deal with the average user all day long at work. Thats just not going to work out. Maybe... maybe one specific brand of linux, with one specific desk top, on one specific configuration of hardware with very very few options ... and a restore disk for when they mess it all up...maybe ...

but that would be asking a lot of them.

Internet Radio on Death Row

Article


You might ask, Why is music on Internet radio framed as "public performances"? Well, when the recording industry (that is, the RIAA) saw the Internet coming along in the mid-1990s, they knew it would open infinite opportunities for radio, which had previously been confined to the AM and FM bands. So they took advantage of the opportunity to do with Internet radio what they couldn't do with terrestrial over-the-air analog radio: charge fees for every "performance" for every listener. They also saw in digital broadcasting an advantage that analog broadcasting never had: accountability -- at any level of granularity. If they could create a regulatory regime around charging per-recording/per-listener fees, one of two things would happen: A) They would obtain a revenue stream from the new online radio business; or B) the online radio business would fail and its threat to the status quo would be squashed.



I don't understand.

The songs you're playing , and making a profit on , they're not you're songs. These radio stations just popped up as "pirate" stations , making a buck off other peoples art work , and you now treat them as if they were some kind of legitimate business. Does a single penny go back to the artist who's songs are being played ? No ?

Piracy. It's all rampant piracy. Shut it down.

Anger over Iraq follows Bush overseas

Article



The negative reaction President Bush got Thursday in Brazil at the start of a weeklong visit to the region doesn't surprise experts in Latin American affairs. "There is an enormous rejection of U.S. foreign policy in the world," one said. Bush's arrival in Sao Paulo was preceded by street marches and clashes between protesters and police.


Did you know Bush came to Ottawa once ? And there were similar protests and riots against him ?

But the protesters were all foriegners, shipped in by god only knows who, most of them didn't speak english, and they made ottawa look like some kind of violent unwholesome pigstye. On world news. For all the camera's to see.

But funny , no one ever mentions the protesters were all forieners. Someone , maybe lots of someones, has found a convenient way to make the US president look like the most hated person since satan himself. Now , I may , or may not much like his policies, but this is stretching it. Now we're into outright fabrications that not only make Bush look bad , but start making the host nations look bad as well.

And it's all a fabrication on top of it all ,they're not even real protestors. Or they're the same protestors over and over and over ... you get the idea.

It sucks.

Life of a Linux Virus

Ok. This is virus security on a Linux System.

My name is Bob. I'm the system administrator. I own this linux box, and I do as I please on it.

I log on as 'Bob' , not root. When I have to do something that only the root user (the super user) needs to do, I use the sudo command. That is to say sudo and that one command only is run as the root user, the super user.

Ok. Now my name is vincent. I'm a virus. Bob was surfing the net for porn on some brand new browser a friend told him to install. The browser itself is not a trojen or hostile peice of software, it's intentions are honest, but it has a few holes in it my writer was able to exploit. So I got into Bob's System.

I'm looking around. I see the system files. I attack them.

Access denied.

Bob is surfing the net as a normal user, he never logs in as root. When he (accidently , unknowningly) let me in, I got only normal user privilidges. I don't have access to the operating system. I can't modify linux.

Oh look ...some office applications, a word processor a game ... access denied. These programs were installed with the sudo command, so they belong to root. Again I don't have access.
Well, ok , I'm going to issue a Sudo command.

Bob now see's a really annoying pop up window apear before him asking him for his password. Since he's surfing porn , he's pretty suspicious of those sites, and instead hits cancel and shuts down the browser.

The operating system goes through the list of all programs the browser launched, finds vincent on the list , and shuts vincent down too. It also looks for any programs vincent may have started , but finds none.

Bob shakes his head at the untrustworthiness of his new browser, daring to ask for his linux password like that , and uninstalls it.

The moral of this story ?

Linux is alien territory to the average windows user. It's unfriendliness to unexpected executables popping in out of the blue and deciding they want to change things around is out right legendary. It's belief in keeping people in little sandboxes so that they can hurt only themselves and no one else, certainly not the operating system or any equilly protected standard programs you yourself didn't actually write puts a serious crimp in the style of a virus writer.

Do viruses (I'm still debating whether it's viruses or virii ) exist in the Linux world ?
A few yes.

But they go no where. Like taking a match to try and burn fire proof material, there is a flame , but it is on the match only , it doesn't light off anything, it doesn't propegate to the next computer, it doesn't go anywhere. The structure of Linux and the security mentality found in every beginners book on learning it make that an active concearn. So not only is the structure highly resistant to the fire of a virus attack , but the newly taught linux administraters who downloaded it and are just learning the ropes learn to worry about such things right from the get go.

The Symantec Scam

No Article, this is my opinion.

Lets take your average computer. It has a really large piece of software on it, called the Operating System. Now maybe thats Windows, or ...well..this actually only applies to windows... so we'll say you have Windows of some kind.

This Operating System , this Windows, has a couple of hundred files it needs in order to do its work.

Lets take your average virus writer. He's smart. He's knowledgable. He knows about windows . He knows that if he writes a virus to infect , say notepad , most people can do very nicely without notepad. It's such a tiny application , and most people have entire word processors or office packages on their system they never use it anyways. Infecting Notepad is pointless.

He knows that if he infects , say , the Internet Explorer, most everyone uses that (80% of all computer users, according to last survey). And he knows how a virus scanner / cleaner works.

He knows that a virus cleaner does not actually "clean" an infected file of a virus. It simply deletes the infected file (either putting it away in a virus vault, or outright deleting it...either way the file is no longer available for use). And he knows which files to infect such that if you were to "clean" the internet explorer, the absence of this file would cause it to suddenly work very poorly , or even simply stop working at all. He's now laughing at your feeble attempts to battle him. He's fourteen years old and this is fun.

Lets look at your average anti-virus company. Symantec (they make the norton anti virus product). They try to stop you from getting infected , it is true, because they know that , once you are infected there is no hope for you , you should reformat.
But the customers insist on trying.
So they will run their virus cleaner, which will do more harm than the actual virus did , explaining to the customer they're doing this at their own risk. And when everything breaks , the customer will try another virus scanner, shelling out another 50$ or more , and it will break even more things trying to "clean" the virus, because the customer doesn't understand that in the anti-virus world "clean" means "randomly erase files no matter how much damage it does, if you even suspect it might have a virus in it" And so eventually the Operating System (windows) crashes and won't boot anymore. And so you take it to a computer technician who reformats it all , and reinstalls windows from a clean disk , and charges you another 50$ and sends you on your way.
And then your girlfriend insists she must be able to go to her online gaming site because it's her favorite, despite the fact that it's most likely the place where you caught the virus in the first place, but she doesn't care thats your problem.
And two minutes after you get the computer home it's infected again.

I call this the Symantec scam for two reasons.

The only real path a virus has to get to your system is the Internet Explorer. If you're even halfway careful with your email , never running any programs friends send you etc, you'll never catch an email virus.

"Cleaning" is useless. You're doing more damage than the virus. The virus writers deliberately arrange it this way. But you don't tell the customers this. You just take their money , fail to explain what "cleaning" really means, and then tell them it was all at their own risk , don't blame them the virus writers are always coming up with new stuff.

The correct solution to a virus infection is to disconnect from the internet , back up your data files (the word processor documents you wrote, not the actual word processor, for example) to a cd writer , and then reformat and reinstall the operating system. Then all your programs. This is four to six hours work.
Or you can endure the Symantec Scam , waste days of time and potentially a few hundred dollars, and then do it anyways when it all comes to naught. ( or shell out even more money to have someone do it for you because you're now too tired)

"I can help you ! maybe ! Trust me ! I'm your only hope ! You do understand this is at your own risk ,right ? "

It's a scam.

Brother Bob's Heart Attack

Met Brother Bob (not his real name) at the bus stop , he was heading for the hospital, the other day for tests. His first complaint was he couldn't walk far and couldn't stand up for a long time.

Hmm... those are MY symptoms. You don't think I had a heart attack when no one was looking, do you ? And no one found any traces because it happened too long before they started looking for it that all traces were gone ?

So ... how do you recover from a heart attack anyways ?

Avoid temperature extremes, and gentle exercise. And you should be able to work your way back up to normal health in 6 months or less (according to some texas hospital or university website)

Hmph ! That doesn't help me. I've been doing that already for the longest time.

Has it been six months yet ? I forgot when this all started ...it all seems like forever....like I've always been sick , like the time before when I was "normal" was just a dream...

This is bad. maybe I'll go take a walk or something.

My Grandma Can Run Ubuntu

Is GNU/Linux for you? Probably not

Can Your Grandmother install Windows onto her machine without help ?

Not likely , no.

Can your grandmother install Ubuntu onto her machine without help ?

Not likely , no.

Can your Grandmother install a word processor onto her Windows machine without help ?

Not likely , no.

Can your Grandmother install a word processor onto her Ubuntu machine without help ?


Meaningless question. OpenOffice is already installed as part of Ubuntu, and never expires. (Not a "30 day trial have your credit card ready" thing)

Can your mother use a word processor if it's already installed in windows?

Yes (if she can type).

Can your mother use a word processor if it's already installed in Ubuntu ?

Yes (if she can type).

Can your grandmother surf the internet on windows ?

Yes.

Can your grandmother surf the internet on Ubuntu ?

Yes.

She just got a weird Windows Pop up saying "You have been infected with a virus ! Download and run this software NOW to clean it !" , she did , and now her computer is infected and acting really funny.

Call a PC tech. Reformat the computer. Lose all data. Start over.

She just got a weird Ubuntu Pop up saying "You have been infected with a virus ! Download and run this software NOW to clean it !" , she did , and now her computer is infected and acting really funny.

Now you're being silly. That doesn't happen to Linux systems.

Her Windows Browser just changed it's web page to some sales site, installed a toolbar to help her search , and now she can't go to any of her favorite web sites anymore all it brings up is advertising no matter what she tries.

Aside from the obvious you have a parasite, your problem is deeper than that. parasites no longer travel alone , they travel in packs, and they look for your credit card number, change your connection to dial up , all sorts of nasty tricks. The most efficient solution is to simply reformat and reinstall the operating system on the spot.


Her Ubuntu Browser just changed it's web page to some sales site, installed a toolbar to help her search , and now she can't go to any of her favorite web sites anymore all it brings up is advertising no matter what she tries.

You're making fun of me again. That doesn't happen in Linux.


To recap : The biggest handicap Linux seems to have , is that you are forced to install it yourself, no one pre-installs it on a brand new machine (at least not yet). Once it's installed and patched, it's just as easy to use as windows, and a lot less susceptable to "hostile interference" (virii and trojens and all that other nasty mal-ware)

Fold Away Keyboards (palm tops)

Another fold away keyboard , the article trying to sell it to you as a cool gadget is here , and I recommend you NOT get it ! Why ?

I had a palmtop once , before my sister traded it for an old lap top. (I say my sister, not my sister and I , because apparently this trade happened despite my protests to the contrary, relatives can be like that sometimes) and I bought a fold up keyboard that worked through the infrared port on it.

The thing worked , mechanically, as advertised. This did not change the fact that you were staring at a 2" x 3" screen that is horrible on your eyes and only barely adequate for one or two minutes at a time. Any attempt to use it for longer than that and your eyes start killing you.

You can see the pic above i swiped from the site how big the screen is compared to the keyboard, and that keyboard is actually smaller than the one your typing on now , if you're on a regular desk top computer.

The keyboard and others like it work great !
You can't stare at your palm top for more than a few minutes at a time before you have to stop.
You'll never use the keyboard after the first time or two.

Forget it.

Now, try to sell me a really big magnifying glass for my palm top , and you might have a customer here.

(edit) After rereading this artical I realized no where does it say that the keyboard is for a palm top computer , the idea of it being fold up is that it can fold up and fit in your shirt (or at least coat) pocket and come along with you without you having to carry a brief case or anything, the primary point of palm tops. Better mention that now.

Ahhhh !! Ubuntu reboot !

I crashed my ubuntu system !

I was reading this article on the df command (basically tells you how much disk space you have left, since I just uploaed 2 gigs of music i was understandibly curious) and it said cntr-shift-f1 or go to the terminal ...

cool... a short cut to the terminal , my fave application.

wrong.

Control-Shift-F1 ends gnome, the desk top , the thing with all the menus and cute icons and stuff that makes controling linux easy ? You wind up in with a black screen asking you for a user id and pass, and when you log in , it's still black , like a terminal you can't turn off.

Reboot !

Ah well.

13 days between reboots. And it was my messing around that required the reboot, not ubuntu.

And we start over.

Symantec: Vista Blocks Almost All Malware, For No

Article


While many existing malware threats can't install under Vista, Symantec anticipates malware authors will quickly adapt.


Who writes this crud ?

I don't like microsoft , and I really don't like vista, the requirements are too high and it brings nothing new that I need in exchange for those requirements, but lets face it. Symantec is hardly a disintresteded third party observer. They're right in the thick of it all, making anti-virus software for windows. They are NOT going to say "you don't need our product" no matter how good a job windows does.

This kind of self serving new announcement and "white papers" and whatever else they care to call it isn't worth the paper it's written on. News reporters have no business giving these people the time of day ,they're doing little more than acting as unpaid advertisements.

It may be true that Vista has a bunch of security holes, and it's almost certainly true that new ones will be found by the virus and malware writers as quickly as possible. But Symantec is the wrong company to stand up and pretend to be some kind of white knight or expert in the area. Expert they may be , but highly prejudiced ones they also are. The words of a salesman trying to sell you something are worth nothing , no matter how expert he is in his field.


(edit)

Symantec will never say , for example "Move to Linux , it's all but immune to virii" , even though it's true.

Symantec will never say "Get off the Internet Explorer, use Firefox or Opera or some other browser that doesn't have Active X components, thats how most virii get on your computer in the first place. " even though that is true.

It will never say these things, because you will quickly come to realize that if you follow this advice, you don't need Symantec at all, and that would be cutting their own throats. Instead , they will point out obscure difficult to understand flaws in Firefox or linux, tell you it's not perfect and you should stick with windows and all it's virii , ignoring the obvious point that people on Linux, or even just Firefox , go years and years between infections while people on windows it's more like days and days.

And as for this notion that if everyone moved to linux then linux would quickly be as attacked as heavily as Windows, there are several problems with that. Linux doesn't do active X, the usual path way to infection. Linux doesn't open and run attachments that come with your email without even a by your leave such as windows does. Linux techs actually close security holes when they find them. Windows has known about the active x problem for years, but refuses to close it because it's how they make money , it's how they can do things other browsers cannot do. They're running unsecured programs on YOUR computer without YOUR permission, they're just changing around a few names and telling you they're doing something else. Linux doesn't do that at all at all at all.

But ... that would be bad for business if they told you that, so they'll tell you stick with windows and buy their product.

SearchOpenSource: Microsoft Windows Ousted at California School District

Article


Carver said it cost the district about $2,500 per school to migrate to Linux, compared with the estimated $100,000 it would have cost to upgrade their Windows infrastructure. In addition, buying more Microsoft Office licenses would have cost the district $100 per license, she said, whereas OpenOffice was free. (... they have 7 schools, so $17,500 vs $100,000 )


You pushed too hard , Mr. Gates.

Windows is too finicky in the licensing department. The price too high. Upgrading from Win98 to WinXP , for example, absorbes the Win98 license, you're not allowed to use that copy on another older machine.

You pushed and pushed, cut off any attempt to save money by the user, demanded more and more, actually removed features from windows (remember how dos used to have a basic interperter , the old qbasic ? now it's gone ? ) You made alliances with hard ware venders so that when people upgrade windows (not buy a new copy , thats always priced out of everyone's sight ..but absorb the current liscense so it can't be reused on another machine) they have to inevitably buy more hardware as well.

Now someone else has come along and noticed "Hey , we can put linux on some old clunkers, network them together , it performs just as well as windows and only costs 20% what windows would cost..."

You pushed too far... and for one california school district, the wave collapsed. They moved away from Windows and started on Linux.

Is this the beginning ?

Dell is now stating they will offer the option to pre-install Linux on their new low end computers in the near future. When you think about it , they don't have a choice, do they ? The hardware requirements for Vista are insane (3ghz clock speed, 3gig ram) , and of course Microsoft isn't going to sell Windows XP anymore, they're going to forbid the sale of it to get everyone on Vista. And if you're selling low end computers... Vista isn't an option. Won't run on the hardware.

This is only the beginning. Microsoft brought this on themselves.

Linux Commands

Dell is promising to start selling low end computers with linux pre-installed , which means my company , which has adamently said "we don't support linux and NEVER !!! will ! " will probably receive rather different marching orders from our biggest client in the near future.

Gonna jot down a few useful linux commands here , just to get things rolling.

Most version's of linux will have a "desktop" running. That is to say menus and buttons and pretty little icons you just click on , just like windows. You need to get to the terminal application , which is the equiviliant of a dos prompt in windows.

On Gnome it's Applications > Accessories, Terminal

In the Terminal , these are some useful commands. I ran them on my Ubuntu 6.1 linux box.

Dos : IPCONFIG
Linux : ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:5B:1F:83:A6
       inet addr:192.168.2.3  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
       inet6 addr: fe80::211:5bff:fe1f:83a6/64 Scope:Link
       UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1492  Metric:1
       RX packets:110531 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
       TX packets:88421 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
       collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
       RX bytes:102228257 (97.4 MiB)  TX bytes:12372057 (11.7 MiB)
       Interrupt:185 Base address:0xc400

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
       inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
       inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
       UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
       RX packets:583 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
       TX packets:583 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
       collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
       RX bytes:58547 (57.1 KiB)  TX bytes:58547 (57.1 KiB)

Second line down gives the ip address.

inet addr:192.168.2.3

dos : PING
Linux: ping

PING www.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=39.4 ms
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=36.2 ms
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=85.9 ms
64 bytes from f1.www.vip.re3.yahoo.com (69.147.114.210): icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=34.5 ms

--- www.yahoo.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 15263ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 34.554/49.064/85.919/21.352 ms

Unlike the dos ping , it doesn't stop after 4 pings, you must control-c it to halt it. 

dos : TRACERT
linux : tracepath

Again. Control-C to halt it.

1:  192.168.2.3 (192.168.2.3)                              0.234ms pmtu 1492
1:  192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1)                            asymm  2   8.205ms
2:  gw03.slnt.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.90.145)    9.943ms
3:  gw01.slnt.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.93.193)    8.937ms
4:  gw03.etob.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.83.198)  asymm  5  12.846ms
5:  gw02.mtnk.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.80.185)   14.413ms
6:  igw01.ny8th.phub.net.cable.rogers.com (66.185.81.13)  32.634ms
7:  no reply
8:  ge-0-0-9.p815.pat2.dce.yahoo.com (216.115.98.109)     36.734ms

Oddly enough there are two line 1's, the first one is the local computer, the second is my router.

DOS : arp /a
linux : arp

Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask            Iface
192.168.2.1              ether   00:17:3F:67:96:02   C                     eth0

Yup, thats the mac id on the back of my router, and thats the routers ip address. Good for those customers who say "Oh I don't have a router" but yes they do . "I you mean this linksys thing ? I forgot about that ... "

Yes m'am.

Dos : telnet
linux: telnet

telnet www.yahoo.com 80
Trying 69.147.114.210...
Connected to www.yahoo.com.
Escape character is '^]'.

telnet> Connection closed.

Telneting to yahoo on port 80, in effect using the telnet command to imitate a browser. If it works ("connected to www.yahoo.com") then you know there's no fire wall sitting on port 80, their browser is messed up. If it doesn't ... hopefully the firewall throws a pop up that you can read identifying it. If it rolls over and dies with unknown error, tcp/ip is shot. Control - close square bracket to end, as it says above ("Escape Charactar is ...")


Those are all the dos commands I've ever used at work in 5 years of trouble shooting , so that will probable do us fine.

(edit)
Yeah I forgot netstat. But when i tried it on linux the read out was ten pages long. Forget it ! Not worth the hassel of a customer wading through that !

Rising STD rate sparks online dating sites

Article

You know , I always thought those dating sites were a scam. You know, you pay to sign up , you get a date , she cancels at the last minute, later you find out it's the company secretary making those dates and cancelling them...

Apears I was wrong. This guy got lucky and actually found a date. A real one.


CNN) -- When John got divorced after 12 years of marriage, he took a deep breath and launched into the dating scene.

"And wham, with my very first girlfriend, I caught herpes," he says. "You feel betrayed and all of a sudden separated from the rest of the world. I thought at the time that the girl who gave it to me and I were the only people in the world who had it."

LOL !!!!!