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1926

Living Room / Re: TrueCrypt is Now Abandonware?!

« Last post by Renegade on June 16, 2014, 07:51 AM »

No idea what to think of this:

https://www.livebusi...dex.php?topic=5629.0

I have been informed that I may be the first person to publish this. There is a hidden message on the new sourceforge TrueCrypt site that says, approximately, "Don't use TrueCrypt because it is under the control of the NSA". I originally posted details about the message on my user page at MediaWiki.org, and then posted a mention of it on the talk page for the TrueCrypt article at Wikipedia (permalink). Decoding the message is simple. The first line of the site is this:

Quote
WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues

That sentence uses strange English, like the word "unfixed",  that is clearly contrived to fit a hidden message. If you take just the first letter of each word, except the word "WARNING":

Quote
Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues

you get this:

Quote
uti nsa im cu si

It's Latin that roughly means:

Quote
Unless I want to use the NSA

So, the full message seems to be this:

Quote
WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues, unless I want to use the NSA

Which is English that roughly means:

Quote
Don't use TrueCrypt because it is under the control of the NSA

Interesting at any rate.

1927

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by Renegade on June 15, 2014, 07:31 AM »

Keeping to high-brow music with refined tastes...

Guitar Lessons With Bubbles - Liquor & Whores

Liquor and whores
Liquor and whores
Cigarettes and dope and mustard and bologna
Liquor and whores

I went down
Drinkin' at the Legion
I met a girl she was nice
She was pretty and pleasing

She said "Hey boy
We should do some marrying"
I said sure but before we do
There's something that you should know

I like
Liquor and whores
Liquor and whores
Cigarettes and dope and mustard and bologna
Liquor and whores...

Then one night down at the legion
She walked in, I was drunk on gin
Dancin with a lady friend
She said hey boy, You'd better fly the f**k home
I said no cause five little words I coulda
Swore I said to you

I like
Liquor and whores
Liquor and whores
Cigarettes and dope and mustard and bologna
Liquor and whores...

1928

Living Room / Re: Patents given away? Elon Musk blazing a different sort of trail.

« Last post by Renegade on June 15, 2014, 07:21 AM »

our carbon footprint

-J-Mac (June 14, 2014, 10:49 PM)

More carbon dioxide is better for plants. BIOMASS! (From MARIJUANA!  )

It's a virtuous circle:

Coal > CO2 > Marijuana > world peace because everyone is stoned & biomass energy > CO2 > Marijuana... 

What's not to love/smoke? 

Yeah, but it's got to get there. As is often the case, people will realize it late and then there'll be a mad rush to develop and build more renewable plants.

(OK - The real poop? We won't have much more renewable energy until the oil and gas industry positions themselves to make the most possible money from it. Sad, but you know that will happen.)

Jim

-J-Mac (June 15, 2014, 12:27 AM)

There are a lot of very interesting nascent technologies out there, e.g. Thorium reactors. But, they'll be suppressed until the big power companies/interests can rape them for as much $$$ as possible.

I'm not keen on wind as there are very real problems there that mainstream science ignores. I've ranted about that elsewhere and provided evidence on the topic that proves that mainstream science has its head up its arse.

Wraith is right about some technologies not being cost efficient at the moment. e.g. Payback on solar is only viable thanks to subsidies and government regulation, which means that recouping costs is entirely artificial, i.e. a lie. Still, I like solar as it's clean.

There are other problems with electricity though. It causes radiation, and those effects still aren't very well known, although we do know that in some situations/configurations it is lethal.

From what I can remember, going back to Maxwell's original equations, there is a type of mathematics (Hamiltonian something something) that is dropped from the simplified version used today. If there is any loss of fidelity there, then we're dealing with something that we are fundamentally not understanding properly. It wouldn't be the first time though. Same goes for Einstein's field equations leaving out torque (see Nassim Haramein's work in physics there). Mainstream science is very good at latching on to something and then calling it a day even when evidence shows it isn't correct.

Tesla, with the kind of leadership it has now, could very well be one of the most important pioneers in the future of energy.

If we take Tesla at face value, this patent move may well spur on or inspire others in the patent and energy worlds.

1929

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 14, 2014, 09:27 PM »

@40hz... that was a horrible intro to that film... Some good description, but you left me entirely unprepared for it. Perhaps that was a good thing...

-Renegade (June 14, 2014, 12:10 PM)

40hz has given a bit of description there, but it's completely inadequate to describe what this is.

Um...wasn't it you who said never tell you too much or show you trailers?

Well...we aims to please.

-40hz (June 14, 2014, 12:41 PM)

Hahaha! Yes - going in blind is often a wonderful thing. But I figured that it was just some sort of regular film. Boy, was I mistaken.

Regarding Sonmi-451... incredible performance there. Sonmi-451 is simply adorable, and... I don't want to say anymore about her as I might semi-ruin part of the movie for someone.

Note: by "not bad adaptation" I meant it doesn't exactly mirror the book. But I don't see that as an automatic negative. Some films do suffer by comparison to their origins.

I think that threw me as I expected the film to be a poor version of the book, and further expected a mediocre film.

1930

General Software Discussion / Re: Tizen OS declared 'dead in the water'

« Last post by Renegade on June 14, 2014, 09:11 PM »

The declaration is premature.

I've been working on the Tizen platform for about 2 or 3 years (IIRC).

There is already a huge amount of work that has gone into Tizen. Samsung even abandoned bada for it. bada itself was a good platform. The API for bada was extremely well written, and far better suited to mobile security than Android.

Samsung is leveraging a lot of different aspects that Apple simply can't. The 800 lb gorilla here is Samsung.

For anyone that has been keeping up even a tiny bit with the semi-conductor industry, IoT (the Internet of Things) is set to blast off very soon. From Freescale and Molex to Samsung and Apple, you'll see a huge explosion in the number of connected devices over the next few years. (BTW - Be afraid. Be very afraid. The kinds of things coming out are nothing short of terrifying. Techdirt will have oodles of material to report on with lots of spill-over for TorrentFreak and JudicialWatch.)

Samsung spent well over $1 million in prize money on an app contest a while back for bada. And they dropped bada. I rather doubt that Tizen will get dropped as easily considering how it's going to be deployed.

That Tizen isn't broadly deployed yet isn't an indication of its demise.

When your watch, TV, and whitegoods (fridge, dishwasher, etc.) are all running Tizen, there will be greater motivation for developers to hop on the Tizen mobile device bandwagon.

Another thing to watch is the automotive OS market. It's extremely closed right now - basically, it's darn close to invitation only, though if you have a great app & business plan, you can submit an application. But the automotive OS market isn't "dead" because some guy writing for Computerworld doesn't think it's going to survive on your phone.

Your phone is just one aspect of the coming IoT.

Things to look at are hardware lock-in gimmicks, networking lock-in (SDK/API), device-to-device integration, etc.

If anyone things 1 bad review is going to stop Godzilla from destroying Tokyo, they've got another thing coming.

1931

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 14, 2014, 12:10 PM »

The Cloud Atlas.
 (see attachment in previous post)
A not bad at all adaptation of the David Mitchell novel by the same name. A quantum metaphysical romp through several centuries of linked souls and events. Some remarkably good performances by Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, and especially Korean actress Doona Bae for her portrayal of a clone by the name of Sonmi-451.
 (see attachment in previous post)      (see attachment in previous post)      (see attachment in previous post)
One fun thing about this movie is that almost every actor plays several (as in three to seven) different roles - so it's a fun game to try to identify who is playing whom in the various storylines. Some of them will surprise you when the credits roll.

-40hz (May 19, 2014, 11:12 PM)

@40hz... that was a horrible intro to that film... Some good description, but you left me entirely unprepared for it. Perhaps that was a good thing...

I just finished watching it...

You've massively understated what this film is.

This is a brilliant film, but not one that you can casually just "absorb".

If you're going to watch this, plan it. Make some popcorn. Have ice & drinks ready. This film is an event. Pay attention, and enjoy it.

This is more than just a film. This is an adventure.

I think that I need to watch this again.

Don't get into this film with any expectations. Just let it unfold and take you where it goes. You'll enjoy the ride. It's spectacular.

40hz has given a bit of description there, but it's completely inadequate to describe what this is. Pure brilliance.

But pay attention. This isn't a film that you can drift in and out of as easily as so many others.

This film is full of love, hate, beauty, violence, hope, dreams, evil, redemption, vengeance, and so much more.

THIS is a work of art.

I won't pretend to have any interpretation of this. But I will attest to its wonder and beauty.

tl;dr - WOW!

1932

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 14, 2014, 01:44 AM »

The Host



At almost 2 hours long, it is long, but by no means drawn out. They use those 2 hours very well.

If you like sci-fi, chances are you'll love this.

The story has quite few nice plot devices meshed nicely together. The "host" aspect of the plot is done well and the story plays out nicely.

There are few special effects, but many aren't needed - the story is good enough on its own.

1933

Living Room / Re: Patents given away? Elon Musk blazing a different sort of trail.

« Last post by Renegade on June 14, 2014, 01:32 AM »

In the future, hopefully. But today it takes lots of fossil fuel to generate the electricity. (So many people seem to miss this point.)

-J-Mac (June 14, 2014, 12:43 AM)

I could have been much clearer on that point... I don't mean running a gas generator.

Hydro, steam, solar and geothermal are some technologies that are far less fossil fuel intensive than simple fossil fuel combustion for electricity generation.

My point above was that fossil fuel reliance isn't something that a normal person can divorce themselves from, whereas with electricity, there are many ways that an individual can be self-sufficient. This alone makes electricity a very attractive energy source compared to fossil fuel, and especially within the context of vehicles and the upcoming zombie apocalypse!

1934

Living Room / Re: Patents given away? Elon Musk blazing a different sort of trail.

« Last post by Renegade on June 13, 2014, 11:53 PM »

Elon Musk is Tony Stark.

-wraith808 (June 13, 2014, 10:09 PM)

HAHAHA~!  

1935

Living Room / Re: Soccer World Cup 2014

« Last post by Renegade on June 13, 2014, 09:54 PM »

Anyone else going to watch?

-mouser (June 08, 2014, 09:33 AM)

The games? No. The riots? Maybe.  

1936

Living Room / Re: Patents given away? Elon Musk blazing a different sort of trail.

« Last post by Renegade on June 13, 2014, 09:53 PM »

Aren't two > signs physics-speak for "thing on left much much bigger than thing on right"?

-ewemoa (June 13, 2014, 06:45 PM)

I thought so... but then I saw the ambiguity of it since >> is also a bit-shift.

-wraith808 (June 13, 2014, 08:45 PM)

Hehehe! Confusion only programmers would be afflicted with!  

Tesla is a fantastic company for soooo many reasons.

Electricity is a far better energy source than fossil fuel for a lot of reasons, but at the top of my list is that you can generate electricity fairly easily on your own whereas you cannot produce fossil fuel period. This makes electric cars much more independent.

So imagine this...

You go to the theatre to watch the latest zombie apocalypse movie set in the not-too-distant future.

But in that future, people have solar arrays and geo-thermal electrical generators.

What's missing from the movie? People fighting over gasoline or struggling to find gasoline. They simply plug in to refuel their vehicles in an off-the-beaten-path remote location away from the zombie armies of darkness, and then they are on their way.

Or in any other post-apocalypse dystopian flick. Same deal. Electricity is far more abundant than fossil fuel. (Cue searches for plasma cosmology and plasma physics...)

Oh, and since electric cars are silent (mostly), they're easier to use in zombie infested areas!!! 

And when you look at Tesla car specs... wow. Just. Wow.

It's simply stunning that the big car manufacturers haven't been able to do this. I really wonder what's wrong with them. They have serious problems, and I suspect that the problems are systemic. We see the exact same kinds of lack of innovation in other large companies/industries, e.g. telcos haven't managed to improve the quality of voice communications in a century. ::facepalm::

1937

Living Room / Re: Favorite Sci-fi movies?

« Last post by Renegade on June 13, 2014, 10:39 AM »

I rather liked all of the Cube movies.

LEXX

-MilesAhead (June 10, 2014, 04:30 PM)

That was a great series!

Similar - Farscape. Just spectacular.

And Firefly. Can't forget that.

1938

Living Room / Re: Patents given away? Elon Musk blazing a different sort of trail.

« Last post by Renegade on June 13, 2014, 10:28 AM »

Don't forget the Tesla blog post title:

All Our Patent Are Belong To You

Tesla has gone from uber-cool, to I just don't have words for that - slack jaw glassy staring eyes - anything cooler would... nah... not possible.

 

1939

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 13, 2014, 09:29 AM »

When she gets a little older try reading her Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno books. In addition to being a multi-level children and adult story, it's also one told using multiple realities. (Available from Project Gutenberg btw.)

I've not actually read that before, and I have The Complete Lewis Carroll. I'll certainly need to get my butt in gear.

1940

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 13, 2014, 09:25 AM »

Somebody has compiled a list of underrated sci-fi flicks:

Underrated Sci-Fi Films of the 2010's (So Far)

http://www.imdb.com/...3651?ref_=ttpl_rls_5

1941

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 11, 2014, 09:31 AM »

Alice in Wonderland



I've been watching this a few times lately as I play it for my daughter.

And I must confess, I'm a bit of a freak for Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. They're simply brilliant.

This is always worth watching again every now and then. It never gets tired or worn or old.

My guess is that most people here have seen it at least once. I suppose I'm just posting as a silly reminder about how much fun it is.

1942

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 11, 2014, 09:26 AM »

Regarding Entity, one complaint...

The sound guys.

Creepy sound effects 20~30 dB above the speaking level doesn't work well. We actually want to hear what the people say.

But, that goes for a LOT of films. This is by no means unique to Entity.

I often wonder if the sound guys' conversations go something like this:

A) What level you have the background track at?
B) Standard 140 dB jet engine levels. Why?
A) Oh, just checking.
B) What levels you got the voice tracks at?
A) I jacked them all up a few dB to around 70.
B) Sounds good. That's normal speech levels. We're going for realism here.

I would recommend setting the volume for this LOUD as at lower volumes it's hard to hear what is being said. You may need to mitigate the time of day you watch at, as well as whether others are sleeping in order to get a comfortable level where you can hear the dialog easily.

Otherwise, a decent horror flick.

1943

Living Room / Re: [GAME] Find something beautiful on Google Maps

« Last post by Renegade on June 10, 2014, 11:26 PM »

Sounds like fun!

-40hz (June 08, 2014, 07:17 PM)

Actually, sounds more like crickets/failure.

Oh well.

1944

Living Room / Re: Stuff We Feel Like Bitching About

« Last post by Renegade on June 09, 2014, 09:42 PM »

(see attachment in previous post)
Just be sure to wear your BOFH sigil, discreetly pinned inside your street clothes. (It adds 10 extra hit points!) 

-40hz (June 09, 2014, 07:54 PM)

It also gives you superpowers to electrocute people! Don't forget that!

1945

Living Room / Re: Stuff We Feel Like Bitching About

« Last post by Renegade on June 09, 2014, 09:40 PM »

@Ren - I still don't see what subjecting somebody (who often lacks any real authority) to a barrage of obscenity and spleen is going to accomplish. Maybe it's cathartic for some people to vent. But I usually find I feel far worse, after having lost my temper, than I did before. So I guess this is one of those YMMV things.

-40hz (June 09, 2014, 04:15 PM)

You won't get any argument from me about that!

My most common tactic is to play pathetic and desperate. This usually gets me very good results and gets problems solved. Being polite combined with being desperate makes the person on the other end feel sorry for you, and you can play off that to get what you want.

I'm not trying to say outrage is never justified or needed. But to adopt it as a default policy or 'game plan' strikes me as being counterproductive in the long run. Shock only works once or twice on most people. Then the psychological calluses start to form. After that, a caller's aggressive or abusive behavior rolls off the back like a cold drop of rain - an unpleasant sensation perhaps, but little else.

-40hz (June 09, 2014, 04:15 PM)

And sometimes things are just so hosed that you might as well boil the baby and the bath water, then crucify the baby upside down, and start flinging feces at it all like a howler monkey.

Counterproductive? It all depends on what your goals are.

When there's no hope of resolving a situation, why not go nuclear? At least you'll make the life of the person on the other end a living hell, which will encourage them to quit their job. This in turn means higher turn-over for the job position and higher costs for the company/organisation/government. At some point they *may* actually see that there is a problem and fix it.

But there's no point in being nice or polite when you know that the situation won't get fixed. Going nuclear is sometimes a rational decision, even if it is the worst one.

1946

Living Room / Re: Stuff We Feel Like Bitching About

« Last post by Renegade on June 09, 2014, 09:28 AM »

Seriously?

-40hz (June 09, 2014, 05:56 AM)

Yes.

I don't get the part where you say "everyone is expected to be polite and nice" and "you're not allowed to be upset" about things.

I don't know where you're sitting. But where I live hardly anyone expects to be polite or nice about anything they don't like. And I haven't run into anyone (yet) that seems to feel the need to get permission before getting upset. Flying off the handle at the drop of a hat, and being just plain petulant and rude, seems to be more the norm around here.

You must live in a far more mannerly locale than I do.  

-40hz (June 09, 2014, 05:56 AM)

40, I have a little experiment for you.

Find one of the following:

• A local issue of complete insanity
• A state issue of complete insanity
• A federal issue of complete insanity

That shouldn't be hard.

Next, call the appropriate office. (You might want to use Skype to mask your phone number to avoid retaliation. etc. You know the drill.)

Bitch vehemently about the insane issue. Use profanity and direct your anger at the appropriate targets.

Listen as the trained monkey behind the phone says, "I don't appreciate that language." etc. etc.

Yeah. It's like that. Literally.

Company or government. Same s**t.

I called one office and had a total friggin' breakdown s**tfit rant. It was well beyond warranted. The nonsense and insanity would justify far, far, far more than just a few profanities. I got the standard line then responded with more of the same along the lines of, "Just how f**ked do things need to be before it's ok to speak like this? This is pretty g***amn serious and abso-f**king-lutely unacceptable. Just what part of <details> is acceptable?" No argument from the other end. Because I was right. If anything, I was under-reacting.

You can bully these drones when you want to. But you have to just push it and put them in your shoes. Make them feel your rage. They then have no response. (From what I've seen so far anyways.)

I believe he is referring more specifically to this particular - really annoying moral high ground - tactic being used to try and shame someone into curbing their aggression when they're complaining about getting bent over by big faceless corporation X.

-Stoic Joker (June 09, 2014, 06:50 AM)

Exactly. The thing to do there is to turn it around on them.

When you get the "but I just work here" nonsense, then you push that & say it's just a part of their job - if they can't handle getting yelled at when they screw their customers, etc. etc. etc.

Anyways, since that other incident above, I've tried some other tactics, and will try others. At the end of the day, I just want to get what I paid for.

1947

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on June 09, 2014, 03:44 AM »

For a good laugh:

Better to start here:

http://youtu.be/lEWdPe6uACg?t=35m20s

But if you only have 10 seconds and not 30 seconds, start here:

http://youtu.be/lEWdPe6uACg?t=35m53s

1948

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on June 09, 2014, 01:09 AM »

I need to set up a bitcoin account somewhere for receiving donations -- Renegade was telling me how to do it but I dropped the ball.  Stay tuned.

-mouser (April 25, 2014, 11:09 AM)

All you need is an address.

In other news... here's Adam Kokesh interviewing Andreas Antonopolous!

 

1949

Living Room / Re: Stuff We Feel Like Bitching About

« Last post by Renegade on June 08, 2014, 09:28 PM »

I don't see why we don't focus on the actions rather than the words.

-wraith808 (June 08, 2014, 01:30 PM)

Wandering off a bit, there you remind me about how everyone is expected to be polite and nice to be point of being obsequious when dealing with people that work for companies/organisations that have wronged you. i.e. You get screwed, but you're not allowed to be upset about it.

I get that it's not directly the individual person's fault, but they're the front face of the machine. Perhaps if enough abuse made the job intolerable, it might raise the pay for those people and organisations with problems might actually try to solve them. Not a good solution, but I just can't stand the BS entitlement CS reps seem to have -- they represent the organisation and should take it as such -- if you work for an org that deserves getting yelled at, well, then duh!?

I don't actually yell & scream at people, but I'll certainly say when something is f**ked up, and it ticks me off when some rep says, "I don't appreciate that language." (At that point I want to just start screaming. It's extremely difficult not to.) Yeah, well that's that it is -- f**ked up -- if you don't like the language, FIX IT!

1950

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by Renegade on June 08, 2014, 08:51 PM »

Minuscule Valley of the Lost Ants



There is NO talking in this film, which makes it perfect for long international flights, like Mr. Bean.

The story is easy to follow. A ladybug breaks a wing and then goes on a long adventure with some ants.

I watched this with my wife, and while I didn't particularly like it all that much, it was certainly better watching it with her than it would be watching alone. She rather enjoyed it though.

Also, you can talk all the way through the movie as there's no talking in it to interrupt. This actually made the movie better for me as we chatted during it. I suppose that I'd say watch this with someone or you might risk ruining the movie for yourself.

If you like things that are different, then chances are you'll enjoy this.