Recent Posts

3151

Living Room / Re: "Cool" Möbius

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 01:42 PM »

Awesome!

Guy also has some big kahunas pouring liquid nitrogen without wearing gloves or much in the way of protective gear. Yikes! Talk about steady hands.

3152

Living Room / Re: Hot *New* Technology! TYPEWRITERS! :D

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 01:27 PM »

There's a lot to be said for the protection that real world impediments can introduce to even the most sophisticated all-electronic methods.

Take networks. You have firewalls, multiple tiers of authentication, encryption, etc. But if you absolutely want to be 100% sure you keep things out, the single best "solution" is to send a junior tech down to the wire room and have them physically pull the cable from the WAN port(s) on your router(s).

And yeah, that's one reason why it's almost always uniquely color coded. You'll find a single yellow or red cable in almost every network switch room. Two guesses what it is.

 

---------------------

Last I heard, one time cipher pads and 'spy' paper are still among the most bulletproof and secure of all covert communications methodologies. So it hardly surprises me typewriters are making a limited comeback. No tool like an old tool...
 

3153

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 11:32 AM »

the best chess players don't reveal checkmate in how ever many moves it will take
I'm guessing he has not made all his moves yet.

-cmpm (July 12, 2013, 10:30 AM)

I agree with you and "guarantee" he hasn't, because he just released a new tidbit of info a couple of days ago. But even if he just releases "tidbits", we're waiting for the big move from him *or someone influenced by him* that really changes the "prevailing mood of the time". (With a nod to the Gregory Brothers music group!)

-TaoPhoenix (July 12, 2013, 10:53 AM)

Agree up to a point. But I also see some of his venues and communication channels are eroding. He's hardly being mentioned on the major news channels. And now the Guardian is only "quoting" from things he sent them rather than releasing them in raw format like they previously did. I'm guessing pressure has been brought to bear in the background.

really say we're only on some "move" 4-7 at this point, because chess has lots of little "obligatory actions" that comprise up sequences. But we really only have a couple of big picture themes. A, he released a bunch of stuff, B, he's jockeying for Asylum, and that's it.

Unfortunately, he was forced to state very early in the game that he had a fallback data dump he arranged to have go public if he were harmed or killed in order to forestall a possible assasination plan.

While it may have prevented that, it also seriously reduced his chances for asylum. Because if what he has gets released if he's caught or killed, why lock horns with a crazy superpower when you'll get to see it anyway once he is aprehended? Best bet is just to thunder and point fingers while doing nothing. That's a diplomatic strategy the EU has elevated to an art form...

Despite all the high falutin' speeches, at the end of the day, no nation is going to do anything for Snowden beyond giving him their moral support. I'm sure he'll take comfort knowing that they're "with him in spirit" while he's sitting in his 8X10 cell in a federal supermax 'isolation' unit and slowly going crazy. At least he'll have all those nice imaginary friends to talk to.  

3154

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 09:56 AM »

Step aside Yankee Rose - here comes Yankee Pepper....

Coming Soon! The New & Improved Statue of Liberty - now fully updated for post-9/11 America!
 


(Sorry. I'm having a bad day right now.  )

3155

Living Room / Re: Microsoft ending TechNet subscription activations effective august 2013

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 09:50 AM »

I see more and more developers choosing to distribute solely through the App Store rather than provide the DMGs for install...

-wraith808 (July 12, 2013, 09:21 AM)

That's the power of offering "favored nation" promotional status as an incentive once you start leading the dev community down the app store/walled garden path...

I've been told it really only hurts in the beginning. Later on, a spacey numbness settles in and it all becomes soooooo much easier. As Rodgers & Gilmour would say:

When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.

I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now,
The child is grown...
The dream is gone.

I... have become comfortably numb

 

3156

Living Room / Re: Microsoft ending TechNet subscription activations effective august 2013

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 08:25 AM »

^Microsoft's main goal is to eventually go over to a walled garden app store model for software installations. So once they start demanding (and getting) 30% of every single dollar spent for every single program that gets installed on Windows, it will all become largely moot.

Any breaks in dev tool pricing you see are mainly to get more "for Windows 8" titles out there ASAP. Especially since neither the consumers or dev shops have exhibited too much interest in this largely needless upgrade. It's starting to look a little embarrassing for Microsoft that so few people seem interested in attending their latest shindig.
 

3157

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: OmmWriter Dāna II Free until the 15th of July

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 07:37 AM »

I gave it a roll for my last several writing sessions.

Nice as it was, I found nothing in it I wanted that I wasn't getting from what I was already using. I'm back to my original champion: WriteMonkey.

YMMV.

3158

General Software Discussion / Re: Best (free?) Sandbox?

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 01:14 AM »

My inclination is to always prefer using a full virtual machine software for testing things (VmWare, VirtualBox, VirtualPC, etc.).

-mouser (July 11, 2013, 05:22 PM)

I'd +1 with Mouser on that.

Sandboxes are a little bit more like a hack or "science fair" sort of solution whereas a virtual machine is the real deal if you want to create an fully isolated system to work with. VMs are also better supported and generally more reliable from a security standpoint.

If your PC has the horsepower (most machines built in the last few years do) I'd definitely try running a VM.

When I need to do 'secure' web browsing I'll use Tails.

Tails is a live system that aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity. It helps you to use the Internet anonymously almost anywhere you go and on any computer but leave no trace using unless you ask it explicitly.

It is a complete operating-system designed to be used from a DVD or a USB stick independently of the computer's original operating system. It is Free Software and based on Debian GNU/Linux.

Tails comes with several built-in applications pre-configured with security in mind: web browser, instant messaging client, email client, office suite, image and sound editor, etc.

If you're not uncomfortable using a distro developed by the US government that does some of the same things as as Tails, there's also the Lightweight Portable Security distro which is available for download here.

3159

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

« Last post by 40hz on July 12, 2013, 12:26 AM »

This one is growing on me. The eclectic group Slowbots studio recording of their song Innocence.

The Slowbots are:

Nick Jaffe - guitar
Yasmin Ali - vocals
Angela Salva - violin
Katie Chow - percussion
Todd Swope - bass
-----------------

Note: If you're a musician (and especially if you're a guitarist) be sure to check Nick (JustNickMusic) Jaffe's channel on YouTube to find some of the best and most thorough reviews of guitars and effects pedals you'll find anywhere, along with lessons, commentary, and Nick being JustNick. Nick Jaffe is also the chief editor of of the Teaching Artist Journal published quarterly by the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College. He has his own website, which can be found here.

Highly recommended.

3160

Living Room / Re: Privacy Policy

« Last post by 40hz on July 11, 2013, 01:47 PM »

Or to simplify:

... lie about your name and other personal information...

-40hz (July 11, 2013, 06:57 AM)

Always.

-4wd (July 11, 2013, 08:32 AM)

Not always forever, because they're closing in on the other side that "violating a site's TOS by providing false info = makes you a Bad Person".

-TaoPhoenix (July 11, 2013, 11:59 AM)

Well...maybe they should remember that sometimes "you gotta take the bad with the good."


And yeah...it makes potential extra work for the Feds. Is there a problem with that?

3161

Living Room / Re: Twinky widthdrawal .... really?? Oh please!! :)

« Last post by 40hz on July 11, 2013, 01:44 PM »

"What about the Twinkie?"

 

3162

Living Room / Re: Must...stop...playing...that addictive game!

« Last post by 40hz on July 11, 2013, 01:38 PM »

Oh Nooooooo - another riff on Frozen Bubble rears it's ugly head!!!!

Yes, that game concept is addictive. There's also a commercial program called Snood that works much the same way. It's a computer virus AFAIC. Except it infects the user. Most people lose a few hours the first time they play it.

FrozenBubble and its relatives have been banned from all my computers.

----

P.S. Gave it a try. Not bad at all! It introduces a few wrinkles of its own, which is always cool. But I really don't like how the endgame works in this one. It's sorta interminable. It's also way too easy to aim, and some of the physics on the bank shots behaved a little oddly IMO. At least they did on my machine. It is fun though. Took me three tries and 15 minutes I shouldn't have wasted to clear the board.

And now that I've tried it, I will do my best to not remember the link to it. Because that way madness lies.

3163

Developer's Corner / Re: The Danger of Naïveté

« Last post by 40hz on July 11, 2013, 07:52 AM »

Lost an hour plus yesterday going over the math on that one. Pretty amazing stuff. I love nonintuitive truths.

Sure goes a long way towards explaining why maybe some amateur coded solitaire games yield significantly higher win outcomes than others. And also demonstrates just how difficult it is to get something even close to genuine randomization with a non-specialized computer.

3164

Living Room / Re: This Just in: From the You Gotta be Shitting Me Dept.

« Last post by 40hz on July 11, 2013, 07:23 AM »

Cars can be repaired or junked.

Bodies either heal - or they don't.

Sorry about what happened. But knowing how you feel since I've been hit by idiots a few times myself, you still got the better part of the bargain.

My younger sister wasn't so lucky. She spent a year and a half in traction after the car she was a passenger in got nailed by a drunk driver. She's now the proud owner of an 18 inch hunk of cobalt/titanium alloy in her right thighbone. And eight more inches of it in her shin. Lots of fun boarding airliners with that installed despite the "special ID card" they give you to let the TSA and airlines know you can't help but set off a metal detector.

I'm just glad you didn't get hurt. Onward!

3165

Living Room / Re: Privacy Policy

« Last post by 40hz on July 11, 2013, 06:57 AM »

There are ways to get around all this invasive silliness. My guess is that most people here already know, but, just for the sake of it, I'll run down through a few ways to help...

-Renegade (July 10, 2013, 10:31 PM)

You left out (1) not joining Facebook, Twitter, or Google+; and (2) if you do join any of those, be sure you lie about your name and other personal information when signing up.
 

3166

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 08:18 PM »

Some people (not me, you understand), might say that the Stasi would seem to be alive and well in both countries, and that, evidently, you can't keep a "good idea" down for long.

-IainB (July 10, 2013, 05:57 PM)

Ah! IainB old friend...you're much more polite than me. I might have said Stasi, but all I could think of at the time was Schutzstaffel, Sturmabteilung, Sicherheitsdienst, and a few other choice names I learned back in 4th year German class. So I thought I'd best tone it down a bit out of deference to the other DoCo members.

Two of the most utterly despicable people I ever had the misfortune of getting to know are carrying badges as we speak. And truth be told, there are also many noble people serving in various police agencies who are wholly motivated by the finest intentions and levels of personal integrity. I know several of those too.

But you really can't be a good person when you're working for a bad organization. As the treatment of whistle blowers, and the "blue line" mindset reinforces over and over the importance of "maintaining solidarity no matter what" with police who might attempt to do their part to curb incompetence, irresponsibility, dereliction of duty, abuses of power, and criminal activity on the part of their fellow officers.


          Seriously? I mean really...seriously guys?

Like the police captain Harry Bryant tells Rick Deckard in the film Blade Runner: You know the score,pal. If you're not a cop, you're little people!


"Hiya Deckard!"

Too bad so many in our government and on our police forces are coming around to think the same way.

3167

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 05:38 PM »

In the story Alongside Night which paints a picture of a future United States in the throes of total economic collapse, there is a huge increase in covert police actions with dissident disappearances taking place. None of which is being reported by a now thoroughly intimidated and co-opted "free press." This book reads like todays news. There are cryptocurrencies, gray market agoras, an out of control Executive Branch...all the usual dystopian fixin's.

One of the most telling lines in the story is one character's observation of how "fewer than 1 in 20 Americans realizes he or she is now living in a police state."



Which gently reminds us we should never underestimate the power of inertia and denial in the human psyche.

When Alongside Night first came out, the scenario it portrayed was considered a really far fetched libertarian influenced wet dream.

Today a few of us might not be quite so sure about that.

3168

Living Room / Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 04:34 PM »

Truthfully, I don't mind ads- done a certain way.  I think that's what 40 means by trust.  If they vet, if they don't let abusive or obnoxious ads through, I'll be fine with it.

-wraith808 (July 10, 2013, 11:21 AM)

Basically yes. If you're ad-based for your income, I'm fine with that. If it gets obnoxious my option is to put up with it or walk away. I have no problem with advertising or me going elsewhere. It's the dealer's call when it comes to that. As long as I feel it's a fair trade-off - advertise away! Just show some restraint and respect for your user/visitor when you do.

And since YouTube is totally unusable to me without AdBlock Plus running, I'll put up with what they're doing for the moment since it doesn't seem to affect me that much. But I'll probably think more than twice next time I'm feeling like I should be sending them some more money.

Besides, since they now have an alternate revenue stream, they should be all set, right?  I don't feel the least bit funny about maybe not contributing as much as I did before (or possibly at all) because, quite frankly, I don't feel like I'm as much their customer any more. If at all.

So it goes...their financial loss is NoScript's gain AFAIC.

Onward!

3169

Living Room / Re: Worth Reading: Trevor Pott's editorial on NSA PRISM and its real ramifications

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 03:47 PM »

^ Exactly.

"Give a baby a hammer and everything soon starts looking like a nail."

"The simple existence of a weapon system creates the justification for it's eventual use."

"Power corrupts."

"This is not the America I grew up in."

And exactly what is going on in this country that our government now believes every police department in the nation needs to look like this:



...and respond to even fairly minor incidents and peaceful protests by behaving like this:



Sorry kiddies, but these are not police. These are paramilitary assault units.

 

3170

Living Room / Re: Possibly the ultimate $21,000 computer desk/chair combo?

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 01:03 PM »

edit: also I have to wonder if the chair section can be replaced with a love seat.  It sure would make watching porn, er, I mean, documentaries, more efficacious.

-MilesAhead (July 10, 2013, 12:07 PM)

You're already late to the party. They've been developing teledildonics technology for several years now.

Not my thing. I prefer purely 'human biologicals' when I'm in the market for that sort of entertainment. But who am I to judge others?  



 

3171

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 10:18 AM »

I'd be inclined to declare the first match a stalemate. But this tournament is far from over.

-40hz (July 10, 2013, 09:13 AM)

If we base the assessment on Snowden's declared original objectives, then it must be 1:0 in his favour, as he had managed to change public opinion on the issue despite all the spin, while the US government failed to apprehend him or stop him from leaking further information:

American voters say 55 - 34 percent that Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower, rather than a traitor, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

In a massive shift in attitudes, voters say 45 - 40 percent the government's anti-terrorism efforts go too far restricting civil liberties, a reversal from a January 10, 2010, survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University when voters said 63 - 25 percent that such activities didn't go far enough to adequately protect the country.

"The massive swing in public opinion about civil liberties and governmental anti- terrorism efforts, and the public view that Edward Snowden is more whistle-blower than traitor are the public reaction and apparent shock at the extent to which the government has gone in trying to prevent future terrorist incidents," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

-dr_andus (July 10, 2013, 09:59 AM)

It give us hope but it won't be enough in and of itself.

Especially since the Administration and DOJ just doubled down on FISA, executive privilege, State secrets, and all new legalisms to prevent whistleblowing on the government in the face of previous legislation forbidding such actions.

So as long as the Supreme Court continues to sit on the fence about this, it's going to continue.

Expect a very long list of executive pardons to be issued on the eve Obama leaves office. "Exit pardons" are a cute trick that worked for both Bush administrations, so why not?

Dark days ahead before there's even hope of seeing sunlight I'm afraid.

3172

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 10:05 AM »

Renegade is back! 

3173

Living Room / Re: Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 09:13 AM »

Killing Snowden would serve no objective or provide any operational benefit. The damage has already been done. Now it's more a matter of containment and spin control. (There is a rulebook of sorts in the intelligence community.) So I think assassination is completely off the table at this point.

I'd be inclined to declare the first match a stalemate. But this tournament is far from over.

Snowden's remaining at large, straddles the fence in that his continued freedom is an embarrassment to the Administration - but - his potential for being granted asylum provides several interesting new opportunities for the Administration down the road. And unless he lands in Russia or China, the Administration is likely to be very confident they can 'collect' him whenever they want. So what ultimately happens with that is largely dependent on whether the Machiavellian or Godfather mindset prevails in Washington over the next several weeks.

I think we're on a "bathroom and refresh your drinks break" right now while the new game board gets set up.



It should start to get interesting once this temporary state of affairs breaks and the next real move gets played. Because right now, all we're hearing is a lot of gradually cooling bluster and rhetoric.

Stay tuned! New match to start shortly...

3174

Living Room / Re: Adblock Plus Letting Ads By

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 09:02 AM »

I personally am extremely thankful for Adblock Plus plugin for Firefox and I'm neither their employee, hired for contract, troll, or whatever else, just a user who has found the plugin outstanding and would recommend it to everyone.  How do you like that for a run-on sentence

-wrbird (July 10, 2013, 08:38 AM)

As a grandmaster of run-on and meandering sentences, I like it just fine.

I'm also grateful for AdBlock. So much so that I've contributed to it regularly since I first started using it. Right now, I don't consider what they've done to be a complete show-stopper. (I'm not that much an ingénue.) But now I'm watching them much more closely than I used to. Which is a shame since trust is such rare and fragile thing these days.

Suffice it to say I'll kick AdBlock to the curb in a heartbeat if I so much as suspect they're abusing what remaining trust I have in it. For the moment, I'll give them some benefit of the doubt. But the ball is definitely in their court going forward.
 

3175

Living Room / Re: Google Reader gone

« Last post by 40hz on July 10, 2013, 08:46 AM »

I did end up subscribing to Bazqux. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided to follow my own advice that the only server you can really trust is the one you yourself control.

So now I'm experimenting with TinyTinyRSS, which looks really promising. The initial test running it on Softalicious' AMPPS stack (highly recommended for any test environment btw) definitely made it look worth pursuing further. If it turns out to be a go I'll eventually do a more permanent version running on a Linux server (probably Arch) and that will be that.

My RSS aggregator - my choice. D.I.Y. or Die!