| sonic BOOM |
[26 Mar 2008|08:40pm] |
in all the time i've lived here in orlando, i haven't yet seen a shuttle take off or land or even heard a sonic boom.
tonight i was watching fox news, getting ready to fill out some forms to send in the vcrs. then fox started covering a shuttle landing in a side screen. then, i hear two loud BOOM BOOM sounds that shook the apartment building. i thought for a second it was my neighbors, but it didn't sound right (they have been quiet today and the sound seemed to come from above). then i put 2 and 2 together and realized...it was the sonic boom from the shuttle!
surprisingly, this excites me a lot. yay!
|
|
| on obama's speech |
[20 Mar 2008|10:37pm] |
probably the best commentary i have read or heard about the event. and I find his logic pretty solid as an argument that the Wright affair is a very important issue to be raised about obama.
Sen. Obama's first presentation [the "apology and attempted explanation for his 20-year relationship with a preacher, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright"] was very troubling. It offers two possibilities for judging his character, both of which are unsettling.
The first possibility is that Sen. Obama did not notice the racism, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism coming from the pulpit in 20 years of attending Pastor Wright's sermons. He failed to register as troubling Pastor Wright's trip to Libya with Louis Farrakhan to see Muammar Qaddafi or the church's giving Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award.
But if this is true, it is a devastating insight into any possibility that Sen. Obama is ready to be President. How could we expect him to act with judgment and responsibility in Iran and Iraq, to pick a Supreme Court Justice or to undertake any other complex act under the pressing reality of being president when he could not notice reality in 20 years at his church.
On the other hand, if he noticed the goings on in his church but failed to act on them, what does that tell us about his honesty and his courage?
-- Newt Gingrich
|
|
|
[04 Mar 2008|10:55pm] |
goodbye huckabee, hello...
|
|
| ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you |
[19 Feb 2008|10:05pm] |
listening to this obama speech tonight, i hear:
we're gonna improve your education
we're gonna guarantee you jobs
we're going to educate you
we're gonna lower your taxes and raise the taxes for the evil rich
we're gonna always tell you the truth
we're gonna build more infrastructure for you
it's an endless litany of what he'll give to you if you vote for him. and this is what most of it is. what the fuck?
this country has steadily moved away from its original form of government, a representative democracy, and has slowly become more and more democratic. this is bad because, pure democracy is evil
example:
Five people are sitting in a room. Three are men. One of them proposes a new law making it legal to for a man to rape a woman (under certain circumstances of course). The three men vote yea. What happens next is "democracy" in action.
"The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can ever help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population --- the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority."
Henrik Ibsen
and this is why i think obama will win in the general election.
|
|
|
[28 Jan 2008|01:21pm] |
thanks to the intel purchase program, i'm building a new computer. i intend to update this post as specs become available (ie, as i purchase stuff). mostly for my info, but you can check it out too if you want.
|
|
| weird dream (in which i am shot) |
[24 Jan 2008|08:37am] |
i gotta post about this dream i had.
i was in a bar for some reason, and i came upon these two guys sitting at a table talking to each other. one of them was playing with a pistol on the table for some reason. i turned towards the table and was thinking of approaching them or calling the police or something, since it's just plain illegal in florida to even possess a gun in a bar area (unless you work there).
then, as the gun was pointed at me, it went off. unlike most dreams where you wake up, i was still asleep as i was struck. like everyone says, it didn't hurt but i did feel like a slight burning sensation and i could feel myself going into shock. i was shot in the stomach area about halfway between the neck and my belly button. as the shock was setting in, i started grasping in my conscious, demanding to know if it was a dream or not and if it was now was the time to wake up. and then i did wake up.
it was real scary, and when i woke up i thought i was just hallucinating the fact that i was still okay. i kept having to feel my stomach to make sure i didn't have a new bullet hole. the dream was so real and it freaked me out beyond belief. one of the scariest dreams i've ever had.
|
|
| election update 1 |
[06 Jan 2008|12:56am] |
not even sure he's even going to be on the primary ticket in florida, but this is the only republican i can support and not feel bad about it:
all the rest i can only really be at most 50% in agreement with. i'd probably come down supporting either huckabee (fairtax, demeanor) or paul (i love his domestic libertarianism, hate his foreign policies). i hate that i'd have to hold my nose to vote for either one, though.
i'm sad that it appears cox hasn't updated his web page in a month, which is most likely indicative that he's not going to be running much longer. oh well, he never took off.
i wish newt had decided to run!
did anyone else know wyoming just had a caucus tonight? talk about non-news event!
|
|
|
[28 Dec 2007|08:34am] |
I saw this and just HAD to comment:
"We've seen the consumer come through when we least expected," says Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. "But all consumers need a break at some point. They only have so much to give this holiday season."
This makes it sound like when we shop we're giving our money to the poor retail stores, doesn't it? It just struck me as wrong. What do you think?
Original article: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2007/db20071227_703212.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
|
|
|
[28 Dec 2007|08:17am] |
i saw this and just HAD to post it:
|
|
|
[28 Dec 2007|12:28am] |
MySpace user Kayana Alvarado of San Jose, who set her profile to read "R.i.P CaRlOs SOUSA. well miss you!," said in an e-mail interview that the social network gives Sousa's friends a way to communicate about their loss.
how would i feel if someone changed their profile to that? i'm not sure. I'd hope if someone were memoralizing my death, they'd at least have the common decency to use proper english and not cApItAlIzE every other letter of my first name, which almost just seems silly. i mean, that sort of thing is fun to do for fun, but to do it in an obituary type place?
MySpace users added headlines and photographs paying tribute to Sousa like "R.I.P CUZ :(," "R.I.P To My Cuz Carlos Sousa, you'll be missed is still trippin" and "R.I.P CARLOS SOUSA,will always be my BOY." Many of the profiles are set to private.
i like the "you'll be missed is still trippin" one. Maybe we should inscribe that on the tombstone, EXACTLY like that. it'd fit in well in a nice cemetary. maybe add the ":(" emoticon.
itz da myspace generation, cuz! tats jus how dey rawl! spellin aint kewl nem0re
my tombstone should read:
RiP otaku, u shur did fUcK a lotta HOES! WORD UP! POUR A FORTY OUT MUH FUH!
is nothing sacred?
POST SCRIPTUM: When I saw the guys pic (from the article where I yanked the quotes, http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/12/myspace-memoria.html) I started believing that this is the type of guy who probably would taunt a tiger, as some sort of immature show of his manliness. If that is the case, and if he were the one taunting and supposedly hanging limbs over the wall, then I say he got what he was asking for.
|
|
| ayn rand and modern healthcare |
[15 Dec 2007|10:28pm] |
i am reading atlas shrugged. i ran across this outtake, explaining why a medical doctor quit his job. i think we should keep this in mind in today's political discussions about nationalizing healthcare and what a potential disaster this could become. and this thing was written in the 50s! can you believe it? but it's happening today
"I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years ago," said Dr. Hendricks. "Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything - except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.' That a man who's willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards - never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind - yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it - and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn't."
|
|
|
[05 Dec 2007|12:59pm] |
hello comrades! i just heard livejournal is now russian owned. i just want to say i, for one, welcome my new russian overlords!
vodka all around!
|
|
|
[21 Nov 2007|08:24am] |
ok well, one of my annual rants is back. people who have thanksgiving dinner as thanksgiving lunch, but still call it thanksgiving dinner.
i think i'll be having a normal year today, i think it's around 5:30 or 6pm tomorrow. but what about YOU?
Poll #1092557 Thanksgiving Dinner
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllWhen are you planning to have Thanksgiving "dinner"?
i don't know, just for fun.
driving down to ft. lauderdale in my new car tomorrow. got a room at the hampton inn for really cheap, it'll be nice to have my own guaranteed bed and space :)
happy turkey day.
|
|
|
[18 Sep 2007|09:04pm] |
just got one of those notices from the social security people.
in the past 9 years, the government has stolen $13,266 from me to pay for other people's retirement, disability, and medical care, while i remain responsible enough to pay for my own retirement, potential disability, and medical care. and, of course, i have no hopes that this money i pay in will be available to me when i do retire, if i become disabled, or am eligible for medicare.
gotta love the government. hillary's health care plan will apparently make it illegal to be uninsured. what the fuck? all we need are more government programs, since they work so well.
just suck on the teat of the government, hillary'll take care of ya! momma's gonna keep baby healthy and clean!
|
|
|
[03 Sep 2007|02:14am] |
what's up with the lack of hurricanes heading for florida? mexico's getting all the fun!
from a story in reuters:
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.
U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.
About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.
come on people, we can do better than this! i believe if we tried really hard we could get up to 100 of 100 people.
now, i suppose this article says 90% of people in the US own guns. i think that's a bit inaccurate, wouldn't you say? do you really think 9 out of 10 people in the US have guns? it doesn't pass the smell test.
one of the worst quotes in the article was this last one:
Only about 12 percent of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with authorities.
ok, why does this matter? most states in the US don't even require a registration with authorities, so why would this even be mentioned? what, do all weapons have to be registered with the authorities, is that what they are assuming? unregistered weapons are dangerous or something? total bullshit line.
really, an update on my recent trips is upcoming. it is. i promise.
|
|
| personal responsibility in the digital age |
[26 Jul 2007|01:47pm] |
story: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/58511.html
Numerous committee members and computer experts testified about the types of information discovered on computers on which LimeWire software was installed. The documents mentioned in the testimony included classified government military orders, confidential corporate accounting documents and localized terrorist threat assessments. Other documents included personal information such as federal workers' credit card numbers, bank statements, tax returns and medical records.
if you choose to install P2P software without setting up the sharing settings properly (which default to pretty secure in LimeWire), then you're a fucking retard who shouldn't be installing p2p software. AND, if you install P2P software on a CORPORATE or GOVERNMENT machine, you should be IMMEDIATELY FIRED.
P2P technology has some benefits to government agencies and consumers alike, both committee members and some witnesses said. However, they also warned that file-sharing networks will continue to seriously endanger national security, intrude on personal privacy and violate copyright law if its use is not adequately restricted.
file sharing networks do not endanger national security or personal privacy, THE (often uninformed and not so tech savvy) PEOPLE USING THEM DO. this is not limewire's fault, it is THE END USER'S FAULT.
Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) is considering new laws aimed at addressing the problem, but did not offer specifics. He said he was troubled by the possibility that foreign governments, terrorists or organized crime could gain access to documents that reveal national secrets.
ARGH! i hope they seriously don't pass some sort of "p2p software is illegal" law. that would be horrible. this is like saying "phone systems are dangerous because people can call you and trick you into giving them your personal information, ergo we need laws against telephones"
A major problem with current P2P technology is that it tricks users into sharing files, according to Thomas Sydnor, an attorney-advisor in the Patent Office's copyright group.
In response, Gorton said that default program settings insured protection of files users intended to keep private. Those settings may be changed by users without knowing what they are doing, he said.
once again, one guy says p2p software tricks people into sharing files, but limewire's default settings are pretty good. if you change them, though, there's no helping you.
TechNewsWorld experimented with the software Tuesday by downloading and installing a copy of LimeWire onto a Linux computer.
Within four minutes of making the Limewire connection, the computer's firewall reported eight blocked connection attempts from other computer systems presumably running the LimeWire software. Those attempted incursions stopped once the connection was severed. Upon reconnection, similar attempts were caught by the Linux computer's firewall and blocked.
uhhhh, this is abnormal how exactly...? apparently they've never run a p2p program before.
"I'm not an expert, just someone who downloaded their software [LimeWire] and was hacked by some tweakers out in Oregon," Kelly Fitzgerald, managing partner at Breakaway Communications in New York, told TechNewsWorld. "The clever Portland police investigated a house of meth users and found my name on a list of people who they hacked, and they hacked me through LimeWire,"
The police told her that LimeWire was often found as the entry mechanism for these hackers to steal personal information. The computer intruders used her credit card to buy hotel stays and software, she said.
ok, this is hilarious. apparently these meth users were smart enough to "hack her" using just limewire. yeah, right! more likely explanation? this stupid cuntwhore improperly configured limewire and the meth heads were able to access credit card information that was for some reason stored on her computer. i mean, really, who keeps their credit card numbers sitting around in files on their computer, unencrypted? IMO, she got what she deserved for being stupid.
One is that P2P connections allow either communicating party to determine the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the other. With the advent of accurate geo-location services, it is possible to determine the exact physical location of that party based on the IP address. More importantly, this information can be gathered without the "victim" even realizing, as long as the P2P software is running.
i don't know what to say. HOLY SHIT!!! MY IP ADDRESS!!!!! OH NO!!!!!!!!!! I'M GONNA DIE NOW!!!!!!!!!! ip addresses are worthless unless a) a very experienced and driven hacker is trying to hack you, but hacking personal computers usually isn't worth the hassle or b) you don't know how to secure your network/computer.
also, those "geo-location" services they mention are shitty at best. they usually can pinpoint the station where your IP address was assigned, usually somewhere owned by your cable company or telephone company...they are not good at getting your actual location.
The other is that attackers often masquerade malicious executables as innocuous files and share them via P2P software. These files, when executed by the unaware downloader, can result in a compromise of their systems. If the victim is on a corporate resource (laptop or network) such an attack can result in the compromise of confidential corporate data or the spreading of viruses, he explained.
this is very true. but again, i chalk this down to stupid moronic users. if you are looking for a song and you find a file that has the same name as the song you want but ends in .exe and is only 300k, do you download it? OF COURSE NOT!!! unless you have a brain the size of a pea, that is. additionally, if you are running a current virus program on your machine, these executables should be detected quickly. and if you are running an OS other than Windows, you're secure out of the starting gate.
P2P networks do pose security risks, similar to setting up a wireless network in one's home or office, warned Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com.
so maybe we should hold congressional hearings about wireless networks and bring down the CEOs of linksys, netgear, belkin, etc? maybe we should grill them? i mean, really, i think more people are at risk from an improperly set-up wifi network than are at risk from p2p software.
but, if you are stupid, you will get burned in the tech world. and if you are dumb enough to improperly install p2p software, to download obvious viruses, to not have virus protection, or to improperly install a wireless network, then you deserve every bad thing that happens to you.
THIS IS NOT UNDER THE PURVIEW OF THE GOVERNMENT. THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT BE INVOLVED IN THIS. THERE IS NO LOGICAL REASON WHY THEY ARE GETTING INVOLVED. THEY SHOULD STOP WASTING MY GOD DAMNED MONEY ON SHIT INVESTIGATIONS LIKE THIS.
and that, my friends, is the bottom line here. (well, actually, this one is the bottom line)
|
|
|
[23 Jul 2007|01:54pm] |
since san francisco is so close to silicon valley, i am thinking of doing some geek-tourism.
currently on my hit list:
stanford university campus
apple campus
sand hill rd. and university rd. in san jose
Buck's Restaurant
3062 woodside rd
woodside, ca
Located one exit north of Sand Hill Road, which hosts the heaviest concentration of venture capital addresses in the Valley, Buck's has a venture-centric menu, with a featured technology start-up and investment gossip that's updated monthly. Jamis MacNiven, the irreverent owner of Buck's Restaurant, calls himself "just the pancake guy." But this pancake guy has been on the cover of many a technology and tourist magazine. His restaurant has also played host to outgoing Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle, banking magnate Warren Buffet and even former President Bill Clinton.
lion & compass
1023 n fairoaks ave.
sunnyvale, ca
This is where Atari was founded," says the bartender. "The CEOs from Cisco, Amdahl, Cypress, Yahoo -- all the hotshots have held gatherings here."
fairmont hotel (cocktails)
170 s market st
san jose, ca
"This is the biggest office in Silicon Valley," says hotel spokeswoman Lina Broydo. "I like to joke about the irony of watching people socialize in our lounge with a drink in one hand and a laptop mouse in the other." I have attended many schmooze sessions in this lobby, interviewing tech CEOs and such during conferences.
e&o trading co
96 s 1st ave
san jose, ca
"This is definitely the spot for geeks to schmooze," says a spike-haired bartender at E&O as he shakes up another batch of martinis for a group of seven techies standing around a table near the door.
visit a fry's electronics store
what other geeky things can you think of to do in the area? what have you ever wanted to see in silicon valley?
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
otaku1's journal
0 (0.0%)