Silicon Asylum

CIRA IDN Consultation

2011-10-11T08:33:00.003-04:00

I may update this with further thoughts later, but I wanted to get this up so people became aware of it....

Check it out, get a chance to have your thoughts heard:

"When a domain name works with any character beyond the a-z alphabet, it's called an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN). CIRA is considering the implementation of French character IDNs so that .CA domain names can be written correctly in French. Find out more about IDNs and about our proposed launch policy."
While I think this is an interesting idea I see lots of problems with implementing this change.

Lots of software will have to be updated to accommodate the change (DNS server software, DNS client software, all kinds of security packages [AV, FWs, IDS, IPS, etc])...

Adding other characters to DNS just BEGS FOR ABUSE. Think of the phishing possibilities using Domain Names with accented characters?

The change requires user education that will NEVER happen. it's hard enough to get users to pay attention to standard English domain names...

Companies will now have to pay for and maintain registrations for even more DNS entries for actual translations of their name and the numerous misspellings (assuming they care that a malicious individual may squat on such and ruin their name etc).

I haven't been able to find out but I doubt that anyone has actually done any analysis vs. Canadian HoneyPots/HoneyDNS to see if users are actually trying to use accented characters for DNS. It seems like this is going to "fix" something that isn't broken or add support for something that the community doesn't really need or want.

If the greater community actually wants to do this why don't we go full foreign character support at the same time? Fix/enhance software to handle all characters at the same time (instead of piece-meal), etc.

Show protocol portion of URL in Firefox 7+

2011-09-29T15:07:00.002-04:00

Firefox 7 is out now.

One of the "fixes" is that Firefox now follows Opera and Chrome is hidding the http:// protocol portion of URLs in the address bar.

As a security professional I enjoy being able to easily see what protocol my browser is talking (http/https/ftp) in any given tab/window. You can restore the previous functionality by navigating to about:config and setting:
browser.urlbar.trimURLs = false

VOTE for Firefox TLS 1.2 Support

2011-09-27T09:49:00.005-04:00

As some of you may have heard TLS1.0 got some bad news/press recently.

Various details: One, Two, and Three or check this Technical Paper (pdf).

So please go over here -> Firefox : Bug 480514 - Implement TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246) and VOTE!

If you're really ambitious you could also go vote for TLS 1.1 implementation (for the sake of maximizing compatability with web servers):
Firefox : Bug 565047 - Implement TLS 1.1 (RFC 4346)

Fall 2011 TV Premieres

2011-08-18T12:18:00.013-04:00

No my TV addiction hasn't ended :( Here's the 201 fall installment. I'm not going to bother listing times this year. Really most days have multiple shows plus most people have time shifting on their Cable or Sat. service so here are the dates that I've been able to find so far. I'll tweak and update as I find new details...

(* = new show; CTV Two was formerly A Channel)

11-09-01: Added "Up All Night" Sept 14th premiere.

Tuesday, September 13
-90210 (CW, Global) [Global seems to have Season 3 info but isn't yet showing a premiere date/time on their online schedule]
-Ringer (CW, Global) *

Wednesday, September 14
-Survivor (Global, CBS)
-Up All Night (CTV, NBC)*

Thursday, September 15
-The Secret Circle (CW) *

Monday, September 19
-Castle (CTV, ABC)
-NCIS (Global, CBS)
-Hawaii Five-O (Global, CBS)

Tuesday, September 20
-The Biggest Loser (CityTV, NBC)
-NCIS: LA (Global, CBS)

Wednesday, September 21
-CSI (CTV, CBS)
-Harry's Law (Global, NBC)
-Law & Order: SVU (CTV Two, NBC)
-Criminal Minds (CTV Two, CBS)

Thursday, September 22
-Charlie's Angels (CTV, ABC) *
-The Big Bang Theory (CTV, CBS)
-Grey's Anatomy (CTV, ABC)
-Person of Interest (CityTV, ABC) *
-The Mentalist (CTV, CBS)

Friday, September 23
-Blue Bloods (CTV, CBS)
-Fringe (CityTV, Fox)
-Nikita (CW)

Sunday, September 25
-The Amazing Race (CTV, CBS)
-The Simpsons (Global, Fox)
-CSI: Miami (CTV, CBS)
-Pan Am (CTV, ABC) *
-The Good Wife (Global, CBS)

Monday, September 26
-Terra Nova (CityTV, Fox) *
-Gossip Girl (CW)

Thursday, September 29
-Private Practice (CTV, CityTV, ABC)

Monday, October 3
-House (Global, Fox)

Friday, October 21
-Chuck (Space, NBC)

Thursday, November 3
-Bones (Global, Fox)

Curiosity on Discovery - Intelligent Design & Stephen Hawking

2011-08-15T12:25:00.010-04:00

So I saw this show recently on the Discovery channel in Canada (Curiosity: Did God Create the Universe).

The show is hosted by Stephen Hawking, he's a pretty bright guy and the content of the show is very interesting. However, I'm EXTREMELY disappointed with the show and Stephen's conclusion.

Their conclusion is that since time started with the Big Bang itself, there was no time prior to the Big Bang and therefore couldn't have been a being or entity to cause the Big Bang. The problem with this as I see it though is the fact that they assume a 3 or 4 (3 + time) dimensional existence. Yet numerous scientific theories suggest > 3 or 4 dimensions, in fact up to ten that I've read about*. So why can't the Big Bang have been created or started by a being or entity that lives outside of our 3 or 4 dimensions, something that lives or exists outside of our time dimension?

*Imagining the Tenth Dimension ... Hmm I'm having problems with that one in Firefox so here's an Alternate from youtube. ~11 mins, discussion of 5th and 6th dimensions begin around the 4.5min mark.

Green Papaya (Thai Garden)

2011-04-27T10:48:00.006-04:00

I just found this location a few weeks ago and have since been over twice and have another trip planned for later this week.

Green Papaya (Thai Garden)

"At the THAI GARDEN Restaurant, explore the Classic culinary traditions of Thailand, Buffet style for lunch and regular service for dinner."

I've only been there for lunch and their buffet is great! Two soups, some salads, about 12 different mains (maybe even approaching 18) including: various curries, pad thai, spring rolls, two rices (to put your curries on) etc, and a few deserts.

They make a red pork curry I really like, as well as a yellow chicken/potato curry that I've ordered from their non-buffet locations before and their soups are delicious.

Price is decent ~$14 for lunch buffet (IIRC).

Why "Don't buy gas on xyz date" chain emails are a big failure

2011-04-12T14:12:00.007-04:00

I got this forward this morning and have seen a number of blog posts about it:

Example:

"New gas protest circulating for April 15th, see following:

What the heck, I’ll go do it! If running low, just get your gas the day before on April 14 or the day after on April 16. Every little bit helps

In April 1997, there was a “gas out” conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.

On April 15th 2011, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $1.20 a liter in most places.

If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that’s almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on April 15th and let’s try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.

If you agree (which I can’t see why you wouldn’t) resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, “Don’t pump gas on April 15th”"

Sorry to be a nay sayer but I don't see it.

There are ~34Million people in Canada (according to the CIA World Fact Book). In order to "cost" the Gas or oil companies 3 billion each person in Canada would have to NOT buy ~$88 worth of gas.

68.5% of Canada's population is driving aged : 15-64 years. Yes some older people "can" drive, but some 15, 16, 17, 18, etc year olds don't or can't (~23.3million people). Which means that to "cost" them 3billion each driving age person has to NOT buy ~$129 worth of gas on the given day.

Now lets assume that 33% of driving age people buy gas on any given day (~7.7million). Each of them would have to NOT buy ~$390 worth of gas.

Etc etc, considering car pooling, not everyone drives everyday, people "drive" for a living and those companies will continue to buy gas to perform their commercial activities (the post office, the cops, the military, truck drives, construction....).

Not to mention that similar to death and taxes almost all of us are in the unavoidable situation that we need gas to run our cars. So even if we don't buy it on the appointed day we'll still have to buy it the day before or the day after......and who has complete control of the price of gas? THE GAS & OIL companies.

This idea has been circulating for some time, snopes.com wrote up "Pain in the Gas" in 2007.

How many Justin Biebers could you take in a fight?

2011-03-17T09:59:00.007-04:00

Click the image to take the quiz for yourself.

Created by Oatmeal

The Big Bang Theory (TV Series)

2010-10-26T09:24:00.003-04:00

So for the last 3 (IIRC) years one of my favorite shows on TV has been "The Big Bang Theory". I totally relate to this show, though the characters are more geeky than I. The things that come up with them are things that came up with my group of friends in college, the things that still come up with the people I work with, and are things that I regularly read about on slashdot, etc. The show is crazy funny and even my wife watches it with me....though I suspect this might be mainly because she just enjoys how much and how hard it makes me laugh :D

Today I came across a great site that covers the science behind the science of the show... It's lots of fun so check it out if you're a science lover (even if you don't watch the show):

The Big Blog Theory

Keyboard Shortcuts (Part III)

2010-10-13T12:48:00.005-04:00

Building on my previous posts:
Keyboard Shortcuts (Part I) and Keyboard Shortcuts (Part II)

Excel:

- When you have a cell some kind of content and want to see the insertion point so that you can navigate the value and edit it press F2.
- If you want to add lines to a cell (i.e.: enter multiple lines of text in a single cell) use alt + enter.

General:

- In most Windows applications when a dialog box appears the buttons can be activated ('clicked') by typing the first character or the word. i.e.: Save (s), Don't Save (d), Restart (r), etc.
- In most Windows applications when a dialog box is showing you can use tab to navigate between the controls (buttons, file lists, etc.)
- ctrl + tab > In a control panel or similar allows switching between tabs (combine with shift to go in the opposite direction). In web browsers/word processors/Excel this usually allows you to cycle through tabs or windows.

Fall 2010 Premiere Schedule

2010-08-27T12:07:00.011-04:00

Same as other years, here's the premiere line-up for the fall. This list is a work in progress, let me know if I've missed anything notable.

Update >12-Sept-2010: Continued updates and Canadian'ization :)

Update > 2-Sept-2010: Canadian networks/carriers being listed as "CAN: Network" i.e.: "CAN: Space", updates are being marked with italicizes dates as they're added. Though the list was started based on a US article and details I do plan to switch things to the relevant Canadian dates/times. From what I've seen so far the Canadian premieres are usually within a few days of the US, so as long as you're setting timers etc a few days in advance you shouldn't have problems following this list.

Wednesday, September 8
Hellcats - The CW CAN: ATV – 9/8c

Thursday, September 9
The Vampire Diaries - The CW CAN: CTV – 8/7c [2-Sept-2010 CTV is not currently advertising a premiere date for Fall 2010?]
Nikita - The CW CAN: ATV – 9/8c

Sunday, September 12
Lost Girl - CAN: Showcase - 9/8c [Added 2-Sept-2010]

Monday, September 13
90210 - The CW CAN: Global – 8/7c
Gossip Girl - The CW CAN: ATV – 9/8c

Tuesday, September 14
Parenthood - NBC – 10/9c
One Tree Hill - The CW – 8/7c
Life Unexpected - The CW – 9/8c

Wednesday, September 15
Outlaw - NBC CAN: Global – 10/9c [CAN Premiere Fri. Sept 17th]

Monday, September 20
Castle - ABC CAN: CTV – 10/9c
Hawaii Five-O - CBS CAN: Global – 10/9c
House - Fox CAN: Global – 8/7c
Lone Star - Fox – 9/8c
Chuck - NBC – 8/7c
The Event - NBC CAN: CityTV – 9/8c
Chase - NBC – 10/9c

Tuesday, September 21
Detroit 1-8-7 - ABC – 10/9c
NCIS - CBS CAN: Global – 8/7c [CAN Premiere Wed. Sept 22nd]
NCIS: Los Angeles (two-hour premiere) - CBS CAN: Global – 9/8c
Glee - Fox – 8/7c

Wednesday, September 22
The Whole Truth - ABC – 10/9c
Criminal Minds - CBS CAN: CTV – 9/8c
The Defenders - CBS CAN: CTV – 10/9c
Undercovers - NBC CAN: CityTV – 8/7c
Law & Order: SVU (two-hour premiere) - NBC CAN: CTV – 9/8c

Thursday, September 23
The Big Bang Theory - CAN: CTV -
My Generation - ABC – 8/7c
Grey's Anatomy - ABC CAN: CTV -
Private Practice - ABC -
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - CBS CAN: CTV – 9/8c
The Mentalist - CBS CAN: CTV – 10/9c
Bones - Fox – 8/7c
Fringe - Fox CAN: CityTV – 9/8c

Friday, September 24
Medium - CBS – 8/7c
CSI: NY - CBS CAN: CTV – 9/8c
Blue Bloods - CBS – 10/9c
Human Target - Fox CAN: CTV – 8/7c
The Good Guys - Fox – 9/8c
Smallville - The CW – 8/7c
Supernatural - The CW – 9/8c

Sunday, September 26
Desperate Housewives - ABC
Brothers & Sisters - ABC

Tuesday, September 28
No Ordinary Family - ABC – 8/7c
The Good Wife - CBS CAN: Global – 10/9c

Wednesday, September 29
Law & Order: Los Angeles - NBC – 10/9c

Friday, October 1
Stargate Universe - CAN: Space – 10/9c [Added 2-Sept-2010]

Sunday, October 3
CSI: Miami - CBS CAN: CTV – 10/9c

Wednesday, November 10
Lie to Me – Fox CAN: Global – 9/8c [This may have already start in Canada, it seems to me that the episodes which are on currently are new.]

Something that perplexes me....

2009-10-08T12:20:00.005-04:00

I just came across this bit about asteroid Apophis and the chances of it impacting earth.

"NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid known as Apophis and now say it has only a very slim chance of banging into Earth.. The Apophis asteroid is approximately the size of two-and-a-half football fields, and updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036 for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a million, NASA stated."

So here's the bit that rubs me wrong: "four-in-a million". Why not say "one-in-250,000". If the authors are really stuck on the whole "four-in" thing then they should have said four-in-180,000 to start with.

I really find inconsistencies like this baffling, I wish I knew the author and could understand what they hoped to gain by reporting the number in this way.

June Premieres

2009-06-09T09:04:00.003-04:00

Here's a short list of shows starting this month that seem interesting.

Returning:
Burn Notice (USA) June 4

The title refers to the burn notices issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents or sources who are considered to have become unreliable. When a spy is burned, they are wiped off the "grid". According to the narration during the opening credits, the burned spy has no prior work history, no money; basically no identity. The television series is a first-person narrative (including frequent voice-overs providing nuggets of exposition) from the viewpoint of covert-operations agent Michael Westen, played by Jeffrey Donovan.

After fleeing a Nigerian operation blown apart by the sudden and unexplained non-cooperation of his U.S. contact, Westen finds himself in his hometown[3] of Miami, Florida, attended to by his ex-girlfriend, Fiona Glenanne, but abandoned by all his normal intelligence contacts, under continuous surveillance with his personal assets frozen. Extraordinary efforts to reach his U.S. government handler eventually yield only a grudging admission that someone powerful wants him "on ice" in Miami; if he leaves the city he will "heat up fast", i.e., he will be hunted down and taken into custody, whereas by staying there he can remain relatively free. Consumed by the desire to find out why he has been burned, and by whom, Westen goes to work as an unlicensed private investigator/spy/soldier of fortune for anyone in town who can pay him any money in order to fund his personal investigation into his own situation as a blacklisted agent.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burn_Notice
* http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/

Eli Stone (ABC) June 20

The show starred Jonny Lee Miller in the title role of attorney Eli Stone. In the first episode, Stone is discovered to have an inoperable brain aneurysm which is causing hallucinations. His acupuncturist, Dr. Chen, suggests that his hallucinations are actually divinely inspired visions of the future. These visions often foreshadowed future cases and events, including an impending earthquake.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Stone
* http://abc.go.com/primetime/elistone/index?pn=index

Cleaner (A&E) June 23

William Banks, played by Benjamin Bratt, is a drug addict. With the birth of Lula, his daughter, William makes a deal with God arguing, if he is given a second chance, he will end his drug abuse and help others to end their addictions to sex, drugs, and gambling. William Banks and a small team of recovering addicts work to help others in recovering from their addictions. Banks and his team will resort to unethical and illegal tactics in order to end their clients' addictions.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cleaner_(TV_series)
* http://www.aetv.com/the-cleaner/

New:
Listener (NBC) June 4

he Listener is a Canadian supernatural drama about a young paramedic named Toby Logan (Craig Olejnik) with the ability to listen to people's most intimate thoughts. Aided by his partner Osman Bey (Enis Esmer), Toby Logan is a 28-year-old paramedic who did not know his parents and grew up in foster homes. Until now Toby has kept his ability secret and the only one he has shared it with is his old counselor and confidant, Dr. Ray Mercer (Colm Feore). While he crosses the city of Toronto in his ambulance with his partner Oz, Toby tries to help persons in crisis and on the way treat his own wounds. With the help of Detective Marks (Lisa Marcos) and his ex-girlfriend Olivia (Myléne Dinh-Robic), an E.R doctor, Toby realizes that his gift can serve to help other people.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Listener_(TV_series)
* http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows/20090505/listener_airdate_090505

Survive This (CN) June 17

On this show, Les Stroud takes eight teenagers into the wild to teach them how to survive.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survive_This

Merlin (NBC) June 21

Merlin is a British television drama series that began in 2008. It is loosely based on the Arthurian legends of the mythical wizard Merlin and his relationship with Prince Arthur, but differs significantly from traditional versions of the myth. Produced by independent production company Shine Limited for BBC One, the programme was designed to run in the same Saturday evening family drama slot as other UK series such as Doctor Who and Robin Hood.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(TV_series)
* http://www.merlinsite.com/

(I was kind of rushing to get this done so all synopsis quotes above are taken from wikipedia.)

Really? Hello, wakey wakey...

2009-06-03T12:11:00.009-04:00

Just caught this over on slashdot

"The unmanned vehicle is remotely operated by pilots aboard a surface ship via a lightweight tether. Its thin, fibre-optic tether to the research vessel Kilo Moana allows the submersible to make deep dives and be highly manoeuvrable. Nereus can also be switched into a free-swimming, autonomous vehicle. ... The Challenger Deep... is the deepest abyss on Earth at 11,000m-deep, more than 2km (1.2 miles) deeper than Mount Everest is high. At that depth, pressures reach 1,100 times those at the surface."

Hmmmm lets see 11,000m that's 11km. Yup 11 > 2 ... good job!

For anyone in a nation that hasn't switched to the metric system and still care how long the king's foot is, that's >6miles.

Orignal source seems to be the BBC.

As Homer would say "SMRT".

LotR Fan Film - The Hunt for Gollum

2009-05-01T13:37:00.005-04:00

"The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer."

I just watched two trailers and two teasers and all I can say is "Wow!"

http://www.thehuntforgollum.com/

"By fans for fans", it looks like they've done an excellent job.

Release date is Sunday May 3rd 2009.

Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-30T13:10:00.010-04:00

So how did the City of Ottawa do for EarthHour 2009?

http://www.hydroottawa.com/NewsEvents/news_display.cfm?LANG=e&act=form&News_ID=175

The FACTS:

Hydro Ottawa measured the city’s usage at 697,270 kilowatt-hours (kWh) between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. a reduction of 43,581kWh (6%) – compared to the same hour on the previous Saturday.

This represents enough electricity savings to power 58 homes for a month.

Hydro Ottawa is responsible ... delivery of electricity to more than 291,000 residential and business customers in the city of Ottawa and the village of Casselman.

So ~1.1 Million people in Ottawa Carleton managed to save enough power for ~0.000199312715% of Hydro Ottawa's customer base for a single month. (Rounded that's 1/5,000th of their customer base).

I'm still trying to find numbers that show how 9:30-10:30 right after Earth Hour compare to the same hour the week before. I also tried finding Ottawa's annual consumption numbers with little luck (if anyone has any ideas please leave a comment).

Here are some posts from a friend of mine on the topic:

http://www.squidzone.ca/the_squid_zone/2009/03/earth-hour-yay.html

http://www.squidzone.ca/the_squid_zone/2009/03/the-environmental-savings-of-not-populating-the-earth.html

http://www.squidzone.ca/the_squid_zone/2008/03/index.html

Life Experience Quiz

2008-12-12T13:42:00.004-05:00

Caught this on another blog I read now and then and thought I'd take it myself.

It's slightly unfair as there are a few things that are in the "never gonna happen" category. From a UI design point of view I think they should give you the option of stating so and then have a section for standard results (as seen in the first few lines below) and a section refined results (based on the "never gonna happen" selections you made). But that's just me.
(Say there were 10 things that fell into my "never gonna happen" set, that'd mean I'd actually score closer to 55%).

The Life Experience Test

Overall, you have partaken in 87 out of 169 possible life experiences.
Your average life experience score is therefore 51%.

The average score is 51%, making your experiences more than 46% of the people who have taken this test.
The average for your age group (26-35) is 53%.

Broken down by category:
Art: 6/17 (35%)
Career & Work: 7/13 (54%)
Civics & Technology: 5/7 (71%)
Crime & Disarray: 4/11 (36%)
Education: 12/18 (67%)
Fashion: 6/10 (60%)
Fitness, Health and Sports: 2/7 (29%)
Life in General: 9/14 (64%)
Relationships: 12/14 (86%)
Religion & Politics: 2/4 (50%)
Social: 14/22 (64%)
Travel: 4/20 (20%)
Vices: 4/12 (33%)

Take the test and see how YOU compare

Yay! Someone else cares ....

2008-12-02T12:07:00.005-05:00

I just ran across this on some forums and was VERY happy to see it.

It partially restored my faith in literacy amongst today's youth. Sadly there is actually a minor grammatical error in it but it's still a step in the right direction.

2008 Fall Premiere Schedule

2008-08-28T14:59:00.006-04:00

As some of you may know I have a pretty healthy TV addiction so without further ado here is the fall premiere schedule I've put together. Please feel free to comment if you can think of anything I've missed. (Especially new series).

Gossip Girl (CW) Sept 1 8PM
Prison Break (Fox) Sept 1 8PM (2 Hours)
One Tree Hill (CW) Sept 1 9PM

New 90210 (CW) Sept 2 8PM (2 Hours)

Bones (Fox) Sept 3 8PM (2 Hours)

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox) Sept 8 8PM

House (Fox) Sept 16 8PM

Survivor: Gabon (CBS) Sept 18 8PM
Smallville (CW) Sept 18 8PM

Big Bang Theory (CBS) Sept 22 8PM
Heroes (NBC) Sept 22 9PM (2 Hours)
CSI: Miami (CBS) Sept 22 10PM
Boston Legal (ABC) Sept 22 10PM

NCIS (CBS) Sept 23 8PM
Law & Order: SVU (NBC) Sept 23 10PM

New Knight Rider (NBC) Sept 24 8PM
Criminal Minds (CBS) Sept 24 9PM
CSI: NY (CBS) Sept 24 10PM

Ugly Betty (ABC) Sept 25 8PM
Grey's Anatomy (ABC) Sept 25 9PM (2 Hours)
The Office (NBC) Sept 25 9PM
ER (NBC) Sept 25 10PM

The Amazing Race (CBS) Sept 28 8PM
The Unit (CBS) Sept 28 10PM

Dragon's Den (CBC) Sept 29
Chuck (NBC) Sept 29 8PM

Private Practice (ABC) Oct 1 9PM

Ghost Whisperer (CBS) Oct 3 8PM
Everybody Hates Chris (CW) Oct 3 8PM
Numb3rs (CBS) Oct 3 10PM

CSI (CBS) Oct 9 9PM

My Own Worst Enemy (NBC) Oct 13 10PM

Hapa Izakaya

2008-08-03T22:59:00.006-04:00

While I was out in Vancouver during the summer someone recommended this little restaurant, I REALLY enjoyed myself and wanted to put my thoughts out there for everyone else.

Their website is still under construction (currently just addresses and phone numbers).

I dined at the following location:
1479 Robson St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-689-4272

When we arrived (we walked from our hotel), we were greeted immediately at the open front door. Once inside the greeter said something in Japanese and all the staff in sight welcomed us (as they did for everyone that came in while we were there). To some this may seem obnoxious but it really wasn't. We were promptly given the choice of a 'normal' (North American) table or a more Asian table (you take your shoes off and put them on a shelf, sit at a low table with room for your legs to dangle). We chose an Asian table (as we would have had to wait for normal table.

We'd previously gone out for Sushi at another place so we tried for the same Sake*. Unfortunately they didn't have it but suggested another cold unfiltered sake that was pretty good (Pearl Momokaw).

After reviewing the menu we decided on the following:

Kimchi - Pickled Spicey Cabage

The co-worker I was out with suggested this, it was interesting and I ate more that I expected when it was first described to me. I don't think it's something I'd eat all the time but a few times a year when I'm traveling, definitely.

Yaki Udon - Thick Noodles

This was a really tasty Udon with pork and veggies, if you enjoy noodle dishes I'd definately recommend this.

Bintoro - Grilled Tuna w/ Mustard Seed Sauce

If you don't like Sushi/Sashimi then you probably won't enjoy this. The tuna is grilled but very rare. I thought it was really tasty, and the Mustard Seed sauce was prepared perfectly (not too hot not too mild).

Ishi-Yaki - Hot Stone Bowl cooked rice, egg, pork, scalions, etc.

This was really cool, they bring out a stone bowl that's been headed in the oven (or whatever) filled with steaming rice, etc and mix it up table-side. You wait a few mins for the egg and stuff to cook then dig in.

Kakuni - Steamed Pork Buns

We expected this to be kind of traditional Chinese style steamed BBQ pork buns (well maybe what I'm used to isn't actually "traditional", but there is definitely an expectation of Pork buns that I've seen from restaurants in North America). We were wrong, it came as an assemble your own kind of thing. A few big chunks of pork in a very nice sauce, cooked nice and tender. With a steamed bun that looked more like a pita which you folded like a taco and loaded up with pork. The people next to us seemed to enjoy it more than we did, the buns we received were actually a little tough. (I'd go for the pork without the buns next time :) )

Kabocha - Whipped Japanese Pumpkin with Whipped Cream and Melba Toasts.

This item was on the appetizer menu but once we saw it we saved it for desert. It was very tasty with just the right amount of sweet vs savory.

* For anyone that is keeping score the sake we'd had at our sushi dinner was Hakutsuru Sayuri Sake. It's an unfiltered Nigori Sake which is meant to be served cold (Nigori is generally the sweetest of all sakes). I just checked quickly and it is available from the LCBO.

Update: 2011-Apr-12. Adding UrbanSpoon "Spoonback". Updated a few URLs.

You know you're a computer security person when ...

2008-06-13T09:00:00.002-04:00

A colleague of mine sent this along yesterday:
Are you a computer security professional?

It's a very accurate description of me and basically everyone I work with directly, kind of scary that it's so close actually.

Firefox 3 Overview Screencast

2008-06-09T13:46:00.002-04:00

I came across a neat little screencast that covers a bunch of the new features in Firefox (about 4 mins long). If you're a fan and haven't installed a beta or release candidate you might wanna check it out. Maybe even if you have installed the beta you'll wanna check it out as it can give you some tips that you may not know.

YAMP (Yet another movie post)

2008-05-22T09:39:00.004-04:00

* Hancock. Will smith, dysfunctional comic book superhero movie. Just caught a commercial for this one last night while watching TV, looks pretty good.

Techno-idiots (Part 3)

2008-05-15T09:04:00.003-04:00

As some of you may know I do work involving IT Security for a living. To make my life easy I often use BackTrack. BackTrack is a Linux LiveCD that includes a whole load of IT Security tools (nmap, kismet, nikto...100s of tools). As with many online communities these days they offer forums for their users to ask questions etc.

What amazes me is the sheer idiocy of some of the people we get on the forums. I can completely understand that lots of people want to been a l33t h4x0rs. But SERIOUSLY...WTF PEOPLE!

For every good post (someone with a decent technical question or someone that wants to share something cool) there are 20 posts from truly clueless individuals, like:

"If i Don`t have any clients connected to my wep ...."

WTF are people doing trying to crack WEP and "test" Wireless Access Points, if they don't even know how the freaking things work.....actually strike that not how they work but just the basics of the terminology surrounding the thing. You don't connect to WEP. Perhaps you connect "via" it or "using" it.

I'm not even going to get into the fact that consumer products are insecure to start with and how breaking WEP should be completely irrelevant if you're using decent WPA or even better WPA with Radius auth.

The next big DUH! related to all these stupid posts is the people always claim "I'm trying to break MY WEP" etc. We know very well you're trying to hi-jack your neighbor's service and get free internet access (or similar circumstance) so STOP BSing us and wasting everyone's time.
1) You're wasting time with something you obviously don't understand.
2) There's no point in testing your own setup if you just do it right in the first place.
3) 99.999% of the time you're breaking the law. (Even if you tell us you have "permission"....we'll trust ya really...WTF?)

While IANAL, I did manage to dig some info up. Here is some of the relevant Canadian Criminal Code (Federal):
C-46, Section 326

Theft of telecommunication service

326. (1) Every one commits theft who fraudulently, maliciously, or without colour of right,
(a) abstracts, consumes or uses electricity or gas or causes it to be wasted or diverted; or
(b) uses any telecommunication facility or obtains any telecommunication service.

Definition of “telecommunication”
(2) In this section and section 327, "telecommunication" means any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images or sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, visual or other electromagnetic system.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 287; 1974-75-76, c. 93, s. 23.

Possession of device to obtain telecommunication facility or service

327. (1) Every one who, without lawful excuse, the proof of which lies on him, manufactures, possesses, sells or offers for sale or distributes any instrument or device or any component thereof, the design of which renders it primarily useful for obtaining the use of any telecommunication facility or service, under circumstances that give rise to a reasonable inference that the device has been used or is or was intended to be used to obtain the use of any telecommunication facility or service without payment of a lawful charge therefor, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

Forfeiture
(2) Where a person is convicted of an offence under subsection (1) or paragraph 326(1)(b), any instrument or device in relation to which the offence was committed or the possession of which constituted the offence, on such conviction, in addition to any punishment that is imposed, may be ordered forfeited to Her Majesty, whereupon it may be disposed of as the Attorney General directs.

So if it's not yours then don't use it. If you do use it then know you have to prove a "lawful excuse" for such use and that you'll likely forfeit your gear for at least the duration of the investigation and trial(s).

C-46, Section 430

Mischief in relation to data

(1.1) Every one commits mischief who wilfully
(a) destroys or alters data;
(b) renders data meaningless, useless or ineffective;
(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use of data; or
(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use of data or denies access to data to any person who is entitled to access thereto.

Punishment

(2) Every one who commits mischief that causes actual danger to life is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.
Punishment

(3) Every one who commits mischief in relation to property that is a testamentary instrument or the value of which exceeds five thousand dollars
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Idem

(4) Every one who commits mischief in relation to property, other than property described in subsection (3),
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

A good summary of relevant US law can be found here:
http://irongeek.com/i.php?page=computerlaws/state-hacking-laws

Other Upcoming Movies.....

2008-05-13T10:30:00.009-04:00

Looks like I missed some notable ones:

* X-Files 2: I Want to Believe. (Downloadable trailers here and other info here.)
* Journey to the Cener of the Earth. Based on the Jules Verne classic.

Soooo many good movies this year...

2008-05-02T09:15:00.006-04:00

Note: I've linked to Apple's trailers, the links are likely to become invalid over time. Just google the movie names and you'll find the official sites.

* Wanted This one was completely unknown to me until this morning. Angelina Jolie & Morgan Freeman in an awesome Mr. & Mrs. Smith meets Transporter kinda flic.
* Mongol. The Genghis Khan story.
* Hulk.
* Indiana Jones - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
* Hellboy 2 - The Golden Army.
* IronMan. Starts tonight (2 May 2008).
* Bangkok Dangerous. Nicholas Cage plays an assassin in Thailand.
* Get Smart. Action comedy remake of the classic series with Maxwell Smart and Agent 99.
* WALL*E. Pixar's next, about a little lonely robot.
* The Spiderwick Chronicles. I just found this on Apple's site, however it says Feb 2008 and I don't recall seeing it in previews or commercials. The official site says DVD June 24.
* Batman - The Dark Knight.

"What Excessive Pay Package?" : CEOs vs Average Joes

2008-04-29T10:49:00.007-04:00

http://www.portfolio.com/interactive-features/2007/06/salary_comparison

It loads a flash animation...move the slider left/right.

Gist:
1970 - CEOs made 28 times more than average workers.
2005 - CEOs made 465 times more than average workers.

Gouge!

Homonyms that make me go hmmmm......

2008-04-17T08:20:00.004-04:00

Homonyms are words that are similar, but have different meanings. Examples of homonyms include: two/to/too, accept/except, and there/their/they're.

All of which I have no problem with. The one that always catches me is affect/effect.

I've tried to google up some simple rules but haven't had much luck.

According to YourDictionary.com there are 5 rules for their use. Including

2. It is appropriate to use the word "effect" if one of these words is used immediately before the word: into, no, take, the, any, an, or and.

As if I'm ever going to remember that (along with 4 others) while I'm writing a document.

Some people say it's simple. That "affect" should deal with influence while "effect" should deal with result or causality. But to me that doesn't clarify it sufficiently, sometimes something can be interpreted as both resultant and causal.

For example, I had to send an email this morning with the following line:

Not to mention that new functionality can (and often does) have an effect on existing functionality.

I went with "effect" but one could easily argue that "affect" would have worked as well. Looking at it now, part of me thinks I should have used "affect".

Does anyone have an easy rule or two for working out affect vs effect?

Numb3rs Does PC vs. Mac Spoof Commercial

2008-04-15T14:24:00.004-04:00

I'm a big fan of Numb3rs which is usually on Friday nights, the good news is it's now back with new episodes (post-writers guild strike). It looks like CBS has put together a spoof on Apple's PC vs. Mac commercials. I found it kinda amusing so I thought I'd post it.

Light Graffiti

2008-04-03T14:08:00.001-04:00

Found this great collection online today and thought I'd pass it along.
Freaky Light Graffiti

Gonna have to play with this concept a little over the summer with my new DSLR.

Crazy....Just Crazy

2008-02-14T10:55:00.004-05:00

I've NEVER seen anything like this before. You know you goto parties and there's always an annoying person that has to make their crystal wine cup sing but that's just completely annoying and ear breaking compared to this. It's safe for work. Just watch it. You'll need headphones.
Crazy Crystal Glass Music Making

Eaten By Trees

2008-02-13T10:35:00.002-05:00

I found this amusing so I thought I'd pass it along. Gallery of trees "eating" things, you know if you leave something on/against a tree long enough the tree will claim it as it's very own. I really liked the motorbike and Christmas light pics. The bike doesn't loot that old but it's leaning against one of those crazy fast growing tropical trees.

Solar Cycle 24 Has Begun

2008-01-28T11:19:00.001-05:00

For anyone geeky enough to care, NOAA is reporting that Solar Cycle 24 has begun (as of Jan 4th). This means that solar activity (storms, flares, wind etc.) is now on the up-swing. The solar activity maximum is expected around 2011/2012. For anyone that doesn't know solar storms can seriously mess with our little planet by disrupting satellite communications, power grids (MTL 1989), etc.

For all the latest greatest on astronomical events which might affect us check out spaceweather.com.

I hate the Forward button - One Day Gas Boycotts

2008-01-09T13:35:00.001-05:00

Well it's a New Year so I'm going to start with a new rant.

I hate the forward button, I understand it's place in the evolution of email etc. but it seems that the only time I hear from certain relatives is when they're taken in by a stupid forward/chain email they got.

This time of year there seems to be a reoccurring one suggesting that people should refrain from purchasing gas on a particular day. You know the email, I'm sure you've seen it. Basically it states that if everyone refuses to buy gas on a certain date it will cost the oil/gas companies so many 10s of millions to billions of dollars.

Here's a few reasons why these forwards/chain mails are complete stupidity.

The calculations are always wrong.
1) Yes, there are ~33.3million Canadians, but guess what? NOT ALL OF THEM DRIVE. Even if we assume the entire population between 15 and 64 drives that's only ~23million. Now what happens to that ~23million if we remove say 10% for public transit, 10% for car pooling, 5% for stay at home moms, 3% for the 15-20 year olds that haven't bothered to get a license, 2% for those who work from home, and 1% for the disabled. Hmmmm that takes out about another 7 million, so now you're down to ~16million.

So we've already cut the calculation pool in half (50%).

2) They always assume everyone who drives will be filling up on the day they want to boycott.

So the calculation pool is now down to 50/7 = ~7%. I'll even be nice and say that they pick a Monday or Thursday (assuming pre or post weekend rush) and say 10%.

3) They assume that not paying at the pumps somehow translates into a loss. So on boycott day you need gas but decide not to buy it and take a bus or something, aren't you still gonna need gas the next day? THERE IS NO LOSS, you just delay them getting their money. It's not as if you stop needing gas just because you don't buy it for one day.

4) They always try to target a particular gas vendor (i.e. Petro-Canada). Which further cuts the effect by say 1/8 (there are probably 8 big gas station operators in Canada....I'm just going off the top of my head here but: Shell, Petro, Texico, McEwen, Sunoco, Esso, Mr. Gas, CT, Suny's, ok that's 9 but you get the idea. There more there are the worse it is for the calculation.)

So now our calculation pool is down to 10/8 = 1.25%

So 1.25% of ~33.3million = 416,250
Assume an average tank size of 40L, that's 16,650,000L sold. Further assume a horrible price of $1.10. So we keep some gas vendor from receiving $18,315,000 on a certain date.

According to here, Imperial oil (who owns Esso) had "record earnings of more than $3 billion".

So what's ~18.3million against 3billion? About six tenths (6/10) of a percent. (0.61% actually).

Missing that 0.61% for a whole day will definitely teach them a lesson. NOT!

For reference:
CIA World Fact Book - Canada

New Author Chosen to Finish Wheel of Time Series

2007-12-11T13:37:00.000-05:00

http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=326

"Tor Books has announced that Brandon Sanderson has been selected to complete A MEMORY OF LIGHT, the final novel in the Wheel of Time saga."

In a previous life.....

2007-12-04T09:03:00.000-05:00

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Kind Priest.
Where You Lived: Turkey.
How You Died: Killed in Battle.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

Wow, I was a priest? and a kind one at that. Are there many mean (or unkind) priests around?

USB 3.0 Inbound

2007-11-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

Looks like various forces in the industry are trying to get USB 3.0 "SuperSpeed" out next year. @ 4.7Gb/s it will be 10x faster than today's 480 Mb/s.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/29/intel_seeks_usb_3_contribs/

I wonder if Apple et al are working on Firewire 4000?

Do you use your Browser's Home button?

2007-11-27T10:05:00.000-05:00

I recently came across this article Firefox Homepage JavaScript Execution, which asks the question:

"how often do you click on the Homepage button?"

To which I think to myself, "as often as I need to visit about:blank....ie: never." How often do other people use the Home button? Personally I always found it kind of useless.

Learned something today

2007-11-26T10:36:00.000-05:00

Will wonders never cease, eh?

Reading through some comments on Bad Astronomy BLOG I came across this.

"11 kilopicoseconds as Earth’s escape velocity makes no sense.
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/correct.htm"

At first I didn't understand what the commenter was talking about. "kilopicoseconds, wtf" I thought to myself. After reading the colostate URL info it struck me, Phil had written "11 kps" in his blog.

"The symbol for a compound unit that is a quotient of two units is indicated by a solidus or by a negative exponent.

* RIGHT: km/h or km·h-1 (for kilometers per hour)
* WRONG: kmph or kph (do not use p as a symbol for "per".)

* BUT: It is correct to say or write "kilometers per hour"."

I know lots of people that use p as "per" but now I know better. I'll stick with the "/" in the future.

Exit or Not?

2007-11-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

The green sign above says it's an Exit (even Green for GO!!!!).
The signs to the left say 1st floor stairwell & "-> Exit this floor".
The sign on the door says "Not an Exit".

WTF? In case of fire, get stuck in logic loop, burn, die....GAH!

Starting a campaign against "and/or"

2007-11-16T09:11:00.001-05:00

I've decided to wage a small war against the use of "and/or" in English. I'm going to fix the world one small step at a time :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Grading_scheme#Grading_Template_Needs_Copy_Editing

Well I probably won't fix the world but at least it makes me happy to try and fix the problems I see.

Techno-idiots (Part 2)

2007-10-24T12:53:00.001-04:00

Found over here:
http://img.moonbuggy.org/provide-us-with-the-email-address-we-should-not-contact/

You've all heard the line from the song "Things that make you go hmmmmm", well I suggest we apply a slight modification making it "Things that make you go DUH!".

Serious how could any even barely technology savvy individual think this was a good solution to the issue?

Re: Writing Rant

2007-10-24T08:46:00.001-04:00

Well as expected my previous writing rant did NOT (sadly) "automagically" fix the world :(

However, I have been able to encourage others to see the light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_talk:Copyedit#Copyedit_Tag_needs_copy_editing

Wikipedia's CopyEdit tag used to display this text: "This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling."

So I encouraged them to change it:
" 'and/or' isn't really valid so it's kind of funny to see it in a statement regarding copy editing. Simply using "or" sufficiently indicates that any combination of grammar, style, cohesion, tone, and spelling need to be addressed. Either that or it should be changed to "and/exclusive or" but even that is implied by a simple "or" while avoiding the awkwardness of reading "and/exclusive or".

Wikipedia even has an entry about "and/or" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And/or

This page also provides a quick synopsis regarding why and/or shouldn't be written http://www.geocities.com/thorin.geo/and_or_invalid.html"
(That geocities URL is basically a static recreation of what I had previously blog'd)

Amazingly without further discussion or debate they saw the all that was good int he suggestion and agreed to the change:
"Agreed. I've made the change you suggested."

Hurray! for logical minds.

Quote of the Day

2007-09-27T14:37:00.000-04:00

Well probably not really quote of the day because we all know now that I'm still not caught up on all the things I wish to blog about. Anyway, I came across this today and thought it was great.

I was readin the blog of someone I worked with a number of years ago. He had a big on Book: Softwar - an intimate portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle. Ending with the following quote which I felt the need to mention.

"People regularly mistake obedience for intelligence. That’s why we think that dogs are more intelligent than cats. .. A dog will fetch a stick every time you throw it. A cat will look at you and wonder: If you wanted the stick, why did you throw it away in a first place? Get it yourself, idiot."

- Page 335, Softwar : An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle

Robert Jordan Has Died :(

2007-09-17T14:56:00.000-04:00

Just caught this on slashdot.

In the midst of trying to complete the 12th and final book in the Wheel of Time series Robert Jordan has died of "ardiac amyloidosis" which he has been fighting since at least March of 2006.

It seems hopes are still high that enough notes etc have been made to complete it ( linkage). However, I haven't heard anything yet about the prequel trilogy he'd been working on as well (book one is out).

Writing Rant

2007-09-14T15:21:00.002-04:00

The first in what will surely turn out to be a recurring topic.

We'll start with "and/or". WTF is with people who use "and/or" can they not figure the logic out? It boggles my mind.

Note: The OR allows for the same True result as the AND (bottom right corner), while also allowing for other combinations producing True results.
Therefore all written usage of "and/or" should simply be "or".

Carnivore

2007-08-21T08:23:00.000-04:00

Hey all, I know it's been ages since I've posted anythying. I have a bunch of topics saved up that I wanna do articles about. Hopefully this weekend while I'm being a bachelor I'll get some of them done. In the mean time I dunno why this occurred to me this morning but I remembered this great bumper sticker I saw about 7 years ago.

"If God didn't want us to eat animals, why are they made of meat?"

It's so perfect. Simple, to the point.

Hmmmm I must be craving something this morning, gotta go find an greasy spoon and get some sort of breakfast sandwich with bacon (and maybe sausage too).

Mars Rovers Top 10 List

2007-07-25T12:52:00.001-04:00

For all you space junkies out there (ya I'm one too). I thought I'd pass along this list of the top 10 discoveries the mars rovers have made.

This list includes (at #4) the first picture of Earth taken from another planet. (Yes there is the Apollo "EarthRise" picture but the moon isn't a planet).

BLOG Rating

2007-06-29T09:43:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm I wonder what it takes to get R-rated? So far I've ONLY seen PG rated BLOGs. Though I haven't dug very far.....

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

* death (3x)
* gun (2x)
* abortion (1x)

Simpson's Avatar

2007-06-29T09:23:00.000-04:00

Make your own Simpsons avatar here.

Engage your brain!

2007-06-29T09:06:00.001-04:00

This completely boggles my mind. Why do people refuse to engage their brains? How could any sane person think this was a good idea?

Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation
The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest.

WTF? Why did the border worker ever let this car in to Canada. I feel like Canada is a worse place for them just having visited ... even if it was 1983.

Original Article

What kind of atheist are you?

2007-05-28T15:43:00.000-04:00

Caught this over at The Squid Zone.

Personally I'm still on the fence (ya I know Atheists everywhere are cringing now....oh well), I believe there has to be something bigger, better, all powerful, and I like the hope that there's something afterwards. Some day I'll figure out what I actually believe ;)

"You scored as a Spiritual Atheist

Ah! Some of the coolest people in the world are Spiritual Atheists. Most of them weren't brought up in an organized religion and have very little baggage. They concentrate on making the world a better place and know that death is just another part of life. What comes after, comes after."

What kind of atheist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

Techno-Idiots (Part 1)

2007-05-25T15:40:00.001-04:00

Yes this is part one, I don't have a plan for Part 2 but based on the things I've encountered in this world I CAN NOT fathom that I won't come up with something else.

So I ran across this "Zune Team Getting Amnesty for iPod Use" article on slashdot. Following the obvious set of links. The comments on the Flickr photo page just amazed me.

By Flickr user ariel_waldman:
"I wonder how many iPods Zune bought to make a marketing point. Notice how all the iPods in there are the same generation."

WoW! Did she even read the story? Zune is a product, an in-animate object it can not possibly purchase anything. How could someone claim to be such a fan of Apple's iPod (see her other comments) and have NFC that Zune is a Microsoft product meant to compete with Apple's iPod. Hey Ariel has your iPod made any purchases lately? /sigh

I know that in the grand scope of things this is a minor grammatical issue but seriously people, at least engage part of your brain before you type. Remember the internet never forgets. I'll state for the record (just in case ariel actually happens across this blog someday), that no I don't expect everyone to be perfect (heck I know I'm not). Perhaps this is a lone example of a post one morning without coffee, it's not really that I'm pointing a finger at ariel, more that you see this all over the forums and blogs online .... it's seems when people believe they're anonymous online they also believe they don't have to use their brains.

Tidbits

2007-05-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

Here are some links I've been saving up that I thought people might be interested in:

* World's Largest Fossil Forest, and One of the Oldest - This is VERY cool ... 25 square miles!

* For the electricity conscience among you - S3 Standby Done Right

* Infected or NOT - Quick online Virus scanner. I came across it at work and bookmarked it. It currently only supports IE (no surprise) but the good news is FireFox support is in the works. I did a little research before deciding to post it and everyone seem to be happy with it and agree that it's on the up and up.

You're dead....ok well we'll have to keep ya that way a little longer

2007-05-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

I recently caught this article over at NBC.

It seems that what we thought we knew about death was wrong. It turns out that the cells of our body don't actually die that quickly when deprived of oxygen, they die quickly when the oxygen is restored.

How messed is that? Personally it boggles my mind.....anyway onward with the science :)

"But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed."

Still Here

2007-05-03T11:18:00.000-04:00

Hey I know it's been a long while since I've posted. I've been working away from home a fair amount and recently had a death in the family. I have a bunch of bookmarks saved up for things I want to post about but haven't had time to put articles together yet. Rest assured there'll be some updates shortly.

What a difference 30 Years Makes

2007-04-02T09:09:00.000-04:00

A family member recently forwarded this to me and I thought it made a good commentary on how busted our world is becoming:

Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.
1973- Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack's rifle, goes to his car and gets his to show Jack.
2006 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1973 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins, Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends Nobody goes to jail, nobody arrested, nobody expelled.
2006 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1973 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by Principal. Sits still in class.
2006 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his father's car and his Dad gives him a whipping.
1973 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2006 - Billy's Dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. Billy's sister is told by state psychologist that she remembers being abused herself and their Dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some headache medicine to school.
1973 - Mark shares headache medicine with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2006 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Mary turns up pregnant.
1973 - 5 High School Boys leave town. Mary does her senior year at a special school for expectant mothers.
2006 - Middle School Counselor calls Planned Parenthood, who notifies the ACLU. Mary is driven to the next state over and gets an abortion without her parent's consent or knowledge. Mary given condoms and told to be more careful next time.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1973 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2006 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state democratic party. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he can't speak English.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1973 - Ants die.
2006 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary, hugs him to comfort him.
1973 - In a short time Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2006 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison

Coming to a flight near you....."What to do when your aircraft is hit by flaming space junk"

2007-03-29T08:50:00.000-04:00

And you always thought flying was the most safe form of travel.

"'The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340 ... notified air traffic controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his plane...'"

Space Debris Narrowly Misses Airliner

That's just messed up, I mean I knew that space junk posed a threat for our satellites, rockets, the shuttle, ISS, etc but having to worry about it entering the atmosphere just sucks. I mean yay one less thing for our extra-atmospheric endeavors to collide with but still messed up.

I wonder if my house insurance covers "impact from flaming space debris". I know I get most bizarre "act of god" type things but that's pushing it.

True Microslop

2007-03-26T11:31:00.000-04:00

Ran across this the other day, a sadly true Microsoft'ism.

"Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/276304

Also for those who haven't heard me talk about it yet, if your a programmer or any type of techie checkout The Daily WTF (recently renamed).

New Digital Clock

2007-03-21T07:07:00.001-04:00

This is an oldy but a goody. It's a new version of the digital clock done in flash:

http://www.solvang-thomsen.dk/hand.swf

When College isn't College, Part II

2007-03-09T15:16:00.000-05:00

In follow-up to my earlier post When College isn't College.

I noticed on House the other night that Dr. Gregory House (the main character) made a comment about being the Dr. and making the diagnostic choices he was making because he "...went to college." WTF? In Canada all Dr. go to University for their degree.

Is "college" just the US'ism for Post Secondary Education in general?

Global warming not caused by us Humans?

2007-03-05T13:39:00.000-05:00

"Sun May Be Warming Both Earth and Mars" .... hmmmm sounds like scientists may have jumped the gun on the whole Global Warming thing. Warming occuring on Mars now has some thinking that the Sun is to blame.

Of course this won't be the final answer, science will have to flip-flop on the answer about another 1000 times over the next 100 years before we come to some kind of conclusion.

Next we'll find out cell phone use really is unhealthy ;)

When College isn't College

2007-03-02T08:59:00.000-05:00

Ok this has been driving me nutts lately. In Canada there is a pretty distinct line between College and University. BUT in the US everyone seems to refer to post-secondary education as College (whether it's actually College or University). Is there really no difference between a College Diploma and a University Degree in the US? Is one not hands on (college) and the other book (university) learning like it is in Canada?

(Yes that last line is over generalized but that's basically how it boils down.)

Ontario Scores 2 Entires on the World Intelligent City Finalists List

2007-01-25T11:44:00.000-05:00

Just ran across this @ slashdot and couldn't NOT mention it here. (Nice double negative there eh?) Anyway.......

"For the second year running, no U.S. city has made the list of the world's top Intelligent Communities of 2007" but Ottawa is on the list (as is Waterloo).

Slashdot Story
Original Story

As announced by ICF chairman John Jung, the intelligent city finalists are:

Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom

Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea

Issy-les-Moulineaux, France

Ottawa-Gatineau, Ontario-Quebec, Canada

Sunderland, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom

Tallinn, Estonia

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Funny Site

2007-01-22T08:46:00.000-05:00

Just found this site..... http://thedailywtf.com/ one of the recent entries caught my attention http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Chocolate_Covered_SQL.aspx (Scroll down till you see the package of chocolate they actually printed their SQL query [not the results] ont he packaging).

Dilbert on the State of Business & Cubeland

2007-01-22T08:38:00.000-05:00

Today's Dilbert was particularly good (IMHO) so I thought I'd pass it along.

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20070122.html

Why bluring image information online isn't enough

2007-01-08T13:27:00.000-05:00

So you decide to post a scan of a cheque (check) or a credit card or perhaps even a picture of a travel bug (for the geocachers in the crowd) and you blur out the important number(s). Well with scripting and storage the way it is these days that doesn't really cut it.

Picture someone creating a "dictionary" of pictures with sequential blurred numbers to check against. This would be very much akin to a standard dictionary attack where all the words are passed through the same one way hash and compared against your one way hash. (Create all the possible iterations of the image, blur and compare against your image).

Get the whole story here > http://dheera.net/projects/blur.php.

In the future, black out the number(s) (make sure you don't have multiple layers).

Animal Vids

2007-01-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

Hinterland Who's Who Spoof Spiders on drugs.

Freaky Octopus Camo (colour changing) etc....

Passed my CISSP Exam!

2007-01-05T10:22:00.000-05:00

Well I wrote my CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Profession) Exam back in Dec. and have finally received an email stating that I've passed! YAY!

Now I just have to complete all the endorsement paperwork (another CISSP or qualified person has to vouch for me and I have to submit a resume). Once that's done I'll add it to my LinkedIn Profile.

As I said to m y wife, I was more excited to find out I'd passed and would be attaining this certification then I was graduating college (once you're in the middle of your final year you know what's gonna happen, there are no mysteries, either you have the # of credits or not).

More reasons to switch web browsers (away from IE)

2007-01-05T10:19:00.000-05:00

Do you still you Microsoft's Internet Explorer? Well here are some more reasons why you should Get Firefox.

"iPod Generation Indifferent to Space Exploration" WTF?

2007-01-03T10:56:00.000-05:00

I was very disappointed when I saw this headline over at /.:

The 2004 and 2006 surveys by Dittmar Associates Inc. revealed high levels of indifference among 18- to 25-year-olds toward manned trips to the moon and Mars.

How can that be? What normal person in that age bracket doesn't love all things sci-fi and space related? I just don't get it..... Am I missing something are the kids I hang around with just out of whack or something? What kid doesn't love the idea of being an astronaut (astronut) or digging for dinosaur bones? I'm only 30 can I really be "that" old? (Hmmmm on second thought maybe it's a male thing and a whole bunch of females were polled and are skewing the results?)

Linkage:
Slashdot Blurb
Full Story

Update: NASA only understand part of the picture. While I think it's great to attract the normally nerdy section to the space program we also need the support of the general public.

2006 Darwin Awards Are Here

2007-01-02T14:28:00.000-05:00

As some of you know I'm a great fan of pointing out individuals would should be Darwin Award winners or runners up. Anyway without being long winded the 2006 winners are here.

For those of you who have never heard of the awards here's a little blurb explaining further:

"Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it, thus ensuring that the next generation is one idiot smarter. Of necessity, the Awards are generally bestowed posthumously."

Update: This kid deserves a Darwin award....I know I always try to plug-in electronics when I'm dripping wet having just come out of the pool :D DUH!

DOOM's 13th Birthday

2006-12-12T11:21:00.000-05:00

Ignoring the rather pathetic movie featuring "The Rock", DOOM's 13th Birthday was yesterday (11-Dec-2006). Honestly I'll admit I was never hooked on DOOM, rather QUAKE was my first addiction to FPS games. Quake, Quake CTF, and Quake II wasted many a day during my college career (though I'm no worse of for having played till my hands went pins-and-needles on a few occasions....at least not that I know of so far).

Related linkage:
DOOM 13th BDay on theRegister

Doom @ IDSoftware.com

Great BOFH Episode

2006-12-12T10:18:00.000-05:00

I don't know if any of you out there are regular reads of theRegister but I their BOFH column is priceless for anyone working in IT. Their most recent Episode really made me laugh this morning.

Canadian Site

Do you have an accent?

2006-12-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

Darin lead me to this:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The West
The Northeast
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I've always told people I don't have an accent (not that accents are bad things), I just always thought I was pretty neutral. (I can't believe the quiz doesn't ask about milk [Milk, Melk, Malk......people really manage to mangle that word].

Darwinism at Work

2006-11-15T14:45:00.000-05:00

Well he didn't kill himself so he's not up for a Darwin Award, but he's pretty close. Get the details here.

Keyboard Shortcuts (Part II)

2006-11-14T09:21:00.000-05:00

Continuing from my previous post on Keyboard Shortcuts:

Windows Desktop/Explorer Window:

F1 > Open Windows Help (Or active application help if you aren't on the desktop or in windows explorer)
F2 > When you have a file selected F2 will take you into Rename mode
F3 or WinKey + F > Open the find file or folder applet
F5 > Refresh Window
WinKey + M > Minimize All Windows
WinKey + shift + M > Restore All Minimized Windows
WinKey + D > Show Desktop
WinKey + L > Lock Windows (Not available before WinXP)
WinKey + E > Launch Windows Explorer
WinKey + B > Set Focus to the TaskBar (dunno why you'd want to do this)
WinKey + ctrl + F > Open the find computer applet
shift + delete > Permanently remove a file (same as delete followed by empty trash)
alt + tab > Cycles through your program list
alt + shift + tab > Cycles backwards through your program list
alt + space > Activate the window control menu (same as right clicking the icon in the top left of a window)
alt + F4 > Close Window (Same as clicking the X in the top right of the window)
alt + shift + F4 or shift + click close > Close the window and all parent windows
KeyPad + > In Windows Explorer, expand the next level of contents for the selected folder or drive
KeyPad * > In Windows Explorer, completely expand the selected folder or drive
KeyPad - > In Windows Explorer, collapse the selected folder or drive

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

2006-11-01T13:32:00.000-05:00

I came across this book/site the other day, it's a really good mind bender. Hit this link , then select "Imagining the Ten Dimensions" in the leftnav. It'll walk through a flash animation describing all ten dimension (theoretical).

Going Pink for October

2006-10-02T14:44:00.000-04:00

Just caught this over on /. and thought I'd add my support.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/01/1923237

Go Pink?
Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.

Over the month I'll try to post some info on the latest/greatest developments in the fight against breast cancer.

Cartoons / Comics

2006-09-25T09:09:00.000-04:00

Cartoons are great, I have a couple that I read every morning.

What got me thinking about this was a few more recent User Friendly (UFies) cartoons from the weekend:
User Friendly - 2006-09-23.
User Friendly - 2006-09-25.

I'll add a list of my daily cartoon's to the leftnav.

The Gatineau Cougar

2006-09-19T11:20:00.000-04:00

Live in or near Ottawa/Gatineau? You'll probably appreciate this (especially if you've experienced frosh week here). A friend passed it along to me and I couldn't help but link to it for others. Way too funny!

Gatineau Cougar (Hinterland Who's Who spoof)

Keyboard Shortcuts (Part I)

2006-09-15T11:33:00.001-04:00

People often notice that I don't use the mouse as much as most people. Personally I find it much quicker to do a lot of tasks using the keyboard. Therefore I've decided to post a list of keyboard shortcuts from time to time. Hopefully you'll enjoy them and and find them useful like I do.

When editing text:

ctrl + arrow (Left or Right) > Move the insertion point left or right entire words.
ctrl + shift + arrow (Left or Right) > Highlight entire words (left or right of the insertion point).
double click > Highlight an entire word.
triple click > Highlight an entire line (not sentence).
shift + home > Highlight from the insertion point to the start of the line.
shift + end > Highlight from the insertion point to the end of the line.

Gimmicks Annoy Me

2006-09-07T12:12:00.001-04:00

Checkout this article:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/07/lacie_safe_drive_range_expanded/

Note the last line:

"LaCie has also announced two SAFE Mobile drives with built-in encryption, which should reassure the more paranoid user. In the US the 80GB costs $219.99, which is a premium of $50 over the non-encryption SAFE, while the 120GB costs $299.99 - a premium of $20."

Does anyone else see a problem there?

If you pay a premium for encryption "over the non-encryption SAFE" doesn't that kinda suggest that their regular "SAFE" drives are just a pretty enclosure with a thumb print scanner that interfaces with software to do basically zero? If the data isn't encrypted then what prevents someone from stealing the device, ripping the drive out, and plopping it in any system or enclosure?

Now I'll admit, I have't bothered to read LaCie's site so maybe I'm missing something but this seems like a complete Gimmick to me......give the consumers a biometric device and they'll think they're all secure.

Getting Started

2006-09-07T08:32:00.000-04:00

So I keep getting told to fire up a blog by the friends and collegues so here goes.

Over the next little while you'll start to see a theme. Without a doubt the pages will fill up with rants, tech info, camping stories, etc....

More Soon!