Silicon Asylum

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

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)

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) -...

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...

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).

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 g...

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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

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.

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 Sunda...

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.

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...

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 ".

"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.

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 an...

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 ...

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. Update 20131001 : Seems the image linked above has been removed at some point. As this post is basically 5 years old I'm not 100% sure but I believe it had been the same as:

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 Th...

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...

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.