Friday, April 28, 2006

Stop HB 1259 NOW!

OK. Everyone stop what you're doing and head over to Security Monkey's blog. If you're in Georgia, specifically, you need to help Stop HB 1259 NOW!

Thursday, April 27, 2006

MeWig

yclept's 'tweak':
I've played Strong Bad podcast .m4vs on TCMCP and they run horrendously choppy. Like several seconds' worth of delay. Unwatchable. Anyone else share the same experience?

So I found this freeware program called MeWiG (MEncoder GUI) that converts QT files (and others) into .avis. Definitely fewer problems now. Give it whirl.

Thanks. I just might. I've had a few issues with video using TCMCP as well. So far, my 'solution' has been to lower the framerates when converting the videos, but this may be a better idea :)

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Save The Internet

When you have a moment, please sign the petition to save network neutrality:
Congress is now pushing a law that would end the free and open Internet as we know it. Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. So Amazon doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

(found via performancing.com)

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Network outage

Yesterday, my cable went out. Because I host the blog at home, this made the website unavailable during the outage. Well, things are back up and running now, and should be working fine. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. It couldn't have happened at a worse time because the traffic is finally starting to pick up. Hopefully no one got scared off :)

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Friday, April 21, 2006

Warm fuzzies

Over at Ars Technica:
It appears that the Bush administration has taken a step to mollify critics who claim that its policies toward law enforcement and intelligence gathering are likely to result in a trampling of privacy and civil liberties. Alex Joel, an attorney who has worked for the CIA, Marriott, and the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, has been hired to take the post of "civil-liberties protection officer for the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence."

Why doesn't this make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Worst. President. Ever.

I've been ranting about GW so much lately that I think maybe I should start a political blog ("Observations from a Raving Lunatic" has a certain ring to it). Or not. But it is nice to know that there are some out there who agree with my views. From Rolling Stone:
George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

Head on over there to read the complete article.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Viva la revolution!

The time for revolution is now!

I suppose I should explain. I do not advocate violence. I advocate that we change our way of thinking.

For so long, we have lived in fear of another 9/11. We have been taught to by the politicians who are currently in power. It is in their best interest to scare us into giving up our rights so that they can stay in power.

I say that the best way to stop this is at the ballot box. We have been brainwashed into believing that voting for an alternate party is throwing away our vote. While it is true that our system favors two parties, it is not a wasted vote. If enough people vote for alternate parties, we will send the message that we are fed up with the way things are, and we aren't going to take it anymore.

While my party of choice, when they have the right candidate, is the Libertarian Party, I urge everyone to vote for the candidate, not the party. If you happen to agree with one of the major candidates, then by all means vote for them. Otherwise, find someone you do agree with and vote for them.

Say "No more!" to the lesser of two evils. Viva la revolution!

Monday, April 17, 2006

Mr Prez, music pirate...

Awhile back, I posted a bit about our president, the war criminal. Now, it appears that he is also a music pirate because his I-Pod contains Beatles music, and Apple (the music label) and Apple (iTunes) are still working on making the music available. Currently, it is not available (legally) online, therefore, G.W. Bush is a music pirate. I wonder if the RIAA will sue, or just look the other way? Being the hypocrites that they are, I'm guessing that, while they have no problems going after single mothers, 12 year olds, college students, and others who can't afford to fight, they won't go after anyone who can (or who holds a position of political authority, even if he is an asshat).

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Old school blogger...

I went looking for an old site at the Wayback Machine, but didn't find what I was looking for. Sometimes you find something even more surprising:

wintermute -- Thursday, May 31 2001, 08:28 am:
Hi! Welcome to my page! Right at the moment, I have a fairly simple weblog set as the main page. The weblog is basically just a journal that is published to a web page. I've also been tinkering with PHP and wanted to see if I could get something like this working. Be sure to check out the guestbook if you'd like to post something yourself.

Hehe. Guess I'm a bit more old-school than I thought.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

BBSmates - dialing up the past

I'm sure I've written about this site in the past, but I know that at least a couple of people from the local BBS scene drop in here from time to time, so I thought I'd mention it again. BBSmates.com is a website similar to ClassMates.com (which is having temporary server issues as I write this) but for the BBS scene instead. According to their stats page, there are over 11,000 registered members and 78,000 BBSes. Everyone who BBSed in the 740 (or 614, before the split) area code that's reading this, get over there and get registered! We need better representation, because the scene here was huge for awhile.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

The Phone Call

It's been a long time since I've written any fiction, and even longer since I've put any of it online. At any rate, here goes some short fiction...

 

I hung up the phone with disgust. The call had not gone well, and I wasn't in a good mood to begin with. I was pissed off that they'd screwed up again. I was pissed off that I had to make the call because of the screw up. Mostly, now that the call was done, I was pissed off at cell phones.

There was something satisfying about slamming an old-fashioned receiver down into its cradle at the end of an argument, just as your adversary was about to hang up. It had always made me feel better. Now that Ma Bell had eaten her children and suddenly died of indigestion, that was no longer an option.

Cell phones. Everyone had to use these cheap-ass cell phones. I was really starting to loath them. What were you going to do? Dramatically slam the "Off" button?

After a quick trip through a local store, I flipped open my phone and calmly pressed redial. As soon as Alan answered, I let off the air horn I had just purchased and then calmly pressed the "Off" button.
Now that I was satisfied that there would be no mistaking my feelings on the matter, I smiled inwardly. It wasn't quite the same satisfaction, but it still felt good.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Bloglines

Just a quick note to mention that Bloglines appears to be having some serious issues right now. I didn't realize how much I use it to keep on top of things until I took a quick break from coding and realize it wasn't working.

Sunday, April 9, 2006

BBS Software

I've been moving a little closer to getting the BBS up and running. I've got a spare computer to install everything on, and I've downloaded a bunch of stuff to check out. I've gotta decide on software, though. I'm leaning mostly towards WWiV, but I haven't totally ruled out VBBS. I know I'm not going to set it up for general access, but I also discovered that DLX is now freeware.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Towel Day 2006

You sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? Now there's a frood who knew where his towel was. You are invited to join your fellow hitchhikers in mourning the loss of the late great one. Join in on Towel Day to show your appreciation for the humor and insight that Douglas Adams brought to all our lives.

That's right, it's time to start thinking about Towel Day again! Mark your calenders, grab your towels, and help us celebrate the life (and mourn the loss) of Douglas Adams on May 25th!

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

And now for something completely different...

Sometimes you come across a website that's just too good not to share. Such is the case with The Dialectizer. The description on the site is The Dialectizer takes text or other web pages and instantly creates parodies of them! Some of them can be pretty funny.

Monday, April 3, 2006

Ask a glass of water...

"It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"Go ask a glass of water."

This is one of my favorite exchanges from the entire Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, and until recently I didn't really appreciate it. For the past couple of weeks, I have been suffering from dizzy spells. The kind like you get when you're really drunk and go to lie down, and the room starts spinning. Only I haven't been drunk in an extremely long time, which made the entire experience extremely unpleasant. Sorta like a glass of water must feel when being drunk.

At any rate, I think I have finally figured out what is causing the dizziness. I have been getting way too little sleep because of the course load in school along with my work schedule, so I think I have been suffering from exhaustion. I came to realize this when I got a couple of good nights of sleep (without sleeping too much) and the dizziness when away. Once the sleep patterns got screwed up again, the dizziness came back. So, in the fall, I don't think I am going to return to school. An associates degree isn't going to really help me much because I've got the experience, and a bachelors is not available without transferring to a different school. Instead, I am going to study for the CCSP, and possibly grab the Network+ and Security+ certificates while on my way to the CISSP. InfoSec is where it's at these days, and I've always been interested. I'd just about give up management for an entry-level position if the pay was right.

Saturday, April 1, 2006

Hello Netherlands!

I just checked my March logs, and the number one non-US tld appears to be for the Netherlands, followed not-so closely with India. Norway and Taiwan tie for third. The US Government is again represented, as is the US military. However, my Arpanet visitor did not return this month.

Overall, nothing too strange in the logs. Just a minor drop in traffic from February, but traffic ebbs and flows.