Interesting story here about Adobe reader (the thing that opens those wonderful pdf files you get all across the net). Basically there is a critical bug in the software.
Critical bugs in terms of net stuff tends to mean that someone can hack into your computer and do lots of fun stuff. Proof-of-concept code already exists for this vulnerability so its likely that malicious code is already out there. This seems similar to another vulnerability found a while ago.
There are two simple things that you can do to make sure your protected from this. First option is to disable javascripts in adobe (under options i believe. The second option is to download a free adobe alternative.
either way be careful with which ever pdf reader and which pdfs you use.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
"its natural" do you say this? punch yourself.
This is a wonderful blog post by one of my favourite bloggers, blag hag.
A simple discussion of what is actually natural when it comes to animal mating habits, and yes there isn't really anything that is natural or 'normal'. This is one of those arguments that really does annoy me on two fronts: first as the post shows there isn't any single mating habit that is natural. Second the naturalness of an action is a rubbish rationale to use with relation to humans, again as the post reports many animals eat their young, or their partners or carrion.
The naturalness of something is a stupid arguement and the sooner we move on from it the better. Either everything is natural (we are after all products of a natural environment) or we are better than that and it doesn't matter anyway. We certainly can't claim that some subset of our actions should be natural (sex etc) and another it doesn't matter (wearing skins of other animals).
A simple discussion of what is actually natural when it comes to animal mating habits, and yes there isn't really anything that is natural or 'normal'. This is one of those arguments that really does annoy me on two fronts: first as the post shows there isn't any single mating habit that is natural. Second the naturalness of an action is a rubbish rationale to use with relation to humans, again as the post reports many animals eat their young, or their partners or carrion.
The naturalness of something is a stupid arguement and the sooner we move on from it the better. Either everything is natural (we are after all products of a natural environment) or we are better than that and it doesn't matter anyway. We certainly can't claim that some subset of our actions should be natural (sex etc) and another it doesn't matter (wearing skins of other animals).
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
WBRTBN films...
....or "White Background, Red Title and Blue Name" films.
In terms of poster design these films suck. They are universally the same sort of film: 'quirky' (ie mass produced) rom-coms, these are the films where a board of people have sat around and brain stormed what ever hasn't been done recently and make what ever falls out:
I hate this kind of film (I've yet to see one I've enjoyed) and it really annoys me that they seem to be breeding - I guess in a recession they're cheap and easy to produce.
Either way utterly sick of seeing the adverts for them on the sides of buses - they could at least try to vary them and try to stand out/lighten my day a bit.....
In terms of poster design these films suck. They are universally the same sort of film: 'quirky' (ie mass produced) rom-coms, these are the films where a board of people have sat around and brain stormed what ever hasn't been done recently and make what ever falls out:
"rom-com"
"ohh lets have a ghost"
"done! where's the coke?".
I hate this kind of film (I've yet to see one I've enjoyed) and it really annoys me that they seem to be breeding - I guess in a recession they're cheap and easy to produce.
Either way utterly sick of seeing the adverts for them on the sides of buses - they could at least try to vary them and try to stand out/lighten my day a bit.....
This annoys me
This story really annoys me. It is worrying that a paper is willing to publish something that is quite so wrong.
Gah... stupid paranoid ....
Gah... stupid paranoid ....
Monday, 27 April 2009
More government optimism
Well looks like the government is shelving the database of all our communications idea (at last!) in preference of asking Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to log who connects to what and how - ie if you access Facebook from your iphone or similar. This seems to be an extension of the existing laws regarding telephone logs that allow the police and security services to see who called who when.
What strikes me about this is that it is a £2b scheme that will most likely be futile. Just as cheap pay-as-you-go mobiles have made telephone logging pretty obsolete because it becomes very difficult to log who calls who when the phone isn't registered it is very difficult to glean useful information from the internet when you can send stuff via a proxy and have the information of who your talking to disappear especially when systems like The Onion Router (TOR) exist that helpfully cover who your talking to and where without any real effort.
Basically this seems a lot of money on a system that will achieve next to nothing. If people want to organise via the net there are a hundred ways of doing it that make it near impossible to trace who spoke to who, asking the CSPs to log this information doesn't really help at all especially when you don't even have to route most of your stuff via your ISP - open DNS servers in other countries will allow alot of the useful (to the services) information to by-pass the UK utterly.
What strikes me about this is that it is a £2b scheme that will most likely be futile. Just as cheap pay-as-you-go mobiles have made telephone logging pretty obsolete because it becomes very difficult to log who calls who when the phone isn't registered it is very difficult to glean useful information from the internet when you can send stuff via a proxy and have the information of who your talking to disappear especially when systems like The Onion Router (TOR) exist that helpfully cover who your talking to and where without any real effort.
Basically this seems a lot of money on a system that will achieve next to nothing. If people want to organise via the net there are a hundred ways of doing it that make it near impossible to trace who spoke to who, asking the CSPs to log this information doesn't really help at all especially when you don't even have to route most of your stuff via your ISP - open DNS servers in other countries will allow alot of the useful (to the services) information to by-pass the UK utterly.
The anarchistic social experiment that is the internet
There's an interesting story here of a family in America who were very upset to find that photos of their daughter's death were available online. The girl had died in a car crash and some cops had taken photos as a cautionary tale which then escaped online.
I think there are a lot of interesting aspects to this story: firstly the wonderful way that pretty much all censorship attempts online eventually fail (google search for the images they're trying to ban they're still readily available), secondly how pretty much all legal systems fail online and finally how depressing how anarchistic (and deprived) the internet can be.
The first point I think is most simply shown here, a very daft woman on LBC radio said some very poorly thought out things about how taking MMR jab was optional because no one ever got those diseases any more. Ben Goldacre responded by posting the radio debate online as an example of truly poor science and got asked to removed it. Soon after the radio clip was available and talked about on more than 150 other blogs either in bits or as a whole. The internet doesn't like censorship - stop trying it on.
The legal aspect is interesting. Privacy is a right, but online you only have as much privacy as you protect yourself and that's not easy. This is especially true when something like /b/ decides to come after you (I won't link there its easy enough to find). Well I say 'decides'....
This comes down to something that pretty much all governments, people and organisations don't seem to have realised: the internet is anarchy. There is no law in any way, not yet and so sites like /b/ proliferate, not because people are suddenly worse online - just that they can relax and these sites become the ultimate games of dare - you can do what ever you can think of and type. Just every now and then someone is stupid and actually does it. The internet has brought out some truly nasty sides of people; but I hope this will fade.
The internet is still socially very young - people are still adapting to it in a social way and the anarchy is to be expected - sooner or later some form of law will emerge as will more of a social ethos, and no just because Facebook is a social site doesn't mean the internet has a social code or ethic - this will take a while to evolve.
Anyway moral of the story: nothing is private online so think before you upload other people's personal information (I think that the cops involved should face charges).
It's truly terrible what some people have done to the family. Emailing them with pictures from the crash scene is vile but I think their time would be better spent ignoring it.
Hopefully stories like this will be few and far between and hopefully people will learn from them.
I think there are a lot of interesting aspects to this story: firstly the wonderful way that pretty much all censorship attempts online eventually fail (google search for the images they're trying to ban they're still readily available), secondly how pretty much all legal systems fail online and finally how depressing how anarchistic (and deprived) the internet can be.
The first point I think is most simply shown here, a very daft woman on LBC radio said some very poorly thought out things about how taking MMR jab was optional because no one ever got those diseases any more. Ben Goldacre responded by posting the radio debate online as an example of truly poor science and got asked to removed it. Soon after the radio clip was available and talked about on more than 150 other blogs either in bits or as a whole. The internet doesn't like censorship - stop trying it on.
The legal aspect is interesting. Privacy is a right, but online you only have as much privacy as you protect yourself and that's not easy. This is especially true when something like /b/ decides to come after you (I won't link there its easy enough to find). Well I say 'decides'....
This comes down to something that pretty much all governments, people and organisations don't seem to have realised: the internet is anarchy. There is no law in any way, not yet and so sites like /b/ proliferate, not because people are suddenly worse online - just that they can relax and these sites become the ultimate games of dare - you can do what ever you can think of and type. Just every now and then someone is stupid and actually does it. The internet has brought out some truly nasty sides of people; but I hope this will fade.
The internet is still socially very young - people are still adapting to it in a social way and the anarchy is to be expected - sooner or later some form of law will emerge as will more of a social ethos, and no just because Facebook is a social site doesn't mean the internet has a social code or ethic - this will take a while to evolve.
Anyway moral of the story: nothing is private online so think before you upload other people's personal information (I think that the cops involved should face charges).
It's truly terrible what some people have done to the family. Emailing them with pictures from the crash scene is vile but I think their time would be better spent ignoring it.
Hopefully stories like this will be few and far between and hopefully people will learn from them.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Who ever says windows "just works" can sod off..
I have recently got the orange box. I love it. Well that's a lie. I love the copies of the games I've played on other people's machines as mine it seems to have a grudge against.
I can play 'counter-strike' and anything up to and including 'Half life 2: episode one' but beyond that it stops working. As in no error messages (not even a crash) it just stops. It sets up the loading screen and sits there, filling up my primary screen with hazy boxes (I'm trying to play portal).
I'm not sure what it is (as if windows was ever helpful with methods to interrogate start up of programs or even useful error messages) and I can't close it because it fills my primary screen where pop-ups appear. I can open the task manager and see that nothing much is happening and its not responding but if I try to close process it just sits there.
For anyone with a similar problem here is an exact run down of whats happening.
I'm running a Windows XP system
AMD 3500+ processor
MSI AM2 motherboard
2Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS with a 24" (1920x1200) Dell as primary and a 17" (1200x1024) samsung as secondary
I have the latest driver (Nvidia 182.something)
I can run 'counter-strike'; 'counter strike-source'; 'half-life 2'; 'half-life 2:episode one'
but with 'half life 2:episode two'; or 'portal' it will run the valve video get to the hazy loading screen (ie the menu but out of focus with 'loading' in bottom right) and stop. I can move the mouse around, although when I move it over the loading screen I get an hour glass I can move it to the secondary screen (where I'm typing this) and work normally.
In fact it just seems as though it locks down that part of the screen and stops.
I have tried manually setting the width and height of the game with the:
launch options in case it was something to do with loss of the actual menu or weird graphics problems (none of the half-life games auto-detect my resolution). I have also tried:
which should force the game to use the monitor's defaults. Neither have worked and I'm about to try the
command to (hopefully) bring up just the menu options with out real graphics controls.
I will update with whether it works - or if I go mad....
UPDATE 01:52 26-04-09: well '-console' failed....
UPDATE 02:13 26-04-09: GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *~$£*%"£$%"$£% WINDOWS turns out that portal had been going full screen. This meant that when steam bounced stuff off a server somewhere zone alarm froze the game and wouldn't allow further loading until I clicked something in a pop-up. This pop-up was cunningly underneath the full screen window. GAHHHHHH. Those that are interested the useful launch command was
I hate windows.... wine + ubuntu can't be much harder than this...
I can play 'counter-strike' and anything up to and including 'Half life 2: episode one' but beyond that it stops working. As in no error messages (not even a crash) it just stops. It sets up the loading screen and sits there, filling up my primary screen with hazy boxes (I'm trying to play portal).
I'm not sure what it is (as if windows was ever helpful with methods to interrogate start up of programs or even useful error messages) and I can't close it because it fills my primary screen where pop-ups appear. I can open the task manager and see that nothing much is happening and its not responding but if I try to close process it just sits there.
For anyone with a similar problem here is an exact run down of whats happening.
I'm running a Windows XP system
AMD 3500+ processor
MSI AM2 motherboard
2Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS with a 24" (1920x1200) Dell as primary and a 17" (1200x1024) samsung as secondary
I have the latest driver (Nvidia 182.something)
I can run 'counter-strike'; 'counter strike-source'; 'half-life 2'; 'half-life 2:episode one'
but with 'half life 2:episode two'; or 'portal' it will run the valve video get to the hazy loading screen (ie the menu but out of focus with 'loading' in bottom right) and stop. I can move the mouse around, although when I move it over the loading screen I get an hour glass I can move it to the secondary screen (where I'm typing this) and work normally.
In fact it just seems as though it locks down that part of the screen and stops.
I have tried manually setting the width and height of the game with the:
'-width 1920 -height 1200'
launch options in case it was something to do with loss of the actual menu or weird graphics problems (none of the half-life games auto-detect my resolution). I have also tried:
'+mat_forcehardwaresync 0 +snd_async_prefetch_priority 1'
which should force the game to use the monitor's defaults. Neither have worked and I'm about to try the
-console
command to (hopefully) bring up just the menu options with out real graphics controls.
I will update with whether it works - or if I go mad....
UPDATE 01:52 26-04-09: well '-console' failed....
UPDATE 02:13 26-04-09: GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *~$£*%"£$%"$£% WINDOWS turns out that portal had been going full screen. This meant that when steam bounced stuff off a server somewhere zone alarm froze the game and wouldn't allow further loading until I clicked something in a pop-up. This pop-up was cunningly underneath the full screen window. GAHHHHHH. Those that are interested the useful launch command was
-sw
I hate windows.... wine + ubuntu can't be much harder than this...
Pirate bay fun...
Well this is a little late but for those that haven't heard the pirate bay people lost their case and have been sentenced to a year in jail as well as a large fine.
Interestingly an appeal has been filed based on an alleged bias on the part of the main judge (here's the story). I've got to say that if nothing else this should have been declared (which it wasn't).
A final interesting fact (the one I find the funniest) is that the membership of the pirate bay political party in Sweden has now gone up 150% (see here).
Ah the fun and games of the weird mess that is the internet....
Interestingly an appeal has been filed based on an alleged bias on the part of the main judge (here's the story). I've got to say that if nothing else this should have been declared (which it wasn't).
A final interesting fact (the one I find the funniest) is that the membership of the pirate bay political party in Sweden has now gone up 150% (see here).
Ah the fun and games of the weird mess that is the internet....
Facebook in the news...
As a 'netizen Facebook accounts for a reasonable amount of my time online, certainly while in procrastination mode, even when I'm not I probably check it daily. This makes stories like this all the more interesting for me.
I can understand the rationale that "those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine" but it does raise an interesting point: what activities are reasonable if you are off sick?
For me I would be deeply angry if I was sacked for checking Facebook when ill - firstly my computer is logged on almost 24/7 so it would be hard to tell when I was actually using Facebook and not just logged in. Secondly I would consider checking the net (if not Facebook certainly gmail) as normal as checking my snail-mail; its just one of those things I do everyday (yes, I'm an addict but I like it).
It seems daft that an employer would expect you to spend the whole day immobile in bed if you are ill; even if that illness is a migraine you might listen to quiet music or read a book for a bit between sleeping. While superficially this seems the same as being caught out and about in town when ill I would argue that it is very different. Its akin to being caught out of bed when ill. I suppose this is just part of the penalty we pay for being more connected at all times; we get more information on each other and so everyone else gets a little more information on us.
Hopefully situations like this will be few and far between. I certainly hope that no employer (should I ever get one) thinks that it's okay for them to follow me online. I don't mind work colleges, even my boss following my Facebook or similar but when it becomes the company as a whole or is done for reason other than genuine friendship I get worried. The age of privacy is essentially dead - but that doesn't mean that we can't protect what privacy we do have (which is one of the reasons I don't like to make it too obvious who I am in the blog).
All that being said I can't help but wonder if this is something along the lines of the straw that broke the camels back. Unless the employer is truly draconian I suspect that the person concerned has probably had a few run-ins, especially if either they were spying on here or that the hear-say of a college spotting you online is enough to be sacked for.
I can understand the rationale that "those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine" but it does raise an interesting point: what activities are reasonable if you are off sick?
For me I would be deeply angry if I was sacked for checking Facebook when ill - firstly my computer is logged on almost 24/7 so it would be hard to tell when I was actually using Facebook and not just logged in. Secondly I would consider checking the net (if not Facebook certainly gmail) as normal as checking my snail-mail; its just one of those things I do everyday (yes, I'm an addict but I like it).
It seems daft that an employer would expect you to spend the whole day immobile in bed if you are ill; even if that illness is a migraine you might listen to quiet music or read a book for a bit between sleeping. While superficially this seems the same as being caught out and about in town when ill I would argue that it is very different. Its akin to being caught out of bed when ill. I suppose this is just part of the penalty we pay for being more connected at all times; we get more information on each other and so everyone else gets a little more information on us.
Hopefully situations like this will be few and far between. I certainly hope that no employer (should I ever get one) thinks that it's okay for them to follow me online. I don't mind work colleges, even my boss following my Facebook or similar but when it becomes the company as a whole or is done for reason other than genuine friendship I get worried. The age of privacy is essentially dead - but that doesn't mean that we can't protect what privacy we do have (which is one of the reasons I don't like to make it too obvious who I am in the blog).
All that being said I can't help but wonder if this is something along the lines of the straw that broke the camels back. Unless the employer is truly draconian I suspect that the person concerned has probably had a few run-ins, especially if either they were spying on here or that the hear-say of a college spotting you online is enough to be sacked for.
Why I shouldn't breed.....
To anyone who knows me in real-life (ie no one because I'm pretty sure no one reads this) this is a(nother) reason I shouldn't have kids...
xkcd rocks....
and if you don't already READ XKCD
xkcd rocks....and if you don't already READ XKCD
Procrastination (book of biff)
Found another comic to read - I'm too good at this.
Either way It's very good - just a series of one panel picture + caption types. Simple, surreal and just a little gruesome. The only down side is that it has been updated almost daily since 2006.... I'm up to 18th June 2007.
Ah well its this or stats.
Either way It's very good - just a series of one panel picture + caption types. Simple, surreal and just a little gruesome. The only down side is that it has been updated almost daily since 2006.... I'm up to 18th June 2007.
Ah well its this or stats.
Well its been a while since a health scare...
bbc report here.
Well who'd have funk it? WHO (the World Health Organisation) has been caught unawares; while bird flu has had a lot of medical types concerned (with good reason, the damn thing when transmitted to humans has been pretty good at killing us) out of left field comes swine flu.
According the to WHO there have currently been 60 suspected deaths due to this in Mexico City recently. The main reason this has got WHO's boss rushing back to Geneva to co-ordinate activities is that March-April is the end of the flu season and most of the deaths have been among young adults. This leaves the worrying question of what happens if it jumps to the southern hemisphere where the flu season is just starting and infects the vulnerable (ie very young or old).
The second worrying aspect of this is that as well as the 1,000 reported cases in Mexico City there are several in California, okay both are reasonably close together but it shows that it has already left Mexico so you have to wonder where else it has spread to.
Either way looks like bird flu has a challengers for 'most likely next pandemic' award.
This is probably worth following so I'll keep an eye out for it as if its still around in a month or so I'd say (with no basis behind it but as a blind guess) that we may still see it in a year or so - if its gone it'll be just another SARS....
Well who'd have funk it? WHO (the World Health Organisation) has been caught unawares; while bird flu has had a lot of medical types concerned (with good reason, the damn thing when transmitted to humans has been pretty good at killing us) out of left field comes swine flu.
According the to WHO there have currently been 60 suspected deaths due to this in Mexico City recently. The main reason this has got WHO's boss rushing back to Geneva to co-ordinate activities is that March-April is the end of the flu season and most of the deaths have been among young adults. This leaves the worrying question of what happens if it jumps to the southern hemisphere where the flu season is just starting and infects the vulnerable (ie very young or old).
The second worrying aspect of this is that as well as the 1,000 reported cases in Mexico City there are several in California, okay both are reasonably close together but it shows that it has already left Mexico so you have to wonder where else it has spread to.
Either way looks like bird flu has a challengers for 'most likely next pandemic' award.
This is probably worth following so I'll keep an eye out for it as if its still around in a month or so I'd say (with no basis behind it but as a blind guess) that we may still see it in a year or so - if its gone it'll be just another SARS....
Friday, 24 April 2009
just wow...
Found this on blag hag (a fun atheist blog that I read).
The link (to iccm) has to be one of the most fantastic examples of over design ever committed in web history. When I say fantastic in the same way that giant spiders are fantastic - they are of fantasy although in both cases something fantasised by the Marquis de Sade after too much late night cheese and kink...
Anyway watch, enjoy, vomit a little and then run away!
The link (to iccm) has to be one of the most fantastic examples of over design ever committed in web history. When I say fantastic in the same way that giant spiders are fantastic - they are of fantasy although in both cases something fantasised by the Marquis de Sade after too much late night cheese and kink...
Anyway watch, enjoy, vomit a little and then run away!
Thursday, 23 April 2009
I've aquired a new comic... DAMN!
'Hark A Vagrant' is nice line drawn comic with historical references - I get some of them and the nonsense ones are good fun :)
rantidote - just so Cool
As an antidote to my rant on science journalism here is a 4 min video ABOUT ROBOT PENGUINS!
As far as I know this isn't a spoof here is a New Scientist report on the penguins and here is the link to the learning bionics network.
Interestingly I think one of the most important bits of the video is hidden away towards the end when they discuss how they're pushing for home matter printers. If this can happen (in a significant way ie circuitry printing) it will be as big a shift as the internet.
Either way
SO COOL!
UPDATE 11:27 23-04-09: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxPzodKQays is equally cool - air manta ray
UPDATE 11:38 23-04-09 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTJVnf5nyA robo - jelly fish!
interesting the mechanical engineering (ie moving bits) for a lot of these seem reasonably simple a lot of the elegance seems to stem from using very clever materials that flow and bend in a very natural and useful way.
Here's to riding around on manta ray dirigibles or using an air jelly fish rather than a lift!
Genuis!
As far as I know this isn't a spoof here is a New Scientist report on the penguins and here is the link to the learning bionics network.
Interestingly I think one of the most important bits of the video is hidden away towards the end when they discuss how they're pushing for home matter printers. If this can happen (in a significant way ie circuitry printing) it will be as big a shift as the internet.
Either way
SO COOL!
UPDATE 11:27 23-04-09: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxPzodKQays is equally cool - air manta ray
UPDATE 11:38 23-04-09 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTJVnf5nyA robo - jelly fish!
interesting the mechanical engineering (ie moving bits) for a lot of these seem reasonably simple a lot of the elegance seems to stem from using very clever materials that flow and bend in a very natural and useful way.
Here's to riding around on manta ray dirigibles or using an air jelly fish rather than a lift!
Genuis!
science rage!
The media fails at reporting on science. This is a wonderful example of how much. Having read the actual article the bbc get the gist right but fails in the presentation.
My objection to this is that a lazy reading of the bbc article gives the impression that pollution is stopping global warming. It isn't. Not even a little. It is slowing the process a bit. It does raise the point that by cleaning our air the added removal of CO2 via this diffuse effect will be removed and that it highlights the incredibly complex nature of climate modeling for that I applaud it. It still utterly fails to point out that the paper doesn't mean driving a hummer is helping the environment.
That being said the bbc has better title than some...
"Climate change fight could raise CO2 levels" - thank you Glascow Herald
I raise this because this is exactly the sort of thing that denialists/the lazy/the unconcerned will point to and say 'see we're helping' without any comprehension of whats actually happening. That being said this is a perfect example of the constant problem in all science reporting - take a technical paper written to be read by experts. Pass to intelligent but non expert journalist. Speed read/research. Associate with something that public will understand. Condense to 10th original size and 1/100th scientific content.
Maybe I should have a go at this scientific wroting that everyone seems to think is such a good idea. Then again given my patience and spelling ability maybe not.
My objection to this is that a lazy reading of the bbc article gives the impression that pollution is stopping global warming. It isn't. Not even a little. It is slowing the process a bit. It does raise the point that by cleaning our air the added removal of CO2 via this diffuse effect will be removed and that it highlights the incredibly complex nature of climate modeling for that I applaud it. It still utterly fails to point out that the paper doesn't mean driving a hummer is helping the environment.
That being said the bbc has better title than some...
"Climate change fight could raise CO2 levels" - thank you Glascow Herald
I raise this because this is exactly the sort of thing that denialists/the lazy/the unconcerned will point to and say 'see we're helping' without any comprehension of whats actually happening. That being said this is a perfect example of the constant problem in all science reporting - take a technical paper written to be read by experts. Pass to intelligent but non expert journalist. Speed read/research. Associate with something that public will understand. Condense to 10th original size and 1/100th scientific content.
Maybe I should have a go at this scientific wroting that everyone seems to think is such a good idea. Then again given my patience and spelling ability maybe not.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Real terrorism...
This will soon be terrorism, 6 wires and an entire city was stranded - luckily they coped well but this sort of thing could soon be the face of terror.
Very interesting read and worth thinking about
Very interesting read and worth thinking about
Future history of Windows
This is a nice opinion piece on the possible future of computing under the "good enough revolution" in which (apparently) people will realise that they don't need all the gunk and extras that windows and new pcs offer and in fact buy to replace not upgrade.
This seems plausible as a general idea. The market share for Linux, while still not huge (less that 1% I think), is still slowwly growing. With netbooks making good use of the free and lighter running Linux it is possible that they will carve a niche for themselves. That being said the soon to be released Windows 7 marks is specifically targetted at netbooks and with most computers still pre-installed with windows I think 2025 quoted is a little optimistic for Microsoft's death.
Amusingly this is a rare time in which this is published from XP (I refuse to run F/Vista) although 7 does look nice. Every time I log back onto windows it annoys me now - in fact the only use I have for it now is gaming and I'm hoping that with some summer work I can shift to wine for this.
All in all the next 10 years may be make or break for Linux as a major OS (ie greater than 1%). One way or another it will continue but if it can't make it big during a recession its going to be a wait for the stranglehold of microsoft to lessen; which would be a nice thing if only because a computer hegemony is one reason viruses happen.
This seems plausible as a general idea. The market share for Linux, while still not huge (less that 1% I think), is still slowwly growing. With netbooks making good use of the free and lighter running Linux it is possible that they will carve a niche for themselves. That being said the soon to be released Windows 7 marks is specifically targetted at netbooks and with most computers still pre-installed with windows I think 2025 quoted is a little optimistic for Microsoft's death.
Amusingly this is a rare time in which this is published from XP (I refuse to run F/Vista) although 7 does look nice. Every time I log back onto windows it annoys me now - in fact the only use I have for it now is gaming and I'm hoping that with some summer work I can shift to wine for this.
All in all the next 10 years may be make or break for Linux as a major OS (ie greater than 1%). One way or another it will continue but if it can't make it big during a recession its going to be a wait for the stranglehold of microsoft to lessen; which would be a nice thing if only because a computer hegemony is one reason viruses happen.
Steam and all that
Well I'm not much of a gamer but I have finally got the Orange box - mainly because I played portal once at a friends and finished it one evening and would like to play it again. Also I want to play my flat mate at counter-strike.
Seems ok (I may post further musings on it as I go here), I am looking forward to the half-life games again having played a bit and enjoyed it.
Here's hoping it was worth the £15 that I paid for it.
Seems ok (I may post further musings on it as I go here), I am looking forward to the half-life games again having played a bit and enjoyed it.
Here's hoping it was worth the £15 that I paid for it.
speaking of the post-biological era...
Well looks like my post yesterday may have been a bit off.
A project running on the blue gene super computers has (supposedly) modeled the action of the neo-cortex from molecular level up. The neocortex is the area of the brain that houses most higher-functions (my neuro-scientist friend would kill me for that simplification).
While it is unclear quite how accurate this model is or quite how it works the researches claim that upscaling it to full brains is only a matter of money. Sentient space lobsters here we come!
In all it looks like research to watch (main site is here) certainly if they get funding we may see some interesting results soon.
A project running on the blue gene super computers has (supposedly) modeled the action of the neo-cortex from molecular level up. The neocortex is the area of the brain that houses most higher-functions (my neuro-scientist friend would kill me for that simplification).
While it is unclear quite how accurate this model is or quite how it works the researches claim that upscaling it to full brains is only a matter of money. Sentient space lobsters here we come!
In all it looks like research to watch (main site is here) certainly if they get funding we may see some interesting results soon.
Yarr! a pirate's life in Somalia
This is (supposedly) an interview with a Somalian pirate by the bbc.
It's somewhat depressing as unsurprisingly they claim that they have been driven to it by loss of their own sources of income, the claim is illegal fishing and toxic dumping has removed their main employment as fishers. Which makes sense but I can't help but think that mainly it's greed. By the sounds of it the payout for three successful hijackings are significantly better than a lifetime of fishing. That being said given the difference it's a pretty understandable greed.
pah the world sucks
I did like the guys optimism that "Foreign navies can do nothing to stop piracy" having watched the US react to most things I think that sooner or later they will try - even if it just means training crews to kill and leaving escorts around Somalia.
ah well at least they didn't try and make a robin hood story from it.
It's somewhat depressing as unsurprisingly they claim that they have been driven to it by loss of their own sources of income, the claim is illegal fishing and toxic dumping has removed their main employment as fishers. Which makes sense but I can't help but think that mainly it's greed. By the sounds of it the payout for three successful hijackings are significantly better than a lifetime of fishing. That being said given the difference it's a pretty understandable greed.
pah the world sucks
I did like the guys optimism that "Foreign navies can do nothing to stop piracy" having watched the US react to most things I think that sooner or later they will try - even if it just means training crews to kill and leaving escorts around Somalia.
ah well at least they didn't try and make a robin hood story from it.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
w00t Postbiology humans!
Those that know me will know I have a thing for trans-humanism (or post humanism etc).
The basic concept is that the human body is scanned at the deepest level possible and the remains are simulated on a computer, in theory this recreates the human. Currently it is predicted that by 2020 computers will exist that have computing complexity to match the human brain (ie comparable numbers of connections). Quite when AI will be reached (if we do ever reach it) is a moot question but highly likely (unless something like the soul does in fact exist).
This article interestingly looks at what the economic, environmental and sustainability aspects of humans being uploaded to computers will be. The conclusion: its probably a good thing as the entire current population would probably be fitted into a 100x100km grid coated with solar panels.
Very interesting read, for more information Charlie Stross' 'Accelerando' is a very good fictional investigation of the singularity (what will happen if true AI is achieved) as well as post-biological humanity.
The basic concept is that the human body is scanned at the deepest level possible and the remains are simulated on a computer, in theory this recreates the human. Currently it is predicted that by 2020 computers will exist that have computing complexity to match the human brain (ie comparable numbers of connections). Quite when AI will be reached (if we do ever reach it) is a moot question but highly likely (unless something like the soul does in fact exist).
This article interestingly looks at what the economic, environmental and sustainability aspects of humans being uploaded to computers will be. The conclusion: its probably a good thing as the entire current population would probably be fitted into a 100x100km grid coated with solar panels.
Very interesting read, for more information Charlie Stross' 'Accelerando' is a very good fictional investigation of the singularity (what will happen if true AI is achieved) as well as post-biological humanity.
How small is the modern world?
Found this linked to on New Scientist. It's a map of how far every point on the surface of the world is from a city (defined as population > 50k). Its pretty cool, firstly as a point of interest, secondly because its been keyed to magma colours so it looks like the earth is on fire.
More generally it is a wonderful description of how the world has accelerated technologically in the recent years, this sort of map 30 years ago would be very different and 100 years ago would be utterly different.
On a related topic this is a wonderful time sink and an amazing way of finding things out/settling disputes. It is a fairly simple but VERY powerful graphing device. Linked to world statistics it allows you to plot along several axis: x & y, point size, colour as well as time.
VERY interesting - although truly depressing in some ways (try watching a time lapse graph of the population of Rwanda).
Both well worth a look and gap minder is an amazing tool.
More generally it is a wonderful description of how the world has accelerated technologically in the recent years, this sort of map 30 years ago would be very different and 100 years ago would be utterly different.
On a related topic this is a wonderful time sink and an amazing way of finding things out/settling disputes. It is a fairly simple but VERY powerful graphing device. Linked to world statistics it allows you to plot along several axis: x & y, point size, colour as well as time.
VERY interesting - although truly depressing in some ways (try watching a time lapse graph of the population of Rwanda).
Both well worth a look and gap minder is an amazing tool.
Something that everyone should see
... so posting it here I expect is of limited use but never mind.
This is a link to a very useful presentation on how people steal card details from ATMs well worth a read. Quite frightening how hard most of the additions are to spot.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/consumerist/2009/04/Skimmer_presentation_v1_230109_ppt_1__01.pdf
This is a link to a very useful presentation on how people steal card details from ATMs well worth a read. Quite frightening how hard most of the additions are to spot.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/consumerist/2009/04/Skimmer_presentation_v1_230109_ppt_1__01.pdf
ohhh exoplanets!
The bbc are reporting that the lightest ever exoplanet has been discovered, weighing in at a mere 1.9 Earth masses it has pushed the 3.6m La Silla telescope in Chile to its limits.
While it sits outside the habitable orbits of its star Gliese 581 it is an interesting discovery. Scientifically it marks nothing much (this isn't the first exoplanet, just a record holder), but it does show just how many planets are out there (Gliese 581 has 4 others).
Of more interest is that this was done with a ground based telescope - it will be truly amazing to see how much is discovered once the Kepler satellite goes into orbit, being designed specifically to look for exoplanets should produce even better results.
If nothing else this means were building up a nice range of planets to send seed/holo ships to (maybe generation ships but they're not much of an idea).
While it sits outside the habitable orbits of its star Gliese 581 it is an interesting discovery. Scientifically it marks nothing much (this isn't the first exoplanet, just a record holder), but it does show just how many planets are out there (Gliese 581 has 4 others).
Of more interest is that this was done with a ground based telescope - it will be truly amazing to see how much is discovered once the Kepler satellite goes into orbit, being designed specifically to look for exoplanets should produce even better results.
If nothing else this means were building up a nice range of planets to send seed/holo ships to (maybe generation ships but they're not much of an idea).
Monday, 20 April 2009
Interactive tattoos
Well looks like interactive/programmable tattoos are pushing forward, about a year or so ago I read about this implant - a small screen with a black and white display on it that ran of chemical energy siphoned from your blood, that was a concept. Now its been pushed further, moving from sub-dermal implants to nano-tubes placed either sub-dermaly or on the surface of the skin but as a custom size rather than a single cohesive pad. This apparently work in a more passive way than the 'screen' in that the electrics are only needed to change the display which is otherwise passive and just sits there.
Still pretty cool and I want one very much. Annoyingly I have three links but the video on the last one won't load for me - have been told that it is semi NSFW:
nano-tattoos
more shine
fun video NSFW
Still pretty cool and I want one very much. Annoyingly I have three links but the video on the last one won't load for me - have been told that it is semi NSFW:
nano-tattoos
more shine
fun video NSFW
Sunday, 19 April 2009
TED, Ze Frank and stop motion
Ok well pretty tired now, certainly nearly bed time but late night surfing has revealed a few funky things:
First the TED talks - these are awesome, random people (organised online as far as I know) talking about what ever it is they do. Huge range of people form philanthropists organising aid for Africa to this a performance by Jennifer Lin to this which is a very good, if very geeky, stand-up routine from one of the old school virals: "how to dance properly" from 2001.
Ze Frank is in fact the next item in the title because his blog looks interesting, if I get a links page sorted he's probably going on it, as will TED and all other odd things. Not done much exploring of the blog but some of the projects seem interestingly arsty/flash mob-esque.
Final part is something I found on Ze Frank which is an amazing video:
First the TED talks - these are awesome, random people (organised online as far as I know) talking about what ever it is they do. Huge range of people form philanthropists organising aid for Africa to this a performance by Jennifer Lin to this which is a very good, if very geeky, stand-up routine from one of the old school virals: "how to dance properly" from 2001.
Ze Frank is in fact the next item in the title because his blog looks interesting, if I get a links page sorted he's probably going on it, as will TED and all other odd things. Not done much exploring of the blog but some of the projects seem interestingly arsty/flash mob-esque.
Final part is something I found on Ze Frank which is an amazing video:
Revision Blues
Its truly amazing how much I get done when I should be revising. I mean in the past three days I've cleaned the bathroom (utterly its beautiful), cooked a huge dinner, completely dismantled a chest of drawers... and drank a lot.
Why can't I find a way to focus this procrastination into something when it would be useful? Maybe I should look for jobs I hate to avoid, either way revision with something is a must I have decided. You get stuff done! need to work through statistics still though which sucks as revising it is painful, at least it's easy to follow.
In other news it does amuse me how people seem to fail at basic concepts of data security, I can still submit emails to an emailing list that I should no longer be admin for and they get auto-accepted still, ah power what fun!
hmmmm wonder how many of my friends have actually found this yet or even bothered.... ah well can keep dumping random stuff here none the less.
gah must stop blathering.....
Why can't I find a way to focus this procrastination into something when it would be useful? Maybe I should look for jobs I hate to avoid, either way revision with something is a must I have decided. You get stuff done! need to work through statistics still though which sucks as revising it is painful, at least it's easy to follow.
In other news it does amuse me how people seem to fail at basic concepts of data security, I can still submit emails to an emailing list that I should no longer be admin for and they get auto-accepted still, ah power what fun!
hmmmm wonder how many of my friends have actually found this yet or even bothered.... ah well can keep dumping random stuff here none the less.
gah must stop blathering.....
more police ranting..
Videos like this one really do worry me. Not because I'm much of a protester myself but if the police continue along this line they're are going to be stuffed. From what I've seen in any recession there is a general increase in protests and the police seemingly need a radical shift in tactics for protests or else they will cause some serious riots....
Hopefully G20 will raise enough issues to cause a change in policy and police attitude.
Would be even nicer if would could convince the government to change their policies....
Hopefully G20 will raise enough issues to cause a change in policy and police attitude.
Would be even nicer if would could convince the government to change their policies....
Saturday, 18 April 2009
because this isn't asking to be abused
Seems like someone has made a way of allowing remote signing (click here).
This isn't remote verification but actual remote pen and paper signature. It is a triumph of engineering and haptic research but really cans the signature as a method of verifying the authenticity of a document or similar.
Most depressingly this is being used and allowed by governments.
I wonder if its possible to extract someone's hand writing style from their signature? I wouldn't be surprised, while they're very different motions they share certain components... would be a fun experiment if nothing else.
I suppose this is going to force the fact that a signature is in no way a secure method of identification.
This isn't remote verification but actual remote pen and paper signature. It is a triumph of engineering and haptic research but really cans the signature as a method of verifying the authenticity of a document or similar.
Most depressingly this is being used and allowed by governments.
I wonder if its possible to extract someone's hand writing style from their signature? I wouldn't be surprised, while they're very different motions they share certain components... would be a fun experiment if nothing else.
I suppose this is going to force the fact that a signature is in no way a secure method of identification.
Freakangles
This is my latest addition to my comics list
Warren Ellis is win
Paul Duffields art is also win
Lots of cool steam punk and a flooded london - could you want more?
highly worth a read. Anyway back to revising pah.
Warren Ellis is win
Paul Duffields art is also win
Lots of cool steam punk and a flooded london - could you want more?
highly worth a read. Anyway back to revising pah.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Sam Jackson was unavailble to comment
just so good.
bit daft and i feel sorry for the pythons ... i want a python
bit daft and i feel sorry for the pythons ... i want a python
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
This is about time...
Seems like post G20 joy as well as wonderful incidents at the protest held over Ian Tomlinson's death have triggered a response from the Met who are reviewing their tactics. I can understand that the police in both situations would have felt VERY pressured and under threat but also in many of the (admittedly biased and somewhat lacking context) videos that have being doing the rounds you do wonder what the hell they were thinking.
In any situation it should be obvious that there will be some people looking for a reason for a fight, even if there isn't and all they are doing is being loud, threatening idiots you still don't hit them.
The BBC report has a few disturbing quotes as well; a personal favourite is from Kit Malthouse who praises the Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, on his swift action in requesting a review. Call me a harse but swift would have been when Ian Tomlinson died - not two weeks after the event. Even accepting that for a few days it was unclear the exact details something had gone wrong and it should have prompted some form of review..... or maybe thats just me?
The best quote of the entire piece has to be from Sir Paul:
"The public has a right to be able to identify any uniformed officer whilst performing their duty."
This seems, just a little, at odds with section 76 counter-terrorism act 2008 which states that
"A person commits an offence who—
(a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been--
[sic]
(iii) a constable"
while this hasn't come to court (yet) it has been mooted in several places that it means you cannot photograph police constables....
Anyway the whole thing looks like it could go either way and given that this is likely the first of many more riotous protests we will probably see while the recession runs it course hopefully the whole thing will go down a slightly more sane route....
or the police could continue as they are.
Also of interest always makes me smile to see the bbc using youtube as a source.
In any situation it should be obvious that there will be some people looking for a reason for a fight, even if there isn't and all they are doing is being loud, threatening idiots you still don't hit them.
The BBC report has a few disturbing quotes as well; a personal favourite is from Kit Malthouse who praises the Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, on his swift action in requesting a review. Call me a harse but swift would have been when Ian Tomlinson died - not two weeks after the event. Even accepting that for a few days it was unclear the exact details something had gone wrong and it should have prompted some form of review..... or maybe thats just me?
The best quote of the entire piece has to be from Sir Paul:
"The public has a right to be able to identify any uniformed officer whilst performing their duty."
This seems, just a little, at odds with section 76 counter-terrorism act 2008 which states that
"A person commits an offence who—
(a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been--
[sic]
(iii) a constable"
while this hasn't come to court (yet) it has been mooted in several places that it means you cannot photograph police constables....
Anyway the whole thing looks like it could go either way and given that this is likely the first of many more riotous protests we will probably see while the recession runs it course hopefully the whole thing will go down a slightly more sane route....
or the police could continue as they are.
Also of interest always makes me smile to see the bbc using youtube as a source.
Interesting development in Afghanistan . . .
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/three-cheers-for-afghan-women/
Interesting story, sounds like there is at least some sort of a push for equality out there but also sounds like its going to be a long hard road. 300 woman protesting for equal rights to 1,000 odd protesting against (including some women).
The law sounds pretty medieval Shiite women must stay at home leaving only with permission from their husband and most have sex with him when ever he wants....
Does make me realise how precious our freedoms are....
Interesting story, sounds like there is at least some sort of a push for equality out there but also sounds like its going to be a long hard road. 300 woman protesting for equal rights to 1,000 odd protesting against (including some women).
The law sounds pretty medieval Shiite women must stay at home leaving only with permission from their husband and most have sex with him when ever he wants....
Does make me realise how precious our freedoms are....
ranty
Grrrr some what annoyed that people on facebook didn't find my links interesting.
ah well
*grrr's some more*
UPDATE 20-04-09: yes I'm a whiny bitch
ah well
*grrr's some more*
UPDATE 20-04-09: yes I'm a whiny bitch
for the morbid
This is interesting although quite morbid.
Apparently I've not out lived anyone very interesting.. ah well
UPDATE 20-04-09: link
Apparently I've not out lived anyone very interesting.. ah well
UPDATE 20-04-09: link
trying to get back to this
Well as I seem to be pissing people off spamming interesting stuff to facebook I'm going to start spamming it here instead.
First thing of shiny at the moment is that I've truly discovered the joys of BBC iPlayer the last few evenings (hell its been that or revision) and so discovered a pretty good radio drama called "Old Harry's game" which is written by Andy Hamilton (regular of various radio comedies).
The premise is pretty simple, a character called 'the Prof' is in hell and Satan (played by Andy) is trying to crush him. Only listened to one episode so far but was well written, some clever jokes and an interesting take on the human condition.
In other news did i mention I hate revision?
First thing of shiny at the moment is that I've truly discovered the joys of BBC iPlayer the last few evenings (hell its been that or revision) and so discovered a pretty good radio drama called "Old Harry's game" which is written by Andy Hamilton (regular of various radio comedies).
The premise is pretty simple, a character called 'the Prof' is in hell and Satan (played by Andy) is trying to crush him. Only listened to one episode so far but was well written, some clever jokes and an interesting take on the human condition.
In other news did i mention I hate revision?
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