A Peculiar Blog

There’s a really interesting bit over at Scientific American about, of all things, Invisibility. It seems that scientists have made a lot of progress in coming up with materials that bend light around them making them effectively invisible.

It’s a long way from any kind of practical application since they’re talking about stuff that’s only a molecule or two thick so you don’t have to be prepared to stick Dymo labels on invisible people / things that you have or run into so that you’ll know what’s where.

Instead, they’re actually talking about using this technology to do things like build microscopes with optics powerful enough to see a live virus. Of course, they also don’t bother to elaborate even a little bit about just HOW an invisible or “cloaked” material would accomplish this.

Personally, I can’t see it.

Technorati Tags: invisibility, nanowires, technology, cloak

Joe Public had a problem. He’d been working what seemed like non-stop for months. That big project at the office had taken over his life, even to the point where he was spending most of his time at home working. Nights and weekends blurred into workdays as he dealt with one problem after another. Finally the project was finished and Joe wasted no time in putting in for that two week vacation he didn’t take the year before.

Jane Public was thrilled to find out that not only had Joe finally gotten some vacation time but that he’d suggested getting away from home for a while “just in case the boss calls with an emergency”. They started tossing a few ideas around and checking out vacation listings online. After a while they ran across a search result offering a family beach vacation. They nearly tripped over each other trying to click on New Jersey amusement parks.

They soon found themselves looking at the Morey’s Piers website. Looking around, they found that this site offered just about everything needed for a New Jersey Vacation. The website even has a page listing Wildwood, New Jersey Hotels and Motels

They knew that the kids would love the place because and the 100 plus rides and attractions. Surely there would be something for everybody to enjoy. When they looked over the pricing they found a page that gave details about Morey’s Piers weekly specials. The specials included things like “Magical Mondays”, where they would be celebrating their fortieth year by picking a guest at random and giving them randomly prizes which could be anything from wristband upgrades, free food and games to special amenities and party packages.

It wasn’t long before the Public’s had booked their vacation and begun to make their travel plans. They knew they were in for a great time with no office business to take it over on them.

Technorati Tags: family vacation, beach vacation, wildwood new jersey, new jersey, amusement parks, family beach vacation, new jersey vacation

A lot of people seem to think that Obama has the best shot at winning, but there’s a CBS news article that raises some questions about that. Notably there’s seven factors that could individually or together serve to put a damper on Obama’s run for the White House.

1. The Race Issue. Everybody want’s to say it ain’t so, but let’s face it, for a lot of voters race is and always has been an issue. You’ve got the first ever black candidate for president that has a shot at winning. There’s a lot of people who will vote for him just because of that fact. There’s also a lot of people who will vote against him just because of that fact. Exactly which way that influence ends up going is anybody’s guess.

2. Virgina is apparently an iffy situation for Obama. According to the article, his chances there are probably right around 50 / 50. Not exactly a commanding lead.

3. Michigan is another state that while Obama is still ahead by a few points in the polls, there’s issues brewing that could easily tip things in favor of McCain.

4. The Economy. While McCain is quoted as admitting that he “never understood economics”, there’s a long standing trend that voters angry over an issue tend to be a help for Democrats and voters that are afraid because of an issue tend to help Republicans. If the economy continues to worsen, McCain could end up winning on that issue in spite of his stated lack of understanding. (at least so say the political experts)

5. The “Ross Perot” effect. Bill Clinton would not have been elected if Ross Perot had not gotten 19 percent of the vote in 1992. Apparently there isn’t (at this point) any independent candidate that’s likely to pull much in the way of votes. ‘Course if there were, which side would most of them come from?

6. It seems that for the Democrats, since 1960 getting to the White House has meant “accommodating only southern whites with border-state strength”, which isn’t going to be enough for Obama.

7. The article talks about people liking to keep the government divided but I think it’s more a matter of balance in that a lot of people will tend to vote Republican if the Democrats control Congress and vice versa.

Technorati Tags: reasons for concern, votes, presidential campaign, obama, issues

I’m always interested in a good deal and VistaPrint is a good one. Their site features just about any kind of print job you can name. From custom stationary to business cards (and business card holders of course). Speaking of business cards, VistaPrint is famous for it’s free business card offers.

They also feature Letterhead design and printing, custom check printing, Brochures and a whole mess of other Creative Services. And then there were Car Magnets, which you can use the coupon code “CarDoor25″ to get 25% off Car Door Magnets

For those of you that don’t recognize the term, car magnets are those magnetic signs that a lot of businesses and some individuals will attach to their car doors so that they can get some advertising mileage out of their regular driving around. It’s the kind of thing that helps build name recognition which is always important in an advertising campaign whether you’re promoting Joe’s plumbing, your favorite political candidate or whatever your pet cause is.

The great thing about magnetic car signs is that they’re not permanent. For example a pizza shop can have delivery drivers attach one to each side of their car and that will count for quite a bit of free advertising as people see those signs everywhere the delivery driver goes. You can tell when the calls start coming in where people tell you that they got the number off the sign on the driver’s car.

Technorati Tags: website, car magnets, printing, business cards, magnetic signs, signs

Audacity is a digital audio editor. It allows you to edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF audio files. You can do cool tricks like change the speed or pitch of a recording. Want to know what you’d sound like as a chipmunk? Audacity can help you find out.

You can also use it to convert tapes and records into digital recordings that you can then burn to CD. It can also import and export a variety of file formats. (except of course proprietary or restricted file formats such as WMA and AAC)

Technorati Tags: free software, sound editor, edit sound files, import file, convert file, freeware

This property is probably the most remote of any that is currently offered for sale anywhere on Earth. Lunarinternational.com is the site and it’s selling actual land claims on the moon. Now it’s actually possible to promise somebody you’ll buy the moon!

In addition to the claim, you also get a membership in The Society for Lunar Exploration and Development, which is an advocacy group concerned with the future of the moon and private ownership and development of lunar real estate.

SLED’s goal is to get people back on the moon, apparently on a permanent basis, where owning lunar property will be a part of business as usual.

Hmmm… I wonder if I can get a few acres in an area that I believe is located roughly in the center of Tycho crater?

Technorati Tags: 2001, lunar real estate, real estate, websites

I’ve been interested in p2p file sharing for some time. I quickly grew tired of things like Kazaa, gnutella, emule and bittorrent file sharing systems for a number of reasons. The biggest complaint was that just about anytime I wanted to download something, suddenly all of the sources would dry up and disappear, leaving me with an unfinished download.

Then several years ago I discovered Freenet. It was near the end of the 0.4 version and even though it was still, like a teenager with acne, had a lot of problems, I saw immense potential for it. Especially when it came to distributed storage. A distributed storage system has a big advantage in that files are available even if the node that provides it is off line. Over the years Freenet has grown into a pretty large network that continues to be quietly successful both for file sharing and for anonymity.

Once in a while I hear about new file sharing systems or concepts and I’ll at least do some reading about them to see how they stack up against Freenet. OFF, the Owner Free File system is the latest one.

It’s based on the idea that since everything that’s uploaded into the OFF network is broken into chunks which are then XORed (exclusive OR) with random blocks of data, that those random blocks can be transferred without the need to hide them or be anonymous.

The idea is that those randomized blocks are not copyrighted material even if they were created by XORing the copyrighted stuff against random blocks. Also, because random blocks get used as parts of several target files, that is supposed to further muddy the waters so to speak, making it harder to determine what somebody is downloading.

I see a problem with this kind of system. It’s not anonymous and doesn’t even pretend to be. It’s relying on an assumption that data that is derived from copyrighted data is not copyrighted. I personally have trouble getting this one past the “grin test”, let alone believing that it will fly in court.

Just for the heck of it though, I got the OFF System and tried it. I found it slower than Freenet for both inserting and downloading files and I also found that while it’s searchable like most p2p systems, It was slow in getting even a few dozen file listings in my searches.

My conclusion is that it’s a cool experiment but the first time somebody takes an OFF System user to court over copyrighted material being downloaded it’s going to fall apart. Even if the data being transferred from note to node doesn’t qualify as copyrighted works or a derivative of copyrighted works, the reconstructed file being downloaded from the network certainly would retain it’s copyright status. That, combined with the fact that because OFF System doesn’t make any effort to anonymize connections, it is certainly possible to determine who is downloading what and what neighbor nodes any given user is connected to.

I think that Freenet 0.5 is not only WAY more secure but also faster for inserts and downloads than OFF System is ever going to be. Freenet 0.7 tries to gain more security by having a darknet system and Freenet 0.8 will be even more secure by adding premix routing which will anonymize inter-node connections even more.

Technorati Tags: file sharing, p2p, darknet, distributed storage, freenet, brightnet

There aren’t enough computers in our house. Granted, we’ve been blessed enough to have three desktop machines on a home LAN with enough bandwidth for all of them to be online at the same time, there is still a shortage however.

This shortage makes itself felt once in a while when it’s just not possible to get home to use the desktop machines. It’s also not practical to break down and move even one of them to take them elsewhere. No, what we need is some kind of reasonably new notebook computers that have enough memory, hard drive space and CPU to run all of our usual apps when we’re away from home.

My wife & I have both done some looking around and there’s a few pretty good candidates out there that have everything either of us want (and in some cases, need) in a laptop. Granted, most of these are infected from the factory with veeesta but a good round of “format and reinstall” can have them up and running with XP or Linux in reasonable time. Besides, I figure that if a machine is able to stand running veesta then it ought to just about scream with Linux.

Technorati Tags: wishlist, laptop, notebook, portable computer

My brother sent me this little gem a few months ago and I just recently ran across it while cleaning out my inbox. It’s a sort of a commentary about just how fast we’ve gone down hill in the last 40 years. Those of us who were actually IN school in 1968 will know how true these things are.

School in 1968 vs. 2008

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.

1968 - Vice principal comes over to look at Jack’s shotgun. He goes to his own car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2008 - School goes into lock-down, and FBI is called. Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or shotgun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

1968 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He returns to class, sits still, and does not disrupt class again.

2008 - Jeffrey is diagnosed with A. D. D. and given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from State because Jeffrey has a learning disability.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor’s car and his dad gives him a whipping with his belt.

1968 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2008 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is placed in foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist convinces Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself, and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Scenario: Mark has a headache and brings some aspirin to school.

1968 - Mark takes aspirin in lunchroom and headache goes away.

2008 - Police called. Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. Car is searched for drugs and weapons.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Scenario: Pedro fails English in high school.

1968 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.

2008 - Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. 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 is given a diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a fire ant hill.

1968 - Ants die.

2008 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Homeland Security, and FBI called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates parents; siblings are removed from home; computers are confiscated. Johnny’s dad goes on 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 who hugs him to comfort him.

1968 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2008 - Teacher is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in state prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy .
============================================

When it’s all said and done, there’s a lot of “progress” that we could easily have done without.

Technorati Tags: school, fear, suspicion, progress, last days, terror, asinine

I’ve been noticing an increase in the amount of comment spam in recent weeks. Usually the Akismet and Bad behavior plugins do most of the work of keeping the crap out of the comments but there’s been a higher than normal level of sewage backing up in the comment queue and, to continue the analogy, I’ve had to do something of a power flush and turn the bathroom faucets full open to hose out the crap left in some comments.

A good example one that somebody singing themselves as “Ground Info” left on “Random Redirect WordPress Plugin” where they wrote this fine bit of wit:

I just want to say that it is very fine posting. Keep it up thanks

I suppose that could be taken as an encouraging type comment that’s meant to be generally supportive etc… Thing is, “Ground Info” turns out to have something to do with the game of Cricket, which the url they left so conveniently pointed to.

It’s like this, You want links, I’m fine with that, that’s why I’ve got the Lucia’s Linky Love plugin to allow regular commentors to get ‘do-follow’ links after a certain number of comments using the same name, email and url combination. That’s why I have the CommentLuv plugin that tries to fetch a link to their most recent blog posting at the url they use in the comment form. However I have a problem with people expecting me to believe that their name or handle is “Ground Info”.

That’s a baldfaced shot at using my blog for SEO and if that’s what you want, then I’d appreciate it a whole lot if you’d be honest and contact me about it and we’ll see what arrangements can be made. I’m quite open to selling a bit of advertising space on this blog for what I believe are reasonable rates. However attempts like this one to just game the comment system aren’t going to work. Most stuff like that is automatically tagged as spam by Akismet and what it misses, I mark manually.

Technorati Tags: comment luv, lucias linky love, advertising, comment spam, seo, akismet, plugins spam