Recently in Rants Category

To say I am not a fan of the RIAA is a great understatement. That said, they have really gone too far this time. According to recent news stories, the RIAA has recently stated it's desire that instead of lessening their demands for monopoly copy protection by law, it wants even stricter laws to prevent possible copyright infringement, as well as a nearly complete destruction of the fair use tenets in US law. It seems that the RIAA wants to stop you from doing a few of the things now legal under US law, such as backing up your purchased music via a CD burner, and more.

It has, in all my time of watching this market, always been my belief that if a person wants to adequately protect their purchase from potential damage, especially audio tapes or CD's, it was suggested, in law, that they back them up via a copying mechanism. This was called Fair Use. If you have something you purchased, it is incumbent on you to protect your purchase. Apparently the RIAA wants you to stop doing that, instead simply buying a new one when your CD wears out, gets scratched, or otherwise becomes unplayable. Yup. Utterly delusional. You read my mind. What's next or do I even want to know?

I am sad to say that I may soon be forced to resign in my position as the organizer of several local meetups. Not because I don't have faith in their growing, or in some cases, becoming something great, but because the owners of the Meetup.com company have decided to begin charging those who have been good enough to spend time and energy getting people out to events a monthly fee to stay on as organizers. They have given pathetic discounts to those who pay up right away, but the local communities effort to organize under one banner, one unified person in some of the more closely related groups have been shown to be a faulty one, as that just means that come early next year, one particular organizer will be on the hook for over $100 USD a month.

$100+ and the group is just growing to about 20 people. Are we to ask everyone to bring $5-10 to cover 'support' costs? It seems the new fees cover a lot of stuff that I and many of my fellow organizers do not need, nor want, but yet we cannot opt out of this, other than to resign, at which point the groups will whither and die away because people don't want to pay to meet other people in the same interest group, at least not locally. I am the organizer of the Fotolog, Warcraft, and DeviantArt meetup groups, none of which have ever had a successful meetup. I used to be the organizer for the weblog one too, but choose not to fight it when I was removed because no one had shown up in over a years worth of meetups. Meetup.com's future is in doubt.

I feel conflicted. I have used GoDaddy for years, ever since my last registrar, Trinic or something, held one of my domains hostage. On the other hand, a recent mail to the geeks list I subscribe to has me worried. Apparently GoDaddy has no current policy to actually verify that contact information for a domain that is complained about is actually incorrect or somehow invalid. The post to the list said that, basically, a list members family member runs a business related to web sites. One of their clients lost their domain to the policy mentioned above. Apparently this is a common scam, though I am not aware if it is reserved strictly to GoDaddy registered sites. It is a pathetic exploitation of policy, and I am disgusted at GoDaddy for not taking steps to prevent it.

The scam is this. The scammer uses GoDaddy's domain reservation service to put themselves in line should the domain become available. The same person, assumedly under another name, files a complaint that the contact information on the domain is incorrect. GoDaddy, it seems without even verifying the allegation, revoked the domain name, making it then become available. The scammer then uses the domain to perpetrate whatever they see fit, be it extortion, fraud, or ad filled 'portal'. the idea that geekblog.net could have just such a thing happen sickens me. I would like to see as many of you as possible with accounts with GoDaddy email them and ask about this policy. Perhaps we can somehow convince them to change this policy written to allow exploitation.

I am not normally a fan of software companies, and I have a few articles you'll be seeing soon that will explain my many thoughts on why I see piracy as almost a need here in Canada, but I am told I unnecessarily flipped out on a coworker today who was trying to brag to me that she got a hold of a copy of Half Life 2, and that she was playing it. I simply tried to tell her that she quite likely has either a very much incomplete version, or a virus riddled one. She admitted it was not complete, but still felt this was an accomplishment. I really did resist the urge to tell her how little I thought of her, and if I hadn't got a call, following which I ignored the rest of those working tonight, I would have really opened up. I think it is absurd that the warez community has to stoop so low as to pass around an unfinished work, and promote this type of clear thievery.

My good friend Kyrah, AKA Codemuffin(I can smell them baking all the way over here!) has posted a few thoughts to her blog that resulted form a conversation we had in IRC. The rant was over web design. I said that a lot of those who laugh at web designer's, saying it is far too easy to be a job either use Dreamweaver, Front Page, and/or Flash, and therefore their time is spent making a lot of flash, and a lot of bang, but very little actual useful information. Ky and I both joined the net and became addicted to it when content was the only thing we had. No flash, no Shockwave, and certainly no plugins to make things work well. I joined when Netscape was still good, meaning before AOL, and I miss those days. That is why my site has so little flash, and is pretty plain.

In reading the April issue of Wired(the first time in awhile I have read an issue in it's publication month), I was just reading an article by Howard Bloom about the Total Information Awareness. He opens explaining that since the TIA initiative was revealed last summer by the EFF, thousands of sites have tossed out their thoughts on the Darpa funded program, and the majority has been negative. The author then goes on, in fine follower fashion, and points out all the good things that TIA will bring about, like a 'search engine that will consign Google to the Stone Age.'

I don't know about you, but I have several times forced myself to search on my email address, and other info to see if anyone on the web is posting this live, and to be honest it scares me to imagine a system that is more comprehensive than Google. Do you want a fully, or even government only accessible search engine that can tell the user what you do in your spare time, what you like to do in bed, or what stores you shop at? Such personal information does not belong in a database, and the TIA program is destined to bring about a time when no one has any privacy, even in their own home, and when a simple, and possible innocent mention of someone being a terrorist, in jest or in anger, can cause that person to be treated worse than those held and interrogated in the Guantanamo Bay facility.

This has already been shown by the treatment of Arabs and Muslim's who have done nothing wrong but have been born a specific skin color or to have found faith in a certain religion. I do not want my info being stored by anyone, and while some may not see this as a problem, when they or their friends are treated like Mike Hawash and other rightful American citizens, immigrated and those born there, perhaps they will see the failure of their government and the police state that the US, and by lack of choice the rest of the world is moving towards.

Ok, I was in the Radio Shack in Portage Place and saw a nice looking digital camera, the Vivitar eMage 100V, that looked good for my needs and low enough priced. Upon turning it on, I smelt a little magic smoke, and noticed it would not turn on. It felt heavy for a camera less than an inch thick, and upon opening it up I noticed what the problem was, batteries that had leaked a lot of acid and had acid coating the contacts, and mentioned it to the guy helping me out. Clearly this guy is not a tech, or even familiar with batteries, as he cleaned the contacts with glass cleaner and paper towel, likely making the issue even worse. When he was done, and put another set of batteries in it, which also did not work, but no longer brought forth the magic smoke, which surprised me with the presence of cleaner still.

I offered my own AAA's from my Palm, as those would be what I would be using if I were to buy it. Well, this solved the power issue, and he went off looking for a price. I waited, looked over the camera, and tried to guesstimate the price that was reasonable. He came back and said there was no price, and asked me what it was worth to me. I explained that the one I bought was better, and I only paid $20, and he suggested less than that would be good. Not wanting to waste my money, I promised to come back the next day, after a little research could be done. when I got home, I hit Google and punched in 'Vivitar eMage 100V', and found little. Then a search on 'eMage 100V' came up with this page, that gave a fair bit more info.

Ignoring for a moment the typo's, here is the list of features on that page, in case you don't want to see it:

Use as a Digital Camera (VGA resolution) or PC WebCam (13 FPS in CIF mode)

8 MB internal SDRAM memory (stores up to 70 images)
Optical viewfinder with reverse Galilean filter
Video Clip Feature
LCD display for camera status
Self-timer
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP compatible
Auto power-off
USB interface (cable included)
Digital Camera software CD-ROM included

The LCD is about 1"x1". There is no expansion slot. There is no USB cable, and no manual, and Vivitar makes no mention of this at all, so a manual is unlikely to be found. There is also no CD. The purchase would be, essentially, the camera. That's all. this set's up the visit, as promised, on Saturday.

So I walk into the store after going to Home Depot and WalMart, and mention as soon as I can find a rep to help me about my visit the day before, and ask if the price is still valid, of 10-15 dollars, which is a fair price in my opinion for a camera that is damaged(battery acid) and severely limited, not to mention very low grade. The guy goes into the back, looks on the computer that is connected to Radio Shack's web site only, and then went back into the back of the store, and came out to inform me he was told that 'everyone else is charging $79, so we have to ask that too' and would not be swayed by the mention, again, about the damaged contacts and lack of cables or additional supplies. So, this is my rant. If a store quotes a price one day, they should stick to it 24 hours later. What a rip off, and I could have had a ride home too! If you live in this city, be warned. This camera, and this store is not worth the trouble.

So, in a little under 8 hours from now I go for another visit to the dentist, and therefore I will be in bed, hopefully, within a few minutes. Therefore, tonight I will not do my usual one post per news item, but instead may just post the link, and up to a paragraph per piece. First, though, I want to rant on a comment I just got on my blog post for the Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen in August. I just got asked, for some reason if there is a hack for Satellite Radio. First off, I will say it again. I WILL NOT TELL ANYONE HOW TO HACK ANYONE OR ANYTHING! Second, I have never used nor tried to investigate Sirius or XM, so why would I know or care if there is a hack? I don't. Now, to the news.

You know, you would think that a magazine like CPU(Computer Power User) would be wise enough to ensure their stories are accurate. You would think a so called computer security specialist would also know better then to incite the anger of the collective white hat hacker community. I try not to be this truly anal as often as possible, but this time I am pissed. CPU's spotlight this month is on security, hacking and cracking. I was flipping through it and noticed a few articles of interest, and as the few points when we were not flooded were few, I did manage to finish reading the article on White versus Black Hat hackers. I am not pleased at all. I expected more of the magazine, that's for sure.

The piece was written by Steve Smith, and while it does a decent job of describing the difference between White Hat's, Black Hat's, the gray area's in between, as well as the little puss and pukes who have attached themselves to the title of Hacker there are problems, big ones. I know I have been lectured on this before, taking the opinions of a quoted source as the impression and ideals of the publication and author, but I wonder why CPU would publish the following line by Steve Branigan VP of engineering for Lumeta: "When an owner asks to be hacked, that's not hacking, that's a service," he says. He argues that by definition, hacking is illegal: entering a system without permission.

Now, yes, breaking into a system is illegal. Technically even if you have permission to do so, unless you are given a user name and password by the authoritative body, then it is illegal, service or not. I will, however, argue that hacking by definition is neither illegal, nor is it breaking into systems. Those are crackers. Cracking a server is illegal. Stealing passwords from a server you cracked is illegal. Hacking a program or the source code to a program to make it better is not illegal, or it shouldn't be with the right ethics and license. I had hopes that this magazine would get it right, and be smart, but it appears they are just like any other magazine in that they seem to only care about the splash of hacking sites and computers. I hope to hear something from them on this.

Ok, so I caught a glimpse of the front of the Winnipeg Sun on my way to work, along with an insert of Sunday's race. The headline was "Black Sunday". I couldn't believe the hint given, but waited until I got to work to read it. It was as I expected, people whining en masse about the fact that TSN preempted the Winnipeg Blue Bombers versus Saskatchewan Roughrider's game to finish up their earlier obligation of the Southern 500. They feel that the Labor Day classic, a tradition in this and that city, should have come ahead of the race, even showing only part of the race before and another part afterwards if necessary. My opinion? Shut the hell up and let it be.

Those whiner's are acting like typical Torontonians, making me ashamed to be a Winnipegger. It is a game, nothing more, nothing less. If you can't wait 2 hours to see a football game that was not, in fact, over when the network began airing the beginning as some claimed, unless the game lasted less then 2 hours which would be about right as it didn't appear to take that long for the Bombers to lose another game, their 10th of the season according to the paper. I, as a racing fan and football fan, have more then once dealt with the same bull as the football fans did, my race being preempted or simply missed for golf, volleyball, or other less thrilling sports. You know what, it's business.

The Bomber fans say the race broadcast should have been postponed or stopped while the game occurred, and I disagree. If my race can be entered 50 laps in, 50 important laps as they did in a race before, the Bomber fans should be damned happy the network didn't simply cut into the game at the point the race had ended and go from there to the end of the game. I find it insulting that my support for TSN in their actions today has gotten me labeled as a hick, a wannabe American, and un Canadian. I am Canadian, and if this is the actions and reaction of Canadians, maybe I would be best served moving south. It is a game. It was a race. We both got to see our event, so live with it.

For those who are wondering why there were no blog posts yesterday, and those wondering why I have not been on IM, there is a good reason for this. Blinking lights. Yup, for those who recall those words from being offline on Hargrave, you know I am offline. It began about 1:30 yesterday afternoon, just as I was getting ready to go to work. I noticed the lights blinking, and began a fast iteration of the usual things to check, power cycle, reboot, and so on, but nothing worked. I had not let my mother that I didn't need a wake up call(yes, I still need my mommy to wake me up, which is fine for me as it ensures I miss no work) so when she called this morning I asked her to call Shaw, and also see about dropping the $25 deposit for Hydro that they want for me to stay powered. These she agreed to, even though neither was settled until this afternoon.

After my mother called Shaw, my worst fears were relieved, as they did not order a disconnect on me, though that was a very real possibility as I found out upon getting home last night that it was not only my internet, but this time it was also my TV. Yeah, thank god I bought Diablo, let me tell you. So, they are coming on Friday morning to reconnect me, or at least figure out the hitch, and while I plan to keep posting in the same format as detailed here on GeekMeltdown, they won't be uploaded at all until such time as I get online. Thankfully it should be only 2 days, but anything is possible. Sorry for any emails not replied to, and blog pushback not given. I will try to post when I hit my parent's tonight, but all of that is up i the air now. More later.

Ok, I am not a major buyer of coffee and I admit to have only been in The Fyxx, the voted location of tonight's Blog Meetup, once before, last week when I was checking out prices and confirming they were open and had room for us. That said, I am not very happy, especially not when I did check, they told me it was fine, they would be open and all, and when I went to the Meetup tonight I was greeted by two nicely dressed, beautiful women informing me it was closed for a private gathering 2 weeks in the works. Therefore, a meeting more then a month in the works was scuttled right form the start.

I don't know if Carolin was actually able to meet up with anyone, but I waited there for 45 minutes from 6:30 until a quarter after 7, then went to the other Fyxx shop for another 45. I saw no one that took any special note of the card I made up to signify to others of the location, and after more then an hour, and $5 spent on a drink and a very nice piece of black forest cake(the best part of the night) I headed home and decided to think twice before voting for that location, and in fact I plan to write the folks behind meetup.com to suggest a secondary location option in the voting. Tonight sucked, though the day was decent. less then 4 hours until I leave. Whoa.

The racism has begun again. A shooting happened in the Los Angeles International Airport yesterday, and all of a sudden it is a terrorist attack on a Israeli Airline(El-Al) and it is an attack on America on it's Independence Day. What-fucking-ever. Pardon, but that language will get common in this rant. I am sick of this shit. Yes, the shooter was an Egyptian. Yes, the shots originated near the Israeli Airline ticket desk. So?

There are a lot more possibilities for why this occurred, form a cheating wife, to theft of belongings and hundreds of other possibilities. Why is that the fear mongers and racists have to latch onto this firmly and affix a label of terrorism to it? Because they can get away with it. I bet there will be, or has been, several opinion pieces that state that this is no doubt(or using even more authoritative language) an overflow of the battle in Israel between the Israeli's and Palestinians.

I have no doubt Keith has already made such equations, or quoted one of his ever so trusted sites that can never be wrong or biased. Why can this not be a shooting first and a terrorist act when or if they even find evidence it was not? Why can the racists who feel it is right to search every Arab or person that looks middle eastern simply because some terrorists are of middle eastern decent? Can you identify a Muslim simply by looking?

Don't even try to say you can. If you say suspect dirty bomb maker Jose Padilla in a lineup with 20 other Hispanic people, could you tell who the Al Queda member is? Not fucking likely so don't tell me it is fine to search every mid eastern person, or that any shooting is a terrorist act. Was Columbine a terrorist act? Oh, wait, maybe Ossama paid off the shooters and supplied them with the home made bombs they used. Maybe Al Queda even started the Vietnam and Korean wars.

Maybe the Taliban helped bin Laden plan the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which led to Desert Storm. Maybe, Maybe, Maybe. There is not proof at this point other then the decent of the shooter and the location in the airport that it happened, both of which are circumstantial, and not proof, or evidence. When there is proof, evidence and something other then racism, then maybe we can talk about some labels other then shooting.

So, PB at sharingspouses@hotmail.com(I don't wanna ask), thinks I am some major asshole for calling Major Harry Schmidt a murderer for disobeying a direct order and bombing Canadian troops. While I seem to recall a friend who knew a guy in the army who the few details from this person would make sense, but that beside the point, I don't give a shit what you think PB. If you don't like my blog, don't like my views, then don't read. I think he broke the law and at least committed a horrible crime by dropping those bombs without care as to whom he was dropping them on.

I have no doubt, based on your rant, that you are a military man. Good for you. Let's hope that you can think with your brain not your bombs. Are you going to try to tell me there was no way he could have left the area, or gone beyond the range of the small weapons fire that was on the ground, and then spent time trying to figure out who and what the weapons fire was? What would be said if those had been American troops that he killed in a horrendous way? I'll tell you, they'd be outraged and calling for his head.

My view is this, and yes, it is the view of an inexperienced Canadian who has never, and will never be a soldier. My view is this. He disobeyed a direct order, dropped a bomb and killed 4 Canadians. That is murder. Maybe he didn't aim for them knowing they were Canadians, but just like the possibility that an American fighter dropping a bomb on a wedding party, it is wrong to drop a bomb without knowing exactly who is down there and why and where they are firing.

What if that had been American and Al Queda troops fighting it out? Would the pilot have known which side were American? I doubt it. But yet he would have still dropped the bombs and killed anyone. This is why bombs, no matter how smart they are titled, are a wrong and badly implemented use of technology. Would you give a Major in the US military the right to drop a Nuke at any whim? I would hope not, and thus I would say that the US army and Air Force should train their people to use that mindset. If you wouldn't drop a nuclear warhead on that area, don't drop anything without being damned sure. Obviously, he was not damned sure, but only kinda, sorta, maybe was somewhat sure.

Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch OUCH! I broke the rules against outdoor exposure, and my pasty skin has now taken on a red glow to it. Yup, I am burnt. Not to a crisp, mind you, but still painfully sore and I know it will only get worse tomorrow. I don't do well in the sun, see, and when I realized this was going to be a major problem, I came home and put sunscreen on, and grabbed some food and water for the rest of the evening, which held The Foster Martin Band and BTO, plus an amazing fireworks show. More on all that later in this day, as I am too sore, tired and sun soaked to think straight.

Let's just say this, when you plan for the rain to fall till 'late afternoon' like the weather-liars tell you, DON'T LISTEN! They are never right. Not only that, but when they are right, it is the one time you plan for him to be wrong. I think it is partly my fault, you see, for late afternoon to me is right around when the sun would be going down. I forgot, apparently, that in the middle of summer this does not happen until mid evening. Bah! I broke the first geek rule about not going outside, and I am now going to pay, and pay dearly indeed. Night.

Yup. Another rant. This time it is on the shelf life of pretty much anything. TV shows last a couple years, and only a few, like Friends and ER, are able to make it last that much longer. ER and Friends are both trend breaker's, and even they are stretching things these days. Survivor is and has bee pathetic since the beginning. they began a trend that was doomed to kill someone and I am shocked that three years later it hasn't. It sure has come close.

So, the cause for this article. I was at the store, yeah, I go there a lot, once a day at least, but anyway, I saw a few interesting magazines while waiting in line to ask a question or two. I saw, on the rack, a freshly placed copy of a tribute magazine. Was it a tribute to Paul McCartney and his new bride? Nope. Was it a tribute to the late Darryl Kile of the St. Louis Cardinals? No way, too mushy I am sure. Was it a tribute to any of the many famous names who have been lost in the last year or two? Nope.

It was a tribute to, get this, The Osbournes! A show that has gone great for the year it has been on the air, and the family who stars is now making millions, but the show has already begun to fizzle and die out. Ozzie and his kin have signed for multiple millions of dollars and in the same week it was announced that the ratings for the show has begun to drop off. Go figure. After a year Ozzie and his kids have begun to get boring, but not after his daughter has launched her own musical 'career' with a debut song which is a remake of a song that sucked when it first came out.

So, in this day, music artists that last are few and far between. Rarely would you find an artist like Ozzie, or Metallica, or ZZ Top, hell, even Kenny Rogers, who after decades of performing are still going strong and selling out the places they play. Today's canned artist's and singers just don't have it in them to last. they get over played, over promoted and over sold for a very short time and then they die out, or should die out.

Eminem? He is lucky that he hasn't had his ass kicked for his lyrics. Then there are those who whine that he only got the 5th best selling album, and how he could have done so much better if his album hadn't been leaked to the file swapper's. Oh, don't worry, I always ignore him when he get's off on a anti MP3 tangent.

Britney? No, the little 'virgin' who dresses like a slut, dances like she is the sleaziest thing on the Vegas strip, and then tries to claim she is pure and innocent, she won't last. I'll give her marketer's credit for pushing her this long. Must have kept her clean, or at least any drugs out of the news. She will get pregnant, or be admitted to a rehab like Betty ford, and then her 'career' will be over. Her looks are the only reason she has gone this far, and she knows it.

J-Lo, as she is known, may make it, but she is actually a decent singer. If I actually listened or cared about the latest boy bands, little girl looking singers, or bad ass alternative groups, I might be able to list a couple hundred of the bands who have come and gone within weeks or months. They have brains, some of them, they make a few million, see how the industry is, and take off before they are ruined and drugged up to the point of addiction.

The reason I am mad? The one hit wonders have always existed. They are a fact of life. the music industry knows that there are a much larger percentage of OHW's then there used to be, so they have simply made up for it. Less solid artists means less income, but if you make up for every 10 album sell out artist that no longer exists with 12 OHW's that have one well selling album, Well, then you have made up for the loss, right?

All the better if you hit on a solid artist while doing this. Record Labels take a risk? Hardly. they pump so much crap onto the market that they know will do something simply because they sound like a solid artist, that they have diluted the decent stuff and made even the remotely interesting sound like crap because they have paid enough low income DJ's to play the latest single once an hour that the bands with potential to become solid turn out to be overplayed, over hyped THW's. Big fucking difference.

This is why the recording industry doesn't want to release single songs for sale for a reasonable rate. They know that when the buyer's can get a song for a buck or less, their $30 CD sales will tank, because everyone can spend the $1 for the one good song off a CD and not have to spend the $30 on 20 songs that suck so bad they don't deserve to make it out of the studio. This not potential piracy, is why the recording industry will never allow online purchase of single songs for less then 5 or 10 bucks each.

Ok, Anna Kournikova is hot. I will fully admit this point, and get that out of the way before I begin my rant against Sun Media, owner of The Winnipeg Sun.

I just walked to the store to check out if the latest CPU was out, since I am not yet sure if my subscription to them is dead or alive, but I caught a glimpse of the cover of the Sun, at right. Not a bad image, right? Now, I know the paper is a tabloid, but what about that cover caught your attention? If you are male it was pry the image in the lower right.

Yes, of the two people kissing. Yes, indeed it is two women kissing, and one of them is the lovely and active Anna Kournikova. The worst thing for me is that it drew me in because just under the headline above the picture, which says 'Goodbye Anna', it says 'Anna ousted' which I originally misread, perhaps their intention, as 'Anna Outed', meaning she had been outed as gay. This would have corresponded with the image, and piqued my curiosity.

The image, though, has not one thing to do with the actual story, and I suspect that it was merely angle and not an actual full bore kiss like the image suggests strongly. I ma not a big watcher of tennis, but I don't think women tend to kiss at anytime in the match, that is unless I have missed something and if I have, please forgive me, I will be a fan immediately, as devout to that as I am to computers.

I just don't know why it is that us guys fall for this crap, and allow these companies to market to our dick's and not our minds. Why do we make it so easy? I mean I'll be the first to make it clear I think women are just as easy to market to as most women's attention will be caught by one or both of either a 50% or more sale, or a guy with a decent body. If a retailer wants to make sure the message gets our, show a topless 'hottie' guy, plus give 50% or more off. That will fill the store.

Guy's, well, we are just as easy. Nice car, or a few decent looking women, one blond, one brunette, one red head and one that looks barely 18. Yes, the spammer's and p0rn retailers do have a point, and they get rich off it. We will go for a really young, 18-20 or so, girl with a nice body and a decent bra size. We are easily marketed to. Why? Because we are human and this a very predictable race. We are led like sheep, and don't care.

Why is it that those who don't usually buy the Sun bought it not for the story about Chubby Checker, nor about the upcoming Mayoral race, but for the two chicks so close to kissing that it would take precious little to make it look lie they are tonguing each other in a hot lesbian embrace(boy, this post is gonna make me popular with the search engines!), and for this, they likely did a great day in sales.

Even those who read the story and knew the cover had nothing to do with the story inside, which had a picture next to it of Kournikova getting up from falling on the ground with her skirt nicely raised to get a look of her legs, nice as they are. so, why am I ranting? Well, I guess it is how badly the folks who carry that picture and are trying to present it as they did, treat us like they do. They treat us like a bunch of salivating David Lawrence wannabe's who can get away with hitting on a bunch of hot women on the air when they cannot slap you.

Do we all also wish we could work beside another hot one while commenting regularly about how hot she is, and get away with it. Ok, well, maybe some of the males are, and yes, the majority is a quite likely estimation of the percentage, but do we really need publications which aim to please the lowest common denominator? Does anyone else out there think that there needs to be some publications which aim to please the brain and not the balls of a person? Is anyone else sick of this shit? Ok, maybe I am all alone.

You likely know the connection between Winnie the Pooh and Winnipeg, but I will refresh you. the actual bear that Winnie is based on is named after Winnipeg, which is the home of Winnie's original owner, and Winnie was the mascot for one of the then Winnipeg based regiments in World War II. The bear was left in Britain when the soldier went to land in France on D-Day, and ended up in a zoo where the author of the books and his son(??) found him, leading to the stories. There, a concise explanation.

That said, did you know that it is suspected that the character of James Bond is suspected to have been shaped after a Winnipeg native? Yup. Sir William Samuel Stephenson, better known at 'The man called Intrepid'. He was a great spy in the days of World War I. His birthplace was Point Douglas, near Winnipeg, Manitoba. He attended high school in Winnipeg, left at the outbreak of the First World War, and was almost 19 when he served in the trenches. Point Douglas is now a part of the City of Winnipeg, but then it was not.

A lot of people say that Winnipeg is a no where town in the middle of Canada, a prairie city that is the next best thing to no where. I say to them that next time you think Winnipeg, or Canada for that matter, are nothing, something to be hated and insulted, think back to the stuff we and our citizens have done. Winnipeg is my home. Canada is my nation.

I will not put up with people calling us protectors of terrorists, fund raisers of bin Laden, or accusing us of knowingly sheltering those who wish to do harm to our neighbors, or others in the world. The US sheltered terrorists for years. They likely continue to do so. does that mean they are evil? Well, ok, that was a given. too easy I'll admit.

I don't know if this hatred of Canada comes from the fact we build great things, or that we are better educated about ourselves and other countries in the world, or maybe it is simple lack of education and unreliable sources, but I do know it is very disturbing. I am not usually the kind of person who sits by and let's people insult him.

I did because the person insulting me was someone I considered a friend. That I no longer claim, and will not put up with the crap that person is dishing out. I will not link or mention who it is, for he knows who he is, but you know you have gone too far. I could look past our disagreements over the Arab Jewish conflict. I could even look past the disagreements over this past season of Buffy.

Unfortunately I cannot in good conscience continue to read the crap you dish out as fact. I hope no one reads your blog as you read others who attack my nation, one that is a much better one then yours by all international standards, because you quote and pass off as fact by your own belief in what you quote. I could write that Hitler is alive and living below Elvis in Wyoming, but that doesn't mean it is fact.

John Ashcroft said that anyone not agreeing with his requests for anti privacy laws in the wake of 09.11 was unpatriotic. does that mean that it is true since Ashcroft is such a authoritative source? no. It means it is words by a man with his own and his boss's interests in mind. Just because the Taliban said that they were the rightful government, and the only ones speaking for the people of Afghanistan, does that mean that they were right since they were the authoritative voice? I sure as hell hope not.

I don't know much about CSIS, in fact until about 3 years ago I and most Canadians had heard little or nothing about them, but I have heard that they are losing funding because they are a useless organization. Why the hell do we need our own spy organization when the CIA and FBI have enough agents spying on us and can do a much better job of it with the funding they have from their government.

Do I know that those two American organizations spy on my country? I have no doubt. Do I have proof? Nope. Is there proof? No. Do I have an article to back me up? No. I have logic. If my country is such a haven for terrorists as you say it is, I can't see how the CIA could say they are doing their job without heavily monitoring my country.

It just makes sense. An idea you may want to grasp before you attack based on lies and unfounded accusations. Oh, and I would begin to look at other sources then the one that you quote and attribute to 99% of the time on such subjects. That site is obviously a bad source, and is only quoted because obviously you buy their side hook line and sinker. If it was worth the effort, which it isn't, I would actually look to more then one source.

Do I have to? I really don't want to, but apparently I do. I am not a cracker. Those who try to fuck around with programs to a)make them free, b)make then easier to beat, or c) try to steal stuff from other users of a program are not hackers.

Hackers are defined as:

"1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating hack value. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example"

A cracker is:

"One who breaks security on a system. Coined ca. 1985 by hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of hacker (q.v., sense 8). An earlier attempt to establish `worm' in this sense around 1981-82 on Usenet was largely a failure. "

Learn the difference. to create a program to steal another persons password is to crack the previously mentioned program. That is not hacking. I am not a cracker. I am not a skript kiddie. I am a small time hacker who is learning slowly. I will not provide anyone, not even my closest friends, with a way to circumvent protections, steal passwords, credit cards or cheat a programmer who has sweat their lives to make something great.

If you want to do that, do it yourself, be at least man(or woman) enough to do it yourself and take pride in your work. If you ask me, be it via email, in comments of in my BlogChat I will, without a doubt or a care, boot you, ignore you and report you. Take this as the one and the only warning you will receive. Ask anymore, and you will regret it to the nth degree.

Ok, here ias the latest. My annoying twin has emailed me and my mother with her reply, and I am including it, as well as my reply. I will not show the entire thing ont he main page, but click the More... link below if any of this is of interest to you.

Ok, almost half a century ago now, JRR Tolkien wrote the book The Two Towers, as the second book in the trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. These... to put it kindly dimwitted moron's who should not be allowed near anything with an electrical charge, have begun a petition that, among other things, says "The title is clearly meant to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center.". Now, I am not sure about you, but I kinda thought it was titled The Two Towers because the second book, on which it is based, is called *Gasp* The Two Towers. What a fucking shock.

Obviously these people, and the supposed 1167 agreeing petitioners, I might add that the majority of the supposed signatures are shown as voided and false, are just a little to sensitive to anything that even resembles the World Trade Center's twin towers. I mean it would not only be pathetic but a horrid defacement of the honorable trilogy if it were to be named anything else. I cannot help but wonder what these people are trying to do and speak about, and if they are even fans of the trilogy. I cannot help but wholeheartedly agree with the statement of Petiononline.com's admin's.

"Please Note: The Two Towers is the title of the JRR Tolkien book originally published in 1954, the second book of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The title was thus established some 47 years prior to the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, and there is no evidence to suggest that Peter Jackson meant anything by continuing the same title other than faithfulness to the beloved Tolkien classics. Furthermore, the two distant, opposing towers in the Tolkien classic have very little if anything in common with the two matching towers of the World Trade Center. — PetitionOnline.com"

I was a caretaker, along side my parents, for over a year. I know the rules behind evictions pretty well. You can produce an eviction notice and serve it on a tenant who has not paid rent by the 4th of the month. you can then give them a 24 hour eviction notice, which is generally accepted as void if the rent is paid right away. Those are the rules and the generally accepted policies. Today is the 3rd. I have not once been late without providing a reason why and when I was I paid months in advance when the money came in. So, I was a little surprised to see a notice to me on the caretaker's desk when I went to pay my rent telling me I had been evicted and was to be out by tonight for late payment of rent.

I spoke to the owner more then two weeks ago to tell him where things stood, and today paid more then I had originally promised at month's end. If the incredulous hydro bills were not enough, this would have made me decide I am not going to renew my lease. I have no patience and no willingness to live somewhere that I am evicted after being a day or two late for rent. I thought Darryl was a decent guy, now I see that he ins nothing but an ass who only cares that his building is full. I prefer to deal with people who are reasonable enough to see that sometimes things are not as easy, but the rent will be in as soon as I can.

Ok, so Jevon made a valid rant, and Mike replied in some sort of agreement. I posted the following, and repost it here for your enjoyment. Yes, some non XP stuff, but it was all part of one thing.

Ok, I know Linux isn't totally secure, but it is not purported to be secure. It's firewall capabilities actually work completely. Also, OpenBSD, which has been tested and tweaked for months before a new version is released, is the most secure OS, but in the end a dumb user can screw up any security measures you put into place. you can run the latest and greatest things, or you can be totally secure, but in the end any admin worth his tittle knows that there is only one way to secure a network. Don't let it have net access.

As for XP, I will not use it not only because it gives a false sense of security but the licensing issues are beyond my ability to validate use. As well, I know that as soon as a hole is found in Linux and other open source OSes it is released immediately and a patch is released within hours if not minutes. When it comes to Windows it has been proven time and again that MS will only whine if a bug is released before there is a patch for it. I am sorry, but if one person or group can find a bug, it will not be a month before the crackers to find it. I would rather be able to take precautionary measures while I wait for a patch to come out in a few minutes or hours. There has never been more then a few days between bug announcement and patch release, and certainly not a month. Red Hat does not whine when someone releases an exploit without giving 'proper warning'.

Lastly, I tried out MX last night and my first few impressions are mixed. It has a lot of feature that I found very much necessary, like the site layout window in the same view range as the page I am editing, and the properties dialogue is always present. The problems are with viewable and editable page space. Essentially you have less then 640 wide by 300 high to view the page, which includes both code and design views, on a 1024x768 screen resolution. In other words, it is less then half the total screen space is the page. The good thing is that when you install it you have access to an option to use the new MX style or the old v. 4 design, which kind of makes me wonder why you'd pay the $900 for the upgrade.

I have also been unable to find a way to choose the option after installation from within the window. Maybe I am missing something. Another problem was the uncloseable window, which I have been unable to recreate, so I assume it is a momentary or freak thing. Overall, Dreamweaver MX is a cool app, but if I were to have to pony up the dough, I would pass and stuck with the half cost Dreamweaver 4.

I am glad that Jevon can see my points as valid, and that he will be at least giving Linux a try. Jevon, Linux will not be XP. It can look like 98, but appearance is as far as it goes. Evolution looks like Outlook only in interface. It is not Outlook and has many differences. If you go into Linux with the admitted knowledge it is not Windows and that you WILL have to learn new stuff, you'll come out of it ok. Remember, :google: is your friend.

So, October 98. How many songs have you listened to since October 1998? How many were from a net radio station? Me? I broadcast for a few weeks, and based on my records I would owe something in the area of $300,000. Thankfully I am not American so I doubt I would be affected. I know some offices that have dozens of incoming radio streams during the weekday, and at the current rates one office with 15 people listening at 15 songs an hour would cost the webcasters.. 94.50 a month. It may not look like much but imagine over a year, or an office with 40 or 50 listeners...

Well, the Day of Silence has been amazing. I am listening to the Wolf FM Save Internet Radio 12 hour talk marathon right now, and the resonse is so far amazing. Here is what I just posted in the Wolf FM forums:

I am listening from cold and windy Winnipeg, MB. I was kind of hoping someone would blog this marathon, so that some of the info could be permanently shared. For instance, I want to share the link at LightningCast where they can use to fax their rep's, but I missed it. Is there a page up somewhere with that kind of info? I want to blog the need but I have not the quick fingers to blog it all live. I think the blog community and the Internet Radio community need to team up on this.

I think that since blogging and internet radio are so tightly intertwined that the bloggers and the webcasters need to get together. Any opinions?