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I’ve decided to give podcasting a go. I put together a two and a half minute podcast about my feelings on the surge in Iraq. It’s not a masterpiece but I hope to gradually improve on it.

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It’s been over three weeks since I’ve had a drop of coffee. I just had a sip and it’s sooooo fucking good. I still plan to cut back but I don’t think I can ever ditch this love affair.

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Finally back from my NYC trip. I purposely left my laptop here as to not mix any work with pleasure. It feels really odd typing on it but in a good way. It’s like I’m reconnecting with an old friend.

I got fucked coming and going with my flights though. Flight to NY was canceled due to weather and then flight back to Texas was canceled as well. This extended my trip from 4 days to 10 but I think it was worth it. It was nice to get away for a while even if it was just NY.

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Flight to NY this morning got canceled due to bad weather. For the low, low price of $230 I was able to get another much later flight that isn’t direct. I’ll be in NY in 9 hours from now.

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As a kid I had two best friends; Anthony down the street and my imagination. Only the latter has stuck with me.

For years I had a fire extinguisher that played many roles. Sometimes it would become a bomb that needed disarming and other times it would be a torpedo. Once I created a harness from a backpack and it bacame a jet pack. Sadly it didn’t work and I remained on terra firma but it was amazing in my head.

I remember many failed attempts to create a parachute from household items like trash bags. That too did not work out well. On each iteration I soon found the ground coming up fast. Nothing stings more than landing on hard ground with a trash bag over your head.

Then there was my infatuation with helicopters. I must have spent hundreds of man hours with my cousin building helicopters from tin stock. The poor choice of construction materials, lack of knowledge, and inferior motors were to blame for them never really taking flight. I didn’t learn much about flight or helicopters but I learned something more important; tenacity.

Since I can remember I’ve had very long and intricate conversations with myself. I still do this. I usually imagine someone else on the other end of the conversation and I fill in what they might say for them.

Internal conversations are probably my best tool for fending off insanity. Without them I may have taken my life years ago from the loneliness. Armed with my imagination, I can be reclusive for long periods of time. I’m like a social camel.

It’s easy to see why imagination is my most prized possession. Being able to think outside the box (yeah, I’m sick of that phrase to) has done well for me so far. I’m not usually the most intelligent or educated person around but my imagination and tenacity compensate me.

Popularity: 77% [?]

The news keeps “reporting” on how the surge is working. Well, no shit it’s working. You send soldiers and Marines into Iraq without enough man power to do their jobs properly and things go poorly. You increase the troop levels and their performance improves.

They sent 300,000 troops into Iraq initially and downgraded that to around 150K soon thereafter. Almost a million troops were deployed in 91 during the Gulf War and we didn’t even plan to sack and hold Baghdad. fucking Rumsfeld wanted to only send 60K troops.

Why aren’t news outlets reporting on this and not just regurgitating what politicians say about the surge?

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Why is a common response to the question “Did you hear that?” something to the effect of “Hear what?”.

Clearly, the answer should have been no. People are strange.

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Online security is a pretty hot item. People want to feel safe when they browse the web or interact with others via instant messaging. Currently, many of these activities are done in plain text without any encryption.

It would be very trivial to setup a wireless hotspot in a busy area and wait for someone to use your internet connection. Since you are in control of their gateway to the internet, you can see all of the traffic going in and out.

If the traffic is encrypted, it’s just gibberish. Unless a very weak encryption method is used, it would take geological time for anyone to crack the code and get at the data. If it’s in plain text, then all traffic can be viewed with no effort at all. This includes instant messaging conversations, emails, websites visited, forms filled out, and the list goes on.

Many sites that require sensitive data from users set up their web server to use SSL/TLS which creates a secure tunnel between the browser and the server. Now someone in the middle can’t view what I entered into the form when I post it to the site.

Setting up a web server to do this is very simple. The server basically has a certificate and private key that match. The browser verifies the match and continues to verify this throughout the session to ensure it wasn’t hijacked.

If I generate a certificate myself and install everything correctly, a user is still given a warning (sometimes even an error). This is because my certificate is self signed and not signed by a third party company such as Verisign who charge a hefty fee (sometimes hundreds or thousands of dollars). Cheaper signed certificates can be had from companies like GoDaddy but there isn’t a free option that won’t cause an error/warning in the browser.

This is stupid. Why should someone need to pay to be able to encrypt the traffic to their server when all the technologies are already free or paid for?

My proposition is a two tier system. Browsers will not warn a user if a certificate is valid even if self signed but only display the padlock icon if it is signed by one of the pre-installed certificate of authorities.

Then site owners could ensure greater security of their site without the need to purchase a certificate. As a side benefit, it could, in theory flood the internet with a large amount of encrypted traffic making spying efforts logistically unsound as it would take more effort to filter the noise and anyone doing anything even remotely illegal will be encrypted anyway making activities such as taping into a backbone not very fruitful.

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Went to the theater today and noticed something sad. The smallest soft drink you could purchase was $4. The smallest bottle of water was $5.

How can sugary water cost more than water itself? Not to sound like a tin foil hat wearing weirdo but I’m almost feels like people want Americans to be fat. Maybe the government is looking to eat us? Hmmm.

Popularity: 80% [?]

Amazon S3 seems to have gone done this morning. If you’re not familiar with this service, it provides a place to store data on a cloud of computers. I currently use it for backups including backing up the server this blog runs on.

The problem here is that many sites like Twitter and SmugMug use Amazon’s S3 for storage and serving content. So now if S3 goes down, so does every site that uses this infrastructure.

Should companies stop using S3? Of course not. People need to stop bitching about the one or two hours they can’t access a site. It will be back up shortly so relax, read a book and come back.

I can’t access my online back account at Chase at the moment because of maintenance. I understand that banks do cold database backups and can’t do 24/7 access and I’m OK with that. I know that my money is safe and I’ll check my balances and transfers later when it’s back up.

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Or at least they seem to more than any other demographic around my neck of the woods. On my trips to the library and Barnes & Noble I always notice that a large portion of the patrons tend to be of Asian decent especially in the sections that I frequent.

I have no hard data of course but I’m willing to say 60% of the customers are almost always Asian. Another 30% tend to be older Caucasians who look really, really lost like they stepped into some different dimension.

This wouldn’t be strange except the fact that I rarely see an Asian to white ratio like that anywhere else around here. Not at the grocery store, the movies, eateries, or any other location where people gather.

Maybe Asians like books more than others? I do know that Asians generally score higher on standardized tests and currently make more money on average than any other ethnicity in the United States, beating Caucasians by 10K a year.

Are the books giving them a leg up or are they already smarter and thus more attracted to reading?

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I really dislike sex. I seem to like the idea and the act to some extent but once it’s over I feel dirty and want to be alone with a Philly steak and a good movie.

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If you’ve flown lately, you’ve surely realized how much of a joke the TSA has become. Banning things like gel shoe inserts and airline knives that they actually hand out to you on the flight.

Here’s an article where a pilot had his butter knife taken away which was handed to him from the airline itself

I’m hoping there will be a rebellion of the people sometime in the near future when the average Joe realizes that all this crap is just security theater.

I’d like to see the TSA removed completely. No metal detectors, rules about what you may bring on, or any security check of any kind. In case you think I’m crazy, we already do this all over the place. You can get in any bus, subway, and train with large bags of unknown items without any checks.

Shit, with the type of cash the large terrorist organizations have, they can buy their own planes which bypass the TSA completely.

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I posted an ad on Craigslist for my couch which had me in the picture and got the following response

“are you up for getting sucked?”

Really? I wanted to respond to see if they had ever gotten a positive response from anyone. I was too worried that my real email address would get out and I’d get a bunch of spam so I tossed it. The world is a sick place.

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A regular at the Austin Linux Users’ group recently passed away. He was a good writer and passionate about Linux and FLOSS. I’m glad I had the opportunity of meeting him.

Click here to read more
Here’s his blog

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There’s a lot of Microsoft haters in my world. While they aren’t good at everything, they have some damn good niches. Trying to duplicate Active Directory in Linux is really, really hard. I find OpenLDAP one of the hardest to understand application I’ve seen.

This article isn’t about the IT realm though. It’s about the Xbox 360. This is really the best console I’ve ever had and here’s why.

• I can watch all my videos on my Linux server using uShare in my living room.
• It’s not hard to look at.
• Xbox Live is only $50 a year and has worked flawlessly for me.
• The controllers work and are all in USB format so plugging in a normal keyboard to the Xbox is stupid simple.
• Movie and game downloads are fast and reasonably priced.
• The machine itself is pretty cheap considering you get a DVD player, digital media player, movie rental device, DVR (if you have a Windows Server backend), and of course a game system.

I do wish it had HDMI (the new black Elite does but my older one does not). I also hope that they adopt blu-ray and put out a new machine with a built in player. I’d happily buy a new Xbox if they do that.

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Why can’t we toss out college degrees? Aren’t they meaningless pieces of paper that only state that you attended an institution for 4 years and didn’t fail out?

Why should it not be possible for someone to study law, take their state bar examination, and become a lawyer? Couldn’t they become very skillful lawyers? The same is true for doctors, teachers, and just about any other profession that requires a degree.

I believe college to be a form of oppression against the poor. To be eligible for many decent paying careers, a degree is required. The problem is that it costs money and time to get that degree.

Sure there are programs to help the disadvantaged but they often leave the graduate in debt and unless you’re a super star and land a 100K+ job straight out of the gate, you’ll be in debt for a long time.

I know 30 somethings who are still making payments on their college bill. Some have 20-30K in loans and only make slightly more than that per year. How could someone in that position ever get out from under debt?

This is what keeps the lower class down. You can never get ahead if you’re always behind.

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I found this somewhere. I’ve seen things like this before but keep forgetting to blog about it. It’s really crazy how the brain is able to fill in gaps and make changes on the fly that we don’t even realize.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

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Ever wonder who clicks on the links you get in spam messages? There must be some fools who are clicking the links or else spam would no longer exist. Somehow I picture a 40 year old lawyer trying to make his cock larger but maybe that’s just me.

Popularity: 76% [?]

After several weeks of working out, I’m finally under 200lbs again. I’m at 199 now which is right on the wire but it’s still a cool milestone.

I’d like to get back down to around 180 at some point. I could probably reach that goal shortly if I gave up my poor eating habits but I really love a good burger. I did start buying vegie burgers but their not the same.

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Contrary to what most people believe, love for ones kin is not intrinsic or innate. Supporting this claim is the fact that infanticide or the termination of a child’s life before 12 months has been observed in many species of animal to include homo sapiens.

In modern day West Africa, children must not be born head first and face upwards. If that is the case then they are either abandoned or given to a local fixer who terminates the child.

Indians take part in female infanticide for economic reasons. In India, the tradition is to pay out a large sum of money when a female is to be married. Multiple female children could equate to poverty so are removed from the population.

The United States ranked eleventh for infants under 1 year killed, and fourth for those killed from 1 through 14 years. The primary reasons appear to be post postpartum depression although many cases involve some degree of mental illness.

Many examples exist in history and present day to support the argument that love is not intrinsic. Humans just as other animals build up a feeling of love with those closest to them. In most societies this equates to family which is cause for the confusion. Societal norms like loving your children unconditionally force people into self deception where they believe their love for children is a basic instinct. This is incorrect. We love those that are close because they are the most likely to care for us at a later date. I short, love and affection are selfish acts.

People best understand ideas through stories rather than facts. To better illustrate my point, I’ll provide a terse example that demonstrates our selfish ways.

Imagine that a stranger is bleeding to death on the side of the road. The hospital is 5 miles away and you are without a phone and must drive the stranger to the hospital yourself. Your vehicle is new and interior immaculate. Estimated cost for repairs caused by the bloody mess is $500. You ignore the costs and provide assistance.

Now imagine a television advertisement asking for donations to Sudanese refugees who have fled the domestic fighting to neighboring countries and are now without family, home, clothes, and shelter. Just a $10 donation would provide several warm meals and vaccinations You ignore the advertisement and continue on about your day.

This story is applicable to just about everyone. Logically it’s better to let the person on the road die and take care of 50 Sudanese refuges whom are on the brink of starvation for the same price but realistically, most people are likely to provide aide to those closer to them even if they are strangers. Geography matters a great deal in our willingness to aide others.

With that in mind, it’s not hard to make the connection that we love our families because of their proximity. Society also plays a part. To make the statement “I do not love my children” is culturally taboo and the leading cause for postpartum depression.

Or maybe that’s all just bullshit. Whatever the case, the title should fetch some more traffic to the blog.

Some reading material

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2005-07-19-fears-of-witchcraft-fuel-infanticide-in-benin
http://www.infanticide.org/history.htm
Infanticide in Prairie Dogs: Lactating Females Kill Offspring of Close Kin Science
http://www.indianchild.com/abortion_infanticide_foeticide_india.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jul/06/japan.schoolsworldwide
http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUST29175620070406
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matricide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_foeticide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide#Present_day

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The Iraqi government is requesting that the U.S. setup a timetable for withdrawal. The administration hasn’t commented but I feel we should do what they want and get the fuck out.

The war in Iraq was supposed to be about ridding the country of nuclear weapons and ensuring that it’s not a safe hiding spot for terrorist organizations.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has proven that he’s not some shill and is willing to work to get rid of the seedy elements remaining in Iraq. Let’s bounce and try to stop the huge leak of money that’s pouring into that shit hole.

Click here to read on

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Who likes white noise? If someone asked me that, I’d think they were retarded for even having to ask. Sadly I’ve found that people must like the sound of static for some reason.

A site called SimpleNoise has a little Flash thing that plays nothing but static. I then found some applications you can download that does the same thing.

It’s supposed to be calming but it’s actually pretty irritating if you ask me.

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Somewhere in my life I became one great big ball of stress. I get cysts on occasion when it really starts to build up. I’m not sure if you’ve ever gotten one of these cysts but they’re really painful and appear in the worst areas.

I had one on my eyelid once and now I have one in my mouth. It’s draining now and going back down but it sucks so bad.

I’m going to try and get out to nature more often. That seems to be the one thing that really helps. I used to like wood working but I have an apartment with no room for anything. I used to make furniture a lot. I also liked making toys. I worked on a chess set for a long time which I lost during my last move. Maybe I should start again. I could do that with just some chisels and sand paper.

I miss being young. I didn’t seem to have as much stress. Maybe it’s just nostalgia though and I’ve always been this way.

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