Searching for Tao, 7573 Kilometres from Home

February 13, 2004 17:54 +0000 | Geek Stuff 0

from slashdot:

shystershep writes "It's official. Microsoft admits that 'portions of the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code were illegally made available on the Internet.' No more details, although it seems clear that it is only a portion of the code. Microsoft is, naturally, downplaying its impact, while everyone else is busy speculating about how serious this could get." A lot of you apparently haven't read yesterday's story. An investigation of the code is already underway.

i'm not going to lecture here. but here's the gist of the possible reprocussions: a) virus levels and destructive payloads could increase, b) the end of micros~1's "security through obsurity" campaign ("our stuff is more secure 'cause no one can see the code" etc.) c) micros~1 could go after various Free software projects like samba and kde claiming that members of the development process for those projects have been influcenced by seeing their copyrighted code and therefore, they own the rights to it.

it'll be an interesting next few months let me tell you. bitorrents are already circulating.

February 11, 2004 03:40 +0000 | Personal Life 0

i got a snail mail letter from shawna today, covered in pretty plastic with oddly-translated statements about nature all over it, i sat down and read the hand-written letter twice before putting it in my special box. i really like snail mail. and it's always great to hear from old friends. thanks shawna.

the other part of my day was just kinda fun. i took two and a half hours to get home 'cause i decided that i would walk and make as much of the trip underground as i could. now, in toronto, this isn't all that hard to do as much of the downtown is accessibly by way of a great big maze of inter-connected mall fragments... but that's the problem. it's just a great big maze. a maze with maps that don't have a "you are here" sticker on them. i wandered around the maze of tunnels for almost two hours trying to figure out why the maps said that i should be able to go left where there was no left... half an hour later, i realised that there was no left yet. they were going to build that tunnel sometime soon. ...but at least i got to do some exploring ;-)

February 10, 2004 07:10 +0000 | Personal Life 0

sure it took a long-assed time, but the pics from my trip home this christmas are finally up. don't forget to login if you haven't already so you can see the protected images. your username / password should be the same as the one you have for this blog.

o, and for those interested, pics of angela and her gorgeous kitty are on the imager as well.

and for those of you who pray, and the others who do their magick, think of sheldon angela's kitty with happy thoughts. he recently fell ill and was taken to the vet for surgery. i'm told he'll be ok, but it's always good to send some positive energy his way.

additional note: it's past 3am now and i have come to the following realisation: pepsi is not good for you. well, that and i think that i have an overly-strong reaction to caffeine. i mean, 1 glass and i'm up 'till 3am?

February 05, 2004 04:36 +0000 | Society & Culture 2

apparently, janet jackson's boob is now the most sought-after image on the internet. i ask you: why? who the hell cares? it's just a boob!

americans are just so funny...

February 04, 2004 05:21 +0000 | Why I'm Here 1

you know that feeling of disbelief you get when you actually start doing something you always said that you'd do but never really started? well i'm swimming around in that very feeling right now.

as it turns out, my initial email to the guy at the sierra club didn't pan out all to well. the response can be paraphrased as "sounds like you have a lot of enthusiasm, but i'm afraid i don't have what you're looking for. you should probably contact your city councilor. are any of your ideas directly related to our current campaigns?"

but i wasn't deterred. i actually sat down and wrote out the details of what it is i'm going to do here and sent them all out his way. 3 out of 4 of them are related to what the sierra club is doing here so we'll see how that works out, and in the mean time, i now have a written copy detailing all my plans here. next up, i'm going to detail this stuff out a little more, even make a printed (what kind of environmentalist kills trees? suggestions please) copy and then setup a meeting with my local councillor.

at the very least, this should be exciting...

January 31, 2004 23:45 +0000 | Society & Culture Why I'm Here 2

when i moved out here, i told everyone that i had a reason. i didn't quite understand the details around it then -- i suppose that i still don't have a perfectly clear picture. but the general understanding was that i had to leave vancouver so that i could learn about how the world works, and through that learning gain the power to change what i felt needed changing.

today i took my first concrete steps in that direction. i have four big ideas for the city of toronto, the details of which (once heavily scrutinised and worked out) will be available online. but the important part is that today i stopped screwing around and started working on it. did some research online for toronto budget information (the details of which are sadly lacking) and then contacted a nice man at the toronto chapter of the sierra club looking for some help on where to go next. it may not look like much, but i'm locked in now. no where else to go but through the other side.

January 31, 2004 03:18 +0000 | Geek Stuff 0

for you internet exploder users, you may have noticed that some entries in my blog don't have the nice little grey line on the right. this is not my fault and i refuse to once again modify my work to compensate for micros~1's crappy code. the bug arises whenever someone uses an <em> tag to make some italicised text and said text wraps to the next line. it works in konqueror, it works in mozilla and it works in opera. therefore, micros~1 can "lick me today".

kudos to angela for that one.

January 30, 2004 04:27 +0000 | Nifty Links 1

i've run across a couple links worth checking out over that past couple days and i thought i'd share.

iams pet food is not a good company. i found the site by accident while surfing the canucks forum and it was enough to keep me the hell away from them.

and even for those of you who don't understand computer stuff all windows users should read this article. but for the lazy, here's the gist:

basically a new bug was discovered in internet exploder that, coupled with another bug that was discovered three years ago and never fixed, all explorer users are now very vulnerable to a security hole that microsoft either (a) doesn't know how to fix, or (b) doesn't want to.

how's the hole work? basically, you go to a website and click on a link that says something like "download this pdf". you think you're downloading a pdf (pdf's can't hurt me right?). then, when you open the file in your browser *poof* the bad guy and do whatever (s)he wants to your computer.

so what can you do? well microsoft hasn't fixed this problem for three years, so it's safe to say they're not interested in making your browser work properly. you can start using another browser like mozilla or opera, switch to an o/s that has real support like linux or buy a new computer and get mac osX.

either way, i'd advise you to stay the hell away from internet explorer. it's not safe anymore and they can't (or won't) make it safe.

January 23, 2004 04:31 +0000 | Nifty Links Society & Culture 0

"the medium is the message -- i think that the internet makes you into a libertarian to a certain extent. because you can see non-hierarchical, non-centralized systems working, and it becomes hard to credibly claim that we need increased centralization in order to create order or equity or equitableness."
-- cory doctorow on the internet

www.shift.com/content/web/451/1.html

read the article, and if you have the time, you can download his book for free or buy it on hardcover.

January 22, 2004 20:37 +0000 | Miscellaneous Nifty Links 1

i found this a day or two ago, but haven't had time to post it. it's from a site called "diesel sweeties. check it out here.