A very interesting article for you to read:

http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#109582366638394688

Also, for people interested in the American election, here are some really good sites:

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

http://www.pollingreport.com/

http://www.factcheck.org/

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Here’s a quick one for ya:

http://quoll.uwaterloo.ca/mine/overlord.html

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Well, today was a pretty disasterous and educational day with my computer. First, I turn it off this morning and drag it to school with me, go to the comfy after first class and turn it on… what do I see?

"NTLDR is missing"

OMG, my mind is going. What the heck is NTLDR, and why is it missing. Suddenly ideas of BIOS errors, and other major disasters go through my head, and in a moment of panic, I look it up on google with the guy’s laptop next to me… Apparently it’s just a windows XP bug. After some research I discover it’s actually just because I accidentally deleted a file "ntdetect.com" from my main directory when I was cleaning it up (I thought it was a network detection program I had copied when I backed up stuff from neuromancer.)

So, basically the fix is supposed to be simple. Pop in a win2000 or winXP cd, run recovery mode, and copy 2 files to the C drive… Well, it wasn’t….

First, I discover that the Sony Recovery CDs don’t give you the option of actually reaching the hard drive, so all bets are off.

Second, since that didn’t work, I tried knoppix. I discover the Knoppix can’t access my hard drives because they are NTFS.

Third, I finally get a WinXP CD, and go to recovery mode… It asks me for my admin password. None of my common passwords work.

So, I’m back to square one. I just need to copy 2 files to my drive, but I have no way to do it. Finally, after some searching using knoppix and mozilla, I discover that I can "reset" the password using a ntoffline disk. So, now I finally have a plan. Reset my admin password, and then use the winxp cd… and then… SUCCESS!

On the plus side, I now know exactly how to covertly access Windows XP/2000 boxes without leaving much evidence, and how to break right into them with this silly little floppy disk. On the negative side, this is just another example of how Windows makes it too easy to shoot yourself in the foot (The ntdetect.com file should never be deletable if it is required for booting imho.)

Either way, it was a fun adventure. Back to studying German.

Tschuss!

…..1337hax0r…..

See Article: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/09/17/canwesterrorist040917.html

Canadians do not need Foxnews, they already have Canwest. Who openly admit that it’s policy to change wording of reuters stories so arab groups are marked as terrorists who commit violence. This alone is not a big problem as it is done commonly with press stories, this is theoretically stylistic editing. The real problem is the fact that they do not acknowledge the changes, and the fact that the changes fundamentally change the meaning of the stories that they’ve edited.

Look out FoxNews, CanWest is catching up to ya. :-/ Horray for CBC news though, the last bastion of reasonable news in Canada.

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Episode 4 of Pure Pwnage is out, http://www.purepwnage.com . Check it out. It’s definitely epic.

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Well, after a fun weekend (I forgot how much I enjoy driving). I have gotten all of my books into bookshelves, my apartment looking pretty spiffy (but short a desk and a bed), and now am back in classes.

All of my friends are welcome to come over to Joe and my place for a beer or drink sometime and enjoy our comfy couch. All I need now is a cheap bbq and some mead making equipment.

Have fun everyone,

…..1337hax0r…..

Today is a strange turning point for me. I’m finally finished all of my co-op terms at Waterloo. (My last day of work was yesterday.) Now, I’m off to Waterloo to do 3 terms of school in a row, and finish off my degree.

The ride is going to be fun/scary, and while I am sad to be leaving Montreal and all of my really good friends here. I’ll hopefully be coming up sometime over the term, and enjoying some time with you, god (and finances) willing.

But now, I have to return to Waterloo for my last year and I do not know though how I feel about it (or perhaps how I am supposed to feel about it). I am really really excited to be living with a really good friend for 1 year and not having to move at all. (Thus my inter-term breaks become that much more useful.) But, I’m also scared of a few major things (and I like to enumerate stuff):

1. 3 terms of school is a lot to do in a row. I am pretty sure I can handle it and everything, but it’s going to be pretty tough right near the end. I think I can ignore this fear though because of the fact that I finally see that light at the end of the tunnel.

2. I’m almost done what I consider my mandatory schooling for the rest of my life. After I get a degree from University, I could theoretically go on and do Graduate work or get another degree, but it is not something I must do that again. It is kinda relieving, and sad at the same time. I guess I know deep down that I am the type of person that will work harder towards what I feel needs to be done. And soon, school will not be one of those things.

3. And now that I’m finishing, the big question of what do I do with everything finally pops up. I guess my father’s analogy of the army on the mountain across the path is appropriate (You see an army of 20,000 enemy troops on the mountain across the path and think "omg, we’re all going to die!" But when they finally get down the mountain, across the streams, and up your mountain, all that’s left is an old man with a stick.). I guess we’ll see how difficult that decision is when it finally arrives.

Well, those are just my thoughts. I had fun with everyone in Montreal, and I hope we’ll be able to meet again sometime soon. While, I cannot post the mp3, I hope you will all find a way to listen (or just read the lyrics) to "We’ll meet again," by: Vera Lynn. That’s the song I am singing, right now actually. ^_^ As soon as you hear the lyrics, it will all make sense.

cya Montreal, hello Waterloo,

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From discussions I’ve had with lots of people today, I felt it would be a good idea to repost an article I wrote 3 years ago I believe:

—

A Note to the Men and Women out there

I have been noticing a disturbing trend over the last little while, and I feel it might be important to write a note to the intelligent young ladies and men out there.

This trend I have noticed is the fact that the truly intelligent young ladies and young men have not been having children, and some are not ever planning to have children. Now, I am not saying that they don’t have the right to decide whether or not. What I am saying that since these people don’t have children, the average intelligence level of the parents is inherently lower.

I am not saying for all intelligent people to go out there and have wild crazy orgies every night (Albeit, that is an interesting idea… hmm… :-P) Instead I am saying, perhaps it is time for us to relax a bit, not be obsessed with the "Almighty buck," programming and getting ourselves up the corporate ladder, and instead give back a bit of our genes (which assuming that genetics are responsible somewhat for intelligence) to the world. Thus, letting a new generation of intelligent youth upon the world.

Now, there is always the inherent problem of finding a S.O. who wants to be with them. My letter to the wo/men who are leary of dating/marrying/having children with a geeky person. You need to realize that not only are most of these people intelligent, youthful, and full of potential. But also, they will be able to provide when push comes to shove. These are the managers, entrepreneurs, systems developers, programmers, innovators, etc. of the world. Wouldn’t you want to have someone like that as the mother or father of your children?

Another complaint I hear is that they don’t want to introduce their children into such a mean world. Well, here’s an interesting thought. If only the mean people introduce their children to the world, what do you have left? The world needs, pardon my expressions, the geeks, the nerds, the non-atheletics, the hackers, etc… not just the jocks, the followers, the jerks, etc. We need these intelligent youth who may not be great at sports, but can program circles around anyone. Or these youth who may not understand the finer points of social engineering, but can develop physics to unimaginable heights. We need people who won’t grow up to be workers, and instead will be the thinkers. These people are the potential children of the young ladies and men that this letter is written towards.

So… My final note to anyone who reads this. If you have a b/f or a g/f, go and let them know how much you truly care about them. If you don’t have a b/f or a g/f, get off the computer, and go and find your lover/soulmate, because no matter how hard s/he is to find, they are somewhere out there… waiting for you.

Hug your intelligent friends today, they always need to know someone cares. (and most of them like hugs.)

—

I made a couple of changes to spelling errors and stuff, but it’s still in the same spirit I originally wrote it up. I hope you enjoy it.

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See article:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/09/03/pittman_abuse040903.html

For those of you following the American prisoner abuse stories. You are probably well aware that sentencing has been occuring. Well, one of the ultra tough sentences for the horrible war crimes that these guys perpetrated on the Abu Gharib prisoners was…

"A U.S. marine reservist was sentenced Friday to 60 days hard labour by a military court for his abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Sgt. Gary Pittman, was also demoted to the rank of private."

60 days community service! I just could not believe it. So I read it twice, then thrice and I was like. What the heck is the world coming to. Oh wait, well he was demoted to the rank of private. He was not even given a bad conduct dischare or (in my opinion what he deserved) a dishonorable discharge. Now from http://usmilitary.about.com/library/weekly/aa092500a.htm

"OTH Discharges are warranted when the reason for separation is based upon a pattern of behavior that constitutes a significant departure from the conduct expected of members of the Military Services, or when the reason for separation is based upon one or more acts or omissions that constitute a significant departure from the conduct expected of members of the Military Services."

As far as I know, this type of behaviour (if not condoned by the superiors), should be a significant departure from the conduct expected of American military officers. But I could be wrong.

Either way, it just mindboggles me personally. It feels like a slap on the wrist.

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After some research, I found a few very conflicting results on Depleted Uranium:

Wikipedia is reasonably unbiased, with some really good reference links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium

Review of Radioactivity, Military Use, and Health Effects of Depleted Uranium:

http://vzajic.tripod.com/

And from the good ol’ US of A military itself:

http://www.deploymentlink.osd.mil/du_library/

Basically, it looks like if you don’t expose yourself continuously to the DU. (which is a combination of U-234, U-235, and U-238, with a lot more U-238, and a lot less U-234, it’s more or less harmless. But with constant exposure, you will hit the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s limit for radiation workers in about 11 days.

So, it’s radioactive, and something you wouldn’t want to wear continuously, but not as radioactive as I originally thought. When in a concentrated form it also increases the radiation of the nearby region, but not to the degree I originally thought since it does not emit very much gamma radiation. Basically, it’s only a real hazard when you are constantly exposed to a concentrated form of it for days at a time, for example in the ground water or from constant warfare. Just like non-processed uranium, or even radium in the natural world. It is important to note though that the heavy metal property is also discussed as a potential contamination hazard in a couple of WHO reports.

Personally, I find the sheer nature of the conflicting reports fascinating in the fact that some of them are all to one side (not radioactive at all, as radioactive as Lead (which is incorrect, see the article above for info on that)), and some are all to the other (It will kill you instantly, horrible radioactive death, giant scopions (Pretty crazy stuff actually)).

(For those of you confused, this is just to finish off a discussion I had last night, and to help me understand more what I was talking about.)

Newaiz, I hope everyone finds this interesting. I sure did.

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