Category: Uncategorized

Just watched an interview with the founder of the Lavabit secure e-mail service which the owner/creator chose to completely shut down rather than comply with a secret government order which would have forced it to basically violate the civil liberties of its users. Is this the start of the game of whack-a-mole facism? What is…

Nothing I write can impart the amazingness, intensity, and sheer coolness of this video. Therefore its best to let it just speak for itself:

It should have been obvious a long, long time ago that the Olympics is a farce.  Its about billions of dollars of revenues for media and other organizations.  Its disgusting to see how the spirit of athletic competition can be so utterly debased to serve the vile interests of those bent on profit. Not only…

Yesterday was the 28th anniversary of the deadliest single-aircraft accident in history, which occurred in Japan, JAL flight 123. The accident was the result of total loss of all control over the aircraft except engine thrust. Such a loss of all control is very rare and almost guaranteed to be catastrophic. Despite the loss of…

President Obama had a news conference the other day and announced that there would be reassesments done with regard to state surveillance. He also said that Edward Snowden is neither a whistleblower nor a hero. Obama emphasized that debates are supposed to take place within certain bounds, etc. Bullshit. Its not within bounds when law…

Today I found a really cool custom firmware for my Netgear DGND3700 V1 modem/router which is discussed in this thread at forum1.netgear.com. The developer’s wiki page for the firmware is here. This firmware adds a few features such as ability to toggle telnet and ssh (a.k.a. “dropbear”) daemons on or off via the adminstrative web…

click on above image to visit manufacturer’s website Most people who have broadband have a separate modem which connects to the boradband service via phone or cable line, and a wireless router which creates a home wireless network that various devices can connect to. There are also modem/routers where everything is built into one. I…

This morning there was a message sent out on a mailing list I am subscribed to about an incident in Southern Calfornia in which a bicyclist who was riding perfectly legally within the area demarcated with the arrow markings along the road was erroneously admonished and given false information by an officer from the local…

My last post about coffee was how to make more gentle coffee by lowering the temperature of the water that is poured over the grounds. Here is another way to make gentle coffee with an amazing, exotic taste that you will love: finely grate some fresh ginger (I like to keep it in a ziplock…

After getting a new hybrid 6″ cotton/2″ foam futon and taking it home, I noticed it has an odor. The odor reminds me of linseed oil or linen or something like that. I was thinking about it, and then something made me think about the futon being treated with flame retardant chemicals. I did a…