Interesting links and notes on updates to my main website.



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the current good

Windmill's The Currents looks very good.

There is a presentation I found that covers some of the stuff they have chosen to do. It's called The Economic Realities of Developing Green Buildings: The Currents Building Case Study.

They are doing tons of smart stuff. Dual-flush. Waterless urinals. Front-load washers. Many many other things.

One of their suppliers is The Healthiest Home and Building Supplies.

New Store Offers Healthy Building Products posted by Richard at 23:07 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

step is cool. posted by Richard at 23:02 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

sol 2

California proposes solar-power incentives

California officials are proposing that half of all new homes in the state be running on solar energy in 10 years, an effort spurred by $100-million (U.S.) in annual incentives paid for by electricity consumers.

posted by Richard at 13:41 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

solar power mainstreaming

It's time to catch some rays

Canadian Tire recently launched a television "demo-mercial" that shows viewers what its new generation of solar products can do.

The ad begins with a couple of guys opening their cottage for the spring. They are immediately ready to saddle up on their all-terrain vehicle, because a 1.8-watt solar panel has been topping up the ATV battery during the winter.

Cut to the winter and a woman taking her minivan out for a drive. The same $29.99 Eliminator Solar Panel in the last scene now sits on the van dashboard, plugged into the cigarette lighter, where it is helping the vehicle to an easy start on a bitterly cold day. The need for booster cables or a tow truck are all but gone.

In the third scene -- now summer -- a heftier five-watt model of the Eliminator ($69.99) is connected to a battery on a boat, where it keeps a cooler chilled and runs the trolling motor and fish finder.

Canadian Tire's solar panels of five-watt and higher are designed to work with inverter-equipped Eliminator PowerBoxes that allow you to plug in your laptop or portable television in the backwoods.

The power boxes, which cost between $99.99 and $249.99, store the captured sun's energy in a 12-volt direct-current battery and convert it into a 110-volt alternating current.

posted by Richard at 13:35 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," George Bush told an audience of military brass and Pentagon chiefs. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Bush's campaign trail gaffe

Michael Moore has the video. posted by Richard at 22:33 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

the awesome power of orkut

Bad, bad server. No donut for you

Unfortunately, the orkut.com has acted out in an unexpected way. Hopefully, it will return to its helpful self if you try again in a few minutes.

It's likely that the server will behave this way on occasion during the coming months. We apologize for the inconvenience and for our server's lack of consideration for others.

posted by Richard at 17:55 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Since you asked (through a web search hit) and I was wondering anyway

Gilmore Girls season premiere
88. 5-1 21-Sep-2004 A Messenger, Nothing More

via the ep list (see sidebar to the left)

Update 2004-09-15: See new post for Canadian premiere info. posted by Richard at 16:18 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

preorder Win XP SP2 CD

pre Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD.

It's free.
English is scheduled to start availability August 25, 2004.

Via DSLreports security forum.

I think it will be about 100MB as a download.

GlobeTechnology:

Massive Windows security update nearly ready

Microsoft urges automatic Windows Update

SEATTLE — To help distribute its most comprehensive security update ever for the Windows operating system, Microsoft Corp. is asking hundreds of millions of users to turn on a function called "automatic updates."

posted by Richard at 11:16 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

security updates

New versions of Mozilla (1.7.2) and FireFox (0.9.3) are out to fix various security bugs.

New version of Putty (0.55) is out to fix security bug.

UPDATE 2004-08-10:
WinSCP uses the Putty core so is also vulnerable.
New version 3.6.7 to fix. posted by Richard at 11:43 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

The American useless "news" story du jour is the Kerry bounce or lack thereof.
Repeat after me:

POLLS ARE NOT NEWS
POLLS ARE NOT NEWS

In fact, for a political campaign, anything other than reporting on policies is not news.

Oh my god the US media are a bunch of wankers.

I have some old thing I wrote a long time ago but I don't know where it is.
Anyway, the gist of it is, if they're talking about "them", don't listen.
The only thing you should listen to is if the candidate is making clear statements about their own policies. Everything else is garbage. posted by Richard at 21:35 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

I don't understand how it is not trivial to crush Bush in this election.

"enemy combatants"?

Americans may be held as 'enemy combatants,' appeals court rules

Government welcomes ruling upholding presidential power

Wednesday, January 8, 2003 Posted: 5:24 PM EST (2224 GMT)

RICHMOND, Virginia (CNN) -- A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled President Bush has the authority to designate U.S. citizens as "enemy combatants" and detain them in military custody if they are deemed a threat to national security.

This is PURE EVIL.
How can anyone not understand this?
You can just make people unpersons? With no Geneva Convention rights? With no rights under US law? You don't think this is a FVCKING BAD IDEA?

CNN.com - Americans may be held as 'enemy combatants,' appeals court rules

Oh, but it's ok, it's not like they torture the people they detain or anything.

How can anyone vote for this government? Why isn't it trivial to campaign against them? I don't understand.

Ron Reagan has written a thing.
The Case Against George W. Bush. Via Daypop. posted by Richard at 21:26 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Old intelligence still relevant, U.S. insists

U.S. security officials defended using four-year-old intelligence to mount a sweeping security lockdown in Washington and New York on Monday and Tuesday.

And in other anti-terror news, recently uncovered Civil War documents indicate a serious threat to the North-Eastern United States. posted by Richard at 20:53 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

There's a gap in the IANA list

mfserver 2266/tcp M-Files Server
mfserver 2266/udp M-files Server
# Samppa Lahtinen [samppa.lahtinen@motivesys.com], June 2004
xmquery 2279/tcp xmquery
xmquery 2279/udp xmquery
# Niels Christiansen [nchris@austin.ibm.com]

What's up with 2267-2278?
I am going to contact them.

UPDATE 2004-08-05:
They say "These numbers are unassigned. We have noted this in
the registry. Thank you for letting us know."

They have added
# 2267-2278 Unassigned posted by Richard at 11:49 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

The latest port probe I am seeing is

25072

It's in an IANA unassigned range.
# 25010-25792 Unassigned

It's a backdoor, but "fortunately" only in a custom Linux appliance.
Who is stupid enough to put a backdoor on a commercial product?
A lot of companies, apparently.

THINTUNE Backdoor Grants Root Access to Remote Users

eSeSIX Thintune thin client multiple vulnerabilities

The bril company is thintune. posted by Richard at 11:25 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

So I'm wandering around LiveJournal and seems they're working on some new FotoBilder thing, which will provide the engine for photo hosting on LiveJournal.

As well there's a general image hosting site called picpix.com posted by Richard at 21:23 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

New blog crush

beable and observable

Via Orkut.
I don't really understand Orkut. Are you supposed to just add people whose profiles look cool as friends? Or do you ask them first? Or do you mark yourself as a fan?

Oh well.
Blogs I understand. posted by Richard at 20:22 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Let's see, Kerry and Bush are both north-eastern richies, both went to Yale, and now The Economist tells me

Abroad, Mr Kerry mainly presents himself as the heir who can oversee a Bush legacy. The troops would stay in Iraq, pre-emption would remain a policy, Ariel Sharon would be backed unflinchingly. Reading between the lines a little, the Kyoto Protocol would remain unjoined; so in all likelihood would the International Criminal Court.

Um, so what's the difference between them, exactly? posted by Richard at 19:26 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Krugman: Triumph of the Trivial

There are two issues here, trivialization and bias, but they're related.

Somewhere along the line, TV news stopped reporting on candidates' policies, and turned instead to trivia that supposedly reveal their personalities. We hear about Mr. Kerry's haircuts, not his health care proposals. We hear about George Bush's brush-cutting, not his environmental policies.

Even on its own terms, such reporting often gets it wrong, because journalists aren't especially good at judging character.

posted by Richard at 19:14 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Energy crisis ahead

The crisis is coming sooner than predicted by the experts quoted in a four-part series in the Star this past week. It's coming this decade, according to a contrarian who has been prescient on the subject.

We know oil prices are at a record high. Production has peaked. No major new fields are being discovered. We are running out of oil, except in the Middle East and parts of Africa.

Natural gas has doubled in price in a year. A regional commodity that became continental will soon be traded worldwide, like oil: bought on one continent and sold in another, given the needs of North America.

That means huge Liquefied Natural Gas tankers. And LNG ports and depots. About 10 each on the East Coast, the West Coast and the Gulf Coast.

"LNG tankers and re-gassification terminals are the worst thing imaginable, from a security aspect," says Ed Schreyer. "One bullet by a terrorist, and you'd have a catastrophe."

posted by Richard at 19:09 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Spending now to save later

Solar electricity is still costly when compared with the current subsidized price of hydro, Moss said. But she believes rather than focusing solely on short-term pay back, consumers should consider that in the not-too-distant future, we may have no choice but to rely on alternative forms of energy.

"There is just plain not going to be enough gas and electricity soon."

There's also a good graphic (PDF) on energy saving areas for your house. posted by Richard at 19:01 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

I'm in Macintouch today. They accepted my submission of a list of wireless audio gizmos. posted by Richard at 16:26 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Orkut is orslow

I just entered a bunch of stuff into Orkut, all of which disappeared.

So far:
- it's very slow
- it keeps deciding I have timed out, and forcing me to re-login. When that happens, it forgets everything I was trying to enter.
- I just got "The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request."

Orkut is not orscaling.
It is pretty close to unusable. posted by Richard at 12:37 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

So apparently Rogers, in their quest for evil, is now expiring cellphone paygo balances after one month. I assume that still, if you refill in time, they carry over your balance. posted by Richard at 09:44 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

So I'm wandering around the Orkut interface. It is very slow. posted by Richard at 21:14 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Oh, here's a surprise

U.S. raises threat level

The threat level has been raised from

Yellow - "possibility of Kerry being elected" to
Orange - "danger of Kerry being elected" posted by Richard at 16:39 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Farscape 4-hour Peacekeeper Wars is coming. Don't know when it will come to Space Channel.

Farscape is on Space weekdays at 1 PM Eastern. I've actually missed tons of them, I need to start at season 2 and work forward. In the Space loop they're just finishing up season 3, they'll be into 4 this month. posted by Richard at 11:54 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

RogersYahoo has a great system for hiding your real email address using AddressGuard.
But then if you want to have web space, it will give you the web address

ca.geocities.com/yahooid/

At least in my case, yahooid = my rogers email address.
So that seems rather daft. posted by Richard at 11:47 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Krista is brilliant.
You should buy her books.
Err, that's buy the books that she writes. posted by Richard at 11:33 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

RogersYahoo suggests ZoneAlarm as a personal Windows firewall, you can download the regular version for free or ZA Pro for 20% off.

XP SP2 is coming this month, but as far as I know, it only does inbound filtering, not outbound. posted by Richard at 08:39 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)