Redstate

Posted at 11:17am on Apr. 20, 2007 Competing with cheaters

By casualobservervations

Last week, President Bush brought a formal piracy complaint against China at the World Trade Organization. Despite being long overdue, it is a good move. The actual amount of piracy that occurs in China is staggering.

In the US, software piracy is fairly common among personal users. I'd say it's safe to assume that any younger, technically skilled person has pirated software. But it is rare that a commercial organization would be using pirated software. In China, however, almost all software is pirated, whether it be personal or commercial. They make no bones about doing it, either. It doesn't matter what software you want, be it Windows, Solidworks, AutoCad, Office, etc., you can find it at the local street market for $1 or less.

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Posted at 2:21pm on Apr. 19, 2007 Should we blame the media?

By casualobservervations

The shooting at Virginia Tech and reactions to it has raised a question in my head that I have trouble answering. Kind of a chicken vs. egg thing. No matter what the answer, there is no disputing the fact that today, watching the news is a pornographically violent experience. Today’s media glorifies, sensationalizes, and even celebrates tragedy. Is this the fault of a sinister media conspiracy trying to force viewers to watch by keeping us too scared not to, or could it be that our society, while publicly decrying the entire state of affairs, actually enjoys vicariously experiencing all the death and destruction, and the state of media today is simply the free market expression of those feelings?

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Posted at 11:05am on Apr. 17, 2007 Shooter Identified

By casualobservervations

Information about the VTech shooter was released, it was a student here legally from South Korea.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.shooting/index.html

Police identified the gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before turning the gun on himself as student Cho Seung-Hui, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said Tuesday.

The 23-year-old South Korean and resident alien lived at the university's Harper Hall, Flinchum said. He was an English major, the chief said.

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Posted at 10:09am on Mar. 30, 2007 .xxx defeated again

By casualobservervations

This week, ICANN once again defeated the proposal to move all pornographic material (pr0n) to a .xxx domain. ICANN is a non-profit organization based in the US that controls domain names on the internet. It was the third, and final, time that the proposal would be voted on, although a new proposal that is essentially the same can be put forward.

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Posted at 4:43pm on Feb. 23, 2007 Protecting Yourself Online – Part 1

By casualobservervations

A while back, there were some diaries about DDOS and botnet attacks. Being bloggers and web surfers, you are at risk of falling victim to these attacks, either by unwittingly participating, or becoming a target yourself. Additionally, the same malware that hijacks your computers resources can also be used to deliver personally damaging spyware, adware, and viruses.

There are three key methods of avoiding infection that all web users should know. The first, and the focus of this diary, is using safe browsing habits. Still to come will be security software, and finally computer maintenance and configuration.

Finally, before we start, a disclaimer:
My primary area of expertise is database applications and DBA. I have also done sys admin and network setup for small business and private parties. However, computer science is a huge field, and my niche has mainly become database apps, much like this blog is a database app. I should not be considered an expert on the subject of internet security, as that in itself is a career it takes alot of experience to master. However, with schooling, business, and personal experience, I would consider myself qualified to make personal internet security suggestions.

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Posted at 6:33pm on Feb. 12, 2007 BotNet Rising

By casualobservervations

There was a post earlier today that is quite interesting, though it seems a bit uninformed. Or, at least, the source articles did not give a lot of tangible facts. It was concerning a DDOS attack. DDOS stands for Distributed Denial Of Service. Although the information given doesn’t really lead me to believe that particular attack is anything spectacular or out of the ordinary, there is growing unrest over the complexity of the newer generations of botNets.

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Posted at 1:53pm on Jan. 26, 2007 Death of the GoogleBomb

By casualobservervations

Rather quietly, Google updated its search algorithm to kill Googlebombs. Google bombing is a practice of linking to a certain site using keywords to increase the ranking of a page among Google's search results. The most famous of which are "Miserable Failure" (returning George Bush’s site) and "French Military Victories" (returning a page made too look like Google asking you if you really meant French Military Defeat.

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Posted at 3:56pm on Jan. 19, 2007 Small School, Big Debate, Community Rascism Revealed

By casualobservervations

In my home town, there is a huge debate brewing at the local community college. Normally a community college in Northern MN wouldn't be worthy of national attention, but this story combines several hot button topics and juicy accusations as well. In am personally involved in the matter in a couple ways. One, I do serve on advisory boards at the school. Second, I was involved in and witness to some of the racial violence to be mentioned later. At the heart of the matter, you have race and academics. Clouding it you have accusations of rape, misconduct, and racism on both sides of a community vs. students debate.

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Posted at 1:08pm on Dec. 6, 2006 40% efficiency achieved with solar panels

By casualobservervations

At 40% efficiency, solar panels could be poised to become a much larger part of our energy infrastructure in the short term. Costs of solar arrays have been declining by 3 to 5 percent a year. Lower costs combining with higher efficiency are making solar power a cost effective alternative to fossil fuels, without all the environmental damage.

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Posted at 1:19pm on Nov. 17, 2006 Made in the USA: The Console Wars

By casualobservervations

Anyone not living under a rock know that Sony's next-gen console Playstation 3 was released in America today. Also, Nintendos latest and greatest, the Wii, will hit American shelves in days. Some readers at this site will be buying them for themselves, some looking at Christmas gifts for others. Given the prices of these new consoles, most people will only be buying one of them (if any). For those on the fence or considering buying one of these consoles, if you want to support American workers, buy the Microsoft Xbox 360.

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Posted at 12:22pm on Oct. 10, 2006 YouTube buyout thoughts

By casualobservervations

Not a highly political topic, but certainly of topic of interest to bloggers and netizens in general. YouTube has been used to embed podcasts and other video content on this site and many others. Yesterday, the company YouTube, Inc. was purchased by Google, Inc. for $1.65B. Once again, not a highly political query, but I want to know is if it was 1.) a good purchase by Google? 2.) good for the net and users in general?

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Posted at 3:07pm on Jul. 1, 2006 Al Queda Threat Ending

By casualobservervations

If the latest press release is for real, Bin Lad Laden has essentially detailed the end of his global threat.  At least in my opinion.

He has always thrived on his call for an Islamic war on the West.  Now, Bin laden has changed his tune and is caling on Islamic civil war.  Many people have asked where all the moderate Muslims are.  I say this is conclusive proof that they are in the majority.

Bin Laden could not rally Muslims against the West, so now he lowers the bar tremendously to try to remain a person of consequence in the Muslim world.  This latest move will ensure the destruction of his cause.

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Posted at 12:37pm on May 30, 2006 America no longer a democracy

By casualobservervations

Democracy is often defined as:

a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them

Even though our people do in fact elect our leaders, there is a very key part missing.  The people we elect do not represent us.  In fact, thanks to our wonderful 2 party only system, we have no choice but to elect those that do not represent us.  Without the fundraising and media power of party affiliation, no candidate outside of a local office has the power to get elected.  In order to get that party backing behind you, you have to play the game.  That game is not representing the people who vote you into office.  The game is exclusively representing the special interest and big business lobbyists that fund the party.

The latest example is the revelation that Harry Reid accepted boxing tickets from someone looking for favorable legislation.  Truly sad.  Especially considering the criticism he gave Republicans for doing the same thing.  There have been several high profile examples of our politicians selling out our democracy to the highest bidder.  It seems to be a virus equally infectious to both Democrats and Republicans.

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Posted at 6:07pm on Feb. 23, 2006 Iraq By The Numbers - On The Edge

By casualobservervations

The worst case scenario for Iraq was widely regarded to be all-out sectarian civil war.  The National Intelligence Estimate of 2004 predicted the worst case scenario would be all out civil war by the end of 2005.  The best case would be a “tenuous stability”.  What we have seen since the report has been a tenuous stability decaying to the verge civil war.

And recent events edge the Iraqi population closer to chaos with a dramatic spike in religious violence this week.  Sunnis Muslims have pulled out of the effort to form a new government, bringing political stability efforts to a stand still.  Local militias have mobilized to defend their mosques and attack others,  creating a dangerous security situation.  And infrastructure attacks still continue to hamper economic development.

But the true danger in Iraq has come from the continual rise in sectarian violence:

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Posted at 2:43pm on Feb. 6, 2006 Yahoo! falling down

By casualobservervations

No doubt Googles move to censor Chinese searches is disheartening.  Enough so that some looked for alternatives to Google's search engine and email.

Unfortunately, no other search engine worth using hasn't already made the censorship move in China.  When looking at the censorship practices of search engines complying with censorship rules, Yahoo is the worst.

Besides filtering results, they have even turned in those that break the rules.  A move they cannot get enough bad PR for.  And now, they (along with AOL) announce yet another very bad move.

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