Content by casualobservervations
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.