Sorry about the lack of any posts on monday, it was an INSANE day yesterday!
In return I give you and oldy but a goody, the comedian Stephen Colbert showing that he has more cajones than any other social commentator in the last ten years.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
A Reading Nook is a little slice of Heaven.
I'm sure many of us fall into that trap, reading an 800-page behemoth seems like a bit of a chore compared to surfing a plethora of stupid websites, or spending a few hours enjoying our own guilty pleasures (Mine being Civilization games). So today after chastising myself for being so apathetic, I decided to grab my old standby, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and search the campus for a good nook to disappear from the world for a few hours. I found a lovely row of stuffed chairs on the fourth floor of the campus library with a fantastic view (see pic), and I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be in that spot, suffering from a literature induced coma, for many of the coming months. I always feel so much more relaxed after enjoying a good book, and in an all too stressful world, its a great escape that doesn't involve chugging vast amounts of liquid bread like many of my classmates.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Rick Sanchez fired for Calling Jon Stewart a "bigot"
Apparently everyone's favorite Cuban-American reporter got fired on Thursday after a radio appearance on "Standup with Pete Dominick". During the interview, Sanchez repeatedly called Jon Stewart of the Daily Show a bigot, without coming up with any justification for his claim. Apparently Sanchez didn't take too kindly to Stewart after he made Rick the butt of several jokes over the years, and he was going to let this radio host know it. The radio jockey pushed Rick on several occasions for him to justify the bigot statement with a specific example to no avail. When Sanchez was unable to come up with any real facts to back his claims, he used the old fallback that his father was a Cuban immigrant who worked his entire life, so Stewart simply can't know where hes coming from. Let's be honest, Sanchez was simply backed into a corner, caught red-handed making a stupid, unsubstantiated claim and the whole "my childhood isn't comparable to his" comment was just a cop-out.
Sanchez is simply showing his own ignorance in thinking that HE is the only one that could have possibly had a childhood like him, or had a father that worked his entire life, which is a complete load of crap. By that extension of logic, his Cuban father who worked his entire life somehow increases HIS character more than someone like me whose own father worked six days a week up to the day he died. Rick is just pulling the "poor me" card and obviously the management at CNN called him on his BS.
One has to wonder if Rick Sanchez really thinks that Jon Stewart is a bigot, or is simply reverting back to the instincts of the average grade school bully. "That skinny Jewish kid from across the playground called me a meat-head so I'm going to hate him for the rest of my life", give me a break Rick Sanchez!
Sanchez is simply showing his own ignorance in thinking that HE is the only one that could have possibly had a childhood like him, or had a father that worked his entire life, which is a complete load of crap. By that extension of logic, his Cuban father who worked his entire life somehow increases HIS character more than someone like me whose own father worked six days a week up to the day he died. Rick is just pulling the "poor me" card and obviously the management at CNN called him on his BS.
One has to wonder if Rick Sanchez really thinks that Jon Stewart is a bigot, or is simply reverting back to the instincts of the average grade school bully. "That skinny Jewish kid from across the playground called me a meat-head so I'm going to hate him for the rest of my life", give me a break Rick Sanchez!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Ok, I stumbled upon this video a while ago and it's just too comical to pass up.
There are so many things wrong with the parent's assumptions about his son that I barely know where to start, but I'll take a crack at some of the more ludicrous points made in this video.
1. Does asking to change ISPs mean that your son is a computer hacker? Hardly, more likely your son is the only one in your family that realizes that using AOL was a crap way to connect to the internet when it was brand new (but I did love getting the free Frisbee CDs in the mail a few times a month)
2. Are you finding programs that you don't remember installing? OK, if all you are finding are mysterious new programs called "firefox" or "warcraft" I wouldn't worry about it. If you happen to stumble across a folder with two programs called Cain and Abel, then you are one of the few people who might have a legitimate concern! Cain and Abel has few legitimate uses and is more commonly the tool of people who perform man in the middle attacks on your wireless devices to steal personal info (I'll do an in-depth discussion of it at a later time).
3. Is your kid asking you for new hardware? Then they're most likely not hackers. The much more plausible explanation is that your family computer has a six year old processor that can barely run programs from FIVE years ago.
4. Does your son play Quake? No that does not make him a hacker, it makes him a nonconformist! (99.99% of his friends would play Halo or Call of Duty instead)
5. Finally my favorite. If you son is using "LUNIX" (Linux for the informed), chances are he is simply part of the wide-spread open source movement. Most of the time your kid is just using Ubuntu (or similar distributions) to stick it to Windows. DISCLAIMER: if the "lunix" he is using is a distribution called BackTrack, then the stars and sun have aligned and your son might actually be a legit hacker! Whereas BackTrack 4 is supposed to be a system penetration testing tool, it does work equally well in stealing your neighbor's wifi and compromising their computers if they're unpatched.
There are so many things wrong with the parent's assumptions about his son that I barely know where to start, but I'll take a crack at some of the more ludicrous points made in this video.
1. Does asking to change ISPs mean that your son is a computer hacker? Hardly, more likely your son is the only one in your family that realizes that using AOL was a crap way to connect to the internet when it was brand new (but I did love getting the free Frisbee CDs in the mail a few times a month)
2. Are you finding programs that you don't remember installing? OK, if all you are finding are mysterious new programs called "firefox" or "warcraft" I wouldn't worry about it. If you happen to stumble across a folder with two programs called Cain and Abel, then you are one of the few people who might have a legitimate concern! Cain and Abel has few legitimate uses and is more commonly the tool of people who perform man in the middle attacks on your wireless devices to steal personal info (I'll do an in-depth discussion of it at a later time).
3. Is your kid asking you for new hardware? Then they're most likely not hackers. The much more plausible explanation is that your family computer has a six year old processor that can barely run programs from FIVE years ago.
4. Does your son play Quake? No that does not make him a hacker, it makes him a nonconformist! (99.99% of his friends would play Halo or Call of Duty instead)
5. Finally my favorite. If you son is using "LUNIX" (Linux for the informed), chances are he is simply part of the wide-spread open source movement. Most of the time your kid is just using Ubuntu (or similar distributions) to stick it to Windows. DISCLAIMER: if the "lunix" he is using is a distribution called BackTrack, then the stars and sun have aligned and your son might actually be a legit hacker! Whereas BackTrack 4 is supposed to be a system penetration testing tool, it does work equally well in stealing your neighbor's wifi and compromising their computers if they're unpatched.
A Possible Change in Direction
When I first started this blog I didn't have a clear idea where it would go or what I should focus on, so I threw out a little of everything. After experimenting with diet, personal beliefs, and technology, it looks like I am getting overwhelmingly positive results from the tech article. Thus I put this to you, my readers. Would you prefer that I simply specialize on various tech tips that I come across on the internet and in information assurance classes, or would you like it if I just hodgepodge various pieces of info in all aspects of life?
Comment and let me know what's the most interesting so I know what resources to mine for your benefit :P
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