Steven Nichols' Blog

You too can legally OWN an Integer!

2007-05-08T12:11:00.000-04:00

"Would you like to be the exclusive owner of a number, with the right to sue other people for knowing your number or telling other people what it is? Now you can."

The AACS-LA thinks it can claim ownership of millions of random 128bit numbers under the DMCA and has started sending thousands of cease and desist letters to popular websites and blogs. But why should average Joes like you and I be left out of the fun?

Princeton prof Ed Felten has come up with a great way of giving out legally protected 128-bit numbers to anyone who wants them. All one has to do is encrypt a copyrighted work with a random Integer. Prof. Felten has even automated the process! Just visit his website and a random number will be used to encrypt a short haiku. The number is displayed on the page and then deeded to you.

My number is F0 53 78 AF DC 1F F2 58 D9 96 E4 11 26 93 93 CA. Anyone caught reading this number or telling anyone else about it will be sued to the fullest extent of the DMCA. I also claim all other representations of this number including but not limited to: decimal, binary, octal, and any visual representation be it colors in the format #FFFFFF or look alike symbols.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/07/howto_own_a_128bit_n.html

UPDATE: After much consideration I have decided to follow Bo's example and release my number to the world under the Creative Commons license. I hereby declare the number F0 53 78 AF DC 1F F2 58 D9 96 E4 11 26 93 93 CA under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. Please disregard any C&D letters you may have received. Information wants to be free! Numbers doubly so!

Vaccine to 'cure every strain of flu'

2006-12-28T22:51:00.000-05:00

"British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease. Described as the 'holy grail' of flu vaccines, it would protect against all strains of influenza A - the virus behind both bird flu and the nastiest outbreaks of winter flu."

Apparently by studying the viruses that cause the flu, researchers discovered a protein, called M2, that has remained the same for over 100 years. This contrasts with the other proteins on the surface of the virus that undergo rapid mutation as a defense mechanism against the body's immune system.

If the tests work as well in humans as they have in animals, this may be the defining moment in the fight against a world-wide bird flu pandemic which is currently considered by many governments to be inevitable. Without this vaccine, casualties were estimated between 50,000 and 700,000 in Great Britain alone.

Amazingly the vaccine would also be able to prevent a recurrence of the world's most deadly virus ever - the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed 50 million world-wide.

The researchers also believed that by using the M2 protein as a model, they may also be able to develop a universal vaccine strains of influenza B, which causes the milder winter flu.

Source: The Daily Mail

Blog Layout Update

2006-12-24T09:42:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago I silently updated the template to work with Digg.com to show the stories I've found interesting. And you were so busy complaining that I don't write enough posts that you didn't even notice :-). About 10 or so of the newest stories are displayed on the sidebar under the title "What Am I Reading? - LIVE!". Have fun.

Website Converts Between Dozens of Formats

2006-12-24T00:21:00.000-05:00

A website called Zamzar.com is allowing users to convert between dozens of popular image, music, video and document formats -- no software or registration needed. Simply select your file and the desired output format and enter your email address. A few moments later, a link to the file show up in your inbox. After conversion, the file is available for up to 24 hours. Finally, no more worrying about spyware in those freeware converters!

Security Now! Podcast

2006-12-23T23:59:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across this podcast in the iTunes music store a couple of weeks ago and just couldn't stop listening. The podcast is called "Security Now!" and the hosts are Steve Gibson, the guy who coined the term "spyware" and Leo Laporte from Tech TV and Twit. As you may have guessed, they talk about computer security (mostly Windows specific) and how to protect yourself from emerging threats. The content is original and the depth is excellent.

Get the podcast from iTunes or Twit.Tv.

Windows Vista Nearing Completion

2006-09-04T18:19:00.000-04:00

I was recently offered a chance to preview the Pre-RC1 build of Windows Vista, Microsoft next Operating System.

One of the most obvious changes is the "Start" menu. The start menu has stayed basically the same from '95 to XP, but Vista will mix things up a little. Gone is the famous "Start" button, replaced with an unnamed "Orb". Second, programs in the start menu are now displayed in a tree structure, think windows explorer. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but I'm starting to like to idea.

Visually, Vista is a vast improvement. I find myself falling in love with the new GUI. Vista uses a new graphics engine called Aero which allows for partially transparent windows, special effects, and a very cool new way of switching between open windows. Another nice touch is the new 256x256 "glassy" icons in Vista. This is what a modern OS should feel like.

Microsoft has focused on improving the OS's hardware detection feature. Most devices are detected automatically now, and in my personal experience, all I had to install was the driver for my semi-obscure wireless usb adapter (the old XP driver worked just fine).

One interesting new addition is the "Sidebar". It's a panel that runs vertically and is placed off to the right of the desktop. On this panel are a number of widgets; a RSS feed reader, virtual sticky notes, a calendar, and any of a number of other items which you can download and customize to your liking.

With Vista, MS has really been working hard on overhauling the overall security of Windows. At first I was afraid their efforts would be over-the-top, but they have toned things down since the first and second Beta releases. Still, when you access most areas of the Control Panel Vista will ask you if you really want to continue. Not too bad, but still annoying.

Although it's now possible to use Vista as your main Operating System, I still wouldn't. Even if it's a Release Candidate, Vista doesn't feel finished. I guess that's to be expected. After all, Windows Vista may be one of the largest programs ever written. It has over 50 million lines of code, 10 million of which are completely new. And all that takes time to test and debug. Only time will tell if Microsoft's biggest release since Windows 95 will hold up to all the hype.

If you would like to learn more about Vista, I highly recommend Paul Thurrott's site. http://www.winsupersite.com/vista

US Successfully Intercepts Missile

2006-06-23T13:23:00.000-04:00

The US Military successfully intercepted a mock medium-range missile with a direct hit over the Pacific Ocean Thursday. "The missile successfully intercepted the target warhead outside the earth's atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kauai," stated the US Missile Defense Agency.

The intercepting missile was a SM-3 missile fired by the Aegis class destroyer USS Shiloh. The test marked the seventh successful missile interception out of eight tries and the second successful test from an Aegis class destroyer.

Earlier this week the missile defense system was rushed from test status into operational status amid North Korea's threat to launch a multi-stage, long range Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. The Taepodong-2 missile is said to be capable of hitting parts of the US's west coast with a small payload.

"Senior Bush administration officials said publicly for the first time yesterday that the United States is set to shoot down any North Korean missile launch that threatens the United States." - Wash. Times

Hate to burst your little bubble Kim Jong Il, but your new missile may have just become obsolete.

Texas Enlists Web Users to Patrol Border

2006-06-05T11:42:00.001-04:00

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced Thursday that the state will enlist the Nation’s Internet users to watch for illegal immigrants crossing over the U.S. / Mexico border.

The plan calls for volunteers to watch live surveillance cameras which will be set up at strategic hot-spots along the border. When illegal immigrants are spotted, these volunteers can alert the authorities by calling a toll-free phone number.

"A stronger border is what Americans want and it's what our security demands and that is what Texas is going to deliver," Mr. Perry said.

The project is expected to cost $5 million. No word yet on a completion date or where to sign up.

Source: Web users to 'patrol' US border

Shocking Truth From Iraq

2006-05-17T13:32:00.000-04:00

The startling truth -- Iraq has actually has a lower violent death rate than many American cities! According to Rep. Steven King, the violent death rate in Iraq is 25.71 per 100,000. To put that in perspective, Columbia has a violent death rate of 61.7 per 100,000. South Africa is 49.6, Jamaica is 32.4, and Venezuela is 31.6.

"How about the violent death rates in American cities? New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina was 53.1, violent death rate per 100,000. FBI statistics for 2004-05 have Washington DC's violent death rate at 45.9 per 100,000; Baltimore at 37.7 per 100,000, and Atlanta at 34.9 per 100,000." - New York Sun

You are safer in Iraq than in our nation's capital. Simply amazing. I guess I should've known better than to fall for the mainstream, "drive-by" media's doom and gloom reports. Anyone up for a vacation to Iraq this summer?

Thunderbird 1.5 Review

2006-05-15T23:35:00.000-04:00

When I made the decision to forgo installing MS Word, I didn't realize that the spell checker in Outlook Express was dependent on Word. For me, not having a spell checker is not an option. So, once again I turned to the Open Source community to see if they could remedy the problem. The solution, I found, is a free email client called Thunderbird. It is made by Mozilla, the folks that brought us the incredible browser Firefox. It turns out that just like it's "big brother", Thunderbird is head and shoulders over Microsoft's program.

Pros:

Full featured email. Basically this killer app can do anything you did before and a whole lot more. Importing your messages and contacts is very easy.

Spell checking. You bet this got my attention, after all, that was the whole reason I switched. This isn't any old spell checker either, this is a full featured spell checker which highlights misspellings as you type. Beat that Micro$oft!

Built in spam blocker. Thunderbird utilizes a spam filter which grows smarter as you use it. Simply tag an email as spam and the filter can automatically create a filter rule for blocking future spam which uses similar word patterns. Even better, as soon as an email is tagged, firefox can move it to your trash bin -- thus eliminating that extra click.

A search function to die for. Honestly, Thunderbird's search is the best I've ever seen in a mail program. Its fast, no really fast. The second you start typing, it's already searching through your mail folder and pulling up relevant emails. Frequently, it finds the email I am looking for before I even finish typing out my search term (and I type fast).

An RSS feed reader. Finally, a place to organize all those feeds! When new items arrive, they look and behave similarly to emails, thus making them easy to work with. You can also set up Thunderbird to automatically delete items after a certain number of days which prevents the feeds from overrunning your computer.

Thousands of themes and add-ons written by passionate users. Just the other day, I downloaded an add-on which can encrypt and digitally sign email messages with the popular PGP algorithm. Similar programs for Outlook Express could cost you over $100.

Cons:

The default interface isn't quite as streamlined as Outlook Express, however its very easy to customize.
The address book has email contacts only -- no instant messenger support yet.
I really can't think of anything else that I miss. :-)

Even if I had spell check with Outlook Express, I don't think I could ever go back. Try it for a week and I think you'll agree with me. If not, just export your messages back to Outlook. You've got nothing to lose.

Open Office 2.0 Review

2006-05-15T19:54:00.000-04:00

Last week I did what I should have done months ago; I formatted my hard drive. Wiped the whole thing clean. Then I spend the better part of the next two days re-installing 6 years worth of my work back onto that clean hard drive. But in the end it was well worth it, and my computer is running better than ever.

As I was finishing up with the re-install I noticed that the Microsoft Office 2000 product key had become detached from the CD case and was probably lost forever. Horror of horrors!! At that instant I must have looked like the woman in the famous "Scream" painting. Alas, there was nothing I could do. Legally, of course.

I quickly decided against a course of action that could lead to imprisonment, opting instead to review all my options. It was at this moment that I remembered the name of a free MS Office replacement called Open Office 2.0 . "Why not?", I said and promptly download all 85 megs. The installation was simple enough and the program is very intuitive. In addition to the program called "Write", which looks and functions like MS Word, the Office suite also features a sideshow creator, a database/spreadsheet manager, a drawing or flowchart editor, and a program for writing mathematical formulas on the computer.

I have been using the program for about a week and have not had any problems with it. Open Office can view all my old Office document perfectly and has several feature which I have grown to love. Open Office can save your documents to PDF format, which is very handy for me as I do a lot of website work and use that format for all downloadable documents. The other great feature is the powerful recovery tool. If your computer crashes before you save, Open Office will recover that document, and, unlike Word, Open Office can recover more than one document at a time.

For a conclusion; Open Office is free, it has a nice interface, it can import and export MS Office documents, it's free, it can recover multiple documents, it can export to PDF and did I mention that it's free? The next time you are asked to shell out $200 for MS Office, you might want to consider the free alternative; Open Office.

Let the People Decide!

2006-03-06T16:04:00.000-05:00

South Dakota Bans Most Abortions

I've been watching this whole thing develop over the past few months. There is even a short segment on the post "Worst of Times; Best of Times". Now that the Governor has officially signed the bill into being, I thought it a good time to revisit the topic.

There are several different angles with which one might approach this story. However, today (tonight would be more accurate) I would like to turn your attention to the democratic principles involved here.

In 1973 the judges on the Supreme Court decided to take the law into their own hands, tossed aside the Constitutional barriers and usurped the power of law making from the elected officials of the people.

What ensued for the next 33 years was an unwritten, yet unquestionable "amendment" to the Constitution allowing nearly all abortions in the United States. When challenged by the legitimate law makers, Congress and state legislatures, our Judges have repeatedly tossed the law books and stuck to their own self-made law.

However, with the appointment of two new Justices to the Court who have promised to be open-minded and remain true to the written Constitution, the elected legislature of South Dakota saw an opportunity to bring the abortion debate back to the People, where it should have been decided in the first place.

Why is this so significant? Because it signifies the growing resistance to the tyrannical monarchy which this Nation's judiciary has become. Contrary to the Constitution, the judicial branch has set itself up as a law-giver. I urge you therefore, no matter which side of the abortion debate you come down on, to open your eyes to the larger battle; the fight to return power to the people, where it belongs.

I propose to let the people of each state decide for themselves which side they will choose. Even if you think that all the states should be made to support abortion or ban it, fine, just follow the Constitutional guidelines for adding an amendment. There is no reason in the world to have such an important issue decided by nine unelected and unaccountable men and women wearing black robes.

The Constitution and the basic principles of democracy mandate that the people, not the aristocracy of the Judiciary, should be the source of law. The judiciary exists to interpret law, not make it.

This is why all freedom loving Americans should band together in support of the bill which will challenge the power of judicial law making and hopefully set a precedent towards restoring power to the people in future.

"...That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Worst of Times; Best of Times

2006-01-23T13:34:00.000-05:00

Today is called the worst day of the year, so how'd it go? Well, if you're a conservative; not bad. While liberals will doubtless find these articles depressing, conservatives will be cheered by today's news.

First off, a large group of marchers descended on Washington today to protest on the 33rd anniversary of the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion. Thousands of pro-life protesters, exact numbers are so far unavailable, marched through the heart of Washington to the Supreme Court building despite rain. President Bush phoned in to reiterate his support to the assembled group and declared, "[T]his is a cause that appeals to the conscience of our citizens, and is rooted in America's deepest principles -- and history tells us that with such a cause, we will prevail."
President Bush Tells March for Life: We Will Win Abortion Battle

Next up, another positive pro-life story. It appears that the South Dakota is considering a ban on abortion. Rep. Roger Hunt, the bill's author says, "abortion must be banned." He continued, "DNA testing now can establish the unborn child has a separate and distinct personality from the mother. We know a lot more about post-abortion harm to the mother." The bill also addresses a few technicalities which prevented a similar law from going into effect two years ago. Supporters feel that now is the right time to try again because of the addition of Justice Roberts and possibly Alito to the Supreme Court.
SD Legislature To Consider Abortion Ban

Thirdly, our neighbors to the north may be getting tired of "Liberal arrogance". For the first time in 12 years, Canada's liberal party may lose power. Although the results are still uncertain, the Conservatives are showing a steady lead of between 7 and 12 percentage points. Some polls even show the Liberals receiving the lowest vote since Canada's independence in 1867. Stephen Harper, likely the next prime minister if the Conservatives win, has promised to reduce taxes, ease tensions with Washington and push for a repeal of gay "marriage" in Canada.
Canadian Liberals face loss after 12 years in power

Feeling pretty good? Me too.

Bin Laden Surfaces Again

2006-01-19T22:48:00.000-05:00

The infamous terrorist leader, Osama Bin Laden, released a tape to Al Jazeera for the first time in over a year (raw transcript). Interestingly, Bin Laden offered "a long-term truce with the U.S. military" this time, though he did not specify the terms of such a truce.

Considering the Jihadist ideals of killing infidels no matter the personal cost, it seems very odd that the terrorist leader would offer such a suggestion, which could distance him from his supports in the extremist fringe. What then is his purpose? Could it be that the message is some sort of code to followers around the world and even in the U.S.? Although there's no evidence to support such a claim, we must be careful about that possibility. Or could it be that he has seen the light and now realizes that the U.S. is winning in Afghanistan and Iraq? Possibly, after all, three of the top Al Qaida operatives were killed in a US lead missile strike last week. Could he be trying to gain wider Arab support by casting himself as a moderate? Quite possibly, his insurgency, despite what the U.S. media has reported, has not been doing well in recent months. He may be looking to fill his ranks or at least gain more support.

One thing seems clear enough; if the message was meant to sway the United States in to a decrease in military action, it has little change of succeeding. The American people usually don't take well to terrorists advising them how to conduct their foreign policy. Vice President Cheney put it bluntly, "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

In reading through the transcript, I get a feeling of deja vu; Bin Laden talks of truces and peaceful negotiations as well as cites opinion polls about the popularity of the war and claims that President Bush mislead America.

"The result of the opinion polls are wise and Bush must follow it. Iraq has now become a point of attraction to all qualified people the mujahadeen...

So you see how Bush was misleading people. The opinion polls are for the pull out and it's important that opinion polls say the people didn't want to fight the Muslims in their land and they didn't want the Muslims to fight them in their land."

Now who else has been saying almost the exact same sorts of things over the course of the past three or four years? The Democratic party! Isn't it interesting that the terrorist leader would choose to echo the words and campaign rhetoric of that major party? Certainly something to think about.

Serious or Suicidal? A Nuclear Iran

2006-01-04T16:49:00.000-05:00

Mike Nichols sent me a link to this commentary by one of my favorite columnists, Thomas Sowell. I liked the article so much that I have posted a link and an excerpt here for you to enjoy.

Serious or Suicidal? By Thomas Sowell

"When you are boating on the Niagara River, there are signs marking the point at which you must go ashore or else you will be sucked over the falls. With Iran moving toward the development of nuclear weapons, we are getting dangerously close to that fatal point of no return on the world stage.

Yet there are few signs of alarm in our public discourse, whether among politicians, the media, or the intelligentsia. There is much more discussion of whether government anti-terrorism agents should be able to look at the records of books borrowed from public libraries...

It is as if we were on the Niagara River and wanted to go ashore before it was too late, but did not want to turn on the motors for fear of disturbing the neighbors with excessive noise..."

Read more

AP photoIn other news, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito received the highest rating, unanimous well-qualified, from the American Bar Association Wednesday.

Dare we hope that this rating will convince far left groups to cease their mindless character assassination attempts against Alito? I wouldn't count on it:

"Unfortunately, the hard left groups decided long before these ratings were announced that they would oppose his nomination," Sen. John Cornyn said Wednesday. "And some Senate Democrats, including some who have previously described the ABA's evaluation as the gold standard, will now dismiss the rating as meaningless."

Well how do you like that? A poor rating is "the gold standard" (think Robert Bork nomination), but as soon as a rating is favorable it becomes "meaningless". A classic example of Liberal flip-flops.

Read more

Astute thoughts on blogging

2005-12-28T15:20:00.000-05:00

After opening presents and gorging on Christmas turkey, I sat back and thought about this blog's first year in operation. And in the spirit of blogging I now bring you that list of those astute, though only semi-formed thoughts. Enjoy!

A few things I have learned about blogging:

5) Blogging regularly is hard work!

4) The more often I post, the more readers I get!

3) The length of a post is directly proportional to the level of frustration I was feeling; a long rant means it took me quite a while to cool down!

2) If I spent half as much time writing posts as I spend tinkering around with the page template, this would be post #92 instead of #27!

1) This blog is journalism at its best; clearly biased and proud of it!

Merry Christmas!

2005-12-24T15:36:00.000-05:00

http://www.fg-a.com

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." - Luke 2:8-14

Jesus is the reason for the season. Merry Christmas!

Never mind the facts; it's still "Unconstitutional"

2005-12-21T19:23:00.000-05:00

A U.S. federal judge, John E. Jones, ruled Tuesday that suggesting in high school that the universe did not come about by random chance and spontaneous generation is "unconstitutional". The case was about whether Intelligent Design could be taught along with Evolution in the public schools. Judge rules against teaching "ID"

Since when has teaching both sides of an honest debate become "unconstitutional"? The judge even admitted, "Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect." If a theory is "imperfect" (i.e. known to be wrong) isn't there a moral responsibility to point that out to the students? The judge apparently said no, and then went on to say that pointing out the flaws in Darwinian Evolution and offering an alternate theory goes against the Constitution! His reason: Intelligent design, a theory which never mentions God, the Bible or makes any other religious references, advances a particular version of Christianity. Note that the complaint was not that ID is a particular version of Christianity, but rather that it advances a particular version of Christianity.

Do you see what's happening here? Any theory that could be seen as validating Christianity must be "unconstitutional" regardless of the scientific facts. It is no less than a modern day witch hunt against Christianity. All they need do is point the finger and say, "religiously motivated!" and instantly whatever it is becomes "unconstitutional" regardless of the facts.

You would think that with all the stress on finding truth for yourself and the importance of not offending anyone at all costs, that they would be encouraging students choose the origin theory that "works for the student". Why then is it taboo to even suggest the possibility that Darwin could *gasp* be wrong? Could it be that the religion of secularism falls apart without evolution?

The judge said in his ruling, "the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions."

With that statement he dealt several low blows. First, isn't the purpose of science to discover the truth? If Evolution cannot explain everything should we not at least consider the other possibilities? And why shouldn't we use a theory's failures as a "pretext" to put forth an alternative theory? Scientists do the same thing every day: it's called good science.

Second, the judge called Intelligent Design "untestable" but apparently forgot that any theory about how the universe began is untestable! It is impossible to test evolution or Intelligent design because neither is repeatable. Your Honor, if that's part of your argument then you should seriously consider removing evolution too.

Lastly, "well-established" doesn't always mean "correct". Sure Darwinism has been around longer than Intelligent Design, does that make it true? Of course not! If we judged scientific validity by how "well-established" a theory is we would still be teaching that mice come spontaneously from dirty rags and that the sun orbits around a flat earth!

Although I disagree with the judge, I must say that I'm am not surprised at his ruling. When even small disclaimers on textbooks reading, "Evolution is a theory, not a fact" are officially "unconstitutional" (Cobb County Disclaimer trial) you really can't be surprised by anything. I think I may have to stop writing about this depressing PC nonsense soon; it's just getting too ridiculous to even be funny.

Rockets, Woolly Mammoths and The Mona Lisa

2005-12-19T17:10:00.000-05:00

Contrary to popular belief I am, in fact, alive and well. My apologies for leaving you "postless" for so long. The simple fact of the matter is that I just haven't seen any news that caught my fancy, until now that is :-)

As some of the long time readers know I try to balance the political posts with technological posts. So amid a time of ramped Political Correctness, let us dwell on some genuine advances.

The first story I would like to draw your attention to is about the recent decoding of the extinct Woolly Mammoth's DNA. Even though the mammoth became extinct several thousand years ago, researchers were able to extract DNA from remains which had been preserved in the permafrost. Then using a new technique they were able to produce the longest string of DNA of any Pleistocene species to date. I don't know about you, but I instantly thought "Jurassic Park".
Full BBC Story

I also found this next CNN story interesting. A group of scientists used a state-of-the-art emotion recognition system to decode Mona Lisa's famous smile. They found that the subject for Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece was 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful, and 2 percent angry. Of course, the results are hardly scientific and are unlikely to quell the controversy surrounding the smile, but it's still interesting none the less.
Full CNN Story

This comming January, NASA will launch the first probe to Pluto. The little probe will be straped to a gigantic Atlas rocket with five solid-rocket boosters. "It's almost going to look like a hood ornament on top of that big rocket," Kennedy Space Center spokesman George Diller said. The goal of the mission is to send the probe all the way to the furthest planet from the sun before Pluto's orbit causes the planet's atmosphere to freeze and fall to the ground as snow. "If the Apollo capsules had as much power behind them, the trip to the moon would have taken about nine hours instead of three days." But don't hold your breath; even with the huge rockets the trip is expected to take about 10 years.
Full Reuters Story

Finally I'd like to thank everyone who contacted me to request another post. You are the driving force that keeps this blog going. Thanks.

The War on Christmas Part 1

2005-12-02T17:30:00.000-05:00

In an impressive offensive movement, pro-Christmas forces have pushed back the "oh-so-easily-offended, politically-correct, happy-holidays-or-something" crowd in a series of stinging defeats, sure to outrage the tolerant-of-everybody's-beliefs-except-yours ACLU:

Headline #1: 'Holiday tree' quickly pulled from governor's mansion

The Georgia governor's office sent out a press release for a "holiday tree lighting ceremony". Exactly 30 minutes later, the office released another statement blaming the choice of wording on "a politically correct staff brain-freeze." The statement went on to explain that "it is, in fact, a Christmas tree."
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/13313899.htm

Headline #2: Lowe's home improvement stores pull "Holidays Trees", replace with "Christmas Trees"

"One day after a WorldNetDaily story brought national exposure, the home-improvement retailer Lowe's dropped references to "Holiday Trees" in favor of "Christmas Trees" only."

The company was contacted by customers who expressed their displeasure of the name change and prompted the following response: "To ensure consistency of our message and to avoid confusion among our customers, we are now referring to the trees only as 'Christmas Trees.' We have also removed a banner that read 'Holiday Trees' from the front of our stores."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47634

Headline #3: Capital 'Holiday Tree' renamed 'Capital Christmas Tree'

House Speaker Dennis Hastert moved last week to have the Capital 'Holiday Tree' renamed as the 'Capital Christmas Tree'.

"The speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree, and it is as simple as that," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for the Illinois Republican.
http://washingtontimes.com/metro/20051129-120703-5977r.htm

The offensive is a response to the efforts of such groups as the ACLU to remove God from the public square. However, the battle is far from won and Christians have much lost ground to recover. We need to boldly proclaim the reason for the season, lest the ACLU win by default and succeed in their goal to eradicate our Constitutional freedoms.

Men Are People Too

2005-11-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

It seems that the years of negative stereotyping of men is having an effect on how males are viewed. Two airlines in New Zealand are accused of 'demonizing' men with their new policy of not allowing unaccompanied children to sit next to a male passenger.

Mark Worsley, a father of two, was told to swap his seat with a woman passenger after a young boy was assigned the seat adjacent to him. He complied, but said that he "felt totally embarrassed" because other passengers doubtless heard what was happening.

"Most males in the world, I'm sure, are perfectly law-abiding, good parents, good fathers, brothers, whatever," he said. "They're basically accusing half the population of the world of being a potential pedophile."

With this policy the airlines implied children are not safe sitting next to adult men. Keith Locke of the Right-wing, New Zealand Green Party, said that airlines should recognize that "men are people too." He went on to say that it was "prejudicial to presume that men can't be trusted to have contact with children unless they are related to them or are specially trained."

I couldn't agree more. The politically correct media, lead by liberal 'Feminatzis', has basically demonized men for a very long time. Now the negative stereotypes are starting sink in to society. That can't be good for families, which incidentally, are the backbone of any nation. Why should society teach children to be distrustful of their own fathers? Does that send an encouraging message to a man who wants to be a the best father he can be? No, it does not. These liberals couldn't care less about the well-being of children; their only desire is to fulfill their own warped sense of justice by tearing down men as a whole.

Of course they'll never succeed in the long run. But I thought I'd let you know their plan anyway :-)

Read More

The Grinches Are After Christmas Again

2005-11-28T21:10:00.000-05:00

It looks like the campaign to push all things Christian out of daily life is alive and well this Christmas season. The city of Boston set off a "furor" last week when it renamed a tree in a city park a "Holiday tree".

Even the Canadian logger, Donnie Hatt, who donated the tree was offended by the name change. When asked what he would have done if he had known about the change, Hatt said, "I'd have cut it down and put it through the chipper...If they decide it should be a holiday tree, I'll tell them to send it back. If it was a holiday tree, you might as well put it up at Easter."

Back in Boston, many residents voiced their disapproval of the name change and the city's December 1st "Official Holiday Tree Lighting" ceremony. 64% of people who responded to a CBS television affiliate poll in Boston said that Christmas has become too politically correct.

Even the Mayor, Thomas Menino said he would continue calling the spruce a "Christmas tree" regardless. "I grew up with a Christmas tree, I'm going to stay with a Christmas tree," Menino told reporters on Thursday.

Funny how the same group that tells us to be tolerant of everybody else never misses an opportunity to be intolerant to our beliefs and customs. If they would rename a tree because someone felt offended by the word "Christmas", don't we have just has much right to make them change it back because we feel offended by calling it a "Holiday tree"? It's a two way street people! The tolerance has to go both ways or it's not really tolerance.

Read More

Holographic Storage Disks?

2005-11-28T18:22:00.000-05:00

Imagine being able to store more data on a single, removable disk resembling a DVD than on your entire hard drive. A new holographic storage device made by the data storage company Maxell will be able to hold a whopping 300GB of data on a single disk. That's equivalent to 1.6 million high-resolution color photos, 240 hours of TV broadcasts or roughly half a million 300-page books. That's more than 63 times the capacity of a DVD.

The holographic recording technology uses laser beams to read the data off a 3D crystal. The laser beam can be split into multiple smaller beams which means that the data can be read or written in blocks at a time. This equates to a faster read/write performance of nearly 20 times more than a DVD.

"Holographic media makes it possible for millions of pages of information and high-definition images to be held on one small, relatively inexpensive disk," said Steven Pofcher, senior marketing manager at Maxell.

Technology experts expect to see a 1.6 terabyte holographic disk on the market in about five years. I can't wait to see what they'll think up next.
Read More

One Year Old! PLUS First Ever Feedback Poll

2005-11-22T20:37:00.000-05:00

I have a special announcement to make. Ahhem... Today my Blog is officially one year old!

In honor of this slightly historic event I am conducting my first Weblog improvement poll. This is your chance to tell me how I should or should not run my blog.

Question #1: Quality vs Quantity

As you have probably noticed, I have been uploading long posts with long pauses in between. I think this is because it takes me a while to get fired up enough about something to write a big long post. I think that if I started doing shorter posts (about a single paragraph in length) I could post quite a few more per month. Anyway, that leads to the question, which would YOU prefer?

Question #2: Multimedia

Blogger has come out with a new service called "AudioBlogger". It allows me to upload audio posts to the blog using my cellphone. Also, there are several services which facilitate video posts. The question to you is; would you be interested in audio or video posts?

Thank you for answering my short poll. Your input is greatly appreciated.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Push for United Nations' Control of the Internet

2005-10-08T12:01:00.000-04:00

"...the world's governments are expected to agree on a deal awarding themselves ultimate control [of the Internet]. The proposal will be officially raised at a United Nations summit of world leaders next month and, faced with international consensus, there is little the US government can do but acquiesce." - The Guardian

In a political move that could have enormous implications for generations, the European Union announced a coup to end America's control of the Internet. The United States, not surprisingly, flatly refused. However, with a censuses in the United Nations, there may be very little the US can do to stop the take over.

The fight is really over the control of the 13 "root servers" which control Internet domain names. Domain names are important because they convert the IP address of a sever (66.102.15.100) to something memorable like "blogger.com". Without these domain names, browsing the Internet would be a very painful experience. Currently, domain names are handled by ICANN, a private company set up by the US Department of Commerce.

The organization who controls the root servers has the ability to grant or deny domain requests. If the United Nations gained control of the Internet, what would stop countries like China from refusing to grant domains to their political opposition? Additionally the United States has not looked favorably on the proposed ".xxx" domain for *ahem* objectionable content but others, the EU for example, would be likely to grant permission.

The biggest question though, is can the United Nations operate the Internet without bogging it down in bureaucracy? What if the United Nations decided that every webpage on the Internet had to fully accommodate blind users? The result would probably be millions, if not billions of dollars spent trying to include an incredibly small demographic of the Internet audience. Many webmasters, myself included, would almost rather shut their site down than have the United Nations tell them how to run it.

"For the first time in its history, the Internet is running a real risk of fracturing into multiple and perhaps even incompatible networks." - CNet News

If worse comes to worse, the United States may retain control of a portion of the Internet which could lead to the breakup of that network as a whole. The result could be many different, possibly incompatible Internets. Such a catastrophic breakup would slow or even derail many advances in information technology.

Bottom Line: If you think the United Nations did a good job with the "Oil for Food" program then you should be pleased, if not, you'd better hope the EU doesn't get its way!

Who Knew Politics Could Be This Much Fun?

2005-09-25T21:53:00.000-04:00

First off, congratulations to Justin, a frequent commenter on this site, who just started his own blog (http://jubijedi.blogspot.com). Good luck to you!

I am posting today to inform you of a very fun, political, online game called NationStates. Basically, you create your own nation, give it a catchy name and motto, then go and decide how it should be run. You can become a civil rights utopia with no money, or an economic powerhouse where the poor are left to fend for themselves. Its totally up to you. In the words of the game's creator, Max Barry, "You create your own country, fashioned after your own ideals, and care for its people. Either that or you deliberately torture them. It's really up to you."

Every day your nation will receive an "issue" which presents a problem and then offers a few solutions. Pick the response which sounds best to you or simply dismiss the issue like real politicians usually do ;-) Overnight, your parliament will enact your legislation.

After your legislation has been enacted, check out your nation's summary to see a sometime hilarious description of how the new law effects the country. For instance, after allowing scientists to experiment on animals, I saw this summary, "Several citizens have complained about scientists abducting their pets for experimentation".

If you are looking for even more "politicking" you may join the United Nations, a hot bed of intrigue and back-stabbing. You may introduce legislation of your own making or simply vote on the proposals of others. In order to give UN members enough time to debate the issue fully, UN resolutions stay active for a full week.

So if you are looking for a way to put your political ideals into action or just want a good laugh, try out the game NationStates at http://www.nationstates.net. When you do, be sure to send me ("The Holy Republic of Sentnor") a telegram!

[Please note: The political views expressed in my NationStates summary do not necessarily represent my political views or beliefs (it's just a game after all). Please be aware that the summary shows the extremely exaggerated consequences of a particular action which may not have been apparent from the wording of the issue.]

The London Attacks: Where do we go from here?

2005-07-09T11:03:00.000-04:00

It was a sobering day. Over 50 dead and hundreds wounded. Apparently the dreaded work of Al-Qaeda. The London Attacks...

The London attacks have shaken the West from any complacency but it has not shaken our resolve. "The politics we represent will win and will triumph over terrorism." - Tony Blair

How do we prevent another attack? Obviously, it would be impossible to screen every passenger everywhere in the Civilized West. It should also become clear to all that no amount of defensive action will be able to stop the terrorists every time. It is for that reason that U.S. officials have long said, "It's not a matter if, but when the terrorists strike again." As long as we remain free societies, the terrorists will inevitably find a way in. What can we do then? For me the choice is clear: our only option is to go on the offensive. We need to continue to fight them were they live. We also need to continue to introduce democracy to a region of the world that has never been given a chance to taste freedom. Those who say that Iraq is not part of the War on Terror are, I'm sorry to say, either totally oblivious to what is going on there or are willfully siding with the terrorists in an attempt to undermine our presence there.

This war on Terror constantly reminds me of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Today Western civilization is under attack from a barbaric foe who aim is to spread fear and destruction with the ultimate desire to destroy all that is good in this world. In The Lord of the Rings, the free peoples of the West are also under a savage attack from a nameless fear growing in the East. Sarron, like the Muslim extremists, is bent on destroying all of the Free World.

With the above connection being made, I believe a quote is justified. People of Britain, know that "A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! For all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!" - Aragorn

Celestia - The Ultimate Space Sim

2005-06-29T15:41:00.000-04:00

I have always been fascinated with astronomy which is why I "fell in love" with Celestia, an open-source, ultra-high-quality space simulator. Celestia can simulate the size, distance from the sun, and location along orbit of any planet. And it's photo realistic renderings are well worth the 12 megabyte download. The planets appear in amazing detail thanks to the implementation of real photographs from the various NASA probes.

Jupiter and it's moon Europia

The immense size of space is skillfully retained by the programs "smart" zooming functions. Simply put, it speeds up normal zooming when you are far away from your "target" object and slows it down when you get close. By doing so, you can view planets up close but also travel thousands of light-years to another object with minimal effort.

One really neat feature is the "time" functions. With it, you can speed up, slow or even run time in reverse. One thing I like to do is speed up time to watch the harmony of the planets and their moons as they speed silently by in perfect rhythm.

Mars close-up showing the largest canyon in the solar system

Finally, if you ever get tired of just the nine planets and some asteroids you can download many expansion packs freely from the Celestia website. Among some of the addons are man-made satellites, comets, asteroids, stars and nebula. If you have the bandwidth, you can also get very high quality planet textures which allow you to see thousands of real mountains or volcanoes on the planets or their moons.

First Audio Post

2005-06-28T09:48:00.000-04:00

What's up with the Fahrenheit scale?

2005-06-07T16:48:00.000-04:00

Before I begin, let me say that I am going to really try to be on Blogger a whole lot more over the summer months. My new goal is to have an average of one post a week. So please check back often and help me stay the course with comments of encouragement. With that said, on to the main subject...

What's up with the Fahrenheit temperature scale? Have you ever wondered if there was actually some meaning behind the Fahrenheit scale? For example, in Celsius water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees. That makes sense. But why on earth does Fahrenheit use 32 and 212 as its major landmarks? Is their some hidden meaning behind the seemingly arbitrary numbers? That's what you'll find out in this interesting, little article which I happened upon today:

On the Fahrenheit scale, why is 32 freezing and 212 boiling? What do 0 and 100 mean?

Listen to the Frogs

2005-06-06T22:56:00.000-04:00

Greeting Faithful Reader,

As if to celebrate the beginning of Hurricane Season it has rained here every day since June 1st. We have had near record amounts of rain fall for this time of year. The backyard is submerged and we have found TWO catfish swimming on what used to be dry ground. The frogs around here are really loving it. I was standing outside my house a few minutes ago and the noise of them was just deafening. There is nothing quite like the sound of hundreds of frogs chorusing at the same time (though you can get a small taste of it here).

Something you might not have known about frogs is that they don't drink water through their mouths: they can actually absorb water through their skin. Also, the average Spring Peeper can lay between 800-1,000 eggs per year. Talk about a lot of mouths to feed (except that once born, baby frogs [tadpoles] are pretty much on their own). One final fact: a Spring Peeper can survive with up to 65% of the water in its body turned to ice.

Now, hopefully, you know a little bit more about frogs than you did a few minutes ago. If you'll excuse me, I need to get several pillows to place over my head or I won't be able to sleep for the noise...

Star Wars ROTS

2005-05-21T11:23:00.000-04:00

Wow! Has it really been that long since my last post? How time flies...

What have I been up to, you ask? Between school and Boy Scouts, not much. However, on Wednesday I stayed up and went to the midnight showing of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

[Note: Don't worry, no spoilers here!]

After the last two movies I wasn't expecting a great story line but I was happily surprised at 'complexity' of this one. Without giving anything away, I'd have to say that this movie exceeded my wildest expectations with its FIVE different lightsaber duels! On the down side, the dialog comes out a little flat but what George lacks in dialog he makes up for with absolutely incredible special effects. Even though the dialog is not as good as it could be, the overall storyline, which contains about 80% of the back-story from the Original Trilogy, is excellent. This is nothing like the pitiful plot of Episode I!

Most fans (ALL true fans) will be pleased to know that Jar-Jar Binks appears for only a few seconds and has just one short line. Also, the antics of the beloved R2-D2 had the crowd cracking up when the little droid made his first appearance.

The ending of the movie is very dark and rather sad. When it was over, I left the theater with a dull ache in my chest. I don't know if it was just from the way the movie ended or the realization that this was the end of the Star Wars saga.

Bottom line: this is a must-see movie for all fans. You'll laugh and you might even cry as you watch the final chapter of the most popular saga of all time.

Finding New Ways to Lose Votes

2005-01-06T13:22:00.000-05:00

After reading many degrading editorials about "Red State" voters, this article caught my attention.

"Are Red Stateres really the uneducated rubes that so many beautiful Blue people make them out to be?" David Freddoso asks at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
"Maybe. But Oklahomans, Hoosiers, and Idahoans have at least one thing over their well-educated New York counterparts -- they can at least spell their presidential candidate's name correctly,"

Not only did John F. Kerry not win the presidential election on Nov. 2, it turns out he didn't even win the state of New York, which was carried by someone named John L. Kerry.

said Mr. Freddoso, who is a political reporter for the Evans and Novak Inside Report.
"According to the official documents displayed on the Web site of the National Archives, the Empire State's 31 electoral votes all went for someone named 'John L. Kerry' from Massachusetts. No such person could be found in the phone book, although there is a John T. Kerry in Plymouth.
"New York Deputy Secretary of State Eamon Moynihan was audibly surprised when the mistake was pointed out to him over the phone. 'It was a typo in Albany,' he explained later in the day, after looking into the matter. 'It will be corrected -- a corrected version will be sent with an explanatory note,' he said.
"This electoral-college mistake was not the only one for 2004. The press has widely noted that one of Minnesota's 10 electoral votes was not cast for Kerry. However, the write-in electoral vote for president did not go to John Edwards, as was widely reported, but instead for someone named 'John Ewards.' "
- Piece compiled by Greg Pierce of the Washington Times

Online Games

2004-12-20T23:14:00.000-05:00

This post is entitled "Online Games". I'll be writing about and showing screenshots of a few of my favorites. This first one is called "Heli Attack 2" and can be found at http://www.miniclip.com/heli2.htm. You are a soldier who ejects from a shot down plane and parachutes behind enemy lines. You're objective is to shoot down as many helis as you can before your health runs out. My record is 78 helis.

This one is called "YetiSports". This game is actually a set of 7 "minigames". The one shown above is Flamingo Drive. The object is to hit the penguin as far as possible in 5 shots. You can play Flamingo Drive and many more at http://www.yetisports.org.

Bush Shootout is a shooter where you battle terrorists for control of the White House. A very fun game. This one can be played at http://www.miniclip.com/bushshootout.htm.

What are some of your favorite online games? Go ahead and post a comment with your favorite game and where to play it.

Car Photos

2004-12-18T18:20:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my new car. It's a '86 Chevy Nova. It's in very good shape though it has a lot of miles on it.

The roomy interior.

Just look at that beautiful shiny new license plate! I got that plate for the car only just last night.

When I bought the car, I had no idea of all the taxes and fees I would get stuck with. In order to get the plate, I had to pay a $35.10 Reg. Tax, a County Fee of $7.75, a $30.00 sales tax and a $29.00 Title Fee. This on top of the $100 fee they charge to make the plate. The grand total came out to be $201.85. Then I take my $200 plate and put it on my $500 car. Shouldn't the value of the car go up 40%? (the math: 200 / 500 = .40) Of course the value doesn't go up, the plate is non-transferable which is why I needed to get one in the first place.

Well that's one thing checked off my list. Now to get my drivers license! The car ain't doing me no good if I can't drive it (bad grammar intended).

Contest!

2004-12-15T17:16:00.000-05:00

I have a Gmail account from Google. I will be giving away five (5) free Gmail accounts to the first five people to sign up for my blog's NEW "Email Alert" found on the right hand column of my main page.

Prize Details:
Gmail is an email service offered by Google which gives you 1,000 Megabytes of storage space. Their goal is for you to never have to delete another email again. Gmail supports free POP3 (so you can read email with Outlook) and free email forwarding (send your emails to another email address). You CANNOT "sign up" for Gmail; the only way to get an account is to get someone who already has one to send you an "invitation". If you are in the first five to sign up for my "Email Alert" you will receive an invitation to join Gmail.

Rules...
You may only submit one (1) email address. You cannot sign up to get Gmail then unsubscribe immediately afterward.

Additional Info
If you are one of the first five, you will receive a reply from me with an invitation. If you are not selected you will not receive any notification.

I should add that your email address is used for the sole purpose of sending you post updates from this blog. Your email will never be sold or given to third parties. Read my privacy policy (http://steven.mjnichols.com/?id=privacypolicy) for more details.

Remember, the contest starts NOW so hurry over and sign up!!!

Coal & Christmas

2004-12-09T23:49:00.000-05:00

Sorry, faithful reader, for the lack of updates this past week. I've been extremely busy. For one thing, I'm teaching 5, 15-20 minute "classes" on Geology this Saturday. I'm not really into the "rocks and minerals" thing and it didn't help that I only had one week to prepare for it. Anyway, I just finished the poster which I will take to the class on Saturday (sure glad that's over with).

Hopefully I will have some more time during Christmas break to do some interesting things, which I will be sure to tell you about. Come to think of it, I wanted to write a short Christmas story this year. Let me see...today is the 9th, almost the 10th now, and Christmas is the 25th, that means I still have 15 days to come up with a story.

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
- Steven Nichols, signing off...

Project Gutenberg

2004-12-02T22:30:00.000-05:00

I just joined Project Gutenberg (PG) as an unpaid proof-reader. PG is an online collection of works which are in the public domain. So far, they have over 13,000 different works, all of which can be downloaded and distributed for free. I have used PG numerous time especially when I need a book but don't want to take off an hour to go to the library. Most of the eBooks are in plain ASCII text which makes them easy to insert into various programs (MS Word, Text-to-Speech programs, etc.).

A fun thing to do if you have a good computer voice installed (I like the free l&h British female voice) is convert an eBook to PDF format (using PDF995). Then open it up with Adobe Reader and click "view/read out loud" at the top. Now you can sit back and listen to the book being read.

Take a look at PG's collection and if you think it is a good idea to perserve these books in electronic format for the next generation, why don't you sign up to help proof-read today? You can do as much or as little as you would like, there is not obligation. Register here.

The Global War On Spam Has Begun

2004-12-01T21:52:00.000-05:00

Lycos Europe: 'Make love not spam' CNET News.com

"The effort, dubbed "Make love not spam," will officially launch on Wednesday and will center around the screensaver, which the (Lycos Europe) company has designed to overload Web sites advertised via spam...
Under the plan, when a URL already listed on Lycos Europe's spam blacklist is mentioned in e-mail sent to someone using the screensaver, the tool automatically and repeatedly requests data from the site in question. The idea is that when a large number of the screensavers send requests to the same page at the same time, those sites' performance will suffer greatly.
According to Malte Pollmann, director of communications for Lycos Europe, a staggering 90 percent of e-mail messages processed by the company are unsolicited attempts to spam its members or distribute viruses.
Pollmann said the idea behind the screensaver strategy is to discourage spamming as a marketing technique by slowing the sites that profit from the practice. By sending a heavy load of traffic to amateur e-commerce sites not capable of handling such volume, Pollmann said he believes Lycos Europe can cripple spam's economic underpinnings.
"Despite spending a lot of money and time trying to discourage spam, we see it increasing every day, so clearly it must still be working as a marketing tool for someone," Pollmann said. "We decided that in order to truly discourage (spam), we should attack the flow of money and make it harder to profit from it."

For the first time, using this new software from Lycos, the USER can actually fight spam. Apparently what this screensaver program does is launch a Denial of Service (DOS) attack against know spamming servers. This causes them to either shut down, kick out the spammers, or buy more bandwidth.

Lycos has come up with a very interesting idea which seems to be legal but I guess the real question is, "is this ethical"? One part of me wants to brush aside all questions of ethicality and justify this by saying, "Look at how the spammers have clogged our networks and cost us billions, this is just giving them a taste of their own medicine!" But then you have to remember that this service is not directly attacking the spammer but the server which is sending out the spam. Even if 90% of the email from that server IS spam that still leaves 10% of legitimate email and all those innocent people will get hurt. And besides, is it a good idea to fight fire with fire? We're trying to clean up the Internet by adding more junk? Something just doesn't make sense here.

Maybe I'm being overly critical of Lycos and their service. After all, spamming is illegal in Europe and harassing someone who is engaged in illegal activity is a good thing, right? Lycos itself is not actually attacking the spammers, it is simply giving the end user the tools to fight back.

Since spammers, by definition, don't follow "Internet Etiquette", is it okay to "help" them learn by any means necessary? ;-)

My First Car - Yes!

2004-11-29T20:27:00.000-05:00

I just bought my first car! The funny thing is, I don't have my license yet. I got the car, a '86 Chevy Nova, from my Uncle when my family and I went to visit the relative for Thanksgiving. I paid $500.00 for the car then drove it from his house in South Carolina back to mine in Florida (a 700 mile trip). The car needs some work but all and all, it's in good condition.

I've got to get the tag and some insurance right away. The insurance rates in South Florida are insane. I've heard of 16 year-olds paying $900.00 for three months of coverage. However, since my dad owns the title, I'm still considered an "occasional" driver and qualify for lower rates.

The really good thing about the car is that it gets incredible gas mileage. On the highway I got 38 miles per gallon. I wonder what a good tune up would do?

I'll get some photos online just as soon as I can get the car looking nice (it really needs a good wash and wax).

Banks & Money

2004-11-29T19:16:00.000-05:00

I went down to my bank, SunTrust, today to close-out my account so I could open a new one with Bank Atlantic, which is closer to my house. Of course I would get there at 4:30 and the bank closes at 4:00. At least the drive-thru was open so I went over there and tried to get most of my money out, thinking that I could swing by the next day and close the account when the regular bank area was open. Those bank people do not like it at all when you take your money out. Anyway, after the teller had stalled for a while, I finally got my money and headed over to Bank Atlantic to open a new account. I arrived there at 5:03 only to find that Bank Atlantic had closed not five minutes before. Oh well, I guess there's always tomorrow... And that's what I did with my afternoon. Sure hope yours was more productive.

Just got set up!

2004-11-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

Ok here I go...

This is my first blog. I signed up five minutes ago and I'm typing already. Google couldn't have made posting easier...

I'm going to cut this post short so I can go over and preview my new blog site.

Thanks for reading,
- Steven