Topic: All Topics

– :  The insidious nature of imperialist propaganda -- the case of Darfur  : –

My political education -- based o­n the years I spent in various educational institutions, o­n personal experiences I had utilizing my 1st Amendment rights to express my own point-of-view and o­n the fact that I have an voracious or insatiable appetite for information concerning both history and current events in America and the rest of the world -- has been profoundly advanced by a certain few seemingly simple and unremarkable (yet ultimately critical) things that I have been told during my adult life.  o­ne of these things, while raised in the context of a discussion about purely political matters, can be broadly applied and can also be considered as o­ne of the critical bases or "planks" of the general approach which bright, inquisitive and broadly "progressive" individuals should utilize as a means of better comprehending the multifaceted and -- at least at first glance -- bewilderingly complex world in which we all live.  In short, I recall being told (or perhaps reading in passing in a few of the tens of thousands of articles concerning diverse historical themes and socio-political controversies which I have "devoured" during my adult life) that, ultimately, insofar as you "involve" yourself in politics, it is not your subjective intentions but the objective consequences of your actions which matter.  In short, it is possible to believe that o­ne is acting to promote "good" (in the perspective of a socialist, the interests of the international working class and the suffering masses) while, in reality, the actions that you are taking can actually have the opposite and negative effect (in this case, supporting o­ne or another ruling class intent o­n keeping its own undeserved privileges by stepping all over the oppressed many.)

– :  On the Results of Romania's May 19 Presidential Referendum  : –

– :  100 Days After the 2006 US Elections -- Drawing up the Balance Sheet  : –

– :  Divert me to the Moon  : –

Remember back when you could pick up a newspaper (or in my case, hit news.google.com) and not read that an airplane had been diverted due to mass hysteria?

– :  End the INVASION NOW  : –

The anti-war movement is finally gaining steam, thanks to Cindy Sheehan. Although I often find myself mocking today's protestors (ok, you're right... I just mock everyone). I find myself very pleased by the situation in Crawford.

– :  Quick Shoddy Reading  : –

While picking up a couple of four packs of the black stuff at a local market, I became (as per usual) transfixed by the tabloids in the checkout aisle. I think it was Michael J. Fox's character in the movie adaptation of Bright Lights, Big City that said something along the lines of "Among your worst addictions is tabloid journalism". I can't say I'm addicted to purchasing and reading tabloids, but I'm definately obsessed with scanning the headlines.

– :  Time to move to Canada  : –

Well, the moron and his criminal administration won the election. God help us. I think I'll move (or shall I say defect?) to Canada!

– :  Oooohhh Quentin.. WHY???  : –

I know I'm going to have to dodge some flames here, but the time has come for me to finally admit it. Quentin Tarrantino has done nothing but let me down since his one masterpiece: Reservoir Dogs, and yes, R.D. is a masterpiece (True Romance is as well, despite Slater.. but Tarantino didn't direct that one, Tony Scott did).

– :  Spammers Getting It In The End...  : –

U.S. charges four under new law against 'spam' e-mails

– :  Raineer Wolfcastle, politician  : –

Ok, hold on a minute here.. Let me get my head screwed on properly. I just read some crap on propaganda central (cnn.com) that really lit a fire under my ass.. and I'm wondering if I just imagined it..
Ok, that's better. Now.. IS ARNOLD SCHMEGMA-BURGER really running for governor of California?? Does it look like he might get the Republican endorsement as well?? Good god. This is a bad dream, right folks?? Someone pour some water on me. I mean.. COME ON.. Is this country of ours sinking even further into the toilet?? Arnond for governor?? My God. What's frigging next? Pokey-mon for senator?? You have to be kidding me!! AAAHHH!!! My thoughts of leaving this country grow ever more frequent with every passing day.

– :  Beware the UPS person - It may be a terrorist!  : –

And now, in the name of Homeland Security, we will be monitoring everything bought and sold on EBay...

"There has been a huge purchase, $32,000 worth, of United Parcel Service (UPS) uniforms on eBay over the last 30 days. This could represent a serious threat as bogus drivers can drop off anything to anyone with deadly consequences! If you have ANY questions when a UPS driver appears at your door, they should be able to furnish VALID I.D..

Additionally, if someone in a UPS uniform comes to make a drop off or pick up, make absolutely sure they are driving a UPS truck. UPS doesn't make deliveries or pickups in anything except a company vehicle. If you have a problem, IMMEDIATELY call your local law enforcement agency right away!

TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY! Tell everyone in your office, family, friends, etc. Make people aware so that we can prepare and/or avoid terrorist attacks on our people!

Thank you for your time in reviewing this and PLEASE send to EVERYONE on your list, even if they are friend or foe.

We should all be aware!"

Kimberly Bush-Carr
Management Program Specialist
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Bureau Customs and Border Protection
Washington, DC 20229

– :  Postfix spam prevention!  : –

We all know that postfix is (IMHO) the best mailserver out there.. not just for performance, but for SPAM PREVENTION!!
I thought I'd post my collection of body_checks and header_checks for it.
Some of these were ripped from mailing lists, others from newsgroups, and some I crafted myself.
To use these particular checks, you must have PCRE support built into postfix.
To find out if you do, execute: postconf -m
In your main.cf, you should also have: (body|header)_checks=pcre:/etc/postfix/(body|header)_checks (don't mind my regexes, heh).
Stay cool.

Ethan

body_checks:

~^[[:alnum:]+/]{60,}[:space:]*$~ OK
/-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----/ OK
/(ftp|https?):\/\/([^\/]*@)?([01]{10,})?(\d+|00+\d+(\.00+\d+){3}|
[\%0-9a-zA-Z\.\?_-]*\%[\%0-9a-zA-Z\.\?_-]+)(:\d+)?(\/|"|\s|$)/ REJECT
/(href=3D=22)?(ftp|https?)=3A=2F=2F|(

– :  For the 3-year old in us all...  : –

I don't quite have a description for what I found whilst surfing one night. All I can say is, "tell it like it is." Here is the link:
http://www.fetusninja.com/stink.html
I'm telling you, it's worth the 30 seconds of your life that you will never get back. I couldn't find anything that I understood on the main page either.

– :  Mame - What to use  : –

Ok, there has been a lot of debate in the MAME circles about what is the best emulator. I am going to go on the record and say that if you are running windows than you better be using Emu Loader (get it here) and you better pick up Fandemame to run through it (get it here version 0.60.8 is available). Fandemame is the best thing to come out of France since, well, Napoleon! So all you lamers go ahead and use NeoRage, ArcadeAtHome, Mame32, and all the rest, but if you want the best you will heed my words!

– :  New Mame Released! v0.60  : –

Time to tune in, turn on, and fire up the MAME! v0.60 is out and ready for you.
New games supported:

Judge Dredd [Aaron Giles]
Primal Rage [Aaron Giles]
Road Riot's Revenge [Aaron Giles]
World Class Bowling [Aaron Giles]
Tactician [Nicola Salmoria, Stephane Humbert]
The Masters of Kin [Nicola Salmoria]
IQ Block [Nicola Salmoria, Ernesto Corvi]
Taxi Driver [Nicola Salmoria]
Block Gal [Angelo Salese]
Drag Race [Stefan Jokisch]
Pool Shark [Stefan Jokisch]
The Outfoxies [Phil Stroffolino]
Oriental Legend [ElSemi, David Haywood]
News [David Haywood]
Shadow Force [David Haywood]
The Legend of Silk Road [David Haywood, Stephane Humbert, R.Belmont]
Miss Bubble 2 [David Haywood]
Black Heart [from Raine]
Mustang [from Raine]
Many Bloc [David Haywood, Stephan Humbert]
Xyonix [David Haywood, Stephan Humbert, Nicola Salmoria]
Hyper Pacman [David Haywood, Stephan Humbert]
Mille Miglia 2: Great 1000 Miles Rally [David Haywood, Stephan Humbert]
Formation Z [Acho A. Tang]
Tank Busters [Jarek Burczynski]
Hyper Duel [E. Watanabe]
New clones supported:
Pengo (bootleg)
Bone Crusher (= Knuckle Joe)
Fighter & Attacker (= F/A)
Knuckle Heads (World)
Hero in the Castle of Doom (Donkey Kong conversion)
Blood Storm (v1.10)
Fighting Golf (set 2)
Clowns (rev 1)
Magic Worm (= Centipede)
Hot Shots Tennis (V1.0)
Strata Bowling (V1)
Pirate Pete (= Jungle King)
Street Fighter (prototype)
Nebulas Ray (World)
Gun Bird (World)
Bubble Symphony (Europe)
Space Invaders '95 (US)
C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa (World)
R-Type Leo (World)
Dragon Punch (= Sports Match)

– :  Customize Your BSOD  : –

In a surprise announcement today, Microsoft President Steve Ballmer revealed that the Redmond-based company will allow computer resellers and end-users to customize the appearance of the Blue Screen of Death BSOD), the screen that displays when the Windows operating system crashes.

The move comes as the result of numerous focus groups and customer
surveys done by Microsoft. Thousands of Microsoft customers were asked,
"What do you spend the most time doing on your computer?"

A surprising number of respondents said, "Staring at a Blue Screen of
Death." At 54 percent, it was the top answer, beating the second place
answer "Downloading XXXScans" by an easy 12 points.

"We immediately recognized this as a great opportunity for ourselves,
our channel partners, and especially our customers," explained the
excited Ballmer to a room full of reporters.

Immense video displays were used to show images of the new
customizable BSOD screen side-by-side with the older static version.
Users can select from a collection of "BSOD Themes," allowing them to
instead have a Mauve Screen of Death or even a Paisley Screen of Death.
Graphics and multimedia content can now be incorporated into the
screen, making the BSOD the perfect conduit for delivering product
information and entertainment to Windows users.

The BSOD is by far the most recognized feature of the Windows
operating system, and as a result, Microsoft has historically insisted
on total control over its look and feel. This recent departure from
that policy reflects Microsoft's recognition of the Windows desktop
itself as the "ultimate information portal." By default, the new BSOD
will be configured to show a random selection of Microsoft product
information whenever the system crashes. Microsoft channel partners
can negotiate with Microsoft for the right to customize the BSOD on
systems they ship.

Major computer resellers such as Compaq, Gateway, and Dell are
already lining up for premier placement on the new and improved BSOD.
Ballmer concluded by getting a dig in against the Open Source
community. "This just goes to show that Microsoft continues to
innovate at a much faster pace than open source. I have yet to see any
evidence that Linux even has a BSOD, let alone a customizable one."

Posted at: http://www.motogrrl.com/humor/bsd.html by Thad Phetteplace

– :  Hoppy Boythday too me  : –

Yah, big excitement.. I'm thirty-one today.. whoopeeeeee.
New job's going fairly well.. Besides that.. all's quiet here..
I hear that the cigarette tax is (yet again) going up.. Perhaps I'll try to quit sooner than I keep thinking I will.. heh!


-E

– :  Bein' a joik and going to woik!  : –

Well, your humble host has finally gotten himself a job. It's been a loooong six months of unemployment.. I've gotten plenty of stuff done here, and have overslept for longer than I can imagine. But it's time to start getting up at the crack of dawn and paying those taxes again.. grumble. For those of you who are interested in who might be crazy enough to hire a psychotic hacker like me. Here's the site: http://www.insiteone.com Wish me luck kidzzz!!

-E

– :  SNET  : –

Sorry about the sporadic downtime, folks. You can thank SNET (SBC or whatever they call themselves these days) for that. The connection is dropping off almost 100 times a day since March 4th, and when it's up it's slower than dial-up. Hopefully I can get this fixed in a timely fashion.. This is certainly a hardware issue on SNET's end, but it's nearly impossible to convince them of that. Their solution is always "turn your modem off and then on again". and whatever you do, don't tell them that you're using a REAL OPERATING SYSTEM.. or else you get no support at all.. I wish there were alternatives for high-speed access around these parts, but there's no way I'd use @HOME as they block more ports than they allow. Perhaps I'll get rich some day and get a T3 or somesuch..

--E

– :  I'm tired... soooo tired.....  : –

It's late (early)... I'm zombied..
Just some quick news:


1 .XFree86 4.2.0 Compiles clean.. no hitches.. I've been running it for several days.
2 .Glibc-2.2.5 has a small glitch in it. Before compiling, you need to:
chmod +x glibc-2.2.5/scripts/cpp
and all's well =)
3. Try out the new phorum layout... Lemme know watcha think!

--E

– :  Submit your feet! That's right folks, send 'em in!  : –

No, this is not a fetish site..