Shouzer

You’ve got to admit, it would be kind of cool to be able to tell people that you were in one of these planes.  They weren’t really that close to colliding, but they were close enough that they had to take evasive actions.  Then again, I don’t know how soon after that I’d feel like flying over the open ocean…

It’s pretty strange to see things like this, knowing that Scott was there just a few months ago. I honestly haven’t kept up on world news like I probably should have recently, so I don’t know too much about what’s going on.  It sounds to me like there’s people who feel that the current government is really just a proxy for the previous government, which was ousted a few years ago.  Yeah, that would seem to defeat the purpose.

Next up is Google Chrome.  Apparently Google doesn’t think that we have enough browsers between Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera, and whatever else is out there.  They’d rather have their own.  Honestly, I think that’s pretty silly.  Who knows, maybe it’ll be the greatest thing ever, but I doubt it.  Wouldn’t their time be better spent investing in Firefox, which is itself an open source browser?  Hell, they already employ Ben Goodger, who used to be the lead dev on Firefox.

Lastly, I thought this story about the credit card companies and Mythbusters was pretty weak.  Basically, the Mythbusters were going to do a show about RFID hacking, and Visa/Mastercard/AMEX shut them down.  How about instead of trying to hide security flaws, you just fix them?

I check up on Shouzer several times a day, and there has been no activity for almost 2 weeks. That makes me bored, and I suspect that the same holds true for whatever readers we do have. For me personally, I’ve been trying to come up with stories to write about, but I’m drawing a blank. Not much has happened over the last 2 weeks either. Life is settling into a groove, which is nice, but it is not conducive to story-telling.

There are some news articles that have come out recently that I feel are worth mentioning. The first is GM’s quarterly earning release, which is important to me. They lost $15.5 billion last quarter. Ouch. From what I’ve heard, my department won’t be going through any forced layoffs, despite a 20% company-wide reduction in salaried “expenses”. There will be a few people leaving my area through early retirement. I could go for some of that. I’d probably take it if I got the offer.

In much, much better news, the death toll in Iraq in July was at its lowest since 2003. It’s nice to hear some good news coming from that region after years of bad news. Honestly, I have become a bit numb to it. I am at the point where the news of a suicide bombing in Baghdad does little to pull my heartstrings. That is honestly a sad reflection on both me and the situation as a whole, I think.

The other big question I hear a lot is, What exactly do you do at GM? (I think it’s mostly my parents that ask me this.) Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure yet, but I am starting to get a grasp of it. I am a controls integration engineer on the 6 speed transmission platform. My group manages the releases of software for these transmissions, and troubleshoots any problems that come up. We are the go-between for the core software people, those who write the code, and the calibrators, those who test and tweak the code in the vehicles. I am mostly on the troubleshooting end of that spectrum.

For example, I am at a plant right now helping with a problem with the transmission output speed. We are getting some noise on the signal related to the sensor that is used to measure said speed. Lots of people from many different groups are involved in the troubleshooting process, but my group is spearheading the effort. It’s what we do. I have a few other responsibilities, including tracking CPU utilization on all of the software releases and handling serial data communication mismatches. Often, a test car will be put together with a hodgepodge of components. Sometimes, the controllers for these components are using different versions of the serial data protocol, and I have to sort that out. I haven’t done too much of this yet as I am not fully trained in this area, but it will become a big part of my job.

So it turns out that it only took 7.5 years, but I finally agree with Bush about something.  Basically, Congress voted to stop filling the strategic petroleum reserve in an effort to lower gas prices.  Bush is opposed, because he doesn’t believe it would affect oil prices, and he thinks national security is more important.

Now, granted, Bush has taken ‘national security’ to the extreme in his tenure as president, but I think he’s right about this one.  Yes, gas is expensive, and it pisses me off.  I just don’t think this is the right move.  Overzealous military man or not, he’s right that we shouldn’t put ourselves at risk (however small) over this.  I also don’t personally believe that this will affect oil prices in the least.

Just about thirteen months ago I shared here that I had been mentioned by name on a story done by an espn.com writer. Today, I have similar news to share. A question that I sent to Jaguars.com senior editor Vic Ketchman was answered in his latest column. I am “Kyle from Carbondale, IL” because I was at work while typing. Great success!

I know I’ve been absent from the blogging world lately (*cough* Juvers *cough*) I’ve been studying hard for finals, but this deserved a post. I know Steph and Megan will appreciate the irony of this. Turns out that our chorus teacher that lasted one year was a contestant on ABC’s The Bachelor: London Calling. If that’s not funny, I don’t know what is. This woman was always complaining about having to leave “upstate New York” and move to southern Illinois. I had to check out the shows web site since I obviously did not catch the episode when it aired. Here’s a screen shot of her. I can only assume by the look on her face this is when she met “The Bachelor.”

Obviously since she is on this show her marriage to the classical saxophone player did not work out. Honestly, I’m glad. He was a real ass. Though, she must be happy out in LA now. Not in the simple, small town, rural southern Illinois. She always seemed to complain about that every day.

Anyways, gotta get back to studying. Last final is in two hours.

I happened to catch this article on Engadget about Sony adding it’s music catalog to Amazon mp3. It’s amazing to me how quickly all the major studios have come around on drm-free downloads after EMI showed that it was perfectly sane.

EMI couldn’t have put drm-free mp3s on iTunes anymore than a year ago. I don’t actually remember when it was, but seriously… After such a long-fought “battle” against college students, you’d think one of these companies would have jumped to this conclusion a little earlier.

As far as I’m concerned, DRM of all forms is anti-consumer. It’s not pro-copyright or anything like that, it’s just plain old anti-consumer. Bought the first couple seasons of The Office on iTunes? Too fucking bad, you’re going to have to get the next couple on Amazon Unbox, and you’ll have to watch them on different devices. Fuck that shit. You know what that’s going to do? That’s going to make me more likely to pirate it. That’s the only way I have any guarantee that it won’t quit working at some point.

I’m posting this because I haven’t seen this story on Google News or Shortnews, which are the two news outlets I see most. I’m curious to know how many of you have actually heard about this before as it doesn’t seem to be getting much media coverage. I haven’t even seen CNN International covering it, though to be fair, I rarely watch that channel. I originally saw the story a few days ago in the Bangkok Post, but this one from Yahoo is much better written and informative. Anyway, here’s the link:

Link

Just found this out today, but apparently four patients received organ transplants from an Hepatitis C and HIV positive donor. See this link for an article that ran in the Chicago Sun-Times. One transplant occurred at each of the three university medical centers. I can’t remember where the fourth transplant occurred.

According to the article, the questionnare the donor filled out said that there was engagement in high-risk behavior. However, the screening tests for HIV and Hepatitis were negative, so the institutions proceeded with the transplants.

Talk about shitty.

This post is actually directed at Jared. Normally, people do these sorts of things over email, but Jared and I just don’t communicate much through email. The rest of you are just going to have to deal with it.

Jared,

What are the chances of you sending me one of these T-shirts? Come on, you know you want to. Plus, we all know you’re making fat bank over there in the US. Forget that it costs a fortune to live in Seattle.

Oh, and you’d better go ride that SLUT when she opens for business.

Scott

Just a quick link to this story.  Megan and I stumbled upon it the other day, and I hadn’t posted it yet.  “Good boy” would be an understatement, I’d say.  The thing that’s funny to me is that not only did the dog dial 911, but he knew that he needed to dial.  Hell, he probably reacted better than most people would have.

I liked this article: Link

This guy is obviously quite full of himself, but he presents an interesting argument. I’m not sure how valid it all is. For instance, he claims that his method of measuring climate change is the most accurate in the world. Hmm…I’m not so sure I buy that. Maybe if someone else was writing about him, but it sounds more like an egotistical scientist trying to gain some acclaim.

The idea that the sun is the driving force behind climate change makes a lot of sense though. I wouldn’t think that minor changes in the atmosphere would have nearly as much of an effect as minor changes in the energy of the sun as the minor change in the sun would result in a massive change in the amount of energy the planet receives. Changing the filter isn’t as effective as changing the source.

This is a link to a good article

I seriously doubt that this case will ever go to court, but at least they tried.

I’ve got a bunch more articles that I wanted to post links to and comment about. Some of this stuff is just so stupid; I’m consistently amazed by the level of idiocy displayed by our government and, by proxy, our citizens.

First off is this story from /. about a new database the government wants to create. They call it a “no-work” database and liken it to the similarly named no-fly list. The idea is that it would be a database maintained by Homeland Security which would hold the names and records people whom it deems ineligible to work in the US. Ah, so we’re back to blacklisting people, eh? “Communist! You’ll never work in this country again!”

Next is this heartwarming tale of the Smithsonian toning down science, in order to appease the Bush administration. The basic idea is that they created an exhibit on climate change, but then removed the scientific conclusions and “[muddied] the displayed data” in order to “ensure that the exhibit would not offend the Congress or the White House”. Really? That’s what science should be concerned about? Jefferson once said, “Liberty is the great parent of science and virtue; and a Nation will be great in both, in proportion as it is free”. In essence, take stifle science and you stifle freedom. Sure, that’s a simplification, but the point is valid. Oh, founding fathers… You say we have a right to bear arms, but who cares what else you said…

Third is this ridiculous case of some guy using free WiFi. Regardless of what he ended up with ($400 fine and 40 hours of community service), he was facing a 5 year felony conviction and a $10,000 fine. That’s just wrong. Reading the story, you find out that the guy parked his car outside a coffee shop and used their free wireless internet. He didn’t know it was illegal, the coffee shop owner didn’t know it was illegal, and the cop didn’t arrest him right away…because he didn’t know it was illegal. Nonetheless, the perp was eventually brought in and charged.

To use a few different analogies, here’s what I find just plain wrong. (Note: Some of these are adaptations of comments that I happen to agree with). In order to get on the network, the guy’s computer had to make a DHCP request. This is, in all actuality, his computer asking if it can get on the network. The router responds by saying, “Yes. Yes, you can. Here’s your IP, a gateway, and some DNS info.” Voila! Permission granted. Case closed. If he had turned off DHCP, routed new users to a page that outlined the rules, or secured his network it would be an entirely different situation.

For instance, I would very much consider an open network with an SSID that is being broadcasted as an invitation to use the network. It would be like leaving your door open. Not broadcasting the SSID would be like shutting the door. Adding some security would be like locking the door. These seem like varying degrees of invitation to me. Bear in mind that even with the door open, the computer is asking the router for permission to “enter” the network. If somebody walks up to my house and asks to use the bathroom, I certainly have the right to say no, whether or not my door is open.

Finally, and perhaps most ludicrous, is this story. It basically talks about some teachers in the UK who don’t teach the holocaust, because their muslim students don’t believe in it. Who the fuck cares? It happened. I’m sick of schools bending to the whims of religion and dumbass parents. I don’t want my kid’s education ruined because you’re a moron. They mention that there’s a similar issue with teaching the Crusades, as it seems the local mosques have different teachings. Honestly, who gives a shit? If I was a teacher and one of my students told me their church said the earth was flat, I’d tell them they’re wrong and not to mention it again. It’d be that simple. The same would go for evolution. As far as science is concerned, it’s the best explanation. Science gave us modern medicine. Science gave us flight. Science gave us computers and the internet. Science gave us radio and phones. Fundamentalist, conservative religion did not.

[Update:]  Oh, and Charlie Frye apparently thinks he’s going to be the starter for the Browns.   What is he, high?  He really believes they drafted Brady Quinn to be a backup?  I mean, let’s just say he’s technically right and he starts this year.  I still count that as wrong.  The Browns have no intention of considering Charlie Frye their “starter”.

Geez. There’s really not much more to say. Geez. I caught this article on ESPN, and I have to admit that I’m amazed at the idiocy of what Portis says. For those of you who don’t know, Michael Vick has been linked to dog fighting lately. In particular, a house owned by him was raided a few weeks ago and there were a number of malnourished and untreated dogs found.

As the story has gone on, it’s looked more and more like Vick was directly involved. Frankly, I have no doubt that he’s guilty. Given all the evidence released so far, and the people who have come out and said he was not only cognizant of it but also participated in it… It just doesn’t seem like a tough case for the (future) prosecution to make.

So, getting that little bit of history out of the way, we get to Clinton Portis (henceforth referred to as “Dumbass”). Dumbass apparently thinks that dog fighting isn’t that big of a deal. Dumbass said, “I don’t know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it’s his property, it’s his dog.”

What really strikes me as ironic is Dumbass doesn’t see the analogousness of this statement to what a plantation owner 200 years ago might say about a black slave. Not that long ago, blacks were considered property in many parts of the country. In fact, you could do pretty much whatever you wanted to them, because they were your property. I believe it was legal to kill a slave if you were punishing him, or something like that. Why? Well, he was your property.  In Dumbass’s own words, the slavemaster probably would have said, “I think people should mind their business.”

I think the moral of the story is Dumbass should shut his mouth. The world might be just a little better.

I was reading some news today, and I happened upon a couple strange stories. I figured I’d share them.

Up first is this story about a rape case. The strange thing about this is that one of the defendant’s lawyers is making the claim that one of the girls was fat and probably enjoyed the attention. Wha?! This chick actually passed the bar? If this is what it takes, I could make a damn fine lawyer! “Sure my client killed that guy. But he was ugly!! The world is better of without having to look at him. I rest my case.” And the crowd goes wild!! (Wouldn’t there have to be a crowd if something like this is allowed?)

Next in the queue is this more serious story. Basically, one of the Republican candidates for president said in a recent debate that perhaps America’s foreign policy is to blame for 9/11. As a result, the GOP is trying to have it barred from the rest of the debates. Some guy said, “I think he would have felt much more comfortable on the stage with the Democrats in what he said last night.” Wha?! Just because he has a different opinion on the war or its cause, it makes him a Democrat? That’s just silly. I can just see Dick Cheney now… “Whittington isn’t sure about Iraq? DEMOCRAT! GET HIM THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!” Then he mumbles, “I must take him down.” Of course, then he shoots him in the face. (Note: I guess I could be way off base here. It’s quite possible Whittington simply how Cheney can be against gay marriages when his daughter is an open lesbian. Either or, I suppose.)

Finally, we have this story about a Chinese woman with a five-inch horn in her head. Wha?! It mentions that it’s been growing for three years. Now, most people would probably get that shit checked out and cut the fuck off. Not her. I think you’ll agree the most plausible explanation is she’s the result of a failed cross-breeding between humans and unicorns. Wikipedia claims that the Unicorn is a creature “whose power is exceeded only by its mystery.” Now, who wouldn’t like to have a bit of that? Granny Zhao certainly would.