Tvindy

Smallville is Educational

Most of my computer knowledge comes from watching TechTV and reading PC Magazine, but on last Wednesday's episode of Smallville (entitled "Delete") I learned some very interesting computer facts:

• Apparently your IP address is located within your PC. More specifically, it's somewhere on the hard drive. You can take your computer to a completely different location, plug it into a different server, and still have the same IP address. Not only that, but you can remove the hard drive, plug it into a different computer, and that computer will inherit your IP address.


• A really good hacker can get someone's IP address and look up their name on the internet.


• It's very puzzling and out of the ordinary to receive an e-mail from an unknown sender. If such a message contains an attachment, the attachment should be opened immediately for clues to who the sender might be.


• Opening attachments can be dangerous. Sometimes they contain insidious mind-control programs.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Weekly Links

The internet's been good to me this week -- lots of links.

Really Smart Parrots
(from northcoastcafe)

The new Barbies just keep getting weirder.

This is why all adults should be given a mandatory IQ test before being allowed to have children.

Scientists Discover Sixth State of Matter. What amazed me about this is that I had no idea that there was even a fifth state.

Trying to decide who to vote for? Here is Michael Moore's choice, and it looks like a good one. (Bill originally had the entire text to this page up on his site, but the Bush people got to him and forced him to take it down. Fortunately, I live in Eugene, Oregon, which has an invisible wall surrounding it that keeps out all republicans, so I think I am safe.)

In 2006 there will be no more spam. It's true! Bill Gates himself said so. (Although I'm of the opinion that until a completely new e-mail standard is devised and implemented, there will be no effective way of stopping spam.) (from Leo)

Speaking of Bill Gates, did you know that when he dies, only $10 million of his estate will go to his children? The rest of his $46 billion dollar empire will go to charity. (from ditto)

Hopefully, before he dies he will fix the huge hole in Internet Explorer. (from Bill)

Here are instructions for turning your camcorder into an x-ray vision device. Now you can behave just like superman when he's affected by red kryptonite.

If the incident recorded in this video went to court, could the man in it use it to prove temporary insanity due to emotional distress? (I was distressed just watching it.)

You all know who William Gibson is, right? He's the guy who wrote Neuromancer and foresaw the internet and invented the term "cyberspace". Old footage of him as a Canadian hippy from 1967 has been discovered. Apparently he used to be thin and a lot less articulate. (from mikeslist)

Back in November I posted this link to an interesting eBay auction. (from mg) Since then, this curiosity has become a trend, and the original imaginary girlfriend now has her own site.

Oh, and a whale exploded in Taiwan. (from Zannah)

Gourd Bugs

I took this way back in August. I'm definitely an entymologist, but in my layman's opinion, I would say that this species of insect really likes gourds.

The Weather

One great thing about the Pacific Northwest is the consistency of the weather. You never have to check the weather report before going out to see if it will rain. It's always raining!

Weird Clouds

I'm still posting photos from Indiana. Here is a really weird cloud formation outside the Muncie Mall.

More Chacrinha

Back in November I posted an entry with stills of a Brazilian television show I recorded in the eighties. It was called "O Cassino do Chacrinha". Since then, a Brazilian journalist by the name of Marcelo Araújo doing research on old TV programs came across the post and submitted some additional images from the show, which appear to predate mine. Here they are:

Interesting Spam

My spam filter is at least 95% accurate, so whenever a piece of spam gets through, I tend to examine it closely. This morning I got one of the most interesting ones I've seen in a long time. Below the regular ad (which I won't name so as not to further promote the spammer's product and/or service), there was a bit of interesting text of the kind spammers use to fool the filters. It was clearly visible, in other words, not shrunk down to a tiny font or made to match the background color. And it wasn't just gobbledygook. It looks like a passage from a book, since it is far too well-written for a spammer to have composed. The sentences are internally consistent and well formed, yet they don't quite go together. But they also seem vaguely interrelated and taken from an interesting source. I don't know what to make of it. Perhaps I shouldn't make anything of it, since it's just spam. Anyway, here it is:

The horse had especially attracted their notice, because it was the biggest and strangest creature they had ever seen; so it became the center of their first attack

But Jim was ready for them, and when he saw them coming he turned his heels toward them and began kicking out as hard as he could A trolley-car moved around a circular track and stopped regularly at all stations; an engine and train of cars moved jerkily up and down a steep grade and through a tunnel; a windmill was busily pumping water from the dishpan into the copper skillet; a sawmill was in full operation and a host of mechanical blacksmiths, scissors-grinders, carpenters, wood-choppers and millers were connected with a motor which kept them working away at their trades in awkward but persevering fashion

Crack! crash! bang! went his iron-shod hoofs against the wooden bodies of the Gargoyles, and they were battered right and left with such force that they scattered like straws in the wind The room was crossed and recrossed with wires

Oh, I just googled some lines and found this and this. Mystery solved. Perhaps from now on, I should google before blogging. Anyway, it looks like I've found myself some new reading material.

My Apps

Inspired by Bill's post, I've decided to do an inventory of my most significant applications. Unlike Bill, I don't use a mac, so my apps aren't all confined together in an overcrowded dock. Nosiree, my apps are allowed to roam free all over the hard drive, sometimes disappearing for weeks at a time into the vast wilderness that is Windows. Usually they come when I call; sometimes I have to send out a search party; and occasionally they just disappear, presumably devoured by wolves. Anyway here is a list of my most frequently used programs:

Whenever I get a new computer, one of the first things I do is install PartitionMagic. I've got separate patitions for Windows, my data, my programs, and my swap file. As different sections fill up, I can move space from emptier partions over. In other words, I can repartition without reformatting.

My firewall is ZoneAlarm, a great free firewall program that does its job, is easy to use, and never crashes.

For virus protection I use Norton AntiVirus.

I bet you'll never guess what program I use for image editing. It's Micrografx Picture Publisher. I first discovered the program in 1998 when it came for free with my scanner. I've mastered all the controls, and it does virtually everything I could ever need from such a program. Micrografx no longer exists. It was gobbled up some time back by Corell, but you can still find old used (and sometimes new) installation disks online.

I also use Adobe Photoshop Elements for the really advanced stuff, like automatically adjusting the levels and working with layers.

I've recently discovered Adobe Photoshop Album. You can download the basic version for free, and I have recently begun using it to organize my thousands of digital photos. It's too early to say if I will stick with it, but it definitely looks promising.

My screensaver is SETI@home, although most of you know that already.

For writing HTML, nothing beats notepad.

If I have to write a school paper, I just use wordpad. In most cases, anything more (i.e. Microsoft Word) is just overkill.

But in the few cases when I really do need a top-level word processing program, I use OpenOffice. It's free and far superior to Microsoft Word (which is crap).

And I also use the character map on an almost daily basis (the curse of studying foreign languages).

My main game is Warcraft II. I always choose one of the largest maps and play against one computer-controlled foe, which I allow to live as long as possible, so I can kill more orcs and destroy more structures and thus get more points. That game just never gets old!

Finally, I have my keyboard configuration set to Dvorak. It lets me type faster, and it's also more secure. If anyone breaks into my room and tries to access the files on my computer, they will probably be stymied by the layout of the keys. (Yes, I know that doesn't really count as a program.)

Weekly Links

Lawrence


What Office Space character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, I came out rather well on the above quiz. I do however, take issue to that last sentence. Apparently the makers of the quiz never learned that in English the vocative case is represented by offsetting the appropriate word with a comma. In this case, the comma should be placed between the words "a" and "man". Otherwise the sentence has a different meaning than the one intended. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that." -- to quote Seinfeld.) (from Bill)

Haven't you always wanted to have your very own AK-47 made out of porcelain with a pattern similar to blue willow? Check out the artwork of Charles Krafft. (from Amanda)

If you're still wrestling with trackback, here is yet another helpful link. (from Snowball)

Disneyland Hires Mass Murderer (from mg)

Just two more years 'til digital paper.

Humans make blogs; cyborgs make glogs. (from Zannah)

I see I'm not the only one who cares about rodent welfare. I'd love to adopt a few of those needy rats, but unfortunately I live too far away. Also, I am constantly worried that the dorm police will discover the little mousie I have living with me. Hm, maybe I shouldn't be blogging about that.

Cow Butt

Until I get a good collection of photos here in Oregon, I'll just keep putting up more of the stuff I took in Indiana. This large cow butt is located somewhere in Indianapolis.