Tvindy

Beating a Dead Horse

Okay, I know everyone's getting tired of hearing me go on about how Star Trek uses the same model of composter I have as a prop. I've already discussed this in some detail here, here and here. But I had another siting that was too spectacular to let pass.

Lately I've been using my Netflix subscription to watch Deep Space 9 from beginning to end. Yesterday I hit the episode where my composter appears for the first time. It's the penultimate episode of season five, entitled "In the Cards". Take a look at this.

There are ten of them! And they're not hidden in the background! And the characters are actually interacting with them! O'Brien says that what he is doing is recalibrating all the EPS regulators so that they will not interfer with the station's gravity. Looks more like cargo to me, but I suppose that I should trust the Chief to know what he is doing.

What I don't understand is why the set designers never think to plug the holes. They are quite visible here. Also, it wouldn't hurt to paint the bolts.

Sleepy

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was up all night finishing up my powerpoint presentation on Campania for my Italian class. You can see the slides by clicking on the above image or here. I will blog more tomorrow and also respond to comments.

My Dorm Room

Okay, everyone's been asking to see photos of my room. I really don't understand why, but I suppose I should give the public what it wants. Here they are:

Scary Spam

Usually on Tuesday, I try to put up some old paper or project I did in the distant past. Lately it's been hard to find more such stuff to post, as most of it has already been used on previous Tuesdays. For awhile there I was just scraping the bottom of the barrel. Now I'm happy to say that the barrel has been scoured clean and is being aired out. Soon it will be stuffed with new things, since I'm always writing papers.

Anyway, while pouring through old documents on my hard drive, I came across an old piece of spam I received a couple of years ago. Since it was (and still is) the most unique and creepy spam message I had ever received, I saved it. I don't know what to make of it. Hopefully, it was just written as a joke. Question 3 is particularly disturbing. And no, I never did attempt to solve the puzzle.

Spumoni

I was googling for a good photo of spumoni for an Italian presentation. Then I realized I had one of my own. I took this at Buca di Beppo in November of last year and believe it to be the greatest spumoni photograph on the internet.

New Blogroll

I put up a new blogroll today. You'll see it in the right column under "My Readers". It's entitled "Good Stuff". These are the blogs that I really like, and most of them are much better than my own humble blog. I'm very excited; now all I have to do is click on the links to go visit them rather than hunt for them all the time in my bookmarks. I wish I had thought of this earlier. Anyway, check 'em out. They're good reading.

KaZaA Lite K++

I don't know how widely known KaZaA Lite K++ is, but if you're into file sharing, it's definitely the way to go. Unlike KaZaA, it is completely free of spyware, and unlike KaZaA Lite (with which it should not be confused) it is entirely free. One of its greatest features is that it protects you from the RIAA by preventing them from browsing your shared folder to get the goods on you. You can read more about it and download it here.

Windows, the End Is Nigh!

With Windows source code being leaked to the public, this may well be the beginning of the end. Now that virus writers can see into the guts of the OS, finding vulnerabilities no longer requires guesswork. All they have to do is read the code. Soon we could find ourselves facing such horrors as jpegs on websites that instruct our computers to reformat their hard drives and spyware that can read our minds. What are we to do? Perhaps the time has come to familiarize ourselves with alternative operating systems.

In order to see what it's like to use OSX, just download MobyDock. It won't emulate the OS, but it will give you the doc.

If you want to learn about Linux, check out Knoppix. Go there and download the program. Then burn it as an image to a CD. Whenever you want to play with Linux, just boot from the CD. When you're done, take out the CD and your computer will boot back into windows, leaving all files, programs, and settings exactly as you left them. You can also do this with Phlak, but it doesn't have a Dvorak keyboard option, so unless your still using QWERTY, you're pretty much out of luck.

But if you're really serious about security, see if you can get your hands on one of these puppies. This is one of the greatest computers ever made and is completely impervious to viruses. You can even download an emulator. You can't beat that with a baseball bat!

Weekly Links

News

Man Lives with Dead Brother for 18 Months (from Gina)

Towing companies are run by psychopaths! (from scarequotes)

You can get anything on eBay. (from in my head)

Stickin' It to the RIAA (from squoogy)

Microsoft Source Code Leaked I certainly hope the code turns out to be flawlessly written with no inherent flaws. Otherwise, we may be in for big trouble. (from Bill)

Oh yes. Now that I'm no longer living in Muncie, it's starting to become cool. Perhaps I should have stayed a bit longer. (from fark of all places)

Fun

So that's where the Quiznos critters came from I thought they looked familiar.. (from stupidangrycanajun)

I don't know what Blogsex is, and I'm certainly not giving them my e-mail address to find out. I am curious, though.

Get ready for No Pants Day 2004! (from squoogy)

Create your own South Park Character (from boblog)

This is a real cool game. I'm still trying to work out the subtleties. (from Zannah)

Wanna get free iTunes downloads with every pepsi purchase? Here's how. (from Leo)

Science

Why do human beings listen to and create music?

Get ready for aromatic e-mail (from mikeslist).

Busted

An alleyway runs behind my dorm. The other day I went back there to deposit stuff for recycling and came upon the police handcuffing some poor fellow. Back in my room, I was curious what was going on. I can't see the alley from my window because of the angle, but I can stick my camera out to take pictures of it. This is what the camera saw. Presumably the perp is in the car. And since one of the officers is hauling away a bicycle, I can only conclude that the police actually chased a person on a bike into an alley, where they captured and cuffed him. The backpack hanging from the handlebars would indicate that they went after a student.