Web Archive, Reddit, Wikipedia, Mozilla, Wordpress, etc... to Go Black Tomorrow in SOPA/PIPA Protest

In an anti-SOPA protest, Reddit, the Web Archive, Wordpress, Wikipedia and many, many others are going to go black tomorrow. Google is going to protest on their home page and OpenDNS is going to censor some results. I've considering blacking out my site, but am stupid busy at the moment (and have been for weeks) and would need to do some tweaks for things to not break. But you can easily black out your site by putting some JavaScript on your site from SOPA Strike or use the index.html file here or this Wordpress plugin.

If you're wondering what the fight is all about, from a technical standpoint, this is a great write-up that I'm hoping stays up tomorrow. If you need a simple explanation of why SOPA/PIPA is bad, here's a good one:

Sopa is all encompassing enough to include almost any site capable of hosting user content, from Reddit to Dropbox. This means that the government can and will enforce the law very selectively, which is the entire danger of the bill: it's a blank check.

They could remove wikileaks because some article they link to has copyrighted material, or take down the site of some political watchdog group because one of their videos has music playing in the background.

The lack of due process also allows the possibility that if a site hosts something the government doesn't agree with, all it would take is an intern uploading a random mp3 to said site to shut it down.

Very dangerous s**t here.

This Game Needs To Come To A Home Console. Now.

I linked to Super Mario Crossover a long while back, and it looks like version 2.0 is going to be awesome:

When it's released, you'll be able to play it here. But since I can't stand playing games like this with a keyboard, I'd love to play it on my Wii with my classic controller.

Video Dump

So I'm over my head cold (mostly) but now my wife caught it and is cussing me. Can't say that I blame her, as I felt pretty cruddy for a few days there. These were able to give us some enjoyment at least...

Reading Material

Plugged up with a bit of a head cold, but wanted to get these off my desktop (videos coming...uh...whenever...)

• Look at this street view. Now move the camera up.
• 35 Incredibly Useful Android Apps for 2011 (be sure to follow the links there for links to games as well).
• Teardown of the nifty Nest thermostat.
• Relive the reboot experience for a bunch of classic OSes.
• In case you hadn't already seen this story last week, PayPal made somebody destroy an expensive violin to get their money back.
• Speaking of violins, could you pick the Strad?
• Planning ahead on major purchases this year? Here's the best time to buy anything.
• Simple an easy way to record an MP3 on your computer.
• Automakers have made great strides in fuel efficiency in recent decades, but the mileage numbers of individual vehicles have barely increased. An MIT economist explains the conundrum.
• Professor seeds the web with trojan horse essay, just to see where it ends up. Somebody handed it in.
• 2011's Best Posts on MetaFilter (don't know if this post regarding the music from O Brother Where Art Thou? is included, but it shoiuld be).
• From the creator of ClockwordMod created a root-less tether.
• Easily clean up your permissions on a bunch of social media sites at once.
• If you use fon, be aware your password is being stored in plain-text.
• Subway fare and pizza prices go hand-in-hand.
• Abbey Road has a web cam with people regularly recreating a certain album cover.
• News networks are ignoring SOPA legislation.
• Mac Classic II vs. Macbook Air: Which boots faster?
• Great list of well-done hacker-journalism in 2011.
• Second Crack is a very simple static-file Markdown blogging engine. It's totally unnecessary and unsuitable for most people (which the author even admits), but it's still kind of interesting to me.
• Looking for sheet music? There's a large collection of public domain music at IMSLP.
• Make a resolution to learn to code.
• visitor.js is a handy little script to personalize your web site based on a ton of variables about the visitor.
• What's behind that short link? Found out with unFurlr, created by the awesome folks at Mailchimp.
• I really wish I had the hardware to play with VMWare more as its high availability features look awesome. Anybody have some old servers they want to get rid off so I can learn a thing or two as I'd really like to gain some more useful experience in this stuff.

Kids Are Awesome

Every parent has had this conversation with their kids (or something like it). And every time, it usually ends up something like this...

SOPA Wouldn't Save A Single Job

No matter what the MPAA tells you.

Flat Out Crazy/Stupid/etc...

Coat yourself in wheels, fly down a hill, pass a few cars ... all in a day's work:

Reading Material

• The best indie games of 2011.
• The 20 best Android games for 2011 from the Android Market.
• Top YouTube videos for 2011, straight from Google.
• While a lot of these I knew (and use frequently), many I didn't: Environment variables in XP and Vista/7.
• 30 Best Sources for Linux/*BSD documentation.
• It's time to end the war on drugs.
• Study links winning football and declining grades (done by economists at the University of Oregon, which is an appopriate place for that study).
• Why (and how) we've switched away from Google Maps. If I could convince one of these map providers to use the home-numbering data that I helped put together for a local Sunriver map, getting guests to units would be a lot easier, as the numbering scheme is a bit weird on some of the streets.
• Six writers, four producers, and the lyrics still suck.
• Death to .DS_Store.
• 10 More Common Misconceptions Dispelled.
• Great idea, might do this for the geek keys I have at the office: RJ-45 key chain and rack.
• Scheduled sending and email reminders in Gmail.
• The Hassle-Free Guide to Ripping Your Blu-Ray Collection. I have a Blu-Ray player now, just need a Blu-Ray drive for my HTPC to rip some of these things on.
• How NES Games (specifically, Super Mario Bros. 3) are made, in Japanese picture-book form.
• Tens of millions of HP LaserJet printers vulnerable to remote hacking.I can't seem to find a list anywhere of the printers that are actually vulnerable, so I have no idea of the old HP 4100s I have here at the office need upgrades. I don't have any of them attached to the internet, so I'm not too worried, but if anybody has a list, please share.
• Disney females brought to life (original artist is here).
• Using computer science to solve Where's Waldo ("Where's Wally" if you're outside the US).
• Great list of online learning centers (my oldest daughter has been playing on Khan Academy now and again, but the list here is good for everybody).
• Automate your Dropbox with Dropbox Automator. Now that I have nearly 20GB of space on my Dropbox account (using my COCC.edu e-mail address, the ol' Dropbox/Adwords referral game, the getting started tab, the Dropbox 2011 Quest, plus the social-media freebies) I might have to start using it more often for larger files and collections.

This Kid's A Genius

This little girl would be fun to sit down and have a conversation with.

I Want A Piano Desk

Everything's better when it's musical...

Dec. 29th is Move Your Domain Day, and other SOPA Rants and Thoughts

While GoDaddy reversed their SOPA stance because of public outcry from fairly big names (and smaller single entities), you should still probably look at other options because SOPA is just such an ugly thing. It would mean the end of major sites with small teams. Naturally, groups like the RIAA are behind SOPA -- the same RIAA who pirated $9 million worth of TV shows.

Seriously, if you don't know anything about SOPA, read up here, here, here (linked to before), here and here. Oregon's own Ron Wyden is trying to propose alternatives to SOPA.

Many folks (except maybe this guy) are trying to move their business away from SOPA-supporting companies, me being one of them. I manage 60+ domains personally as well as for a few companies I work for, and am slowly moving them away from GoDaddy.com to NameCheap (affiliate link -- use that to transfer/buy, and I get a few pennies) for this along with a few other reasons. While GoDaddy.com is cheap, so is NameCheap, and their support/service has been better (and good lord, GoDaddy is always trying to upsell me a boat load of crap I don't need/want every time I try to renew something there). NameCheap is joining in on the call for a move your domain day on December 29th with $7 transfers, and they'll donate $1 to EFF for each domain transferred. While I can't afford to move all my personal domains at once, I will be moving them when renewal time comes up (I've already moved several of the company-managed domains I deal with). There's an easy step-by-step guide to move your domains from GoDaddy to Namecheap.

Why do poorly-written laws like this even see the light of day? Seriously, Congress, it's not OK to not know how the Internet works (similarly, it's not OK to not know how Congress works).

</rant>

Time Killer For The Weekend

I'm taking a three day weekend, starting tomorrow, so everybody behave until I get back. Here's hoping you and yours have a very merry (and safe) Christmas, and that you get or are able to give all the gifts you desire.

Meanwhile, here is Coins, a very Zen-like game that is quite simple, but quite entertaining.

That's What You Get For Teasing The Frog

Help bojack.org Raise $10,000 For Charity

Buck-a-hit day is tomorrow on bojack.org, where Jack will be giving a dollar to charity (up to $5000) for every visitor his site gets tomorrow. His goal for the day is to raise $10,250 overall through donations from visitors of the site (the previous record was $10,115).

It's for a good cause, and a great bunch of charities, so be sure to click on over tomorrow.

Video Dump

Some great videos to kill off your afternoon...

Reading Material

• The pr0n index "is a very silly web application that tells you what percentage of the internet for some given search phrase appears to be about porn" (safe for work, don't worry).
• While I'm not a LAN-Party type of guy, you have to admire the effort this guy put into his house. Here's the back-story and the technical FAQ.
• Hacking Google for fun and profit.
• Are you the guy that always makes an idiot out of himself at the office holiday party? Let Office Party Rescue make your moronic behavior look tame.
• Rain makes everything better.
• What started as a personal project, quickly became an obsession for New York photographer Jamie Livingston, who managed to take a Polaroid picture every day for 18 years. You can see the photos here.
• Horses**t: One man's rebuttal to iOS fanboys.
• What if you did Twitter by mail?
• From zero to Go: launching on the Google homepage in 24 hours.
• Interesting project: Web hosting for your DropBox (comments that might better explain this).
• The single-lane Super Highway is mesmerizing to watch thousands of user-created cars drive by.
• Future Drama is taking another look at yesterday's future.
• I'm thinking about trying out Geckoboard for giggles to get a bit of a real-time status board at an office I work at (if it could tie in with the Navis stuff, it'd be even better).

How To Lose $2400 in 24 Seconds

On the Oregon Coast, no less...

Sci-Fi Has A New Common Enemy

We'll let George Takei explain...

Side note: Carrie Fischer hasn't aged nearly as well as The Shat has.

Time Killer For The Evening

In Coleo, you're a gravity-defying bug that's pretty adept at climbing walls and make big jumps. Use that power to get through each level.

Reading Material

• Please donate to the Internet Archive.
• What really happened aboard Air France 447.
• Who says computers can't be beautiful? This one blew me away.
• Xeni Jardin has breast cancer.
• Here is a great review of Twilight: Breaking Dawn.
• Animated GIFs of cats, set to music. What could be better?
• Are you a torrent user? What have you downloaded?
• I was helping a friend redirect her old blog to her old blog to her new one, and these articles were immensely helpful in making sure I got the redirects setup properly.
• Creepy genetic portraits.
• Mythbusters stunt gone wrong damages home. What I want to know: Was the myth confirmed or busted?
• A very expensive car crash involving eight Ferraris and a Lamborghini.
• Nintendo's Miyamoto Stepping Down, Working on Smaller Games. This man's impact on gaming is legendary.
• It's the little things that instructions easier to follow. Like on the Dropbox download page.
• 'Investigative blogger' doesn't get journalist's protection, Portland judge rules.
• BootMed's main goal is to help the average Windows user to recover a computer that will not boot. It's a live CD that most provides easy-to-use fixes.
• Gow is a lightweight alternative to Cygwin.
• I had been using PHDL for better looking (and more useful) directory listings, but h5ai is a really nicely done Apache index that beats the pants off PHPDL. See the demo here. Now I just need to go through and make this the default on my server...
• What's on your learning list?
• This is a good look as to how SOPA would be abused: ICE releases popular hip-hop blog's domain after year of deception.
• F**k Passwords (great rant, but obviously a naughty language warning here).
• Videos to come over the next day or two. I have a bunch of those to share.

You'd Never See This In America

Only in India...

Reading Material

• Kon-Boot is another handy way to bypass a Windows password prompt.
• Rob “CmdrTaco” Malda (Slashdot founder) interviewed by Matt Haughey.
• The US Government's $200,000 Useless Android Application.
• The Federal Social Media Index is a great way to see how federal agencies are engaging with their audiences through twitter (Andy's introduction).
• Need an image? Just type any_keyword.jpg.to in your browser. Like apple.jpg.to (Hacker News comments).
• The footage the NFL won't show you -- the All-22 shot.
• This Indiana Jones looks so much better than that Crystall Skull crap that was actually released.
• Something for my reference: Deplying Windows XP Pro with all Post-SP3 updates and drivers (I didn't know DriverPacks existed).
• fPrivacy Chrome Extension allows you to opt-out of those annoying Facebook application privileges (RequestPolicy will give you similar protection on Firefox).
• Dwolla looks like an interesting service for microtransactions, now that everything under $10 is free.
• Image ad blending works really, really well.
• It's amazing what folks will do with Photoshop. Check out these before and after pictures.
• Great list of Linux commands that I wish I knew about (there are some real gems in there).
• It's lonely in the modern world...
• Look, you moron, my name is... (naughty language warning).
• Fine examples of idiots who can't park a car.
• Twilight, reimagined as a tragedy.
• Religious user freaking out about the FreeBSD logo.
• PATRIOT Act Gives Foreigners Good Reason to Avoid US Clouds.

Congrats MVHS Football!

Congrats to the Mountain View High School Cougars on bringing home the first football state title to Bend in 71 years (more in-depth story on OregonLive). We were getting scoring updates during our dress rehearsal for our concert tomorrow. As someone who was captain of a state championship team at Mountain View (1995 Cross Country), let me be the first to say you will never forget this day. I will never forget holding that Oregon championship blue trophy in my hands, presenting it to the school and the student body at an assembly, and I know you will not, either. No matter where all your lives go after this, there will always be this day, and you will always share this moment. Congratulations to all of you!

Arnold Schwarzenegger at his Finest

If you remove all the DVD commentary from Total Recall but Arnold Schwarzenegger's, what's left is absolutely brilliant story telling.

Why The Sudden Fascination and Uproar With Smart Phone Rootkits?

In case you hadn't heard the news (if you follow tech news at all, it'd be hard to miss), pretty much all the major providers use Carrier IQ software on their smart phones (it's even a part of iOS on the iPhones, just slightly less sinister and easier to turn off). What is Carrier IQ? It has the potential to track and monitor everything to do on your phone and send it to a third party. Class-action lawsuits are being threatened, and it's starting to really creep everybody out. There's an Android Market App to see if you have it on your phone and ways to disable it.

What I find hilarious about all this? Carrier IQ was discovered and disabled by Android hackers at least nine months ago. I know the ACS Syndicate folks released a Samsung Epic 4G ROM back in March with it removed and opened up their tools so others could use them. So obviously this is old news -- why the sudden uproar about it now? I've been rocking Carrier IQ-free (with SyndicateROM Frozen 1.2) for nearly a year now, and if you've been running CyanogenMod, so have you.

Moral of the story here? Root your phone. It's easy, and your phone will run happier because of it.

I Was Just Cutting Onions, I Swear...

This is the saddest/happiest video I've seen in a long time. As a dad to two daughters, I'm wouldn't be able to hold it together:

Upcoming Free Entertainment: Cascade Winds In Concert

I plug this event all the time (since I'm in it), and I haven't the foggiest idea if it helps or not, but here you go anyway.

The Cascade Winds Symphonic Band presents their first concert of the 2011-2012 season Sunday, December 4, 2:00 p.m., at the Summit High School auditorium, 2855 NW Clearwater Drive, Northwest Crossing, Bend. This concert is free and appropriate for all ages.

The concert will feature sacred selections. Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire, Brahms' Blessed Are They and Jean Sibelius' Finlandia will be included as well as works by American composers Alfred Reed, Elliot del Borgo, Frank Ticheli and David R. Holsinger. Full program notes can be found here.

Come support our local arts community while treating yourself to an afternoon of superior music. For more information on the Cascade Winds Symphonic Band visit www.cascadewinds.org or call 541-593-1635.

You can also see the event on Facebook and harass invite your friends.

Hope to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy it with a little math lesson:

Reading Material

Hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving. I will not be getting up at the crack of dawn for Black Friday, as sleeping in is a far more valuable use of my time than waiting in line for deals. Yes, there are good deals, but I don't have money to spend anyway, so what's the point?

Meanwhile, here some links to occupy you for a bit:

• A CPU-burner, but Escape The Map is kind of a cool promotional gimick.
• Forward this to the folks in your family who aren't as Internet savvy: How SOPA would affect you.
• Back to the Future (and its sequel) have nothing to do with the movies. They're well-done photographs of the same people in the same setting in the past and present-day (warning: couple NSFW).
• Something to put on my Christmas list: Space Invaders (original reddit post is here).
• Wondering if Sprint is upgrading their towers? Their new site will tell you (and it looks like they have upgraded some of them locally).
• In his own words, why Jim Romensko left Poynter.
• Mounting a hard drive as a folder on your Windows PC.
• If you're the geek in the family, and you're heading out of town for the holiday, you know that your family's going to want you to look at their computer. Set it up so that you don't have to make the trip in the future.
• The future, according to films.
• Didn't know Remote Desktop had this functionality: Forward local drives to remote machines.
• Great office project: RFID-powered beer machine (read more from the folks who created it on this reddit AMA).
• Need some help writing those 500 word essays? How about some positive reinforcement with kitties?
• Everybody's got a talent in life. This man's is being able to scream the 300 baud carrier signal.
• While runas is a handy tool, RunAsDate is really handy to trick the program into thinking it's different date.
• Bookmarking this for future use: System Restore Explorer.
• While I've always used Process Explorer, What's Running looks pretty slick as well.
• The Font-Bot Project, battling for the future of type supremacy with type-based robots.
• Great list of single-purpose web sites.
• Monitor the web sites your PC is connecting to.
• Another one of the bookmarks: moment.js is a lightweight javascript date library for parsing, manipulating, and formatting dates.
• How to access your machines using DNS names with dd-wrt (another one for the bookmarks that I need to setup my house).

Video Dump

You needed something to watch, right? Enjoy.