That wolf better have papers.

In a twist reminiscent of the Twilight Zone, there is talk about taking gray wolves off of the endangered species list. Their numbers have grown such that there are enough to be a sustainable community. Good.
BUT,  the  MEXICAN Gray Wolf is still going to be endangered, and thus it will  still be a federal crime to shot one.

SO, check the papers on the next  gray wolf you shoot and only shoot those  mangy American Wolves, because the native Mexican Wolves are protected...

The Radicalization of America

Sorry for the long hiatus, but I'm back...
I understand that we have concerns about the "radicalization" of young Muslims. Is it a valid concern? I certainly think so. Its far too easy to fire people up and make them do crazy and violent things. And even if they don't do something crazy, just having radical people in the wild is not good for society. It creates discontent, unrealistic societal goals, and general stupidity. I mean, right? So why is it acceptable for Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Alex Jones, and Fox News to preach radicalization and hatred? So if imams do it,its bad, but if Fox does it, its good?

I was talking to somebody a couple days after the Boston Bombing, and they said that we need to put tracking chips in Muslims that are granted citizenship.
Stop reading this; go get a glass of water and let that sink in.
...
So this guy is saying that we should put tracking chips in US citizens based on their ethnic background. We would have two levels of citizens, those that we trust, and those that we don't. The ones that we don't trust we put chips in to track them.
 3 speeding tickets? CHIP!
Download copyrighted material? CHIP!
Killed a hooker while drunk? We'll let that go, you're prolly a politician.
Destroy the entire US economy over greed and a new car? CH.., no wait, BONUS!

Ok, do they get Miranda rights? Can they vote? Can they own property? Where does it end? And that's not even the point, you want to treat U.S. Citizens like cattle? Hell no. You don't want them to be citizens, that's one thing, but once they are a citizen, they are given all the rights and privileges of that appointment. This isn't 1850, you don't get to strip people of their rights based on your bias and paranoia.

So these two Muslim kids bombed Boston, that is horrific and one of them paid the ultimate price while the other will certainly wish that he had died with his brother. But had you tracked them, what would be different today? Nothing. This is such a TSA response, focus in on the minute detail and get lost in it. "Dood put a bomb in his shoe? NO MORE SHOES!!!" Xenu.

How would chipping Muslim Americans stop Tim McVeigh? Yeah, remember him? American born and bred. How would chipping Muslim Americans stop Arab Muslims from bombing Americans over seas? It would probably make it worse. "We want to you stop hating us, and to that end we are going to treat ALL of you like shit and hope for the best."

You want Muslims to stop hating us? Here's a thought, and I'm going to pull this right from the religious book that these American's use to radicalize people: "do unto others as you would them do unto you" Yeah. Think about it: don't shit on people; treat them with respect. Hey, a Muslim kid blew up the Marathon. When the Muslim community hangs their head in sorrow, don't scream at them, don't accuse them, give em a big hug. Let them know that you don't hold THEM responsible, help them stop the radicalization.

When I travel overseas the thought of people holding me accountable for everything that the US has done just scares the shit out of me.

Rebecca Black, best video ever

There, I said it.
I think that the Rebecca Black music video "Friday" is one of the top 10 Music videos of all time. Yes, I don't like it personally. I am 45 years old and I don't give a shit WHICH seat you choose while "kickin it" and the fact that you wake up with makeup on both scares and annoys me. BUT, I am not in 8th grade. Also, learn to sing in tune so that you don't need that dam auto-tuner that makes you sound like a robot. Yeah, I can't sing either, thats why I don't have a music video.

This is a music video by an 8th grader about her weekend. For the love of Xenu, let her have her innocence. She isn't worried about the economy, or the (false) threat of terrorists, or about her weight, or her kids, or her retirement, or, or, or. She is singing about what goes on in her (clearly privileged) life. Is that SO offensive? She loves Justin Bieber (that no talent little puke) she likes makeup and probably watches iCarly on Nickelodeon (but who doesn't? amiright?)

What is SO offensive about her innocence? Yes, its totally unrealistic, she will go grow up someday and realize that, but does it really hurt to let her be a teenager? Why so much hate? I don't get it.

Anyway, her video has 100+ million views, prolly just jealousy.

Why I’ll never buy motorola

Read this article about the latest generation of Android handsets from Motorola and why they are so hard (maybe impossible) to hack.

OK, THATS why I wont buy motorola headsets anymore. Moto is saying that if I purchase their phone that I can not then subsequently upgrade, modify or otherwise play with my phone. So you SOLD me a phone for $500, and I cant play with it? Ok, I only paid $200 cash and the rest is on my two year Verizon contract, but still, I AM paying for it. And about that two year contract…

I bought my Motorola Droid (which DOES take custom kernels) the first month it came out. I got it on a two year contract. One year later Motorola has end of lifed the phone and I can longer get support, maintenance or upgrades. Uhh, hello? You sold a phone on a two year contract and EOL’d it after one year? Ok, that’s not cool, but at least I know how you roll and I can act accordingly.

Enter the next generation Androids from Moto. So you buy one today on a two year contract, and in 12 months Moto stops support, THATS when Google comes out with Android 3.1 and it fixes some big bugs and has some great features. Tough. You can’t install unauthorized kernels so you don’t get the upgrade. You can only install OS upgrades (kernels) that come from Moto, and they EOL’d your handset.

Yeah, THATS why no more Moto for PaulC.

Its like buying a new Ford truck and saying “Hey, nice engine, but I want to put a Cummins in it.” and Ford saying “No, you spent $40k on that truck, but we say you can’t replace the engine.” I get that you can’t do that on a lease, but I am talking about a purchase. Or even closer to home, you buy a Dell and 12 months later Microsoft comes out with a security patch and you can’t install it because Dell has EOL’d your computer.

See this is why you don’t want your hardware manufacturer (Motorola) supplying your operating system (Google). Imagine if Motorola said “you can only install applications that we approve”. And really that's not such a stretch, I mean that's what they are saying with the signed kernel. Yeah, then you would have Apple.

At first I thought “this MUST be a Verizon thing.” But if that were the case, why doesn’t Verizon require Samsung, HTC, and others to use a signed kernel? Nope, this is all Motorola.

The Droid X has been rooted…

Reading that headline you might be thinking “Great PaulC, welcome to 2 weeks ago.” BUT, lemme ‘splain.

The new Droids have a new feature called “efuse” that is built into the CPU. Efuse is used to confirm that the kernel on the phone is valid, if its invalid the phone can be bricked. NOW, Motorola DOES use efuse for its latest Android handsets BUT they don’t use the brick feature, they just boot into safe mode. That means that if you install an unauthorized kernel, the phone won’t boot until you replace it with an authorized one.

As you can imagine the interwebs are all a twitter over this, and many pundits have opened up cans of false bravado by the case and said “Ahh, but this is just another small issue that our brave hackers will over come in our fight against tyranny!” And now that the new handsets have been rooted they point and say “SEE! We have overcome!”

Not so fast dingus malingus.

Yes, the new Android handsets from Motorola have been rooted, and that is AWESOME. It took hard work, intelligence, perseverance and a probably a fair amount of caffeine. Now users can install root applications on their phones. Want to wirelessly tether your laptop to your phone? Root your handset and install the software. Done. Right? hmmm…

The problem is that rooting does NOT let you install new kernels, efuse has NOT been defeated, just sidestepped. So if you want to install tethering and get rid of that horrid moto-blur crap and change the font, you can. BUT, if you want to install a new kernel, then you are screwed.

It has been said that efuse uses an encrypted boot loader. That means that motorola uses the private key at the factory to generate a fingerprint  for the kernel, and the CPU in your handset uses a public key to verify the fingerprint. Read that again. Yeah, your fucked.

Does that  mean that efuse will NEVER be defeated? Nope, but it means that we are still a long way off.

Read this article to find out why you care.

New Google voice features

SO,

now that Google is finally integrating the integration of the VOIP provider that they purchased, we can now get some of that voice over IP love in Google voice that we have been craving.

The "call phone" button just showed up in my GMail today, so thats cool, I can call people from within GMail. yeah, I guess thats cool, I have a microphone and a headset, so why not. BUT, when I go to google voice and look at my settings, I now have the option to route inbound calls to GMail. So when you call my cell phone number, it will ring at my desk, my cellphone, my house, and now on my computer in GMail all at the same time.

Shhhhhh, do you hear angels singing?

Add to that the fact that Google opened up Google Voice to the (North American) public recently, and of course the tight integration of Android and Google Voice, and you have a nice little communications subsystem at your disposal.

How cool?

WAY cool.

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Bruce Schneier on security

Bruce Schneier’s blog “Schneier on Security” covers everything from cryptography to terrorism and in this day and age I would call it a “must read” for every American. Period.

He’s pretty level headed and many of his posts talk about how the government uses “movie-plot threats” to keep people afraid and to appear as if they are doing something useful.

Anyway, he has a new article on CNN that I would consider required reading, so read it. :D Here’s one of the many money quotes:

“But even as we do all of this we cannot neglect the feeling of security, because it's how we collectively overcome the psychological damage that terrorism causes. It's not security theater we need, it's direct appeals to our feelings. The best way to help people feel secure is by acting secure around them. Instead of reacting to terrorism with fear, we -- and our leaders -- need to react with indomitability, the kind of strength shown by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War II.

By not overreacting, by not responding to movie-plot threats, and by not becoming defensive, we demonstrate the resilience of our society, in our laws, our culture, our freedoms. There is a difference between indomitability and arrogant "bring 'em on" rhetoric. There's a difference between accepting the inherent risk that comes with a free and open society, and hyping the threats.

We should treat terrorists like common criminals and give them all the benefits of true and open justice -- not merely because it demonstrates our indomitability, but because it makes us all safer.

Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the risks to its future stability are much greater than terrorism.”

Peanut Butter

Ok, you know that I loves me some peanut butter, but I really hate hydrogenated oils (well, hydrogenated anything really), so I have been buying natural peanut butter lately; saltless, sugarless abomination. Its actually pretty unpalatable and makes me want to punch a baby. BUT, if you lay down some honey on your toast, THEN the natural peanut butter, its all good.

The problem with natural peanut butter is that the oil separates and you have to stir it in, no big deal I guess. See, the thing is that by the time I get to the bottom, its all dry, prolly because I failed to properly mix in the oil. :(

Well I found a solution to my peanut butter problem! (thanks Wired How to Wiki) When you get home from the store, put your natural peanut butter in the cupboard upside down, then flip it every day. Well, I am too antsy, so I flip it twice a day, but you get my point. After a couple of days when you open your jar of peanut butter its all mixed up! I still give it a quick mix “just to be sure”, but there is no dry part at the bottom anymore.

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YAPR #2

Or “Why is your site so dam slow?”

I can not believe how many sites take more than 10 seconds to load, its absolutely astounding. Pay attention and note how many times you have to wait for a page to load, its unacceptable.

I get that there may be some congestion in the pipes and that will slow down the interwebs, but that is rarely the problem, its almost always bad site design. When I go to a page and I see a “Loading…” I immediately close the browser and skip that site. If you have a message that means that you DESIGNED your site to be slow.

I get that some sites need to run an application and will therefore be slow, for example almost any game site (kongregate for example), but when I go to a blog or other information site there is just no reason for it. For example, I went to the Mary Lou Retton site (don’t ask) and it throws up a “Loading” message for about 15 seconds. Really? REALLY?! And this site isn’t TOO bad, at least it shows the main content and its only loading a small portion (Achievements), but why would you rub my nose in the fact that your site sucks? Why not just load in the background and NOT point out to me how bad you suck? And while I am picking on Mary Lou’s site, note that when you navigate on her page the entire page flashes and reloads, but only the center content changes, so why not just change the center div?

Its unacceptable, I have a 16mbps internet connection and all you are trying to do is show some text and a few 50k images and I have to WAIT?

 

YAPCA

So Andy and I have had several discussions lately, and as you would probably predict, we end up using the same argument to make the same point in multiple discussions. So we started naming them. Hey, it made sense at the time, and in fact, its a handy shortcut. For example in our discussions regarding the Verizon early termination fee, I used both the Dvorak Keyboard argument as well as the Star Trek argument.

So here is the first “Yet Another PaulC Argument”, the first one that I will document is the “dvorak keyboard” argument, and it goes like this:
Two years ago I switched to the Dvorak keyboard, I no longer use a QWERTY keyboard layout. There are many stories out on the interwebs about how the QWERTY keyboard came to be, but the fact is that its inefficient, regardless of how it came to be. For example, with your fingers in the home position on a QWERTY keyboard you can type 300 words, on a Dvorak keyboard you can type an astounding 5,000 words without moving your fingers off of the home keys. Turns out that its pretty easy to switch your keyboard layout, so I switched. Dvorak is superior in every way, and since I switched my hands no longer hurt from typing and I can type even faster. OK, here’s the punch line: I already know how to type QWERTY at about 80 words per minute, so why switch to Dvorak? Because the QWERTY layout is so inefficient and stupid that it offends me.

So the Dvorak Argument is basically that inferior technology is offensive to point that it may actually need to be shunned. But of course it can also be applied to non tech issues.

For example, Andy and I were discussing cell phones (get ready for it Jim) and I applied the Dvorak Argument to the iPhone. Is the iPhone a great phone? Almost certainly. Will I ever buy one? No. Its a closed system, it can’t multitask, the screen resolution is low, etc. So while its an acceptable phone, these technical issues (which many people just don’t care about) are enough to make me not want to use it. So rather than go through the entire justification, I just called the Dvorak Argument shortcut. 

An example of a non technical discussion was the Smart Car. The U.S. version of the smart car is a tiny, slow, expensive car that gets 43 mpg, the EU version gets 69 mpg. Yes, the EU version gets 26 more miles per gallon. Why? Because its a turbo diesel. The Volkswagon TDI gets 50 mpg and its a real, full sized car that costs the same as a “Smart Car”. So, I won’t buy a smart car; Dvorak Argument.