Category: Other

Shamelessly stolen, but at least I didn’t hotlink it.

I think this is one of the most profound images I’ve found on the internet.

It is far from an exhaustive list, but the idea is gotten across beautifully.

Not withstanding the soiled nature of the holiday, thanks to small pox blankets and other unimaginable cruelty that goes along with the murder of en entire set of cultures and people.

I’m taking this moment to write about the things I am thankful for.

This is not an exhaustive list, but just to give some idea of what I appreciate in my life.

1. I am thankful that my parents are still alive, together, happy, healthy, and nearby. I know they love me and I they know I love them. This is hands down the one thing I am most thankful for. That I have true parents.

2. That I have a home, enough to eat and drink, clothing, safety, warmth, and shelter. This we ALL deserve. I don’t care, even the most hated among us.

3. That my health, which while less than perfect is FAR and away from truly problematic. I am aware of what I have and don’t have.

4. That my phobias while crippling can be avoided. Some people have no safe places.

5. My real friends. The people that have a vested interest in my happiness. I wish I could do more for theirs.

6. For all the little things that when you really think about it aren’t so little. My computer, my fridge, my knife, my guns, my toys, my pictures, my books, my movies, my games, my everything.

7. My options, not only do I have enough to eat and drink but I have the kinds of things I enjoy eating and drinking.

8. My freedom, I have not been randomly and wrongfully convicted as so many have. For this list I have put aside my anger, and merely note how thankful I am that this has not happened to me or anyone I care about as of this writing.

9. My solitude. I have had my own house since I was 17, and I have spent the majority of my life with roommates, this makes we appreciate having my own space.

10. I am thankful for my readers, for my ability to express myself, and for a reasonable belief that at least a few people see my work.

11. I am thankful that you have have not done the harm you could have, for you self discipline and restraint and ethics.

12. And finally, my hope for the future. Technology. I am thankful that technology is expanding, and growing more accessible by the millisecond. I am so Very thankful that I have a reasonable hope of seeing the true ascendancy and transcendencey of humanity.

If I were a religious man I would thank god for these things, and though I am a deist and believe something enforces the physical constants etc, I do not believe it hears or thinks or is a living thing. So thanking it would be pointless.

So in a way, I am thanking luck, and all of you. Any of you are capable of ruining these things, and yet for whatever reason you haven’t. Bravo, and hold on, it will soon be better for all of us.

When the night falls and you hear thunder in the distance do you step outside? If you do then you know what will always await you. That crisp fresh smell of air from a thousand feet up, the sky full of looming voluminous dark clouds whose chaotic forms provide the perfect backdrop for the subconscious, the canvas on which the residue of your hopes, dreams, and fears are painted.

And, if you are like me, there is sometimes something more. The profound sense that this is something special, this one event is a peek into a much more varied and ultimately more hopeful world. The world of magic, where if one pours over enough dusty tomes and concentrates hard enough, they can shape reality to match the will. Where one doesn’t think of it as magic. Better to think of it as technology that resides in the mind. Think of them as tools made from energy instead of matter, tools that fold up and sit in the memory, or the space between neurons like so many ratchets.

I step outside during one of what the weatherman rather blandly calls “scattered showers” and I sit on my porch. I think to myself, not quite in words, that these are anything but scattered. This clearly has order, purpose, this is so obviously meant to fall right here, right now, for me. To usher in the dawn of a new era, the rebirth of magic. If I can only will hard enough, then I can be the starting point, I can be the catalyst and like the eye of a hurricane I will remain calm and collected in the face of such power, that I and I alone am immune to that dreadful pull of power towards paranoia and destruction.
Then, as the storm crests and the sky is full of the low plasma induced rumble, and the rain falls in droplets so large one might think of them as water balloons if one were so inclined, the thought comes riding a wave of hopeful validation, excitement, and optimism. It really is happening, things are going to be different now, I see what they cant, I will take what they wouldn’t understand and turn it into something they can never stop.

I bask in this warm euphoric glow, oblivious to the passage of time, and then, I begin to realize the storm is passing me, and its like a lover lying dead in your arms, and you somehow missed it. The best most violent expressions of this chaotic ripple have moved on or worse yet faded out, replaced by lame versions of themselves over and over until the sky is once again still and the air is filled with the pathetic dripping of run off and the slippery sound of water suction being forced through radial treads as cars pass by oblivious to what almost happened.

I then stand reluctantly knowing that it is not good to dwell on what was lost. I return to my home and my life, only a few feet behind me, seeing it as just a little bleaker then the world before. I maybe this feeling is the storm sharing with me for a moment the hopes and dreams of all those who stare into its depths feeling the moment of power, and the goal to which power is an end, freedom. It does this in exchange for a tiny part of the soul which will be used to lure other hopeful eyes into its black heart for a time, thus repeating the process till the end of time, when the souls of the hopeful no longer look to the sky, their hopes and dreams forever shattered against the rock of reason, or if we’re lucky, made flesh by that same rock.

TinyBook

Support: [email protected]
Web-site: http://heavy-online.ru/TinyBook/

LG600G plain text ebook reader instructions.

On Computer:
Decompress TinyBook.JAR renaming as a zip file if you have to.

Copy plain text book into folder.

Rename book to “book1.txt” or any number up to 9.

Book must have a blank line as it’s first line.

TinyBook.JAR may contain up to 9 books, maybe ten if you replace book.txt as well.

Recompress folder, rename back to TinyBook.JAR so now your books are inside the zip/jar.

Edit TinyBook.JAD with a text editor.

Look for line “MIDlet-Jar-Size: ######”

Change size to match exactly the newly created jar file.

Copy both files to the phone.

On phone:
Open the “other” folder. (Hit menu, then 7, then 6)

Highlight TinyBook.JAD and hit “ok” (center button of d pad)

It will compile and install.
It will ask about being trusted: allow it to continue.

It will ask you where to put it, games or applications: its up to you. I put mine in apps.

Now go to apps (open phone, left on the dpad, 2)

You should see tinybook as a choice.

Remember to set you bookmark before you close the phone.

Controls:
UP, DOWN – prev page, next page
“*” – set bookmark
“OK” (center d pad) – go to bookmark
“#” – exit

Here is mine with At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft as book1.txt

This works on linux mac or windows.

Gustov was a Russian dwarf hamster. I did not name him that, but it suited him.

My (former I guess) friend and roommate Beth had decided she wanted a dwarf hamster. She picked up Gustov and brought him home. He was sweet and adorable from the beginning, but he was not mine so I didn’t pay too much attention.
Then later Beth tells me he’s escaped. She was very sad, and set up little traps in an effort to catch him. This went on for days until she finally gave up, but still wanting a hamster she went and bought a new one. A white female this time and named her Valentine.

A day or two after this Gustov apparently discovering that the outside world sucks returned to Beth by way of walking across her feet while she was on the computer. He allowed himself to be caught but it was instantly apparent that Gustov liked Valentine about as much as I did and so Valentine getting a roommate was out of the question.

So, Beth asks me if I want a hamster, since my cat had gone away by this time I think, and I had sworn off pets, I was hesitant, but they don’t live so very long and it wasn’t like I was imprisoning him, he came back of his own accord.

And so I had a hamster. He ended up being one of the best little pets imaginable. He never once bit me hard enough to hurt though he did startle the shit out of me a couple times. He was defensive but not offensive. This means he didn’t like me reaching in and touching him but if you let him climb into a cup and then took the cup out he was more than happy to be held and explore, and he would rarely poop and never pee on you. He was extremely brave in that he would peer over any edge and hang by just his back legs.

He quickly gave up on his wheel after discovering it went no where and started to plump up, which was adorable, I mean its funny to think about something that weighs like an ounce as obese. But he totally was.

I tried making ghetto habitrail for him out of clear piping and PVC elbows but he would have none of it. He used it once as if to prove to me he could and that he knew it was there and then completely ignored it. So I took it out.

I got him a bigger wheel to accommodate his “bulk” but he ignored it with equal vigor after a brief recon, and the occasional patrol.

He also hated his hamster ball, I would set him on the floor he would roll around for about 20 seconds and then b-line straight for my feet and sit there. So I figured what the hell and gave up, no one makes me exercise, nor should they, so why should I insist he be fit, I mean what, is he going for the gold in the hamsterlympics? No.

Whenever I pestered him I made it a point to give him a pumpkin seed, which he would stand up and take with his little hands, and then bite. I should have filmed this but my camera is such garbage.

I did get some pictures of him with my phone and the like, I’ll post them here when I find them.
My friend Gustov died on 8-25-08.

I’m not exactly sure when but I know he was dead or dying when I went to sleep because I looked at him and it seemed like he wasn’t breathing, but he slept really sound and I figured if he is dead, there’s nothing I can do about it but if he’s not I can let him sleep. I consider sleep to be sacred and avoid waking anything up that sleeps if it can be helped.

I checked on him and he was in the same position, so I tapped on the glass,I knew then he was dead, but you know, hope and stuff. Nothing, and then I picked up his house, nothing, still hope, and then, I touched him and he was cold. I’ve been crying ever since.

From the pictures you can tell he died in his sleep. I had just the day before changed his floof refreshed his water, and played with him and fixed his wheel, making it lower so his chubby self could get to it easier, and even gave him some frozen broccoli which he loved and ate about half of.

I was just talking about how in hamster years he’s like 200 but I wish he had made it to 300.

I buried him in a camera case with bedding and his salt disc which again you can see he inexplicably slept on. Since his floof was recently changed it was easy to spatula him into the case without disturbing his position, and his house was able to go with him. I don’t feel bad about him being in the dark because he only came out at night and he liked the dark. Plus he has his house, the one he preferred since as you can see he had two.

I dumped the remainder of his food over where I buried him and watered those seeds with the remainder of his water. Later I will ring the site with bricks so I don’t step and crush him. His place will mark not just his own passing but the passing of pets in general from my life. Gustov was the best case scenario and I won’t fuck it up by being greedy.

I’m going to miss hearing his little crunching and scuffle-digging and the tink of seeds against the glass as he kicked the shitty ones out of the way. Most of all I’ll miss him looking at me through the glass and standing up and staring at me when I said “Hi Gustov,” at which point I’d set the cup in with him and he’d climb right in knowing it was time to go outside and explore sleeve and dresser world.

Video of him.

Gustov will be the last non engineered life I purposely own. The Buddhists and peta have it right in one way. Avoid attachment, don’t own life. I know I was a good owner, I know he was healthy and well fed and happy as humanly possible, but he still died on my watch and it was my responsibility, even if not my fault.

Never again.

More images will come later.

I’m attempting to understand why there is no distributed Internet.

It seems to be that the existence of a shortwave radio based Internet would have hugely beneficial implications.

To my understanding shortwave has extreme range. Would this not allow for Internet access in rural areas where traditional Internet is simply impossible or extremely impractical?

It also seems to me that it would be possible to distribute the load, thus obviating the need for both a central infrastructure and fees.

It seems to me that one could adopt an almost bit torrent model where in those who want to share can, those who don’t don’t.

Now I am extremely ignorant on this, but I’m trying to correct that. Any comments with additional information would be great.

My question is basically the same as the one I posted to Wiki answers.

What prevents the existence of shortwave radio distributed Internet?

It seems that data transmission over shortwave is at least technically possible. According to this page anyway.

http://mae.pennnet.com/display_article/345446/32/ARCHI/none/INDNW/1/Rohde–Schwarz-introduces-rugged-secure-data-transmission-capability-via-shortwave-radio/

It seems that shortwave for commercial purposes is illegal, which is all well and good, indeed that may work for us here. But what about for non profit?

Would it be legal to make a Shortwave non profit radio Internet service provider?

Does it even matter? I mean, couldn’t this type of thing be hosted from anywhere in the world pretty much?

I want more data. Please comment if you have some 🙂

Update:

Apparently it exists! but it needs development.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio

This page contains a particularly disgusting bit of text…

One notable detail is that 2.4 GHz WLAN band is partially overlapping amateur radio band, and thus WLAN hardware can readily be used by amateur radio licensed operators with higher power radio gear than what the general population “license free” usage allows. (“Free to receive by anybody”, “transmit only between licensed radio amateurs”, and “[2]no encryption” rules usually make these very unappealing to spend time on.) Regulation details differ around the world.

No encryption? That is simply disgusting to me. It’s like transparent backpacks, searches without warrants, wire tapping, etc.

Mayhaps it’s time to start a new form of piracy harkening back to the old days. Maybe our enemy needs to be the FCC again, instead of the RIAA and Comcast.