How to get rabies

You know that feeling you get sometimes when you absolutely want to have rabies? Well, here's how to get it.

Get a flight ticket to some poor country where dogs are running freely. There should be garbage lying around in this country, since the dogs then will live on the garbage. That will be a natural attractive place for dogs to meet and spread diseases between each other. The good thing is also that those meeting places will be easy for you to find - ask the local citizen about where people dispose their garbage. If this is a poor country (as recommended), chances are that the animal (disease) control are terrible and that rabies thrives among the animals.

A symptom of rabies is aggression. The last thing you need to do is to get close to a dog that acts weirdly or especially shows signs of aggression.

Disclaimer: for educational purpose. Rabies is a terrible deadly disease, don't get it. Also, I'm no more educated than you about the subject, so don't take my word for it.

Best pointless list of top 10 arbitrary cats of no special significance

Here's my list of top 10 best cats in no particular order. They're completely arbitrary and the cats doesn't even exists. This is a list of my imagination and nobody knows what it is that I'm really imagining. Yep, this is what the internet has come to.

1. A cat not making sense. It has cake on its head and it eats bread. LOL. I call it lolcat.
2. Spacecat
3. Dogcat
4. Asciicat
5. Spicecat
6. Trollolololcat and trollcat
7. 7cat
8. My imaginary cat friend
9. toaster cat, I use it when I pretend to toast bread
10. chocolatecat-2000, known for its ability to flip coins in reverse
11. Physics cat, also known as 11cat. It's outside the system and not even on the list.

Freedom!

Why this post you might ask? We'll it's simply an experiment. I don't think anyone is reading this blog even.

Copy-paste without the formatting in Linux

When you copy something in Firefox, it copies the formatting too. If you are experiencing weird formatting when you're pasting something from one page into another (say, a WYSIWYG editor in FF) you can paste it in plain text with CTRL+SHIFT+V.

Have some cake.

What is a Canuck?

A canuck is a low-res person who's half part of the head is completely separated from the lower part of the head. As the canuck speak, the higher part of the head moves around randomly with about 5 frames per second in a really low-budget way to represent mouth movement. They prefer to eat hockey.

Quick note on EzineArticles

I reviewed an article yesterday that I consier harmful quackery. I noted that the very same "expert author" (a title you pay for and do nothing else to earn) has multiple articles on EzineArticles. I suppose that sums up what EzineArticles is worth.

EFT tapping, it's stupid and pseudoscience

I came across this video the other day, after seeing an episode of Penn & Teller's bullshit where EFT tapping were covered: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCXsWRXHBSM (that basically sums up EFT tapping). Note the sheer irony of that video.

Later I found this article with the most misleading title ever, while trying to find resources pointing out the stupidity of EFT tapping. Since I mostly found more stupid miracle claims about EFT tapping while trying to find sensible opinions about it, I'm writing this post hoping that I can save at least one soul from its sheer stupidity. I feel that posts like this drowns in a sea of positive claims about EFT, and that more posts of this kind are needed.

I'll write it as a response to Audrey Finch's article linked above. Note how the article advertises some company or site called "Better Life 4u" after stating seemingly good things about EFT tapping.

So why do I even care? Because those darn things are advertised as therapies. From the article: "A lot of people are very sceptical [sic] about EFT as a therapy, but are soon convinced of its effectiveness."

There are real people out there, feeling bad, who are looking for helpful resources online. Instead of coming across more useful and more scientific resources, some people end up buying junk from "Better Life 4u" and the like instead of getting real professional help. It would be one thing if EFT tapping worked as claimed, but it does not.

Lets review the article (that I consider dangerous), shall we. Everything cited from hereon is from that article unless stated otherwise. Now, we don't even have to consult science (yet, but we will) for the article to look suspicious and raise a lot of eyebrows.

"EFT or eft tapping works by having the client tap various parts of their body while talking to themselves. I know, it sounds crazy when you put it like that, but I have seen it work time and time again."

Yes, it do sound crazy and you don't have any reason to believe that it 'works' (whatever that means) until you have reason to believe otherwise. Now, why should we believe that it works? Here are some claims of what it can do, and how it "works".

Here are all the claims I could extract from the article about what EFT do for you:

• "It can even be used to improve your golf game!"
• "Well, I think there are a couple of reasons why it works so effectively." Note the "Well, I think", that's very academic (not). This is a cite early from the article, where EFT is just claimed to work, as if that is a thing in 
• "[..] but it [doing EFT] is actually incredibly powerful [..]". Again a meaningless claim that means absolutely nothing. The sentence continues with another claim (yes it's not coupled with the former cite semantically):
• "[..] and it can often provide instant relief when everything else has failed.". 
• "All in all EFT is a safe, fun, holistic therapy which keeps on delivering amazing results.". What is it delivering really?

So there is only one actual claim here that makes sense at all (since context says nothing about what the other stuff means). It talks about relief. So EFT tapping can give us some relief? Well, what kind of relief is she talking about really? It sounds like a panacea, you can interpret it anyhow you like; "it relief my physical pain, it relief my emotional pain, it relief my urge to eat". Perhaps I just haven't understood what she really mean by relief, and are making a lot of hasty assumptions here. I should see what her website says first (sorry, I'm not going to link to a website like that, but you can google the phrase if you want the source or click the link in her article) "relief from pain, diseases and emotional issues". If you keep reading on that page, it seems like a miracle cure for pretty much anything. Hence, she IS advertising a panacea.

What's so nasty and sad about it, is that people WANT relief from things, some are desperate for it, and she's selling a fake cure for it (bear with me, I need to back that up). It's highly unethical. Those who gets caught in this trap are people in need for real help, or those who are desperate and wants to believe.

The physics of this super panacea is explained with the help of a bunch of straw man fallacies (a kind of logical fallacy, often abused), deliberately if you let me guess. This is how it works, according to the article:

"First of all, our mind, body and soul, or spirit, are connected. That means if you feel sad, your whole body feels sad. If you are angry, every part of you is angry. The second reason is that we are composed of energy which flows through us and which can sometimes get blocked."

That tells me absolutely nothing about why it works, but let's bear with her. First there's that metaphysical claim about mind, body and soul/spirit being connected. That still don't actually mean anything in general, but let's bear with her. Se says that it means that "if you feel sad, your whole body feels sad". Again, that actually doesn't mean anything. You can feel sad, but your body feeling sad, what does that actually mean? Let's just keep bearing with her.

Next she claims that we're composed of energy which flows trough us and which can sometimes be blocked. Alright, yet another nonsensical claim without any connections to reality. This vague "energy flow whatever" is actually a pseudotheory that has been tried to be proved multiple times, and it has never ever in any way passed any real scientific test. It lacks proof and it has been disproved. Altogether, it's also nonsensical. This nonsense is what she base the rest of her theory about how EFT works. We'll get back to that.

So, the article continues with a paragraph or two where she paints a general scenario about stress (where people can relate), about feeling bad and talks about emotions (I give the paragraphs and the nonsense that appears here and there an F- in empathy). There are some meager actual facts stated there too, such as that your digestion slows down when you're stressed. It also name drops 'flight and fight'. But overall it's nothing impressive (I give that small part an E-), I've seen better pre-school homework. Now, what I want to say here is that the 'flight and fight & stress' talk has absolutely nothing to do with EFT or the article in general. The paragraph is completely off-topic in the article and does not relate to the rest of the content in any way. But it tries to bind that paragraph with the nonsensical junk that it's trying to sell:

"[...] Your heart will beat faster, blood will flow to the main muscles [..] is prolonged these changes to do real damage to your body.

This is where the energy comes in. EFT proposes that throughout your life you are being impacted by events for good or bad. These experiences add to the 'writing on your wall'. In other words, your values and beliefs are formed by your experiences. These can cause a blockage, or a malfunction within your internal energy field."

Can you see how those two paragraphs relates to each other in any way at all? I certainly can't. I don't even see how "the energy comes in" there. How does it come in there?

I can't even bear with her anymore. But let's keep going anyway. After the energy "comes in", there's a lot of nonsensical rambling. That's what it is, it's nonsensical with no scientific ground whatsoever. It's starting to get really bizarre. But she has this extremely weird straw man of energies that she's been working with for a while, so how's it going to end?

"EFT tapping works by removing these blockages and has been described as acupuncture without the needles. By tapping one end of an energy line, you remove the blockage, allowing energy to flow freely. Proper balance is restored."

Even if that mumbo-jumbo were true, "proper balance is restored" makes no sense in the context of removing a blockade so that the 'energy can flow'. And tapping in the end of an energy line (yet again more nonsense even in the nonsensical context itself), that removes the blockade? How does she know all this? She keeps making up all this nonsense. She's not even a doctor, and even less a psychiatrist.

It's all just bullcake, and it looks stupid because it is. It's sad and it's abusive. I'm not even allowed to use the words I believe is appropriate for such misleading psybhaviorathy. It's crackpottery.

What do REAL psychologists and scientist have to say about EFT? Here's an abstract of a paper: http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/a0016025

And here's how someone sums up that very same paper on wikipedia:

"A 2009 review found "methodological flaws" in some research studies that had reported "small successes" for EFT and the related Tapas Acupressure Technique. The review concluded that positive results may be "attributable to well-known cognitive and behavioral techniques that are included with the energy manipulation. Psychologists and researchers should be wary of using such techniques, and make efforts to inform the public about the ill effects of therapies that advertise miraculous claims."

I also find the following extremely manipulative (near the end of the article before the panacea product is pushed up in your face). Yet again we're painting imaginary things with conviction and we're building hopes.

"However, EFT can bring traumatic memories and emotions to the fore, so treat it with respect. Careful questioning can be used to tackle deep-seated issues quickly, without the need for reliving past experiences."

Translation:

"With great power comes great responsibility, blah blah blah.. and this is professional stuff, professional careful quackery can quack quickly without quack BUT(!) --see I have a solution-- here's my professional opinion quack quack.. let's touch your sensitive spots a little you traumatized duck.. put your trust in me and my quackery, I'm a professional quack... your past experiences are part of this quackery".

Are Harry Potter and religion comparable? Fiction and religion

I just need to make myself clear before we begin. This is by no mean any attack against any group (especially not a specific religious group). I'm trying to take a completely objective and logical view on Harry Potter and the typical religious script and compare those two. If anyone is offended by that, they are not looking at it rationally but are projecting their own views (not mine) on this article. You are free to write a blogpost in response and criticize me, no one is being evil here, I'm just expressing what I sincerely believe without hating anyone (in this specific post). The following is my analysis, not my opinions (heck, I might even be a religious fanatic, it shouldn't make a difference). If something is wrong, it's a logical error, not an error in opinion. I'm trying to be rational here

Alright, so if you haven't read any Harry Potter books (or seen any of its movies), you'll learn what you need to know here anyway. In short: Harry Potter is a child of two wizards who died when he was a babie, and he's attending to a Wizard school (named Hogwart or something) where magic drama is happening as in any other typical wizard-high-school movie/book.

Here are some similarities between Harry Potter and the typical religious holy script:

• Both texts involves spectacular events and abilities. Harry Potter can fly with his broom and make things fly with his magic, and the characters in the scripts conducts spectacular miracles comparable with the things the characters in Harry Potter do.
• In both texts, physics as we know it is defied. No need to point out the [in my opinion absurd] differences between our experience of how the world really behaves, and how it work in Harry Potter. Similar law-defying physics appears to happen in the typical script too. None of the "miracles" in neither text can be demonstrated with an experiment/demonstration other than with illusions (magic tricks), CGI (computer-generated imagery), misunderstanding or with actual expected physical explanations (= non-magic / non-miracles .. e.g. taking antibiotics to get rid of a bacteria).
• Scripts often make two poles; believers and non-believers (in turn divided to deniers and agnostics). The believers are typically righteous and the agnostics/non-believers are typically "lost" (and will go to hell for that). In the world of Harry Potter a similar kind of dichotomy prevails: there are mugglers (non-magicians) and Wizards (magicians). The wizards are esoteric, and the mugglers don't have a clue about that esoteric stuff.
• There are the evil guys, and the good guys.
• Both contains subjects with super human powers, with no equals observed (concretely) in real life.
• You can curse or praise both texts (while holding them) as much as you want without experiencing any unexpected physical events caused by that. Your expectations and beliefs surrounding the text in question can however make you feel (thus experience) things - caused by psychology well known and explained in a rational and scientific manner.

Some last words. The list can be made much longer, but that's not the point of this post. The point is that I think they are comparable in many ways. You sure can compare many unrelated things, but as literary texts they match quite well. The similarities between Harry Potter and a book in theoretical physics or clinical psychology is however not as digestible as this comparison is. Further, the dissimilarities between fiction and a factual books are similar to the dissimilarities between holy scripts and factual books. As I said, this is not a matter of opinion but the result of callous analyses that I've done - if the results where strictly against any opinions of mine I'd have openly shared those conclusion.

Things that are wrong with, and good about Microsoft (and Windows)

Let me begin by stating what's good about Microsoft Windows on the desktop market. This point was only valid until recently (since there are more competitors now such as Chrome OS). Windows saves non-linux users from Mac OS / OSX (the OS of the devil). That's not a trivial thing. It's also an alternative to Linux for those who aren't that much into computers.

WinAPI (the windows programming application interface) isn't so bad either. Neither is DirectX API. They are both useful and sane.

The biggest problem with Microsoft are their endless patents. They try to take patents for everything they do which hinders technological development a great deal. Microsoft tried to patent XML once.

Troll hunters, stop feeding the trolls

On every online community, there are the trolls, and the troll hunters. I find them equally harmful. First comes the troll, who types silly stuff. Now, for each 1 entry the troll types, it's followed by 20 troll hunter entries. Not only do the troll hunter spam the community with a lot of pointless entries (yes, they're pointless.. why state the obvious), they do it in caps, they rant, they fill up large space with long posts, they create havoc by filling the community with massive amounts of PMs to mods and other users (telling the users that the trolls are trolls), they post spammy link in hope of tracking the troll or prove their point and so forth. Sometimes, a silly post is followed by pages of posts simply saying "troll" or "TROLL!!". Why post those posts when there already are 30-60 posts in a row consisting solely of that exact string?

Another problems with troll hunters is their paranoia. Take the anti-trollish behaviour above and apply it when people do:

• Pulling harmless funny jokes.
• Stating something controversial such as "I don't find any religion reasonable" or "I have an idea for intrinsic trinary-logic electronic components".
• Criticizing something, example "this software needs to enhance its usability a lot".
• there are more examples..

Those things can lead to an instant ban. I remember once when I, as the noob I were and had read a few things online about PHP, asked a PHP community whether PHP is insecure and what I can do about it. I got a flood of complains and an instant ban. When I confronted the moderator, he said that "your behavior came as trollish" (whatever that means). The ban was never lifted.

Trolls sometimes are a "cost" for the community, but equally so (if not more) are the troll hunters. Trolls thrive on these. Believing that you're "winning" over the troll is also very stupid: haha, I just banned that troll, and I gave him some pwning words before he got banned - no, you just fed it, you gave it its high and made it even more addicted to trolling.

Pleas just stop troll hunters, be quiet, you should be banned as well. You're trolls.

Drank Château Pétrus, my review

I had a fairly large glass of  Château Pétrus at work today (it's Saturday and all), it was my boss idea to let the team drink at work (the drink was on the house). Apparently, this is a very expensive and hard-to-get wine (I've read about it a lot now).  Perhaps our boss lied to us, but if not, I have something to say about it.

Now, this wine costs a lot. But it tastes no better than any other tasty wine. For being 50-100 times more expensive than some really good wines, you'd expect it to taste great. But no, it tastes 'red wine' and that's it.

I'm not saying that it didn't have a special taste, but there was nothing about it worth the price. You are paying for the process, even if the end product is yet another wine. What is wine anyway? Some sugar, yeast, grapes. It's disgusting if you ask me. I might be politically correct here, but that's what I think.

The only thing that makes me want to stop drinking forever, it not the fact that I just had some wine, but the fact that I had some really expensive wine. I find its prestige overrated, even though I understand what it's all about. But come on, grow up people :). You're adults.

Outspaced Dragon

HOWTO TOR + WINDOWS + IRC FREENODE/QUAKENET

If you want to connect to IRC via tor on windows, you follow this guide with the exception of step 1 and 2. Step 1 and 2 should on windows instead be performed as folllows:

1. Get TOR

Go to https://www.torproject.org/ and click download tor, then download tor bundle for windows.

After downloading and extracting it, you start it. You will get the TOR browser up and running eventually. If you close the browser, tor will also close. So in order to have tor running, you must not close the browser, just minimize it. You have now successfully started tor on windows.

2. Install hexchat

Download the latest hexchat for windows from their official website http://hexchat.github.io/downloads.html

HOWTO TOR + UBUNTU LINUX + IRC FREENODE

To keep some of the howto up to date, I'll link to some external sources. This is what's needed to be done:

1. Install TOR
2. Install hexchat, a TOR/sasl-friendly IRC-client
3. Configure hexchat
4. Add irc servers of interest to hexchat (special steps needed if the server is freenode)

1. Install tor

Here you go, here's an up to date guide https://www.torproject.org/docs/debian

2. Install hexchat

Add this PPA to your repository (site describes how) https://launchpad.net/~gwendal-lebihan-dev/+archive/hexchat-stable

Open up a terminal and type (this will install hexchat .. make sure you've added the PPA or you'll get an old version of hexchat that does not support certain things):

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hexchat

3. Configure hexchat

Once you've got both TOR and hexchat installed, you need to configure hexchat to connect via tor. That is simple, but there are also some privacy settings need to be set (if you care about that.. but feel free to skip all that if you don't care - so why did you want tor in the first place?).

1. Connect to any server (preferable 127.0.0.1 and fail) just to get the hexchat "main window" and its menu list. Go to settings->preferences->(network) Network setup and set the proxy server to 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Set type to SOCKS5 and Use proxy for: All Connections.
2. For privacy matters, make sure "Get my address from the IRC Server" is checked in the very same window. This shouldn't matter though as we're going to disable file sharing.
3. For pravacy matters, also mark "Use Authentication" and give the username and password some random letters; the only purpose of this is to give your IRC an ip-address (will be a proxy) that is different from all your other tor-ip addresses. So if you visit some sites with tor for example, that activity won't be as easily connected with your IRC activity.
4. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorifyHOWTO/XChat#CompulsoryXChatPrivacySettings do not follow that guide as it's outdated, irrelevant for us and more relevant to an outdated version of xchat (we are using the superior hexchat), be warned. But that's my source for step 5 below (in the link you can also read about why we're doing what we're doing). There is one thing I want you to do from that link however: it's the section Plugins and scripts to disable all plugins (quit hexchat before doing it). You should see it directly if you click on the link. Keep in mind that the xchat in those paths should be hexchat.
5. In the hexchat "main window" where you are able to type commands, enter the following things:
   
   /set dcc_auto_chat 0
   /set dcc_auto_resume OFF
   /set dcc_auto_recv 0
   /set irc_hide_version ON
   /set identd OFF
   /ignore *!*@* CTCP DCC
   /ignore * CTCP DCC
   
   /set irc_real_name user
   /set irc_user_name user
   /set irc_nick1 user
   /set irc_nick2 user_
   /set irc_nick3 user__
6. Go to setting->preferences->input box and set Nick completion suffix to :
7. Go to setting->preferences->general and clear the text boxes saying Quit, Leave Channel & Away
8. Uncheck both the Away options
9. Go to setting->preferences->File transfer and set "Auto accept file offers" to "Ask for confirmation"
10. Uncheck all three options "Send window", "Receive window" and "Chat window" under "auto open DCC window" if they aren't unchecked already.
11. Go to settings->'CTCP replies' and delete everything in that list. Save, and open the window again to make sure that they are gone.

4. Add freenode (or any other tor server) to hexchat

Go to the network list. Check "Show favorites only". Press add, call it freenode-tor or something (but not just freenode since a server with that name exists in the list already). Click favor (I assume it's marked now) so that it'll show in the list (favorites) next time you bring up the network list. Press edit to edit the server setting.

Fill in some nickname, Second choice and some real name. Now, here comes some server specific settings.

If you're connecting to freenode, you should set the Login method to: SASL (username + password) and you should set the username to your freenode username, and password to your password. You need a registered account on freenode to connect via tor, they require it. If you don't have one, you'll have to connect to freenode with a non-tor connection and register yourself via nickserv.

If you're connecting to, say, quakenet, which doesn't require authentication, you can just set the login method to default and leave the password field blank (I suppose the user field can be whatever and is ignored by some servers anyway).

One last thing left. The server addresses must be added. I'll explain this one for freenode, but it's the same for any other tor server. Simply add the .onion addresses from this page http://freenode.net/irc_servers.shtml to the servers list. No port should be given. If you're connecting to quakenet via tor, just use their irc.tor.quakenet.org/12345 address or whatever it is, they don't seem to know what they're doing with their .onion service (currently they've even given it a port.. which is kind of nonsensical). As stated (at this writing time) on freenodes link above, the onion addresses are sometimes full. In order to chose which one of those servers you want to connect to (so you can try them all), you open up the edit window for the freenode-tor server and mark the server you want to connect to. Click close and connect.

You're ready to connect.

I just lost all my money on poker

Whatever you do, don't play poker with money you can't afford to lose. I just lost hundreds of dollars ( that I can afford to lose though) by ruthlessly playing a game I barely understand yet, against professionals. What was I thinking?

The good part is that I get my salary soon, so I'll do fine as long as I don't play that game again.

Here's a tip for you if you ever consider getting into the same situation, or already are there: quit playing :p. Just stop. You've already screwed up and can't do anything about it. Start a new life. But whatever you, do not keep doing whatever you're doing.

I'm usually not this irresponsible, but I don't know what happened here. I snapped I suppose. Talk about consequences of ego-depletion.

Is Kharsek, Maurolkit, Hensh or Tidifen botting?

Tibia related article. If you don't know what that is or hate Tibia, now is the time to look away :p.

I just want to make a comment on and the players Kharsek, Maurolkit, Hensh, Tidifen and (also Dev onica). Their EXP levels are insane. They can't all have gotten those scores without using tibia bots. I suppose they use bots? Some of them appears to be playing as if they had no social life at all.

I'm not saying what they're doing is wrong, but scores like that and being on the top does not come naturally, they are surely sharing the characters and also botting some.

Disclaimer: I might be completely wrong about that! I don't accuse them for anything, I'm just speculating.

Must-have firefox privacy add-ons

Target advertising is a very effective way of making money by knowing who you are and what you do and what you like. In order to know a lot about you, you need to be tracked, or simply spied on (it's that fine printing that sometimes not even is there).

Luckily you can reduce the information collected by all kind of weird tracking companies. Of course, you're not escaping NSA or any of the other number of intelligence organization your data passes as it leaves your modem (especially your ISP technically knows all about you). But you'd be surprised if you knew how many obscure companies there is that have a profile over your internet activities (if you're previously unprotected and you check your cookies in your browser, you'll find countless of cookies belonging to companies actually tracking you, but that's another discussion). There are multiple ways of tracking an individual online, and "marking" an individual with cookies is one way. Example: for every site you visit that uses google analytics, your google cookie (which identifies you) will be recognized by google analytics and you'll be identified and logged by google as a visitor on that site with full details about what, how long, when and exactly where on that site you are surfing and a bunch of other details; you can even be watched in real time.

Some people don't like that, and especially not me since I've been in the intelligence field professionally during my military service off shore. I'm not bragging about it, I'm just saying that it's not in your interest to share your activities with every country that your data passes.. they log almost everything and can do pretty much everything. Your email has a copy on several places. Anyway, here are some things you can do to at least get rid of some nosy companies (some completely, some only partially):


DoNotTrack Plus
This addon is a good first step. It's not watertight, but gives you a glimpse on how the web tracks you. It blocks several tracking companies while you visit sites, without breaking any pages (happens extremely seldom if ever). Problem is that some few tracking companies slips trough (updated versions of google analytics for example - if that haven't been updated in the add-on yet).

Flashblock
This might not seem like a privacy add-on at first glance. This add-on blocks flash applications (and similar adobe products.. see link). Instead of the actual flash content, you get a clickable placeholder; if you click on that placeholder, the flash file is loaded. It's easy to whitelist sites (such as youtube) where you want to allow flash content automatically. If you have this add-on, you'll notice that some sites have hidden flash-placeholders that don't really do anything for the actual site content or site function. Flash can be used to track you (and other things), see the addon below.

BetterPrivacy
I suggest you click the link and read what I'd just repeat anyway. In short: flash can be used to store cookies that can't be removed by the browser; it's a sneaky way of tracking those who think they're safe by blocking regular cookies.

Adblock plus
This add-on not only blocks ads, but there's a filter you can install for it that blocks privacy-intruding content.

Facebook disconnect
Google disconnect
Twitter Disconnect
Those three disables cross-site request from any site to Facebook, Google and Twitter respectively. Even if you use, say adblock-plus with a privacy filter, images (like and share buttons) that are loaded from Twitter and Facebook via javascript and/or html also comes with a http-request to facebook saying: "hi, I want you to send me the like button as requested by example.com/how_to_quit_smoking". Even if no cookie is sent (which it could in a way if sophisticated javascript scrips are used to request that button), you can be recognized by both IP and your unique web browser signatures (they're all unique). Facebook has your personal profile+IP and every request like that can be associated with your profile, in theory (don't know if they actually do that).

Google/Yandex search link fix
When you click one of the search result links in a google search, it's destination changes right before that link is followed. If the link points to example.com, it will when you click it first change to a tracking url, something like this: www.google.com/track/search_was=your_search_id&clicked_link=this_link. That link logs your click and then sends you to the desired destination. That way, google knows which of the links in the search results you click. If you find that privacy intruding, this add-on prevents the links from switching like that.

Google privacy
This is similar to the add-on above, but not quite. It adds an additional optional link after google's search result link, leading to the actual page you want to visit instead of google's tracking url. You don't cancel the utility of the above add-on by installing this one. This one also works for facebook, youtube and some other sites: it adds an additional "privacy-respecting" link instead of the url-tracking one.

TrackMeNot
This one is quite gold. It queries google/bing and other optional sites for searches while imitating your browser (and sometimes even cookies). That makes it harder to make a profile of you as your real searches will be mixed with automated random ones (words fetches from various news sites). I suggest you click the link and read about it.

Https everywhere
This does indeed increase your security (and privacy) if you surf wirelessly. If you dislike the fact that the various countries that your data passes when routed trough the internet, logs your internet activity, this is a good choice for you. It encrypts your traffic to/from a whole bunch of sites by using technology already supported by your browser and the websites in question. What this add-on do is merely (sort of) changing the http:// to httpS:// in the URL-bar, meaning that you request a secure connection to the webserver. This is merely a layer of security/privacy and not waterproof.

RequestPolicy
This one cover some of the above add-ons. It disallows any cross-site requests (but I don't know about sophisticated javascript cross-site requests). As explained before, when a website wants you to contact another webserver (e.g. some adservice or photo server), that webserver 'B' knows that you're visiting the site 'A' who asked you to request content on server 'B'. Most of the times, 'B' don't care and don't log it explicitly unless it's a company with interest of building a profile of you.

Self destructing cookies
Just got this one, and I find it very interesting. I can't give any comments on it since I only have had it for a minute or so (and work are calling), but check it out.

Sometimes some new interesting add-on appears here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/privacy-security/

Cheers,
Outspaced Dragon

Indian support scammer + ReactOS

I got a weird call in the middle of the night from some stoned Indian "Microsoft tech support". With a stoned voice he said something like "hello sir, we've discovered some errors with your computer, do you have a Microsoft computer?". I was awake anyway and began to boot up a Windows Clone operating system (ReactOS) in a virtual machine (a sandbox computer if you like).

If you've heard about them before (check youtube) they ask you to open up harmless windows whereas they claim those things contains errors (which they don't). Anyway, I played along (although those windows doesn't exist in ReactOS) and eventually started to download some remote-help-tools they told me to install. Sadly, in the middle of the installation, the progress just froze. ReactOS was not compatible with those remote access tools. I kept playing along but the guy realized something was wrong when I never connected my computer to his. He just hung up on me. I suppose my tone of voice was a little too sarcastic so that it became obvious that I knew what was going on.

If you ever encounter these guys, don't attempt anything I did above (don't let them take control of your computer in any way.. just don't listen to them). But do waste their time by playing along (but don't touch your computer). The more time you waste of theirs, the more likely one potential victim does not have to get his/her life ruined.

Apparently, they make a lot of money with this scam according to an interview with a scammer of similar kind I found on youtube the other day.

Are One.com trustworthy?

One.com is a somewhat cheap web hosting service that I've used back in the days. I didn't dare to criticize them earlier since I had my website hosted there, but I've changed hosting provider and they are long gone. My experience with them has been terrible.

I find them inadequate and do not recommend them if you want to run a serious website. There are often technical problems with their servers and you can't customize anything really (it only appears so.. for example you can turn on/off PHP warning messages, that's not much of a customization). The live support really suck, they are often incompetent and penalizing. Apparently the live support can read your mail too.

When I wanted to change referrer I had to ask the support for the transfer-codes. That was nearly impossible and I really had to fight for it. Other registrars lets you do that automatically on demand, without  complaining.

I don't find them serious. They sure just care about getting their money, but for the love of god, give something back for that fee.

A warning is also this: they renew your website for another year (require an annual fee for it) if you don't explicitly cancel the account at the right time. If you forget to cancel the renewal, you'll have to pay for another year. And there's no way to turn that off - your only option is to shut down the account during a time window. You could open an account and then close the account the day after you opened it, to cancel the automatic renewal; but c'mon, that aren't working out.

I give them an F-.

Truly yours,
Outspaced Dragon

Who cares about gay-marriage! People are dying!

I was looking forward to an interesting political debate between two future candidates the other day. I was hoping to get some insight into their political views so that I can chose wisely when I do my voting-duty as a democratic citizen.

Apparently the most important topic for them was gay-marriage. I mean, we're in the middle of an economy heading straight down and some children can't even have cake. Religion wants to ban evolution theory in school, any complete homocidal nutcase with a 3D-printer will be able to print guns and crime rates in some cities are just insane. But no, let's discuss gay-marriage!

Why is that, why is it such an important thing to be against gay-marriage?

First of all, people care about what's most important to them emotionally, even if those emotions involves what people of the same sex do with each other (people they've never seen and never will see). Secondly, people don't understand the importance of other questions. I mean, if you dedicate a lot of time debating against gay-marriage, you're pretty stupid, brainwashed or religions. See the tautology there?

One thing that baffles me is also the lack of empathy in many of the anti-gay people. If you have some kind of empathy and some imagination, you could easily imagine a gay-couple with real emotions and dreams. They're being bashed as if they weren't humans, and as if they were evil (because god said so).

I think people should stand up for their rights, and that homophobic people needs to understand a few things even if they don't like it. But for the love of god, let's discuss the economy and REAL social issues instead. Gay-marriage-phobia is a bad symptom, but it's by no means an urgent issue. Feel free to debate though, start a demonstration. But don't bring it up for 5 hours between two potential future top candidates on national TV.

My thoughts on Defense Distributed's liberator pistol and Cody Wilson

There is this organization Defense Distributed founded by a certain Cody Wilson, that develop and distribute files for printable guns (you can print them in a 3D printer). Behind all this lies a philosophy about the right to defend yourself, or rather the right for everybody to have arms ("[..] as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, [..]" - defense distibuted's website).

Cody seems like a pretty darn nice guy, with good intents. However, let's just pretend that we don't know who's distributing those files and what their motives are for a while. I want to demonstrate some irony in the plan here. Let's say that you can download a complete gun via thepiratepay (can't be done yet), and simply 3D-print it.

Now, criminals and thugs would probably print, use and sell them in large quantities (if they're usable even) - it'll be cheap and easy one day. Kids and crazy people will also be able to get one of them, fairly easy. Damn it, you can download a gun. Who can't download stuff?

The great irony about enabling people to defend themselves this way, is that threats are created in the first place. And there are several treats created here that can't be defended with the very same tool, namely kids and others who gets them to play around with who are a threat to themselves.

This isn't even a suboptimal solution, it's a bad solution.

So, if we pretended that we don't know who's behind the distribution of such files, it could just as well be some evil guy. However, I want to be clear on the point that I don't believe that the organization is evil, but I just think what they're doing is a bad idea.

Sooner or later this would happen anyway, and perhaps it's better that those "good" guys (they are, right? I'm certain their intents are good, no doubt about it) are doing it than someone else - the tool is being advertised differently (but does it matter?).

As I said, I think Cody is a good guy. But I'd rather see them spend their time creating some anti-assault tool for women or something more constructive while they're at it.

Wikihow, about.com et al sucks badly, it's internet pollution

So, you suddenly got curious about howto shave properly, or howto fish or whatever. You use the biggest information source known to man a.k.a. the internet and types "howto X" into your favorite search engine. More likely than not, you'll get results from wikihow, about.com, wikia and other so called content-farms.

Now, the problem is that those sites in general are CRAP. The articles are written by people who don't know anything about the subject. The quality is so low that it becomes directly dangerous to human health. There are for instance articles about depression that gives you 10 steps to handle your depression. Those steps are not actually steps, but arbitrary recommendations for what to do when you're depressed. But sites like that are not actually helping. For instance, I came across an article about depression during research for this article (sorry, I don't want to link to those terrible websites) where meditation is one of the steps. Meditation might or might not help, but it's really far down in the priority list of needed actions for someone depressed. If you read a professional self-help website (provided by state-founded organizations) you realize how extremely depressing the wikihow (et al) articles are.

Perhaps a depression related wikihow article might be to "some" help for someone for some reason, but the sad part is that wikihow (and others) outranks more usable resources in google's search result.

I think those sites should be deindexed from all search engines, seriously. They piss me off.

Facebook + NSA = true; Don't use it();

Joe, a head chief within the NSA burps a little as he passes trough the server hall of Facebook's head quarter. He smacks Mark Zuckerberg on the butt and asks whether the spy reports are ready. Zuckerberg giggles. "Yes sire :3, here's all the private information about that neighbor Lars of yours you asked for". Joe gives Zuckerberg a lollipop and tells him that he has been a good dog. "Off you go now, little you :3" Joe says as he gives Zukerberg another push on the bum.

The report contains private messages between his neighbor Lars and that cross dresser that Joe secretly is so in love with. Joe has to monitor his every move, understand his routines, and puzzle the pieces together as he has learned in the CIA intelligence school.

Soon after that, Joe gets married. This is how it all started, but not really. Why are you acting so surprised?

Here are some interesting facts and personal experience as an intelligence officer (nothing fancy though). Throughout history, intelligence has been a vital mean for decisions and actions. It's an art that adapts to technology. What's being done now has pretty much always been done, at least for the past 100 years, and there are no exceptions in the timeline during that time. Intelligence organizations spy, it's what they do, and most of it goes unknown to the public. All this time, citizens has been no exception of intelligence interests.

You are living in a dream world if you believe that everything you do on Facebook won't be stored "forever". It's your diary right there, and CIA or NSA want to store that information. It's not surprising or shocking at all, it's not even evil, it's just what they do. It's their job. It's the nature of such an organization. For every intelligence organization there is, this type of behavior evolves with it "naturally", just like any military organization evolves to a killing machine (otherwise it wouldnt be what it is anymore).

Now, this NSA thing is a hot topic, so I just want to say this. Yes, they ARE reading and storing your diary, there is absolutely no question about it. You shouldn't let them, therefore you shouldn't use Faceook. Find new means of interaction. What about seeing each other IRL or talking to each other in the phone? Use a damned fake name on Facebook, talk about sensitive things privately via phone instead. Find other means of communications perhaps. And for the love of god, stop posting your duckface pictures on facebook, nobody cares, it makes Joe at NSA laugh.

Please stop littering our planet

I just found out about the Great Pacific garbage patch. That's where all solid plastic and junk we litter in the sea end up, circulating endlessly. If you go there (like VICE did ), you'll be able to pick up large chunks of plastic bags and other junk right in the middle of the open ocean. And that's just what's on the surface. 70 percent of the plastic thrown into the ocean sinks to the bottom according to greenpeace. The Great Pacific garbage patch contains 3 million tons of waste in an area of the size of Texas doubled (I might be wrong there but it's still serious nonetheless).

Some plastics contains chemicals harmful for animals and humans. Some or most plastic types aren't broken down or neutralized by nature. Small plastic bits of this type gets eaten by fishes and will eventually end up in your food supply.

So what's the problem with discarding waste wherever?

This won't affect us directly in the coming decades. But as we keep doing whatever caused the current litter, it builds up. That balloon or plastic bag you released into the air ends up somewhere in the ocean. As garbage discarding companies dumps waste into the ocean, or buries it wherever in the country side, the planet gets less and less inhabitable and less of a pleasant place. Future generations will pay for what we're doing with the planet and what those before us has done.

As manufacturing technologies gets more effective, the buildup of garbage only accelerates. But things doesn't necessarily have to get worse, right? We can fix this, can't we? We sure have the knowledge to make great environmental adaptations to our lifestyles. In Switzerland for example, it's illegal to NOT recycle your garbage, and shops may only offer "plastic bags" made of some kind of corn material. Food can become fertilizers and apparently Sweden has some technology that could replace the use of fossil oil. Well, there's just a few problem.

First of all, few actually cares. For every neighborhood recycling their stuff, there are plenty of others doing the opposite. Few seems to have any conscience for outright littering anywhere. If most disposable materials (such as packages) where nice to the environment, it would to at least some extent make people less harmful to the environment in their littering. But what politicians (except in Switzerland) would push such a policy? Even when the people in Italy are demonstrating against the mafia that via political contacts takes care of much of the countries garbage disposal, the politicians are too busy counting their bribes. Few have the power to make global change via laws and policies, but they are full of wealth and doesn't care - there are other priorities, sometimes even conflicting with the well being of those paying their salary.

You can do your part (recycle, shop with a conscience), and you can try to enlighten others about the environmental problems (since it's probably not taken seriously anyway). But I don't think we'll fix any problems until it's overwhelming and affects is directly (and especially affects those in power). So, we're pretty much screwed and any resistance is futile.

What sways our actions and policies are currently greed, laziness and self interests rather than environmental thinking and a consciousness or care for a future sustainable world with well being people. We are all responsible.