Libertarian Chimpanzee

Cleaning up WordPress Infections

2011-12-30T13:28:00.003+11:00

So, a WordPress site I have admin rights to has had a few virus infections lately, and I only just cleaned up one that's been hounding me for a month or so today. Thought I throw down a blog post about what you should target while fixing one up. WordPress has proven to be very vulnerable to attack on our host, so I've become quite seasoned at knowing where to look, but I missed something in my last run through.

One of the first things you can do is delete ALL unused plugins and themes. This reduces your attack surface by a considerable amount, and also gives you a cleaner admin panel. It's very tiring to remove 40 odd themes by hand, so if a WP core developer is reading this PLEASE limit the amount of themes you include.

The next is a simple mechanical check to makes sure everything is ok.

One nice little feature of WP is the ability to re-install it with a click of a button without destroying your content. Check the files in the root install directory, and if they have an obfuscated eval function call (looks something like eval('jdiufd88u783djhf9cu2i392839289wej');. This will vary across different infections), hit that re-install button immediately
Next, some infections will hit the database, though this is rare. There is a plugin called Exploit Scanner that will check for dodgy looking stuff in the DB for you. Only mess around with the stuff in here if you know for a fact it's malicious
The final place to check is your .htaccess file. The last infection I had had rewrite conditions that checked for referrals from Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Simply delete anything in here that doesn't belong. The default .htaccess looks like


RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

I think I've covered everything WP specific in a broad sweep here, so if something's missing let me know. Happy new years, people!

Why be 'humane' to the illegal arrivals in the country, but treat the legal ones like shit?

2011-11-30T13:56:00.001+11:00

Well, my Burmese friend is having trouble getting her PR visa. This comes as the people who arrive here illegally are held up as examples of good human beings by people like the Greens and bleeding heart groups like GetUp! as examples of how we are horrible people. We don't treat them nearly as bad as the people who come here legally, though.

Lynn came over 5 years ago to do her degree in IT and Electronic engineering. The whole time she's been here, she's worked to pay her student and living fees, along with the extortion that goes along with holding a Burmese passport. Not only is she smart, she's a DAMN hard worker and one of the sweetest and most caring people I've ever met. However, none of this counts for shit to our government. Her visa has almost run out and she's staring at deportation in a few months because she can't find a skilled job in Canberra without being a citizen (security clearance for the public service jobs and such).

Then it comes out that the highest rate of employment of these "refugees" is 34% among those that come from Sri Lanka, while as many as 94% of Afghans live off our welfare system. I know at least some of them will have had a hard life, but that's no excuse to slack off.

Maybe we should start concentrating on the people that come here because we offer them the opportunity to work for their own benefit, rather than allowing the queue jumpers in that have nothing to offer other than welfare dependency, religious segregation and violence.

State of the Tech Industry

2011-10-25T15:33:00.003+11:00

This job posting I found sums it up nicely

If someone's a Linux guru, chances are they don't use MS Word. Try again, assholes

Chemtrails are Bullshit

2011-10-20T01:49:00.000+11:00

The occupy protests are bringing out the conspiracy morons. I retweeted a photo of an idiotic banner at the Occupy Brisbane protests

Ok, seriously, what? I say a very big yes to GM food, supply fluoride, vaccines and hydraulic fracking. The carbon tax, not so much... But the chemtrails really got to me.

I may not have studied much chemistry, but it doesn't take much to wrap my head around combustion. There's energy in fuel, and when you burn it it forms new bonds that release energy. In the case of jet fuel, this comes from the hydrocarbons' high energy bonds breaking with a small spark and reforming to produce water, carbon and carbon monoxide/dioxide. However, some people just don't quite grasp this and seem to think that it's all gone once you burn it, ergo the contrails must have mind/weather control chemicals in them.

To them I say, you're retarded. Seriously, go boil a jug of water and look at the steam. Same thing is happening when the hot water touches the cold air on the outside of planes, it condenses back to a liquid. Have a look at this

Those are coming out of the exhaust of prop engines on a B-17. It's not exclusive to jets.

People that buy into this lie need to go back and learn this stuff. I may think that a lot of politicians have ulterior motives, but I don't spout my mouth off about it because, quite frankly, I have absolutely no verifiable proof and I know it. I may doubt Julia needed to introduce the ETS to get the Greens on board, I may think the green energy industry has far more clout than they deserve and I may think that certain members of the upper house have a red agenda, but without hard proof, I'm not going to the rooftops to scream "J'ACCUSE" like a person that full on believes these kinds of conspiracy theories.

Just chill the hell out and educate yourselves, especially you fuckwit, watermelon environazis that hate GM for absolutely no reason.

How to Drive like a Canberran

2011-10-16T19:04:00.000+11:00

It has come to my attention during Floriade that some people simply have no idea how to drive in the ACT and blend in the locals. Here I'm going to present the flower gawkers with a few simple rules to blend in with the natives.

Learn to use roundabouts. Going around them more than once is counterproductive
Park away from the city and ride the bus during Floriade. It's easier than finding a spot in the city and there's a stop right in front of where you need to be
This is Parkes Way:
AKA A MAJOR FUCKING ROAD WITH A BICYCLE PATH. I saw a couple of cars with NSW parked in said bicycle path. Seriously guys....

If you haven't guessed by now, I was just kind of annoyed about seeing people parked there. You should really know better....

The Australian Occupy Movement

2011-10-16T18:20:00.001+11:00

Ok, what?

I mean, seriously, what?

These people just move in and squat in a public park, and then make noise about how shit their life and the rest of the world is. I was blinded when I looked at a photo because there was so much white, middle-classery happening. How many of these people have degrees and should know better? Moreover, how many people have jobs? Those of us who WORK to better our situation before crying foul are rubbing our eyes in disbelief.

The absolute cherry on top of the pictures coming out were the ones where someone was holding a banner saying "End Capitalism" in one hand, while enthusiastically tweeting or texting from an iPhone in the other, all the while sporting the newest Nike or Adidas sneakers.

As a 22 year old, I can appreciate the feeling of being part of something bigger. I had the chance at a Young Liberal AGM a couple of months ago, where I helped keep the secular conservative... faction? not sure how you'd describe it.... in the executive. But come on guys, 99% of Australia isn't getting screwed. You guys may not earn the amount of money you'd like to, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't live within your means.

I live in a comfortable share house, own a car, can afford to have a pub dinner with a beer or two every week and cook myself decent food, while still managing to put some money away into the savings account, so when people that look around my age and dressed in nice clothes start complaining about their situation, I'm really skeptical when they say they are actually doing something to make themselves better. I'd accuse them of stupid life choices and fiscal irresponsibility, but our system here in Australia doesn't really leave room for that, so I'm left just wondering what the hell these people think they can achieve.

All in all, I think they are just bored hipsters with nothing better to do. When you're done whinging about how you don't have an XBox, maybe you should start browsing Seek for a job.

Abusing Web Interfaces Exposed By Shitty Applications

2011-09-20T08:59:00.000+10:00

So, we're using a big ticketing application in the IT area (OMG OWLS! Gimme a bag), and quite frankly it's shit. It's slow, complicated, and provides nothing in the way of useful statistics. I fight and struggle with support, who seem completely unable to admit that something is a server problem. One memorable exchange was when I provided them with an IIS stack trace about a malformed SQL statement, only to be told to clear my cache, add the server to my trusted sites and run the provided application as an administrator (why they provide one is anybody's guess. It's a web application...). Client errors are very rare in a web application unless your developers are incompetent, guys! >:/

The good thing, though, is that I can pull out the data I want by calling an XMLRPC interface. At first I was trying to abuse it with a Java or C# application, but I eventually realised it was far easier to use a bash script with curl and sed to do a replace on the tokens in an XML file.

So, this is my plan:

Rip data from app server
Transform returned XML into something useful, maybe SQL statements, with an XSLT document
Insert those into a DB
Use PHP to gather MEANINGFUL data and also provide some nicer and more useful reports
???
PROFIT

Hopefully (and I'm going to review the developer agreement to make sure I'm allowed), I'll be able to clean it up before I finish up here and GPL the stuff to save anyone else going through the hell I have with this. As I said, it's just a collection of BASH scripts, hopefully I can help anyone else in the same situation I was in and stop them getting the run around from support.

Oh, and if you haven't guessed by now, I'm not going to name the company. I don't like to shit talk about the smaller vendors, and they haven't annoyed me enough yet to make me publicly disclose a raft of issues I've found in the application and problems I've had with their support team.

Moving to Melbourne!

2011-09-01T11:47:00.004+10:00

So I had a talk with my boss this morning, he acknowledged that I'm doing a degree in software engineering and that the company I'm with right now do that. He told me that I could continue working here, but that it might be time for me to start looking elsewhere for some jobs more suited to what I'm interested in.

I couldn't keep the massive grin from appearing on my face.

I made up my mind a couple of months ago that I was going to live in Melbourne one day, I didn't think an opportunity would come up so soon! So, while I have nothing holding me down here, I'm going to start applying for jobs down there in the hopes they'll take me in after I graduate. I'm so damn excited and happy right now, I can't concentrate. I want to start applying for everything on Seek, pulling out the Herald Sun and flicking through it.... Argh! So excited! :D

Outlook woes

2011-08-26T07:57:00.002+10:00

So, it comes down to this. Outlook decided to corrupt itself. The mail icon has become a blank page, and Outlook itself refuses to open. How on EARTH does something like that happen in this day and age of fault resistant file systems?

I'm sick to death of the random crap it does. I found out the other day that it talks to explorer.exe to lock files for it, when it inevitably crashes you can't blow away the mail profile without rebooting. Another annoying thing it does is repairing. You can't 'just' reinstall Outlook, the entire Office suite has to be reinstalled with it. How the hell do you screw up your software designs so badly that you need to resort to doing shit like that???

Congratulations, Microsoft. Your software has reached a new level of shit.

Zimbra Connector for Outlook: My Problems and the Solution to Them

2011-06-01T11:27:00.005+10:00

Zimbra Connector for Outlook is a plugin that aids Outlook in utilising all the features of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite. The way it does this is by creating an adapter layer of the top of the Microsoft MAPI libraries which talks to the various HTTP interfaces exposed by the server.

The setup is reasonably simple, requiring only a small amount of intervention…. Normally.

The profile setup (at least in our office) is notorious for “Failing to authenticate with the Zimbra server”, being “Unable to open ZDB folder” and flat out crashing Outlook 2010. We believe that this is due to the connector originally being written for 32-bit Office 2007, which means unintended side effects of using the similar (yet updated) MAPI interface in 2010. This is compounded by the fact that MAPI is C++ only, and has no managed interface, making it harder to debug and modify.
Quite simply put, even though I love Zimbra, the Outlook connector is crap (by no fault of the developers, I have looked at the MAPI library documentation and they are one of the most convoluted and redundant things I’ve ever seen!), Outlook is crap, and that putting these two together just makes one bigger ball of crap. The technology either needs to be ZCS using Zimbra Desktop or the web interface, or Outlook and Exchange. There isn’t a huge amount of wriggle room in this. While the connector is a kludge to get around this, there is no denying you need to use a streamlined set of tools for mail to work effortlessly. Our current situation is that everyone (bar the sysadmins and office administrator who think it’s bloated, feature poor and slow) is too scared to move from Outlook (they think they’ll “lose their settings and mail”). So we’re forced to have a heterogeneous environment, which, as any sysadmin can tell you, can cause huge problems.

One thing we have found, though, is that for whatever reason, all the problems seem to stop when you turn on debugging. This generates huge logs and slows everything right down if left on, but turning it back off after setting up the user profile seems to ensure the correct functioning of the system.

To do this, follow the steps below:

Install the connector with all the default settings
Turn on debugging

Rub ZCOLogCtl.exe
Tick the “Enable Logging” box
Hit OK

Do the user profile set up as per normal

NOTE: If you are using folder redirects and roaming profiles, make sure you don’t store the ZDB file in the profile and put it on a redirect, e.g \\fileserv\Redirects\chimp\Documents\Zimbra

Turn off debugging

Open ZCOLogCtl.exe
Untick the “Enable Logging” box
Hit OK

I have no idea why this works, but the following problems seem to disappear when you do it:

Unable to authenticate against Zimbra server with a legitimate password
Persistent crashing at start up when profile configuration stops halfway
“Unable to open ZDB folder: permission denied” in the user’s own Documents folder

In summary, I hope this helps you avoid the many days of frustration we experienced after rolling out the network edition of Zimbra. If you want my advice, tell people to suck it up and use the web interface and install Zimlets such as Templates and Address Book clean up

Why I Don't Care That I'm Single For The Second Valentine's Day In A Row

2011-02-13T22:09:00.003+11:00

Valentine's day.

I went to a pub dinner with couple of mates this evening. Obviously, this came up as it's only a day away. Both of them were a little bummed because they were single. I was the only upbeat one. Why? Quite frankly, I'm at a crossroads in my life. I've had to make the choice recently: romance or my own happiness. I took the tough decision and have withdrawn myself from the dating realm from the time being.

I know, for a guy my age it would seem weird to just stop caring about sex and women, but I've decided my crazy needs to be channeled elsewhere.

Basically, my life up until this point has been defined by stupid moments, often fueled by alcohol or various other things. I don't want that anymore. I've decided to take up a few other hobbies and see how it all pans out for me. I've chosen Kung Fu and Parkour, hoping I can drive up my fitness for the first time in my life and maybe become less of a one trick pony. I know this won't solve much, but I'm only after maintaining my happiness and self respect, both of which I worked to gain back last year after having it completely stolen from me. I suppose that might be part of the reason why I've stopped giving a shit about Valentine's day, but hey, at least I'm not moping about it.

But anyway, tl;dr, I'm too awesome to be brought down by such trivial shit. I discovered a long time ago that the only person that can make me happy is me. I can't trust the most important part of my emotional health to someone else, only I can maintain it.

Enough disjointed rambling

Put it there, bro. You're too good for her. Keep being awesome, even if the rest of the world is too stupid to notice it

Darky's Rom

2011-02-03T20:43:00.002+11:00

I know I said I'd do some Android programming blog posts, but you know what? I can't be fucked. Work has been hectic lately, I just don't have the energy.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick plug for a custom rom I just put on my phone named "Darky's ROM", after the XDA user that created it, Darkky.

Anyhow, this has made my phone fly! I showed it to my housemate (who had been very disappointed with his Galaxy S) and he was shocked that I'd gotten rid of the lag completely. Some of the features are:

Voodo
Froyo
Removal of most of the Samsung crap
Packaging in of lighter apps

I really can't exaggerate how fast it is. You know how an iPhone has smooth animations? Well, my phone has that now. But I have live wallpapers and speech input built in. Jelly, Applefags?

Anyhow, it still blows my mind how simple it was to install (well, simple from a geek's perspective. A newbie might be a bit overwhelmed). I couldn't do this so easily with my E71, and I've heard of the pain of jailbreaking an iPhone to achieve this kind of customisability. I fucking love Android.

Well, enough rambling. More interested in letting the web know I'm still alive, at least for now. You can grab Darky's Mod from here and find an in depth install tutorial here

New Phone, Bitches! :D

2010-12-02T10:33:00.004+11:00

So, my old Nokia E71 crashed completely (I couldn't make a call or send a txt without it locking up >_<) the other week and I got myself a Samsung Galaxy S. Let me give you my first impressions and what I've done with this phone.

First of all, the thing is sleek. I mean sleek. It's got a very thin frame and doesn't weigh much at all. The screen is huge and shows colours in amazing depth.

However, my initial amazement at this phone was tainted by the lagginess it displayed while opening apps for me. It took forever, for example, to open up my GMail application. I found out quickly that this is because of some dickhead at Samsung thinking "wow, FAT is a pretty good file system. IMMA ADD JOURNALING!" and using the Robust FAT File System (RFS) on all its Android devices rather than using the built in and far superior Ext4 file system. This has been fixed multiple times around the web, Voodoo being the solution that most got me going. I also had to flash Froyo onto my phone, as the 2.1 system, as good as it was, does not have some of the JIT optimizations. This was when I tried to install Voodoo on my phone as well, but it crashed it :( I had to reflash the phone with stock firmware. I ended up using the OCLF available from here.

Now that I had my up to date phone, I set about trying to make my life a bit easier. I've forwarded ports on my router to allow shell access and have written the following script to send me my IP every hour:


#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import smtplib
import mimetypes
from email.MIMEMultipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.MIMEBase import MIMEBase
from email.MIMEText import MIMEText
from email.MIMEAudio import MIMEAudio
from email.MIMEImage import MIMEImage
from email.Encoders import encode_base64
import commands

fromaddr = 'fromaddr@gmail.com'
toaddrs  = 'toaddr@gmail.com'
text = commands.getoutput("curl http://checkip.dyndns.com/")

msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg['From'] = fromaddr
msg['To'] = toaddrs
msg['Subject'] = "IP scrape"
msg.attach(MIMEText(text))

# Credentials (if needed)
username = 'myGMailUsername'
password = 'myGMailPassword'

# The actual mail send
server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com:587')
server.starttls()
server.login(username,password)
server.sendmail(fromaddr, toaddrs, msg.as_string())
server.quit()

This little guy scrapes a DynDNS provided site and tells me my IP in an email. I've just dropped it in /etc/cron.hourly for the time being. I'm going to use it while I'm away visiting my family next week to keep my torrents going. How does this have anything to do with my phone? Why, glad you should ask.

Transdroid is an awesome little application that lets you connect to BitTorrent daemons running on a remote machine. I've set up my box on here and can add, remove, shape and in general just manage the shit going on on my desktop! The ultimate nerdgasm occurred when I realised I could do this, but to be honest if there was no application like this available I would have written it myself, but hey, I'm happy right now!

I can also recommend the following apps:

Angry Birds - Cool little game where you pelt pigs with birds
Favorite Recipes - Searches thousands of recipes for you based on ingredients you have
ConnectBot - SSH utility
Google Sky Map - Match up the stars over your head with a star map
Bartender - A collection of drink recipes

I'm going to figure out how to program this sonmabitch and probably blog a bit on it later. 'Til then, suck shit because you don't have this phone :D

Addendum to why I hate eclipse

2010-11-23T12:54:00.001+11:00

So, it's lunch time. I have no food. Fuck your time wasting ways, IBM

I. Fucking. Hate. Eclipse.

2010-11-22T20:51:00.003+11:00

Eclipse is faggotry incarnate. I just tried to install the Android ADT plugin into Eclipse, turns out the have a module missing in the openSUSE build of the only IDE which seeks to rape me in my sleep.

I looked it up, and apparently "equinox" is the update manager, which one would believe would be a core component of the system. Nope. Just more faggotry for me to deal with. It doesn't even come with update repos configured. I mean, WTF?

Gah, where are the Nbandroid developers? You guys rocked that shit harder than a gagging virgin.

Oh, also, shit is so disorganised in your GUI. Software updates under "Help"? Who was the MENSA applicant who thought of that?

IBM, please fix your shit.

UPDATE: Look what I found after an hour and a fucking half of searching. STOP HIDING SHIT YOU ASSHOLES

SEE THIS SHIT? STOP IT!

2010-10-19T10:45:00.002+11:00

Fucking weeaboos:

yo wat's up, hap a halla from ****** y'all! Wow, I can't beat the authentic jigger. Sorry.
Anyway, how about Thursday at 11? Wanna meet in the yukari no ma? :)

Every time I see stuff like this, I throw up a little inside. Please do not mix in Japanese with English, even if you're correct I will want to punch you.

Random Thoughts

2010-10-06T00:36:00.003+11:00

Imagine, for a moment, that you are atop a large bluff, overlooking vast scrubland littered with eucalypt trees all the way out to the horizon. The wind smoothly caresses your hair as you gaze upon this natural beauty, and you hear the calls of magpies off into the distance and squint as the sun causes a winding brook to glisten in the afternoon warmth.

How did you get to this point? Maybe you walked, trekking up kilometres of steep bush tracks. You may have even leaped out of a plane to get here. The point is, at this moment, you are taking in the surrounds in their full glory.

Why does this description invoke thought patterns such that you visualise all this? How does language invoke such powerful imagery? Does the mind need to be in a receptive state in order to be willing to view all this? I'm curious lately as to how language can affect the mental perception of the listener. I can say exactly the same thing using different words and not invoke such a vivid image, why is that?

Maybe we as humans are hardwired to respond to this, as means to help us find food, mates or suitable living spaces. Maybe we just place way too much emphasis on writing. I really have no idea. Just a random thought :/

Naughty Security Practices in Websites

2010-09-22T13:35:00.004+10:00

Oh dear. It appears I've signed up for a site with dodgy security policies.

I got a news letter in my inbox similar to the following:

Hi! This is the ****.com newsletter for September, 2010.

**Marketing crap**

------------

Your login ID: *****

Your password: **password in plain text**

Oh deary deary me, what were they thinking? I ran a quick little check and found an SQL injection in the login page as well, just goes to show why you should hire engineers like me who actually KNOW about security to build this kind of thing. Sorry guys, you dun goofed!

I sent in an error report and will update this post if I hear anything back from them

UPDATE: I got an email back saying "Thanks, I'll give this to our programmer". Better than nothing, I suppose...

You brat!

2010-09-21T18:58:00.003+10:00

So, I'm going to compile a list of fun names to call people. This won't be things like "motherfucking asshole", but just the fun ones you can use on randoms without getting punched. Let's go:

Dork
Nerd
Klutz
Imp
Troublemaker
Drunkie
Ditz
Brat (fucking Bratz dolls ruined this one >_<)
Munchkin
Preppy
[Damn/Spoiled] child
Wuss
Sop
Crybaby

I'll need to add more later, no one is really helping me. Leave a comment if you can think of one I've missed :D

Tourettes.py

2010-09-08T18:19:00.004+10:00

So, I made a really stupid little script that will spam all the users in a *NIX system:


__author__="TheMetalChimpanzee"
__date__ ="$Sep 8, 2010 8:35:56 PM$"

import ConfigParser
import random
import time
import sys
import os

#Configuration file path
configPath = "./properties.conf"

#wall command with format tokens
osWallCmd = "echo {0} | wall"

def main():
   #Set flags to false
   debug = False
   daemon = False

   #Go over command line arguments
   for arg in sys.argv:
       if arg == "-d":
           debug = True
       if arg == "-daemon":
           daemon = True

   #Set up our configuration dictionary
   config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
   config.read(configPath)

   #If daemon flag is set, damonize
   if daemon:
       if os.fork() != 0:
           print "Daemon flag set. Daemonizing..."
           exit(0)


   #Set up other configuration items
   minInterval = int(config.get("numbers", "minSwearInterval"))
   maxInterval = int(config.get("numbers", "maxSwearInterval"))
   swears = config.items("swears")

   if debug:
       for (name, val) in swears:
           print "{0}={1}".format(name,val)

   #Create our random object
   rand =  random.Random()

   #Enter the main loop
   while True:
       #Grab out a random curse
       (key, val) = rand.choice(swears)

       #Run the wall command
       os.system(osWallCmd.format(val))

       #sleep for a random amount of time
       time.sleep(rand.randint(minInterval, maxInterval))


if __name__ == "__main__":
   main()

properties.conf:


[swears]
#This section details the things to spam. The key can be anything you want
one : Motherfucking cock shit
two : Ass lobster
three : Shit for brains
four : Piss face

[numbers]
#The maximum interval in seconds to wait before sending another message
maxSwearInterval : 20
#The minimum interval in seconds to wait before sending another message
minSwearInterval : 10

Very simple, but deployed in the right spot it could be very annoying

Labor Wins

2010-09-07T17:03:00.003+10:00

Well, looks like the Labor punks have got another term. CentreBet is calling odds of $1.80 that we'll be back to the polls before the end of next year. What I love about this is that if there is one unpopular policy, Joolya is going to be massacred. Maybe she'll behave, not likely though. I'm looking forward to seeing Labor lose a shit ton of seats at the next election :)

Buffer Overflows: What they are, How People Exploit them and How to Remove Them From Your Code

2010-08-11T15:38:00.014+10:00

Buffer overflows are one of the oldest scourges in secure programming. A buffer overflow occurs when a buffer (usually an array holding a string) overruns the memory allocated for it. This is exploitable if you can overwrite the return instruction pointer with a memory location pointing to a malicious function or instruction. Mostly, these will just cause a denial of service and crash the program, but they can also lead to an elevation of privilege or (if worst comes to worst) arbitrary code execution.

A simple-ish exploitable program looks like this:


#include<stdio.c>
#include<string.h>

void print_it(char* arg)
{
 char buf[128];
 strcpy(buf, argv[1]);
 printf(buf);
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
 int i;
 for(i = 1; i < argc; i++)
   print_it(argv[i]);
 return 0;
}

The way you would exploit this to cause a denial of service would be to pass in a buffer greater than 127 characters long in one of the arguments (a string in C needs a null byte at the end). This would overrun the buffer and probably (depending on the security in the OS) crash the program. A way you can prevent this from happening is to check all input, such as using "strncmp" and "strncpy" instead of the traditional "str" calls. This is just a short blog post because I'm procrastinating. Enjoy it.

The Joy of Student Union Elections

2010-08-04T12:42:00.002+10:00

Well, it's come to that time of year at ye olde university. It's time to elect union members.

Me, being the dashingly handsome and intelligent man I am, got myself involved with one of the political clubs on campus, and as a result have managed to get dragged into leafleting, postering and general eavesdropping on the other major candidates. I must ask why this is so important, the main points I can boil this year's election down to are:

They want to extend the already aging union building
We don't

Being a member of the right leaning campus faction has its interesting points. We are seen as the Hitler youth by a lot of the others, despite the fact most people on campus seeming to be rather liberal anyway. I suppose when you get the occasional bombing of republican discussion with some of our own singing "God save the Queen" you tend to get a fair bit of flak.

However, it doesn't seem to be hurting our campaign for the union much at all. I suppose that's a good thing, but my apathy has reached fever pitch now, and I simply just don't give a crap anymore, especially with the looming federal election. Meh, oh well. See how it goes :/

What I've Learned Over the Past 7 Months

2010-07-28T13:06:00.002+10:00

This year has presented me with a few interesting challenges, most of which I've been able to take away and learn from. There are still a couple I don't understand why it happened or how I can prevent it in the future, but meh, oh well. Here's the list:

Don't trust brat ex girlfriends to give a shit about you or care about how you feel about their actions, even if you do try to stay friends
Just cut your losses when it comes to dealing with real estate agents, especially if you're paying far below market value in rent.
That strange knocking sound in the car you drive can quickly become a tapped fuel pump.
ACT cops aren't overly observant. Wing mirrors are required on a car, guys
No one suspects the little red hatchback
Nice guys lose out and get taken advantage of. Being a bit of a jerk and saying no a lot can save you a lot of time and money, not to mention get you what you want
Defence doesn't care that their systems are slow
Being alone isn't so bad, there's time to get shit done
Don't jump on the first offer that comes along, ever
Be clever in your social and subversive maneuvers, don't always assume the morally correct thing to do is always the best action
Be the shadowy string puller. The front man will always get stabbed in the back
Take up space, stand up straight and always look comfortable, even if you feel like the equivalent of a henhouse with a fox loose in it
Just sit back and wait to see how things pan out. With proper risk mitigation, you can destroy opponents
Be slow and deliberate where possible
Do not deflect guys from mates' girlfriends using derogatory terms
Take the opportunity to tell people who piss you off to go fuck themselves. Sometimes, the simple things in life are the most empowering
When telling a joke, don't laugh at it
Be a man, not a clown
Always want more. Drive helps you succeed
Be unique
Don't be afraid to annoy people
Know what you want from your actions. If it's to meet new people, go out and meet new people. If it's to get laid, go out and get laid
Don't be afraid to move on
Travel more
Find ways to make interesting things happen in your life
Never talk about a woman's hair colour
Women aren't porcelain dolls and in fact enjoy being handled a little roughly

Hrmm, that's all I can think of right now. I might try and do this kind of post more often so I can track little random bits of wisdom a little better.

JavaFX Shooty Thing

2010-07-26T12:07:00.007+10:00

While screwing around between lectures, I knocked this up

This is a really simple shooter app for JavaFX just to demonstrate how keyboard handlers work in the language. Here, have a look at my source (even though it isn't commented nicely):


package javafxapplication1;

import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.scene.input.KeyEvent;
import javafx.scene.input.KeyCode;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.animation.KeyFrame;
import javafx.util.Math;

/**
*
*/

var group : Group = Group {
content: []
}


var text : Text = Text {
           font : Font {
               size : 16
           }
           x: 10
           y: 30
           content: "Magic Shooty thing"

           onKeyPressed:function (e : KeyEvent){
               if (e.code == KeyCode.VK_UP){
                   text.y = text.y - 5;
               }else if (e.code == KeyCode.VK_DOWN){
                   text.y = text.y + 5;
               }else if (e.code == KeyCode.VK_LEFT){
                   text.x = text.x - 5;
               }else if (e.code == KeyCode.VK_RIGHT){
                   text.x = text.x + 5;
               }else if (e.code == KeyCode.VK_SPACE){
                   if(e.shiftDown){
                       text.rotate = text.rotate + 1;
                   }else{
                       text.rotate = text.rotate + 10;
                   }

               }else if (e.code == KeyCode.VK_R){
                   text.rotate = 0;
               }else if (e.code == KeyCode.VK_F){
                   def rot = text.rotate;
                   def circle = Circle {
                       centerX: text.x;
                       centerY: text.y;
                       radius: 2;
                   }
                   def tm : Timeline = Timeline {
                       repeatCount:Timeline.INDEFINITE;
                       keyFrames: [
                           KeyFrame {
                               time:1s/8
                               action:function(){
                                   circle.centerX = circle.centerX + (Math.cos(rot)*2);
                                   circle.centerY = circle.centerY + (Math.sin(rot)*2);
                                   if(circle.centerX > 250 or circle.centerY > 80 or circle.centerX){
                                        tm.stop();
                                        delete circle from group.content;
                                   }
                                  }                                  }                                                  
                         ]
                     }
                     tm.play();                     
                     insert circle into group.content;
                  }
               }
             focusTraversable:true;
         }

Stage {
 title: "Bitch, you can't control this shit"
 scene: Scene {
     width: 250
     height: 80
     content: [
         text,
         group
     ]
 }
}

This thing just has a label that will move with the arrow keys, spin with the space bar key (slower if you have the shift key held down) and fire with the f key. I found that the problem I was having earlier with this was that I wasn't setting the focusTraversable flag to true, so it wasn't receiving keyboard events.

Why You Don't Need to Store Configuration Variables in the Windows Registry

2010-07-21T21:42:00.001+10:00

So, I was involved in a recent discussion concerning the Windows registry. If you are unfamiliar with this monstrosity of ill-thought-through engineering, it is basically the place where applications will store their variables on the Windows family of operating systems.

In principle, it's a mediocre idea. The whole philosophy behind it is centralising the data in an easy to retrieve area and also ramp up security around the use of those variables. In practice, it doesn't work so well.

If you want something interesting to have a look at, fire up regedit and have a little look at the resulting window that comes up. In it, you'll see an absolute mess of variables with little in the way of documentation. As I said, in theory it is an OK idea to control access to system configuration variables in this fashion, in practice, well, you get this.

The main power of the registry comes from its methods of controlling user access to everything, using ACLs, Group policy and other nice security features. However, most application developers don't use these features and just dump variables there. Take it from me, this just adds an unnecessary interaction with the underlying software system and should be avoided if you can do it with a .INI file instead. As the registry database grows, accesses become slower, so if you abuse the registry when you don't need to, you are going to slow down a user's system.

On this note, there are plenty of classes available to parse .INI files, I think the win32 API even provides a class or two to handle it. The main point of this should be to observe the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Just seperate your metadata out as much as possible. Not only will this improve your software quality, it will also add extra flexibility and code reusability into your app.

Why we seperate logic from presentation

2010-07-20T14:46:00.004+10:00

New programmers often make the mistake of not noticing there is usually two sides to a program: The logic and the presentation.

This is understandable, as if something works an amateur is generally happy. However, as the codebase grows in size, projects such as these fall by the wayside because the code becomes unmaintainable.

The main reason logic is seperated from presentation is simple: Maintainability. If a component of a software system is smaller, it becomes easier to go back and change it without too many breakages. Debugging becomes easier, and as such you waste less time getting everything working the way it should.

The growing awareness of this is seeing an explosive growth in some of the newer technologies coming into the picture, such as:

Templating engines
AJAX and JavaScript HTTP requests
Application engines

There's nothing wrong with bundling everything into the one module, however you're going to have hell fixing anything.

That's why we seperate these two functions (well, you should seperate ALL different functions out) into different modules. Here's how we do it.

Design patterns have been developed to acknowledge this. The observer and MVC patterns are among the best known of these, but there are a few others out there that deal with trying to acheive this abstraction.

Basically, the two patterns mentioned above have a class that can be interrogated by the presentation layer. It simply reports its data or state, it does not attempt to format it in any fashion, this function is left to the class responsible for displaying it.

An example of this in action might be a game 'world', which contains information about the entities and their interactions. This class would be able to be polled for what it knows with a common interface. Another module would be responsible for changing the state of the world class, while a third would draw it to the screen.

Hopefully by now you're getting the idea. You may ask what motivated this? Simple, working in classic ASP with VBScript. The stuff is an absolute nightmare, with logic all over the place and in places where an asynchronous request woulld have been better. Just keep this in mind before asking someone like me to help you. If I see this stuff all over the place, I'm just going to bitch slap you and tell you to rewrite it properly.

Software Patterns #1

2010-06-14T14:15:00.004+10:00

Software engineering is a very complex and interesting field. It involves far more than just sitting down and coding something, you must first illicit requirements, design the package and then finally code the system, all the while managing risk and client expectations. Design patterns are common elements that have been noticed in systems and formalised, leading to faster implementation times and better generic classes.

There are of course a few drawbacks in using them, but for the most part they do work quite well. I'm going to go over a couple of the ones I use all the time when coding a system.

The Observer

This is probably one of the most common patterns I've seen in use, because it splits up data and logic very effectively.

As you can see from the above UML diagram, an observer pattern consists of two main components: An object to be observed and an object to watch it. An easy way to think about this is that the Observer 'subscribes' to the service of the Observable, which in turn alerts it to any changes in state

Pros:

The upside to this is that it very effectively gives a very good abstraction over the data and a clear interface with which to interrogate it.

Cons:

Implemented improperly, this can lead to a poltergeist class (one that simply passes data and serves no other discernible purpose) or not enough interface exposure to the class that needs that information.

Example:

This pattern is commonly used in game development, as it is practical to have a 'world' object which simply notifies the observing interfaces of state change when it needs to rather than needing to be polled constantly. You can also use the observer to very effectively create chat services, as you simply notify the observers that there is a new message to pick up. The Java interfaces Observer and Observable provide good generic classes for this.

The Facade

The facade pattern seeks to simplify many entry points into a system into a single one. This is particularly useful in cutting down on code size through reduction in boilerplate and higher level abstraction.

The Facade pattern, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FacadeDesignPattern.png

How it does this is rather simple, you simply add a new layer to your stack, much like you might write a new class to encapsulate over a network socket.

Pros:

Incredibly powerful, this pattern makes it far easier to program things on top of it and centralises objects into one space, making it easier to interrogate them for information and call whatever functions need to be called (and doing so in the right order).

Cons:

This must be introduced in the initial designs, if introduced later it becomes difficult to integrate and many classes that should sit on top of it will likely not leverage the full power

Examples:

Personally, I use this all the time, especially in networked applications, as I can write my lower level code and then abstract over the top of it. It has made many of my applications incredibly streamlined. An equivalent class in regular use is the PDO module in PHP, which gives a good database abstraction complete with query and fetch methods.

Well, that's all the procrastination I have time for, unfortunately. I'll write another pattern entry when I can be arsed, but these two will serve you really well, indeed I use them everywhere. Have fun, and happy hacking!!

Shit you need to know about SME Server

2010-06-01T15:18:00.002+10:00

SME server is a full featured Linux distribution, aimed at making administration easy for the small business owner.

The problem is, it's shit. Here's some things you need to know if you are ever in my position and need to administer this poorly supported monstrosity:

Mail is in /home/e-smith/Maildir
Postfix isn't officially supported (you can pull it in from the CentOS repos, but that's "not the correct thing to do")
The people on the forums are rather protective of their baby, which makes them exceptionally fun to troll. Take a stab at the whole CentOS vs Ubuntu thing for a good time.
YUM makes it difficult to exclude certain packages from updates (apparently you do it like this, but in reality you can't)
Dar is particularly finicky about where it backs stuff up to. Apparently a mounted USB drive is not, in fact, plugged in, and therefore is not a suitable backup medium (yep, thanks guys)
YUM will not run the updates if it cannot resolve EVERY FUCKING PACKAGE

On top of this, why would you run this distro? It's so poorly supported, based on CentOS and has no benefit over using Ubuntu with Zimbra, SAMBA and Apache. Seriously, avoid this thing if possible

Republic vs Constitutional Monarchy: Who gives a flying rat's ass?

2010-05-26T09:36:00.003+10:00

There has been back-and-forthing over the last couple of weeks on Menzies House about how either a republic or Australia's current constitutional monarchy best meets the needs of the Australian right's goal of small government.

I have a third position: Who gives a shit?

There are bigger fish to fry right now, like dismantling our huge government bureaus, lowering taxes and repealing a lot of awful laws put in place by Ruddkipz and his party of salacious pokemon friends (YES, I knew there was a way to slip the word "pokemon" into political discussion :D).

With the shift to a republic, we'd have a lot of distractions on our plate; Do we change our flag? How about our national anthem? Do we leave the commonwealth? These just divert us from what should be our real goal of minimising government influence on our lives.

What don't Leftards Understand about Quality?

2010-05-02T14:47:00.003+10:00

The pride of East German engineers, the Trabant, was known for being a poor quality machine, virtually made of paper and in need of constant maintenance. In comparison, American cars of poorer quality were often regarded as superior, cleaner and more efficient. Why do the left continuously extol the virtues of a centralised means of planning and production, when it produced goods of such low standards?

Simple, the class warfare mentality they all employ to tug at our heartstrings. Unfortunately, they miss the point entirely.

It has been said that, in a software project, 80% of the quality lies with management. This is an entirely true statement; Without proper resource management the project will become reactive, and decisions will be rash rather than considered. Quality will always suffer under these circumstances.

Of course, how do you identify when your project is going pear shaped? You need to have information. What kind of information? Depends on the project. PSM, for example, argues that information will fall into a few different categories, and if these needs can be identified you can cut down the overhead needed to interpret what data you have. As your processes reach maturity, you can increase your data load and optimize them.

I don't know where I'm going with this, so I'll leave it here for the time being

Fuck You, I'm Awesome

2010-04-19T12:51:00.003+10:00

I've been feeling like shit lately; My ex-girlfriend has found a new bloke and is thinking of staying in the country for him (after a couple of months? 4 years and our engagement meant nothing to that bitch), I've been feeling lonely and I'm struggling a little under my course load (haha, load).

My love life sucks, always has, but you know what? I'm fucking awesome. It's everyone's loss if they don't realise it.

Why, you ask? I have a good career, am starting to earn some respect in my field, am almost done with a degree that can take me anywhere I want it to and have a close knit group of friends and family that care about me. I even have decent connections in both the corporate and political spheres. Not bad for a 20 year old.

So, next time you feel down, just remember how goddamn epic your life is. You don't need to be a player, you don't need to have a shit ton of friends, hell, even a decent family is optional. You have your strengths, use them and just be happy you have them.

Cloning Poorly Written Acess Databases Into Something Sane and Maintainable

2010-03-30T16:40:00.002+11:00

Well, today I decided to fully write out our Ops DB program at work to see just how it all worked (when it does decide to work....). I found out that it's terrible, and a replacement should be written. There are a few problems with this one, the main one being it's written in Access 2003 and ergo completely unmaintainable.

So, to remedy this, I've documented the whole database structure (took three hours...) and will redesign it to be deployed on and MSSQL, MySQL or PostGres server and write a new client in C#, documenting the hell out of everything as I go in order to make it easy to know what function every single piece in the system has (as this will be a one person project). If it's good enough I'll release the source and link it here.

Most of the work will be in redesigning the database so it actually employs normalisation and efficient table structures. I'll also split off the admin tasks from the actual ops ones, in order to get some semblance of abstraction into the system.

The main development cycle I'll employ is the iterative cycle, where I'll write requirements, design a component to fulfill these requirements, implement and repeat the process until I have duplicated the functionality of our existing solution. Hopefully, I can also pull out old data and insert it into my new system without too much trouble.

SRS's and all things nice

2010-03-29T15:54:00.002+11:00

Finally stepping into the fray of the professional software engineering, I've been trying to rewrite a SRS from scratch from a substandard previous one. The problem is, it has very few references and even fewer references that I can dig up from the archives. Why are SRS' important? Well let's go over it now

An SRS document details what you need to build, the environment in which it shall be built and the constraints upon design and implementation of the system. It does not pertain to design and most definitely does not mention any implementation details (other than the constraints upon the system). The reason for this is the separation of concerns. You cannot design a system without having a clear picture of what you need it to do. A lecturer just last week said that without requirements, you may as well just give them a matchbox; It's cheaper and most likely far more useful than any software system you could build.

A few different standards have emerged for writing a good SRS. There is of course the IEEE standard and the US Department of Defence standard, both of which are equally acceptable in industry. You can find templates for both with a quick Google. If you tailor these to your needs, you can only fail to write a good SRS if you have no written language skills.

However, this SRS that I am writing now is not based on any standard. Indeed, I'd say it'd be better characterised as how NOT to write an SRS. My notes are pretty clear about what I don't like about it:

Format is wrong
Use cases do not belong in an SRS
UI design does not belong in an SRS
Deployment environment details are completely missing
Requirements are not traceable. A bibliography is not sufficient, document must be referenced properly
Language is vague
Mixing of functional concerns is not acceptable, eg. User experience with DB logic

My first task is to rip out the crap and move what's left to an acceptable format. With the lack of reference material, though, I'm forced to work out of client meeting minutes and user manuals to reverse engineer what I THINK the requirements are. This is not healthy software engineering, and will cost an extra 20 hours or so of effort that wouldn't be needed otherwise.

The Internet is not democratic!

2010-03-03T22:07:00.006+11:00

The Internet. It has revolutionised the way we access data, conduct business and keep in touch with people we care about.

Sadly, people are beginning to think they understand it and are demanding their way with the data that flows through the tubes. My advice to them is to keep quiet and let the experts handle it. These people are usually so loud that they sound popular (for example, The Pirate party or the ACL's Jim Wallace). There is a danger in giving them a stage to speak on (Wallace boasts direct lines to many politicians) and shutting out people that actually understand the technology and ecosystem that is the world wide web.

This is not another rail against government. This is not an angry rant about censorship. This is not an attack on community standards. This is an attack on the people calling the Internet "democratic", and all the stupidity that follows that failed god's mere mention.

The Internet, for those who don't know, was originally developed by the US military as a way to keep control of their nuclear weapons in the event of an attack or natural catastrophe. The whole point was for each node to work independently and route traffic depending on which was the best route. It was not a bunch of nodes voting on what was the best route. It was not a government agency deciding how the packets were transferred (thank your lucky stars for that). It was routers, configured by individuals, that decided how data was to be moved around. You could create your own "Internet" if you really wanted to (and in fact, most people do when they plug in a wireless router). This model of networking has given us the most robust communication tool the world has ever known, but that does not mean it is a "facilitator of democracy", nor does it mean it must be regulated to work properly.

Democracy, at the very least, sounds like a great idea. The will of the majority triumphs over the special interests. What about the other 49% of the population though? They get screwed. The Internet helped to change this, it allowed alternative views to emerge from the woodwork. Whereas before, you may have been a Labor or Liberal voter, you can now go and learn (for free) about ideas such as libertarianism, socialism, market anarchism.... You name it, people have talked about it on the web. No longer is the stupidity of the masses forced upon you, you can go learn about other ideas that are not so majority friendly.

However, this by no means promotes democracy. How could it, when the majority doesn't even bother to learn the name of their sitting MP? This is why the 'net isn't democratic, it is truly open. It is a vast, unhindered landscape. In what other situation could I send a photo to my friend in China in the blink of an eye? By the same token, how else could I educate people about the benefits of laissez faire social politics? The Internet only has one relationship with democracy: it is a threat. The language is deliberately used to suggest that the Internet takes a specific form; Any regular Joe with the ability to Wikipedia something could smash this argument bits. We do not vote for who has servers on the net. We do not decide by majority as to when facebook will push out a new update or completely broken interface.

The Internet is individuals (and individuals choosing to work collectively) providing content from private servers. The sooner idiots realise this, the sooner the "hands off the Internet" people such as myself (hell, while we're at it get your hands off all media) will actually get listened to and be allowed to do our job, without some meddling, clueless bureaucrat getting in our way.

EDIT: I've submitted this to Menzies house. It's a little more intellectual sounding than the other things I write on here, so if you've come after a quick Google , I really wouldn't bother reading my other things unless you just want to walk away confused

Conroy is unfit for his post and should be sacked

2010-02-11T18:47:00.005+11:00

Browsing through my emails today, I stumbled across this link, detailing Senator Stephen Conroy's continued war upon "civil and net libertarians" (hey, I fall into both those categories. Hmm >_>).

While the percentages look worrying, I'm more worried about the questions they were asked, as the language used is very very deceiving. Let's have a look:

Would you say you are in favour or not in favour of having a mandatory Government Internet filter that would automatically block all access in Australia, to overseas websites containing material that is Refused Classification?
This question followed a definition of 'refused classification' material, as images and information about one or more of the following:
child sexual abuse;
bestiality;
sexual violence;
gratuitous, exploitative or offensive sexual fetishes; and
detailed instructions on or promotion of crime, violence or use of illegal drugs.
If a mandatory Internet Filter is established, are you in favour or not in favour of the community being advised which websites have been Refused Classification and the reason why they have been refused classification?
Hmm, you couldn't argue against any of those and not look dodgy (well, I could, but let's face it, I'm one dodgy sonmabitch anyway). Something this neglects to mention is that RC material also includes such topics as:
Prostitution
Euthanasia
Safe drug use
Fetishes most consenting adults will, in their lifetime, engage in or have something to with, such as BDSM or female ejaculation
Cartoon porn
And lately, some small breast models have also been classified as RC, despite being over 18
These things are hardly controversial topics, but the government's proposed solution would block any sites portraying, linking to or glorifying these topics (shit, I'm screwed... Bear in mind I do not give a shit if you like boobs that don't fill your hand up, having candle wax dripped on you or lighting up a joint). One thing this question neglects to mention.

Anyway, onto why my post is titled what it is. One thing I found rather disturbing in this piece is this little gem from Conroy himself:
Conroy also stated in Senate Estimates yesterday, "Google were very happy to block China's material right up until they found out they had hacked their source code and suddenly discovered that censorship was a bad idea — after they had hacked their source code. But they block in a number of other countries. I understand Thailand is one. There are a number of other countries where Google complies with laws. We are in discussions and they are ongoing."
Hrmm, am I to believe Conroy is privvy to information that Google's own shareholders don't even have? Google DID NOT have their source code stolen, Mr Conroy. The GMail hack exploited a hole in Internet Explorer and involved stealing emails of activists, not theft of source code. The intellectual property Google is talking about is, in fact, the email messages kept on their server. Under the GMail terms of use, Senator, the mail remains property of Google in order to allow them to scan through and offer ads that might interest the user. You'd do well to check the facts before saying something so moronic. I maybe would have let it slide, too, if it had happened a year or two ago. But this is fresh news, and someone in your position should actually have some idea of what they're talking about.

This comes a few years after Conroy's claimed that "P2P will be filtered" and "HTTPS streams will be watched". Seriously, it's time to give this clueless asshole the boot. He clearly has no idea about the internet (or the economy, for that matter, despite graduating from the ANU with an economics degree) yet he continues to make retarded comments. I will make it my mission over the next week or so to ensure that a letter explaining why his comments have earned him so much scorn with the IT community is sent to every single coalition, greens and independent MP.

Another day, another anime review

2010-02-07T20:17:00.003+11:00

I can't be fucked writing another JavaFX blog at this point (7 hours of manual labour is a lot for an unfit geek like me), so you'll get another anime review and you'll appreciate it. Got it fuckers? Under the spotlight this week is Ayakashi Ayashi (the dub is called Ghost Slayers Ayashi, but we all know dubs suck and you should get watch it with subs and the original dialog instead).

Set in the 14th year of the Tenpo period (1843, 10 years before William Perry and his black boats forced Japan to open to trade), Ayakashi Ayashi is about a group known as "Ayashi" who hunt down and destroy beasts of the underworld known as "Yoi". Among them is Yukiatsu Ryudo, who was born into a noble family but abandoned that life when he was taken to the underworld. He then becomes a floater before finally being taken in by the Ayashi due to his unique ability to draw out the powers within a living thing's name.

Most of the themes covered by this anime revolve around the central theme of running from your problems and responsibilities. All characters are running from something (Yukiatsu from the underworld, Genbatsu from her past wrongs, etc) and this does get a little tiring at times. Identity is also examined to a lesser extent, but that's always periphery and intertwined within the larger picture.

Apart from that, the writers have managed to construct an immersive world around these ideas. The characters are genuinely likable and believable, though Genbatsu goes from being a sombre depiction of a woman trying to make her way around a man's world to a typical flamboyant and angry anime girl which is a little jarring after having 10 episodes or so getting to know her character.

I just realised how much these reviews suck, but yeah, I'll get better as I do more. All in all, this is worth watching, if only for the cool monster battles and the funny dialog, and is great if you want something reasonably light and easy-ish to follow (the ending comes out of fucking nowhere like an alpaca, and only really takes 3 or 4 episodes to build it up. Rather annoying that it skews off track right at the end, but the ending itself is an OK conclusion) this may be what you're looking for.

School Days Review

2010-01-26T10:18:00.002+11:00

So, I thought I'd change the pace a bit this time round and do a review of an anime I watched recently. The anime I'll be writing about is "School Days", and adaption of an H game of the same name. Don't let the fact that it was based upon some of the finest perversion modern Japan has to offer let you think that story will be lacklustre and difficult to follow properly, this anime is one I quite happily watched all the way to the end, and as such joins the ranks of only 3 others (D Gray Man, Dragonball Z and Azumanga Daioh). My main motivation for watching this was an introduction my friend gave me to the "nice boat" meme, which was spawned after.... You know what? You can look it up yourself (caution: spoilers).

The plot revolves around a Japanese high school student, Makoto Itou, and the general douchebaggery in his love life. As the show opens, we see Makoto pretty much stalking Kotonoha Katsura, taking creepy photos of her while she rides the train to school, blissfully unaware that this kid goes through a box of tissues every day with her image.

The story soon makes a turn when Sekai Saionji, the annoying twat that Makoto is forced next to by the class seating plan, sees his fap material and offers to set them up, eventually achieving this and starting off the doomed romance between Katsura and Itou.

After all this happens, Makoto gets drawn into a huge suck hole of adultery and cheating through the magic of the H game adaption, where suddenly it seems as if every woman in the world wants a piece of his ass and it looks like it will rapidly descends toward the "harem" ending.

The anime itself has some very funny moments, and the twist at the end leaves a feel of catharsis similar to the one I felt after reading Hamlet. The fact that it came from a 15 year old's fap collection is obvious, but the plot is immersive and the characters believable and likable (except Makoto, I wanna stab that fucker's face in). The themes are a little bit heavy and mature at times, so I wouldn't recommend this if you want a light hearted thing to watch or are susceptible to random bouts of depression when exposed to fiction. So, til next time, enjoy that nice boat

JavaFX Blog No. 4

2010-01-08T19:14:00.008+11:00

It's time to actually produce a program that does something. Said something will be basic, but it will demonstrate the basic structure of a JavaFX script


/*
 * Main.fx
 *
 * Created on Jan 7, 2010, 6:30:38 PM
 */
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.input.MouseEvent;
import javafx.scene.text.Font;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import javafx.util.Math;
import javafx.scene.control.Button;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;

var circles : Group = Group{};

Stage {
    title: "Circle Drawer"
    scene: Scene {
      width: 250
      height: 80
      content: [
        circles,
        Button {
          text:"Click for circles"
          translateX:30
          translateY:20
          width:150
          height:30
          onMouseClicked: function (e : MouseEvent) : Void {
            insert Circle {
              centerX:Math.random()*250;
              centerY:Math.random()*80;
              radius:Math.random()*20;
              fill:Color{
                red:Math.random();
                blue:Math.random();
                green:Math.random();
              }
            }
          into circles.content;
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

This is a little extension to the default NetBeans program of my own devising which draws randomly coloured circles onto the screen at the click of a button. To compile this, place this into a file called "Main.fx" and execute the JavaFX compiler over the file and run it with the following commands:


javafxc Main.fx
javafx Main

Whenever you are done seeing what it does, simply close the program

Ok, since I'm going to assume some experience with Java, I'll skip the import statement and move straight on to


var circles : Group = Group{};

Here, we are making a new Group object called circles. This will hold all the new circles we generate.

The next part will need some explanation about the structure of a JavaFX script. The window (or applet) type class is called a "stage". This controls the width and height, window focus and other window-ish behaviours. The content of these stages is controlled by a "scene", which we'll look at in a minute.


Stage {
    title: "Circle Drawer"

Here we are simply creating a new stage and giving it the title "Circle Drawer".


    scene: Scene {
      width: 250
      height: 80
      content: [

Ok, so here's the scene object I mentioned a minute ago. We are simply declaring a new scene with width 250 and height 80. The content attribute is where we'll store our nodes, in this case the circles object and a button.


        circles,
        Button {
          text:"Click for circles"
          translateX:30
          translateY:20
          width:150
          height:30

Nothing too harsh here. Just the circles object and a new button.


          onMouseClicked: function (e : MouseEvent) : Void {
            insert Circle {
              centerX:Math.random()*250;
              centerY:Math.random()*80;
              radius:Math.random()*20;
              fill:Color{
                red:Math.random();
                blue:Math.random();
                green:Math.random();
              }
            }
          into circles.content;
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

And the last of it. Here, we are using the insert .. into pattern to add new shapes into our scene on the fly. The Circle declaration should be familiar enough, where the fill attribute colours it in with a random colour (declared in the normal way)

So there you go. A very simple program. A couple of extensions I have implemented myself that you might like to try:

Add a scene switcher - Create a new scene and a way to switch between this and the old one

Incorporate a mouse following label - Create a label which reports the co-ordinates of the mouse using the bind keyword.

Decouple the onMouseClick for the button and make it randomly generate either a circle or rectangle - Create a function which will add different nodes to the circles.content list

Now that that's out of the way, we're going to combine this knowledge into a way to build our own nodes. All that you need to do is extend the CustomNode class and override the create() method.


import javafx.scene.CustomNode;
import javafx.scene.Group;

public class MyNode extends CustomNode {
  public function create() : Node {
    return Group{
      content:[];
    }
  }
}

This is a very basic skeleton to create a custom node. You add nodes in a certain way to the Group's content attribute, for example


import javafx.scene.CustomNode;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import javafx.scene.text.Text;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;

public class MyNode extends CustomNode {
  public function create() : Node {
    return Group{
      content:[
        Circle{
          height:height;
          width:width;
          x:x;
          y:y;
          fill: Color{
            red:1.0;
            blue:0.0;
            green:0.0;
          };
        },
        Text{
          text:"Oh, hi!";
          x:x;
          y:y;
        }
      ];
    }
  }
}

This just draws a red circle and puts a label over the top that says "Oh, hi!" (I haven't tested, so I claim no actual working code here. It'll just be sloppy).

The next post I do will give you a bit more of a walkthrough of how you can combine the Java API and JavaFX to create a simple desktop RSS reader app.

JavaFX Blog No. 3

2010-01-07T00:36:00.011+11:00

JavaFX syntax, as noted in the first JavaFX post I made, is similar to ActionScript. It may take you a little while to get used to the declarative style (if, like me, the first programming language you learned was Haskell, then you'll have no problem), but it does make a script far clearer than an imperative style language.

Variables: Variables are declared with the var keyword. The variable name goes first, and then its type (similar to Ada, or at least that's how I remember it):


var foobar : Number;

It's easy enough to initialise it with a default value as well:


var foobar : Number = 4;

Constants: Constants (well, constant references) are declared with the def keyword and must be initialised at declaration in a similar fashion to a variable:


def foobar : Number = 4;

It can be done with an object in the same way:


def foo : Text = Text {
  content : "Foobar";
}

Functions: Functions can be declared with the function keyword and follow a similar convention to declaring a variable or a constant:


function fooBar () : Void {
  println("Function fooBar called");
}

function barFoo (parameter : String) : Void {
  println("Function barFoo called with the parameter {parameter}");
}

You can also declare an anonymous function as an event callback:


def text : Text = Text {
  content : "Foobar";
  onMouseClicked : function (e : MouseEvent) : Void {
    content = "I was clicked!";
  }
}

Creating a class: Class declarations in JavaFX are very similar to what they are in Java or C++:


class Foo {
  public-init var member1 : Number;
  public def member2 : String = "Foobar";
 
  init{
    member1 = 3;
  }
 
  function printSomething () : Void {
    println("Something");
  }
}

Basically, this is a class named "Foo" with the members member1 and member2, which are a Number and a String respectively, and the member function printSomething. The "init" block of code is similar to a constructor in other languages; it is executed as an object is instantiated. In this case, it simply sets member1 to equal 3. In order to instantiate this class and access this class' members:


def foo : Foo = Foo {};
foo.printSomething();

This concludes the basic syntax of JavaFX. The next JavaFX post will go over a simple example program and show how to create your own custom nodes

JavaFX Blog No. 2

2010-01-03T14:16:00.010+11:00

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, today I'll be giving a quick rundown over the keywords and how to use them. Mostly, they are similar to Java, but JavaFX does use some of its own too.

as: This can be seen as similar to casting in Java


/* Equivalent Java
 * (Double) 5;
 */
5 as Double;

bind: Definitely my favourite JavaFX feature. Binds the value of a variable to another, for example:


def input : TextBox = TextBox{};
def label : Text = Text {
  content : bind input.text
}

This will create a Text object that shows whatever is typed into the TextBox we also declared

def: The def keyword declares a constant object or value.


def text : Text = Text {
  content : "Hello, world!";
}

Will create a constant Text object. You can change the members, but the object will stay the same

var: The var keyword creates a reference, similar to declaring an object in Java


var text : Text;
text = Text {
  content : "Hello, world!";
}

Those are the most important keywords needed in developing a JavaFX app. The next post will cover basic syntax

JavaFX Blog No. 1 + Update on me

2010-01-03T00:28:00.025+11:00

Well, I thought to kickoff the new year I'd start a blog series on JavaFX development. But first I'll give a little update on what's been happening with me, so if you don't want to read my whinging words, scroll down a bit.

To start, I haven't blogged for a while because I've been going through a pretty rough breakup, but with the new year I've resolved to just let it go and move on. Christmas and new year were rather uneventful, though I have left Canberra in my dust for a month while I look after the family house here in Armidale (more like Armihole, amirite?). Had my uncle and aunt down that I haven't seen in a few years, which provided little kids to entertain while other adults were napping after the traditional Dec. 25th gluttony (thanks mum) and also sent the obligatory Christmas texts around (except mine usually aren't Christmas ones. I did festivus last year and a belated summer solstice one this year, thinking everyone needs to celebrate Kwanzaa in the future). Hm, what else? Nothing really. Ok, onto the meat of the post.

JavaFX is an attempt by Sun Microsystems to introduce a JVM based rich web content language (think Flash or Silverlight). Syntactically, I find it quite similar to ActionScript, but as I haven't done a lot of ActionScript before I can't draw any comparisons for you.

Here's the obligatory pros/cons vs other popular rich web content providers:

	JavaFX	Flash	Silverlight
Cross Platform	Requires Java 6, which rules out Mac OS X 10.4 and earlier. Serves you right for choosing a non-computer. I definitely recommend getting your hands on a Linux distro or OpenSolaris if you plan to use JavaFX for development on a Mac	Yes, though performance is less than optimal outside Windows	No official MS support outside Windows. Moonlight does provide a way around this, but does not provide an optimal experience (yet)
Code Availability	Will be released open source (openJavaFX is an effort to create a FOSS implementation of JavaFX). Compiler source is already available	Closed source	Closed source. Once again, Moonlight is there
Maturity	Still not mature. 1.0 was only released late in 2008	Very mature and learning material is readily available	Still trying to hit its stride, though is beginning to find a foothold
Community	Only just starting to pop up. Mostly haunted by geeks such as myself and probably not suited for the beginner	Huge community of developers online, most of which are 12 year olds who like to call anyone asking questions a n00b, despite the fact all they have ever done is a crappy stick figure moving across the screen	Large, friendly community populated with helpful people

Next, we're going to have a little walk through the features of JavaFX:

Statically Typed: Variable types are checked at compile time

Declarative Syntax: Objects are instantiated and initialised directly, rather than through a series of procedural calls, like such:


  def label : Text = Text {
    font:Font{
      size:24;
    }
    content:"Hello, world!";
    x:10;
    y:10;
  }

This is in contrast to something similar in Java:


JLabel label = new JLabel("Hello, world!");

Which would also need to be placed in a container which contains information on the required layout

Scripting Language: JavaFX runs through the new Java scripting API (which also handles Jython and JRuby). This means that it is possible to seamlessly integrate Java into your JavaFX programs


   import java.util.ArrayList;
   class Foo {
         var bar : Text;
         var list : ArrayList;
         init{
             list = new ArrayList();
         }
   }

Unfortunately, generics aren't supported at the JavaFX level yet, so you're going to have to write a wrapper class if you want to use them.

So, that concludes my basic intro to JavaFX. My next JavaFX post will concentrate on the keywords and their meanings, so stay tuned

Just a couple of thoughts for the day

2009-12-04T19:29:00.002+11:00

Today, I've had a couple of thoughts while I was at work (well, one more of an experience, but lets not split hairs here).

First, why is it that the only times when I'm not entitled to defend myself in court are when the government thinks that I am either trying to overthrow them ("terrorism" laws) or owe them money (tax evasion or even parking tickets)? Even if shown to be in error, they are not responsible for the damage done to my life. Many have been released without charge from 'gitmo and are still followed around by the FBI and locally th AFP. Many are called in for tax audits every year, the penalty for missing one being a mandatory sentence. Why?

Next, the CEO of the company came in to our department today and told us he had sacked our manager and would be running managed services himself from now on. Apparently he had a $5 or $6 overhead for every hour an employee worked, and wanted to raise that margin by $30 when he shuffled in Steve from business operation. Unfortunately, that had not happened and he needed to be let go. While it's sad to see a coworker lose their job, it got me thinking about how his loss allowed everyone else in the department to keep their jobs. Not just me, but everyone else there. It really does show that what makes the company successful also keeps the workers' jobs safe, which it is why it is in the average Joe's interest to help the company succeed.

Just a couple of things I thought about today, thought I'd share as the blog was starting to get a little stale

LXDE, Midori and Ubuntu Karmic

2009-11-11T13:44:00.004+11:00

I believe I have found the perfect combination of software for my netbook. As I noted in one of my earlier posts, I've been using Karmic on my eeePC 701SD since one of the later release candidates, and my gawd, it's the best Ubuntu I've used since Feisty :D. Fast boot is by far my favourite feature (Plymouth would be up there, but my obssesive stripping down of anything I don't need on here caused it to be thrown out), but it's also more stable and faster than Jaunty (this netbook would hang occassionally while I was using it, no such issues with Karmic) and I think the dependencies have been worked out a bit better. I've managed to strip more or less everything I don't need away :D

LXDE is the "Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment". Great little desktop using GTK+ over GTK+2, as it's a lot lighter. It features a simple familiar interface and needs little in the way of configuration

Midori is a lightweight browser. It runs javascript really nicely and flash seems to run ok too (well, as well as flash can run on Linux :P)

If you are running a low powered netbook, give these a try. Ubuntu Karmic is amazingly stable, and these apps make it insanely accessible for those with slower hardware

Stupid "equality laws"

2009-11-09T09:02:00.006+11:00

Well, emerging from my girlfriend's rants about Norway and their laws (my protests to and calls to attention of their stupidity fall upon deaf ears) I feel I need to put this out there:

If you need a special law to make you think yourself equal, you are a retard. No exceptions

The whole point of the rule of law is that a privileged elite will not arise. We're seeing this in the political class all over the world (New Zealand's, Australia's and Europe's politicians do pretty well from the money they steal), where the ruling caste believes they are entitled to dip into the trough as they see fit. Given, politicians aren't exactly crying for "equality" for themselves, so let's have a look at something else instead.

That graph shows the female earnings compared to a male of similar education levels. Looks catastrophic, right? Well, it's not all as bad as jackass statists want you to think.

The feminazis all over the world (and I apologise to the feminists that don't think this way and genuinely do advocate for equal application of law) want you to think that they are downtrodden and repressed simply because males sometimes get their way (oh, boo hoo. I'm so sexist because I judge people on their character, not their sexual organs) so they can implement their vision of utopia. It's a blatant power grab and "see? I was right"ism at work and does not deserve the respect of you or I. Here's why

Look at the industries women go into. They mainly head into administration, education, child care, etc, none of which are highly paid. I know very few female engineers, fewer female IT students and virtually no female managers (I know they exist, and I'm sure they're paid more than I am :P). Of course males will get paid more, we go into the higher paying fields. Only a lying scumbag looking to manipulate their statistics in their favour would neglect to mention this. Pay level is the same for all IT staff at the company I work for, regardless of gender, and I all the jobs I have worked in in the past payed the same to women as well. It honestly is equal pay for equal work and skill, despite what aspiring dictators want me to think.

Second, women are more likely to give up careers to start a family. My girlfriend thinks it a grand idea to force men to take time off work to look after the kids. My question is, if this is what people wanted, wouldn't dads everywhere be using annual leave to achieve this? Obviously since it's not happening, no one gives a shit. Having a child is a decision between the parents and the parents alone. The state has no place telling them how to raise their kids, much less dictating who must be doing it at what time. This law actually exists in Norway, and it really does force you to wonder about the sanity of the drafters of the law (quotas on fatherhood? Are you so goddamn blind that you fail to recognise that people have other commitments?).

Lets move onto race. I'm of the persuasion that anyone who throws the race card in an argument is racist, as insisting special privileges for anyone based upon race is inherently evil. Here in Australia, there is a lot of talk about "closing the health gap" and welfare "rights" (more like plunder, amirite?) and how indigenous people tie into that. First, why is anyone entitled to the booty brought about taxes and secondly (if we assume that you are somehow entitled to pinch cash from other people's paycheques) how is the colour of your skin even relevant to why you should get more? People site the atrocities committed by white settlers and the white Australia policy as an excuse, but I have never supported nor took part in either of these policies. I'm forced to pay for somebody else's lapse in rational thinking simply because of the colour of my skin? Seriously, what? Can somebody rationalise this for me, I would really like to know why this is. The health gap is another serious matter. I think it shows an obvious failing of government. If you want to help and have the necessary skills, go volunteer your services and get the fuck out there, these people need you. I can't volunteer my time, but I would gladly fork over some cash to help you on your way (directly to you, fuck the lazy bureaucrats that want a large stake in it).

Affirmative action and the like's effects often are more damaging than any (quite subjective) benefits they bring. It brings in excuses like "he only got it cause he's black" and places a seed of hatred in people's hearts.

Python IRC Bot using PyEDIRC

2009-11-03T20:19:00.005+11:00

Recently, I've been working on a small python stack which will allow for the rapid deployment of bots and clients (why you'd want 1000s of different clients is beyond me, but what I'm coding allows for it) and have recently set up a project on kenai.com to get it out to the world. Here is a short tutorial on how to write a very simple bot using what I have written (maybe only a little bit of python knowledge needed)

What you'll need:

Python/Jython >= 2.5 (2.4 may also work, but I haven't tested it)
git
An understanding of the words "event driven"

I haven't set up any downloadable or installable packages yet, so you'll need to check it out directly from the repository. Using git on *NIX, type the following commands (if anyone knows how to do this on Windows, leave it in the comments and I'll update the post ;)):

mkdir mybot

cd mybot

git clone git://kenai.com/pyedirc~source-repo

This should get you a working copy of the code. Now, you'll want to create a .py file in the "mybot" directory (or you can open up the "examplebot.py" file, that's getting a little more complex than what I'm going to put here, but if you know python it should be decipherable). Let's call this file mybot.py. Now open this up in your favourite editor (mine's emacs, but whatever works for you) and paste in the following (I will explain it all underneath):

from connections.eventFramework import IRCEvents

class AnnoyingBot(IRCEvents):

def onPrivMsg(self, channel, fromUser,message):
print str.format("{0}@{1}: {2}",fromUser,channel,message)
bot.sendPriv(channel, "Hey, "+fromUser+" sent "+message+" :D")

def onJoin(self, user, channel, online):
print user + " joined channel " + channel
bot.sendPriv(channel, "Hey " + user)

if __name__ == "__main__":
bot = AnnoyingBot("irc.freenode.net",6667,False)
bot.identify("AnnoyingBot", "An annoying bot built on PyEDIRC")
bot.joinChannel("#botters")
bot.listener.join()

Ok, that's the code. Now I'll tell you what it does :) The first line imports the PyEDIRC event framework module, which is the beating heart of my code. The next line which means anything to us is the class definition, which if you didn't know already creates a class called AnnoyingBot which extends the EventFramework class in the module we just imported. The lines which start with "def" are overriding the methods of the EventFramework class (at the moment, there is also methods for when people quit and part channels. This is currently being expanded to a whole range of different events). And the last little collection of code instantiates the class and joins the FreeNode #botters channel.

To run this, you can either place the standard UNIX "#!/usr/bin/python" at the top of the file, chmod +x and run ./mybot.py, or you can run this through the python environment manually,

python mybot.py

Either way, it will initialise the bot and join it to the freenode #botters channel. If it doesn't work, you may need to change the first parameter in the "identify" call to a name of your choice ;)

This is a very simple stack that I'm currently developing. I would love some feedback on what it needs (keep in mind I'm trying to figure out a way to shut it cleanly rather than letting the thread crash when the socket is closed, adding in more event handlers and trying to roll out a more end user friendly, high level bot creator), so just comment and I'll see what I can do

Fairness

2009-10-28T01:15:00.003+11:00

An egalitarian, a meritocrat and a classical liberal once sat down to play the board game, Monopoly. All agreed at the outset that it would be fair to give each player the same amount of cash with which to play. The egalitarian thought this was fair because everybody should always have the same. The meritocrat thought it was fair because it created a level playing field on which everybody could compete. The classical liberal thought it was fair because it gave nobody any special favours (the same rules applied to everybody) and it violated nobody’s property rights (since the cash at the start of the game belongs to nobody). So the game began.

Within quite a short time, pandemonium broke out.

‘This is no longer fair!’, cried the egalitarian. ‘Some people now have more money and property than others. Why should I have to put up with Old Kent Road when you are sitting there with Mayfair? We should redistribute to get back as close as we can to the equal shares with which we started.’

The meritocrat, too, was troubled: ‘I don’t agree that we should all end up with the same amount, but I have noticed that those who have played with most skill and who have taken the game most seriously are not being properly rewarded by the fall of the dice. I have no money yet I have tried hard to succeed. Surely diligence and ability deserve more recognition than they are getting?’.

The classical liberal sighed: ‘We have all played by the rules. Nobody has cheated, and nobody has stolen anybody else’s money or title deeds. Nobody pre-ordained the present distribution of money and property—it is the aggregated outcome of each individual’s free and uncoerced actions and decisions. How, then, can this distribution be considered unfair? What would be unfair is if we agreed by a majority vote to take money or property from the most successful player to share it out among the other two, or to give more to the player deemed most deserving. If we were to do that, we would undermine the principle that the same rules must apply to all players. The best player would then probably go elsewhere, and our game sooner or later would collapse into bickering and chaos.’

The three players glared at each other, each wondering how the other two could be so naïve. Each player was convinced that their own definition of ‘fairness’ was self-evidently correct. Compromise was out of the question, for it was clearly impossible to share out the assets equally and to reward the most talented player most highly and to leave everybody with the property to which they had established just title.

Shaking the dice and landing in jail, the meritocrat began to sulk. Fined for landing on Mayfair, the egalitarian kicked the board over in a fit of righteous indignation and began to draw up a petition. The liberal picked up the dice, bade the other two farewell, and went off in search of a game of Snakes and Ladders.

Libre Software - Scurge to the free market or ultimate realisation of freedom?

2009-10-25T03:35:00.003+11:00

In my short career as an IT professional in training, I've heard many the strawman against the free market from FOSS advocates. The top three are:

The free market is for profit, FOSS is against that (-_-)
Most FOSS programmers are socialists (double -_-)
The free market is trying to shut down development with patents (alright, I'm angry enough to keep going now)

I find myself time and time again rebutting the first claim. The free market is not just for profit, it is voluntary trade (ergo the name FREE market).

Second, those who bow down to the GPL and BSD licenses implicitly pay homage to the free market idea of contracts and voluntary, mutual agreements. If there was anything anti-corporate about these pieces of software, there would be a clause specifically saying "no sale is permitted". I see no major products bearing this kind of licensing term, so I think it's safe to say leftists are all too busy failing their sociology classes or lazing around on facebook to contribute to a FOSS project.

Thirdly, patents are a coercive interference into the market by the state. They aren't part of the free market and any retard hoping to campaign on this platform deserves the biggest he bitch man slap I can muster to knock some goddamn sense into them.

Personally, I believe FOSS is the ultimate realisation of libertarianism. People voluntarily cooperate to produce a working product. It may never make any money, but they still do it. I would think that most people would just bow out if anyone tried to force them to whip up some code for the Linux kernel. Such is the beautiful nature of the free market that is lost on most people, all anyone sees is the bad eggs.

Cash for clunkers: The Ultimate Political Scam

2009-10-07T12:41:00.003+11:00

Cash for clunkers. The government gives you a voucher to go towards buying a newer, more efficient car and they destroy that choking old wreck of yours. Sounds great, huh? Think again.

Who drives older cars? People like me, that don't have a lot of money to throw around on maintaining a newer one. People who couldn't afford a new car even if someone else paid one half of it. This is simply a vote buying handout to the middle class. It's as disgusting to me as the baby bonus, and it destroys so much value left in these still running cars. Not to mention the abuse the US program suffered when people bought bombs, got the voucher, got the new car and sold it immediately, pocketing the $2000 or so profit from the sale.

And you know what? Now, after the initial spike in business, the smoke has cleared and business has slumped again for auto makers. The people over at Cato knew it was bad. The people at Mises knew it was bad. Yet Obama claims universal economist approval. How disgusting, even for a politician, that's low. His spending DOES NOT have all economists excited about recovery. Followers of the Austrian school are in fact condemning Obama for playing fast and loose with money, and Peter Schiff in 2006 (the height of Alan Greenspan's huge expansion of credit) predicted that it would all come crashing down hard. Why are these people being ignored? Probably because "we'll keep our hands off the market" sounds far less sexy than "here, we'll throw you free shit if you vote for us". And there are still people trying to tell us Aussies that we are retarded for dropping taxes and refusing to throw money at the middle class. Seriously, we've seen it fail in your countries, plus we're smart enough to cap government debt. Just fuck off and let us laugh at you when you're falling further into the ditch. I don't agree with all of Rudd's economic policies, but he's taken the right path here. A tax break is what's needed, not more loose money

First Look at Ubuntu Karmic

2009-10-06T11:57:00.003+11:00

Well, I caved and got my hands on Ubuntu 9.10 Beta after a workmate showed me how nice it was. I upgraded my eeePC 701SD install (NB: DON'T DO THIS!!! Do a clean install) from Jaunty and have been using it for a few days. A few things changed in this release are:

Faster boot times
Use of gcc 4.4 as the default compiler
Newer kernel
Updated repos
New pulseaudio

Well, lemme tell you this. Boot time is fantastic :D 36 seconds from power on to a usable Xfce desktop. Brilliant tweaking there from the Ubuntu team. Would probably be even faster if I used GNOME, but that pisses me off, especially that stupid NetBook launcher.

Other things I wasn't so impressed about. For example, before upgrading I was doing an algorithms assignment which involved a shitstorm of C code. I upgraded, and gcc 4.4 is buggered to hell. I can't even compile a hello world program! I mean, wtf >_<

Apt also seems slightly faster in this one. Still not on par with Zypp (I fking love Zypp :D), but still nice to use.

Will blog again with more details after using it for longer and allowing the quirks to show themselves

Til then, bananas

Speech by Noel Pearson

2009-09-18T01:30:00.001+10:00

Been bogged down to shit lately, but this is definitely worth the 40 mins or so that this takes to listen to.

Whinge on property rights

2009-09-07T13:05:00.002+10:00

Just a quick one today, this is just pissing me off >:/

Private property. It exists in some form in all nations, including those claiming to be "socialist" or "anti-materialist", and is the most basic tennant upon which most modern market oriented economies are formed. Yet very few governments choose to respect it. Why?

Simple. With increased material wealth comes power. Governments do nothing but usurp private wealth in order to consolidate and centralise their own power. We've seen it here in Australia, where many stupid environmental regulations caused so many lives to be lost during this year's bushfires. One guy even got harrassed by bureaucrats for bulldozing a firebreak around the town before the fires rolled in. Seriously, this has gone too far.

People often wonder why I say I'm against zoning laws. Not only do I think they're a fiat law and therefore completely unjustified, they drive up property prices. There is currently a housing shortage in Canberra (APS bloat, anyone?) and rather than freeing up land and letting the market decide how it best wants to fill the need, the planners have decided to buy more social housing. Cutting red tape and allowing high rise apartments around Civic would most likely be a good step; Investors can cash in on some prime land and there would be crap load of new and cheapish housing around the city.

But instead, the government ALWAYS knows best and decides to tell me what I can and can't do with my own resources. Really, these guys need a swift kick in the nuts.

Announcing Project Dagon

2009-09-03T00:18:00.004+10:00

Wow, why am I blogging about this half baked idea? Anyway, today, I got to thinking. I haven't really done any of my own development projects in a while. So, I've decided to write a full featured JavaFX game engine and suite of content development tools licensed under the GPL, CDDL or a BSD style license.

I will set up a github repo soon and start churning out some design documents and specifications in my (at this stage non-existent) free time, and hopefully ramp it up after the uni year finishes.

What I want to aim for:

Plugin architecture
Themeable JavaFX widgets for easy development of common components
Sprites and collision detection
Easy to use sound and graphic interfaces
XML scripting for sprites and events
Generic AI interface

It's ambitious, and it make take a while to even push out an alpha, but I need something to do. It's most likely only going to be 2D as well, I really can't be arsed with all the maths behind building an efficient 3D engine (but who knows? The plugin architecture may yield something). If anybody has any ideas for this, just post a comment, would be glad to hear from anyone :)

Why I'm Against ____

2009-09-01T08:35:00.011+10:00

This post will let you into the reasons why I am against some current elements of the status quo. I'm going to start with a sacred cow, because, you know, they make better steaks.

Why I'm Against Welfare

Welfare seems to be on the rise today. More and more people are demanding a share of the tax dollars for buying a house, having a kid and the ole' "I prefer sitting around the house doing nothing", accounting for the largest chunk of federal funding in Australia. I believe these arguments need to be taken with a grain of salt. First off, the first home buyers' scheme.

The first home buyer's grant was introduced to Australia in 2000 by the Howard government as a slack vote buying tactic. It was most likely a critical component to the housing bubble, which recently went bust on an epic scale. House prices are simply inflated by this scheme, pushing other potential buyers out of the market for a new home.

The baby bonus was seen as a way to prevent an aging population from being too much of a burden on the taxpayer. It did what it intended; People started having babies. The only problem was, it also caused others who were unfit and not ready to have babies. Exactly what we need, another excuse for crack whores to have more children that they are only going to neglect.

Finally, payments to the unemployed. This is the biggest load of crap I've ever seen. It's my social responsibility to care for someone to lazy to care for themselves? Go out and get a fucking job, you assholes. Failing that, start a mail order business or something, there's plenty of shit you can do without leaving the house. And yes, this payment has affected myself and my family before. My brother for reasons that I shall not name, was unable to work. He received a pension. Looking back on it, I feel kind of bad that we forced the rest of Australia to look after him, because after all, he was one of our family and therefore our responsibility (not an unwelcome one, mind you). I also believe this to be one of the most damaging and discriminatory policies to date. There are exemption for random shit and there are too many loopholes that allow for double, triple and quadrauple dipping into the trough, moreover those who do receive it often don't bother with finding work. It's through this that the Aboriginal community has been robbed of their sovereignty and cast into a cycle of booze fuelled mayhem and poverty. They recieve payments simply because they are Aboriginal, not to mention they also get numerous other perks, all because the younger generation have seen the recompensense given to the members of the stolen generation (I believe there is a case for this, though only for those actually involved) and want a slice of the taxpayer pie. Seriously, we just need to GTFO and let them work things out themselves, you aren't doing a cat any favours by feeding it 10 times a day.

Why I'm Against All Legislative Recognition of Religion

This one is easy to answer. Religion is simply coercion if it is imposed upon people. If you willingly submit, fine, go nuts and have fun trying to explain to your son why his wee wee looks different. This also leads to discrimination. We have seen many a group be labelled a dangerous cult that shouldn't be given religion status and the tax breaks associated with it (the Jedi order, LeVayen Satanism and FSMism, to name a few). Now, I don't think religious groups should be given a tax break, they are always run like a business and always try to shame people into parting with a greater portion of their cash, but the legal status also adds a cloud of validity to claims of the 'one true god' and can be interpreted as the state giving endorsement to a specific sect. This lead me, like in many other situations, to think about the unintended consequences of any law pertaining to this matter such as reactions against minority groups. I came to the conclusion that religion should simply be alegal, with the exception of a law that disallows government to make any law pertaining to religion. It's a personal issue, not a societal one. [End non-sensical rant on religion, I'll fix this up later if I feel like it]

Why I'm Against Socialised Medical Care

This is one of the more controversial topics today. I'll do my best to rebutt claims of superiority of government rationed health care

Costs are lower

No they're not. Hospitals in Australia and the UK employ more admin staff than they do nurses and doctors, not to mention that the money isn't as good and deters more qualified people from entering the medical profession. We've also recently seen the cost blowout of all Australian states' systems, not to mention a bankrupt medicare program in the US. This also paves the way for a shameless plug of a free market approach to medical care. The costs are lower over time with increased competition between providers. The initial cost for Australians would be high, but would decrease over time as more people entered a lucrative field for their own benefit and not because some asshole in parliament house told them it was a higher calling and as such deserve shit nothing pay for 8 years of study.

Everyone has the right to life

True, but no one has the right to threaten me with prison time unless I pay their medical fees. Good health is simply a good, not a right. You have the right to pursue good health care, not to actually obtain it. Insisting that you do means you have the right to force someone else to take responsibility for your poor lifestyle decisions

It's our moral obligation

No, it's not. Our only moral obligation is to keep out of others' way if they're not using coercion against someone else.

The quality of care is higher

No, it's not. It stifles innovation and efficiency but taking the choice of provider away from the individual and places in the hands of uncaring, unaccountable bureaucrats. It's a slow slide into government choosing who lives and who dies. People will be denied health care because of who they are or what they believe (inb4 HMOs, they failed in the free market, there simply is no competition in the US)

Any kind of forced health care plan should be illegal; I can choose where I buy my food from and I think that's fine. I only want the same for my health providers

BTW: This one allows me to skip education, the arguments are more or less the same

Why I'm Against Zoning and Property Usage Laws

Zoning laws are some of the biggest piles of dog turds to date. I can't build a shed in my backyard because some douche in council says so? It's all fiat. Government doesn't own the land you live on, you do (assuming you've paid for it), and as such it has no right to tell you not to bulldoze a nice big firebreak in front of your house or not to build a big temple to Athena in your backyard. I don't give a shit what you say, if your neighbours want chooks, 10 dogs or a giant tiki in their backyard, you have no moral right to stop them.

Why I'm Against 'Stimulus'

It's simply keeping the drunkard drunk. The economy needs to bust in order to reset itself, you're just going to pump up the bubble further and cause a greater depression. We need real wealth increase through jobs and increased trade, not a quick vote buying $900. For the record, I sent mine to the Victoria bush fires fund, I felt guilty taking it (no saying "jooz is so noble", it wasn't my money). Mind you, I told my parents I spent it on a car, that was a lie. Sorry, mum.

Why I'm Against Positive Rights Legislation

Positive rights are those such as

You have freedom of speech
You have a right to choose a religion

This raises an inevitable conflict. What is free speech? What is a religion? It's open to abuse on a huge scale. The government could say what free speech is and isn't.

I prefer the idea of negative legislation, such as

Government will not pass laws restricting public opinion
Government will not pass laws restricting defence of private property

This also avoids people bashing down your down at 3 in the morning, screaming some incredible shit about aliens and then when you're trying to get rid of them, having them threaten legal action for infringing upon their right to free speech.

Why I'm Against Intellectual Property

"If I have an apple and you have an apple and we trade apples, then we still each just have one apple. But if I have an idea and you have an idea and we trade ideas, then we each have two ideas." -- George Bernard Shaw
NB: I am aware this man was a socialist, but this quote still speaks to me

I'm against most, if not all, interventions into the market by the government. This takes what should be common-fucking-sense and twists it in such a way that only a handful of lawyers can tell you exactly what's expected of you.

Let's get to the supposed reasons for IP:

Stimulate Competition
Encourage Innovation
Protect Profits

Hmm, well all 3 of those are against what I interpret as the core libertarian mantra of minimal government intervention. We've tried to stimulate competition by passing anti-monopoly laws. We've tried to encourage innovation by giving taxpayer funded grants to reasearchers. We've tried to protect profits by enacting government backed deposit guarantees. I see only cataclysmic failure and the end of individual liberty down this road, like most government legislation aims to do. I don't see how Objectivists could be in favour of such bullshit, especially when new ideas are made even better by competition.

I really don't give a rat's shit if you spend millions of dollars on development of something, with profit comes risk, get used to it. We need more people with an entrepreneurial spirit in this country, and it aint gonna come from government "altruism"

Why I'm Against Large Scale Democracy

Rule by the majority allows people to plunder the coffers of others. It is incompatible with the concept of liberty except at the smallest scales. The idea of equality under law leaves no room for the majority to have executive power over others, moreover this power is coercive in nature and needs to be beaten on the head before society collapses into another dark age driven by the modern day Caesars. This is not a plea for centralised power, this is a call to fight for one set of laws for everyone.

No more double standards.

No more unfair advantages as law for certain groups.

No more government backed discrimination.

No more class warfare.

Why I'm Against A Progressive Tax

This one should be simple. I'm simply against anyone paying more as a percentage of their wage than somebody else. Not only does it increase the red tape and make it impossible to navigate without a law or accounting degree, it also increases government size. We need to stop this petty class warfare. People in high places (outside of politics and the public sector of course) deserve to be there generally. With sufficient competition, we'd see those who didn't deserve their riches quickly fall into poverty without government help and expenditure.

Why I'm Against A Sales Tax or VAT

Same as above, though the other way around. Poorer people pay more under a sales tax and that isn't right either.

Well, I hope this long ass post gives you some insight into who I am :) I might and try to do a techie-ish post next, so stay tuned

Statist Prick Jim Wallace At It Again

2009-08-31T22:21:00.011+10:00

Well kiddys, it's time for another round of

ABUSE THE RETARD AUTHORITARIAN!!

Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby has followed up on a UN report on the NT intervention by saying that we need to ban porn nationwide because only having the bans in remote Aboriginal communities is discriminatory (one must mention the fact that the ACL is against gay marriages. Oh the delicious irony).

Let's have a read of a few choice extracts together, shall we?

“The Little Children Are Sacred report released by the NT Government in June
2007 identified pornography as one of the main drivers of an epidemic of sexual
abuse which included the rape of babies and a case of a 17-year-old forcing
younger children to watch pornography and then act it out,” Mr Wallace said.

Yes, that's bad, but it's not the norm. Obviously these kids are pretty fucked up, maybe we should start with actually helping them rather than just pointing the finger at whatever is deemed 'socially unacceptable'. They're simply ignoring the base cause of this behaviour. Cutting off the porn will do shit to deter pedos, they and I both know that. Or maybe they don't, but the ACL seems like a guild of fat pricks who just like to be lulz killers, so I'll assume there's malice in their actions. Let's have a look at some stats relating to this:

If you look carefully, this graph shows evidence that exposure to porn DECREASES incidence of rape. This in isolation, however, means little, but the jury is still out on porn's effects. I propose that, in the incident above, that porn was simply the tool, not the cause. Seems pretty reasonable, right? Well, I guess they do worship a cosmic Jewish zombie and seem unable to do any research into the matter beyond looking at a book written by bronze age warriors, so I can probably quite safely assume that Wallace's mind is impervious to reason (not that I think there's anything wrong with that, just don't force it on me).

Continuing halfway down the page, as the ACL seem to repeat themselves for the next two paragraphs (I thought a lobby group would at least have someone with HSC level English skills, but apparently I was wrong), we have the most hypocritical passage I've seen come from this theocratic think tank

“However, there is certainly a case to be made that the bans are discriminatory
when this situation wouldn’t be confined to indigenous communities. There would
be many other communities in Australia - even some in our major cities - which
are isolated by lack of opportunity and social disadvantage and would be as badly
affected by pornography. Surely all children need protecting.”

To start with, his English is incredibly bad (I know, my language skills aren't much better. At least I would actually proofread something properly before submitting it to the mainstream media). It should be "Surely all children are in need of protection", god damn it... Anyway, first off, how do they propose enforcement? Are you going to open all my mail? Sniff all my internet traffic? Watch every single video I record on my webcam? Quit being a retard, Jim. You seriously need to fuck a goat and die of syphillis if you think you can possibly acheive a porn-free country, you moron. Secondly, the ACL is so fucking hypocritical >_< Here's a short list of discriminatory policies proposed by the ACL:

Abortion Rights
Free Speech (BTW: if you don't like it, look away)
Religious Tolerance (look at their site intro, and that article's title... WTF? lrn2lambdacalculus)
Gay Relationship Recognition
Gay Adoption and IVF Treatments
Religion Based Sectarian Violence (Crusades and witch hunts, anyone?)

All that from the first 2 pages of news releases only. Fuck me with a broomstick handle, I wanted to go postal after reading that for the first time.

Let's move on before I make someone pee blood

“For a start the production and sale of X-rated pornography in the ACT – and the
territory’s thriving mail order business to the States – should be banned.
Attorneys-General from all jurisdictions should then be jointly deciding on a
national approach to protect Australians from this serious problem.

Uh, what serious problem? I don't see a rape epidemic happening. Why, when there are so many mail order businesses here, do you specifically want to ban porn? Maybe it's the mail order wine business that's doing it. Maybe the abuses happening in the NT were because of the government's stupid ass pandering of these communities. Taking care of someone entirely disables the ability to take care of themselves breeds boredom and unwillingness to act responsibly. I think we should just ban welfare instead and I'll likely elabourate on this in the next couple of days. Save the comment shitstorm on this topic for when I do a blog post on that. Anyway, I reckon I could do more to show that religion should be banned than these idiots could ever show to stop porn.

This final paragraph is pretty straight forward. Just typical conservative attitudes towards social problems: rather than finding the REAL problem, find a scapegoat and make it look like you're doing something

“At least one small step forward would be to acknowledge the dangers of
pornography to the whole community in the structure of the ISP filtering model to
be adopted after the trials are completed. The ACL has long-advocated for a
filtering system that requires people who want access to pornography to have to
opt in through a filter system to receive it.”

Yeah, we know. Why opt in though? Why can't the filter itself be opt in? And why can't you just pay for it yourself? Jesus Christ, you guys really need to stop trying to tell me I need to be Christian, straight and a bread eater to be moral. I think I have a far more accurate moral compass than you. Sure, I drink, I have been known to have the odd cigar and have had more sex than any of these guys have had in their lives (all with the one girl, I might add), but I would never seek to force someone to come around to my way of thinking. Seriously, fuck you and the lame, mentally challenged ass you rode in on if you want to tell me how to live.

UNIX Copyright Decision Overturned and Rant on IP

2009-08-25T23:37:00.003+10:00

SCO has had the 2004 decision of UNIX copyright overturned. Groklaw gave a small summary, here's an outtake from the appeal decision:

For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment with regards to the royalties due Novell under the 2003 Sun-SCO Agreement, but REVERSE the district court’s entry of summary judgment on (1) the ownership of the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights; (2) SCO’s claim seeking specific performance; (3) the scope of Novell’s rights under Section 4.16 of the APA; (4) the application of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing to Novell’s rights under Section 4.16 of the APA. On these issues, we REMAND for trial.

Well, that sucks. This is why, as a free market libertarian, I can't tolerate the bullshit that is intellectual property. It's constantly politicised and now downloading a song off LimeWire can net you higher penalties than murder, stalking or theft of actual property. If IP law didn't exist imagine what life would be like: people would produce music and art for the fun of it and because they loved it. People would pay to see shows or buy paintings or prints because they liked them, not as a status symbol. And, perhaps most importantly, individuals would not be threatened with huge unreasonable fines and jail time for something as innocuous as download a stream of bytes from the web.

Googling sex returns sex videos!! :O OH NOEZ!!!

2009-08-24T12:50:00.004+10:00

Well, the stop-censorship-request mailman dropped this in my inbox

I honestly can't say I was overly impressed by this woman's analysis. I'll give a blow by blow textual abuse of it here:

The most popular hit under “sex” was something called the “pornhub”. This website advertised another called “Passed Out Pussy” which offers customers “Extreme videos of drunk young girls fucked to pieces and ruined for life!!”. Here is the text from the home page:

You do realise that no one would dare upload an actual rape or CP video on such a popular page, right? It would be an instant life perma-ban, with no appeal. I think you can safely say that those women just signed up for some serious degradation and knew full well what they were getting themselves into. Think a little bit before saying dead-shit stupid crap like this

Beneath this confident incitement to crime, there are 220 photographic still from videos of young girls being tortured and raped. Seventy of these images are of girls screaming, three girls have knives held to their throats, one has a gun held to her head, many are unconscious, forced to drink alcohol, bound, gagged, and being tortured. The website offers “thousands” more of these videos. The over-all impression is that this website is distributing a vast collection of actual rape material which has been produced by rapists and not professional pornographers. “Passed Out Pussy” invites users to contribute their own home produced rape material. Moreover, one would be truly naïve to assume that this website is telling the truth when it claims that all of the “models” being raped are 18 years and over. Many of the girls look as though they are 14- or 15-years-old. Several images are of girls being raped by men who are in their 50s and 60s.

OH NOEZ!!! Women dressing up and putting enough make up on their faces to look younger and then being rammed by a guy old enough to be their grandfather! Oh, wait, that's completely acceptable under Australian (and UK, mind you) law. Seriously, you have no substance in claiming that age disparity is a bad thing. A little icky, yes, but it's none of your goddamn business if any adult woman wants to polish off a 60 year old upright organ.

My very simple experiment demonstrated that by merely Googling the word “sex” Internet users (men, women, children, teens) are immediately offered a vast database of child sexual abuse material.

You demonstrated that you could use Google to look for porn. Your mother must be proud. They weren't children, and both you and I know it.

I reported the website to the ACMA who replied that it was prohibited material and that they had “notified the above content to the makers of IIA approved filters, for their attention and appropriate action. The code requires ISPs to make available to customers an IIA approved filter” (August 10, 2009). I asked the ACMA exactly what they meant by this and what their policy was when a citizen reported photographic evidence of sex crimes against minors and ten days later they replied that they do in fact report to the Australian Federal Police, but failed to mention if they had done so in this case.

ACMA also added a dentist's office, BetFair and numerous legit porn sites to the black list. It means squat if it's on there, you pathetic wowser. Do some research about who these douches are before you claim their complete impartiality on the matter

I asked the IIA (Internet Industry Association) the same question and was eventually told that I can purchase filtering software that “costs between $50 and $80 with provisions for regular updates”. And that “many products may be be [sic] downloaded on a trial basis of up to 60days, so that the user need not commit their funds to a solution that is not suited for their requirements” (August 19, 2009). In other words, I have to pay a corporation to make sure that I am not traumatised by online child sexual abuse images.

Buy me a car. Make sure it has a V8 turbo engine and 6 gears because I refuse to be associated to those greenies who ride bikes everywhere. It's not MY responsibility to pay for YOUR computer odds and ends. Goddamn, if you're that desperate use We-Blocker. It's completely free and has no impact upon my browsing habits.

Currently, there is a general agreement among experts that it is impossible to regulate the online distribution of child sexual abuse material. Because the Internet is ungovernable, the only possibility of censoring child sexual abuse material is through a process of internal self-regulation.

Once again, do some research. It IS possible to filter the web, it's prohibitively expensive though.

The responsibility for regulating the Internet child sexual abuse industry essentially rests with ISPs who, as experts also point out, are reluctant to put children’s rights before profit.

Hahaha, oh wow! That's a low blow. True, your ISP doesn't give a shit what you look at with your internet. But maybe you should take matters into your own hands and sign up for WebShield or even, and here's a radical idea, cut yourself and your family off the internet. It would save me a whole lot of anger and anguish from socialist retards like yourself

The situation is compounded when one recognises that the self-regulation of online child sexual abuse material largely depends on complaints made by citizens. As I discovered, the process of reporting child pornography is not as transparent as it should be. I do not know if the crimes I reported will be investigated. Nor do I know if my ISP will take responsibility for failing to regulate child pornography and traumatising its customers. But I can, if I chose to, fork out some money for filtering software.

Wow, this just blows my mind. Seriously, you want my taxes to pay someone to browse the web all day looking at the >100000000 new pages everyday? I already pay for a bloated public service and welfare state to do the exact same thing as it is. The first step is with you, Abigail. Go out and catch the perverts MAKING this stuff. The ISP is like a clueless mule that finds the heroin in his boot, he has no idea what it's doing in his car nor who put it there.

The de-regulated expansion of the online child sexual abuse industry is one of the more nefarious manifestations of late-capitalism. Until ISPs are held to account by citizens and governments, misogynistic sites such as “Passed Out Pussy” will continue to confidently advocate the sadistic rape of children. Given this situation, it is hardly surprising that, as the Centre for Problem-Oriented Policing puts it, “many offenders realise that realistically their chances of being caught are quite remote”.

This is what really gets me angry. You blame not the perverts, but the economic system which allows you to seek all your needs and gives you the choice of everything from school to toothpaste? You really are a sad woman. Just like Rudd before you, you have no idea what the free market is and why it's important in an open society. You are too quick to blame "greed", despite the fact that's exactly what you are advocating when you demand I provide you with a filter. Seriously, GTFO and stop claiming I'm some kind of sexual deviant. Oh, and FYI, I enjoy my porn like I enjoy my wines: coloured red and aged 20 years or more
On a side note, I notice you mention misogynist websites. Am I really to believe that you're OK with a woman donning the whips and leather, but when that woman wants to be handled roughly suddenly it's a misogynist practice? Seriously, what happens in the bedroom of other is none of your business, period.

UPDATE: Geordie Guy over at Somebody Think of the Children! has posted a response as well

GTFO of my damn life

2009-08-18T20:09:00.000+10:00

Seriously, wtf?

People in parliament just need to back off. I'm sick and tired of hearing all these old politicians telling me I'm not moral because I like the occasional drink or happen to indulge myself in the rare burger from Maccas. I mean, seriously, taxes on alopops and fatty food will force the price up, but any jobs that rely on those will go out the door, all because you don't like the idea that I happen to like to have a beer or two? You are the definition of douchebag. You have never had a job in the private sector and you have never had to worry being good at it lest you get fired, so honestly, just fuck off and leave the people of Australia alone.

We put you in government to protect our life and liberty, not to boss us around you bunch of fucking jerks

OpenSUSE 11.1 vs Ubuntu 9.04

2009-08-05T18:40:00.000+10:00

Two weeks ago, I changed from Ubuntu 9.04 to openSUSE 11.1 and wow, just wow. The amount of polish in SUSE is simply amazing.

At first, I was reluctant to switch to an RPM based system (apt, FTW!), but from the minute I first booted SUSE in a VM I knew I was onto a winner here. I'm going to do a quick rundown of what I like about it over Ubuntu:

Preinstalled Software - The Ubuntu base install is, to say the least, as flacid as a 60 year old. GCC but no kernel headers? Comon, guys. SUSE brings it all to you: kernel headers, dev libraries, emacs... It's all there :D
YaST - Ubuntu is often declared the newbies' distro; It's hard to see why after you've played with YaST for a minute or two, it comes incredibly close to Windows' point and click style of configuration
SUSE Build Service - Once again, wow. I know I should hate Novell, but I really am impressed with their creation here. It allows you to build packages for ALL platforms, not just x86 and SUSE, but Debian and SPARC just to name a few
ZYpp - Just brilliant. I was incredibly impressed with how fast the package management and dependency resolution was. Synaptic used to hang on my laptop at startup and search while it tried to figure out what it was doing, but YaST2 is just simply bueatiful in the way it handles this

I suppose to each his own, but I've fallen in love with what I should hate :) Novell, I salute you for this brilliant piece of software

Kernel Conference, Day 1

2009-07-19T21:59:00.000+10:00

Coming to you from sunny Brisbane :D First day of Kernel Conference today, I flew into Brisbane at around 8:05 this morning and it took me 2 goddamn hours to find a good train route out to St Lucia (>_<), even then I only got as far as Dutton Park, I just walked the rest of the way.

Apparently I missed the best talk so far :( But I should have a ball at tomorrow's talks.

Today's talks were mainly on filesystems and drivers (ZFS, a staple, and also FreeBSD GEOM, which is a very interesting technology, were the most interesting ones today), and it was a shame I had to leave early in order to secure a room at the City YHA.

I'm just amazed with the ideas I've seen so far, and the fact that they are open source is simply the super cherry on top of the regular cherry, and I think that this is definitely the path I want to pursue. I'm never going to have a great idea like GEOM, but I will certainly help in it's development and bug fixing when I find an idea I think is worth it

[Wrote this on Brisbane, only got around to posting it here just now]

Kernel Conference

2009-07-14T23:39:00.000+10:00

Up to KernConf.au tomorrow :D Will be there until Friday, and have put away for the last month to be able to afford it.

Planning to see the talks by Fernando Gont, James Morris and Stuart Smith. Probably will go and see if any of the others are interesting, but these are the ones I'm hell bent on checking out :)

I'll take my eeePC with me so I can do some blogging for anyone who deigns to read this and keep you in on the action :)

Home Internet is on :D

2009-07-10T09:24:00.000+10:00

I've finally signed up to an ADSL provider :D They switched the net on in the early hours of this morning, or so said my phone with glee as the email was pushed to it (but then again, it says everything with glee, and doesn't hesitate to wake me up when I get a spam message from 3). When the clock strikes 3, I will be off home to set the thing up.

Hmm, there seems to be a bit of a ramp up time with my blog. I suppose as more happens I will post more, but my life is uneventful at this point

Hello, world!

2009-07-09T14:28:00.000+10:00

Hmm, well, after getting locked out of my Sun account for the umpteenth time (I mean, comon, you would have thought they'd realised I worked there by now....), I've decided to move my rants back to blogger, which means I can also foist in bits of politics too (not that anyone cares, but I just feel the need to complain sometimes...).