Congestive Soul Failure

The wu-ftpd vulnerability that some slashdotters think was exploited to compromise the Free Software Foundation's FTP server. (Since my Internet connection is down, I haven't checked for updates. They could very well be wrong about how the FTP site was compromised.) // comment

Creatine 'boosts brain power' from BBC NEWS, mentioned on Slashdot. // comment

Another worm exploiting RPC on Win32 platforms: WORM_RPCSDBOT.A. Thank God I'm using an OS with sane defaults. // comment

I'm starting to get backlogged because my DSL is STILL down. Not that this has anything to do with the other thing, but " W32.Blaster.Worm! spreading really fast!" Seriously, though. Why is RPC open to the world by default? (It's because Windows Update, isn't it? Or, worse, DRM? Who needs a subpoena when you've got a backdoor?) // comment

Random Quote "It's not that I'm so smart, it's that I stay with problems longer"Ã¢‚¬€Albert Einstein // comment

Buy your own private island. // comment

The Godwin's Law FAQ. How to tell when you've lost a debate on Usenet. // comment

Another reason to avoid Internet Explorer on Windows. Notepad popups. Link from blogdexWait'll the script kiddies get a hold of this. Oh, and I urge you to switch. Or even better, go with the source. // comment

This book looks interesting, particularly since I've always known that I'm an introvert. The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World As seen on slashdot.org. My personality type INFP [Keirsey's description][]Butt's description] has been pretty stable for the past few years. (Take a variant of the Jung-Myers-Briggs typology test.) Previously, though, I was originally INTP. I kind of wonder what caused the change. // comment

Quizilla: What movie do you belong in?. I knew it. I'm not surprised what my results are:

Fight Club!

What movie Do you Belong in?(many different outcomes!)

brought to you by Quizilla // comment

Things to do in Tokyo from William Gibson's blog. Hmmm. Maybe someday. I really need to travel this year, before ~~they put me in prison~~ I start my residency. // comment

Depressing Google query bad medical school // comment

Plug your Commodore 64 into the Internet with the Contiki Operating System. Link from slashdot.org // comment

Some ideas just won't go away. A site that tries to prove the Paul Really Is Dead. // comment

Ah, the pain, the suffering, the agony of installing Windows. Apparently not much has changed since Win 98 days (the last time I used Bill's product) In fact, it sounds like it has gotten much worse. How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less. Link from popdex.com. This is in wonderful counterpoint to my relatively painless MacOS X reinstall (narrated only briefly). (Of course, I did have a backup of my home directory, so that most of my preferences remained intact.) The only reason why it's taking a long time to get it back to the exact state I want is because I'm insisting in installing Fink from CVS source. This reinstallation madness is what made me switch from Win 98 to Red Hat Linux four years ago. As long as you save your home directory, it is ridiculously easy to restore your system to the way you want it. // comment

This quiz is hilarious. Can you tell whether these guys are either a Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer?. Link from popdex.com. // comment

Dream blog update. I hope it was a dream. The last thing I need are the Feds on my ass. // comment

Interesting Google query they can always hurt you more x 2 // comment

I'm screwing around with blogger.com. 1. random things that I feel compelled to type while I'm away from my own keyboard: messages in a klein bottle 2. my current conditions as revealed by the sacred geometry of chance. // comment

Interesting Google query quotes about emotional train wrecks x 3 // comment

Ah. Randomness. I love it. "Totally Random" An article about the necessity of random number generators. The information age would be impossible without randomness. // comment

Random Quote "Men have many ways of using their prostate which don't involve women or other men," he added. From this story. More from the evil resident. // comment

Quote Now the worlds has gone to bed.

Darkness won't engulf my head

I can see by infra-red.

How I hate the night

Now I lay me down to sleep.

Try to count electric sheep.

Sweet dream wishes you can keep.

How I hate the night.

Ã¢‚¬€Marvin the Paranoid Android from "Life, the Universe, and Everything" by Douglas Adams // comment

This is vile: "'Fly boy' continues to suffer as doctors struggle" Link from popdex.com. Flies are coming out of this boy's penis! // comment

Playlist For some reason, I all of the sudden remember "The New Detective" by John Frost (this is the only thing I could find on Google), which was a radio skit on KROQ in the '90's, which featured a private dick and his racially caricatured Asian sidekick (whose name I cannot remember right now.) For some reason, I always imagined this amalgam of Humphrey Bogart, Dirk Gently, and Deckard from "Bladerunner." Anyway, the thing that I remembered is, they always used Return of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" by the Digable Planets as background music. // comment

Consolation prize: " Marriage may tame genius." Link from slashdot.org. This article claims that all male geniuses stopped contributing great works once they got married and had kids. Heh. // comment

(Violins continue.) So I have taken some advice from this site which proclaims "the Internet is shit" (link from popdex.com) and have delved back into other media, wandering around in the book store, whereup I stumbled onto "The Kiss" by Anton Chekov. I find that the following line resonates with me: "And the whole world, the whole of life, seemed to Ryabovitch an unintelligible, aimless jest. . . . And turning his eyes from the water and looking at the sky, he remembered again how fate in the person of an unknown woman had by chance caressed him, he remembered his summer dreams and fancies, and his life struck him as extraordinarily meagre, poverty-stricken, and colourless. . . ." // comment

Kobe Bryant is arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. Article from sportsillustrated.cnn.com, link from the Apple page on Netscape.com // comment

Movie Review A virologist/oncologist reviews "28 Days Later" Link from slashdot.org // comment

N, I told you that multitasking was bad for you. " The Lure of Data: Is It Addictive?. This article in the New York Times explicitly compares the drive to be "connected" to the drive for getting high. (Makes sense, since this is precisely what the dopaminergic reward circuit is for, to make pleasurable activities pleasurable.) Link from slashdot.org // comment

Playlist More digging through the iTunes Music Store "Pavement Cracks" by Annie Lennox // comment

Playlist Again, I will reseparate this out once I have some time (which will be never) but I figured out the song with the line "I won't worry my life away," entitled "The Remedy" by Jason Mraz (Memories of that last Saturday when I realized that everything had gone to hell.) I stumbled upon it on the iTunes Music Store. // comment

More quotes Calvin and Hobbes quotes. Who says I'm a cynical bastard? Hahaha. // comment

Random quote from slashdot.org's fortune generator: "I prefer to think that God is not dead, just drunk." Ã¢‚¬€John Huston // comment

Movie review There is a review of "Terminator 3" on slashdot.org that pretty much sums up what I think of the movie. It's interesting that the reviewer throws in a random mention of "28 Days Later." It perhaps unintentionally makes a contrast between the two movies: T3 says "it is inevitable" that we're all doomed, while 28 Days Later says that "it's not all fucked" after all. // comment

Google madness Enter the search term: weapons of mass destruction. Then instead of clicking on search, click on "I'm feeling lucky." Link from This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow. // comment

The new space race. " Space Scientists Say China's Mars Probe 'Years Away'" Link from slashdot.org. I think it's a much better use of technology than weapons of mass destruction, but then again, building a rocket and building an ICBM aren't very different endeavors. // comment

I found it! There is this song that they keep playing on the airwaves (i.e., 0wn3d by Clear Channel and Infinity) that features a sample of Take 6's "Badiyah" whose artist and title I have been unable to discern for a week. Yesterday I finally figured out that it's by Roscoe and that it's entitled "Smooth Sailin'" (What is it with the nautical allusions lately?) // comment

Learning something new every day. History of Disco I did not realize that the backlash against disco was in some ways anti-people-of-color and anti-gay. // comment

History of House Music Chitown represent! // comment

The Book of Enoch (Enoch was the guy that God took up to heaven or somewhere when he was still less than 400 years old, around the time when everyone else seemed to live to about 1000 years old or so.) Link thanks to Google and my randomly walking mind. // comment

The Asians are coming! The Asians are coming! An article in the L.A. Times Calendar section entitled " That was 'Joy Luck,' this is now", discussing how current Asian American literature tries to explode the stereotype of the model minority. Mentioned in passing: Jessica Hagedorn, Justin Lin's "Better Luck Tomorrow" // comment

Religion and Technology A New York Times op-ed piece entitled "Is Google God?" With bits about how America must be aware of how it is perceived, empire or no empire. Link from slashdot.org // comment

An article in the Guardian that dissects irony. Link from slashdot.org // comment

Interesting Google Query I've been meaning to document these on a separate page, but we'll keep them here for now (and perhaps magically parse them with some script later) In any case, the phrase " mirthless laughter of the damned" caught my eye. It seems to be some obscure Simpsons reference as well, which Google can't seem to explicate. But Google leads you to this poem which coincidentally chronicles another fateful June. (Sometime in June, indeed.) // comment

Religion Did Emperor Constantine interpret a meteor strike as a sign from God? Link from popdex.com // comment

Religion In Catholic School, I was taught that religion did not necessarily have anything to do with God per se, but that more importantly, it meant a way of life, whatever that way of life might be. (And that good people, regardless of actual religion, were all pretty indistinguishable when it came down to it.) Richard Dawkins (author of The Selfish Gene) introduces the term "bright" to describe atheism and agnosticism, and there is a web page dedicated to brights.. Links from popdex.com // comment

Hurray for magic nose goblins! According to my brother, Ren & Stimpy has been resurrected by John Krickfalusi. Of course we missed the (re-)debut episode. I know it's scatalogical and just plain disgusting, but it was such a part of my childhood. // comment

More popdex randomness Shit, I knew that Filipinos cared a lot about singing, but stabbing someone in the neck for singing off key? Jesus. Not to minimize tragedy, but it gives me some ideas. "American Idol meets the Roman Coliseum. I think I would watch it if Simon got to wield a knife. // comment

1984 The Road to Oceania An op-ed piece in the New York Times by William Gibson (acclaimed author of Neuromancer and one of the instigators of the cyberpunk movement that is the direct ancestor of the Wachowski Brothers' "The Matrix"). Link from popdex.com // comment

I admit it. My dad's sorry taste in movies is somewhat infectious. But I love this movie for some sick reason. "The Three Amigos" Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of piÃƒ±atas? // comment

For some reason, kuro5hin.org is featuring a brief introduction to Filipino folklore and mythology. // comment

Dream blog update // comment

God Almighty In case you ever wanted to know if today was a holy day of obligation. Very useful for trying to figure out when the hell Easter is, since it can vary by more than a month from year-to-year. The Catholic Calendar // comment

Artificial Intelligence A blog about Turing machines and the like. Link from blogger.com // comment

The Matrix has you Really. Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford, argues that we are living in a simulation. // comment

You can now make comments on this sidebar // comment

Matrix Reloaded Transcript of the dialogue between Neo and the Architect. // comment

Internet Explorer is massively broken, methinks. I recognize that this front page looks really bad in IE 5.22 Mac, but I have no idea how to fix it. Suggestions appreciated. At least tell me if that the stupid overlapping bar is fixed. // comment

Dream Blog update // comment

Let me know if the stupid overlapping sidebar is fixed! I stole some code from the 3 box (no scripts) layout by Al Sparber of projectseven.com. Link from CSS Layouts - saila.com // comment

About Eagle Rock. This quote caught my eye: "It [Eagle Rock] has also become home to the second largest Filipino enclave in Southern California." I wonder where #1 is? // comment

Cyberpunk reloaded Philip K. Dick, Cyberpunk An article that mentions the connections between Dick's Valis and William Gibson's conception of the Matrix in Neuromancer (and alluding to the fact that the Wachowski brothers' "The Matrix" is indebted to both works for a lot of their ideas.) // comment

These dreams Some more mentally indigestible bits. // comment

Still Jacked into the Matrix William Gibson waxes on The Matrix on his blog. (Again, Unreal City is just a part of cyberpunk as the Matrix is. Well, I suppose they are both unfathomable, infinitely complex systems that epitomize the phenomenon of convergence.) // comment

The Matrix has you A random transcript of an IRC(?) chat with the Wachowski Brothers. // comment

For Roadgeeks Some fonts which they use on highway signage. // comment

The Asian American version of... This review makes connections between Better Luck Tomorrow and Fight Club. The quest for identity continues. // comment

Get your geek on If you own a Mac notebook with Bluetooth, a Sony Ericsson T68i, and a GPRS account with AT&T (aka m-mode), check out these instructions on how to get online while on-the-go. (Link from macosxhints.com) // comment

Is this for real? Apparently Ben Affleck and J Lo hope to remake "Casablanca". Will the horrors never cease? // comment

This year Catholics and marijuana enthusiasts can celebrate together. Easter Sunday is on April 20 this year. For all you non-practicing Catholics, as long as you go to mass that day, you won't be excommunicated. // comment

Looks like someone has beaten the Godmachine AI to the punch. Check out the The Apathetic Online Jounral Entry Generator, link courtesy of metafilter.com // comment

Beam Me Up Scotty, This Planet Sucks Flowing Water on Mars! From slashdot.org // comment

The Free Medical Journals Site // comment

An article on modanifil, a novel agent for cutting down the amount of sleep one needs. // comment

Here is a site that I can really use, dedicated to alcoholism, The Modern Drunkard, sloughed off thesunmachine.net // comment

I am currently polluting Rima's blog. // comment

A glossary of terms related to blogging, found while looking for the definition of "warblog" // comment

MacOSX Check out Romeo, a program that lets you control your Bluetooth-capable Macintosh with the Sony Ericsson T68i // comment

You've just fallen for one of the classic blunders... (defective yeti found via Are You Electrolicious? // comment

PerversionTracker: Apparently Useless Software Proof that MacOSX is a success: people are actually building worthless crap to run on it. // comment

The Godmachine AI in action [What is the Godmachine AI?] Check out this parody of the Department of Homeland Security's website with tips for surviving a terrorist attack. Also, "Endless Love" by George W Bush and Tony Blair. Finally, The reason why the Bush Administration needs to stop using Microsoft IIS. Links from popdex.com // comment

The Rebel Alliance Maybe W will inadvertantly cause Europe to finally unite. An exhortation for the EU to get its act together. An article from The Observer Also, an editorial from Terry Jones, congratulating W on his strategic acumen Link from What a cute!, the weblog of Natsuko Murakami. // comment

The Fall of the Republic It happened to the Romans, it happened to the Weimar Republic of Germany, and now it's happening to us. Link from thesunmachine.net // comment

The real reason for going to war with Iraq is very transparent in this N.Y. Times article (free registration required) Link from This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow. // comment

All we are saying is give peace a chance: Some pics from rallies against the war on Iraq around the world: [www.panoramas.dk] (requires Quicktime plugin) [www.harrumph.com]Links from communistsquirrel.com // comment

Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences by Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV). Link from www.wilwheaton.net. // comment

Freeways Highway Page From the site: "This site covers the design and history of highways, mainly in southern California." Link from misc.transport.road. Also on this site: Los Angeles Freeway Interchanges // comment

Why Nerds are Unpopular by Paul Graham, found on slashdot.org // comment

Taking ibuprofen regularly negates the protective effect of taking aspirin regularly. Link from the ACP-ASIM ObserverWeekly // comment

More Big Brother games. // comment

Mutation of FOXP2, which encodes a transcription factor, causes a rare language disorder: [ info.med.yale.edu][www.sciencenews.org][ www.mugu.com][linguist list][Pacific Lutheran University] Article which narrates how researchers stumbled upon this gene: [www.sciencenews.org] // comment

The Third World Majority // comment

Viggo Mortensen is my hero. "I do not love the sword for its brightness or the arrow for its swiftness, but for what they defend." -- Faramir son of Denethor from The Lord of the Rings // comment

A site with links for maps and geography and what not // comment

A map of Los Angeles County // comment

The Twinkie Defense. This just popped into my mind as my sister called me from her cel phone en route to S.F. // comment

Origin of Life: The Chirality Problem // comment

CA 2 - Angeles Crest Highway // comment

HOWTO: enable dual head on iBook with ATI Radeon (DO NOT try this if you have an ATI Rage!!!) // comment

Some speculation about why life is based on D-amino acids instead of L-amino acids // comment

The three forms of DNA // comment

The I-880/CA-237 interchange in Milpitas, CA, where my aunt and godfather used to live, and where I've spent many a childhood summer. // comment

The Sarah McLachlan Guitar Archive // comment

The curious literary phenomenon of the White Queen threshold from fullmoon.pitas.com // comment

EW.com's list of the 25 best Simpsons episodes, linked from Slashdot, of course. // comment

Something similar to what you might find in your hotmail inbox: W Requests Your Assistance // comment

A blog entry from saltire.weblogger.com that breaks down how much money a general surgeon really makes, particularly in West Virginia. // comment

An article detailing the reasons why the RIAA's attempts to stifle mp3 file sharing is misguided which is also an appeal to the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences to break from the RIAA and adopt a more rational stance towards P2P // comment

There are some very warped English subtitles for a bootleg of "The Two Towers". // comment

An article about magic in Middle-Earth. // comment

A test to reveal your hidden biases. Link from Jauteria. // comment

I meant to post this yesterday but I got lazy. GeoURL allows you to find out which websites are geographically close to a particular region. Link from Slashdot.org // comment

Not to be racist or anything, but the Japanese have got an interesting culture. These nipple scarves have apparently become quite popular. From www.thismodernworld.com by Tom Tomorrow. // comment

Equilibrium. This movie looks really interesting. Link from slashdot.org // comment

Bryant Park is now online. You can now sit in the park, boot up your 802.11b enabled laptop, and surf the web. Link from slashdot.org, article in The New York Times. // comment

All about foo // comment

Fire in zero gravity. Link found in the 11/22 Chicago Reader column "The Straight Dope" by Cecil Adams. // comment

The Best Page in the Universe. This is the site where the "I am better than your kids" forwarded e-mail originated from (and which I heard about from the delirious post-call resident physicians I work with.) Link found on communistsquirrel.com. // comment

Real X-rated movies based on another movie-title Dedicated to Rosh. Found on communistsquirrel.com // comment

About the genesis of the Cold War with an allusion to Aramchek, Ferris F. Fremont's catch-all phrase for the Enemy of Freedom. (Ferris F. Fremont is Philip K Dick's pseudonym for Richard M Nixon and Satan) // comment

George W Bush (as the reincarnation of Richard M Nixon) and Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K Dick // comment

George W Bush is an android. // comment

I finally fixed my Dream Journal. Hopefully I'll start using it again. // comment

I spent two and a half hours removing tables from this page and recoding it in CSS. (I still haven't touched the archives!) This is despite the fact that I didn't have to figure things out from scratch and simply stole code from the following sites:

saila.com

glish.com

bluerobot.com // comment

The Structure of Dante's Inferno. All about the nine circles of Hell. // comment

Dropdown/expanding menus with graceful degradation: Using Lists for DHTML Menus // comment

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's entry for Los Angeles // comment

Random stuff about Los Angeles // comment

The Skyflakes // comment

I knew I would find it eventually. Paul Oakenfold's latest track that they play on the radio all the time called "Starry Eyed Surprise" (with vocals sung by Shifty Shellshock from Crazytown) includes (among others) samples from "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson. DJ Sandstorm has a remix of the original (Does that even make any sense? We live in exciting times....) // comment

Ajax-Projection::Reach for the Stars has a track entitled "Requiem for the Rings" which is a blending of the original version off of the "Requiem for a Dream" Soundtrack and the version that is used for "The Two Towers" movie trailer. // comment

An article regarding the aforementioned petition to change the name of the new Lord of the Rings movie. // comment

According to this article, people who force Javascript pop-up windows should be killed.

(Sighted on www.littleyellowdifferent.com) // comment

anil dash: New York New Media New Funk

(Sighted on www.littleyellowdifferent.com) // comment

hivelogic // comment

Did I not predict something like this or what? Check out this site dedicated to trying to change the name of the next Lord of the Rings movie in deference to September 11.

(Sighted on www.centricle.com)

On a similar note, check out R. Robot is Making Sense, a pro-war blog that seems to have been generated by an automated script. (Or has the source code to the Godmachine AI been released without my knowledge?) For a site with a similar theme, check out whitehouse.org.

// comment