• This man is a fucking legend. I hate the so called pro-life movement, they're a bunch of fucking idiots and I commend him for his fortitude in confronting these harpies of misery.
• American servers are no longer hosting WikiLeaks war logs, possible intervention by the US Govt? It wouldn't surprise me.
• Is Microsoft dying as a consumer brand?
• Another step closer to armoured mech suits?
• the UKs ICO has been accused of being toothless, although what's more interesting in context is the underlying issues surrounding Googles mass data slurping by its streetview cars.
• Not a single person stopped and searched under anti-terror legislation in the last year has been arrested for a 'terror' related offense. The fact is that these laws were a draconian power grab by the police forces. They're unnecessary and serve little purpose other than to intimidate the public.

Nothing else of any particular newsworthiness has piqued my attention today...

I've been rather absent from posting anything for the last few days due to two mitigating factors.

1. I've been ill.
2. I've been playing Fallout: New Vegas.

And to summarise briefly, being ill sucked, Fallout: New Vegas is awesome.

However!, There are definitely a few bugs that still need ironing out and I wouldn't have minded if Bethesda had pushed the release back a little in order to address them. For example, after prolonged periods of play (around 6+ hours) the game starts slowing down, framerates get choppy and eventually it starts locking up altogether. I suspect this either a memory leak or just bad memory management in the game engine itself. On one or two occasions my Xbox crashed altogether, this definitely needs addressing and I hope there'll be a patch out soon. To mitigate this I recommend saving, quitting to the dashboard and then reloading the game as soon as you start seeing serious performance hits, although a tad annoying this only takes about a minute and it's worth it to prevent crashes and more serious irritating system lock-ups.

Warning: Potential Spoilers Ahead!

Ok, so bugs aside how's the game itself? Awesome. Simply Awesome, definitely a worthy successor to Fallout 3. The Mojave Desert is beautifully rendered and the tweaks to the gameplay make for a rich experience. Although I'd prefer it if you got perks with every level up instead of every other one I can live with not getting Mysterious Stranger as early in the playthrough as I'd like. So far I've been playing through as a mostly good character although I chose a course of action that rather alienated me from the NCR in a companion quest. Thankfully you can exonerate yourself later which is something of a blessing. The game has plenty of surprises though and the reputation system makes for a very interesting and more realistic (compared to Fallout 3) dynamic in defining how groups react to your character. It's also interesting to see how the differing factional interests playout against each other, so far I've mainly dealt with the NCR and tended to avoid the Legion. I may do another playthrough once I've completed the game to see what kind of rewards one can get from joining the bad guys.

Another interesting feature in New Vegas is the amount of different companions you can enlist along the way, there are more of 'em and you can get either a dog or an old Enclave eyebot as your 'pet', I particularly like the eyebots way of announcing nearby enemies although its propensity for attacking things on sight as default (I really need to change its tactics) can get a little wearing, especially when it keeps gunning down Brahmin and Big-horners. Unfortunately you can still only have one follower and one pet, I think it would be awesome for a Fallout game to allow you to progressively enlist a small team as you progress through the game.

New Vegas also introduces a swathe of new enemies and revamps some of the old enemy types in new guises, for example there are no raiders as such but there is a gang of drug crazed bandits known as the Fiends, there are also the remnants of some old gangs that wander about the wasteland but are rarely hardcore enough to be considered a threat. I've come to look upon them as target practice more than anything else. Things to watch out for though would be Nightstalkers (if travelling alone at night a pack of these bastards can be a real bitch to take out), Deathclaws (remember them? They're still just as badass in New Vegas) and possibly Cazadores although a decently equipped team should be able to out packs of them with relative ease.

Interestingly enough it takes some time before you can get to the New Vegas strip itself (I'd racked up around 20 hours before I finally got in) and depending on your style of play it can take longer to actually address the immediately presented quests that await you there. Personally I've taken the approach of doing lots of side quests in order to get levelled up and hopefully make whatever's waiting in the final sections of the main storyline less challenging. Much like Fallout 3 there is a plethora of fun side quests and just when you think you've got the story sussed you find it twisting in yet another surprising direction that really helps to flesh out the game and the surrounding environment. Currently my goal is to level up to the point where I can acquire the Mysterious Stranger perk (always been one of my favourites) and the Sniper perk (I ♥ headshots).

That's all for now, have fun.

Either through accident or design Sky have used what looks very much like the Ubuntu logo on their minisite detailing the UKs recent spending review

So will Canonical take them to task for what looks like trademark infringement? Stay tuned :)

After all their talk of returning civil liberties and privacy to the UK the coalition goverment has shown its true colours and they ain't pretty. Yes it's the revival of IMP (Interception Modernisation Program) one of the previous politburos most Orwellian of nightmares. Something I'd hoped we'd heard the last of after the general election.

Apparently it's round about time I started using Tor and GPG encryption for all my emails again. You see, it's not about whether or not we've got anything to hide. It's about basic liberties and a right to privacy, it's about whether or not the security services can be trusted with this kind of data. quis custodiet ipsos custodes, who will watch the watchers? What kind of oversight would this program have and how will we, the people, ever know if it's being abused or not?

I have come to have the opinion that the less our governments know about us, the better. The UK government in particular has shown repeatedly that it is incapable of protecting sensitive data. The various breaches of protocol, laptops being left on trains, records containing the details of vulnerable members of society being lost on USB memory sticks unencrypted etc. There have simply been too many instances of massive incompetence for us to be able to place any trust in our so-called overlords.

Furthermore, what right do they have do spy on us? We who elect them and give them office. They seem to forget that they work for us, not vice versa. Telling us that it's all to protect us from the evil terrorists has a pretty hollow ring to it these days. We didn't turn ourselves into an Orwellian nightmare during the troubles when the IRA was bombing London, why should we now? Surely the most appropriate response to the spectre of terrorism is for us to not change a damn thing. To continue to live as we would normally have, to preserve and stand by our principles of freedom and liberty? Surely? Apparently the forked tongues of our political elite would say otherwise.

How long will it be before this kind of data is used to spy on dissidents political or otherwise, how long will it be before terrorism is redefined as anyone the state doesn't like? We are standing on a precipice atop an extremely slippery slope. Seems to me that we would be better served taking a step back and repealing every piece of draconian legislation that has been introduced since 2001. If we are to fight 'terrorism' let us do it on an idealogical level by not bowing to it, by staying as we were. Proud, open and free.

Makes sense...

• Ubuntu 10.10s multi-touch capabilities now have a demo video. Looking good so far but I still hate the Unity interface.
• Gear Box has kindly given a non-profit IP license to a Duke Nukem fan-made re-make of the original Duke.
• President Obama is going to appear on Myth Busters, which is just awesome. This is part of a White House drive to highlight the importance of science education. Thank you mr President, more of this please.
• Apparently school boards in Ontario, Canada largely consist of raging fucking morons.
• Java is being hit by a record number of exploits, (lol java).
• Awesome graphic here detailing our atmosphere.
• Some random speculation on the idea of running Universities like wikipedia here, personally I think this would be a very bad idea. I just can't imagine it working well considering the amount of raging dumbfuckery that ends up on wikipedia...

That's all for now, I'm tired and the coffee isn't working...

14:38 slackthumbz: ffs why is my work desktop pooter still running Debian 4?
14:39 evilerik: it's stable yo
14:39 slackthumbz: so is debian 5
14:39 slackthumbz: and at least 5 isn't ancient
14:39 evilerik: then bust a cap in some mofo's ass 'til you get yo biznatch up in yo bling innit?
14:39 alterego: Good ole' etch
14:40 slackthumbz: evilerik: what language is that?
14:40 slackthumbz: I could swear you're speaking 'jive'
14:40 evilerik: slackthumbz: I have no fucking idea what I just said.
14:40 slackthumbz: that makes 2 of us
14:40 evilerik: It sounded authentic though
14:41 slackthumbz: is authentic a euphemism for batshit crazy?
14:41 evilerik: I think so

Australias new Prime Minister is, apparently, a fucking idiot and is pledging further support for an expansion of their national 'firewall' program. El Reg analysis here. Firstly, this is not a firewall in the truest sense of the word. A firewall is designed to keep out malicious threats, attackers and to block access to ports that may be exploited by less than scrupulous individuals and/or organisations. This is a censorship excercise pure and simple and it will not achieve its goals either. All that will happen is that those who do not wish to experience a censored internet will get external VPS and ssh tunnel through them. The only people that will be affected here are those who lack the inclination or the technical know-how to bypass this pathetic attempt at restricting access to information.

To add insult to injury the Australian politburo are using that lowest of tactics, emotional blackmail by claiming it's all about protecting children. Well excuse me, but I was under the impression that the responsibility of raising children should fall to parents, not some faceless government machine intent on controlling all the you see and hear. Not only is this kind of censorship, apparently for the good of the people, very reminiscent of the type of censorship conducted by Iran or China, it's also morally reprehensible. No Government body in a supposedly civilised western democracy should be advocating state wide censorship just because a few raging narrow minded dickheads in power think their view of the world should be enforced upon the entire populace. Last time I checked that kind of attitude was a precursor to fascism.

Furhermore there will likely be a large performance overhead, added to the fact that this policy is virtually unenforceable, anti-human, anti-democratic and an insult to very concepts of liberty and free expression I cannot but hope that it will fail miserably and that every politician supporting it loses their jobs and their livelihoods as a result. Fuck them and fuck censorship and if you think this policy is a good thing then fuck you too.

Benoit Mandelbrot has passed away at the age of 85 and so we mourn the loss of a great man. The Register has more details here. In other news Anonymous' guerilla war against the copyright industry has taken a new turn today with the succesful use of a DNS cache poisening attack on copyprotected.com, a mouthpiece site for the MPAA. Well played Anon, another middle finger to the unscrupulous thugs at the MPAA. On a related note, the Pirate Bay founders appeal has finished but we won't hear the verdict until November.

Many thanks to Bad Astronomy for this post linking to Crispian Jagos alternative therapy flowchart, which is a spot on analysis of new age quackery and the kind of severe brain damage you'd have to have suffered to buy into any of it.

Also on todays list of awesomeness is this little gem, thanks to PZ Myers for linking that on up. Another piece of galactic wonder from Bad Astronomy is in order. Simply beautiful, and some people say a godless universe is devoid of wonder? I challenge them to look at the main image in that link and say that.

Further coolness from the world of physics is the White Hole model in your kitchen sink, the BSA are bunch of arseholes and want to stifle innovation and the use of open standards in Europe, the DoD has reported that there has been no discernible violent fallout as a result of WikiLeaks' Afghan War Log and a creepy eugenics experiment appears to be underway in Britain courtesy of an American charity.

That's all for now folks, live long and prosper (holy fuck I've been watching way too much Star Trek lately...)

14:35 evilerik: php is a great language
14:35 evilerik: I vomited a little typing that
14:35 slackthumbz: I vomited a little reading it
14:36 spb: i felt a momentary yet powerful urge to stab you in the face in between reading those two lines

• Liam Fox is a fucking idiot. Pro-tip: it's just a game Liam.
• BT, or to be realistic, Porter Novelli don't understand email.
• O2 are about to become ad-whores, though thankfully it's apparently going to be an opt-in service.
• Jaws comes to Blighty.

Apparently someone has been trying to hack the site. Most amusing :) I just noticed a ton of requests for various versions of phpmyadmin and mysqladmin amongst other things. In fact, here's the log and the traceroute data from the haxxors:

[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/admin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/admin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/php-my-admin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.2.6
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.2.3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/mysql
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpmyadmin2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpmyadmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpmyadmin1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/myadmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/pma
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.5
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.7
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/db
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpmyadmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/websql
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/mysqladmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.7-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpadmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.5-rc2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/php-my-admin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.5-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.6-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/xampp
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.6
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/dbadmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/typo3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/web
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/web
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.6-rc2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.5-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.5.4
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-rc3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/websql
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0.2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-beta2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-rc2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-beta1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0.1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/sqlweb
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.4-pl3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.1-pl2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/sqlmanager
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-alpha2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.4-pl2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/php-myadmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/PMA2005
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.4-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.1-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/mysqlmanager
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.1-pl3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/mysql-admin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-alpha
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.4-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.7.0
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0-beta1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.4-pl4
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:12 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.1-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-beta1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/pma2005
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpmanager
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0-rc2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0.3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/webdb
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpmy-admin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.1-rc2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0.3
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/webdb
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpmy-admin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.1-rc2
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-rc1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.4
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0.4
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/webadmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.0
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/mysqladmin
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.0-beta1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.1-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.6.2-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/phpMyAdmin-2.8.1
[Thu Oct 14 20:36:13 2010] [error] [client 77.95.95.43] File does not exist: [path scrubbed]/htdocs/p

Traceroute data:

traceroute to 77.95.95.43 (77.95.95.43), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 212-110-185-1.no-reverse-dns-set.bytemark.co.uk (212.110.185.1) 0.520 ms 0.475 ms 0.467 ms
2 89-16-188-3.no-reverse-dns-set.bytemark.co.uk (89.16.188.3) 1.025 ms 1.026 ms 1.020 ms
3 gi4-19.cr01.thn.bytemark.co.uk (80.68.80.73) 7.174 ms 7.239 ms 7.352 ms
4 43-245.rbsov.bogons.net (85.158.43.245) 6.987 ms 6.995 ms 7.079 ms
5 cr0-G1-1.rbsov.bogons.net (193.178.223.218) 6.967 ms 6.967 ms 7.047 ms
6 cat01.Frankfurt.gldn.net (195.66.224.205) 24.353 ms 24.107 ms 24.306 ms
7 194.186.57.210 (194.186.57.210) 91.594 ms 91.629 ms 91.615 ms
8 Speklis-lgw.Rostov.gldn.net (195.239.127.226) 101.785 ms 92.774 ms 105.596 ms
9 77.95.88.2 (77.95.88.2) 113.211 ms 113.216 ms 113.584 ms
10 router154.fiber.ru (77.95.91.86) 101.207 ms 102.675 ms 115.279 ms
11 77.95.95.43 (77.95.95.43) 120.681 ms 113.737 ms 113.250 ms

So the attempts are coming from Russia? No surprises there really. Looks like an automated attack as well so presumably it's some weak sauce script kiddies with a little botnet access. Allow me to point something out; no self respecting programmer would use php, it's an abomination for amateurs who write dangerously insecure code and don't understand taint checking. Neither would they allow remote access to any form of site administration via a web page. Why bother when we have ssh and vi?

And here's a perfect example of why. It's also notable that the chief of the Metropolitan Police Force seems to think that cops should be above the law or at least more difficult to bring to task when they overstep their authority.

In other news PZ Myers is kicking it hard, GNU atheist style and the Milky Way is looking a bit square.

I finally got around to creating an RSS feed, you can find it under 'Info' in the sidebar or get the feed source directly here.

Apparently there is a small asteroid passing us in high orbit in about an hour from now. Check it out, for a more detailed explanation have a look at The Bad Astronomy Blog.

We finally get to see a demo for Duke Nukem Forever. Looks cool so far but in all fairness we didn't get to see a huge amount of the game. Quite liked the fist-mounted rocket launcher though. Now if only I could take one of those to work...

Also, don't work for Foxconn.

While we're here, here's an interesting article on the irreconcilability of religion and science. In the words of Stephen Hawking, science wins because it works.

So the Insane Clown Posse have come out as evangelical christians. The stupidity they display is almost palpable in that article.

"A giraffe is a fucking miracle. It has a dinosaur-like neck. It's yellow. Yeah, technically an elephant is not a miracle. Technically. They've been here for hundreds of years..."

I physically facpalmed at that point. It would take five minutes to explain the basic reason for a giraffes necks to these idiots but apparently they wouldn't want to know because it would take the mystery out of it. This is a tired argument that has been annoying atheists for quite some time, that the universe lacks beauty or elegance when there isn't a mysterious wizard behind it all. As if it isn't wonderous enough as it is. Look at the structure of a living cell through a microscope and tell me that isn't wonderous. No 'god' is required to see the beauty in a nebula or to be astounded by the raw power generated by our sun. The universe is full of wonder, made even more so by our ability to analyse and comprehend it. I despair at the kind of willful ignorance that ICP promotes, it is precisely that kind of attitude that holds us back as a species.

So I installed the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10 RC1 onto my netbook yesterday and so far it's quite nice. I only have a couple of little qualms about it.

Unity. That's right, the new default desktop for the netbook edition. It's cute, has a very gnome-shell feel to it and I can see why some new/non-power users might like it but here's the problem, it's slow. The interface feels clunky even on my HP Mini which, for a netbook, is pretty nicely specced. It may seem finicky to complain about having to wait a few seconds for menus to load, but on an interface that is meant to make the netbook more like a consumer device than a real computer, a few seconds is just too long. Unity is also very inflexible and yes this does boil down to me wanting to be able to have my desktop 'just so' but I've always felt that that is rather the point of linux desktop environments.

There's more to come, after finding Unity a bit slow I also noticed that it wastes tonnes of screen real estate and on a netbook that cannot be a good thing. For example, here's a screen shot of unity next to a shot of how I like to have my netbook desktop set up:

 

Which of those would you say utilises the limited space off a netbook screen more efficiently?, I know which I prefer and that brings me to my next point. I had to install gnome-compiz compatibility manually to get effects working in the gnome-desktop session. You may wonder why this is an issue but it is. You see, in Ubuntu one expects pretty things. So if I log into a normal gnome-desktop session, even in the netbook edition, I expect to be able to enable compositing so I can use my favourite docks and cutesy desktop effects. You may call that lame but I suspect an average Joe-user type would want some basic effects if they chose to eschew the Unity desktop. Just little things like window drop shadows and the like.

Finally a few annoying bugs, Gwibber still can't add facebook accounts, in Byobu the 'network' notification applet reports 10 times more data through put than is actually occurring and if you disable bluetooth in the gnome-panel applet it kills your wireless as well (that last one is particularly annoying).

So there you have it, overall it's pretty nice but there are some niggling annoyances in there that will drive you insane if you're as pedantic as I am.

UPDATE: There isn't a bug in byobu, it turns out that they've changed the default unit measurement to kilobits per second as opposed to kilobytes per second. You can change it back to the old units by adding the line

NETWORK_UNITS=bytes

in $HOME/.byobu/statusrc. Many thanks to Dustin Kirkland for clearing that up for me, I will now hang my head in shame for not spotting it myself.

In the wonderful world of mobile devices it would appear that just about everyone is suing everyone else. Thankfully for us mere mortals the Gaurdian has provided a handy chart.

If anyone has any decent coffee they can spare, I'd be very grateful...

Three days running with no decent coffee at the office. If this keeps I'm going to go postal.

I actually ROFL'd at this. Those guys at The Chive owe me a new keyboard. Oh, if you're offended by blasphemy you might want to not click that link, but if you're offended by blasphemy then you really shouldn't be reading this site as I have absolutely no respect, what-so-ever for mythical skyfairies and the retards that believe in them.

The coffee machine at work has been broken for two mornings in a row now. This is intolerable, IT Departments need coffee. Especially during the first half of the week. As such the nerdy news roundup has been condensed into a brief list with little or no explanation because I'm too tired to care and desperately need some coffee.

• I concur.
• The sea is awesome.
• Beverly Stayart is a fucking idiot.
• The Catholic church are fucking idiots
• 15 year old cyborg.
• Well done Red Hat
• CLI 4 lyfe,
• Twitter sucks balls.
• Kill it with fire.

Right, I can't be bothered to do any more. Still need coffee.

As predicted, Anonymous have charged and fired their lazers at Gallant MacMillan and taken them down DDoS style (article). Well played Anon, well played. Also I've got the new Borderlands DLC and so far it's pretty good. It's got new expansive maps, new NPCs, new bad guys and some interesting variations on some old bad guys (the CL4P-TP version of General Knoxx was particularly cool). More on that later when i've had a chance to bust more heads.

More security woes for IE users as a new raging information disclosure bug has been discovered. Personally I'm amazed that anyone still uses that horrible sack of shit.

Also on the MS front, the Windows behemoth are being total dicks in the patent market and troll-suing Motorola in a thinly veiled attempt to stifle competition and scare manufacturers out of producing Android handsets. Not entirely surprising considering how mind numbingly shit windows mobile is.

Off to Slimelight soon, it's going to get messy and there may even be some dancing (yes, me dancing, you may laugh. I know I will later). More amusingly I've started my own nerdcore project. When I say started I do mean that very literally, I've written a few pages of ideas for lyrics and I've got a few concepts noted for tracks. I've downloaded a fuckton of drum and track samples and I'll be busting out Ardour and Audacity in the next couple of weeks while I hack together some tracks. If any of them are any good then I'll publish here. Anyway, off to the club for some serious Industrial :)

Right, so the plan is we go to Camden first for some shopping, grab some alcohol, then head home for a bit before we go to Slimelight. So if you see a bemused looking geek in a battered leather trench coat and a trilby being dragged around camden by his girlfriend.. well that would be me :p

First up, holy shit you can now buy a classic batmobile, I've wanted that car ever since I was a kid. Then there's the bacon bust of Kevin Bacon, bacon makes everything better. Fact. C&H is on good form and Ubuntu 10.10 has hit RC1.

Crikey, there sure is a lot of awesome goin' on today.