Archive for October, 2004

3 years, 6 months ago

(*&#%$)(* Server

Okay so this box at work got rooted today. Pain in the ass.

However, the bigger pain in the ass came when I powered down the server so I could work on swapping disks out.

This server has hot-swap HD bays…however they are all LOCKED! That’s right, locked hot-swap bays…from the inside of the case! Great says I, so I then unrack the server and pull it out only to find ANOTHER lock on the top of the case preventing me from even getting INSIDE the stupid POS Dell server. So I ask around “Hey where is the key for this server?”

Answer? “Oh, we’ve never opened that server because we inherited it from a company that went Chapter 11 and so we never got the keys for it”.

Great! So now I decide to pick the lock on this POS Dell. Lockpicking was unsuccessful, partly due to the fact this was a cheap-ass metal disc style lock and I had no real lockpicks on hand. So I finally give up on picking the lock and walk into the server room to get the Makita drill.

2 minutes later a nice shiny metal hole was drilled through that POS lock and I was in the case finally!

Lock: 0
Dan: 1

3 years, 6 months ago

Got root?

A box at work got rooted. Joy.

Getting a HD image to analyze later. Not sure what the point of entry was yet.

Happy birthday to lucienne and jodybat today!

3 years, 6 months ago

Photos I’ve taken recently and other things….

So a few photos some of you might like seeing I took lately…

Bill Gates speaking recently at the Digital Entertainment Everywhere push at the Shrine Auditorium

The backend inputs/outputs for HP’s new Windows Media Center 2005 home entertainment server (a bit pricey however at 1495 for one tuner and 1995 for two tuner version)

John Hoover getting Jester his last drink as a single man at Dave and Busters

Scaled Composities White Knight with SpaceShipOne attached underneath for takeoff in Mojave, CA for the first X-Prize flight attempt

Other stuff that has been going on…well my friends Tim and Jen got married on Friday but I couldn’t make it to the courthouse on account of having to work in addition to already having to be at ANOTHER wedding the next day Saturday that I was doing all of the sound for as well as DJing all of the dance music for as well which I had been stressing out over big time. The good news to report back on that however is that the Saturday wedding went off without a hitch on my part or anyone elses for that matter and I even got some of the 70 year old folks from the bride and grooms families to dance so I felt like I did my job well.

Also turns out that one of the last minute bridesmaid replacements is a really cool lady from Whitter who I think I want to get to know better. Turns out she has been an old friend of Alex’s and is a member of LASFS (but doesn’t go all that often like myself) so that is pretty nice. Of course when she gave me her contact email later when I tried to write to it I must have misheard what she said or copied it down wrong or something equally moronic. Anyways that isnt the end of the world, once Alex gets back from his honeymoon next week he can get me in contact with her I’m sure.

3 years, 6 months ago

A few updates….

Yeah for starters I can safely say that this lovely lady, Jessica at SportsByBrooks has certainly got the kind of look I’d like in a lady/girlfriend/more:

Now onto more pressing matters (shut up you pervs) with politics!

If you haven’t seen it or heard about it yet Jon Stewart of Comedy Central The Dialy Show fame was on CNN’s Crossfire. Stewart had a pretty simple message to Crossfire which was “Stop hurting America”. I really suggest you read the transcript of the show segment or you watch the segment to see a prime example of exactly WHY shows like Crossfire are hurting America as they try to pigeonhole Stewart into the “funnyman comedian monkey” hole

and try to pull the monkeys strings. The transcript and video can be found here:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200410160003

More political stuff….Ann Coulter. Ahhh, Ann Coulter, where to begin really?

I know I’ve been known to say at times that all women are crazy. Well, I’d like to restate that comment and say that Ann Coulter is ABSOLUTELY NUTSO LOONY-BIN GRADE A CRAZY. Here are things that Ann Coulter has said on TV or had PRINTED in newspapers….they scary thing is I think people believe this!

Example 0: Ann Coulter raving crazy spouting off at the mouth

Example 1: Her recent appearance on The O’Reilly Factor
O’REILLY: Are you — OK. OK. Let’s stop there now. Are you a right-wing extremist?

COULTER: I guess so, but I think that’s synonymous with American patriot.

COULTER: Well, truth be told, I think I’m a moderate, and the rest of the world is crazy. I will accept the right-wing moniker.

Example 2: Comments she has said on her book tour How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter
“[Senator John] Kerry apparently wants to create jobs in the body bag industry, as we come under more attacks when he refuses to fight the war on terrorism.”

“I think they [Democrats] do get it [that a terrorist attack could occur in the United States]. I really think they don’t care.”

“The media so wants to take [President] George [W.] Bush out so that John Kerry can get in and surrender for America.”

Example 3: Comments she made on Larry King Live after the 2nd Presidential Debate
COULTER: This [the Democratic Party] is the appeasement party, and it’s just words to cover up that they would never fight a war in defense of America.

[...]

KING: You think Franklin Roosevelt was an appeaser, Ann?

COULTER: No, I think, according to the Democrats’ own standard, they would not have fought World War II today. I mean, Hitler didn’t hit us at Pearl Harbor. Hitler was being contained. We sure didn’t have the French and Germans on board for that one. [CNN, Larry King Live, 10/8]

Example 4: More comments from recent media appearances on TV and Radio
* COULTER: I think the problem the Democrats have is, no one really believes they’re authentic patriots and they would ever say that any war in defense of America is the right war at the right time in the right place. They wouldn’t fight any place.

They keep having this apocryphal idea that there’s some war they would fight. On the criteria they have set out, you know, they wouldn’t fight World War II. [...] And everyone knows that Democrats won’t fight a war. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 10/6]
* LINDA VESTER (host): You say you’d rather not talk to liberals at all?

COULTER: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days. [FOX News Channel, DaySide with Linda Vester, 10/6]
* COULTER: Not only attention, it is to try to discredit us, and I mean, this was more the point of my book Slander, though somewhat of this book, and that is liberals don’t wanna take you on on substance. What they wanna do is say this person is crazy, this person is stupid, don’t listen to this person, this person is a fascist — danger, danger — America, do not listen. They are afraid of public debate. [The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 10/6]

(Coulter on Gore: “Al Gore is nuts.” Coulter on Kerry: Kerry “is as crazy as their [Democrats'] last presidential candidate [Gore] was”; “Kerry will improve the economy in the emergency services and body bag industry.” Coulter on New Yorkers: “Oh God, they’re so stupid in New York!”)
* COULTER: I think the problem Democrats have is, no one really believes they’re authentic patriots and they would ever say that any war in defense of America is the right war at the right time in the right place. They wouldn’t fight any place. They keep having this apocryphal idea that there’s some war they would fight. On the criteria they have set out, you know, they wouldn’t fight World War II. [...] And everyone knows that Democrats won’t fight a war. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 10/6]

Coulter on Senator John Edwards:

* STEVE DOOCY (FOX & Friends co-host): So what’s your headline after the debate last night?

COULTER: Vote for Kerry-Edwards because Edwards’s old man used to learn math on TV. [FOX News Channel, FOX & Friends, 10/6]
* COULTER: Every answer was some personal anecdote. It’s all about him and what happened to him. I mean, his response to Israel is he was at the King David Hotel during the pizzeria bombing, and therefore Israel has a right to defend itself. Well, what if he hadn’t been at the King David Hotel? Would Israel still have a right to defend itself? Why is everything a personal story with this snake oil salesman? [FOX News Channel, FOX & Friends, 10/6]
* COULTER: Does anyone believe when Edwards is in his little girlie voice with his girlie hands, saying we will track the terrorists down where they are. We will stop them. We will kill them. All Cheney has to say is, we’ll take care of it. [FOX News Channel, FOX & Friends, 10/6]
* COULTER: I think people have different ways of viewing John Edwards because I kept hearing how he was unbelievably persuasive, and the jury awards, and that he can charm the birds out of the trees … I must not be a bird because I just want to strangle him when I see him talking. He would channel the victims in front of the jury, I mean, he was pretending he was a baby who had died in the womb and said to the jury, she is speaking to you through me. I can feel her. Who would fall for that? It’s so creepy. It makes my skin crawl. [MSNBC, Imus in the Morning, 10/6]
* COULTER: But even on reading the transcript, I think Edwards was an absolute ninny. These long, personal stories about the glow from the television and his father wasn’t — you know, wasn’t putting groceries away, wasn’t helping his mother, wasn’t cleaning the cat litter, this endless story about we should vote for him because his father learned math off the TV? [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 10/6]
* COULTER: And I think the vice presidential debate, showing this Dan Quayle with more effeminate hand gestures as the vice presidential candidate for the Democrats, hurt the Democrats a lot. [MSNBC, Scarborough Country, 10/6]

Example 5: Ann Coulter wants a Christian crusade to kill or convert all Muslims (I swear I’m not making this up people!)
Coulter on the widows of the September 11 terror attacks:

GIBSON: And you also refer to some of those who lost their husbands in 9-11 as McWidows.

COULTER: Right. [ABC, Good Morning America, 10/5/04]

Coulter on Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe:

GIBSON: Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic Party, you call him a slimy weasel.

COULTER: Right. [ABC, Good Morning America, 10/5/04]

Coulter on Muslims:

Two days after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, Coulter wrote about Muslims: “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity” (as Media Matters for America has noted). On Hannity & Colmes, Coulter reinforced those sentiments, claiming, as she does in her new book, that they are true “[n]ow more than ever”:

ALAN COLMES (co-host of Hannity & Colmes): [R]ight after September 11, you said, and you know where I’m going with this, I’m often asked if I still think we should invade their countries, kill their leaders, convert them to Christianity. You say the same thing Nixon said in 1972: “Now more than ever.”

COULTER: Now more than ever.

[...]

COULTER: By Friday of 9/11, we had accomplished point one and point two. Invade their countries, killed their leaders.

[...]

COLMES: Would you like to convert these people all to Christianity?

COULTER: The ones that we haven’t killed, yes.

COLMES: So no one should be Muslim. They should all be Christian?

COULTER: That would be a good start, yes.

[...]

COLMES: But you’re talking about a group of extremists who misuse Islam and aren’t practicing true Islam. But would you like to convert all of these countries to Christianity. Should they all become Christian nations? Because that’s what your …

COULTER: Yes, that would be terrific.

COLMES: … remarks suggest.

COULTER: That would be terrific, yes. [FOX News Channel, Hannity & Colmes, 10/4/04]

My take on Ann Coulter? The psycho needs some warm coals shoved into her furnace so she will warm the hell up and act sensibly. Either that or someone should lock her up in a place like this:


and then throw away the key. Or maybe we should set her up the bomb?

Oh and in closing, this is what happens when you don’t patch windows systems in a timely manner!

3 years, 7 months ago

Read My Lips 2 - The Bush Plan

Okay guys, I found this video here:

http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/20401/

But I am hosting it also on my webserver here for you to watch (5mb file, needs Quicktime) :

3 years, 7 months ago

They did it!

Scaled won the X-Prize.

Hot damn!

Space, here we come (finally)!




About the Author

Daniel Spisak

Daniel Spisak was born from the fiery depths of fusion and now roams the pale blue dot known as Earth. I obtained my bachelors degree in Computer Science from UC Irvine at the end of 2007.

I am also involved in technology & security consulting firms as well as being a freelance technology writer. I also contribute to Jerry Pournelle's website and Chaos Manor Reviews. Additionally I am also a freelance photographer as well and you can find my photos either on my own personal gallery or up at my Flickr account or on Zivity.

This blog is one of the main locations where I do my writing, which is then automatically sent to my LiveJournal, VOX, and MySpace accounts. I can also be found on a variety of social networking and microblogging sites like Pownce, Twitter, Brightkite, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

If your viewing this site with Internet Explorer it may not look correct because IE is horrible about following W3C web standards properly or consistently. I suggest you try browsing the Internet with Firefox. It is much better and not as vulnerable to security flaws as IE can be.

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