bytehead's blog

A Softer World: 454

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:14:55 PDT

A Softer World: 454
I pretended to lose my fortune years ago,

so that at my funeral nobody will suspect special effects

when hell opens up and swallows my body.

BBC NEWS | Business | Gazprom seals $2.5bn Nigeria deal

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:39:25 PDT

BBC NEWS | Business | Gazprom seals $2.5bn Nigeria deal:

Russia's energy giant Gazprom has signed a $2.5bn (£1.53bn) deal with Nigeria's state operated NNPC, to invest in a new joint venture.

The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria.

Highlighting me.

I understand that's not the way they are going to pronounce that word, but I would definitely be looking at a different word, personally.

Printer go Poof! New printer zing.

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:33:05 PDT

My old Epson R300 stopped printing black today. In the middle of a document. After doing several head cleanings, and black not even showing up (but the ink was going somewhere during a cleaning), and figuring it's not worth it, I went shopping for another printer.

It was important that I keep the ability to print on CDs and DVDs, so I stayed with Epson (Rosie was thinking about Kodak because of the ink cost, but I'm seeing very bad reviews, so I passed this time). and ended up with an Epson Artisan 800. It's wireless via 802.11B/G (the panel talks about BlueTooth, but I couldn't get that working), and prints CDs and DVDs. Printing envelopes will probably be a little harder, but oh well.

Won't install on my Windows 7 computer, but I can't say that I'm surprised either. I'll have to go to the website and see what they have to say.

At this point, I'm ready for bed. Good night!

Update:

It installed as a generic Epson printer. Now I don't get the fancy icon about ink levels and such. Oh well. I did get it working as a scanner though (which I find out, but hey!). I had to set it up manually, scanning didn't work (which is why I think it didn't install, but I turned the idiot fire wall off. Who knows!). When I used Windows 7 to install, it scanned and found it.

It works. That's all I care about now.

Sunday Lyrics

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:02:22 PDT

Jesus Jones
Right Here, Right Now

A woman on the radio talks about revolution when it's already passed her by
Bob Dylan didn't have this to sing about, you know it feels good to be alive

I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history

I saw the decade in, when it seemed the world could change at the blink of an eye
And if anything, then there's your sign of the times

I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now

I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up

Blue Angels cockpit cam - Naval Academy graduation 2009

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:27:20 PDT

Lyric Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:00:01 PDT

Shinedown:Second Chance

My eyes are open wide, by the way
I made it through the day
I watch the world outside, by the way
I'm leaving out today
I just saw Halley's Comet, she waved
Said, "Why are you always running in place?
Even the man in the moon disappeared
somewhere in the stratosphere"

Tell my mother, tell my father
I've done the best I can
To make them realize this is my life
I hope they understand
I'm not angry, I'm just saying
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance

Please don't cry one tear for me
I'm not afraid of what I have to say
This is my one and only voice
so listen close, it's only for today
I just saw Halley's Comet, she waved
Said, "Why are you always running in place?
Even the man in the moon disappeared
somewhere in the stratosphere"

Tell my mother, tell my father
I've done the best I can
To make them realize this is my life
I hope they understand
I'm not angry, I'm just saying
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance

Here is my chance
This is my chance!

Tell my mother, tell my father
I've done the best I can
To make them realize this is my life
I hope they understand
I'm not angry, I'm just saying
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance.

What season do I fee like

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:14:21 PDT

You Feel Like Summer

Right now, you are filled with energy and excitement.
You feel like you are finally living the life you've always wanted... and you can barely believe it.

You are thriving and making progress. You feel like you can take on any challenge.
You are extremely happy and upbeat. You enjoy every part of your day, and you love the adventure of life.

What Season Do You Feel Like?

The Risky Solid-State Drive - Columns by PC Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:24:27 PDT

The Risky Solid-State Drive - Columns by PC Magazine:

Then there is the technology I've harped on over the past five or six years: the HHD, or the hybrid hard disk. When the idea for the HHD was hatched, it was intended to solve all sorts of problems. Half spinning platter and half flash memory, an HHD would increase throughput and make the hard disk more powerful than ever…somehow. I actually sat through a day of presentations outlining how this device would revolutionize the mass-storage industry. It was all ready to go and, as one guy put it, make Vista so hot that people would flock to it. You see, Vista was optimized for this new drive. How soon they forget.

My thought of how a true hybrid hard drive was a little different.

You have a large RAM drive to act as a buffer. Next would be the standard hard drive, which would at least in the beginning, save everything to it. Stuff that was read often, but not changed much would then be gradually moved to the flash memory, because of the finite number of writes that it has. The RAM would be used for speed purposes. Defragmentation and stuff like that would actually be done on the drive itself, and not relegated to the operating system.

That's why I look on SSD drives myself with a lot of disdain.

Thin or Thick skinned?

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:58:49 PDT

You Are Thick-Skinned

People may not always love you, but that's totally fine.
You're happy with who you are, and you don't really crave outside approval.

You love yourself, and that's the most important thing. You have high self esteem.
And because you don't care what other people think, they tend to like you a lot!

Are You Thin Skinned or Thick Skinned?

My watercolor test

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:05:30 PDT

You Are Highly Spiritual

You may not have found the meaning of life, but you try to approach it with as much optimism as possible.
You are always enthusiastic and grateful for every day you have.

You are cheerful and energetic. You are a do-gooder who likes to keep busy.
You are outgoing and carefree. You embrace life to the fullest.

The Watercolor Test

An old Internet post, pre-blog

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:01:08 PDT

SETI - The Search for ExtraTerrestial Intelligence

A futile search?

What is SETI?

The 140 foot radio telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia.

SETI is the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence. The primary (and maybe only) search method currently being used is scanning the sky for radio waves that show some type of pattern that may indicate the source is coming from an intelligent source. This would then start the process that could possibly prove that we are not alone in this great big universe. For more information than I'm going to cover please visit the SETI Institute site. There is also a publication about this subject, SETIQuest that I have found on the web for this subject as well as Astrobiology(!).

Now what has gotten into Bryan's brain?

I have been thinking much lately about encryption and compression and how it will affect society down the road. I have been doing this mainly as research for a novel I hope to one day finish. This has had me thinking in idle moments about such things. One of the thoughts I had was that pretty soon, most of the radio traffic on this planet will be either compressed and/or encrypted. Maybe in the next 25 years, maybe as long as 100 years from now. I then saw this trend as a problem as it relates to the SETI (the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) Project.

Background? And keep it simple!

Allow me to do a little background explanation here. Currently most of what we are broadcasting out into space is analog signal. Think of an analog signal this way, like a telephone. A magnet in a coil vibrates from the air vibrations (sound) and makes an electric signal. This signal travels through wires to a speaker, which is a magnet in a coil similar to what we started with, but now, the signal makes the magnet move in the coil, recreating the original sound. This is pretty simplified, but I think you see the point. The signal is analog, as the signal can take on any necessary properties that make the sound. The signal can be any rated value. One of the issues with analog signals is that they can become weak or damaged, and data loss can occur.

Now a digital signal is one that uses certain levels to mark either 0 or 1, off or on. The letter A in 8-bit ASCII (a standard computer depiction for letters) is 01100001, which comes out to the decimal number 65. The number 9 in 8-bit EBCDIC (another standard depiction) is 11111001, which comes out to the decimal number 249. More and more signals are turning into digital signals. The United States has just passed a standard for High Definition TV (HDTV) that uses digital signals. One of the positive attributes to digital signals is that, since they are nothing but numbers, certain numeric functions can be done to ensure that the data being carried in that signal are exactly what the origin specified them to be. This is known as error detection and error correction. This is a seperate issue from the compression and encryption I will be talking about. Computers can understand digital signals a whole lot better than analog signals.

Now what about compression and encryption?

Compression is the process of taking an amount of information, and then reducing the information through various ways and reducing the space that this information takes up, in a computer's RAM or hard drive, or beaming it via electricty through copper wires, via photons through fiber optics, or via radio waves through just about everything. If I record a 30 second sound, I can compress it down to much shorter than 30 seconds. Of course, to make it understandable I have to be able to decompress it. Compression is usually lumped into two kinds, lossless (you get an exact copy of what you compressed when you decompress it) and lossy (you get a copy of what you compressed, but it certainly won't be an exact copy). In everyday WWW surfing, you run into both kinds. Files in .GIF format are lossless, and files in .JPG format are lossy.

Lossless? Lossy?

It's probably not important, but I'll describe the differences between the two ways of compression. A .GIF file is a standard graphics format that Compuserve started that has a limit of 256 colors per image. The kind of compression that they decided to use ensures that the the image you get out of the file is exactly the same as what you started with.

A .JPG or JPEG file format is another standard graphic file format that allows up to 16 million different colors in an image. The raw uncompressed image of a .JPG is 3 times the size that of a .GIF of the same resolution. Surprising as it may seem, a .JPG is usually much smaller than a .GIF file, as .JPG uses lossy compression that looses some of the details when it compresses an image. An uncompressed image will not be the same as the original image. This is alright, as long as not too much detail is lost, and the eye will not miss it. Follow the above links for more information.

OK, now what's encryption?

Encryption is a more of a process of creating a copy of information that is secure, such that only the intended recipient(s) can read the information. This usually entails compression at some stage as well. There are various ways of doing encryption, from single key (You have a key that both locks the information and unlocks it) such as DES encryption, to double key (one key locks the information, the other key unlocks it) such as RSA public/private key systems. There are probably others that I don't know as well.

One more thing about both of these technologies. Good compression or good encryption result in output (what you have to decompress/decrypt) that looks like pure random junk, just like tuning a radio or TV to a non-existent station. What is usually called "white noise". You might be able to make out the beginning and end, then again maybe not.

What are we using compression and encryption on and why?

Let's look at radio, which is what the SETI project is essentially about. They are trying to find a pattern that can be recognized as intelligent. Radio is a very controlled resource, especially here in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controls most of the radio spectrum for the United States, with very few "open" bandwidths left for use. In fact, some of these bandwidths are reserved for listening. Since this is a limited resource, compression for these finite resources makes a whole lot of sense. Encryption will also be used in some form to keep those people from receiving information they shouldn't be because they have to pay for it, or other reasons. Satellite broadcasts are encrypted for this reason.

Radio is just a little over 100 years old now, since Marconi made his first 2.4 kilometer transmission. Now let's suppose that it's another hundred years before all radio broadcasts are compressed/encrypted. We'll have a span of about 200 years of radio history for others to listen for. After that?

What's the consequence of doing that?

If whoever is listening doesn't know how to decompress the broadcasts and how to decrypt them or doesn't have the keys to the encryption, what are they going to see? White noise. No discernable pattern, Earth just becomes another "natural" object pushing radio waves into the universe. Maybe it will stick out in power, then again, it may not.

This means that extraterrestrials have a two hundred year window (at best!) to find us, if they are doing the same kind of search that we are. That is, if they can figure out just what the devil we are spewing out to the universe. Are they going to be able to discern the difference between an audio signal and a video signal? And what about current digital signals, which may or may not already be compressed/encrypted? Frequency modulation or amplitude modulation? And what about spread spectrum broadcasting that was patented by Hedy Lamarr? The problems are far from trivial.

OK, so we may turn invisible, so what?

Now let's flip flop it. If we assume that other extraterrestrial civilizations are developing at the same rate we are, we have a 200 year window in their history to find them. Maybe more, maybe less. Let's assume for argument that they are an order of magnitude slower than us. We get a two millenia window. Sure that sounds like a lot of time. But in the total time frame of the universe, that's less than an eye blink. We have to be looking in the right direction at the right frequency at the right time. Once we do have a fix, then we need some way of transforming what we receive into something. Hopefully we'll catch them soon enough to figure out how their early TV's work and be able to get actual images of what they look like. But a two thousand year window out of potentially hundreds of millions of years is nothing. And I think that is being truly optimistic.

Will there by any "plain traffic" sent out in the future? The problem may be such that some benevolent person or country sets up a transmitter to broadcast an unencrypted and uncompressed signal for others to pick up. If we can think of it, maybe the aliens out there have thought about the situation too, if I can allow myself a little anthropomorphism. The problems are there for both sides, but they can be overcome.

Originally published July, 1997. Minor modifications done, original at the related link.

More to come on this subject.

What would I taste like?

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:04:17 PDT

Created by Recipe Star

How Sagittarius am I?

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:39:01 PDT

Quite, it seems.

You are 80% Sagittarius

You are 80% Sagittarius

How Sagittarius Are You?

How Taurus am I?

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:36:19 PDT

Not very. I have kids for that!

You are 20% Taurus

You are 20% Taurus

How Taurus Are You?

What element was I born into?

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:32:15 PDT

You Were Born into the Fire Element

You are an innovative person who values adventure. You believe life is magical.
You are brilliant and expressive. You are naturally creative and artistic.

You have to watch out for your self destructive streak. You can get depressed and moody.
You are honest to a fault, but people find it to be part of your charm. You are entertaining and charismatic.

What Element Were You Born Into?

Rose:

You Were Born into the Earth Element

You are a responsible person who values the joys of working hard.
You are practical, stable, and (obviously) down to earth.

You have to watch out for boredom. Your life needs more romance, adventure, friendship, and fun.
You are a solid friend and an ideal partner. You are honest, nurturing, and loyal.

What Element Were You Born Into?

Happy Mothers Day!

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:51:49 PDT

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:54:06 PDT

I have no recent posts

Crap happens

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:39:41 PDT

It's almost 1AM.

The Internet has been out, after waiting on the phone for half an hour I find that there has been a cut in the fiber optic line around here. That's a pretty big strike against having everything with one company, like cable TV, Internet and voice. Because I would have had to been on hold via my cell.

I did make some serious damage on getting my bookmarks uploaded to Delicious. I'm not just doing a mass upload, because I want to go through and winnow out the bad stuff (and there's plenty of bad links there, quite a few sites that still exist, according to whois, but have no web site connected, and the sites that are now parking zones just waiting for me to click on a link and give them some sort of revenue) and also to get them all tagged with what I want. Easy enough right now because I'm going through the bookmarks that I've already categorized. But about one-third to half aren't, and that ratio has gone up because of how many I've gone through. I'd give you at count from today and yesterday on my delicious bookmarks, but I'm writing this offline, since I have no Internet.

I've got approximately 900 bookmarks left to go through. I exported them to HTML and did a line count.
And time for me to go to bed.

Time to switch?

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:02:57 PDT

I've been using Bloglines for years. I love it. I noticed a month ago that the feeds for Craigslist weren't working any more. I sent in using their contact form telling them about it.

I never got even the robot response back telling me that they had received it.

I've sent them another notice. For the third time now.

Maybe it's time that I switched over to Google Reader. Maybe the UI is at least explained enough now that I might use it as fluently as Bloglines. I have other sites that I know the feeds aren't working, and that's fine. And I might actually spend the time to see what feeds that aren't working that should be, and report them.

But not if I'm going to be ignored, and make it a waste of my time.

Next Big Future: A Galactic Scale Uploaded Civilization: 10**50 Simulated Human Mind Equivalents

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:41:00 PDT

Next Big Future: A Galactic Scale Uploaded Civilization: 10**50 Simulated Human Mind Equivalents

Reference. I had something to say about this, and I'll cogitate some more and then go back and edit this.

'Going Galt': Everyone’s Doing It! - The Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:56:44 PDT

'Going Galt': Everyone’s Doing It! - The Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

Yes, all those people that are so upset about things need to get out of town, like Limbaugh, Hannity and Malkin. Because they are the true contributors to this society.

In their dreams.

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is a fiction, it's not a historical account. I understand people are picking it up and reading it. I hope they have the brains to realize that statement.

Should we track sales of Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto even Anarchist's Cookbook for other political trends? Whoops maybe I've managed to give some (non)thinkers something to go on.

The sky is falling!

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:29:34 PDT

David Walker: Why Your Taxes May Double:

Op-ed on CNN: Why Your Taxes May Double, by David M. Walker (President & CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Former Comptroller General of the United States and Head of the Government Accountability Office):
To help put things in perspective, the Peterson Foundation calculated the federal government accumulated $56.4 trillion in total liabilities and unfunded promises for Medicare and Social Security as of September 30, 2008. ... If $56.4 trillion in financial commitments is too big a number to digest, think of it as $483,000 per American household, or $184,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. ...

Meet Owen & Payne, partners in a fictional accounting firm that specializes in helping Americans fill out the 'new' Form 483000, which spells out how our elected officials are putting our nation into more and more debt and how that bill eventually will have to be paid: By doubling your taxes. The campaign is all in fun, but the intent is very serious.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Calculated? How?

Medicare $36.3 trillion
Social Security $6.6 trillion
Debt, retirement, other liabilities $13.5 trillion

This information is taken from Owen & Payne's 483000 PDF.

Now, it looks like Social Security may need some changes by the time 2041 rolls around, or thereabouts. That's when the surplus we've been feeding it is supposed to run out. Maybe. That was four years ago, and indications that currently it might be closer to 2048. That's when I'll be 91. I can hope to live that long, but it's very doubtful. And I'm a fairly late boomer. The youngest boomers will be what, 81 at that point in time? So the boomer ruining Social Security looks to not be quit so ruinous. It'll be the Generation X'ers that will have ruined it for the Gen Y'ers. Maybe. If it doesn't fix itself between now and then. Who knows, it depends on how damaging the current recession/depression actually does. So technically, Social Security should be a wash.

Medicare? Now that's a real conundrum. The problem there is the accelerating cost of medicine. The costs get scary. And the implication isn't just for Medicare, it's going to be the cost of health care for everybody. Get the costs under control for everybody and you'll have the costs of Medicare under control as well. Health care costs are at a tipping point.

The other liabilities, I find interesting, because to whatever degree the SS and Medicare have been forwarded to, those figures are current. We aren't comparing apples to apples here. But I had already figured that out. (via)

This a test

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:40:52 PDT

Sent from my PalmTX.

Things aren't the way they used to be.

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:50:49 PDT

I've lost a friend this week. He was a geek friend of mine and I had known him for several years, first online, then over the phone and finally face to face. I know he has had a rough time of it with some shit that it sounds like he didn't deserve.

I found out that he was back on the grid and on the Internet. He has a MySpace account and I did the usual thing and asked him to be my friend. The very day that I decide to see if he had logged in this week, he had. It was that day that I checked, and he had added a few more friends. But I wasn't one of them.

It's not the end of the world, but it is disheartening. I helped him out as much as I could, but he asked for help at the absolute worst time for me. I had just moved from Columbus to Jacksonville and was a newlywed with four stepchildren. My new wife forbade me from helping, which would have entailed a 15+ hour drive to somewhere north of Columbus. And I can understand my wife's trepidation about it. My understanding of the timing also is that I would have arrived too late anyway. But I can understand if he is pissed at me for that reason alone.

But he also has to understand that I really had no option. I was now married and had obligations to not just my wife, but to my new children as well. I married her, not him (something about no same sex marriages allowed in Ohio and both of us being straight (or at least me being a male lesbian - private joke there)).

Maybe he's afraid that I'll call my markers in. Stupid because I have no need to do so, the economy isn't that bad--Yet! And I'm pretty damn sure that he hasn't recovered (probably just starting to) enough to even think about any payback.

I should have known better about getting rejected because he had to know a working e-mail address. I really would just like to be friends again. And yes I know it's really him. Too many things in common, down to the user name.

Written 30,000-39,000 feet somewhere over South Africa, Botswana. Angola and other African countries on my Palm TX.

Update: My wife and I discussed this today (before I got it posted), and she doesn't remember forbidding me to go, and says that she had no right to forbid me. That is the way that I remember it, but that was over seven years ago, and that certainly is water underneath the bridge now.

FTP weirdness with 2003

noreply@blogger.com (bytehead) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:54:04 PDT

My automatic uploads using command line FTP were failing. I noticed that this started happening around when FTP was using port 50000 (that's not what TCPView said it was using though!). Two different sites, both of which had previously been working. And tonight, it's working. Port number is now up to 50450. Port 50000 is C350 and port 50450 is C512. Which doesn't make any sense hex wise. And no, those are not hex port numbers to start with. Bizzare. I'm thinking that C500 might be the magic point of where it started working. I've had about 18 usages that actually worked tonight. But it was right around 50000 that it stopped working. That's 432 usages I had to do between to get it working.

Medicare	$36.3 trillion
Social Security	$6.6 trillion
Debt, retirement, other liabilities	$13.5 trillion