Leading governments are fueling terrorism

Slowly but surely, other countries’ governmental leaders are realizing that the secrecy and anti-Islamic behavior of many of the worlds leading governments are in part responsible for the growth of world-wide terrorism. From Canada’s Security Intelligence Service head:

Canada’s spy master, of all people, is warning that excessive government secrecy and draconian counterterrorism measures will only play into the hands of terrorists.

“The response to the terrorist threat, whether now or in the future, should follow the long-standing principle of ‘in all things moderation,’ ” Jim Judd, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said in a recent Toronto speech.

He admitted officials do not yet fully understand a crucial element in combating terrorism — the process of radicalization that can lead individuals, especially young Muslims raised in Canada and other democracies, to embrace terrorism.

Continue reading “Leading governments are fueling terrorism”

Phone number, geek style

I don’t know my color codes well enough to do this. But I have known geeks who are so focused on their current project that I could see one of them doing something like this.

xkcd-color_codes.png

[tags]Color code phone number, Geeks + resistors = phone numbers, Geek phone numbers FTW!!!1![/tags]

Anandtech forumites discuss freeware security products

I’ve been a reader of the Anandtech forums for far longer than is reasonable. I typically lose interest in such communities and move on to others way sooner than I have this forum. While browsing the forums last night, I ran across this thread on freeware security tools. Given that Anand’s site is so techie oriented, the forums are loaded with very knowledgeable techs. This thread shows that, and has a lot of great information on choosing and using anti-virus, firewall, anti-spyware, and other security tools. If you aren’t set up with malware protection on your system, consider choosing a recommended product from each category in this thread.

For even more security information and guidance from the Anandtech forums, look at this consolidated malware solution thread. It greatly expands on the information from the above-linked free security tools thread. In fact, this 2nd thread is the discussion responsible for the 1st thread. And these folks really know their stuff.

[tags]Anandtech forumites recommend freeware anti-malware[/tags]

Cory Doctorow’s “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” – free ebook via email

Several months back, I read the free version of Cory’s “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” and enjoyed it enough to buy the book. Since Cory is one of the strongest proponents of release-your-writings-for-free-and-people-will-buy-them publishing, I tend to support his crazy idea and buy his books after reading them. For those that are interested in this book and want to decide if try-and-buy works for you, a new method of reading the book, >serialized email distribution, is now available. Just click the word “Link” below.

The folks at DailyLit have just converted my novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom to an email-based serial. Sign up for the free service, specify how often you’d like a little chunk emailed to you, and then sit back and read by email, on your schedule. Link (Thanks, Albert!)

[tags]Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Commercial book readable via serialized email, Another way to get Cory Doctorow’s writings for free (legally!)[/tags]

Gaussian pistol

Oh, the things I have seen. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

Errrr, wait. That’s not right. Sorry – had a moment where I think I called upon the spirit of Roy Batty.

What I meant was, I’ve seen a lot of cool stuff posted on the web. And it’s not always posted on the more visited or more “cool” sites. So here we’ll take a peek at one of the cooler things I’ve seen online that wasn’t posted on absolutely every major geek site out there (sure, a lot of them covered it, but one or two had to have missed it). Check out this home built Gaussian pistol (also known as a rail gun – at least to gamers).

gaussian-pistol

  • Two coils are precisely pulsed in sequence (350 Amp peak) to fire a steel projectile
  • Two infrared sensors detect the projectile position within the firing tube
  • Controlled by a PIC microcontroller
  • Powered by 8 AA NiCd battery pack
  • Built-in battery charger
  • Bar display tracks capacitor bank charge progress
  • Battery and Fault LED indicators
  • Laser targeting sight
  • Makes no sound when fired

Man, that looks like a cool project. (via DIYlive)

[tags]Gaussian pistol, Handheld rail gun, Do it yourself, DIY[/tags]

XKCD comics hit funny high point again

I haven’t posted one of these in a while, but I still read XKCD every few days to see the latest comics there. I usually get a good laugh out of them. But when I see the really good ones, I have to share. I used to believe this would happen, and I bet most other kids did, too.

xkcd-swingset.png

[tags]XKCD, Swingset physics, Weightlessnes to a child[/tags]

Blue lasers get power bump, speed bump naturally follows

Recent research in Japan has produced a more powerful blue-violet diode laser which will make for faster next-generation disc burning.

Japanese Nichia Corp. has developed a blue-violet semiconductor laser diode, featuring a power high enough for burning Blu-Ray and HD DVD media at high speeds.

Nichia’s new laser diode is able to emit pulsed light at 320mW, while it offers a stable operation of 1,000 hours, according to the company. The diode could be used for optical discs including Blu-ray and HD DVD, allowing 10X speed recording with a double-layer disc and 2X speed recording with a four-layer disc. Currently blue-violet semiconductor laser diodes offer a pulsed output of 130 mW.

Production on this new laser is expected to begin in early 2008. Along with the improved lasers, however, improved disc materials will be needed to get the expected speed improvement. (via Electronista)

[tags]Lasers get more frikkin’ power, More powerful blue-violet diode laser for more burning speed[/tags]