I had intended to do this from early on this year but have not done so. But that's not going to stop me from starting now.
I'd highly, highly recommend this book. It is a fascinating read and has loads of very insightful and useful tips and cuts through the self-help scrap-heap.
]]>Fortunately, it did not rain very hard so there was little water that got in the car. And fortunately there is no visible damage and nothing was taken (there really wasn't anything to take except some pennies)
And now I find via a Google search that there are some hacks that can cause the windows to all electronically roll down with a screwdriver in or near the keyhole. Lovely. This system does not seem to require the key with the transponder chip in it to operate. Maybe someone with a valet key or some kind of master can trick the lock into rolling down the windows.
Looks like I'll be disconnecting that wiring and maybe even replacing the keyhole cover with a blank plate like on the passenger side to cover the hole entirely. Either that or leave the car unlocked for the next guy.
]]>Here is the question they asked that the 2-to-1 figure is based on:
"The Transportation Security Administration is increasing its use of so-called
'full-body' digital x-ray machines to screen passengers in airport security lines.
(Supporters say these machines improve the ability to spot hidden weapons and
explosives, and reduce the need for physical searches.) (Opponents say these machines
invade privacy by producing x-ray images of a passenger's naked body that security
officials can see, and don't provide enough added security to justify this.) Which
comes closer to your own view - do you support or oppose using these scanners in airport security lines? "
Here is the question they asked about health concerns:
"As far as you're aware do you think these new scanning machines may pose a health
risk, or do you think that's not a serious concern?"
As if the health risks are just some kind of matter of opinion? Why not ask a question like,
"Researchers have shown that these machines emit X-rays in high enough doses that are concentrated at skin depth and may well increase the risk of cancer (skin, testicular, etc.), which will knowingly result in harming people each year -- more than the machines might save from terrorist attacks. Given this information, do you think that their usage is justified?"
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/abc-news-washington-post-poll-air-travel-security/story?id=12215139
]]>http://skepticblog.org/2010/01/14/get-fed-up-report-medical-quackery-to-the-fda/
Update: Forgot to link to a great paper summarizing the common false claims made and a summary of the current evidence for each claim from the New Zealand Medical Journal Chiropractic claims in the English-speaking world
]]>So, I figured it's time for some QoS Settings on my router.
It appears that Google Voice Chat uses HTTPS for signaling but an XMPP extension called Jingle that uses RTP over UDP for the actual call data.
I cracked open Wireshark to analyze the traffic and see communication with servers on the 74.125 network, which is owned by google (a /16).
Destination: stun.l.google.com (74.125.155.126)
So, for now, I have enabled Expedited packet status for any UDP packets going to and from that network. Will have to run another test later to see if it helped dramatically.
One troubling thing that I noticed in the packet capture is that not all of the data is protected by confidentiality protection. I suspect there _may_ be some encryption for the RTP data because Wireshark did not detect any RTP sessions. However, one packet every once in a while revealed the phone number that I was calling. So anyone on your wireless LAN or along the wire can see who you are calling. They may even be able to intercept that packet and play MITM by routing your calls through them. Who knows.
Here's a redacted version of the ascii portion of the data packet contents:
0 0+12065551212@voice.google.com]]>
"when you understand why you reject the gods of other religions, you'll understand why I reject yours."]]>
adb install UniversalAndroot-1.6.2-beta5.apk
Once you get it installed, find the universal root application and launch it. It was pretty intuitive. It even has an option to just root the phone temporarily until you reboot, which is nice for keeping your phone as pristine and secure as possible if you prefer.
Other optional updates that I recommend:
When installing the ROM, I did not enable JIT as I have no compelling reason to do so that I'm aware of and it sounds like it may have some downsides that I don't want to incur. I did enable app2sd though, which requires you to reformat your SD card so that you leave a partition for a linux ext filesystem for installing the apps to. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7021325&postcount=2 for apps2sd generic setup instructions. Basically, if you have your SD card partitioned for it, it will be enabled.
To install the zipped ROM images, you do NOT need to unzip them. Just copy them to your sdcard and you can install them from the recovery boot image as-is.
Other ROM notes:
I'm sure that I am missing some subtle things that were not initially obvious to me (most instructions are fairly high-level and assume you know some basics about adb commands and other things). If I missed any, I will fill them in.
Here is a good primer to get you started called "Take Control of your HTC CDMA Hero" http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=717416
Anti-millitary
There seem to be quite a few people who use The Blue Angels to channel their disdain for all things military. I'm not the biggest fan of the war machine myself, but we do need the military. And from my perspective, The Blue Angels represent some pretty cool -- even if the planes are old by today's standards -- technology that is really quite amazing to watch. And the skill that the pilots have is really something to behold. I don't see how it glorifies war or anything like that. Although I could see how someone who was prone to think that way beforehand would look at them through the same mental filter.
Anti-noise
These people complain about how noisy they are. I feel sorry for them that they don't see how _cool_ those loud engines are. I love the roar of the engines (sidebar: having 4 take off in formation just yards above your head is pretty freaking sweet). But my guess is that these people might complain about any kind of thing and The Blue Angels are just a convenient thing to complain about. Seriously, the planes are in town for 3 days and only fly for an hour each day and may only be near you for a few minutes at a time. It's not like they built a naval air station in your neighborhood that will be loud every day forever... Come on people!
Paranoid / Risk-averse
This camp has the people who claim they think that the planes flying basically anywhere are too dangerous. The "what if they crashed into someone's house" crowd, if you will. In the past 20 years, there have only been 4 incidents so they are rare events. But you're surely free to have your opinion and you can keep yourself safe by being nowhere near them if you want to try absolute safety. But realize that you are probably going to die in a car crash while trying to escape the highly unlikely plane incident you fear most. Humans are terrible judges of relative risk. We just never evolved that as an innate ability yet it is something we need to make good, sound decisions in daily life. So, save yourself but leave the rest of us to make our risk/reward decision and enjoy the spectacle!
]]>referring to my comment 37 above, and 16 ...]]>
(1) First you need to root the phone. I had to Google how to do this, I found the solution (for 2.0, not 2.01) on some German site (yes, careless, I know).
(2) Then, you need a a terminal app (such as "Better Terminal Emulator"). With the terminal app you can navigate in the file system of the phone. However, you need root access (above) to be able to see the folder "/data/data/[and so on]". Without root access you cannot navigate to this folder. Then you need some Unix-fu to navigate to the correct folder, and remove the correct files. Look up the commands "ls", "cd", "rm", and "rmdir" (my Unix-fu was just sufficient, thank fate). Maybe a file manager app would to for step 2, I don't know. The process is likely slightly different for each phone (mine's a Milestone).
Fortunately, they allow you now to sign in with your Google login so that might be a better option -- get them out of the authentication business that it appears they have no business being in.
]]>]]>
http://community.websense.com/blogs/securitylabs/archive/2010/05/04/treasury-websites-compromised.aspx
"We retracted the policy because it is important that the world health community understands the AAP is totally opposed to all forms of female genital cutting, both here in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world," said AAP President Judith S. Palfrey.]]>