Hawk’s Babble-Log

I’ve noticed something recently: I don’t use my regular DVD player and my TV.

My Game machine (Windows) provides: Games, Movies, Music, and Internet.

My server (Linux machine) also provides Movies, Music, and Internet, but to a lesser degree Games because there are more developers making games for the Windows platform than for Linux. For example, it was really nice (and surprising) to see Savage 2 run straght away in Linux, right after installation. That was cool. But there is no Call of Duty for Linux (booo!).

More and more, I’m not using my DVD player + my TV; I’m using my computers. I use my game machine to watch movies I’ve got on DVD as well as TV shows on DVD, and also movies I’ve purchased from Amazon Unbox. I actually really like Amazon Unbox. I buy a movie for $15, and it’s always available from their server. This makes it “un-loseable”. I can’t lose it. I can always lose a DVD. However, I can lend a DVD to a friend, or I can take it to a friend’s house and watch it there. It’s tough to do that with Amazon Unbox.

I’ve been buying lots of MP3s from Amazon, especially when I don’t want to buy the whole album. For example, I got Tomoyasu Hotei’s Battle Without Honor or Humanity, and skipped the rest (for the most part).

Then I back up the MP3 file to Amazon’s S3 (Simple Storage Service) using Jungledisk.

I also watch stuff online, from sites such as Hulu.com. There was a way to watch live TV streamed across the internet, but I’ve not researched that recently and don’t much care. It was really crappy quality. So I just buy the TV shows and watch ‘em on my computer.

I don’t even need my regular DVD player and TV anymore. And when I upgrade my monitor, I’ll be able to watch things in hi-def. This seems like a much better investment than a plasma TV. Why? Because my computer can do much, much more than a plasma TV (like hi-def games!).

I’m moving away from the traditional way of watching a movie or a TV show… by not using my TV and instead using my computer.

I’m moving away from the traditional way of listening to music (CD player, tape player, LPs, etc) by using my computer.

I don’t even buy dead-tree books anymore. I buy only books for my Amazon Kindle.

My computers have become the center of all things entertainment in my life. And a big part of this change involves Amazon.com.

Gun control is hitting your target. At least, that’s what it is to me.

But there is another kind of gun control. The kind that says, “You lawful citizens may not own guns.” That’s the bad kind of gun control.

Any law which restricts my rights to own a gun is actually against the U.S. constitution. Therefore, there are many laws, existing right now, which are unconstitutional!

Criminals LOVE gun control. If a criminal is looking at breaking into your house, they sure DON’T want you to have a gun.

Criminals LOVE gun control. If a criminal is looking at mugging you, or pulling his gun on you and robbing you on the street, he sure does NOT want you to be armed. That’s just too much risk.

But with gun control laws, the criminal knows that you won’t have a gun. Therefore, criminals LOVE gun control laws.

You know what the justification is for gun control laws? To make society safer for you. But if the criminals keep their guns anyway, how exactly does a gun control law help me?

The real reason for gun control laws is CONTROL. The governing body wants to be able to CONTROL you without resistance. If they make it unlawful to own guns, it’s much easier to control a population.

If you live in the US and don’t want a police-state, or a dictatorship, learn about your constitution. Read the book The People’s Guide to the United States Constitution by Dave Kludge, then join the NRA. They need your support.

If you’re okay with a police-state, or being ruled by a dictator (or both), do nothing.

The People’s Guide to the United States Constitution by Dave Kludge

http://membership.nrahq.org/

I recommend the Firefox (and Seamonkey) add-on NoScript for advanced web browsing-type people. It is NOT for your mom, unless your mom knows what a javascript cross-site scripting attack is.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/722

This add-on is so successful at protecting your browsing session, it has won security awards. See the link above for all the details.

Here’s the jist: Install it, restart your browser, then browse the net as usual but keep an eye on the little blue S icon in the lower-right corner of the browser. When you hit a webpage which doesn’t seem to operate as it should, click the little blue S icon and start allowing sites/domains to run javascript. Each time you enable one, the page will re-load. You can then test the functionality of the page again, and if it’s still not working, enable another site/domain and try again.

Here’s a brief example with YouTube:

When I first installed NoScript, all javascript was disabled. So when I go to YouTube, the videos don’t play and I get a little complaint in the video section about not having the Flash plug-in installed. I do have the flash plug-in installed, but it’s the javascript which determines what kind of browser I have and then loads the appropriate Flash code.

Here we are at Mike Adams’ YouTube channel. This guy is my hero. In this example, I’m trying to watch one of his videos on the evils of vaccines. However, the video isn’t loading and playing.

First, click the little blue S icon in the lower-right corner of your browser. A list like this popups up:

See how the one on the bottom, youtube.com, is bold? That’s the one you should enable first.

So click on Allow youtube.com and watch the page reload.

Still, however, the video isn’t loading and playing. Click the little blue S again…

The only other site to allow is ytimg.com. I believe this is an image/movie server for youtube (I think).

So click on Allow ytimg.com…

There, now the video is loading and playing. No sweat.

The danger comes in allowing hostile sites. What is a hostile site? It’s a site which intentionally attempts to infiltrate your computer via your browser. If you’re running IE (Microsoft Internet Exploiter), then you’re kind of a sitting duck and you will get infected eventually.

If you’re running Firefox/Seamonkey with Adblock Plus and NoScript installed, you’re virtually bulletproof.

“But Hawk, how do I know if it’s a hostile site?” you may ask.

Well, ya kinda gotta be geeky about it. You’ll have to look at that domain, that website, and make a decision about it. Does it look like a good site? Or is it trying to do wierd things? Does it have a banner ad which reads, “Click here for a FREE virus!”?

I usually will not allow anything on a site that I’m unfamiliar with. I also don’t go looking for trouble browsing wierd sites in the dark allys of the net. But if I did, I would not be too worried about it; I’d just leave everything disabled in NoScript and surf cautiously.

I highly recommend this add-on for Firefox and Seamonkey:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/1865

Example: Here’s Yahoo Mail in IE (Microsoft Internet Exploiter):

Big banner ad at the top and some little thumbnail-type ads along the side. Here’s Yahoo Mail in Seamonkey with Adblock Plus installed:

If you are a “gamer” (like me) who plays games on the Windows PC platform (not consoles), then check this out:

http://www.jact.com/

No, it’s not too good to be true. Yes, it’s almost too good to be true. Yes, it’s a friggin’ dream come true!

In a nutshell: Sign up for an account (they are in beta at the time of this post), download and install the client, play your game as you normally would, earn points (called BUX) during gameplay, then cash ‘em in for stuff.

Here, all your questions are answered:

http://www.jact.com/faq.php

If you live in the USA (United States of America), buy and read The People’s Guide to the United States Constitution by Dave Kludge.

After reading this book (twice!), it almost seems like it’s time for another revolution.

Many of the reasons why we broke away from the rule of the King seem to be happening again now, right here in our own land.

This is a good reason why you should get and read this book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbCNSc3YVg4 American Government Test