Friday, December 31, 2010

PasswordStore 0.2.5 Stable

PasswordStore 0.2.5 Stable is out. 

Take a look at it at:
PasswordStore have gotten a make over soon in this version and probably in the future version 0.3.

From Eclipse to IntelliJ

Read:
I am not an Eclipse or IntelliJ user so I have no idea which is better but I have used Eclispe once a couple years back and it's UI simply sucks and doesn't catch my attention. I have forgotten the version but it seems to me Swing (Metal and recently Nimbus) actually looks quite good anyways.

I am a NetBeans user and have ever since been stuck to it like a glue. It's usually nice but once in a while irritating though. I wouldn't change from NetBeans anytime soon unless some unreasonable policy or license appears from Oracle (I'm monitoring hard on the situation).

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

France's absurd levying of tablets

Read:
How about putting levy's for every damn thing in the world ? Papers store data too. Pen writes and create data... toilet paper can be scribbled on... you can copy texts and pictures onto furnitures and underwear and clothings too.
Governments with their absurd mindsets are simply pissing off the people !!!

Monday, December 27, 2010

When patents becomes absolutely absurd

Read:
Imagine you could patent the usage of double click on buttons and options and interactive objects... which means all of us devs would be in dead trouble because we have all implemented some form of interactive objects in our lifetime.
Patents are becoming so much absurd these days that patenting, isn't increasing innovation and creativity... but the other way round.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Plugbot

Cool penetration testing device... the Plugbot.

Read:
Looks like a plug for a wall socket but it is in fact a penetration tester + scanner for networks and could be remotely controlled and could remotely and securely dump data collected to a cloud.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Defeating the Net Tyrant

There has been a lot of tension on the internet where governments try to monitor and dictate how the internet should work and look like to their own accord while disabling, reducing or removing civil liberties of the people. 

Listening to network traffics, throttling traffics, banning or blocking of sites, hiding backdoor in systems, coercion and by suspicious 'legitimate' methods of degrading Freedom and security.

A couple of ways to disempower such net tyrants would be presented in this article.

The first and most obvious way is to host your servers in countries that supports civil liberties (by law and by moral) and have a very good track record at doing so. It is includes the refusal of hosting of servers in the lands of net tyrants, thus ensuring that you would reduce a great factor of disturbance by these net tyrants and damaging their economy for data center hosting because no one wants to approach these net tyrants to host their data.

Another way is to use peer / friend based tools and repurpose them as some sort of peer/friend based variation of the internet. This technology have been in the public for some time and the most notable project is the Freenet project.

The repurposing of bit torrents into distribution peer / friend node servers are possible with the distribution of compressed folders containing web resources is another method.

The equipping modern web browsers with good plugins that can natively tap into these peer / friend network technology and seamless publish or read these resources.

The third calls for a political reform whereby the government isn't all powerful and bills and acts that restrict Freedom are abolished and a thorough reinvestigation and reinventing of the political system. The government cannot have some secret army and the actions of the government depends on the Will of the People and all accounts and acts are brought accountable in plain sight for the People to decide on. The current state of democracy are simply hypocrisy.

There are many more methods that could be used to defeat net tyrants but these three are the major ideas and techniques commonly brought up for discussion.

Remember. We do not owe anything to anyone. We have our Free Will and Rights to Live as We Want. Do not bow to Hypocrisy and Tyrants.

Friday, December 17, 2010

LastPass

Here's my personal take on LastPass Password Manager. I am not a user of LastPass myself but from the website, theoretical knowledge and video, I make my deductions.

LastPass Sesame Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q-4Flnt9Hw

If you have watched the above LastPass Sesame Video, you may just end up confused by the complicated steps to simply setup LastPass sesame on your portable executable device (thumbdrives, flash storages...). You had to also use a web browser to access an email sent by LastPass to verify your setup devices and all sorts. It really is so complicated, my thought of trying LastPass sesame got put down by that video.

LastPass technology page: https://lastpass.com/whylastpass_technology.php

According to LastPass's technology page (link above), LastPass have a data centers keeping a store of your passwords and you have a local copy too. The idea of having your passwords in LastPass's hands is simply absurd. Would you trust your passwords in someone else's hands ? Anyone can claim and vow that they have encrypted your passwords and whatever in a way only you can decrypt and they can't. Anyone can vow that they don't know your master password and only you know it. I think even if it's really true, it technologically possible for LastPass to betray that trusts if they want secretly and thus putting users at a huge risks.

I am a huge advocate against leaving sensitive personal information, especially passwords, in someone's hands or servers.

For those who need solid portable password managers, you are best off having a cross-platform (better if it's Java-based) where you can simply have one running on your main desktop or work computer and the other one on your different portable devices. The password manager requires a synchronization capability where you can sync up your portable device password manager and main computer password manager. It is very inconvenient in terms where you have to keep synchronizing the password managers but at least you don't have to rely on someone's servers. You can have your password managers have different master passwords (making it hard to inflitrate all your password managers) or simply just have a single master password to all of your password managers.

PasswordStore, a password manager I built with the intend of it being portable (it's still lacking the portable and sync portion) is an interesting and useful example to review.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Not credible hosting

After the events where companies like EveryDNS, Amazon and other companies got subjugated and coerced into removing Wikileaks from US and other countries servers including France. Can these nations and servers who are easily coerced, be trustworthy hosting for any website or company or organisational infrastructure ?

Can you guarantee a safeguard that your materials would be removed the next day ? Aren't the USA servers being prided as a platform for free speech ? Look at the mess of USA. How can we trust USA, France, Sweden ... these countries as hosting nations for our contents whom they pride themselves for freedom but in the end, they gave in to pressure ?

How can we trust EveryDNS, Paypal, Amazon, Wikipedia (Removing Wikileaks Mirror article), Twitter (block Wikileaks topics from trending), Mastercard and Visa ... ?

How can we trust the infamous Swiss banks from being neutral to our money (Read: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/7bg5kc) ?

The UN is very concerned with these extreme ways of prosecution and attacking of Wikileaks and Julian Assange (Read: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6B81RO20101209).
So who do you trust your hosting to and your technology ? Now cloud computing seems rather more unreliable as someone (if you hosted in the wrong hosting companies or countries) could shut you down.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Archos + Android is a disaster

I have just got myself Archos 7 inch variant of it's internet tablet and now I utterly regret for getting it. It's because of many factors I would explain below ... that's why hype are hype... hype are false truth !

Bad factors:
  • No official Android marketplace - Archos fault (using it's appslib market instead)
  • Because there's no Android marketplace - therefore no access to 'market://' protocol and you couldn't get standard marketplace stuff like...
    • ADOBE FLASH PLAYER 10.1
      • And therefore:
        • NO FLASH !!! - no killer apps
        • BLAME - ARCHOS
  • Android/Google does not provide a standalone marketplace installation to remedy the problem and has been an outstanding major problem in Android.
Some may claim that my views are petty but it's a big thing. People want the millions of apps on Android marketplace, not Appslib.

If Apple wants to quote or anyone wants to quote from this article... they MUST present the entire article (and in that way they are allowed to present) or else if anyone wants to quote any part without the whole of this article... is considered a VIOLATION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS and COPYRIGHTS. Please credit 'Thothtech / Thotheolh' for this article too or it would be considered a VIOLATION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS and COPYRIGHTS.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

US - Internet Lockdown

Read:
I guess  the Statue of Liberty, the Constitution that protects freedoms and rights... are simply forgotten these days and are only called upon in name to garner support and to spread hypocrisy and fascism. 

Sooner or later, US may simply force all their allies and partners and even the world to follow their model of working or risk the consequences for those who don't cooperate with the US ?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Why Netflix should be shunned

Read:
In my opinion, the open source and supporters of Free software (as defined by FSF) should shun Netflix. Android and it's parent (Google) who supports the open source movement should steer very clear from those who promote DRMs like Netflix. It would actually be better if Netflix is never created on Linux based handsets like Android as it supports DRM, not the goal or in-line of the goals of Free software like Linux.


The Linux OS, which is an open source Free software, has been 'raped' and non-Free stuff have found it's way into Linux. This should not have been the case but it is now the case... a very sad case indeed.

GAE - Simply another Web 2.0 hype

Read:
I have been very cautious about all these Web 2.0 hype fuss. GAE, Cloud, Amazon, Azure... some are good, many are bad.
Here, GAE is simply another of the HYPE in the hype cycle of products in the industry.

We don't want hype. We want good and rock-solid stuff. Not fallible hype with a sheep skin and icing and strawberries and sugar and chocolate coatings all over it while it's core is pretty much paper castle.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Face - Book of Horrors

This is a rant:

WHAT GOES INTO FACEBOOK... NEVER MAKES IT OUT (including the delete button attempt).

Literally a Face - Book of Horrors.

Unfriend Facebook... do not be a victim of identity imprisonment.








Above image take from (with credits): http://stallman.org/



Friday, November 12, 2010

Java & The Three Kingdoms: Oracle is Cao Cao.

Imagine Java as a whole country. And now, it is split into factions. For this context, we would use the infamous Three Kingdoms. Oracle would be Northern Wei with it's leader as Cao Cao, the tyrant prime minister.

What other imaginations do you guys have for Java ?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Google, Java, Oracle - messed up

Read:
Now Google's legal defense is in a mess, blaming third parties for not modifying their source and all other messed up arguments. Without a doubt, Oracle violated the trust and respect and caused the fragmentation of once the respect Sun and Java earned.

With a simple turn of a hand, Google, Oracle, Java is in a huge global mess. Java, threatened with splits in the community and forks from the main stream Java Oracle is now controlling.

Java Fork Predictions:
Google indeed made a huge mistake, wading into a huge patent minefield without opening it's eyes and being careful. Oracle, as usual, always making situations difficult and always making people find a reason to hate Oracle and Larry, tries their very best to piss people off. Java, now in turmoil, it's fate is still undecied and gloomy, looms closer to destruction.

To stay clear of the Java Chaos, and from it's "polluting aura of madness", I would personally advise people to learn a language other than Java or JVM related (e.g. C++, C#/.NET, VB, PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl and many more...). I personally prefer Ruby for it's ability to quickly build and develop applications.

Here's Ruby's License which seems more clean and FREE (FSF definition of FREE) then Chaotic Java: http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/LICENSE.txt .

For those Java users who are on the fence, I guess it's time you take sides and it would be better to move away from Oracle's side. I dare say you would not get anything good out of Oracle and they would squeeze you dry like what happened to Sun.

Choose your sides well...

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Password 'Free' WPA2 wireless access

Read:
Oh no... telling everyone the WPA2 password is 'free' is not a nice idea. Now everyone knows it. And it's a bad idea anyway. Providing free wireless WPA2 protected connection is not the key (Wireshark can sniff WPA2 traffic - mind you). The websites must properly secure the connections and always turn on encryption to be safe. Free WPA2 wireless access points is like a temporary band aid to stop a bullet wound. You need a permanent fix... which is every site use well implemented secure protocols. 

P.S. I wonder what is Sophos people thinking. Do they know what they are talking ?

Monday, November 8, 2010

Steve Jobs Lying ?

Read:
Seems like Steve Jobs need to clean up his act and speech and stop lying (if he is - which only his consciousness would know clearly). If you want to compete... do it by being more productive... follow advises given by critics and users. This is how Google improved their services... because they LISTENED !!! That doesn't mean that Google is perfect.

Basics of marketing and sales - "Your clients and critics are your judge and they decide how your company fair." (by Thotheolh)

British Navy Hacked !

Read:
Wow... that was close. Imagine if someone could hack into a military website and steal passwords, he could gain access to sensitive data and resources... and maybe remotely command or send false data within the British Navy's network ? Never know. The way it is hacked is via the SQL injection. Every programmer knows the risk of SQL injection and it such stupid risks should have not existed since there have been lots of given techniques to prevent it. It should have occurred but it occurred - an attack via SQL injection. What a shame of the British Navy. I guess they may have ran out of budget to engage a professional and instead, engaged some script kiddy ?

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Oracle introduces commercial JVM

Read:
Finally, Oracle has introduced a commercial and a free JVM. It's no more one free JVM but a commercial and a free version. What is the mission of Java ? To be cross-platform. Now you have to handle Java for the free and the commercial variant. Nice job, Oracle. You just pulled the trigger on the once free and venerable Java + JVM.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Six degrees of seperation

We have known that the connection to each other is just a six degree of separation. To put this to the test, we could go make use of our MSN contacts and view our friend's contacts list and start tracing down. If it is possible to make a software using MSN Contacts web service APIs to automate this function of mapping the "friends-of-friends", we would be able to some how see a huge portion of the world linked to each other.

For agencies who love to peek at our private lives, they could use this technique and have already been using this technique to map our relations with others.

This also expose a fundamental social security problem which is to allow people to freely access your friends and contacts list without the proper security measures to restrict views. Even if you restrict the view on your own list, people could use the concept of "six degrees of separation" to find others who have YOU and make a map about who have YOU in their contacts list, making it difficult for you to hide yourself.

So what's this all about. This is the prove that our social privacy, is faulty and weak even with access restrictions, are we able to fully hide our private life from others and protect it ? Yes to a certain degree as long as others do not have any "pointers" pointing at you.

Does it mean that we should just stop all privacy controls and just open up our life for all to see... making ourselves "naked" in front of the world ?

No. It means we need a far better measure to protect our private life and anonymity then what we have currently.

Battle for Java Earth

Read:
And enjoy. Pick your sides and prepare for bloody battles and skirmishes.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Wired's ignorance of AK 47

Read:
Wired's article of the AK 47 shows some obvious prejudice and obvious flaw in it's article. Putting the AK 47 in a really disgusting light in it's article.

Here are some of the flaws:
  • Page 1:
    • Main Page image claims the AK is a serial killer and a murderer. Any weapon system is a serial killer and murderer, not just AKs. Teens touting berettas or glocks or even M16s to school and shooting... does that make the berettas, glocks and M16s not a serial killer or murderer. This is pure prejudice against the AK.
    • "Its ammunition lacked the stopping power of other rifle cartridges". This is so false. compare the stopping power of 5.56mm NATO and M1943 (AK 47 - 7.62mm x 39). The stopping power is enormous for an infantry rifle. That's why currently, people are trying to beef up the 5.56 by creating 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SPC rounds, trying to find an intermediate rifle round with the stopping power of an AK and the range and accuracy of the M16. 
    • "The AK-47 and its variants can be seen as a lot of things—amoral massacre machines..". Simply, it depends on how you use it. A knife can be used for the kitchen and can be used on the streets for evil. It depends.
As everyone can see from the above samples of prejudice I found in Wired's article on the AK 47, Wired, as a well known publication on technology spilling out very badly made and researched articles that contains apparent prejudice such as those I have shown as above, is undeserving of it's status.

I wish Wired could research more carefully before writing an article and also removing it's prejudice and bias-ness when writing articles.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Cisco doesn't respect privacy

Read:
By releasing this software, Cisco is heavily undermining the public's privacy. This is a bad thing and such tools and software could be abused and misused all so often by companies, organizations... those with or without malicious intents.

To prevent this from happening, participant less in online social activities because it allows you to be so much more easily traced.

ATG - Future Victim of Oracle

Read:
Another future victim of Oracle. When would people ever learn that doing business with Oracle is pure madness ? Look at what happened to Sun... I guess Sun is simply just a name, a couple of pages in history, some innovations, empty shell and that's about it.

HTML5 flash video

Visit:
What I felt is just not appropriate of the Skyfire technology which converts flash videos to html5 videos is because, you have to convert flash to html5 videos, which needs an extra step then just having a flash player in the page. Imagine if you want to watch flash videos, you need to send it to their cloud servers somewhere to convert the video you wanted and then send it back to you. It's such a long route and it takes much much longer then a native flash player built-in.
Since Apple doesn't allow Adobe Flash player, why not create a plugin that would replace the flash codes to a Smokescreen player call which would use Javascript and HTML 5 to become a flash video player ? Or maybe, the page should run their flash videos with a backup Smokescreen player in the event no Adobe Flash player is detected. Since Smokescreen is HTML 5 and Javascript, it should theoretically work well with HTML5 enabled players like Apple's Safari.

Why not take a shorter route than a longer route ?

Monday, November 1, 2010

The Demise of OO.o and the resurrection via LibreOffice

Read:


As one of my friends called it, it is the death of OO.o and the RESURRECTION (in literals) via LibreOffice and The Document Foundation (TDF).

33 developers of OO.o (NOT 3 BUT 33) left OO.o and have got into TDF to help develop and improve LibreOffice.



I would soon be trying LibreOffice in my LinuxMint 9 Fluxbox virtualized environment. :D

Credit: Lawrence for the word 'Resurrection'.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Wow... this is the best one

Watch:


Julian Assange just pop out right at the end. This is really the best. As they said, you may shut one up but you will never shut everyone up.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Oracle's losing it !!!

Read: 
These are but a few examples of the aftermath of Oracle not being able to properly handle Java and also Sun that it recently acquired.

 
Oracle's losing it !!!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Stonehenge for sales

Read: 
Why doesn't the English Heritage Organization brand a huge barcode and copyright on these buildings and stuff and put a Rights claim. Come on. This is even more absurd then those RIAA and MPAA idiots and it's not gonna work.


This is a Stonehenge picture I took. WHAT CAN YOU DO ?

Anyone who wants this picture, I would sell you for USD$ 0.50 . Drop me an email and tell me you want it and I would sell you.

LOL. What stupid decision is that by a famous English Heritage Organization ?

No Java on Mac


Bye, bye Java for Mac. Java lost a stronghold in Mac. I think Mac may want to try and do the same to every other languages except C / C++ which they need to use and obviously HTML 5 and AppleScript stays the staple part of a Mac's 'diet'.

No more Java applets, dev, IDEs, software, jars ...etc on Mac.

How about holding a funneral for Java on Mac ?

SG Immigration failed to detect overstaying party

Read: 
From these two articles, you can see the failure of the Singapore (SG) government in carrying out it's duties. Why isn't the Immigration and Customs Authority (ICA) able to detect people who overstay in Singapore ? Singapore has been hailed as one of the most technologically advanced countries in the Asian regions, besides Japan and South Korea but a simple immigration issue threw Singapore into the limelights and the attention of the US Government again.

Simply, the government could have a tracking system that automatically monitors the stay of non-residents and send an sms or call him them whenever the system noticed that they overstayed without renewal of their stay or anything of the sorts. And if the person doesn't leave SG within certain amount of days, the Singapore Police would be activated to find the person and remind them.

This is such a technological implementation but the SG government doesn't seem to have any in place. Kamari Kenyada Charlton, the American who overstayed, had to attempt to leave Singapore before being caught.

What is this kind of system where you need to wait for something to happen before taking actions ? I thought the Singapore Government is rated as those 'on the ball' type that doesn't sit there and wait for shit like these to happen ?

The worse thing is, Kamari Kenyada Charlton is a wanted man by the Interpol. How the hell could he enter when he is wanted by Interpol. What is the ICA and SG government doing ? They are all sleeping on their jobs I bet. If they had a system that actively synchronize the Interpol databases and their database of immigrants, they would have picked it out and bar him from entry, turning him away from SG and non of such 'hoo-haa' would have happened. Even though he may have entered SG before Interpol wanted him, when he become a wanted man, the continously updating system should be able to ferret him out immediately and inform authorities to handle him.

How efficient is SG government ? Not as effective as people imagine. SG government, you really need the buck up. Elections' coming soon.

The worse thing (and not related to technology) is that just for overstaying, he would be caned ? Isn't it for serious offenses only ? How serious is overstaying and why wasn't he alerted and warned for overstaying ?

Seriously, how competent is the Singapore Government at their jobs ? It's very questionable.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Oracle's huge mistake on OO.o

Again, Oracle made another huge mistake and this time, it's about Openoffice.org.


Microsoft have been teasing and attempting to stamp out OpenOffice [here], and Oracle really let us down by being mean and uncooperative. If the situation of OpenOffice doesn't get resolved and parties interested do not stay united, that would be Microsoft's dream. Microsoft's ambitions to stamp out open source would come a step closer to fulfilment and it would be a disaster to the open source community.

Oracle... if you do not wake up, it maybe too late. You would lose support of the people who once supported your products and projects that you bought over from Sun.

Oracle's customers are actually developers and the community, not the corporate world. The real 'invisible' income are from the community. If it weren't for open source advocates and supporters pushing for their organisations and corporations to embrace open source and OpenOffice, there wouldn't be what Openoffice is today. OpenOffice, being the second in market share is all thanks to the effort by those community members, developers and open source users and advocates.

OpenOffice really owe it's success to us, the community. How would a product be successful without any users ?

Oracle, REPENT NOW !!!!!!

Let's all move to GO-OO or LibreOffice as other Linux distributions and Open advocates have done.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Lies about OpenOffice

Watch:


Here are the flaws of Microsoft's arguments:

Num Time Comment
1 0:00 Starting... OpenOffice doesn't need you to run it on Linux. It runs on Windows and Mac too.
20:13'Exorbitant' to run a Linux ? It is far more cheaper, mostly you just download for free and install it. Not only is Linux super flexible, it is far more customizable. Ubuntu can even package a windows installer and run on top of Windows or use it to install Linux partition. It can be used as a System Rescue CD that runs with a set of tools not just to partition nearly every format of filesystem but to fix and diagnose your system. Cheap, Powerful, Flexible. This is Linux.
30:29You spend a lot of time servicing open source because you are a NOOB. There's something called Google and IRC. Oh... and Microsoft says that they are committed to open source and now why are they talking bad about it ? Isn't Microsoft talking bad about themselves since they also support open source ?
40:35Are you sure you are allowed to pull words from the Central Scotland Police's mouth ? There's something called 'cron' where you can automate the jobs. NOOB !
50:44Don't blame OO.o for the macros. Microsoft refuse to open up their system.
61:02OO.o has a very consistent format for ODF format but It has been shown that it is Microsoft's close source that makes it hard for compatibility with MS format NOT ODF format. We should support open formats not close formats ! Blame this on MS Office being close.
71:11Purely insulting the senses of users of OO.o. That is considered a personal assualt. Should be flagged on Youtube.
81:14Security ? ODF have the ability to encrypt your documents with encryption. Although it uses Blowfish,times have changed. The Document Foundation created to better OO.o would have the chance to do so rather then the Oracle controlled OO.o.
91:22Don't blame OO.o ! MS Office being close is what that causes OO.o to have a moderate (not lousy) way of handling MS Docs. Come on, MS, open up and open source.
101:37Any substantial proves ?
111:46I think for MS products being close, OO.o is considered pretty good in where it is now.
121:55Admittingly, OO.o's documentations needs better tidying.
132:18If you need to pay for open source stuff like OO.o, you have been badly scammed and cheated. NOOB. Try Go-OO , a variant of OO.o. It has Windows installer too.
142:25Microsoft, you are supporting open source aren't you ? If you ain't you don't need your CodePlex or whatever open source programs. Most open source stuff are mostly free or cheap but yes, not all are free in terms of monetary cost but they aren't expensive as MS stuff either. They could outperform MS products and has been proven to do so.
152:39I rather think it's a wail of MS horror. Going back to closed standards as usual. Why not put the brain power and money on open proven stanrdards like ODF and better it ?
162:48Microsoft smurking about this viewing, thinking it pwnz the Open Team.

MICROSOFT, DO NOT THINK DOING THIS VIDEO COULD UNDERMINE THE OPEN COMMUNITY !!! YOU ARE DEAD WRONG !!!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Why Drools doesn't work.


If you want to create a specific system, do it in a proper way. Do the standard program because that would give you the native power of the system and you could do more error handling and exception handling with it.
If you ask a Business Analyst with basic knowledge of programming to implement an IT system (including writing the syntax), that's as good as suicide.

Leave the IT side to the IT and business side to the business guys. Trying to cut corners only gives you more headache then just sticking to the normal proven ways.


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

HTML 5 Woes


Yet another article on the woes HTML 5 brings. Browsers should give users much more gradient control of the security amd storage of data in the browsers. Browsers should also include options to wipe or allow users to read their html 5 sqlite databases for more control over the data stored and users should also have the ability to block certain sites from storing things into their html 5 sqlite databases.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Flashless Flash

We have all heard about Smokescreen which is a JavaScript/HTML 5 library that runs Flash videos without having a Flash player.

we have long known of the bad performance of Adobe Flash in Linux and Mac platforms and the troubles are never ending with Adobe doing a bad job with Flash. Just a note, whenever I have Youtube running Flash, my browsers (I am using Ubuntu 10.04) just crash. Regardless is it Firefox, Opera or Chrome... it took a dive and died.

It would be an interesting idea to implement a kind of method or plugin that would intercept demands to run Flash and swap it with Smokescreen (maybe by using the browser to internally edit it's downloaded HTML codes abit) and run Flash on Smokescreen. 

Although Smokescreen is still not really ready yet, it would be an interesting test implementation to behold.

Maybe Mozilla could donate a couple of developers to focus on helping those guys developing Smokescreen and greatly boost it's development process and quality ?




Prevent updating your jail broken iOS devices

Read: http://lifehacker.com/5659226/prevent-itunes-from-updating-jailbroken-devices-with-a-bash-script

Although I don't use Apple devices or anything Apple (because I don't like Apple), this is a good article to prevent one of the big nasties from controlling your FREEDOM.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Absurdness from the US Govt.

This entry has nothing to do with technology. This is my personal opinion.


Who owns the US government ? Who pay taxes so they (US Govt) can mind others' business and impose absurd rules and give NSA, CIA...etc.. so much power to intercept communications ? Who really owns the government ?

Its' the PEOPLE !!! 

WITHOUT THE PEOPLE'S SUPPORT A GOVERNMENT CANNOT FUNCTION !!!

That is the basic of the Art of Governance.

Turning back to the question, who owns the US Government's documents ? 

THE PEOPLE !!! 

It's their tax, their sweat and blood which gives the government what it is today.

Freedom of Speech and Rights !!!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

XKCD - Online Communities 2

Interesting depiction by XKCD. This is a reflection of our online communities in this period of time.
Online Communities 2:


Online Communities:


How true and ingenious XKCD is to come out with a map in an attempt to reflect the reality of the online landscape. Goo job there, XKCD.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Is it going to be another wolf under sheep skin ?


If is a great news to hear that Microsoft has filed an amicus brief in an attempt to make invalidating U.S. patents that threatens open source developments on a very frequent and scary rate.


But apparently, Microsoft decides to slap Android, an open source mobile OS originally developed by Google, with patent lawsuits which is contradicting it's amicus brief as stated above.

What is this all about ? Wolf in sheep skin ? Can we trust Microsoft's open source friendly stance ? The amicus brief was a great benefit if it managed to get through but can we really trust Microsoft that they are really true hearted being open source friendly ?

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Wiretapping in an Illegal way.

Read:
Imagine installing backdoors inside communications. The problem is that any sort of backdoor, no matter how secure, when a hacker finds it, it's sooner or later gonna be GG. Clipper chips... whatever have you, do not think that "SECURITY BY OBSCURITY" is gonna do any good. 


Modifying all software programs and protocols including F2F, P2P ...etc.. to have a backdoor or unscrambling capabilities is also absurd. It makes the programs and protocols even more insecure.

Most government softwares are using those tools developed by the public domain and outsourced. Imagine one of these loopholes and backdoors slipping in. If they meant that ALL protocols and softwares have to provide loopholes, how would they feel if their softwares and protocols have to abide by the same rules and have loopholes and backdoors too ? That would be absurd isn't it ?

They need to have better judgments before making such absurd laws and rules. It would not only hurt others but themselves. 

Look at this points found in the article.

¶ Foreign-based providers that do business inside the United States must install a domestic office capable of performing intercepts.

¶ Developers of software that enables peer-to-peer communication must redesign their service to allow interception.


This is pretty bleak. Seems like the once infamously free nation is sinking into some kind of "Soviet style Iron-Curtain" rule where everything is controlled and no free will is allowed.

What if non-US developers are providing softwares, e.g. open source softwares hosted on Sourceforge or those free and open source hostings ? Are they gonna get the foreign government to arrest those 'dissident developers' and send them to US for torture ? Or maybe they would send out CIA operatives to those countries to execute them ? These are purely exaggerations but according to article here, the US Govt. could do it.

The main point is, stop making those stupid rules and returning to Clinton's clipper chip era or those past eras where encryption and security is only for the military and everyone else should suffer.

Security and Free-Will are everyone's birth rights. Stop taking away security from others. Stop removing free-will of others.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

James Gosling finally speaks

Read:
Wow, Oracle is really that bad. Hmmm. Imagine you don't allow employees to chill out and have fun to boost morale ? Turn the father of Java into some figurehead without much power and screw with Sun's projects and the open source.

Next in-line for the Microsoft's 'Throne of Evil' ... Oracle. Microsoft's heirs are really so numerous these days.

Insecurity and Malicious Ferocity

Twitter Insecurity

Read:
Twitter should serious look into it's input sanitization mechanism. Don't end up like in this XKCD comic depiction... catastrophy... but this comic is about SQL Injection, Twitter's problem is unsanitized input... similar to SQL Injection.

HTML 5 Insecurity

Read:
PLEASE, the World needs less of these stupid insecurity and dirty business tricks. Why can't the World be in peace and less of these trickery and human flaws ? Oh... humanity loves these hypes and daily miserable drama.... I almost forgot about that... that's why we have so much meaningless things going on.

HTML 5... is just as INSECURE... that's my conclusion. It's time someone write a Free and Open Source software to take out these insecurities in HTML 5 and disallow others from misusing it. I suggest browsers should give users some sort of user friendly control to literally 'WIPE__CLEAN' all available storage areas. Browser makers knows best where and which corner in the browser data could be stored and hidden and what sort of mechansim can be made to cause data to resurrect like evercookie. We need a huge 'NUKE OUT THE NASTIES' button to take out these yucky things and never allow them to replicate on our side.

Browser makers should also step up security, making sure what sort of javascript and client side scripts that can be safely executed and not harvest user informations. It's unethical to disturb a person's privacy but what if one day YOU ARE A VICTIM OF PRIVACY ISSUES ? Ever consider that ?

HUMANS... think ....there are always consequences to actions we do. Consider well.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Behaving as a Hypocrite

Today, we would move off topic from technology take a small glimpse at humanity and something called hypocritism. And yes, this blog is getting a bit political... because it affects the world. But overall, we would try to stay more focus on technology.


The US and 'civilized western powers' have called nations like Asia, South East Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe... etc... as 'uncivilized' since these countries still have capital punishments (execution by death) as a form of punishment. Watching this video, who is the true hypocrite ? You know the answer.

Hmmm... Republicans always smear US history isn't it ? War and all sorts of horrendous stuff. Anyway, US history has always been ugly, let's face it. Can't they ever do the right thing can get people to praise them ?




Intel's Harkins knows nothing of open source

Read:
And look closely at the line says the following...
Harkins cited mobile apps: "What kind of security do we think is in something that sells for 99 cents? Not much."
Wow... he doesn't know the power of open source. Really... he needs to know something before he starts speaking. Look at Bruce Shneier's PasswordSafe or look at AxCrypt software or look at. Maybe how about TrueCrypt, FreeOTFE or how about GPG? Aren't these good examples of FREE AND OPEN SOURCE and some are even FOSS approved.

So don't look down on open source or 99 cents apps. Free (inclusive of FOSS defined Freedom) apps can be really hard to crack or defeat. That is partially why the US government is afraid of strong encryption and security in the hands of everyone and maybe still is having that very fear.

So don't blindly state a statement unless you have a damn good explanation and good backing and concrete evidence.

Maybe I am abit late for this...

Watch this:



Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iE-rU8dFnE


Interesting.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Crashy Browser

My Ubuntu 10.04 (I just upgraded recently) has been suffering web browser crashes lately and it's during the usage of the latest 10.1 Adobe Flash plugin regardless of the browsers. Sigh... when would Flash be fixed and become really robust and less buggy ?


EDIT (20 SEP 2010): I was using a Opera browser containing a tab to a normal forum without any cool html 5 features or real time apps (except Google Ads), a tab opened to "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmkH2bSOzek" and a Youtube video. The processor (An Intel Dual Core, Compaq Presario C700 on an Ubuntu 10.04) sees the processor shoot up to 94% for Opera (in total when considering the two processor usage). Wow... that's a lot of processing usage. I only use Opera because it has a very clean and nice interface, serves HTML 5 and the killer Mail application in-built into it so I can avoid signing into webmails as much as possible to save my time. Since Opera 10.60 is weighing me down so badly on performance (compared to Firefox 3.5 and Chrome 6), I may ditch Opera soon if it continues. For managing my webmails, I have my own ways.... else I just well... suck it up, right ?     :S


Opera 10.60 ratings for now: :( :(  - Don't force me to add another 'bad' smiley !!!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Kill off your JailBroken i

Read:
Imagine Apple remote killing off your i. You can imagine what more they can do to you besides remote kill switch, 'protecting' you from 'Unauthorized Usage'...etc... and maybe your data is safe too in their hands.

What Oracle Should do to Ja

Read:
Oracle has gotten itself into a whole load of bad name after taking over Sun.


Here's my view... may sound abit philosophical but that's my view anyway.


Why does Oracle fight over patents ? Sue Google and do all these unnecessary stuff when they could have spent so much time and effort doing even more constructive things. The link above reflects exactly what Oracle and previously Sun should have done which has been so long overdue.


Stop the fighting and jealousy and all. Make peace... really, a lot of constructive time have been wasted. Cooperate with Google and make the World a better place. This is not just for Oracle. This is for all corporations, all governments, all groups, all people, everyone. It sounds hippie but what the World needs now is stop for a moment, reflect their actions and impacts and make peace with each other. Humanity would advance faster and be able to handle problems.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Choking up on Flash

Opera have made impressive efforts improving it's browser in 10.60 but sadly, it has not properly address fundamental issues of crashing and jamming like what Chrome did. I couldn't say Chrome is any better when it comes to being crashy (although it 'safely' handles crashes). Unlike Chrome, Opera just colour your desktop with the most beautiful jam your ever seen. Take a look at the two screen shots of a jammed Opera running on Ubuntu.






Do not that I have taken out some information to protect my own privacy.

As I am typing below these texts after uploading these pictures, Opera starts to kick up some fuss and hiccups abit. Bad Opera !!


Apparently, it's partly Google's fault for not making some of their applications friendly to Opera.


Why I have been using Opera lately is because it has a mail integration where I could simply check my mail without going to the webmail sites. Guess I am too lazy ain't I ? Lol.


Now back to topic. Flash 10.1(Adobe official version) is still kicking up lots of fuss, jamming my web browsers when I start to load 3 to 4 tabs worth of Youtube (each 10 minutes long) while paused each video. It happens to Firefox, Chrome and Opera... giving me such a nasty headache.


Opera gives the most headache and pain as you can see from the above screenshots. Not only does it hang, it literally 'colour your desktop' nicely. :D


Good job Opera. You made my day. I sent to the Opera team two issue tickets but I never got to hear anything from them forever. I know, they are busy with tons of other bugs which are more important then mine.


Well, this is a rant about bad web browsers and nasty official Adobe Flash 10.1 running on Linux. Adobe really haven't put enough efforts to make it's products competent on Linux as you can from the all so frequent crashes of Flash on Linux platform although Adobe market themselves as competent on Linux as well. it's time Adobe should get serious with making user experience really good and sleek on Linux or people would still be complaining about them.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

How do you know my password ?

Look at:
 Oh my... how do you know my password is 'password' ? Lol. Don't use obvious passwords like those. You can mutate 'password' to '!Pa55w0rD!' which The Password Meter rated my mutated password as 'Very Strong'.


Should we just ban everything ?

Read:
Well, why don't we just ban everything in the world from: 
  •  travelling
  • surfing the net
  • checking mail
  • playing games (e.g. Starcraft 2, Halo, C&C ...)
  • ...
  • ...
  • ...
  • ...
(You can fill in the above on your own)

If banning everything doesn't work... why don't we just kill everyone ? Lol. Get a life ! Really. Not everyone is terrorist just because they use an internet or because they are trying to plan their travel ahead using some maps application. 

Hey, those militaries and government agencies are using GPS and maps applications too... aren't they all actually terrorists in disguise ? 

Look, there's many ways you can look at things. So chill and don't get overly paranoid. 

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Obama's administration's reputation drops another notch again ?

Read:  
If this is true, Obama's administration and the White House would have their reputation drop another notch again I guess. Well, it's not really polite to insult a head of state like that but that's nothing illegal at all.

What's the difference between what the FBI and the White House did and Thailand's 'lèse majesté' law although the difference is abit lighter because the teen doesn't get deported from UK and tortured by FBIs. 

Isn't the US about freedom inclusive of the freedom of expression and speech ? This teen did not commit any act of crime by his remarks. If his words contain threats and messages of 'terror' (e.g. bomb threats and assassinations) , then he has committed an offense but his message doesn't contain 'terror'.

I wonder if they are getting down the wrong path these days and ruining their own reputations (as always) in front of the international community. 

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Who Hurts Nature

Today, we shall take a break from technology. So here's an article I posted.

Have anyone of you pondered, who truely hurt when Nature is 'hurt' ? Us or
Nature ? who would be on the losing end ?

Let's take a moment and explore into this. When humans 'destroy' Nature by
polluting it and cutting down trees and harming other species, these acts hurts
Nature. Indeed, Nature is hurt because it's inhabitants suffer. Does Nature
truely 'hurt' ?

Nature is always known to have restored balance and heal 'herself' when she's
being disrupted. Those who truely hurt are the species and the living
inhabitants of Nature. The spirit of Nature, is never hurt. Her restorative and
balancing capabilities are always astounding and a genius. it's the children of
Nature who are truely hurt. If you truely want to hurt nature, her spirit is
always pure and vast. All you can do is hurt her children.

When the spirit of Nature feels that a need for cleansing has come, she would
cleanse itself and species would die. Destruction would occur, but new life...
new species would be born to take the place of those who have fallen.

You may say that Nature is cruel, but have you stopped and taken a look, who is
the one responsible for Nature to bring about a cleansing ? Have you ever
wondered who is truely selfish ? Us or Nature ? For our own gains, we have
forced Nature to a decision where it has to cleanse itself to regain balance.

Nature does not have preference for her children and she only does what it needs
to be balanced. Those who understand her and knows how to tap into her in
constructive ways would benefit. Those who ignore and are intent on destroying
her and her children would only realize that their actions have vast
consequences.

Who is the one truely hurting? Us or Nature ? Who would be on the losing end ?

The answer is without a doubt, other species and Us would be the one to suffer.
The spirit of Nature would not hurt. It's Us that must suffer if we continue on
our destructive and selfish ways.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Skynet, here we come

Read:
Oh my, isn't this no different from those movies... Terminators, Skynet ...etc. Controlling people free will and minds whether for the better or the worse is equally bad no matter what the root intention is because the possibility of misuse of such technology is very very high. What if the controls to the machines to control people's brains falls into the hands of al Qaeda or extremists ? There's always a 'what if' scenario... Murphy's Law. There is no guarantee this technology would be used for the better but a guarantee that the technology would be used for harm because of the nature of humans and their greedy little ego.For those who created such technologies to control other's will, would you want to have a taste of your own medicine first and be controlled ? Would you like that feeling that your own brains have been intruded and taken over by someone else ?

Take a moment and think before you create these inventions !!!