Click here to watch.

Okay, I’ve to get this off my chest. The way GNOME’s NetworkManager determines whether it’s connected to the internet is so fucking dumb. Now that several apps rely on the online/offline status from NetworkManager, this causes all kinds of really annoying problems that often occur at the most inconvenient times.

Right now, NetworkManager just determines whether it has made a physical connection, and if it has, it thinks it’s on the internet, and if it hasn’t it assumes there’s no connection available.

So, there are to problems with this:

* Offline-but-not-really - When I’m in the car, I have two options for connecting to my phone for internet access. I can either turn my phone into a WiFi Ad-Hoc node, and use it as a gateway for my laptop. Or, I can use Bluetooth to create a PAN and do basically the same thing. Either way, I have to set up the connection from the command line on my laptop with one or two commands. Of course, when I do this, NetworkManager has no knowledge of the connection and all of my GNOME apps that rely on it think there is no internet connection. This gets really, really old.

* Online-but-not-really - So the second problem is captive portals. For example, I’m typing this from a Panera Bread. I turned on my laptop, NetworkManager saw the open WiFi connection, and it automatically connected. Great, except NetworkManager now thinks it has a working internet connection… but it doesn’t, because I have to pop open a browser window and hit “Agree” before I actually have internet access.

The solution to this is so fucking easy… just ping! Each second, or every three or five seconds, NetworkManager should just try to ping a host like google.com… if you get a response, you’re online. This way, it doesn’t matter how you’re connected, or whether or not there’s a captive portal in the way… Why is this so hard?

Do you have a need to do a search and replace on an entire column in your MySQL database?

I had to do this recently due to a domain change.  Here's the easy way:

UPDATE tablename SET tablefield = replace(tablefield,"findstring","replacestring");

For example, when the shell service I started moved from silenceisdefeat.com to silenceisdefeat.org, I issued the following command to change all of the links in my blog posts:

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content,"silenceisdefeat.org","silenceisdefeat.com");

You can do this via the command line, or using a tool like PHPMyAdmin by clicking on the SQL tab.  If you're running wp-cache on your WordPress blog, don't forget to clear your cache to see the change take effect.

A quote from the Department of Homeland Security website:

We're also actively monitoring travelers at our land, sea, and air ports. We're watching them for signs of illness, and we have appropriate protocols in place to deal with those who are sick. Precautions are being taken to protect travelers and border personnel. Anyone exhibiting symptoms is being referred to an isolation room where they can be evaluated by a public health official before proceeding to their destruction.

 The site has now been changed to read, "before proceeding to their destination."  However, a footnote still exists that references the typo and includes the original phrasiology.  Man, what a scary typo.

Over the years I've encountered many instances in which I've had to search through thousands of fonts in order to figure out which one was used in a graphic. Those days are over thanks to these two great resources:

1. WhatTheFont - This site actually allows you to upload a sample graphic and then tries to do the matching automatically.  Very cool!  The only problem is that the sample needs to be at least 100 pixels in height for it to work with high accuracy.
2. Identifont - This site uses a completely different approach — the process of elimination.  If you don't have a high-resolution sample and don't mind answering a few questions, this is the way to go.

While we're on the subject, FontyPython is a really cool font manager for Linux that allows you to browse through tons of fonts before installing them.  This is really convenient if you happen to be pirating large font packs while looking for one of the fonts you identified using the sites listed above.  If you know of similar programs for Mac or Windows, feel free to leave a comment.

This is mostly a note-to-self, so if you don’t have any interest in encrypted VoIP, you might as well go ahead and skip over this blog post.

First, some background information… I had an interesting phone conversation with Adam Panagia, the manager of AT&T’s Global Fraud department. From a conference bridge, we placed an outbound call to his cell phone without passing ANI to see how easy it would be for him to trace the call. He immediately answered and knew who was calling, which was pretty impressive. As it turns out, Adam was already listening to the conference call by sitting on the line of one of the parties on the conference. We know this was the case because after Adam hung up his cell phone and kept speaking in the conference, the “Talking” light on the conference web interface for one of the other parties would illuminate. In other words, Adam was speaking through the phone line of someone else who was on the conference call.

Adam, who works for AT&T can intercept and even speak on behalf of practically any long distance phone call with ease. In this case, he was intercepting a call in real-time that was originating from a Verizon land line. So, the carrier matters not. Obviously he’s not the only one who can do this. It goes without saying that there are likely dozens, if not hundreds, of government employees who can do the same thing.

So, if you’re interested maintaining privacy, you only have two options: Bypass the PSTN altogether or use encryption.

Why not do both?

The software released by the Zfone Project, which was founded by the creator of PGP, is of particular interest to me. Two-party phone calls can easily be accomplished by using Zfone on both ends with a VoIP softphone.

But what about conference calls? That’s a little bit more complicated, but it seems that the ZRTP patch for Asterisk could be used to allow each party to place an encrypted call to an Asterisk box, where a conference could be mixed.

But who wants to be limited to softphones? In theory, you don’t have to be. Sure, a company called TiVi makes software for cell phones that allows you to place encrypted VoIP calls over WiFi, but what about the analog phones everyone is already used to? I have an idea as to how to accomplish this: Get a tiny motherboard like a Mini-ITX or Nano-ITX, which can be had for cheap. Get a $10 voice modem. Install Asterisk with the ZRTP patch, and configure it to use the voice modem as an FXO port… and Bingo! You have a cheap homemade ATA with full encryption support.

I was going to go back and add links for all the acronyms, but since this was a very casual note-to-self, and since I have other work I need to be doing, you’ll just have to Google it if you see something you don’t recognize.

I’m very excited to announce that Dr. Tom Woods, a friend and bestselling author, has finished his new book. Meltdown will explain exactly what really caused the collapse, which economists predicted it and why nobody listened, and why bailouts are the single worst reaction imaginable.

Sometimes I really enjoy watching financial news channels, but it’s not at all because they provide any valuable information. I’m just fascinated by how clueless the talking heads tend to be. If you know better, it’s really amazing to watch. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just watch this YouTube clip for a perfect example. These guys on TV have no clue at all what’s going to happen in the future, because they have no understanding of what’s going on in the present. People like Tom Woods and Peter Schiff (the guy in the YouTube clip), on the other hand, are students of the Austrian school of economics and therefore have a fundamental understanding of current events that is extremely rare these days. My point is that Tom Woods is uniquely equipped to explain what’s currently going on, and you’re simply not going to find such accurate, insightful analysis anywhere else.

That’s why I’m so thrilled about this book. It’s the one book that has the power to enlighten the masses as to what’s really going on. Don’t be a babbling idiot like the talking heads in the YouTube clip. Pick up a copy of Meltdown and gain a crystal-clear understanding that even most economists don’t have.

Kellogg has dropped Michael Phelps because someone found a photo of him smoking pot. Phelps apologized, but here’s the letter he should have written instead:

Dear America,

I take it back. I don’t apologize.

Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned business. I work my ass off 10 months per year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture.

I put myself through hell. I make my body do things nature never really intended us to endure. All world-class athletes do. We do it because you love to watch us push ourselves as far as we can possibly go. Some of us get hurt. Sometimes permanently. You’re watching the Super Bowl tonight. You’re watching 300 pound men smash each while running at full speed, in full pads. You know what the average life expectancy of an NFL player is? Fifty-five. That’s about 20 years shorter than your average non-NFL player. Yet you watch. And cheer. And you jump up spill your beer when a linebacker lays out a wide receiver on a crossing route across the middle. The harder he gets hit, the louder and more enthusiastically you scream.

Yet you all get bent out of shape when Ricky Williams, or I, or Josh Howard smoke a little dope to relax. Why? Because the idiots you’ve elected to make your laws have have without a shred of evidence beat it into your head that smoking marijuana is something akin to drinking antifreeze, and done only by dirty hippies and sex offenders.

You’ll have to pardon my cynicism. But I call bullshit. You don’t give a damn about my health. You just get a voyeuristic thrill from watching an elite athlete fall from grace–all the better if you get to exercise a little moral righteousness in the process. And it’s hypocritical righteousness at that, given that 40 percent of you have tried pot at least once in your lives.

Here’s a crazy thought: If I can smoke a little dope and go on to win 14 Olympic gold medals, maybe pot smokers aren’t doomed to lives of couch surfing and video games, as our moronic government would have us believe. In fact, the list of successful pot smokers includes not just world class athletes like me, Howard, Williams, and others, it includes Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, the last three U.S. presidents, several Supreme Court justices, and luminaries and success stories from all sectors of business and the arts, sciences, and humanities.

So go ahead. Ban me from the next Olympics. Yank my endorsement deals. Stick your collective noses in the air and get all indignant on me. While you’re at it, keep arresting cancer and AIDS patients who dare to smoke the stuff because it deadens their pain, or enables them to eat. Keep sending in goon squads to kick down doors and shoot little old ladies, maim innocent toddlers, handcuff elderly post-polio patients to their beds at gunpoint, and slaughter the family pet.

Tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll apologize for smoking pot when every politician who ever did drugs and then voted to uphold or strengthen the drug laws marches his ass off to the nearest federal prison to serve out the sentence he wants to impose on everyone else for committing the same crimes he committed. I’ll apologize when the sons, daughters, and nephews of powerful politicians who get caught possessing or dealing drugs in the frat house or prep school get the same treatment as the no-name, probably black kid caught on the corner or the front stoop doing the same thing.

Until then, I for one will have none of it. I smoked pot. I liked it. I’ll probably do it again. I refuse to apologize for it, because by apologizing I help perpetuate this stupid lie, this idea that what someone puts into his own body on his own time is any of the government’s damned business. Or any of yours. I’m not going to bend over and allow myself to be propaganda for this wasteful, ridiculous, immoral war.

Go ahead and tear me down if you like. But let’s see you rationalize in your next lame ONDCP commercial how the greatest motherfucking swimmer the world has ever seen . . . is also a proud pot smoker.

Yours,

Michael Phelps

Boycott Kelloggs. And let them know why.

Okay, so I actually joined Twitter ages ago to check it out. I just couldn’t understand why someone would want to use a site that was basically Facebook minus everything except for the status updates. It seemed pretty stupid, so I just left it alone.

But after about six months, I got an email. Someone was following me on Twitter, which puzzled me because I hadn’t ever posted a single tweet. I deleted the email and went on with life.

But a week later, I got another email. Delete. Move on.

Gradually, the frequency increased until I had accrued forty followers without posting a single Tweet!

Today I finally decided to give in and see what it was all about, and I must admit, it’s kind of fun.

Sure, it’s true that the functionality basically boils down to Facebook status updates without the rest of Facebook, but people use it a little differently.

I do like having the option of being able to post tiny updates from anywhere, using my cell phone, without having to commit to writing an entire blog post. Sure, I have an Android application on my G1 that let’s me blog remotely, but it’s still a pain in the ass to type several paragraphs on a mobile device, even with a nice QWERTY keyboard. I like that I can integrate my twitter updates with my existing blog. I also like that my “tweets” can show up as status updates on Facebook and as instant messaging status, even when I’m away from my computer.

It turns out that in practice, micro-blogging is a pretty fun. So, give in and join me!