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Archive for March, 2008

Penn & Teller: Bullshit! – The Single Best Libertarian TV Show Ever.

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

I don’t really feel like explaining right now, but you must watch this show. It is well worth your time. If you’re a libertarian, or a freedom-minded individual, you will fall in love with it instantly. If you’re not, it will challenge the way you think about everything.

Check out some random episodes I was able to find around the web:

War on Drugs

Recycling

PETA
BULLSHIT!!! (PETA Episode)

By the time you’re reading this, some of those episodes may have been taken offline. However, you can still click here to download seasons one through four via BitTorrent. The whole thing is rather large, but most sane clients will allow you to download one file at a time. Trust me, it’s worth your time.

Posted in Cool Links, Random Thoughts | No Comments »

What they will say about the 2008 election in the future?

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Click here if you can’t see the video.

Posted in Current Events, Economics, Politics | No Comments »

California Edges Toward Joining Real ID Revolt

Monday, March 24th, 2008

From Slashdot:

The Department of Homeland Security’s Real ID program has a real challenge on its hands from California. DHS had said it will only grant extensions from the Real ID rules taking effect on May 11 to states that apply by March 31 and promise to implement Real ID by 2010. California requested an extension but would not make the latter promise. DHS buckled and said, in effect, “Good enough.” Perhaps they realized that trying to slap giant California around is qualitatively different than doing the same to New Hampshire.

Click here for the full article.

Posted in Current Events, Politics, Technology | No Comments »

The Federal Reserve Fights Inflation! Right?

Monday, March 24th, 2008

You hear it all the time: We must have the Federal Reserve in order to keep prices stable.

This is a graph of the Consumer Price Index from 1800 to 2007:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which part of this is more stable.

Posted in Economics | No Comments »

HOWTO: Use T-Zones to get Unlimited Nationwide Wireless Internet on your laptop for $6/mo

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

Don’t get suckered into paying $20, $30, or even $70 per month for nationwide wireless internet. If you’re a T-Mobile customer, you can do it with their $6 T-zones plan just by making a minor change on your laptop. Here’s how:

Table of Contents

Instructions for Mac OS X, Linux, or *BSD
Instructions for Windows
How it Works

Instructions for Mac OS X, Linux, or *BSD

Add T-Zones to your calling plan, if you haven’t already.
Sign up for a free shell account at SilenceisDefeat.org (instant activation is a one-time fee of $1)
Setup tethering, if you haven’t already.
From a terminal, issue the following command:
ssh -p 143 -D localhost:1080 username@ssh.silenceisdefeat.com
Of course, you need to replace “username” with the username you picked in Step 2. The password to use was emailed to you when you completed Step 2. If there are any problems, check the support channel.
You can change your default password by using the psswd command once you’ve logged in. You now have a local SOCKS5 proxy with no restrictions. Just configure your browser to use it. For Firefox, (Click Edit &gt; Preference &gt; Advanced &gt; Network &gt; Settings &gt; Manual proxy configuration; At SOCKS Host put in localhost and for the port, use 1080.)

Enjoy the freedom!

Instructions for Windows

Add T-Zones to your calling plan, if you haven’t already.
Sign up for a free shell account at SilenceisDefeat.org (instant activation is a one-time fee of $1)
Setup tethering, if you haven’t already.
Download and run PuTTY
For hostname, enter ssh.silenceisdefeat.com. For Port, enter 143, like this:
On the left site, in the Category box, click over to Connection &gt; SSH &gt; Tunnels. Click the second check box, enter 1080 for the Source Port, click the Dynamic radio button, and click Add. Make sure it looks like this before you click Add:
Now go back to the Session screen (at the very top in the Category box), under Saved Sessions, type “Silence is Defeat” without quotes, and click Save. This will allow you to re-use these settings in the future without having to enter them again.
Now click “Open” to start the session. You’ll be prompted for a password, which should have been emailed to you when you completed Step 2. If there are any problems, check the support channel.
You can change your default password by using the psswd command once you’ve logged in.
You now have a local SOCKS5 proxy with no restrictions! Just configure
your browser to use it. For Firefox, (Click Tools &gt; Options &gt;
Advanced &gt; Network &gt; Settings &gt; Manual proxy configuration; At
SOCKS Host put in localhost and for the port, use 1080.)

Enjoy the freedom!

How it Works

The T-Zones APN, wap.voicestream.com, has a proxy available at 216.155.165.50 on port 8080 that used to allow most HTTP traffic to any server, but as of late it blocks normal websites. However, the APN still allows unrestricted traffic on ports 25, 110, 143, 465, 587, 993, 995, and 8080 for various reasons. ssh.silenceisdefeat.com accepts SSH connections on ports 80, 143, 465, 443, and 587. So, we’re just connecting to Silence is Defeat on port 143 and then tunneling all of the traffic from our local SOCKS proxy to Silence is Defeat, where there are no traffic restrictions. This can be used for the web, IRC, instant messaging, and just about anything else.

If you like this trick, please consider donating to Silence is Defeat via paypal at sdpaus@gmail.com, as they are footing the bill for the bandwidth required to do this. Also, check out their chat room. Enjoy!

Posted in Technology | 11 Comments »

Put young children on DNA list, urge police

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

From the article:

Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain’s most senior police forensics expert.

Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.

Posted in Current Events, Politics | No Comments »

US Economy No Longer No. 1

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

From the article:

THE US economy lost the title of “world’s biggest” to the euro zone this week as the value of the US dollar slumped in currency markets.
Taking the gross domestic product of both economies in 2007, the combined GDP of the 15 countries which use the euro overtook that of the US when the European currency surged to a record high of more than $1.56 per euro overnight.

“The curious outcome of breaching this latest milestone is that the size of the euro zone’s annual output has now exceeded that of the US,” the economics department of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, said in a note to clients.

Taking official estimates of 2007 GDP, $US13,843,800 billion ($14,726,000) for the United States and 8,847,889.1 billion euros for the euro zone, the economy of the latter passed the US once converted into US dollars, shortly after the euro topped $1.56.

The US dollar sank to $1.5688 per euro late in European trading hours overnight, at which rate the euro zone’s 2007 GDP equates to $13,880,568.4 billion.

The 2007 GDP estimates are as published by the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and provided to Reuters on request for the euro zone by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office.

Posted in Current Events, Economics | No Comments »

Keep juries dumb

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

This is an excellent must-read article by John Bloom about the history of Juries. You should read it.

Posted in Cool Links | No Comments »

Congressional Candidate Exposed by Opponent

Monday, March 10th, 2008

Exposed of being a Ron Paul Republican who will stand up for civil liberties, that is.

Opponent: “You know what? If you support Ron Paul, then you need to support my young primary opponent. Because he’s a Ron Paul Libertarian, 100%! Go to his webpage, and everything he stands for is right there! I call him Ron Paul Jr. because that’s what he is.”

He’s talking about B.J. Lawson, congressional candidate in North Carolina’s 4th congressional district. Dr. Lawson, a medical doctor turned entrepreneur has been inspired by Ron Paul to defend our rights, but he can only do it with your help.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Features Missing From the iPhone

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

So back in June, Apple came out with their iPhone. I’ve always liked how it looks, but given that there are so many features missing from it, I decided to keep my unlocked Sony Ericsson W810i. However, as of late, I’ve been given the opportunity to acquire a free iPhone. So, for the purpose of deciding which one to use, I’m going to outline the advantages and disadvantages of the $400 iPhone as compared to my two-year-old W810i.

Disadvantages:

It’s much bigger
No MMS (picture messaging)
No third-party app support and no Java – you’re stuck with the software that came with it
No voice recording
No video recording
No cut-and-paste
Can’t assign personal music tones
No AIM/iChat
No voice tags for voice dialing
Semi-difficult to unlock
No memory card slot

Advantages:

It looks pretty
Better browser
Wi-Fi (but since there’s no support for third-party applications, there’s no way to run Skype or VoIP)

As far as the iPhone’s other claims to fame — MP3/video player, Google Maps, a working web browser, and YouTube — that stuff existed in other phones long before the iPhone came out. Frankly, I think the reason it sold so well is that it looks really cool and Americans were largely unaware of what cell phones could already do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not criticizing Apple for coming out with it, I just wish they incorporated some basic cell phone features.

I’ll give the iPhone a shot, but it’s hard to imagine going without some of these standard features.

Posted in Random Thoughts, Technology | 3 Comments »