Posts Tagged ‘random’

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Receiving a lost gift from yourself

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

This week has been busy, exciting and very disappointing.  However, today, I was brought a great surprise!

My move to the USA was very rushed.  I literally had less than 3 days to pack an entire house, gather my belongings and declare everything for the USA.  Suffice to say, I declared a fish and nothing else.  After I had physically moved to the USA, I did not receive anything.  My personal belongings were delayed with customs, lost in the wrong end of the country, and finally arriving 91 days after I had left Canada.

Luckily, or as I thought, I received everything.  Sure, a lot of items got smashed, destroyed and needed replacement, but I received all my crap.  Today, I got a surprise!  2 more boxes of crap I completely forgot about.  Do not ask me how they found my new address, but those guys in brown found me and brought me some crap I’ve forgotten about.  As soon as I opened those boxes, old memories really came back to me!

Inside these boxes, apparently a possible threat to national security, were all my old electrical hacks.  I built fm transmitters, directional mini antennae’s, magnetic debit/credit card reader, and a whole lot of other random and useless junk.  Most of these were indeed pet projects, curious endeavors and simple fun I had as a young teen.

1-wire and tools

My 1-wire-type experiment!

Curiously, or what I can remember, everything I packed in these boxes did arrive.  No markings, no government stamps, nada.  Even my big copper coil tied to a capacitor was in this box.  I’m too scared to fire it up to see if it still works.  The thought of sending an EMP shock wave across my apartment and cooking all my hard drives scares me a little.  Unlike back home, I no longer have the luxury of big fields of nothing to test my experiments.  Except for 7th grade science fair, that was a lot of colourful tv screens…

The tube and magnets…dont mix

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Flashing the cars firmware, just like a bios upgrade!

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Every now and then, it is a good idea to wipe your computer and restart from scratch.  New OS, fresh file system, that new fresh car smell!   Sometimes we can workup and upgrade the OS completely.  However, there are times where no full blown OS upgrade will work: we need to go down to the hardware level. 

Today, I brought my car in for an oil-change.  It was scheduled to take an hour or so, but I did not have the time to wait around and took their rental car to work.  After being in the shop for most of the day, I received a phone call letting me know I had a “few” problems.  Not only did I have a bunch of “problems”, but they decided to fix them for me without asking.  I had a complementary service and full tune-up scheduled from 40,000 miles, under warranty, that I was going to use in June.  Instead of charging me for all these problems, they used my free 40k tune-up, without doing the tuneup!  They told me I’d need to get an alignment done too, but I’d need to make another appointment for that; it would have been nice if they called me in the morning and told me all this right away…

Anyway, back to my post.  BIOS updates.  After driving my car around, I started noticing some things.  First of all, my odometer was wrong.  I brought the car in with 36737 miles on the odometer, the trip odometer said 301 miles.  After I left, I had 36739 on the odometer and 8 miles on the trip odometer.  Am I being overly anal? Possibly, but it was still odd.  My radio station presets were gone!  Also, they used to be labeled A0 to A9, now they are labeled P0 to P9.  The last time I mucked around with my car’s computer, my sunroof started acting up, so did my passenger airbag detector.  Oh, my passenger side window was a little odd too.  Either way, I decided to log into the car’s computer again.  Disappointingly, I got myself a lovely hyperterm connection error.  Seems like the qnx subsystem is off-limits for the time being, until I find time to figure it out again :)

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King of the hill…still afraid of heights!

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

My weekend was planned to the tee, a flight to UK, or a drive to Olympia, or a drive to Vancouver.  The flight was never 100% confirmed, the drive to Olympia had a higher chance, and the drive to Vancouver was “just in case” all else failed.  Of course, I did have a 4th and 6th plan if even THOSE above things did not happen (say I didn’t want to drive…).  What happened to the 5th plan?  I did not feel like spending the cash :)

My 4th plan was being invited to a bon fire.  The 6th plan involved going out with friends and really just relaxing.  I ended up combining the 4th and 6th plan together, bon fire, say hi to friends, and run off to meet my other friends.

Sunday was really unexpected.  A mountain hike!  Yes, I got up Sunday morning at 7:30AM to hike a mountain.  It was not a really high mountain at all, but going up 3000ft still took some time.  I took my broken camera and did manage to grab some snapshots (and patiently did not throw my camera off the cliff).  Since that lil car mishap, my cam has been “loading…” way too often, and if not loading, it’s forgetting to save my pictures.

midwaylookout

Midway break, what an amazing view!

I had a great view of the lake and my car!  Not sure I would be able to do much if I saw it getting broken into, but it was neat to see it in the distance.

After all that hiking, I made it to the top of the hill.  I won’t call it a mountain, Mt Rainier is a mountain, this is just a little hill.  My goal was reached and I enjoyed the view.  It was a very sharp drop, I tried to ignore the fact I was standing on ice and it was windy.  I had my picture taken and you really can’t see me scared as hell.

King of the hill

At least it does not look too faked…

After the climb down, I got a great shot of the peak where I was standing.  It was a major detour from where I parked, but I could not leave without getting a picture of my feat.

The view…from the bottom

I was *on* that cliff!

The pictures from my camera do not give this climb justice.  The view, the height, was just incredible.  Oh well, my next climb is going to be Mt. Rainier’s basecamp Muir.  I guess I’ll have to invest in proper gear, but I know I am going to do it within 60 days.  Guarenteed.  Or it’s free.

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Writers block

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Tonight I came to write something.  I am not sure what, I wanted to write something informative, maybe even inspiring, but I just cannot think of anything.  I am not too stressed about anything.  My life is coasting along, random events do pop by, but they are not enough to even phase me.  I am reading more, wanting to absorb more information, I want to learn so much.  I bought a random book on math.  Nothing too information, the oddball quirk, but mostly to jog my brain and get it used to thinking mathimatically again.  Once I am done this book, I know I am going to get another one, deeper into the theory of math.  I have already ordered a book that will focus on computational theory, but I do want to spin off and learn mathematics at the same time.  Now, what to do about this blog posting?  I have no idea.  I have been too busy to come up with a good post, if such a thing even exists on this site.  I did code a cheat-script algorithm to allow comments to be posted from humans on my blog site WITHOUT requiring accounts to be created!  Not sure how it works?  I’m not telling you, but if you come to my site without a normal browser, you wont see input boxes :)   Maybe not the greatest system, but so far, I’ve only deleted 1 message of spam.  Most likely entered by a human, no less.  Back to this writers block.  What do I talk about?  I have no idea.  I do have some pictures I am meaning to share, but I’ll do that when I have time.  To find the time, it is quite an interesting issue.  I do have time to talk with friends, relax and enjoy myself, yet I never find the time to do anything I feel that is productive.  Well, outside of ‘work’ anyway.  Time is funny that way.  It keeps on moving in a linear way and we see it as a constant dimension, moving in a straight line, without easy ways of causing distortion.  There are ways to play with gravity and speed, but not readily available to all.  Maybe one day we’ll evolve and see time as just another boring dimension.  What is a billion years versus a hiccup to another advanced form of life.  Don’t blink.

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Putting down the licorice…and downing the Raki!

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

I have already done an anise-drink review in the past, on my old blog, but it’s now gone.  My original review was about sambuca, now my review will be about raki!  I am not a huge fan of licorice, in fact, if I recall correctly, I hate black licorice. 

Starting back with sambuca, it’s a strong anise-flavoured drink which you can definitely smell in the air once it has been poured.  The drink is good on its own or with some cheese on the side.  It’s generally not mixed, but adding ice can remove some of that strong anise taste. 

Moving onto Raki, the unofficial national drink of Turkey, which is another anise-based drink.  Unlike sambuca, it is made usually with grapes or figs, and distilled with anise-seed.  Sambuca is distilled with anise-seed and generally mixed with a pure sugar based alcohol. 

Raki does not have a lot of flaming recipes.  A mix of blue bols and sambuca, lit up, is a very popular European flaming drink.  However, Raki is a very popular drink mixed with water and served on the rocks.  It is very important, as told to me by a cute Turkish girl, to drink it in a tall glass.  I can understand the reasoning and the change of its taste.  When drank from a tall glass with ice, the anise in the drink will crystallize with the ice and diminish the anises potency.  Personally, I enjoy a glass of straight Raki with a piece of cheese on the side.  I can do with either Cheddar or Mozzarella.  Back in college, I took a shot of Raki in with my coffee at the local hookah bar.  I remember doing this at least once a week.  I cannot remember if it was Karim or Moey that introduced me to this lifestyle, but it was very relaxing and a great way to sit around with friends and shoot the shit.  Or work on opsys. Smoking Apple flavoured tobacco while working on a buggy linux kernel… 

Efe Raki

Efe Raki – Fresh from Turkey Ottawa, Canada.

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Amazing night of networking at Ignite Seattle!

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Tonight I was invited out to Ignite Seattle!  I expected a bunch of anti-social geeks with nothing too interesting.  However, what I got to was an awesome event!  Most of the presentations were indeed interesting.  The fast paced slides (15 seconds per slide, max 5 minutes) kept things moving and everyone awake.  In between presentations, I got to do some great networking!  I met some amazing people, someone from Google, someone from Amazon, someone from Make Magazine and even someone from O’Reilly!  There were other people from other well known companies, but I only got to talk to a few of the people at the event.  After talking to all these people, it has really inspired me to maybe start doing my own presentations.  I have a lot of things to talk about, but a chunk of my ideas I have normally kept to myself.  I am not just talking computing, but even generic electronic hacks!  I already have an idea of what my first presentation should be about: Firewalls and NAT protection.  Inspired by a great guy named Dan Kaminsky and his really well done presentation (and papers) on DNS rebinding attacks, I know exactly how I will focus my presentation.  It is a mix of how people trust their firewalls too much to over compensate for bad software and how people hide behind NAT routers thinking they are completely safe.  After some discussion, I’ve decided to name my presentation “Pulling out a Rabbit from behind a NAT”.  Effectively, the “coup de grâce” of my presentation will be ways of poking at people behind the NAT without solicitation.

Pulling out a Rabbit from behind a NAT

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Natural art

Monday, February 18th, 2008

Here is a triple post today!

I was pulling some pictures off my camera and found some really cool ones I took randomly off the window.  I love art, especially natural forming art. 

For example, the latest frame capture was off a window and it was -20′Celcius outside:

Frozen leaves  Iced leaves

(two shots with different shutter speeds)

The ice is completely natural, there was no human involvement to make this happen.  It is very humid in the Ottawa/Gatineau area and tempuratures can drop very suddenly in a matter of hours.  When I looked at this window in the morning, it was wet and there was a lot of condensation.  Usually an inch or two of ice will form near the bottom.  When the tempurature drops suddenly, the humid window will freeze up and create really amazing patterns.  In this case, “leaves”.  It is just some crystallization, but I still think it is awesome no matter what randomly forms.

On the other end of the window, I got some neat vines growing:

Leaves growing on a vine

(interesting vines growing…)

And finally, for that zoomed-out look for the non-believers:

Zoomed Proof

I have taken so many random pictures related to nature, mostly in subzero tempuratures, all of them I think are pretty awesome…and all natural!

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Welcome home to sunny Seattle!

Monday, February 18th, 2008

I landed just before noon local time and was welcomed to a very BEAUTIFUL and SUNNY Seattle!

 It was quite amazing, impressive and that just made my day.  When I went down to claim my lost luggage, it was there!  My bags were there!!  Of course, not everything was perfect.  I discovered a few new holes and missing parts to my suitcase and my locks were cleanly cut off (yes, TSA approved locks).  Oh well, getting back to a sunny, blue sky, Seattle REALLY made my day.

Back to flight woes, found out why there was a whackload of cancellations: Plane “crash” at the airport I flew out of.  I took off just before that plane.  The freezing rain really took its toll and the plane just couldn’t stop on the runway.  So, the plane was parked on a snowbank.  No injuries, just one less of a plane to fly.  My flight got re-routed after take off because our landing gear was frozen.  That was fun.  I did not find out till after the flight landed.  Apparently, they were expecting a worse landing.

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Pittsburg, PA -> Detroit, MI, -> Seattle, WA! NWA: that would be Charlotte, NC!

Monday, February 18th, 2008

I’m now in Detroit!  It seems like a beautiful, clean and fun city.  After getting to the airport, I was guided by NWA to take another flight to Charlotte, NC.  I told them my flight was to Seattle and I need to be in Seattle.   They assured me, my ticket was for Charlotte and that I really want to go there.   If I wanted to make a 2 hour drive and see the Duke campus, maybe I’d consider flying to NC.  I was pretty confident I wanted to be in Seattle.  After some phone/CSR/customer ménage-a-trois, where I have to deal with a physical agent and an over-the-phone agent at the same time, they tell me they may be able to fit me on their next flight to Seattle.  Maybe.  I am on standby, as we speak, sitting at the terminal, holding a ticket that may get me on a plane. 

I do know one thing that is for sure: If I actually make this flight, somebody else will be blogging about missing their flight and being screwed over, once again, by NWA.

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Flying home and landing in the wrong city

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

I am not happy with NWA.  Customer service is crap and they are greedy. 

 Luckily, I’m getting a hotel tonight.  I am writing this from the terminal, too lazy to check for the city.  I am not 100% sure where I am right now, but it is either Pittsburg, Pennsylvania or St. Paul, Minneapolis.  Was this on my itinerary?  No.  Final destination?  Seattle.  Some bad weather and many delays caused my connection in Detroit to be shifted to either Pittsburg or Minneapolis…I was just too damn tired and slept most of the flight and I did not hear what the captain said.  With the slew of people (88 or so) complaining around me, I just found a power plug in and went online :)  

Hopefully there is something fun to do in (insert city here) and I do not get mugged doing the above.  I will whine to NWA tomorrow night, after I arrive at my destination.  Hopefully I will eventually see my luggage one day.  I’m worried I may never see my bottles of Raki again :(

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