I decided to give Google Desktop Search a try today. I've heard a few people speak fondly of it since it's original release, but I've never really felt the need to go out and download it. That's probably because the only time I ever find myself searching for something is within an application (say looking for an email message, or a particular song) and the applications I use are already really good at searching (I'm still using Bloomba, the discontinued email application I love to hate, and can't bear to part with, and iTunes does a pretty good job of searching within my library).

Anyways, I installed the search tool, and the first thing it does is index your entire hard drive (in the background) quite a CPU intensive operation. I am twice greeted by a BSD.



I don't blame the search tool, it's several problems rolled into one, my tower sits within an enclosure that is part of my desk and I'm running an Athlon XP processor (this may be FUD but I'm still under the impression that AMD chips run hotter than Intel ones). All that combined with CPU intensive operations generally leads to a crash. I work around this problem when I'm expecting a high CPU load (like when I'm playing a game) by turning up the CPU fan, and sticking a desk fan on the floor pointing at my case. Unfortunately when a high CPU load comes unexpectedly (say because a background process is generating the load) I don't prepare and the system crashes. So out goes Google Desktop Search.


I think I'm going to finally try pulling the case out of the nice little enclosure my desk provides, and switch it to the other side of the desk so the side fans can grab clean air. I will see how that fares.


I would love to switch over to using a Pentium M based system, there's a new board out from AOpen that would probably suit my needs perfectly. The Dothan chips run a lot cooler per MHZ, and are smart enough to slow themselves down when not needed, rather than using something like S2KCTL to slow it down by force. While I have money now, and could probably just barely afford the switch, being an author really implies that having money really only means you aren't going to get a cheque again for a long time.

Finally, the stars all came into alignment and I made it up to camp this year (cottages, far enough north are no longer reffered to as cottages, but as camps. Ours is near Sudbury Ont, so it qualifies).


I had an awesome time, got to hang out with my step-siblings, and took some neat pictures, you can see the set over at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/preinheimer/sets/837170/


(You can blame the pictures showing just a splash, or the end of the dock on Neil, who hasn't quite got the timing down yet)

I've started playing the game a bit again just to see what's changed,


here's a pic:



I'm liking it so far, but I'm having some 'issues' with the battlegrounds.

• You seem to either get in immediatly, or not at all. I've seen an estimated wait of four minutes, and watched it stay like that for hours.
  
• The most inept people often seem to take command. Seriously folks, if you don't know what you're doing be quiet.
  
• People seem to forget that we're not all telepaths, giving commands like "Help me here", and "cover me", without giving the slightest indication of where they are.
  
• Most people don't communicate at all, critical information like the location of a flag just never gets passed on
  
• Inept commanders seem to think that defending the base from outside the base (which has multiple entrances) is a great idea
  

Anyways, end of rant.


I scored 10k experiance running the mission shown in the screenshot.

First, almost as an aside, one of the things that annoys me when watching the news is how newscasters try to end everything with a 'cute' little statement or cliché. As if the writers have been instructed to ensure that every paragraph ends with the perfect little four second sound bite. I find this really annoying, I don't watch the news to be impressed with sound bites, or cute statements, I watch it for the news.


Second, I was just watching a news report about the pull out from the Gaza Strip. CTV NewsNet interviewed Prof. Derek Penslar from the University of Toronto to get some insight into the entire affair. What really impressed me about the interview is that the Professor didn't try to sound cute, didn't try to make things into brief sound bites, and just concentrated on getting his points across. It was very refreshing just to hear someone intelligent speak for once.


Third, in the fast several weeks/months there has been a rash of shootings in Toronto, seriously, the news reminds me of my summer in New York. A city councilman suggested that Toronto police be empowered to stop young black men (either in their cars, or while merely walking down the street) and check them for illegal weapons. The only reason he hasn't been lynched as a racist already is that the councilman is black himself. I've talked to a few friends about this, and I haven't found anyone willing to speak out in favour of it yet. The most troubling part of this suggestion for me wasn't that they were targeting a particular group, but merely that they were planning on instituting random searches in the first place. The fact that a police officer could arbitrarily choose to search someone, and not release them until the search was completed (presumably, since the entire exercise would be pointless otherwise) seems to be indicated that while walking Toronto streets one is guilty until proven innocent. Then I saw a commercial this morning advertising the RIDE program, and noticed that in those circumstances a very close parallel is pulled. Cars at an arbitrary location are stopped, and kept there until a police officer can ascertain that the driver is not under the influence of alcohol. This program seems to be pretty generally accepted. Leaving the only controversial portion of the suggestion to be the targeting of a specific group, even worse, a group that has been the target of racism and racism based searches and other police related events (DWB). Similar tactics (though targeting another group) have been suggested in the "War On Terror" but leading security experts have repeatedly called this a stupid idea, it's easy to just start using people who don't meet the target criteria (in this case, gangs could use young Caucasian women to move weapons around). Since police will be expending extra effort searching young black males, they will be able to spend even less time than usual searching young white females. Overall, I think random searches would be more effective.

Misleading Advertising is nothing new, but I love this little tidbit on the Rogers website:

$0.25 per minute for long distance calls from Canada to anywhere in North America (except Mexico). View complete long distance rates.

There are only three countries in North America, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The next two most northern countries are Guatemala and Belize, which are listed as part of Central America in the CIA World Factbook.


So really, it should be:

$0.25 per minute for long distance calls from Canada to the United States. View complete long distance rates.

OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) has released version 2.0.1 of their guide.


You should go read it now (if your a web programmer)


If you're a fan of dead trees (and live in the US), PrintFu can provide you a copy for $12.33

I've commented before how the absolute lack of verification of credit card signatures bothered me.


Someone decided to take testing this to the next level: The Credit Card Prank II



On another note, I recently made a few more purchases at the aformentioned large store. First time they demagnatized my purchases through the bag, the second they removed the items from the bag one at a time, but didn't compare the items with my receipt. I've mentioned this to several employees, to no avail.