Ace on Tech

The Ballad of ‘Oklahomo’ Rep. Sally Kern

Ace — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:27:20 +0000

In an earlier post, I put up Sally Kern’s secret speech in which she bashed homosexuality high and low, describing it as a spreading disease, a death knell to her country. It caused a lot of uproar across the world and net, even on this website. I’m glad I was able to help and get the word out.

At the bottom of this post: a related video in which Sally Kern debates the world’s reaction to her [wretched] speech (Sally Kern on KFOR’s Flashpoint).
+ “Sally Kern Apologized Today” (humorous).

Related to this, the “Ballad of Sally Kern”, a poem (credits to Digital Cuttlefish), and a rather striking one at that (transcript below):

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(transcript)

[musical interlude]

A legislator, Sally Kern,
Was simply voicing her concern,
But Sally Kern was unaware,
Or if she knew, she did not care,
That someone had a microphone,
So Sally Kern was not alone.

Oh, I’m not anti-gay, said Sally,
To the fifty-person rally,
But there are things you have to learn,
And who will teach us?
Sally Kern.

Sally Kern, she knows the answer,
Knows how gays are like a cancer,
Knows they’re worse than terrorists,
If Sally Kern can keep the lists.

So Sally Kern must raise her voice,
Against unhealthy lifestyle-choice,
The cost of life against God’s word,
Is clear, that people gathered, heard,
Disease and death and then you burn,
In HELL, or say Sally Kern.

Then Sally Kern,
In pure effrontery tells us gays will harm her country,
If we embrace these sinful ways, says Sally Kern,
Allowing gays to join the city council ranks,
Or work in schools, or stores or banks,
Our country would be tempting fate,
And all too soon, would be too late.

Now, such a stance may seem too stern,
But heed the words of Sally Kern,
If we let gays live right among us,
Soon, like mold or creeping fungus,
Even straights will be infected,
Sally Kern wants us protected.

The path to safety is God’s grace,
We must protect the human race,
Sally Kern just wants us pure.

Right,
Ein volk, ein reich, ein Führer…

[excerpt from Hitler's notorious speech]

Sigh.

Oklahoma State Representative: "homosexuality is destroying this nation, death knell for this country"…

Ace — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:51:39 +0000

UPDATE #4: Sally Kern replies and listen to the “Sally Kern Ballad” in my follow-up post here.

UPDATE #3: Apparently, YouTube pulled the video I referred to from their website. I replaced it with an other one. Who still wants Sally Kern to represent the people..?

UPDATE #2: S. Kern recently officially acknowledged her speech and refuses to apologize. The democrat governor of Oklahoma Brad Henry has shown his dismay and states this is not their party’s stance.

Brad Henry:

“Some should think before they speak.”

UPDATE #1: The ‘Not a Potted Plant‘-blog encourages all who agree that the Sally Kern’s speech is “anachronistic, ignorant and an embarrassment to modern political and social discourse” to express your opinion freely at:

Sally Kern
Oklahoma State House of Representatives, District 84
2713 Sterling Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73127
(405) 557-7348
sallykern@okhouse.gov

Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern has a little speech about her views on homosexuality. Obviously, she didn’t expect her ranting to pass beyond the Oklahoma border. Too bad. It’s all over the Internet. She describes homosexuality as:

having deadly consequences (more suicides, illness, shorter lifespans)
a not acceptable lifestyle
the death knell for the US
a bigger threat than terrorists and Islam (huh?)
an indoctrination
ruining youngsters’ lives
a disease that spreads

Here’s the YouTube video of her speaking on the topic. The transcript lies below.

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The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation, okay. It’s just a fact. Not everybody’s lifestyle is equal. Just like not all religions are equal. The very fact that I’m talking to you like this today puts me in jeopardy, okay. I’m not anti, I’m not gay-bashing, but according to God’s word that is not the right kind of lifestyle. It has deadly consequences for those people involved in it. It has more suicides. They’re more discouraged. There’s more illness. Their lifespans are shorter. You know, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation. It’s a matter of fact, studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death knell for this country. I honestly think it’s the biggest threat, even in our nation. Even more so than terrorists, or Islam, okay.

Cause, what’s happening now, they’re going after, err, in schools, two year olds! You know why they’re trying to get early childhood education? They want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them. I taught school for close to 20 years and we’re not teaching facts and knowledge anymore, folks, we’re teaching indoctrination, okay. And they’re going after our young children, as young as 2 year of age, to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable lifestyle.

You know, gays are infiltrating city capitals. Did you know, Eureka Springs, anybody been there? Have you heard that the city council of Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays? There are some others, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kensington Maryland, Vermont, Oregon, West Palm Beach, Florida and lots of other places in Florida. What’s happening?

They are winning elections, one of the things I deal with in our legislature, I tried to introduce a bill last year that would notify parents, err, schools had to let parents know what clubs their students were involved in and the reason I did that bill, primarily, was this: we had the gay-straight alliance coming into our schools. Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined, the parents don’t know about it.

So I introduced a bill that said you have to notify all the clubs participants’ parents. A colleague said: we don’t have a gay problem in my community, that’s why I’m not going to release that bill. You know what, to me, that’s so dumb, if you’ve got cancer or something in your little toe, do you say I’m just going to forget about it because the rest of you is fine? It spreads, okay. And this stuff is deadly and it’s spreading and it will destroy our young people and it will destroy this nation.

Become a Magician with iPhone

Ace — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:12:20 +0000

Impress your friends and family with some cool tricks you can do with an iPhone or iPod Touch:

More info at HotTrix.

iBeer

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iMilk

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iBug

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iMunchies

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Click-Wheel Interface Coming to Windows 7?

Ace — Mon, 26 May 2008 11:36:01 +0000

It certainly seems so from the screenshots that have been popping up all over the internet lately. A lot of them are most likely souped up for conceptional purposes, but one thing certain returns steadily: the click-wheel-like interface. Usually the Windows Logo Orb is seated in the center of a wheel with numerous icons surrounding it. These images are by no means official, nor were they acknowledgded by Microsoft.

They’re certainly fancy looking, though I wonder about the practicalities of it. Translucencies in the user interface as a whole seem to be coming back, too, sometimes turning out nearly transparant, other times more opaque.

One thing is sure, Microsoft has confirmed that Windows [codenamed] ‘7′ will arrive somewhere in 2010, contrary to earlier misconceptions (that suggested next year).

Some conceptional screenshots (thanks to wepokers.blogspot.com):

Finally a Fast PDF Reader: Foxit

Ace — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:55:37 +0000

PDF (Portable Document Format) is the omni-present file format for all important documents that need to travel from one place to an other. They work on every platform, so long as a reader is installed, and they aren’t editable. The key is that every PDF document comes across exactly the way the author intended it, save the infamous inconsistencies proprietary software like Microsoft Word often impose. PDF, in itself, is also proprietary, though. It’s not open. It’s just been around long enough to seem that way.

Adobe Reader (formerly known as Acrobat Reader) is the official reader software that accompanies PDF. Throughout the years, Adobe Reader has put on weight and has become increasingly bulky, and.. slow. Panning through a document containing more than a few dozen pages usually bogs down your system, peaking CPU performance along with it.

You aren’t necessarily tied to Adobe’s own reader, though. There are dozens of other, faster applications that handle PDF fine and even provide a [roughly] comparable set of features. I’m talking about Foxit Reader 2.3, in particular: A free application that incorporates nearly all of Adobe Reader’s features with gracious speed.

Foxit supports all the usual: bookmarking, commenting, magnifying, tabbed browsing, etc. And, best of all, no more panning through documents in slow motion.

Foxit Reader is available for free on Windows and Linux.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Breaking News Section Fixed

Ace — Sun, 25 May 2008 07:34:46 +0000

Since I introduced the new design, the Breaking News section on the homepage seemed to be failing. It would display the entry titles somewhat correctly, but the underlying URLs would be messed up. The problem here, I think, is the Wordpress Plugin I’m using, which grabs RSS feeds and parses them from time to time.

I looked into the plugin’s code, but couldn’t find where things went amok, so I threw it out completely [for now]. Instead, I solved it with a bit of Javascript.

Links in the Breaking News section should be fully functional again now.

Firefox 3 and 3.1 Coming Soon

Ace — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:08:38 +0000

UPDATE: Mozilla has recently decided to roll out one more Release Candidate. While this wasn’t planned, they’re doing so to make sure the final release is extremely solid. With RC2, 40 additional bugs will have been fixed. The final release date will be pushed back with approx. 5 days, though. Better safe than buggy I guess.

Firefox has been all over the news today. This is probably mostly due to the latest Release Candidate Mozilla pushed a few days ago. The third iteration of Mozilla’s flagship web browser is due no later than next month, contrary to earlier reports. It doesn’t seem likely the Firefox team will be releasing another RC build, though. But never say never, of course.

Performance boost

I’ve been using Firefox 3 since beta three and I’m having mixed feelings about it. I love the way it doesn’t gobble down hundreds of megabytes of RAM anymore. And, it’s great to see they’ve finally made the rendering engine snappier. Now, in comparison to FF3 RC1, it becomes apparent that Firefox 2’s performance was taking a snail trail beneath its baggage of (amongst others) poorly supported Javascript processing and page rendering. In addition, the numerous leaking addons made using FF2 a rather crash-prone experience.

Mozilla, in my opinion, [still] under-delivers on its promise to give Firefox a native look on every platform. There were humongous plans for a Mac version (which made its debut a couple of betas ago), a Linux version and a Vista version. As most of us know, Mozilla threw out the latter to retain Firefox’ image and online presence. Instead, they slapped out a regurgitated iteration of Firefox’ former self, i.e. Firefox 2. A big mistake.

Enhancements

An other addition worth mentioning is the dramatically improved address-bar. Much like the Spotlight on the Mac, or Instant Search in Vista, Firefox searches for previously queried or bookmarked sites as you type. If you’re the type to frequently visit certain sites, but don’t want to go through the hassle that is bookmarking (yes it is), this is a great productivity booster.

The download manager finally allows for pausing downloads. And, closing the browser won’t flush them out either. They’ll just pop right back the next instance you open your trusty browser. This feature greatly obsoletes the need for addons like ‘DownThemAll’, though the aforementioned provides more that just download management.

Protecting the young’uns

Dumb and uninitiated web surfers are now protected against the dark side of the net. Clearer certificate pages and anti-phishing/scamming warnings are in place to wane off ignorant eyes.

One of the annoyances of running an ‘unfinished’ version of Firefox - like software is ever finished - is that support for addons is completely broken. Only a few are capable of keeping up with Mozilla’s beta/RC cycle. That, and the revised addons’ underpinnings usually render the addons-window empty. While there are methods at present to get incompatible addons running again, this is not advised, since many contain deprecated and insecure code. The solution is simple, just sit it out, or plainly revert back to Firefox 2 for the time being.

Firefox 3.1 in the running

Word goes round that Mozilla has already started planning the next major update to Firefox, i.e. version 3.1. It will reportedly incorporate features that were cut from the RC1 build because they weren’t yet on par with the rest of the feature set. Most of them were nearly finished, but just didn’t meet the quality bar for broad release.

The XMLHttpRequest (XHR) API is an example of this. The RC1 release notes note that the specifications for this technology aren’t stable, nor secure enough [yet].

With Firefox 3.1, it will be the first time Mozilla rolls out two major updates to the Firefox franchise in the same year. Interesting.

Get the RC

For those interested on living on the bleeding edge (cough), Firefox 3 RC1 is available from Mozilla’s website right here. In keeping with its good tradition, this download is available in all its multi-language/platform splendor.

Scheduled Downtime

Ace — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:44:01 +0000

I expect the site to be down for several hours later today, as I push through some updates. After that, I’ll also be back daily/regularly with new posts and content.

Hope to see you back soon,

Ace

Intel’s New Nehalem Microarchitecture

Ace — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:43:53 +0000

Nehalem is the name of Intel’s next-generation 45 nanometer micro-architecture. It is a processor architecture that will harness the processing power for a wide range of computers, ranging from ultra-portable laptops to high-end server equipment, utilizing a scalable amount of cores.

The projection is that this new processor will make its entry for high-end computers later this year, with 4 and 8 core variants on a single die. With this introduction, Intel will sweep the old FSB architecture off the table.

Not CPU, it’s SoCs

Being touted as the biggest leap in processor technology since the Pentium 4, Nehalem will use the same 45nm production process as Penryn. It is said that the quad-core variation that’ll make its debut this year will house 781 million transistors (see Moore’s Law). It does the Nehalem injustice to call it a mere CPU, though. SoCs or ‘Systems-on-a-Chip’ suits this baby better. Why?

As illustrated by the image above, the Nehalem is indeed a complete system in itself, since it contains the processing cores, cache, and fast DDR3 memory on a single chip. Furthermore, the L3 cache, with its 8MB in capacity, is pretty huge, too. It also incorporates the newly-fangled QuickPath [Interconnect], which basically replaces the by now ancient FSB architecture. It’s a new point-to-point connection between the processor and other key components like the chipset and RAM. QuickPath will provide a tremendous amount of aggregate bandwidth, in comparison with FSB.

Since this architecture is scalable, it will be suitable for most all computing needs. Whereas the Pentium series was built around clock speeds, Intel’s new platform is centered around parallel bandwidth.

Integrated graphics, greener

Nehalem also promises 30% lower power usage when compared to its little brother Penryn, which is always nice. But the most interesting thing, in my opinion, has to be the option to include optional high performance integrated graphics into the architecture. This could lend an extra advantage to ultra-mobile devices like the eeePC - or any of the other lightweight laptops out there. But that’s just one of the possible uses for it.

Nehalem’s successor, Westmere will be shrunk to 32nm and should be ready for release by 2009.

My thoughts

It looks like this will be a breakthrough in day-to-day computing. It [moderately] breaks with old - yet tried - conventions. If nothing else, it’s delightful to see this kind of technology sprout out of Intel, which has been killing AMD big time with its Dual Core technology. I’m curious to see how it’ll work out and will keep you posted.

Read ArsTechnica’s great overview of the Nehalem for more information.

Geek Speak Explained

FSB: Front Side Bus
The FSB is the transfer bus that carries information between the CPU and the Northbridge of the motherboard. [Wikipedia]
a die: rectangular fragment of a semiconductor wafer
cache: limited, high-performing memory that is placed close to the processor
DDR3: DDR3 SDRAM
The improved reincarnation of its predecessor DDR2, promising lower power consumption (by 17%) and higher bandwidth. DDR3 is dimensionally identical to DDR2, except for the placement notch, since DDR2 and DDR3 modules are not interchangeable.

‘Intel processor and soap bar’ image courtesy of Flickr user ‘plataforma‘. This photo is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.
‘Nehalem processor illustration’ image courtesy of ArsTechnica.com.

April 1st: Google loves jokes

Ace — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:49:50 +0000

Google has a history of loving pranks and especially April Fools’ Day.
Yep, today’s that day.

For a full listing of all of Google’s jokes, visit the Google Operating System Blog.

iGoogle from right to left

Today, I saw my iGoogle homepage shift everything to the right.

Gmail Custom Time

Gmail Custom Time is a feature in Gmail which lets you set how recipients of your mails will see the datestamp. Dates in the past will also be reflected in the recipients’ inbox. And older message will appear lower in the list than newer ones, making your friends believe they’ve just forgotten about your message, instead of you being late.

The catch is that you can’t set dates back before April 1st, 2004, Gmail’s launch-date.

Tagline: “Be on time. Every time”.

Every time, this time, means you can use the option up to 10 times before it disappears.

gDay

Google Australia gDay, a feature that lets you search the web of tomorrow today. It uses a special technique to forecast what websites will like look like and which content they’ll deliver.

Virgle: The First Permanent Human Colony on Mars

Vigle is a contraction of Virgin Airlines and Google and is a company that will make the first human settlement on Mars, announced by Google’s Main Blog. Here’s the video announcement:

Apart from it not being very believable, it also shows signs of bad acting. But who cares.

New Google Docs Option

The file menu on Google Docs now has a new entry, called ‘Create a new airplane’. It renders an image of an airplane. Well, sort of. It still needs to be folder and that task is up to you.

Happy April Fools’ Day everyone!

Free File: Active@ ISO Burner

Ace — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:13:15 +0000

Active@ ISO Burner is a freeware application that does exactly one thing: burn ISO-images to disc. This app is great for people who don’t often use their burner and don’t feel like purchasing a whole Nero-suite or something similar. It will burn images to CDs and DVDs alike.

Additionally, command line is supported in order to enable automation.

If you insert a used re-writeable disc, it will automatically be erased (Quick Erase). Secure erasing is also possible using the free Active@ CD/DVD Eraser. ‘Secure’ in the sense that every sector on the surface will be overwritten with a neutral pattern, whereas ‘Quick Erase’ only modifies to file table to make whole disc seem empty (the actual data remains).

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Get both freeware applications at NTFS.com.

Updated: Audiobook Recommendations

Ace — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:43:46 +0000

I’ve finally gotten to updating the ‘Audiobook Recommendations’ section and added several books I’ve read by now, along with shiny new ratings. Check out my ‘Audiobook Recommendations‘ page for the following reviews and ratings:

‘Duma Key’ by Stephen King
First Impression Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Narration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
‘A home at the end of the world’ by Michael Cunningham
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
‘Angela’s Ashes’ by Frank McCourt
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
‘The Green Mile’ by Stephen King
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
‘Carrie’ by Stephen King
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
‘The Exorcist’ by William Peter Blatty
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
‘I am Legend’ by Richard Matheson
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

To crack 17-character AES password: 100 years and 1 billion dollars

Ace — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:45:35 +0000

In my previous ‘Free File’ article, I briefly reviewed the open-source compression-utility 7-Zip. Like most other archiving tools, 7-Zip is also capable of encrypting your files. To do this, it utilizes industry standard AES-256 encryption (a.k.a. Rijn Dael) and recommends a password strength of 10 characters or more. The Help-function in 7-Zip has a nice illustration of what it would take to crack a secure AES password.

In accomplish this, one would need:

cesspools of time
a processor that can check 10 passwords per second
to check 10 billion passwords per second, a budget of at least 1 billion dollars

To illustrate the importance of adequate password length, here’s a comparative table:

Password Length	Single User Attack	Organization Attack
1	2 s	1 s
2	1 min	1 s
3	30 min	1 s
4	12 hours	1 s
5	14 days	1 s
6	1 year	1 s
7	10 years	1 s
8	19 years	20 s
9	26 years	9 min
10	37 years	4 hours
11	46 years	4 days
12	55 years	4 months
14	64 years	4 years
15	82 years	22 years
16	91 years	31 years
17	100 years	40 years

Ace on Tech

The Ballad of ‘Oklahomo’ Rep. Sally Kern

Related Video

Oklahoma State Representative: "homosexuality is destroying this nation, death knell for this country"…

Become a Magician with iPhone

Click-Wheel Interface Coming to Windows 7?

Finally a Fast PDF Reader: Foxit

Breaking News Section Fixed

Firefox 3 and 3.1 Coming Soon

Performance boost

Enhancements

Protecting the young’uns

Firefox 3.1 in the running

Get the RC

Scheduled Downtime

Intel’s New Nehalem Microarchitecture

Not CPU, it’s SoCs

Integrated graphics, greener

My thoughts

Geek Speak Explained

April 1st: Google loves jokes

iGoogle from right to left

Gmail Custom Time

gDay

Virgle: The First Permanent Human Colony on Mars

New Google Docs Option

Free File: Active@ ISO Burner

Updated: Audiobook Recommendations

To crack 17-character AES password: 100 years and 1 billion dollars