You would not believe this…

So on the way from from school on the bus I was listening to music and not paying attention to anything. As we were stopping at one of the bus stops a girl in the back started screaming. I looked back and saw her pointing out the window and I followed her stare. Out in an unfenced yard were three guys. Two of them standing one of them was on the ground bloody. The taller of the two men had a baseball bat and was about ready to smash it into the downed man’s head again. When the mean realized a whole busload of people was looking at them. As the bus driver radioed in the 911 call the man who had been doing anything took a pistol out of his pocket and shot the guy in the head. At this point the whole bus was in shock and glued to the morbid scene. The two men got into a car and sped off. When I cam home I was visibly shaken and I told me roommate what I had just seen. she got scared and said, “You’re movin’ with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air” I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror if anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought, “NAW FORGET IT YO HOME TO BEL AIR!” I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cab, “YO HOME SMELL YA LATA!” I looked at my kingdom I was finally there to sit on my throne as the prince of Bel Air

Usain Bolt on Nutrition

So, unless you are from Chilliwack (aka retarded) then you know of Usain Bolt. If you don’t, he is the man who won the 100m dash at the Bejing Olympics in 2008 and set the new world record at 9.69 seconds.

When asked what he did the day of his race (where he won gold) he responded:

“I never had breakfast, I woke up around eleven, I watched television and then I had some [chicken] nuggets for lunch. I went back to my room, I slept for two hours, I went back for some more nuggets and came to the track.”

It makes me laugh because that is probably the worst thing you can do before a race. But it seemed to have worked. Maybe McDonalds really is good for you.

Call to Arms

So in my Special Topics in Cybercrime class the majority of our marks come form writing a paper on anything we want relating to Cybercrime and presenting a presentation on it. A number of topics we were suggested we could do are as follows:

1. How has computer technology changed the face of terrorism? For example, what are the different methods of online communication used by terrorist groups? What challenges and security threats do these methods pose for law enforcement officials and members of society? What are the implications for the future?
2. Explain the different motivations of hackers. How do contemporary hackers differ from their predecessors? What, for example, are the characteristics of juvenile hackers and how are they different from other hackers? Alternatively, you might consider the similarities and differences between ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’ hackers.
3. Compare and contrast the different motivations behind those who commit ‘hactivism’ and those who carry out terrorism-related activities online. Should these individuals be treated the same by policy-makers and law enforcement officials? Should they be viewed the same by members of the public?
4. What are some of the methods of data destruction employed by malicious users? How are they carried out and what are the implications for individuals and society?
5. Compare and contrast two major categories of computer crime. Discuss the challenges that law enforcement officials face in dealing with these types of crime. How is Canada responding to these threats? How might we improve?
6. It has been said that it is difficult to estimate the true cost of identity theft. Discuss why this is true in the case of both individuals and private corporations. How might this problem be addressed by policy-makers and others?
7. Electronic networks are new manifestations of social space. There is a protean quality to cyberspace, or a sense of physical as well as conceptual changeability. Has this disembodied space lead to the emergence of new security threats? You might consider, for example, anonymity and identity-alteration in the context of online gaming communities or, alternatively, the notion of physical as well as conceptual mutability in the context of teenage cyber-bullying incidents. In particular, think about the loss of control over the self and the desire for domination, subjugation and control.

Now I know that a lot of you reading this actually know a bit about computers and the interwebs, so I am sure some of you might have some good ideas for a paper, hence what I am asking here.

I was thinking possibly writing about virtual economics (in WOW, Everquest, Second Life) and real crimes associated with them. Maybe Chinese Gold Farmers. Any other suggestions?

50 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year

I found this cool list from AT&T:

1. Domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and use them to find food.

2. Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking.

3. High cholesterol levels in midlife are associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia later in life.

4. Analysis of Greenland ice samples shows Europe froze solid in less than 12 months 12,800 years ago, partly due to a slowdown of the Gulf Stream. Once triggered, the cold persisted for 1,300 years.

5. One mutated gene is the reason humans have language, and chimpanzees, our closest relative, do not.

6. Obesity in teenage girls may increase their risk of later developing multiple sclerosis.

7. A fossil skeleton of an Aardonyx celestae dinosaur discovered in South Africa appears to be the missing link between the earliest dinosaurs that walked on two legs and the large plant-eating sauropods that walked on all four.

8. Women who have undergone successful breast cancer treatment are more likely to experience a recurrence if they have dense breast tissue.

9. Babies pick up their parents’ accents from the womb, and infants are born crying in their native dialect. Researchers found that French newborns cry in a rising French accent, and German babies cry with a characteristic falling inflection.

10. Surfing the Internet may help delay dementia because it creates stimulation that exercises portions of the brain.

11. The oldest known silken spider webs, dating back 140 million years, were discovered in Sussex, England, preserved in amber. The webs were spun by spiders closely related to modern-day orb-web garden spiders.

12. Scientists have discovered how to scan brain activity and convert what people are seeing or remembering into crude video images.

13. Pumpkin skin contains a substance that inhibits growth of microbes that cause yeast infections.

14. Hormones that signal whether whales are pregnant, lactating or in the mood to mate have been extracted from whales’ lung mucus, captured by dangling nylon stockings from a pole over their blowholes as they surface to breathe. (This method could allow scientists to study whales without having to slaughter them.)

15. The higher a patient’s body-mass index, the less respect he or she gets from doctors.

16. The blue morpho butterfly, which lives in Central and South America, has tiny ears on its wings and can distinguish between high- and low-pitch sounds. The butterfly may use its ears to listen for nearby predatory birds.

17. The ochre starfish or sea star pumps itself up with cold seawater to lower its body temperature when exposed to the sun at low tide. It is equivalent to a human drinking 1.8 gallons of water before heading into the midday sun, scientists say.

18. The eyes of the mantis shrimp possess a feature that could make DVDs and CDs perform better. By emulating this structure, which displays color wavelengths at all ranges, developers could create a new category of optical devices.

19. The calmest place on Earth is on top of an icy plateau in Antarctica known as Ridge A, several hundred miles from the South Pole. It is so still that stars do not twinkle in the sky because there is no turbulence in the atmosphere to distort the light.

20. The thrill of driving a sports car makes the body produce more testosterone. The findings suggest a biological explanation for why some men buy a sports car when struck by a “midlife crisis.”

21. Remains discovered in China of a flying reptile named Darwinopterus could be a missing link between short-tailed pterodactyls and their huge, long-tailed descendants.

22. Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping arachnid from Central America, is the first known vegetarian spider. It eats nectar-filled leaf tips rather than other animals.

23. A massive, nearly invisible ring of ice and dust particles surrounds Saturn. The ring’s entire volume can hold 1 billion Earths.

24. A new chemical compound that mimics the body’s ability t o fight bacteria could be added to cleaning detergents to prevent bacterial infections in hospitals.

25. Seven new glow-in-the-dark mushroom species have been discovered, increasing the number of known luminescent fungi species from 64 to 71. The fungi, discovered in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico, glow constantly, emitting a bright, yellowish-green light.

26. Hormones in oral contraceptives might suppress a woman’s interest in masculine men and make boyish males more attractive to her.

27. Women who revealed about 40 percent of their skin attracted twice as many men as those who covered up. Any more than 40 percent and the signal changes from allure to one indicating general availability and future infidelity.

28. Communities of 850 species of previously undiscovered insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and other creatures were found living in underground water, caves and micro-caverns across Australia.

29. The human body emits a glow that is 1,000 times less than what our eyes can detect.

30. If you’re trying to attract a partner, an athletic body helps, but a good-looking face is more important.

31. Cockroaches hold their breath for five to seven minutes at a time through a respiratory system that delivers oxygen directly to cells from air-filled tubes. One reason they hold their breath may be to prevent their bodies from getting too much oxygen, which could be toxic to them.

32. Earth was bombarded in 2008 with high levels of solar energy at a time when the sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared.

33. Scientists have discovered female eggs in the genitalia of a third of all American male smallmouth bass and a fifth of their largemouth cousins. Female bass occasionally show signs of male testes in their reproductive organs.

34. Nearly all animals emit the same stench when they die, and have done so for more than 400 million years.

35. Previously unknown molecules called hydroxyl radicals are produced by nature and are believed to act as cleaning agents that scrub away toxic air pollution in Earth’s atmosphere.

36. A new species of giant rat was discovered in a remote rainforest in Papua New Guinea. At 32.2 inches from nose to tail and 3.3 pounds, it’s thought to be one of the largest rats ever found.

37. Differences in body odors produced by people who are more prone to insect bites show they have lower levels of fruity-smelling compounds in their sweat than those who are resistant to mosquitoes.

38. A chemical component in broccoli can protect the lining of arteries from blockage that leads to angina, heart attack and stroke.

39. The length, curl and texture of a dog’s fur are controlled by only three genes.

40. The speed of U.S Internet broadband lags far behind other industrial nations, including Japan, Finland, South Korea, France and Canada.

41. Polar bear skulls have shrunk 2 percent to 9 percent since the early 20th century. It’s the result, scientists theorize, of stress from pollution and melting habitat.

42. A mysterious disease that killed off more than a third of American honeybees in 2007-08 may have been caused in part by a virus.

43. A group of deep sea worms dubbed “green bombers” are capable of casting off appendages that glow a brilliant green once detached from their bodies. The tactic is believed to be used by the worms to confuse attackers.

44. A flesh-eating pitcher plant that grows more than 4 feet long can swallow and devour rats that are lured into its slipperlike mouth to drown or die of exhaustion before being slowly dissolved by digestive enzymes.

45. An orchid on the Chinese island of Hainan gets hornets to spread its pollen by producing an aroma identical to that made by bees under attack. The hornets feed on bee larvae, so when they get a whiff of the alarm pheromone, they head to the orchids figuring bees are inside.

46. More than 350 new animal species were discovered in the eastern Himalayas, including the world’s smallest deer and a flying frog.

47. The spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocyte. In the event of a serious health crisis, such as a heart attack, wound or infection, the spleen will disgorge them bloodstream to help defend the body.

48. The Amazon River is about 11 million years old and took its present shape about 2.4 million years ago.

49. A close relationship with a caregiver can give Alzheimer’s patients an edge in retaining brain function over time.

50. Watermelon is more efficient at rehydrating our bodies than drinking water. It contains 92 percent water and essential rehydration salts.

BC’s new dial-and-driving law.

So if you are from BC you should know that today the new law came into affect today which targets cell phones and and driving.

Basically changes to the motor vehicle act are:

• No operating or holding hand-held cellphones or other electronic devices.
• No sending or reading emails and/or texting (e.g., BlackBerry, PDA, cellphone).
• No operating or holding hand-held music or portable gaming devices (e.g., MP3 players, iPods).
• No manual programming or adjusting GPS systems, whether built into the vehicle or not, while driving. Settings must be programmed before driving.

What is still allowed is:

• Hands-free cellphones that are built in or securely fixed to the vehicle, and used by pressing a single button – once only – in order to activate a hands-free device for incoming or outgoing calls.
• Pre-programmed and voice-activated GPS devices.
• Two-way radios for industry (e.g., trucking, logging, oil and gas).
• Any of the above devices can be used if the vehicle is legally parked and not impeding traffic.
• Call 9-1-1 to report an emergency.

And if you have an N don’t even think about using your cellphone as that is not allowed at all.

But why this bugs me is because that means I can’t change my music on my iPod while driving. I asked an RCMP about this and he said would be hard for them to prove, which is a good thing. But it is still illegal so it will still bug me, but won’t stop me from doing it.

Lessons for Life from the Dalai Lama

This comes from a post on NSMB and is a few years old.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
   • Respect for self
   • Respect for others and
   • Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for
    each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Where I will be going 2010

Just a map of places I am pretty sure I will go to this year of 2010.

View Larger Map

Where I’ve Been – 2009 Edition

View Larger Map

Josh’s PHP Random Password Generator

When I was younger I used to have my users’ passwords generated by something like:

$password = "sitename".rand(1,999);

Now as you can guess this was not the most secure way to do it. So I tried something a bit more secure:

$password = "sitename".rand(1,999999);

Now it was unlikely the user would brute force trying to guess passwords. This time around I wanted something more secure. A google search of “PHP random generated passwords” lead me to many bloated functions like this one.

So I wrote this one, much cleaner in my opinion:


function password ($length) {
if ($length > 32) $length = 32;
if ($length < 1) $length = 1;
return substr(md5(uniqid(rand(), true)), rand(0,32-$length), $length);
}


The only downside to this I can see is that since it uses md5 it is limited to 32 characters. I am sure switching it up with sha1 would make it possible to have passwords of length 40.

Quesnel Day 3

Merry Christmas!

So I have finished my third day here in Quesnel, it is still cold as hell. It warmed up to a nice -8 today. Much better than the -15 high of yesterday. My parents need a fridge in their garage to keep food warm.

Besides playing with jQuery I haven’t done much. I haven’t found an erg in town but I did join Gold’s Gym for a week. That will keep me semi in shape, though I am not able to do my full two-a-days up here.

My dad and his police station they put together a full Christmas Dinner + Presents for two families up here who have been out of their luck this year. So I got to go with them and their convoy of police cars to deliver the presents. It was really fun.

I also learned how to make a vegetarian lasagne.