Tag: News

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Private Security Drones

Send In The Drones
Send In The Drones

They are coming in 2014, according to this. Just imagine what it will be like walking out of the mall to your car, looking up to see a drone checking you out. And you know that sooner or later they will be outfitted with tasers. This is the impending wave of the future.

I look forward to seeing what types of countermeasures will be developed. Could it be something as simple as a TV-B-Gone (which, as I recently learned, is a great gift for 7 and 9 year-old boys)? Or would it need to be something more complex such as a hand-held Electromagnetic Pulse Generator? (I know what I’m asking for next birthday).

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UFO Sighting: Orange lights over Reynold’s Mountain in Asheville

Last night my buddy Mark and I were hanging out on my back deck when almost simultaneously we saw an orange lite rise up from behind a cluster of trees and start flying slowly through the air. It was soon followed by a second and third light.

The third light vanished quickly, but the other two flew at more or less the same speed in the same direction, though it seemed as if they varied their courses slightly. After about 20-30 seconds, they each faded away and were gone.

We sat there marveling over what we saw. I was quick enough to whip out my phone and shoot video, though all you can see on it is a couple of flickering orange lights on a black background.

About 3 minutes later, we watched another light come from the same place and do the same thing! This time I ran in to grab Rachael and she made it out in time to watch it with us. This light went off in the same direction and vanished about the same place over Reynold’s Mountain.

We heard no noises at all coming from the direction of the lights. They remained solid until they disappeared: no flashing lights, nothing similar to an aircraft.

Mark got on the Internet later and discovered someone else had see the same thing back in February:

http://unitedstatesufo.blogspot.com/2012/02/orange-lights-spotted-coming-over.html

Exact same description, exact same location. A little more Google revealed that others witnessed the same types of lights in other places around the world over the last week hours or so. The following articles describe very similar behavior of orange lights. The included videos and photos show exactly what we saw last night.

June 6 in Apple Valley, California
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981380359

May 29 in Michigan
http://www.openminds.tv/ufos-over-muskegon-lake-in-michigan-944/

May 30 in Guelph Canada
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/734595–spray-of-red-lights-over-guelph-puzzles-onlookers

May 30 in Lincoln, NE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQbZvAID8wI

May 27 in Plymouth, Mass
http://www.wickedlocal.com/plymouth/news/x624613747/UFO-sightings-in-Plymouth

May 22 in Blenhein, New Zealand
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/6962610/Scratching-heads-over-drifting-lights

Ottowa on May 5
http://www.examiner.com/article/ufo-ottawa-witness-reports-huge-orange-big-ball

April 8 in Sacramento
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx0q2FfgISk

 

If you have seen anything like this, I’d love to know!

 

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The Geekamongus Discussion Forum is Open

We’ve set up a shiny new discussion board here on the Geekamongus site. Come join us for professional shop talk related to a wide array of subjecmatter. From infosec to web development discussions, we can accommodate it all.

And uh, yes, this is the first post of 2012. Kinda lame, I know, but we are busy keeping things running for people!

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Stopping SOPA by Appealing to Your Mom

The whole anti-SOPA saga has been hindered by the fact that it’s hard to understand the issues unless you are a geek. For that matter, the whole SOPA sags is an issue because it was written by people who clearly don’t understand its ramifications, and are not geeks.

A brilliant idea was born on Reddit which takes the issue and makes it something easier to get the gist of, and in a way that many people will help to perpetuate: the email chain letter.  Here, complete with spelling and grammar errors, is what you can copy and paste into an email. Send it to your mom and ask her to send it to everyone in her email list.

ATTENTION!!!!! A NEW BILL BEING PASSED BY CONGRESS THREATENS TO REMOVE FACEBOOK!!! THIS DOESN’T MEAN NO MORE FACEBOOK, IT MEANS THE END OF YOUTUBE, GOOGLE, YAHOO NEWS, AND MANY MANY MORE!!!! THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BILL THAT CAN’T BE PASSED BY THE GOVERNMENT BY ANY MEANS NECESSERY!!!!!

This scary new bill is called SOPA will censor the internet! This will cause massive damage to what makes the internet so great for everyone! Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo, basically the whole internet is upset that Congress would do something like this! This threatens our first amendment rights and MUST BE STOPPED!!!

If you think this doesn’t matter, than think about this. The internet belongs to the people and is a great way to get across the message of the almighty! As you and I both know, there are way too many athiests in power right now and I’m sure they would love nothing more than to stop people from spearding the message of GOD! If your a Christian, please stand up for what is right and pray with your family and inform everyone you know and pray with them to that this bill does not make it past Congress! It would not only do great damage to help the spreading of the message of GOD, Jesus and the holy spirit it would hinder all kinds of free speech as well!!!

So as you can see SOPA will basically kill the internet!!! Please stand up for your first amendment rights and inform everyone you know!!!! Call your repersentatives and tell them to say NO!!! America is the land of the free and that includes the internet!!!!

Spread the word, stop SOPA!

 

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Our Priorities Are Totally Wrong

Limewire, the file sharing service thousands of people have used for trading music illegally (and legally), is on the hook for over $1 billion.  BP is on the hook for $69 million for what looks to be the largest man-made catastrophe the Earth has ever seen (aside from The Backstreet Boys).

“The amount of statutory damages awarded in this case easily could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars (if not over a billion dollars),” the RIAA wrote to Wood, in seeking a court order to freeze LimeWire’s assets (.pdf). The Napster case eventually settled for more than $300 million.”

How did this happen?

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Defective by Design

After reading yesterday’s announcement from Apple regarding the iPad, then browsing their site while drooling over the specs, I decided I would try and get one when they become available.  I have become so accustomed to my iPhone 3Gs that I can’t imagine having a bigger extension of that for use around the house or while travelling.

But then, I started reading about all the Digital Restrictions Management that gets bundled with the product(s), and really started questioning my ideals. Being a proponent of the free and open source software movement, I am all about not being restricted to do what I want with devices and software I purchase. The sad fact of the matter is that everything Apple does works against that.

The people over at DefectiveByDesign.org lays it all out pretty well, which further convinced me that I have been duped by vendor lock-in, with restrictions on everything I can do with my devices. This sucks, and it is something I hope all of you think about and question. While the gadget lust is still there, I am feeling conflict from my true geek side, which tells me not to waste my money on something that is, in effect, defective by design.

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What Your Internet Plan Will Look Like Without Net Neutrality

If Senator John McCain has way by defeating the FCC’s move to support Net Neutrality with his “Internet Freedom Act“, this is what your Internet plan options could easily look like:

net

Say “goodbye” to experiencing the World Wide Web as you know it, and say “hello” to experiencing it as you do your cable TV, with restrictions on what you get unless you want to pay more, and unless the content providers pay more to be listed there.

As usual, the notion that a “government takeover” and a “marxist plot” are being bantered around to generate support for McCain’s bill through fear and ignorance. It goes without saying that McCain was the biggest beneficiary of  telco/ISP money in 2008, to the tune of $894,379.

Picture courtesy of some quink at Reddit.  Click the pic for the full-size image.

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