APOD: 2006 August 22 - A Smoke Angel from Airplane Flares
Today’s NASA APOD photo is either of a smoke angel or more proof of the flying spaghetti monster. Take a look and make up your own mind.
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August 2006
Monthly Archive
Tue 22 Aug 2006
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day- FFSM
Posted by shaun under astronomy , fsm , pastafarian , scienceNo Comments
Tue 22 Aug 2006
Dark Matter Exists | Cosmic Variance
This is a really impressive article about how the existance of dark matter has now been proven. Infact if your brain parses the pictures and explanations better than mine you will even see it for yourself. Excuse me while I break in into Monty Python’s Galaxy song for a while …
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Tue 22 Aug 2006
AOL chief technology officer resigns: sources | Entertainment | Industry | Reuters.com
Posted by shaun under aol , opinionNo Comments
AOL chief technology officer resigns: sources | Entertainment | Industry | Reuters.com
AOL’s CTO has resigned (think pushed) taking a couple of underlings with her. This is the first published damage caused by the AOL search data being released, but it wont be the last.
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Sat 19 Aug 2006
AOL data, will it costs lives?
Posted by shaun under aol , computers , depression , health , opinion , search , suicide , thinking , tragedy , youthNo Comments
A couple of posta ago, I pointed to an online search site where anyone can look at random AOL user’s searches. This data will be quite useful to researches, private investiators, the police and just about anyone who could gain from intimate knowledge on peoples private lives. I can see huge issues with the easy availability of this data, including what I consider is probably the scariest and that is I think people are going to die because of it. Seriously.
Just a minute ago I played witht the random search tool wondering just how hard it would be to identify a user. Turns out it is way too easy. I don’t wont to put any details here (I think this guy is going to have enough problems as it is) but the particular record I looked at was an American minor (under 18), who asks the AOL search engine some very personal questions. He also searches for his name and his school. There is no doubt that a complete ID can quickly be made and due to the private nature of his searches I think that the next time he looks online for his name the poor young bloke will have a devastating realisation that his private life is now out there for all (including his friends, enemies, school mates, etc) to see.
There are around 600,000 possible stories like this in the AOL data and I think that if this young man or 1000’s like him are in anyway depressed, then this may have them thinking of suicide. AOL have apologised for releasing this data, but I think that they should in some way be held accountable for the likely devastation they are going to cause and I seriously believe young lives are at risk.
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Sat 19 Aug 2006
Undeniable proof of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Posted by shaun under cool , pastafarianNo Comments
Many Australian’s sated they were Pastafarian on the recent Australian Census. Apparently His Noodley Goodess was pleased and showed up. The above link shows a very nice likeness flying around Carolina in May. I picked this up from Boing Boing.
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Sat 19 Aug 2006
AOL data search site
Posted by shaun under aol , computers , cool , google , idiots , wtfNo Comments
Recently AOL decided it would be a good idea to release search data from their customers for research purposes. Natualrally this is a stupid idea, as it is quite easy to decifer enough details from many of these “anonymous” records to identify people. This has already been done, but if you want to have a look through the data and even search it then http://www.dontdelete.com makes that easy for you. There is even a random search button which as they say can give you hours of entertainment.
Be careful what you look at though. The list of URL’s from the 4th person I looked/ laughed at was decidedly dodgy.
One interesting little snippet is that the number one search term on AOL search is “google”- now that’s funny.
have fun
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Sat 19 Aug 2006
OneAndOneIs2 - Why doesn’t Linux need defragmenting?
Posted by shaun under computers , freebsd , linuxNo Comments
OneAndOneIs2 - Why doesn’t Linux need defragmenting?
Why don’t hard drives on linux/ bsd systems require defragmenting? Click the link for a really good explanation.
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Fri 18 Aug 2006
I just received notice of this years medical. I am currently booked in for September 6th at 2pm. The fitness test should be a matter of days afterwards, so it is time to get serious about my fitness level and weight. I weighed myself this morning and averaged at 103.7kg. I am going to try for a goal of 95kg for the medical, but will be happy if I get under 100kg. I will post daily weights and excercise on here for motivation.
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Fri 18 Aug 2006
traineo | Weight Loss Community
Traineo is a very interesting web 2.0 application (ajax) designed to help people lose weight. I noticed it this morning on digg.com. There are other similar applications out there, but this one seems simple and not as cluttered. Worth looking at.
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Tue 8 Aug 2006
SCO stocks are up a little today after a deluge of press releases of no content to gullible people. I have added a stock ticker and SCO news module over on the sidebar. I will take it down if it causes any issues, but watching the demise of this company is interesting to many people.
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