elventails's JumboTweets
- 42
- "Artwork has semantic character - it involves the possibility and necessity of interpreting the work: a theory of what it is about, and what the subject is." - Arthur Danto
- ping
## /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/nextly
####################################
server {
listen 80 default;
server_name shalaby.nextly.com ;
server_name_in_redirect off;
root /usr/local/marginize/mshalaby-nextly/current/public;
passenger_enabled on;
passenger_min_instances 4;
rails_env production;
rewrite ^/newadmin.*$ https://shalaby.nextly.com$request_uri? permanent;
location ~ ^/(assets|images|javascripts|stylesheets)/ {
gzip_static on;
expires max;
add_header Cache-Control public;
add_header Last-Modified "";
add_header ETag "";
break;
}
location = /favicon.ico {
expires max;
add_header Cache-Control public;
}
}
server {
listen 443;
root /usr/local/marginize/mshalaby-nextly/current/public;
passenger_enabled on;
#passenger_min_instances 2;
rails_env production;
ssl on;
ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/nextly.com.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/nextly.com.key.nopass;
}
## /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
######################################
user mshalaby;
worker_processes 1;
worker_rlimit_nofile 65536;
#error_log logs/error.log;
#error_log logs/error.log notice;
#error_log logs/error.log info;
#pid logs/nginx.pid;
events {
worker_connections 32768;
}
http {
#passenger_root /home/mshalaby/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p392-railsexpress/gems/passenger-4.0.5;
#passenger_ruby /home/mshalaby/.rvm/wrappers/ruby-1.9.3-p392-railsexpress/ruby;
#passenger_root /home/mshalaby/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p353/gems/passenger-4.0.53;
#passenger_ruby /home/mshalaby/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.0.0-p353/wrappers/ruby;
passenger_root /home/mshalaby/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.4/gems/passenger-4.0.53;
passenger_ruby /home/mshalaby/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.1.4/wrappers/ruby;
passenger_friendly_error_pages off;
## passenger_max_pool_size 162;
passenger_max_pool_size 38;
#passenger_use_global_queue off;
include mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
#log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
# '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
# '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
#access_log logs/access.log main;
sendfile on;
#tcp_nopush on;
#keepalive_timeout 0;
keepalive_timeout 65;
#gzip on;
include sites-enabled/*;
passenger_pre_start http://shalaby.nextly.com;
}
Supervisord Debian setup
#supervisord #debian #wheezy #setup
1. Install Supervisord on Debian wheezy
# apt-get install python-setuptools
# easy_install supervisor
# echo_supervisord_conf > /etc/supervisord.conf
2. Create an init script to start/stop supervisord
## SOF for /etc/init.d/supervisord
#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: supervisord
# Required-Start: $remote_fs
# Required-Stop: $remote_fs
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Example initscript
# Description: This file should be used to construct scripts to be
# placed in /etc/init.d.
### END INIT INFO
# Author: Dan MacKinlay <danielm@phm.gov.au>
# Based on instructions by Bertrand Mathieu
# http://zebert.blogspot.com/2009/05/installing-django-solr-varnish-and.html
# Do NOT "set -e"
# PATH should only include /usr/* if it runs after the mountnfs.sh script
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="Description of the service"
NAME=supervisord
DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/supervisord
DAEMON_ARGS=" -c /etc/supervisord.conf"
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh
# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
#
# Function that starts the daemon/service
#
do_start()
{
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been started
# 1 if daemon was already running
# 2 if daemon could not be started
start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
|| return 1
start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
$DAEMON_ARGS \
|| return 2
# Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
# to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
# on this one. As a last resort, sleep for some time.
}
#
# Function that stops the daemon/service
#
do_stop()
{
# Return
# 0 if daemon has been stopped
# 1 if daemon was already stopped
# 2 if daemon could not be stopped
# other if a failure occurred
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
RETVAL="$?"
[ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
# Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
# and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
# If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
# that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
# needed by services started subsequently. A last resort is to
# sleep for some time.
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
[ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
# Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
rm -f $PIDFILE
return "$RETVAL"
}
#
# Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
#
do_reload() {
#
# If the daemon can reload its configuration without
# restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
# then implement that here.
#
start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
return 0
}
case "$1" in
start)
[ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
do_start
case "$?" in
0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
esac
;;
stop)
[ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
do_stop
case "$?" in
0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2) [ "$VERBOSE" !=... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/58744Installing gearman + php extension on debian wheezy with PHP 5.4.x
#php 5.4.x #gearman #howto
Note:
Upgrading to PHP 5.4.x can give you the following gearman errors
(PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library ‘/usr/lib/php5/20100525/gearman.so’ – /usr/lib/php5/20100525/gearman.so: undefined symbol: gearman_job_error in Unknown on line 0).
You can fix that by manually upgrading to the latest gearmand server, these steps worked for me:
1. Remove any previous apt installations of gearman, e.g.
# apt-get remove gearman gearman-job-server
2. Grab the latest tarball from Launchpad:
# wget https://launchpad.net/gearmand/1.2/1.1.12/+download/gearmand-1.1.12.tar.gz
3. Install dependencies
# apt-get install libboost-program-options-dev libboost-all-dev libevent-dev cloog-ppl gperf uuid-dev
4. Build it!
./configure
./make
./make install
5. Add gearman user (limited priv) and start gearman server and check the version
# mkdir /var/log/gearman-job-server
# ldconfig
# gearman -d
# gearadmin --server-version
6. Add the init script
#!/bin/sh
# Gearman server and library
# Copyright (C) 2008 Brian Aker, Eric Day
# All rights reserved.
#
# Use and distribution licensed under the BSD license. See
# the COPYING file in this directory for full text.
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: gearman-job-server
# Required-Start: $network $remote_fs $syslog
# Required-Stop: $network $remote_fs $syslog
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start daemon at boot time
# Description: Enable gearman job server
### END INIT INFO
prefix=/usr/local
exec_prefix=${prefix}
NAME=gearmand
DAEMON=${exec_prefix}/sbin/gearmand
PIDDIR=/var/run/gearman
PIDFILE=${PIDDIR}/gearmand.pid
GEARMANUSER="root"
PARAMS=""
test -x ${DAEMON} || exit 0
. /lib/lsb/init-functions
test -f /etc/default/gearman-job-server && . /etc/default/gearman-job-server
start()
{
log_daemon_msg "Starting Gearman Server" "gearmand"
if ! test -d ${PIDDIR}
then
mkdir ${PIDDIR}
chown ${GEARMANUSER} ${PIDDIR}
fi
if start-stop-daemon \
--start \
--exec $DAEMON \
-- --pid-file=$PIDFILE \
--user=$GEARMANUSER \
--daemon \
--log-file=/var/log/gearman-job-server/gearman.log \
$PARAMS
then
log_end_msg 0
else
log_end_msg 1
log_warning_msg "Please take a look at the syslog"
exit 1
fi
}
stop()
{
log_daemon_msg "Stopping Gearman Server" "gearmand"
if start-stop-daemon \
--stop \
--oknodo \
--exec $DAEMON \
--pidfile $PIDFILE
then
log_end_msg 0
else
log_end_msg 1
exit 1
fi
}
status()
{
status_of_proc -p $PIDFILE $DAEMON $NAME && exit 0 || exit $?
}
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
status)
status
;;
restart|force-reload)
stop
start
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|force-reload|status}"
;;
esac
Extras:
6. Grab the PHP extension from PECL (don't forget to add extension=gearman.so in your php.ini)
# pecl install gearman
Raptor Suits!
#stanwinstonschool nice look at the behind the scenes of Jurassic Park's raptor suits!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAzQr3Ml0UIAttached Media
- Behind the scenes of Terminator 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhFXz6MxKAM
#terminator #stanwinstonschoolAttached Media
- #ue4 #updates #exciting
Tim Sweeney with great UE4.1 updates coming up next!
Here's the announcement email:
"
Unreal Engine 4.1 will be available to all subscribers late next week.
Visit this link to read about the major improvements coming – including official support for SteamOS/Linux, improved iOS/Android workflow, new game templates to help everyone get up to speed with UE4, and over 100 other improvements based on community feedback!
Unreal Engine subscribers have access to a large and growing base of free content. Since launch, we’ve released the Realistic Rendering and Effects Cave showcases which are available now. Additionally, the Elemental demo and all of its content will be available for free to all UE4 subscribers in the Marketplace with the release of 4.1.
You can update your subscription and other account information at unrealengine.com/dashboard. If you have any questions or feedback you’d like to share, please visit the forums or @UnrealEngine on Twitter. We’ll also host our next broadcast at Twitch.tv/UnrealEngine tomorrow at 2pm EDT.
Thank you for being a part of the Unreal Engine 4 community! As you can see at unrealengine.com, there are many exciting efforts in progress at Epic and throughout the Unreal community, and we look forward to the months ahead.
Tim Sweeney
Epic Games
" - #johncarmack #archive #.plan #jumbotweet
John Carmack's .plan Archive in one jumbotweet!
(Covers 1996 -> 2010)
This was grabbed from http://floodyberry.com/carmack/plan.html, so thanks for making it available!
-----------------------------------------
John Carmack's .plan for Feb 18, 1996
-----------------------------------------
* page flip crap
* stretch console
* faster swimming speed
* damage direction protocol
* armor color flash
* gib death
* grenade tweaking
* brightened alias models
* nail gun lag
* dedicated server quit at game end
+ scoreboard
+ optional full size
+ view centering key
+ vid mode 15 crap
+ change ammo box on sbar
+ allow "restart" after a program error
+ respawn blood trail?
+ -1 ammo value on rockets
+ light up characters
vsync on high framerates
-----------------------------------------
John Carmack's .plan for Feb 19, 1996
-----------------------------------------
* fixed vanished bmodels at startup
* fixed getting stuck problem
* fixed the sound out of range problem
* hack patched the dissapearing under water
+ remove look spring
+ fix radius damage
+ too many people on status bar
+ invis in water
+ multiple pain sounds started
+ shift jumps while in console
+ less blood time
+ gone armor icon
+ look up/down keyboard modifier
clamp velocity on respawn
clear damage flash on respawn
bad changeup
bob speed kept on restart
no puffs in sky volumes
id copyright seal
teleport screen warp
-----------------------------------------
John Carmack's .plan for Feb 20, 1996
-----------------------------------------
* rewrote sound packet communication
* fixed multiple pains from a single shotgun
* qcc -copy option for sounds and models
* fixed up pak file support
* removed .rc files
* screen size over status bar
+ monsters need to be pushed into teleporters
+ blue frag pieces
+ NaN impact time is a crasher
+ looking down on weapon bounces away from bottom
+ timing preventing attacks at startup
fix hardwired vid_uopdate
remove redundant death sounds
teleport warp
torches
cpuid?
monsterblock entity
multiple sky textures in a level
-----------------------------------------
John Carmack's .plan for Feb 21, 1996
-----------------------------------------
* frag bar
* start profile on late frame
* fixed relinking bug
* improved prediction bounding
* change weapon chooses supers first
* ammo pictures on status bar
* drop pain flash again and bound
* tweak armor and spike damages
+ don't pick up equal armor
+ ceiling doors don't cause damage
+ demons crash when jumping
+ monsters need to use bsp clipping
+ need to save memory...
+ Fatal error: NaN impact time from entity
+ change armor damage
+ drop weapons
+ face to face with nailgun does no damage
+ +pointfile from cmdline doesn't work
+ conglomerate hunk printing
+ shoot triggers
+ missing a Z update on rockets sometimes?
+ firing after net games
+ negative scores on frag bar and frag board
+ world backpack and armor model
+ weapon bounce down
+ center look key
+ check change levels in high res mode
show ammo counts in single player frag screen
radius damage should open secret doors
five point font on kills
rocket poke into walls
shoot open connected doors
gib bounce sound
-----------------------------------------
John Carmack's .plan for Feb 22, 1996
-----------------------------------------
* fix incorrectly updated origin bug
* added alias backpack and armor
* fixed weapons sticking into wall
* changed "connected to server" to "connected to map"
* fixed console
* armor skin numbers
* fixed "not shooting" bug
* changed sound back to origin based instead of entity based
+ swimming directions
+ quit scores are... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/57435 - #oculus #email (yes it had a typo in "joines" lol but who cares)
congrats again!
"Oculus Joines Facebook
We started Oculus with a vision of delivering incredible, affordable, and ubiquitous consumer virtual reality to the world. We’ve come a long way in the last 18 months: from foam core prototypes built in a garage to an incredible community of active and talented developers with more than 75,000 development kits ordered. In the process, we’ve defined what consumer virtual reality needs to be and what it’s going to require to deliver it.
A few months ago, Mark, Chris, and Cory from the Facebook team came down to visit our office, see the latest demos, and discuss how we could work together to bring our vision to millions of people. As we talked more, we discovered the two teams shared an even deeper vision of creating a new platform for interaction that allows billions of people to connect in a way never before possible.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve joined forces with Facebook to create the best virtual reality platform in the world.
At first glance, it might not seem obvious why Oculus is partnering with Facebook, a company focused on connecting people, investing in internet access for the world and pushing an open computing platform. But when you consider it more carefully, we’re culturally aligned with a focus on innovating and hiring the best and brightest; we believe communication drives new platforms; we want to contribute to a more open, connected world; and we both see virtual reality as the next step.
Most important, Facebook understands the potential for VR. Mark and his team share our vision for virtual reality’s potential to transform the way we learn, share, play, and communicate. Facebook is a company that believes that anything is possible with the right group of people, and we couldn’t agree more.
This partnership is one of the most important moments for virtual reality: it gives us the best shot at truly changing the world. It opens doors to new opportunities and partnerships, reduces risk on the manufacturing and work capital side, allows us to publish more made-for-VR content, and lets us focus on what we do best: solving hard engineering challenges and delivering the future of VR." - #debian #steam #dota2
# Steam on Debian Jessie
- Install steam from site:
wget http://media.steampowered.com/client/installer/steam.deb
All as root:
# dpkg -x steam.deb / (extracts packages in /etc, /lib, /usr)
# dpkg --add-architecture i386
# apt-get update
# apt-get -f install
# apt-get install libc6:i386 libstdc++6:i386
# apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri:i386
# apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx:i386
- (Ignore jockey-common error - hit continue)
# sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mesa-diverted/i386-linux-gnu/libGL.so.1 /usr/lib
Now as your main user:
$ steam
# See
- http://www.legendiary.at/2013/05/30/install-steam-on-debian-jessie-testing/ - When Insults had Class!
These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.
The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor:
She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison."
He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."
Earl of Sandwich to John Wilkes: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."
"That depends, Sir," said John Wilkes, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."
"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -Winston Churchill
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Clarence Darrow
"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.
"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb
"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx.
Source: http://www.quora.com/Insults/What-are-some-great-one-line-insults
Author: Abhishek Rathi - 2^57,885,161 - 1 #largeprime #primetime
See http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/math/digit/m57885161/prime-c.html#middle - #ps3 #coolgames Two awesome games on the ps3 worth checking:
- unfinished swan
- retro city rampage - Interesting read on Psychedelics and Religious Experience
by Alan Watts
"
The Psychedelic Experience
slowing down of time
awareness of polarity
awareness of relativity
awareness of eternal energy
Opposition to Psychedelic Drugs
danger
escape from reality
Footnotes
(Originally appeared in the California Law Review, Vol. 56, No. 1, January 1968, pp. 74-85.) Copyright Alan Watts & California Law Review.
The experiences resulting from the use of psychedelic drugs are often described in religious terms. They are therefore of interest to those like myself who, in the tradition of William James,1 are concerned with the psychology of religion. For more than thirty years I have been studying the causes, the consequences, and the conditions of those peculiar states of consciousness in which the individual discovers himself to be one continuous process with God, with the Universe, with the Ground of Being, or whatever name he may use by cultural conditioning or personal preference for the ultimate and eternal reality. We have no satisfactory and definitive name for experiences of this kind. The terms "religious experience," "mystical experience," and "cosmic consciousness" are all too vague and comprehensive to denote that specific mode of consciousness which, to those who have known it, is as real and overwhelming as falling in love. This article describes such states of consciousness induced by psychedelic drugs, although they are virtually indistinguishable from genuine mystical experience. The article then discusses objections to the use of psychedelic drugs that arise mainly from the opposition between mystical values and the traditional religious and secular values of Western society.
The Psychedelic Experience
The idea of mystical experiences resulting from drug use is not readily accepted in Western societies. Western culture has, historically, a particular fascination with the value and virtue of man as an individual, self-determining, responsible ego, controlling himself and his world by the power of conscious effort and will. Nothing, then, could be more repugnant to this cultural tradition than the notion of spiritual or psychological growth through the use of drugs. A "drugged" person is by definition dimmed in consciousness, fogged in judgment, and deprived of will. But not all psychotropic (consciousness-changing) chemicals are narcotic and soporific, as are alcohol, opiates, and barbiturates. The effects of what are now called psychedelic (mind-manifesting) chemicals differ from those of alcohol as laughter differs from rage, or delight from depression. There is really no analogy between being "high" on LSD and "drunk" on bourbon. True, no one in either state should drive a car, but neither should one drive while reading a book, playing a violin, or making love. Certain creative activities and states of mind demand a concentration and devotion that are simply incompatible with piloting a death-dealing engine along a highway.
I myself have experimented with five of the principal psychedelics: LSD-25, mescaline, psilocybin, dimethyl-tryptamine (DMT), and cannabis. I have done so, as William James tried nitrous oxide, to see if they could help me in identifying what might be called the "essential" or "active" ingredients of the mystical experience. For almost all the classical literature on mysticism is vague, not only in describing the experience, but also in showing rational connections between the experience itself and the various traditional methods recommended to induce it: fasting, concentration, breathing exercises, prayers, incantations, and dances. A traditional master of Zen or Yoga, when asked why such-and-such practices lead or predispose one to the mystical experience, always responds, "This is the way my... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/12201 - "
In memory of Aaron Swartz
Posted on JANUARY 16, 2013 by Holden
Note: this post is in memory of Aaron Swartz. Aaron was a friend of and volunteer for GiveWell, and his family has recommended GiveWell for donations in his memory. We are deeply grateful for the help and support that Aaron provided during his lifetime, as well as for the outpouring of generosity that has come in the wake of his tragic death. I wrote this post to honor Aaron’s memory and provide context on his connection to GiveWell.
We take pride in our work, and we draw much of that pride not only from how many fans and supporters we have, but from who those fans and supporters are – their thoughtfulness, their intelligence, their values and passion to pursue those values. Aaron was one of the supporters who made us proudest.
We cold-emailed Aaron in May of 2011 because Elie and I had been greatly enjoying his blog, had noticed his interest in Peter Singer’s work, and thought he might be interested in GiveWell. We talked on the phone and had a great conversation. Within a week of our first phone call (before any of us had met him in person), Aaron had notified us of his intention to leave money to GiveWell in his will. He explained that he wanted to use his money to accomplish as much good as possible, and that as long as he was alive this meant funding projects of his own, but that if something unexpected happened he wanted the money to go to the next-best option.
The first time I actually met Aaron in person was at a talk I gave with Peter Singer at Princeton in October 2011. Aaron heard about the talk on Twitter at 3pm, and immediately got on a train from Boston, where he lived, to New Jersey. He arrived just a couple of minutes after the talk began, with no plan for getting home or where he was going to stay; we ended up talking for several hours after everyone else left.
When Aaron moved to New York in 2012, he and I became friends. Our relationship was mostly intellectual. He was interested in GiveWell, in monetary policy, in self-skepticism, in psychology (one of his last emails to me was a theory of why people procrastinate and how one might systematically help overcome it), and in a vast array of other topics. I found him brilliant and fascinating; he was astoundingly well-read and knowledgeable; he challenged many of my beliefs in compelling ways; he was simultaneously passionate and open-minded about his views. Whenever we met up – which usually consisted of no agenda other than walking and talking for several hours – I found myself racking my brain on how to make the best use of our time, because I felt I had so much to learn from him on so many topics. He was one of my favorite people to talk to.
I believe the root of Aaron’s breadth of interests – and the reason the two of us connected – was what I call “rational altruism.” When I talk to people about why they give where they give, the answer is usually that they’ve been touched by a particular cause, organization, story or person. By contrast, I believe in putting all the options on the table and deliberately, strategically, analytically narrowing them down on the basis of which will accomplish the most good – then continuing to constantly step back and reevaluate the choice. This was the approach Aaron favored for charitable giving; it was also the approach he favored for deciding how to invest his time and considerable talent. His interests naturally went wherever he saw opportunities to help the oppressed and disadvantaged. And he was constantly rethinking and revisiting his views, always ready to leave behind an area he had invested in and become known for in order to go after the new best opportunity.
That’s why he was interested in, and worked on, such a broad range of topics. Over... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/12154 - Highlights of "Montreal Earthquake 2012" (includes the news + art + best jokes so far) :P
## The News
3.9 9km NNW of Beloeil, Canada
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ld60036401#summary
http://www.seismescanada.rncan.gc.ca/index-fra.php?tpl_region=east
https://twitter.com/GCinYYC/status/255889127420084224/photo/1/large
## Insta-art
https://twitter.com/Prof_Peejay/status/255897632185135104/photo/1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqtzS47uBnQ&feature=plcp
## The Jokes
- RT: @S_sants: Quebec finally separated, we can go to bed now
- http://imgur.com/lAMVJ
- "We survived the Montreal 2012 Earthquake" t-shirts
- The Facebook group (over 3500 people liked already) https://t.co/t8fl5aBv
G'night & sleep tight!
Attached Media
- "Today TED was subject to a story so misleading it would be funny... except it successfully launched an aggressive online campaign against us.
The National Journal alleged we had censored a talk because we considered the issue of inequality "too hot to handle." The story ignited a firestorm of outrage on Reddit, Huffington Post and elsewhere. We were accused of being cowards. We were in the pay of our corporate partners. We were the despicable puppets of the Republican party.
Here's what actually happened.
At TED this year, an attendee pitched a 3-minute audience talk on inequality. The talk tapped into a really important and timely issue. But it framed the issue in a way that was explicitly partisan. And it included a number of arguments that were unconvincing, even to those of us who supported his overall stance. The audience at TED who heard it live (and who are often accused of being overly enthusiastic about left-leaning ideas) gave it, on average, mediocre ratings.
At TED we post one talk a day on our home page. We're drawing from a pool of 250+ that we record at our own conferences each year and up to 10,000 recorded at the various TEDx events around the world, not to mention our other conference partners. Our policy is to post only talks that are truly special. And we try to steer clear of talks that are bound to descend into the same dismal partisan head-butting people can find every day elsewhere in the media.
We discussed internally and ultimately told the speaker we did not plan to post. He did not react well. He had hired a PR firm to promote the talk to MoveOn and others, and the PR firm warned us that unless we posted he would go to the press and accuse us of censoring him. We again declined and this time I wrote him and tried gently to explain in detail why I thought his talk was flawed.
So he forwarded portions of the private emails to a reporter and the National Journal duly bit on the story. And it was picked up by various other outlets.
And a non-story about a talk not being chosen, because we believed we had better ones, somehow got turned into a scandal about censorship. Which is like saying that if I call the New York Times and they turn down my request to publish an op-ed by me, they're censoring me.
For the record, pretty much everyone at TED, including me, worries a great deal about the issue of rising inequality. We've carried talks on it in the past, like this one from Richard Wilkinson. We'd carry more in the future if someone can find a way of framing the issue that is convincing and avoids being needlessly partisan in tone.
Also, for the record, we have never sought advice from any of our advertisers on what we carry editorially. To anyone who knows how TED operates, or who has observed the noncommercial look and feel of the website, the notion that we would is laughable. We only care about one thing: finding the best speakers and the best ideas we can, and sharing them with the world. For free. I've devoted the rest of my life to doing this, and honestly, it's pretty disheartening to have motives and intentions taken to task so viciously by people who simply don't know the facts.
One takeaway for us is that we're considering at some point posting the full archive from future conferences (somewhere away from the home page). Perhaps this would draw the sting from the accusations of censorship. Here, for starters, is the talk concerned. You can judge for yourself...
No doubt it will now, ironically, get stupendous viewing numbers and spark a magnificent debate, and then the conspiracy theorists will say the whole thing was a set-up!
OK... thanks for listening. Over and out."
Source http://tedchris.posterous.com/131417405
"It is astounding how significantly one idea can shape a society and its policies. Consider this one.
If taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down.
This idea is an article of faith for republicans and seldom challenged by democrats and has shaped much of today's economic landscape.
But sometimes the ideas that we know to be true are dead wrong. For thousands of years people were sure that earth was at the center of the universe. It's not, and an astronomer who still believed that it was, would do some lousy astronomy.
In the same way, a policy maker who believed that the rich and businesses are "job creators" and therefore should not be taxed, would make equally bad policy.
I have started or helped start, dozens of businesses and initially hired lots of people. But if no one could have afforded to buy what we had to sell, my businesses would all have failed and all those jobs would have evaporated.
That's why I can say with confidence that rich people don't create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is a "circle of life" like feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.
So when businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it's a little like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it's the other way around.
Anyone who's ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a capitalists course of last resort, something we do only when increasing customer demand requires it. In this sense, calling ourselves job creators isn't just inaccurate, it's disingenuous.
That's why our current policies are so upside down. When you have a tax system in which most of the exemptions and the lowest rates benefit the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.
Since 1980 the share of income for the richest Americans has more than tripled while effective tax rates have declined by close to 50%.
If it were true that lower tax rates and more wealth for the wealthy would lead to more job creation, then today we would be drowning in jobs. And yet unemployment and under-employment is at record highs.
Another reason this idea is so wrong-headed is that there can never be enough superrich Americans to power a great economy. The annual earnings of people like me are hundreds, if not thousands, of times greater than those of the median American, but we don't buy hundreds or thousands of times more stuff. My family owns three cars, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and a few shirts a year, just like most American men. Like everyone else, we go out to eat with friends and family only occasionally.
I can't buy enough of anything to make up for the fact that millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans can't buy any new clothes or cars or enjoy any meals out. Or to make up for the decreasing consumption of the vast majority of American families that are barely squeaking by, buried by spiraling costs and trapped by stagnant or declining wages.
Here's an incredible fact. If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25% more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year. Where would the economy be if that were the case?
Significant privileges have come to capitalists like me for being perceived as "job creators" at the center of the economic universe, and the language and metaphors we use to defend the fairness of the current social and economic arrangements is telling. For instance, it is a small step from "job creator" to "The Creator". We... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/10691- 3.
1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209 7494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651 3282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102 7019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461 2847564823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432 6648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920 9628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841 4695194151160943305727036575959195309218611738193261179 3105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011 9491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798 6094370277053921717629317675238467481846766940513200056 8127145263560827785771342757789609173637178721468440901 2249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290 2196086403441815981362977477130996051870721134999999837 2978049951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522 3082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083 8142061717766914730359825349042875546873115956286388235 3787593751957781857780532171226806613001927876611195909 2164201989380952572010654858632788659361533818279682303 0195203530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151 5574857242454150695950829533116861727855889075098381754 6374649393192550604009277016711390098488240128583616035 6370766010471018194295559619894676783744944825537977472 6847104047534646208046684259069491293313677028989152104 7521620569660240580381501935112533824300355876402474964 7326391419927260426992279678235478163600934172164121992 4586315030286182974555706749838505494588586926995690927 2107975093029553211653449872027559602364806654991198818 3479775356636980742654252786255181841757467289097777279 3800081647060016145249192173217214772350141441973568548 1613611573525521334757418494684385233239073941433345477 6241686251898356948556209921922218427255025425688767179 0494601653466804988627232791786085784383827967976681454 1009538837863609506800642251252051173929848960841284886 2694560424196528502221066118630674427862203919494504712 3713786960956364371917287467764657573962413890865832645 9958133904780275900994657640789512694683983525957098258 2262052248940772671947826848260147699090264013639443745 5305068203496252451749399651431429809190659250937221696 4615157098583874105978859597729754989301617539284681382 6868386894277415599185592524595395943104997252468084598 7273644695848653836736222626099124608051243884390451244 1365497627807977156914359977001296160894416948685558484 0635342207222582848864815845602850601684273945226746767 8895252138522549954666727823986456596116354886230577456 4980355936345681743241125150760694794510965960940252288 7971089314566913686722874894056010150330861792868092087 4760917824938589009714909675985261365549781893129784821 6829989487226588048575640142704775551323796414515237462 3436454285844479526586782105114135473573952311342716610 2135969536231442952484937187110145765403590279934403742 0073105785390621983874478084784896833214457138687519435 0643021845319104848100537061468067491927819119793995206 1419663428754440643745123718192179998391015919561814675 1426912397489409071864942319615679452080951465502252316 0388193014209376213785595663893778708303906979207734672 2182562599661501421503068038447734549202605414665925201 4974428507325186660021324340881907104863317346496514539 0579626856100550810665879699816357473638405257145910289 7064140110971206280439039759515677157700420337869936007 2305587631763594218731251471205329281918261861258673215 7919841484882916447060957527069572209175671167229109816 9091528017350671274858322287183520935396572512108357915 1369882091444210067510334671103141267111369908658516398 3150197016515116851714376576183515565088490998985998238 7345528331635507647918535893226185489632132933089857064 2046752590709154814165498594616371802709819943099244889 5757128289059232332609729971208443357326548938239119325... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/10686 - "
Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab.
It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.
So I said, call me Trim Tab.
—Buckminster Fuller
" - "
Science The Endless Frontier
A Report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, July 1945
(United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1945)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Letter of Transmittal
President Roosevelt's Letter
Summary of the Report
1. Introduction:
Scientific Progress is Essential
Science is a Proper Concern of Government
Government Relations to Science - Past and Future
Freedom of Inquiry Must be Preserved
2. The War Against Disease:
In War
In Peace
Unsolved Problems
Broad and Basic Studies Needed
Coordinated Attack on Special Problems
Action is Necessary
3. Science and the Public Welfare:
Relation to National Security
Science and Jobs
The Importance of Basic Research
Centers of Basic Research
Research Within the Government
Industrial Research
International Exchange of Scientific Information
The Special Need for Federal Support
The Cost of a Program
4. Renewal of our Scientific Talent:
Nature of the Problem
A Note of Warning
The Wartime Deficit
Improve the Quality
Remove the Barriers
The Generation in Uniform Must Not be Lost
A Program
5. A Problem of Scientific Reconversion:
Effects of Mobilization of Science for War
Security Restrictions Should be Lifted Promptly
Need for Coordination
A Board to Control Release
Publication Should be Encouraged
6. The Means to the End:
New Responsibilities for Government
The Mechanism
Five Fundamentals
Military Research
National Research Foundation
I. Purposes
II. Members
III. Organizations
IV. Functions
V. Patent Policy
VI. Special Authority
VII. Budget
Action by Congress
Appendices
1. Committees Consulted
2. Report of the Medical Advisory Committee, Dr. W. W. Palmer, Chairman
3. Report of the Committee on Science and the Public Welfare, Dr. Isaiah Bowman, Chairman
4. Report of the Committee on Discovery and Development of Scientific Talent, Mr. Henry Allen Moe, Chairman
5. Report of the Committee on Publication of Scientific Information, Dr. Irvin Stewart, Chairman
___
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
1530 P Street, NW.
Washington 25, D.C.
JULY 25, 1945
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:
In a letter dated November 17, 1944, President Roosevelt requested my recommendations on the following points:
(1) What can be done, consistent with military security, and with the prior approval of the military authorities, to make known to the world as soon as possible the contributions which have been made during our war effort to scientific knowledge?
(2) With particular reference to the war of science against disease, what can be done now to organize a program for continuing in the future the work which has been done in medicine and related sciences?
(3) What can the Government do now and in the future to aid research activities by public and private organizations?
(4) Can an effective program be proposed for discovering and developing scientific talent in American youth so that the continuing future of scientific research in this country may be assured on a level comparable to what has been done during the war?
It is clear from President Roosevelt's letter that in speaking of science that he had in mind the natural sciences, including biology and medicine, and I have so interpreted his questions. Progress in other fields, such as the social sciences and the humanities, is likewise important; but the program for science presented in my report warrants immediate attention.
In seeking answers to President Roosevelt's questions I have had the assistance of distinguished committees specially qualified to advise in respect to these subjects. The committees have given these matters the serious attention they deserve; indeed, they have... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/10035 - "
If you're not paying for something,
you're not the customer; you're the product
being sold.
"
-- Andrew Lewis --
http://collusion.toolness.org/
- As We May Think
By VANNEVAR BUSH
As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Dr. Vannevar Bush has coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare. In this significant article he holds up an incentive for scientists when the fighting has ceased. He urges that men of science should then turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge. For years inventions have extended man's physical powers rather than the powers of his mind. Trip hammers that multiply the fists, microscopes that sharpen the eye, and engines of destruction and detection are new results, but not the end results, of modern science. Now, says Dr. Bush, instruments are at hand which, if properly developed, will give man access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages. The perfection of these pacific instruments should be the first objective of our scientists as they emerge from their war work. Like Emerson's famous address of 1837 on "The American Scholar," this paper by Dr. Bush calls for a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge. —THE EDITOR
This has not been a scientist's war; it has been a war in which all have had a part. The scientists, burying their old professional competition in the demand of a common cause, have shared greatly and learned much. It has been exhilarating to work in effective partnership. Now, for many, this appears to be approaching an end. What are the scientists to do next?
For the biologists, and particularly for the medical scientists, there can be little indecision, for their war has hardly required them to leave the old paths. Many indeed have been able to carry on their war research in their familiar peacetime laboratories. Their objectives remain much the same.
It is the physicists who have been thrown most violently off stride, who have left academic pursuits for the making of strange destructive gadgets, who have had to devise new methods for their unanticipated assignments. They have done their part on the devices that made it possible to turn back the enemy, have worked in combined effort with the physicists of our allies. They have felt within themselves the stir of achievement. They have been part of a great team. Now, as peace approaches, one asks where they will find objectives worthy of their best.
1
Of what lasting benefit has been man's use of science and of the new instruments which his research brought into existence? First, they have increased his control of his material environment. They have improved his food, his clothing, his shelter; they have increased his security and released him partly from the bondage of bare existence. They have given him increased knowledge of his own biological processes so that he has had a progressive freedom from disease and an increased span of life. They are illuminating the interactions of his physiological and psychological functions, giving the promise of an improved mental health.
Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.
There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/9166 - You, I mean - "We" are in a bubble.
"In the picture of eternal inflation, our observable universe resides inside a single bubble nucleated from an inflating false vacuum. Many of the theories giving rise to eternal inflation predict that we have causal access to collisions with other bubble universes, providing an opportunity to confront these theories with observation. We present the results from the first observational search for the effects of bubble collisions, using cosmic microwave background data from the WMAP satellite. Our search targets a generic set of properties associated with a bubble collision spacetime, which we describe in detail. We use a modular algorithm that is designed to avoid a posteriori selection effects, automatically picking out the most promising signals, performing a search for causal boundaries, and conducting a full Bayesian parameter estimation and model selection analysis. We outline each component of this algorithm, describing its response to simulated CMB skies with and without bubble collisions. Comparing the results for simulated bubble collisions to the results from an analysis of the WMAP 7-year data, we rule out bubble collisions over a range of parameter space. Our model selection results based on WMAP 7-year data do not warrant augmenting LCDM with bubble collisions. Data from the Planck satellite can be used to more definitively test the bubble collision hypothesis."
http://prd.aps.org/accepted/D/83079Q32M1c1810f37bf2af793911a2083788d205
:) - "I am rarely happier than when spending an entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand." (Douglas Adams)
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pa2.php.net Offshore Bank... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/7033 - "And we'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere. And to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys"
#hitchhickersguide #douglasadams #theansweris42 #QCD #LHPC #CERN - A few good Bin laden jokes relating to the current events,
#binladen #joke #humour
RT GhostOsama "Well this sucks...I accidentally enabled location on my tweets."
RT @jaybusbee: Bin laden's last words: "Pizza? I didn't order a-"
RT @jesus Sorry, you're at the wrong gate, Osama.
http://jmb.tw/189b
"Its amazing what the U.S can do when the Playstation Network is down"
- Amazon provides credit back to users because of outage #amazon #outage #credit #customerservice #sayingsorry
Here's the email I got:
Dear AWS Customer,
Starting at 12:47AM PDT on April 21st, there was a service disruption (for a period
of a few hours up to a few days) for Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS that primarily
involved a subset of the Amazon Elastic Block Store (“EBS”) volumes in a single
Availability Zone within our US East Region. You can read our detailed summary of
the event here:
http://aws.amazon.com/message/65648
We’ve identified that you had an attached EBS volume or a running RDS database
instance in the affected Availability Zone at the time of the disruption.
Regardless of whether your resources and application were impacted, we are going to
provide a 10 day credit (for the period 4/18-4/27) equal to 100% of your usage of
EBS Volumes, EC2 Instances and RDS database instances that were running in the
affected Availability Zone. This credit will be automatically applied to your April
bill, and you don’t need to do anything to receive it. You can see your service
credit by logging into your AWS Account Activity page after you receive your
upcoming billing statement.
Last, but certainly not least, we want to apologize. We know how critical the
services we provide are to our customers’ businesses and we will do everything we
can to learn from this event and use it to drive improvement across our services.
Sincerely,
The Amazon Web Services Team
This message was produced and distributed by Amazon Web Services, LLC, 410 Terry
Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109-5210
(AWS ID 303422508776) - Congrats to Chad Hurley and Steve Chen on the acquisition. #delicious #template #email #acquisition #business
---------------------------------------------------------------------
delicious
www.delicious.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Delicious User,
Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the
founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest
online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling
millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious
will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS.
To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your
bookmarks to AVOS. After a transition period and after your information is
transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy
policy.
Terms of Service
http://yahoo-email.com/a/tBNuMN2BPQv4VB8Z-BvNtBY15ts/delicious2
Privacy Policy
http://yahoo-email.com/a/tBNuMN2BPQv4VB8Z-BvNtBY15ts/delicious1
Yes, Move My Bookmarks
http://yahoo-email.com/a/tBNuMN2BPQv4VB8Z-BvNtBY15ts/delicious7
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Reasons to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks
- Continue uninterrupted use of Delicious.
- Keep your Delicious account and all your bookmarks.
- Enjoy the same look and feel of Delicious today plus future
product innovations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
What happens if you do not transfer your bookmarks
- Delicious in its current form will be available until
approximately July 2011.
- After that, you will no longer be able to use your existing
Delicious account and will not have access to your existing bookmarks
or account information.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
About AVOS
AVOS is a new Internet company founded by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen who,
in 2005, founded YouTube, the world's largest online video platform. Before
YouTube, Hurley and Chen were early employees at PayPal, a leading online
payment service that is now part of eBay. Delicious will become a part of
AVOS, based in San Mateo, California.
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Learn more about moving your bookmarks.
http://yahoo-email.com/a/tBNuMN2BPQv4VB8Z-BvNtBY15ts/delicious6
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and we are pleased to be able to transfer Delicious to an incredible new
owner -- you're in good hands.
The Yahoo! Delicious Team
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Go to Web Beacons:
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********************************************************************* - Sony Playstation's email to customers regarding compromised account #ps3 #hacked #sony #hack
Add PlayStation_Network@playstation-email.com to your address book
===================================
PlayStation(R)Network
===================================
Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:
We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011,
certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account
information was compromised. As a result of what we have found
to date, we have:
1) Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
2) Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and
complete investigation into what happened; and
3) Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network
infrastructure by rebuilding our system to provide you with greater
protection of your personal information.
We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as
we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently
as practicable.
Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we
believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information
that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address,
birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN
online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase
history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation
Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained.
If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same
data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained.
While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was
taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your
credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an
abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number
(excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.
For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email,
telephone and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive
information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email,
asking for your credit card number, social security number or other
personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information,
you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network
and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you
log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation
Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or
accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.
Under Massachusetts law, you have the right to obtain any police report
filed in regard to this incident. If you are the victim of identity theft,
you also have the right to file a police report and obtain a copy of it.
Massachusetts law also allows consumers to place a security freeze on their
credit reports. A security freeze prohibits a credit reporting agency from
releasing any information from a consumer's credit report without written
authorization. However, please be aware that placing a security freeze on
your credit report may delay, interfere with, or prevent the timely approval
of any requests you make for new loans, credit mortgages, employment, housing
or other services.
If you have been a victim of identity theft, and you provide the credit
reporting agency with a valid police report, it cannot charge you to place,
lift or remove a security freeze. In all other cases, a credit reporting
agency may charge you up to $5.00 each to... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/5563 - Wipe your hands with that paper towel and listen to this:
The History of Paper Towels!
"The history of paper towels may not include tales of hygienic derring-do or sanitizing feats of strength, but it does include a toilet paper delivery gone awry and a creative teacher with germ-laden students. With that sort of human drama as a backdrop, it remains a mystery as to why the history of paper towels hasn't been made into a blockbuster movie by now.
Seriously, the history of paper towels is one of serendipity stemming from a problem the size of a railroad car. The Scott Paper Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was already established as a leading producer of toilet tissue by 1907. In that year, the president of Scott Paper, Arthur Scott, received some distressing news from the railroad docks."
"An entire railroad car was filled with paper that was simply too thick to be used as toilet tissue, or for any other purpose for that matter. Scott pondered the fate of this unusable paper, then recalled a local newspaper article from 1879 about a Philadelphia teacher who issued sections of soft paper to her students as a substitute for the single cloth towel used communally in the school's bathroom. It was her hope that individual students use the paper one time and dispose of it properly.
Scott determined that the unusable paper in the railroad could be cut into individual sections and sold as an alternative to the cloth towels commonly used in households. The Scott Paper Company sold these paper towels under the brand name Sani-Towels® to emphasize their hygienic advantages over germ-filled cloth towels. The original paper towels were not an instant success with consumers, however. In fact, the familiar perforated rolls of paper towels would not be introduced on grocery store shelves until 1931."
"Most paper towels marketed today contain at least two layers of paper pressed together, but more absorbent brands may have three or more layers. The first paper towels were often bleached white to emphasize their clean and sanitary nature, but manufacturers eventually began to print distinctive patterns on the paper to improve their aesthetic appeal. Other improvements include adding more surface area through embossed designs and varying the length between perforations to allow users to choose the amount of paper toweling needed for a particular task."
Grabbed from the following source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-history-of-paper-towels.htm"
And from Wikipedia
"Paper towels were first made by Arthur Scott from a cartload of rejected toilet paper.[citation needed] He perforated them into small towel-size sheets and sold them as the first disposable paper towels. Scott was also the first to introduce the paper towel for kitchens, in 1931."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_towel) - Amazing article by user Issendai on liverjournal entitled "How to keep someone with you forever"
It really highlights some notorious schemes that could consciously/unconsciously used.
Some quotations from the article:
"
A sick system has four basic rules:
Rule 1: Keep them too busy to think. Thinking is dangerous. If people can stop and think about their situation logically, they might realize how crazy things are.
Rule 2: Keep them tired. Exhaustion is the perfect defense against any good thinking that might slip through. Fixing the system requires change, and change requires effort, and effort requires energy that just isn't there. No energy, and your lover's dangerous epiphany is converted into nothing but a couple of boring fights.
This is also a corollary to keeping them too busy to think. Of course you can't turn off anyone's thought processes completely—but you can keep them too tired to do any original thinking. The decision center in the brain tires out just like a muscle, and when it's exhausted, people start making certain predictable types of logic mistakes. Found a system based on those mistakes, and you're golden.
Rule 3: Keep them emotionally involved. Make them love you if you can, or if you're a company, foster a company culture of extreme loyalty. Otherwise, tie their success to yours, so if you do well, they do well, and if you fail, they fail. If you're working in an industry where failure isn't a possibility (the government, utilities), establish a status system where workers do better or worse based on seniority. (This also works in bad relationships if you're polyamorous.)
Also note that if you set up a system in which personal loyalty and devotion are proof of your lover's worthiness as a person, you can make people love you. Or at least think they love you. In fact, any combination of intermittent rewards plus too much exhaustion to consider other alternatives will induce people to think they love you, even if they hate you as well.
Rule 4: Reward intermittently. Intermittent gratification is the most addictive kind there is. If you know the lever will always produce a pellet, you'll push it only as often as you need a pellet. If you know it never produces a pellet, you'll stop pushing. But if the lever sometimes produces a pellet and sometimes doesn't, you'll keep pushing forever, even if you have more than enough pellets (because what if there's a dry run and you have no pellets at all?). It's the motivation behind gambling, collectible cards, most video games, the Internet itself, and relationships with crazy people.
"
Do read the full article here: http://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html
As everything this all depends on context, but its a good read, and these are situations one can fall into without even realizing.
Good luck not falling into these vicious cycles and spotting them early!
You live, and if you're still alive, you should learn!
http://issendai.livejournal.com/572510.html - Press Y for Yay
Press N for Nay - #quotes #programming #softwarearchitecture
By Brian Foote and Joseph Yoder
"If you think good architecture is expensive, try bad architecture."
- Export your bookmarks off of Delicious - its being dropped!
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/16/is-yahoo-shutting-down-del-icio-us/ - Yipppi!!!
- This is a pretty hilarious google maps thing:
1. Go to google maps. http://maps.google.com/
2. Go to "get directions."
3. Type Japan as the start location.
4. Type China as the end location.
5. Go to direction #43...
- Yep, today's 10/10/10 in case it changes your perspective on things.
#101010 #date #calendar #calendarpatterns - How to taste a whisky.
Awesome description by Richard Paterson feature in Wired and referenced below.
"
Despite what you may have learned in college or seen in John Wayne movies, whisky isn't supposed to be tossed down your throat like a cowboy's breakfast.
Instead, a fine whisky should be treated like a fine Cognac or Bordeaux, says Whyte & Mackay master blender Richard Paterson. "You don't slug it back in one go," he says, "you sip it and savor it."
Paterson is one of the most knowledgeable Scotch whisky scholars on the web. He tweets, podcasts and blogs regularly, and he's known among whisky connoisseurs as "The Nose" due to his impeccable gift for assessing blends, single malts and other liquors.
We picked Richard's brain for this guide to tasting whisky properly -- and that's whisky without the "e" to the Scots. Feel free to taste other kinds of whisk(e)y using these methods as well.
This article is part of a wiki anyone can edit. If you have advice to add about how to properly taste the aqua vitae, log in and contribute.
Contents
* 1 Choose a glass
* 2 Prepare the glass
* 3 Pour
* 4 Sniff
* 5 Add Water
* 6 Taste it
* 7 Finish it
Choose a glass
You'll need a proper glass for nosing and tasting the whisky. A sherry glass (also called a copita) is perfect. It has a stem and is tulip shaped -- if you can't find one, use something similar like a snifter. A wine glass will do, as long as it has a stem.
Don't use a highball, a shot glass or a so-called "whisky glass."
"You want to capture the whole aroma," says Paterson. "The shape of the glass, the way it's shaped like a tulip, will force the bouquet into one area -- your nostrils. How you approach the whisky will greatly affect how accurately you are able to assess it."
Prepare the glass
Pour a tiny bit of whisky into the room-temperature glass. Swirl and tilt the whisky around in every direction to coat the inside of the glass, then toss it out. It's important to add a swirl as you toss it.
"You want to make sure the lip of the glass is absolutely, totally clean," says Paterson.
Then grab hold at the bottom, at the stem. This prevents your body heat from transferring to the drink during tasting, and it's very important.
Pour
One ounce or so is enough for a taste. Remember, only hold onto the stem from now on.
Sniff
This is called "nosing" the whisky, and Paterson recommends you break it down into three steps.
Step 1: Stick your whole nose in the glass and gently sniff it. You'll get a big hit of alcohol vapor. Now pull it away and have a look at the whisky. Roll it around and take note of the color.
Step 2: Wait two seconds, then go back to it.
Step 3: Go back a third time. This time, bury your nose into the lip of the glass, and roll the glass from one nostril to the other.
"You need to get to know the whisky, communicate with it, learn about its character." Paterson says. "Look at it, talk to it, really try to experience it."
Add Water
Add a dash of distilled water and reduce the whisky down to about 35 percent alcohol. Adding the water opens it up and makes it more approachable.
Paterson says for younger whiskies (12 years or younger) water is always advisable. For whiskies 15 years and up, don't add water before you first taste it. But no matter what the age of the whisky is, if it still bites you when you take a sip, it's too strong for you and you should add water a little bit at a time.
Don't use sparkling water. Any good still water will do, but distilled water is best. Don't use ice, it will only mask the flavors.
Taste it
Take a small amount of whisky -- just a sip -- into your mouth and move it around.
Start by putting the whisky in the... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/3327 - (musing on #da-box.net)
* elventails loves wireshark
primepie: tcpdump is part of my daily life :P
elventails: taking a dump is part of my daily life
primepie: is it tcp? :P
elventails: depends on what I ate, that changes
all aspect of flow control, packet size, and route
- After having bought and built your myriad mp3 collection, dragged files and disks around, renamed and sorted them, you'll realize how much fun it is to listen to the radio :)
#radiorules #mp3 #music #radiokilledthemp3star - Quoting Fireblade from irc.freenode.net #da-box.net
"one day we'll all learn that google was an NSA project"
:)
#funny #humour #google #googleoverlord - Q: "What is the burning question on the mind of every dyslexic existentialist?"
A: "Is there a dog?"
#humour #dyslexia - The end of the world must be in 2012 since the domain Endoftheworld2013.com is still available :P
#2012 #voteforapocalypsereschedulefor2013 #apocalypseyeahyouwish #scareyourself - @octavianasr Hi Octavia!
This is to wish you a great time in Lebanon!
This is also to tell you about Jumbotweet.com!
Jumbotweet is a service that allows writing longer twitter messages.
Please consider using it for sharing any thoughts that deserve more than 140 characters to be expressed!
:)
Cheers and best of luck!! - RT @myzt
"The main idea of "Inception": if you run a VM inside a VM inside a VM inside a VM, everything will be very slow"
http://twitter.com/myzt/status/21301896997
Awesome take on the inception movie with a comparison to a virtual machines :) lol - Why can't you refrigerate hot foods immediately?
"Well...Jonah....how about that. So, in other words, we're doing it the way great grandma, grandma and mom did it because that's all we knew. So, I let perfectly good food go to waste last night because I was trying to wait for it to cool down and fell asleep only to wake up this morning to discover that I forgot to put my food away. I bet I won't let that happen again. By the way, it was really good chicken."
"Apparently that procedure (letting hot food cool to room temp first) came about when our home refrigerators were not run by forced air, cooling the cabinet. Back in the old days - there were cooling plates in the back of the fridge and the air slowly cooled to the temperature of the plates. This was slow and inefficient at cooling but it was the best we had at the time. The risk was that if you put hot food in the old refrigerator - it would warm up the entire cabinet including food already stored in there - raising it above the temperature danger zone for hours."
"But now - they work more like an air conditioner in a box - blowing air through cooling coils to actively chill the air and force it around the box. Plus it is thermostatically controlled - so the blower and compressor will run longer when it detects the refrigerator has warmed up.
There have been several articles about home experiments to test what happens if you put hot food into a cold refrigerator - and they all have said that the food already in there does not warm up.
So for me- I just cool things down to a point where they aren't steaming, I put them in small containers so that the inside cools down faster - and just stick it in the fridge."
Those answer are from from Yahoo answers:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100714132417AAu6KVL
What are your thoughts? - Lebanon fights to stay Green!
"clashes erupted after Israeli soldiers attempted to uproot a
tree on the Lebanese side of the fenced border."
#lebanon #ecowar
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/08/03/115593.html - Forget about mechanical turks, you can now use The Google prediction API (needs registration) which brings machine learning to Google's list of API offerings.
Current FAQ
"
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some possible applications of the Prediction API?
The Prediction API can be used in a variety of contexts. Application developers who want to predict new results from historic data can benefit from prediction capabilities. Example uses include user sentiment analysis, language identification, product recommendation, message routing, and fraud detection, among others.
What training data does the Prediction API support?
The Prediction API supports CSV formatted training data, up to 100M in size. Numeric or unstructured text can be sent as input features, and discrete categories (up to a few hundred different ones) can be provided as output labels.
What functionality is available to developers and customers?
* Interoperability with Google Storage for Developers.
* Discrete categories as output.
* Automatic selection from multiple machine learning methods.
* Offline/asynchronous training.
* Prediction from Google AppEngine, Apps Script (for example, Google Spreadsheets), embedded JavaScript, the command line, and internet connected desktop apps.
How accurate are the predictions?
The maxim "garbage in, garbage out" applies doubly for the Prediction API. We are continuously improving the quality of our predictions, but more data and cleaner data always triumphs over clever algorithms.
What does Google use predictive modeling for?
Google heavily uses predictive models for many tasks such as spam filtering, language identification, and objectionable content identification.
How long does training take?
Training time varies with the size of the training data, but testing has shown training times ranging from a few seconds to over an hour.
How long does prediction take?
Prediction can be performed in real-time, usually less than a second.
Can I download my model?
You cannot currently download your model.
What is the planned pricing structure?
We are launching the Prediction API as a preview to collect feedback from developers. Based on this feedback, we will be evaluating different pricing options.
Why are there no charges for this service?
Google has a long history of launching experimental APIs to collect user feedback and make improvements. In the future, we plan to launch a paid version of this API.
Who gets an invitation?
The goal of the preview period is to collect feedback from a diverse range of developers. Participants will be selected from existing users of Google developer services as well as those who sign up on the waiting list.
Are the invitations transferable?
No, invitations should be used by the developer requesting access to the system.
How soon will I get an account?
The amount of time it takes will depend on the number of sign-ups we receive and our development progress. If you do not receive an invitation during the preview period, we'll notify you once open sign-ups are available.
How do I request a feature?
Please share your request in our discussion forum and to our direct feedback form here. Please put "Feature Request" in the subject of your messages. We actively monitor the discussion forum and the feedback form, and will track feature requests as they come in.
How do I file a bug?
Please file your bug in our discussion forum and to our direct feedback form here. Please add "Bug" in the subject of your messages. We actively monitor both the discussion forum and the feedback form, and will investigate the issue.
"
http://code.google.com/apis/predict/ - The new magic trackpad from Apple is out.
Their trackpads kick ass, so this one has been highly anticipated for the desktops.
http://www.apple.com/magictrackpad/
- Oppenheimer in reference to the Trinity Test and "The Gadget":
A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita... "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_test
- Next week on Futurama:
"How do you human beings cope with mortality?"
-Fry: "Thanks to denial, I'm immortal"
^_^ - The funny thing with the Internet is that if you can't find something in two minutes searching with Google, you consider that's its not online..
- For those of you who really need
an iPhone 4 #iphone #blindmacaddiction #macfaith
http://ifail4.com/complain/2010/07/i-want-the-one-with-the-bigger-gbs/ - Stormy Monday in Montreal
Montreal Jazz fest living it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jCNXASjzMY&feature=fvwAttached Media
- crazy winds/storm #montreal #2012styleweather :)
- Virtualbox clonehd #vm #virtualbox #tips #errormessages
$ VBoxManage clonehd "./Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/foobar.vdi" ./a
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.6
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.
ERROR: Cannot register the hard disk '/Users/elventails/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/foobar.vdi' with UUID {be14e67b-c06c-4a06-b8e7-27b5cec7bbba} because a hard disk '/Users/elventails/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/foobar.vdi' with UUID {be14e67b-c06c-4a06-b8e7-27b5cec7bbba} already exists in the media registry ('/Users/elventails/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml')
Details: code NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057), component VirtualBox, interface IVirtualBox, callee nsISupports
Context: "OpenHardDisk(Bstr(szFilenameAbs), AccessMode_ReadWrite, false, Bstr(""), false, Bstr(""), srcDisk.asOutParam())" at line 630 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp
This is a misleading error message.
VBoxManage clonehd actually required the full paths to work.
So simply use:
VBoxManage clonehd /full/path/to/vditoclone.vdi /full/path/to/newcopy.vdi - Go Germany! #worldcup
- Steve Jobs Thoughts on Flash #apple #html5 #flashisdead
Thoughts on Flash
Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
First, there’s “Open”.
Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.
Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.
Second, there’s the “full web”.
Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/1916 - Summary of earthquake that hit the Northeastern seaboard.
Epicenter: Buckingham Quebec
Magnitude: 5.5
When: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 17:41:42 UTC
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010xwa7/us/index.html
Top Jokes so far:
@mark_story Earthquake caused by Quebec attempting escape from rest of Canada
@domcoballe Most fun place to experience quake? T&T Asian grocer. Everyone ran out screaming, I pretended Godzilla was after us.
@AndrewFstewart The earthquake triggered a tsunami in the #G20 fake lake.
@similar2me "What's that!! An earthquake?" "YES!! RUN!!!" "OMG, WAIT" *runs to the computer and writes on twitter* EARTHQUAAAAAAKE!!!
@jperras The propagation speed of the earthquake seems to be less than the tweets concerning it.
- "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."
That's my favorite quote from "Stephen Hawking on the presence of Aliens" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8642558.stm)
Another nice one:
"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans" - "Your wits have to be twice as sharp as your sword!"
One of the many secrets of Monkey Island :)
- Monitor water consumption levels to know how well a hockey game is going!
This is a nice blog/pic showing Edmonton's water utility usage (toilet flushing/tap water usage) comparing the graph of the Vancouver Olympic games' hockey finals day (Canada vs. US) against the graph of the previous day.
http://blog.canoe.ca/canoedossier/2010/03/09/portrait_of_a_nation_peeing - disappointed with @GuyKawasaki tweets - more like a spamvertising channel - it would be nice to differentiate between true identities on twitter vs. product marketing channels...
- @joelmoss @github nice thing though about the public email on github is that you can change the @ character in the email field to whatever you like, i.e. its not validated as an email address.
Not sure if this is intentional, but I hope it is since its very handy if the email is going to stay plain text since it helps a bit against spammers crawling the site for emails..
- @Github separate paid/free customer servers?
Good luck with drbd updates, hope you get hit with less downtimes since this is seriously affecting your image!
Below is an explanation of why github went down, from the Github blog announcement (http://github.com/blog)
" A Note on the Recent Outages
mojombo 4 Feb 2010
15 comments
Following three months of near 100% uptime, we’ve just been through three major outages in as many days. I wanted to take some time to detail the problems and what we intend to do to prevent similar downtime in the future.
Outage #1 (02/02/2010 9:55:09AM PST) was initiated by a load spike on one of our file servers (fs1a). When a file server stops responding to heartbeat, the slave server in the pair kills the master and takes over. In this case, the master was not killed quickly enough and the storage partitions did not migrate cleanly to the slave. Cleanup on the split-blain file server pair was delayed due to some inefficient DRBD configuration that we’ve been meaning to update. By rolling out improvements to the DRBD configuration, this type of problem should be prevented from happening in the future.
Outage #2 (02/03/2010 6:10:08PM PST) looked like a power outage at first, since so many machines were affected, but the root cause was the deployment of a faulty DRBD configuration update that propagated to all machines (courtesy of Puppet) and started causing pairs of machines to halt replication to prevent corruption caused by an invalid configuration file. Eventually the load balancer pair was affected and we could no longer even serve the Angry Unicorn page. The way that the servers went down, the number of servers that went down, and the length of time it takes to resync downed pairs resulted in a lengthy outage. There are several steps to preventing this kind of outage in the future. First and most obvious is to maintain tighter control and testing of proposed system-wide configuration changes. We also plan to deploy (well-tested) changes to the DRBD configuration that will reduce cleanup times and automate the startup process for downed machines. These changes will result in shorter recovery times in the event of single failovers and wider machine-level restarts.
Outage #3 (02/04/2010 2:37:08AM PST) was caused by massive load spikes across all five file servers. To prevent extended downtime we marked all file servers as offline (preventing them from going into failover) and looking for the cause of the load. After inspecting the HTTP logs, we identified a Yahoo! spider that was making thousands of requests but never waiting for responses. After banning the spider, the load returned to normal and we were able to bring the file servers back online. We are looking at our rate limiting strategy and will be making improvements over time to get the best performance for legitimate users and the best protection from anomalous behavior.
In order to execute the improvements to various infrastructure elements, we will be having scheduled maintenance windows at 10PM PST over the next week. Most of these changes will not require any downtime, but some of them may result in temporary unavailability of file server partitions. As we perform the maintenance, we’ll keep you updated via the GitHub Twitter account, so make sure to check there for the latest maintenance news.
We sincerely apologize for the recent problems and are working very hard to address each flaw. Stability is one of our biggest goals this year, and I look forward to making your GitHub experience as flawless as possible.
" - Github is down - and the thread on twitter of it being down is hilarious..
My favorite tweets so far include:
danej: kind of ironic that github being down completely kills so many people, considering *decentralization* is one of git's best features
brettsky: Never thought I would say this, but thank science for SourceForge; alt place for JUnit's javadocs while github is down.
senatorgrant: github is down. a hush falls over the Valley. #fb
scashin133: Please github come back to me. I got some pushing and pulling to do
thathoo: Github is down! Are you effing kidding me! - google has an impressive #transliteration service
http://www.google.com/transliterate/
is #yamli using it?
تحية ل فرقة يملي من جومبوتوييت - on github security:
'We know your code is extremely important to you and your business and we’re very protective of it. After all, GitHub’s code is hosted on GitHub, too!'
http://help.github.com/security/
- MIT project sikuli (http://www.sikuli.org) is bringing screenshot driven 'programming' to you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxDOlhysFcM&feature=player_embedded#
pretty interesting, based on jython (http://www.jython.org/)
Attached Media
- An Apple / Google face-off is heavily brewing in the news?
Google files to sell 5 million shares:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-22/google-s-founders-file-to-sell-5-million-shares-each-update1-.html
"Appleworld", or how to lock-in users in a blissful consumer paradise :)
http://seekingalpha.com/article/183630-steve-jobs-is-building-appleworld-and-google-s-running-scared
- Kindle: to start a fire - say good bye to books ladies and gents!
Fahrenheit 451 is being brought to you by the distributor of books - Amazon.
This fire though, will save the Rainforest :)
Kindle App Store on its way too: http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/01/amazon_to_open_kindle_app_store.html - What hackers and painters have in common is that they are makers.
Very nice article on the topic by Paul Graham that reviews a typical computer science education, questions the degree and its teaching approach and delves into the essence of hacking that is shared across makers.
http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html - A helpful mnemonic of concepts to keep associated with the concept of a goal
a SMART goal is
S pecific
M easurable
A ttainable
R ealistic
T imely
On that note, best of luck reaching your goals for 2010!
p.s: "Life's problems wouldn't be called "hurdles" if there wasn't a way to get over them"
p.p.s: have fun! - A few reasons why animals kill "their" young:
-lineage: males taking over leadership of a group. Killing existing young ones, promotes their own offspring.
-dominance: enforce dominance over submission group members
-hunger
-psychological stress (yeah, kids can be annoying)
-strategy: gain access to physical resources like food, nesting sites or space; to avoid caring for unrelated offspring; to bias the sex ratio of the litter
The above are quick notes based off of "http://en.allexperts.com/q/Wild-Animals-705/Animals-kill-young.htm" - A password on an Apache SSL certificate means that a restart of Apache or a cold boot of the system requires user intervention which outweighs the cost of not having the password.
On an existing certificate key file, you can remove the SSL certificate password by doing the following:
// backup your current key first
# openssl rsa -in domain.com.key -out domain.com.key.nopass
Now just replace domain.com.key with domain.com.key.nopass and restart Apache. - taking gaming, technology and produce art:
What's going on here is using codes e.g. QR codes read by camera on the cube to have them act as controllers (for shift/rotation), then the actual scene is projected onto a side of the cube or screen for visualization of the "game/art" - very nifty :)
http://julianoliver.com/levelhead
via @RamDawgThatLeftTwitter, @StringDot,
- you are what you eat?
no..
you are the digital information you consume..
you are what you tweet!
:)
- Apache and SSL certificates peculiarity:
When adding SSL based virtual hosts and doing an apache2ctl graceful (or reload), if you get hit with an:
Oops, no RSA or DSA server certificate found for 'whateveryourdomainhere.com:0'?!
Then try this :) do a full stop/start
i.e.
# /etc/init.d/apache2 stop;
# /etc/init.d/apache2 start;
Cheers,
- An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside us," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed." - Checked out a remote Git repository and not sure how to update your local refs not to list remotely deleted branches (in git br -r)?
"git remote prune <remote>" or "git remote update --prune" will drop remote tracking branches that have been deleted remotely (git fetch only create/updates refs) - Facebook easter egg:
"press up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Enter key, then 'magic' circles will appear each time you hit the left click" - Blitz writing short story attempt on the metro yesterday (10 minutes ride typing into iPhone)
Asphyxiation
You are in an abandoned school in a suburban part of Chernobyl Russia. The last this school had heard of children was more than 25 years ago. The accident had not happened then. The last day the main school bell rang and students of all ages poured out of the classrooms, through the main yard and to their homes was during the emergency evacuation.
It has been an echo of light, wind, and gradually insects and small critters since.
You are here revisiting what you fled from: uncontrollable and instant devastation.
It is noon. The empty classroom's windows let the cool breeze swindle itself into the room. The sun is high in the sky and draws an extended parallelogram onto a side wall and section of the room. This would have once been a light hitting a students table. Something a fellow student of yours or previous ones would have used to bounce off a metallic ruler onto other pupils or the blackboard for giggles.
You're standing tall in the center of these thoughts and memories.
When as if a deadly veil is drawn over you, you drop to your knees.
You ventured back here without knowing that the toxicity of this abandoned area has made it a candidate perimeter to test out weapons.
Four kilometers away, an experimental gas bomb had just been detonated by the military. They are conducting studies on improving a clean bomb that will keep infrastructure up while merely eliminating any living being within a specific radius.
You had no clue. You drove through the warning signs. They're just there to keep people and reporters away anyhow. You were living happily elsewhere, having moved on in life and were simply taking a week off to catch up on childhood memories.
Crouched, you faintly peak at the gray ceiling, pleading to the heavens to explain what is unfolding.
You breathe.
You manage to draw a breath of air in only to realize that you can't blow it back out.
You start to curl onto yourself, feeling the hardness of the cold classroom tiles against your knees as your body begins succumbing to it's own weight.
Your muscles and organs are shifting mode, they're scavenging for a breath of fresh air you can no longer deliver, they're squeezing any supply they have left before complete depletion.
Your vision of the room, the pouring light, the particles of dust floating around, the greyness of a quarter century ago is tunneling inwards into a darkness you do can no longer escape.
Your eyes shut as you collapse onto the floor.
Your remaining supply of oxygenated blood is being consumed by your last thoughts. In your mind, you look up to the sky and curse the heavens.
- "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"
- Easy way to boost energy levels and morale in company?
Keep a steady supply of Nutella available in the office kitchen!
- Too much love will kill you
if you can't make up your mind
torn between the lover
and the love you leave behind
your heading for disaster
because you never read the signs
too much love will kill you
everytime
:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKFEjZ98Q4s&feature=related
Thank you Queen!
don't be the victim of your crime.
Too much love will kill you
just as sure as none at all.Attached Media
- "I grew up in a college town, and one Halloween our doorbell rang and we opened the door expecting to see trickortreater—but what was in front of our open door—was another door! Like, a full-on wooden door, that had a sign that said “Please knock.” So we did, and the door swung open to reveal a bunch of college dudes dressed as really old grandmothers, curlers in their hair, etc, who proceeded to coo over our “costumes” and tell us we were “such cute trick or treaters!” One even pinched my cheek. Then THEY gave US candy, closed their door, picked it up and walked to the next house."
— np312 on MetaFilter
- Just witnessed an undercover cop arrest someone.
Guy was running towards me being chased by a person shouting "Stop! Police!" - guy trips right in front of me and cop has gun pointed on him within a second, hand cuffs him and calls on cell for backup.
It was all in French too.
"Arrete! Police! hausse Les mains! Hausse Les mains!"
Sunny day in Montreal; crime fighting is happening all around
you. - Roman Polanksi detained in Zurich on his way to collect a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival- the saga continues..
Interesting documentary to watch related to this is
called "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1157705/
- Mount of Linux export on Mac OS X failing? remember to use the "insecure" option in /etc/exports to allow for NFS clients that don't use a reserved port for NFS
- new skype is out on Mac - very nice features have finally made it in there - they help balance the ichat vs. skype conversation pretty well, mainly:
- the usual pushes to improve sound / video
- screen sharing (very practical with parents :P - don't think it includes controlling the other screen - just seeing)
- a skype credit based wifi feature which let's you connect to existing wifi networks; <-- this can be very interesting if the access points to cost ratio is high
Oh, and if you're in Canada, Skype has been out is finally downloadable in the app store
http://skype.com/download/skype/macosx/
Oof - that was a mouthful of Skype propaganda - but they've been doing great with their software, and I want to see it improve.
Cheers! - Watch an apple stored being robbed in 30 seconds -
the amazing part is the security guard showing up after the action (see cops arriving in the end in hollywood movies)
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Apple-Store-Robbed-in-30-Seconds-56776907.html - @hanishak congrats on the braces!! Get ready for some pain and lot's of soup initially! :)
- To quote Shakespeare on love:
"
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
" - Just watched District 9 - it is genuinely awesome :) It felt a lot like watching a nicely done anime; won't ruin any of the story for you - key point is that if you like sci-fi; you'll love this; it beyond my expectations, put JHB on the sci-fi map and was quite simply cool :) Enjoy!
- Spaced is an incredibly hilarious sitcom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced. It's a shame that its only 2 series, to quote wikipedia:
"It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent dropping of pop-culture references, and occasional displays of surrealism. Two series of seven episodes each were broadcast in 1999 and 2001 on Channel 4."
Still, a 3rd series might be popping up sometime soon :) - Critical Bind9 exploit publicly available - patch now
"
Description:
Urgent: this exploit is public. Please upgrade immediately.
Receipt of a specially-crafted dynamic update message to a zone for which the server is the master may cause BIND 9 servers to exit. Testing indicates that the attack packet has to be formulated against a zone for which that machine is a master. Launching the attack against slave zones does not trigger the assert.
This vulnerability affects all servers that are masters for one or more zones – it is not limited to those that are configured to allow dynamic updates. Access controls will not provide an effective workaround.
dns_db_findrdataset() fails when the prerequisite section of the dynamic update message contains a record of type “ANY” and where at least one RRset for this FQDN exists on the server.
db.c:659: REQUIRE(type != ((dns_rdatatype_t)dns_rdatatype_any)) failed
exiting (due to assertion failure).
Workarounds:
None.
(Some sites may have firewalls that can be configured with packet filtering techniques to prevent nsupdate messages from reaching their nameservers.)
Active exploits:
An active remote exploit is in wide circulation at this time.
Solution:
Upgrade BIND to one of 9.4.3-P3, 9.5.1-P3 or 9.6.1-P1.
" from https://www.isc.org/node/474
- UAE telecom caught in the act of installing eavesdropping software on Blackberry users?
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8161190.stm
This reminds me of a story when major phone switching systems were being tapped in Italy and only got discovered once the tapping software got buggy and starting texting/calling folks back! - Some idiots are running fake photos about the air france crash
A330 crash, the fake email (safest source for news right?) looks like this:
Subject:* FW: A330: AIR FRANCE CRASH PHOTOS....2 photos before Death....
>
>
>
> Feel so sad for all the passengers including the extraordinary
> photographer, who kept his cool even in his last moments of life and
> took this photo. Hats off to him!!!
>
> *
>
> The world saw the disappearance of an A330 Air Frane during a trans
> Atlantic flight between Rio to Paris.
> Two shots taken inside the plane before it crashed. Unbelievable! Photos
> taken inside the aircraft..... *
>
>
> The two photos attached were apparently taken by one of the passengers
> before the aircraft crashed. The photos were retrieved from the camera's
> memory stick. You will never get to see photos like this. In the first
> photo, there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see
> the tailplane and vertical fin of the aircraft. In the second photo, one
> of the passengers is being sucked out of the gaping hole.
>
> These photos were found in a digital Casio Z750, amidst the remains.
> Although the camera was destroyed, the Memory Stick was recovered.
> Investigating the serial number of the camera, the owner was identified
> as Paulo G. Muller, an actor of a theatre for children known in the
> outskirts of Porto Alegre. It can be imagined that he was standing
> during the turbulence, he managed to take these photos, just seconds
> after the tail loss the aircraft plunged. The structural stress probably
> ripped the engines away, diminishing the falling speed, protecting the
> electronic equipment but not unfortunately the victims. Paulo Muller
> leaves behind two daughters, Bruna and Beatriz.
The pics seem to have been taken from an episode of Lost (TV series) which depicts the crash of "oceanic fligh 815" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ierynZLSLHkAttached Media
- RT @caroline2264 What makes us happy? http://www.theatlantic.com/
It was refreshing to read such poignant work.
A quote that I would carry in my memory for a bit longer include:
“The answer to your question is not a pretty one—which is that when someone dies, I finally know what happened to them. And they go in a tidy place in the computer, and they are properly stuffed, and I’ve done my duty by them." - Each time you swipe your credit card to take a bixi bike in Montreal, Bixi.ca places a $250 hold on your card. This is something *very* useful to know, and which doesn' t seem to have been clearly stated by Bixi. Keep that in mind, you'll swipe for $5 for you bixi day pass, and have at least a day hold on $250 :) Happy Biking!
I just discovered this baby hippo that promised to help me write longer tweets! :)
I just discovered this baby hippo that promised to help me write longer tweets! :)
So here's JumboTweet :) In its infancy; I coded it yesterday afternoon, the idea was to have my own system to post longer twitter messages since I've been complaining about that -
fun features will be to include links and embed some content maybe; additionally adding the ability to comment on a post, etc..
Send me your thoughts!
Jumbo still needs some training and fixing up, so feel free to help train him!
Cheers,
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