TransparentSmoke.com

They did it!!

An American research firm has invented the first Functional Force Field. I’m really bummed they called it something stupid. But the “Plasma Valve” blocks the transmission of air through a sealed tube in less than one nanosecond. A little more work and I think we’ve got it.

Now if only they could make them portable and maybe get rid of that pesky 15000 degrees thing.

Read the press release here at the American Brookhaven National Laboratory.

I spend my days supporting an extended network of over 350 machines. When I had an upstanding user forward me this information, I almost took a load in my pants. I lock my BIOS’s to ensure no one can tamper with information on my machines. I use it to make sure unauthorized individuals can’t start my machines up.

This makes it all useless.

A simple DOS trick resets (deletes) your motherboard BIOS (CMOS) password, to grant access to your computer and/or BIOS Setup. In Windows 9x you can drop to dos, boot from a win9x floppy or reboot to the native MS-DOS mode, using the “Command prompt only” option from the Windows 95/98 Startup Menu (hold Shift and F5 at the same time while your PC boots).

Switch to the C:\windows\command directory and type:

DEBUG

and hit Enter. You’ll see a dash (-) at the DEBUG prompt. Now type:

o 70 2e

which will show as -o 70 2e at the DEBUG prompt. Hit Enter. Then type:

o 71 ff

and hit Enter. Finally type:

Q

and hit Enter one last time, to quit DEBUG, back to the C:\> prompt.
Now you’re ready to reboot your PC, and press the appropriate key or key combo (look it up in your motherboard manual if you don’t know it) to access your BIOS Setup. You’ll notice that the password is gone.

NOTE: This works only with the following MS-DOS versions: MS-DOS 6.00 – 6.22 and MS-DOS 7.xx (MS Windows 9x)

To stop it you’ll need to delete Debug.exe from your installation. Use a program like DeepFreeze to lock out key combinations during boot, and ensure that C: is your default first boot device.

This is my email address:

I found a little web page that will encode your text (ie: readable) email addresses into their equivalent decimal entities. Take a look here.

If you need to allow people to read your address its recommended that it be written like this.

Oh, and a recent study by CDT.org says unsubscribing works 83% of the time. So click those links.

I’s say I have a pretty public email address with the web site and all, yet I recieve fewer than ten SPAM emails a day. I actually got excited about my spam on Friday. I ran around the office telling everybody that I got my first “Penis size” email. So I guess the system is working.

Here I am, mild mannered individual, just with a small paranoia that someone’s watching my family through the picture window. So close to being perfectly average that I was this close to being named “Peter Parker” at birth. But alas society is forcing me to change. Forcing my hand to become either a super hero, or super villain. It is the actions which I take now that shall determine my final destiny.

I played around with the super villain idea (cool costume, all the girls, evil henchmen), but my wife says I have to be a super hero.

So here I am. Beginning my fight for right. And I’ve got no idea what I’m supposed to do. So I’ve decided that I’ll help you common folk by informing you of who those creeps are watching through the window.

Todays creep is Google.com.

First thing your going to notice if you clicked on that link is that Google knows where you live. Most of you will be redirected to Google.ca. But they know more. Not just your country, or your city, but right down to the street you live on. If you all remember last years Google $10,000 contest for best search innovation (which in itself was crap because they got your idea for only $10,000 dollars) you’ll remember that you never heard who won. I’ve found out for you.

News item: “The winner of the 2002 Google programming contest and the $10,000 prize was Daniel Egnor. Egnor’s winning project allows users to search web pages based on locale. Egnor took street addresses, converted them to latitude and longitude coordinates, and then created a location index. The result was a system that allows users to focus keyword searches to an area of a specific location.”

As I proved above, Google is already using this technology to redirect your request to Google.com. How long before you can’t search to buy switchblades and throwing stars because they’re illegal in Canada? It could be that its in place already, as I was unable to find a single online sales location to offer these two products, using Google.

Check for yourself if they already know where you live at GeoBytes.com.

Secondly I’ve found some very persuasive arguments to the fact Google is selling/giving your information away because their privacy agreement (you read it right?) is so vague they can do whatever they want with your information. (Actually I couldn’t find it. I even Googled for it and this is what I got when I entered the terms “Google Privacy Statement“. Take a read and see if you agree with what they are saying at Google-Watch.org.

To do my part in protecting you as your new super hero.

Ok, so I previously posted an edit to your hosts file that would stop Microsoft from listening. But I asked myself, what about everyone else. I took a look around the net and found a lot of information, but no one seems to keep a day to day “Hosts” file up to date. Those who are currently adding servers, don’t seem to cull old servers that are no longer a threat. And people tend to add a lot of stuff they just don’t like. I’ve seen lists with porn blocking added in, and with alternative viewpoint sites blocked, and even with annoying sites listed for no good reason.

So I’ve taken the simple approach and just added what seemed right, yet not extensive.

Download it here and replace your own “Hosts” file.

Careful replacing things on systems you’re not familiar with. Check your existing file before complete replacement.