The ShadowWolfs Den

Idiocy among those with degrees

2007-09-05T20:57:24Z

I'm going to strip the names and identification from the e-mails I'm going to quote, but know this: The first one was a public post to the Linux Kernel Mailing List and the rest stem from that one. The person who wrote the original mail claims to have a PhD - he's never stated what that PhD is in, but lets just assume that he is telling the truth.

Now for a bit of background: In Linux "mounting" a drive refers to telling the OS to attach the contents of the drive to the filesystem at a given point and "root" is a special account in Linux that, historically, has full access to the system and is capable of telling it to do *anything* and have it done. For security reasons you are not supposed to use root for more than basic system administration tasks, and then it's recommended you do it through a wrapper program such as 'sudo' (which will run a specified command as root).

Here's the opening mail:

Dear whoever is in charge of writing fedora core 7,

The auto login is a wonderful feature. However, there is a HUGE flaw in it at the moment. It won't let me log in a root that way. That is MY decision, not YOUR decision. Please fix it in an update!!! I'm sick of having to log in as root every single time I use my computer. I understand that there are situation where people have other people use their computer and don't want them to be root. However, I never want to be logged in as anything other than root, and I suspect everyone who has half a brain is the exact same way. Honestly, have you ever been logged in as someone other than root? You absolutely can do nothing on the machine. For those who make the argument that someone logged in as root might break the machine by doing something they shouldn't, I would say it's already broken without being root. You cannot mount drives, edit anything about how the /etc directory is setup, or do many other things that everyone I know does on a regular basis. IN general, there are times when you are logged in as a non-root user when it will ask you for a password. That is so inconvenient when you are the only one who uses your own computer. PLEASE get root auto login as an option. No one but me has to set it up this way, but please give ME the option.

Thank You,

XXXXXXXXXXXXX (name removed)

Now first note that he is requesting something of the "Fedora Core 7" developers - that is a distribution of Linux, but has very little to do with the traffic on LKML - which is all about the OS kernel and nothing else. Then note that he is complaining about having to give a password to log in as root - and claims to need to do it on a very regular basis (and, apparently, logs in and runs everything as root, period).

I responded to this by pointing out the idiocy of always being logged in as root, explained why the dichotomy exists and gave him pointers as to how to solve his problems (and yes, I also told him that, if he really needed or wanted a feature, to go implement it himself because that was the nature of F/OSS stuff). I ended my reply with "Now go away, Troll"

His response to that message:

You said it exactly, you have to bother with su and stuff like that when you aren't root. Maybe that isn't a problem for you, but it's really annoying and completely unnecessary on a laptop. Just because you may have other users or you don't need to be root all the time doesn't mean I don't. I agree with you though, I wish I knew how to implement the changes I want.

XXXXXXXXXXXX, Ph.D. (name removed)
AKA Troll, whatever that means...

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide if he's just mis-informed or if he really is as clueless (and potentially stupid) as he appears to be from this exchange.

UPDATE

Just checked my mail and he's responded again, once more appearing to not have the brain power of a flea.

Last part of my response to his "Troll, whatever that means..." post:

Anyway, your post, on a mailing list that has nothing to do with the FC7 "autologin" system, meets the definition for a "Troll" post - call it "Flamebait". (Look it up in the Jargon File if you'd like a good definition)

His response:

Where is this jargon file you refer to? Is there some webpage that my emailed bug report got sent to?

I mean, WTF? Has he not heard of Google? Does a search for "jargon file" not return the actual "Jargon File" on the first page of results? Heh - I've tested the last and the first result (first few results, actually) are the Jargon File. So... I'm trying to figure out how someone that holds a PhD could be that dead-brained. (Unless, as has been suggested, the PhD is in "Aromatherapy" or something similar)

RIAA Idiocy

2007-05-08T21:34:35Z

I was recently notified by red_tailed_hawk (Arrow Quivershaft) that the University of Wisconsin had been contacted by the RIAA, in writing (apparently), requesting that a letter be forwarded to students who they believed were illegally downloading copyrighted music—effectively sidestepping the court system and making the UW its de-facto representative.

Amazingly the University told the RIAA to shove it where the sun don't shine—using nicer words ("get a subpoena")—and then sent out the following mail to the "UW Colleges" and their student bodies (all names and mail headers removed by request):

Dear Students,

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has become more
aggressive in pursuing copyright infringement-specifically they are
going after students who are downloading or uploading music files.

This week the RIAA has served a subpoena on the UW Board of Regents
seeking the names of 53 students that they believe have illegally
downloaded copyrighted music. This is a very serious matter and may be
very costly to the students involved. The minimum damages under the
U.S. Copyright Act are $750 for each instance of copyright violation and
the maximum damage award may be much more. Even at the minimum, 100
songs could cost $75,000.

We have reviewed the list of IP addresses and none of them are UW
Colleges addresses. This time. The next time may include IP addresses
from our campuses and we would work with the UW System Legal Counsel to
appropriately inform students who are affected.

It is important that you take this seriously and make sure that you not
engaging in unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted works
which would be against the law and a violation of the university's
Acceptable Use Policy. Your rights and responsibilities in using the
campus network are identified in the policy located at:
http://www.uwc.edu/cio/iitc/Usage.htm You can avoid illegal P2P
(peer-to-peer) file sharing by turning off file sharing on your
computer.

If you have any questions regarding this matter please contact me.

In other words, they are doing all that they possibly can to protect their student body and make sure that said student body understands the consequences of downloading copyrighted content - not just Music, but movies and everything else.

When I was first informed of this I was ready to go ballistic on the RIAA, because I was told that the RIAA had sent an e-mail saying not to download music.

<Arrow_Quivershaft> Get this...
<Arrow_Quivershaft> The RIAA subpoena'd the entire University of Wisconsin system.
<ShadowWolf> ROFL
<Arrow_Quivershaft> Successfully. >v<
<ShadowWolf> no, that's an ROFLPMP
<Arrow_Quivershaft> ?
<ShadowWolf> and a nasty shudder
<Arrow_Quivershaft> They sent an email to all of us saying not to download music.

My initial reaction was "The RIAA is telling people to not download any music? They are stepping way outside their legal limits, because there is a lot of music on the internet that is completely and totally free." After reading the mail I gained new respect for the staff at UW and the CIO—one "Dick Cleek"—simply because of how they have handled this situation.

Of course the RIAA went to one of the judges they have in their pocket (note that the preceding statement about the RIAA having judges on their payroll is a matter of opinion) and got the subpoena. That move, however, was pointless, as none of the IP addresses in the list the RIAA used to procure the subpoena were connected to the UW network—in other words, they have no proof that the names they requested are, in fact, guilty of anything.

(Note: I made a mistake here. red_tailed_hawk has informed me that there are two main parts of the University of Wisconsin. The UW Colleges (a set of 2 year schools) and the UW Universities. While the UW Colleges were not involved in any of the downloading, the UW Universities were. Sorry for the mistake.)

Many thanks to red_tailed_hawk for alerting me to this situation. Slashdot has covered this situation as well, and one of the lawyers for the University of Wisconsin has posted a very detailed article about it on his own blog. I suggest you skip the Slashdot post and just read the lawyers blog entry, myself.

Can you legally own a 128bit number?

2007-05-08T20:30:26Z

Think about that question for a few minutes. If you are like most people you probably answered "HELL NO!". Well, in a sane world - or at least a sane nation, you'd be correct. But here in America there is this little law called the "Digital Millenium Copyright Act", and according to the AACS-LA (Advanced Access Content System, Licensing Administrator) it makes it legal to claim ownership of a randomly generated 128bit number under certain circumstances.

What are those circumstances and why do I know this? I'll start with the latter question - the AACS-LA has sent out 1.8 million letters demanding that keys to allow decryption of AACS material be removed from websites, threatening lawsuits under the DMCA. The condition that they claim make it legal to "hold ownership" to a 128bit number is that it be used as a key for encryption or decryption of protected content. Protected content, in this case, is any copyrighted material that has been encrypted.

So (IIRC) Professor Ed Felten has written a small Haiku, placed it under copyright, and is encrypting it using randomly generated 128bit keys, then signing over all rights to the number and the encrypted haiku to whoever views the blog entry about it. After learning about said page I took control of my own 128bit number - 83 8B B1 49 8A 02 28 BD D5 55 F9 A7 3D 17 50 32. And if the AACS-LA's interpretation of the DMCA is held up in court, that means that all that has to happen for all numbers from 0 to 2^128 - 1 (that is, 2 to the 128'th power, minus 1 - the maximum limit of how large a number a 128bit number can hold) to be owned is for that many numbers be generated and used to encrypt content.

Is it insane? Yes, it is, but before the day is done I plan on getting several more numbers for myself - just to prove a point. After all, it is the same reason I no longer buy anything produced by Sony or Sony-BMG (they proved to be idiotic with that "rootkit" copy protection scheme), watch movies starring Tom Cruise (Scientology *shudder*) or give Microsoft any business (massively evil business practices).

Want to get in on the action? Go get you number today!

dshadowwolf @ 2007-03-29T22:05:00

2007-03-30T02:07:22Z

After running into a mental block trying to work out how to make the "insert style" functions of the editor work I decided to step back from that project and work on something else entirely. During a conversation with mwbard about potential projects he mentioned that the Xanadu story universe created by Bryan Derksen didn't have a central archive for its stories. So I decided to take the challenge and come up with one. Before I started I got permission from BD because I wanted this to be the single, official archive. After getting BD's permission I put together the archive, basing the code off the template system from my website and using an XML parser from the examples at php.net to store the story and news list.

Now I'm certain that my new Xanadu archive could have a lot more of the information added to the XML database - truthfully I could make the backend a lot more complex. But for the moment the backend is as complex as it needs to be and no more. And because it is a given that the archive will, at some point, require a more complex backend, I've left it capable of being extended. If you're wondering what this "Xanadu" thing is, I'd suggest you start reading with Bryan Derksens story Xanadu — it started the whole thing.

The archive is accompanied by a set of forums, unimaginatively titled the "XanaChat Forums". They are empty right now, because I haven't had the time to work on them, and nobody has added any information to them. They are intended as a place to find information on the universe without needing to read all the stories in the archive. Until they get going the information can be found in the stories themselves and the original FAQ/Writers Guidelines for the universe.

Happy reading and if you happen to be an author of a Xanadu story and would like it in the archive, send it to me at xanadu@keil-draco.com. If you are an author and a story of yours has appeared in the archive without your permission, contact me at the above address - I will follow your wishes as to how to handle the story: Removal, Changing the Attribution, etc…

Updates

2007-03-14T02:52:01Z

The open library system is on hold while I finish up work on my rich-text editor, which just entered the beta phase. As far as it goes even the beta-code of the editor is limited to browsers that have something approaching DOM2 compliance. This is not because the RichText system I'm using is part of DOM2, but because all the functional code uses DOM2 features and the DOM1 event system. In practice that means that the code won't work on any version of IE - none of them support enough of the DOM for it to function. (personally, with how MS has custom sets of functions that mimic the DOM spec to some extent, I feel that MS is non-compliant as a lock-in method)

BAFH part 3 is complete and online. Just visit Anthro to read it, the title is "Fish, Barrel, Dynamite" and it is the longest part yet. BAFH part 4 has entered the writing phase, with Corvus once again taking the lead. We don't have a title for part 4 yet, but never fear - we will have a good one by the time it goes live.

Those of you that have been waiting for me to update "The Hero Factor" are going to have to wait even longer. The muse still refuses to talk to me about anything but the Library, Editor and, of course, the Assassins. But never fear, I haven't forgotten about Fliegel, Jam'ta, Arrow, Leng, Sanger or "The Geyser" - those characters are to wonderfully complex for me to ever forget about. In fact, I have plans for several stories centering on them - though I don't have any idea what the stories will cover.

Finally: I am going to try my hand at writing a complete application using XUL when I've got the other projects completed. What it will do is anyones guess, though I'm leaning towards something like a feature complete IRC program or FTP program. Those two have been ideas of mine before, and will remain such - to the point that I'm thinking of using the XUL libraries instead of XULRunner or having it embedded in FireFox. Beyond that its just a potential project.

Current Projects

2007-02-27T05:06:29Z

Well, people, I'm sure you haven't missed me any, so I decided to make another entry.

I've been quite busy - doing my share of the writing of the BAFH series (that link is to part 1) and working on a number of somewhat advanced web applications. The one I've spent the most time on lately is my "open library" system - it's far from complete and still in the early stages, but it's planned to be a general archive for short fiction. The Library is currently tested as each component is completed on 3 versions of Internet Explorer (5, 5.5 and 6), two versions of FireFox (2 and 3alpha3), version 3.5.5 of the KHTML rendering engine and Opera 9.02. Because of this extensive testing I do not expect the front end to be done any time soon, although the back end - slated to be written in PHP - shouldn't take more than a few weeks to complete once the front end is stabilized and functional.

A project I don't have many plans for, beyond use as an aid for the BAFH collaboration, is my rich-text editor. I'm warning everyone now that its a very early alpha only functional in FireFox and there are a lot of bugs that I won't be getting to until I finish the code for loading and saving documents. When it's complete it will have approximately equal functionality in FireFox and Internet Explorer. Early testing shows that it is non-functional in browsers based on the KHTML rendering engine version 3.5.5 and the related Apple WebKit and WebCore based browsers. The same early testing shows that it retains most functionality when run in Opera 9.02, though there are problems with the feature support in Opera. Because of the rapid speed of developement in JavaScript and the limited differences between the various browsers implementations of the Rich Text controls the Editor will probably be complete within the next week.

I am still undecided as to whether to keep the source for both projects close, but that is a decision I don't have to make until I've finished the code.

Other than that my life has been pretty humdrum, and that happens to be how I like it.

Writing

2006-12-25T20:35:18Z

I've been doing a hell of a lot of writing recently. No, nothing I'm going to share with the world just yet - but be assured that it's a good deal of stuff that has to do with my two favorite story universes - TBP and Xanadu.

As far as things go, the story I once called "From the Good Life To A Mere Shadow of Humanity" was long ago retitled "Kill Me If You Can" and has had large portions rewritten, edited and rewritten again. Hopefully Cubist will be done with the edits before the new year, but thats only a hope. In the Xanadu universe I've started, stopped and restarted the same story several times, and have to face the fact that it really cannot be written in First Person. And strangely, I cannot seem to break myself of the first person habit.

In other news, the next part of the BAFH saga is going to be stalled, as the holiday arrived before Raven could finish the third "Reaper" section of part 3. This means that I haven't gotten my hands on it to add the end and it will need to hit the editor before it is even close to ready for posting.

Beyond that I've been working on getting another story about Max Grant - the innie from "Kill Me If You Can" - and it hasn't been easy. I started writing KMIYC before I had fully developed the character, and though I've made sure to include all the nuances I thought of later in KMIYC... Well, for one thing Grant's senses and being are so different from the human baseline that he's effectively an alien. My problems don't end there - his new existence is designed for multi-tasking and he does that naturally. For KMIYC I just ignored that, but for the next story I really cannot do that.

Anyway... That's everything I've been up to for the past few weeks. Time sure does fly.

dshadowwolf @ 2006-12-17T21:23:00

2006-12-18T02:33:37Z

I've done a lot in the past few months, and watched the website I had disappear when the server decided to thrash the hard-drive I had all the home directories on. This surprised me, as that hard drive had been in three different machines running Linux and it wasn't until the latest one (a repurposed Dell) and my decision to use FC5 on it that there was a problem.

I learned of this problem because my local mail server started rejected all attempts to send mail (something was wrong in a helper app, I think) and on trying to restart it with that helper app turned off... Well, the mail daemon (Postfix) refused to come back online. So I rebooted the server and watched it freeze at the bootloader prompt. This signaled a problem with the drive, and after booting a Knoppix disc I learned that the drive itself had been trashed so thoroughly that the filesystem needed massive repairs before I could even mount it. This *might* have been exaggerated by the first run of e2fsck just "replaying the journal" but...

Anwyay, after seven hours of trying to pull the data off the drive I gave up and just reformatted *all* of them into a single LVM volume and reinstalled FC5 - this time skipping everything that wasn't strictly necessary for the system to do its job as a server.

On a high note the first two episodes of BAFH seem to have been a success and though the deadline for the current issue was missed (my co-writer on the series got a bad case of writers block) we are on track for having episode 3 in the next issue of Anthro. Beyond that I've also located the originals for a more of my stories so when I get my site back up and running there will be even more content.

Well, I think thats about all... Later!

Random Things

2006-05-17T06:19:05Z

Seems the TF Wars was a resounding success. Most of the contestants who stayed in until the end have continued the characters into spin-off stories, me included. The series is called "Bastard Assassins From Hell" and is the continued story of the Reaper and Strider characters.

The main storyline has been picked up as a regular feature by Anthro and part 1 is currently available. Sorry about the lack of crazy destruction and violence in that part, but it's setup for the rest of the series. On the other front there will be a second set of stories featuring the BAFH partners, posted as a set of stand-alone episodes to the TSA-Talk, TFWF and Furry-Lit mailing lists.

In other news, my novel The Hero Factor is slowly growing again. I should have it completely finished by this time next year.

Final thoughts: The BAFH authors, myself and a fine chap that goes by the name of Corvus, and our editors (the pair in charge of Anthro - Michael Bard and Quentin "Cubist" Long) are thinking of doing a comic based on the exploits of Reaper and Strider. We can't offer any money, but are looking for interested parties. Please note that the stories are rather SF in nature and will require being able to draw the crazy action the pair take center stage in.

Writing and other projects

2006-05-01T05:26:53Z

Well, here it is - "May Day". Cinquo de Mayo aint that far off and again, it'll be a dry day for me. No money for a party.

In better news, my novel project - The Hero Factor is on temporary hiatus due to a minor case of writers block. The TF Wars I organized in March has just come to an end, strangely enough it was a natural one for a game that had go-modding and powerplay as it's core tenets. Thanks to the TF Wars, however, there is a new project in the works - a serial Story me and my good friend Corvus are writing as a new regular feature for the 'zine Anthro.

The serial is titled "Bastard Mercenaries From Hell" and focuses on the travels of Reaper and Strider, a pair of uber-deadly killers that travel the multiverse making friends and solving problems by the application of egregious amounts of deadly force. It's going to be organized into a number of "Books" that will somewhat stand on their own as long short stories. The first "Book" planned is a continuation of a plot that developed during the TF Wars that just ended, so don't be surprised if there are names or events that you can't place.

Away from the stories I have several coding projects in progress. Once is tentatively titled "dlang" and is a scripting language for defining 3D scenes. A second is a private archiving tool I wrote to get used to several libraries and am working on extending and improving. Then there is the as-yet unnamed Zork/adventure style game which is still in the planning stages. Finally there is the Trade Wars 2020 style game I'm also working on. So far only the private compression tool has made any real progress. (If you want to help, let me know!)

Well... enough chatter and wasted bandwidth.

ShadowWolf says "Until I get the urge to blog again!"

the pits of depression

2006-01-03T03:11:26Z

Well, I've gone and setup my own little section of Shifti. Got some stuff up there, nothing much yet. Three stories that I'm in the process of writing, two finished and a bit of poetry added to spice things up. Check it out, and remember, comments are always welcome, and you never know if I'll use a suggestion. To get there, just click on the link above, or right here: My Shifti Page

Anyway, the current story I'm focusing most of my effort on is a bit of an epic called The Hero Factor. It's around 51 pages, say just over 200K, and still growing. Be warned that near it's current end there is a very gruesome scene. Anyway, hope some of you enjoy the site and leave me some good comments.

A Pale Horse

2005-11-13T04:25:26Z

In the years that I worked at a convience store I met many interesting people. Some of them became friends, others became like a surrogate family. Among those was a man I knew simply as 'Old Man Pete'. He wasn't old - not by my standards, as he hadn't even turned 60, nor was his name Pete. His name was Paul D. Reibman although his freinds (a designation not given lightly) felt priviledged to call him 'Pete'. He passed away last night at the young age of 59 and the world has grown darker.

From this one man I learned many things about life and how to be a 'responsible adult'. These lessons were spread over hours of conversation, and never did I think he would die so young. My favorite lesson he taught me was that you should approach each day as if you should have died during the night and will not live out the day. This is not as simple as it sounds, because like everything I learned from him, it was tempered by a deep respect for other people and the law. Although I use this space as a soap-box to proffer my own sometimes twisted views on reality, this is not the place to discuss the lessons I learned from him.

I last saw him less than a week ago, on Weds. Nov. 9 2005. At the time he was suffering from open pressure-sores caused by his diabetes and looked more tired than I had ever seen him. On that occasion he spoke about how he didn't know if he'd be back with a finality that raised the hair on my neck and created goosebumps on my arms. In a jest that was a long running bit between me and him I said 'Ah, don't talk like that! Pete, you'll live forever.' How wrong my prediction was.

Now all that is left is to say goodbye to a great man. So Goodbye Pete, and godspeed - you will be sorely missed and this day will turn into one of mourning for me for many years to come. And thank you, Pete, for the wisdom you shared with me over the years - I would not be the man I am today without it.

the more things change

2005-10-07T05:16:55Z

The last two posts were made to try and make people think. I apologize to those I offended with the post on the fourth amendment, but please understand that I took a half-witted position that mirrors the views I see espoused quite often in politics. The post on the legality of the modern election system is a pure statement of fact... Unfortunately no one bothered to reply to it - if they managed to make it through my dry dissection of the relevant portions of the constitution.

In other news I have finally decided to start my own company doing what I love - Programming and Web Design. Unfortunately, as this is a means to get money to live on I cannot take on any more obligations for free work. That isn't to say that I won't complete the work already scheduled - quite the opposite - those are onbligations already undertaken and must be completed. In the same vein I'm going to start doing some janitorial work on the Linux kernel as I plan a method to add some advanced feature to that operating system. I have also agreed to do some work on ReactOS (an open source OS that aims to be 100% binary compatable with Windows XP and later. At the moment I'm not sure where I'll fit into that project except for the same type of janitorial work I'll be doing for the Linux kernel (although I do have a good idea of something that is dearly needed at the moment)

Now for the bad news... After 3 weeks of no Acid Reflux even without the medication it has returned with a vengeance. So I'm currently in transitory pain from the ARD on top of the havoc the seasonal weather change is creating with my sinuses. Hopefully I'll have enough money free next week to pick up at least a months supply of Prilosec to kill the Acid Reflux, but that will depend more on whether I have bills show up or not.

Well, that's enough time spent on this... Be on the lookout for an essay in a future issue of TSAT (tsat.transform.to) and possibly another in the next issue of "Anthro" (no URL in the bookmarks... I'll look one up though)

The Constitutionality of Modern Elections

2005-07-09T23:38:04Z

My research is only partially complete, however I felt no need to hold off on making this second post about the US Constitution. However, in this case the only part of my research that is incomplete is that which seeks to uncover when the system went from being legal to being not only illegal, but unconstitutional.

Lets take a look at the original text of the Constitution for some insights into the election process as set forth by the original framers of the Constitution. Please note that the Presidential Election was never meant to be a popular vote among the people, and it was given to each state to decide how to appoint the people that would elect the president.

Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 2:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,
a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives
to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or
Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United
States, shall be appointed an Elector.

As we can see, my point about the Presidential election, as originally set forth in the Constitution is correct. The people are given no say in this matter, unless the individual state decides that they should have such a say.

Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 3:

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two
persons, of whom one at least shall not lie an Inhabitant of the same State
with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and
of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and
transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to
the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence
of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the
Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes
shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of
Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and
have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall
immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a
Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like
Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be
taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; a quorum
for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two-thirds of the
States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In
every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest
Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there
should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from
them by Ballot the Vice-President.

Ah, and here we see why this system only lasted for about four elections. Originally the President and Vice-President could be from different political parties and have radically different views on how the country should be managed. This could, and did, lead to arguments between the President and Vice-President which had the potential of bringing the government to a halt. But please note that there are clear rules for electing the Vice-President.

Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 4:

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on
which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the
United States.

In other words the day we currently hold the popular vote is variable. At any time Congress could decide to change it. Note that the date of the choosing of the Electors and the date of their voting for the office of President can (and, AFAIK, are) different.

Now lets take a look at how Congress attempted to fix the problem. They never fixed the problem of the President and Vice President potentially being from different parties, but they did change the system so that the people chosen for President and Vice President were, potentially, never in conflict with each other. Here is the text as Submitted on December 9, 1803 and as ratified 189 days later.

Amendment 12, Paragraph 1:

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for
President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant
of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person
voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as
Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as
President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of
votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to
the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of
the Senate;

Here we see the first change. The 'Electors' vote twice, once for the President and once for the Vice-President. (note that the restriction of at least one of the candidates, either president or Vice-President, being required to be from a state other than the one in question has not been removed, just modified to reflect the changes) And note the other changes. No longer are the votes just sent in - no they must also send in a list of all persons voted for. This appears to mean that the electors may vote as they wish. And also note that the Congress, in a move I dislike, removed the restriction that electors may not be members of the Congress.

Amendment 12, Paragraph 2:
The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;
The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors
appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having
the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as
President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot,
the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by
states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and
a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House
of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice
shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then
the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other
constitutional disability of the President.

OK, now here we see the reason that lists of all persons voted for must be sent in. They have included a method of determining who is president in lack of a clear victor. So when the Supreme Court was called in in the 2000 election, there was someone attempting to change the submitted votes of the electors prior to Congress declaring the President and Vice President. Apparently, though, Congress, in ratifying the Amendment and the framers of the Constitution, based on the original text, never foresaw either a 'Two Party' state or a true popular election by the people.

Amendment 12, Paragraph 3:
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the
Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors
appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers
on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the
purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a
majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person
constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to
that of Vice-President of the United States.

And here we see, again, that there are rules for electing a Vice-President, even to the extent that there are methods for determining who receives the post in event of a close run or tie.

However, please note that nowhere does it give candidates for presidency the right to choose who will be their Vice-President, nor does it give the people any say in the election. The closest it comes to giving the people a say in the election is in the choosing of the Electors, and in that it does not give the people the right, but leaves it to the states. How very un-democratic, but how very useful at the same time. What this does is gives a maximum amount of control over the presidential election to the people of each state, since they are in charge of putting the public officials who will write the laws about how elections are to be handled into effect.

Now this may sound a bit old-fashioned, but as someone who has been left in a position of not being able to vote for a candidate because none was supplied that he wished to hold public office, I see real utility in the way the Congress and the framers of the Constitution defined the process for electing the President and Vice-President and I, for one, would like to see the election system return to what it is supposed to be, rather than the system that is currently being used, if, for no other reason that the fact that it is illegal and clearly violates the Constitution.

Something to think about

2005-07-08T07:31:29Z

Just the other day I re-read the entire text of the US Constituion and all of its 40 some-odd amendments. While reading it I asked myself several questions and decided to see if I could support the viewpoint that the second amendment is being violated by gun control laws. At first I was stunned by the simple clarity of the text of the second amendment, but then I began noticing problems with the argument that gun control laws violate this gauranteed right of American citizens.

In truth, the second amendment was added to the constitution for two reasons. One was very obvious and is used as the argument about it to this day, but upon studying the men that wrote the constitution and those first ten amendments, this argument is easily shown to be a non-issue. The argument I refer to, of course, is the one that says the second amendment was added so the people had the ability to rebel against a corrupted government. The framers of the constitution were not stupid men, and they had just successfully prosecuted a rebellion against what was then the most powerful nation on earth. Not only that, but they knew of the black markets and that anyone rebelling against a government could find or manufacture whatever weapons and equipment they needed. In the modern world where the Soviet Union spread AK-47 and AK-74 assault rifles around like candy, getting your hands on combat weapons is easier than it was when George Washington and the rest of the American leadership armed the army that defeated Britain.

So we are left asking, "Then what was the reason for the second amendment". Well, lets actually read what it says. 'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.' By itself the Amendment seems rather cut and dried. (And truthfully, in my own opinion, it is extravagently clear), however, when taken in the context of the rest of the US Constitution, specifically that portion that deals with the 'Powers of Congress' and the formation of military forces (Article I, Section 8, Paragraphs 12-15) the reason for the opening clause becomes clear, as does the actual purpose of the amendment.

Art. 1, Sec. 8, Para 12:
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be
for a longer Term than two Years;

In other words the US can have a 'Standing Army', but said army recieves its funding one year at a time. At the time the constitution was written the government could not afford a 'Standing Army' but they did make provisions for one. Now the government does have enough moeny at it's disposal to maintain a 'Standing Army' but still the Congress must passa a new bill each year giving the military money it may budget for use any way it sees fit. The reason I make these statements is because they help explain at leas t one of the next few paragraphs of the constitution.

Art. 1, Sec. 8, Para. 13:
To provide and maintain a Navy;

Since the invention of naval warfare any country that bordered large bodies of water had to have a navy to defend itself. This was added so that the navy could be continually maintained for purposes of not just defending American territorial waters, but for duties which now fall to the US Coast Gaurd. (Like smuggling interdiction... although another role for that early Navy was also the hunting down and capture of Pirates and Pirate vessels)

Art. 1, Sec. 8, Para. 14:
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

This doesn't actually figure into the argument, except to show that the Military of the United States is under the control of the the American Congress and, in fact, has it's own set of laws that apply to the military instead of the standard fedearl and states codes.

Art. 1, Sec. 8, Para. 15:
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

This is the big one. It actually shows the reason for the second amendment. At the time the Constitution was written a Militia was a unit formed entirely of volunteers who had little or no training. The fastest and cheapest way to arm a militia is for the members to own their own weapons. As I said before, the people that wrote the constitution and added the first ten amendments were very intelligent people who would have thought of this.

Now the purpose of the opening clause of the Second Amendment ("A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State") becomes crystal clear. The reason people are granted the right to keep and bear arms is so that it is cheaper and easier to arm the Militias that are called up at Congress's request. Since the US now has a standing army, the need of people to be able to keep and bear arms has passed. But I am not suggesting that the second amendment is useless and should be repealed - no, it should stay as its "covert" pupose meshes well with the other reason for it... It is cheaper and easier if the people fighting the rebellion actually own their weapons instead of having to purchase more weapons for them from whoever is supplying the rebels.

But in the end, Gun Control laws are definately a good thing. They were designed to help protect people from injury or death relating to accidents involving firearms. So yes, they do abbrogate the constitution, which says that the right "shall not be infringed" but the number of lives they have saved is statistically signififant enough that I will gladly turn a blind eye to them.

The more things change

2005-02-14T02:56:45Z

I have a bad habit of not keeping track of my blog and whats posted in it. I guess that's because I'm so old-school about the net that I still have reservations about what is proper content and what isn't. Who knows? (the Shadow knows :P)

Anyway, for those of you that I've talked to on IRC recently you already know what happened to me recently. I had a particularly nasty type of abcess form and get infected. Because of this I spent nearly a week in the hospital after having it surgically removed (not just drained, because it got infected they had to remove all infected tissue) because my temperature would not stabilize.

This has left me, for the last three weeks, in various amounts of pain from having an open wound in a sensitive area (lower back, a little north of the tailbone). The reasoning behind the surgeon leaving the wound open is simple - more often than not the abcess will reform (the pocket closing the wound would create fills with fluid) and that can create a necessity for having an abcess in the same area removed again. (Who wants to have that much tissue removed from their body (at least, when it's not fat)?)

Only recently have I manged to pick up my pen and start hacking on story ideas and poetry, but be patient my friends - I will have more poetry to come.

AlyVix (AKA vixapede)

2005-01-22T04:54:34Z

If you don't already know... http://www.livejournal.com/users/tracerj/46708.html - yes, AlyVix (vixapede) is gone. While I barely knew her (I had a few conversations with her on IRC, but it was mostly just passing pleasantries on the same that made up most of our relationship. Still, I did consider her a friend and when I learned she was gone it was like being run over by a semi.

Some of you might know that I am a poet in addition to being an author of short fiction. About three years ago I stopped writing poetry longhand so I could just delete it when finished because my poetry was getting darker in content. Yesterday I dug out that notebook and today made a couple of entries. Then I got online... needless to say the news sparked my poetry muse and I jotted down two quick poems. I only felt one of them was good enough for public perusal, so I'm including a poem I wrote in 2001 that seems appropriate for the situation....

Feel free to copy these poems out and print them, but whatever you do, please don't remove my name from them and claim you are the author. (I shouldn't have had to say that, but there are too many people with no morals on the internet these days.)

Free ( a poem )
(c) Daniel Hazelton, 2005

Flowers in the field,
Wild - Free.
Life - a breeze,
    Always going, never coming -
           Free.

Stars in the sky,
Twinkling each night.
Ever there, watching our plight -
    Survival, the only fight.

Known for but a few weeks,
Freinds we became.
Not close, not distant -
    But friends all the same.

Talk free of worry,
Flowing back and forth -
    A spasm of bytes.
Ideas and interests,
All the bound us together.
    All that is gone.

If there is...
...No afterlife -
        Goodbye never was said.
...Life after death -
        Then there I shall see you next.

---------------------------------------------------------

For Some
copyright (c) Daniel Hazelton, 2001

For some life is a challenge,
    Each worse than the one before
    Every one adding to the haystack,
          Weight piling on the thin,
          Dangerously thin membrane of their sanity.
    Eventually the membrane breaks,
        The results always end at least one life
        Sometimes many, many more.
    A tragic thing this almost always is,
        Though it could have been averted -
    No one saw the signs.

For others
    Life is but a game -
    One they have to win.
    But still things happen,
        Sanity will break under the strain of each problem,
    Errors are lost points,
         Lost of points lost and the game cannot be won.
    Again the result is tragic -
      Avoidable, but not one person saw the signs.

For the rest life is neither,
    And the membrane of Sanity is thick and strong.
    More and more we need these people -
    Each year,
          Day -
    We lose even more.

</b></a></a></b></a>

On programming Games

2005-01-17T04:33:18Z

Those of you that know me know that I am in the process of writing a video game in collaboration with a number of other people across the internet. (http://manplus.sourceforge.net for the primary site, http://neomegagames.000k2.com/forums/ for the forums for the game. Send a message with the subject "Subscribe" (no quotes) to proj-excelsior-devel-request@freelists.org to subscribe to the games mailing list. Anyone who wants to assist is welcome, and we currently need help for all facets of the game. In other news I have recently begun to define the scripting language the game will use for the data driven automation of some features. This is something I have long researched, but I find my knowledge of recursion and tree-walking stretched to its limits by this exercise. So anyone with any amount of coding in their background (preferrably someone who's had formal training or years of on-the-job use) please contact me about helping out.

Blargh

2005-01-04T07:23:43Z

Well, that's about how I feel... truthfully I couldn't feel more ambivalent. I'm trying to seek out some furs in the area, and seem to be having some luck. Thanks to one furs LJ page (thanks Hybrid008 (aka Twitch)) I've found the name acronymn generator and indulged. Here's the result:

S	Sloppy
H	Helpful
A	Awesome
D	Delightful
O	Outrageous
W	Wild
W	Witty
O	Overwhelming
L	Lazy
F	Flirtatious

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

And I think that accurately represents me. Anyway, I've been trying to reserve my LJ pages to be my own little soap-box rather than a general blog. The reason is that I've never been much of a journal keeper. I might start using it more, though - Am thinking of keeping a dream log again and even, possibly, using this LJ to log the better ones.

Web services and miscelaneous crapola

2004-12-16T10:50:29Z

Recent experience has proved to me that some things never change. I've been hosting discussion forums for my game project on 000k.com. They offered a great setup for a good price - free. But now I'm sitting here with no forums, all because their SQL server has taken a header and they have yet to fix it. Albeit I'm sitting here with a free account, but for christs sake, it's been down for almost a week now. And I have _no_ fixed contact email I can send complaints to. I think that after this is done and the SQL server is brought back online I'm going to grab a backup of the database and move the forums onto the same server as the rest of the website, at sourceforge. At least there problems get fixed immediately.

Pain and Modern Dentistry

2004-12-07T03:21:55Z

Well, folks the worst of it is over. All four of my wisdom teeth are gone. But I do have to complain about some things. The first is that they overdid the Anesthesia - Not only did they put me under (whatever they used it had me out in under 5 minutes) but they also mubed my entire mouth with novacaine. Now I don't know about anyone else out there, but that seems like a bit of overkill. I do understand why they did it, since the novacaine hadn't even worn off when I started to feel the pain from where the Dentist (Okay, Dental Surgeon) had had to cut into my gums to get at the two lower ones, but they could just as easily have only numbed that area.
Okay, so maybe I'm just going a little overboard complaining about the two levels of anesthesia, but what the hell? I couldn't talk until after I got home and crashed from the meds. Probably would have taken about as long as I was asleep for the novacaine to have fully worn off, so I think it was a bit of overkill. In any event, I would recommend this guy to anyone needing dental work of this sort - He made sure to explain the entire procedure and the medical considerations more than a week ahead of time. At least he didn't do what he said was a possibility and put pressure on the lower maxillary nerve (the main nerve in your lower jaw) - he wasn't able to just reach in with the forceps and get the lower teeth, he had to use a specialised saw and section them. Oh well. At least thats one less health concern for me.

Elections and politics

2004-11-05T05:42:55Z

I don't know how it has happened, but America has gone from a nations of intelligent people to a nation of cattle, easily led by the press. I mentioned in a previous post that I knew the press was making the war in Iraq look bad, and just look at what it has caused. Democrats across the country are crying that Diebold rigged the election in Ohio and wondering why Kerry didn't fight the result of this election like Gore did before him.

I know why Bush won - people want to see him clear up the mess he's made. How can we pay for the 'Illegal' (such a dirty word, theres nothing wrong with it, except for the fact that the US did a Job that the UN was supposed to do) war in Iraq? Do what the Government did to pay for WW2 and Korea - Sell 'War' bonds.

But this isn't about the war in Iraq, it's about politics... Many Democrats across the country swear that Gore won the election in 2000. To them I say this: The independant recounts done by the free press, which normally supports Democrats and not Republican, by the way, showed the Bush won the popular vote in Florida by 300 or so votes. As a matter of fact, the USA Today recount noted that the only way they could count Gore as a winner was when they counted dimpled chads on ballots with a clear vote for Bush. And now this election they are already starting to claim that it was rigged. Need I remind them that some of the most famous vote-rigging schemes were done by the Democrats in the early part of the 20th century? And all because Bush won it again.

I say enoguh with this bullshit. I am not affiliated with any political party, I am a responsible voter, always voting my conscience. This year I did not vote because I did not like any of the candidates for President. Yet I will stand behind whoever the president is, whether I voted for him or not, and support him (or her) and give that person the respect that the office of the President of the United States of America deserves. But I will not blindly follow the president. I will criticize him if the need arises, hell, I will vote to impeach him if the time ever comes when such is a possibility.

I am an American - I say that America needs to come together again and stop listening to the media - they skew the stories to what they want people to hear, and what they think people want to hear. They do this for commercial reasons and no other. The mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? A headline only because it involved American troops. For years Saddam Hussein did worse to the prisoners there. A carbomb set off by a militant muslim faction kills American soldiers? It's only news because it will raise outrage and make the public see the war the way the media wants it seen. An Iraqi family greets a squad of American soldiers and thanks them for getting rid of Saddm Hussein. It doesn't make the newspapers at all, but happens more often than a soldier gets killed.

Thats gonna be it for this entry, I'm starting to get angry about it all, and that is no good for the rant.

My Game

2004-11-01T13:32:40Z

Finally have a working title for the game and quite a bit of information on the layout of the member classes that need to be coded, but have yet to start actually writing the code because the storyline is still the vague plot outline I started with and nobody has (as yet) stepped forward with anything more than the list I recently touched up that has a description of the needed classes and what each one should do. There is also the question of how to pass in game messages through the various objects - I'm not sure, but CEL might accomplish this already... it might also be good to have a back up system designed just in case.

Now I've never been a big fan of C++ - to me the language is a nasty hack that removes a lot of the freedom that the original gave to the programmer. (Truthfully I personally feel that C++ was designed as one mans way of forcing others to program the way he felt was best (like Wirth did with PASCAL)) Because I've never been a big fan of C++ (and have trouble thinking in a strictly linear fashion as C++ requires) I do need the help determing what kinds of public, private and protected member variables and functions a C++ class should have. (Last time I tried to write something in C++ the class wound up a nasty mess that didn't always do what I thought it would)

Anyway, as I've said before, if you want to help, just send me a mail with the words 'Help on the game' in one form or another as part of the subject to 'shadowwolf@postinbox.com' and I'll add you to the growing list of people that get information about the game. I'm also looking for a way to set up a mailing list with information about this game... Since this is an Open Source project and I have no way to pay for a dedicated server to host the list it would have to be one of the free ones out there. (I have thought about setting up a Yahoo! group, but decided against it because I disagree with Yahoo!'s policy of shutting down groups that have any complaints lodged against them. (And since I know I can be a real asshole at times, I am sure someone would file a complaint about the group the first time it happened.)

Well, thats about all I have to say for today. Have fun and don't hurt anyone (unless they want you to).

Tolerance (Among other things)

2004-10-29T00:38:43Z

These days it seems that people throw reasons at me for rants. If it isn't somebody being uncommonly rude about something, its a complaint about the way somebody else is acting. Now I have never been one to have trouble getting along with people - I find that the older I get, the easier it gets for me to tolerate what would previously have been intolerable attitudes. Chief among these is the belief of people that have homosexual friends that anyone who even looks at said friend the wrong way is homophobic and possibly a 'gay-basher'.

I may not agree with the homosexual lifestyle (for religous reasons) but I am in no way intolerant. I used to work with a gay man named Mike... I have a shirt that has a stick-figure representation of gay men having sex that is overlayed with the universal slashed red circle. Other, straight, friends of his thought it was wrong, but he loved it. Said it was one of the funniest shirts he'd seen... And then there are those people who don't understand some aspects of a reason behind a statement that seems homophobic, like the one that set off this micro-rant.

There I am sitting in one of my favorite channels on IRC and here comes someone I haven't seen for months. Turns out he's joined the military and is now worried about being assigned to Ft. Bragg. When someone suggested he tell someone he is gay he refused outright. The first reason being that he isn't gay, the second being that he feels it'd be more respectable to get discharged for other reasons and the third being the dangers of having to wait through a month of out-processing while tagged as a homosexual. The first reason I respect - he wont claim to be something he isn't. The third I can understand, since there is a long tradition against homosexuality in the US military starting at almost its inception. The third I agree with, not because of the long wait, but because it is dangerous for anyone to be branded gay in the military. I tried the army once myself and found a (not so easy) way out - I failed all the physical fitness tests purposefully. But during the nearly three months I was a member of the US Army I witnessed no less that 3 'blanket parties' (and kept my mouth shut, not wanting one myself) handed out to suspected homosexuals. These resulted in stays at the base hospital for the victims, several of whom suffered more than one broken rib.

Now I know that things like that are not supposed to happen, and I know that keeping my mouth shut about them was not the right thing to do, but when faced with a situation where it was my life or keep quiet, I kept quiet. So in thinking about the statement the person made, I agreed whole-heartedly that staying anywhere on a military base after having been labelled 'homosexual' is not something anyone wants to do.

As for the rest of it - the shocking lack of tolerance among those people that scream the most for it is abhorring. I have lived in ghettos, and have to say that most of the residents of them, no matter what color the skin, do nothing to remove the (sometimes all too real) labels and stereotypes applied to them. And then they will yell and scream about racism or intolerance when someone points out the fact that they fit those stereotypes. Now that I've removed myself from city life and the madness that follows I've had time to realise just how screwed up that is...

Think about this for a bit. Go ahead, think...

Remember, Responses are welcome. Flames will be read then fed to /dev/null (unless I find them funny. I might dedicate an update to them one of these days.)

Marketroids run rampant

2004-10-27T23:21:53Z

As many of my freinds know much of my time is spent researching 3D games, game engines and technology because I hope to one day create a game using an engine I've written. In all the time that I've been doing this I never once found out why some companies want a lot of money for what really is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to game engines. Consider 3D game studio - a commercial game engine with a lot going for it that was released in February of 2004 (http://www.3dgamestudio.com/) - you get the whole package and a year of tech support for $899. Now I'm not trying to push the product (hell, I wouldn't get it because it's windos specific) but for what it offers that is an excellent price. Now look at the AMP 2 engine ( http://www.4drulers.com/amp.html ) - it has only a 2 more perks to it than the 3D Game Studio engine but to get the same package it's $40,000. This screams 'marketroid put in charge of pricing' to me, since this seems to be more than the market will bear, considering the number of engines available that have lower pricing and are of the same or better quality. Another test case or two might be prudent - let's look at the pricing of 'Jupiter' ( http://www.lithtech.com/JInfo.htm ) (this is the engine behind No One Lives Forever 2 and Tron 2.0) - as feature complete as a game can be, and the mid-line in pricing at $10,000 . The next engine is called 'Eternity' ( http://www.tsgroup-inc.com/Eternity/index.htm ) and offers about half the features of any engine previously mentioned, but is priced at $99,000 - an astronomical price for an engine that would require the purchaser to do twice the amount of work to get the same job done. The final engine I'm going to mention is called the 'Torque Game Engine' ( http://www.garagegames.com/pg/product/view.php?id=1 ) and is the engine that powered Tribes, Starsiege and Tribes 2. At $495 this engine is the cheapest one to license that I've come across (that isn't covered under the GPL or some other 'free' license) - and even being that cheap it matches the quality offered by the most feature complete engines I've profiled.

So there is definitely something wrong in the world today. Suits want the company they work for to make money, and when it comes to software houses, that money comes from their products. But when a Suit hands a marketroid a product and the marketroid is as lazy as most are then you wind up with the aforementioned problem - namely products so highly priced and lacking of features that no self-respecting programmer would touch them without threats from suits. Not only that, but only a Suit ever equates quality with price - it's in their nature, as most suits have never had to clean up the mess when a 'highly priced' piece of software crashes because it was confused with a 'good' piece of software.