Owner: tasthius.com URL:http://tasthius.com Join Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:43:51 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: An incredulous eye on current events, from the mouth of a polymath. Other topics include philosophy, science, as well as various musings on the movies and T.V. Site statistics:Click here
First AT&T, Now Verizon, in Bed With NSA 2008-03-07 01:49:58 A whistle-blower named Babak Pasdar, who works as a network security analyst for Verizon
, recently discovered that his company has a direct and secret DS3 line that allows the most sensitive customer data to be fed directly to an “unknown third party” located in Quantico, VA in real time. When he told his [...] Read more:First
Cover Your Tracks in Linux, Part III 2008-03-05 18:03:00 Encryption is perhaps the best way to secure data on a PC. Though it is not bullet proof, with the proper precautions it can be the closest thing to it. Read more:Cover
, Linux
Cover Your Tracks on Linux Part II 2008-02-14 15:04:09 In part one, I covered how to set up KDE and Firefox so that your Internet activities would not be cached on your system. In this post, I am going to go over a few basic disk wiping procedures in case you find yourself worrying about your private corporate data, personal credit card info, [...] Read more:Cover
, Linux
Cover Your Tracks on Linux, Part I 2008-02-13 01:21:03 If you use Linux
and wish to keep your desktop machine more or less free of any traces of your activity, there are a few techniques I have picked up which may be of some benefit. Assuming you aren’t a secret agent working clandestinely in a technologically sophisticated foreign country and assuming you don’t [...] Read more:Cover
An Ode to The Message Board Authoritarians 2008-02-04 16:52:30 Ever since the dawn of the online world for the private individual, one thing has remained constant: people love to get online and discuss myriad of topics with other people from all over the world. This is a good thing. However, the liberated Internet poster still has to deal with the Internet authoritarians who [...] Read more:Message
, Board
America vs. The World in Broadband Internet 2008-02-01 19:46:41 I recently acquired a home broadband Internet
connection from a cable company, who happens to be the only cable company operating in my area. Although DSL is available in the general area, it is not available to my home. Even though I feel like I am now in a whole new world online [...] Read more:World
, America
Switching to Linux For Good 2008-01-28 00:16:42 I have tinkered with various Linux
distros over the past five years, but have been imprisoned in Windows for several years now. Now, with the growing number of distros and with the ever increasing ease of installation, this has changed. I am making the transition away from Micro$oft for good. Read more:Switching
Can We Really Trust Big Drugs? 2008-01-15 08:52:36 According to a new study on the widely used cholesterol blocking drug “Vytorin,” the drug is not effective in one of its two major roles — reducing the build-up of plague in the arteries. Read more:Drugs
Home Schooling and Government Regulation 2008-01-12 12:41:24 It appears that various “experts” within the big education industry are clamoring for yet more government regulation in another area of the lives of Americans. In the wake of the death of four children who just so happened to be home schooled, it appears these “experts” are using an underhanded non-sequitar argument in order [...] Read more:Schooling
, Government
, Regulation
, Home Schooling
Obama’s William Ayers Problem 2008-03-10 05:04:01 Barack Obama
is in the middle of a number embarrassing revelations relating to the identities of some of his controversial supporters, and these revelations may just be explosive enough for his rival, Hillary, to eat him alive. Read more:William
, Problem
More NAFTA Garbage 2008-03-08 13:52:03 This opinion piece from The Boston Herald shows exactly how King George II is able to dupe the American public into believing that NAFTA has worked. “We have created 2 million jobs” says King George II. All the blame can’t be put on King George, of course. NAFTA was signed into law under Klinton. Read more:Garbage
Big Brother Or Early April Fool’s Joke? 2008-03-21 00:07:09 I’ve heard people say that the biggest threat to privacy are the big corporations trying to target consumers for advertising (as opposed to the government spy programs). We know this already happens with ISP’s selling Internet browsing habits to advertisers. Now it might go a step further with cable T.V. companies getting in the [...] Read more:Brother
, Early
, April
, Big Brother
God’s Perfect Circle: Or Is It? 2008-04-26 08:11:59 God is an amoral God (do not confuse this with immoral). God has set the laws of the universe in motion and has allowed it to take the course therein programmed. If people suffer, it is of no consequence to God since it was in his divine “cosmic syntax” to allow these events to occur. [...] Read more:Perfect
, Circle
, Perfect Circle
Warning: Sergeant’s “SentryPro XFC” 2008-05-05 21:08:11 In order to avoid spending $50 on Frontline’s excellent anti flea and tick medication for my dog, I decided to pick up a little known brand that is manufactured by Sergeant
’s (SentryPro XFC). “It’s great stuff, better than Frontline” the pet store employee told me. Little did I know that in putting [...]
It’s Been A While 2008-06-04 19:50:36 It’s been nearly a month since my last post. I try to maintain a routine posting habit, but have fallen off a bit. So, I apologize to my millions of fans.
I have been experimenting a bit with my newly built PC that I have loaded with PCLinuxOS, which is perhaps the best [...]
There Is No Need For AV On Linux 2008-06-15 03:55:04 It is often said that the only reason viruses and malware are not a problem in the Unix/Linux
world is because these OS’s don’t hold the market share that Windows does, and are thus not as big of a target. Unsurprisingly, most of the parrots on the Internet who echo this line of balderdash [...]
A Short Treatise of a “Cynic” 2008-06-15 01:33:03 I am often called a cynic by many of those that know me. I disagree with such labels, as I consider myself more of a “realist,” or more appropriately, a skeptic.
As I have explained in other posts on this site, I believe nothing; that is, often times even empirical observation is not enough to thoroughly [...] Read more:Short
Proposed Senate Bill Unintentionally Illustrates Why Open-Source Is The Future 2008-06-17 01:48:15 As Microsoft and other proprietary software companies begin implementing more and more restrictions (often restrictions that invade privacy) within operating systems and software applications, it is no wonder that the open-source software community has seen an increase in adoption from mainstream desktop users. As Linux/BSD and other Unix based operating systems become easier and [...] Read more:Senate
, Source
, Future