In Broad Daylight

Welcome back. Intentional blackout is over but I saw this on my Twitter feed and it's a good and practical idea which undermines SOPA, protests it in a different form, and makes some internet users a little more knowledgable. Copied and pasted from moojo's tumblr, via aprilstar-dance, meghanalefae, somuchlovesomuchhate, moojo, homestuckfandom, special-k-art and socialistguineapigs, and perhaps originating from Pastie.org or techremedy.com, it's....

SOPA Emergency IP list:

So if these politicians in DC decide to
ruin the internet, here’s how to access your favorite sites in the event of a DNS takedown

• • This List (at techremedy.com) 173.236.92.100/SOPA.php
  • tumblr.com 174.121.194.34
  • wikipedia.org 208.80.152.201
• # News
  • bbc.co.uk 212.58.241.131
  • aljazeera.com 198.78.201.252
  • RT 62.213.111.202
• # Social media
  • reddit.com 72.247.244.88
  • imgur.com 173.231.140.219
  • google.com 74.125.157.99
  • youtube.com 74.125.65.91
  • yahoo.com 98.137.149.56
  • hotmail.com 65.55.72.135
  • bing.com 65.55.175.254
  • digg.com 64.191.203.30
  • theonion.com 97.107.137.164
  • hush.com 65.39.178.43
  • gamespot.com 216.239.113.172
  • ign.com 69.10.25.46
  • cracked.com 98.124.248.77
  • sidereel.com 144.198.29.112
  • github.com 207.97.227.239
• # Torrent sites
  • thepiratebay.org 194.71.107.15
  • mininova.com 80.94.76.5
  • btjunkie.com 93.158.65.211
  • demonoid.com 62.149.24.66
  • demonoid.me 62.149.24.67
• # Social networking
  • facebook.com 69.171.224.11
  • twitter.com 199.59.149.230
  • tumblr.com 174.121.194.34
  • livejournal.com 209.200.154.225
  • dreamwidth.org 69.174.244.50
• # Live Streaming Content
  • stickam.com 67.201.54.151
  • blogtv.com 84.22.170.149
  • justin.tv 199.9.249.21
  • chatroulette.com 184.173.141.231
  • omegle.com 97.107.132.144
  • own3d.tv 208.94.146.80
  • megavideo.com 174.140.154.32
• # Television
  • gorillavid.com 178.17.165.74
  • videoweed.com 91.220.176.248
  • novamov.com 91.220.176.248
  • tvlinks.com 208.223.219.206
  • 1channel.com 208.87.33.151
• # Shopping
  • amazon.com 72.21.211.176
  • newegg.com 216.52.208.187
  • frys.com 209.31.22.39
• # File Sharing
  • mediafire.com 205.196.120.13
  • megaupload.com 174.140.154.20
  • fileshare.com 208.87.33.151
  • multiupload.com 95.211.149.7
  • uploading.com 195.191.207.40
  • warez-bb.org 31.7.57.13
  • hotfile.com 199.7.177.218
  • gamespy.com 69.10.25.46
  • what.cd 67.21.232.223
  • warez.ag 178.162.238.136
  • putlocker.com 89.238.130.247
  • uploaded.to 95.211.143.200
  • dropbox.com 199.47.217.179
  • pastebin.com 69.65.13.216

Once you have the IP for a website, all you really
need to do is enter it like you would
a normal URL and hit enter/press go. Typing in
“208.85.240.231”
should bring you to the front page of AO3,
for example, just as typing “174.121.194.34/dashboard”
should bring you straight to your Tumblr dashboard.
Since we’re obviously bracing for the worst case scenario
which would involve you not being
able to access the internet regularly, you should,
save this list.

A little more information: The name, on the left, is what you'd normally type in your browser address bar (or save in a bookmark). The numbers on the right are the actual address (like a phone number) of the site. To use them, open your web browser and instead of typing, for example, http://www.bbc.co.uk, you would type http://212.58.241.131. (you may not need the http://)

If you have other sites not on this list which you use often, you can use ping or nslookup, as described below, to find out the IP addresses of those sites now. If SOPA breaks DNS (the internet phonebook), ping and nslookup will no longer be reliable in the future.

In Windows, open a command prompt: in Windows XP, click start, run, type "cmd.exe" and hit enter; in Windows 7 click the start button and type "cmd.exe" or "Command Prompt" in the search box and choose the appropriate item from the list of results. At the command prompt, type "ping [website host name]" for example: "ping nzherald.co.nz" (without the quotes) and hit enter. The address will be shown in the first line of the response. Alternatively, type "nslookup [website host name]", ignore the two lines beginning "Server:" and look for "Name: [website host name]" and the "Address:" line underneath it.

This will not work for many sites which use "Virtual Hosting". That is, the same IP address is used for several sites (including this one). In the phone number analogy: in addition to having the correct number to call, you also need to tell whoever answers at the other end, the name of the person you actually want to speak with. You can get around this by editing your Hosts file. That topic is covered, for example, here but don't do it yet.

Further to my November posts about my insurance company, I have done some research about the options in NZ. The following, fyi, are my observations:

Beginning from the Members page of the NZ Insurance Council:
http://icnz.org.nz/about/members.php
I have classified companies into acceptable (mutual, NZ owned) and not acceptable (limited liability company, owned by overseas parent company etc).

No account has been taken of claims rating at this stage.

Acceptable?:

• Medical Assurance Society (mas.co.nz) - a mutual, mainly for medical professionals. BUT: only "professionals" are accepted as members. Elitist?
• Farmers' Mutual Group (fmg.co.nz) - a mutual, mainly for rural. BUT: board has focus on Dairy industry, one of the biggest polluters in NZ
• Civic - owned by Local Government, BUT: only insures local govt and CCOs. /li>

Not Sure:

• Ansvar - australian subsidiary of Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc (UK). speciallises in "Faith, Not-For-Profit, Care, Education, Heritage sectors"
• Pacific International - ? Information vague. Probably not a mutual though.

Not Acceptable:

• ACE - part of ACE Group
• AMI - recently bought by IAG
• Allianz - subsidiary of Allianz Group, (Allianz AG, Munich) formerly
  MMI.
• Combined Insurance - owned by ACE Insurance (part of the ACE Group of, more or less, USA) Founded by an interesting character.
• Chartis - part of Chartis Inc (worldwide)
• Vero - owns SIS, AA Insurance, AMP and Axiom
• Tower - listed on stock exchange, demutualised in 1999.
• State - owned by IAG NZ, a wholy owned subsidiary of Insurance Australia Group
• NZI - a business division of IAG NZ
• Lumley - owned by Wesfarmers ("one of Australia's largest public companies"... "including coal mining, gas processing... chemical and fertliser manufacture")

The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant has apparently been economical with the truth when it reported cracking in the concrete shield building to the public. Reports to the Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC) apparently detail more extensive and more serious cracking than was publicised.

The concrete building is not decorative. It is the last layer of containment of radioactive material in an accident, as well as the first line of defence against external attack (a plane crash or a missile, for example).

The reader is especially recommended (if they have time) to read the NRC's report on a serious incident at that plant in 2002 (linked below the second photo in the above page) or, if it's too long and technical, skip down to the pictures starting on page 14, and accept this summary:

The problem in that case, was that the entire thickness of the reactor pressure vessel head (6.5 inches of carbon steel) had been eroded away by boric acid escaping through cracks in a through-head nozzle. The radioactive high-pressure steam (about 150 atmospheres, 315degC/600degF) was only contained within the pressure vessel by a thin layer of stainless steel (and a big dose of luck). The corrosion was only discovered by lucky accident, when the cracked nozzle was being repaired. Both boric acid corrosion and cracks in through-head nozzles were potential problems in plants of this design, which had been known about since 1988. However the company (and, it seems, the industry in general) downplayed the risk of them occurring, neglected "recommended" inspections to check for their occurrence, and delayed the repair of the cracks in the nozzle for economic reasons: a plant shutdown is expensive.

That incident is instructive in the mindset of the plant operating company, the industry, and the regulators. It is also instructive in the way that 'economics' tends to reduce the margin of safety.

How to care deeply and be fully open, without being attached? How to fight(?) for what I think is right(?), without any violence? How to take action, but rest in choiceless awareness? Nietzschean powerful individual (if not the übermensch, at least the bridge?), or Taoist No-thing? Ego, or no ego? Hard work, or effortlessness? Dive in, or drop out? Solitude or social animal?

Nothing like a spoonful of humour to mitigate the horrific truth. (all -> Cracked.com)

6 Things Everyone Knows About Women (That Aren't True)

5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think

6 Insane Conspiracies Hiding Behind Non-Profit Groups

7 Nuclear Weapon Screw-Ups You Won't Believe We Survived

This will be irrelevant to almost everyone (or relevant to almost no-one), but I am documenting it because I could find absolutely no other information about the problem on the internet.

Problem:
Windows XP (XP SP3) virtual machine under Windows 7 SP1 (may apply to other environments)
Visual Basic 6 (VB6) SP6
Sheridan Month/Year/Date Combo (sscala32.ocx) v1.08 (also reproduced with 1.04)

When a program with an SSDateCombo is run in the IDE, the date display is squares (unprintable characters) and gibberish, although the dropdown correctly shows a legible month view, and the .Text and .DateValue properties are valid and usable. When the program was compiled and the compiled program was run (not in the IDE), the date was displayed correctly. None of the other controls in that OCX showed any problems.

Solution: a vb6.exe.manifest file had earlier been created (e.g. http://vbnet.mvps.org/index.html?code/forms/vbidexp.htm), to give programs running in the IDE the XP look. Removing or renaming this file before opening the VB IDE, restored correct function to the SSDateCombo.

I have received a polite but firm negative reply from AMI in response to my letter (http://www.chaos.org.nz/?q=node/367). Also saw this: AMI capital raising process 'coming to an end'(->TVNZ) from which I deduce that "recapitalisation" is a euphemism for selling itself off to a bigger, nastier corporation.

So there will be a parting of the ways. Which is a bit sad, since I have had no other complaints with that company and had accumulated a pretty good no-claims bonus. Well, whatever. It's only insurance. One less corporate entanglement.

9th of November 2011

Dear AMI,
I notice in a pamphlet you sent out some time ago, that you have engaged the services of Goldman Sachs for advice for “privately recapitalising the company”.

I would like you to cease all business dealings with Goldman Sachs and its subsidiaries, as that company has shown itself to be amoral, deceptive and generally not a good citizen of the world. It played a significant role in causing the on-going financial crisis by, for example, selling financial products it knew were bad and incorrectly rated, to institutional investors such as pension funds, while betting against them, and profiting both ways. It is increasing the hardship of millions of people, while again profiting itself, by its central role in commodities (futures) trading which, it seems, is the main factor in driving up basic commodity prices world-wide, affecting most those who can least afford it.

I have no doubt that they are very good at what they do, but what they do seems bad to me. I also understand that they are not the only company acting in this way, but that does not make its behaviour right. I do not trust Goldman Sachs to give advice which is in your best interests or in mine, and I do not want to support any of their activities with fees paid, presumably, from my insurance premiums.

Please let me know when you have severed all ties with Goldman Sachs. If you do not do so, I will terminate my policies with you.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

"All advanced thinkers, all men who realize the divine plan, desire and intend the solidarity of humanity; and the patriot in the narrow and infuriated sense of that word is a traitor to the true interest of man. It may be neccessary, now and then, to defend one's own section of mankind from aggression; but even this should always be done with the mental reservation: "May this war be the nurse of a more solid peace; may this argument lead to a better understanding; may this division lead to a higher union."... The deliberate antagonizing of nations is the foulest of crimes. It is the Press of the warring nations that, by inflaming the passions of the ignorant, has set Europe by the ears [i.e. WWII - ed]. Had all men been educated and travelled, they would not have listened to those harpy-shreiks. Now the mischief is done, and it is for us to repair it as best we may. This must be our motto: "Humanity First." "

(Source: Aleister Crowley, The Revival Of Magick- Preface "Humanity First" Falcon Publications/OTO 1998, via fUSION Anomaly)

Both from Tech Universe (->NZHerald)

A remote-controlled ball which can hover (including hover against things, unlike, say, a conventional helicopter) or fly at speed Article describes it as a "sphere" but that gives the impression of a _solid_ sphere which made me think that it used some exotic method for levitation. In fact it is a spherical framework enclosing a conventional vertical-axis propellor and some control vanes (avoiding the need for a tail rotor) but it's still interesting to watch. http://www.sciencenewsblog.com/blog/102520114

A pair of legs with no motors, sensors or power source which, if pushed or put on a slight downward slope, will walk continuously. (the pusher, or gravity, respectively, provides the energy for the walking movement. The cleverness is in designing a structure which translates the falling-forwards into a walking movement. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/101525-bluebiped-a-human-like-walking...