This post has been brought to you By Windows 7, And trying to set it up to work happily with a Gentoo Server & Linux NAS.
Well, Just trying to get it to work in a useful productive way really. Or put simply, in deference to Microsoft, to just not FAIL.
I have now finished watching “The Cape” and as such I need to revisit and update my review of the show. If you recall the original Review you will no doubt remember that I said “Anyone who likes action shows, or superhero shows will Like this show a lot. ” Well I need to update that view.
The show was originally designed to be a thirteen part season, unfortunately it was cancelled after just ten of the thirteen episodes were filmed. And as such they never made the extra three. And as such they never finish the story off, and leave many questions unanswered. You never see where they were taking different story lines, and it leaves you as the viewer unsatisfied at the end.
for example:-
They start a Orwell ark with her loosing it slightly, painting everything white, and loosing herself in her mind. They start this just as season ends so never goes anywhere.
The Carnival of Crime are apparently training the Cape so they can use him in some big, dangerous, mysterious way that they hint at but never tell you.
In fact the final episode feels more like a penultimate, episode, or at least a penultimate to a two part season ending.
All in all I feel let down by the show, and would advise people not to bother watching it.
Unless you have been living in a small cave half way up an inhospitable mounting for the last month you would have heard of the News of the World (NotW) Phone Hacking Scandal. It’s especially bad if you live in the UK.
If you are that cave dwelling hermit let me say “How the frak are you reading this post? Did you follow the article on reading blogs on kindles? How have you got internet access? inquiring minds want to know!” *relax* I mean to say, that this scandal is about slime masquerading as reports who accessed a vast (possible 4,000) number of people’s (Celebrity’s, Sports Stars, Politicians, Victims of Crime) answer phone messages. Now there was such an amount of this going on that the paper has closed down after 168years in print.
I have no intention of writing about the incident itself, or any of the fallout, or anything directly in relation to this case. That has been covered in depth all over the Internet & Surviving media. What I would like to address is the term thrown about “Phone Hacking Scandal“. Why must everyone insist on calling it Hacking?
*NOTE: Phone Hacking is referred to as Phreaking
No where in any of the reports is any activity mentioned that even faintly falls into the category of “Hacking” under any definition. Even if you take the original definition of Hacking, as in using some piece of technology or item in a way that was different to the intended use. Or knowing or wanting to learn about the inner working of different things, you still can not fit the term “Hacker” or “Hacking” to what the NotW reporters actually did.
What they did was to access peoples voicemail’s. Yes this is wrong, its an intrusion of privacy, it’s probably illegal as “unauthorised to personal communication” but it is not Hacking. They phoned up the voicemail number, and using the Victims phone number, and the generic default pin number accessed they voice mail system in the way it was intended to, in the way we all access it, they just did it without the Victims permission.
Surely it should be called “illegal phone tapping” or “illegal access to mail” or by whatever legal term it is for the crime they committed. The media like using the term Hacker to scare the public about these faceless super-criminals with secret abilities that let them to do almost anything. I think its time to stop the mass-hysteria and excessive incorrect use of this term.
We do not call someone who sticks a plaster on a small graze a Doctor, We do not call the small child playing with a plastic gun in the street a terrorist, and we should not call someone who phones up a publicised phone number and follows the instructions the recorded message tells them a Hacker.
Come on Media People, Your reputation is tarnished over this NotW incident, don’t make it worse by not doing your homework, and just falling into your old scaremongering ways.
The Three Ninjas saying a few words about the misappropriation of the term “Hacker“. To quote Randal from Clerks II. “I’m taking it back”
The last couple of nights I’ve been watching “The Cape”, I’m about halfway through the series. (Well Technically I am exactly half way through having watched 5 of 10 episodes). And since this show is starting on UK television next week, I thought I’d review what I’ve seen so far to aid people deciding if they want to watch it or not.
For those of you who have not seen any of the trailers, or heard anything about this show I guess I better give you a quick plot outline.
The series follows Vince Faraday, a police officer in the fictional Palm City, who is framed for a series of crimes committed by a mysterious villain named Chess and is left for dead after being caught. He is taken in by Max Malini, the ringleader of a circus who trains him with the special abilities of a superhero. Determined to clear his name and be reunited with his family, Faraday takes on the guise of his son’s favorite comic book hero, the Cape
Basically Good cop in a city of dirty cops, gets disillusioned and tries to make a difference. He’s set up by his best friend, framed as the master villain, and left for dead. Luckily he is rescued by “The Carnival of Crime” a bunch of circus performers who use their skills to rob banks. They teach him their skills, equip him with a almost magical cloak, and help? him clear his name and bring down the real criminal mastermind.
Now as I stated I am half way through the series and I am enjoying it immensely, it has both the necessary action mixed with the correct amount of comedy to make it a very enjoyable series. For example, The cape foils a stickup in a store, the owner thanks him and asks is he some kind of super hero, to which the Cape replies “I’m The Cape!” the store owner looks at him and replies “you can work on the name“.
Anyone who likes action shows, or superhero shows will Like this show a lot. Unless maybe you are a worshipper of the Dark Knight, where you may see this as a poorly done rip off. You disagree? Lets compare :-. (more…)
In an attempt to persuade more tourists to Wales, The AIJMU think tank team came up with a new flag design, after deciding the old flag’s dragon was a bit to scary looking.
The new flag they feel is more user friendly, implies a happier, kinder country to encourage tourists.
I thought I would share this incident that happened yesterday, since it has a happy ending, and I think on a Wednesday we need happy endings.
Yesterday morning before I left to head to the Insane Asylum I popped over to my Parents house to feed their dog since they were away. I open up the house, feed the dog, and get set to let him out for the day when I spotted a note on their whiteboard.
“I made pasta and there’s some in the fridge if you want it for dinner.”
Seems my Nephew had made a load of tuna-pasta-mayonnaise to take to work with him, and had a load leftover so put it in the fridge for me to have if I wanted. So I figured “why not!” it would make a change, so I grabbed it and left.
Unfortunately when I came to eat it during my Lunch break I found it very dry, lacking flavour, and not that good at all. But it was still a very nice thing my Nephew did for me.
Now as I went back to Parents after work to feed the Dog again (they were not due back till late that night) I was hoping I could get In&Out without meeting the Nephew so I would not have to say what I thought of the food.
NO SUCH LUCK!
He was standing outside the door to their place as I arrived. *arse.. feck.. drink!* I thought as I approached “here boy.. lets get you fed” I called to the dog and tried to speed walk past the Nephew as if I was busy with dog.
Nephew: “HI.. Did you find that pasta I left for you?”
GN: “err Yes, thanks!” *don’t ask, don’t ask don’t ask*
Nephew: “what did you think of it?…….”
GN: *ARSE ARSE ARSE ARSE*
Nephew: “because I thought it was very dry and not very nice, I’m not sure what went wrong”
GN: *Thank you Gods* “Yes, it was a bit dry”
So luckily he also thought there was something not right about it, so I did not hurt his feelings by agreeing with him.
The guys over at Buzby have been busy again. This time they have been considering “SECURITY” which I think is a very Important & Valid thing to be considering (Especially these days) Only I think they need to do some more work on it.
For example, they are concerned about sending customer data back and too to their CP’s. Now this I can understand, you would not like the idea of your personal details being handed about freely over the net. So this is how the details are now securely transferred.
I as a CP upload some data over SFTP to their sever, their systems runs on the data and does what I request (All nice and secure so far). I then have access (again by SFTP) to an output file telling me which records worked, if there was any errors, etc.
Only now I get an email to tell me if there is any problem with any records. But what if my email is compromised? its not very secure so they put the text they are sending me in a file, ZIP it up with a password protection and email me the password protected file. And then at the same time send me another email with the password to the file in it. So if my email had been compromised they person would be unable to access the file since the password was in a separate email.
In theory sending the data in locked files is good, but it should be with an agreed on password so the password does not get emailed. Or maybe a PGP encrypted email? Or I could just collect the file over SFTP which was set up wit certificates, encryption, blah, blah, blah.
I’m sorry, I’m all for trying to improve security (I need to hurt one of the drones at the Insane Asylum and point out his passwords are retarded) But emailing the password to a secure zip file to the same email address, at the same time? Madness.
Also, they are not very long passwords, I’m sure a zip password recovery program would access it in no time at all. (I may test that and tell them how easy it was to access the file without the password)
I do give them ★★ (2 Stars) for at least considering security!
Before I review the Green Lantern film, I should point out my history with the Character. I personally think this is an important fact that should be supplied before people review comic inspired movies. Since Your prior experience will affect your personal views on the film. So for fairness, I shall start off with the following statement:
I never read any of the comic’s, Graphic Novels, or anything like that. My whole understanding of the character is from the two animated films “Green Lantern: First Flight” and “Green Lantern: Emerald Knights“. So I started the film with just the basic understanding of the origin of the Green Lantern.
The film starts with an ancient evil escaping from his prison, and heading out for revenge (As ancient evil’s tend to do). Which invariably leads to the death of some Green Lanterns, the destruction of several planets, and a short fight with the “Apparently” Greatest living Lantern, injuring him beyond repair and forcing him to crash on earth to find a successor to the ring. Enter “Hal Jordan” a cocky, young, risk taking, unreliable test pilot. As you can guess, the ring picks Hal since it can sense something in him that he doesn not realise is there.
I shall stop here and say that Ryan Reynolds plays the part well, But then does he ever fail at a role?
So Hal gets given a ring and the instructions that he should hold it to the lantern and say the oath. You know the oath “In brightest day, in blackest night,: No evil shall escape my sight: Let those who worship evil’s might,: Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!” Only the alien dies before he can tell Hal the actual oath, which leads to several attempts like the “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America“, “To infinity and beyond?“, “By the power of Grayskull!” Eventually I think the ring gets bored and plants the correct oath into his mind.
So our Hero ends up being transported through space to the home of the Lanterns, where he finds out what’s going on, starts his training which he fails miserably, is told he is a waste, and an insult to the memory of his rings previous owner. Disheartened but believing he is not worthy, Hal returns to earth. Unfortunately a scientist who examined the body of the x-lantern has become infected with the ancient evil, and things start to go wrong on earth. “how wrong?” oh, the ancient evil decided he would eat earth to gain more power before going to get his revenge.
“Don’t worry right? The Green Lantern Core, the Universes defenders will help us?” No. sorry, they are gathering their forces to defend their base and have one last fight, it’s not all bad they said they would be upset at the loss of earth, but its not like its a decent planet or anything. If only earth had a defender!
Yes, you guessed it, Hal man’s up. He finally realises that even hero’s know fear and its OK. so he single-handedly takes on the ancient evil. WOO HOO.
So all in all this is your typical movie, Guy is a unreliable person whose going nowhere in his life, something happens, he learns an important life lesson and saves the day. Only all that with super powers, aliens, and space 🙂
There is a nice setup to a second film in the series, with a end clip of a lantern switching from Green to Yellow. Yes I know if you are a comic book fan you spotted a lot of “other” possibilities like the Sapphire core logo, sapphire herself, and other things, I did not since I have never read the series, although in looking things up after watching this movie, I am tempted.
So I enjoyed this film, it had action, excitement, good effects, and an actual plot. The acting was good, it had Ryan Reynolds, just the right underline of comedy and slight throwaway geeky references. I know you can enjoy this film if you are not already a fan of the franchise, and I would think if you were a fan it sticks close enough to the cannon that you will not be disappointed. Hey you can also go see it with a newbie (Such as myself) and help point out the Easter eggs.
Let me end by saying this movie has inspired me to consider reading a few of the graphic novels.
Just Wishing one and All A Happy *INSERT NAME OF CHOICE HERE* Day.
Summer Solstice @ Stonehenge
Last week we here at the Ninja Temple got our hands on two tickets to See Take That live in concert. Basically GothNinja (Myself) Won them from a competition that came with my new phone. Now none of us wanted to go see them, since we are all male, straight, with a reasonable taste in music 🙂
CN: “Just Joking. Please Don’t take offence!”
GN: “Yes, Just joking. MN has a lousy taste in music”
Anyway, since none of us wanted the tickets our thought was to offer them as a prize in a competition we could run on this site & twitter/Facebook. Unfortunately the tickets were for this Thursday (In Glasgow) which did not give us enough time to get the tickets shipped to us, then out to the winner. Also due to the short notice they decided to just leave the tickets in my name at the box-office, which you will need photo ID to collect.
So We’re sorry, especially to all Take That fans who were unable to get tickets to any of the shows, and now hear that we have two tickets that will not be used.
We will try and make it up to you guys, and try and organise some competition with a suitable prize in the near future!
The Three Ninjas.
