Are You Ready To Get Your Geek On?

Are you geek chic?

The WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) is a (fictional?) machine that calculates all of the possible outcomes of various types of warfare, and if the nuclear football is activated, and The Button is pressed, it bypasses those guys with their keys in the missile silos and...

Anyway, I've only been able to find it in one place. http://wopr.adelphos.org/ But if you wan't to talk to "Joshua", you'll need telnet. It's an included utility on most Windows, Linux, and Mac computers. (Hehe. Mac 'computer')

Get to a command line.

In Windows, do:

  color 0a
  telnet
  open
  wopr.adlephos.org

It's essentially the same for Linux, except that for each version, there are different ways to change the display color. I'm old school, so I like green (or amber) on black.

For Macs... I don't know. Google it. 98% chance that all Mac users are hipsters, or geriatrics. I made that up.

How about an Android phone? If it's rooted, install a terminal emulator (change it to green on black, punk!)

It's a little trickier, but let's work through it.

In a terminal emulator on Android do:

  ping wopr.adelphos.org



Once the hostname has been resolved to an IPv4 IP address, press your escape key, and make note of the IP! (Your escape key is probably the Volume Down buttone, and the 'c' key, at the same time.

It will look something like this:

 Pinging wopr.adlephos.org [216.146.35.99] with 32 bytes of data:
 Control-C
 ^C


Now that you know the IP, you can continue.

In a terminal emulator on Android do:

  Su
  busybox telnet 216.146.35.99

YOU'RE IN THE MAINFRAME!

Greetings Professor Falcon. Would you like to play a game?

The firmware update is in the coffee machine.

There are a lot of fun things that you can do with telnet, if you're geek enough. Here's a good place to start: http://telnet.org/htm/places.htm One of my favorites is Blinkenlights.

Try towel.blinkenlights.nl for an ASCII version of Star Wars: A New Hope. Need an excuse?

The Bastard Operator from Hell has got your back! Try towel.blinkenlights.nl:666 for your custom excuse!


Addendum:

Microsoft is far from perfect, and they really screwed up when the left Telnet out of Vista and 7!

Users of Windows 7 or Windows Vista (lol) may need to add Telnet to their machine. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771275(WS.10).aspx says to go to a command prompt, and do:
  /iu:"TelnetClient";

It worked for me, but I also had to follow the steps on this page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771275(WS.10).aspx#bkmk_installVista

To install Telnet Client on Windows 7 or Windows Vista
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

On the Control Panel Home page, click Programs.

In the Programs and Features section, click Turn Windows features on or off.

If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, and then click Continue.

In the Windows Features list, select Telnet Client, and then click OK.


Good Luck!

Parenting is a lot like watching the TV show COPS

A few weeks ago, I was minding my own business, when my freshly-turned-two-years-old daughter expertly threw my cellphone, from across the room into the only remaining cup of Tang® left in the house. (I can't drink orange juice daily, or I might get cancer. Long story) Huddled over the mess of sticky orange carpet and citrus scented malfunctioning cellphone, I remained there, motionless, whimpering like a defeated wus. And as she did her happy dance, I could tell that, in her mind, she was saying: "Ha-ha! Ha-ha! Look at Daddy cry! Hahaha!"

Kids! am I right, fellas?

One spiffy little day in February, I was sitting at this very desk, and realized that I was the only one in the room watching SpongeBob SquarePants. Not a big deal, really, because I enjoy the "grown-up" jokes, like The Six Million Dollar Man sound effects, and the actors Ernest Borgnine & Tim Conway and Adam West and Burt Ward playing young and old Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, respectively.

But where was little Miss Julie?

I peeked into the kitchen to see a shirtless toddle sitting under the table. If there's one thing I've learned from watching COPS, it's that if you are shirtless when the authorities arrive, you ARE GOING TO GO TO JAIL.

She spotted me, hurriedly put something in her mouth, and looked away, hiding her face from me.

"Julie?" I asked. Nothing. "Julie..." I said, more sternly this time. She immediately stood up, scrambled toward the living room, and some how pranced around me, evading my grasp, and panting like a mad-man all the way. And as she passed, I heard an all-too-familiar clanking noise coming from her mouth. A PENNY! 


"JULIE! COME HERE!" I shouted, as I tried to catch her. I don't know how a kid can be that fast! By the time I got into the living room, she was already half-way up the stairs. "Julie, STOP!" I yelled.

"NYO NYO NYO NYOOOO!" she replied, as she hurried into her room. I finally grabbed her, and she started wrestling away from me.

"Spit it out." I said, in my most authoritative dad voice. "Spit it out! Get that out of your mouth! Don't swallow it! Spit it out!" Sound familiar? Come to think of it, not only was this like an episode of COPS, it was a lot like my old job. (security/private police)

"Spit it out, Julie!" Finally, she complied, by spitting the penny into her hand. She then flung herself to the floor, laying on her hands.

"Julie!" again with the dad voice. "Julie, give me your hand.... Julie... Gimmie your hand, Julie! Get your hands out. Gimmie your hands! Julie! GET YOUR HANDS OUT WHERE I CAN SEE THEM! STOP RESISTING! STOP RESISTING!" She threw the evidence. She threw the penny underneath her bed, like oh so many crims have done before... running from the police... throwing their bag of wee or crack out the car window, or into some shrubbery. She. Threw. The Evidence.

And that's not the only time, either. I swear she's never once seen an episode of COPS, and yet she knows, almost everytime she has something she's not supposed to, that if she THROWS AND HIDES THE EVIDENCE, mom and dad won't be able to prove anything!

But, lucky for me, parents don't need proof of penny consumption to place an offender in time out. After that particular penny incident, I gave her a harsh, 30 second sentence in the corner. Sadly, she didn't learn her lesson. Yesterday afternoon, I heard some papers rustling, and found her with my math notebook in her hands. All I said was "Julie?" in a normal, not dad sounding voice, and she tossed the notebook under the desk.

Gee Whiz!

#################################################################################
UPDATE: Just now, she was struggling with her pink, pint-sized folding chair, so I put it upright for her. She screamed "Nyoooooo!", whimpered, and melted to the floor like a fun-sized puddle of depression and angst.

"I'm sorry, did I ruin your life?" I asked her, "I'll never do it again. Except, every day, probably, because I'm a dad, and that's just how we roll."

Then she chased both cats with my replica phaser screaming "DIE DIE DIE!"

I'm scared.

Extrinsic in Ohio (Things that are here because they don't know any better)

Perhaps some of you who will read this are somewhat familiar with this story.

If I were to consider the total waking hours of time that made up my early childhood, I would imagine more than half of those would have been spent in the city of North Royalton, Ohio. For those of you not familiar, North Royalton is a city near Cleveland, Ohio, in Cuyahoga County, and in close proximity to the Cleveland Metro Parks. It is on the b order of what some older Clevelanders refer to as The Emerald Necklace - that is, the rural area surrounding the metropolitan area of Cleveland.

My hometown of Westfield Township is located in the southern portion of Medina County in Ohio, which is a decidedly rural area. Ironically, I have encountered much  more wildlife in Royalton than Westfeild. And my most recent encounter was a year or two ago in the basement of a house in a suburban area in Royalton. It was a Hogna Wolf Spider. A terrifying experience for an arachnophobe, such as my self, especially considering I had only a damp bathrobe to defend my self with.

This spider was, including the legs, a good four to five inches across. It was highly aggressive. As soon as I entered the room, it turned towards me and we both froze, staring eye to eye (to eye to eye to eye etc.) Every side stepping move I made was matched by the rapidly approaching spider. I'll spare the details of how I killed it, because this isn't a snuff website. A small part of me felt bad for killing it, but I felt like killing it was the only way to be sure it wasn't going to bite one of us.

So anyway, this generated some discussion in the break room at work. I had no idea what kind of spider it was. I described the apperance and description of the spider, and everyone told me it was a Brown Recluse. Okay, sure. I thought. But when I got home, and did some Google-ing, I learned that the Brown Recluse is very RECLUSIVE, hence the name. They're also very small, and have a different body shape than that of Wolf Spiders. Okay, so, not a dangerous - and potentially deadly -  Brown Recluse. Just a Wolf Spider, who's bite won't kill me, or put me in the hospital (unless I'm allergic), but will still hurt really REALLY bad.

But this bring me to the topic at hand. As I said, everyone one in the break room and at the office told me that it sounded like I was describing a Brown Recluse, and they were all 100% wrong. Except one guy. He told me that it didn't sound at all like a Brown Recluse, and that it could not be a Brown Recluse, because they do not live in Ohio! This is where I have a problem.

Wikipedia indicates that the Brown Recluse's habitat does not include Ohio. Wikipedia: Brown Recluse Spider Also from Wikipedia, is the definition of the word habitat.

A habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits") is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism. Wikipedia: Habitat

So, in Ohio, the local ecology and/or environment is not suitable for the Brown Recluse. Maybe it's not warm enough for her. Or maybe it's not humid enough. Or maybe there aren't enough of whatever they eat to keep them fed. But consider this: The environment - the climate - changes from time to time. Whatever your feelings of gloabl warming, any almanac will tell you that some summers are warmer and more humid than others. I remember a few years ago we had a very mild summer, with temperatures in the mid 60's to low 80's every week. This summer, by far not the worst in recent Ohio history, has seen upper 90's. 

So let me pose to you this little though experiment: For one summer in Ohio, it's warm enough and humid enough for not only the Brown Recluse to hang out in our lovely forests, but also whatever little bugs these things eat. Is the Brown Recluse going to walk up to the border of Ohio, stop, check it's National Audubon Society Field Guide, and say 'Oh snap! I'm not supposed to be here! Later ya'll!" and run away? No, it will just continue to where ever it's stomach takes it.

So what indication do I have that this has ever happened? Firstly, only anecdotal evidence. A very good friend of my father's was bit, while sitting on his porch in northeastern Ohio, by a Brown Recluse, and nearly died. Now, for  less anecdotal evidence, are the toxicology peeps over at Medina General Hospital. I happen to have some connections at Medina General, and I asked if any one had ever been treated there for such a bite. Not only was the answer "Yes", but I was told that it was around A DOZEN BROWN RECLUSE BITES PER YEAR! What floored me even more was the news that there were just as many BLACK WIDOW BITES per year!  OH SNAP!

Now, if you're reading this blog, have I proved to you that the Brown Recluse, and Black Widow, live in Ohio, even though all the textbooks out there say that they don't? No. But I invite you to ask around. Go to a hospital's website, and contact the appropriate people. Email them and ask them if any one has ever come in with a Brown Recluse or Black Widow spider bite. 

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the myth of Ohio being free of the Brown Recluse and Black Widow spiders has been disproved. But wait, there's more!

If you're an Ohioan, you may have heard some one tell you that there

########################################################################################
This is another post that I did not finish. I started it some time ago, and decided that it was little more than a rant, and didn't really need to be published. When I came across it today, however, I decided I would publish it for this simple fact: Despite what you have heard, there are deadly animals in Ohio. I've now encountered one Brown Recluse, One Black Widow, and one Black Widow Killer (a less dangerous cousin of the Black Widow), and one Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake. I've also had nearly close encounters with Cougars (not just the old lady kinds, but the Puma (a.k.a. Mountain Lion) kind) and Black Bear.

These animals were not brought here by humans. They got here all on their own.

I would like to point out that one time, in highschool, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and witnessed some PETA wanna-be types releasing a Black Panther into the woods of Lodi, Ohio. It was recaptured after a few days. Made the most terrifying shriek I've ever heard. Worse than the noises that rabbits (they're VERY loud) and deer make at night, and louder than a Bobcat. These, BTW, all also live in Ohio.

I've never encountered a wolf in Ohio, but there are (very rare) roving packs of wild dogs that are pretty dangerous, as well as coyote. As for me, the only hazard I've ever had from a coyote is that in Stow, Ohio, they get the size of Labradors, and like to hang out on the runway at the Kent State University Airport (K1G3). I've had to abort many landings because of their obnoxious "I own the airport" attitude, not unlike many of the human residents of Stow.

KTHXBAI

Halloween PhotoShop

FIRST: If you have questions, GOOGLE! If Google doesn't help you, ask me. I'll answer any questions, but I'll know whether or not you Google'd first.

My wife (http://jubeescraftbox.blogspot.com/ and http://craftygsquared.blogspot.com/) suggested to me today that I might share some of my "spooky" images on my blog with a little instruction on how to do these. Well, the first challenge was finding spooky or scary images. I've had an over active imagination my entire life, and have become somewhat immune to things that are supposed to be scary. I'm frightened by things like global security and the ever nearer specter of nuclear warfare, not ghouls, ghosts, and goblins. But I have done some PhotoShop-ping that one could consider spooky. I'll put them up here and talk about them.

Adobe PhotoShop CS4 64-bit is my current weapon of choice, but I am in no way endorsing that product. There are many many alternatives, usually inexpensive or free, to PhotoShop. There are even web-based alternatives ( http://www.lifeclever.com/10-free-web-based-alternatives-to-photoshop/ ), as well as some powerful apps for iOS, Google Android, and Google Chrome. And there are limitations to PhotoShop. I'll still use an old, old program called Macromedia Flash MX for certain tasks, as well as good ol' Microsoft Paint.

Since I'm most well versed in PhotoShop, that's what my instructions will be tailored to. I'm not going to discuss Windows vs. Linux vs. Mac. If you don't know, I can't help you. You'll notice that I'm talking about keyboard keys that aren't stupid, so you know I'm not using Mac. Does PhotoShop exist in Linux? I don't know. (No, WINE doesn't count as Linux) I'm not talking about GiMP, so it's a safe bet that I'm using Windows.

When editing images like this to create digital visual art, PhotoShop, or Shopping becomes a verb when discussing the act of creating such work, and another noun, when describing the finished product. And, around the internet, people also use these words to describe works that haven't been created with PhotoShop. Shop got changed to shoop. Shoop got changed to sh00p. So until Webster's has a better term, I'll refer to these works as either shoops, or more annoyingly, sh00ps. (That's two zeros, not O's)

The key to a good sh00p is subtlety. I'll usually start with a base image, and make a duplicate layer to backup the original image. I'll make another layer, and add in the desired effect. usually, I only want a certain part of the image to have this effect, so I'll apply a layer mask.

After I've added in the layer mask, I'll select it and press [ shift↑ + F5] to bring up the "Fill" window. Select the color "black" (#000000) and now the layer you just edited will vanish. You'll make that layer show up only in the spots you want with the Brush tool. Select the Brush tool, and use settings that will allow you to remain subtle. Remember when I said that was important? My favorite settings for this are a hardness of 0, opacity of 50%, and a flow of 16%. These are not the best settings for everything, they're just where I start out, so give it a try and experiment. So now with your brush settings, set the color "white" (#ffffff), select the layer mask, and now color over the areas of the image you want to have your effect. You'll probably have to go over areas more than once, and you'll see the effect coming through.

This layer masking is the most common tool I use, but not the only one.

Leaving Purgatory

Now we'll look at some examples. Leaving Purgatory is the picture you see to the right. It's really a very simple sh00p made up of a few basic effects, and lots of layering. The base image was duplicated, of course, and then I inverted the color mapping by pressing [ctrl+i]. I added a layer on top of that, and with the same brush settings I talked about before, gradually  blacked out the eyes. Another layer on top of that, and I blacked out the areas around the figure in the image. Took all of ten minutes, and it's one of my favorite examples.

For Brandi

For Brandi is another very basic sh00p. I took image of the skull, duplicated the layer, and used the Hue/Saturation (image -> Adjustments) tool to get the desired effect of the glowing eye sockets. Of course, this effect is applied to the entire image, so I had to use a layer mask and the paint brush to get it only where I wanted it. I made another duplicate of the base image, and used the Smudge tool to drag those fangs down and make them all vampirey. And then some other minor effects for the background, etc.












Spooky was a a celebrity's head-shot that I blurred and distorted with the Smudge tool,  Liquify tool [ctrl + shift↑ + x] and the Gaussian Blur tool (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur) And then some layers for shading and the red eyes, again made with the brush tool.




I see a TON of messed up stuff in my dreams. Leaving Purgatory was from a dream. These next few are just really weird and abstract things that I dreamed about.

###############################################################################

I didn't get around to finishing this, and as you can see, it's well past Halloween. I'm going to publish this anyway, but if you have any questions, or want to see more, leave me a comment here, or find me on Twitter, or G+, or something like that.

Happy Birthday NozeDive / SOPA&PIPA

en.wikipedia.org
www.google.com
www.reddit.com
boards.4chan.org/diy/
www.wired.com
www.anthonyscardina.com would have been among them had I paid my website bill!

The people in charge of these websites understand that SOPA and PIPA will basically change the American internet (see ARIN) into Red China's internet, or worse. They understand that while SOPA and PIPA operate under the guise of protecting intellectual property and national security, it will affect everyone who does anything at all on the internet. If you're NOT one of those people who have ever seen something online that wasn't supposed to be there (maybe the A-Team opening credits on YouTube, or similar) then this affects you too. But lets say all you ever do is use Facebook. You think Facebook isn't going to be affected? Then you haven't heard/read anything I've said/wrote about this. Kiss it goodbye baby!

I find it fitting that these protests are occurring on my birthday; it's a great gift.

Wikipedia Blackout

http://www.wikipediablackout.com/

It's a rough situation for many economies around the globe right now, and wallets are shrinking for every one I know, but I'm pledging whatever I can spare to Wikipedia in support of their SOPA protest. They're going to blackout their entire website on January 18th to protest the Orwellian nature of the proposed SOPA legislation, and to educate the many internet users who don't realize just what this legislation will mean for them. I mean, just because *you're* not the one uploading or downloading "illegal" content doesn't mean this won't affect you!

This is happening on my birthday. It would mean a lot to me if other's donated just one dollar to Wikipedia on my b-day. You would be supporting not only the opposition of SOPA, but also a source of information by and for PEOPLE, instead of some encyclopedia writing company with their own agenda. And don't believe the anti-Wiki rhetoric spewed by publishers. It's just propaganda. So what if your college professor says Wikipedia isn't a good source of information. Check Wikipedia, and compare it to Encyclopedia Britanica and Microsoft Encarta, then check some primary sources on your own, and see for yourself what's better.

http://www.wikipediablackout.com/

Essential Android Apps Every Geek Should Have

Remember when I said I'd be doing my "Angry Cyberpunk Reviews" on a regular basis?

Well, here's Essential Android Apps Every Geek Should Have instead.

***Does not cover rooting or custom operating systems.***

These apps are listed in no particular order, and this is in no way a complete  list. And by Geek, I mean a nerd that is leaning towards techie - a techie of course,  being a geek. ERRORLEVEL.10(circular argument)


[SwiFTP]: A portmanteau of "Swift" and "FTP", SwiFTP is a utility that will run an FTP server on your Android device. If you're a geek, chances  are you have a WiFi network setup at your place, and your Android device automatically connects to your network when in-range. With SwiFTP, when you want to  transfer a file to or from your Android device, just fire up your FTP client (FTP Commander is a good one, and there are other freeware clients out there) and Bob's your uncle! SwiFTP even lets you set the starting directory, so, if, for instance, you mostly transfer photos, you can set it to begin in your photo directory to speed up the process. I use it for pretty much every transfer I have to do. My favorite is when I download a free eBook, I can FTP it directly to Aldiko's "import" folder to speed up the process. SwiFTP includes the option to require user authentication to keep things private, and a web-proxy service to transfer files when there's no WiFi available.