I just started a new job for the State of Maine Office of Information Technology (OIT). I'm working out of Augusta, which is a decent commute for me, but even after gas I'm making much better money, and the experience so far has been great. I'm just finishing my second week here. The people are really great and there's no shortage of things to do. I'm working out of a huge office building (1.3 miles circumference), and the state has numerous departments located here. Every day I'm learning how to find my way to a new office and meeting new people there.

As the title suggests, we also have just moved--I told you we were busy! When it rains, it pours, and our lease was up so even though we had lots of other things going on we had to decide whether to stay another year or find a better place. Our old apartment was great but there were lots of little things that were wearing on us, things that can't really be fixed by maintenance, so we decided to look for greener pastures. We checked out many places but finally found a place, and a landlord, that seem to be a perfect fit. We're about 15 minutes from our old place, and have most amenities within walking/bicycling distance. There is slightly more square footage and it's much better distributed. Also, the windows are huge! There is light flooding every part of the house (I love that). If you want our new address just drop me an email.

The cats adjusted quite well, except theres one closet that causes Riley to start whining pitifully whenever he goes in to explore it. I'm not sure if the things in there smell like the old place and confuse him, or if he's sensing a poltergeist-like portal to another dimension just behind the shoe rack. Bruski, as always, took the move in stride and didn't seem to mind in the least.

That's about all the news we have for now, so digest, digest!

from www.ussoccer.com

Today USA had a match with Algeria that would determine whether they stayed in the FIFA World Cup or not. I'm not usually a big sports person, but I played soccer for a good part of my childhood and it's probably my favorite team sport, shortly followed by curling (don't judge... either know curling is awesome, or else you've never watched a full match). The reason I'm blogging about this match is that it was one of the most immensely frustrating yet ultimately rewarding matches I've seen in a long time. I'll spare you the play by play, and cut to the meat of it.

Twenty minutes into the first half, USA player Clint Dempsey scored a goal that was nullified because the refs called him for being offside, however instant replay shows it was valid. Over the next 70 minutes, neither side scored a goal, although there were some close calls and the tension was incredible. After the 90 minutes of the match were up, play was extended for stoppage time (time lost during substitutions, injuries, etc). One minute into stoppage time, Landon Donovan took a shot, was blocked, and on the rebound slammed it into the net. The stadium went apeshit, and the game was over. After being robbed a goal, and for the rest of the match feeling like all hope was lost, that one point felt like breathing for the first time.

Go Team USA.

I know it's not as fancy as the old one, but I think it's a much nicer reading/viewing experience (less clutter and fluff, more information density). Lemme know what you think.

FYI: I still need to reimplement mouse gestures. I'll let you know when they're back.

Since I can barely remember the whole blur of a weekend, I'll rely on photographs to tell most of the story, with some highlights thrown in along the way. If you're on a mobile device, take heed; this will be bandwidth intensive.

When we were looking for the Hynes convention center we knew when we were close. There was a long line of people coming from the MTA stop all going in the same direction, and the cosplayers were a pretty good giveaway. We decided to park in the garage next-door, and by the time we got there the line was moving swiftly.

Blur is definitely due to my jogging and not my poor photography... definitely.

Aww yeah, the boys in the house! (Jeremy, Trevor, and Jesse)

By the time we got in the keynote was full, but I've watched the video and Wil knocked it out of the park. Watch it below:

We decided to go to the NVIDIA event which required waiting in line, but not for too long. While we waited we busted out the DSs and loaded pictochat. We got our chatroom to fill up with the people around us who also had DSs and, of course, it quickly evolved into an epic wang drawing contest; Lulz were definitely had. The staff passed 3D glasses out a little before we went into the theater, and jesse's had a patch of green on the inside of the bridge. I didn't think much of it at the time.

Jesse blowing up a thumper while waiting in line.

At the event they debuted the new GeForce GTX 480 for the first time ever! I have to say I was impressed. Besides the somewhat novelty 3D capabilities (which do look pretty awesome with the flicker glasses we got to use at the expo hall booth) it does realtime ray-tracing! If that doesn't impress you, suffice it to say that that's amazing. The real treat came when they announced two people in the audience (out of about 3000 there) would be getting a free GTX 480. They told everyone to look on the bridge of their glasses for a green mark, and wouldn't you know it, Jesse was one of the winners! We were really happy for him, because he of any of us will get the most use out of it.

Waiting for the NVIDIA event to start

There were plenty of places to play games around the convention center. The expo hall was full of videogame companies demoing their latest offerings, there was a classic console (NES, Super NES, ATARI 2600, Sega Genesis, etc) room, a current console room, an arcade, a PC gaming room, a handheld lounge for playing DS and PSP, and tabletop rooms everywhere. It was basically gamer heaven.

Trevor dominated Tetris all weekend

The Classic Console room

Console Room

Console room

We HAD to play the latest Katamari Damacy

Heck yes! Buck Rogers!

I have to say, Sumo rocks for plastering the hand-held lounge with giant beanbag chairs. They offered a much needed respite between gaming, concerts, talks, and the constant onslaught of awesomeness. We played The Downfall of Pompeii, magic, and of course Mario Kart DS on them throughout the weekend.

Trevor and I playing Pompeii

Jesse and Jeremy on a Sumo

Much Magic the Gathering was played:

The first night we decided to go to a screening of a D&D GM documentary. After sitting around a while we were told they were trying to locate the DVD. Shortly thereafter Mike (aka Gabe), the artist of Penny Arcade, came in and went to the front of the room. He told us the documentary people did show up, but wanted to know if we'd like to have an imprompteau GM Q&A with him! Mike (as well as Jerry) is an amazing GM, so what had promised to be an interesting evening turned into an enthralling one. The Q&A was very educational and funny as well. The best part about it is that until recently, Mike wasn't into D&D at all.

The next day we got to the convention extra early so we could go to the Penny Arcade Create-a-strip panel, where we get to watch Jerry and Mike script out and draw a strip. To our surprise they made the comic about the events of the previous night!

Scripting

Scripting

Initial sketch

Initial sketch

There were, of course, some hijinks...

centaur

The finished product:

The finished product

Someone asked Jerry to sing the song he wrote, My Belruel, and it was both lilting and haunting. The dude has a great voice. You can hear him singing it from back in 2007 (it's kind of a tradition now) here.

There were some really cool booths in the expo hall:

NVIDIA and their "Crank that shit up!" slogan

APB

Trevor playing Left4Dead 2 for the first time!

While Jesse and Jeremy played PC games, Trevor and I decided to take a short break to exchange some geocoins in a local geocache.

Found!

We went to "An Evening with Scott Kurtz" on a whim, and it turned out to be one of my favorite moments at PAX East. Scott told the most hilarious and touching stories, and the whole atmosphere was very close and intimate. He certainly gained a reader for life in me.

Sunday morning, the final day, we went to the Blamimation panel by Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub. We had a hell of a good time and played a small part in scripting/recording the next Blamimation.

Blamimation panel

Dueling collaborators

We didn't make it into the first PA Q&A, but we did make it into the second one. Someone asked Jerry and Mike to arm wrestle. I forget who won.

The autograph line was pretty epic, so we played magic while we waited.

Playing magic on a food tray

Epic waiting line (we started out pretty close to the head)

I got my Nintendo DS signed by Jerry and Mike, and my badge signed by Jerry, Mike, Robert Khoo, Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub, and musicians Paul & Storm. The autograph line filled up before we could get a place on both of the days that Wil Wheaton was there, so that sucked, but that was the only bad part of the whole weekend.

My PAX East 2010 Badge

That's all I can remember! I have quite a few videos I've yet to convert and upload, but I'll link em' when they're done. For all the PAX East photos you could ever want, including some sweet cosplay outfits, check out flickr and this forum thread. When the unofficial community DVD comes out, there will be information at this site. Finally, search youtube for some great performances by Jonathan Coulton, Paul & Storm, VGO, and many more.

I started using Baking Soda shampoo late last year and it's been going fantastic, so I thought I'd share my experiences.

I'm not exactly sure why I first decided to look up baking soda shampoo, but I think it had to do with the fact that my head gets so oily. I shave my head down to about a half centimeter and I hate exposing my scalp to soaps/shampoos filled with chemicals. I know there are great natural hand-made soaps (Amme uses local handmade soap) but I remembered reading somewhere that you could make your own baking soda shampoo and liked the idea. A quick search online revealed two things: 1. My mind wasn't playing tricks on me, lots of people make and use it. And 2. It's dead simple to make!

The best reason to stop using shampoo is the long list of chemicals most contain. If you're scared by the long unpronounceable names on shampoo labels then baking soda is a great alternative. Baking soda shampoo is also a great once-a-week (or whenever) clarifier or "de-gunk-ifier". Another bonus is savings. While some shampoos are quite cheap, baking soda is even cheaper. I like it because it keeps my scalp clean without stripping so many natural oils that my head goes into overdrive replacing them (the most common cause of excessively oily hair).

I learned most of what I know about baking soda shampoo from naturemoms.com, and I highly recommend you go there and read the excellent article. I use their technique for massaging it into my scalp, pay close attention to that section, and use about the same amount that I would for shampoo. WikiHow also has a great article on shampoo alternatives.

My own favorite recipe for baking soda shampoo is this:

Fill your container (a water-tight one you can get your hand into) 3/4 full with baking soda. I add the tiniest pinch of xanthan gum (you can pick it up at most health-food stores and a little goes a long way) but it's strictly optional. You can also add a drop or two of your favorite essential/scented oil. Then just add enough water to make it a paste, about the consistency of toothpaste. Put the lid on and shake it well and you're done!

If you find the mixture too thick to massage into your hair, or if your hair feels wiry, then add more water. If the baking soda settles out overnight (which can happen if you mix yours more watery and don't use xanthan gum) just give it a quick shake before you use it.

Make sure to rinse your hair thoroughly and, just like regular shampoo, remember not to get it in your eyes!

Blotner L-85 IFC

I've added a bunch of UrbEx photos to flickr for the Blotner IFC, FJETC, Runway POL Garage, and the Dow WSA.

As always you can also view my photos by following the Photography link at the top of my blog. Thanks for viewing!

At any rate, this is the playlist my brain has created in the past two days:

• Bonnie Raitt - Something to Talk About
• Bob Marley - I Shot the Sheriff
• Fleetwood Mac - Landslide
• Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
• Metro Station - Disco

So, what random songs have you had in your head lately?  Don't be embarrassed... hell, Landslide is up there.

The exposure time on these photos range anywhere from a few seconds to over a minute, I basically put it on manual ("bulb"), held down the shutter release button, and waited for a strike. When I saw one I let go and repeated. These aren't as close up as some of the others I've taken, but I'm really happy about how many I managed to capture! You can also check them out in my photo section or as a slideshow. If you're interested, you can see my previous lightning photos here.

photo by Jurvetson (flickr)

Tell your average hipster that they can use VZ Navigator on their phone to get directions to the coolest new club through a GPS chip in their phone, and they'll probably think its pretty neat. Tell the same thing to your average healthily paranoid geek, and they'll hopefully question how else it might be used. Sure its cool, but if Verizon can do it, so can the government. On top of that, they may also turn on on your mic even when you're not on a call. In a follow up to my article on FBI cell phone tapping, we'll be discussing how you can be tracked on your cellphone, and under what circumstances.

Flip a switch and your cell is a bug

There is at least one documented instance where a case against the Genovese crime family relied on evidence collected by activating one of the defendants' cell phone microphones (not during a call, but while it was not in use!) to use it as a "roving bug", recording all conversations in its vicinity. This was done through the cell provider, and could be used against any civilian if a court order is given. The ability to do this is latent in most any modern cellular phone, and requires no physical contact with the device.  Some sources say all GSM phones are vulnerable, while others say it depends on the manufacturer:

from nets.zdnet.com

Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."

If the civilians can find you...

Arguably worse than turning your phone into a bug, it seems any civilian could potentially track you with the help of paid services like Accutracking, uLocate, World Tracker, and Flexispy (just to name a few).

To use these services, the spying person often needs to install the software on the victim’s phone, however the spying person need only have the phone in their hands long enough to navigate to a web page with the phone, and enter their user code. This causes the spying software to be downloaded to the phone and enabled.  In some instances, the user will be sent a seemingly innocent text message that requests they download some software.

Once installed, the offender has a web page where they can view all manner of information.  If the phone has GPS, you will get their exact latitude and longitude. If not, you get the CELL ID of the tower they are closest to, or their general location through triangulation.  Most of these programs also give you the phone's in/outbound calls and text messages, all without giving any indication to the victim that this information is being transmitted.

...So can the Feds

It almost goes without saying that government agencies have a much finer grain of control over tracking your location.  Due to September 11th and e911 compliance, by 2006 all cell phone carriers were required to provide the ability to trace cell phone calls to a location within 100 meters or less.  Since many rural areas lack the necessary density of towers to triangulate to that accuracy, cell phone carriers instead integrated GPS technology into cell phones.  Often times this chip isn't accessible to the user, so don't think that just because you can't see it, it isn't there.  Some networks do have that density, however, and your cell carrier may be able to triangulate your position based on your signal strength to each tower your phone connects to.  In these cases, then the more populated the area you're in (and hence the more cell towers around you), the greater the accuracy you can be tracked down to.  And for any of you would-be 911 pranksters:

from ezinearticles.com

when the person who has the phone has made an emergency call, this GPS transmission will always be sent. This is designed to ensure that the police can always track a cell phone location, in order to get help to people who need it.

Another way the government can pinpoint your location is through the use of a technology called a Triggerfish.  Triggerfish are pieces of hardware that emulate a cell tower.  Once your rough location is determined based on your connection to a cell cite, a triggerfish can be deployed (perhaps in an unmarked black van?) to home in on your signal.  Triggerfish can also get your phone's unique IMEI and serial numbers, phone numbers, and other data.

Update 2-11-2010: Apparently it's completely legal for the feds to track you without a warrant.

What you can do about it

In the case of the Genovese family case, the court denied motions by 10 defendants to suppress the conversations obtained by "roving bugs".  That being the case, I would personally not count on arguing the legality of being bugged or tracked after the fact.

The first precaution I would suggest is to never let your phone out of your site, and not download files from untrusted sources.  Beyond that, the only sure-fire way to make sure you aren't bugged or tracked through your cellphone is to take the battery out when you don't wan't to be... not very practical for the average joe.

If you watch or read a lot of techno-thrillers you probably know the trick of buying a disposable pay-as-you-go phone (with cash).  This is possibly the only way to make sure you aren't tracked, and even then you'll need to change phones quite often to avoid patterns.  All that, however, is beyond the scope of this article.

In reality, while using a celular phone you are at the mercy of the government, the FCC, and the phone company.  The best defense is to stay off everyone's radar by not doing anything that arouses suspicion.  For as they say, being a "law abiding" citizen isn't the issue, whom defines "law abiding" is the real issue.

Awesome.

It seems a successor to the ubiquitous Chuck Norris Facts meme has arisen. The target? Action movie director Michael Bay.

In the wake of the new Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie a stream of Michael Bay Facts has been pouring out of twitter, and as with Chuck Norris Facts, most are hysterical.

Since Michael Bay Facts mock their target rather than revere him (he really is a shitty director, though I loved Transformers: ROTF), and since Michael Bay will never be bad-ass like Chuck Norris, I'm sure this meme will be quite short lived. With that in mind, get them while the getting is good. I see io9 has posted some of their favorites, and I'd like to do the same.

These are some of my favs:

• jbneal: When you fist-pound Michael Bay, your hand literally blows up.
• MattCox: In some states, it's illegal to say "Michael Bay" in airports or crowded theaters.
• frontierwoman:To clear a hangover Michael Bay straps a grenade to his head and dives headfirst into empty swimming pools.
• burnflores: Michael Bay doesn't like gum. He chews C4.
• chris7crows: Michael Bay emerged from the womb with a detonator in one hand and a supermodel in the other. His mother then exploded.
• MattCox: Bomb squad was at the library today. Someone returned Michael Bay's autobiography.
• jpmccu: Michael Bay's school film project is lost to the world, as it blew up from awesome. The audience ran away in slow motion.
• DJBullock: Michael doesn't use a camera to film his movies. He burns the movie into the film using the heat of exploding orphanages.
• And possibly my favorite: mrbs: Michael Bay was preceeded down the birth canal by a dove in slow motion. And followed by a column of flame.

It seems Aimee_B_Loved has become the unnoficial queen of #MichaelBayFacts on twitter with a slew of great ones:

• Michael Bay literally fights fire with fire, but insists token minorities do so with clever, urban-sounding comments.
• Michael Bay sleeps on a bed of hot coals and uses bundles of dynamite as pillows.
• As an infant, Michael Bay had to recast his mother because her breasts weren't big enough for the part.
• Michael Bay uses battery acid as lube.
• Michael Bay purposely edits out "sissy shit" like plot and character development.

And then some people are just Doing It Wrong:

• ABAwesome: There are approximately 94 people in the USA with the name "Michael Bay"
• Flonk2: Michael Bay was adopted.

See my own paltry (at least by comparison) MichaelBayFacts here, and let me know what your favorites are that I've missed, or if you think some up on your own, please share them!

We chose to go up the Gorham Mountain trail. It's listed as a moderate trail, but doesn't require any climbing. It did get our hearts pumping though!

There was a nice little overlook that we stopped at to catch our breath and take some photos.

Eventually Amme let me know how she felt about the camera being pointed at her, lol.

When we got to the summit we took a little break to enjoy the beautiful view and how gorgeous the ocean looked.

We still felt pretty energized so we decided to keep going forward instead of backtracking, continuing on the backside of the Gorham trail.

We met up with the Beehive trail and on the way down, saw some hikes taking a more perilous trail above us. The Beehive trail ends at the Park Loop Road at the entrance to Sand Beach.

Once we got there we hiked a ways back towards the car and had a picnic on the rocks just above the rising tide. We ate bologna (Wunderbar!) sandwiches and then sunbathed for a while before heading back to the car. I was too relaxed to remember to take more photos, but Amme did!

While we were hanging out on the rocks some ballsy seagulls pestered us. After feeding them a while they got even bore brazen and tried to grab our bag of orange and banana peels (which is funny because Amme threw them a piece of orange and they were having none of that!). This photo was snapped while he was about 3 feet from my face.

We drove into downtown Bar Harbor after hiking back to the car and got some huge dark chocolate truffles before heading home. I love hiking days!

PS: See the full album in my photos section, or on flickr, or as a nifty slideshow!

Whatcha think?

Barring minor tweaks, My new layout is now done! Most all of it is a 3rd party theme, a first for me! But I chose to use it because I both learned a lot from modifying it, and because programmers always say don't reinvent the wheel! I chose instead to modify a lot of the spacing and positioning, and add some little touches here and there.

I like how much information it shows, hopefully it doesn't look too cluttered. As Tufte says, information is the whole point so your design should focus on it and provide a high density without making it unusable. This isn't exactly ultra dense, but does give you a quick glance at what I'm up to online, as well as focus mainly on the posts--the whole reason for this blog.

I still want to add a couple of navigation links because right now it's hard to go from post to post (done!), but other than that I'm really happy with how it looks and behaves. Please let me know what you think of it, and offer any suggestions/constructive criticisms. This site is for my readers so I want it to be as easy for you to use as possible!

I've also been uploading my backlog of UrbEx photos. I've recently added the rest of the POL Tanks, Coal Elevator, Building 943, and the Civil Defense Bunker.

Thomas: Its funny, people complain about twitter being pointless, but I have SO MANY people on facebook that update just as if it were twitter, all day long

John: i know

Thomas: they're twittering without twitter basically lol

John: but the do more on facebook

Thomas: yeah. its cause they're already on facebook doing tons of shit; playing games and stuff

John: right

Thomas: that was a brilliant move on facebook's part

John: why do it on a site that just does updates then?

Thomas: exactly. They make twitter obsolete for lots of people.

What do you guys/gals think? Amirite?

I came across this via Make:, but the source, and a great gallery of examples, is over at Noise Addicts.

It's strange how well it works out, especially some they have posted. Here are three I did this morning (I could seriously make these all day):

Go try it out!

Google's API is quite easy to work with, and I'm very pleased with the results. For most people this map isn't very useful, and at any one time there are only a few markers plotted on it, but for myself it will be quite useful, and it was a great learning process. You can view the Maine Power Outages map at http://euicho.com/power

The new albums are: X-mas 2008, Virginia Fall '08, Nanny's 75th B-day.

Japanese American Memorial

Union Station

Parker on X-mas 2008

Moments later, the page updated with "Retraction on Stave Jobs comment...we don't know how that got in our feed.

The popular apple fan-site MacRumors.com was providing up to the minute coverage on the MacWorld 2009 Keynote address, when the page started displaying profanity and all-CAPS nonsense and 4chan slang.

Screenshots of the initial onslaught follow (Warning: NSFW, profanity):

Shortly thereafter both MacRumorsLive.com and MacRumors.com were down.

UPDATE:

as of 1:29pm EST, MacRumors.com was back online with the following post:

Our MacRumorsLive keynote coverage was hacked today, inserting inappropriate content into the text and photo feeds. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to restore our services. The hack appears to be limited to the MacRumorsLive servers so forum accounts should be safe.

We'll continue Macworld Expo coverage on an ongoing basis this week, and will report on Apple's announcements shortly.