XZIST.org Blog

From 1st September all messages on Vocaroo over 6 months old will be automatically deleted. This includes both anonymously recorded messages and those stored within a Vocaroo account.

Why?

Because Vocaroo is a hobby project, barely covers its web hosting costs, and thus does not have the funds to buy infinite storage space.

Sorry.

You can save important messages by clicking the “Download this message” link underneath. (right click and select “save target as” or similar).

Well, I have SPF set up on my domains, or thought I did, but I found GMail was giving the error

Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning X@X.com does not designate X.X.X.X as permitted sender

(my domain and IP removed…)

The problem being, the IP shown was an older IP I used to have and not my current IP…

Turns out, I still had some old IPs set in /etc/network/interfaces (Ubuntu server) and it seems only the last one was being used by Google mail for SPF purposes. So, the solution was to purge all unused IPs from there, and also set all IPs that I do use within the SPF record…

Giving something like, as I had two IPs remaining -

v=spf1 a ip4:X.X.X.X ip4:X.X.X.X include:aspmx.googlemail.com ~all

(the include is for Google Apps)

I just watched TURBO. It’s an awesome short about futuristic videogamers. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

It seems they want to make a feature film of it and need support. So, go and buy it or something. Now.

If you have a link to download a file (e.g. a piece of software), you may want to redirect to another page after the user clicks the link, perhaps to gather download statistics or display a message to the user. Setting the window.location in an onclick event for that link does not work, as the opening “download” dialog seems to cancel that action.

Instead use a delay:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

function RedirectAfterDownload()
{
window.location = “http://google.com”;
}

function OnDownloadClick()
{
// redirects after 1 second
setTimeout(‘RedirectAfterDownload()’, 1000);
}

</script>

Then to use: <a href=”myfile.exe” onclick=”OnDownloadClick();”>Download File!</a>

This is a small app for sending voice messages using your default email client (i.e. Outlook Express, Windows Mail, etc…). I guess it’s still in beta… but please give it a try!

Click here for more info

Features:

• Simple to use. Click to record, click to stop, and click to send!
• Send voice messages as an attachment using your Windows email client.
• Use the email software and address book you are are comfortable with.
• All recordings are saved on disk for backup and later listening.
• Help messages guide you each step of the way (all three of them!).
• A rather fetching green and purple colour scheme.

It should work with any MAPI compatible email client and all versions of Windows. Some obvious “features” such as SMTP server support have been left out for the sake of simplicity (this app needs to be something your mother can use!). However you can always set your own SMTP server as an account in Outlook Express so that functionality is not really needed.

It does of course require you have a microphone.

Download now!

…is not possible, sorry :(

WordPress.com blogs don’t seem to allow the embedding of any flash media except from a few big companies such as YouTube, who they must have some kind of agreement with…

The power of printf reveals all. Hmm.

It doesn’t crash though. Weird graphical excitations occur instead. Bugs which cause crashes are the *nice* ones. This is far more insidious.

What with all the news of web and media restrictions currently in Iran I have temporarily unblocked my Web Proxies in solidarity. (Usually I block Iranian IP addresses as they eat up resources and there is no ad revenue to be had). It’s always possible my proxies are now blocked by their government, but we’ll see.

In other thoughts, some kind of peer to peer wireless network is needed to prevent Iran and other countries (who knows what idiocy will be thought up by the British government and other so called “free” countries in the name of counter-terrorism) from censoring information. Complete decentralisation is required. Terranet were in the news at one point, but they haven’t really taken off, and I’m not sure what their goals really are.

Such a network would undoubtedly be slow as treacle (have you ever used Freenet?), but provided the main content is pure text, and nodes do plenty of caching, something should be possible. And anything is better than nothing! Heck, even if messages and text pages took a few hours to trickle through and download, it’s still uncensored information.

Maybe currently existing tech can be subverted. A new mobile phone firmware, perhaps, if they are capable of phone-to-phone communications. Maybe some kind of long range wifi.

Having said that, for widespread adoption, you really want something incredibly simply to use, a dedicated gadget, not a hacked mobile that only a geek can set up. Mass production of self contained hardware nodes is required.

I guess too, if these devices had a use in the western world, and become indispensable here, they would eventually trickle through to other countries too. The obvious selling point would be the absence of a subscription fee – no cabling, no satellite, no nothing required. Free information, information for free.

#1 Start a power company and call it Shinra Electric Power Company

Their racism label is a problem. If you listen to their interviews, they can do a surprisingly good job at justifying their views on race. Particularly, they point to all the various organisations set up to promote “minorities” and ask: why not one for indigenous white people?

[Maybe I have missed something though, I'm happy to be corrected. *scared of being called racist*]

So as far as I can see, this “racism” label seems to be mostly media frenzy, and a distraction from some of their other policies:

We support the re-introduction of corporal punishment for petty criminals and vandals, and the restoration of capital punishment for paedophiles, terrorists and murderers as an option for judges in cases where their guilt is proven beyond dispute, as by DNA evidence or being caught red-handed.

Corporal punishment? They want to return Britain to the middle ages?

And reintroduce the death penalty? A person who in cold blood, can sentence another to death, can have no ability of empathy. To sentence a person to death is the ultimate absence of compassion.

If you cannot consider another person’s feelings or viewpoint, you should not be in government.

Not to mention the many other reasons against the death penalty.

But really, for all those reasons listed on that link by amnesty, for me it boils down to:

Someone who supports the death penalty can kill in cold blood.

And is not just able to club someone over the head who did not expect it, but would sentence someone to wait on death row for months or years, to contemplate their upcoming death. Then to chain someone down, with no hope of escape or redemption, while a lethal injection or electrocution or some such is administered. If it was carried out by a crazed psycho in a horror movie it would be considered sick and twisted. Torture.

So do death penalty supporters simply lack empathy, the ability to imagine themselves in such a situation? Or are they able to empathise, yet support this torture anyway?