Still Handling Homeland Security With a 9/10 Attitude

The feds rejected the imams' attempt to shake down the airline with a discrimination lawsuit. But three years later, law enforcement officers are still battling the flying extortionists. Political correctness remains the handmaiden of terrorism.

Over at the Justice Department, Attorney General Eric Holder is committed to eliminating racial "disparities" in law enforcement. His anti-profiling allies at the ACLU and something called the "Rights Working Group" are working to end Bush administration counterterrorism initiatives, "including FBI surveillance and questioning, special registration programs, border stops, immigration enforcement programs and the creation of 'no fly lists.'" The ACLU and RWG have appealed to the United Nations to intervene through the "U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)" -- which they say is empowered to require sovereign governments "to review national, state and local policies and amend or repeal laws deemed to be creating or perpetuating discrimination."

Now, add anti-gun activism and stubborn union squabbling to the mix. As I reported two weeks ago, the Obama administration has quietly gutted the nation's most highly trained post-9/11 counterterrorism rail security team. According to multiple government sources who declined to be identified for fear of retribution, the Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations' East Coast and West Coast teams have not worked in a counterterrorism capacity since the summer. Their rifles were put under lock and key after Amtrak Vice President for Security Strategy and Special Operations Bill Rooney and Amtrak Inspector General Fred Weiderhold, who played an instrumental role in creating OSSSO's predecessor at Amtrak, the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU), were pushed out by Team Obama.

Amtrak confirmed to me last week that the elite members of the specialized OSSSO no longer carry long-arm weapons, which played a vital role in the unit's show-of-force patrols. Government sources blame anti-gun hostility inside Amtrak for the move. Amtrak also confirmed to me that West Coast members of the rail security unit -- most of whom come from Special Forces, counterterrorism and other military service -- have been denied police credentials. According to OSSSO sources on both coasts, the rival Amtrak Police Department, in conjunction with the local police union in California, have stymied the process over labor issues (OSSSO members are non-union).

"Amtrak fully expects to have a resolution in the near future," I was told by the rail agency's press office last week. In the meantime, according to a high-ranking homeland security source, Amtrak's unionized police chief has taken over and makes counterterrorism deployment decisions based on pay squabbles. The rail agency is still dealing with grievances filed by Amtrak police officers over compensation during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Says my rail security source: "The deciding factor is overtime, not security."

Dickering while jihadis plot. Feel safer yet?

Quad layer Bluray and 2 HVDs to choose from: Worth it

LOL, even though I have a bluray rewritable installed, I still use single layer DVDs a lot at home. I written to bluray only for my music collection which only took up 1 SL-BDR. Now there is going to be 3 HVDs from GE, 100 GB one from Optware and

[[General Electric]] Global Research Center have made a [[HVD|holographic disc]] which is the same size of a DVD/CD, yet can hold 500 Gigabytes of Data. It is going to be released onto the market in less than four years. General Electric has been working on their HVD for six years. Their technology is compatible with CD, DVD, and Bluray. [http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/04/ge-holographic-breakthrough-squeezes-100-dvds-into-a-single-disc/http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/04/ge-holographic-breakthrough-squeezes-100-dvds-into-a-single-disc/] They have plans to commercialize it.



== References ==

[http://www.gereports.com/ge-unveils-holographic-disc-breakthrough/
www.crn.com/storage/217200230

http://www.techshout.com/hardware/2009/28/ge-micro-holographic-disc-equals-100-dvds/

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/04/ge-holographic-breakthrough-squeezes-100-dvds-into-a-single-disc/

Why I cheated and ignored the Zune HD

...because I bought a Creative Zen Touch 40 GB for 1/4 the asking price it (Zune HD = $299). LAME 3.97 still sounds decent. Now I have 3 working mp3 players, two 20 GB, and one 40 GB and i don't use them all that much. The Zune HD is supposed to be better than the 3rd gen iPod Touch due to better battery life. Zen Touch would have the same battery life as the Zune HD.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/17/zune-hd-review/

AMD Bulldozer 12 core in 2011

This is going to be a long stretch from the Intel QX6700 (3 GHz) and the new Bulldozer 12 core processor in 2011. I doubt there will be more than one DirectX 11 game that I want throughout the next 2 years. They'd all be DirectX 10. I have two Geforce GTX 280s, well enough to play any game at the highest settings until 2011. I tried out hardware acceleration and Windows 7 is very, very fast on an mediocre Athlon 64 X2, 3 GB of RAM thanks to a Geforce 8800 GTX. The Geforce GTX 280 SLI has 4 times the stream processors and almost 3 times the memory. AMD is always cheaper than Intel, only that Intel had a Quad core CPU at the right price in 2k7. 32 nm CPU so power it uses less voltage than my current quad-core. All my DirectX 11 games could very well be Xbox 720 if I even care to play.

In 2011, you still probably see all these new DirectX 9 games. The game developers said on gameindustry.biz that the current generation won't end until 2011. Then what's next? I say a DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 dual specd games? A technology I had since November 2006! Not to worry, I'll have DirectX 11 GPU by December 2012 in THE PC (not counting Xbox 720) when there is an awesome DirectX 11 game worth having. By then the AMD R800 core GPU will be very affordable. My next PC is probably due 2011 or 2012 depending on both money flow, and worthy software. If the word crazy enters your mind, just remember that the 16 core is due in 2011 around the same time and that the 1st gen of 12 core CPUs is due 2010.

I had my new PC just before the White house called it an official recession.



That's my Intel Core i7 980x from Christmas 2010

Holy Hell! Win2003 and IIS is easy to crack.

I am getting a MCSE and Security+ degree. O_o. I've only taken 3 Linux class in my life time. I don't think that Win2008 R2 (kernel 6.1) would make too much difference from Win2003. This is why pros need the latest OS due to 'security holes'. I won't care unless this means my job, it'll probably come to that too.

http://boycottnovell.com/2009/07/17/cracks-thanks-to-windows/
http://boycottnovell.com/2009/07/16/korean-united-states-windows-siege/

I still believe Windows Vista/7 is great for gaming.

Update OS day Episode IV: Why not?

OpenSuse 11.2 Milestone 7, KDE 4.3.1, Gnome 2.28.1 Linux kernel 2.6.31 RC9



Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!




Puppy Linux 4.3 beta 3, Linux Kernel 2.6.30

Even I know about PS3 firmware ;) Cos I'm just that smart!

I thought why not?...the Linux apocalypse is over since Update OS day episode III earlier this year. Isn't KDE, 4.3.1 a looker! There are bugs, for example I had to install Nvidia drivers. I got Computer Garage to download me the latest Milestone for $15. The final version comes out Nov. 15. At last, GRUB has EXT4 support so the bootup process can be in EXT4. In Fedora 11 [since May], it used ancient EXT3 file system for bootup. I also have Gnome 2.28 installed. Episode V should be around November 15, 2009.


Some annoying bugs [for my reference]

* grub and bootsplash still use 11.1 artwork
* HAL may crash, leaving XOrg without keyboard and mouse (Bug #537452), work-around: update with 'hal' package from Base:System
* License information on install is displayed in German (Bug #533026)
* GNOME live system asks for root password to mount file system (Bug #537343), work-around: just "Cancel"
* GNOME YaST Control Center cannot be started (Bug #537470), work-around: zypper in yast2-qt;yast2 --qt
* The PackageKit permanently requires authentication (Bug #538353), work-around: just "Cancel"
* Intel 4965 wireless is completely broken (Bug #537112)