January 25, 2007
24 is a very exciting show to watch. I love the show. Ever since the first season, when Jack Bauer was introduced to the world as the CTU agent who was given the task of ensuring that candidate David Palmer was not assassinated.
The story, and world of 24, is compelling, engaging and just plain fun. There are twists and turns thrown in at completely unexpected times in the show, which keep viewers captivated. Even through all of this, there are oddities that take place in 24-land.
The following are 24 observations about 24.
- In order to truly enjoy 24 one must employ suspension of disbelief. The world in which 24 exists is nothing like reality and therefore requires the viewer to be willing to accept that what happens in 24 is possible, no matter how fantastic or implausible.
- The United States government does not work that fast. Ever. If the President of the United States were to grant a pardon or immunity to a terror suspect then it would take weeks for the paperwork to be completed. In 24, often times legal documents take a matter of minutes to execute. It almost appears as if there is some Microsoft Word form, or template, that a government lawyer uses, merely plugging in the suspects name and then printing out the document. The United States government does not work this way.
- There is an excessive and abundant use of cell phones. Everyone calls everyone on cell phones, with complete disregard for the lack of security that cell phones offer. In the real world of government operations, secure phones and secure networks are used to convey classified information. The use of an unsecured cell phone line is inconceivable.
- Satellites are repositioned within minutes, track suspects in real-time and offer DVD-like video quality. While there are satellites that can do many of these tasks, it is almost impossible for them to be repositioned so quickly. The United States government does not work quickly. Ever.
- Chloe can hack any computer or network in a matter of minutes. While it may seem plausible at first look, breaking in to various government computers, networks, street-cams and whatnot takes time. There are automated hacking kits available but many of those are useless against secure government networks. Granted, much of the government is run on half-assedly secure networks, but still.
- The President of the United States is easy to get a hold of and speak to on the phone. Agent Jack Bauer is regularly able to call the President in the middle of field operations. It is highly doubtful that agents call the President directly, instead relying on the concept of the chain of command.
- There are an insane amount of moles within the United States government, especially in high ranking positions. Additionally, those responsible for hiring such weasels rarely end up paying for such ill-advised employee decisions are ultimately are not accountable for such monumental mistakes. Prerequisite: Suspension of disbelief.
- Information is “downloaded” to PDA’s all the time. GPS coordinates, schematics, imagery and an assortment of other goodies are regularly transmitted over unsecured communications circuits to PDA-wielding agents out in the field. I wonder what wireless network is being used to transfer the data, because it sure is not any of the American mobile carriers. WiFi is not available in the middle of the desert either.
- CTU employees regularly open “channels” to just about every network in existence, ranging from CalTrans traffic camera’s to highly secret intelligence community networks. All of this is done on the premise that all an employee or agent needs in order to obtain access is to offer up some archaic “access code” that is authorized within moments by another employee. The United States government does not function like this. Ever.
- Jack Bauer is an excellent gunfighter, with supernatural accuracy, while his opponents lack intelligence and the capability of making that difficult shot. In many cases throughout the lifetime of 24, Jack Bauer has been faced with difficult situations that have displayed an above-human accuracy when firing his pistol. Maybe someone in the government needs to consider a way to clone Mr. Bauer and turn him in to a super-soldier.
- Interrogation of suspects takes mere minutes to complete. Regularly, suspects are returned to CTU for questioning and are either set free or give up the goods within moments of being placed in a holding cell. The information presented is rarely checked for accuracy, though in most cases when necessary Chloe, or another agent, will open a channel to another government system in order to verify the authenticity of the claims made by a suspect. In some cases, Jack has vouched for a suspect based upon a hunch. Prerequisite: Suspension of disbelief.
- CTU has some very “cool” technology, where employees are able to push information to another employee’s computer screen. You always hear Chloe, and others, announce that they have sent “the list” to “your screen” where upon the other employee, in many cases their boss, finds a document already opened on their workstation’s monitor. Colour me confused, but having worked for the government for as long as I have there has never been a single instance where I came across such a thing. In fact, being in information security, I find it hard to believe that such an application would be allowed on government networks.
- While there is an Apple computer here and there, the US government largely is a customer of Dell and HP. I definitely have to raise the bullshit flag on the many times that a 24 employee has been seen using an Apple computer. In Season Six we even see President Wayne Palmer wielding an Apple MacBookPro. This will never happen. Never. Ever. Are we clear?
- That single second between the ending of the previous episode and the beginning of the current episode has got to be the longest second in the history of time. There has been countless episodes that have ended in a major bomb blast with the very next second, which would conceivably be the opening second of the current episode, having already had rescue personnel on site. How in holy hell are police and fire rescue capable of being on the site of a bomb blast within a second after it has exploded? Either these rescue types are jacked in to some Minority Report-like “catastrophe system” or they were alerted in advance of the blast. Or, this is just all crazy bullshit that requires Suspension of disbelief.
- Everyone in the entire world, with the exception of Jack Bauer, is capable of performing their police-like or spy-like job. How many times has Jack Bauer been able to avoid authorities, escape custody, and “out-think” every other person in the entire world of 24? Is he the only individual with brains in 24-land?
- Is there ever traffic in Los Angeles? No matter where an agent needs to go, they are able to get there in 30 minutes maximum. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and rarely can anyone get anywhere of distance in such a short period of time. Especially considering how large Los Angeles County is, and the amount of mileage that the agents cover, makes it even far more outrageous that agent routinely get from Thousand Oaks to South Central in 35 minutes. To make matters worse, does anyone really think that traffic would be non-existent after major terror attacks, such as the recent nuclear explosion that took place in Los Angeles in Season Six?
- Since when are all terrorists, and bad guys, of foreign decent. Have the writers of 24 completely forgotten about Timothy McVeighs? All the bad guys have foreign accents as opposed to being our very own next door neighbors. Imagine what America would be like if that hot chick that lives next door turned out to be a wicked ass terrorist. What about Arlington Road anyone?
- The people, and parts, necessary for major nuclear attacks and other similar attacks are very easy to secure. Along the same lines, the terrorists appear to be of above average intelligence and capable of creating highly complex plans that completely misdirect our faithful CTU heroes. Just about every season of 24 has started off with a particular terror plot that fails, or partially succeeds, only to see the terrorists unconcerned because there is a “larger plan” at work.
- Jack Bauer, and other CTU agents, are capable of withstanding immense amounts of pain that no other normal human beings could handle. Additionally, the are capable of recovering from highly stressful situations, and harsh interrogation tactics, within minutes. Does anyone really think that the Secretary of Defense would truly be willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of America, and withstand such evils?
- is it me or is President Wayne Palmer, who is the President of the United States in Season Six, just a tad unbelievable in his role? After all, he does not look much older than 45, and that is pushing it to the max. He actually looks about 40 years old, and even acts as such. I just find it highly incredulous that the country would be willing to vote in someone so young, especially considering the history of the USA. As with most of the other things about 24, see Suspension of disbelief
- Jack Bauer appears to know more than his fair share of evildoers. On more than once occasion Jack Bauer has been intimately familiar with an individual who turned out to be an enemy of the state. Season Six has turned in to the epitome of this, with Jack’s brother having been discovered as the puppeteer from Season Five, who had a direct line to President Logan, ordering him around like a Marine Corps recruit in boot camp.
- A hell of a lot of evil, terror, death, destruction and mere chaos happens within the span of a mere 24 hours. Wicked underground, terror-driven conspiratorial plots are executed and uncovered within a mere day. Rarely does this much happen in an entire year in America, much less a mere 1441 minutes.
- Los Angeles must be the center of the universe, as more death, destruction and terror has taken place in this west coast city than the sum of every other city in America. Is there a reason that every terrorist in the world desires to strike solely in Los Angeles, rather than any one of the numerous other very important cities in the states, such as Detroit, Chicago or New York?
- 24 is the one show that truly gives me goose bumps at the end of just about every episode, especially when it ends with a major plot twist or extreme terrorist spawned destruction. While Season Six has toned this feeling down, even though it has been playing only for a couple weeks now, 24 still manages to offer far more goose bump induced WTF moments than just about any other show on TV today.
So now that I got those thoughts off of my chest, what interesting observations do you have about this highly acclaimed show? I imagine everyone has their own comments, which I am very interested in reading. With that said, sound off with your thoughts on Jack Bauer and 24.
January 24, 2007
WordPress 2.1 “Ella” has been released by the Wordpress team. If you use what I consider to be the best blogging platform available today then I suggest upgrading immediately. After all, the following new features make the upgrade all the more worthwhile:
- Autosave makes sure you never lose a post again.
- A new tabbed editor allows you to switch between WYSIWYG and code editing instantly while writing a post.
- Lossless XML import and export makes it easy for you to move your content between blogs.
- The completely redone visual editor also now includes spell checking.
- New search engine privacy option allows you take you to indicate your blog shouldn’t ping or be indexed by search engines like Google.
- Any “page” can be set to act as the front page of your site, and put the latest posts somewhere else, making it much easier to use WordPress as a content management system rather than solely as a blogging tool.
- The administrative interface has been refreshed to load faster and be more visually consistent.
- Comment feeds now include all the comments, not just the last 10.
- The upload manager lets you easily manage all your uploads pictures, video, and audio.
- A new version of the Akismet plugin is bundled.
In conjunction with the release of Wordpress 2.1, the good folks at Automattic have also released a major upgrade to the best comment spam protection plug-in around. Akismet 2.0 comes packed with an added amount of new functionality that definitely makes upgrading more than worthwhile. Here is what you can expect to see in Akismet 2.0:
- Instead of just viewing the last 150 comments, you can now page through everything caught by Akismet.
- Major performance upgrades which create less stress and havoc on the database when processing an immense amount of spam.
- You can now search the Akismet caught queue.
- Longer timeout so it is less likely to let spam through if you have a free key and the load is high. Paid keys are always placed in the priority queue.
- The counters now update properly when you clear things out.
- A recheck moderation queue page on the WP moderation page to re-submit things in your moderation queue, which facilitates the rechecking of all comments at a later date.
- A new counter widget you can put in your sidebar to show a live count of your spam.
- You can hardcode your API key in the plugin file to hide the configuration page and enable Akismet as a mu-plugin for WordPress MU.
- If Akismet is unable to contact the mothership, it now has much friendlier debug messages.
- You can now tell Akismet to discard spam that comes in on entries older than a month. This feature can be found on the Akismet configuration page under Plugins.
Although I do not know the Wordpress team, I do know what they had to endure in order to get this out of the door. For that, I extend a hearty congratulations! Hopefully Wordpress 2.1 will continue to grow, and remain the top-notch blogging tool that it is today.
Get them while they are hot. Download Wordpress 2.1 and Akismet 2.0 today!
January 17, 2007
In less than 10 days since the previous release, WordPress 2.0.7 has been unleashed. This version quashes a bug in certain installations of PHP that may cause security vulnerabilities. Wordpress 2.0.7 also comes packaged with fixes for the previously reported unspecified vulnerabilities.
It is highly recommended that everyone running WordPress 2.0.6 or lower upgrade to this new version. I always recommended upgrading when critical security issues are located in highly popular products like Wordpress.
If you are like me, you can always try out the development versions, assuming you are interested in the possibility of a slightly unsteady ride!
January 15, 2007
MailTwitterPHP is an email to Twitter gateway script. MailTwitterPHP will make an attempt to connect to a specified IMAP inbox, cycle through all email and attempt to post the body of each email as a new Twitter to a specified Twitter account. POP3 is currently unsupported, although support will be added in a future release. MailTwitterPHP is designed to run as a shell script rather than as a Wordpress plug-in or general purpose PHP code on a web page.
I wrote MailTwitterPHP because although my mobile phone does have a web browser, it will not login to Twitter and allow me to update my status. Additionally, Japan does not have SMS capable mobile phones. Those of us in Japan are effectively locked out of updating Twitter when mobile. This lead to the inspiration for the script; I desired to update my Twitter status when mobile and set out to make that possible. Twitter’s exposed API endpoints made MailTwitterPHP possible.
Twitter, for those who have no idea what it is, is a service that allows one to update their “status” quite easily and without thought. If you are, say, watching a movie then you can tell all your friends that you are doing so quite easily. What I really like about Twitter is that it allows you to keep the fluff off of your blog while still keeping your friends apprised of your status. It is almost like guilt-free blogging for those “useless” posts that would otherwise be left out in the abyss. Try it out and see for yourself. Then add me as a friend.
MailTwitterPHP is the first PHP script that I have ever released in this capacity. Although I have created a web site here and there, I have never had my code exposed to the world in this manner. It feels somewhat awkward yet simultaneously liberating. If anyone notices anything awry with the script, or something that looks out of place, then please let me know. I am extremely open to ensuring that the script is not riddled with any issues.
As already mentioned, MailTwitterPHP is designed to run as a shell script. The ideal method would be to create a cron job that calls MailTwitterPHP every 5 minutes, or whatever timeframe deemed necessary, so that it can poll the specified IMAP inbox and update Twitter with any updates awaiting on the server.
POP3 is currently unsupported but will be added in the next release. Since I have no use for POP3 I opted to release the script solely with IMAP support at the moment. The addition of POP3 support is actually fairly minimal. Even so, I would much rather gauge feedback on the script before moving along with development of MailTwitterPHP.
It is recommended that a mailbox be created for the sole purpose of MailTwitterPHP. The script is designed to delete email without prejudice and will, therefore, remove any and all email awaiting on the specified server, even if you “saved” it. An additional small security feature in MailTwitterPHP only allows email with the correct subject line to be posted to Twitter.
PHP must have IMAP support compiled in otherwise MailTwitterPHP will not function, as it relies on the IMAP library in order to function. If you are unable to use MailTwitterPHP due to the lack of IMAP support then please contact your ISP, or compile PHP with IMAP support on your own
Any and all thoughts and ideas are welcome and will be thoroughly considered before possible inclusion in future releases.
Download MailTwitterPHP from its project page.
Update 1: It appears as if Twitter’s API endpoint for posting has been disabled at the moment. This is probably due to an exploit that was found earlier. I am not sure when the API will once again be available, but hope that it is relatively soon.
Update 2: MailTwitterPHP has been updated to ensure that it is using a POST, as defined in the Twitter API, and is once again functional. All rejoice!
January 11, 2007
In the event that you have been living under a rock this week then you have probably been doused with far more Apple iPhone information than previously thought possible. There had been a firestorm of speculation surrounding the iPhone before the announcement but now that the device has been unveiled the rumours and questions continue to mount. Apple has not been too forthcoming regarding many aspects of the iPhone, and the fact that it will not be available for another 6 months means that there will disturbing rumour-mongering until the release in June.
In no particular order, here are my thoughts on the device that has been announced but is as yet unavailable:
- The device will not be released in Japan until 2008. This means that at the very earliest, availability is 6 months behind the United States. Since the underlying OS is the long rumoured embeddable version of OSX, which is obviously based off of the desktop OSX, then the reason for the delay is not related to language issues. That is, unless the touch screen input method editor for Japanese is not yet complete. Assuming it is, the only outstanding issue is which carrier Apple will partner with: DoCoMo, au or Softbank Mobile. Either way, why the major difference in release times between the US and Japan?
- According to local sources, the 4GB phone will cost roughly 70,000 yen once released in Japan. That is an almost $100 markup from the US version.
- The touchscreen interface scares me because every touchscreen that I have ever used was uncomfortable. The lack of tactile feedback is bad enough but in most cases it just did not feel “right” to be using my dirty and greasy fingers on a screen. I made a number of attempts to use my fingers on the various Palm touchscreen devices I have used throughout the years and not a single one of them produced a comforting or quality experience.
- I wonder how many scratches will show up on the touchscreen after 1 weeks worth of use. Anyone with anything that resembles “nails” on their fingers might find that their screen is far more scratched than those without nails.
- The iPod features look fantastic. I actually like the way that scrolling through the artist and song lists appears to function. If the demonstrations prove true then the iPhone’s functionality will far surpass the current iPod user interface. Revolutionary is not a strong enough word. I wonder how long before we will see standalone iPod’s based on similar technology. I will even go so far as to venture a guess that the “next generation” video iPod will be released before the iPhone is released en-masse.
- The device has the capability of changing how we think about our mobile phones. After all, the user interface on most of them are horribly inefficient, with the electronics companies not really interested in innovating. Apple completely blew away the “work” that the cell phone manufacturers have been doing for the last 10 years. The only thing that is stopping the iPhone from succeeding are consumers. If the early adopters find that the iPhone experience is far from a quality one then Apple might end up realizing its worst fears.
- I love how you can choose the order in which you can listen to your voicemail. The annoying manner in which voicemail is currently handled is archaic and outdated. Why did it take Apple to “fix” this? Are the existing handset manufacturers that comfortable in their positions in the market that they feel there is no need for user interface innovation or usability improvements? Think different is definitely something Apple is good at, especially if the thinking is simplistic in nature and considers the very features that we take for granted.
- The brilliantly coloured screen looks exquisite. Have I mentioned that I do not want to scratch it or break it? There really needs to be a way to protect the screen so that the iPhone can be shoved in to the same pocket that I put coinage, gum, breath spray and other seemingly innocuous objects in.
- The lack of a flash or zoom on the camera, which are extremely basic functions that every camera should offer, is a horrible decision. How does Apple expect people to take pictures at night, drunk, while stumbling downtown? Nobody is asking for SLR-like quality; just the basic features that everyone has come to expect. That actually sounds more like a rhetorical question.
- Smartphone’s are not all that special here in Japan, with an extremely small adoption rate. On the flipside, mobile phones that play music are rampant. It is hard to truly comprehend where the iPhone fits in to the Japanese keitai picture. I wonder what effect, if any, the iPhone will have on the mobile phone market here in Japan. My gut instinct tells me that the iPhone, assuming a successful adoption rate upon release in the US, will not see similar numbers in Japan. After all, most Japanese keitai’s have much of the functionality that the iPhone already offers, though not with the unique touchscreen interface. I patiently await to see how the launch will play out here.
- When launched, the iPhone needs to have a similar accessory eco-system to that of the iPod. Third-party manufacturers will need to make accessories for the device in order to make it a more attractive purchase, even though one will ultimately be spending upwards of $600 in order to be an early adopter.
- The inability to install third-party applications on the device is a potential major roadblock. If the iPhone is to truly be the convergence device that Apple is touting it as then it is critical that the device allows installable applications, such as is capable with the PalmOS based Treo. After all, if this is going to replace my current mobile phone, iPod and PDA then it needs to be able to perform the same functions as all those devices. I should be able to install a shareware password management application or simple financial application should I opt to do so, just like I can on my PDA. The lack of ability to install third-party software is almost a roadblock that will surely hurt the iPhone in the longrun. The exceptional shareware available for OSX surely helps sell people in to switching to a Mac. This will hold true for the iPhone as well. Embracing third-party development is a win-win for Apple.
So what are your thoughts on the iPhone? Is there anything in particular that stands out to you, which has not been mentioned? Plan to buy one once available?
A new year and a new set of Microsoft security updates no thanks to another fun installment of Microsoft “Patch Tuesday.†This month we see Microsoft offering an “important” fix for a multilingual version of Office 2003, a critical Outlook patch, a critical Excel patch and lastly, a critical vector markup language patch.
The following is a list of what new goodies our faithful friend, Microsoft, has removed from their big bag of presents:
MS07-001: Vulnerability in Microsoft Office 2003 Brazilian Portuguese Grammar Checker Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
KB Number: 921585
Severity: Important
MS07-002: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
KB Number: 927198
Severity: Critical
MS07-003: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
KB Number: 925938
Severity: Critical
MS07-004: Vulnerability in Vector Markup Language Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
KB Number: 929969
Severity: Critical
I highly recomment that these patches be installed once they have been delivered to you via Microsoft’s automatic update service. If, for whatever reason, you do not see them show up anytime soon then I strongly recommend that you force-check for new updates. Once prompted to install these security patches then do so immediately.
What will February have in store for Windows users across the world? Only time will tell!
