Zaphod's Deepest Thoughts

Radio Contests Can Lead to Personal Information Disclosure.

There is this local radio station I enjoy very much, KTWO AM . I use them for my daily dose of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, plus Coast to Coast AM. Lately, they have been running a "Listener Fan Club" type contest thing, where if you enter certain words e-mailed to you, and said on the air, into their website, you can redeem these for prizes. Great, so I played the game for awhile, earned some points, and went to redeem them for a compact fluorescent light bulb.

SURPRISE! To claim it you had to fill out a IRS form W9, and give it to them.

Never before in the past had I need to fill out a W9 for promotional materials,

Now, as far as I knew, non-monetary prizes were not considered income unless the amount was extreme. But still, the thought of turning over my social security number to a radio station I am not employed by, just to claim a less than $1.00 (before store mark-up) compact fluorescent light bulb, sets off alarm bells. In this age of information theft, I am suspect of anyone reaching for my SSN without need.

I probably wouldn't mind as much if I had to send the W9 into the IRS myself, but leaving my SSN in the files of a non-related entity bothers me. As it stands now, I am not going to claim my prize due to this, and further, I am going to drop out of their "fan club" and send all further contacts to the trash in my e-mail. Sadly since there is no way to un-join the fan-club on the website, I will probably have to flag it as spam.

Now, before you freak out, I hold the Talent, DJs, newscasters, and even the station's GM, faultless. I do however suspect something fishy in the bean-counting department, or the middle/upper management. Your social security number just shouldn't be given out like this, nor should it be used for identification. Any business I can think of, would normally just write off such a small amount as the cost of doing business. I even have doubt the DJs know about this W9 silliness.

Even stranger, I am still going to listen to this station, because I like the people running it, and the content. However, in my opinion, they really need to be bought be a local benefactor, and given more control over their destiny... I do not believe the corporation holding title to KTWO has the best interests of the people of Wyoming at heart.

This article and content of this site in whole, is opinion covered under the 1st Amendment, and is not to be taken as an endorsement, nor detractment of any product or service.

Catch a Stratovolcano on Doppler Radar, The 3rd Mount Redoubt Explosion.

Well, as soon as I heard Redoubt exploded on the radio, I headed over to NWS Anchorage to see what I could see from their WSR-88D!

I was well rewarded!

That's it, just west of the word Kenai, way too cold for a thunderstorm, just right for a boom. Hope someone caught it earlier than this. You can see the new plume, and the old one streaming off to the NNE. The explosion, is of course, stationary. Enjoy!

Sylvania SMPK2242 Personal Media Player page added.

For Christmas a friend of mine bought me a Sylvania 2 GB personal media player. It's truely a wonderful gift, and plays all sorts of non proprietary material, so long as you have the right conversion program(s).

Well, after seeing everybody on the web was frustrated by the lack of support for the video conversion utility that came with the player, and it's limited scope, I decided to make a page about how to use Media Coder instead, with much better results.

You can find the page HERE !

Sure hope it helps.

Zap! :)

New Filetopia 4 name and logo leaked!

Wow, I never thought I would see anything new out of them, but here it is...

Amazing isn't it?

Actually, it's not, it's a bad, somewhat inside joke based on this software in development forever. Sure hope it doesn't make for too much bad karma. But on a REAL NOTE...

BeTaGuRu has released a bugfix patch for Filetopia being run under Windows Vista, you can get it HERE.

It matters! ( Well, at least to the universe it does. )

Yet another article plumbing the depths of time for finding out a universal truth was seen by me today...

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/underground-lab.html

Yet for all the hubbub, it seems to me another group of college kids have just found a way to milk the people for more grant money. ( Ever hear about the frenchies who had a particle detector requiring thousands of gallons of cognac? My LANL friend and me agree it would have been much more worthwhile if they used single malt scotch! )

Here's my 3 simple ideas on why matter won out, and none of them are really testable, but they make allot of sense.

1. God. Yes, it's a cop-out, but if you cant accept anyone's theory, it's what you are stuck with. Lump it. I am most comfortable with this one as it makes the universe allot safer than I think it is. Comfort does not equal satisfaction though.

2. Matter didn't win. There was an "un-eveness" to the matter and antimatter cloud in the expanding universe, and clusters of galaxies we see today, are actually made of antimatter. Some people say the difference could be detected, but I have yet to see honestly HOW. This is the most uncomfortable theory, as in E.T. Could vanish in a multimegaton blast should his ship try to land here. ( Tunguska anybody? ). Conversely, it could make space travel for us slightly buggery, if we should develop intergalactic drive.

3. Matter and Antimatter are known to annihilate and make 2 energetic gammas. Energy can be converted to mass (matter mass mind you, not anti-matter). So quite possibly M + aM = 2y = 2M (Translated... Matter + Antimatter became 2 Gammas, which were then converted back into 2 units of matter.) I find this both comfortable, and satisfactory, as the early universe was so hot that much energy had to become matter, or everything would have just boiled away as photons (Gammas are photons too). Also it follows known conventions of E=mc^2... nowhere in that equation does it allow for antimatter, does it? But allot of E was made by the annihilations in the early universe. Seems like a one-way trip to matter to me.

What's your thoughts? Please comment below.

A collection of Jokers... Give me your opinions.

Okay, when it comes to jokers, let's hear your opinions on this motley crew.

I want to hear...
1.Which one scares the batcrap out of you?
2.Which one fits the socio/psychopathic bent best?
3.Which one(s) do you not know of?

A. Cesar Romero... "It's a new town. The old elegance is gone. It used to be one big family, this industry."

B. John Wayne Gacy... "A clown can get away with murder."

C. Jack Nicholson... "Here's Johnny!"

D. Heath Ledger... "It's because of you Jack, that I'm like this! I'm nothin'... I'm nowhere..."

These should be some interesting comments I think. So ponder, and please leave some below here.

Zap!

GPS Navigation, and How It's Making You Vulnerable.

Used to be a time when if you were lost, it was commonplace to ask for directions. But this was an inconvenience to you, and the person that had to help. And it might put you in danger (heavens no!) of being in contact with the criminal element. Or even worse, as a man, you had to admit to your wife you were yourself lost, and needed to ask directions. Of course, it also meant you might miss out on hearing about the best place in town to get eats (not the place that paid your GPS navigation data provider the most for top placement in their restaurant list.), or maybe even make a new lifelong friend.

There is the oldskool way, the trusty old map and compass. Sure, not many city folks know how to use them, but living in Wyoming, it's a matter of survival. "Huh?" you say. Yes, survival. If you don't stick to the main roads, and are looking for a place to fish, or hunt (as many people do when they come to Wyoming), you better know how to read a map, and to tell if you are on public land, and if not, where is the ranch house on that topo. Not doing so, can get you shot at, and perhaps killed. The last thing a rancher wants to see, is some out-of-stater with a gun, walking through his pasture where he keeps his $150,000.00 prize breeding bull with a bad attitude. That bull doesn't know what a gun is, and will charge you like any other invader, and you will probably shoot rather than run. So guess who might shoot first?

Of course, using said tools, requires you know how to use them. It's called Orienteering. Pick up a book on it at your library, ask a veteran (they love to feel useful), or steal your son's Boy Scout handbook for a bit. What? Your son isn't in scouting? For shame! What? You don't have a son? Then put your daughter into the Girl Scouts, they do it too! .......... Oh, you are too young for kids, then get into scouting! Why? Keep reading.

 In our current state of paranoia there comes a time when one must wonder, in the panic following a good kicking, if our government may turn on its own civilians. Perhaps it won't even be intentional, but in a panic knee jerk reaction, it may do things it thinks will protect everyone, but instead cause mass detriment to the populace.

For instance, the chances of some foreign creep looking to blow stuff up running around Wyoming is pretty slim to none. The US Bureau of Reclamation had decided, along with the Department of Fathe... errm... Homeland Security, that one of my favorite fishing holes by Alcova Dam in Alcova, WY, needed to be fenced off to protect us. I can't drive, or even walk up there to the spill gates to toss a line in the water anymore. You hear this Dick Cheney? This is a place we both have fished at (Not together, but I gladly would), now closed forever due to some idiotic out of state numbnuts deciding it was a target of THE TERRORIST. Horsepuckey! We all know terrorists don't strike infrastructure. They are into flashy areas with lots of civilians, and big bangs.

I have digressed...

The whole point of the preceding being, that Imagine some day, some bureaucrat flying a desk in Washington D.C. gets some bad information about an impending missile attack. Imagine that, the government getting bad information! But they do. (We stayed in Iraq for the right reasons, and we should never have left in the first place!)

So, in a panic, Mr. Faceless and Blameless public servant decides the GPS system should be shut off to civilian receivers (or maybe even accidentally crashes the whole shebang) to avoid providing the missile guidance. You suddenly have no way to figure out where you are... that is, unless you have bought a map (or picked one up at the tourism information center when you crossed the border for free). What I am saying is, GPS is nice and accurate, but it has a fatal flaw, it is electronic, and foulable in so many ways!

Actually, as another sidenote, in a couple years, it won't matter, the terrorists will be using the Russian GLONASS which we have no control over.

This still doesn't mean GPS won't be tampered with, even by nature. It's a microwave radio based system, and that means line of site. I have been down in several deep dark canyons where you might be lucky to see 2 birds at any one time... and this is the last place you want to be lost, is in the middle of nowhere, at the bottom of some pit.

Also, if your system isn't large (as in has a big antenna) or sensitive, severe weather may block too many of the satellites from it. Imagine being lost in the dark, knowing there is an F5 Tornado sneaking up on you. Your GPS has quit because there is too many tons of dust and water held aloft in the supercell above you blocking the signal. You were madly looking for the interstate to escape, but now find yourself in the middle of a corn field at the end of "Bob's Road." Wouldn't it be nice to have a map, and the skills to read it with you to know that the on-ramp is only 2 miles away, but only if you make 3 left turns from where you are, instead of the 3 rights you are going to take that will take you over the interstate with no on-ramp, and right into the path of destruction?

Trust me on this one folks, this planet is pretty oldskool. And it plays by the old school rules. Learn how to use a map, and maybe a compass, and save yourself a bunch of grief. Don't rely on technology, it can betray you at the worst times, and according to Murphy, it will!

Or, you can always lower yourself to asking a local where to go... (I got yer answer right here!).

Zap!

Critters in my yard.

Just thought I would share with you some pictures of some of the fauna in my yard.

Avian messaging via my owl.
(Yes, real, not a cleverly placed porcelain doo-hickey... I am mortified of heights!)

Always has to be a beatnik in the crowd.
Our local celebrity, the albino doe deer visited us recently. Yes, she is very wild, and no, we absolutely do not feed the deer. They come around because the property makes an excellent nursery, fenced in, with a cattle guard to keep the young-uns here, while the moms go off and eat and drink in peace. I believe the others to be her descendants, and with the amount of inbreeding around here (sad) I expect there to be more. Interestingly enough, I believe the white color has been a survival boon to this doe, as she is very easy to see at night on the road.

Red Squirrels, or as known around here, Tree Rats (with fluffy tails). I could say allot bad about these %@©*#&! critters, but for now, here is just a picture of them. (They are cute after all)

My cat Tasha. A great hunter, most of the time he catches little things like he has here, a short tailed mouse, or vole... but occasionally he snags one of those %@©*#&! tree rats (Good kitty!), or maybe a full grown rabbit (Bad kitty!). Whatever the case is, if we don't take it away from him, he eats it all, except for fluffy bits, and feet. He also makes quick kills and doesn't play with his food.

He was abused before we adopted him, and for the first 2 years we had him around, he wouldn't come near anyone, and lived in the barn on what he could catch and eat himself, so this is where he learned that game is not toys, but food. He is now a well adjusted housecat, lazy, fat, friendly, but he still runs from anyone but his family,

Now, what is sick is, I promised myself years ago I would never make a website with a picture of my cat, and rambling on about him. Sorry, I broke form, but it was in the interest of another article. I just got caught up in it. Please please don't think I've lost it. I'll be back at you again with all the innuendo, and entendre you have come to expect from me shortly. This was just a detour for fun.

Zap!

Ex-Smoker Speaking Out on Second Hand Smoke.

 Okay, let's face it, unless you are really, and truely allergic to it, the chances that second hand smoke affects your health is next to impossible. For THOUSANDS, if not closer to a MILLION years, proto-humans lived in nasty, smoky caves. Now if you are on the left, chances are you are a Darwinist, and under those auspices, you have to believe what I am about to say is correct. If you are on the religious right, well, sorry, I am a conservative libertarian and drop rhetoric for logic (may God forgive me).

 Long ago, those who would have been adversely affected by second hand smoke, have been weeded out of the gene pool. That's right, all your studies with skewed statistics, loaded goals, and biased, hand-picked samples, don't matter one whit to me. Face it, back then your choice was freezing to death, or huffing the smoke. If you were pre-disposed to problems with the smoke, you either died, froze to death, or were one tough S.O.B. and wandered outside and became a yeti. Bigfoot is a dead end species, and I feel sorry for the few that remain.

 Now, as an ex-smoker of over a year, I believe I can speak with some authority here... second hand smoke does not stink to an ex smoker (unless (s)he has become allergic to it.) To me, and many others I can trust to be honest about it, second hand smoke smells of sweet ambrosia. Yes, those first few puffs from that cigarette across the room may as well be the Woman in the Red Dress from The Matrix... distinctively attractive, distinctively deadly. That little self gratification neuron in your brain wakes up and goes "Oh yeah, I remember that. Wanna play?" It takes a stout grim resolve not to slip back into the habit. Congrats if you have come to terms with your demons, and reached a golconda (Golconda, state of enlightenment in role playing game Vampire (World of Darkness)).

 Now, if you are a non-smoker (never had it, never will) I will admit, from my memories as a child in a house with a regular, and menthol smoker, it stinks... no... it f**king reeks! It stains the walls, plugs up cooling fans in your PC, and makes the TV look fuzzy. It's a nasty habit, and I am proud to say that when I did smoke, I did do it outside, or in private areas where those who didn't like it, could avoid it. The one exception was cafes. And to this day, I still sit in the smoking section with my friends that smoke, because they are my FRIENDS and deserve not to be treated like crap for an addiction which was shoved down their throats, and is damn hard to break. (Thank you Lord for helping me break the shackles!)

 But for the rest of you ex-smokers out there, whining and fussing because you are being reminded of pleasure now forbidden, do us all a favor...

1. Shut the hell up.
2. Come to terms with an addiction you will never fully kick.
    (Recovering Alcoholics have, why not you?)
3. Remember, inside every smoker there is a human being who needs love.
4. Remember, that by pushing them away, you can't set a good example to them.
    (non-smokers cannot set an example, because they have never had the addiction)
5. Make an allowance for them, and fight for their rights to die.

A little logic, love, and a whole lot more honesty from ex-smokers might make this addiction easier to deal with, both for those in denial, and those who have come to terms with it. And you non-smokers just need to shut the hell up about second hand smoke, or go to some place that forbids smoking.

Carbon Credit? Noooo... Carbon Debit!

Okay... 'nuff is enough...

CARBON CREDIT PROMISARY STATEMENT

I, Zaphod Breeblebrox, do solemnly swear that I will NOT burn down at least 500 Million Tons of forest ever. This does not exclude any other forest from burning at a future date. As of now though, 500 Million tons are safe from my hand. I wish to leave the other tonnage for the other wise people not to burn.

As such, at a rate of 50% carbon by weight on average by for wood, 250 Megatons of carbon 12, or 920 Megatons of Carbon Dioxide (weight 44) will not be released into the atmosphere.

Since I have avowed NOT to commit this horrible act of arson, I wish to deposit my 920 Million Carbon Credits (in ton amounts) in the Gore Carbon Bank.

I move my hand this day upon this document, Zaphod Breeblebrox (04/18/08)

Okay, there you have it, I have 920 Million Carbon Creds to my name. I can now sell it to any corporation who wants it for real money, or even buy more for deposit. Gee, that was easy and fun! Thanks Algore! Oh, and, I gotta have a card to go with the credits!

Never has not doing a crime been so profitable. Take what you need my friends!
(There's always more forest not to burn if I need it!)
(or be nice and hit my tip jar out in the main site for using the card on your site)

(this of course, is for fun and giggles, if you thought something else, yer a lib... errm... idiot.)