iDude.org

Since I am starting to focus this whole place more on technobabble, I try to avoid non-techy subjects, but having posted on Amtrak before, I will do so again.

Last week, Congress appropriated 15 billion to help Amtrak “steam forward” (sorry! ;-) ) into the the future.

In a veto-proof 311-104 vote last week that mimics a Senate decision late last year, the U.S. House wisely pumped $15 billion into the national rail system, allowing for capital improvements and providing operating funds for the heavily-subsidized service through fiscal year 2013.

While cross-country service will continue - Amtrak serves 500 destinations in 46 states - the House turned a switch and sent passenger rail service barrelling in new directions.

The bill provides about $500 million in each of the next five years for grants to allow states to contract with Amtrak to expand or establish rail service between cities. It also instructs the federal Department of Transportation to seek proposals from private firms to establish rapid rail service between New York City and Washington, the nation’s first foray into high-speed rail.

I’ve taken Amtrak in the past on various trips mostly from Ohio to DC or vice-versa on the Cardinal.  They have been fun and full of socializing with new people from all over the world (mostly while smoking in the smoking car, if they still exist).  From students to lawyers, hackers, rural commuters who were taking the train from Prince, WV to Manassas, VA to work construction, the people and their stories can be mesmerizing.  I even happened to run into a Shawnee “tribesmen” (who rolled us cigarettes when we ran out) who actually knew my old minister who married my wife and I.  Besides being a minister in Oxford, Ohio, he is also the story teller (AKA: Neeake) for the Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band. Small world!

In my few trips, Amtrak service was plagued by delays, mostly due to CSX and other freight lines that hit their crew’s time limit and had to stop, wherever they were, and bring in a new crew.  Sometimes these stops were made in the middle of the night on a single track with no secondary track nearby for them to “pull over”.  Sometimes the delays were up to 12 hours, but at least there was food (and self brought vodka and coke) to pass the time.  Even with the delays, there was plenty to do and we were able to move about the train and stretch, unlike the recent airline debacles this past winter.   Fortunately, I had no schedule to meet, but others did and problems like these turned a lot of people away from rail.

Hopefully this new federal funding will change this and allow infrastructure upgrades possible that will minimize or eliminate these massive delays and bring back the “good ol days” of passenger rail in the U.S.

To conclude, trains are an American past-time, a mode of transportation that made expansion across North America possible.  Most people these days don’t give trains their due when it comes to this “forgotten” piece of history.  Lets embrace this funding and encourage your elected officials not to let it die before it is fully realized.

PS - Gas prices aren’t getting any lower any time soon.

Original Article from quote above

I’ve always have used simple WiFi routers to be the “first device” connected to my network here at home.  Over the last year or two, I have been experimenting with SveaSoft Talisman Opensource Router Firmware, on my Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, as well as DD-WRT.  DD-WRT has been my favorite and seems the easiest to use firmware with the slickest interface.

But it just didn’t feel like “enough” protection.

Enter Clark Connect Community Edition 4.2

Clark Connect Community Edition, CCCE for simplification, is the free edition of this OS.  It is a Linux firewall based on Red Hat Linux and contains many excellent features to protect your network and give you services that only much more expensive solutions offer.

I grabbed one of my “old” Dell servers, an SC430 Dual Core machine that I’ve used for reviews here in the past and started install of the ISO I burned (~487mb).  To utilize the firewall “gateway” mode of the OS, I installed a second old 100mb NIC card to be the external WAN side and kept the faster GB NIC for “internal” use.

Installation was a breeze, as most are these days, and within 20-25 minutes, I had the core system up and running.  It took a little bit of configuration to get both cards recognized and to get my cable modem provider to reset the ARP table (by rebooting the cable modem) for the external WAN side to kick in.  I just put a ping from a commandline on the gateway and watched it.

Pings were replied to…

The console interface is limited and mostly allows you to do simple things like configure NICS, view a traffic monitor (IPTraf) and other minor things.  There is a relatively new “graphical” GUI that lets you see some more, but it is still mostly limited.

The best way to configure the gateway is by logging into the web interface.  The web interface can be accessed by the URL https://yourgwIP:81 and entering the root password you chose during installation.  Once in, virtually every feature can be configured, services started/stopped and a full statistical interface can be seen.  More stuff can be installed/configured from the commandline via SSH or direct console access.

As stated above, in my network, this CCCE gateway replaced my DD-WRT WiFi router as the “first device” connected to the internet.  I then plugged the internal LAN NIC into a 24 port gigabit switch and connected my nearby workstations to it.  For my “remote” WiFi devices like my Laptops and iDudette’s Mac Mini, I reconfigured the DD-WRT router to be an internal device on the network.

The CCCE machine become the primary DHCP server on the network and the DD-WRT provides a seperate subnet that is not routable directly to the CCCE. I may change this in the future to make sharing a bit easier between the two networks.

I also run a 4 node Meraki network directly off the CCCE gateway and now I can better control the bandwidth and service usage of possibly “unknown” people to limit torrenting and other “illegal” activities.

There is so much more I can say, but you gotta see it for yourself.  This is the simplest of all the linux firewalls I’ve tinkered around with, even those who aren’t familiar with all these things should be able to figure it out.

Clark Connect also has a subscription level which will give you more features within the gateway, like Exchange Connectors and so on, and online DNS and other services.  See their website for more.

Here is the feature list from the site.

ClarkConnect provides all the necessary software and tools required for an organization’s server needs.  The details of the following features are described below:

Gateway and DNS Services
To complement the ClarkConnect feature set, we offer a suite of services to help deploy, manage and maintain a ClarkConnect system:

* Gateway Services
* DNS Services

Firewall, Networking and Security
ClarkConnect provides several levels of security.  At the network level, the firewall restricts access to your systems and provides advanced features, including DMZ, 1-to-1 NAT and Port Forwarding.  At the protocol level, the Peer-to-Peer detection system lets you manage peer-to-peer file sharing usage.  At the application level, the Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Prevention systems provide another layer of defense against threats to your network.

Multi-WAN
With the Multi-WAN solution, you can connect two or more Internet connections to your ClarkConnect system.  The solution not only increases your available bandwidth, but also provides automatic network failover.

Bandwidth Management
Some applications are more important than others.  The Bandwidth Manager lets you prioritize network traffic — downloading the latest Windows updates will no longer interfere with your Voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls.

1-to-1 NAT - DMZ - Peer-to-Peer Management - Intrusion Detection - Intrusion Prevention - Multi-WAN / Dual WAN  - Bandwidth Management - DHCP Server - Caching DNS Server

VPN / Virtual Private Networks
With the PPTP VPN solution, you can use the built-in VPN client that comes with Microsoft Windows to connect remote desktops and laptops to your network.  There’s no need to purchase and install expensive third party software — the PPTP VPN solution works right out of the box.

VPN - Connecting Local Area Networks
If you need to securely connect two or more networks via the Internet, using our unique Managed/Dynamic VPN fits the bill.  The VPN solution not only makes connecting remote networks easy, but also more reliable.  This solution is based on the standard IPsec VPN protocol, so you can count on industry standard encryption and authentication technologies.

Web Proxy and Filtering
The Web Proxy server reduces bandwidth usage and speeds up web browsing.  In addition, the proxy can be configured with user authentication.  With authentication enabled, you can control and monitor access to the web.

Content Filter
Whether you are concerned about students accessing pornography or employees checking their personal webmail during office hours, the Content Filter provides a flexible way to enforce web usage policies for your network.

Banner Ad and Pop-up Blocker
If you find that banner ads and pop-ups are slowing down your network, you can enable the Banner Ad and Pop-Up Blocker to speed up web page loading times.

E-mail
ClarkConnect has integrated the same scalable and reliable POP/IMAP and SMTP servers used by large organizations.  Thanks to the open-source revolution, it is possible for a small business to enjoy an enterprise class e-mail system.

Webmail, Outlook and More
End users can access their e-mail using any number of standard e-mail clients.  Though Microsoft Outlook is the most popular way to access mail on a ClarkConnect server, you can also use the built-in Webmail module and other popular e-mail software packages.

Multiple Antispam Engines
Our server solution provides several different antispam techniques to maximize the spam detection effectiveness.  The antispam engines include the SpamAssassin, Dspam and Greylisting.

Affordable Antivirus Protection
Expensive antivirus solutions are a thing of the past.  The Antivirus solution not only detects viruses, but also phishing attempts.  In addition, both antispam and antivirus scanning can be configured in Mail Gateway Mode so you can protect existing mail servers (including Microsoft Exchange) on your network.

Groupware
The suite of groupware features allows your organization to share and manage information.  With the Microsoft Outlook connector, you can share Calendars, Contacts, Tasks Lists and Notes.  Whether you need a company calendar or a sales contact list for a few members of your staff, sharing information is simple and affordable.

Flexshare
The powerful Flexshare feature allows people in your organization to share files and helps bring out the value of of all the information in your organization.

Database and Web Server
Do you need to install a web-based application on your network?  ClarkConnect provides the LAMP application engine with easy-to-use web-based administration tools:

* Linux
* Apache Web Server
* MySQL Database
* PHP

File and Print Services
The ClarkConnect solution provides both an FTP and Windows/Samba file server solution.  These two file server modules coupled with Flexshare Groupware gives you a powerful tool for sharing files in your organization.

Backup, Backup, Backup
There are two kinds of people — those who have lost important data, and those who will lose important data.  Backup is often overlooked, but it is one of the most important tasks for any organization.  The comprehensive LAN Backup and Recovery solution provides all the necessary tools to protect against disasters.

This is the end of all my support for this company… They put this ad up in Mexico to, in my opinion, embolden the Mexicans in their takeover of the American southwest.

They claim:

“In no way was it meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues,” Absolut said in a statement left on its consumer inquiry phone line.

So what did they expect it to convey? Is it not anti-American to post an ad that shows the areas that are currently being “taken over” taken over by Mexico? This ad, considering the current climate of illegal immigration, is probably the most outrageous thing I’ve seen in a LONG time.

This should be a message and wake up call to the leaders in Washington of how America is being perceived by the world. America is slowing losing its sovereignty and identity to those who come here and do not believe in our law or want to integrate into the society which hosts them… Absolut’s pandering of Mexican anti-American sentiment is disgusting.

I have a little Absolut left at home, but I’m not going to pour it out. I’m going to happily drink to their demise. They will receive none of my business in the future.

Viva Ketel One!

Then a U.S. Contractor needs to HIRE this guy for a huge sum of money, perfect this suit and mass produce it! If he could build this on his OWN in his own home, imagine if he was working with others with more sophisticated equipment!

Troy Hurtubise is a modern day genius. This suit, called the Trojan Suit, could protect our troops in the war and greatly reduce casualties and it would be VERY intimidating to the enemy as well.

Original Article

Troy Hurtubise’s Trojan Suit

He’s lost his family and his truck, but not his will to see Canadian soldiers wearing his armored suit.

Troy Hurtubise, 43, is travelling from North Bay to his hometown in Hamilton this week to make preparations for a three-day tour of Ontario war memorials. He plans to gather signatures on a petition pressing Ottawa to test the effectiveness of the Trojan suit he created in his home lab.

Hurtubise became an Internet sensation last winter when he introduced the suit and put it up for auction on eBay, drawing media attention worldwide.

The Trojan takes design inspiration from movies and video games and puts it into light armour that Hurtubise says is bulletproof. The suit offers 95 per cent head and body coverage, and also features such extras as a helmet ventilation system, arm-mounted pepper-spray, magnetic sidearm holsters, and even a crotch-mounted, pull-down clock.

When the suit failed to draw any substantial eBay bids, Hurtubise ran out of money and his family was evicted from their home. Hurtubise said his 16-year marriage crumbled under the stress. He sold his pickup and gave his wife the proceeds to start up in a new home, and now it’s just him and the suit.

He’s planning to visit three war memorials daily between Saturday and Monday, arriving at the cenotaph in Hamilton’s Gore Park at 9 a.m. Saturday, and wrapping up at the National War Memorial in Ottawa at 3 p.m. Monday.

He plans to walk “a soldier’s mile” to each memorial wearing the Trojan suit, then stop and salute.

At each stop over the three-day tour, he’ll be gathering signatures on a petition he hopes to present at the Parliament buildings also on Monday.

Here is the blurb from it on Wikipedia…

In early 2007, Hurtubise made public his new protective suit which was designed to be worn by soldiers. Calling it the “Trojan”, Hurtubise describes it as the “first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armour.” Weighing in at 40 lbs, he claims that the suit can withstand bullets from high powered weapons (including an elephant gun). Hurtubise claims that he has been unable to test the suit against live ammunition because no one is willing to shoot him in it.

The suit has many features including a solar powered air system, recording device, compartments for emergency morphine and salt, and a knife and gun holster. He estimates that the cost of each suit to be roughly $2,000 if mass produced. It has been called the Halo suit, after the fictional MJOLNIR battle armor the Master Chief character wears in the Xbox game.

In early February, after failing to receive any offers to buy the Trojan, Hurtubise - now bankrupt from the expense of creating the suit - was forced to put the prototype up for auction on eBay in the hopes that it would bring in enough money to sustain his family. Unfortunately for Hurtubise, the auction’s reserve bid was not met. There was a raffle for the suit on the Mission Trojan website, who’s goal is to raise money for further prototypes and testing of the Trojan Suit to demonstrate its abilities for military applications. The suit was won by Sara Markis of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Besides this suit, Troy also has invented other things that in conjunction with this could advance modern day war fighting and law enforcement to the next level.

1313 Paste

One of Hurtubise’s latest projects has been the creation of a new paste that he’s called 1313 and believes could be put to good military use. It is a mixture of all his previous concoctions applied to a kevlar fiber pad and then subjected to high pressure for the period of a day in a press. The result is a board or tile-like panel. The panel is placed in layers with other materials such as tiles. The resulting composite material can withstand a direct assault by shotgun slugs, rifle fire, and enough high explosive to demolish a car, yet is quite inexpensive to manufacture.

At an enthusiastic demonstration taped by Daily Planet, Troy displayed its capability to a Canadian military observer. In one of Troy’s demonstrations, the composite material was placed in cushions meant to be placed over the outside of a Humvee. In the tests, the material successfully blocked explosive charges greater than those of a rocket propelled grenade, although they were not shaped charges, and was able to block shot after shot on exactly the same point of impact by a sniper rifle (which is a feat no material in use by the U.S. nor any other military has matched in public demonstrations).

It is Troy’s desire to see military vehicles, currently in service in Afghanistan, equipped with such protection in order to stand up to a landmine explosion, which has already claimed the lives of Canadian soldiers serving there. That, along with his younger brother serving in the Canadian military, inspired the creation of 1313.

I wonder what the fuck is going on these days when people are more outraged about a few people killing some dogs than a few people absolutely slaughtering 2 human beings…Here are the two cases… First is Michael Vick, the football player. His story gets TONS of coverage on every major media outlet. People are screaming that he be punished harshly…

vick.jpg

“Three co-defendants of Michael Vick had agreed to plea deals in exchange for contributing evidence to the case against Vick, who was charged with taking animals over state lines as part of a dogfight gambling ring.Graphic details of his abuse of the dogs, including brutal methods of killing the animals, led to protests against him outside the courtroom and the club’s headquarters.Graphic details of his abuse of the dogs, including brutal methods of killing the animals, led to protests against him outside the courtroom and the club’s headquarters.”After consulting with his family over the weekend, Michael Vick asked that I announce today that he has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors regarding the charges pending against him,” Martin’s statement said. “

Then you have the following absolutely brutal case.

The animals pictured below car-jacked, then raped Christopher Newsom, cut off his penis, then set him on fire and fatally shot him several times while they forced his girlfriend, Channon Christian, to watch. An even more cruel fate awaited her!

killers.jpg

Channon Christian, was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breast, put chemicals in her mouth, set her on fire (murdering her) and left her body in the apartment in 5 separate trash bags.

The chemical they poured in her mouth was bleach, to destroy the DNA in all the semen from days of gang rape. They gang raped her in all three major orifices. Anal, vaginal and oral. Imagine that for ONE second. Just the act of rape alone would justify life in prison and major outrage by everyone.This story hardly got any coverage and I watch the news often, but most of the public outrage was “muted”… Where were all the typical players in speaking out against this? Imagine if this were a young black couple who had the same gruesome thing done to them by 4-5 white perps. There would be mobs out to get them. The Duke rape case being a good example. The Duke Lacrosse players didn’t even kill her, and ultimately were acquitted of all charges surrounding the case. The media had a field day covering the Duke case, but where is the outrage when it is a black-on-white crime? Especially something as brutal as this?I bet if the couple were black, and the perps were black, none of this would have even happened… They (the 5 monsters above) would’ve ignored the black couple completely. But this isn’t even being treated as a “hate crime” even though the Jesse Jackson’s and Al Sharpton’s are pushing for hate crime legislation.Other interesting stats.In 1989, the FBI reported the following:

• Blacks commit 8 times more assaults than Whites.
• Blacks commit 9 times more rapes than Whites.
• Blacks commit 14 times more murders than Whites.
• Blacks commit 19 times more armed robberies.
• Black neighborhoods are 35 times more violent than White neighborhoods.
• There were 629,000 interracial attacks committed in 1985 (the last year the FBI “chose” to report this information). Some nine out of every ten were committed by Blacks against Whites.
• Black males (6% of the population) make up 46% of the nation’s prison population.

And don’t get hasty and call me a “RACIST”, just look at what I’ve stated above and the FBI stats and many other sources for black on white crime and tell me HONESTLY, there isn’t an imbalance here. PLEASE.

Funny Link Mattbob sent me…

idudeorg-cn-blocked.png

I am blocked in China. I feel honored. Must be my conservative politics and pro-gun stance on things. I’m assuming their “national involuntary forced proxy” pre-scans websites before allowing Chinese surfers visit, scanning for keywords and so on.

I looked at my Google Analytics over the last 6 months and have only received a single Chinese visitor (probably the test server scanning me).

idude6mo.gif

Must be pretty effective.

Saw this on Drudge this evening and thought I’d repost the article. Very neat stuff!

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stem cells made from human embryos can home in on damaged eyes, hearts and arteries of mice and rats, and appear to start repairs, a U.S. company said on Monday.

Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology said it had devised a straightforward way to make blood vessel precursor cells out of the stem cells and plans to test them in humans.

“We figured out how to produce literally billions of so-called ‘hemangioblasts’ — the mythical cell in the embryo that gives rise to our entire blood and immune system as well as to the blood vessels in our body,” Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of research and scientific development at ACT, said in an e-mail.

“We’ve also tested these cells in animals for the first time, and it turns out that they have incredible reparative potential.”

Embryonic stem cells are the ultimate master cell of the body, giving rise to all of the tissues and organs. The use of human embryonic stem cells is controversial because many people oppose destroying the embryo.

The U.S. Congress has passed several bills that would expand federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research but President George W. Bush vetoed one and has said he will veto any more.

However, companies working with private funding, such as the over-the-counter listed ACT, may do as they please.

Working with embryonic stem cells is not easy. For medical uses, researchers would like to partly differentiate them — start them down the road toward becoming a specific cell or tissue type.

Another roadblock is that many of the current batches, or lines, of stem cells must be grown in a serum culture taken from animal blood. This can contaminate them with viruses.

Writing in the journal Nature Methods, Lanza’s team said they found a way to grow and differentiate human embryonic stem cells without using culture.

They directed the stem cells into becoming what they believe are hemangioblasts, the blood vessel precursor cells, although other teams will have to replicate this for it to be accepted.

“When injected into the bloodstream, they homed to the other side of the body and repaired damaged vasculature within 24 to 48 hours,” Lanza said.

“For example, we injected the cells into mice with damaged retinas due to diabetes or other eye injury. The cells (labeled green) migrated to the injured eye, and incorporated and lit-up the entire damaged vasculature. The cells are really smart, and amazingly, knew not to do anything in uninjured eyes.”

The researchers killed the mice to check the cells’ progress, so they do not know the long-term effects.

“The cells also showed remarkable reparative capacity in animals with heart attacks and ischemic (blocked by a blood clot) limbs. The cells reduce the mortality rate by 50 percent after a massive heart attack,” Lanza said.

“If the same thing works in humans (these would be the same human cells we would probably use), you might be able to prevent patients from having legs and other limbs amputated by simply injecting some cells.”

William Caldwell, chairman and chief executive officer of Advanced Cell Technology, said the company wanted to test the cells in people and had asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to do so by the end of next year.

“We also have studies underway indicating that the cells can also considerably accelerate wound healing, repair lung damage, and can even generate unlimited amounts of red blood cells for transfusion,” Lanza said.

A friend of mine, Mircat, sent me this link over at HotAir that I felt compelled to re-post. Gave me the chills in parts.

Beretta 9000s

With the recent VT shooting and the Dems still sore about the “Assault Weapons Ban” sunsetting in 2004, they are going to be preparing an all-out assault on the second amendment and the approximately 80 million U.S. Citizens who exercise it. Contrary to what they want you to believe, less than 33 people would be dead now if 1 or more of the people in that building had a firearm. Yes there still would be fatalities, but not to the magnitude to make it the “Worse One man Shooting spree in U.S. History”.

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3. Colt: The original point and click interface.
4. Gun control is not about guns; it’s about control.
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
7. “Free” men do not ask permission to bear arms.
8. If you don’t know your rights you don’t have any.
9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
10. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.
11. What part of “shall not be infringed” do you NOT understand?
12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
13. 79,999,987 firearm owners killed no one yesterday. (Based on 80 million)
14. Guns only have two enemies: rust and politicians.
15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
16. You don’t shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
17. 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
19. Criminals love gun control — it makes their job safer.
20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens, tries to control them.
22. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
23. Enforce the “gun control laws” we ALREADY have: Don’t make more.
24. When you remove the people’s right to bear arms, you create slaves.
25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
26. “A government of the people, by the people, for the people…”