"The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb." -- Marshall McLuhan, 1969
R.I.P. Bill McCauley
Topic: Miscellaneous
3:19 am EDT, May 13, 2008
In the Valley's coffee community, Bill McCauley was regarded as a pleasant, popular fellow.
As well as in the Silicon Valley tech community. Several people here at MemeStreams worked for Bill back in 2000-2001.
According to Tempe authorities, on the morning of May 5, McCauley backed his car into the storage area of Red Rock Foods, 626 S. Smith Road, and deliberately set a gasoline-fueled fire.
The explosion also killed his pet dachshund Millikin, named for its owner's alma mater in Illinois.
No note was found, leaving those left behind only speculation about why McCauley would kill himself in such a public and painful manner.
I'm truly in shock here.. Bill burned himself to death. It's not like he ran his car inside a garage with the door down... He lit himself and his car on fire! The article uses the word "explosion"! I can't imagine what the hell could have been going on in his mind.
I maintained contact with Bill over the years. He was someone I'd talk to via IM regularly, sometimes going back and forth for hours while working on things. We wound up speaking once a year via phone for some reason or another.
He was a friend. He was someone I admired.
We was a complex guy, who you always knew you were only scratch the surface of... It was always peculiar that there were a large number of pretty damn signifigant achievements that he always kept largely to himself.
I had worked with him and then known him for a few years before I knew things like he had a PhD in physics. Or a masters in nuclear engineering.. Hell, he had a stack of degrees. He was the director of testing at one of the Livermore laser labs, and at another point one of the super computing facilities. He built the NOC at Globalcenter back during the early days of the Internet boom, and was literally right there for a number of milestones in the early history of the Internet in a number of different contexts. We built some of the most advanced data-centers in Asia under his direction.
He had a hell of a history, a ton of stories, and seemed to know someone everywhere. Back at IAWK, people regarded his rolodex like a weapon of mass destruction. He was always good for advice.
I imagine that there are many people who knew him recently who only know a fraction of his background...
Walt Finley, landlord of the industrial complex where Red Rock is a tenant, said that about a month ago, McCauley complained to him about "terrible stomach trouble."
And, Finley recalled following the suicide, the manager of Daily Buzz told him that McCauley recently was treated in a hospital emergency room.
But on Arizona-Coffee.com's thread devoted to McCauley's death, business associate Ron Cortez relayed the news that "Red Rock was going through serious financial struggles and Bill was getting behind in payments with many of his suppliers."
This is really troubling to me. It doesn't fit my image of Bill. I really want to think that bad health and financial troubles wouldn't be enough to even put a dent into the man's fortitude..
I think Bill was more lonely then he ever let on.. He always lived alone. Maybe the coffee house was a way for him to defeat being lonely. It's strange how someone can be so outgoing and generally good spirited, but be harboring something that would make them set themselves on fire.
It's a truly uncomfortable thing to try to reason through why someone would do something like this after they are gone. No notes. No emails. No myspace posts. No twitters. No clues present in any of Bill's usual places.. No sense to any of it..
This has really taken me for a loop.. I'm going to really miss Bill. I was planning to find a way to visit him and see the coffee house in the next year...
Air Force Colonel Wants to Build a Military Botnet | Threat Level
Topic: Computer Security
3:26 pm EDT, May 12, 2008
Rob Kaufman, of the Air Force Information Operations Center, suggests mounting botnet code on the Air Force’s high-speed intrusion-detection systems. Defensively, that allows a quick response by directly linking our counterattack to the system that detects an incoming attack. The systems also have enough processing speed and communication capacity to handle large amounts of traffic.
Next, in what is truly the most inventive part of this concept, Lt. Chris Tollinger of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency envisions continually capturing the thousands of computers the Air Force would normally discard every year for technology refresh, removing the power-hungry and heat-inducing hard drives, replacing them with low-power flash drives, then installing them in any available space every Air Force base can find. Even though those computers may no longer be sufficiently powerful to work for our people, individual machines need not be cutting-edge because the network as a whole can create massive power.
After that, the Air Force could add botnet code to all its desktop computers attached to the Nonsecret Internet Protocol Network (NIPRNet). Once the system reaches a level of maturity, it can add other .mil computers, then .gov machines.
This is truly amazing. Timball showed this to me last night... All I could think of were our future robot masters, who will force us to worship the machine gods, or devour us and turn our flesh into electrical energy. I can make out this fuzzy future with shocking clarity while watching this video.
After you watch this, be sure to watch the spoof. All class-a stuff...
Nobel Peace Prize winner and international symbol of freedom Nelson Mandela is flagged on U.S. terrorist watch lists and needs special permission to visit the USA. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls the situation "embarrassing," and some members of Congress vow to fix it.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says "common sense" suggests Mandela should be removed. He says the issue "raises a troubling and difficult debate about what groups are considered terrorists and which are not."
Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD, Dies at 102 - New York Times
Topic: Recreation
10:19 am EDT, May 1, 2008
PARIS — Albert Hofmann, the mystical Swiss chemist who gave the world LSD, the most powerful psychotropic substance known, died Tuesday at his hilltop home near Basel, Switzerland. He was 102.
DynCorp Manager Used Armored Car To Transport Hookers in Iraq
Topic: War on Terrorism
7:27 pm EDT, Apr 29, 2008
I believe that my co-worker could have survived if he had been riding in an armored car. At the time, the armored car that he would otherwise have been riding in was being used by the contractor’s manager to transport prostitutes from Kuwait to Baghdad.
Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies. Grand Theft Auto IV will retail for $60.
Hardly a demographic escapes skewering.
It looks like New York. It sounds like New York. It feels like New York. Liberty City has been so meticulously created it almost even smells like New York.
I will happily spend untold hours cruising Liberty City’s bridges and byways, hitting the clubs, grooving to the radio and running from the cops. Even when the real New York City is right outside.
I was sitting in front of my workstation today and something really strange happened. I'm not sure what to make of it...
I was working on something... I can't remember quite what it was. Somehow, almost psychically, I knew that Grand Theft Auto IV was about to hit the shelves. Then BAM! Blackout.
Next memory I can really piece together... I was staring at a an order confirmation screen on Amazon for a Playstation 3, HDMI cable, and a pre-order of Grand Theft Auto IV. I sort of watched myself hit confirm, but really had no control of it.. It really makes me uncomfortable to recount it.. It's hard to explain. I think I even signed up for Amazon Prime to save on the one-day shipping.
I mean, I buy from Amazon all the time. Why now?
Maybe Hillary Clinton and Jack Thompson are right. Maybe these games are brainwashing me. My lord, what could I go and do? Make a facetious post, and then it'd just all somehow go away?! HA. NO. NO sanity here.
Oh no.. I bought an espresso machine last week too... I see the way this is all chaining together. There will be NO productivity. This is a bad rub..
Hide the children! Folks, I'm going to sequester myself in front of an 46" 1080p screen with all the pieces of this puzzle until I figure this out..
Secret Service Catch Mexican Official Nabbing White House BlackBerries
Topic: International Relations
1:46 pm EDT, Apr 24, 2008
Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attach� was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.
Sources said Quintero Curiel made it all the way to the airport before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.
Last week, federal, state, and local police in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas conducted a massive sweep dubbed "Operation Sudden Impact."
The operation included raids of businesses, homes, and boats; traffic roadblocks; and personal searches. They say they were looking for "terrorists." If they found any, they haven't announced it yet. They did arrest 332 people, 142 of whom they describe as "fugitives." They also issued about 1,300 traffic tickets, and according to one media account, seized "hundreds" of dollars.
...
The FBI along with hundreds of officers said they are looking for anything out of the ordinary. Agents take computers and paperwork from businesses.
"What we have found traditionally is that terrorists are involved in a number of lesser known type crimes," said Mark Luttrell, Shelby County sheriff.
There you have it. All law enforcement is anti-terrorism. The police cannot legally establish "anti-terrorism" roadblocks that essentially serve as forums for random search and seizure.
