Smart and heavy go together...

...and I'm not talking about the weight. ;-)

Obviously, someone at Britain's National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth has decided to label heavy metal as "a favoured music of 11-19 year olds with lower self-esteem than their peers." Well, I beg to be the counter-example when it comes to both age, and low self-esteem. :-D

Of course, heavy metal doesn't hesitate, and strikes right back with a widely reported study of pure power and steel, which found out that heavy metal is, in fact, the "music of choice for today's brightest youngsters".

So many smart people! :-D There is hope for the humankind, after all...

Naturally, we knew this already - but it's finally official! One thing remains uncertain to me, though... do we listen to heavy metal because we are smart, or are we smart because we listen to heavy metal? :-D

Up the irons!

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PS: I have decided to increase the width of my content column by 50 %, so that you don't have to scroll so much, and photos have more horizontal space - 400px really wasn't enough.

What if email was like ICQ?

After months of frustration this joke of an IM protocol has brought me, I believe it's time for a little rant. What if email was like ICQ?

• Every email address would look like 379364795@icq.com.
  
• Other companies and institutions would also provide similar services, but you would only be allowed to communicate with people within icq.com
  
• The only way you would be allowed to check your email would be a special application [1], which would
  
• contain annoying moving and flashing advertisements, which you are not allowed to block
• have limited settings and poorly designed user interface, with large space-consuming windows and useless buttons
• be insecure and open your system to exploits, much like Internet Explorer
  
• only work on Windows, leaving users of other systems screwed
  
• Alternatives would be prohibited, and constantly undermined, so that they wouldn't work at all, or be unreliable.
  

• Anything you send would become property of ICQ. [2]
• Messages would be filtered without your consent, or knowledge.
• Spam would still be there, but spam-filters wouldn't work.
• Encryption wouldn't work - everyone on the way would be able to see everything.
• Customer support wouldn't work. Ever tried getting it from ICQ?

I don't understand the mass obsession of people in Slovakia and Czech Republic about using this network. Everyone probably uses it, because everyone else uses it - and when does the circle end? In the meanwhile, AOL Inc., current owner of ICQ, merrily bullies the users who just don't care.

Well, as you can see from the picture above, I have had significant difficulties with this protocol recently. Also, it was the only license agreement that my Linux machine was violating. I have spent hours and hours trying to access this network from various unofficial programs, only to have constantly low reliability and recently service denied.

I miss chatting with people who only use ICQ. You were the reason why I tried to keep my ICQ alive for the past year, although I had significant difficulties and issues with it. Fortunately, in part thanks to the long holy war me and some of my friends wage on behalf of jabber, a lot of people I know are now reachable to me.

Maybe I will keep trying to connect to my ICQ once in a long while, but other than that, I am too frustrated. Anyone who wishes to talk to me, and don't take this as a cocky, or arrogant approach, but please use an open network. The easiest thing you can do is to take 30 seconds to install Google Talk, and have a user-friendly client using an open protocol. Or they can take fifteen minutes of tweaking a more advanced client, such as psi or miranda, and have a lot of features far above what the official ICQ client provides.

Please note that I am not asking you to stop using ICQ, or change your habits in any significant way. But it would be great if you could install a simple undemanding program with negligible hardware demands, that supports a network I can conveniently access. It doesn't even have to be jabber-compatible - if you use any other open network, let me know, and I will start using it for you. If you are not willing to do this, then I am sorry, but I will not use IM to communicate with you. And in some cases, it would be a great pity, too.

Oh, and if you want to reach me on Google Talk, or Jabber, add martin@hinca.net.

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[1] "You agree not to (1) create or use any software other than the Software provided by ICQ or by America Online, Inc., or any affiliate thereof, to enter your ICQ number and password or to access the ICQ Services, without the express written authorization of ICQ; [...]
(3) block, disable or otherwise affect any advertising, advertisement banner window, links to other sites and services, or other features that constitute an integral part of the Software and ICQ Services; [...] (5) incorporate, integrate or otherwise include the Software or any portion thereof (including the ICQ communications protocols) into any software, program or product that communicates, accesses, or otherwise connects with the ICQ Service or any other instant messaging, Internet, or online service."
http://www.icq.com/legal/end-user-license.html

[2] "You agree that by posting any material or information anywhere on the ICQ Services and Information you surrender your copyright and any other proprietary right in the posted material or information. You further agree that ICQ Inc. is entitled to use at its own discretion any of the posted material or information in any manner it deems fit, including, but not limited to, publishing the material or distributing it."
http://www.icq.com/legal/policy.html

The skating ring

Trying to figure out how to spend a free Friday, I went to check out the freshly set-up open air ice-skating ring at the Millennium park. Needless to say, my heavy artillery couldn't be left behind. I have shot a lot of pictures, some of which will be presented later, under a more appropriate topic.
Quite a few people were enjoying themselves over there, but not enough for the ring to be crowded. Unfortunately, it was slowly getting dark, and I had to maintain decent shutter speeds, the only thing left to do was to increase the sensor sensitivity - therefore some of the shots are a little grainy. Of course, ladies showed up, too. These two were my favourite:
Millennium park is the area with probably the most photos in Chicago, and some cameras that can be seen there make mine look like a harmless toy. :-) Of course, paying five grand for a body is quite outside of my league for the years to come. As an upside, people didn't get upset when staring into my dark tube with diameter of 77 mm.
People of all skills could be found over there, ranging from ones fully focused on maintaining upright position, to ones zooming through the ring with skills I haven't seen live before.
Oh, and this girl reminded me of my dear Bobor for some reason. It's not that look so much alike, but the general posture and feel was just very close. :-)
That's it for tonight, coming up under the "photo" label are city shots and photos of other photographs. Thanks for clicking your way here, and stay tuned! :-)

I love my camera! :-D (A shout of pure, childish joy.)

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PS: This is how it looks when the noise gets as bad as possible, at ISO boosted to 3200, with all noise reduction turned off, and after dark. (Much darker than it would seem from the photo, simply winter light at five in the afternoon, plus some lousy city lights.) Still, I am amazed that it is possible to get a shot at 1/125 of a second, even though the quality suffers dearly. Reducing the noise would even improve it a lot.

The power of p0rn

And after a brief break, the thing that everyone has been expecting has finally come! Step right up, step right up, everyone, and read the latest shreds of my mighty wisdom, this time about how the witty and the pretty prevail over the shitty security, and how is that no pity. Uh, okay, okay, sorry, keep the eggs and tomatoes to yourself.

According to the BBC:
A virtual stripper is helping to defeat anti-spam security checks.
Spammers have created a Windows game which shows a woman in a state of undress when people correctly type in text shown in an accompanying image.

Of course, the text comes from online captchas, designed to prevent automated abuse of the resources and services a company provides, intended to make sure that an actual person is trying to access.

Well.. I know I shouldn't side with the shady lowlifes, but this is just so ingenious. :-D Why not let the horny, libidinous losers do the dirty work, that your algorithms can't? They will even have fun in the process, and improve their cognitive and typing skills as well.

The Internet is, after all, for p0rn. ;-)

Freedom of commenting...

My fellow Readers, our wonderful nation is under attack from those who seek to destroy our freedom. Our enemy will stop at nothing while our children breathe, and fruits of our labour don't crumble in flames. Our mission is clear.

We are hunting down the terrorists. We are helping our former adversaries to build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We are advancing freedom in the broader scheme! We will not bend, we will not falter, and at nothing will we stop to pursue this adversary, because we are free nation, and God is on our side.

We are removing a source of violence and instability — and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren. The terrorists know that the outcome will leave them emboldened, or defeated. So, they are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to take.

The lesson of this experience is clear: The terrorists can kill the innocent — but they cannot stop the advance of freedo--

"Excuse me, sir, but you have the wrong speech. This one is for increasing military funding and passing bills that will destroy people's freedom and privacy..."

Oh, right. Damn. Errr...

My fellow Readers, our wonderful blog is under attack from those who seek to get us purchase v14-gr@, and Alaska snowmobile tours, and other people sitting on our faces. Our enemy will stop at nothing while the number of comments is not skyrocketing, and our old one-eyed trouser snakes slump in shame. Our mission is clear.

We are locking out the spammers. We are helping the pink and fluffy creatures to build a free nation that is an ally in the war to preserve freedom! We are advancing freedom in the broader scheme! We will not bend, we will not falter, and at nothing will we stop to pursue this adversary, because we are a free community, and VO is on our side.

We are removing a source of credit card frauds and identity thefts — and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren, so that they can surf the Internet free. The spammers know that the outcome will leave them emboldened, or defeated, and with endless stocks of viagra, which they can't use because they can't get laid... So, they are waging a campaign of spamming and phishing. And there is no limit to the money they are willing to take.

The lesson of this experience is clear: Those bastards can spam all they want — but not here. Dear readers, as is often the case, in order to preserve your freedom, I need to take it away. :-P

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As a result, I am forced to require people logging in, before being able to post comments. Sorry for that, I hope it's not too inconvenient for you. It should only take two seconds, and cause no delay if you stay logged in.

Special account and username on Blogger are not needed, as far as I know, and I'm sure pretty much everyone has at least a secondary google account they can use to authenticate the comments, so I believe that this won't cause much difficulties for you, and won't deter anyone who doesn't offer v14gR@ from commenting. :-D

It's my fault for posting some links pointing here on frequented places, such as last.fm. It's no big deal though, and as my blog is indexed by google, it would happen eventually anyway. Still, I wanted to keep this open for as long as possible, and that time has gone, if I want to keep this place clean. In your face, terrorists!

Good jazz and picture-taking...

...at the same time? What more could a guy wish for? (I will leave the few inappropriate suggestions to myself. :-P)

Few places in the world have better jazz clubs, than Chicago. Around a week ago, we've decided to give one of them a try. It wasn't the first one and definitely not the last one, but it was the most enjoyable so far. The musicians were very skilled and played nice jazz with a distinct Hispanic flavour.
The food was good, but pitifully, they were out of Guinness, and as no other substance can take you so close to understanding the very fabric of the Multiverse, we were simply out of luck. :-P

My thanks for organising this event belong to Brian, (on the photo below,) the mastermind who came up with the idea, and arranged it flawlessly for all of us. Also to him belong the thanks for keeping me company on the walk home, so that I wasn't the only one to prefer the lakeside over a bus.
Although it doesn't seem so, the light in the restaurant was rather low, so in order to maintain high enough shutter speed, compromises with high ISO had to be made. These photos can thus serve as an idea of real-life sensitivity and noise on various high ISO settings on Canon EOS 40D. I was shooting wide open most of the time, and some photos may lack sharpness, because it's rather difficult to hold a lens with such focal lengths in low light perfectly still. As, for obvious reasons, I can't supply the sound, my focus will be instead on photography. :-)
It's the only band I know that have a bass player for their front-man. He is extraordinarily skilled, has no noticeable difficulties playing complicated riffs and singing at the same time, and makes a very enjoyable show.
These two guys at the percussions worked together smoothly, and the overall feeling of the music was very relaxed and pleasant. Shame on me for forgetting their name, because I would gladly come and listen to them again.
The trumpet player was the most difficult to photograph, because I just couldn't get the right angle... also, he was only playing once in a while, so this is the best and least obstructed shot I could get.
There goes another one, and that's it for tonight - because of the frecking fire-drill, last night I've only slept for under three hours, so I really need to get to bed. (Don't get me started.)

PS: I hope especially Pigi finds these more appealing, than the portrait practice.
Oh, and here's a quick snapshot of a crazy fountain outside, on the way back: