George: Condi! Nice to see you. What’s happening?

Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.

George: Great. Lay it on me.

Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
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Yesterday, I got my long-awaited Hauppauge Nexus-S satellite receiver card for my PC. It decodes the DVB satellite format and allows me to view free to air satellite channels from my computer. It even outputs to a television as well.

The DVB format is the one most widely used in the world. Its based on open standards, like MPEG2. Only in America is a format bigger, the proprietary one of DirecTV. Their competitor The Dish Network, however, uses DVB like practically everyone else.

Free to Air channels are ones freely available for viewing. There are several listed on sites like Lyngsat, for instance. Most of them are government-sponsored channels which would find little audience on a cable system, which is precisely why I want to watch them. Who knows what kind of stuff is out there?

The card I bought comes fully supported for Windows systems, which is fine, but I plan to use Linux TV to watch and record shows. I may also fire up MythTV as a DVR and record interesting shows.

I don’t know whether to be elated or disappointed that this story is breaking. Sunday’s 60 Minutes covered the CIA’s secret “torture plane.” The torture plane, a Gulfstream business jet with tail number N379P, scoops up suspected terrorists and flies them to rogue nations where they can be tortured. The plane caught the attention of amateur investigators and airplane buffs, who soon began tracking its movements as it hopped from one international airport to another, flying above the law.

As the plane’s reputation became more widely known, investigative news crews got into the act, tracking down the company records and flight logs. They discovered that the officers of the company that leased the plane curiously all had newly-minted social security numbers. If that weren’t enough of a tip-off, the FAA records on the plane abruptly changed, with no explanation given. If I recall correctly, the plane then got handed off to another shell company, all the while continuing to violate every international law, treaty, and human rights protection created.

After digging into this story a bit on my own, I was flabbergasted to learn the torture plane in question is based right here at the Johnston County Airport. That’s right. Our flight to torture will be departing from Smithfield today, and barbecue is not on the in-flight menu.

I sent a note a few months back to the editors of Durham’s Independent Weekly, thinking they would be the local media most likely to take an interest in this story. Instead, they inexplicably ignored it. Now WRAL has picked up the lead, covering the Smithfield angle of the story.

I was hoping to find time myself to visit JNX and take a look around, but life being what it is, I haven’t had the chance. I’m glad other news organizations are now picking up the scent.

And let’s get one thing clear here. Terrorists are bad, mmmkay? They deserve to be punished. Terrorist suspects, however, deserve their day in court.

Is some scumbag plotting to blow up a building? That’s a clear threat to security. Get a warrant and put him under watch. Bust him when he steps out of line. Then make a case and prove it in court. If the perp in question is guilty, the case should be a slam dunk. But if he’s not, you’ll avoid making a tragic mistake.

I’m all for law and order. I wouldn’t have volunteered two years for Crimestoppers if I wasn’t. I know that law enforcement have a tough job. The burden of proof is on them. In defense of liberty, however, you can’t tear up America’s most prized posession: the U.S. Constitution. Our liberty exists because of it, not in spite of it.

Innocent until proven guilty. The key word is proven. You prove it, he goes to jail. If you don’t prove it, the guy walks. Even if he is a murderous scumbag. Yeah, sometimes it’s tough building a case, but that’s how the system works. I don’t care to have my constitutional rights abridged for anyone’s convenience. If one loses, we all lose.

I hope the country will one day wake up and realize the sacrifices some made for a little temporary security were too great. I wasn’t optimistic of this, but it gives me hope now that this story is gaining greater exposure.

So go get the bad guys, men. But do away with the secret planes.

I joined my parents and brother for the NCSU-Wake Forest game last night. It was a tough loss. As typical for a State game at home, the officiating was terrible. Wake’s Chris Paul punched Julius Hodge in the groin and the refs somehow missed it.

Other incidents seemed not to catch their attention, too. With seconds left, State’s Engin Atsur shot a three-point shot which sailed far short of the goal. Our players screamed for a foul but none was called. Refs seemed blind to our own fouls, too. It was messy.

I’ve been an admirer of Wake Forest’s program for a while now, but incidents like that make me rethink that. Coach Skip Prosser needs to teach some sportsmanship and make sure the thuggery stays off the court.

But that’s not the reason that State lost. We have only ourselves to blame for making only 9 of 22 free throws.

Now its on to the ACC Tournament this week. If we can beat Florida State on Thursday, we will get a rematch with Wake.

We owe them. Big time.

From Boing Boing, Canada’s former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy lectures Condelezza Rice in an open letter on the view of the U.S. from the Great White North. I found it quite amusing.

Well, its been all of one day and already I’ve discovered a problem with my Sipura SPA-841. The phone apparently suffers from the same power-line-noise problem that the SPA-2100 terminal adapters do. Its an ever-present electrical noise on the phone – even when you’re dialing.

I would have hoped that Sipura had worked out this issue a long time ago, especially since so many customers have complained about it in their terminal adapters. It turns what was initially a fantastic choice for a low-end IP phone into a crapshoot at best. How long until the noise on the phone overpowers the speech? From my experience with the TAs, this problem is only going to get worse.

I’ll keep an eye out for future degredation, but I’m not hopeful. Sadly, purchasing Sipura products is still a gamble.

Wouldn’t it be great if your local cable modem company opened the throttle inside its own network? I know traffic bound for the Internet costs the cable company money, but internally it does not. Why can’t I send files to my neighbors and friends at 10Mb/s? I think its wrong to download from one cable modem to another and be stuck at 40kB/s. Once it might have wowed me (“ten times faster than smoke signals!”), but now 40 kB/s is just plain slow.

I would think it would be technically possible. Each cable modem has an internal, nonroutable 10.x IP address. The modems could be made to “uncap” traffic going to these 10.x addresses. Or maybe I’m wrong in thinking the modems have routing ability. At the present, the routing is handled by the head-end for most modems.

Anyway, wouldn’t be great to have a 10 Mb/s metro LAN for the price of two cable modem subscriptions?

Its only been six weeks since I ordered it, but my Sipura SPA-841 SIP telephone arrived yesterday. I hooked it up for the first time today and have to admit that its the best value for the price for an IP telephone.

The only noticible drawback is the poor speakerphone. The microphone is a tiny pinprick of a hole in the bottom of the phone. It is nearly impossible to be heard through that microphone. Other than that, though, its not a bad phone: two line appearances, extensive web-based configuration pages, pixelated display screen, mute button, and a 2.5mm mini-phono jack which lets you use cellphone headsets with the phone. Sound quality is excellent from the handset, too.

Another minor quibble is the shape of the handset. Its curvy shape, coupled with the shallow handset base, makes it easy to think you’ve hung up the phone, when instead the handset has missed the hook button and is resting on the phone body. Like J. Lo and Ben Affleck, the two just don’t mate very well. I suppose after some getting used to it, I can train myself to hang it up properly. Time will tell how bothersome that becomes.

Overall, though, I can’t complain. It’s a $90 phone that sets the new entry point for VoIP phones. It’s not as sophisticated as the Polycom IP 500, but a good deal all the same.

MT.Net says check it out!

PXE is the dog’s bollocks. In fact, remote booting in general is the dog’s bollocks.