Justin Hayes.com

The hypocrisy of atheism

Justin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:50:58 -0500

I'd like to share a recent... revelation? New insight? Sudden outbreak of common sense? Whatever you want to call it, I have recently decided that I shall no longer identify myself as an atheist. To anyone that has ever asked me about my religious inclinations, that has been my response, but I have realized that it does not truly fit my beliefs and what I think is right.

Atheists are, for the most part, hypocrites. Any "atheist" who is not should probably call themselves agnostic instead. The same people who constantly criticize Christians, or Mormons, or <insert _religion_here> for trying to force their beliefs down everyones' throats are essentially doing the same thing by telling them there is no god. Admit it, whether you like it or not, you are still engaging in something like a form of theism by not believing in a higher power, and then being just as much of a jerk by telling those that do believe that they are wrong and you are right. I do not believe in that, I believe in tolerance. I think everyone should be free to practice any religion they choose, believe in any god(s) they want, even the Flying Spaghetti Monster, if they are so inclined, as long as they are not stepping on anyone else's toes in so doing. By engaging in the anti-religious practices that I see many so-called atheists doing these days, you are no better than the Jehovah's Witnesses that wake me up at the crack of dawn to talk about god.

For now on, if anyone asks me, I will instead tell them I am tolerant, not atheist. And I ask other atheists to really think about this and what you are standing for. It is not right to force someone to believe in something, and it is not fair to tell them not to in response. Unless we're talking Scientology... but that is a subject for a different day :)

Update:
It seems I may have inadequately expressed my message here. Let me state that I do not believe it is wrong to criticize others beliefs. It was pointed out to me that if that were the case, many things in our society would fail... politics, economics, etc, which I generally tend to agree with. I did not intend to impart on anyone that criticism was a bad thing, what I am trying to say is that it is no one else's place to interfere with another's beliefs so long as those beliefs do not include bringing harm to others.

An alternate theory on laptop security

Justin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:03:45 -0500

I was talking about the subject of laptop security with a friend the other week and I presented an alternative model to the current trend that security-minded folk are taking now, which I wanted to share here as well.

Currently, most corporations are doing their best to secure their field laptops, and laptops that employees take home with them, and this same technology is trickling down to consumers as well. One doesn't have to search for very long to find examples of stolen laptops that have lead to major security breaches within companies large and small, and even more worryingly, governments. The solutions being championed today are full disk encryption, fingerprint scanners (I won't even get into how much of a false sense of security these things give right now), and security software to tie it all together. Don't have the right fingerprint? There's a good chance the computer won't even finish booting.

While all this is well and good, and mostly effective, in that it would prevent a thief from accessing the data on the laptop, you've given him a useless laptop. And that could be the fatal flaw of the whole system. You've secured your notebook so that the important data on it will be inaccessible. Chances are, you still want this data back. Most laptop thieves probably aren't aware of any sensitive data stored on the laptop they've just stolen. If he can't even use that laptop though, what's he going to do with it? He's going to sell it, further complicating recovery, or he's simply going to trash it. To a big company, this probably doesn't matter all that much, laptops are easy to replace, and any IT department worth its salt will have backups of sensitive and important data. But what if you're a student whose laptop just got stolen, and your final term papers are all on it. Chances are, you're not in any position to just replace something as expensive as a laptop, and you NEED those term papers.

Instead of completely locking down the laptop, and making it useless to anyone that steals it, I propose that you welcome them. Create a guest account, most operating systems have options for them, and they're usually restricted enough not to do harm. Of course, you should still use encryption software to protect your own files. Why would you want someone else using your stolen laptop though? Because you want them to get nice and comfortable using it, to give you plenty of time to track them down with the software you previously installed on the laptop that either lets you remotely login to it, or reports its current IP to a server you can check. Both methods have been used to great effect in recovering stolen laptops, often before the police can even look into it. For tracking by IP, there's LoJack for Laptops (Win or Mac), or Adeona (all platforms, and free). And you've got the standard remote access solutions such as Microsoft RDP, VNC, Apple Remote Desktop, etc.

This obviously isn't going to stop someone who just wants to pawn off your laptop to someone else, but hopefully somewhere along the line, someone actually sits down and uses your laptop long enough for you to find out where it is and report it to the police, so you can get it back.

My next web server

Justin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:17:24 -0500

I think I'm long past due replacing my current web server with something more capable and powerful. While my current server does its job well, I'd like to expand it's roles and for that, I need beefier hardware. Currently, I am considering using virtualization to provide virtual servers for everything I need, rather than exposing the "bare-metal" to the internet. Right now I'm not completely sure on what hypervisor/virtualization software to use, but will most likely use something from VMware, specifically, VMware Server or VMware ESXi, both of which are free. There's also Xen and KVM to consider.

There are several advantages to using virtual "appliances", the biggest for me being:

Security - Each service is contained within it's own VM, security breaches are thus limited. The physical hardware is protected because it is not exposed directly to the internet.
Portability - VMs are easy to migrate from one machine to another. With some software, it is even possible to do so live (with the OS running).
Backups - Backing up a VM is as simple as performing a snapshot of its current configuration. No more messing with scripts to backup databases and web folders.

My current server has no problem hosting 2 live VMs, so the hardware requirements aren't too bad. I could use old parts I've got, but to get the most out of it, better hardware is needed. I expect a $500 hardware budget is reasonable.

"I assure you, the rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated"

Justin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:02:41 -0500

I'll post here again someday soon, life's a little crazy at the moment.

Working nights is the second best cure for insomnia

Justin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:43:59 -0500

I work night shift now, 4-5 nights a week. My shift runs from 10pm, until 6am, with three breaks: two half-hour breaks at 12:00 and 2:00, and a 15-minute break at 4:00.

I don' think I've ever slept so soundly since I was ~~young~~ a kid (guess I still am young), this job leaves me completely drained by the end of the night. Unfortunately, it's taking away time from a lot of other things I enjoy, like hanging out with my girlfriend and other friends, writing on this blog, coding up silly little projects for the hell of it, staying up until the early hours of the morning playing games. You get the picture.

Ah well, college doesn't pay for itself, and I don't want to take out any student loans. Oh, speaking of money... my first paycheck couldn't possibly come soon enough... I've accrued quite a list of things i basically have to buy, like a new cellphone to replace the one that got washed with my clothes, or a new pair of headphones so I don't go crazy listening to that elevator music crap they play at work. Fun times, I tell ya...

My desktop is very distracting

Justin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:24:37 -0500

This is why I don't get any work done ;)

Get red and blue team variants in different sizes here. (source)

So apparently my birthday is coming up...

Justin — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:50:29 -0500

6 hours or so to go... Normally I don't make a big deal of my birthdays, not since I was about 12 or so anyway. But, this is my 19th one, which here in Canada means I'm of legal age to drink. And it's pretty much a defacto Canadian tradition to get so hammered you forget your own name on this special day. With that in mind, some friends of mine have volunteered to ensure that I get suitably drunk tomorrow, starting in the afternoon and ending sometime in the early morning. :) Thanks guys! I can hardly wait. :P

I haven't laughed this hard in a while

Justin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:16:56 -0500

Ohhh man, it's 2:12 in the morning and I'm laughing my ass off and probably waking people up...

Why? Was it the video? Something else? I really don't know for sure. Is this video as hilarious as I seem to think it is?

(read more for video)

Windows is not ready for the desktop

Justin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:54:40 -0500

I don't know how many times I've seen people writing articles about Linux not being "ready for the desktop" and just wanted to bury my face in the palm of my hand. It's certainly ready for my desktop, it's ready for my father's desktop, my grandmother's desktop, your desktop too.

So when I read this "review" of Windows by an old associate from my Automatix days, I had a bit of a laugh, because this one is actually quite true. Go read it and get an idea what you'd have to go through if your laptop/desktop didn't come with any OS pre-installed and you had to install Windows yourself. And while you're at it, Digg it.

Funpidgin is now Carrier Instant Messenger, releases version 2.4.2

Justin — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:15:21 -0500

I know this news is a little late, but I've been busy :) Funpidgin is now known as Carrier Instant Messenger. This name was suggested by Peter Nikolaidis of the Fresh Ubuntu podcast and the rest of the devs and users we talked to all agreed that it was perfect. We're still working on a final logo, but at least we have a name! And soon we'll also have a new website.

Development-wise, we just recently released version 2.4.2, merging changes from Pidgin upstream and packaging our new features from SVN like webkit-integration for Adium conversation styles, or the old Gaim-style protocol icons. Read the features page and the release announcement for more details, or just go and download it now :P

The Hardy Heron has landed... on my server :)

Justin — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:01:55 -0500

Today I found out that you could directly upgrade from Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake to 8.04. I know, I know... that should have been obvious given that they're both Long-Term Support releases. Anyway, moving right along... the instructions were found here and overall the whole process was very simple besides being constantly asked if I wanted to replace old config files with the newer versions. Looks like my concerns in this post were mostly moot, so far, no problems! *knock on wood*

Interviewed for a podcast

Justin — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:36:58 -0500

Today I was interviewed on the Fresh Ubuntu podcast (listen to it here) about a little project I've been working on called Funpidgin (name subject to change). Overall the purpose was to clear up some misconceptions behind the reasons for forking from Pidgin, the program we're based on. I also wanted to share some of our plans for where we're headed. The interview was great, Nikolaidis and Harlem are excellent hosts, and my only regret was having to do it over the phone instead of Skype. Go ahead and have a listen, the first 11 minutes or so contain the interview.

New site theme

Justin — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:45:09 -0500

Still working on a new theme for the site, as can be seen. There's still a lot of stuff that doesn't look right, I'm working on it. I'll be adding more graphics as soon as I'm feeling more creative.

Update: The new theme's feeling pretty complete now. There's a couple areas that still need some work, but for the most part it's done. Still trying to figure out how I can package it separately from it's Zen base-theme, but I need a name before I do that. Right now it's named Nails, because it was inspired by the layout on NIN.com.

My favourite thing about Spring & Summer: Hiking!

Justin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:26:18 -0500

Went for a nice little hike around my house today with my youngest brother, Chase. Sure is nice having nice enough weather for this finally :D I went to the bottom of Borer's Falls, which is pretty close to my house. I've lived out here for 14 years and until today had never managed to get down there, despite trying a couple different ways. Yesterday, while out walking with Lisa I noticed what looked like a usable path down to the bottom so I checked it out and it looked like it was possible to get down.

Turns out it was (although it sure wasn't easy!), and me and my brother got down to the bottom and then walked downstream to another path he knew about to get back. Turns out that wasn't as dangerous, but it was much more physically demanding. Oh well, good exercise if nothing else. I'm looking forward to going on more hikes this year.

Check out the other pictures.

Screenshot - 2008/04/12

Justin — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:24:31 -0500

When I want to relax, and get away from what I'm doing for a moment, all I need to do is minimize my windows and stare for a bit.

Automatix is dead

Justin — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:02:54 -0500

Disclosure: I am a former member of the Automatix development team and primary web designer responsible for their web presence. Well, that was then, anyway.

While reading an old acquaintance's blog, I discovered what I feel should have happened a long time ago. The Automatix project is finally over, at least in it's current form. The official announcement says the remaining developers no longer have time to remain committed to the project, but I can't help but feel that they finally realized that their work is irrelevant, for all the reasons Iandefor listed. I certainly realized it, and so did most of the rest of the dev team, who left the project not long after I did. I won't get into all the politics that have gone on both behind the scenes and publicly in regards to Automatix. Most of it was petty anyway. I'm glad that they finally saw reason and decided to focus their resources on bigger and better things.

That's not to say I disrespect their work. There was a time when Automatix was exactly what people needed (even if it was a little... unrefined). I just don't think they should have beat a dead horse for as long as they did. Hopefully something new will come out of the ashes. Automatix still caries a heavy weight, if only in name. Maybe they will turn Automatix3 into some sort of advanced package manager for this new Linux distribution the lead developer was talking about, who knows.

My thanks go out to those that provided a great service when it was still necessary, and especially to Arnav Ghosh, the original developer for bringing me onto the team. In my time with them I did learn a great deal and I like to think that the experience helped to shape my current existence in some way.

KFC is gr1m \m/

Justin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:43:25 -0500

Please note: I hate KFC, I think it's disgusting. With that said, this commercial is hilarious.

(Continue on for the video)

I want this guy's job

Justin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:42:49 -0500

I really do love the show Top Gear and while it's true that I'd love to be paid to do almost anything they get to do on the show, this here is a particularly special case...

(Continue on for the video)

WTF/m

Justin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:53:24 -0500

Well, *I* thought it was funny :)

Iced tea experiment

Justin — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:09:15 -0500

Out of sheer boredom and lack of those handy frozen iced tea concentrates, I just made my own iced tea (following this recipe). The results were... rather mixed...

I guess it shows that I'm an iced tea fiend that I would go to such lengths to have my delicious drink of choice. It's really too bad I didn't have any lemons or other flavouring because I have to say... this stuff is rather bitter, and adding sugar only made it taste like... sugar. Oh well, I'll chalk this one up to experience. Next time I'm shopping I'm getting some lemons :)

Also: I'm aware that I write about as well as a 6 year old.

Update: Tastes much better with lemon squeezed into it!