So recently I've been doing my bi-annual fooling myself into thinking I can/will get back into school and finish my degree...so I'm looking for schools in my area, that means Stanford (heh, yeah right, but I'll give it a shot to even out that chip on my other shoulder), Berkeley (not likely, but worth a try), and then a slew of crap-tastic smaller universities in the area...

At this point all I want an undergrad degree for is so they will let me go to grad school so even a crap-tastic school will do (but I'd rather not)...

anyways, so this has lead to a lot of funny things, like me a grown man (at least in this context) being forced to study for the SATs again (my scores are so old that they are not accepted anymore)...

so the new SAT has a writing component, but aside from that I like my odds (I'm being graded on a curve with high school kids here)...still I'm always on the look out for a way to improve my odds...in this case I've found another good way...sense the last time I took the SAT I've been diagnosed with dyslexia, which really explains a lot (for example I couldn't spell Michael until like the 4th grade)...anyways I can get some extra testing time as a result...

that should be good, historically I havn't tried to use things like this for my disabilities for one reason or another, but I'm through caring about demonstrating that I can compete on an uneven playing field, if they'll give me a legit way to boost my score, I'm doing it...

Getting back into school

So I was chugging along, avoiding doing work (which these days means reading wikipedia) when I deside to do my weekly check to see who has vandalized my wikipedia article when i see a link on the bottom to my blog (on memestreams)...and I'm reminded that I have a blog...

so anyways, I'm here again...

Top presidential adviser Karl Rove was the anonymous source who released a Time reporter from his promise of confidentiality, allowing the journalist to avoid jail, Newsweek says.

In a story published today, Newsweek reveals more details about the celebrated case stemming from the leak of an undercover CIA agent's name in 2003.

The publication of Valerie Plame's name by Chicago Sun-Times syndicated columnist Robert Novak set off an investigation because it's a crime to knowingly identify an undercover CIA official.

This story keeps getting better... I watched none of the sunday shows so I feel quite blind right now.

Newsweek: Rove gave Time reporter OK to testify

] Dimensions change drastically as your clump grows from a
] fraction of an inch to a monstrous freak of nature.

Boingboing keeps talking about this so I picked up a copy. Its only $20. If you were ever wondering what it would be like to take LSD while Japaneese, this is your chance. Its a happy, non-violent game with great music and interesting, funny worlds to explore. I recommend it. That is unless you have a problem with flashbacks.

Katamari Damacy

If you're like me, when you hear about information posted to an al-qaeda website you think, "how the hell do they have a web site"...well the answer to that is actually pretty interesting, I checked into it a little and found some interesting information about how they're hacking websites to keep their content on the net...

wired has a story about it here

also wikipedia has a good collection of information here

just incase anyone didn't believe them already here goes the analysis (I do this sort of thing for a living) first off CherryOS.exe is what we call in the security industry "packed", that means that they have taken a compiled binary and run it through an obfuscator to make it hard to reverse engineer (or at least with hard if all you're doing is strings)...this is common for virus writers, worm writers, 31337 bot net kiddies, and on the legitimate side, game developers do this a lot...its not very common among the commercial (or free) legitimate software market (mostly because it doesn't work and doesn't do any good) so, the easiest way to defeat the packing is simply to let it start up (this one has several annoying checks for debuggers so its easiest to just attach after its loaded)...

the eula for this thing says its a violation to reverse engineer it, but if you do disassemble it you find they never had the rights to license it in the first place, so I don't feel worried to put this here...

if you want to follow along I downloaded a trial copy of CherryOS this morning and I got the latest version of pearpc as of this morning off of sourceforge (not from cvs, just the tarball), I am using windows XP with Interactive Disassembler (IDA)...

ready...here goes:

so the first thing we want to do is find some strings which are common to both, they will not in and of themselves give you the answer you're looking for but they will give us a good starting point, we will then use these to get a context on the code that uses these strings, we will then compare the functions (or in this case class methods) to see if they are similar (or in this case identical)

so, example number one lets look at something in the cpu emulation code (because that is the heart of the code)

direct your editor to cpu/cpu_jitc_x86/jitc.cc line 465 you will see the following small function

extern "C" void FASTCALL jitc_error_program(uint32 a, uint32 b) {
if (a != 0x00020000) { // Filter out trap exceptions, no need to report them
ht_printf("JITC Warning: program exception: %08x %08x\n", a, b);
}
}

first lets see if we can find the format string "JITC Warning: program exception: %08x %08x\n" somewhere in the core memory image of CherryOS

now if you're using IDA attach to an already running CherryOs.exe (not to be confused with mainCherryOs.exe) and regenerate strings or do a direct string search, and search for this exact string...

you will find it in the text segment located at .text:0040E890...now the fact that it exists alone is almost enough to pass summary judgment, but lets keep going so its painfully obvious...

in cherryos.exe at .text:0040E8C0 you will see a reference to the format string from pearpc the disassembled function at this address looks like this (don't worry details will be explained in a bit)

.text:0040E8C0 sub esp, 0Ch
.text:0040E8C3 cmp ... [ Read More (1.6k in body) ]

It appears that Bush has won. It appears that the Republicans have control of the House and Senate. This is a complete victory for the Reds.

I offer the following predictions:

On the WOT:

Iraq will slowly become an Islamic fundamentalist state. The U.S. will be largely out of there within a year and on to Pakistan. We'll get Bin Laden, but Islamic Fundamentalism will continue to fester and will rear it's head again in a decade or so. Bush will be seen as having won the WoT in the short term. You'll feel safe. You'll focus on domestic issues in the next election.

Domestic:

The economy will improve considerably as the security concerns wane. The social security nightmare looms. You will see safety valves that allow wealthy people to protect their savings from the coming cataclysm. If you are smart you will save as much as you can over the coming years.

You'll see some barking about a flat tax. I don't think it will actually happen in this session. They are setting the stage for 2008.

You'll get faster internet access, from freed RBOCs. You'll see hydrogen infrastructure appear in the odd place like electric car chargers are today.

The health care situation will continue to deteriorate. I do not take the Republican's proposals on this matter seriously. I'm not saying they won't make a serious proposal. This issue is impacting our international competitiveness. I'm saying they haven't made a serious proposal yet.

I predict that you will see an amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed within a year. I believe that several amendments will be passed within 4 years.

Early:
Gay Marriage
Flag Desecration

Later on:
Abortion Ban
Public (Read as Government) Display of Religious Iconography
Prayer in School

Maybe:
Victim's Rights (Which is a misnomer. Read as "Plaintiff Right's" in MOST contexts. FYI this is the only one on the list that is bi-partisan. I say maybe because it has logical flaws you could fly a plane through, and it doesn't have widespread grassroots support.)

You will see federal legislation passed in the next four years which contains a passage which says that its Constitutionality cannot be challenged in a Court. That law will be declared Unconstitutional by a Court. This will set the stage for what I would call the "big one." Once all of these amendments have been passed the amendment machine will be geared up to make significant changes to the way that government works. That change will entail limiting the power of the Courts as a check upon the Legislature and the Executive. I think thats where the vector points. I'm not going to say anything else about that. I don't think that anyone will propose it for several years. We'll talk about it then.

Democrats:

Its over. The Democrats have to significantly reformulate. I haven't figured out how I think they'll do it. One word I heard on CNN last night about what Blues are likely to feel in the face of this was alienation.

On a personal note, I'm not impressed with the widespread support for the Gay Marriage ban amendments. Are we really saying that America hates fags? Why is this a central goal for religious people? Why do Christians focus on homosexuals, as opposed to, say, feeding the poor, or peace, or other things that Jesus was concerned with? Why do we care about this in particular? What does it say about who we are? What does it communicate about the values that are important to us?

Bush wins

curse curse curse curse murder jagermighster

] Important Senate news today. Several new polls there have
] changed the outlook. Just going by the spreadsheet (i.e.,
] the current poll numbers), the Senate will be split 50-50
] as a result of a new poll in Oklahoma that now puts Brad
] Carson ahead of Tom Coburn (the former obstretrician who
] has admitted to performing abortions but now says
] abortionists should be executed). In addition, the
] spreadsheet says the Republicans will win the Louisiana
] seat, but since no Republican has ever been elected to
] the Senate by the people of Louisiana since direct
] elections of senators began in 1914, my best guess at
] this point is that the Democrats will actually have a
] majority in the Senate (counting Jeffords as a Democrat).
] This scenario was unthinkable 6 months ago.

This is the slickest electoral college map site.

Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

Scientists have discovered a new and tiny species of human that lived in Indonesia at the same time our own ancestors were colonising the world.

The new species - dubbed "the Hobbit" due to its small size - lived on Flores island until at least 12,000 years ago.

'Hobbit' joins human family tree