A better version of Silent Night

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, HE LIVED ALL ALONE,

IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,

AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT, A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,

NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS, NOT EVEN A TREE.

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE, JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,

ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES, AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,

A SOBER THOUGHT CAME THROUGH MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT, IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,

I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER, ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING, SILENT, ALONE,

CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE, THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,

NOT HOW I PICTURED A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I’D JUST READ?

CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, THE FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,

OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD, THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,

AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,

BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS, LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN’T HELP WONDER HOW MANY LAY ALONE,

ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.

THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE,

I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND STARTED TO CRY;

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,

“SANTA DON’T CRY, THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, I DON’T ASK FOR MORE,

MY LIFE IS MY GOD, MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS.”

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,

I COULDN’T CONTROL IT, I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, SO SILENT AND STILL

AND WE BOTH SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHT’S CHILL.

I DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,

THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER, WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,

WHISPERED, “CARRY ON SANTA, IT’S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE.”

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH, AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.”

Ubuntu and compiz

Suck it windows / mac users!

Linux krogebry-laptop 2.6.32-25-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Sat Oct 16 19:48:22 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

krogebry@krogebry-laptop:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor : 0

vendor_id : GenuineIntel

cpu family : 6

model : 23

model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz

stepping : 10

cpu MHz : 1200.000

cache size : 2048 KB

physical id : 0

siblings : 2

core id : 0

cpu cores : 2

apicid : 0

initial apicid : 0

fdiv_bug : no

hlt_bug : no

f00f_bug : no

coma_bug : no

fpu : yes

fpu_exception : yes

cpuid level : 13

wp : yes

flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm

bogomips : 3990.13

clflush size : 64

cache_alignment : 64

address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual

power management:

processor : 1

vendor_id : GenuineIntel

cpu family : 6

model : 23

model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz

stepping : 10

cpu MHz : 1200.000

cache size : 2048 KB

physical id : 0

siblings : 2

core id : 1

cpu cores : 2

apicid : 1

initial apicid : 1

fdiv_bug : no

hlt_bug : no

f00f_bug : no

coma_bug : no

fpu : yes

fpu_exception : yes

cpuid level : 13

wp : yes

flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm

bogomips : 3990.88

clflush size : 64

cache_alignment : 64

address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual

power management:

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)

I smell another tribunal coming!

This weeks topics for discussion:

Education is a major social institution and agent of socialization. As such, various interest groups try to influence what is taught in schools, or at least they criticize what is taught, especially in public schools. With that in mind, let's discuss why it is that education is seen as a contested social institution. Use the sociological terms and concepts in the current and past chapters and the sociological theories to analyze the hypothesis that education performs important functions for the stability of society.

Political and moral leaders frequently are heard making statements about family values. Using the sociological terms and concepts in the current and past chapters and the sociological theories to analyze the question: "should government act to promote the nuclear family model or should it give equal support to all types of familes, including single-parent households and families headed by gay and lesbian parents?"

This is gonna be FUN!!

Physics question.

I'm wondering if some of you Twilight fans can help me with something. If Edward is a vampire, and vampire's don't have reflections ( one of the few facts that hack of an author didn't butcher ), then what would his pornoscanner image look like? Would he be unscanable? Would the TSA be required to provide a special vampire agent to violate his person administer a freedom pat?

My new favorite game.

My new favorite game: finding the oldest nuggets of bug documentation on DeVry's student portal site.

"11/01/00 BugTar 1614 tomf" is the current winner!!

That's right, a bug was fixed in 2000. For some reason beyond me the developers are actually leaving javascript comments in the HTML stream. They don't bother putting the JS/CSS code on some kind of static content server, no, instead they have large chunks of very old javascript inline with the html, which is also very old.

The more I found out about this school the more I want to just cry.

DeVry student portal

I found this gem in the HTML source of the email form:

//11/21/00  bugtar 991
if (document.SendEmail.ATTACHMENT.value != "") {
  document.StatusUser.submit();
}
//11/21/00  end
selectAllOptions(document.SendEmail.EMAIL, 0);
document.SendEmail.submit();

Wow, is that really 2000-11-21? Seriously, 10 f'ing years?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?

More fun with DeVry.

Get this, in DeVry's infinite stupidity they actually thought that using your birth date as your password was s good idea. Well, it's actually worse then that. They use the form mmyy, so as long as someone knows your d-number, approximate age and what month you were born, they could get into your account.

So let's see here, in every class they pass around a piece of paper with everyone's d-numbers, so that's not a problem. After you have a camera pic of everyone's d-number it's a matter of guessing their age which is about 10 years ( between 20-30 ), and a month, which is any of 12 possibilities. I know their site doesn't have a max attempt hook on it, so it's a matter of brute force.

The sad part is that they don't make any attempt to make it harder. They don't force you to change your password when you first login, and most of their systems don't use any kind of central auth mech. If a persons birth day is posted anywhere where someone else at school can see it ( facebook friends? ), then you're screwed.

I really have to wonder how DeVry can square itself with this and still call itself a viable source of higher education.