Jul

6

Photo of the Week 20 – Summer in Maynooth

Filed Under Photography on July 6, 2008 | 3 Comments

I’ve shot a lot of photos on the grounds of St. Patrick’s College but this is one of my absolute favourites. You don’t often get to see so many flowers on the lawns, the grass gets cut quite often so the lawns are usually just plain green. Add a perfect evening and some students out enjoying it to those flowers and you have the ingredients for a really nice photograph. Well, I think it is anyway. Judge for yourself 🙂

Summer in Maynooth
Click to Enlarge

For those of you interested in such things here are some of the technical details of the original shot:

  • Camera: Nikon D40
  • Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
  • Exposure: 1/1250 sec
  • Focal Length: 45mm
  • Focal Ratio: F5.3
  • ISO: 200
  • Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
  • Exposure Compensation: 0.0

[tags]summer, lawn, architecture, park land, Maynooth, Ireland, photography, St. Patrick’s College[/tags]

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Jul

4

The Bastardisation of Tolerance and Respect

Filed Under Polemics & Politics on July 4, 2008 | 6 Comments

Lets start with a word of warning, if you don’t want to hear any criticism of fundamentalist religion, skip this post. It will only upset you!

Anyway, I was reading this news article yesterday and it got me thinking. My first reaction was to laugh. The whole idea of people getting into a flap because a picture of a cute police dog was used on a police poster is hilarious. However, it got me thinking. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just another symptom of a bigger problem, the bastardisation of the concepts of tolerance and respect by right-wing religious groups. These groups interpret tolerance and respect to mean that everyone must do things their way.

It seems to be a common thread among the more fundamentalist branches of the major world religions to show a total and utter lack of any tolerance what so ever, while simultaneously demanding that the whole world “tolerate” and “respect” their beliefs. We must all respect their beliefs and refrain from anything they don’t like, while at the same time they refuse to tolerate anything they disagree with.

Although this particular news article was about Muslims, the problem is much more wide-spread. It could just as well have been about fundamentalist Christians or fundamentalist Jews or indeed any fundamentalists. When you stop and think you see it all the time.

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Jul

1

The Uncomfortable Truth About Trojans

Filed Under Computers & Tech, Security on July 1, 2008 | 5 Comments

Although it is true that some Trojans use vulnerabilities like the current ARDAgent vulnerability to gain root access, they do not need to. The core message about Trojans is getting lost amidst all the talk about plugging this vulnerability. Even if there was not a single vulnerability in OS X we would be at the mercy of Trojans. That’s the whole point of Trojans. Any program you run can do anything you can do. Let’s think about that for a moment, what can you do on your system without needing a password? Here’s a short list for starters:

  • You can run programs.
  • You can read, edit, and delete files
  • You can use the network
  • You can set programs to auto-start each time you log in

Remember, a Trojan is just an ordinary program that pretends to do something you want, but actually does something else. It could delete all your files. It could run a key logger and phone home with your credit card number, user names and passwords, bank details etc.. It could use your machine to send spam. It can set itself to automatically run each time you log in and continue with it’s nefarious actions. It can do all this WITHOUT the need to exploit a single vulnerability in your OS or your software. If you can do it, a Trojan can. Think about that for a second, it’s not a comforting thought!

[tags]security, OS X, Mac, Trojan[/tags]

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