IT Security, Chicken chicken chicken, geek dress codes, etc...

First: IT Security Warfare. A rather interesting read, at least for me.
http://mcwresearch.com/archives/496

Second: a presentation at the AAAS. Someday, I'll have the self-esteem and guys to stand up in front of a crowd and do that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk (via porsupah)

Third, from the interesting Geeketiquette blog, comes the Dresscodes: Geek vs. Non-Geek. Some of it is true, I suppose.
http://geeketiquette.com/archives/2007/06/27/dresscodes-geek-vs-non-geek/
(but potentially worth noting, if you're a geek like I am, and fail to pick up on normal social cues...)

Lastly, via metaquotes (and porsupah): the interaction between Christianity and Islam, if they're both kids....
http://community.livejournal.com/metaquotes/6156094.html?thread=113259582

And an odd mishmash of links that I need to visit/do/screw/whatnot:
OpenVPN, when on public, unsecured Wifi (project temporarily on hold; uiuc provides vpn that covers everything I need):
http://blog.2blocksaway.com/2006/12/11/building-a-cheap-secure-wireless-wlan-infrastructure-with-openvpn-and-linux-an-advanced-tutorial-of-openvpn/3/
http://openvpn.net/download_action.php?openvpn-2.0.9.zip
http://wiki.cacert.org/wiki/openVPN

Rails! Ruby! Arrrr?:
http://summerofrails.org/

Security:
http://www.priamos-project.com/
http://www.remote-exploit.org/backtrack.html
http://garrett.reid.org/backtrack/ (and why I need a MacBook /Pro)
http://insecurewebapp.sourceforge.net/main/index.html (download and try)

Wifi cracking:
http://kismac.de/_trac/wiki/DWL-G122 (need to locate and buy...?)

Japanese:
http://lrnj.com/ (learning japanese with RPG... something?)

Origami (via... kimoi):
http://www.geocities.com/foldingca/butterflyball.html

The Furry Culture

A rather well-balanced description on the furry culture.
http://www.theregister.com/2007/06/28/bay-area_furries/

And... oh meep. There's now a site called http://www.postacrime.com/, where you can post photos and videos of crimes. o.O

Ugh. Stupid RAM chip...

Ok, I'm now pretty certain that my recent problems (entire screen freezes - mouse no longer reacts, random memory access errors to 0x000000, and kernel panics), have been due to my 1GB RAM chip flaking out.

Sometime at the start of the week, I ran memtest - first with the chip in - that caused a kernel panic halfway through. Then I removed the chip, ran memtest and got through three full tests. Put chip back in... memtest ran successfully.

But this morning, I've had two system freezes, one kernel panic, and half the time, the system wouldn't boot. Arrgh.

I've taken out the 1 GB and the system hasn't died. So that's good. But that leaves me with a measly 256 MB, which is nowhere close to enough.

I could sell the iBook on eBay for about $300-400. A MacBook Pro is $1800+$239 AppleCare. If I can do the shopfreepay deal, I might be able to get a MacBook, which would give me something else to sell for at least $1000. Revision D for the MacBook Pro line was released earlier this month, and... I'd expect most of the problems that plagued the first and second revisions have been taken care of.

That being said, I need to figure out what I can do with this 1 GB stick of RAM. I think it was a Kingston brand, although it says kti...? And I would have sworn I read that there was a lifetime warrantee. Now if that's true, and I can get this one replaced, I could sell it on eBay for $80-100...

Overall cost, if everything goes the way I expect... I should have to pay around $500? Not too bad for an system upgrade... And hopefully less stress from hardware-related problems.

La~ order of how to do things
1. Wince and cry as I spend the $2000. (Hmm, use a 0% balance transfer to pay it off for the time being? Sounds good to me. Stupid Citibank card offers keep coming - might as well use one, ne? 3% balance transfer fee though.... = $60)
2. Transfer data, securewipe iBook. List on eBay. Hope prices go up.
3. Start MacBook deals on shopfreepay.
4. Sell stick of RAM, if replaced? Hope for $100...

[append 1PM]
Oooooh, they've got that iPod rebate thing going. I could buy an iPod and either
a) keep it, paying $50 for a 30GB black'n'shiny iPod.
b) Selling the iPod or iPod nano on eBay... for... only $100? XP Damn, not worth it.

Total, after tax ($114.35!? Frigging hell...) comes to $2,401.35 - $199 iPod rebate = $2,202.35

Alternatively, without the iPod, it's $2,139.90. Tax was $101.90. Blah.

Hm, or if I get it from MacConnection, I could use their $150 rebate. +Free shipping +"No tax - online store" = Grand total of $1,844 + $240 AppleCare purchased separately. Total=$2,084.00. I save $55.

--
Selling the iBook G4 on eBay:
By itself - going price seems to be $300-475. Let's say $400.
I could also sell it in parts, but that seems to be much less...

If I get the MacBook, I should be able to get $800-1400. Let's say $1000.

$684... A little bit over a week's worth of work... XP

Pros: I'll be running Intel so I can try out some of the linux hacking tools I've wanted to try. The MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo was found to be a very reliable machine: http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/macbooks2.html. 3% requiring repair? 3 more years of not-having-to-worry-about a warrantee running out. 2 GB of ram. The ability to run other Windows programs as necessary, without using a desktop.
Cons: Money. Urrrgh.

...yeah, Pros wins. XP