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A minor site upgrade (to Wordpress 1.5.1.2 from 1.5.1.1) was needed to address a security issue. Files updated were:

• /wp-admin/post.php
• /wp-admin/quicktags.js
• /wp-content/themes/default/header.php
• /wp-includes/functions.php
• /wp-includes/functions-post.php
• /wp-includes/pluggable-functions.php
• /wp-includes/template-functions-category.php
• /wp-includes/template-functions-general.php
• /wp-includes/template-functions-links.php
• /wp-includes/template-functions-posts.php
• /wp-includes/version.php
• /wp-includes/wp-db.php
• /wp-blog-header.php
• /xmlrpc.php

Yes, it’s another retro flashback. Here are some more Star Wars poster images from the days of yesteryear.

If you want to know a little (or a lot) more about The Star Wars Universe, then here are a few places you could visit:

• Brief History of the Jedi and Sith
• History of the Sith
• Jedi history
• About STAR WARS: The Ultimate Guide

Finally, they are about to start building a simulation representing a brain. Using data from a huge database collected over the last ten years, researchers have mapped the neural architecture of the neocortex. This essentially means they’ve mapped every single neuron of the neocortex, which is the most complex part of the brain. Using this information, they will gradually construct what they dubbed “Blue Brain”, a simulation of the brain.

The final outcome of this project will see the brain being able to respond to various stimuli, and the results studied. Maybe the inner workings of human cognition such as perception, memory and consciousness will be understood at a much higher level after that ultimate “RUN” command is given.

It’s interesting to look back and notice how much of the science fact today was nothing more than science fiction ten years ago. Once this project is completed, we will have a virtual brain. How far is it down the track till we can reproduce a virtual mind?

Story: Mission to build a simulated brain begins

Mr McKinnon is charged with the biggest military computer hack of all time.

Paul McNulty US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia

Gary McKinnon, of Wood Green, north London is in trouble with US authorities after what they have called the largest hacking effort against American military networks.

Currently on bail, the 39 year old is accused of hacking into computer networks operated by Nasa, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defence and the US Air Force in 2001 and 2002.

His motivation? The desire to expose the ease with which a civilian could breach government computer systems, and by a strong conviction that the US Government was concealing evidence of UFOs.

The US is seeking to extradite him, but his solicitor, Karen Todner, said this would be contested “vigorously”.

She told reporters: “Of particular concern to him is the treatment of other British nationals under the American judicial system which inspires little confidence.

“We believe that as a British national, he should be tried here in our courts by a British jury and not in the US.”

If convicted in the US, McKinnon could face a maximum 70-year jail sentence.

Articles:

• BBC NEWS | UK | Military ‘hacker’ freed on bail
• UK hacker loses appeal against extradition

It’s amazing how much comment spam is directed at my site, although I’m sure the amount of spam directed at my site is modest compared to others.

I don’t know why the spammers keep it up, since I don’t even notice it until I check the site stats and find out where all the hits originate. So, unless there’s another reason for them to attempt to spam my site, apart from taking up bandwidth, I don’t see why they would want to continue.

I’m not sure if there is a law against this, if not, there should be, just as there has recently been a law passed outlawing email spam (not that it made much difference) to my spam folder.

I suppose in the end it’s the people who aren’t tech savvy that will cop the flood of unsolicited ads directed at no one in particular.

In other words, spammers are the equivalent of the trawl line fishing - everyone gets spammed, young and old alike. No one is spared from ads for online casinos, wrist watches, various assortments of pills, all kinds of get-rich-quick offers etc…

But, going by the logic of the spammers, there’s one born every minute, so someone out there is bound to respond. Which must be true, otherwise the spam would have dried up ages ago. (With comment spam it’s to improve the rankings in the search engines.)

Anyway, apart from all the moral issues, I wonder how much network traffic is used up by spam? I mean for every legitimate person that visits my site, I’m pretty sure one or more spam bot(s) have hit my site hundreds of times. Because of this unwanted traffic, hosts would have to upgrade their systems to account for the extra network load.

At the end of the day someone’s got to foot the bill.

After reading this article article about the new powers of Australia’s secret service, I couldn’t help but think of some quotes from “Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith” (currently playing at cinemas) which sums up the situation nicely…

Obi-Wan Kenobi: “You have allowed this Dark Lord to twist your mind until now, you have become the very thing you swore to destroy.”
Anakin Skywalker: “Don’t lecture me, Obi-Wan. I see through the lies of the Jedi. I do not fear the Dark Side as you do. I have brought peace, freedom, justice and security to my new empire!”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Your new empire?”
Anakin Skywalker: “Don’t make me kill you.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!”
Anakin Skywalker: “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy!”
Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must.”
Anakin Skywalker: “You will try.”
– Exchange between Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) and Obi-Wan Kenobi

Anakin Skywalker: “Sometimes I wonder what’s happening to the Jedi Order. I think this war is destroying the principles of the Republic.”
Padme Amidala: “Have you ever considered that we may be on the wrong side?”
Anakin Skywalker: “What do you mean?”
Padme Amidala: “What if the democracy we thought we were serving no longer exists and the Republic has become the very evil we’ve been fighting to destroy.”
Anakin Skywalker: “I don’t believe that and you’re sounding like a Seperatist.”
Padme Amidala: “This war represents a failure to listen. Now you are closer to the Chancellor than anyone. Please, ask him to stop the fighting and let diplomacy resume.”
– Exchange between Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) and Padme Amidala

Obi-Wan Kenobi: “I have a bad feeling about this.…”

Files changed in this upgrade include:

• /wp-admin/post.php
• /wp-includes/functions-post.php
• /wp-includes/version.php
• /readme.html
• /login.php
• /xmlrpc.php

I’ve also been busy working on my plugins and javascript scriplets for KCA, as well as KFC and to a lesser extent KLP. I don’t know if they are all that useful, but it was fun coding them.

You can see the effects of the tooltips just by hovering the mouse over a link - or over anything that has a title attribute attached to it (which of course you can’t see unless you examine the page source - but trust me, that’s how it works).

If you are so curious as to look at the source, you’ll notice there’s no hardcoded event triggers. It’s amazing what you can do with the DOM.

Apart from the tooltips, I’ve also worked on a live preview for the comments section, that includes current time, updated gravar, links and of course the actual comment itself.

I’ve also added an admin interface to the plugins to make them easier to manage. As always, to me if they aren’t just drop-in plugins, then to me they are just hacks. I’ve made sure that everything is configurable through the options page.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve released any code, but that’s only because I’ll only release something if I think it’s ready. Well, it’s nearly ready.