Zeitgeist followup

First I wanted to review the movie but since it's been done and everyone has their opinions, mine is that I agree with about 90% of the film and their respective opinions.

The facts that are backed up and true are totally worth looking at and because they are facts and not opinions I will not argue anything there, what is still left to opinion is the change from the momentary system to the resource based system.

The part that I still have to disagree is that computers will run everything, sure the sci-fi movies are becoming reality (technology wise) but it will only happened slowly and that's not how we should go about thinking. What we should do instead is focus on how to change over the minds of everyone and that's what I intend to do in this post.

I decided to put together a list of problems around the world, just from my experiences that I think would be solved if we stay away from a monetary system to a different one, say a resource based economy.

1. Copyright
We all know this is supposed to 'protect' rights of copying materials, but who does it protect? the people who 'invent' or 'create' things that unique enough to say that they own the copy rights and no one else can 'copy' it. This topic is important to me because we all know copying is NOT stealing, and it should never be thought of this way. In fact the only cost to copying is the copying itself, and when we have technology that can copy thousands or millions of digital files for free why should anyone, anywhere be charged for it? think about the resource based economy model and understand that knowledge should be, and will be, public one way or another. Wikipedia comes to mind when talking about public knowledge and a great resource like knowledge should never be thought of as a crime for simply reading, listening or watching any type of information. Entrainment or education it should all be public and free.

2. Piracy
Specifically the peer to peer file sharing in this case. Think about the word 'peer to peer' this sounds great, people talking to other people, sharing information, free, and communities are always good. Well guess who doesn't think so? companies who profit by selling those files (movies, music, software, etc) of course again it comes down to money, and back to the topic of copyright it's very much the similar and the same solution, no copyright laws, no problems. Or even better, no money system, no problem.

3. Drugs
Specifically, plants should never ever be considered a trademark (Monsanto comes to mind - they patent genomes or genetically modified seeds of crops that die after one year in order to produce more profit) and they should never be made illegal because if they don't cause harm to anyone there's no reason to do so. How can a plant harm anyone? with education and knowledge like the tribes that pass down information to valuable plans that heal, feed and help us survive there should never be a problem with natural growing plants (for example a weed that has been proven to be medicinal and recreational called cannabis or more commonly known as marijuana should not be outlawed). Again this comes down to money and the more we think about a problem the solution becomes clear, money is the problem therefore get rid of money system = get rid of the problems.

4. Net Neutrality
This is about internet service providers (ISP) throttling (slowing down) internet use of peer to peer communication, the pressure is clearly applied from companies that produce and distribute music, movies and more which is being shared through these means (Bit torrent for example). Although they claim it's in order to conserve bandwidth, we all know that there is more than enough bandwidth to go around and it's increasing as technology get's better. Another fairly recent change is happening here in Canada and some ISPs in the US is the bandwidth capping - we are being limited to a monthly limit of say 60GB per month (both upload and download combined). This is also the same issue as throttling when you look at the big picture, although I have noticed there is much less throttling since if you go over the limit you pay big bucks (between 1 to 5 dollars per Gig!) So their claim is again that it costs them too much but we know it's just not true, again it's a money thing and in a system that shares resources efficiently rather than for monetary gain it will never happened this way.

5. Government
We all know now, and for a long time that Governments are also interested in money, and very much so. How do we see this? because they not only cooperate but they bend over backwards and change their own laws to obied by big-corps in order to get big funds from them! politicians in general that act in the interest of financially successful corporations (aka big corp) are always getting lots of money back in order to have lots of expensive campaigns which in tern help them win more votes with the public. This system is clearly messed up!
Of course some can argue and say that they are power hungry when they go after different nations, but again this power is delivered through the means of money as we know it, so preventing this power is the best way and removing the monetary system for a better resources based system makes a lot more sense.
Do you agree?

6. Violence
This is discussed quite a bit in the third Zeitgeist movie (very recommended by the way) from psychological aspects to social aspects so the best way is to discuss some hard facts. From the studies that were presented in the film we know there is no violence in tribal communities that share their resources and really live as a community. But there is a lot of violence in monetary based run cities and countries because one way to get money is by using violence if you take the money factor away why would people use violence? they don't it's a proven fact. This brings to the next point...

7. Theft & robbery
With no money system there would be no theft or robbery. But what will we use? the best products ever made in recent history. This means that now we make the worst things? Yes.

8. Products & services
Right now products are made in a way that is cheapest to produce we all know that but if you don't, think about it you want to pay the LEAST so you have more money left for other things. But if you think about resources we are using them up very quickly with lots of toxic chemicals and it's bad for the environment but as long as we get cheaply made and sold products we pay less this is good for us in the monetary system but that is why we need to change the system. Watch story of stuff it tells it best about the cycle. So consider instead using the best possible materials, the best possible technology and make the best product in the monetary system it would cost a lot but in a resource based system we wouldn't pay we just make them for ourselves and use it endlessly because it should last as long as possible. And everyone can and will use these products because they are made so well there is no reason to have one of each! think of cell phones, how many have you gone through in the last 5 years? my guess is at least 3 (that's what I had) if not much more than that, and the old ones are so useless now they are just junk!
In a resource based system there is no junk, there is only things we give back to the environment like a dead tree decomposing naturally adding nutrients into the soil.
With the current scientific facts we have we can run the plant much better but only if we have the minds of the people first.

Money is The Problem.

I will expend the list as I get more time, maybe go into each topic in their own posts in the future but I hope you get the picture if you're reading this now, and please spread the word to the world about this idea = money is the problem, solution is to get rid of the money system once and for all.

Read or watch videos about Zeitgeist and the Venus project

ZEITGEIST 3 review

Please watch ZEITGEIST: MOVING FORWARD

Great video, not only is it informational, factual and scientific it also is very entertaining.
But that's not the point, it should wake up the truth and show you what this world is like.

I recently watched interviews with Peter Joseph and thought 'when is the next one coming out?' and here we are this one is great and you don't really need to watch the first two if you have not already, this one will do the trick.

The independent made film that has been screened over 300 times around the world in sold out theaters and freely available to anyone to watch, distribute and remix if they wish - reiterates on the information brought forth in the first two with loads of new information and new ways of understanding, new interviews with intelligent and credible people.

More breakdowns and reviews about it will be coming soon... it's a long video but very important watch for EVERYONE.

Comment below and spread the video as much as you can.

WinSCP scripting example

From here it's very easy: http://marionote.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/winscp-script-sample/

"c:\Program Files\WinSCP3\WinSCP.exe" /script=c:\winscpscript\testscript.txt /log=c:\winscpscript\log.txt

Then, create a script file (in this example, c:\winscpscript\testscript.txt.)
# Execute with winscp.exe /script=this_filename /log=logfile.txt
option batch abort
option confirm off
# Use the ip address of your SFTP server, instead of 127.0.0.1
open sftp_login_name:the_password@127.0.0.1

#In order to "cd" or "lcd", use these lines.
cd server_side_directory
lcd c:\client_side_directory

# Normal GET
get Get_This_File

# If you want to save as another filename:
get Get_This_File Get_This_File_local

# If you want to remove the remote file after downloading:
get -delete Get_This_File c:\client_side_directory\Get_This_File_local

# Upload sample script line
put upload_this_file remote_filename

# If you want to rename the remote filename after uploading:
mv remote_filename remote_filename_renamed

exit

Good Small Business Router

Since I really like the Gargoyle firmware and used it on my WRT54GL I wondered if there was a better quality hardware to use with this firmware to get a better performance and even good enough for small business use.

The answer is yes there is plenty of hardware choice when it comes to this (and many other) open source firmware that matches if not surpasses the quality of competing brands such as snapgear and sonicwall firewalls.

Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH can be widely found (amazon shipped fast) and fairly cheap for the hardware you get. Note you even get a community firmware with the router already (dd-wrt.com) but I preferred the gargoyle firmware for many reasons (easy interface + great features) so I wanted to upgrade it but it turns out you will need to do a few tricks to get it on this one!

There's a choice of two possible ways to upgrade, using tftp (the method I used) and some other command line method. I normally like the command line but these were new commands to me so I tried the TFTP method and after about 30minutes to an hour I got it! Here's my definitive guide to get it:

1. it is recommended that you connect to the router through a switch (or a router with dhcp turned off - turning it into a switch) this is necessary step for me since my NIC will be turned off until the right upgrade moment has passed.

2. once connected through a switch I played with the arp command on my windows xp PC and figured out that the easiest is to simply do arp -a and copy the mac of your router (for this example purposes I will use 00-23-69-25-aa-aa)

3. now you prepare the arp command in this cmd window while opening another cmd window for tftp. arp -s 192.168.11.1 00-23-69-25-aa-aa is your command that you keep queued up we will need this later.

4. download and locate the right file which is named something like gargoyle_[version#]-ar71xx-wzr-hp-g300nh-squashfs-tftp.bin - get it from Gargoyle download site by choosing Atheros AR71XX from "Select Architecture" menu.

5. in the new cmd window prepare the tftp command which will be something like this: tftp -i 192.168.11.1 PUT gargoyle_[version#]-ar71xx-wzr-hp-g300nh-squashfs-tftp.bin
(keep in mind you will either need to move to the directory of download in command prompt or place the file under the default location that you are in.)

6. Finally, unplug the router, plug it back in and execute the arp -s command queued up in step 3, try the tftp command, and again if it was timed out, it worked for me after once failed as you see in the image below but keep in mind there were a lot of playing until this stage so check arp -a if it shows the router as static. Also note I was unable to ping the router even though it uploaded the image so that appears unreliable but once uploaded leave it be for at least 5 minutes to do it's work. Done!

Enjoy!

Google Chrome's spell check issue

Ever forget the spelling of a word while typing in a web browser?

You notice this red squiggly line under the word to help correct it. See example >>

Spell checkers have made many lives easier, whether you are are still learning English or were born in English speaking family and still have some spelling mistakes from time to time. I'm not sure their real origin but I do remember Microsoft Word's spell checker first, then it was Firefox and Google search, finally now it's Google Chrome... kinda.

This issue happened many different times, you spell a word just wrong enough for Google Chromenot to suggest what you need!
But that's not the funny part, Google search will actually give you the exact word you wanted:

Anyway if you want to see it in action check the video:


Here's what other people had to say: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?fid=127a69ac5fddee0300049a730630fc0f&hl=en

The Union Synopsis

Ever wonder what British Columbia's most profitable industries are? Logging? Fishing? Tourism? Ever think to include marijuana? If you haven't, think again. No longer a hobby for the stereotypical hippie culture of the ’60s, BC's illegal marijuana trade industry has evolved into a seemingly unstoppable business giant, dubbed by those involved as 'The Union'. Commanding upwards of $7 billion Canadian annually, The Union’s roots stretch far and wide, directly and indirectly affecting all areas of our society. With 65% to 85% of all 'BC Bud' being exported to the United States, it's clear that the BC marijuana trade has become an international issue with consequences that extend far beyond our borders. When there are record profits to be made, who are the players, and when do their motives become questionable?

•Why is marijuana illegal?
•What health risks do we really face?
•Does prohabition work?
•What would happen if we taxed it?
•Medicine, paper, fuel, textiles, food, etc. Are we missing 

something here? Follow filmmaker Adam Scorgie as he dives head first into Canada's most socially acceptable illegal activity. Along the way, Adam demsytifies the underground market and brings to light how such a large industry can function while remaining illegal. By interviewing experts from around the globe, including growers, clippers, police officers, criminalogists, economists, psychologists, medical doctors, politicians and pop culture icons, Scorgie explores the cause and effect nature of the business behind getting high. 

Nobody's innocent in this exploration of an industry that may be profiting more by being illegal. Join Adam Scorgie as he unravels the mystery of The Union. [Source]

www.theunionmovie.com 

Ajax Upload working example

My application is a little different but the principle should work for most situations.

Here is the coolest ajax upload code, it includes multi upload, continues (meaning you can keep uploading with it after one or multiple you can upload again) it has progress-bar and even the amazing drag-and-drop in firefox and chrome browsers (why use any other browser anyway right?)

Anyway the usual instructions are to include this code where you want the upload button to appear:

<div id="file-uploader-demo1">
<noscript>
<p>Please enable JavaScript to use file uploader.</p>
<!-- or put a simple form for upload here -->
</noscript>      
</div>


Keep in mind the id of the div, the javascript to include can be done anywhere at the top header or even before this div.

Now here is where I differ from the author's instructions because of my needs; place this function included ajax javascript files:

function createUploader(){          
var uploader = new qq.FileUploader({
element: document.getElementById('file-uploader-demo1'),
action: 'upload.php',
debug: true
});        
}

And since the way I generate the forms, the user clicks on a button which triggers onclick and the onreadystatechange will generate responsetext inside the javascript will not execute as usual so I simply add :
setTimeout('createUploader()', 500);

after the:

xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=thefunc;
xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlHttp.send(null);

<place above line here>

So this setTimeout waits for half a second and loads the function of the upload button and iframes associated all on it's own!

Hope someone finds this useful, leave a comment if you do, or have questions, etc.