The more technically inclined will recognize this idea as being inspired by both email encryption and existing challenge / response systems.

This post may get a bit technical, but once you think about it you’ll realize how very simple, user friendly, and effective this system is.

Please note that this is a VERY LONG post Read the rest of this entry »

What you’ll need:

• Firefox
• GnuPG already installed
• GMail account
• FireGPG plugin for Firefox

All of these are free of course!

Read ChuckCaplan’s How To if you do not already have GnuPG installed.

FireGPG gives you button-click support for encryption, decryption, and digital signing from GMail’s web site. Now all of you who use web based email can have the benefits of secure, private email without being tied to a service such as Hushmail.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over at Joystiq.com you can read over Square Enix’s list of remakes set to launch. The one fact that stands out to me above all others is that this company is re-re-remaking the same games that they have remade in the past. I grew up with, and still love, the Final Fantasy titles on the NES & SNES, but you reach a point where you just sort of groan, or at least I do.

Conversely, Square Enix’s new Final Fantasy titles leave much to be desired. . . or not, depending on your definition of “desire”. Each new Final Fantasy title seems to show more skin (or sexier clothing) on ever ditsier female characters with each new release.

In any case, the amazing stories of the Final Fantasy games have slowly (but noticeably) been losing ground to what are almost certainly the final fantasies of the dirty’ol men who now run Square Enix. It seems like they think that their fans who have supported them all these years will continue to be happy with an endless regurgitation of their original titles.

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Here’s something that I haven’t done in a very long time – I’m tinkering around with Linux.

Quite some time ago I was doing tech reviews on Shadows In Motion. I have since drastically changed that blog’s focus to something more personal, having become burned out on the sheer number of tech-centric blogs.

At the time that it was tech focused I spent a good bit of time reviewing various distros of Linux. One distro in particular done a very nasty number to my HDD and, without the technical know-how to repair the thing, I ended up spending $80 on a new drive. It was then that I called it quits with Linux.

Fast forward to today and here I am, using Ubuntu v7.04. I have to say, it’s still the ugliest Linux distro that I’ve used.

It’s still frustrating as hell, too. I only just now got the wireless Internet to work, and only then after hours of tinkering with both the router’s and Ubuntu’s settings. “Just works”, my ass! lol Well, finally it’s going and the O/S is now downloading updates as I type this.

My sound doesn’t work, of course. Audio and wireless Internet connectivity have always been the biggest pains in my arse on Linux.

…but it’s working! So I suppose that I’ll continue tinkering with it. It has the entirety of my 80 GB HDD to settle into. My other O/S is Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit and I’m dual booting between the two. Vista currently resides on my 100 GB HDD.

We’ll see how this pans out.

~Steph

Technorati Tags: Linux, Ubuntu, OS, O/S

Awhile back I noticed on Google maps that the house of someone I know is 1.1 miles from my own. Though the campus is 1.2 and would be a comparatively equal distance to jog, getting there means crossing some busy streets. This makes the route a little less practical.

So this morning I decided to use his house as a distance marker. This meant that I didn’t have the neatly divided sections of the park to mark my progress, but it’s good to have a change of scenery from time to time. Besides, heading in his direction means that no crazy mother goose was going to try to chase me off. ;D

Of course after getting back I went through the usual stretches, ab crunches, and push ups. Why is it that push-ups are so damn hard? >-/ Mayhaps it has something to do with the soft floor.

Well anyway, there’s that.

~Steph

Technorati Tags: fitness, health, weight loss, exercise, running, jogging, cardio

Taking a week off of my fitness effort was completely unintentional, but life has a way of making “one thing after another” happen. So here I am, having missed about week of jogging and not eating as good as I could have.

On the other hand it’s been relaxing, I suppose.

It hasn’t been due to anything serious. The first day or two was skipped because of being too darn sore (or developing a nasty headache on one particular day, which I think I mentioned?). The rest of the time was missed as a result of being distracted.

I know a bloke who received 1,000 (or so) spam messages last night. In one night! Someone was playing some serious silly buggers with his domain name.

I’ve set out to get a hair cut three or four times these past sevenish days and haven’t been able to get it done once. Sheesh.. :-/

…and that’s that. See? Random, meaningless.. it must be a blog post!

~Steph

Technorati Tags: blah blah blah, blahblahblah

• pre-jog fuel: what was supposed to be a health bar, but turned out to be nothing more than an extra long fig newton.
• Breakfast: Two pancakes
• Lunch: bowl of oatmeal
• Dinner:
peanut butter sandwich
bow’o beef stew (corn, peas, carrots, potatoes & beef)

I got to the park this morning and began as I normally do, but after the first segment* I experienced a splitting headache. I paused for a moment, relaxed, and tried continuing but the headache roared back to life as soon as I done so.

So this morning’s jog is off. Hopefully I’ll remember put out some ibuprofen before bed tonight.

~Steph, the currently grumbling one

Today’s oh-so exciting diet log:

• a single banana before the jog
• breakfast: two waffles which done absolutely nothing for me – what a waste!
• bowl ‘o chili
• Dinner:
Toasted cheese sandwich x2
Chicken & Rice
• three waffles w/ all natural maple syrup

Technorati Tags: diet, diet log, food, health, weight loss

My morning routine is becoming very routine. Therefore, on with the bullet points!

• Pre-jog fuel: single banana
• Laps around park: Two
• Stretches were done before & after jogging

I also jogged an additional two blocks (roughly) on my way back from the park.

As seems to be the norm more often than not I noticed that every jogger out this morning was a guy. Huh, perhaps that says something about stereotypes. Read the rest of this entry »