hacking, UN, music, etc.

I'm taking Computer and Network Security this semester which is going to be pretty great. It's heavy on cryptography in the beginning, then it's more or less hacking defense all the way through. Hopefully I'll learn some of the stuff in 2600 (hacker zine) and become 1337 haXXXor . . . or something.

It's taken me 2 hours but I've downloaded and burned the SUSE Linux distribution for my AMD K6-2 in my room, aka dedicated hacking victim station 1. Once I get a (very) limited installation booting, maaaaybe i'll use it for latex or gcc/g++, but i'm going to create a non-root user and hone my root hacking skills there. it won't know what hit it . . .

if you've made it this far into the post and are not a programmer, congratulations. for your patience, you will be rewarded with . . . a krauthammer article!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/17/AR2006011700893.html
copy/paste your way to glory . . .

seriously though, the man is fucking brilliant (probably the second smartest quadrapalegic next to that hawkings fellow) and his op-eds in the washington post is the best neocon literature out there. the article is about the Iran snafu. It's what I've been saying for 4 years now--the UN is worthless when the shit hits the fan. IR liberalism, suck it, because everyone's a realist. The one realist in a game of liberalists always wins--simple prisoner's dilemma. The UN has failed to do anything about DPR Korean AND Iranian nukes . . . what the hell is it good for? Oil scandals with Saddam? PAYING for Korean nukes through food money? Does anyone remember the last time the UN was in the news for something positive?

So this is the third time I'm listening to Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain album today. I had to think very very hard to find a better album from the 90s. But I did, and here they are in order:

desert island top 10 albums of the 90s:
1. Radiohead, OK Computer
2. Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
3. Elliott Smith, Either/Or
4. Massive Attack, Mezzanine
5. Beck, Odelay
6. Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted
7. Wilco, Summerteeth
8. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
9. The Beta Band, The Three EPs
10. Primal Scream, Vanishing Point

OK Computer is simply brilliant. The guitar play is pretty amazing and it might be a running narrative about existential solitude in a Starbucks and Microsoft society (more reasons why Seattle sucks!!!). You can't beat it. The real surprises on the list are 1) Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain beats out Slanted and Enchanted, 2) Summerteeth is so high, 3) Nirvana and Pearl Jam got snubbed like whoa, and 4) Nine Inch Nails, The Beta Band, and Primal Scream are on there at all. For 1, CRCR is just a much tighter album, far better produced (I still can't make out the lyrics to Loretta's Scars--an otherwise awesome song), and even had a minor hit with Cut Your Hair (the video is in an episode of Beavis and Butthead). On 2, Summerteeth is simply pure brilliance. Forget that I'm nuts about Wilco--listen to the album, notice the inter-song lyrical entaglements and how Tweedy employs the unrealiable narrator to chilling effect, listen to the lush sounds of a beach boys summer hiding songs about domestic abuse, suicide, and murder from the careless listener. The real question is, why isn't it higher? 3 . . . I mean they're just not great bands. Culturally relevant, yes. But Nevermind has lemons in it and Ten has momentum issues. Some good songs, but as albums they can't compare to Vanishing Point. Which brings me to 4. The Downward Spiral was the album all the good critics grew up with as awkward teens, so it has a) street cred, and b) nostalgic value. The Three EPs is quirky and charming (remember that scene in High Fidelity when John Cusack puts on this album and immediately makes a sale? you know you were grooving). Vanishing Point is music that will make you feel cool as shit. It's also ridiculously influential.