Lets clear things up regarding the current "Cyberwar"

To all the media outlets, and anyone who doesn't understand, that may read this blog. The people doing the DDoS'ing are NOT, I repeat, NOT "hackers".

Press/Media - for the love of god, stop using the terms "hacktivists", "hackers", "hacking", "hack", ETC. The majority of users in the IRC, are NOT hackers, and wouldn't be able to hack into a damn open wireless network. There are obviously many who are skilled, and could possibly hack into sites, but DDoS'ing is NOT hacking.

Wiktionary definition of hacking:

"Unauthorized attempts to bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network."

A Distributed Denial of Service is just an attack on a network. It is not hacking, bypassing security, etc. It is simply just a brute attack.

Wikileaks Internet War

So recently, many companies have begun denying Wikileaks access to things such as hosting, banking services, monetary funds, etc. This has caused quite the stir in the online world.

I consider myself pro-Wikileaks so I obviously do what I can to aid Anonymous and "it's" pledge to to aid Wikileaks. They have DDoS'ed quite a few websites to date. Those such as www.paypal.com (breifely took down the blog), www.postfinance.ch - a swedish banking site (has been down for at least 20+ hours, and is still down as I am writing this post), www.advbyra.se - a swedish law firm website that is currently down, and has been for quite some time.

Other then that, when I am at a computer I try and read some new articles on the current happenings, but damn, all I seem to get is a laugh reading the pathetic news articles on sites such as FoxNews, and other professional news agencies that lack any technical knowledge. Its quite embarrassing, as I don't consider myself extremely technically advanced, but I can tell you DDoS'ing a website is not a "hack attack".

Get in the hive gentlemen.

Polar Bear Capital of the World

So, spent most of my summer in Churchill, Manitoba. The polar bear and beluga whale capital of the world. This has to be one of the most amazing trips I have been on, even comparable to Europe. Although I didn't go for a holiday, it was amazing. I was actually up there working at the Port of Churchill. It was a good time. Had its ups and downs.

Anyways, Churchill itself is absolutely stunning. I come from a small town myself, so I could relate to the small size of Churchill. The only big difference is you are quite a distance from society itself, way up in northern Canada.

Got to see quite a bit of wildlife, including the belugas and the polar bears. Its quite surreal when you are sitting in your vehicle, mere feet from one of the worlds largest land mammals. They looked so soft, but damn, I sure wasn't getting out of my vehicle to find out.

Other then wildlife, the rest of the beauty came from the landscape/scenery. It was gorgeous. Take a drive along the scenic gravel road heading the the Northern Studies Center and you can see anything, ranging from a crashed cargo plane, a shipwrecked "Ithica" and even polar bears! Beautiful doesn't even begin to explain the northern beauty I never knew existed. There were times when I could sit in my vehicle looking out of the window (hard to leave the vehicle because of the blackflies) and just stare out over the land. Ah, I wish I could be back there. I do miss the people back home, but hopefully next summer I will be heading up again to work, before I leave for Australia!

Guess I'll close this post off with some pictures.

Lost.... made me feel lost no more.

*SPOILERS INCLUDED* Well, tonight was the series finale of my favorite T.V show, Lost. No show has ever grabbed my attention like this one. Actually, I rarely watch much T.V but I would never, and have never missed a single episode of Lost in the last 6 years. The finale couldn't have ended much better. Of course, like Lost itself, it's one of those you either love it, or you hate it episodes. I loved it.

The episode is confusing, but once the final few scenes come on, you realize all the "Lostians" are dead. Even though they are very real, all together in that final scene in the church embracing each other, they are dead, attending their own funeral. Most died on the island, including jack in the very final scene, but for those who escaped, such as Claire, Kate, and even Lapidus, they eventually died to. Whether it be from old age, or anything else, they died. Something about the island brought them together though. Once they all died they were bound to meet again in this church, to say their goodbyes, and too move on.

It was a great ending to a great television show. Never has anything on T.V made me feel the way this show has. I loved it, and was emotionally attached to it. It's going to be hard to let go, as pathetic as that sounds.

Just a good quote from a friend, helping explain the death of everyone:

"Presumably, the afterlife is timeless and no one notices the difference in time between their arrival and the death of the others."