There was a push by local credit unions to get a bunch of folks to switch over from big national and multi-national banks over to more Sonoma County-minded establishments *. Kudos to them. It apparently went quite well. I’ve never used a big bank, so I kinda missed the boat there. Rather than switching my deposits to a local bank, I’ve been sending my beer money to local brewers. A couple of notables:

• Bear Republic in Healdsburg makes one of my personal favorites, Racer 5. My local supermarket can barely keep this stuff stocked.
• Lagunitas, straight out of Petaluma. Their IPA is available at just about every store in Santa Rosa.
• Lost Coast Brewery is up in Eureka. That stretched “local” pretty badly, but their Downtown Brown is worth a shot.
• Mendocino Brewing Company in Ukiah makes Red Tail Ale. I make a habit of picking up a six-pack whenever they’re on sale.
• Moonlight Brewing Company in Santa Rosa makes a variety of somewhat severe brews. A mainstay at my work’s company events, but tread with caution.
• Russian River Brewing Company is renown for its limited-run Pliny the Younger, though Pliny the Elder will set you up just fine. Located in Santa Rosa.
• Sierra Nevada is way up in Chico, but is very much treated as a local beer down here in Santa Rosa. I was pleasantly surprised to find it available at restaurants in Washington, D.C. a couple years back. I abstain from their Celebration Ale for purely nostalgic reasons.

The specific brews mentioned above are just representative of what comes immediately to mind when thinking of these folks; there’s a lot of variety to be found from wheat beers to ales to stouts and reds and what-have-you. I’ve found the Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada beers to be a mixed bag, having partaken of them since my ne’er-do-well high school days. It’s good to know that your beer-buying money is heading right back into the local economy, where it’s brewed by the very people you honk at in traffic and silently judge while they take too long at the ATM.

Don’t confuse this with a call to political action. I’m just suggesting you put down your Guinness for a moment and give Death & Taxes a try.

* Move your Money Project

Today I caught word of an old steadfast friend’s demise. Well, an old friend metaphorically speaking, not a person I actually know. No, not that guy; the Sonic.net Usenet server. My boss fired of a note today announcing that news.sonic.net, long quietly understood to be terminally ill and in need of a number of costly, intricate, and risky transplants and upgrades, is being shifted over to palliative care. The deluge of warez and donkey porn and flamewars and spam have just been too much to justify as a value-added no-charge service. Dane explains:

Our Usenet infrastructure is dying. Due to this, I would like to encourage you join our new web-based discussion forums at http://forums.sonic.net/

Five years ago we spent a huge amount to build a massive cluster. Since then Usenet volume has grown at least four-fold. The systems are old, drives are failing, and the infrastructure cannot keep up with the total volume. As a result, we’re missing some percentage of headers, so while downloading of messages by message ID (for example by using an NZB index) generally works, relying on our headers results in many “missing posts”.

As less than 1% of our customers use the Usenet, we have no plans to reinvest in Usenet at this stage, and it’s only a matter of time before these old systems reach such a state that they can no longer be patched up. At that time, we plan to stop proving NNTP to customers, and will encourage folks to subscribe to one of the many services such as Giganews, EasyNews, Astraweb, etc.

The local discussions in the sonic.* groups have been a great opportunity for customers to interact with each other and with Sonic.net staff. Today there is a very similar growing community in the forums, so please check them out!

Sincerely,

Dane Jasper

I’ve long thought of Usenet as the last vestige of the old untamed frontier that the Internet used to represent. It is very informally organized, with each server administrator bearing sovereign authority for peering configuration, message retention, and propagation policies. Once something gets out on Usenet, there’s no telling how far it will reach, and no way of taking it back once it’s out. I’m not quite nostalgic enough to pay money out-of-pocket for access, but it will be sad to see this window to inter-networked anarchy finally put down.

Brick wall hits you.

Last night the Sharks played the Canucks, and today we get to see what is becoming a standby of Bay Area hockey: the opposing coach complaining about his playing comically bouncing off of Sharks defenseman Douglas Murray. The hit in question this time.

Here at 11:59 remaining in the period, Canucks forward Maxim Lapierre has posession of the puck and is in the process of passing it to a teammate as they gain entry into the Sharks’ defensive zone. Look out, little man! There’s a giant viking right there in front of you!

Here at 11:58 remaining in the period, Lapierre has passed the puck and strode forward into a massive wall of crush-you-like-a-bug. Note that Murray barely moved at all here. This is like watching a bluebird smack itself into a window. No penalty was called, nobody was injured, and a retaliatory scuffle immediately followed resulting in several good players cooling off in the penalty box.

Vancouver’s couch Alain Vigneault complained about it afterwards, adding to a chorus of condemnation from opposing teams’ head coaches that Douglas Murray fans everywhere should recognize as the praise that it truly is. Vigneault would give his left nut to have a guy that could hit like Murray and still provide reasonable defense.

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When Anonymous was fun? Protesting at train stations just doesn’t strike me as very lulzy.

No, WordPress Dashboard, it isn’t. See?

And screw you for checking. Apparently the latest version of WordPress, in addition to phoning home to make sure you have the latest version of their CMS, is also trying to keep tabs on your web browser version. The behavior repeats in Firefox, which I don’t bother to keep up-to-date, and presumably in Internet Explorer as well. Obnoxious.

                                               `..--.
                                          `:.#antisec#;:
                                         :antisec#anti;+.`
                                         :sec#antisec#a;/:
                                         ntisec#antisec#+a
                                         .ntisec#antisec;:
      `-`                                 +#antisec#anti:s/
 /.:+:/+.`..`                             `;+;ec#antisec::+
  :.;;+`-./-:`                            .+:#antisec#anti-++`
   `-` -:.``;                          `:.+.sec#antisec#a:  -;-
      `;   -:::.                   `-:+..;/:ntisec#an.-` :+``+-
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          `/      .:`     `;:/`          .+..+///:::/:.    /:e;c#a:;/+-`
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     -::-`    `.--`  -t:./;:ise./.`..                  .:+.;;c#antisec#:.;;
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               /;;ec#an::.       tise.`
                `+.c#..+`        ;+-.;`
                                  `:/:          

There’s been a rash of document leakages this summer coming from groups that are easy to lazily associate with Anonymous. Internet miscreants, hackers, and anarchists have all had reason to seek anonymity over the years, so any activity of this sort would almost necessarily involve the agent of misbehavior attempting to hide his identity. We laugh about bank robbers that give real information about themselves to tellers before holding the place up. We joke about stupid liquor-store cowboys that drop their wallets at the scene of the crime. Yet we as a society find it easy to point at Lulzsec or Anonymous and relate their anonymity with cowardice. They don’t have the guts to speak out publicly. They don’t have the courage of their convictions to behave like the EFF or ACLU.

This past weekend some folks claiming association with AntiSec put up a lot of documents grabbed from law enforcement web servers. On sites like Know Your Meme many recent comments on their Operation Antisec article decry the so-called hackivists as having totally crossed the line. As of this writing, comments taking this position are being received better than those supporting the hackers’ behavior.

What did the AntiSec hackers do that was so bad? They revealed personal information about police. For decades, law enforcement agents have operated with a kind of pseudo-anonymity. They typically have names and ID numbers visible on their persons when acting officially, but very little is publicly available — legally, that is — about who they are. Society has held that these people we trust to enforce the law, keep the peace, and exercise person judgement in life-or-death decisions may as well, in many ways, be patrolling our streets in Guy Fawkes masks and black sweatshirts for all the personal accountability they seem to have.

It seems to take extremely vocal outcry by a community to get meaningful repercussions laid onto a badly-behaved police officer; a gauntlet of special legal statuses, internal loyalties among law enforcement, union reps, and politicians that live in fear that they may be painted as “soft on crime” must be penetrated before the mother of a boy shot by a policeman can get justice.

So anonymous hackers build up a gauntlet of proxies and encryption and pseudonyms and false trails. It may not be right, but there’s a kind of symmetry here.

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Supposedly released by LulzSec:

1. Salutations Lulz Lizards,
2.
3. As we’re aware, the government and whitehat security terrorists across the world continue to dominate and control our Internet ocean. Sitting pretty on cargo bays full of corrupt booty, they think it’s acceptable to condition and enslave all vessels in sight. Our Lulz Lizard battle fleet is now declaring immediate and unremitting war on the freedom-snatching moderators of 2011.
4.
5. Welcome to Operation Anti-Security (#AntiSec) – we encourage any vessel, large or small, to open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path. We fully endorse the flaunting of the word “AntiSec” on any government website defacement or physical graffiti art. We encourage you to spread the word of AntiSec far and wide, for it will be remembered. To increase efforts, we are now teaming up with the Anonymous collective and all affiliated battleships.
6.
7. Whether you’re sailing with us or against us, whether you hold past grudges or a burning desire to sink our lone ship, we invite you to join the rebellion. Together we can defend ourselves so that our privacy is not overrun by profiteering gluttons. Your hat can be white, gray or black, your skin and race are not important. If you’re aware of the corruption, expose it now, in the name of Anti-Security.
8.
9. Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments. If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood.
10.
11. It’s now or never. Come aboard, we’re expecting you…
12.
13. History begins today.
14.
15. Lulz Security,
16. http://LulzSecurity.com/
17.
18. Support: http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
19. Support: http://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia
20. Support: http://wikileaks.ch/
21. Support: http://anonyops.com/

It immediately occurs to me that defacing government websites will do no good for anybody but the security consultants that will be retained to prevent future problems. Compromising bank systems, either to release account information or to halt transactions is almost certain to cause more serious problems for the typical prole than do any lasting harm to the folks at the top of the food chain. There's something to be said for the flair LulzSec has displayed with their efforts, though.

Summer officially started for Sharks fans last night, ten minutes forty-eight seconds into the second overtime period. This traditionally entails gnashing of teeth, wearing of sack-cloth and ashes, complaints about officiating, excuses about late-season and post-season injuries, and optimistic starry-eyed tripe like “next year they’ll come back even better.” That may well be, but it certainly won’t be the same 2010-2011 San Jose team.

According to Capgeek, San Jose is already in the hole for about $51,000,000 of salary cap for 2011-2012, with millions locked up in Heatley, Thornton, Marleau, and Boyle, all of whom have no-trade or no-movement clauses in their contracts. They’re not going anywhere, but several over players are either potential trade fodder or entering free agency in one form or another. There’s a lot of wiggle room in the roster:

• Joe Pavelski is a solid performer, but with $12,000,000 and three years left in his contract, it’s a bit of a stretch to assume folks are looking to trade for such an expensive third-line center.
• Ryane Clowe, with $7,500,000 contracted over the next two years and some serious work ethic through the rough patches, may be a touch more appealing on the trade market.
• Devin Setoguchi goes restricted free agent this summer. $1,800,000 for a winger that dumped Dany Heatley off the first line is pretty cheap, so we can expect #16 to see some tempting offers.
• Torrey Mitchell is looking to earn $1,725,000 in the last year of his contract. He started to shine again once the Sharks put him on a line with Wellwood and Pavelski, so he is probably a viable trading piece.
• Ben Eager is relatively inexpensive, as most 4th-liners are, and is an unrestricted free agent this summer. After some ill-advised penalties in the post-season, his stock has probably fallen a fair bit.
• Benn Ferriero goes restricted free agent after spending most of the year in the AHL. It would be unwise to put a lot of expectation on him at this point.
• Scott Nichol anchored the 4th line for most of the 2011-2012 season, is a fan favorite, is spoken highly of by other players and coaching staff, is a faceoff-winning machine, and works cheap. Somehow he won’t be re-signed. The Sharks do their damnedest to troll me.
• Kyle Wellwood is much too good for the money he’s pulling in from San Jose. He answered his doubters with solid performance, and you can expect him to be working somewhere else for a fair bit more.
• Jamal Mayers is a cheap workhorse that I keep seeing on breakaways that he just can’t close the deal on. The Sharks played him all but four games in the regular season, but I suspect they’ll let him go if they find opportunities elsewhere.

And that’s just among the forwards. Expect the Sharks to lose five to eight of their regulars (including defensemen). The depth, speed, toughness, and work ethic of the 2011-2012 team are all going to be tweaked for good or ill.

Fact: Original maps of the United States show 64 states. Modern maps have been carefully redacted, and Google Earth has been censored to hide the true shape of the North American continent. The planet’s actual diameter differs from the official value by nearly 2,000 kilometers.

Fact: The first president of the United States was not George Washington, as is commonly accepted today. The first president was Melvin Ponders, who also has the distinction of being the first necromancer president, the first nonhuman president, the first undead president, and the first president to die in an assassination carried out by none other than Benjamin Franklin himself.

Fact: Television static isn’t anything of the kind. It’s a broadcast designed to keep you from actually seeing what’s actually on those empty channels. This is one of the isolated cases where the power-that-be truly have your best interests at heart, as was the move from analog signals to digital, which gave us another layer of security. Certain early television sets made before 1954 can be tuned to show what’s on those channels, as a few of the older inmates at many mental hospitals can certainly attest.

Fact: Teddy bears aren’t made, they’re grown. The harvesting process is far from painless.

Fact: The original red M&Ms were recalled because of a health risk. What few people know is that the red dye used was a potent aphrodisiac. The recall date, 1976, corresponds to the real date of the end of the Baby Boom.

Fact: Should you have access to a mirror of polished bronze, and were born after 1991, you may try the following experiment. Simply look at yourself in the mirror. If you see a green bar code there above your forehead, then you have my deepest condolences.

Fact: The original draft copy of the US constitution has a handwritten note from John Hancock in the margin requesting the removal of all references to the Thaumaturgic Branch of the United States Navy. A few surviving history textbooks from the 1880s still refer to it, should one be fortunate enough to find one.

Fact: JFK wasn’t shot at all. His head just did that.

Fact: the spotting of a lighted object in 1942 over Los Angeles lead to four hours of anti-air bombardment from all over the city. What few people is that this event was directly connected to the mass production of uranium-235 shortly thereafter.

Fact: Man was not the first to walk upright and harbour malice.

Fact: The Apollo moon landings were faked, but only to as a cover for the real moon landings. Neil Armstrong is not entirely human.

Fact: Pennies aren’t kept in circulation for illicit tracking or spreading rare forms of radiation or any such thing. They were repurposed into talismans designed to repel extra-dimensional entities which have been attempting to attack the US since a cabal of Nazi mystics compelled them to attack near the end of the war. Their ubiquitous presence keeps populated regions relatively safe.

Fact: The ‘remarkably well-preserved’ Lenin in the glass coffin is a wax duplicate placed there for mundane political reasons. The actual corpse of Lenin was laid to rest by a collective of Lenin’s lesser-known Ukrainian associates in Pripyat.

Associated Fact: The Chernobyl Power Plant had no active core.

Fact: There has been great deal of controversy around Barack Obama’s birth certificate. The controversy is both manufactured and utterly pointless: not only is Obama not an American citizen, he is not even human, nor is any of his cabinet. The last human president of the United States was Lyndon B. Johnson.