Hamsters and terrorists everywhere, rejoice!

Municipality police of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, has come forth with yet another breathtaking initiative to keep us all safe and free from the evil oppression.

This time, it's a campaign educating the public on how to spot a terrorist, urging them to report people who would seek to destroy our liberties.

Have you ever noticed someone, for example, using a computer? Yes? Bloody hell! How about taking photographs, traveling somewhere, or even calling someone on their cell phone? Then it's your duty to report them, so that proper action to save us all can be taken. Seriously, I'm not making this up:


I don't think this poster is very good and thorough, though - they should have thought it through more. I am certain beyond a degree of reasonable doubt that it lacks several other important things... I will try to mention a few that could really make it easier for people to spot terrorists.

TERRORISTS NEED TO EAT AND DRINK
Have you seen anyone buying food or beverages for other people than themselves? Has it made you suspicious?

TERRORISTS NEED TO WALK ON THE STREETS
Their dark meetings of pure evil can take place anywhere and anytime. Have you ever seen anyone downtown who didn't tell you where they were going?

TERRORISTS NEED TO REST
Make sure you are extra vigilant in vicinity of hostels and dormitories, and pay special attention to people suspiciously sitting on benches in public spaces.

TERRORISTS NEED TO TALK TO EACH OTHER
Did you ever notice people talking discretely to each other? They could be planning the next 9/11 as they speak, and every second you hesitate to report them to special police units could cost thousands of innocent lives!

TERRORISTS NEED TO REPORT TERRORISTS
In the times of worldwide crisis that reflects into today's highly competitive terror market, have you ever seen anyone report other terrorists to get rid of their rivals? (...okay, maybe not. :-P)

Umm... and have you seen anyone lately ridiculing counter-terrorist measures? ...oops. ;-)

Geek's birthday

Every once in approximately 31 556 926 seconds the Earth completes its orbit around the only star around for almost 1.29 parsecs. Apparently, the fact that Earth is yet again located in the same relative angular position from the Sun as the day you were born, is a reason to celebrate. And there's more. As Sheldon has eloquently put it, some people even participate in the mass cultural delusion that the sun's apparent position relevant to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality.

Be that as it may, I'd like to share with you some of the greatest and most witty birthday wishes I ever got, and treasure them so much that it would be a pity for them not to be shared... I won't be explaining the mechanics behind these in detail, because this could spoil the fun for the geeks reading this, and the rest of you don't care, anyway, or probably have stopped reading by now. :-D

All of those were created two years ago, when Fox started this on our discussion forum, although his wish is so otherworldly, that I'll keep it for the end. ZZ used unix shell to write a clever pipe of two commands, which looks very cryptic at the first glance, but is in fact very simple.

echo pTaalqbirtARTlqtoqloyhqATaalqbirtARTlqto\
qloyhqATaalqbirtARTlqRXTrqfXvXrXzRhqATaalqbir\
tARTlqtoqloy.qsqIonqxXqzTIqzXoDXr\!|tr fTaplb\
iqMthRtoyhDAmXsInxzr RapHybi\ rthdtou,zhDeAmcsnr

It translates into Happy Birthday song lyrics, along with a suggestion that I shouldn't get too wasted partying that night. Nick immediately created a very smart contra in C programming language:


#include<stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
long long int L = 729987139091064141LL;
while (L) { putchar(L&0xFF); L >>= 8; }
return 0;
}

If compiled, this gem prints out nothing more than "Me too!". And finally, Fox, who started all this, used Brainfuck language for this jewel of code:

>+++++++++[<++++++++>-]<.>++++++[<++++>-]<+.>+++[<+++++>-]<..
>++[<++++>-]<+.[-]>++++++++[<++++>-]<.>+++++++[<+++++++++>-]<+++.
+++++++.>++[<++++>-]<+.++.>+++[<---->-]<.----.---.>++++++[<++++>-]<.
[-]>++++++++[<++++>- ]<+.[-]++++++++++.

Lovely. It even made me code a simple Brainfuck compiler, to sate the curiosity. One of my friends adorably described this piece of code as: a dead fish without a head, followed by a dead fish without head and a tail, followed by random chopped pieces of dead fish.

So that's it. :-D Thanks a lot guys, it was a load of fun... Have any more clever geek birthday wishes to share?

And the new US president is...

Most people won't know the winner of US presidential elections until later this year. Initially, I thought that the next president will be decided by who can profit most from the insanely insecure voting machines...

Now, however, I have changed my mind and realised that security vulnerabilities are not as important anymore, as the most important and decisive factor of them all has decided to reveal himself and swing his weight behind Mike Huckabee! He would probably become the president himself, if only it wasn't so boring. Who needs the nuclear briefcase anyway, when a roundhouse kick right to the face can solve any and all problems?

Ladies and gentlemen, please bow low for Chuck Norris and his will of steel! :-)