FriendFeed is a relatively new service designed to let you stay in contact with your friends in a more complete way than other services. Twitter is an excellent service because it allows one to microblog and push updates via sms, but this doesn’t show your friends everything you’re doing.

Someone wanting to follow your blog posts, your Twitter updates, Picasa/Flikr photos, or your Amazon wishlists would have to add those things separately.

FriendFeed solves this problem by consolidating updates from all these places (and many more) into a single interface. It’s basically a better way of doing what you’re already doing online, i.e. following the lives of your friends on the Internet.

Just go to FriendFeed, sign up, and add the services that you use, e.g. your blog, your FaceBook, your MySpace, your Twitter account, your Google Shared items, your Picasa/Flikr account, etc. Once you’ve added your accounts, you can continue using those various services like usual, but when update one of those services FriendFeed will update as well.

So there are really two steps to enhancing your connection to your friends via FriendFeed:

1. Get your friends to create FriendFeed accounts and add their various services to it. This way you can follow them.
2. Make your own FriendFeed account and add your services to it. This way they can follow you.

Example

Here are the services I have in my own FriendFeed:

• My Blog
• Twitter
• Google Shared Items (shared links)
• Google Picasa (photos)
• My Amazon Wish List

So all someone has to do to keep up with me is subscribe to my FriendFeed feed, not to all those different services. Not only that, but it also has a full vote-up and comment system where people can give input on the content you publish.

It’s an extremely powerful platform for staying in touch with friends regardless of what types of social networks they use. Have a go.

Links

[ FriendFeed ]
[ Twitter ]

This is for the people who believe in God, and believe in the power of prayer.

The next time you have the urge to pray for someone I want you to try something. I want you to offer something to them. I want you to make a pact with God regarding your life and the life of the person in need.

Say these words:

Take from me, and give to him.

And here’s what I want you to offer:

1. Offer to not get your raise at work this year
2. Offer to have a powerful enemy at work who hurts your reputation
3. Offer a reduction in title and pay
4. Offer to be fired and to struggle financially for six months
5. Offer to grapple with a horrible disease
6. Offer to never truly be respected by those you love
7. Offer to die early and never achieve your goals
8. Offer to never attain happiness in your life

In other words, on a scale equal to your offering, give of yourself something that you desire greatly — something that God has the ability to take from you. Give it in exchange for the thing you’re asking for, on behalf of that person you’re trying to help.

For example:

Take from me the promotion I’ve been working for for two years, in exchange for giving that man a stable job to take care of his family.

But do this with belief. Do this knowing that God will really take it.

I’ve done this a few times myself throughout my life as a believer. And I’m somewhat ashamed to say that I’ve done it even after being an atheist. I offer to the universe, sort of, but a universe that has the ability to make the trade. I have not done it recently because I’ve been too selfish, and too cynical, as of late.

But I do it as a believer, so I don’t offer much. It’s amazing what happens to your willingness to give via prayer when the gift is coming from your own prosperity. I have in the past, but only a few times, offered much of my future success in return for the easing of suffering of someone. I was very moved at the time, and it was an honest offering. As a selfish person I hope it wasn’t accepted, but to this day I wouldn’t revoke it if given the knowledge that it was real.

And that’s my challenge to believers: rise at least to the height of this morally deprived atheist. Put something behind your prayers. Offer something of yourself. It’s too easy to ask that someone receive a hundred bundles of happiness if not a single one is coming out of your own stockpile.

Offer gifts from your own finite supply, and see if you are as generous.:

I was getting into the elevator today, running back and forth between managing a long-term vendor project and keeping things under control with my other “regular work”, when I was struck by a thought:

This is all a huge waste of time.

I have so many things I want to read about. So many things I want to learn about. And then I want to talk about them with friends. I want to write about things. I want to share. To communicate. I want to grow as a person.

But I don’t have time.

I’m literally wasting my life working 10 hours a day in a job where I can’t think. This isn’t to say that my job isn’t mentally demanding — it very much is. But it doesn’t involve thinking about the things that really matter.

It Gets Worse

So then I started questioning what I should really be doing, and it’s not much better from an ultimate worth standpoint. Take my most ideal path, for example — relaxing and experiencing and learning. For what? What’s the goal.

Let’s say I get all my debt payed off, pay off my car and have a basic job where I’m allowed to think and write at work, etc…and that I have tons of time afterwards to do the same. Let’s say I read all the classics a few times. I read all the philosophy I want. I study all the math I want. I get really good at Jujitsu. I cook all my own meals. Etc.

Now what?

What have I really gained?

A sense of control, really. Self-mastery.

Well, isn’t that just another game? Isn’t that just another head trip that squirts endorphins through my body and makes me feel good? I mean, theoretically I would be learning all this stuff so I could help others, but that’s just not realistic — especially not without starting some sort of movement that gets people involved. But I have names for those people.

I suppose I could write books in order to reach people (and that’s actually the plan), but realistically who would read such books and benefit from them? People who are pretty far along already, really.

I just feel like even the most noble goals we have are driven by base human desires, which are essentially biological, like the desire to procreate and defecate. Some of these are “higher” than others, sure, but they’re fundamentally the same.

People do good things for others because it makes them feel good, right? Selfish, right?

So, think about what drives you. Children? You do that because you’re supposed to do it. And your body is telling you that you should. There are plenty of kids that need help and have no good homes. You should always question something that the world as a whole thinks you’re “supposed” to do, and procreating is definitely one of those things in a world as overpopulated as ours.

Material things? Pure biology. I drive a BMW, wear a Submariner, carry a William Henry folder, have a Tumi work bag, wallet, and luggage, etc. I even like to write that down. But what does that give me? I know precisely what it is. It’s a sign to myself that I’m in control. It’s external verification to myself that I’ve achieved some level of control over myself and my environment.

It’s quite sad, really. First of all, and this is trite but true — control is an illusion. I’m not in control of shit. I could be killed at a red light on the way to work tomorrow, or I could die in a flu pandemic that starts in August while I’m at BlackHat. Where’s my control then?

Basically, my whole game is to get better. Self-mastery. Learn more. Collect more knowledge. That’s why I have so many books. It’s like I’m capturing the book’s soul by owning it. “You belong to me now. I know all your secrets.” Ok, great. Now read that. Now what?

Write about it. Do something with it. Ok, now what?

Maybe Chemicals Are Happiness

I keep coming down to the squirting of happiness into our brains. Sex. Squirt. Winning at sports. Squirt. Buying a house. Squirt. Building a house. Squirt. Having a kid. Squirt. Seeing your kid graduate from Harvard. Squirt.

We make these things into greatness, but they’re just squirts.

Being proud of a BMW and being proud of a flower garden. What’s the difference? If you waste 50 hours a week so you can have nice material possessions vs. making other sacrifices so that you can garden and cook, what’s the difference? It’s still about putting effort into something and ending up with something you’re proud of. Something fleeting. Something ultimately pretty weak.

And what of beauty? It’s a great garden, and you put a lot of effort into it. Or the great poem you wrote. It moves people, perhaps. But why? To what end? Why is that a worthy goal vs. having sex with lots of bimbos?

I guess what I’m asking is whether or not those who seem unaware might actually be on the right path. The pleasure in the brain is what it comes down to. Sex. Food. Appreciating beauty. Seeking the surge of chemicals in the body that indicate happiness. These are the basics. They are the core of what makes humans happy. And the higher forms are simply abstractions.

How different is it, really, to have a really nice garden that you show your friends vs., say, cumming on a hot girl you just met? I’d argue it’s pretty much the same. Squirt goes the happiness into our feeble little brains. “Look at the petunias.” “I cam all over her tits.” Show me the difference.

So, becoming powerful means you get to squirt more happiness into your brain at will than other people. You “control” the environment enough to be able to satisfy the base desires of the brain of a slightly more evolved primate. Yay.

Well, until you get old and die, which you can’t prevent.

Oh, you can live forever? Awesome.

Uh oh, the sun’s burning out.

Oh, you made it to another solar system? You got a fix for that pesky entropy problem? You know, the one where all atoms stop moving?

The next time someone asks me what I do I’m going to tell them that I vibrate in patterns dictated by the big bang, and that our current stage of entropy I’m basically seeking control over my environment and ways to feel important. And that I’ve met with some success.

So, in other words, what if indulging is the answer?

Fighting in MMA. Mad wicked sex. And drugs to enhance and modify the experiences thereof. And then we work in order to allow ourselves to do these things.

It’d be a whole lot more honest, I think.

Reading, writing…learning…it’s so abstract. It’s like watching someone else live.

If we’re just animals in a forest trying to make a den and protect our territory, why not embrace that? Why not be that?

I know the answer, of course. Just bear with me. (bear like Yogi, you understand)

I’ve developed a really strange habit recently. Whenever I experience some kind of thrill or happiness, I look for the cause. The REAL cause. Squirt. Squirt squirt. Squirt squirt squirt. It takes away from the experience, let me tell you.

And that’s my point.

Not that this is new, but perhaps the happiest are those who are not looking for real answers. Not just ignorance, but willful ignorance. Realizing that the higher pursuits are merely diluted versions of the lower ones, and that those are where the fun is.

Ultimately, if I were to explain my life to a highly advanced alien, what would I say?

I sleep for eight hours so I can work for ten. And in between I’m trying to create territory, find a mate, and do things that blast chemicals through my silly little brain.

If I were that alien I’d shoot me out of sympathy.

The article.

In Washington, more than 80 percent of HIV cases are among black people, that’s one in 20 residents.

…If black Americans made up their own country, it would rank above Ethiopia (420,000 to 1,300,000) in HIV population.

In America, AIDS is a Black problem.

[ Racist Reporting Source ]

Here, Derren Brown, an atheist illusionist, instantly converts a room full of “atheists” to Christianity. Guess what? It would have worked on me too — and I’m a fairly savvy guy. Anyway, for those of you who are Christians due to “experiencing God”, I beg you to watch this entire episode.

Keep something in mind while watching: what makes your beliefs in God different than the beliefs of the people in this episode? Do they believe less than you? What about your experiences that proved or supported God were more solid than these peoples’?

Keep that in mind as you’re watching.

1 of 8…

So, nmap 4.60 is accurately identifying the iPhone 2.0 software as an “Apple iPhone mobile phone or iPod Touch audio player”. And that’s by using its single open TCP port — 62078.

Other Interesting Information

First, it’s reporting my last reboot as being Fri Oct 27 22:04:38 2006, which is highly incorrect. Even more interestingly, nmap is claiming that the sequence number prediction on the open port is weak (a trivial joke, as it were). That’s kind of 80’sish, so I didn’t believe it until I confirmed this via multiple connections to the port.

Listen

sudo tcpdump -nX -i en0 host 192.168.26.19

Push

nc 192.168.26.19 62078 < /dev/random

(snipped)

192.168.26.19.62078 > 192.168.26.25.61195: S 1615:1615(0) 
192.168.26.19.62078 > 192.168.26.25.61401: S 1649:1649(0)
192.168.26.19.62078 > 192.168.26.25.61411: S 1656:1656(0)
192.168.26.19.62078 > 192.168.26.25.61412: S 1659:1659(0)
192.168.26.19.62078 > 192.168.26.25.61413: S 1660:1660(0)

Yep, definitely some weak ISN sauce. I’ll have to research what that service is later. Anyway, here’s the scan result.

Links

[ Previous iPhone Nmap Results | dmiessler.com ]
[ An Nmap Primer | dmiessler.com ]
[ Nmap | insecure.org ]
[ The Apple iPhone | apple.com ]

A stellar introduction to the real science of intelligence. I read the whole thing today. Highly recommended for those who are having trouble figuring out what’s real and what’s not about the concept of mental ability, and our ability to measure it.

Links

[ INTELLIGENCE: A Very Short Introduction | amazon.com ]

Most Westerners know very little about the Middle East and the people that live there. This lack of knowledge hurts our ability to understand, and engage in intelligent discussion about, current events.

For example, frighteningly few know the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and most think the words “Arab” and “Muslim” are pretty much interchangeable. They aren’t. So here’s a very brief primer aimed at raising the level of knowledge about the region to an absolute minimum.

Basics

1. Arabs are part of an ethnic group, not a religion. Arabs were around long before Islam, and there have been (and still are) Arab Christians and Arab Jews. In general, you’re an Arab if you 1) are of Arab descent (blood), or 2) speak the main Arab language (Arabic).

2. Not all Arabs are Muslim. There are significant populations of Arab Christians throughout the world, including in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Northern Africa and Palestine/Israel.

3. Islam is a religion. A Muslim (roughly pronounced MOOSE-lihm) is someone who follows the religion. So you wouldn’t say someone follows Muslim or is an Islam, just as you wouldn’t say someone follows Christian or is a Christianity.

4. Shia Muslims are similar to Roman Catholics in Christianity. They have a strong clerical presence via Imams and promote the idea of going through them to practice the religion correctly. Sunni Muslims are more like Protestant Christians. They don’t really focus on Imams and believe in maintaining a more direct line to God than the Shia.

5. People from Iran are also known as Persians, and they are not Arabs.

6. Arabs are Semites. We’ve all heard the term anti-Semitism being used — often to describe Arabs. While antisemitism does specifically indicate hatred for Jews, the word “Semite” comes from the Bible and referred originally to anyone who spoke one of the Semitic Languages.

7. According to the Bible, Jews and Arabs are related [Genesis 25]. Jews descended from Abraham’s son Isaac, and Arabs descended from Abraham’s son Ishmael. So not only are both groups Semitic, but they’re also family.

8. Sunni Muslims make up most of the Muslim world (roughly 90%). ¹

9. The country with the world’s largest Muslim population is Indonesia. ²

10. The rift between the Shia and Sunni started right after Muhammad’s death and originally reduced to a power struggle regarding who was going to become the authoritative group for continuing the faith.
    
    The Shia believed Muhammad’s second cousin Ali should have taken over (the family/cleric model). The Sunni believed that the best person for the job should be chosen by the followers (the merit model) and that’s how the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, was appointed.
    
    Although the conflict began as a political struggle it now mostly considered a religious and class conflict, with political conflict emanating from those rifts.

Sunni vs. Shia | Arab vs. Non-Arab

Here’s how the various Middle Eastern countries break down in terms of Sunni vs. Shia and whether or not they are predominantly Arab. Keep in mind that these are generalizations; significant diversity exists in many of the countries listed.

• Iraq Mostly Shia (roughly 60%), but under Saddam the Shia were oppressed and the Sunni were in power despite being only 20% of the population. Arab.

• Iran Shia. NOT Arab.

• Palestine Sunni. Arab.

• Egypt Sunni. Arab.

• Saudi Arabia Sunni. Arab.

• Syria Sunni. Arab.

• Jordan Sunni. Arab.

• Gulf States Sunni. Arab.

Conclusion

What’s depressing is the fact that this only took me 30 minutes to write, and you 2 minutes to read. Yet most people in the West (and especially in the United States) lack even this cursory level of knowledge about the region.:

References

¹The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing - Religions

²The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing - Indonesia

Wikipedia | Sunni Muslims

Wikipedia | Shia Muslims

Wikipedia | Arabs

Go to this site right now. It will make you happy.

(thanks to Chris for the link)

[ Text2Mindmap | text2mindmap.com ]