Mark / IL

I’ve decided to build an HTPC for my parents (and myself). The idea is to have around 2TB of storage readily available over the network and have the box hooked up to the LCD TV in the living room. The following components are required:

• Case — I’ve purchased a Coolermaster CM-282 from SLG Computer Systems
• PSU — I’m considering an Enermax Liberty 400.
• Motherboard — I’ve decided to upgrade my own motherboard and use the old one for the HTPC. The new mobo will be a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R.
  
• GPU — I’ll probably get a Sparkle 512MB passively-cooled 8600GT from SkyPC.
• TV Card — A Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 seems the best choice (multiple price choices here).
• Hard drives — probably four 500GB Seagate drives (price comparison here).

Check out some of the latest vectors I’ve uploaded to my Dreamstime account.

Here it is — an old alarm clock I found laying around the house. (Yes, I know the white parts got a little overexposed, I’m still learning).

During a photography session, I took the picture featured in this post — only to realize later that it came out as a subtle ad for Nikon cameras. The image in it’s natural habitat can be found here.

Israeli Knesset Member Shlomo Benizri, during a discussion regarding the recent earthquakes felt around the Middle East said (Hebrew version; English here) that “the Knesset needs to consider prevention of [homosexual intercourse]; [...] while we seek a physical solution to protect our buildings, one of the reasons [for the earth quakes] is the Knesset’s acceptance and legitimization of homosexual intercourse”.

The Homo-Lesbian community, instead of whining like a bunch of pansies, managed to save face and wondered whether the issue is “close to the Knesset Member’s heart”.

I can’t even begin to comprehend how our government manages to call itself “enlightened” and “progressive”.
We’re still a third-world republic and no amount of high-tech start-up companies and arms exports is going to change that.

Damn, the Idiocy tag needs to be applied automatically along with the Politics one.

I’ve recently started getting into photography. The attached image is just one of a small set I’ve posted on the media page here.

This is obviously no longer an issue. Please see the comments for more information.

As posted on 0×00000, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 is vulnerable by default to a directory traversal trick, via the view-source mechanism. Although mitigated by the NoScript plug-in, this is quite a serious bug — the default installation is vulnerable from the get-go.

After a slew of point releases and similar vulnerabilities, this comes rather surprisingly — the Firefox team are usually rather thorough in their bug cleansing; hopefully, this will be fixed as promptly as usual.

POC code mirror.

After a prolonged battle, Turkey finally caved — headscarves are no longer banned from Universities. Not a bad thing in itself, freedom of religion and all; but the headscarf is construed as a political symbol in many people’s eyes (“The headscarf is the most powerful symbol of the collision between secularists and conservatives in Turkey.”)

Does anyone really think that within a few years, headscarves won’t be mandatory to wear?

Another small victory for the Islamofascists.

For background info, check this.

According to the official IDF Spokesman (Hebrew), a French immigrant will serve 3 weeks a year as a military clown, entertaining hospitalized soldiers.

Three IDF soldiers from the Field Intelligence Corps were sentenced to 21 days in military prison — because they refused to take part in a course led by a female instructor. (hebrew link)

Meanwhile, HAMAS broadcasts a weekly children’s TV show that depicts a 10 or 12 year-old kid who “[specializes in] Jihad”. See here.