Urban Adventuring - II

I was over at the iconFactory pulling down a cool wallpaper called Indy's Desk.

It is a great desktop that has some nice retro-feel vibes to it.

While you are there go ahead and also pop-in at their Indiana Jones home page.  It is loaded with icon packs from the series.  Make great stock RocketDock icon replacements.

All this adventuring got me looking for some new urban-adventuring websites.

• opacity.us - Abandoned Photography and Urban Exploration has always been my hands-down favorite. I think it is due to the quality of the photography.  While there haven’t been as many recent posts of late, trips into the Eastern State Penitentiary and the Worcester State Hospital are more than worth-while.

• Lab-Wan also has a collection of interesting sites and photography. High-quality.

• Illicitohio.com is a bit rougher in the photography scale, but more than makes up for it in the unusual locations.  I’m not sure how, but somehow I ended up on this site (and this post) when I was following a link-to on Mike Tyson's former home. What seems so fascinating to me is the condition of the home and items still remaining in it, and that it was able to be breached.  The exterior looks pretty cool and interesting, but the scale of the interiors just seems so cold and large. It seems to be a place to make even the biggest men seem quite small.

• Dark Passage: Exercises in Forensic Archaeology – quite a collection here. I wish there were more photos-per-location, but the quality of them is very good and artistic.

• abandoned places – The website is as much mystery as the locations captured. Just have fun and click around.  You will get it down pretty fast.

• Abandoned – lots of black and white photos of buildings and industry in Moscow.  The scale of the abandoned and uncompleted structures is amazing.

• Urban Exploration Database – Very well organized and photographed.  I spent more hours that I care to admit looking at this site’s showcases of decay.

• Modern Ruins Photographic Essays - Shaun O’Boyle – This is more of an “old-school” website, but it really accentuates the drama of the locations captured.  There is a great variety of locations here, from Cape Canaveral to boatyards to mills.  All good and haunting.  Tip, don’t give up on the first page.  Scroll to the bottom of the photo-gallery and click “next”.  Often there are multiple pages per location lurking. Shaun has a great eye for detail.

• out of site - Similar presentation to Shaun's site above. More color.  For a good sample take a look at the southern railway freight depot gallery.  I've seen more than a fair number of similar buildings here and there in small Texas towns.

• Infiltration.org was/is a magazine based on covering just such locations.  I believe they are currently not actively publishing, but you can still get books via Amazon.com Anyway, they provide great material and organization for more linking.  For example, Infiltration: Texas has links to locations in and around Texas that are fun to explore (via the web).  They also have Infiltration - North America for links to places in other states as well.  Full of additional resources, tips, and ideas if you are thinking on taking more than a Web-observer's viewpoint and getting you own feet dirty in this hobby.

Wonder what our place will look like a hundred years from now....

--Claus

Shaken, not Stirred

As is often the case, sometimes "real life" must take precedence over my blogging desires.

Been a busy, nay, a hectic weekend.

So my desire to explain the ReadyBoost post must wait a day longer.

So for now...Link Post time!

Network Nuggets Revisited

A bit ago I made the Free Network Utility Nuggets post.

I mentioned that there were some things I was forgetting, but would have to get back with.

Essential NetTools (trialware/$) - Rarely do I feel the need to post to a trialware/paid version of software. There are just so many good applications that are offered as freeware. However, TamoSoft's Essential NetTools is just too good an application not to mention. It really is like having a Swiss army knife of network tools. Consider all the features in this single program: NetStat (to monitor your computer's network statistics, ports and traffic, ProcMon to monitor system processes, TraceRoute and Ping, PortScan (to look for open network ports), NSLookup (to covert IP addresses to host names), NBScan (NetBIOS scaner), RawSocket, Shares, NetAudit, SNMPAudit, SysFiles, and finally, report generation in several formats.

Wow. And all this for under $30.00. I have found it to run quite well off a USB stick. Nice!

Wireshark Windows U3 Package (freeware) - Wireshark is a network traffic sniffer. As I mentioned before, there is an (older) portable version of Ethereal out there, but I missed pointing out that the updated Wireshark version has a portable (experimental) version. I'm not really into this U3 business. So just download the file, rename it's .u3p extension to .zip and then unzip it. Copy the extracted files to a USB stick and see how it runs.

New OpenDNS Feature Revolutionizes the Net - I've been a rabid convert to OpenDNS for a while now. I liked it so much that I made the DNS setting changes directly into my router so all our systems use it automatically. Paul Stamatiou posted a great review of a new free service provided by OpenDNS--Shortcuts. Basically shortcuts allow you to type a keyword into your browser URL address bar and that takes you directly to your page. Kinda like bookmarks but for the URL bar itself. The only requirements are that you need to be using OpenDNS and have created a free account. Configuration is easy. I haven't had time to get working on this, but I can see how this would be nice, especially since advanced parametered shortcuts can also be created.

Internet Connectivity Evaluation Tool for Vista & XP - Donna's SecurityFlash - This free tool from Microsoft runs on Vista or XP and can test your home network's router to see if it supports some advanced networking features. Microsoft Download page. Screenshots.

TCP Optimizer (freeware) - This network connection optimizer tool promises to analyze and tweak your system's network connectivity settings to optimize your network performance. FreewareGenius has a short and sweet positive review, and the Lifehacker gang liked its results as well. Take a look at TCP Optimizer's FAQ or extensive Help page and see if it is worth trying out. Been to busy to run it yet on my XP systems, but I am going to give it a go by the weekend. I'll let you know what I think personally then.

Vista does some TCP/IP autotuning on its own. However, if you need to do some manual tweaking, here is a post on how to turn that feature off and on: How to disable Windows Vista TCP/IP autotuning.

For a great tech-headed link source regarding networking in Vista, head over to the Microsoft TechNet page on Windows Vista Networking. Lots of good stuff in there.

Japanese Woodwork PC Cases

I have always loved traditional Japanese woodworking and joinery designs. There is something very efficient yet graceful in the construction.

Here are two stunning pc case mods you might be interested in if you like custom cases or woodworking:

Incredible “Yuugou” Case Mod

"Sangaku" Japanese Case Mod - look closely for the next page link. Has more construction pictures than a Norm Abram episode of New Yankee Workshop.

Simply beautiful.

Useful Thunderbird Extensions

While I use quite a few Add-on extensions in Firefox. I use very few in the Mozilla email client Thunderbird. It is quite close to perfectly matching my email client needs.

Ryan over at CyberTech News posted a roundup of ten of his favs for Thunderbird. While I already used one, and did adopt a 2nd with joy, the rest could be quite useful for Thunderbird power-users or those wanting to add a bit more functionality to Thunderbird.

My two favorite Thunderbird Add-ons are Lightning which is a calendaring application much like Outlook, and MinimizeToTray which sends Thunderbird to the system tray icon location instead of the Task Bar when minimized..just like I have my Outlook set to do at work. Brilliant!

Check out Ryan's List for all the goodies. You might like some of his other recommendations.

Underground Goodies

When we were growing up, vacation travels almost always meant a visit to any caves we passed by. They are very mysterious and beautiful locations. Maybe that's why I'm always intrigued when some new archeological discovery or hidden treasure is located underground. It appeals to the adventurous kid in me.

BLDBLG has a great and fascinating post on Tunnels, mines, and the "upwardly migrating void" with visits to the Hanover Chalk mines and the Scotland Street Tunnel in Edinburgh. Lots of great pictures.

I saw that tomorrow night, the History Channel is also getting into the underground scene with a new series Cities of the Underworld. It also looks fascinating, so I have to get home in time to catch the first episode of this series. (Maybe my Vista post will have to wait a bit longer...)

Even more neat things at Subterranea Brittanica

Holy ISO Trinity

I have to deal with and manage creating and archiving CD and DVD media at work for our group. Instead of keeping a disk organizer on my desk with masters for copy-to-copy duplications (and watching them disappear) I keep ISO copies on a workstation and then just burn them on demand.

In the process I've obtained quite a collection of tools to help me create and burn ISOs. There are a lot of awesome tools I have to handle these tasks, but these three freeware offerings are the Holy Trinity I use. Tiny, fast and function focused.

Need to make a copy of a disk? Use LC ISO Creator.

Need to turn a set of folders into an ISO? Use Folder2Iso.

Need to burn an ISO to CD/DVD media? Use TeraByteUnlimited's BurnCDCC.

If you need some tools with a bit more "beef" for burning or ISO work here are some additional freeware utilities. ImgBurn for advanced disk burning setting control and IsoBuster for advanced CD/DVD file recovery, ISO creation, disk/ISO structure review, and the list goes on....

KeePass Versus KeePass

KeePass is the encrypted password manager of choice for me. I love it. It is tiny, portable, and brilliantly designed and 100% freeware. Version 1.07 has just been released, but so has 2.02 Alpha.

Here is a great feature comparison between the current 1.xx versions and the 2.xx builds.

Highlights in 2.xx: support for older OS's will be dropped for 2000/XP/Vista now. It will require .Net Framework of 2.0 or better. It drops "twofish" encryption but adds compression support and XML inner formatting. It will support the Windows User Account as a Key source, allow for custom string fields for individual entries, importation of external icons, and keep an entry history. There are many more additional features coming in 2.xx as well. See the link for more information.

Security Bits

SANS-ISC handlers recently posted a great "Follow the Bouncing Malware" series addition: Day of the Jackal. In it we see how following what appears to be an innocent email link gets a world of malware hurt going on a pc. I really look forward to these posts and always learn something new to be aware of in my own malware hunting drills at work.

Comodo has opened up their newly purchased BOClean product for free download and usage. BOClean has had a long and strongly supported following in the anti-malware/anti-trojan product circles. Its fans are many. I haven't had the chance to try it out, but am looking forward to playing around with it. This previously established anti-malware product joins their growing stable of freeware security products like their firewall, anti-virus and free (for personal use) secure email certificate issuance.

Although currently offered for XP/2000 system support, Donna's Security Flash has a great post that explains that it can run quite successfully on a Vista system as well, so long as you know the following installation trick:

"In order to properly install the COMODO BOClean 4.23 onto a Vista machine, you *MUST* right click on the downloaded setup programme and select "Run as administrator" to install it properly."

Whew.

Feels good to get all those links off my chest an onto yours!

See you in the skies.

--Claus

Texas Links and Miscellany

Taking a breather from my series of security stuff.

Here is a linkage path I recently went down while surfing the net before Meerkat Manor came on...

So I was thinking about how I used to run cross-country in high-school and how I probably couldn't make it more than a mile before my entire body shut down in protest. Then I came across this link: The Couch-to-5K Running Plan. A wonderfully attainable plan to go from zero to 3-miles in just two months of training. Now if I could just surf the net while I ran--Motoko style, I'd be set.

Since I was thinking athletics. I haven't mentioned World Cup 2006. I was disappointed to see Germany and Brazil get knocked out. Then again, watching France's Zinedine Zidane try to knock out Italy's Marco Materazzi certainly was surprising. I actually enjoyed the final and as an American, don't really mind games ending in a penalty kickoff. Seems very Clint Eastwood, American Western to me. For wonderful amusement, I offer you the following video: Zidane World Cup Headbutt Animation Festival. This is great stuff.

I then stumbled across a web link to NavSource Naval History: Photographic History Of The U.S. Navy. It's got pictures of almost every US Naval vessel ever commissioned. Really great stuff.

That led me to look for vessels named after Texas. Turns out there were several:

Second Class Battleship Texas (Fate: Sunk as target off Maryland by US Navy in 1911.)
New York Class Battleship Texas (BB-35) (Fate: Memorial in our back-yard in La Porte, Texas.)
Destroyer Leader DLGN/CGN-39 TEXAS (Fate: Disposed and hulk recycled in 2001.)
Virginia Class Submarine SSN-775 Texas (In active service.)

The USS Texas's webpage.

I used to build model-kits as a kid and I remember building one of a battleship with Dad in particular. I don't remember which one it was, maybe the Bismark? I've kept an eye out over the years hoping to find a local kit of the USS Texas but never have found one. I have found some nice ones on the net:

A nice hand-built one on the net.
USS Texas BB35 1/350 scale full-hull kit
Samek’s 1:700th USS Texas (waterline kit)

And then all this reminiscing on the Texas stirred loose a bit of sci-fi reading from my high-school years. While working at our city library back in my youth, I came across a paperback titled "The Ayes of Texas." I hadn't thought about that book until just now. It was actually the first in the Republic of Texas trilogy by Daniel da Cruz. Somehow world events conspire Texas to declare her independence (again), fight the Russians who are invading the US and re-fit the hulk of our locally beloved USS Texas (BB-35) into a high-tech ass-kicking machine again. It's kinda dated now, but at the time it stirred this young Texan's heartstrings something special.

Wonder if local sci-fi reading fan Jim Thompson ever heard of it?

Wrapping up the night in a WWII machine mode, I came across the history of The Lost Bomber. In 1956, a B-25 bomber crashed into the Monongahela river near Homestead, Pennsylvania.

Funny thing is, even though they knew where it crashed, it hasn't been found since.

See you in the skies,
--Claus

Space and Sky, Shipwrecks and Spooks

One of the things they teach you about blogging is to come up with a snazzy title to attract attention. So, looking into the pile of links I have been sitting on this week I found those seemed to fit nicely; both with alliteration and attention.

Space and Sky:

Captain Picard's Journal - One of the most hilarious blogs I've come across in a long time. I'm not pulling pages right now so hopefully the Paramount lawyers haven't been sic'ed on the the dude. A more realistic (and whiny) account by the Starship Captain regarding life on board the Enterprise--for example. A recent post accounts what happened when the crew found the laundry machines out of service. Clever stuff!

Lego Sky City - Another really awesome site I came across is BLDGBLOG. Kinda a fusion of the worlds of architecture and design and science. Anyway. Dude built one of those "Flash Gordon" sky cities of the future out of Legos. Good work. (I truly wish I had studied to be an architect in college...oh well...)

We Feel Fine - Not really space and sky, more of an "inner space" thing--but does cover in a magnificent way the world of the net. Billed as "An exploration of human emotion, in six movements." Specifically, it uses Java or Flash to track emotions and feelings on the net. It is really clever and beautifully done. I kinda wish I could stick this as my Active Desktop for a while. Go visit it and tell me what you think. It's very addicting and has a rich depth to it. Well worth the time to fully explore and get to know.

Shipwrecks and Spooks:

ROAMER - So what do you do if you are a bunch of MIT geniuses, have a Senior Design Project staring you in the face...and want to go play in the water? Well grasshopper, you go and convince your professors to let you design and build a "cheap" remotely operated aquatic motorized explorer. What? A remote viewing robot for undersea exploration. It is really cool. These guys give me hope in our science programs

Shipwreck World - that site led me to this one. I've been a fan of Clive Cussler for a long time. So much so I took archeology in college as my minor and had brief dreams in a career in underwater archeology...alas, I couldn't work out getting into SCUBA lessons in college. Anyway, this site highlights recent shipwreck discoveries around the world. Fun.

Five-Digit Spam - I've seen some patterns in some Spam I've gotten. Usually with a really weird foreign name in more than a few. I've pondered if there was some strange connection or conspiracy going on. But figured it was probably just an attempt to work around Spam filters. Peter Kaminski noticed a similar weird Spam trend. He saw that more than a few Spam in his comments contained arbitrary five-digit numbers in the body. Weird. Take a look--sinister or silly? You be the judge.

Numbers stations - I first heard about these number series shortwave radio broadcasts on NPR a long time ago. Listening to these things is very haunting. It is the stuff of spies and spooks and cold-war. Some are just downright creepy. Kinda reminds me of LOST and the whole numbers thing on that show.

Disney Haunted Mansion (via DoomBuggies.com) - This has to be my most favorite ride in all the world. I've been on this ride both out in Disney Land and Disney World. It is fantastic. If I could ride just one ride ever in a Disney park, it would be this one hands down. Ever been curious to look behind the Haunted Mansion's curtains? Check out the The Haunted Mansion Cast Members’ Manual of Standard Operating Procedure and take a secret backstage tour of what makes the ride tick. Warning: this is kinda like pulling back the curtain of OZ. Lots of stuff to see here on this site. It's gonna take me a while to get through everything.

Oh, despite my Dwight Silverman inspired "no-tech" holiday challenge weekend, I succumbed. Friday night I installed a DSL account at the home of a family-friend I give "tech-support" to--that is a story for another day!

I also got a really neat pc toy. I can't wait to share this one with you. But it will have to wait for next week when I can finish setting up the "other half." Nothing expensive or flashy. And definitely not attainment of my dream D-SLR camera. Although I found that Best Buy carries it and showed Lavie--she oo'ed and ahh'ed over it with me. So there is hope yet I might score one by the end of the year.

It's good to have your wife on your side when you are looking at Tech.

See you in the skies!
--Claus

Abandoned in Place - Duex

One of my earliest posts was "Abandoned in Place." In it I waxed philosophic about the mystery of abandoned buildings and how they seem to draw my attention.

Some time ago I was over on the Watashi to Tokyo blog and came across the "ruins are beautiful" post. It highlights a mysterious seeming Japanese island called "Gunkanjima".

According to to the "Watashi to Tokyo" post:

"To be honest with you, I heard the name before but did not know much about it....they say Gunkanjima was only small reef, but it was developed for mining coal since 1870's. Its population was 5,000 at peak, and they built many high apartments. Thus it looked like a warship, so we call this island "Gunkanjima" (warship island). However it was closed in 1974, and it has turned into ruins now."

It reminds me of a set-piece for a Studio Ghibli production of "Laputa: The Castle in the Sky" or something. I can only imagine what it was like to have lived and worked there.

There are two really neat photo-gallery websites referred to regarding Gunkanjima:
Gunkanjima Odyssey (Japanese--so bring your web-translator)
Gunkanjima (English)

In the comments, someone left a link to a site called "Opacity". This is some of the most beautiful photography of abandoned buildings and material I have ever come across. It is really emotionally haunting. It looks to be updated regularly so I've added it to my bookmark list of frequently visited sites. I really like the site layout and color-scheme. Well done.

When growing up as a kid, one book I read that really inspired me was Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay. David Macaulay has done some really incredible work, but this one was my favorite. In it, archaeologists from the future uncover a motel room and try to use (misguided) anthropological analysis to discover what life in our times was like. Seeing the possibility of how our ruined civilization would like in stark black and white illustrations captivated my young imagination.

Of course, that let me to learn about the wonderful discoveries of Cambodia's abandoned cities of Angkor, the Maya civilization (that my minor was in), and the tombs of Egypt. (As well as also founding a delight in "fantasy-archeology" found in Raiders of the Lost Ark movies, Lara Croft Tomb Raider movies, heck, even (the original) Planet of the Apes films.)

See you in the skies,
--Claus

A Mystery from my Past: Oak Island

Back when I was in elementary school, I had occasional headaches, much like those that Alvis suffers from time to time.

School nurses didn't seem as cool about these things as Alvis's have been. We keep the nurse stocked with snack bags and Slim Jims. Don't know why these things help, but it makes a big difference for recovery time. For me, I got shoved onto a cot amongst abandoned school A/V equipment and told to take a nap. If I didn't settle down after a while, Mom came to pick me up.

I did find that there was usually just enough light coming through the door window that I could read. So I inevitably grabbed a small book before heading down to the nurse.

Kids like frightening things. I tended to read "unsolved" mysteries, ghost stories, phatasms, pirate treasure, etc. One story I read was the mystery of "Oak Island." This one really fascinated me. Daniel McGinnis, in the summer of 1795 was exploring a densely wooded section of an island off Nova Scotia and came across a clearing in the woods that had a tackle block at the top of the tree and a small depression underneath. Well, what else could anyone think but "Pirate Treasure!"

A series of digs is said to have revealed wooden plank barriers at regular intervals.

Eventually diggers hit a "booby-trap" and water filled the pit, resisting all attempt to stem its flow. Bits of chain, a mysterious plaque even what some claim to be a floating severed hand were brought up with core samples or in (later) video images.

This story really caught my imagination. Just who would build such a highly complex treasure trove and how did they intend to get it out again when they returned?

Love of movies like "The Goonies," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Pirates of the Caribbean"were eventually all that remained of my "Oak Island" mystery.

Until the other day. I don't know what brought that bit of memory up to the surface but there it came and after all those years, I figured a quick "Google" would reveal what that treasure finally was.

Boy. I was wrong.

In the time since my childhood they found and dug up.......?

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

So what's the deal?

Apparently...money (or lack thereof). Historically, it takes a great deal of money to finance treasure hunting expedtions--both on land and in the sea. Lots of money generally means that multiple investors get a stake at the table and when multitudes of people get involved with large sums of money invested for even larger returns--my guess is that "personality issues" can distract from the primary purpose. Eventually the searches burn through the money and that is that.

Are we any closer to finding out who dug it? Not really. Although some interesting information has progressed since I read about it as kid.

The Suspects (Part I):

First we have the usual gang; Pirates--namely Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. But the issue with this is that this seems to have been (if true) a highly engineered construction. Sure, the Egyptians did some amazing things with basic tools but most pirates wanted a place to stash the booty that was quickly accessed and the amount of work that would have been done likely would have precluded this option.

Also suggested were Vikings. Ok. I'm not really buying this one. While Vikings may have explored the area along the Canadian cost and even established some light colonies, I'm thinking they kept "light" on their feet and longboats and find it doubtful they accumulated such a great hoard of gold/treasure they had to bury it that fantastically.

Amusingly, the Knights Templar come up as having come across the Atlantic and secretly buried something of value: the Holy Grail? Yeah, right.

One final group comes up...but lets hold off on them for a moment.

The Physical Evidence:

Granted, the early excavators were not trained archaeologists and anthropologists. They were young men who were spurred on by a desire of riches. What would have been very valuable was a survey and grid-dig of the entire area around the depression. That much work would very likely have left some bits of physical evidence of the person(s) who did the digging: trash, animal bones from meals, a latrine pit. That alone may have provided enough evidence to date the creators. It is even possible that someone was seriously hurt or killed in the construction. Maybe a grave site could be located with clues such a metal or buttons that could date the dig. That is probably not very likely now, however after all the site destruction from later dig attempts.

Surveys of the island have turned up mysterious groupings of stones and boulders....

The proximity of the pit to a cove leads some to suggest that pirates banded together to make a dry-dock and the pit was part of a pumping mechanism to lower water in the cove--but this theory doesn't hold much--pardon me--water.

The strongest clue I have since read is this: tree-growth! Bear with me here. Oak Island is (was) pretty heavily covered in trees. These trees grow at a measurable rate. When Daniel McGinnis found the clearing, it was 1795. Assuming reports are correct, the area would have been deforested just about 50 years prior to discovery. Any longer and the land would once again have been covered by trees! So we have a possible window of activity around 1745 and 1795 for pit construction.

The Suspects (Part II):

That leaves our last likely group of pit diggers: The British Navy. Yes! Well, anyway, this theory goes something like the British captured the rich city of Havana, Cuba from the Spanish during our time window. They sailed the loot up North and British engineers had previously dug the pit as a secret ammo-dump, then they actually filled it with the captured loot. But that takes a lot of pre-planning. If they were so concerned with it, why bury it. Why not just high-tail it back to England to begin with? And why was it never collected? Or was it?

Getting it up:

As noted before first attempts were basic--dig down. This ended when the tunnel flooded. Later attempts involved parallel pits dug--also flooded, attempts to stop the flooding--failed. Dynamite. And core drilling. Currently the pit has been back-filled and activity is idle as investors attempt to secure more funding. Of great interest is that investors convinced the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to come and do a survey of the island. Those findings remain sealed and secret to this day. However all reports are (what do you expect?) cryptically noted as being "promising." Suprisingly, the Wikipedia reports that the WHOI did release their findings--which were dye-water flow tests and indicated that pit flooding was a natural phenomenon. (Damn those geologists--just who do they think they are?)

Now, considering the magnitude of what has been attempted before and all the high tech techniques that have been attempted and failed, here is my suggestion.

Call up the Discovery Channel for some exciting film support, get some additional funding from the BBC boys across the pond and then go find an American strip-mining operator. Maybe even Geraldo Rivera might bite. Bring in the super digging toys--Tonka Truck style--and mark off an area about a mile around the pit center. Then start scraping the earth away tapering down towards the pit area. This should be big enough to reveal any structure of booby-trap flooding channels. If it fills with water, no biggie. Keep dredging and send the sludge/mud muck through a series of screens to capture any bootie. Get down far enough and eventually you'll have your treasure--or bedrock. Easy-Peasy. Sure you'll destroy everything in the process, but you'll have your treasure.

Come on guys. I needs some final resolution to this matter. My childhood is ticking away here!

Get with it.

Oh yeah, and one other thing. You know young Daniel McGinnis who started this whole thing? Well, the Wikipedia reports that the whole Oak Island thing first cropped up in public awareness in the early 19th Century newspapers--and may have been entirely based on local folklore and stories fed by investment seekers. No supporting materials or evidence have been apparently been discovered, and the pit may have been "seeded" with those mysterious bits of objects to attact more investors....who knows?

Yet another childhood mystery that inspired and captivated me...collapsing in the light of adult daylight....

When it all come down to the final assessment, I guess I have to admit to myself this is all just about boys playing in a sandbox with their (expensive) toys, isn't it?

Linkage:

Oak Island Treasure: Legends, excavations, photos, theories, and even a discussion forum.
GoogleMaps satellite view of Oak Island (not very glamorous)
The Mystery Pit of Oak Island A brief primer.
Oak Island Money Pit--Bill Milstead A now dated website from a (former?) dig investor.

Oak Island - Wikipedia and A Critical Analysis of the Oak Island Legend Warning to all who enter here...hopes be dashed and dreams dismembered against the rocks of reality!

Me Sick, W2K Sick, Harry Potter Podcasts.....& oh yeah! Japanese Shrine Maidens too!

Ok...Dentist said my teeth looked great for not seeing a dentist in so long. No cavities, just some cleaning. Doctor found an infected gland under my jaw. Believes pressure/pain spread to my lower jaw/teeth. That what has been bringing on the headaches. I've been eating antibiotics all week. Yummy.

I'm finally getting used to my new glasses. Our friendly family optician realigned them and that has helped. My sunglasses came in as well. They are wicked-bad looking--now I need to get my abs cut! Only "problem" is that the extreme curvature of the lenses seems to change the depth-of field slightly on the peripherals. If I look directly through the center it isn't a problem, but when I am driving and glance at the dash or walking and look at the ground without moving my head-it is a little off/wierd. I've just had them since Tues. so I hope my eyes will figure it out in a while.

Been a bad day for the Windows 2000 world. Almost all of my time this week at work has been spent responding to the Esbot/Zotob virus outbreak that brought down a lot of other companies. Been cleaning and patching lots of desktop machines since we don't seem to have a very good patch/update policy (?political group turf issues?). But that isn't my area, I'm just an end-stream sysadmin who has to clean up the mess.

So, what can you do? Well, get patched first. Get ALL your Windows Upadates, but if you don't, at least get this one that fixes the hole this worm is taking advantage of. Next--if you don't have an antivirus program--scan/clean your machine. Use the Symantec standalone cleaners or the Microsoft Malicious Software tool. If it were me, I would download the tool and run it off the local drive--it is very fast.

Mugglenet is now offering Harry Potter Podcasts for discussions of the series by fans. It is pretty fun to listen to. They have two podcasts right now and also offer transcripts if you don't want to download the honkin-big .mp3 files.

I'm thinking of starting a campaign to get MegaTokyo's Piro to Podcast his anime-convention appearances. He mentioned considering it at the very bottom of his blog. Let's hope so!

Bonus Linkage:

March of the Penguins -- going to see this movie this afternoon with Lavie and Alvis.
KeyPass -- freeware password manager software--updated version.
MPUI -- freeware video software -- plays DVD files!
XPredit -- freeware XP registry setting tweaker.
Milky Way Bar -- scientists discover there really IS a MilkyWay bar out there...who knew?
Psychopathic Boss Quiz -- find out if your suspicions are true!
Solving the Enigma of Kryptos -- for all you spy fans out there.
Japanese Shrine Maidens -- beautiful photo-spread--kawaii!

See you in the skies!
--Claus

Abandoned in Place...

When I was growing up, we lived across the street from an undeveloped area we called "the woods." It was really just a couple hundred acres of undeveloped property bordered on three sides by a neighborhood and the forth by a major street. But it had heavy enough vegetation made up of trees, vines, brambles and poison-ivy to make any kid feel a million miles away from civilization. We would cut trails, build "forts", make treehouses that were the nightmares of OSHA and our parents. It was great. Back in there was the remains of something. I don't know if it was a one-time hunting cabin, or maybe a very small barn. It has gotten fogged up in my memories, but it was definitely a structure. Larger than a garage but smaller than a house. One story, dirt floor and falling down. It wasn't near any roads, paths or anything. It still fascinates me. Who built it. Did someone once live there? What stories did it hold. It was in too bad shape even for the youthfully stupid and adventurous like I was to try to make it into a "fort" or play-place. We cut trails by it, but never went in. When I checked back a few years ago, the "woods" were gone, replaced by the neighborhood expansion, clipped yards and imposing cookie-cutter houses. The kids living there no doubt now having their adventures in virtual worlds of X-Boxes and PS2's. Oh well.

Thus began my fascination with places and things abandoned in place. Roads, buildings, cars, sunken ships, archeology (my college minor)...it doesn't matter. Oh the stories... To be honest, we could sadly include people--especially the elderly, the poor, the homeless, the orphaned, as well as those in the third world as abandoned in place (sociology--my college major) in too many instances to be comfortable as well. Let's save that for another blog posting.

I came across an interesting website that outlines highway development in Texas. There are lots of pictures and such about abandoned roads. A new update shows the burned out bridge to East Orange-Old US90. Who drove across it? Who made the decision to leave it there and just move on with a new one in a different location?

Here are some pictures of NASA space facilities that were also abandoned. Wow. (Side note--Google now maps the moon!). In one NASA storage room, they found some abandoned space-spy suits. One was numbered 007. More abandoned places pictures. How about an abandoned asylum? Nice collection of images at the Lost Destinations website.

On a visit to Galveston, Texas as a kid, I remember seeing a strange ship in the bay. Turns out it was an abandoned concrete-ship called the S.S Selma. More pictures of the Selma. I had all kinds of wild spy headquarters possibilities for it that were no doubt fed by the James Bond movie (The Man with the Golden Gun) where they had an ops center hidden in the sunken hulk of the RMS Queen Elizabeth out in the Hong Kong bay. (It has since been salvaged.)

Just got done updating to Firefox 1.0.6. I just put 1.0.5 on this weekend. Something about some code problems with the extensions. I really like and trust Firefox. It is not perfect, but I like the fact they come out with patches pretty soon after problems are found.

Cool keyboard. This has to be totally awesome. Except for the planned MSRP. Oh well.

Beware e-mails with links to on-line greeting cards. Clicking on links in e-mails is always dangerous if you don't know the sender. Bad things can happen--virus, trojans, malware--oh my!

Passings: James Doohan, best known as the chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise passed away. Gerry Thomas--the man who brought us TV dinners has left us. The multi-talented woman who composed "I'm in the Mood for Love," Dorothy Fields also left us last week.

See you in the skies.
--Claus

While wondering why my toast falls butter side down on the floor.....

may not qualify as one of the world's most pressing scientfic questions in the world, there are some that actually seem to rate as being really important. Here are 125 deep questions posed by the staff at Science Magazine. The answers might really make a difference if we can figure them out.

War is a terrible thing. I love peace. However there are times when a person, a family, a country, a people must take a stand to defend those things they hold dear and sacred and the path of war must be walked. Sometimes the cost is great and the impact echos on forever. In time, enemies may become friends and allies. I think that by remembering the past we honor the spirits of all who fought and died (civilians and soliders), as well as those who are now able to live--a little better and hopefully wiser--because of their sacrifices. Come spend some time with their ghosts....

Gettysburg Area Civil War Battlefield panoramas.
WWII battlefield remains in Kiev at The Serpent's Wall.
Price of technology gone wrong in Chernobyl.(not war-related, but ghosts are here as well)
Hayao Miyazaki's film Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka). (picture above)

See you in the skies.
--Claus