txt :: Conspiracy theory

I'm having a hard time swallowing all of you guys' talk about conspiracy theory. Two things:

1. Your paranoia and aversion to "big companies".

The big corporations carry the load of the US economy, and also employ the most number of people. Why shouldn't true capitalism determine the way governments do things. They influence 90% of american life. Hello, Wal-mart anyone? You all shop there! If you are concerned about big companies, stop supporting them. At the end of the day, they are in it to make money. If the money stops flowing, the business dies (Maximus' darwinian theory of business :-> ). As long as we support those companies, they will continue to influence lawmakers. Remember, rich people don't stuff their money in mattresses. They either consume (creating more jobs -- stimulating the economy), or they invest in stocks, companies, etc. (stimulating the economy). Don't kill the American Dream, it's what built this country!

2. Identity/Surveillance protection. Big Brother idea.

Trust me, denis, it's much much worse in Europe than in America. Haven't you ever watched MAX X? Dude, Russians/Euros have absolutely no rights, they get the crap kicked out of them if they are even suspected of a crime. Police brutality in that USA!? HA! Euros have no habeus corpus, no Miranda rights, no privacy rights, no nothing! You think they need warrants of search and siezure in Europe? Nope, think again. Only those countries whose constitutions are modeled after THE Constitution/Bill of Rights have those rights guaranteed. America leads the world in protecting its citizens. I agree I don't like the idea of being spied on in any public place, but there are laws preventing organizations to use anything like that unless crimes were committed. I don't know about you, but I don't want another 2500 killed in a 9/11 attack. I don't mind being groped at the airport to prevent Osama from boarding my flight. (Oh, there he is!!! :->) Remember all those actors/celebrities who promised they would move to Europe if G. Bush was elected? Well, guess what. They're still here. Know why? Yup, I know you do. That's why you're here. ;)

-R

We who are about to die, salute you!

link :: Guide for girlfriends and wifes of geeks...

A very interesting article on how to deal with geeks and why are they so great as boyfriends. :)

Here's the article

P.S. Knowing that I'm one myself I found a ton of things being very accurate.

pics :: Google's progress

You all would agree with me that Google has made a monstrous progress during the years of its existence. I figured these two pictures will better illustrate that fact.

Before:




After:


(:

pics :: Roommate reunion

Two of my old roommates (Ivan and Leah) visited Kent last night and we went out. I figured since I hardly ever post pics I'll post some (: I just have one right now but I'll put more up as I get them.

As promised I'm putting more (: so I'll make this post recent again.

Left to right: Emily, Ivan, Leah and me





Same 4





Me and Pat (current roomie)

link :: This one is for my cousin

360

How's that 360 review coming gog?

(:

link :: Privacy or Security?

I was reading a great article on how some hackers exposed the Austrian government's public survailance cameras. Apparently there was a law passed recently there that the police can put cameras in any public places without court orders. This made me think of the question that always comes up in situations like this. So I wanted to see what you guys think. The question is do you prefer privacy or security? We all know how you can't have both fully together. This survailance camera for example - is it too much? Would you mind if they could monitor you on the streets?

I personally think in this case it's too much. I prefer privacy more and the security part I try to handle myself. That's my policy.

Anyways waiting for your thoughts

(:

link :: Did you know?

How Women and Men use the Internet

Just some facts and numbers for you

(:

txt :: New nikak feature

OK so I had this problem where if I wanted to find something that was posted a while back, I couldn't remember which month it was in. So I had to go and do a google blog search (or for those who have played with google enough you can add site:nikak.blogspot.com after your search and it'll only search the specified site - in this case nikak.blogspot.com). Finally I figured it's time to just put a google search bar that'll search our nikak blog. And behold - we now have a search bar that searches the nikak blog! So enjoy the searches and remember - Google is your friend (:

link :: The saga continues?

With all the articles about RIAA and MPAA going around our blog, this one will touch the nerves of a couple for sure. Before going to this link, make sure you have all your RIAA blockers unblocked hehe, because it's an RIAA website link. It's an article about their next target country. Ready? Here it is:

And the lucky winner of RIAA lawsuits is...

I want to hear some oppinions whether you think it's going to happen or not! This is big if they actually get their way.

Oh and here's the Slashdot article:

Slashdot article on RIAA

Read on the comments that people posted under it. There's some funny ones and some good ones (:

pics :: It's raining in Provo...

I really like driving my bike and the rain will not stop me. :)


P.S. Just thought it would be fun.

pics :: Warning!!! Lilia got the camera

So, yeah. I am so excited. I got digital camera for Christmas, I will be posting new pics on the blog like crazy now. I will probably be worse than Denis for the time being, while it is new to me, although noone is more obsessed with taking pictures than Denis lol.
Anyway here are some new pics for ya. Sorry if it is too much of me for one time lol.


That's what I call a style lol.



Having fun at the mall. I am a princess :) lol


Getting ready to go to the mall :)


Cute baby!!! Not mine, no worries lol!


Me in my new PJs. By the way, I am at Denis's place so the poster in the background is NOT mine. Gross!! lol

link :: Cellphone Argument

So my dad showed me this article a couple days ago. A woman swallowed her cell phone after an argument with her boyfriend. Knowing some people on our blog LOVE their cell phones (not naming anyone in particular...Lilia!) I figured I'll put it up so this doesn't happen to them. So yeah... Lilia no threats of swallowing your cell phone! :P Anyways here's the article:

Cell phone article

-bla

txt :: I'm an uncle!

Well the title says it all. The Christmas day didn't just bring joy and cheer, but it also made me an uncle! My cousin Lilit had a daughter on this day! (Well technically it's yesterday since this post will probably be after midnight). But yeah! She had a baby on the 25th! hehe. Yeah just wanted to share that with you guys (:

txt :: Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!
I hope that you spend this great Holiday surrounded by love and care of your family and friends.
P.S.
Be sure to get under the mistletoe ;)

link :: Evolution of a programmer

This one goes to all the programmers! hehe

Evolution of a programmer

-bla

txt :: 4 best movies that make you feel

I like when movies has an effect on me that's why I don't watch chick-flicks (sorry girls). Apart from very serious movies like American Beauty, American History X and etc, these movies are the best ones that I've seen so far.

They make you think and evaluate every aspect of your life. Sometines you laugh or cry, wonder or dream while watching them but with no exceptions they will all make you think about why we're here and what really is important in life.

• Lost in Translation -- Beauty and simplicity (IMBD: 7.9)
  
• Garden State -- Love and life (IMBD: 8.0)
• Love Actually -- Love and passion (IMBD: 7.8)
• Amelie -- Love and destiny (IMBD: 8.7)

True love is very important in life and is not something that you can lose or find. It finds you and all you need to do is recognise and accept it. True love always aids you in staying on your path and following it (Alchemist, Paulo Coelho).

link :: Power over the internet

There's an article on the internet about why the FCC will regulate the Internet one day. It actually has some interesting poings. When I read this I was talking to Denis and I asked him "What if Google was a government company?" lol. All these recent events with the MPAA vs. Lyrics/Guitar Tab websites, mp3 law suits, etc. are pretty disturbing one way or another. I can't wait till the EU really starts putting the pressure and takes away the power from ICANN. Something so widespread over the world shouldn't be in the hands of one country.

-bla

link :: One step closer to conquering the world

Google just bought 5% of AOL's stock share according to CNN's article. Another step towards world domination! hehehe

-bla

txt :: Ender's Game

I'm not sure if you guys remember, but I posted a review to the movie "Serenity" by a book writer Orson Card, and I talked a bit about his book "Ender's Game." Well apparently they're trying to make a movie based on the book. Usually you get worried when you hear a movie is coming out based on a book you really like. However in this case it appears that the author (Orson Scott Card) is making sure that the movie is good. He has rejected a bunch of screen plays written for the movie already according to this article. Now that's what you like to see! The article goes on saying that apparently they're going to let Orson Scott Card write the screen play himself! Even better! I think we're going to see an amazing movie to an amazing book in a few years! All of you who have read the book will know what I mean. And those who haven't - you have a couple of years before the movie comes out (:

-bla

music :: The best russian rock band !!!

Intro:

Lumen is the best russian rock band out there (in my opinion). The became popular about a year ago and have only 4 albums but what albums those are.

Style:

Most of the type it is rock/punk rock. I personally prefer the rock songs of theirs. It's similar style to HIM but not satanic at all.

Link:

http://www.lumen.ws/ (site is in russian)

Note:

The best songs in my opinion are Druzia, Detki, Skol'ko i Sid & Nancy. If you are comfortable with listening to foreign speech and like rock you can ask me or bla and we can probably give you a demo (or more ;) ).

link :: Time to get back to pen and paper?

Well I'm not sure if you guys have ever done this, but when I was a kid back home and I heard a song I liked, I'd try to get the lyrics to it by just playing it and writing them down. And, let me tell you, a lot of times it wasn't very easy. Even now when I listen to the song there are some that I don't catch on to. Well this all changed with the internet, because lyrics are now available. However recently there are articles circulating around about MPAA starting to go after the websites who provide lyrics and guitar tabs to songs. Denis showed me the link a few days ago in Russian, and today as I was reading some articles, I ran into the english version of it. So here it is:

MPAA vs. Song Lyrics

Is it time to get back to the old fashioned pen/paper method? That's messed up if you ask me.

-bla

txt :: I need your help w/ my scooter, please!

I have the stupidest problem ever. Once the tempreture get's below 0 celcius I can't start the engine.

My assumption is that the petrol in too cold to fire up. Is there any liquid that I can maybe add in the gas tank that could fix that?

I know some of you had bikes and maybe you know something about it.

P.S. I'm sick of walking to work and I don 't wanna pay for a bus pass.

video :: Peeling eggs fast !!!

I hate peeling eggs and it's hard to do because they are hot and it can take some time.

Here is an easier way of doing it :)

link :: Firefox 1.5 detailed tutorial

This thing is very good and very detailed.

here

txt :: SONY PSP is the bomb of handhelds

So I just sold my Nintendo DS, and got a Sony PSP, which is freakin awesome!!

If you're in the handheld market, don't even consider anything but the PSP, the screen is huge, the colors are vivid, and believe it or not, FIFA 2006 seems like the exact same game as the one on Xbox. The processor they are using is incredible! Not only that but it plays movies, music, multimedia.

I've played FIFA, and I own Untold Legends (like Diablo 2 - amazing game!) and Burnout Legends (best racing game ever!!)

Any interest in handhelds?

-R

txt :: web services

in an attemp to contribute to nikak, and to start a discussion, i'd like to ask the following questions:

have you written web-services lately?
what language did you use?
how did you secure communication between the client and the service?

actually, make any comment you want about web services.

txt :: nikak news

Ok so a while back Denis and I had a talk about starting a website. But since we are usually so busy, it kind of got side tracked. We did buy a domain name (and that's how this whole nikak thing started). I was talking to Denis the other day and he had a great idea of forwarding the website to nikak's blog for now since we don't have any content there. So in order for you guys to get used to the website URL (for future use when we have the site up), we redirected the website to this blog. So from now on you can simply go to www.nikak.com and you'll be redirected to this page. When later on we finish the website, we'll have more stuff there (big plans) so keep checking in!

Hope you are all having a blast in your finals week! I know I am! Good luck!

-bla

txt :: Facelift :)

Today is saturday and since I don't have anything to do on the reading days (jk... a lot to do actually) I decided to give nikak a little facelift.

Finally I got down to it and personalized nikak by taking away anything that reminds of the people that we're hosting it with (Blogger).

Oh, almost forgot. The next thing that is coming, whenever I'll have enough time to do it (aka after finals), is a self updating list of new bookmarks and news right above all posts.

Comment on what you think about changes and/or if you notice anything new at all :)

txt :: Let's keep nikak alive

Ok, you guys, I may sound cheesy, however I have noticed lately that nikak is slowly dying. When it first started everyone got so excited, we had issues to discuss, pictures and things like that. I mean, I even learned how to use it to participate, and I am pretty computer illitearte (ask fake :).

My point is that we may not know each other very well, but it is still very cool to communicate and just have fun; so let us all put in some effort to keep it going!

pics :: Fun in the snow.

Happy Faces :)

Cute, huh?

Look at how strong I am :)


So, I am increadibly excited for the snow. I love everything about it, the way it looks, the way it sounds, etc.
Anyway, here are some pictures of us tubing. I even rolled down the hill without a tube once, how cool is that? :)

txt :: Finally it happened !!!

I opened a different blog for myself to put my thoughts about life and other things similar to that. This way I'm not wasting too much space on nikak by posting every day. Only the really important and exiting stuff will go to nikak from now on. :)

Introducing Boring Fun.

txt :: Good luck on finals!

Hey guys! I realised I haven't posted for a while. It's been really busy with finals and stuff. Anyways just wanted to wish all those who have finals coming up good luck! Hope they all go great for all of us (yes me too because I'm selfish like that :P).

Oh and good job fake for keeping the posts alive! (:

-bla

txt :: GmailThis! (modified for bookmarking)

There recently was a post on Lifehacker talking about bookmarking with Gmail. This post references an interesting tool called GmailThis! which works on pretty much any browser as long as you're logged into Gmail.

I edited the tool a little bit so that it would fit the bookmarking much better.

Here is GmailThis! modified.

Modifications:

• Message title now has (bookmark) at the end for easy filtering.
• The link is now automatically a hyperlink to that page for easier browsing.
  

I'm starting to slowly use it and it's pretty nice.

To start using Gmail Bookmarking read this article from Lifehacker.

[UPDATE]

I modified the tool a little more so it's easier to use custom titles for filtering.

Instruction:
- Add the link to your quicklink bar
- Right click on it and go to properties
- Find javascript:bkmark_title='bookmark' in the address bar (it's the very first part)
- Modify that "bookmark" text within single quotes to anything you want.
- Voila you have a custom bookmark title just for your needs

-fake.

P.S. The original version of the GmailThis! tool is here.

pics :: I Beat Anorexia !!!

txt :: I "love" BYU girls

Probably every one of you know of an 80/20 rule in business. Well it works pretty well with girls at BYU. Actually it's more like 90/10 or 95/5 where the bigger number is how many girls don't give a dam about their appearance and the lesser number does.

... reason for this post: I just saw a girl that had black sweat pants on inside out with a tag swinging from side to side right in the middle of her butt...

Back home all of the girls dress up or if not dress up they at least keep themselves in shape because if they don't then noone is going to pick them. We kinda (in some places) still have more men than women (after war) so a girl has to be competitive.

It's a little frustrating seeing lack of style or attitude of putting whatever lies closer to the bed and going to school for 4 years in a row. The funniest thing is that American girls on average have more clothes than Russian girls.

I guess we just have to hope that people will look at these 5%, 10%, 20% that are stylish and reevaluate their looks :)

Note: Hey and what's up with girls stopping to look after themselves after they get "the guy"?!?!?!? You still have to keep him don't you?

video :: Mr. Woo and football

That's when you understand that whoever you may know they all can't handle a football at all!

Mr. Woo