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LUX.ET.UMBRA

"Alas! must it ever be so? Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go, And fight our own shadows forever?" - Lord Lytton

Another year of Black Friday bluesDecember 1

While Black Friday has come and gone, I really couldn't have cared less.

Don't get me wrong. There were sales. Sales galore. But interestingly enough, everything that I was interested in for the holiday shopping season couldn't be beat even with the doorbuster deals. And thus, it was a lazy Friday in getting out the door and catching up with some coffee. We had a great time, catching a movie and having dinner. Even bought a few things that we would have any other weekend. The sales just .... weren't there.

Now, granted the 3% increase from last year as reported by ShopperTrak gave some good indications that it might not be as bad this year. But from my personal perspective, I was a lot better off online. No lines, no hassles, and the deals were far cheaper and better and I had the pleasure of sleeping in.

Could be just me, but the e-commerce realm is finally flexing its muscle when it comes to sales. The holiday creep and constant search for parking doesn't have to be anymore with the mainstream arrival of Internet shopping. Let's face it. Cyber Monday was only coined in 2005. I know it seems a long time ago, but it has only been three years. And yet, the giants of Internet retail were busting out deals that brick and mortar shops just couldn't compete with. I saw the same Samsung 46" 1080p LCD TV online for $699USD as a sale versus $999USD as a doorbuster

Movie Review: The Brave OneNovember 28

To tell you the truth, I'm not a huge Jodie Foster fan. She has that pretty dry look in all of her films, and it just doesn't really play well for me. Kind of like in "lock down" as one of the people in the film says about her character.

In any case, this film is pretty straight forward. In Central Park, Erica Bain (Foster) and her fiancee are out with their dog when they get jumped by a gang and beaten and left for dead. Her fiancee doesn't make it but Bain pulls through.

Traumatized and entirely thrown off on it, she becomes a completely different person. After finding out that the police can't really do anything about it, she turns to the underground and becomes a vigilante.

Now the entire movie is pretty much centered on her vigilance and how she copes with her loss. But I have to say that I was not exactly pleased with the ending. And I'll leave it at that. If you're just looking for a little crime thriller and don't have high hopes, then I'd probably take a s

Google's SearchWiki puts the human in searchNovember 26

Google has released a new part of iGoogle that basically allows you to customize your own search results. These results are then stored inside your Google account and brought up later on on those particular search terms.

There are two things going on here outside of the obvious with SearchWiki. If you discount the fact that it basically customizes your search, and you're not able to turn it off, there's one of two things going on. First, it gives Google an advantage of human filtering. While it's not going to effect the current public searches at this moment, there's nothing that says that it wouldn't later on. If you think about it, the human filtering machine is the last step before algorithmic. You can only get so far with mathematics these days, and by context, human beings can filter spam or irrelevant search results much better than a computer after the bulk of the work is done. It's what another company that we all know should have done with their tool in my opinion.

The second that this does, is that it gives creates a interactive search experience. I know that's not something t

I just don't get MagibonNovember 25

Why legal prosecution of computer crimes require superior computer forensicsNovember 25

It's really unfortunate when you read stories like this. Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in the Connecticut area, has been battling the state on a porn pop-up case that landed her four felony pornography convictions in early 2007.

A team of pro-bono computer forensic experts examined a ghost image of the hard drive and found numerous errors in the prosecution's case which lead to overturning of the trial and it went to a new trial last June. Amero plead guilty to a misdemeanor of disorderly conduct, paid a fine and is moving on with her life.

Unfortunately for this particular situation, I think that Threat Level reported on the spot. The prosecution's technical expertise was flawed in many cases and the testimonial didn't jive with the evidence given by what the forensic evidence provided by the hard drive. Even giving up her state teaching credentials is asking too much of someone that didn't actually click the pop-up links from malware judging by the analysis report of the ghost image given by the defense's technical experts.

I assume that the prosecution wouldn't let the charges drop even due to this overwhelming evidence due to the fact that four years down the line, they had already committed to many resources that it a dropped case would have looked bad. While I'm n