pek.com

April 16, 2007

 and the war gini said...

...i will take it by force, if necessary, and screamed: it's mine, all mine!

what is this all about? read more here or look at this:

Posted by filipek at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2007

 assassinate ahmadinejad - what for?

this should come as no surprise to anyone, because israeli leaders have lost it a long time ago!

i would argue that it would be far better for global peace prospects, if someone took out most of the israeli leadership. as a french diplomat once called israel, the shitty little country, has defied the international community far more often than iran, and is currently the biggest obstacle to peace in the region, perhaps the world.

a call for assassination coming from the israelis is nothing new. it has been their policy for a while, and they do seem to think it is a solution to everything. don't like it? kill it!

oh, but wait, israelis can do it, but noone else can! its their prerogative and not yours, you see. you would be an anti-semite if you called for an assassination of ariel sharon or ehud olmert.

what complete bolox!

anyway, they're just doing themselves a favour because it just hastens someone else putting them out of their misery!

Posted by filipek at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2006

 back off? or what...

apparently Donald Rumsfeld wants 'war critics' to 'back off', read more here.

...or what? will he start succeeding in Iraq, just to piss them off?

that man is truely mad!

Posted by filipek at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2006

 foolhardy poles and special brew

it seems poland has decided to receive us aid worth $3.8 billion. no prize for guessing what these foolhardy poles decided to spend the money on. why, certainly not better health care and education! here are some clues. as if in response russia started arming venezuela.

do i detect a hint of a brew coming on?

now, stir in a few chemical warheads sent to lebanon - this brings to the fore all those democratic flavours! it would be preferable if the warheads had messages from little israeli girls written on them. it adds that little bit more spice!

naturally serve hot, perhaps garnished with nuculah bunker busters sent not-as-aid to iran.

this would be so yummy
if only i were rummy!

Posted by filipek at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

 fromisraeltolebanon.info

have you visited fromisraeltolebanon.info?

among many others, you will find images of Israeli girls writing messages on a shell at a heavy artillery position firing into civilians inside Lebanon.

then there is the picture of a Lebanese child receiving the message, loud and clear!

Posted by filipek at 07:48 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2006

 watching from the sidelines

no, i don't mean a football game, although there is a lot of to'ing and fro'ing! what i mean is the relentless push for another imperial war - this time with Iran.

the hissy fit Israel and the US (or are they the same thing?) are having over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program is there for all to see, but where is the proof, where are the facts?

oh, silly me! i forgot i'm in the reality-based community. in this community facts don't matter, and neither does reason. what matters is what the president wants...and god-boy wants another war!

boy, those silly yanks! can't they see they've exported so much democracy and freedom that there is none left for them?

keep repeating: we are free!
keep repeating: we are free!

...now we'll take a commercial break and then its sports and the weather!

Posted by filipek at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2006

 leave it behind

it should now be clear that the UK government's push to introduce ID cards means something far more sinister than our security in the war on ter. the government is basically out for more control.

now, link the ID cards initiative with rumours emerging about plans for a US (ie nazi) style Homeland Security Deptartment in the UK, and you have a pretty good case for leaving the country.

i am so glad i am...

Posted by filipek at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2006

 the don't bomb iran file

i noticed this entry on the www.antiwar.com blog.

if u follow the Juan Cole link (worth reading), u will come to a page with an excellent diagram. its a model of the 'pentagon spy story' ie the unmasking of an israel spy operation at the heart of us government.

Posted by filipek at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2006

 the us and the nazis

read the whole article by Nikos Raptis in which he asserts that the us-nazi comparison is not an exaggeration.

what Göring is saying, in effect, is that the position of the Fuehrer is a prerequisite to, and therefore a necessary part of, Hitler's overall strategy. we now know what the strategy was!

...and the Fuehrer became more and more powerful, like a king. things got simpler and simpler for him - he couldn't believe his good fortune!

...and soon u were either with us or against us. definitely not an exaggeration!

Posted by filipek at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)

 jews gone bonkers?

what planet are london jews living on? i reckon not london, earth. the totally ridiculous charges levelled against Ken Livingston (mayor of london) which have now earned him a 4 week suspension. this will do more damage to jewish interests than anything Ken has said.

Adrian Cohen, of the london jewish forum (i searched, but could not find any link to this entity) according to the BBC, has called on the mayor to create a strategy which would ensure London's Jews would be treated with respect. respect for what - for behaving like spoiled brats with a bad case of hypocrisy?

anyhow, the jewish journalist's actions, at the time of the incident and since, suggest that he does have some serious unresolved personal issues. i can't otherwise explain why he would feel it was necessary to burden us all with this nonsense!

i've got this to say to mr Finegold:

based on all the reporting i've seen, u behaved like a concentration camp guard! that's my opinion - are u going to sue me too?

Posted by filipek at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

 blow the top

the latest news from Iraq is that someone bombed a Shia holy shrine near Baghdad.

my guess is the culprits will never be known. however, if you look at who benefits from this attrocity most, my other guess has to be that its someone from the coalition ie US, British or Israeli 'special forces'. perhaps they are friends of the Brits caught in september 2005 in Basra, while preparing to stage a terrorist attack?

a Shia dominated new Iraqi government is very much the opposite of what the 'Great Satan' wants. its better to have a civil war, they think, than give away all that's dear (oil, power) to benefit Iran.

Posted by filipek at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2006

 war against severe allergic reactions to peanuts

from an article in the International Herald Tribune:

"[...] even if you include the 9/11 casualties, the number of Americans killed by international terrorists since the late 1960s (which is when the State Department began counting them) is about the same as that killed by lightning - or by accident-causing deer, or by severe allergic reactions to peanuts."

this must be the biggest case of denial of complete paranoia of the highest order - what a gyp!

anyhow, this is just more evidence that what the Bush administration is up to has nothing whatsoever to do with 'fighting terrorism' or 'spreading of democracy'. i would re-badge USA to PSA ie Police States of America.

Posted by filipek at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2006

 if only you knew what worry is...

in the following article Paul Craig Roberts claims, based on US Government statistics, that in the US:

i suspect that the Bush administration has a simple solution to this and other economic problems facing Americans. through Rumsfeld they promise a decades-long war and continuing exporting of freedom and democracy. this would really make me laugh if it wasn't so sad - but i'm not Rumsfeld:

don't worry yanks - you can always take up a job of becoming cannon fodder or a torturing prison guard somewhere really far away where you're not welcome. as the author of the article aptly puts it:

Posted by filipek at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2006

 ice core records

NASA's earth observatory has an interesting article in the study section. it's about paleoclimatology and more specifically about the ice core record.

what struck me was the 'temperature difference' interactive diagram (half way down the page) and the data it represented. more or less, a repeating pattern - slightly irregular - but still normal looking. and then about 11000 years ago something strange started happening. it doesn't look familiar...

Posted by filipek at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2005

 Blair and Straw - a tale of torture and lies

Below are documents which the British Government does not want you to see. I copied and pasted them from:

http://www.perfect.co.uk/2005/12/documents-the-government-doesnt-want-you-to-see

Please cut and paste this on your blog or website and help expose Bliar and Straw as the dirty liars and torturers they are!

The below documents sent in by Craig Murray, British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, clearly show that Blair and Straw knew that British intelligence services were in possession of information obtained under torture. Blair, or perhaps more appropriately Bliar, and his side-kick Straw, must start feeling heat themselves. Such monumental lies, like their denials of using information obtained by torture, should not be tolerated under any circumstances. Don't let the UK, like the US, become a fascist state!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

First document - summary of legal opinion from Michael Wood arguing that it is legal to use information extracted under torture (scan of original):

From: Michael Wood, Legal Advisor

Date: 13 March 2003

CC: PS/PUS; Matthew Kidd, WLD

Linda Duffield

UZBEKISTAN: INTELLIGENCE POSSIBLY OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

1. Your record of our meeting with HMA Tashkent recorded that Craig had said that his understanding was that it was also an offence under the UN Convention on Torture to receive or possess information under torture. I said that I did not believe that this was the case, but undertook to re-read the Convention.

2. I have done so. There is nothing in the Convention to this effect. The nearest thing is article 15 which provides:

“Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made.”

3. This does not create any offence. I would expect that under UK law any statement established to have been made as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence.

[signed]

M C Wood
Legal Adviser

Second document: Confidential letters from Uzbekistan:

Letter #1
Confidential
FM Tashkent
TO FCO, Cabinet Office, DFID, MODUK, OSCE Posts, Security Council Posts

16 September 02

SUBJECT: US/Uzbekistan: Promoting Terrorism
SUMMARY

US plays down human rights situation in Uzbekistan. A dangerous policy: increasing repression combined with poverty will promote Islamic terrorism. Support to Karimov regime a bankrupt and cynical policy.

DETAIL

The Economist of 7 September states: “Uzbekistan, in particular, has jailed many thousands of moderate Islamists, an excellent way of converting their families and friends to extremism.” The Economist also spoke of “the growing despotism of Mr Karimov” and judged that “the past year has seen a further deterioration of an already grim human rights record”. I agree.

Between 7,000 and 10,000 political and religious prisoners are currently detained, many after trials before kangaroo courts with no representation. Terrible torture is commonplace: the EU is currently considering a demarche over the terrible case of two Muslims tortured to death in jail apparently with boiling water. Two leading dissidents, Elena Urlaeva and Larissa Vdovna, were two weeks ago committed to a lunatic asylum, where they are being drugged, for demonstrating on human rights. Opposition political parties remain banned. There is no doubt that September 11 gave the pretext to crack down still harder on dissent under the guise of counter-terrorism.
Yet on 8 September the US State Department certified that Uzbekistan was improving in both human rights and democracy, thus fulfilling a constitutional requirement and allowing the continuing disbursement of $140 million of US aid to Uzbekistan this year. Human Rights Watch immediately published a commendably sober and balanced rebuttal of the State Department claim.

Again we are back in the area of the US accepting sham reform [a reference to my previous telegram on the economy]. In August media censorship was abolished, and theoretically there are independent media outlets, but in practice there is absolutely no criticism of President Karimov or the central government in any Uzbek media. State Department call this self-censorship: I am not sure that is a fair way to describe an unwillingness to experience the brutal methods of the security services.

Similarly, following US pressure when Karimov visited Washington, a human rights NGO has been permitted to register. This is an advance, but they have little impact given that no media are prepared to cover any of their activities or carry any of their statements.
The final improvement State quote is that in one case of murder of a prisoner the police involved have been prosecuted. That is an improvement, but again related to the Karimov visit and does not appear to presage a general change of policy. On the latest cases of torture deaths the Uzbeks have given the OSCE an incredible explanation, given the nature of the injuries, that the victims died in a fight between prisoners.

But allowing a single NGO, a token prosecution of police officers and a fake press freedom cannot possibly outweigh the huge scale of detentions, the torture and the secret executions. President Karimov has admitted to 100 executions a year but human rights groups believe there are more. Added to this, all opposition parties remain banned (the President got a 98% vote) and the Internet is strictly controlled. All Internet providers must go through a single government server and access is barred to many sites including all dissident and opposition sites and much international media (including, ironically, waronterrorism.com). This is in essence still a totalitarian state: there is far less freedom than still prevails, for example, in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. A Movement for Democratic Change or any judicial independence would be impossible here.

Karimov is a dictator who is committed to neither political nor economic reform. The purpose of his regime is not the development of his country but the diversion of economic rent to his oligarchic supporters through government controls. As a senior Uzbek academic told me privately, there is more repression here now than in Brezhnev’s time. The US are trying to prop up Karimov economically and to justify this support they need to claim that a process of economic and political reform is underway. That they do so claim is either cynicism or self-delusion.

This policy is doomed to failure. Karimov is driving this resource-rich country towards economic ruin like an Abacha. And the policy of increasing repression aimed indiscriminately at pious Muslims, combined with a deepening poverty, is the most certain way to ensure continuing support for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They have certainly been decimated and disorganised in Afghanistan, and Karimov’s repression may keep the lid on for years – but pressure is building and could ultimately explode.

I quite understand the interest of the US in strategic airbases and why they back Karimov, but I believe US policy is misconceived. In the short term it may help fight terrorism but in the medium term it will promote it, as the Economist points out. And it can never be right to lower our standards on human rights. There is a complex situation in Central Asia and it is wrong to look at it only through a prism picked up on September 12. Worst of all is what appears to be the philosophy underlying the current US view of Uzbekistan: that September 11 divided the World into two camps in the “War against Terrorism” and that Karimov is on “our” side.

If Karimov is on “our” side, then this war cannot be simply between the forces of good and evil. It must be about more complex things, like securing the long-term US military presence in Uzbekistan. I silently wept at the 11 September commemoration here. The right words on New York have all been said. But last week was also another anniversary – the US-led overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile. The subsequent dictatorship killed, dare I say it, rather more people than died on September 11. Should we not remember then also, and learn from that too? I fear that we are heading down the same path of US-sponsored dictatorship here. It is ironic that the beneficiary is perhaps the most unreformed of the World’s old communist leaders.
We need to think much more deeply about Central Asia. It is easy to place Uzbekistan in the “too difficult” tray and let the US run with it, but I think they are running in the wrong direction. We should tell them of the dangers we see. Our policy is theoretically one of engagement, but in practice this has not meant much. Engagement makes sense, but it must mean grappling with the problems, not mute collaboration. We need to start actively to state a distinctive position on democracy and human rights, and press for a realistic view to be taken in the IMF. We should continue to resist pressures to start a bilateral DFID programme, unless channelled non-governmentally, and not restore ECGD cover despite the constant lobbying. We should not invite Karimov to the UK. We should step up our public diplomacy effort, stressing democratic values, including more resources from the British Council. We should increase support to human rights activists, and strive for contact with non-official Islamic groups.

Above all we need to care about the 22 million Uzbek people, suffering from poverty and lack of freedom. They are not just pawns in the new Great Game.

MURRAY

————————————————————————————————————————
Letter #2
Confidential
Fm Tashkent
To FCO

18 March 2003

SUBJECT: US FOREIGN POLICY
SUMMARY

1. As seen from Tashkent, US policy is not much focussed on democracy or freedom. It is about oil, gas and hegemony. In Uzbekistan the US pursues those ends through supporting a ruthless dictatorship. We must not close our eyes to uncomfortable truth.

DETAIL

2. Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.

3. Uzbekistan’s geo-strategic position is crucial. It has half the population of the whole of Central Asia. It alone borders all the other states in a region which is important to future Western oil and gas supplies. It is the regional military power. That is why the US is here, and here to stay. Contractors at the US military bases are extending the design life of the buildings from ten to twenty five years.

4. Democracy and human rights are, despite their protestations to the contrary, in practice a long way down the US agenda here. Aid this year will be slightly less, but there is no intention to introduce any meaningful conditionality. Nobody can believe this level of aid – more than US aid to all of West Africa – is related to comparative developmental need as opposed to political support for Karimov. While the US makes token and low-level references to human rights to appease domestic opinion, they view Karimov’s vicious regime as a bastion against fundamentalism. He – and they – are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?

5. I was stunned to hear that the US had pressured the EU to withdraw a motion on Human Rights in Uzbekistan which the EU was tabling at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. I was most unhappy to find that we are helping the US in what I can only call this cover-up. I am saddened when the US constantly quote fake improvements in human rights in Uzbekistan, such as the abolition of censorship and Internet freedom, which quite simply have not happened (I see these are quoted in the draft EBRD strategy for Uzbekistan, again I understand at American urging).

6. From Tashkent it is difficult to agree that we and the US are activated by shared values. Here we have a brutal US sponsored dictatorship reminiscent of Central and South American policy under previous US Republican administrations. I watched George Bush talk today of Iraq and “dismantling the apparatus of terror… removing the torture chambers and the rape rooms”. Yet when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in international fora. Double standards? Yes.

7. I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the US, at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan.
MURRAY

————————————————————————————————————————
Letter #3

CONFIDENTIAL
FM TASHKENT
TO IMMEDIATE FCO

TELNO 63
OF 220939 JULY 04

INFO IMMEDIATE DFID, ISLAMIC POSTS, MOD, OSCE POSTS UKDEL EBRD LONDON, UKMIS GENEVA, UKMIS MEW YORK

SUBJECT: RECEIPT OF INTELLIGENCE OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

SUMMARY

1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.

2. I gather a recent London interdepartmental meeting considered the question and decided to continue to receive the material. This is morally, legally and practically wrong. It exposes as hypocritical our post Abu Ghraib pronouncements and fatally undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get the Uzbek government to stop torture they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results.

3. We should cease all co-operation with the Uzbek Security Services they are beyond the pale. We indeed need to establish an SIS presence here, but not as in a friendly state.

DETAIL

4. In the period December 2002 to March 2003 I raised several times the issue of intelligence material from the Uzbek security services which was obtained under torture and passed to us via the CIA. I queried the legality, efficacy and morality of the practice.

5. I was summoned to the UK for a meeting on 8 March 2003. Michael Wood gave his legal opinion that it was not illegal to obtain and to use intelligence acquired by torture. He said the only legal limitation on its use was that it could not be used in legal proceedings, under Article 15 of the UN Convention on Torture.

6. On behalf of the intelligence services, Matthew Kydd said that they found some of the material very useful indeed with a direct bearing on the war on terror. Linda Duffield said that she had been asked to assure me that my qualms of conscience were respected and understood.

7. Sir Michael Jay’s circular of 26 May stated that there was a reporting obligation on us to report torture by allies (and I have been instructed to refer to Uzbekistan as such in the context of the war on terror). You, Sir, have made a number of striking, and I believe heartfelt, condemnations of torture in the last few weeks. I had in the light of this decided to return to this question and to highlight an apparent contradiction in our policy. I had intimated as much to the Head of Eastern Department.

8. I was therefore somewhat surprised to hear that without informing me of the meeting, or since informing me of the result of the meeting, a meeting was convened in the FCO at the level of Heads of Department and above, precisely to consider the question of the receipt of Uzbek intelligence material obtained under torture. As the office knew, I was in London at the time and perfectly able to attend the meeting. I still have only gleaned that it happened.

9. I understand that the meeting decided to continue to obtain the Uzbek torture material. I understand that the principal argument deployed was that the intelligence material disguises the precise source, ie it does not ordinarily reveal the name of the individual who is tortured. Indeed this is true – the material is marked with a euphemism such as “From detainee debriefing.” The argument runs that if the individual is not named, we cannot prove that he was tortured.

10. I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work in and organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture. I have dealt with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met with very few where torture, as defined in the UN convention, was not employed. When my then DHM raised the question with the CIA head of station 15 months ago, he readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence. I do not think there is any doubt as to the fact

11. The torture record of the Uzbek security services could hardly be more widely known. Plainly there are, at the very least, reasonable grounds for believing the material is obtained under torture. There is helpful guidance at Article 3 of the UN Convention;
“The competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the state concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.” While this article forbids extradition or deportation to Uzbekistan, it is the right test for the present question also.

12. On the usefulness of the material obtained, this is irrelevant. Article 2 of the Convention, to which we are a party, could not be plainer:

“No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”

13. Nonetheless, I repeat that this material is useless – we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful. It is designed to give the message the Uzbeks want the West to hear. It exaggerates the role, size, organisation and activity of the IMU and its links with Al Qaida. The aim is to convince the West that the Uzbeks are a vital cog against a common foe, that they should keep the assistance, especially military assistance, coming, and that they should mute the international criticism on human rights and economic reform.

14. I was taken aback when Matthew Kydd said this stuff was valuable. Sixteen months ago it was difficult to argue with SIS in the area of intelligence assessment. But post Butler we know, not only that they can get it wrong on even the most vital and high profile issues, but that they have a particular yen for highly coloured material which exaggerates the threat. That is precisely what the Uzbeks give them. Furthermore MI6 have no operative within a thousand miles of me and certainly no expertise that can come close to my own in making this assessment.

15. At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family’s links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.

16. I have been considering Michael Wood’s legal view, which he kindly gave in writing. I cannot understand why Michael concentrated only on Article 15 of the Convention. This certainly bans the use of material obtained under torture as evidence in proceedings, but it does not state that this is the sole exclusion of the use of such material.

17. The relevant article seems to me Article 4, which talks of complicity in torture. Knowingly to receive its results appears to be at least arguable as complicity. It does not appear that being in a different country to the actual torture would preclude complicity. I talked this over in a hypothetical sense with my old friend Prof Francois Hampson, I believe an acknowledged World authority on the Convention, who said that the complicity argument and the spirit of the Convention would be likely to be winning points. I should be grateful to hear Michael’s views on this.

18. It seems to me that there are degrees of complicity and guilt, but being at one or two removes does not make us blameless. There are other factors. Plainly it was a breach of Article 3 of the Convention for the coalition to deport detainees back here from Baghram, but it has been done. That seems plainly complicit.

19. This is a difficult and dangerous part of the World. Dire and increasing poverty and harsh repression are undoubtedly turning young people here towards radical Islam. The Uzbek government are thus creating this threat, and perceived US support for Karimov strengthens anti-Western feeling. SIS ought to establish a presence here, but not as partners of the Uzbek Security Services, whose sheer brutality puts them beyond the pale.

MURRAY

Posted by filipek at 06:40 PM

December 18, 2005

 the man who sells war

i've heard of the Rendon Group and its head John Rendon, once before, prior to the disasterous crime unleashed on Iraq. John Rendon was then a recent hire by the Bush administration to sell the war effort in Iraq.

now, more details are coming out of what this busy bee has been up to and it is mostly no good:

• Rolling Stone article by James Bamford
• Scott Horton interview with James Bamford
• wikipedia entry for The Rendon Group

Posted by filipek at 07:36 PM

October 09, 2005

 SmartGrid.NET publishes JobObjects .NET API

SmartGrid.NET has published their first version of the Win32 Job Objects API .NET wrapper.

download it here.

Posted by filipek at 11:24 AM

August 23, 2005

 like mother like son

Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it’s gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Oh, I mean, it’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? -- Barbara Bush on "Good Morning America" 18 March 2003

read more here

no comment...

Posted by filipek at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2005

 blame america first

What we cannot be proud of, Mr. Speaker, is the unshaven, shaggy-haired, drug culture, poor excuses for Americans, wearing their tiny, round wire-rim glasses, a protester's symbol of the blame-America-first crowd, out in front of the White House burning the American flag," Representative Gerald B. H. Solomon said on Jan. 17, 1991.

read full article here.

even though i am not american (thank god) this kind of dribble makes me want to grow shaggy-hair (whatever that means) and wear tiny, round wire-rim glasses. i don't shave often so i'm cool on that count.

i really like blaming america first - coz its guilty as hell, and i want to be a protester.

ich bin ein war protester!

Posted by filipek at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

 Bliar by name liar by nature

It is becoming obvious that the shooting of the innocent Brazilian by London police was not as 'excusable' as we were led to believe, read more at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1739956,00.html
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/suri.php?articleid=6991

What got me aggrevated this morning is the following:

Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair [...] announced and later defended a "shoot to kill" policy, and said that more people could be killed. He expressed "regret" over the death. But his predecessor expressed sympathy for the officer who killed Charles, not for Charles or his family. "My heart goes out to the officer who killed the man in Stockwell Tube Station," Lord John Stevens wrote in a newspaper.

One word: unbelievable...and this guy gets his check from my taxes. Something is really wrong!

Posted by filipek at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

 Performance counter provider in C#

Chris Sells (www.sellsbrothers.com) posted a command line parsing utility class (in C#) a while ago. I can't find a link to it now so here's the source.

Based on its use of reflection I created a base class for performance counter providers. Download the source here.

Posted by filipek at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2005

 Grooming Iran for Democracy and Freedom

So an intelligence official has anonymously gone on the record as saying that:

US intelligence believes that a cache of manufactured bombs seized in Iraq about two weeks ago was smuggled into the country from Iran by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

This is very funny, because:

• intelligence services should not take this kind of information on faith - this is what governments bent on war do...
• i know (belief does not come into it) that there are mountains of weapons brought to Iraq by the US Army, which intends to stay there.

The same official in the same article also said:

I think we believe there is more of them out there [Iranian weaponry], that this is just the first cache we've actually obtained

Which means he's got major problems communicating simple ideas (as in 'i think we believe') and should think about going back to school.

Anyhow, all this adds up to just another piece of evidence that US (and its sidekicks) is making Iran the next target for freedom and democracy - Nazi style.

Posted by filipek at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2005

 Phoney Bliar takes the Nazi route

According to a Telegraph article the British PM is ready to pull out of the EU Human Rights Act.

I just have one comment on this: if the British people don't curb Bliar's obviously fascist leanings and a fanatical following of nazi America, they deserve all the civil liberties they will get.

Already, following the London bombings, the Bliar government and its spin engine have managed to frame public discussion, so that everybody seems preoccupied with what the Muslims are or are not doing. Nobody seems the least bit interested in finding out why suicide bombers have come home to roost in Londonistan.

Fine, be that way stupid! Watch the country slip down the slippery slope of fascism and Bliar-theocracy and let nobody dare call Britain a democracy!

Posted by filipek at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2005

 archives @ dahouse.org

have started uploading some techno mixes onto archive.dahouse.org/audio. currently no streaming, but i will try to set up a streaming server soon...

Posted by filipek at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2005

 a sliver of glass

here's a picture of a sliver of glass i took out of my foot today.

Posted by filipek at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)

 new mountain bike from ebay

got this mountain bike from ebay - should arrive shortly. the spec:

New Gents Lightweight Alloy 20"Front Susp Mountain Bike Brand: N/A Condition: New Style: Gents Aluminium Mountain Bike Colour: Chrome with Red / White Retail Price: £159.99 (bought for £75) Inside Leg: 29" - 34" Wheel Size: 26" No. Gears: 18 Speed Shimano with twist grip Gearing Frame Size: 20"

The bicycles are branded SILVER FOX but are part of the extremely high ended MUDDY FOX family, so a lot of research, design and development influences have been used in the production of both brands - they're serious bikes at Low prices!

7005 All Alloy Hardtail Frame and 'Mono' Stay Frame with Megasize 'Teardrop' Tubing - Big Foot Tig Welded Active Suspension Front Forks. Shimano 18 Speed Gears with Microshift Twist Levers. 26" Alloy Rims. Kenda 2.1 'Supergrip' ATB Tyres. V Style Brakes.

Tip top componentry and an incredibly lightweight Aluminium frame cuts weight and allows the rider faster and further.

All our bikes include a 21 Day No Quibble Money back Guarantee and 12 months Manufactures Warrantee.

Posted by filipek at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2005

 start of holidays

the time has come for my holidays!! start off in atigua from sunday, for 2 weeks. then, after coming back, i will take a long ride on my motorbike mainly around luxembourg and in poland. can't wait...

Posted by filipek at 08:17 PM | Comments (0)

April 08, 2005

 lookinside

Posted by filipek at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2005

 SmartGrid.NET website

SmartGrid.NET is something i am involved with, independently from my current employer.

Posted by filipek at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2005

 SmartGraph.NET website

finally managed to put together a website for something i worked on a while ago. its a C# implementation of graph scheduler engine toolkit called SmartGraph.NET

NOTE: until the site comes back up the SmartGraph.NET source code can be downloaded from here.

Posted by filipek at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

 orca.msi for download - without the whole SDK

i have started using msi installations for our project. one thing that i found useful is the orca msi tool, which seems to be part of some Microsoft Platform SDK. you cannot download it separately though, unless you go here ;-)

Posted by filipek at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

 C# explorer context menu handler

here's some code that shows how to implement a Explorer Shell Extension in C#. it allows you to create custom context menus in directories you want. download source code here.

references for this implementation:

• http://www.codeproject.com/shell/ShellExtGuide1.asp


• http://theserverside.net/articles/showarticle.tss?id=ShellExtensions


• http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/ratingcolumn.asp

once you build it, use 'regasm /codebase' (i try to stay clear of the GAC as much as possible) to register the assembly for COM interop, that's it!

Posted by filipek at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

 weird disclaimer

recently i've been hearing strange things on the radio. i don't listen that often, but since not so long ago, whenever there's an advert from a travel company, at the end of it you will hear the following disclaimer:

   asshole protected!

who's asshole and protected from what? weird!

Posted by filipek at 07:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

 CComBSTR's changed behaviour (VC2003 ATL)

i have just noticed that in ATL shipped with VS2003 CComBSTR ToUpper() and ToLower() ASSERT when called on an empty (not NULL) string. i have to say i don't understand why that makes sense? surely it is desireable that a conversion to upper/lower on empty string yield an empty string and not an assertion.

fortunately we use our own CComBSTR wrapper, so the fix for this is as easy as:

   HRESULT ToUpper()
   {
      if ( ::SysStringLen(this->m_str) > 0 )
         return CComBSTR::ToUpper();

      return S_OK;
   }

Posted by filipek at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2005

 wrapper for the ATL::CUrl class

some useful code for manipulating url-type strings. uses ATL::CUrl and allows non-standard url types. examples provided show how to implement a COM url:

   com:///Clsid=0002df01-0000-0000-c000-000000000046&ClsCtx=CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER

and a PubSub url:

   pubsub://localhost:1234/Queue=A.B.C

download sources here.

Posted by filipek at 02:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2005

 soa2wsdl part II

i decided that soa2wsdl is going to be very useful in helping me deal with web service development (see previous posting on this). i created a simple C# console app which does the transform and which can also execute the 'wsdl.exe' utility to generate C# code from WSDL.
the zipped project is here.

Posted by filipek at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2005

 smartgraph.net

some of my spare time (away from my current employer) is used up developing various ideas, mainly in C# on .NET and C++.

one of the concepts that i frequently re-use is the Directed Acyclic Graph or DAG. this is a simple DAG implementation, part of smartgraph.net (soon to go on-line hopefully :-).

Posted by filipek at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2005

 soa2wsdl

i never really liked WSDL, but, because of its interoperability, i use it frequently. in my current work on service oriented architecture (SOA), i stumbled onto an article on Clemens Vasters' blog. it shows how metadata attributes can be used to embelish an XML Schema. taking Clemens' hint, i created an XSL Transform which generates WSDL from 'embelished schemas'. an example of such a schema (soa-sample-getprice.xsd) is given below. download the other files:

• soa2wsdl.xsl
• soa-metadata.xsd

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xs:schema targetNamespace="urn:soa:sample:price-service" 

            xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 

            xmlns:soa="urn:soa:metadata" 

            xmlns:tns="urn:soa:sample:price-service" 

            xmlns="urn:soa:sample:price-service" 

            elementFormDefault="qualified" 

            soa:service="GetPriceService" soa:url="http://soa1.soahost.net"

>

    <xs:complexType name="GetPriceRequestType">

        <xs:sequence>

            <xs:element name="SessionId" type="xs:string"/>

            <xs:element name="Ric" type="xs:string"/>

        </xs:sequence>

    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="GetPriceResponseType">

        <xs:sequence>

            <xs:element name="SessionId" type="xs:string"/>

            <xs:element name="Ric" type="xs:string"/>

            <xs:element name="Value" type="xs:string"/>

        </xs:sequence>

    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="GetPriceFaultType">

        <xs:sequence>

            <xs:element name="SessionId" type="xs:string"/>

            <xs:element name="Ric" type="xs:string"/>

            <xs:element name="Reason" type="xs:string"/>

        </xs:sequence>

    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="GetPriceMethodType">

        <xs:all>

            <xs:element name="GetPriceRequest" type="tns:GetPriceRequestType" 

                    soa:message="GetPriceRequestMessage" soa:message-type="request"/>

            <xs:element name="GetPriceResponse" type="tns:GetPriceResponseType" 

                    soa:message="GetPriceResponseMessage" soa:message-type="response"/>

            <xs:element name="GetPriceFault" type="tns:GetPriceFaultType" 

                    soa:message="GetPriceFaultMessage" soa:message-type="fault"/>

        </xs:all>

    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="GetPriceInterfaceType">

        <xs:all>

            <xs:element name="GetPriceMethod" type="tns:GetPriceMethodType"

                    soa:method="GetPriceMethod"/>

        </xs:all>

    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:element name="GetPriceInterface" type="tns:GetPriceInterfaceType"

                    soa:interface="GetPriceInterface"/>

</xs:schema>

Posted by filipek at 09:48 PM | Comments (0)

July 22, 2004

 bulenka

image of my granny's portrait can be found here. my uncle painted it...

Posted by filipek at 10:18 AM

June 30, 2004

 XmlDiffUtils

.NET utils (written in c#) for comparing xml files using the Microsoft.XmlDiff api.

Added benefits:

• files, before being compared, can be filtered using an XPath. The XPath can be used to ignore or select nodes
• target of comparison can be a (pattern-matched) list of files in a directory or a single file
• create equivalence classes for a given set of xml files

Download the source code here.

Posted by filipek at 12:30 AM

June 16, 2004

 bialowieza

here's some pictures i took in bialowieza, a national park in poland

the camera: canon ixus i, 4Mpx

Posted by filipek at 08:31 PM

April 17, 2004

 an interesting threading implementation

This is an implementation of ideas presented by Kevlin Henney (kevlin@curbraland.com) at the Spring 2004 ACCU conference in Oxford, UK. Kevlin's presentation can be found here, in pdf. Check out Kevlin's website for more information.

NOTE

This is just something that compiles and runs. More work is required to make this usable.

Posted by filipek at 05:23 PM

April 16, 2004

 just back...

just got back from 2 days at the accu 2004 conference. i shall post some written up notes soon...

Posted by filipek at 11:00 PM

March 26, 2004

 hosting the CLR (CorBindToRuntimeEx)

the following small c++ program shows how to host the CLR in an unmanaged application. its no rocket science, but its good to have this handy.

another handy trick to know about is how to call managed .NET methods in c++ using IDispatch. the whole project which shows how to do that can be downloaded from here.

Continue reading "hosting the CLR (CorBindToRuntimeEx)"

Posted by filipek at 09:21 AM

March 23, 2004

 cool fsm thing

i've been looking at boost recently and i found this neat fsm (finite state machine) library. it actually doesn't seem to be part of boost (as of boost v1.31.0 see www.boost.org and google for more). but the utility of such an implementation is apparent, see the zipped project (msvc71), which includes the mentioned fsm library.

Continue reading "cool fsm thing"

Posted by filipek at 09:13 PM

March 12, 2004

 the team grows

Len Holgate started his contract with our team (at CSFB). He likes to ramble on geeky topics, check his blog.

Posted by filipek at 09:33 AM

February 15, 2004

 i have...

my new motor, see below

Posted by filipek at 08:49 PM

January 24, 2004

 new motor

click below to see what will soon be my sunny yellow baby



...soon!

here's a good site on this excellent bike.

Posted by filipek at 10:09 PM

December 15, 2003

 french cheese stick

went to the end on saturday. laurent garnier was playing an 8 hour set. however, this time round i was not impressed with his music selection - too cheesy for me!

left at 0330...

Posted by filipek at 01:41 PM

December 13, 2003

 tic tac toc

in an earlier log i said i would post more info, well i can't yet ;-) anyhow...nda's and all that...

Posted by filipek at 12:35 AM

November 22, 2003

 XML schema types and .NET serialization surrogates

i often use XML schema as the basis for web service or remoting type definitions. this allows me to generate XML serializable types using xsd.exe. however, the generated types are not rich enough to be used as application types. the solution implemented here (Visual Studio.NET 2003) shows how to use the OneWayMemberSurrogate to serialize an object through one of its data members. this is useful, for example, if you want to call a remote web service which uses the XML schema type as a method parameter type, but retain the richer features of your application type.

Continue reading "XML schema types and .NET serialization surrogates"

Posted by filipek at 10:20 PM

September 21, 2003

 gSOAP server in C++

here's an example of a SOAP web service in C++. HTTP and SOAP for the web service method are handled by gSOAP 2.2.3 (included with the sample). the server can be single or multi-threaded. when running in multi-threaded mode the ATL thread pool (CThreadPool<T>) is used for handling requests.

the whole set-up is very lightweight, download the zip file and read the README.txt file in gsoapatl/admin.

Posted by filipek at 12:57 AM

September 17, 2003

 close encounter of the squirrel kind

i had an unexpected visit today from mr squirrel.

Posted by filipek at 02:13 PM

 hugo chavez - playing with fire

In an exclusive interview yesterday, the Venezuelan leader said his country will soon start to ship heating oil and diesel fuel at below market prices to poor communities and schools in the United States. "We will begin with a pilot project in Chicago on Oct. 14, in a Mexican-American community," said Chavez, who was in town for the United Nations sessions. "We will then expand the program to New York and Boston in November."

read full article.

its obvious that this is a good deed. but its not 'just' a good deed. its a virus which can spread quickly if not contained.

for a while now, the US has been trying to get rid of Chavez (from the seat of power in Venezuela), but he has managed to stay on so far. the 'problem' is that he has been democratically elected, twice, with huge majority support. so, no 'regime change' can overtly be pursued on 'evil dictator' grounds. now, if Chavez's plan succeeds, there will be no way to control public opinion in US - chances are the yanks will love him!

i wonder what 'The Great Satan' will think of to stop the spread of this virus. my money is on assassination - it has already been called for! read more here.

Posted by filipek at 02:13 PM

September 01, 2003

 tic toc

time flies when u're having fun...its been a long time since the last posting. i've been working hard (not just at csfb) , but also after-hours, on a little project of mine. on top of that i went to polska for a week of holiday, from 2nd to 9th august, but can't post any pictures coz agi still hasn't come back with the camera.

we went to the biebrzanski national park, a swampy and foresty area in north poland. its heaving with all kinds of wildlife (mainly birds though). for example, we saw elk on a regular basis. we stayed at this place (no english version) u rumcajsa. to find out more see here.

Posted by filipek at 07:42 PM

August 31, 2003

 lao tse

Who knows others, is intelligent;

Who knows himself, insight has.

Who defeats others, force has;

Who defeats himself, strength has.


-- Lao Tse

Posted by filipek at 10:18 PM

June 14, 2003

 all work and no play...

i have been quite busy recently. cannot talk much about it yet, but its taking up a lot of my cycles. its to do with xsl transforms. once it's tested (its finished) i'll post more info...

Posted by filipek at 07:55 PM

June 06, 2003

 more changes

i have been playing around with the stylesheets for the web-site. i am finally converging on something reasonable ;-)

Posted by filipek at 12:09 AM

June 02, 2003

 politics, history and reality

i rarely watch tv, so i often miss out on documentaries and media news. instead i read a lot on-line and get my information from a variety of web-sites. they are as follows...

Continue reading "politics, history and reality"

Posted by filipek at 01:46 PM

 buhaha

i'm a nasty bastard and i don't give a shit!

Posted by filipek at 11:29 AM

 the moon song

it's like a car crash, u can't stop watching it!

Posted by filipek at 11:19 AM

June 01, 2003

 Jak Wall Street stworzyla panstwo

a while ago i translated an article i read on ZNet into polish. the text of the translation is here.

Continue reading "Jak Wall Street stworzyla panstwo"

Posted by filipek at 09:21 PM

 motorbike trip - the failure

so i didn't make it all the way to yorkshire (on the motorbike). we got as far as northampton and my rear brake-disc started heating up - some friction. so i decided to head back.

still almost a nice ride ;-) i say 'almost' because it was a very hot day - too hot to be in motorcycling gear!

Posted by filipek at 06:04 PM

May 30, 2003

 grid engines

if u're into 'grid computing' then check out grid-engines.com.

Posted by filipek at 07:56 PM

 motorbike trip

i am going to yorkshire on my motorbike early tomorrow morning. i don't know what the route is going to be yet, but i shall try to summarise the trip when i get back.

Posted by filipek at 07:53 PM

May 27, 2003

 Filip Fodemski's CV

first things, first: my cv is back on-line find it here (or the menu).

Posted by filipek at 11:19 PM

 css and all that

now that i have brushed-up my design skills ;-) and done a bit more digging around movabletype i am all set for actually putting some content in...

Posted by filipek at 09:47 PM

May 26, 2003

 movable type

is what this site runs on (see 'powered by' below). i have to first learn how to do basic admin and master all the settings. so far i have managed to get cool coloured buttons ;-) i nicked them from don box's page.

Posted by filipek at 11:35 PM

 welcome

i have re-done the web-site. it is now going to be a weblog...we'll see how it goes. i am now going to start re-posting things from the old web-site...

Posted by filipek at 09:44 PM