US Mint 50 State Quarters Checklist

Although I am based in Canada, I travel frequently to the United States. One of the things that has fascinated me here is their 50 State Quarters program by the US Mint. Yes, I know the Canadian mint did the same thing years before. I already have all of those provincial quarters, so I was looking for a new coin to collect.

Anyhow, I have looked high and low for an official checklist of quarters, but I could not find one. So I made one up myself. It is available here. Click on the checklist icon to download it. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader. It checks in at about 4 MiB.

I would have linked to the original Word Document, but at 16.5 MiB, it is just too big.

Version 1.4
Updated on 2009-03-14

• updated the 2009 U.S. Territories coin images with new, hi-resolution images.
• added release date for the first 2009 coin
  

Version 1.3
Updated on 2008-08-16

• fixed year typo on the 2007 coin page (it read 2006, thanks Anonymous)
  
• added new coin images for 2008 coins
• added release dates for additional 2008 coins
  
• added coin images for 2009 coins
• added statehood dates
  

Version 1.2
Updated on 2008-01-06

• added new coin images for 2007 & 2008 coins
  

Version 1.1
Updated on 2007-06-12

• added new coin images for released coins
• added 2008 coin images
• added table for possible 2009 program extension
• added version control and title page
  
• cleaned-up layout

Version 1.0

• Initial Release

This list is current as of the date of release, and will be updated regularly (at least every time a new quarter is released). The list is aligned to the right so that you can hole punch the page.

I don't know why some of the images don't look good, they were fine before the PDF conversion. Hopefully I can remedy that in future updates.

One more thing, the two columns marked D and P indicate the Denver and Philadelphia mints, respectively, where the quarters are minted. The D or P appears on the lower right of the heads side, behind Washington's ponytail. Every quarter has a D and P version.

Should be useful for all you coin collectors actively collecting these coins.

Until next time, keep on having fun.

The Coolest Shuttle Picture You'll See Today

In keeping with RadioFreeG's space themed radio show, I present to you the coolest shuttle picture you'll see today.

See that little speck on the left along the centreline? Clicking on the picture will open up a super-size version of the photograph, scroll to the middle left and you will see a silhouette of the space shuttle undocking from the International Space Station, with the sun in the background.

This photo was taken in a cow pasture in France, after tracking the paths of the two objects for weeks.


Look up, and keep on having fun!

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

Lock-Down Your Wireless Network

Well everyone, its been sometime since my last post here at DCTS. I've been racking my brains trying to come up with an interesting and useful post for everyone. Finally my girlfriend suggested writing about wireless network security.

Now the first thing to know is that no wireless router is impenetrable. Our main goal is to apply enough layers of challenge to logging on to your network that any potential attacker will move on to other targets.

Now make you get a router, not a hub or a switch. Routers have more advanced data flow control, giving everyone on the network faster access. Routers also have better security features.

Once you've purchased your router of choice, it is normally configured through your web browser. You type the IP address of the router where the web page would go and you surf to your router. Your router's manual will show you how to do this.

1) Change Your Default Router Password

One of the first things an intruder will do once on your network is to lock you out of your own router. All routers have known default passwords, the first thing you must do is change it to something that is not easy to guess and is at least 8 characters long or longer if possible.

2) Enable WPA or WPA2 Encryption

Always enable WPA or WPA2 encryption. WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access, and it is an encryption mechanism so that if someone tries to snoop in on your data flow, they won't be able to tell what is going through. WPA2 is an advanced, more secure form of WPA at the expense of compatibility with older wireless devices. Enable WPA2 initially then downgrade to WPA if you can't connect. Never use WEP, an old encryption method that is no longer considered secure. Windows XP SP2, Vista, Mac OS X, and most current Linux distributions all support WPA and WPA2.

If the router does not support WPA encryption, don't buy it (or return it).

These options will usually appear as WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK. PSK stands for Pre-Shared Key. Essentially you need a password to be given to you before you can log on to a WPA/WPA2 protected network. You can select passwords up to 64 characters. It is advisable to use all 64 characters.

I use this site for my passwords. The second set of characters entitled "63 random printable ASCII characters" is the most secure. Copy this to a text file and save it in a secure location. You may want to edit the password and remove any question marks, spaces, and O's and zeros, and L's and capital I's (O's and zeros tend to look the same, as do lower case L's and capital I's).

Only wireless devices need the password to connect, computers using network cables do not.

3) Change and Hide Your SSID

Your SSID (Service Set Identifier) is essentially the name you want to call your network. Make it something unique, but nothing that can identify you directly, otherwise an intruder will be able to move closer to your house to get a stronger signal. "Frank's Pad" is a poor choice, while "Sticks and Stones" is a better choice.

You can also "Disable SSID Broadcast" so that if a wireless device is scanning for available networks, yours won't show up on the list. Note however, that there are devices that can see your network even if you turn off the SSID Broadcast, so this option alone will not help you.

I have found in the past that I have to turn on SSID Broadcast when connecting a wireless device for the first time. Afterwards, that same device will still be able to connect after the broadcasting has been disabled again.

4) Enable MAC Address Filtering

All network devices have a MAC address, essentially this is the device's unique name, desktops only have one unless they have more than one Ethernet port. Laptops that have an ethernet and wireless connectivity will have two MAC addresses. To find out what yours is got to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt
A black window will appear, type ipconfig /all and hit enter. The item listed as you Physical Address is your MAC address (I don't know why they changed the name).

Your router can be setup to only allow specific MAC addresses to connect to the network. This option will affect all devices connecting to your network, not just the wireless ones, but it is highly recommended.

5) Limit the IP Range

Every computer on your network is given and IP address, that is how the router directs data flowing to different devices. Most routers will let you limit how many IP addresses can be assigned at once. Determine how many computers need to be connected to your network at one time and set it at that. In my house it is not unusual for all 5 computers to connect to the network, so my system only has a range of 5.

This has two-fold benefits. First, an intruder won't be able to get on if all the IP addresses are in use. Secondly, if someone in your house can't connect to the network while everyone else can, it's a warning sign that someone is on your network who shouldn't be.

6) Static IP Addresses

In what may be considered overkill, I assigned each MAC address its own unique IP address, so that even if all other security layers worked around, they system won't assign it an IP address preventing it from communicating with the network. Not all routers offer this feature.

After all this work, remember to export your settings to a file. Save this file with the password from before. This way if your router gets reset by a power out or something, you won't have to spend the tedious time getting everything back to its iron-clad state. Believe me, nothing makes you question security like entering 10 MAC addresses in by hand 20 times! All you have to do is get the router to import the file you saved and BOOM, your router is back to secure.

Now yes, this will make it difficult to add new devices to your network, but that is the point. You don't want to make it easy for *ANYONE* to connect to the network. Convenience is sacrificed for security.

UPDATE (2007-06-11) - Regarding Magnum's question in the comments area in regards to whether the multiple layers of security will affect connection speeds. Excellent question. I do not believe that the security here will affect your connection speed. You see, the security is only invoked once you attempt to connect to the network. After evaluating your computer against all the security requirements, then you will be assigned an IP address. Once you get an IP address, your hand has been stamped, so to speak. Until you disconnect your connection should not be re-evaluated.

Remember, a secure network is like an onion, they both have layers. Now parfaits also have layers. Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "Hell no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious. Sorry... slipped into the wrong movie.

So surf safe, and keep on having fun.

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"

When Directors Shit on Our Childhood Dreams

SOUNDWAVE's NOTE (2007-08-06) : Read my full review for the film here.

When George Lucas keeps revising Star Wars to continually keep up with his ever changing Original Vision^TM, fans complained that he was ruining a film they enjoyed from childhood. They should count themselves lucky that they had almost 20 good years before he decided to make Greedo shoot first.

Countless childhood television shows and video games wound up in the crapper when making the transition to the big screen. Remember the He-man movie? Sadly, I do.

Unfortunately this travesty is going to be repeated with the most sacred of institutions, Transformers. The perpetrator? Michael Bay (and to a lesser extent, Steven Spielberg).

To be honest, no one that I knew was more in love with the idea of a CGI/live action movie of the Transformers than myself. Unfortunately, the more I read about this project, the more I became concerned that another wonderful idea was going in the wrong direction.

First off, here is a quote from Wikipedia regarding Michael Bay's involvement:

Michael Bay was negotiated with to direct, but turned it down as a "stupid toy movie". Realising he had been wrong as a teenager at Lucasfilm regarding Raiders of the Lost Ark' box office potential, he was put through "Transformers school", and in April 2005 he confirmed he was directing the film.

What the FUCK! Any director who has to be educated about the Transformers should not be a choice to direct! Look at Superman Returns, Spider-man, and X-men (1 and 2). These directors were HUGE fans of the original series and characters. Their movies are highly faithful to the original concepts and were well received (Spidey's organic web shooters caused issues, but I really blame Stan Lee for coming up with a stupid idea to begin with). Ghostrider's star Nicolas Cage is himself a big fan of the character and even helped write the film. This is what we need.

How about this one for Mr. Spielberg:

Spielberg himself had come to know the franchise via the toys and cartoons that his children loved.

Everyone, go call your dad and ask him who the leader of the Autobots was. Enough said.

Above all here is a fan-fucking-tastic (emphasis on fan-fucking, because that's all they're doing with this movie) expanation why the Arc was removed from the film (the Autobots space shuttle that crashed into the volcano):

In another design development Roberto Orci cut the Autobot's Ark spaceship which John Rogers originally included, saying "Why would aliens who moonlight as vehicles need other vehicles to travel inside?"

Orci, you dumb fuck, the Arc is a space vehicle, not an airplane. Everyone understands that for travel around earth, they move under their own power. How the hell is a robot the size of a car supposed to travel between solar systems?!?!?!?!? My brain is beginning to hurt.

Now lets really bring on the hurt. No one looks anything like their '80's counterpart. Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet are all new vehicles (marketing tie-ins) and their robot states look like... well I think you need to see the horror for yourself. Get a tissue, or a box.

Optimus Prime Robot Mode

Optimus Prime Vehicle Mode

Megatron Robot Mode

Megatron Vechicle Mode

Full Set of Images Here for other characters

The Decepticons are even worse, Megatron looks like crap, so does Starscream. Soundwave is nowhere to be found, and the other Decepticons are all but made up.

As an additional kick in the balls regarding Megatron, Peter Cullen is reprising his role as Prime, but Frank Welker was turned down to reprise his role as Megatron in favour of Hugo Weaving. For those who don't know, Frank Welker is a voice acting god, having played thousands of cartoon voices. It would have been awesome to have the original voices AT LEAST. Monkeys at the controls I tell you, monkeys at the controls.

What is Bay's response to this criticism? 1) He wanted to make it realistic, 2) It's a reboot of the series. He looooooves to hide behind those stupid excuses.

Michael's addiction to realism is why characters like Soundwave are not in the movie and Prime's vehicle mode has changed, because he is trying to be mass constant. Great. I'm glad he's trying to be realistic about sentient, shape-shifting robots from a fictional planet. Mr. Bay, please watch Mario Bros. That is a lesson on making things "realistic". (Nintendo really should have stepped in on the scriptwriting on that one)

Secondly, reboots refer to existing franchises like James Bond and Batman that seem to be going downhill. Transformers had one cartoon movie, 20 years ago. That is not a franchise, it doesn't get REBOOTED.

There are glaring other changes, such as the whole point of the trek to earth is not for energy to fuel their war, but for the ALLSPARK? What the hell is that?

Mr. Bay please let me inform you of something, regardless of what Steven tells you, these characters exist and do not need to be created or "updated". As if he knows what the fuck he's doing nowadays anyhow. Haley Joel Osment as Harry Potter? Give me a break. At least Harry Potter has JK Rowling to defend it. Transformers has no one. Only millions of fans screaming in disgust, but no one is listening.

Michael Bay, please take your seat next to Joel Schumacher in the line of "Directors whos should be banned from filming". Psst! Hollywood... I think Michael Bay is a communist! Pass it on!

Despite this harsh criticism, I am at odds as to whether or not I will see this film in theatres. One side says to protest, but the other is dying of curiosity. Its like a train wreck, you don't want to look, but you can't turn away.

I'm hoping that I didn't bring you all down too much. To make it up to you and to cheer you up, here's a gallery of Lil' Formers, really funny single-frame Transformers comics, as kids!

Actually here's the homepage for Lil' Formers: Lilformers.com

Also, check out this one:

Look closely at Wreck-Gar's gift. First one to explain the joke as a comment to this article gets a shout out on the next blog entry!

Well that's all for now. If I do watch the movie, I'll post a review. Until next time, keep having fun.

"bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong"