Cleaning old data from your PC

Your PC and the United States government
The government now seems to be fixated upon finding if your computer contains pornographic material or other so-called contraband such as information about making explosives. There have been many reported instances where personal computers have been seized and their contents investigated. In at least one case, a child was charged with being a sexual offender for something found on his computer. If you have a personal computer that uses the Windows operating system, it is important to understand that every file from every web-page you may have visited, by accident or design, remains on your computer’s hard disk unless you delete it. Deleting such files is difficult because they are hidden.

Deleting files does not remove the file data
Most PC users know that deleting some pictures or correspondence from their computer does not really make it go away. Only the directory entries are deleted, freeing up space for new files. If you really want to delete the data and make certain that it can never be recovered, you need to overwrite the disk space that was previously occupied by the files you want completely deleted.

I made a simple program that does just that. Its source-code and executable file is available from this link;

http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/Sources/Security.zip

After you delete anything you don’t want snoopers to see, just execute the program and it will create a file that is large enough to fill the whole disk. Then it deletes the file and creates another one with a different data pattern. After four different data patterns are written, the program deletes its work file a final time, freeing up the disk space that it used. The final result will be that all the unused space on your hard disk is now filled with a pattern that completely eliminates anything that may have been previously written in the old file space.

Scare tactics
The local police departments may not like you to clean up unused file-space in your private PC. Be warned. I have already received the following Email message:

You have provided a software program whose primary function appears to be the deletion or overwriting data which may be essential for the prosecution of criminal cases. As such, you may be in violation of the amendments to FRCP 16, 26, 33, 34, 37 and 45, relating to electronically stored data. Deliberately destroying data which may be useful as evidence in a criminal proceeding is a violation of law for which you may be prosecuted under several statutes.

Also note
If a computer that had its old data removed was obtained during the investigation of a possible crime, it may be considered evidence that the computer previously contained contraband. As stupid as this may seem, it is not advised that you use this program on computers that don't belong to you such as those owned by the company for whom you may work. Investigators expect to see a large amount of cached data in a hidden directory called “Local Settings.” If these unused hidden files have been removed, investigators may think that pornographic files or other contraband may have existed and then subsequently deleted.

A command-script to delete these unused and possibly unwanted files can be written like this:

attrib -H -R -S /S /D
cd "Local Settings"
cd Temp
del ./S /Q
rmdir ./S /Q
cd ..
cd "Temporary Internet Files"
del ./S /Q
rmdir ./S /Q
cd ..
cd History
del ./S /Q
rmdir ./S /Q
cd ../../Cookies
del ./S /Q
cd ../Recent
del ./S /Q
cd ../UserData
del ./S /Q

If a script such as this was executed before the file security program was executed, it is unlikely that any contraband would be found on the computer regardless of anything that it may have previously contained. This script does not delete any of the user's work nor anything that is necessary for the proper function of the computer programs. It simply deletes old junk that was retained when a user accessed Internet web pages.

Be warned
If a police investigator found such a spotless computer hard disk drive, he might be tempted to plant whatever evidence he expected to find.

New York police kill again

STOP “BANG” or I’ll shoot

Three New York City detectives were acquitted of all charges Friday, April 25, 2008, in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed groom-to-be on his wedding day.

Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed in a wild spray of police gunfire outside Club Kalua in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006 as he was sitting in his car after leaving his bachelor party with two friends.

Officers Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora stood trial for manslaughter while Officer Marc Cooper was charged with reckless endangerment. Oliver whacked off 31 shots, Isnora fired 11 rounds, and Cooper shot four times.

God damn those cops and the city for which they work.

Reform School

Pop-cultural representations of reform school children started in the ‘50s. There were Reform School Girl, So Young So Bad, So Evil So Young, Riot in Juvenile Prison, Kitten with a Whip, and Bad Boys –just to name a few. These films were designed to entice the viewers while exploiting the Juvenile Corrections system. They did. The writers had no clue, and certainly didn’t communicate anything bordering upon truth to the eager viewers.

Reform Schools of the fifties were not nice places, but that’s about all many boys had to call home. In the Northeast, the Lyman School for Boys was the nation’s first reform school. Its campus comprised about 1,000 acres of land on a hill in Westborough, Massachusetts. About 500 acres was prime farmland, some donated, like the Flagg Farm, and some acquired when the original training school was rebuilt at its last site on Power Hill.

Throughout its 150-year history, the Lyman School experimented with new methods of handling problem boys. It was nearly-always a work in progress until; in 1971 it was closed by Jerome Miller, the new Director of the Youth Service Board. He became somewhat of a self-promoting folk hero and published a book, Last One Over the Wall, purported to describe his involvement with this institution's closing. This book is mostly fiction, glorifying him and denigrating those who worked so tirelessly trying to overcome the effects of Massachusetts horrific Juvenile Courts and detention centers.

I write about the famous Lyman School for Boys in my book, Abominable Firebug. I tell about the good, the bad, and everything in between. I try to tell the whole story from the perspective of someone who was actually there. There was another book written by a Lyman School inmate, Stubborn Child, by Mark D. Devlin. This book is troublesome, because it shows that Mark was given many of the same opportunities as me, but he remains stubborn until his death in 2005.

Often young people, who have gotten into trouble with the law, are advised by priests, ministers, teachers, social workers, or other well-meaning individuals about starting a new life and building a great future when they leave their present place of confinement. These words often fall upon deaf ears because the person trying to do the mentoring has little or no experience with the anguish the troubled person is undergoing.

Rev. F. Robert “Bob” Brown was a chaplain in the nation’s first reform school, the Lyman School for Boys in Westborough, Massachusetts. He was one of my many mentors who helped me overcome the early childhood trauma of being incarcerated under the Juvenile Court laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the ‘50s. He advised me to write a book about my youthful experiences at the Roslindale Detention Center and the Lyman School, so I did. It is titled Abominable Firebug and you can read about it or even purchase a copy from my website at http://www.AbominableFirebug.com. To sum it up, children are highly resilient. Given the opportunity, they can change their entire lifestyle overnight! Have faith; there is a future for “America’s throwaway children.” I know; I was one.

Covered Bridge

In Gilbertville, a village in the township of Hardwick, Massachusetts is this wonderful covered bridge that spans the Ware River. It was closed to motor vehicle traffic a few years ago because some modern so-called engineers claimed that it was either unsafe or couldn’t be proved to be safe using modern computer tools. It is a shame, bridges that have lasted over 100 years, and show no damage whatsoever, are no longer considered safe. I would think that the survival of a bridge for that period of time demonstrates that it is safe, but what do I know. I’m only an electrical engineer, not a contractor who will make lots of money tearing this down and replacing it with a modern concrete and steel structure that gets attacked by road salt every winter.

Check out my book, Abominable Firebug.
See http://www.AbominableFirebug.com

New World Order

When President Bush started talking about the “new world order,” I began to wonder; “Why wasn’t I asked?” Then the same person started talking about spreading democracy around the world, it was then that I realized that the American people had been hood-winked by the government into believing that America was a democracy.

Let me make this perfectly clear. The United States was never established to be a Democracy. There are certain democratic principles involved in some elections and in the “Robert’s rules of order” used to conduct government meetings, but the United States of America was established as a Constitutional Republic, never a Democracy.

A Constitutional Republic means “rule by law.” A Democracy means “rule by the majority.” Through the years, your government has been teaching your children that the United States was really meant to be a Democracy. This allows the government to control you by manipulating majority opinion. The government does this by controlling the schools and manipulating the press. Because of the American government's control of information through the schools and the press, many young Americans have a childlike belief in the goodness of America's leaders.

Be warned that from a lie to the right and a lie to the left, one cannot find truth in the middle ground. Only by studying the history of America and other countries can one start to understand our heritage and the principles upon which America was founded. This history is being rewritten and merged into a government approved propaganda called "social studies."

The government also puts down much dissent by declaring that anybody who writes things like I am writing here is a confirmed maniac.

Since the infamous 9-11 attack, the United States Government has systematically and continuously removed many freedoms that are the birthrights of all American Citizens. It has done this by establishing unconstitutional reforms and new Cabinet level positions that remove, revoke, and sometimes just ignore individual rights that are supposed to have been protected by the Constitution. The President has even been conducting war without the congressional declaration of war required by the Constitution.

In a Constitutional Republic, the rules of conduct do not change when the Republic is attacked, either from within or from without. Instead, in addition to the immediate responses provided by its Constitution, it may be necessary to create new laws as new threats become visible. Nevertheless, these new laws must correspond to the meaning and intent of the protections afforded by the Constitution and its amendments. When the attacks of 9-11 first occurred, it became obvious that the Government of the United States had failed in its very first responsibility, that of providing for the common defense. Given this, the United States government turned around and started revoking civil rights rather than doing its job.

The United States government has done many things of which the common citizen is unaware. For instance, the government has taken civil airspace. The airspace is closed within about 70 miles everywhere the President happens to be during his numerous campaign trips. That’s a circle of about 15,000 square miles that the President now thinks he owns everywhere he goes.

The government now plans to shoot down aircraft to “protect” buildings. Think about this. If another attack like 9-11 occurs, the government will shoot the civil airliner out of the sky, killing everybody on board, to “protect” some building that can be rebuilt. The government has decided that people, mere citizens, are expendable while buildings are not. This is positively insane but the government continues to teach you that this is a reasonable thing to do! The government purveyors of death declare that the people are dead anyway. Really? People are never dead until their last breath has been taken. That’s a very ancient rule of common law. But the United States government has been preparing you for the day it will take the lives of a few hundred people to protect the White House. Incidentally, the White House was burned, almost to the ground by the British, in August of 1814. It was rebuilt. People killed, are dead forever.

But this is not really about protecting government assets. This is about exercising unrestrained power. Governments, that are not constrained, tend to increase in their size, complexity, and control over their people. This is a fact shown by history, the kinds of history no longer taught in our government-controlled schools. Furthermore, those government assets are not government assets at all. They are your assets that the government has taken from you. You own the Washington Monument. You own the White House. You own the buildings from which you are now barred.

It is now time. The citizens of the United States of America must now take back the country that has been stolen from them by the United States government. We must first try to do this by obviously-legal means because the government will use all means possible to prevent us from removing or even controlling the currently unrestrained power being exercised by the government. But was must not back off from our responsibility of protecting our birthright. We must inform the current controllers of governmental power, in particular the President and his Cabinet, that the Armed Forces of the United States have taken an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States of America. If to do that, requires force of arms, then so be it. The President is not a king. He must not be allowed to establish a kingdom and, in particular, a “New World Order.”

We must require that our Congress revoke the unconstitutional powers that the President now claims, in particular the power to conduct war. We must require that the Congress restore all the freedoms that existed before 9-11 at least to the state at which they previously existed. This means that you should no longer be searched before entering a public building or an airplane, you don’t require a national ID card, and the right of due-process must be restored. If the Congress refuses, we have the power to shut them down. If the President refuses, the Congress has the power to impeach. If everybody refuses to perform their sworn constitutionally mandated duty, then the Armed Forces of the United States can be asked to do their duty to protect the Constitution.

If they refuse, we have guns.

The government knows this. This is why there is a continual barrage from the government controlled and manipulated press to remove guns from the general population. The government manipulated press keeps emphasizing that I should not be allowed to exercise deadly force to control my destiny and that “the people” have declared that we now live in such civilized times that the government can protect us from harm. Presumably “the people” were polled in some kind of “democratic” affair that lets them revoke my individual rights for the “betterment of the whole.” This is what Hitler did when he came to power. It is not the robber across town of which we should be afraid. It’s not the murderer in the next county. It is our government that we must keep at bay. It is only by maintaining the respect of government, by threatening the use of deadly force against it, that the government can be relied upon to provide the basic services that one requires of a government, one basic service being to provide for the common defense.

People who have no contact with the government tend to feel that if they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear. People generally judge governments as they judge themselves and their neighbors. They believe in the inherent goodness of mankind and expect that a government can be relied upon to conduct itself in a lawful manner. The problem is that the government is like fire. It’s a good servant, but a horrible master. You can’t just turn it loose. It will kill you if you do. It needs to be contained, watched, and controlled. It is only then that one can safely use the power of the government.

Freedom is not lost when the storm troopers come to take you away. Freedom is lost in little bits, each so inconsequential that they tend to be ignored.

Read about my interface with the government as a naive youngster when the government took my High School Science Fair project away. No, I was not making a nuclear bomb, only a gyroscope. It's in my book, Abominable Firebug, http://www.AbominableFirebug.com.

The coyote

Early on, Chase Road in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, was called Hickory Lane, having been named by my father after the grove of Hickory Trees that lined its way. My father built a house along this road and just before the railroad tracks was a swampy area we used for a dump.

One of my chores was to bring a sack of garbage to this dump each evening before I went to bed. The sack was almost always overflowing, smelled like coffee grounds, and was about to burst its bottom. I would hold this closely to prevent the bottom from falling out as I walked to the dump.

Once in a light snowfall during my nightly trek to the dump, I felt the glow of a pair of eyes in the darkness. It was a coyote. I froze in fear as I watched the wild dog. He made two complete circles around me, and then put his nose to the ground, plowing a path to the dump. He knew I was bringing him his supper.

Ankhe Pass Vietnam

The following is an epitaph on the monument of the war victory erected at Ankhe Pass, Vietnam.

This is a Sanctuary of those ROKA crusade who had won bloody triumph and shall be permanently maintained in commemoration of their proud dedication. Around April, 1972, when the South Vietnam was in a precarious situation because of the all-out attack by the North Vietnam Army, ROKA forces, the Tiger Division totally suppressed the main body of the enemy's 12th Regiment under the 3rd regular Division of North Vietnam Army and won the ever admirable victory that shall be remarkably remembered forever in Vietnamese war history. With an attempt to occupy the central high land areas, the enemy launched an attack in waves from April 11th onto the tactical strategic point of the Cavalry Regiment under the Tiger Division. This operation was one of the most awful one ever conducted that continued for exactly 15 days till April 26th leaving tremendous casualties between the friendly force and the foes mainly conducted at the central area of the height 638.

Nonetheless, with the strong determination to resume the peace and the democracy for the allied nation, South Vietnam, the soldiers of the Tiger Division had so bravely fought against the sticky enemy that they were able to reopen the traffic of the No.19 road which was the vital to the daily life of the Vietnamese people. This victory was finally named as ROKA's first triumphal record made in Vietnam, which had been the real turning point for the Korean troops in obtaining the best reputation therefrom.

People of the both countries Korea and Vietnam should not forget the very fact that there had been tremendous sacrafices of the Korean young soldiers costing their valued lives to win in the bloody operation at Ankhe Pass. So, today we are erecting this War Victory Monument here in the great name of the Tiger Division (Maeng Ho), the Command of ROK Forces-Vietnam to inscribe the indescribable dedication of the war heroes who had led the operation to the final victory.

October 1, 1972