12.09.2005

[Tech] Lisa 2005 - Day 7

LISA 2005 Trip Log: 12/09/2005
==================
Day 7 - Tech Sessions and Referreed Papers (Last Day)

Tech Sessions and Refereed Papers
-------------------------------
How Sysadmins Can Protect Free Speech and Privacy on the Electronic Frontier, by Kevin Bankston, Electronic Frontier Foundation

notes: EFF representative spoke about the legal ramification of electronic privacy.
The USA Patriot Act and the Internet:
-can get "whole online profile" with subpoena rather than court order
-pen-traps extended to the internet, but no clear distinction between routing/addressing/signaling and what is content
-reduced controls on national security related surveilleance like FISA and NSLs
-users cannot rely on the law to protect their online privacy, they have to rely on the SAs
-FISA gives forver gag orders on providers and forever no notice to target
-NSL; National Security Letter, legal "tool" of the FBI, no court oversight and minimal reporting to congress, no procedure to challenge, recent abuses by the FBI. Scary stuff, the FBI only has to prove to itself you are under suspicion to issue a NSL. Great question about the constitutionality of NSLs.
-DoJ is refusing to explain its limits of power in regards to electronic wiretap and do not have to report to Congress.
SysAdmins
-learn about the law
-teach users about tech
-minimize your logs (short-term retention policies, only keep what you need, review OSP best practices, develop procedures for dealing with legal requests)
-be the surveilleance gatekeeper (and the squeaky wheel), you can serve as a check against abuses of power
-support anonymizing technologies (like TOR)
FBI has stopped using carnivore.

links:

http://www.eff.org/osp

Tech Sessions and Refereed Papers
-------------------------------
Weblogs, Wikis, and RSS for System Administrators
by Jonas Luster, Socialtext, Inc.

notes:
Humans have a need to communicate and an amazing ability to adopt, adapt and improve upon new communication technologies.
Wikis, collaborative work, structure enforced by community standard, not code, fertile ground or wasteland theory?
If you provide an area for your users to contribute input, it can create a fertile area for ideas to grow.
Syndication, brings content out to the world, pushes it out.
If setting up an internal blog site, do not use a public blogging site. Also do not encourage syndication, as you could leak information out.
DSC; Disseminate, Syndicate, Collaborate.

links:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kmgaughan/esolang/index.html
http://wordpress.org/
http://www.jluster.org/

WIPs
-------------------------------
10 Works In Progress on a variety of topics from VNCmanager, to network traffic visualization, to user education.

-------------------------------
Dinner - Casa Guadalajara; excellent Mexican food
-------------------------------

Post-Conference. LOPSA had a party, but it was low-key. We had found a small libation place not far from here. The selection was not great, but peach cider was purchased. We then sat on a balcony on the 8th floor until late talking of life, technology, privacy, our jobs, what we would like to see in technology, our 'first time'...using UNIX. I feel to sleep the moment my head hit the pillow because the exhaustion of the past week had finally caught up with me.

12.08.2005

[Tech] Lisa 2005 - Day 6

LISA 2005 Trip Log: 12/08/2005
==================
Day 6 - Tech Sessions and Referreed Papers

Tech Sessions and Refereed Papers
-------------------------------
Refereed Papers

Toward a Cost Model for System Administration, by Alva L. Couch, Ning Wu, and Hengky Susanto, Tufts University

notes:
The intangible cost of system administration is approx proportional to the amount of time to complete requests.
Holy shit, perhaps one of the most mind blowing talks I have attended. Their findings show an elegant proof-positive of what most SAs feel.
Documentation is the best cure for long wait times (and hence reduces cost).
His results show that ticket trends follow a Poisson analysis.
He applies statistical analysis to determine average time to resolution.
Temporal conditional probability.
For <2 Admins available, you get a chaotic response to the request queue, whereas if you have 2 or greater, you get a better smoother response characteristic to the request queue. With 1 Admin, running at capacity, you cannot predict a recovery/uncontrolled model.

links:

Voluntary Cooperation in Pervasive Computing Services, by Mark Burgess and Kyrre Begnum, Oslo University Colle\ge

notes:
Systems are not computers, they are human-computer interactions.
Theory around decentralized management.
Hive and collective relationships.
links:

Network Configuration Management via Model Finding, Sanjai Narain, Telcordia Technologies, Inc.

notes:
links:

-------------------------------
Lunch - skipped
-------------------------------

Tech Session
-------------------------------
Network Black Ops: Extracting Unexpected Functionality from Existing Networks
by Dan Kaminsky, DoxPara Research

notes: rescheduled presentation of Wednesday.
IDS make a promise of security, but serious vulnerabilities exist due to limited packet-centric view.
Applications do not live in packet-space.
All major firewall vendors have their own weaknesses. No single tool right now can address all issues.
IPS systems should NOT ban invalid traffic.
DNS poisoning, used to selectively hijack network traffic.
Automatic network shunning very bad idea.

Dan has a tool to dynamic display interdepencies of active networks in a living, organism-like display. Was amazing to view even a small netowrk.
Streamed video via DNS...had to see it to believe it.

links:
http://www.doxpara.com/
http://www.prolexic.com/
http://www.securityfocus.com/pen-test
http://www.securitydocs.com/Vulnerability_Management/Auditing/Pen_Test
http://tor.eff.org/
http://www.doxpara.com/?q=/node/1129
http://www.adultswim.com/shows/robotchicken/

Plenary Session:
-------------------------------
Picking Locks with Cryptology, by Matt Blaze

notes:
Spoke 3 slides about mechnical locks and switch topics to eavesdropping, countermeasures, policy, and wiretapping.
TNEC (Trustyworthy Network Eavesdropping and Countermeasures) - NSF funded research project
Wiretaps for legal use, are broken into two types "Pen Register" and "Full Audio".
Wiretapping technologies:
-telco records; get phone records from telco, retrospective, like pen register
-loop extender/dialup slave; real-time connection to law enforcement
-CALEA/J-STD-025A; standard interface between agency and telco, new (1996)
Possesion of wiretapping equipment is a felony offense (18USC2512).

links:
http://www.countermeasures.pimall.com
security article
http://netsec.blogspot.com/

-------------------------------
Dinner - LISA Reception, buffet food, $500 of funny money, gambling. Met someone from a smaller regional hospital who uses some of the same tools we do.
-------------------------------

BoFs, did not make it to any of them because I went to the SUN Reception.

The SUN reception was a good choice. I was able to meet many, many, many talented people from SUN, from a kernel engineer to a tech writer for http://docs.sun.com (chief writer), to a security expert on PKI. My colleague and myself spent the better part of two hours engaged in very good discussion about OpenSolaris, OpenSPARC, Solaris 10, zones, patch management (updatemanager, smpatch, etc), systems management (SunMC), new technologies (T1) and cost vs power analysis of various platforms. I need to give a lot of credit to SUN for sending engineers and technical writers to this conference, it shows a committment to the SysAdmins and the engineers are able to get real-world experience (and ancedotes) about the products they work on.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. I miss home. The conference started out strange and slow, but these last few days have been what it is all about, SAs from all over the world, as well vendors, scientists, managers, and security experts coming together and sharing ideas and experiences. BoFs are nice, but I actually value the 'Hallway Track' more as you can get to know the other people on a personal level as well as a technical level. I will leave here this year with new contacts and a new friends.

12.07.2005

[Tech] Lisa 2005 - Day 5

Tutorials are over (for me). Today starts the tech sessions and the conference in full force. They opened the gates and the barbarian vendor hordes have arrived (but they have put them in their own room and left the window open a crack so they can breathe).

LISA 2005 Trip Log: 12/07/2005
==================
Day 5 - Tech Sessions and Referreed Papers

Tech Sessions and Refereed Papers
-------------------------------

Keynote - Scaling the Search, Dr Lu, Yahoo!

Tech Session 1 - AM

Invited Talk 2 - Network Black Ops: Extracting Unexpected Functionality from Existing Networks
Dan Kaminsky, DoxPara Research
[CANCELED, lecturer did not show]

Went to Refereed Papers:

GULP: Unified Logging Architecture for Authentication Data, by Matt Selsky adn Daniel Medina, Columbia University

notes: only keeps 28 days worth of data in Oracle DB, no archives, no backups, not ready for prime-time yet.
links:
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/networks/advanced/gulp/

Toward an Automated Vulnerability Comparison of Open Source IMAP Servers, by Chaos Golubitsky, Carnegie Mellon University
notes: IMAP vulnerability was determined by a weighting of the available f(x) calls via the network API and assigned a score. Interesting idea for analyzing potential security risks via complexity of code.
links:

Fast User-Mode Rootkit Scanner for the Enterprise, by Yi-Mon Wang and Doug Beck\, Microsoft Research
notes: very energetic speaker. They are scanning based on the principle of di\ffing a running system and a stopped system. On a running system a stealthy ro\otkit will hide itself from all the APIs, but it will still exist on disk, by s\canning a disk of a non-running system, you can now find the rootkit by what sh\ows up. If they don't hide, however, the GhostBuster tool cannot find it, but \other tools should be able to find it.
links:
http://research.microsoft.com/csm/strider/
http://research.microsoft.com/rootkit/
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/ghostbuster.html

-------------------------------
Lunch - Pizza in Fashion Valley...a strange place. Had lunch with SAs from Sweden, very informative, good exchange of ideas and culture.
-------------------------------

Tech Session 2 - Afternoon
INVITED TALKS I - What Big Sites Can Learn from Little Sites, by Tom Limoncelli, Cibernet Corp.

notes:
links:

Afternoon break - bought a few tech books, wander through the barbarian vendors hordes.

Referreed Papers:

About the Integration of Mac OS X Devices into a Centrally Managed UNIX Environment, by Anton Schultschik, ETH Zurich

notes:
links:
http://isg.ee.ethz.ch/tools/tetre2/
http://www.sepp.ee.ethz.ch/
http://isg.ee.ethz.ch/tools/
http://isg.ee.ethz.ch/tools/isgtc/ (great idea for work)

RegColl: Centralized Registry Framework for Infrastructure System Management, by Brent ByungHoon Kang, Vikram Sharma, and Pratik Thanki, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

notes:
links:
http://isr.uncc.edu

Herding Cats: Managing a Mobile UNIX Platform, by Maarten Thibaut and Wout Mertens, Cisco Systems, Inc.

notes:
links:

Evening:

Dinner was the Mexifest sponsored in the vendor room. Good hallway discussions.

NetApp/Symantec/Decru Mixer. Good times had by all.

12.06.2005

[Tech] Lisa 2005 - Day 4

LISA 2005 Trip Log: 12/06/2005
==================
Day 4 - Tutorial T7, T12

Breakfast

-------------------------------
T7 - Over the Edge System Administration
by David N. Blank-Edelman
-------------------------------
goal: learn to think outside of the box to solve SA related problems and new approaches to SA concepts.

OUT OF THE BOX: Due to 'inetd' any program can be a network program (i.e. iostat).

IDEA: Use laptops to monitor UPSes.

IDEA: Laptops for DR purposes (put all documentation and whatever is needed on DVD and laptop and ship to a secure site).

Brutal File Manager - DOOM style interface to delete/manage files.

WWW::Mechanize::Shell - cli interface via perl to web pages

IDEA: GrokItBot as a tool to query systems...hook the bot from a system to IRC

DBD::AnyData - turns any data into db queries

SexChart - illustration of out of the box ways to represent interdependencies between things.

Website for status for downtime.

Rendevous at a trusted host:
ssh -R 4321:localhost:80 trustedmachine
ssh -L 80:localhost:4321 trustedmachine


-------------------------------
Lunch - light pasta salad and Mahi-Mahi
-------------------------------
sat in the sun.

-------------------------------
T12 - Solaris 10 Security Feature Workshop
by Peter Galvin
-------------------------------

Research FLAR w/ master + differential updates;
Master - base OS + EIS patch set
--->diff 1 - VxVM/VxFS pkgs installed but not configured


T7 links:
Rory Blyth - Neopoleon.com
monotone: distributed version control
Welcome to the home of the Brutal File Manager
Peek-a-Boo Overview
psDooM: DooM for Sys A&#39;s
URLToys/.flux Homepage!
MaLinux
SourceForge.net: AVFS: A Virtual Filesystem
Gmail Filesystem
lesspipe, an addon for the browser less
Infobot Homepage
Ofnibot
Flooterbuck Infobot - A modular infobot
B L O O T B O T . H O M E
Suttree » GrokItBot
Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech » Must Read: 122 Ways to Speed Up Windows XP
Peep: The Network Auralizer
AAJM
nilsimsa
XML.com: Working with Bayesian Categorizers
the sexchart archive
Code
Sitemap for The Treehouse - Trygve Lode&#39;s official site with movie trailers, music videos, mp3 files, and more
cvoid - big giant television
LAFFEY: spinner
Disk Space Problems (Perl for System Administration)
http://www.otterbook.com/materials/lisa02nph2-src.txt
Developments of the Honeyd Virtual Honeypot
Sys Admin > Spam Supplement 2004
http://smtptrapd.inodes.org/
PORTKNOCKING - A system for stealthy authentication across closed ports. : ABOUT : summary
portknocking
sexpathchar.tgz
rsyncBackup
duplicity: Main
rsnapshot
Welcome to Dirvish
BackupPC: Open Source Backup to disk
murk
Unison File Synchronizer
Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Rsync
Holy Shmoly! :: Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Rsync
Distributed Internet Backup System
Magic Mirror Backup(tm)
312&#39;s Home Page
Advanced OpenSSH
autossh
fsh -- Fast remote command execution
Punching holes into firewalls
Anti-Proxy - infoAnarchy Wiki
SSHKeychain - About
How MUD&#39;s Work, MUD Design
DoxPara Research

T12 links:
Home at OpenSolaris.org
blogs.sun.com


I had some documents I needed to sign and fax and I had a bit of hilarity tonight. First, the Town and Country Resort business center is terrible (and horribly expensive). The computers were down, they do not have a networked printer and printing was $1/page and faxing was $10/3 pages. I decided against it, so I called the local Kinkos. Kinkos must have been undergoing some kind of regional DoS, virus attack, or system upgrade because all self-serve computers within a relatively close distance of the resort were down. They could print my document, but it would be a 5-10 wait as they are backed up and this is their busiest time of year. Screw that.

Tonight more BoFs and Quest for Food II - the Hunger.

BoFs:
-------------------------------
Mac OSX


Logging and Logfile Analysis


Beer and Ice Cream Social

Invigorating hallway discussion on a wide topic of subjects, Security, 55808 packets, science, science history, mathematics, Active Directory vs LDAP, the finer points of good beers, ales, lagers and beverages of all types.

News:

Sun Microsystems has announced that it will be open sourcing SPARC.

12.05.2005

[Tech] Lisa 2005 - Day 3

Tutorials
-------------------------------
M7 - Security Without Firewalls
by Abe Singer
-------------------------------

Lunch - took a nap, watched 'Underworld' Extended Unrated Edition

-------------------------------
M14 - The Latest in Hacking Tools & Techniques
by David Rhoades
-------------------------------

M14 was an outstanding tutorial. The lecturer put it together as a multi-media session and real demo of tools.

links from M14:
State of Oregon vs Randal Schwartz computer security case
Maven Security Consulting Inc - Info Security Consulting & Training Services - Home
The Cross-Site Scripting Virus
Tsunami hacker convicted | Channel Register
Teen jailed over Paris Hilton hack
Keyboard-emanations.org
Cassandra: index.html
WiGLE - Wireless Geographic Logging Engine - Plotting WiFi on Maps
WiGLE Google Map
Airsnarf - A rogue AP setup utility
Airsnarf - Rogue Squadron
The Shmoo Group
Wi-Fi phishing scam targets business travelers - Computerworld
FrSIRT Exploits and 0day-exploits
The Metasploit Project
http://www.sensepost.com/research/bidiblah/
SensePost
SpiderFoot
Knopper.Net Consulting
IWHAX - News
News - Rexploit
PHLAK :: [P]rofessional [H]acker&#39;s [L]inux [A]ssault [K]it - :: News
VoPSecurity - Home
New Caller I.D. spoofing site opens
http://www.shmoo.com/idn/
Spotting the pharming websites - IT Security News - SC Magazine UK
Description of a new feature that users can use to read non-digitally-signed e-mail or nonencrypted e-mail as plain text in Office XP SP-1
How Not to Get Hooked by a â~@~XPhishingâ~@~Y Scam

---end links---
5 of us played a little game last night called 'Quest for Food' as we toured portions of San Diego in search of a good meal. We were only 50% successful.

The BoFs (Birds of a Feather) sessions started to night. Saw a really good one by some authors at MAKE magazine, might have to get myself a subscription.

I put my feet in the pool and watched the stars.

12.04.2005

[Tech] LISA 2005 - Day 2

System down at work back home.

Tutorial
-------------------------------
S8 - Issues in UNIX Infrastructure Design
by Lee Damon
-------------------------------

S8 links:
NIKOLA Disk Layout Plan
19th Large Installation System Administration Conference (LISA &#39;05)
LISA&#39;05 Wiki: Home Infrastructures.Org: Best Practices in Automated Systems Administration and Infrastructure Architecture: Home
Bootstrapping an Infrastructure
Syslog-ng faq
Products :: BalaBit IT KFT ::
Cfengine - an adaptive configuration engine
NIKOLA
Nagios: Home
Condor Project Homepage
Sun N1 Grid Engine 6
PBS Professional 7.0
OpenPBS
Logging with syslog-ng
OpenAFS
The Berkeley Automounter Suite of Utilities
LPRng Web Page
---end links---

goals: know the questions to ask about considerations for planning UNIX infrastructures. A philosphy class, not to teach answers, but questions.

Lunch: conference provided...mexican...bad mexican

Over lunch checked out the grounds. This place is kind of like a cross between fantasy island and something from a bad 70s movie. Found a large shopping complex behind the property and a small creek with ducks.

Trip to Fry's Electronics...geek world.

Spent some time in Scripps Medical Center with a friend attending the conference (minor pool accident). The ER, late at night was...interesting. A woman told me the gov't is trying to kill me and that she is tired of all the 'reptile alien bullshit.'

This conference has not had a dull moment.

[Tech] LISA 2005 - day 1

Travel Day

Left MN in a blizzard to arrive in San Diego with clear, 61F weather.

Picked up my registration material and my 'tags'; Sheriff, Scribe, Has Been

Met a Sys Admin from Norway named Stieg.

My hotel room overlooks a pool...sweet!

11.27.2005

[Musings] "I should have some pudding..."

I re-watched a 'art film' made by an old co-worker and friend (Avindair who does the Northmisfit blog), the film was 'The Thing that Happened'. Absurd, bizarre, ludicrous...french. These are all words that can be used to describe this movie.

"I am dreaming of sweet monkey love."

11.25.2005

[Tech] 1 keyboards, 2 hosts

A co-worker of mine turned me on to a product called 'Synergy' which is a software KVM type switch. It is very nice. I allows me to use one keyboard on mouse on multiple machines.

Here is my setup:

laptop (left client): Mac OSx 10.4.2

workstation (host): Solaris 10

My workstation (solaris 10 host) is the Synergy server (we will call it host1 to protect the innocent). My laptop is a synergy client (we will call it client1 to protect the innocent). I downloaded the source code for synergy and compiled it. On my laptop (client1) I let it install (./configure, make, sudo make install) into the default /usr/local/bin, on my workstation (host1) I compiled it and installed it into /opt/synergy/bin. Synergy on non-windows requires that you create a config file. Here is my synergy.conf file:

---start synergy.conf---
section: screens
host1:
client1:
meta = alt
end
section: links
host1:
left = client1
client1:
right = host1
end
section: aliases
client1:
client1.mydomain.edu
host1:
host1.mydomain.edu
end

I then started the server on host1:

/opt/synergy/bin/synergys -f -c /opt/synergy/bin/synergy.conf

(note synergy's default behavior is to background in daemon mode, the -f keeps it in the foreground, which is useful for testing). I didn't receive any errors, so I moved on to my laptop where I started the client:

/usr/local/bin/synergyc -f host1

I saw a successful connection message on the server and poof! I was linked! But this is not very secure, as things are passed unencrypted. But wait! Here is where my trusty friend SSH came in. I tunnelled the traffic over SSH between my two systems and it worked.

I used this link as a guide, but found that the example synergy.conf did not completely work for my mix of Solaris, OSX and synergy, so I did things a little differently (see my .conf above).

My procedure was this:

1. start synergy server on host1 at port 7777
/opt/synergy/bin/synergys -a host1.mydomain.edu:7777 -c /opt/synergy/bin/synergy.conf

2. establish a ssh tunnel from client1 to host1 with my user account
ssh -f -N -L1024:host1.mydomain.edu:7777 myname@host1

3. start synergy client on client1 and point to localhost:1024

4. enjoy

Helpful tips:
* make sure you enable port forwarding on the SSHD config
* use the same versions of synergy on all systems
* setup authorized ssh keys on each system to allow you to connect back and forth with minimal fuss, but this method works without them as well
* add the 'meta = alt' part under the OSX entry if you are using a SUN type keyboard and want to use the 'meta' (diamond shaped key) as the apple 'command' key.

11.24.2005

[Commerce] Outta the red, and into the black; they give you this, but you pay for that...

(...And once you're gone, you can never come back - couldn't resist)

A little reminder that Friday is 'Buy Nothing Day' in the US and Canada, and Saturday on pretty much the rest of the planet.

This little made up protest day marks the day usually known as 'Black Friday', during which you can see the trained seals of American consumerism barking for discount fish at five in the morning. Yes, you haven't shopped till you drop until you've gotten into a shoving match over the last pair of 40% off golf-tee patterned boxer shorts at 7am. My understanding is it is the day quite a few businesses go from debt to profitability in any given year (thus, out of the red ink and into the black in their ledgers...)

If you must hit the sales, be kind to your fellow shoppers and remember that about half the people on this planet live on less than $2 a day. Be thankful of your lot in life the previous day, eh (and all the others if you can). A very Happy Thanksgiving to all. You can get anything you want at Alice's Tofurkey Shack.

11.23.2005

[Politics] Chavez to give cheap heating oil to poor

Kudos to Venezuela.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4461946.stm


We (America) could learn a thing or two from actions such as this. Remember when we used to things called 'Humanitarian Aid'? For no reason other than goodwill and to help those truly in need? I've noticed that as this country becomes more right and more 'christian', humanitarian actions are becoming more and more infrequent. The ones that are done, have ulterior motives or strings attached (remember Bush's pledge of money to Africa for AIDS? Only if they buy name-brand drugs, only if they push a religious agenda, and so on).

Remember America when we used to be cool?

11.21.2005

[Antidisestablishmentarianism] I am current on my salon reading

An excellent article about the non-war over xmas(a battle not-fought between the secular and the religious)

[Tech/Politics/Music] So I am back logged on my Slate reading...

Excellent article about hot barely-legal, nearly free mp3 on mp3 action!

[Humor] I am...

The NorthernMisfit blog has got me hooked on these cheesy 'what are you...' things, so here are a few more for me:

You're Nada from They Live.
They Live.


Which B-Movie Badass Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


ICQ
HEY! You're ICQ! The once trendy instant messenging
service, you are now more widely used by people
who can actually figure you out. A very hard
nut to crack for the basic user, you tend to be
used by those more sophisticated and web savvy.
Unfortunately for you, you are known merely by
a number. No way cool trendy screennames for
you, pal. 'You will be assimilated.
Resistance is futile'


Which Instant Message Service are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

HASH(0x8b47cbc)
You're crazy! YAY!
Now, if the world had more people like you, we'd be
cultivating chocolate and the ozone would be a
thing of the past.
^_^ Have a nice day.


Insanity Test
brought to you by Quizilla


HASH(0x8d341cc)
The Land of Darkness

The Land of Darkness is your dreary home. Your life
is bleak and sinister. You are prone to
depression. You feel anger at the world and you
feel like the victim. Everyone is out to get
you. You have no problem showing your emotions,
and you probably show them in a destructive
way. You might have no objections to causing
other people pain as you put yourself through
pain. You probably cut or mutilate your body.
However, deep down you are lost and crying out
for help. You are a small weeping child with
the hard exterior of a person who has been
through extreme sorrow in their life.


What is the mystical land of your birth? {13 results with gorgeous anime pics}
brought to you by Quizilla


potions
Snape - Potions


Harry Potter: Which Hogwarts professor would you be?
brought to you by Quizilla

11.19.2005

[Science] Deja Vu explained

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/16nov_gpb.htm?list766847

[Video] Beck's 'Hell Yes'

You must see the dancing robots!

http://beck.com/media/video.php?id=00019

[Musings] Where the hell am I?

Oh yeah that's right...waking from a long dream. In my dream I was in a fantastical world. I was standing on a cliff overlooking the turbulence. I was 17. The turbulence represented the unknowable future. I grew wings...and JUMPED. I dived head long into the future. I caught the first updraft and faltered but recovered slightly. I started to rise, but like Icarus, suddenly my wings did not melt, but broke and I started to plummet. I fell through time.

This was a dream I used to have when I was in my junior and senior year of high school. I had this dream again the other night. This time, I was incorporeal and at great heights watching myself standing on the cliff. I watched myself jump and try to fly but fall. I fell for a long long time. My older self watched from a distance and I remembered past pains. I saw myself fall into a dark abyss and when I could almost not see myself any more, bright points of light surrounded me and helped me to learn to fly.

I know this dream sounds a bit cliche. But serious, it is what I had, and could remember. I know it is filled with a lot of obvious symbolism. But that is how I've felt lately, like I've awoken from a long dream. The last time I had this feeling it was after I stopped working nights. I had worked nights for 5 years. A year after I switched to a day shift I suddenly realized I could only remember bits and pieces of my life from the previous 5 years. All the real memories had the feeling and consistancy of a dream.

Well enough of the pyscho-metaphysical babblings. Here is a snapshot of my intellectual pursuits at the moments:

Reading list:

Understanding Power - Collected speeches of Noam Chomsky
International Spy Museum Handbook of Practical Spying - by the International Spy Museum
Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone - J.K. Rowling
The Truth (with Jokes) - Al Franken
The Bush Dyslexicon - Mark Crispin Miller
The Only Bush I Trust is my Own - Periel Aschenbrand

What am I drinking RIGHT NOW: 20oz Mocha at J&S Bean Factory (support your local coffeeshop!)

Current playlist on iTunes:

zstuff (an eccelectic mix of damn near everything, current song is 'Circle Dream' by 10k Maniacs, next song is 'Candy Everybody Wants' by 10k Maniacs)

Activities planned tonight: NERD NIGHT!!! (or MN-Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con)

11.17.2005

[Rantacular] Northwest Airlines

I am waiting for nerdwife to fly back into Rochester. NWA let her book an early flight home, which was awesome because we could then spend some time before going to the midnight Harry Potter. But no, due to their total incompetence (they could not figure out how to get a jetway to connect to a DC-9, because that is an unusual type of plane?), her flight was over an hour late into MSP, which means she missed her connecting flight to Rochester. Those asses then had the gaul to try and charge her $180 to rebook on a flight that now arrives at 10:08pm. $180 for their fuck-up?!?! I am glad they reconsidered. Because that is not only bad customer service, but extortion (according to nerdwife, only 5 people on a full flight actually made their connecting flight, everyone else was in the same situation as her). Northwest, I will dance on your grave when you finally give up the ghost. You've screwed the citizens of MN long enough. We've bailed you out at least twice. How do you repay us? 15% higher fares out of MSP than elsewhere. You busted your Mechanics Union with an underhanded and in my opinion, unethical manipulations of contract negotiations. I have not had an enjoyable flight with you myself since 2000, when I was on a flight back from Philadelphia that had only 10 people on board. I have started telling everyone that Sun Country Airlines is a much, much, much more enjoyable air travel experience. Granted they do not go to everywhere you do, but they at least treat you like a person, have a smile, and feed you a warm meal (even in coach). If I have to fly somewhere else, there is always United, while having a lot of the same issues as you, at least has larger seats.

[Humor] I am latin

Saw this on the Northern Misfit blog and had to try it.

Calliope, Muse of epic poetry
You are 'Latin'. Even among obsolete skills, the
tongue of the ancient Romans is a real
anachronism. With its profusion of different
cases and conjugations, Latin is more than a
language; it is a whole different way of
thinking about things.

You are very classy, meaning that you value the
classics. You value old things, good things
which have stood the test of time. You value
things which have been proven worthy and
valuable, even if no one else these days sees
them that way. Your life is touched by a
certain 'pietas', or piety; perhaps you are
even a Stoic. Nonetheless, you have a certain
fascination with the grotesque and the profane.
Also, the modern world rejects you like a bad
transplant. Your problem is that Latin has
been obsolete for a long time.


What obsolete skill are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

11.16.2005

[Idea] The Cookbook for the Busy Person

Nerdwife has been out of town for a week so I have been going solo. She is an excellent cook and is the one who usually cooks meals, but while alone I have re-discovered my cooking side from my bachelor days (post-ramen noodles, pre-married).

Here is a simple recipe to gourmet up some pasta and red sauce. Others please contribute your quick and easy recipes.

Fancee Pasta w/ Red Sauce:
Ingredients:
1 container of red pasta or spaggehti sauce (any kind, I use Muir Glen, but that is me)
1 can of chopped tomatoes (well drained, I prefer Muir Glen canned tomatoes)
some amount of pasta
1 partial onion chopped (optional)
at least 1 clove of garlic or garlic powder (optional)
shredded/grated/pulverized cheese of your choice (optional)
fire extinguisher (just in case)
intoxicating beverage

Boil pasta per instructions, or just wing it until you think it is done. Note there is a difference between boil and roiling boil and simply just warm water.

Strain pasta and put aside for now.

Heat red sauce, once sauce starts bubbling add the WELL strained tomatoes (you really need well strained otherwise it is too liquidy). Heat to a bubble, then simmer for about 5 minutes or so to let some of the moisture go away.

Add onions and garlic to taste, kicked it up a notch with some hot peppers. If you screw it up, there is always pizza delivery.

Put pasta on a plate, cover to desired amount with sauce (or just eat sauce out of pot) and cheese and anything else you want.

Eat and drink.

Note if you catch something on fire, use the fire extinguisher.

11.14.2005

[Politics] Bill O'Reilly is an ass

Seriously, major ass. He pushes an agenda of hate and jingoism that he calls patriotism.

Here is a good example: O'Reilly to San Francisco

[Tech/Funny] Kill Bill's Browser

Bloody genius.

http://www.killbillsbrowser.com/

11.11.2005

[TV] Kill your [TV]

{incoherent rant} Two months ago I had I 27" TV hooked up in my apartment. It dominated the main wall of my living space. It was the central frame of the room. All the furniture was situated around viewing angles.

It was gathering dust.

I'm not quite sure when it was that I realized it was a waste of time and valuable apartment real estate, but it only took me a couple of days to come to a conclusion of what to do with it.

I pitched it. Recycled it, actually, since CRT TVs have quite a lot of lead and other toxic chemicals in them.

I haven't had too much reason to regret my decsion. I kept a tiny 9" tv for emergencies, but it mostly resides in the back of a linen closet.

The state of television programs in the US is as bad as it has been at any point, perhaps no better or worse. To say the least, that is pretty lousy. Television has a grade average of about D+ most of the time. Sure, there might be a couple things that it does well, but most of the time it is just coasting, not living up to its potential as a medium.

First of all, television has been shortened to record-low times in the pursuit of more and more advertising time. Hour long shows now are only a little more than 40 minutes (I think the average is like 41 minutes now). One of the most compelling reasons to ditch your TV is to ditch the crappy adverts that break into your mental landscapes like a burglar in combat boots. If the bulk of Western civilization were selling anything I had any interest in buying, I might consider it a service. But they sell shit. Crappy worthless shit. Plus perscription drugs (for examples, see any evening national news program). They sell it using the most asinine and hackneyed techniques. There is no doubt that the people who write ads also write for television.

Second, most people consider cable TV a given now. $50-100 a month!? Are they kidding? Plus, a quick preview of what's on should tell you that cable TV is mostly more of the same crap the broadcast networks spout. I will not pay $60 a month for TCM and the Sci-Fi channel. My parent's recently got Dish Network, and mostly the only useful channel is the Sirius sattelite radio channels. Even that, as a stand-alone is $10 or $15 a month. Better to give that to Minnesota Public Radio, who actually play decent music.

Third, television programmers have shit for brains. I'd like to make a special shout out to the programming folks at FOX, who kill everything I love. FU Fox!

I mean seriously, Fox cannot market Arrested Development, probably the funniest show on television in a decade, and yet they'll cancel it and hope for lots of long term profits with 'Prison Break' (which has insufficient long-term prospects to warrant a miniseries, much less a series - let me give you a hint 'they break out and the show is over or they don't break out and you drag the show to death over rough asphault). Other networks fill their dead air with terrible soap operas that are almost more product placement examples and less actual story (boy meets girl, meetings and partings, TNA, numbskull beergut dads). Worst of all is when rank amateurs like J. J Abrams is given a bunch of shows and tons of people watch them, hoping he has some idea of where it is all going (he doesn't - see Alias post season 1 for proof). It isn't much better than this.

I'd normally bitch that broadcast TV cannot do scifi without cancelling it, but it actually seems like a couple networks have gone and done scifi this season. Too bad all the new shows look terrible. The networks want to replicate the success of the first five or six season of The X-Files (now, sadly, starting to look awfully dated), so they even retry Kolchak The Night Stalker, which the X-Files itself ripped off (and I should mention that the original Kolchak only lasted 20 episodes.) The only half-decent (and I am fearful that it really is only half) fairly new scifi is Battlestar Galactica on SciFi, which is better than the original but going in a very disconcerting direction. To confirm it, Hollywood is pretty much out of ideas, and anything new or cool will be killed swiftly (probably by Fox).

The FCC wants to sell off the multibillion dollar spectrum and have everyone switch to digital tv/hdtv. Then you can spend money to buy a digital tv or converter so you can watch hi def signals of shallow crap. $5000 for a plasma tv? I don't think so. Unplug instead. There is a whole world out there.

The benefits of ditching the tele as a foreground aspect of your life include the ability to take back your time and your ability to entertain yourself. Read a book. Play a musical instrument. Buy a puppy. Write something. See a play (plays are better than tv). Learn a skill. Seriously, at some point it is a good idea to stop bowing down to the altar of passive entertainment. You might even learn how to think for yourself again.

Plus it will free up some wall space.

{/ end of rant}

11.10.2005

[Politics] Congrats to St Paul

Citizens of Saint Paul, good for you! I lived as a resident of St Paul for 12 years and had to live under the gentle (as in date rape) ministration of the Coleman and Kelly as mayors of that fine city.

It brought a tear to my eye to see Randy Kelly so overwehlmingly defeated.

11.08.2005

[Politics] 53%

53%

Even with a 2.9% margin of error, that means the support is over half.

11.04.2005

[Interblogy Linkify] Graveyard of Urban Tanks

Check it out...

That is both very sad and very funny.

10.26.2005

[Musings] Blogspam

Well blogspam is not cool, nor is the fact those ass-clowns have harvested the emails for members from the profiles to send spam to them.

Despite this, I have resumed anonymous postings. I hated the limitations that the anti-spam measures imposed. I wanted this blog to be a sort of free-for-all for its members.

I will continue to delete the blogspam comments, unless I find them funny, from now on. But I will not re-enable the verification systems unless it becomes a problem.

10.24.2005

[Musings] Oncallapus

Oncallapus (n) - 1. A greater demon from the depths of hell. Noted for its perverse pleasure to alter the daily life of mortals. Works through minor minions known as Bleepelots, vile small rectangular shaped entities known for the constant attention needs, annoying siren call, and tickling vibrations.

10.20.2005

[TechZen] How to recover from serial split brain...

From http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/269233.htm

At this stage, you need to gain confidence prior to running the recommended command...

10.16.2005

[Film] The Stars are Right!

I just picked up a copy of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's silent film adaptation of "The Call of Cthulhu" on DVD. Based on the best known short story by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, this has long been regarded as unfilmable. It has multiple locations, a cast of dozens, and requires a deft touch. Most Lovecraft film adaptations have been, well, lets face it, pretty terrible (with occasional okay standouts like 'Dagon'). So it seems a real gamble to do a faithful low budget black and white silent film version of a story that is supposed to take place in the 1920's (thus befitting said treatment).

Boy did it pay off.

Wow. It was even better than I expected. It would be difficult to imagine any authentic looking twenties style silent film being done at all anymore, much less one as pitch perfect as this one. From the old style effects and rendering tricks (scale, fx), a noir atmosphere, background music, even to such details as the scratching of the negative, the typefaces on the placards (in 24 languages to boot!), almost every detail was painstakenly done to look authentic. This project was clearly in the hands of folks who "get" Lovecraft, and wanted to do something that didn't betray the imagery and story. It comes off as part twenties silent film, part noir, part suspense film, part low-budget indie, Brechtian play, Wiene-esque Expressionistic nightmare, and part Ray Harryhausen inspired madness. All of it comes off as a labor of love, and a hell of a lot more than I ever would have expected given their budget and the less than stellar past Lovecraftian adaptations to rise from the depths of R'lyeh. The effects are seriously old school, consistent with what you might have seen in a real 1920's silent film (and the more modern effects are pretty seamless, and the acting is better than in the 20's!). It is also amazing what you can get away with in black and white. Some of the scenes are just surreal. The film runs 47 taut minutes.

If you are a Lovecraft fan you will absolutely shiver when you see Cthulhu emerge.

DVD was ordered direct. $20, and shipping was $1.31 A great value. Even my receipt came on paper that looks like a Lovecraftian inspired 1920's telegram. The details are everything. This film was done by a lot of dedicated folks not making a lot of money over the space of two years. Lovecraft fans should support projects like this. Here is the trailer.

If you like Lovecraft, reread "The Call of Cthulhu", then pop this movie in and enjoy.

10.08.2005

[Special] Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary Nerdwife!

Thank you for six wonderful years, the good, the bad, my gas...

Here's to many many more.

10.02.2005

[Musings] On difficult reading and pasta; including some digressions. With regards to Ben Marcus.

I recently read Ben Marcus' excellent folio in this month's Harper's magazine, entitled "Why experimental fiction threatens to destroy publishing. Jonathan Franzen, and life as we know it." I was so taken with this article that I am considering sending it to everyone I know and irritating them with persistent emails and an excess of lengthy voicemail messages until it has been read by all. In fact, reader, the only way to stave off this threat may be go find Harper's now. But first, a laudatory comment or two.

This outstanding discourse reflects on the damage perpetuated by outspoken advocates of popularized, popcorn-worthy fiction (namely, Jonathan Franzen, but he is far from alone in this enterprise). Should you be unfamiliar with this debate, I will attempt to summarize nearly two decades' worth of interviews, articles, blogs and commentary in two sentences. The argument essentially states that the role of fiction is to entertain as many people as possible by utilizing straightforward narratives, character complexities easily derived from their childhoods, and predictable plot twists and resolutions all neatly packaged in a setting as familiar as my mother's favorite stoneware. Fiction which strays from this well-worn path is dangerous, generally worthless and needlessly difficult (in Marcus' words, "disturbingly masturbatory").

Marcus' 2002-ish novel Notable American Women is an example of the difficult fiction decried by Franzen. This is a book so delectable that I am, even now, pleasurably lolling in memories of favorite phrases and passages. This is also a book that I have never recommended to anyone. It is a celebration of, and trial in, uses of language. The characters are at (most) times inscrutable; the plot is meant to be inferred by the reader; the narrator, unreliable... in short, this is not a book destined to be read by, say, my mother.

This should not detract from this book's value, both as art and as entertainment. By discouraging readership of esoteric, experimental, or otherwise narrow-audience fiction, Franzen threatens to deprive the literature world of significant works. Homogeneity is comforting but makes for a life of poor reading, in my estimation. Admittedly, I am a difficult and often contrary person (as confirmed by my poor husband), and often inclined to embrace ill-advised enterprises (cf my present thesis work). But does this make my tastes less valid than those of anyone else?

Consider dining with my mother. Mom is a bona fide culinary genius- she can make anything tasty. Our tastes in pasta diverge significantly, however. What is an al dente masterpiece to me is merely chewy to her. My mother also enjoys romance novels, so much so that she hasn't read anything else for most of my life. Indeed, I have been known to partake in the Harlequin goodness. Some days, I just need reassurance that although fate separated them at the alter, Drew finds Spencer as damnably desirable as ever, and will make her his on their quest for rare antiquities.... But I also need the toothsome enjoyment of (allegedly) difficult fiction. And spaghetti alla pepperocino. Often at the same time.

I propose an exchange. I will eat Mom's pasta (and like it), and continue to read nearly everything that crosses my path; I will also endorse "difficult" works, even to lovers of straightforward fiction. In return, readers, please support rare fiction enterprises by reading them, recommending them, and not listening to the grinding uniformity endorsed by some in the literary enterprise. Preserve the beauty of literature by reading something different!

Sláinte- to your reading health.

[Music] Arcade Fire

Went to the Arcade Fire concert at 1st Ave last Thursday. Amazing, simply awesome, actually the best concert I have been to in a long time.

It recharged my sould.

Also, the men's bathroom at 1st Ave is very interesting, you can urinate while watch traffic outside.

9.26.2005

[Musings] Depression, the mistress of happiness.

Depression.

Depression, in everyday language, refers to any downturn in mood, which may be relatively transitory and perhaps due to something trivial. This is differentiated from clinical depression which is marked by symptoms that last two weeks or more and are so severe that they interfere with daily living.

In the field of psychiatry the word depression can also have this meaning but more specifically refers to a mental illness when it has reached a severity and duration to warrant a diagnosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) states that a depressed mood is often reported as being: "... depressed, sad, hopeless, discouraged, or 'down in the dumps'."

In a clinical setting, a depressed mood can be something a patient reports (a symptom), or something a clinician observes (a sign), or both.


Depression is the mistress, the secret lover of happiness. It is the yang of ying. The darkness to the light.

9.20.2005

[Image] You will not see this in American media.


This graphic image found on the BBC News website I think illustrates the hell of war and what our soldiers are going through. Granted this is a British soldier, but our troops face no less of a threat.

Full story here.

Thanks to the Bush Administration, our media has been 'sanitized' of any offending images. We will not see the horror and cost of war. We will not see the flag draped coffins. And if it wasn't for the efforts of media (by that I mean CNN's legal action against the gov't for the right to show these images), we would never see the images of the dead in New Orleans.

Just because we do not see the bad things that happen in this world, it does not mean that bad things don't happen. Wake up America.

9.19.2005

[Yarrr!!!!!] Shit, almost forgot...

Today be talk like a pirate day all you sons of scuvious dogs!

Buckets-o-blood on me poop-deck!

Best pirate-ninja connection...EVAR!!!!

Right here.

[Musings] Why I can't piece two sentences together.

I've been suffering from writers block again, severely. I don't know why, I have a lot of pent up rants and observations crying to be birthed unto the world. I think it might be the fact I have worked almost everyday for two weeks and am thoroughly exhausted. It might be because I was dissed by a vendor at work (revenge is a dish best served chilled, with a cheese and cracker tray). But mostly I think it might be because it is a full moon.

Now before you laugh, I've been doing an observational experiment over the last few months and my productivity does go down the 3 days around and during a full moon. I get absent minded, I loose my ability to form cogent thoughts and sentences, and I make stupid mistakes. Now, this could be because I seem to notice it and hence psych myself out, but other strange things happen during a full moon. Systems at work break in strange ways, all by themselves.

I dunno, maybe I am going insane.

9.15.2005

[Poem] 0xdeadbeef

e_ddi_get_dev_info: Illegal major device number <-1>NOTICE: VxVM vxio V-5-0-74 Cannot open disk ROOTDISK: kernel error 6

Cannot mount root on /pseudo/vxio@0:0 fstype ufs

panic[cpu3]/thread=10408000: vfs_mountroot: cannot mount root

0000000010407970 genunix:vfs_mountroot+70 (10437400, 0, 0, 104732fa, 80, 14)
%l0-3: 0000000010437400 000000001043ab20 000000323e000000 0000000010437608
%l4-7: 0000000000000000 00000000104139e8 00000000000c17bf 00000000000017bf
0000000010407a20 genunix:main+8c (104101f8, 2000, 10407ec0, 10408030, fff2, 1005
41a0)
%l0-3: 0000000000000001 0000000000000001 0000000000000015 0000000000000f69
%l4-7: 000000001042a1c8 00000000104791b8 00000000000da100 0000000000000100

skipping system dump - no dump device configured
rebooting...

SC Alert: Host System has Reset

9.14.2005

[Musings] FEMA, the Supreme Court, and all

I read an interesting article by Steve Perry at City Pages (you can see it here).

I think he makes good points.

I wish the media would quit chest thumping about their coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Yes, they grew a spine and reported the atrosity. But don't give up now, challenge the talking points be persistant. Expose the administration for the frauds they are and keep uncovering their incompetencies and inadequacies as leaders.

Its not too late.

9.01.2005

[Musings] Got nothing.

Been exhausted.

Turned 30.

Had a meat-coma.

Can't find a damn company to haul away a washer and dryer in Rochester.

Thinking about World of Warcraft.

8.21.2005

[Musings] Perfection Deception

I spy with my little eye an epidemic.

There it is! Right in front of you! Buy this magazine, buy this book! You too can have perfect abs, perfect hair, perfect SATs, perfect sex. We're obsessed, enamored, entrenched. We have a love affair with the impossible - perfection.

When did we ever start believing this was possible? And how did our thinking become so warped that now we expect NASA and the space program to be perfect?

Thinking back to the coverage of the Discovery mission, I am still puzzled over the talking heads in the media. Their infotainment spin on the mission was if the shuttle explodes again, that will be the end of all space travel for the US. Ever. (Of course with some meaningless polls to back them up.) Now I can see how another tragic loss may prompt tax payers to take a harder look at the massive amount of fundage NASA receives, but I suspect the real reason for a NASA shut down would be that the public would consider another accident as evidence this whole space exploration thing is a total failure. We demand perfection from the most dangerous of our peaceful (as far as we know) pursuits.

I guess that's what baffles me - we do not recognize the cost of growth. Somehow we've been deluded into thinking progress and discovery come in neat, clean, and expected intervals.

[Tech] 24x7 Digital Age? My ass.

Nerdwife and I have been lusting over the Motorola Razr V3 phones. We currently have Sprint PCS, which means we cannot use those phones as they are GSM (lame, lame, lame). Since we get crappy PCS reception at our new home, I figured switching carriers would not be a bad thing. You have a choice of a few carriers, T-Mobile, Midwest Wireless, and Cingular. I ruled out Midwest Wireless as I want a national carrier that can give me the best deal and the largest coverage with all the bells and whistles of data access (internet) and other such goodness. Some of my co-workers have Cingular and they like it, and most importantly, they get decent reception within the data centers (which Sprint does not). So I did some research and found a place online that had a great (seemingly) deal on Motorola Razrs and Cingular family plan, so I signed up. It was a web form and I put in my existing cell phone numbers and they said they could port them to my new plan, so I thought 'ROCK!'. I signed up, the phones were $180/phone but they had a special offer of $180/phone mail in rebate, so sweeet. I ordered them.

The phones arrived, and flags went off. The rebates where wishy-washy and while giving the $180/phone rebate, they had wierd clauses that were not apparent on the website. Things like we can't submit the rebates less than 180 days but no more than 210 days after activation. There is a $250 equipment fee, plus the $240, plus extra monthly charges to cancel service pending on a variety of situations that were not listed.

So I thought, this all seemed like usual cell phone contract BS, I remember seeing similar in my Verizon and Sprint contracts. So I thought little of it.

The phones had to charge 24 hours before you activate them, so I plugged them in. This was Saturday. Today (Sunday) I called the Cingular number and they are not open on Sundays (which sucks), but they said we could activate phones via their website. So I surfed on over to Cingular's website. More crock-of-shitage. Since our numbers are portable numbers, they do not have them in their system, or perhaps they do not have them in their system yet, so the website wouldn't work. I went to the portability website on Cingular and entered my phone number and zip code. More failure. Now, my cell number has a prefix for the Twin Cities, but my zip code is Rochester, which I know could be an issue, BUT, they are all within Cingular's network, and Sprint gave me no problems when I changed my address to Rochester, since I was in the PCS area.

The local Cingular store is open today so I went to visit them. They told me since I went through the internet, and not them, they could not activate my phone from their store, we could use the phone to call Cingular, but Cingular does not have customer service on Sundays.

Shit-on-a-stick.

8.20.2005

[SPAM] BlogSpam WTF??!?!!?

My SFMOMA posting had a comment that was spam. Won't those spamming motherfuckers leave us alone?

WE DON'T WANT YOUR SHIT GO AWAY!

Or at least make it humorous so I can post it here and make fun of it.

8.12.2005

[Photo] SFMOMA-BANANA-FANA-FOMOMA


SFMOMA-BANANA-FANA-FOMOMA
Originally uploaded by Geist.X.
The SF vac series continues. This one was taken standing in the Yerba Buena Gardens looking at SF MOMA.

[Photo] Artistic Creek shot?


Artistic Creek shot?
Originally uploaded by Geist.X.
Another picture from SF. We took a trip up Hwy 1 to see the ocean, the big trees, and the beautiful country. We stopped at Stinson Beach, and waded in the Pacific (it was VERY cold, eventhough it was July). We then wandered up the coast more, eventually taking a side road that wound through deep forests and valleys. We stopped at a small spot and about 20 yards off the road was a small grove with a creek running through it. I took a picture of a place on the creek. It turned out well I feel.

8.11.2005

[Photo] Decay at Alcatraz


Decay at Alcatraz
Originally uploaded by Geist.X.
Another picture I like from our digital album of the trip to SF.

Nerdwife asked me to take this shot as it is beautiful in its decay.

[Photo] Golden Gate Bridge in the Mist


Golden Gate Bridge in the Mist
Originally uploaded by Geist.X.
In July we took a trip to San Francisco. I will post a few pictures as I find ones I like from our digital album.

This is a superb picture I took of the Golden Gate bridge from a tour we took.

[Beware] Cleavage and FunYuns

I'm checking in with a blog as PSA here. I was recently dragooned into attending a concert by my erstwhile pal and workout partner. I'd never heard of said artiste, but he was at an allegedly fun bar and my weight-lifting friend raved about him...why not? Take note. I ignored several warning signs in the build-up to this evening:

  • I never really liked O'Gara's; they made too much of a little connection to Schultz
  • my Catholic gym buddy has on several previous occasions exhibited a propensity to be (enjoyably) shocked and embarrassed by apparently innocuous stimuli
  • aforementioned buddy cannot talk about previous concerts without giggling and blushing
  • the bad Charlie Daniels covers of the opener really should have sent me running

Nonetheless, there I was in a joint which has somehow evaded the St Paul smoking ban, paying my eight dollars (Eight! I pay only a little more than that to see real music!) and congratulating myself on being a good friend. I was surprised by the audience at first. We were (naturally) early, and surrounded by skanks in tanks (tops) and their leeringly insecure boyfriends. There was an equal number of pleathery-skinned couples in their 40's, or maybe 70's, it was hard to tell. Two voluminous hawaiian-shirted gentlemen I immediately pegged as D&Ders (cf. company I keep) seemed to be in charge. I was later informed they were roadies. And gamers. There were also two honest-to-god goth chicks, one of whom was picked up by the roadies after the third song.

Had this been the audience, I would have been happier about our crowd placement in the "dance area." Unfortunately, we were soon rushed by single, drunken 30-something men. My hopes this was a gay crowd were soon quashed.

At last, the main event. Pat McCurdy took the stage and immediately began singing..."Mama needs Funyuns" and calling for women to come up front. We were informed his favorite things were cleavage and funyuns, and things went downhill from there. As he proceeded with silly/obscence limerick-like songs, I struggled to keep from gaping in horror at the realization that I had paid this jackass eight bucks for being a dirty old man. The skanks were actually removing their clothing for him in exchange for free t-shirts or the opportunity to dance onstage. That's another thing: the dancing. I am a poor but enthusiastic dancer-yet I had to close my eyes to escape the dance carnage around me. Half the songs have actual motions (think macarena) and the other half evidently require some flailing. Two bright spots of the evening: first, the song dedicated to pissing off republicans had a lovely satirical ending lost on most of crowd; second, Pat blissfully stopped singing frequently to play clips of popular music. Although the music of the eighties promoted altogether too much excitement in the dance area for my taste, the sing-alongs to Abba were fun.

My ass sore from being grabbed, choking on cigarette smoke and squinting to see through the crowd, I happily escaped at half-time. Apparently the really funny songs were in the second half; I'll take my friend's word for it.

8.09.2005

[Politics] Um, Mr. President...

It's NUCLEAR, not NUCULEAR. Serious, you sound like an uneducat...ah fuck it, nevermind. No one is listening anyways.

8.08.2005

[Musings] The concept of nothing

Nothing is something:

/dev/null
zero
/dev/zero
vacuum
void
oblivion
empty

The fact that we have realized the need for a concept the complete lack of anything says a lot.

8.06.2005

[Musings] Nother day...more paint

The last few days have been beautiful here. Not too hot, not humid, just wonderful.

We've been working on our 2nd house in the Cities getting it ready to be sold. We are almost done. We have spent at least 1 day per week and 1 day per weekend for the last 4 months getting the house ready. It has mainly been finishing up some projects that we never had time for when we lived in the house. Things like painting the upstairs, fixing the cracks in the spackle, re-tiling the linoleum floors, etc. Its been hard, time consuming work. But I hope it will be worth it. It's not liked we slacked, we've spent at least 20 hours/week working on this, which considering we now live 80 miles away and have to drive 1.5 hours one-way to work on the house, is a lot.

We never really seriously thought about just leaving the house as-is and trying to sell it. It looks so much better with a fresh coat of paint, new tile and a scrub-down. I hope someone will like it.

8.02.2005

[Musings] Coffee, the beloved nectar of the gods

I have been reading Coffee:_A_Dark_History by Anthony Wild and it has confirmed what I have suspected for a few years now, that the largest roasters (those that control brands like Folgers, Maxwell House, vending machine coffee, etc.) have been using inferior beans for roast, simply for the sake of profit.

Roasters to reduce cost and improve profitablility have moved from usings Coffea arabica, a superior tasting bean, yet more expensive to buy and grow bean, with Coffea canephora (robusta), a bitter, but cheap bean. Until recently it was viewed as worthless to the coffee business due to its inferior qualities. When all the major roasters started being merged/bought out, this changed and now bottom-line trumps taste. Its not like these companies, who have devastated coffee producing nations with their undercutting the price per pound so that producers produce at a loss, pay a lot for coffee as it is, instead, much like textile companies, they make money on the backs of severely underpaid workers and farmers of developing nations.

Further more, the old blends using arabica are still there, but now they are the 'premium blends'. So you get to pay more for 'premium' coffee, that until a few years ago, was the regular stuff. The great thing is that these companies told no one when they switched. But I noticed. My family were Folgers drinkers for all of my life and I remember you could get a decent cup from the regular stuff. Now the regular stuff is bitter, gives a slap-in-the-face jolt of caffine and tastes like dirt was used to cut it.

Don't believe the marketing, robusta beans can never match the quality of arabica, unless the arabica is of the poorest quality and the robusta of the highest.

I WANT MY COFFEE BACK YOU BASTARDS! Or at least start labelling what type of beans are in the blend and to what percentage. Until this happens I will no longer buy your coffee. Thankfully, all is not lost. Illy, the world famous Italian coffeemaker has released its coffee for general public consumption and can be found in bean or ground form at many coffeehouses and specialty stores. It costs, around $10+/pound, but it makes a superior cup of coffee in a automatic drip coffeemaker (and the espresso is simply amazing), and as of this writing, Illy only uses arabica beans.

[Musings] Checklist of To-Dos before age 30

1. Carousel - check

2. Faced biggest fear - check (cancer)

3. Survived biggest fear - check (cancer)
3a. Proving the axiom 'that which does not kill makes you stranger' - check

4. Married and happy - check

5. Career satisfaction - 1/2 check, for the most part

6. Lose some weight (so I can be dead SEXY!) - check, 8 pounds and counting down, been able to keep it off, which is more important than the small loss

7. Get Bush out of the White House - F-, failed miserably

8. World Peace or Whirlled Peas - check on the Whirlled Peas, World Peace progressing slower than expected, see #7.

9. Get Ph.D - F-

10. Pickup groceries - check

7.26.2005

[Design] Alarm Clocks

{rant}

The sheer lack of good sense of the human race can be summed up with the alarm clock. Here is a modern device which is practically neccesary for a rigid time schedule of work and life (and bane to sane and relaxed existance), and yet in shopping for a replacement clock, I cannot find anything that gets more than in the vicinity of what an alarm clock should be. Here are a few suggestions.

* The top casing should be like Nerf foam. The top of the clock should have only one thing only: a Snooze button the size of my fist. Combined with a structual rigidity and soft top, I should be able to, upon hearing the alarm go off in the morning, hurl my fist atop it with sufficient force to cave it in (and the table it sits on) and yet it should continue to function. The first thing a lot of people think about in those bleary few seconds after the alarm goes off is how to shut the damn thing up for 10-30 minutes so we can go back to sleep. Alarm clocks are an obscenity, but a neccesary evil sometimes. Snooze alarms are for when you realzise that getting up at that appointed time was a dreadful, unneccesary mistake.

* The snooze button should allow for multiple taps (fist pounds) so that if I hit it three times in succession, it shuts up for a half hour, and so forth.

* It should wake me up ~gradually~. Anything that wakes me up instantly better be a burglar alarm or the smoke detector. Gently rising volume of alarm buzzer, radio, chime, or whathaveyou, is a good way to do it. Same deal with gently brightening lights, although I've taken to wearing a sleep mask, so I won't see a damn thing.

* It should have a display with numbers about two inches high. When I'm bleary and half-asleep and my contact lenses are out and my glasses off and I'm generally blind, I'd like to be able to read the time without them.

* Just as importantly, the display should be fairly DIM, or at elast especially dimable. I have seen alarm clocks you could use as backup stadium lighting, or with bright green or blue LEDs that are like slivers of sunlight they are so damn bright. Vampires shrink away from them as if burned. The mark of any good sleeping area is that it is "cool, dark, and quiet" (and with adequate ventilation). Blazing LEDs destroy the 'dark' portion of those criterion.

* It should have two, if not three, seperate alarms.

* It should have a battery backup that lasts at least two days. Hello, Sony? 60 seconds is not a battery backup: It is slow bleed capacitors.

* I should be able to choose between loud klaxon, soft klaxon, radio, and maybe a gentle sound like birds chirping or a waterfall or something. Or maybe The Ramones. "Good morning, sexy" wouldn't hurt either.

* It should have a radio link to the atomic clock frequency to auto reset itself.

* A temperature function would be nice.

* It should not be very high. A lot of alarms are like towers. Sleek and low is good.

* It should have a 99.99% reliability. Missing your wakeup isn't much of an option nowadays.

* It should not have a THX certified amplifier and speaker system. For goodness sakes, this is an alarm clock, not an audiophile rig.

* It should not have anything even approaching simulated woodgrain. Plain blacks, whites, and silvers are good.

* I should be able to change what color the display is.

* It should have a nightlight button on the side. Low intensity.

* 24 hour format as an option.

* It should be compliant with whatever new daylight saving time changes we decide to make.

* It should be able to detect my brainwave patterns from a short distance away with no sensors attached to my head or anything, and determine the best possible time to rouse me from sleep and not interfere with my natural REM cycle and lead to a jarring awakening, based on a predetermined window of time (wake me between 730 and 820, whenever I'll be least annoyed)

* It should cost less than $100.

* It should bring me breakfast in bed including hot coffee when I wake up. (would be nice, eh?)

* Mostly, I'd like to have a job where I didn't ever have to deal with alarm clocks ever again or even better have a gf that likes to gently wake me up by 'getting amorous' in the morning.

{/rant}

7.25.2005

[Musings, Science, Politics, Religion] F*ck the Creationists

I think E=mc Hawking sums up my feelings pretty well with his song "Fuck the Creationists".

Creationism (or Intelligent Design if you want to candy-coat it) upsets me, deeply. Now that is not to say whether (g|G)od(s) created the universe. I have no proof (either positive or negative), who knows? But we can prove, using the tools of science that the earth is a helluva a lot older than 10000 years and underwent distinct geological periods full of variances of life almost inumerable in permutation. We have proof that organisms adapt to their environment. We can witness mechanisms of mutation and selection. Why?

It's evolution motherfuckers.

We no longer live in the fucking Dark Ages.

Why is evolution taught in public schools? Because it is grounded in science, not faith. It has facts. Public education, because of the wisdom of the separation of church and state, is grounded in the basis of non-religious teachings. Why? Because we are a nation of many, we do not discriminate or select or favor one culture, one race or one religion over all others. The bible is for church, it is not a textbook (for science at least, philosphy, anthropology, sociology, maybe, but not science).

Don't player-hate science (science can admit when it is wrong, if there is proof and evidence to show it, and no faith is not proof, if you have proof, then faith is irrelevant, thus eliminating the need for faith and making (g|G)od go poof in a cloud of logic).

7.20.2005

[R.I.P] James Doohan, age 85


Warp speed Mr. Scott. Warp speed.

Star Trek is one of my earliest memories of any TV shows (along with Dr. Who). My favorite characters were Mr. Spock and Mr. Scott. I have always felt they had an influence on why I became interested in Science and Technology.

(image taken from http://www.boingboing.net)

7.19.2005

[Religion] Ultra-$uper-Mega Church(c)(tm)(sm)

http://citypages.com/databank/26/1284/article13497.asp

This article disturbs me. Not because this church is a nexus point between Christianity and Capitalism (although that also disturbs me). It disturbs me because of the message the pastors are saying to their congregations.

But first, I must inject:

1) Patriotism is not a bad thing. (Note though that patriotism is NOT jingoism, it includes healthy debate and questioning the gov't, a lot if necessary. Wrapping your ass in an American flag and singing 'God Bless America' does not make you a patriot.)

2) Spirituality is not a bad thing. (Note though that spirituality does not equate to religion. One person's spirituality and relationship with (g/G)od(s) is a personal thing, not all people believe the same thing, and that's ok. Religion is when a large grow of people who share similar beliefs come together.)

3) You can support the troops and not the war.

4) You can question the President, see point 1). (and I seriously doubt he is doing (g/G)od(s)' work)

What disturbs me about this article is what the pastor's are saying. Specifically this point:


First we get the military, then we get the nation.

What is he implying? Is he implying that if we convert/subvert a national military, they will perform a military coup and institute a christian gov't (in essence a christian theocracy)?

Personally I want my military secular (like my government).

7.15.2005

[Politics] Norm Coleman, he's not my Senator

Senator Norm Coleman is a disgrace to the peoples of Minnesota. As a Bush lackey he does not have the people of this great state in foremost concern.

Your speech opposing the amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill revoking the security clearance of any persons disclosing the identity of undercover operatives makes me embarassed to be a Minnesotan.

The Republicans closed ranks and shot the amendment down in a party-line vote, but just remember, a new election is coming.

2008 your time is up Norm.

Go Al Franken! (please please please run)

People of Minnesota, Mark Kennedy is making a bid to replace Mark Dayton as Senator at the end of Dayton's term. Don't let this happen, remember this is the person who did a smear campagin against Jacob Wetterling's mother Patty Wetterling. Mark Kennedy, like Norm Coleman is a puppet for the GOP, these people do not have the best interests of Minnesotans or this nation in mind.

7.14.2005

[Musings] Work

Work since I switched jobs has been going well. I like my new job and my new team. I miss my old team members very much, but I do not miss the work.

I am oncall again, which is always more stressful than usual. Oncall has been getting better as the team gels more and things are improved.

I just finished upgrading one of the major core components at work here, without incident. It took months of planning, preparation, coordination, and work, but it paid off. The systems were upgraded, the OS was upgraded and the clustering software was upgraded. In addition the dependency layout within the cluster was re-arranged and made more robust (and complex).

I've worked 7 out of the last 9 weekend. I need to change that. But the work that is being done will make it less likely to need to do more weekend work in the future, so I guess it is worth it.

7.07.2005

[News] London Bombings...


Wow.

I woke up this morning, fed the cats, cleaned their litter and stepped into the shower. Part of my morning routine is to listen to MPR. What I was greeted with was BBC News coverage that London had been bombed.

The Guardian has had good coverage.

7.05.2005

[Musings] General ramblings from a far off land...

I am a terrible blogger. I do not update as much as I should, but I only feel a little bad, I move at my own pace on my own time.

I have been on vacation for the last week. Welcome, blessed vacation. The last truly big vacation Nerdwife and I had been on was our honeymoon. Others have been too short or for very specific reasons (i.e. work, visiting family, etc.). This one was for fun.

San Francisco has been a muse.

San Francisco is like no other city.

San Francisco is dirty, it smells, yet is also clean and refreshing.

The vast diversity of peoples from all parts of the world is simply amazing. From the loud vendors of Chinatown, to beach bums on Stinson Beach. From the ubiquitous homeless to the morbidly wounded pigeons that scratch out livings. The million dollar condos to majestic redwoods, this place is simply awesome.

We have spent the better part of a week (six days) getting to know San Francisco, the touristy sides to those off the beating path. We've witnessed the change in flavor of downtown, the shift from the ebb and flow of daily worklife during the week to the energetic nightlife of Friday nights to the tourist choked swells of the weekend.

We soaked up the sun. Waded in the Pacific Ocean. Looked out of the deck of a fully rigged windjammer. We ate Dim Sum in Chinatown. We touch redwoods. We felt the wind on our faces, the salty tinge to the air. We rejoiced in the liberalism of this great city. Its tolerance of all. We had a quiet dinner in a small town called Fairfax that we happened upon by accident while meandering along and off of Hwy 1. Fairfax, a liberal, progressive, green-eco friendly town. We sipped coffee in Union Square. Supped while overlooking the Bay. Wandered through Wine Country. Ate at a cheesy, kitschy restaurant in Sonoma. Sat and contemplated in the Poetry Room of the City Lights bookstore, where the spirits of Kerouac and Ginsberg still echo. I have sipped Illy espresso in perhaps one of the coolest Internet Cafe's (http://www.goldengateperk.com). We've watched the fog roll in to engulf downtown. We have seen the Sun set on the Bay. Our minds have been altered by SFMOMA.

The salty air and the rolling ocean has been a salve to sooth the wounds of my mind and body. I feel alive.

I have come to understand parts of myself.

6.24.2005

[Musings] I wish I was beautiful.

I wish I was beautiful. Ripped and chiseled. Able to wear the hip and trendy clothes. To be able to garner looks (even though I am happily married, it is a self-esteem thing).

Beautiful people have an easier time in life.

When you are not beautiful, you are not noticed.

6.20.2005

[Musings] Blog Silent, Blog Deep

Still running in 'stealth' mode. This summer has not turned out like I hoped it would be, not bad, just different. Nerdwife and I have been working very hard to give up the glamorous life of owning two houses. I hope the housing market holds for a few months yet so that we can sell our old house to at least get something out of it.

I know it is silly of me to worry over what I can get out of the sale of a house when there are people everywhere who do not own homes, or even have a place to live out of the elements. I have lived in that house for 11 years, owned it for 10. That house and its needs have consumed parts of me, time, youth, energy, money, emotions.

Am I a bad person for wanting something in return? We had thought about donating the house to charity (if you can even do that), but we still owe money on it, which sinks that idea. I hope someone will want it.

6.10.2005

[Musings] "No I am not a social worker."

This conversation happened to me last night on my walk home from work around 20:00. It took place between myself and an older woman sitting on her steps outside her front porch.


Woman: Hello.

Myself: Hi.

Woman: Is your name X (where X = my name)?

Myself (stunned): Yes, my name is X.

Woman: Are you my new social worker?

Myself (still stunned and a little confused): No, I am not in social work, my name is X, but, no I am not a social worker.

Woman: I have a new social worker. His name is X. He looks like you. I thought you were maybe my new social worker.

The conversation ended at this point and I continued my walk home.

6.05.2005

[Thing] Bumper Sticker

"What Would Jesus Bomb? (WWJB)"

6.01.2005

[Thing] Risk

So on my lunch break I walked by the local 'Games by James' in the Galleria. In it I saw a handful of RISK games that I want to have!

Risk: Star Wars - Clone Wars - execute Order 66
Risk: Lord of the Rings - Destroy Mordor!
Risk: 2250 A.D. - Nukes, giant robots, underwater cities, moon bases...what else do you need?

Other games on my short list:

Warhammer 40k: Battle of Maccragge Starter Kit (Space Marines vs Tyranids) - so I can have pickup games when fellow WH40k nerds visit
Battlefleet Gothic Compendium (see my page for my Battlefleet Gothic group 'The League of Drifting Hulks')
WH 40k: Codex - Tau