Diary of a Network Geek

Yesterday’s posting was automated.
I make this startling admission because I have felt like death warmed over since Monday morning. I rolled out of bed at my usual time and was covered in a cold sweat before I’d made it to my bedroom door. It was literally like someone had poured a bucket of water over me. I was drenched from head to foot. Then, things got worse…
Since I didn’t eat anything strange or even possibly bad Sunday, I can only assume I had a stomache flu of some kind. It was, to put it mildly, unpleasant. I managed to eat all of a half-cup of Ramen noodles Monday night. I did manage better on liquids, but not much. Monday evening, at around 9:30PM or so, I had a tempurature just under 101 degrees. So, I took a fist-full of aspirin and went to bed.
Tuesday was much better, but still not good enough for work. I did manage to eat a bit more and the dog stopped giving me looks like “If you die, I will have to eat you to survive. I won’t like it, but, hey, it’s survival, buddy.” Of course, the fact that I filled her food dish again might have helped that. I did manage to get her into the car for a ride to the post office to drop off bills, though, and that made her think it was “play time” when we got home. Sadly, that little trip sapped all my energy and it was off to beddy-bye early.
I did stagger into the office close to on time today, but only barely. Every time the AC went on I got the chills and shakes. And all day I had that feeling like if I tried to burp I was going to spew. Oh, and I’ve felt all bloated like a sick cow that you’d have to cut the side open on or they’ll die. Other than that, though, all back to normal.

Yes, Play-Doh as a security penetration tool.

Don’t you just love it when I write things like “security penetration tool”? It sounds so, big and scary, doesn’t it?
Anyway, this researcher at Clarkson University has figured out a way to defeat biometric readers with simple Play-Doh.  I love this for two reasons.  First, it’s a very low-tech way of defeating a very high-tech security system.  People rely way, way too much on technology that might fail, instead of good, old, human-based common-sense.  Though, I have to admit, there are days that I’d rather rely on technology, too.  Second, it’s Play-Doh.  What’s not to love about Play-Doh?

And, yes, this is one of those old posts I was talking about.  It’s not quite cool enough for a Friday Fun Link, but it doesn’t quite fit anywhere else these days.  So, you may be seeing a fair number of these “red-herrings” drop out of no where.  Just crazy stuff that intrigues me and has no other home.
Enjoy!

Well, why not!
Now, I don’t mean a “de facto” standard, but a real, organized, unified standard. In this case, according to News.com, it’s a Linux standardization push. In fact, to get really specific, it the Linux Standard Base Project. These folks are advocating a standard “base” on which all Linux distros build themselves. Not a bad idea, really, to help get things standardized and more interoperative. I mean, when I was working on that Novell Linux-based stuff, a little standardization would have gone a long way.

I wish I was.
All arty, that is. Alas, I am inhibited by my close association with “The Man” via my degree in Marketing. Still, working to overcome such crippling handicaps is my stock and trade, so I went to an art opening last night. A friend of mine, Mark Flood, and a group of other artists that he did some collage work with, had an opening in the Heights area. Sadly, I cannot remember the name of the gallery where the work was shown. And, I was late. In fact, I was so late the other people I know who were going came and went, so I ended up spending some time with Mark, then was alone for a bit, looking at art and a mulitmedia presentation of the art being created, then poor Mark felt guilty for leaving me alone for so long and hung out with me the last 20-30 minutes I was there. It was, in a word, “interesting”.
I’ve never been to an art opening before. It was a little strange, to me, because it seemed like it was such a social event and had so little to do with the actual art. Also, I have to admit, it was art that I’m not really all that “in to”, either. Modern found-object collage art, for the most part. Still, it was interesting to look at. I much prefer Mark’s other work with lace. *That* absolutely fascinates me. But, I did have a good time people-watching. Seeing human drama unfold still enthralls me. There was some poor girl who was obviously quite upset at something her paramour, who I never connected to her, was doing or not doing. I’ve lost some of my ability to read lips in poor lighting, but I did catch “… but it still sucks. I just sucks!…” and the poor thing looked like she was on the edge of tears at one point. She did seem to recover enough to flirt with someone later, though, so I guess it all worked out. I have to admit, I was sorely tempted to quietly tell her “Darlin’ whoever it is, they just ‘aint worth it. No one should put you in that mood and make that pretty face so troubled and frowny. It’s time for a new horse, darlin’. You rode this one on out and you can’t ride ’em any further, so it’s just time to jump on a new horse.” You’ll be pleased to know that I successfully resisted that temptation.
Still, it did get me thinking about being creative and that longing to be part of a creative subculture reared its ugly head. Again. One day, I’d love for Mark to be introducing me to his friends as “my friend Jim, the writer” instead of just “my friend Jim”. So, I need to work on my writing. And, I need to work on it in an envrionment other than home. That led me to dig out my pile of laptops and sort through everything until I could make a reasonably decent one that ran. Then, of course, I installed Linux on it. Why? Well, why not. I have a copy of RedHat 9.0, the last free version of that particular distro that they released before going to Fedora. It installed like a charm. Easy as pie. Actually, easier, since pie can be a bit challenging sometimes. And, now, since the only drive I had that worked well was a five gigabyte IBM, I ordered a new 40 gig and a 512 meg memory upgrade from Tiger Direct. So, with old parts that I got free and the new hardware that will be coming soon, I’ll end up with a new, to me, laptop for under $200. Not bad. All of which means, ultimately, that I’ll be able to go to coffee houses and write. And emulate some of my heros, like Ernest Hemingway, in the process. Now, all I need is a good laptop bag that’s just as cheap. I was thinking about going with something Army surplus, but I’m not sure.
This is all part of the changes I’m trying to make in my life as I work toward being a person I like more. A person I like being more. Little by little, it’s happening. After God only knows how many years, I’m finally becoming the man I wanted to be when I was a kid.
Life is good.

When I first read this article, I thought they meant football, not soccer!
Just my America-centrisim showing again, I guess. I should have suspected something when the article on Australian IT talked about the debut happening in Lima, Peru. Well, anyway, it’s interesting to me that they’re even looking at taking the judging responsibility away from a person and giving it to a system. Here’s how it works: The chip in the ball will be read by sensors at the goal, registering a valid goal. So, it’s simple, if the ball passes the goal, the score gets updated. Hardly a need for a referee at all, is there? Well, okay, those soccer hooligans get a bit unruly, but that’s a job for the police, not the ref.
Technology is everywhere.

“After a time, you may find that ‘having’ is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as ‘wanting.’ It is not logical, but it is often true.”
… Spock, “Star Trek – The Original Series, Episode 34: Amok Time,” stardate 3372.7..

Ah, how true. The chase is so often more exciting than gaining one’s objective. How well I know that, considering how my marriage and subsequent divorce played out. I wonder how often that occurs to people? How often does it occur too late?
I remember hearing stories about men retiring and, within weeks, dying, essentially from boredom. They had no hobbies or interests to keep them occupied, so when they finally reached retirement and stopped working they lost their identity and their purpose. This phenomena also explains a lot of infidelity, I think, especially female infidelity. Having acquired their romantic hero/rescuer/white knight/whatever, they “settle down” and life changes on them. All the things that made that poor sap so attractive to the lady, and I use that term loosely, in question suddenly become the most annoying habits when they’re living together or, heaven forbid, married. So, the chase is on again, and again, and again, and again. It becomes a vicious cycle driven by that never-ending quest to recapture the fleeting and temporary feelings of romantic love. But, as always, things change when one gets what one wants. It’s never quite what we wished for after all.
Oddly, that reminds me of another bit of wisdom from an unlikely source:

Whatever you want too much you can’t have, so when you really want something, try to want it a little less.
Joel Rosenberg – The Sleeping Dragon

Honestly, today, I have no idea what I want. What I wanted in the past, well, that didn’t turn out so well, due to no one’s fault. Just bad choices all around, despite the angry words and the bitter stories told. Nothing more than people make the best choices they could, but bad choices in retrospect. It happens. The result, though, is that now, I spend a lot of time and money in therapy trying to figure out what I really want and how to go about getting it. If it weren’t working so well, I’d say it sounded pathetic. Well, I guess I’ll work through that with my shrink, too.
So, kids, take some advice from your Uncle Jim, want things less and enjoy what you have more. It works out better in the long run.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"There's more than one way to do it"
   --Unofficial PERL Coder's Motto

Ever wonder if your job is in danger?
I know I have. In fact, I tend to worry about it even when I probably don’t need to worry at all. Of course, if you look at my resume, you’ll know why I worry. I’ve been through a lot of jobs. That, combined with the news I got yesterday and the day before, really got me thinking about losing a job. So, when I saw this article on MSN about Signs that you’re about to get fired, I read it with rapt interest. Unfortunately, I already knew most of these. In fact, several of them are what had me looking for work this last time:

– You find yourself increasingly out of the loop.
– You are watched and micromanaged where you once had freedom.
– You are given new, unattainable goals or targets.
– You are in a nonrevenue- producing or overstaffed unit.
– You have the least tenure or were the last one hired.
– You have a significant salary.
– You are no longer included in future plans or upcoming projects.
– Your opinion is now worthless.
– You are on progressive discipline (verbal or written warning).

Obviously, by the time anyone gets to that last one, their resume should be updated and headhunters should be alerted. It’s also not a bad idea to have looked up how to apply for unemployment by that time, too.
A little advice from your Uncle Jim, kids, don’t ignore the warning signs. If you do, you could find yourself out of work for a year.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Real happiness is when you marry a girl for love and find out later she has money."

Hmm, more of an update, I guess…
It’s been a crazy week, and is shaping up for more of the same. First off, I forgot to mention the other day that I picked up my gear from REI, so, now, I’m pretty well ready for any disaster that might come my way. Though, if it’s thermonuclear destruction, I’m saving the last bullet for myself. Everything else, though, I’m all set to weather, if you’ll pardon the pun. And, I’ll have had a hot shower and a cup of coffee when the time comes, too, thanks to my 4 Gallon SunShower and my green, enamelware percolating coffee pot. It may be the end of the world as we know it, but there’s no reason to be uncivilized!

In other “news”, I’ve been thinking about ways to meet more ladies of the datable variety. No good ideas yet, that I’m not already doing or planning on doing, so I started browsing the “relationship” books at Amazon. That’s where I found this: MACK Tactics : The Science of Seduction Meets the Art of Hostage Negotiation. Okay, does a “relationship” book that includes the phrase “hostage negotiation” really seem like a good idea to you? Yeah, me neither, so I took a pass on that one. Hey, I got out of one hostage situation clean, no need to take that kind of risk again!

And, in semi-business news this week, I heard that Loomis Fargo finally had some cuts in the IT department. I was expecting the dreaded “outsourcing” to wipe out a bunch of the staff, but, it turns out upper management of the parent company didn’t like that idea and axed a bunch of the high-level IT management at Loomis. In fact, it sounded like I could get my job back there, if I wanted it. Doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me, really, unless they can tack on a cool $10k and great benefits to boot. Frankly, I don’t see that happening, even with the “extra” cash from the CIO’s salary floating around. Ah, well, at least the front-line guys I worked with survived. Too bad some of the managers I really liked didn’t survive the cut. They were nice guys. Maybe that’s why they didn’t survive the cut! Still, if Joe Dante ever turns up somewhere I’m interviewing, I’d work for him again. He’s a great guy and an excellent manager.
Good luck guys!

I’m sure there was more, but, well, my calcified, old brain can’t remember what it might have been, so, that’s all the news for now.

There’s a whole series of these.
TechRepublic has a whole series of these Ten Things You Should Know articles. I’ll post several over the coming weeks and months. Why? Because I like them and they’re a “no brainer” for content on this site. I’m all about easy content!
Anyway, this time it’s Ten Things You Should Know About the BASH Shell. There are a bunch of short-cuts here. Everything from running processes in the background (try that with a command prompt in Windows!) to doing calculations right there on the command line. Now, this might not be all that great for everyone, but, for a command-line junky like me, it’s pure gold. Also, if you’re running Mac OS X, you might check it out. These should all work on your command line, too, if you can find it amongst all those pretty graphics.
Don’t ignore the power of the command line!

I went to the Mucky Duck last night.
Seems like this place is one of the best kept, but well known, secrets of Houston. Now, I’ve never heard of ’em, but, then, I’m from Chicago and I was married to a reculse who never wanted to go out and do anything. Funny thing is, I mentioned that I was going to two very different people and they both knew the Mucky Duck quite well. In fact, the nice girl from church started telling me all about their Sunday Supper deal. I was quite surprised.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the performance. Last night, it was Radney Foster. He was already playing by the time we got there, since I was a bit late getting away from church. He was alone on stage with his amped acoustic guitar. Kind of a bluesy/country sound, that’s pretty well Americana folk these days. Sort of reminded me of Bonnie Raitt, actually. Same kind of sound. Every song was a story. We had a good table, just a two-seater near the bar, but it had a good angle on the stage and we weren’t jammed in on top of someone else’s table. But, there were plenty of folks around. Heck, I even got to give one pretty lady at the bar a smile and a wink on her way out, which got good eye contact and a grin in return. (Hey, it’s not digits, but it’s somethin’!)
Of course, since we were a few minutes late, it was hell getting the wait-staff to recognize us. I finally got a nice gal named Victoria, or Vicky, not sure now which it was. She was all apologies and said we weren’t in her section, so she didn’t know we weren’t being taken care of right. All I wanted was a slice of apple pie and a cappuccino. Alas, all I could get was black coffee, since the cappuccino machine was broken, but both the pie and coffee were good, so it was all right. Poor Vicky kept apologizing for neglecting us, but I told her I was used to women ignoring me after dinner, hell, I’ve been married! (And, I tipped her more than my little piece of pie and coffee cost for being a good sport about it. ‘Sides, she was cute!)
Anyway, this is definately a place I’ll be going back to, often, if I can manage it. Preferably, with a date. Maybe that nice girl from church is free…