Came back from my trip last Thursday... All I can say is... where did I come from?
I love my family and all, but I couldn't be more different than them. They actually think that using various censorware in public libraries are good, that Bush isn't a complete moron, and that we were justified going into Iraq. My family is about as white-bread, corn-fed, middle-America as you can get... And sometimes it sickens me...
The biggest problem with them is that many of them have a lot of wasted intelligence. My father was prevented from being a mathematician by World War II (he didn't fight in it, but his brother did, so he had to take care of the ranch), my mother was prevented from being a brilliant pianist because she was forced to be a piano teacher for the last 30-40 years. My brothers and sisters are largely intelligent persons, but only one of them has really capitalized on this fact. Most have simply let small-town-life cloud their judgement and veil them in complacency.
Well... anyway. I started my UNIX01 class today. Can I just say that teaching this one will probably be more challenging than any of the others I've taught? Why? Well, the big reason is that people coming into UNIX01 do not typically have any UNIX/Linux experience whatsoever. Meaning, I pretty much start with a blank slate. In my UNIX02 and UNIX03 classes, I built upon pre-existing knowledge. Now, I cannot really do that.
Regardless, I think the class today went reasonably well. I toned back what I had planned because I realized it was too much, too fast, but it went well otherwise.
I have no new Tux4Kids news, but that's to be expected. I'm too damn busy (oh, and I'll be getting even busier, as I am slated to teach an OpenLDAP course in the fall).
I got a special prize in my mailbox when I got home. It was a NES emux for DC complete with oodles of G's (some 1000). I know I could've burned it myself for free, but it sure was more convienient this way. Anyway... been eating that biznitch up like a flaky blowin' blue. Found this lovely little gem of Japanese Bonk for NES and burned through it in 3/4 hr, then zipped through Adventure Island 1, 2, and 3 (of course, ADVISLE 1 is really just Sega's Wonderboy, which I've already played to death, but ADVISLE 2 and 3 were new to me). Plan on zapping through ADVISLE 4 and maybe Megaman 1 tomorrow before breakfast.
2003 Jul 14 (Mon), 11:31 Joe McGuirk's School of Hard Knocks
I think that this is rather timely. I mean, at the moment CA's karma is a bit negative due to their lackluster customer service for the last few years... They're almost on par with Qwest as far as alienation of customers is concerned. It's just a bit funny that they've come out with this big statement on the matter now that the court of public opinion generally seems to favor Linux in this battle. Also, the fact that Linus will be at CA World soon couldn't hurt either.
Sure, it's just positionning... but I, for one, appreciate the sentiment...
Urg... I am tired this morning. Can't get a CYGWIN SSHD to work properly on an XP box I've been setting up, and I can't figure out why. I'm sure it's just cause I'm tired because of these, but it's irritating none-the-less.
I mentioned my disc of golden NES for DC last time. I didn't go and beat Megaman, contrary to what I first said. That game is actually pretty cheap, and I found I just got too frustrated with it to play it very long. I'm sure I've just gotten jaded by the modern emphasis on "fair" gaming... but the sort of crap I encountered in that game just drove me bonkers. I'll still go back and play it again someday... but I'll have to find the proper mind-set (the mind-set I had in the late 1980s ;-)
Instead of MM, I played Ninja Gaiden III, which was almost just as cheap. Actually, it probably was just as cheap, but the cinemas sucked me in and I pushed through the irritation. NGIII was a game I actually never played (recall, I was an SMS-man myself in the late 80s, and didn't get an NES till much later) and I really dug it. The fact I couldn't sword-thrust down did bug me (hey, the Shinobi games could!) but oh well.
Speaking of games, ClanAM's UT JB III game was cancelled last night due to a horrible storm in Tucson. We actually got very little rain (which was unfortunate) but the winds sure whipped the sand around.
This afternoon, when I get home from work, I plan on going back and incorporating a lot of the things from my security class back into Noink. For example, I want a Noink component for the adaptive firewall we did (ours was considerably different from what was in the book, and I think, superior).
2003 Jul 16 (Wed), 13:52 I hate Windowmaker
I'm sorry, I just do. I personally prefer my WMs along the line of Fluxbox or IceWM....
So it kinda irks me that Windowmaker has the most themes on Freshmeat Themes...
I know Fluxbox is theme compatible with Blackbox which is in 2nd place... but anyway... Sorry for the useless post.
Okay, I am home sick today (and was yesterday) but this morning I had a rather disturbing experience: I was port scanned from a number of IP's inside of OSDN. Now, this was my personal home-machine (it's on COX.net, running Debian) and the scan was detected by SNORT and shut down by my personal adaptive firewall... But it's disturbing none-the-less.
My guess is one of their systems was compromised (this IP "66.35.250.167", which coresponds to images.freshmeat.net as far as I can tell was the most active). But I would think they'd be pretty harsh with respect to system policies.
2003 Jul 29 (Tue), 10:17 Shame...
I've never before been more ashamed to be an American. Read all about it here and here.
2003 Jul 31 (Thu), 10:39 Excellent...
....Always one step ahead, eh?....
BTW, in case you're wondering what I've been up to... Well, I've had some client work for my business... in addition to everything else.
But the really cool thing I've done lately is this movie!