days and nights

It is 9:00am and I am starting Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I have already consumed more iced coffee in a day than most people dare to in a week. I am ready for this. I get comfortable and the opening scenes roll. I won’t lie, it feels kind of flat.

The mood didn’t change much. While Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was quite fun at times, it felt similar to Rocky Balboa (Rocky VI) in that the pace was slowed down considerably. I don’t know if this has to do with the age of the actors, the directors, or just a change in what these particular series of movies entailed.

The biggest let down was the whole spaceship thing. I could tell it was coming the second the Roswell incident was mentioned early in the movie. I really hoped that they would move in a different direction though and maybe keep things on THIS planet.

After discussing this with several co-workers, I concluded that moving in the direction the games took would have been more appropriate for this franchise. For example, I believe that Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis would have been a spectacular game to base the new film on. Of course it may have needed a large amount of modification, but I am certain that it would have been more successful than using aliens as a mystery to base things around. After all, how many HUGE mysteries do we have in the world? We covered the ark in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, we got the Cup of Christ in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade… Why not get Atlantis? Everyone knows what it is. Everyone LOVES the thought of finding some city that is thousands of years old. Why wouldn’t they have run with that?

In all fairness, it was an entertaining movie. I highly suggest everyone go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I give it a 7 out of 10, and will probably see it again to see if I feel the same way on the second go around.

Well, my last post was laced with a bit of angst as I am sure my 3 readers could tell. Actually on that subject, I am up to 11 readers now. Return readers, not just come once and leave types. Regardless, my last post was rather pissy. I am now jobless as of the 30th of this month. I put in my two week notice yesterday, and began working on replacing my current workplace with something more tuned to my IT career goals. I think it is a great move.

I have mentioned in the past that I have been working on my LPIC-1 as well as my CEH and CHFI. I have made some significant strides forward in studying for my LPIC-1, and expect to take both the 101 and 102 exams next week. It will be a grand occasion when I pass them. My education has been lacking recently due to a downturn in my job duties, and I have decided that I won’t be allowing that of myself anymore. Once my LPIC-1 is finished, I will move on to my CEH to finish that and turn around to finish my CHFI directly after. I could probably finish my CEH sooner, but the LPI certifications have been a goal for a while, and I intend to complete that goal before setting any others.

I have applied for more than a dozen jobs in the last day or two all over the world. Most of them have been either in Dallas or Salt Lake City. There are a few in California and spread all over the world at various United States Air Force bases. I feel that working for the government might not be as great as it should be, so I have put those ones on the back burner unless a real spectacular offer comes across. I want to stay in the private sector and keep getting my name out there. I feel that name recognition is more valuable than any job experience will ever be. It is quite hard to get in this industry, but marketing myself correctly will help that.

If anyone is in need of a System Administrator or Technical Requirements Analyst, please let me know. I am looking actively right now, and will be accepting an offer in the very near future if all goes well.

I am putting in my two weeks today. It has been a fun ride, but the stupidity of this place is beyond amazement. I have yet to find a group of people that can work together without getting dumber. Here, it is like using high school kids instead of management. They are the kind of people that have meetings to set meetings for other things that will probably require an additional meeting to finish. Quite daunting if I do say so myself.

In other news, I have been mulling over a job down in Dallas again. It is for a hosting company that I had not heard of until I started my search, but they seem rather good at what they do. The one problem is, they are not going to be paying for my move, so that might be a bit of a hard thing to pull off. If they pay enough though, I should be able to pay a move off in 2 or 3 months, then move into paying the rest of my debt down. I am thinking 16 months for debt pay down if I get it.

I am also looking at a dozen more jobs in other areas as well. Everything from Korea to England, South Africa, Australia, and a half dozen other places throughout the US. I am thinking that going overseas might be nice for a while.

Either way though, I find myself feeling like the end is near for this hell I have subjected myself to for 6 months. I am glad for it too. I don’t know if I could have held out much longer without freaking when I am leaving. And I would prefer that I leave on at least somewhat good terms.

I believe that I might just not be cut out to work for other people in a non IT environment. I find that IT people USUALLY have a little more of an idea of what needs to be done to make things work. In this case, I am getting flack from the IT people here. These are of the sort that have exactly ZERO idea what is going on. Seriously, you should see the crap they produce. It is just… Odd. Oh well. All done. Post again later.

Microsoft claimed that Windows Vista would be the most security operating system on the planet. Moving forward, they integrated a load of bad ideas into a barely usable chunk of “software” that looks more like a load of rancid bloatware every day. Regardless of the overall hatred of Vista that has taken hold over the last 18 months or so, Microsoft still claims that Vista is a secure operating system.

The question is though, why the hell is it that you would need additional security for the operating system if it is the most secure operating system ever? Most secure ever makes me think that I won’t have to worry about viruses anymore. It makes me think that I won’t need to go out and pay Kaspersky or AVG $50 for them to protect me further. It seems that my way of thinking doesn’t jive with the Microsoft method.

On top of everything else that has been problematic in Vista, they have made programming for it extremely difficult. Drivers were the first big issue. When Vista released, it seemed that getting your printer or camera to work with it was a mess. Vendors were having serious issues with making their hardware work with this new mess that Microsoft released.

Now it seems that these problems have advanced to the Antivirus and Security markets. Vista has been proven time and again to be one of the less secure operating systems, so we are all forced into getting a security suite to keep ourselves safe. Well, we might not be the right word. The right way to say that is, all of you that have not had the foresight to move to Linux.

Regardless, the security companies can’t program for this abomination of an operating system either it appears. Many of the big players in the Antivirus market failed the VB100% tests at the start of April. These are all companies that could pass the same tests on Windows XP without a thought. So what changed between XP and Vista? Everything. Security was dropped on its head. In changing everything they did in a certain way before, they opened more holes. Considering XP looked like a block of Swiss, Vista makes XP look like a religious experience (super sharp cheddar?). 

The fact is, Microsoft tried to get their security right, and in doing so, made the problem worse. It is sad to think that a company that commands so much of the OS market can be so instrumental in the spread of Malware. In fact, while we know that a Mac got the first PC designed virus, I would have to say that Microsoft is nearly single handedly responsible for the spread of modern viruses because they refuse to secure their products and stick to the established standard. Just another reason to switch to a real operating system.

I have been listening to these guys for quite some time and have finally come to the conclusion that they are easily one of the most talented groups around. While I understand that they are no longer together in their initial form, I really still believe they are quite good.

Saosin will be here in Utah coming up in the next month or so. Chris and I are thinking about going possibly. I think I will. Regardless of all you little screamo bastards out there.

Right. I am done. hehe

Over the last several years and through several relationships, I have been inundated with magazines, articles, and general chatter and bullshit about what a man needs to do for a woman. Things like putting the toilet seat down, getting her flowers “just because”, and just telling her how much you appreciate her. These things, combined with not beating the crap out of her, are supposed to make you a good man.

Well, now that I have achieved all of those things, I have the added benefit of being quite single. It isn’t that I don’t have a love interest. It is simply that I am treated like a commodity. Something to be used when the time is right. Maybe that is too harsh. I am treated like something that is expendable. Something that doesn’t have much value other than the occasional “snuggle time” on the couch while watching a movie or the not-so-inspiring walk in the park.

While I understand that life happens, and can be rather difficult to work around, I have to say that I am not fulfilled. As a man who is genuinely interested in forging a relationship with this woman that I am kind of seeing, I have devised a list of things that would make all men in my position much more comfortable in this whole transitional phase.

1. We need to feel needed. While we may not like taking out the trash every single time it gets full, we do like to feel needed. Ask us to help with your yard every once in a while. Ask us to help you put up new blinds. Hell, ask us to come over and spend time just spending time.
2. We need more time. This doesn’t mean that we want you to go slower. We just want to spend more time with you. There is a very fine balance between spending the right amount of time with someone and spending too much time with someone. That has to be found though to make things work. Not having enough time with someone makes relationships fail. This is why the long distance thing almost never works out.
3. Sometimes we need to be told how good we are. The male ego needs stroking as much or more than the male physique. This is a large part of number 1 as well.

These may only scratch the surface, but these are a great start to keeping your man happy. And a happy man buys flowers and puts down the toilet seat. Oh and one more thing, you notice when the seat is up. How about a little thanks on occasion when we put it down. Some of us were trained to put it down from youth… Give us a reward for our attentiveness to your wants and needs.

I am thinking about heading out of town for the weekend. I have had a shitty week so far and I want to get away to somewhere that I can let loose a bit. I am thinking of heading down to Dallas for a visit. Anyone down there want to hang for a day or two?

I have never been one to slam any sort of Linux. Hell, I seldom slam anything that works; one of the reason I am still a fan of Windows XP. I do however have a problem with Ubuntu. Again.

There is a bit of a buzz because someone decided to put Ubuntu on a Sharp Zaurus. A PDA that is widely known in the *NIX community because it was one of the first to actually come with Linux installed. On top of the fact that it came with a decent OS, it also sported some pretty good hardware. Double win for anyone lucky enough to have gotten one.

The problem I have with the recent buzz though is that it is Ubuntu that was ported. They couldn’t have used clean operating system. They went to the jumble of hacks that makes up Ubuntu. They decided that instead of starting from the ground up and making something that is REALLY ported for the specific hardware you are running, they would go ahead and just grab some vanilla version of Ubuntu and hope for the best…

I am not trying to take away the fact that they put Linux on a box that came pre-installed with Linux. It does take some smarts and some tweaking to get that to happen without failure. Good for them. I am however stating that regardless of how great that little goal turns out to be, it will still be Ubuntu. A sub par OS that is barely good for Grandma, and certainly isn’t good for much else.

In closing, I guess this is really a rant against all the Ubuntu people out there that think that Ubuntu is the end all be all of Linux when it is just an epic failure for anything requiring more than pretty menus and overly simple operation.

Oh, and another thing, I can build a Fedora or BSD box that works just as well for running Thunderbird and Firefox for Grandma. And I can assure you that I won’t be quite so pissed off when I am done with either of those.

The link to the article I read about this is: http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/08/ubuntu-gets-ported-to-sharp-zaurus-pdas/

Permissions… Simple permissions were enough to get me angry at this godforsaken program. The beauty of this whole dilemma is that it had NOTHING to do with Rosetta Stone this time. It was all Wine/Ubuntu’s fault. I feel so dignified in saying that while Ubuntu is easy to use and comes with some cool stuff, it still isn’t the perfect operating system that all its little zealot pricks think it is. Get off your high horse and fix my damn Wine install. It works just fine in Fedora 8. WITHOUT CONFIGURATION OR TROUBLESHOOTING!

Wine seemed to install just fine. I used “apt-get” to get it installed and life was good for about 30 seconds. I was thinking that I would be all decked out in some major amounts of language learning on my shiny new Ubuntu 8.04 install. I tried to execute the setup file for Rosetta Stone though, and all hell broke loose. Memory addressing errors. File permissions errors. Everything that should not have been happening. I stopped for a moment and figured I would try while using “su” in case there was some odd snafu that I was not aware of. Yeah, on top of that being just plain stupid, it didn’t work either. In fact, that seemed to make it worse since for some ungodly reason, while using “su”, I didn’t have permissions to create either files or directories in my own home directory. Which was owned by my user and group and had 755 permissions. I am getting mad about this time in my push to make this work.

After fixing some of the easier errors by creating directories that Wine was unable to create, though I saw exactly no reason why, I started getting to the root of the problem. Wanna know what that problem is? Nobody tested the damn software. There seems to be some sort of quality issue where the Wine software package and Ubuntu come together. I understand that it is not supported software, but come on! I thought Ubuntu was so well liked because it “just works!”

My experimentation program was Rosetta Stone 2.0.8.1, though I never got to use it with Ubuntu 8.04. Want to know what I got for my trouble? 30 minutes of my day I will never get back.

I can hear everyone out there yelling at me to fix the issue and submit a patch. Perhaps even submit a bug report. Well, you know what I say to that? Hell no! I am not going to spend my time working on a system that claims to “Just Work!” according to every kiddie adopter out there. I will stick with Fedora on the stuff that actually requires some balls, thanks. It may not look as pretty in some places, but it gets the job done for me and doesn’t require me to troubleshoot permissions when there are no permissions issues that I can find.

God, I hate it when I get so angry with something that I can’t even speak in an informative way. Look at this mess of a post… *sigh*

So I am working on this series of articles about the history of the computer virus. I knew it was going to be a big project, but I had no clue how big. I wanted to limit my articles to between 2 and 3 pages per and have a series of 5 or 6. It has grown considerably larger.

Just my research on virus groups and automation tools alone has turned up a books worth of material. I have decided that I am going to highlight some of the big names in the community as well. They may not be current, but they still have importance to the scene. It would be curious if I could interview a current undergroup writer though. I may have to see if IRC can be of help in finding one or two. Or even better, if any of you are coders, please let me know. I would be quite happy to get a good interview from you.

Either way, another part I am doing is different payloads of various types of malware. It is going to be rather interesting to see what new stuff has come about since I stopped keeping up with the scene. That has been about 6 years, and I think things will have changed in a major way.

I will be putting the articles up here as well as the TopTenREVIEWS Antivirus site. Keep your eye out for them as I finish them in the near future.