All bundled up to deal with the cold and crisp sunny day. I think the look means "This is so going in my book."
11/13/04
The flu shot station is in the background. And in a shocking turn of events my daughter occupies the foreground of the picture. Who would have thought...? It was a quick process. Put in your name, get sent to a station, asked why you qualify for a free flu shot, quick poke and 15 minutes in the waiting room to make sure you don't have an allergic reaction. Then dash to the car at 10:30 to run my wife out to her workplace in Surrey for an 11:30 client.
11/9/04
11/8/04
11/7/04
Update
Memorable moments from the past week;
* We moved into the main floor of our house from the basement suite
on the 31. It was a great feeling of freedom to be able to go
wherever we wanted and explore the new environment. The kitchen
is beautiful with high-end appliances and design. Lots of
storage, gas range, Corian counter tops. A wonderful place to be
with our family.
* My daughter is ambivalent about the hardwood floors but has
certainly enjoyed the fact that the entire place was baby safe
since we had no furniture. :-)
* On Sunday we carved a pumpkin and put it out on the front step and
handed out candy to neighborhood children and their accompanying
posse of adults. I felt very adult.
* Had a fun interlude with my daughter on the front deck. I swept
it off and encouraged to come outside, appropriately attired in
the her purple fleece jacket and velour pants. She went to the
glass railing and looked through. Turned around and saw the baby
in the reflection of the sliding door. High speed crawling back
to the door. Turns around, a baby reflecting in the glass in the
railing. Saddle up and away we go. This went on for a good 10
minutes. On a side note she eventually napped for 2 hours. Lots
of fun for her.
* Worked Monday and then had a Transit Advisory Committee meeting.
Thankfully, they have brought in a professional facilitator to
make the meetings more effective. Kudos to them for recognizing
things weren't going well and changing their approach.
* Took the Skytrain home on a night that made me think that Noah may
have been onto something. Came out of the station to see the bus
I needed pulling away from the stop as I was 30 feet away. 9:30
at night, pouring rain, half an hour to the next bus. So I walked
up the hill. Cold and wet but relaxing at the same time. I was
pretty soaked by the time I saw my house and seeing the glow of
the front yard lights brought the tune of the CCR song Long as I
Can See the Light to mind. There is a magic to summer songs and
the music of your youth...actually my parents youth... :-)
*
Put a candle in the window
'cause I feel I gotta move.
Thought I'm goin' goin'
I'll be comin home soon
long as I can see the light.
* Busy day at Venue West on Tuesday. Pounded through a bunch of
work and then caught the train to my parents where my wife and
daughter had been all day. Had dinner and then loaded up the
whole fam damily to head home again. Loving the fact the commute
is substantially shorter.
* Spend Wednesday with my daughter. Pancakes in the morning,
playing with the ball and associated toys, snuggling will drinking
the bottle, nap, repeat.
* Thursday and Friday ... wife in design frenzy. Happy that she can
go out and buy things and change things in her house. Paint
chips appended to various walls. Somewhat of an unstoppable
force.... all those hours watching design shows are paying off.
* Worked from home, somewhat worked at least, Friday. A little
persistence and a 50 foot network cable meant I could sit in the
kitchen and work and remote into my desktop computer from the
laptop using TightVNC. Ran the cable out of the office, down the
hall, out the basement window, up the deck and back in the kitchen
window. I've got to get wireless. :-)
* Saturday was laundry, cleaning, bonding with baby and our first
dinner guests. My brother in law and nephew came over for some
squash-pear soup, buns and meat and cheese. Simple but nice.
Enjoying cooking with a gas range and the instant heat.
* The place is starting to come together - have the family room set
up, figured out how the appliances work and settling in.
* Heading to Bowen tomorrow for a wine and cheese with a retired
transportation planner I'm doing some pro-bono database work for.
Should be a bunch of counsellers and other participants in the
survey process. I was referred to this by my current boss who
also lives on Bowen.
* Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It validates many a
rant I've had about improper use of language and punctuation.
* Time for some sleep....the days go by so fast.
*
* We moved into the main floor of our house from the basement suite
on the 31. It was a great feeling of freedom to be able to go
wherever we wanted and explore the new environment. The kitchen
is beautiful with high-end appliances and design. Lots of
storage, gas range, Corian counter tops. A wonderful place to be
with our family.
* My daughter is ambivalent about the hardwood floors but has
certainly enjoyed the fact that the entire place was baby safe
since we had no furniture. :-)
* On Sunday we carved a pumpkin and put it out on the front step and
handed out candy to neighborhood children and their accompanying
posse of adults. I felt very adult.
* Had a fun interlude with my daughter on the front deck. I swept
it off and encouraged to come outside, appropriately attired in
the her purple fleece jacket and velour pants. She went to the
glass railing and looked through. Turned around and saw the baby
in the reflection of the sliding door. High speed crawling back
to the door. Turns around, a baby reflecting in the glass in the
railing. Saddle up and away we go. This went on for a good 10
minutes. On a side note she eventually napped for 2 hours. Lots
of fun for her.
* Worked Monday and then had a Transit Advisory Committee meeting.
Thankfully, they have brought in a professional facilitator to
make the meetings more effective. Kudos to them for recognizing
things weren't going well and changing their approach.
* Took the Skytrain home on a night that made me think that Noah may
have been onto something. Came out of the station to see the bus
I needed pulling away from the stop as I was 30 feet away. 9:30
at night, pouring rain, half an hour to the next bus. So I walked
up the hill. Cold and wet but relaxing at the same time. I was
pretty soaked by the time I saw my house and seeing the glow of
the front yard lights brought the tune of the CCR song Long as I
Can See the Light to mind. There is a magic to summer songs and
the music of your youth...actually my parents youth... :-)
*
Put a candle in the window
'cause I feel I gotta move.
Thought I'm goin' goin'
I'll be comin home soon
long as I can see the light.
* Busy day at Venue West on Tuesday. Pounded through a bunch of
work and then caught the train to my parents where my wife and
daughter had been all day. Had dinner and then loaded up the
whole fam damily to head home again. Loving the fact the commute
is substantially shorter.
* Spend Wednesday with my daughter. Pancakes in the morning,
playing with the ball and associated toys, snuggling will drinking
the bottle, nap, repeat.
* Thursday and Friday ... wife in design frenzy. Happy that she can
go out and buy things and change things in her house. Paint
chips appended to various walls. Somewhat of an unstoppable
force.... all those hours watching design shows are paying off.
* Worked from home, somewhat worked at least, Friday. A little
persistence and a 50 foot network cable meant I could sit in the
kitchen and work and remote into my desktop computer from the
laptop using TightVNC. Ran the cable out of the office, down the
hall, out the basement window, up the deck and back in the kitchen
window. I've got to get wireless. :-)
* Saturday was laundry, cleaning, bonding with baby and our first
dinner guests. My brother in law and nephew came over for some
squash-pear soup, buns and meat and cheese. Simple but nice.
Enjoying cooking with a gas range and the instant heat.
* The place is starting to come together - have the family room set
up, figured out how the appliances work and settling in.
* Heading to Bowen tomorrow for a wine and cheese with a retired
transportation planner I'm doing some pro-bono database work for.
Should be a bunch of counsellers and other participants in the
survey process. I was referred to this by my current boss who
also lives on Bowen.
* Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It validates many a
rant I've had about improper use of language and punctuation.
* Time for some sleep....the days go by so fast.
*
11/6/04
Memorable moments from the past week;
- We moved into the main floor of our house from the basement suite on the 31. It was a great feeling of freedom to be able to go wherever we wanted and explore the new environment. The kitchen is beautiful with high-end appliances and design. Lots of storage, gas range, corian countertops. A wonderful place to be with our family.
- My daughter is ambivelent about the hardwood floors but has certainly enjoyed the fact that the entire place was baby safe since we had no furniture. :-)
- On Sunday we carved a pumpkin and put it out on the front step and handed out candy to neighborhood children and their accompanying posse of adults. I felt very adult.
- Had a fun interlude with my daughter on the front deck. I swept it off and encouraged to come outside, appropriately attired in the her purple fleece jacket and velour pants. She went to the glass railing and looked through. Turned around and saw the baby in the releflection of the sliding door. High speed crawling back to the door. Turns around, a baby reflecting in the glass in the railing. Saddle up and away we go. This went on for a good 10 minutes. On a sidenote she eventually napped for 2 hours. Lots of fun for her.
- Worked Monday and then had a Transit Advisory Committee meeting. Thankfully, they have brought in a professional facilitator to make the meetings more effective. Kudos to them for recognizing things weren't going well and changing their approach.
- Took the Skytrain home on a night that made me think that Noah may have been onto something. Came out of the station to see the bus I needed pulling away from the stop as I was 30 feet away. 9:30 at night, pouring rain, half an hour to the next bus. So I walked up the hill. Cold and wet but relaxing at the same time. I was pretty soaked by the time I saw my house and seeing the glow of the front yard lights brought the tune of the CCR song Long as I Can See the Light to mind. There is a magic to summer songs and the music of your youth...actually my parents youth... :-)
-
Put a candle in the window
'cause I feel I gotta move.
Thought I'm goin' goin'
I'll be comin home soon
long as I can see the light. - Busy day at Venue West on Tuesday. Pounded through a bunch of work and then caught the train to my parents where my wife and daughter had been all day. Had dinner and then loaded up the whole fam damily to head home again. Loving the fact the commute is substantially shorter.
- Spend Wednesday with my daughter. Pancakes in the morning, playing with the ball and associated toys, snuggling will drinking the bottle, nap, repeat.
- Thursday and Friday ... wife in design frenzy. Happy that she can go out and buy things and change things in her house. Paint chips appended to various walls. Somewhat of an unstoppable force.... all those hours watching design shows are paying off.
- Worked from home, somewhat worked at least, Friday. A little persistence and a 50 foot network cable meant I could sit in the kitchen and work and remote into my desktop computer from the laptop using TightVNC. Ran the cable out of the office, down the hall, out the basement window, up the deck and back in the kitchen window. I've got to get wireless. :-)
- Saturday was laundry, cleaning, bonding with baby and our first dinner guests. My brother in law and nephew came over for some squash-pear soup, buns and meat and cheese. Simple but nice. Enjoying cooking with a gas range and the instant heat.
- The place is starting to come together - have the family room set up, figured out how the appliances work and settling in.
- Heading to Bowen tomorrow for a wine and cheese with a retired transportation planner I'm doing some pro-bono database work for. Should be a bunch of counsellers and other participants in the survey process. I was referred to this by my current boss who also lives on Bowen.
- Reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It validates many a rant I've had about improper use of language and punctuation.
- Time for some sleep....the days go by so fast.
-
11/5/04
ChangeThis :: ChangeThis: " ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread."
11/3/04
11/1/04
http://www.watchblog.com/
WatchBlog is a multiple-editor weblog broken up into three major political affiliations, each with its own blog: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Third Party (covering everything outside the two major parties).
WatchBlog is a multiple-editor weblog broken up into three major political affiliations, each with its own blog: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Third Party (covering everything outside the two major parties).
10/27/04
ESPN.com: Page 2 - The next win is for everyone: "'Q. What do you call 25 guys watching the World Series?'
'A. The Yankees.'"
'A. The Yankees.'"
10/26/04
EducationGuardian.co.uk | higher news | Ye olde bloggers find plot in cyberspace:
Gazetteers, the age-old precursor to the blogger, have finally found their place on the internet. A new website, launched today, brings together their accounts of Britain through the ages with more than 10m census entries and reproductions of ancient maps.
The gazetteer spent his (for they were mostly men) weekends touring the country and documenting towns, villages and cities. Each would record population, politics and social statistics for posterity.
Now their findings, along with every census finding from the past 200 years, and thousands of centuries-old maps - including the first ever ordinance survey series - have been compiled into a website.
Users can enter a postcode into a search engine and are provided with detailed social history of how the area has changed - the shifting population, where people work, how educated they are and even whether they have an inside loo.
The website also features the observations of travel writing pioneers, including the 12th century cleric, Gerald of Wales, Daniel Defoe, William Cobbett and the intrepid Celia Fiennes. The latter was the 17th century woman who, at the age of 23, decided that a spell touring the country on horseback would be good for her health. She documented her findings and is believed to have inspired the "see a fine lady upon a white horse" nursery rhyme.
It has taken a team of historical geographers at Portsmouth University 10 years and a £1.5m lottery grant to put together the website, www.VisionofBritain.org.uk, which was due to go live at noon today.
Gazetteers, the age-old precursor to the blogger, have finally found their place on the internet. A new website, launched today, brings together their accounts of Britain through the ages with more than 10m census entries and reproductions of ancient maps.
The gazetteer spent his (for they were mostly men) weekends touring the country and documenting towns, villages and cities. Each would record population, politics and social statistics for posterity.
Now their findings, along with every census finding from the past 200 years, and thousands of centuries-old maps - including the first ever ordinance survey series - have been compiled into a website.
Users can enter a postcode into a search engine and are provided with detailed social history of how the area has changed - the shifting population, where people work, how educated they are and even whether they have an inside loo.
The website also features the observations of travel writing pioneers, including the 12th century cleric, Gerald of Wales, Daniel Defoe, William Cobbett and the intrepid Celia Fiennes. The latter was the 17th century woman who, at the age of 23, decided that a spell touring the country on horseback would be good for her health. She documented her findings and is believed to have inspired the "see a fine lady upon a white horse" nursery rhyme.
It has taken a team of historical geographers at Portsmouth University 10 years and a £1.5m lottery grant to put together the website, www.VisionofBritain.org.uk, which was due to go live at noon today.
BOFH and the pointless questionnaire | The Register:BOFH and the pointless questionnaire
"It doesn't pay to ask questions! We already know what people want - everything, yesterday. AND we know that they're used to disappointment. But if you start asking them what they think we should be doing, you'll just ignite a spark of hope"
"A spark is a good thing!"
"Not when I stamp that spark out with the cold hard boot of reality."
"What?! Why? I happen to think that some of the staff may have something valuable to contribute!"
"To the lengthening unemployment queues, yes. But you don't want them mixing stupidity with technology. That's your job. Leave it to them and they'll be recommending that we upgrade to those 'new' voice-operated computers they saw on Bladerunner... ... Oh, and you definitely don't want to be asking for any additional comments they might have about IT, the department, or our ongoing strategy."
"Why not!?"
"Because it's a drift net for stupid ideas. Sure, you'll get one or two people who actually give a sane suggestion, but then you'll hit all the dolphins - the people who, because they've been asked to contribute feel that they have to contribute - like it's an intelligence test or something. Only they've got nothing useful to contribute, so they start off on some innovative tangent, like if we installed a large plasma screen in reception we could use it to have customised messages of the day for staff and visitors, etc, instead of what it would really be used for"
"Which would be?"
"Security would use it to watch porn movies late at night when everyone's left the building."
"Oh I doubt that. Though the screen itself sounds like a good idea!"
"They all sound like good ideas...!"
"So what do you suggest?"
"Lets start with basic concepts. Firstly, the only cavassing of users you should be doing is with a heavy tarpaulin, a stack of bricks and a deep stretch of water"
Click link for more....
"It doesn't pay to ask questions! We already know what people want - everything, yesterday. AND we know that they're used to disappointment. But if you start asking them what they think we should be doing, you'll just ignite a spark of hope"
"A spark is a good thing!"
"Not when I stamp that spark out with the cold hard boot of reality."
"What?! Why? I happen to think that some of the staff may have something valuable to contribute!"
"To the lengthening unemployment queues, yes. But you don't want them mixing stupidity with technology. That's your job. Leave it to them and they'll be recommending that we upgrade to those 'new' voice-operated computers they saw on Bladerunner... ... Oh, and you definitely don't want to be asking for any additional comments they might have about IT, the department, or our ongoing strategy."
"Why not!?"
"Because it's a drift net for stupid ideas. Sure, you'll get one or two people who actually give a sane suggestion, but then you'll hit all the dolphins - the people who, because they've been asked to contribute feel that they have to contribute - like it's an intelligence test or something. Only they've got nothing useful to contribute, so they start off on some innovative tangent, like if we installed a large plasma screen in reception we could use it to have customised messages of the day for staff and visitors, etc, instead of what it would really be used for"
"Which would be?"
"Security would use it to watch porn movies late at night when everyone's left the building."
"Oh I doubt that. Though the screen itself sounds like a good idea!"
"They all sound like good ideas...!"
"So what do you suggest?"
"Lets start with basic concepts. Firstly, the only cavassing of users you should be doing is with a heavy tarpaulin, a stack of bricks and a deep stretch of water"
Click link for more....
10/24/04
10/20/04
10/3/04
Trusted Computing FAQ TC / TCG / LaGrande / NGSCB / Longhorn / Palladium: "1. What is TC - this `trusted computing' business?
The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) is an alliance of Microsoft, Intel, IBM, HP and AMD which promotes a standard for a `more secure' PC. Their definition of `security' is controversial; machines built according to their specification will be more trustworthy from the point of view of software vendors and the content industry, but will be less trustworthy from the point of view of their owners. In effect, the TCG specification will transfer the ultimate control of your PC from you to whoever wrote the software it happens to be running. (Yes, even more so than at present.)
The TCG project is known by a number of names. `Trusted computing' was the original one, and is still used by IBM, while Microsoft calls it `trustworthy computing' and the Free Software Foundation calls it `treacherous computing'. Hereafter I'll just call it TC, which you can pronounce according to taste. Other names you may see include TCPA (TCG's name before it incorporated), Palladium (the old Microsoft name for the version due to ship in 2004) and NGSCB (the new Microsoft name). Intel has just started calling it `safer computing'. Many observers believe that this confusion is deliberate - the promoters want to deflect attention from what TC actually does."
Long, not overly technical, has an incredible relevance to what you can and cannot do with your computer in the coming years.
The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) is an alliance of Microsoft, Intel, IBM, HP and AMD which promotes a standard for a `more secure' PC. Their definition of `security' is controversial; machines built according to their specification will be more trustworthy from the point of view of software vendors and the content industry, but will be less trustworthy from the point of view of their owners. In effect, the TCG specification will transfer the ultimate control of your PC from you to whoever wrote the software it happens to be running. (Yes, even more so than at present.)
The TCG project is known by a number of names. `Trusted computing' was the original one, and is still used by IBM, while Microsoft calls it `trustworthy computing' and the Free Software Foundation calls it `treacherous computing'. Hereafter I'll just call it TC, which you can pronounce according to taste. Other names you may see include TCPA (TCG's name before it incorporated), Palladium (the old Microsoft name for the version due to ship in 2004) and NGSCB (the new Microsoft name). Intel has just started calling it `safer computing'. Many observers believe that this confusion is deliberate - the promoters want to deflect attention from what TC actually does."
Long, not overly technical, has an incredible relevance to what you can and cannot do with your computer in the coming years.
9/27/04
The Future of Television: "When I saw Joe's War President, I was blown away. I've been interested in photo mosaics since Robert Silver's Lincoln. Then Alf posted Porn Ashcroft at Hublog. "
American Leftist: "War PresidentBelow is a small version of an image I made. It's a mosaic composed of the photos of the American service men and women who have died in Iraq.
9/18/04
From a German PC magazine
"Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies helps you protect your PC against viruses, hackers, and worms." - this is how Microsoft promotes its Service Pack 2 on its website. What the company does not say: Instead of viruses, worms, and hackers, the supposedly safe SP2 for Windows XP invites any Internet user to have a look around your PC.
As soon as you install SP2 on a Windows XP PC with a certain configuration, your file and printer sharing data are visible worldwide, despite an activated Firewall. This also applies to all other services. The PC only has to provide sharing for an internal local network and connect to the Internet via dial-up or ISDN. Users of DSL services are also affected, if a firewall is not integrated into the DSL modem or a common modem instead of a DSL router is used. Additionally, Internet Connection Sharing of the PC has to be disabled.
A number of test scans run by PC-Welt revealed that this in fact is a common configuration and not a rare sight. Without great effort, we were able to discover private documents on easily accessible computers on the Internet. It must be assumed, that these users wrongly believe they are safe and that their sharing configurations are only visible in their network at home: Often, we did not even encounter password protection.
Already Windows 95 affected by a similar problem
Experienced Windows users may remember that there was a similar problem in the past, specifically with Windows 95. Back then, Microsoft forgot to separate file and printer sharing from the dial-up network adapter when such a connection was configured.
In other words, this caused the service to be released worldwide through the dial-up connection as soon as you were connected to the Internet. Microsoft at that time issued an update to patch the bug. The fact that file and printer sharing since then is not connected to the dial-up connection anymore, can easily be seen on your system: Right-click on the symbol "My Network Places" and select "Properties". Repeat the right-click and selection with the icon of your dial-up connection and select the tab "Settings". If there is no check at "File and Printer Sharing", it indicates that this service should not be made available through your dial-up connection.
This in fact is true for Windows XP without Service Pack. Since SP1, this configuration is hardly more than cosmetics and does not serve any purpose anymore. This means, the file and printer sharing service is connected in general, also to the dial-up network adapter. This in itself is a serious bug, since your shared data potentially could be seen on the Internet. However, there are no catastrophic effects, as every dial-up connection is configured with an activated firewall by default.
If you intended to deactivate this firewall, Windows displayed an easily recognizable dialog, that this choice would allow access to your computer. Despite the bug in SP1, the configuration of the firewall was worked out in a clean way: You were able to run the dial-up connection with a firewall and the internal network card without, because the latter was supposed to enable access through the Windows network.
SP1 + SP2 leads to a catastrophic error
Due to the bug carried over from SP1 as well as a new bug, the firewall configuration with SP2 has a catastrophic effect. The SP2 installation simply uses the previous configuration of the firewall: If it was active for the dial-up connection, now it also has been activated for the network adapter.
At the same time, an exception is determined for file and printer sharing: For the internal network card - and astonishingly also for all adapters.
With the first use of the dial-up connection after installing SP2, all of your shared data are available on the Internet. Now, other users can start guessing your passwords for administrator and guest and you basically are no more secure than the first Windows 95 users with an Internet connection - thanks to Service Pack 2.
How to correct the problem
It is not advisable to keep this defective default configuration. However, the previous environment cannot be restored: The configuration for the firewall was changed, which does not allow the setting of active or inactive conditions or exceptions for each network adapter anymore. Now this only works for network areas.
Choose "Windows Firewall" in the in the Windows Control Panel and the there the tab "Exceptions". Select "File and Print Services" and click on "Edit". Now you can see four ports which are used by the file and print sharing service.
To lock the service to the outside and keep it open for the internal LAN, you have to individually select and change its area with the respective button. Our reader Yves Jerschov notified us of another bug: The value for the area set by default "Only for own network (Subnet)" only works, if the Internet Connection Sharing is activated. If this is not the case, your shared data are visible worldwide. This error can be corrected by choosing "User defined List" and entering the IP addresses that are supposed to have access - the IP addresses of your LAN. A whole range of an IP area can be entered as "192.168.x.0/255.255.255.0", if the respective addresses start with 192.168.x.
After these measures, you can be sure to be as safe as you were with SP1. Great, don't you think?
9/13/04
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9/10/04
hal helms' personal site: "You are in the basement of a house and there are three separate lightswitches. In the attic of the same house are three separate bulbs, each connected to one of the lightswitches.You can not see from the basement to the attic and there are no other tools or persons available. Question: How can you match lightswitch to bulb for each light with only ONE trip to the attic?"
The New York Times > Health > Sick of Work: Cracking Under the Pressure? It's Just the Opposite, for Some: "In studies, researchers have found that perhaps the only time pessimists thrive is when they become lawyers."
9/3/04
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