Like I said, the soccer match was called off. Too much snow, and not enough clue to get rid of it. It is also still below zero, which leads me to suspect the players are also grateful the match was cancelled.
The soup place was closed until late in the afternoon for reasons best known to someone else. An old friend from Denmark will be visiting me tomorrow, and staying a week. She reportedly have mad plans to map Dublin while I work during the day. I should recommend that she get one of the £9 maps of greater Dublin.
4 inches of snow killed Ireland. Nothing much moved. That which managed to move did so slowly and with tremendous effort. I did notice it had started to snow before going to bed, but I woke up before my radio switched on, so I never heard the news. I didn't open my blinds, so I didn't realise everything was white before I opened the door into the yard.
I spent most of the day in work. The soup place had no soup at all, and they closed sometime after noon. If they continue the trend of random product offerings people are going to go elsewhere, and the Soup will shut down.
I caught a bus just after 9pm, and the driver announced this was the last bus of the evening, due to the weather. Normally the last bus would run at 11.30pm. The area around where I live had piles of snow, so the route had changed, and I was let off the bus 10 minute walk from where I live. Cold.
Ireland has no equipment to deal with snow at all. Nothing to clear the roads. The best they could do is spread sand, but what good is that when everything is covered in snow and ice?
Tomorrow, Denmark is supposed to play soccer against Ireland in the Landsdowne Road stadium. Fat chance.
I'm back. While I was away, my mailbox was raped by spam. This is what it looked like. *sigh*
N 010222 make_real_money@b (205) A Personal Invitation N 010223 blyrl@mailmij.nl ( 16) Winning Confirmation___________ N 010223 d14079@hotmail.co ( 23) good day 12006 N 010223 leesmithe@looksma ( 64) WANT OUT OF THE TAX SYSTEM LEGALLY? N 010223 junebguer94@looks ( 65) WANT TO OWE NO TAX ON APRIL 15TH? N 010223 poemfromyou.com ( 16) The best GIFT ever! N 010224 dewt@fratfunz.com ( 90) research this stock N 010224 yu@fratfunz.com ( 90) we think this deserves a look N 010224 4P0mk19O2@naseej. ( 56) pain free joints,back,neck,knees,shoulders,hands,feet,elbows.quick & easy N 010224 alderman@pit.mote ( 26) PC USERS OPTIMIZE WINDOWS N 010225 nomore1040@mail.m (115) Never File A 1040 Again!!!!!!!!!! N 010225 moore_ws1@hotmail ( 42) FREE Marketing Software...A Complete Package!!! N 010225 fatlp@naseej.com ( 19) Reduce your debt___ N 010225 Top-Search-Enigin ( 43) Drive Your Web Counter Ballistic!
I'm going to delete email based on subjects containing all uppercase, "!!", "__", the last word being all digits and "," followed by a letter. Watch my email page for the filtering rules.
I will be unavailable until Monday evening during which time my diary will feel neglected and want to move in with someone else. </topsecret>
(Uffe is making excuses for not updating his diary. HA!)
Went into work around 9am. Wrote about features of SSH. Met with my manager for a objective review. We have many projects to complete over the next 6 months, and we need to build our own processes in more detail.
Meant to go home around 9pm but we heard rumours that BIND 8.2.3-REL may have a security flaw in it, that the underground knows about. I spent some energy trying to find more information, but I couldn't find any references. Those of you who think I should just look at the BIND code deserve to be shot.
When I left work, all the stores had closed, so I couldn't shop for food. I was home around 1am.
Oh dear. The days are blending together. I went into work for around 8am and worked. I also discovered that the chicken and vegetable soup from SuperSoup is wonderful. This has now become my breakfast. Lovely.
Went to a meeting which was OK. Later I peeked a Uffe's website and saw he hadn't updated it for a few days. I honestly don't remember what I did other than that.
Hannibal Lecter is an absolute monster. Undeniably, he is also a genius. He kills and mames those which he consider rude or ignorant. He consumes their flesh, and he gazes at Clarice Starling, not because it arouses him, but because it pleases him. To Hannibal, it's a romance with Clarice.
"I just read the script, learn the lines and do it. I show up on the set having left my own home. It's easy -- that'sthe way it should be. Because then it becomes real, then it's human behaviour and human uncertainty. I mean, I didn't spend two months in the country learning how to be a butler for The Remains of The Day." -- Anthony Hopkins, on playing Hannibal Lecter.
As with most filmatisations, the movie lacks elaboration of several aspects of the original story. The first shoot-out scene where Starling is disgraced as a result is very brief and the movie does not correctly depict the grief caused by her being suspended from the FBI.
The movie is also lacking in describing how the relationship between Clarice and Hannibal evolve throughout the movie. Attempts are made by showing Clarice listening to recordings of Hannibal talking to herself or Barney, the keeper.
I have all the respect in the world for the acting skills of Sir Anthony Hopkins. The script suffered in the transition, however, possibly due to censorship and the prospect of people's reaction to the details left out.
If you want good entertainment for 2 hours, go see the movie. If you want a masterpiece and a spectacular view into Hannibal's mind, read the book.
Woke up at 5am feeling rested. Amazing. Went shopping at 9am while everybody else were asleep. Even better. I couldn't help but notice that Uffe's diary has not been updated since 14 February. Oh dear.
I recommend requesting access none the less.
I purchased "The Boxer", "Circle of Friends" and "The American President". The first and the latter are wonderful movies. "Circle of Friends" has British and American actors trying to speak with an Irish accent. It bothers me.
Seriously skilled hacker Rain Forest Puppy and myself exchange the odd email from time to time. For those of you who think I completely lost touch with the world, here's ultimate proof that you haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about: "You make perfect sense; it's the world that doesn't make sense." -- rain forest puppy
So there.
This morning I also realised that I haven't had much sleep at all this week. I got out of bed Tuesday morning, and didn't go to bed until Wednesday evening. I was up and out of bed at 7.30am Thursday and currently it's 11am on Friday. I haven't slept.
I went to bed at 2pm.
Yeah. Spent the night in work again. I wrote lots about CVS, and I started playing Counter-Strike during breaks. We'll see if the addiction is lasting. My fingers and I hope not.
I managed to "aquire" a lot of live Tori Amos cover songs. I am convinced there isn't a genre she can't take on. She can put her touch on anything, including but not limited to Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Rolling Stones and Simon & Garfunkel. Now that's skill!
I have been trying to visit Uffe's website and today I see that he is a day behind in his diary, just like i seem to be from time to time.
Spent the night in work. Went home at 5pm and slept. Very exciting.
Uffe finally reacted to my roars of dismay. His website will be resurrected in a different format. One must request access, so if you think you are worthy, visit his website now.
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. An excuse for all the fucked up men in the world to pay attention to their partner, and for Hallmark et al to make a lot of money. For the likeminded out in the big bad world, here's something you can point your partner to:
Today I learned that one of my employees is reminded of me when he sees this picture:
I also talked to people in suits, but they made me sign a non-disclosure agreement before we started talking, so I am unable to share the conversation with you.
I woke up around 4pm, walked around in a fog and then shopped. I worked a lot on some CVS stuff, learned a little about ksh, pointed out to peavey how his SSH server could be crashed, learned that on IRC I am known as "Security Freak no. 1" and generally farted about.
I stayed up all night, of course. I am hungry.
Today I woke up at 2pm when my landlord called. I signed the new 2 year contract for my apartment. Later in the afternoon, I became very tired, and tried to sleep again, but my phone rang. It turns out my boys had penetrated a machine I briefly tried to break into last night, with the intent of shutting it down.
In the evening, I decided to go see a movie, but the queue was longer than the road to hell. Leaving the cinema house, I concluded a rented movie would be in order. I went to rent "Bowfinger" and "Bicentennial Man."
"Bicentennial Man" is a wonderful epic of hope and desire to be the best one can be. I am certain the value of this movie will escape most of the clatterbrains who do decide to see it.
The story touches on (the sometimes wrong) choices one must make in life, how we are perceived and reminds us that sometimes we just can't have who we want.
Sometimes love just isn't enough.
YES! A root hole was found in most of the SSH implementations. The situation is almost under control, but upgrades are still pending. The probability of Alex sleeping this century is .00000000000000000000000000000000484%.
I went to bed at 2pm, and woke up at 9pm. Mick woke me up by ringing the door bell madly. He came to pick up some letters and drop off some things he brought with him when he moved out. We agreed to meet up next week for a pint, etc.
Sweeped our systems with scanssh, and we are looking good. 8 days til the premier of "Hannibal."
Oh, look. It's midnight and thanks to newly discovered vulnerabilities in SSH I am still in work.
Spent the day being hungry, being in meetings and reminding someone not to mount harddrive partitions as NOEXEC if they want to be able to execute programs that reside on the partition in question.
The following exchange of words took place very late on our internal IRC server, between myself and a person working in another group.
(alex) I've been told I have an attitude problem.
(tim) it's listed in your job requirements
(alex) Most people fail to recognise this fact.
(tim) that's why you need the attitude
(tim) the guy whose job it is to shoot madmen holding guns is not supposed to
be a nice person
(tim) shooting madmen in the leg, as opposed to the chest, is as nice as
they're allowed to be.
I love the guy.
Well, it's 6pm and I'm tired. I spent a few hours in meetings, and will be meeting the Gardai again tomorrow. Time to go home and sleep.
Spent the night in work, writing CVS guidelines and more. The new area51.dk server has been configured and placed into the hosting facility, but DNS details may cause you to not see this page for another day or two.
I can't seem to join IRC from the relocated server. That is either caused by router filters or name server issues. We shall see.
Looked through someone's horrible code. Ate chocolate cake. It was Sunday, what else did you expect?
There will be minor changes to area51.dk on Tuesday, I've been told, so if I don't answer your email, and am not available on IRC, it doesn't mean I died. It just means that the server I use for the fun stuff is unavailable.
I also received a letter addressed for my landlord. I assume it's my new contract, so when I have signed it, the bed in the second bedroom will be replaced with a desk. Yay.
Uffe still didn't update his freaking site!
Woke up surprisingly late, 4pm or thereabouts.
Decided to suck down the OpenBSD 2.8-current snapshot released yesterday. It worked out at 100MB via ISDN. Took a while. Thanks to a braindead feature of the commandline ftp client, I had to re-get a 22MB file. I will have to write a fix and send it back to the OpenBSD people.
The install itself went ok, except for problems getting X to understand the new wscons mouse drivers. It was just a matter of supplying the right details, and running a script correctly. I really love the OpenBSD 2.8 logo. I never thought I would see a fish and think "Sexy."
I also finally watched "The Remains of The Day." -- it is an excellent piece of art that I highly recommend.
Uffe still didn't update his website. I urge you to send him abusive email.
Went to bed at 5am, back up at 8am in time for meeting at 10m. Discovered a great place to get hot soup, so I may make that my breakfast (along with milk) in these cold winter months.
"Hannibal" is out on Feb 16th; two days after a deadline for a significant project, so I will certainly reward myself with a trip to the movies soon. I read the book some months ago, and it was a fascinating tale. I strongly recommend reading the book, especially if you are not going to see the movie. I do fear that the horror in the book will never be as well described in the movie due to censorship.
Oh, look. One of the projects I worked on, got media attention! ElectricNews have a strange website, however, so the story will probably expire after a while:
Isn't that nice.