Diary of a Network Geek

I finished Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov over the weekend.
It was an interesting book, though not quite what I expected. The story, as such, is told via an introduction and a series of comments on a poem. The commentor is, or believes he is, the deposed king of an Eastern European country called Zembla. He reviews and annotates a poem, called "Pale Fire", written by his neighbor and friend in a little, college town named New Wye, where the former king now lives in exile and teaches Zemblan and Zemblan literature to students at the local college. Frankly, it's a little hard to tell if we are expected to believe that the view-point character is, in fact, a deposed monarch or if he's just quietly stark, raving mad. There is plenty of evidence for either argument, but, I believe he's living out some kind of delusion that seemed harmless and charming to his poetic neighbor, who took pity on him and befriended him.
In any case, it was an interesting book and a literary departure for me. It was also not quite what I expected from the author of Lolita. It was far more accessable than I would have thought and, though sex and homosexuality was a minor theme, not as focused on abberant behavior as I feared it might be. The insanity or delusions of the main character were quite subtle and presented in that strange, calm, almost reasonable way that only the truly insane can present their view of the world.
One of the reasons I got this book was for that ficticious kingdom and language. I was a little dissapointed that there wasn't more Zemblan represented in the book. The few words and phrases were really just there to spice and flavor the created kingdom of Zembla. Still, it does serve as an excellent example of how a little foregin flavor can go a long way. Again, I was impressed with the subtlty with which Nabokov presented his work. He paints his word-pictures with a very fine brush. The tiny details highlight the over-sweeping whole.
So, while it was not exactly "light" reading, Pale Fire was a very pleasant read, especially for a piece of "classic literature". I heartily reccomend it.
(Was that literary enough for you, Mark? ;))

"Give a thing a name and it will somehow come to be."
Names matter. Network device names matter a lot and, since it looks like I'll be redoing my home network, I've been thinking about names and naming conventions. I've worked with just about any and all naming conventions that you might imagine. Everything from the very practical LocationFunctionSequencenumber scheme (ie. HouAcct01, ChiMIS13, etc. ) to servers named for NASA spacecraft (ie. Challenger, Discovery, etc. ) I've seen stuff named for fantasy fiction characters and Greek mythology and Milton's angels or devils. I even knew a guy who named his routers after dead musicians just so he could send out pings and see the response "Elvis is alive". No joke. I personally have also used titles of positions in the Yakuza gang structure, as well as various authors and artists. I've even heard of guys using their favorite cartoon characters.
Personally, I like to have something with an underlying meaning to it. So, for instance, when I used the Yakuza schema, the main NDS server was "Kumicho", which is the "boss of bosses". And, on a whim, I named the printer Hokusai, after the famous artist. The guy who used angels named them based on what each angel had providence over, such as naming his "alerter" Gabriel, who blew his horn to sound the end of the world, if memory serves.
I've thought about using both Norse and Voodoo god names, since they're somewhat unusual, but their "function" is well documented. I've also thought about using the various sefiroth of the Kabbalistic "Tree of Life", for similar reasons. Greek mythology is far too passé to use and, for home, the LocationFunctionSequence method just isn't fun enough.
So, anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

(BTW, the quote is from George R. R. Martin in Dying of the Light which is one of the greatest "soft" science-fiction books I've ever read. It's perfect after a breakup.)

I've been holding this post back.
Mainly because I know certain people read my site and might possibly interpret this post as talking to them. It's like a conspiracy theorist, though, the more I deny it, the more proof they seem to find that I am, in fact, doing it. So, rather than get caught up in it, I'll just say it.
I found out last night that a friend, an acquaintance really, passed away this week. It doesn't come as a surprise, actually, Reid had AIDS and the past few months he'd started to go down-hill. He'd been in the hospital for a couple of weeks and I knew he wasn't doing well.
I feel guilty, though, because I'd lost touch with him. Three and a-half years ago, when I first started going to one of the support groups that I attend, he was leading the group. He could see I was in deep emotional pain and that catty old queen held this breeder's hand and listened to me pour out my troubles through teary snot bubbles and told me it would be okay. He was a good man, and he'll be missed. I'm glad I knew him.
See you on the other side, Reid.

Getting busted!
Finally! According to this article on Wired News, the bottom feeders who have been selling psychotropic drugs online are getting chewed up by the Wheels of Justice. They may turn a little slowly, but when they finally kick in, they really turn. Currently, they're focusing on the so called "designer" drugs that either were legal on some technicalities or are so new that they're not specifically illegal. The thing is, though, that based on what they do to the brain, they're illegal, so the on-line pushers are getting fried for selling them. All I can say is that it's about time.
Now, they need to go after the on-line "pharmacies" that sell dangerous, but otherwise legal, drugs to anyone with a credit card. Sure, diet drugs seem harmless enough, but most of the serious ones really need to be administered with a doctor's continuous supervision. Oh, I'm sure these scumbags are keeping it technically legal, but it's still a crime, in my book.

There are those that say Scott Adams has lost his edge.
But, for my money, he's still funny. And, for whatever reason, this particular strip really tickled my funny bone. (Dilbert Archive July 8, 2005) Ah, yes, the old "double-bind". If I say what I'm thinking, I get in trouble, but that's always what they claim they want to hear.
Yeah, I'd say Mr. Adams still has a handle on what's funny.
Have a great weekend!

Okay, here's a cool way to waste time at work (not that I've had time for that sort of thing myself):
Brilliant Button Maker Yep, it makes buttons, like these:

This is what I used to make the fancy, new button for subscribing to Diary of a Network Geek over at Bloglines that you see on the menu to the right. See? If you're a web designer, it's almost like actual work.... Almost.

Ah, who cares, it's fun and free and this is, after all, Friday! Go ahead, click the link. I won't tell anyone.

I never trust Microsoft.
According to this news story, brought to us by BoingBoing, Microsoft has not only purchased a spyware company but defaulted their AntiSpyware program to Ignore said spyware. Can you guess who they used to be? Gator, the most notorious and prolific of the bottom-feeding spyware companies. (Actually, the company is Claria but they're known for their spyware product, Gator.)
Now you know why I didn't bother to install this.

Or, the interconnectedness of all blogs.
I did something sort of interesting the other day. I was checking on my Bloglines subscriptions and I checked the "Related Feeds" of several of my current subscriptions. The connections were interesting to say the least. On a couple of personal blogs of various people I know, I got a bunch of foregin language blogs in languages that they don't speak. On my own, I was expecting to get a bunch of technical blogs, which I did get, but I also got several about survivors of abuse. How strange. To the best of my knowledge, I am not an abuse survivor, though I allow for the possibility of incredibly repressed memories, and I've only written about spousal abuse once, possibly twice. So, I started doing this for other feeds. The connections were both strange and thought provoking. And, I subscribed to several of them, for possible inclusion to my list of blog links on either of my active websites. (HavePalmWillTravel is so, so inactive, it hardly even shows up in search engines anymore.)
So, if you have any interest in the subliminal messages sent to you by God, or the Jungian Collective Unconscious, or whatever, sign up for a Bloglines account and subscribe to a couple of your favorite blogs. Then, check to see what other feeds are "related". For even more fun, subscribe to your own blog and see what's related. Or, if you're feeling lazy, subscribe to the Network Geek via Bloglines and see what turns up as a "related feed" to my blog. If you've been reading me, you'll be surprised.

Man, I hate to admit this...
But, my home network is illin', yo. I have run Netware at home for years. My firewall has been Bordermanager, because who the heck knows enough about it, besides me and the guys at Novell, to crack it? Yeah, yeah, I know, security through obscurity is a Bad Thing, but sometimes it does work. Anyway, I have one Netware server that crashes hard with the slightest power fluctuation, even with line conditioners in place. Just the littlest bit of power blip makes it shutdown. Not reboot, mind, but shutdown. And, several weeks ago when it did that, the data volume took a dump and never came back. I have no idea how much data I lost there, or how mad my wife is going to be because of the data she lost there, but I don't think it's coming back this time.
So, that got me thinking... Why should I stick with Netware? I'm more of a Linux guy now anyway, so maybe it's time to look into Linux firewalls.
Any suggestions? And, anyone have any suggestions for ways to try and recover that crashed Netware data volume?

"... but what I do, that defines me."

A great quote from a great movie. In other words, yes, I saw "Batman Begins" yesterday. I took a giant step outside my comfort zone and went at the absolute last minute to see a movie with a guy from a support group I attend. A guy who, honestly, I hardly know, though I've seen him at these meetings for years.
Anyway, it was a good movie. The fight scenes were done in that new, modern style that I think of as "Gladiator-esque" ever since seeing that movie. It was all a blur. Shapes whirling through the darkness and chaos everywhere. Not unlike a real fight, if memory serves, but a little annoying in cinema. I much prefer the older style where I don't get motion sickness trying to follow the action.
The movie, of course, is about the origins of Batman, as the title implies. Slightly different than the comic book, he delves into the criminal underworld, and then is recruited by a kind of ninja/assassin's guild/secret society designed to "fight" evil by totally destroying it. A sort of hyper-radical scorched-earth policy that also would wipe out the innocent as well. Not good. Obviously, Batman doesn't stay a part of this group and, well, plot ensues from there.
It had a bit of a slow start, as origin stories often do, but once it got rockin' and rollin', it was a good, old-fashioned action movie ride.
There was one small continuity problem from the first movie that just leapt out at me. Who killed Bruce's parents? In the first movie, of course, it was Joker, before he was Joker. In this movie, it was some other guy named "Joe Chill". Also, Joker wasn't Joker but still Jack Napier. He didn't become the Joker until after Batman and he fought in the nasty chemical plant, just like in the comic book. But, that in no way diminished my enjoyment of an otherwise brilliant film.
Also, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman gave brilliant performances. Christian Bale was top notch as the angry, young millionare who became a crimefighter. And, all I can say about Katie Holmes performance is, er, it must be cold in Gotham. Or were those just some pesky Thetans in her blouse trying to poke their way out?
Oh, that reminds me... Gotham, though it was supposed to be a slightly fictionalized New York City, was Chicago. I recognized the bridges across the river, especially the Lake Shore Drive bridge right there at Wacker. I can't tell you how many times I drove over that when I worked downtown. And, there were scenes that could only be Lower Lower Wacker. I know them, too. All too well. I also saw an altered Wrigley Builiding and the Tribune Tower, remade, if I'm not mistaken, into the Wayne Tower. Yep, it was all scenery that I knew quite intimately, though it's no longer really home.

I have to admit, I liked this movie in part for the scenery and for the writing. It was a well written movie. I especially liked the quote, which was bounced back and forth between Wayne and his erstwhile paramour, Rachel Dawes, "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me." Indeed, I sympathize with that sentiment and always have. I identify with the dark heroes, who have that wild animal that they fear to release, but try to harness to do good. In my more arrogant moments, I allow myself to feel as though I'm one of them.
I am more than my Flaw. I acknowlege that at the heart of who I am, I am a flawed human being, but that flaw does not define me. What I do consistently defines me. And, I consistently act in accordance with my beliefs about what's right, not the way my Flaw would dictate. I haven't always, but I'm better than that, now.

Yeah, it's worth getting out to see "Batman Begins". Happy Independance Day.