Diary of a Network Geek

After months of begging, H-Town Blogs has added me.
Now, I guess, I'll have to find out more about this strange place you people call "Houston". So, if you see a damn Yankee carpet-bagger wandering around, don't worry, it's just me. No need to hide your money, but I wouldn't hold it against you if you hid your "women folk". In fact, I might even appreciate it these days!

Damn, I never really knew anyone in the mob.
At least, as far as I know... Well, yesterday, I was talking with my parents about the infamous Frank Calabrese and found out there are two of them. And, the one we knew is NOT the one from the Chicago Mafia! Apparently, this is a repeated case of mistaken identity. The Tribune accidentally ran a picture of the "safe" Calabrese in an article about the "connected" Calabrese. The "safe" Calabrese is sueing. The Tribune printed a retraction, of course, but the character damage had been done.
Sadly enough, this kind of thing goes on all the time. People run their mouths about how terrible someone is without ever really digging into the real facts, all because it's a good story. I can't count how many times I recounted meeting the "safe" Frank Calabrese and painted him as a dangerous gangster, when all along, he's just been the good family man that he seemed. I hope the guy wins his libel case. People should be much more careful what they put into print about someone. Even if they share the same name!
The worst part of it all, though, is that I lose a good Chicago mob story. Well, I guess it's time to go out and mingle with the wrong crowd!

Well, my idea for a Rent-A-Girlfriend has been stolen.
First, there was Prison Blues, and now this. The Chinese are "capitalizing" on the open markets there and the cultural issues that all good Chinese boys face. And, like the industrious, little vixens they are, a group of young Chinese women are renting themselves as girlfriends for the holidays. I pass no moral judgements here, after all, I was thinking the same thing! I'm only sorry that they beat me to the punch. All that nice money being spent somewhere else and not lining my pockets. Oh, the shame of it all!
Of course, when I came up with Prison Blues, I thought it was illegal to profit from prioners, because it was too much like slavery. But, the Rent-A-Girlfriend idea was clean. Clean! I tell you! Well, at least it's happening in China. Say, Houston has a Chinatown, doesn't it....

Actually, it's Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle's birthday.
But, since he is Holmes, in a way, well... Anyway, this comes from the Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of novelist and short story writer Arthur Conan Doyle, (books by this author) born in Edinburgh, Scotland (1859). Conan Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh where he met Doctor Joseph Bell, whose amazing deductions about the history of his patients fascinated the young student. After completing his studies, Conan Doyle served as a ship's doctor on voyages to Greenland and West Africa, and eventually opened his own practice. In his spare moments, he began writing. Calling on his memories of Doctor Bell, Conan Doyle created a detective who used his great powers of deduction to solve crimes. The first such story, A Study in Scarlet, introduced the detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Doctor Watson, in 1887. All told, Conan Doyle wrote 56 Sherlock Holmes stories and four Holmes novels.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

By Rudyard Kipling.
(My apologies for the male-centric phrasology, but I make allowances for such a distinguished Brother Mason. Ladies, the sentiments expressed above all applies to you, too! )

Just a random collection of thoughts.
Earlier this week, Frank Gorshin, the original "Riddler" died. He was always my favorite character. So wild, so creative, and always the mad genius who seemed one step ahead of the Batman. Yet, somehow, the writers always managed to make him trip up in the end. Never did figure that part out. And, interestingly enough, the Batman cartoon, which is the only reason I wake up before noon on Saturdays, featured a new villian today. You guessed it, the Riddler. He was good, but, he was no Frank Gorshin.

Thanks to a faithful reader, BleuCube, I took a quiz this morning. (My apologies, incidentally, for not spelling your site's name correctly all this time! My very English oriented mind simply "corrected" the exotic French spelling on the fly.)
You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.Cultural Creative94%Idealist75%Romanticist56%Postmodernist56%Existentialist50%Fundamentalist38%Materialist31%Modernist6%What is Your World View? (corrected...again)created with QuizFarm.com

And, finally, in security geek news, there's a new version of nmap. The new version is not only faster, but uses a less invasive technique for scanning networks that leaves no trace. In other words, for you WinDoze admins who leave IIS out on the network, exposed, this bad boy can do a port scan on your network and you wouldn't know it by reading the logs. Oh, but good news for you, there is a WinDoze version, so you can test your own network and try to plug the holes. If you can manage it between applying patchs, fixes and anti-virus updates. I'm so glad we'll be moving to Linux soon at my office!

Well, it's time to go play with my dog. It's a nice sunny day here in Houston, and the grass seed I planted is starting to grow, so I'm off to water, feed the fish, and play some fetch with Hilda. Maybe I can finally get her to drop the ball when she brings it back...

I usually just take my coffee strong and black.
Generally, I'm baffled by the fancy coffee shops and their selections of various sizes, flavors, additives and Italian nomenclature. I'm more of a diner kind of guy, not a "café" type of person. But, I do like a good cappuccino and, I have to admit, Starbucks specialty iced drinks are very good. I especially like their Frappacinos and DoubleShots. That being said, however, I've always been terrified of going into an actual Starbucks store and ordering a coffee. So many options, so many decisions, and so many ways to make a mistake and look like an uncultured goon. Thankfully, there's help for the fancy coffee impaired: Starbucks Drinks Simplified.
This Jim-dandy site has all the answers to your embarassing Starbucks questions. At least, it had all the answers to MY embarassing Starbucks questions! Now, if I can just get over my social anxiety, I might just get myself out to a Starbucks for coffee. I wonder if I could bring Hilda? (My dog, not a new girlfriend.) Maybe if they had an open-air café...
Well, while I dream of meeting the future Mrs. Network Geek with Hilda, I'm off to get some regular, black coffee.

You, on the other hand, should click on the Fun Friday link and find out more about how to order a Venti Caramel Macchiato Half-Caf with a Ristretto, Upside Down. Yes, you can actually order that. I think.

No, not me. I've never been.
Nor is it any of my friends, so you all can breathe a sigh of relief, I haven't ratted any of you out. No, it's Frank "Frankie Breeze" Calabrese who, according to this article on ABC7Chicago.com, has been ratted out by his own son, Frank Junior, and his brother, Nick. And, he's not outside now, though he was supposed to get out next year. Now, that has got to be hard time, being turned in by your own kid and brother.
I mention this because I actually met Mr. Calabrese when I was a kid. I call him "Mister", incidentally, because I call anyone who can kill me, or have me killed by just pointing at me, "Mister". My dad did business with one of his fronts, a place called FCL Graphics. They were printers and undercut everyone else in the greater Chicago area when my dad needed printing done for a company he managed. We went to a Christmas party there once and I met the whole gang, if you'll pardon the pun. (Incidentally, the picture in the link is nothing like I remember Mr. Calabrese. It must have been taken in the late 40's, when he was just getting his start.) He seemed like a nice, older gentleman. A sort of grandfatherly figure. But, I shook hands with him. I must have been all of eight or nine. Old enough to remember it, but not old enough that it's a really clear memory. Actually, he's responsible for my interest in origami. He owned the license on a couple of origami books and he sent some home with my dad once. I'm been folding paper cranes ever since.
I got to that news story by way of this article on Slate about "mobster" nicknames, but this story caught my attention, because he's almost never in the news. The only other time I remember seeing him in the news was when he got caught back in 1995 or 1996, long after my father had stopped using his business. We were all a little surprised at the time, but, in retrospect, it does make sense. How else could he afford to charge such low prices. I mean, they were just criminal...

Well, I survived the daytrip to New Orleans.
Barely. Not that the flight was bad, because my boss is actually an excellent pilot and the weather was good. In fact, it was better than most commercial flights I've taken, except for the fact that I felt like I couldn't take a nap. I learned a long time ago to work hard while I was on-site and sleep on the plane.
No, the problem was the "little" problem I thought I was going to fix. See, what I thought was a little problem with some spam e-mail turned into virus hell. Of course, I prepared for that and I brought a copy of our Symantec Corporate Anti-Virus to install. No problem, right? Wrong. When I installed it an old version of Norton Anti-Virus was still installed and the resulting conflict led to the dreaded Blue Screen of Death on the server. Not good. So, I finally get that worked out and discover that the machines are all in a workgroup. None of them sign into the Domain on the server. That meant going from machine to machine and installing the anti-virus program by hand on each one, which, of course, I did. All day long, until about 6:00pm when a break in the weather sent us scooting home.
We got in about 8:30pm, which got me to my door at about 9:15pm, or so to find a puppy with her little legs crossed! I sent a friend who has a key, in case of emergencies, over to let her out, but she was afraid of him and wouldn't do anything. Silly dog. Just like always, she's daddy's girl and wouldn't do anything for anyone but him. Gotta' admire that loyalty, even if it's a little co-dependant.

Actually, I think it's a prop plane, but, you get the idea.
Well, the boss told me we're off to the New Orleans office tomorrow to work out some of their computer issues. Mainly, it seems like they need to get their anti-virus software automatic update more, er, automated. And, of course, they need to get all their machines cleaned of spyware. And, while I'm there, I'll do a bit of inventory. Since they seem to have a Windows 2000 server, I have a script that claims it will gather all the information on all the machines in the domain. We'll see. If it works, I'll post about that tomorrow.
So, it's off to bed with me, since it's an early morning tomorrow flying with the boss. Oh, didn't I mention? The boss has his own plane. I'll be flying in a single-engine prop plane and my boss is the pilot.
Pray for me.