Diary of a Network Geek

Why am I not participating in Galaxiki after my initial enthusiasm?

I have to admit, when I first read about it and started getting involved, Galaxiki, the “fictional galaxy that anyone can edit”, seemed like a great idea. Two things ruined it for me, though.

First, the guy who started Galaxiki is using his own, custom, home-grown wiki software to run the site. That would be fine, if everything on the wiki software worked and was documented. Sadly, when I was trying to get involved with this project, the software was very much under development and very poorly documented. At least, when compared to something like MediaWiki, which runs the Wikipedia. So, as much as I tried to help on the back end of things, I was frustrated at every turn and quickly gave up.

Secondly, there was one Rule for the project that kept me from wanting to participate.
Specifically, Rule Number Three:

3. No sun, no Earth, no humans
Remember that Galaxiki is not the milky way (in fact NGC1300 is a galaxy far, far away…), our Earth is not located in this galaxy and it’s too far away for us humans to reach it. But you may describe Earth-like planets and human-like species looking and behaving exactly like humans, but don’t call them “humans” and remember that their home planet is not “Earth”.

In all my personal, science-fiction scenarios, humans came from Earth. All my story ideas started with colonists leaving Earth. If I were to follow the Rules of Galaxiki, none of my pet projects would ever be used. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but it did undercut my initial enthusiasm and, combined with the first problem, helped me to lose virtually all interest in the project.

So, you may be asking yourself, why I’m mentioning it.
Well, my own personal issues aside, it’s still a pretty cool idea and an interesting project. Also, I get a weekly newsletter from Galaxiki and, I have to admit, I find myself thinking about adopting a star system and creating a world, race, civilization and so on, just for the fun of it. I mean, it’s not like I’m writing a lot of fiction and getting paid, so I might as well write something fictional, even if it’s not a coherent story. At least it would be creative and fun and good practice, right?

Well, anyway, if you haven’t looked at Galaxiki lately, there have been improvements and it’s worth another look. So, why not check it out?

I hate getting CAT scans.

Thursday, I go into M. D. Anderson for the first of four scans this year to see if my lymphoma has come back. Next year, I’ll get three scans and two the year after that. And, from then on, unless the protocol changes, I’ll get a CT scan, with contrast, or a PET scan every year for the rest of my life.

I hope one day it becomes so “old-hat” that I don’t think anything of it, because, right now, I’m about to step sideways out of my skin. I honestly don’t think the last time was as bad as this. Last time, I’d finished treatment just a couple of weeks before the scan, so I was confident that everything was clear. This time, though, I’m nowhere near as sure. I feel good, mostly, except for a lingering runny nose and cough which is probably just a cold and allergies. Probably. I mean, I’m sure when that guy at work asked me why I was so pale that he was just exaggerating for effect. And, when the veins on my arms look funny, it’s just the light and my imagination. And, the fact that I can’t seem to sleep at night, but I’m tired all day is just stress and will go away after I get the results of the scan.

Unfortunately, I won’t get the results of that scan until next week Thursday, so, a week after getting the magic, barium enema that is everyone’s favorite part of a CT scan with contrast, I’ll know the results of that indignity.  The worst part of it all, though, is all that radioactive material that I’ll have dumped into me.  Something about those chemicals just really mess me up inside.  And, no, I don’t mean emotionally.  I’ll probably have indigestion for days afterward.  Not to mention what it’ll do to my lower G.I.
But, eventually, I’ll know.  And, knowing is better than not knowing.

Of course, no matter what the results are, in the end, I’ll deal with it.  I survived the chemotherapy once, so, if I have to do it again, I can survive it again.
But, I do have to admit, the idea of going through another year like last year terrifies me and exhausts me, so I really hope I don’t have to do it.
If you’re the praying kind, I wouldn’t turn any down, no matter what flavor you favor.

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy."

Wow, this brings back memories…

On an e-mail list I’m part of, someone brought up the game Traveller. This was one of the first non-TSR role-playing games I ever played. In fact, I think I still have the rules I used somewhere in the house. And that book I recently read called The World Without Us has really had me thinking about the future and science-fiction and related topics, so the off-hand mention really caught my attention more than it would have normally. Anyway, the mention of the game brought back a rush of memories and led me to do a bit of searchng.
There were several editions printed after the one I used. And, you can still get them all from Far Future Enterprises. There is also an active, fan-run website filled with information called TravellerRPG.com. And, Steve Jackson Games, who makes their own version of Traveller, has the Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society. (The Traveller’s Aid Society was something in the game you could belong to that would help your characters out if they got in a financial jam in almost any star system in the civilized universe, but that help often led to other, more problematic, adventures.) Oh, and there’s another site that’s setup like a ship’s encyclopedic database, for more adventure support and fun.

Anyway, what with Gary Gygax passing away earlier this week and all, the fact that there are still guys out there playing this game I played back in High School just really made me smile. Of course, it’s probably the same guys…

Why you should always change default passwords…

I don’t always agree with the bloggers over at TechRepublic when they insist that they have the five or ten most important links on a subject, but, every once in a while, they get one that’s really good. I can’t say much about most of the links in Chad Perrin’s post, Five must-have security resources, but his link to the RedOracle Default Password list is great! They have default passwords for just about everything there and, while that might not mean much to all my readers, if you have to do an emergency reconfiguration on something and take it back to the manufacturer default, having that password can really simplify your life.

Also, since these are so well documented, it’s a good illustration of why the first thing you should do after configuring, or reconfiguring, something is to change the default password.

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons died this morning.

He and Dave Arneson just about invented the entire role-playing game industry.  I don’t think I know anyone who wasn’t touched, in some way, by D&D.   Those of us who played owe Mr. Gygax a debt of gratitude that is hard to put into words.
He grew up in Lake Geneva, which is also where he started playing war games.  Those war games added more and more fantasy elements, until, finally, rules were developed to allow individual heroes to adventure without the armies.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Now, those rules are in their fourth major revision and have been copied, or emulated, or added-to, the world over.

Wow, the world has changed so much in such a short time.
We’ll all miss you, Gary.

Late last week, I finished Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.

I’ve never read anything by Grossman, but, as this is his first novel, that shouldn’t be surprising. I’m sure he’ll have more out soon, though, if this is any example of his work.
Soon I Will Be Invincible is the latest in a growing new sub-genre of literature; the superhero novel. Granted, George R. R. Martin has been doing this with his Wild Cards series for quite some time, but, for whatever reason, it just didn’t seem to grow beyond his anthologies, until recently. I would be very impressed if any of the recent additions to the genre are better than this. It really is quite good.

The story opens with a chapter from the point of view of Doctor Impossible, imprisoned super-genius and super-villain. He gives us a quick look at his world, both inside and outside of prison. I think the immediacy of starting out a book about larger-than-life heroes from the point of view of their chief villain really helped draw the reader into the story. At least, it drew me in a bit more. As a writer, though, I found it slightly hard to suspend my disbelief reading from the point of view of a genius. Theoretically, the character speaking is infinitely more intelligent than I am, and most people, for that matter, but I’m fairly certain that, as clever as he is, the author is not, in fact, an evil genius. So, how do you write a character more intelligent than you? And, Dr. Impossible is writing from jail. Hello? How much of a genius can he be if he got caught, right? Well, I think I laughed out loud when he made the same comment. Then, of course, he goes on to explain how that worked.

The chapters alternated point of view between Dr. Impossible and the more-or-less heroine, Fatale. Fatale is a female cyborg recruited to join the Champions, greatest super-team of the moment. Or, more precisely, the New Champions, who are the latest incarnation of the group that defeated Dr. Impossible the last time. But, she’s recruited to help find CoreFire, the World’s Greatest Hero, who’s gone missing. While she and the other New Champions are trying to solve that riddle, Dr. Impossible breaks out of prison and starts on his latest nefarious scheme to dominate the Earth.

Yeah, I know, it all sounds a little over the top, but, honestly? It’s not when you’re reading it. It really reads about like you’d expect the average super-hero comic book to read, if it didn’t have any pictures. It even has all the twists and turns and secret lives that the better comic books have. It even has secret government programs, forgotten past lives, and murky origins. And, not just in the form of Fatale’s past work for the NSA, who also, allegedly, made her.
Naturally, a lot of the time is spent looking closely at the normally hidden life of Dr. Impossible. Actually, based on the title, I’d have almost expected even more of a focus than there was. Besides, villains are almost always more interesting than the heroes anyway.

All in all, Soon I Will Be Invincible was a good book. It delivered everything that it promised and then some. I like Old Man’s War better, but, I would certainly recommend Soon I Will Be Invincible to anyone looking for a good, quick read that’s not the usual fare. Well worth the money I spent.