Archive for June, 2005

Iraq yet more

June 30th, 2005

My irritation with Australian politics, Iraq and John Howard continues. Together with my continued grumpiness in the shower in the mornings. This morning’s combined irritation led to this missive being fired off to the SMH letters page.

There is currently considerable debate in the United States about a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. In Australia on the other hand there is a total silence about the withdrawal of our troops. I can only presume that John Howard is eagerly waiting, as befits a lapdog, for the Bush Administration to let us know what our foreign policy should be. Come on John – at least the illusion of Australia having foreign policy free will would be nice!

Vale David Hackworth

June 29th, 2005

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Colonel David Hackworth, Vietnam Veteran and advocate for veterans and serving soldiers, has died aged 74. Affectionately known as ‘Hack’ by soldiers and friends he died from bladder cancer thought to be the result of exposure to Agent Blue during the Vietnam War.

Hackworth was one of the most decorated US Army soldiers and best known for his outspoken views on US involvement in the Vietnam War. Hackworth stated that the US could not win the war and narrowly escaped a court martial for his comments. After leaving the Army he went into self-imposed exile in Australia. In Australia he lived in and around Brisbane and was heavily involved in the anti-nuclear movement.

He later returned to the US as a journalist and commentator on military affairs. He expressed considerable doubts about the US role in Afghanistan and Iraq. He had also regularly criticised the Pentagon and the Bush Administration for both their poor logistical support of the soldiers serving there and their battle strategy. Hackworth believed there was no way the United States could win a war in Iraq under their current battle strategy.

He leaves behind a wife and extended family. Vale Colonel David Hackworth – you will be much missed.

To the everlasting glory of the infantry
Shines the name, shines the name…

Meandering along

June 26th, 2005

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About 50% of the content (if not the actual words) of Chapter 3 is done. Finished the first draft of it tonight. Now need to read it through about 20 times because I was typing in these little one or two sentence bursts. Then I would lose motivation and chat (thanks Ruth – and no I am not blaming you for my procrastination – you just contribute. :P ) before going back to it. Hopefully when I re-read it today at work I will be pleasantly surprised at its exceptional quality. Or possibly not.

Onwards my brain and hand to keyboard… :)

The Ultimate Fantasy Entertainment Character Generator

June 24th, 2005

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I am sorry but in case you hadn’t noticed I am a terrible geek – and the The Ultimate Fantasy Entertainment Character Generator totally rocks.

Chapter 2 progressed right to my editor

June 21st, 2005

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Stopped mucking around with Chapter 2 and threw my hands up and sent it to my editor. I was on edit cycle number 3 and was stuck ‘fine tuning’ it further and further. Ultimately realised that I was going to keep playing around with it forever. I needed to send it on to its next destination.

Still not 100% percent happy with it as it’s one of the technically hardest things I’ve had to write. Trying to summarise basic Nagios configuration – hosts, services, contacts, groupings, time periods and commands into one chapter. Including introducing all the key topics – flapping, retention, stalking, notifications, etc etc – in enough detail to make them clear without overwhelming the audience. Not bloody easy.

Now I think I need to find someone Nagios savvy to read it over and confirm whether it works or whether I have completely missed the mark.

Four Corners – The New Asylums

June 20th, 2005

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Fuck. Watched this tonight. The stats they cited at the start of the program – 500,000 mentally ill people in prisons. 50,000 mentally ill people in hospitals. Fuck what must that do to these people? It’s soul destroying for normal people – imagine what it must do to people who don’t really understand what is going on.

The show featured the Ohio state prison system – which seemed pretty progressive – medication, treatment programs, therapy. A reasonably solid system. I can’t imagine what some other, less liberal, states might do. For example, Texas, where they execute the mentally ill and the intellectually disabled.

Garden State

June 19th, 2005

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Excellent line – “Don’t tease me about my hobbies. I don’t tease you about being an arsehole.” Interesting movie. Flawed in parts but a pretty good first film.

Curing homosexuality and other idiocy

June 14th, 2005

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Ruth has posted about a kid who has been placed in a gay ‘cure’ camp after coming out to his parents. The rules from the camp read like Brainwashing 101 for a cult. Check the links out and have a read. Positively scary stuff that needs resisting.

Body Modifications Still Hinder IT Professionals?

June 13th, 2005

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Slashdot has an article on whether companies still care about body-mods (piercings, tattoos, etc).

Personally I’ve had issues with my tats and the earrings (though I am down to 2 in my left ear now). On a bright day with a white shirt you can right through my shirt and the black tattoos stand out really clearly. Had some senior management eye me off. Well either that or one of our EGMs was totally hitting on me the other day. These days though I just don’t care. Anyone complains about my appearance – well shit they pay me to do my job not look fucking pretty.

P.S. Though this guy has got to take the cake. *applauds* Way to accidently inflate your penile implant dude.

Mail Filtering

June 9th, 2005

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If you’re like me and find log and monitoring discussions combined with one of the best discussions about the merits of various open source anti-spam solutions then this article is great. The rest of you – move along nothing to see here. :)