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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Albatross' Blurty:
| Monday, April 20th, 2009 | |
| 10:20 am | Schneier Movie-Plot Threat Contest
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| Saturday, February 21st, 2009 | |
| 6:13 pm | Another Strib Letter
So I turned to a letter to the editor, in order that maybe one comment, somewhere, might be permitted. We'll see if they publish it. Yet another letter describing Obama as a "socialist" might sell more ad space. ( Read more... ) |
| Sunday, January 4th, 2009 | |
| 4:51 pm | Cinema Golddew
Three of her assignments were to make videos of various types: a flip-book animation, a stop-motion animation, and a kind of an art movie. Now that class is over, they're posted on the net. Here they are: |
| Friday, November 28th, 2008 | |
| 3:07 pm | Why I Came To Work Today
Murphy's Law being what it is, of course my presence here was almost entirely unnecessary, except I suppose for a little paperwork that I have processed. Then I happened to glance at my webcam from Svalbard, a An aurora borealis. I can't imagine any other situations other than sitting at work with my webcams running that would have led me to observe this celestial phenomenon. Therefore, I consider this ample evidence that the whole reason I came in to work today was so that I could be reminded of how lucky I am sometimes. |
| Friday, November 7th, 2008 | |
| 10:27 am | President-Elect Obama I went to a Catholic high school in Queens through third grade, so I was raised with black and white friends all around. Two of my third grade friends were Steven Black and Kenneth Brown. Then we moved to a white suburb in New Jersey, mostly because my brother was special needs and Queens had no resources for him. The nuns told my parents to move to a wealthy suburb where he could get the attention he needed. After four years in New Jersey my paternal grandmother died, and my mother wanted to return home to her native Minnesota. So we packed up for the trip, and for old times sake we went on one last visit to Queens. ( Read more... ) |
| Friday, September 26th, 2008 | |
| 4:52 pm | Why Congress is stalled on the 'bail out' As you know, the Democrats have committee controls, but don't have enough votes to overcome a filibuster. So if the Republicans don't like it, it won't happen, so it can't be "rammed through." And remember, even a good solution can get scuttled because it makes the Democrats look too sensible or intelligent to suit Republican tastes. The Democrats are less organized that the Republicans, who have hundreds of millions of dollars of corporate-funded "think tanks" coordinating their efforts, and a corporate propaganda empire (Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC) for communications. Remember during the six years that the Republicans controlled Congress, the way any Democratic resistance was met with a propaganda blizzard about how every bill deserved an "up 'r down vote." The corporate propaganda machine shamed Democrats from exercising their filibuster powers. The Democrats have no similar propaganda machine with which to shame Republicans, because the same corporations that control the media and fund the think-tanks also control the Republicans. And a lot of the Democrats. So the filibuster, which they once decried as an anti-democratic anti-American tool of troop haters, is now such a central plank of Republican strategy that they don't have to use it: just the threat of the filibuster scuttles Democratic legislation. ( Read more... ) |
| Thursday, September 11th, 2008 | |
| 10:11 am | Morpheus
The sad case of Sneha Philip has reached a final conclusion. Typically, my appearance-driven assumptions about who Philip was and how her destiny played out were wrong, too simple, and changed across time. From a beautiful young woman with an unlimited future who suffered a tragic fate she went through many transformations. The first tale was the unknown: on the night of September 10th, Sneha did not return to her apartment, nor call her husband, Ron Liebermann. When shortly after daybreak the towers next to their apartment building were attacked and collapsed, Ron realized that the police were going to have no time to spare looking for a missing person. So Sneha underwent her first transformation, from unknown disappearance, to 9/11 victim. Ron told police that witnesses had seen Sneha, a medical practicioner, rushing to help victims of the Twin Towers. However the story did not hold up, and a year later I discovered that her husband had made up the story. Sneha was back to being a mysterious disappearance, but now with a sinister twist. Any student of crime or crime dramas knows that when someone is murdered their spouse is always a suspect. Why had LIeberman lied about his wife? Was it truly for the reasons stated? Why did he and the family hold to the lie for so long, even attending memorials for 9/11 victims until 2003? Given the tragedy I didn't want to compound it with speculation, but her husband's initial lie made that hard to maintain. ( Read more... ) |
| Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 | |
| 9:53 am | Everything breaks
It started when my spouse opened a spam e-mail and infected her computer with a virus. I extracted the virus, but the process damaged the operating system and I can't find my OS disk to fix it. Every fifteen minutes or so it BSOD's and continues cycling through BSOD screens and back to the O/S until it's shut down. Then her Flash audio driver failed, so she can't watch YouTube with Internet Explorer or Firefox. Interestingly, she can still do so using Safari. In the midst of that, the XBox 360 started displaying the fatal Red Ring of Death, meaning that despite drastic efforts to prevent overheating the CPU chip finally developed a microscopic crack in one of its input lines. Yesterday was pretty sucky. There were a couple of positive notes. I did GO on the bike ride, so I got some exercise even if I was in a blue funk. I managed to visit the doctor for a cholesterol test and pick up my cholesterol pills at the pharmacy just as I ran out at home. That was a tricky logistical stunt to pull off, but I managed it. I also, finally, at about 10:30 p.m., got a minute or two to play with my new digital photo frame, and that was really exciting. Very rarely does one come across a device that does exactly what you'd want it to do if you thought about it. So as I wondered about the features of the new picture frame, they emerged on display: clock and calendar function, music and video functions, and integrated musical slideshow. I loaded it up with some recent trip photos and my best-of gallery and brought it to work today. I even managed to bore a hole in its stand and connect a security cable, so it won't walk off from my desk! So yesterday was sucky, but today, today I have hopes for. And my spouse's computer? I decided to just buy a cheap replacement through a discount program at my workplace. I could spend days fixing her old computer, or put in a few extra hours at work and cover the expense that way. Next... purchasing a digital camera! Stay tuned... |
| Monday, August 4th, 2008 | |
| 8:04 am | Seventeen
Oh my. Where the hell did the time go? Last night as a pre-birthday-present torture we forced the twins (Dante scarpered to the basement) to view their ultrasound videos which continue along through the fourth month after their birth. They were appalled and very deliberately bored, but it was amazing for me. Not because of my skinny, bushy-bearded appearance, or the fact that my wife's parents were practically the same age then as I am now. No, it was just that I have no idea where the time went. It feels like no time - and yet it feels like forever. ( Read more... ) |
| Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 | |
| 4:44 pm | CBS News Standards
However, these bloggers with complaints are referencing an out-of-date set of standards. Since I has mad investigative skillz, I have unearthed a copy of the current journalistic standards that CBS employs. It is clear upon reviewing these standards that CBS did nothing wrong whatsoever. ( Read more... ) |
| 4:44 pm | CBS News Standards
However, these bloggers with complains are referencing an out-of-date set of standards. Since I has mad investigative skillz, I have unearthed a copy of the current journalistic standards that CBS and other news agencies employ. It is clear upon reviewing these standards that CBS did nothing wrong whatsoever. ( Read more... ) |
| Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 | |
| 10:56 am | Another poster
So of course when I'm under all of this pressure, I focus like a laser on the tasks at hand, I dedicate my self to the unrelenting pursuit of quality, I invest all my... ...Okay, I get distracted and create de-motivational posters. Here's the latest. The poster is emblematic of what I deal with in the information security field. This morning a pen-tester was showing our group that he'd discovered a hole in a newly developed, not yet released application so large that it allowed him to intercept all communications between a customer and the server. He could step into the middle of the communication and take over completely: if a product was sold on the server for $10, he could change the price to $12. The customer wouldn't know the price wasn't $12, that what he'd see and he'd pay it - the server wouldn't know the customer had paid $12, because the pentester could take out the $2 for himself, and send the $10 along to the server. Everyone would be happy - the customer would get the product, the server would make the sale, and the pentester would walk away $2 richer. Meanwhile the majority of effort in the organization is to squelch the findings, remove the ability of the pentesters to examine the application, and assign blame to other parties. Hence the poster. I took me fifteen minutes to find the image and create the poster. Time well spent, I say! |
| Monday, July 14th, 2008 | |
| 11:28 pm | Convergence Booklist
I am very happy that I have figured out this tool, as this gives me the opportunity to undertake another of my endless, partially-completed projects, that of inventorying all of my books on my blog, as well as listing what I am presently reading. As a matter of fact, let's do that now... ( Read more... ) |
| Saturday, July 12th, 2008 | |
| 11:20 am | Facebook Summer I've been spending my blogging-time playing with Facebook, which for some reason has not yet been added to the prohibited list on the firewall at work. When I need to distract myself from productive work, Facebook is there. Meanwhile it only took half the summer, but we finally got our summer schedule figured out. In order to save money (for next year's double-college) we're taking two extended weekends, and the resulting series of four-day work-weeks will hopefully help me retain my sanity at work. ( Read more... ) |
| Thursday, June 19th, 2008 | |
| 10:38 pm | Joe Sodd III
He died a few miles away, in a quiet neighborhood wedged in between the freeway and a couple of colleges, while riding his moped home from giving a dance performance. Joe Sodd III was minding his own business when someone, for reasons unknown, decided to stab him to death. I didn't know Joe Sodd III terribly well (grandson of the Minnesota PGA Hall of Fame player). When he worked as a waiter at a local restaurant, he had served my wife and I dinner. But as the Star Tribune points out, he was a gifted young man with lots to offer the world. I cannot fathom his parent's grief, nor do I wish to try. Just thinking about it makes my head spin. The Star Tribune did a service by posting a video that shows some of this young man's accomplishments. There are any number of web tributes to Joe by his peers, which show how many people cared about him, and how much he will be missed. The Sodd's have lived down the block from us for the seventeen years that we've lived in this house, and it is my deep regret that I did not get to know their son better. He was a student at Marcy Holmes school, and the photo above is eight years old now, with Joe in the center, from a production of 'Bye By e Birdie.' There will be a memorial for Joe on Sunday at the Triple Rock Social Club which is very close to where he was killed. |
| Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 | |
| 8:42 am | Addendum and poster Apparently I was too quick to post, yesterday. It took til this morning, but KSTP has posted the article along with the video of the crazy St. Francis councilman which caught my attention while flipping channels. So now you can watch and judge for yourself, although as I mentioned in a discussion with my friend Tim, you CAN count on the media to edit the interview in order to get 100% pure uncut China White craziness. Still, it doesn't appear that it took a lot of editing.
And WHY am I focusing my life on entering various contests on the Bruce Schneier blog? Because it's about the only blog I can actually justify reading while I'm at work! Well, that, and I have no life. |
| Monday, June 9th, 2008 | |
| 10:22 pm | Whatsa Mater With St. Francis? St. Francis is my alma mater, I graduated from St. Francis high school, back in 19-mumble-mumble. At the time, St. Francis was a desolate little farm town, which thought nothing of investing in extra athletic facilities, but skimped on the educational funds. Call me biased, but when I grew up there, I thought I was surrounded by thugs and hicks and knuckle-draggers. I expressed this opinion in response to a story on the Star Tribune website, garnering a response from a friend of mine who has lived up there for the last couple of decades, assuring me that things have changed for the better. But some things never change. ( Read more... ) |
| Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 | |
| 3:50 pm | Happy Alberti Day! Hey y'all. I wanted to blog this yesterday, but I was too busy partying? Why? Because yesterday was "Alberti Day"! Alberti Day was named on behalf of the first Italian settler on Long Island. To put things in perspective, when this guy stepped off the boat, Columbus' discovery of America was not as old as the Civil War is to us now. Along those lines, my friend Giovanna has clued me into the fact that if you can trace your ancestry back to Italy, you can become an Italian citizen! And since my father's father was from Palermo, I have the opportunity to undertake the multi-year quest to gain Italian citizenship. This is no small thing! WIth such citizenship, I could get work in the European Union, and also I could own property in Italy. Here comes my Tuscan retirement villa! Gio has offered to help me out with this quest, with the caveat that she's moving to England in the fall in order to become an archaelologist. ( Read more... ) |
| Thursday, May 8th, 2008 | |
| 9:44 am | 180 Hours Hey y'all. I know and understand that you've stopped checking for updates here. I get it. Haven't updated in forever for two reasons. First, I started writing a big entry about online cameras, and it has stood in the way of subsequent posts. I'll finish it eventually, but I have to stop letting it clog up my other posts.
HOWEVER.... I wanted to post really quick to announce that I'm one of the finalists in noted security expert Bruce Schneier's Third Annual Movie Plot Threat Contest. Most government security programs are focused on what Schneier calls "movie plot threats," unlikely but flamboyant possible attacks. For example, ever since 9/11 we've been taking off our shoes and discarding our liquids at the airport in order to prevent another shoe bomber or liquid bomb attempt. Never mind that neither of those attempts worked, and one of them wasn't even real. The inconvenient and expensive measures aimed at preventing this very small group of possible attacks are usually unlikely to prevent them, to say nothing of preventing much more mundane and likely attacks (such as a bomb slipped onto the plane by cleaning crew). Anyway my entry this year was the DNA Adulteratometer, a small device that detects if someone has spit in your soup. It's meant to address the fear that someone has peed in the company coffee pot. More broadly, the fallacious entry addresses the insecurity and fear inherent in the growing class and ethnic divide between the (mostly white) ultra-rich and the (frequently ethnic) workers and servants upon whom they depend for their lifestyle. Be sure you visit Bruce Schneier's website, review all the entries, and then vote for mine! Everyone who does so receives a FREE DNA Adulteratometer, as soon as they are invented and manufactured... And be sure to purchase one of Bruce Schneier's fine security books while you're there. They make great Mother's Day gifts! |
| Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 | |
| 11:33 am | The Old Man Still Has It I gave up being a programmer over fifteen years ago. After about fifteen years spent programming, I realized that programmers are the 21st-century bricklayers, and that they will always be underfunded, overscheduled, and uncredited. Rather than building houses, I'd rather be the architect designing them. Plus I just couldn't wrap my head around object-oriented programming. Or if it was possible, I was by then so finished with programming that I couldn't get up the energy or interest to do it. But that doesn't mean I don't ever code. It just means I don't code very much. ( Read more... ) |
April is the month for 
Truly dedicated readers will remember that every couple of years on 9/11 I look back on the case of Sneha Philip. Out of the 2,750 other victims of 9/11, I happened to take a rain-draggled copy of HER "missing" poster as a memento of my visit to Manhattan on Sept. 16, 2001 (for a pre-scheduled training class).
Hey y'all. Life and work continue to conspire to consume my time and leave me only crumbs with which to work, but I've managed to assemble my 
Second reason is that I'm in the middle of my third consecutive 60 hour work-week. Things at work have gotten totally crazy, so I simply haven't had time to post (or to bathe, for that matter - I'm pretty ripe!)