David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
I thought the craziest story I’d read this year was a UFO enthusiast’s account of his hunt for a wrecked 1960s vintage spyplane so top-secret you’ve probably never heard of it.
Then I found a link to the story of a teenager who had plans to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard. (Click the printer-friendly link at the bottom of the first page if you want to read it.)
I lived such a sheltered life… Read more
There’s been a lot of talk on the Web lately about Palladium. If you don’t have strong feelings about it, it’s probably because you’re not a bleeding-edge computing enthusiast. That’s OK. You’ll hear about it in time.
Basically, Palladium is Microsoft’s initiative to reinvent the PC and make it more secure. There’s a big uproar about it because it reeks of ulterior motives. Some fear Palladium means you will surrender all rights to your PC and cede them to Redmond.
I’m not totally convinced this is a bad thing. Read more
Our first adventure in Belle Glade happened before we could even see the town. To get our attention, God used one of the most powerful forces in the known universe: a dozen bored teenage boys seeking amusement.
We spent our first night at Wellington Presbyterian Church, about 30 miles from our destination. The next morning, after a very brief (and very cold) shower and a shave, I returned to find a couple of them playing with the classroom intercom. They’d push the button that paged the office, then they’d listen to the beep and the system kicking on and then back off.
I’m sure there were more amusing things in the building than that, but at 8 in the morning they hadn’t found it. Read more
Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly:
Wouldn’t you love to see, just once, before you die… a major league player call a press conference to demand the club negotiate his contract — downward? “I’m barely hittin’ my weight,” he’ll say, his agent nodding by his side. “Either start paying me a whole lot less or I’m leaving for Pawtucket right now!”
That almost did happen. In 1978, a young, hard-hitting outfielder named Lyman Bostock became one of baseball’s first big-money free agents Read more
I’m still not completely recovered from the trip. I find myself running out of gas around 5 pm and needing a half-hour nap to make it to 10-10:30.
I did some PHP maintenance coding at work today. It’s definitely not pretty but it mostly works. I’m hoping to finish that project up tomorrow sometime.
I played my first softball game in my work league last night (I missed the first game of the season). We won, which was nice. I’d forgotten what it feels like to win a ballgame, since my church team is 0-3-1 with me in the lineup. I missed a total of three games while I was gone. But last week was worth a lifetime of softball championships, so I don’t care too much.
I went 0-for-2 with a run scored. I was too eager to swing the bat. The opposing pitching had a really hard time throwing strikes, so I should have just taken the walks rather than trying to hit the best pitch I could find. I’m not a doubles hitter this early in the season.
On the plus side, I made two putouts in left field and mostly looked like I knew what I was doing, at least on those plays. I misplayed the first two grounders to me, but on the third one I nearly threw out a runner at third. Aside from a couple of innings in left last year, I haven’t played there since high school gym class. It’ll come back to me. Just like my bat will.
Sometimes it seems like life’s problems are about to swallow us whole and we wonder if we’ll survive. Then we meet someone who has real problems.
I met Mark in the summer of 1983. He was 21 then, and seemed ancient to me at the time. But he was one of the nicest guys I had ever met.
He was also one of the most unlucky. Read more
When does the pain of a father’s death ever end? Especially when that father dies at a especially cruel young age?
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist wrestled with that question the day after Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile was found dead at 33, leaving behind a wife and three kids. It’s a problem I’m all too familiar with. Read more
Sorry about the downtime today. I upgraded to Apache 1.3.26 to close a denial of service hole (since I never, ever write anything the least bit controversial–ahem–except on days that end in -ay) and then I neglected to restart it.
Welcome back to your normal, everyday life, Dave.
Incidentally, last week’s outage appears to have been due to a power failure. Steve DeLassus recognized it and e-mailed me in vain, but seeing as I’d sworn off e-mail for the week it didn’t do much good. I’m not overly concerned about it; my Linux servers’ uptime is measured in years as long as Ameren keeps the current flowing.
I spent the past week in Belle Glade, Fla., which is a farming city near Lake Okeechobee, and a curious mix of extremes–I’ve never seen such wealth and such poverty in such close proximity.
Literally 30 minutes away, we passed a large estate with a garage in the yard, full of vintage Rolls Royces. I zipped past pretty fast but it must have been five or six.
The church we stayed at in Belle Glade was in a lower middle-class neighborhood, not unlike the community just to the north of where I live. To one direction lay a bustling commercial district. In the other direction, ghetto.
Read more
I just had the best week of my life. I came back to find my web server down (powered off even) and Raunche and RCIV nowhere to be found. Good thing. No idea how that happened, so I’ll be interested in their explanation (and very surprised if the stories match).
Anyway, I just took a luxurious 5-minute shower (and I left the water running the whole time–naughty me). I’ve gotta make some phone calls, then I’ll post a short story about my adventure. I doubt I’ll be talking about much else this week. Like I said, it was probably the best week of my life.