2004-8-31
the right connections
Well, I have to say I'm feeling pretty smug having gotten the blog going with bzero on the ibook :) I wrote that last post but could not send it until today, due to complications with OS X's Python. I may finally be on some of the right mailing lists: I sent a message out to the bzero list with my Python dump when trying to send my content to the server. Sure enough, there was a call in the Python code that was asking for some missing object code, namely bsddb. I said no problem, posted a similar message to the Python Mac SIG mailing list, and within a day the maintainer of Mac Python came back with an answer. I felt very connected :) He said that bsddb needed to be built on Mac OS X, and said he thought it might be non-trivial. A fellow Mac Python library maintainer said it was trivial, and posted a link to his Pack-Man (Mac Python Package installer tool - like CPAN for Perl heads) resource. A couple of clicks this evening - bzero sprang to life ;)
While talking Macs, the G5 iMac is a cool machine. I would like to support an office full of them, instead of the black Dells of death. They are official now, on Apple's site. Although I'm a laptop guy now.
At the university, we have been chasing Windows worms for a living for two weeks. It's retarded. I am working in IT full time this summer at Ohio State, and am part time while tearing back into Electrical Engineering next month. At 32 years old. I am having a good time, to everyone's surprise. But I haven't experienced the full time class load yet. We'll see. I think I will find it less challenging than a lot of people think. Just keep all of the plates spinning. A little age and perspective are good. Shit, Margaret Thatcher didn't graduate from college until after being a mother and in her late 30's. I don't plan on deciding any foreign policy though :)
I just can't get into trying to hack workarounds to keep Microsoft's buggy insecure software running. I can empathize with my superiors, it's quite a pickle. Other than managing updates, and using spyware and antivirus software, whaddyado? It's getting so desperate that we are using expensive staff and equipment to manage the networks to hold down the outbreaks to a minimum. I just sit back with my Fedora and my OS X and yawn. What is wrong with you people? Wake up and smell the future. Get thin clients or something. Give people a familiar desktop, or even a Windows desktop, but through a thin client so there just aren't so many machines to constantly break. It's getting to where the network is having to be segregated by vlans and firewalls to an insane degree, just to keep the worms from spreading outside of certain segments.
The problem is mostly machines that are more than five years old, and have unpatchable operating systems like Windows 98. They are out there on the network waiting to be used to attack their coworkers machines. Instead of chasing the outbreaks and bandaiding problems, why not proactively go out and get those old machines updated or replaced? Now that's a strategy that would work, until the next catastrophic worm hits. Then I'll be sitting there at my xterm wondering why all the phones are ringing and the hubbub level has elevated...
While talking Macs, the G5 iMac is a cool machine. I would like to support an office full of them, instead of the black Dells of death. They are official now, on Apple's site. Although I'm a laptop guy now.
At the university, we have been chasing Windows worms for a living for two weeks. It's retarded. I am working in IT full time this summer at Ohio State, and am part time while tearing back into Electrical Engineering next month. At 32 years old. I am having a good time, to everyone's surprise. But I haven't experienced the full time class load yet. We'll see. I think I will find it less challenging than a lot of people think. Just keep all of the plates spinning. A little age and perspective are good. Shit, Margaret Thatcher didn't graduate from college until after being a mother and in her late 30's. I don't plan on deciding any foreign policy though :)
I just can't get into trying to hack workarounds to keep Microsoft's buggy insecure software running. I can empathize with my superiors, it's quite a pickle. Other than managing updates, and using spyware and antivirus software, whaddyado? It's getting so desperate that we are using expensive staff and equipment to manage the networks to hold down the outbreaks to a minimum. I just sit back with my Fedora and my OS X and yawn. What is wrong with you people? Wake up and smell the future. Get thin clients or something. Give people a familiar desktop, or even a Windows desktop, but through a thin client so there just aren't so many machines to constantly break. It's getting to where the network is having to be segregated by vlans and firewalls to an insane degree, just to keep the worms from spreading outside of certain segments.
The problem is mostly machines that are more than five years old, and have unpatchable operating systems like Windows 98. They are out there on the network waiting to be used to attack their coworkers machines. Instead of chasing the outbreaks and bandaiding problems, why not proactively go out and get those old machines updated or replaced? Now that's a strategy that would work, until the next catastrophic worm hits. Then I'll be sitting there at my xterm wondering why all the phones are ringing and the hubbub level has elevated...
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