Jul 31, 2002

Twice in three days: Chris and I were mucking around with his OpenBSD firewall, trying to recover data from a dead drive. This box is his firewall, file and NAT server. Without this box, no internet. While we were waiting for it to reboot, I was thinking of things to do. "Oh, go to www.somesite.com." "Uh...". D'oh, right, no internet access.

Just today, I had to restart my web proxy. "What can I do while I wait for the web proxy? Ah, go to slashdot!" Uh... Right, again, no internet access. Is it a bad sign when you just assume that you have a 24/7 broadband connection?

Back to Basics: And to think, I almost invested half of my life savings about 7 months ago. Yay, procrastination.

Answer these using the lyrics of just ONE band:

Band: Bad Religion (not my favorite band anymore, but they have some good lyrics)



Are you male or female?

"...there's a boy who seems so lost in his joy"



Describe yourself:

"modern man, pathetic example of earth's organic heritage"



How do they feel about you?

"His opinions are determined by the status quo."



How do you feel about yourself?

"i'm glad i'm not gorbachev, 'cause i'd wiggle all night, like jelly in a pot"



Describe your girlfriend/boyfriend?

"a deep inspiration on a warm summer day"



What would you rather be doing?

"every time i look at you, i just want to do it, i can clench my fist right through it, but i just want to get off"



Describe where you live.

"three thousand miles of wilderness overcome by the flow, a lonely restitution of pavement, pomp and show"



Describe how you love.

"...offer me eternity..."



Share a few words of wisdom.

" don't be a henchman, stand on your laurels, do what no one else does and praise the good of other men, for good man's sake."

Jul 29, 2002

Geek humor (in reference to anti-gravity), curtesy of Slashdot:
Since we all know that

1. Cats always land on their feet, and
2. A buttered slice of bread will undoubtedly land on the carpet butter side down,

we could strap said buttered slice of bread onto the cats back, then drop the whole thing to the floor.

Retort:
This fails both under quantum physics and general relativity.

Under the quantum physics interperetation, since both the cat's feet and the buttered toast are equally likely to land on the floor, the cat-toast enters a superposition where both cat and toast are simultaneously on the floor until it is observed, at which point a radioactive particle decays, and the cat is skinned in a number simultaneous, equally likely, yet distinct ways.

Relativity predicts that the intense attraction to the floor will, in fact, bend space-time in such a way that the floor actually is in contact with both the cat and the toast. If the cat is of the black variety, then it will thus cross its own path, generate a singularity, and vanish in a puff of logic.

The debate continues, as attempts at experimental verification have thus far failed. Dr. Kibble at Princeton's IAS said "Look, have YOU ever tried to hold a cat still and strap some friggin' TOAST to its back?"

Jul 28, 2002

Pathetic: Is my Blog HOT or NOT?

Jul 26, 2002

Firebird with the Mad Max package.

Stealth with the Tina Turner package.

The first five links for "thesaurus rock" all point to Bad Religion pages.

Mmm, Hot Snakes... Anybody that can pull off using the word dilettante in a rock song is golden in my book.

I added a search box and an archive box to the navigation (currently) on the left of the page. Tell me if there are any issues, especially with the archive box. It is using CSS2 to handle the overflow of archive links.

Jul 25, 2002

One of my coworkers is really into home automation. He showed me how his entire house is controllable through the web. It even keeps logs of all the activity. A lot of geeks are worried about the uptime of their servers. His house has a whole list of uptimes such as "Living Room Lamp 1, In the OFF state for 1 day, 13 hours, 5 minutes and 36 seconds". He can tell when the garage door is open, who has called and how long they talked, the temperature of each room, etc etc. He uses HomeSeer software and a lot of products from smarthome.com. You know those damned X10 pop-under ads? Well, it turns out that X10 is actually a protocol for home automation and that no one that does home automation really buys from the official X10 company.

Back to that "entire house is controllable through the web" bit: Combine an always-on DSL connection and a weak password, and someone can hack your house. Tip: don't use your first name as your username with a single repeating character as your password.

Jul 23, 2002

C a n t b r e a k t h r e e - q u a r t e r m i l l i o n m a r k . . .

An informal analysis of my main email account: For July 22nd, 2002, out of 74 emails total, 37 emails were spam, 37 emails were not. *50%* spam. But it's okay. Thank you, SpamAssassin.

Ah, Collapse, my heart goes out to thee, and my score of 736,778.

Jul 22, 2002

<helminthes> and the little basket at the counter says tips, so you hock a big loogie in it and then you realize what you did and say, "oh shit i'm dyslexic"

<adam1> my gf supposedly has "issues" with me

<Hiroe> Heh, my ex didn't have just a few issues, she had a fuckin *Subscription*

So, I get home from work a bit late today, 5 PM to be more exact. As I pull into my parking lot, I hear a cacophony of high pitched squeals and beeps. Annoyed though intrigued, the sounds seemed familiar. As I get closer to my apartment door, I realize almost simultaneously that the sound is coming from my apartment and is the sound of six smoke detectors going off at once. Can someone cautiously bust into an apartment? I did just that. No smoke. IRON ON AN IRONING BOARD! But it was cool and non-burning. RUN UPSTAIRS. Nothing. W h a t t h e h e l l . . .

The usual way to get the damned smoke detectors is to find the one that is being set off and then flagellate a large cloth object (usually a bath towel) in its general direction. No smoke means no amount of flagellating will help. By this point, I am almost completely deaf. The sound is so much, I cannot even tell where it is coming from any more. All of the detectors are on the same circuit, so I started disconnecting them one by one. Being just under 6 foot tall, the detectors were *just* out of my reach to be grabbed down and disconnected. Damn it all, I just started ripping them down cautiously (again, if possible). I got 5 of them (the sixth was already disconnected) but the sound continued! I was so deaf that I couldn't tell if the ones I had just removed and tossed to the floor were still sounding or if there was a hidden detector, or if the sound was all in my head. After an eternity of going nuts, the detectors timed out and the silence was deafening.

None of my roommates were home, there was no smoke, it made no sense. Thinking of how great my luck is, I knew that if I left all of the detectors disconnected there *would* be a fire. Replaced the two downstairs: no problem. Replaced the one in the upstairs hall: no problem. Replaced the ones in the other bedrooms: no problem. Replace the one in my bedroom: FUCKING DEAFENING CACOPHONY GETS REVENGE. You know that little confused path that people comicly take when they don't know where to go or what to do? You know, rush off in one direction, quickly reverse, spin around in a circle then just charge forward? I did just that, in my own room, in my own apartment. Ripped down the detector in my room and the sound stopped.

All of this chaos because a single smoke detector isn't working properly. I still can't hear right.

Collapse, I loth and abhor thee! Why must Roger torment me with his high score of 236,110? My 233,077 seems so pathetic in comparison.

<Crazy Waiter Story>
So, after Chris' amateur martial arts fight in Rochester Hills on Saturday, we all went to Red Robin in Novi. We knew our waiter had lost it when our first impression of him was seeing him dance to YMCA with extreme fervor. Over the course of the night, he asked us if we had ever been to Philadelpia (all because the Rocky theme song was being played), asked us if we liked the Shining (all because of a picture of Jack Nicholson with glowing eyes), explained the entire story of the Shining (even though we all knew it), forgot Lauras drink, forgot Lauras food, then gave us an extra pitcher of beer to make up for his insanity. His excuse was that he had been working since 10 AM (and it was already midnight). My reasoning states that he is always like that in a ploy to get better tips.
</Crazy Waiter Story>

Jul 19, 2002

Hmm, even though it looks down right now, here are some examples from an IRC quotes page:



<Chirako> You know what cereal is really nasty?

<Chirako> Gravy Train.

<Chirako> It's like, these little hard pieces of bran and crumbly beef flavored crap. You pour water over it, and it gets soggy and makes gravy around it.

<Disco_Ernie> Chirako..that's...dog food..

<Chirako> It was NOT dog food!

<Chirako> Mommy wouldn't feed me dog food!

* Chirako looks at Mommy

<Chirako> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

<Chirako> IT'S DOG FOOD!

<Chirako> http://www.gravytraindog.com/

<Chirako> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

<Chirako> She's always been obsessed with me eating dog food... >_<

<Chirako> When I was little, she told me the Jerky Treats were real jerky, and I kept eating the whole bag

* Chirako gags

<Chirako> If there's one thing dogs love, it's rich,

<Chirako> beefy gravy. That's why every nugget of

<Chirako> Gravy Train is basted in real beef juices.

<Chirako> Just mix it with warm water, and you can

<Chirako> give your dog a warm homestyle meal,

<Chirako> dripping with the delicious gravy he loves.

* Chirako graons

<Chirako> Oh, man.... I'm gonna kill her

<Disco_Ernie> At least Chirako will have:

<Disco_Ernie> Healthy skin

<Disco_Ernie> Glossy coat

<Disco_Ernie> Strong teeth and bones

<Disco_Ernie> Builds and maintains body tissue

<Disco_Ernie> Efficient digestion

<Disco_Ernie> Clear eyes

<Chirako> ..I should have known.

<Chirako> She NEVER makes me breakfast



<stank> guys.. i went out tonight.

<stank> i pretended to be a normal college student.

<stank> and i stood uncomfortably on a porch with a bunch of people i don't know.

<stank> but then i ran into bill and will, who were pretending in the same way.

<stank> so we talked about networks and i felt better.



<Dane-lo_brown[DJedi]> I got in trouble in school cause my Espanol teacher asked what architecture we learned from the latinos and i said cardboard boxes


<Paradox> So, guys, I have some news.

<Paradox> I know I usually don't talk much about stuff unless it's solid, but this is interesting, and I think you should know.

<Paradox> I just got an E-mail about an interesting proposition. * volsung_ perks up.

<Paradox> Apparently, there are lesbians that want my 'hard cock.'

* volsung_ flips Paradox the bird.

<volsung_> :)

<Paradox> They want it 'now,' apparently, so the timetable is somewhat limited.

<volsung_> Are you going to just take their offer as presented, or is there an opportunity for negotiation?

<Paradox> I'm not sure.

<volsung_> I'm sure your hard cock is in great demand. An exclusive deal might not be in your best interest.

<Paradox> Last time I got an offer like this, there were some catches.



<andy> moo spelled backwards is moo

<andy> no wait



<SDHawk> I tried to go to dictionary.com, but I can't spell it right.



<knobsthebear> How the hell did Korea find time between StarCraft and Diablo II to make it this far into the World Cup?

Again, this is my link depository. I don't want to forget about this how-to about OpenBSD and VPNs.

Jul 18, 2002

Since I started working a normal job (7 AM - 4 PM, Monday through Friday), I have been going to bed by 11 PM at the latest (yeah, soy un perdedor). This morning was the second half of my A+ certification exam. So, instead of studying last night, I went to the bar and drank 2 pints of Bass on an empty stomach. I went to bed drunk around 12:30 AM, didn't study in the morning and still passed. Ahh, the college life.

Jul 17, 2002

My recent meals:


Yesterday


Breakfast: Corn Pops and coffee with 1 day-past-due milk

Lunch: 2 inches of an Italian sub from Quiznos

Early Dinner:Slice of pizza and 7oz pop at Comerica Park

Late Dinner: Banana/Strawberry smoothie and iced tea


Today


Breakfast: Corn Pops and coffee with 2 day-past-due milk

Lunch: Can't eat, going to puke.

Jul 14, 2002

I *love* worthless data! While writing an email, I scanned my desk and observed that there were more empty cans of Diet Pepsi than of Diet Coke. My tastes are changing (in so many ways). Curioius as to what was the most popular "soft drink", I found this data:



Beverage         Share of Volume


Coca-Cola Classic          19.8%

Pepsi                      13.5%

Diet Coke                   8.7%

Mountain Dew                6.7%

Sprite                      6.4%

Dr Pepper                   6.0%

Diet Pepsi                  5.0%

Seven-Up                    1.8%

Caffeine Free Diet Coke     1.7%

Minute Maid Reg. & Diet     1.4%
...

Lets see, what's been going on lately?
  • I scheduled the second portion of the A+ certification exam for this Thursday. If the difficulty of this exam is on par with the first portion, I have already passed.
  • All of the interns are going to a Tigers game on Tuesday. I have only been to a handful of baseball games in my life and this will be the first time I have gone to the new stadium. Honestly, I hope all the money that is being dumped into Detroit does some good. Compuware is moving their headquarters down there, we have the casinos now, Ford Field will be the new home of the Lions, etc etc. Time will tell, as will the census. If the population reaches a million again, that is a good sign.
  • I saw UFC 38 last night. The only fight that was truly interesting was Genki Sudo versus Leigh Remedios. Sudo came out looking like a WWE wrestler, so I already hated him. When the fight started, he was throwing out taunts like candy and just acting cocky. Turns out, this ploy worked as it threw off Remedios' game. Sudo finished him with a lightning fast rear naked choke. Now I like this guy.
  • Speaking of UFCs and Detroit, Chris was telling me that the one that was held in Detroit was a complete disgrace. To allow the fights in Michigan, there could be no punching. How is that mixed martial arts? The pay-per-view numbers were *halved* for the next UFC. Good job, Detroit. The tag line for UFC 38 was "Brawl in the Hall", as it was held at Royal Albert Hall in the UK. Chris and Marty couldn't remember the tag line for the Detroit UFC, so we decided it had to be "Motor City Mayhem", "Motown Showdown" or "D-town Beatdown". So cheesy.

Jul 9, 2002

Speaking of speed, my typing speed is now over 80 WPM. Test yourself!

So, I passed the A+ hardware exam. This exam is scheduled for 30 minutes and I finished it in 6. There should be a bonus for finishing in 1/5th of the allotted time.

It's funny, the more things that happen in my personal life, the less I post here. It is just not worth the hassle to let the world know my deeper thoughts.

Jul 5, 2002

I just renewed bibik.org at godaddy.com. Why godaddy? Register.com was charging $35/year, godaddy is charging $9/year. The domain expires on the 17th, so here's to hoping that the transfer goes through in time. Otherwise, I wouldn't be surprised if I have to find a new domain! Bibik.org, bibik.net, bibik.com and bibik.biz (yeah, don't ask me) are all taken. mikebibik isn't taken in any form, but I don't want anything so specific.

Well kids, yesterday was the 4th of July and what did I do? Nothing. Why did I do nothing? Because I was tired. I was tired because of work. I work because I need money. I need money because I like to buy stuff. I like to buy stuff because it gives me something to do. Fuck.

Jul 2, 2002

I finally broke down and signed up for the A+ hardware certification exam. $140! That cost wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to take two such exams to get the A+ certification.

Jul 1, 2002

Music makes me cry and I can't help but smile whenever I see a baby. I am so damned old.

I finally broke down and decided that my Ann Arbor apartment is just too hot. When I brought a digital thermometer upstairs and registered 93.8 degrees, that's when I knew it was time to go back to Livonia for awhile. Central AC is worth sacrificing my computer and my liberties, if for just a little while.