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Email Brian Bilbrey |
Orb Grafitti is sometimes a conversation, sometimes a soapbox. I use Linux most often, and I write about that and related software frequently. I also have a day job working as a dogsbody for a small manufacturing firm here in the SF Bay Area. Tom Syroid and I have co-authored a Linux Book. It was cancelled by $LARGE_PUBLISHER, so we're posting it online, here and here. Have a looksee! I'm glad you've come to visit, and always happy to hear from you.
EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so, I'll pay attention to your wishes.
On travel to Vancouver!
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Good morning. I think I hate mornings again, especially after such a nice, long weekend. Not entirely unplannned, we shot up to Vancouver, BC, this weekend. The sole purpose was to meet and spend time with my friend and accomplice, the good Mr. Syroid and his family. Gosh, we sure had fun! More on that later, however, since time is very short - I'll put up a short trip report and a few snapshots later tonight, Marcia should have something much more complete up in a day or two!
While I was gone, I received several odd emails from people I have corresponded with previously...
Subject: Re: sodcat2514ajan4
Date: Friday, 20 Jul 2001 16:06:57 +0100
Hi! How are you?
I send you this file in order to have your advice
See you later. Thanks
Hi. This is Brian Bilbrey. You've emailed me before. This message that i received from your machine was sent by the SirCam virus. Your machine is infected with a dangerous, fast spreading virus that has mailed itself to EVERYONE in your address book.
Clean your system, and warn everyone downstream of you.
and, following questions that came up on a Linux mailing list regarding the same topic...
> Since the 17th, there has been at least one complaint on another list
> of a deluge of large files based on messages being resent from a
This is the work of the SirCam worm/virus. I've received a few myself, but not many, since most of my correspondence is with people who don't normally use Outlook.
This is a virulent wee beastie, information can be found here:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]
or many other places no doubt. If you run Windows and Outlook, it's possible you've got this bug, and there's also a possibility that it may be HIGHLY destructive to your system.
As I've written to a couple of friends I *did* receive this from:
"This wouldn't have happened to you if you were running Linux..."
Take care,
.brian
Now, if you practice safe computing, and don't open unexpected files that people email to you, then this won't get you. If you're reading here, that's probably already the case, so I am preaching to the choir. But pass the word clearly to the people you work with about this viral beastie, 'cause it's a bad one.
While we were on travel, our friends next door, Prasad and Sangeetha, were kind enough to water the Patio Farm for us, so it's doing very nicely. I'd best go take care of that myself now, then get ready to hit the road. Back to the grind, with the added joy that it's time to start packing for our move. Heh. Lovely. See ya later!
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Good morning. Well, yesterday felt like a double-Monday, what with catching up on over 1000 emails between my several personal and work email accounts, as well as meetings, rush jobs and much more. However, this frantic scene is slightly mitigated by the fact that there are only three days left in the work week. Finally, that is entirely overwhelmed and offset by the necessity of beginning the packing process for our move. I just know that whatever I pack is going to be needed before we even get the boxes over to the new place. It's a rule, isn't it.
Herewith, my mini-report on our field trip to Vancouver. First in the snaps below, the Syroids are arrayed, from youngest to prettiest. Yeah, I know, that leaves Tom someplace in the middle, doesn't it? By the way, Landon is shown after one of his few encounters with a bark-encrusted path. Where you and I might stroll, Landon has two speeds, Stop and Full Steam Ahead!
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We flew in late on Friday night, then stayed up until 1:30 or so jawing about Life, the Universe and everything else. The kids met our plane with Tom, and stayed up pretty late themselves, after 11 methinks. (Tom is shown with Landon in the first picture below, that evening) We shared a suite with a couple of bedrooms and a living room/kitchenette, and rested well, sleeping pretty late. Then we puttered about, doing not very much until evening, when Leah's mom (Ellie), sister (Sheri) and brand-spanking-new niece came over to ride herd on the kids for us. Jayde, the new niece, is an extrordinarily quiet three-week old. Lets everyone hold her without squawking, mainly by sleeping through the whole event. They did so that we might dress up a tad and have an evening out with just the adult-sized people (pictured all gussied up in the photo below, right).
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Supper was at a marvelously good restaurant called Joey Tomato's, just down the street from our hotel, on Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam (a 'burb of Vancouver). The service was wonderful, as we were plied with food and an assortment of good humor and pleasant tolerance (of our rowdy selves) by Louise (whom we have come to know also as Gina Davis, some actress who apparently resembles Louise ???) Yes, you can show all your friends and be terribly embarrassed by this, Louise, but keep reading, because you'll appear again and again in the various travellogues of this adventure - after all, we promised... <grin>. Unfortunately, no, we don't have any digital shots of Joey T's, though I think that Leah took some snaps, and there may be scans at a later date.
We had some sort of Marco Polo's travels themed opening dish, with lettuce leaves, lots of ginger spiced meats and noodles and assorted other hot and spicy whatnots - an appetizer course that nearly wiped the four of us out with just the one platter. Fortunately we all regrouped in time for the main course, which was steak for Tom, myself and Marcia, while Leah enjoyed some italian pasta and chicken dish called Michaelangelo. As the only non-drinker in the group, of course I chose the wine, a Corbett Canyon 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, which I am informed was really quite good. It certainly had good nose. We put that all away, and put dessert off until Monday.
Sunday was tour day, with Tom taking us to a small park which encompassed a steep ravine with a stepped set of waterfalls and a nice hanging bridge, both pictured below. It was well clouded-in, so we didn't go up on Grouse Mountain, but instead headed downtown in order to not cross the first narrows bridge, Lion's Gate, which was closed for repairs. Next, we went down to a waterfront market and had a spot of shopping and light lunch. There, I took a snap across the harbor of downtown Vancouver (pictured at right, below).
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This was followed by some more serious souvenier hunting in a place called Gas Town, downtown. Following that, we went out, along with the other four and a quarter million inhabitants of greater metro Vancouver, to Stanley Park. A gorgeous stretch of woods, fields and a zoo on one side, beaches, restaurants, an aquarium and a waterpark on the other side, all filled with a zillion people, all trying to park. We finally settled for a while, and hunkered down on the beach as the skies finally cleared in late afternoon. The kids played in the park for a bit, then we went back to the room and collapsed, exhausted.
Monday we all checked out, then went up to Leah's folk's house. There we abandoned the kids yet again, and went back to Joey Tomato's and Louise for yet another round of fine cuisine, capped with a complementary apple pie thanks to the kind management who were either extremely impressed with our exuberent complements, or were simply trying to get us to quiet down a bit... We said our goodbyes, then Tom took us to the airport. Two hops, one shuttle and a quick drive, we were home.
Too short a trip by far, we'll have to do it again when we can actually take some time with it. Originally we'd wanted more time, and the possibility of visiting in Washinton State as well, but budgets and time constraints prevented anymore than we did. Gosh, what fun!
So, now you know how it went, from my limited perspective. Check out Marcia's Musings page for links to her trip report, which will likely be up completely before today is out (if it isn't already, but I am not awake enough to check at the moment).
Wow, enough typing for this early hour. I'm headed into work. Take it easy and I'll catch you later!
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Good morning. Sheesh, it's almost 7 already and I've just now gotten through the overnight emails. And that's with two of my normal mailing lists running really low traffic. I imagine that I am just getting a slower start this morning. I know, I'm a whiner, but I have fun with it...
Marcia's started the packing process, while I continue to work on getting services arranged, from the more pedestrian power, water and trash, to a variety of connectivity options, as I discussed here last week. Additionally, I am trying to figure out how to move the Patio Farm without killing it. I imagine that I'll just prune the tomatos back a bit, and drag them over. They'll be so happy in full sun that they won't even remember what hit them during the move.
I am continuing to get the occasional copy of SirCam, now at a rate of one or two a day. I haven't seen any come in at work, which is a little odd. I would suspect that perhaps PBI (which provides hosting and connectivity for the company) may be filtering for us. Hmmmm.
Say, there's a good article running over on Kuro5hin right now by Larry Sanger, providing an alternative to the Brittanica knowledge for fee changeover. Give it a read. And on a more edgy note, if you use Verizon wireless, you may want to check out this article on yet another outbreak of identity theft (thanks to Slashdot for the link).
Well, I suppose that since I am really well out of time (and probably boring you with less consequential blather than usual) that I ought to organize and head out. Have a great day, catch up with you later!
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Happy Friday, my friends. I know, it's still early, so there's the whole day still to encompass. Yet that light is apparent at the end of the tunnel, and I am fairly sure it's not an on-coming train.
Impending move progress-O-meter: Marcia's got 7 boxes packed, we have services set to transfer and/or turn on in stages between now and the 11th, and I've started transferring the assorted Orb and DutchGirl webs and services up to the colo box that Greg Lincoln is kind enough to share. There's a number of bits that I need to add to the box, from the search functions for our websites, to the Webalizer web log analysis software, to Mailman, to who knows what else I am forgetting at the moment.
One thing at a time. I rsync'd the webs up yesterday, we've got them responding under aliases. The search functions are online and working. I installed Webalizer and watched it work... partly. Not a bad night's work - by the way, our webs total up around 350 meg, between us. Of course, that counts Brian and Tom's Linux Book, as well as many, many image files from our various travels and such.
We're gonna take a break from the move stuff tonight, both electronic and physical, and just relax a bit together. Marcia and I have found that these short 3 and 4 day vacations are much more exhausting than just staying home and/or going to work as usual. In talking with Tom and Leah, we've clearly determined that MORE TIME is necessary for our next trip.
I will be back later with some assorted links - there's interesting stuff happening on several fronts, from Caldera to the Open Source thing being hosted by O'Reilly, plus a whole host of odd events and weird people that need bringing into the light. So see you later, right here.
Welcome back and good afternoon on this lovely Friday afternoon. It's about 80° hot, 60% moist, and 100% beautiful California weather. Aren't you jealous? Then clearly you must be asking yourself, "Why is he inside, typing on a keyboard when there's a day like that outside?" Good question! However, I feel a mini-rant bubbling up...
There are a number of rights granted to American citizens under the Constitution and in time honored and tested legislation. Several of these rights have been under rather extreme attack over the past few years - I am beginning to find events somewhat worrisome. Lets start off with a brief review of the key players here...
The Constitution of the United States of America, and the Bill of Rights. I list this in its appropriate place - first. Here's a mini-review of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, along with some recent pertinent activities:
Now, I cannot claim to be very well informed in many of these matters that have so offended my sensibilities of late. We are faced with a Federal Government that is composed of a facad of "elected officials" who, for the most part, do not represent the people who voted for them, but instead represent the corporations who gave them the money to buy the TV time to sway the votes their way. This self-same government is run, in truth, by the bureaucracies that make up her various administrations, departments and divisions. While there may be broad policy changes that are the harbingers of political change, one merely needs to not that there is nor has there ever been a policy effectively enforced to reduce the size and power of a bureaucracy. Ever!
Underneath, and beholden to the Feds, are 50 assorted mini-me's, the so-called State governments. The problem the States have is that they have to dance not to just one piper (the PAC committees and their contributions), but two (let's not forget Federal Funding). I'm sorry, but doesn't that 10th Amendment have something to do with separation of powers between National and State governments? Then what's really going on with school funding, highway funding, base closures, and other such methods of manipulating and blackmailing State governments into doing what the Federal bureaucracies want.
This bureaucratic slime mold trickles from the Federal and State levels right down to each and every municipality. Let me give you an explicit and recent example. $CURRENT_EMPLOYER is currently negotiating with the local $MAJOR_CITY about becoming a qualified vendor to said city. At stake is a purchase of several thousand dollars. Whatever profit we might have made has been eaten by executive, accounting, and sales time spent documenting, talking, faxing, sending by registered mail and so forth, for days on end, regarding $CURRENT_EMPLOYER's policies about domestic partners. Fundamentally, we don't care if you prefer SHEEP in your off time, as long as you do your job, are honest, and we can get along with you. There are no restrictions in our policies. Apparently this isn't quite good enough for the bureaucrats of local $MAJOR_CITY, who require that every item that might impinge upon the rights of a gay or lesbian partner to share in any form of insurance, benefits, or whatever spell out those rights in excrutiating detail. Bah! This isn't about rights, this is about a meddling bureaucracy. Period.
The problem with a bureaucracy is that it permits the passing of blame to the political appointee of the moment, regardless of the decisionmaker or the actor (say, the FBI sharpshooter at Ruby Ridge and Waco), and has no accountability except to itself and its own growth. For this reason there will be no simplification of the Tax Code (another travesty), for it would permit, nay require, a RIF for the IRS. Not too likely, that.
I think it's time to start keeping track of the bastards and at least trying to keep their toes in the fire. There's going to be a protest or two about Sklyarov next week. I should be there, be seen and heard to show my support for what I believe, document that belief and activity, and let the assorted people in power at the state and local levels know what I do, and why. It's time for me to pay more attention to the world around me, and speak out when it's important. Sure I am a lazy cuss, but I don't see that anyone should fight for my rights while I sit on the sidelines.
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No post until later - errands and such on the agenda for the moment.
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Sorry for the delay. I've been tilting at windmills for the last 24 hours or so. Greg and I are trying to figure a way to make the suexec security feature of Apache co-exist with Mailman's security feature. Every bit of one thing that we make work, breaks something on the other side of the fence. It's REALLY frustrating. Mailman is a breeze to setup if allowed to run it's own security. I think I've come up with a cunning plan to fake out both of them, leaving the requisite security in place in all circumstances, maybe.
I'll have to fuddle that out after the Costco run, however, as it's nearly time for that. Back in a bit.
19:53 - OK, Welcome back. There's LOTS of changes afoot, and I'm fairly sure that nothing is going to break in the transition. Greg has been a great help as I put quite a load on his server. Whether or not this becomes a permanent arrangement depends on how the connectivity ends up working out over the next two or three months at the new place.
I had great fun setting up Mailman to work in concert with Greg's Apache setup. Mailman uses it's own security scheme, which unfortunately conflicts with a really great compile-in scheme called suexec that Apache can take advantage of. I ended up installing multiple instances of Mailman for each of the pertinent virtual hosts, installed as the user and group in question for that host (me in one case, and Marcia in the other. Here's a mirror of the suexec vs. Mailman solution I finally dug up at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/1999-November/002656.html ...