I hate to say I told you so...

For years I've assumed that the government had back doors in software, operating systems mostly, but I have to say even I'm a little stunned if the latest round of disclosures about the NSA are true.

I suppose I should have been a little more worried about it, but I always assumed that since I really don't have anything to hide, I didn't have to worry about it.  I was wrong.   My wife and three stepchildren are all foreign nationals (UK citizens) so I'm going to assume that everything that goes on in my house is monitored.

This is illegal.

They all have green cards that pre-date our marriage.  I am a US born citizen.  I am positive this is a violation of the constitution and my rights as a US citizen.

Now it comes out that the NSA has the ability to do this to hardware devices and *has* been doing so for a while.  This is going to cripple companies like Cisco and Juniper as well as HP and Dell and probably Apple.  Everyone was worried about Huawei, and I'm positive rightfully so, but I'd be willing to bet nobody in the EU will buy any of our stuff anymore.  I'm already reading online where other IT pros are looking for equipment from a different country.  Which country?  Can you assume any other country is trustworthy?

This is also illegal.

At what time is it acceptable to tear up the constitution in the name of "security"?   Maybe if we're in a state of martial law, but we're not.  At least the last time I checked.

So I wonder what I'm supposed to do.  If a liberal president like Obama can't stop it who can?  I can't see anyone further to the left here getting elected, and I suspect we're going to get another Republican next time, so we'll get more of the same.

I guess it's true.  Freedom dies with a whimper instead of a roar, and a quote from John Calhoun:

"It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty"

I'm speechless

over this.  That judges and attorney's can rationalize and try to explain a verdict like this as appropriate...

He doesn't need treatment.  He's 16 and got drunk, everyone I know did that.  I know I did.  I just didn't get behind the wheel of a car and kill 4 people.

He's not ill, nor does he have a drinking problem, he's a criminal and a murderer.

I finally did it

So I finally went ahead and got a Mac.  I went back and forth on getting one and finally decided it was time.  I got a refurbed 17" MBP.  Everyone says they're too big, but I love it.  I especially like the display on it.  It was either this or a 15" retina, and the retina mbp was about $1000 more, which is no small amount.

I did toss a few extras into the laptop.  I upgraded it to 16gb of ram and slapped an Intel SSD in so it's very fast.

So far so good...

Really Germany?

Sometimes I'm just stunned...

So the NSA has been spying on people, yes I know shocking, and it's come out that we actually spy on other world leaders....

SHOCKING AGAIN!

I'm sure the Germans don't ever spy on anyone....

Grow up people...

The bike

So I went from this:

To:

It's such a different ride from the katana.  I wonder how I'd have felt if I got the sprint, or god forbid the Daytona.  Anyway as it was told at work "single sided swing arm is super sexy" and I agree. Love the bike

Well....

So I finally pulled the trigger and decided to get a new bike.  Didn't get a Triumph, like I thought I would, and didn't get a Harley (Not ready for that yet).

I got a VFR800.  It's the bike I wanted since I got the Katana.

I don't have pics yet, they will come when I pick my ride up, but it's 2007, low miles and candy red.  Don't think there is a better color of bike yet.

More info to come when available.

Goal accomplished...

Way back when I started my "get healthy" kick I honestly wasn't sure I'd ever get this far but today I got the Goal Accomplished achievement in Lose It.

In 5 days it will be one year since I had a cigarette.  Yes I still occasionally miss them, but not enough to start again.  Hard to believe it's been a year.  It was very hard at first but I'm so glad I quit.

Since January I have lost 91 pounds, and I'm not allowed to go to the gym right now (haven't been allowed since 8/10).  I'm really missing the gym, but I hit my initial target weight this week.  I've subsequently reset my goal to be about 10 pounds less but that should be pretty straightforward.

A lot of people ask me how I did it.   Here's what I did:

Smoking: I picked a date and quit cold turkey.  No drugs, no cheating no nothing.  Yes it sucked, yes I was an ass, yes I was crabby and yes I put on about 25 pounds quitting.  The weight pushed me to part 2 of the plan.

Weight:  I started by just changing my diet and going to the gym.  At first I just logged my weight on the phone, then i got the Lose It app which I use to track my food intake and exercise amounts.  You can see how you're doing every day.  At my peak I was going to the gym 4-5 days a week.  I cut down to 4 days and one day of Yoga with Merinda.  When I cut my arm I had to stop the gym but will start again as soon as I'm medically cleared for the gym.

I do my best to record EVERYTHING I eat.  It's ok to go over your calorie target.  It's ok to gain a little every now and then as long as your overall progress is down.  Hell, you'll have weeks where you don't lose anything and just gain.  It's the same as smoking, just keep at it, and keep working and the weight will come down.


The hardest part for me will be to keep the weight off.  That part starts now.

damn damn damn....

So the day I've dreaded for the past few years has finally come...  My CISSP has expired.  I knew it was going to happen and I did little to prevent it.

Yeah I could have proctored exams (actually after doing this once NO I CANNOT.  It's absurd that I can get 8 CPE's for watching people suffer and giving up a weekend day.  ISC explain to me how watching people take a is FURTHERING my education)...  I could have watched webinars etc...  I kept hoping to go to a conference but didn't get to go.  

So now I'm faced with two equally unpleasant decisions.  Do I buy the latest guide and go take that horrid exam again, or just do without the worthless cert, and yes I believe it is an absolutely worthless certification.

Honestly as long as I'm employed I really don't care if I have it or not, but if I need to look for a job it's going to be a challenge to get one in short order, so....  I guess I'll need to pony up the $500 and buy a cram guide or 2 and take the fucking thing again...

ARGH!

The shitty part is, one of the other guys here gets sent to RSA every year to maintain his CISSP.  If I'd been sent to a conference this year and last year I could have probably scraped together enough stupid classes to keep it.

whither linux

I don't think it would be a surprise to most people that I am a huge fan of Linux.  It is coming up on 20 years since I first installed Slackware.  I bought the cd set at a computer show and installed it on my pc.

I remember that because of my Diamond S3 card, and the "secrecy" over the timing/refresh rates I couldn't get X running and when I showed my friends they asked "so what can it do?".  They were skeptical, but I was sold.  I eventually got X working and that was that.  Fast forward 20 years and I've had laptops that run it, servers that run it and even work computers that run Linux.  Suffice to say there is little I haven't done with Linux and I've only ever used Windows for work and gaming.

There's one small problem now, I've been using a Mac at work.  I switched because my work laptop was unstable when it ran Linux.  It would randomly lock up and nothing could recover it except for a hardware reset.  I finally decided this was unacceptable for work.  I ran windows 7 in a VM for office etc... and that kept getting corrupted.  I still don't know why, but I suspect it had to do with the switchable graphics.

Anyway now that I have the mac, the more I use it the less I want to use Linux.  I have a rock solid UNIX laptop.  With other hardware I've been able to replicate this under Linux but it's required almost constant tinkering, and I'm just getting too old for that shit.  Maybe I should use a different distribution, but I do prefer source based ones.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm the type of user Linux can ill afford to lose...

It's been a little while

Lots going on, not much writing though...

First, although I believe what the NSA is doing is unconstitutional, I have no sympathy for Edward Snowden.  He apparently planned to work for the NSA in order to expose secret programs.  That, my idealistic friend, is espionage, and as such you are screwed.

Second, if you thought what you were doing is correct, why would you travel to China, Russia, then plan to go to Cuba and Venezuela?  Hell the only places left to go are Iran and North Korea.  If you believe you're acting as a patriot you don't go to those countries for safety.

Sad to say I do not believe he acted out of idealism or patriotism, I believe he acted out of a desire to be famous.  Otherwise give the story to the New York Times, or Washington Post under a pseudonym and let the papers protect you which they have proven they will.  I doubt even the NSA would take on the first amendment.

On a different note, It's coming up on 6 months since I started back at the gym.  I've been going up and down on motivation.  Don't get me wrong I can count on one hand the number of times I've skipped going to the gym, but I'm ready to be done with dieting...  It's just a drag at times.  What keeps me going is that I have a whole closet of clothing that fits again (with a few exceptions), and I've lost most of the weight I want to.

Just need to keep myself going for another month or 2.... Then figure out how to maintain, which is something I've never been good at.

Last thing, I've decided to fix the motorcycle.  I really wanted a new one, that wouldn't require as much maintenance, but that would have meant spending money I don't think would be appropriate.  So much to my surprise I've learned all about carburetors.   Barring an idle issue, it's mostly running.  I know what I have to do, I just don't want to.  I really need to disassemble them and do a chem dip on all four. I was hoping to put that off until the fall/spring, but we'll see how it goes.  The bike runs fine, but won't hold its idle without the choke.  The reason I wanted to wait for the full rebuild was I want to ride it through the summer and get used to riding again and then tear them down, get a jet kit, advance the ignition and possibly swap out the cams.

Of course the other option is to buy a set of rebuilt ones with a jet kit installed.  I still need to sync them in that case. 

Step parents

I want to apologize to my step mother today. Yes I know it's Father's Day, and sadly Connie passed away almost 18 months ago, but maybe she will see this. 

See I've come to the realization that being a step parent is akin to getting a bucket of warm spit as a gift.  There is precious little of the joy of parenting but all of the headaches. Nobody ever calls you mom or dad, you're lucky if they even acknowledge you, that is until they need something.  Hell, you're even lucky if you get to have input on any major decisions.

Don't get me wrong I wouldn't change my life. I love my wife, and I do love the kids, but It doesn't change the fact that I'm reminded of how shitty it is to be a stepfather on Father's Day. 

And happy Father's Day dad. I love you!

Well

I've long assumed that the US Government has the ability to look inside AES encryption, and has backdoors built into every domestically produced piece of software, but I would have never expected something like Prism (if you believe it's true and I do).   I suppose I should have but I still held onto that shred of optimism that we still follow the laws of our country.

I've lost it all now.  What a fool I am.

The sad part is my wife is a UK national.  My three stepsons are all UK nationals and I'm sure all of us are under surveillance by the US government now.  After all, it only takes 51%.

We've enriched those tech companies that took part.  Google (I'm writing this on a google product and using their browser), Microsoft, Apple (using a macbook pro) etc... so that they can turn around and sell our information to the government because we might be a threat.

If my family is considered a threat to national security the US is in a whole lot of trouble.

My bucket list

Over this past weekend a few of us were talking about getting older, and while I'm not *that* old, I'm certainly not a kid anymore.  This, plus a commercial of all things, got me thinking about the things I want to do before I do die.  So without further comments here's the beginning of it:

• See the Himalayas in person.
• Take Merinda to Florence and Venice Italy
• Catch a falcon
• Skydive (this might be the last thing I do)
• Go scuba diving
• Go to Hawaii
• Go to Paris
• Go to Normandy
• Ski Tuckermans Ravine

Just appalling...

Earlier this week two men attacked and killed a British soldier with knives in broad daylight on a busy street in England.  That in and of itself is appalling enough.  I'm shocked that nobody would bother to interfere or even try to help.

What I find even more appalling is both were saying things like "allahu akbar" and yet this attack isn't "about islam".

Unfortunately it is about Islam.

Every time someone commits an act of terror in the name of Islam it's about Islam.  I don't care if they are "mis-interpreting" the Koran.  There are enough passages in it to allow for this interpretation.

The crusades were about Christianity.  So was the inquisition.  Nobody disputes it.  They are facts.  They are horrible parts of western history.

It's time we stopped giving Islam a pass.  Own up to the faults of the religion and adapt to the modern world.

a little humor....

http://xkcd.com/838/

Writers block

Lately I've been struggling with what to say here. There are plenty of topics I've seen. The new Xbox and debates over an always on console, John Kerry and his "demands" to North Korea, Boston and some of the absurd conspiracy theories I'm seeing, my battle of the bulge and so on.

I guess none of hem really strike me. I will say that I seem stuck at the 40lbs point which is frustrating. I did start tracking my blood pressure today and it was "normal". Resting heart rate was at 68 which is excellent. Hopefully I'll see the same results when i go back to the doctor in a month or so.

One other thing, I always shake my head when Merinda says "enjoy" when I go to the gym. I don't particularly enjoy the gym. I enjoy the results of it. After all I can see the changes in my body, but it's hard work. I just wish I had someone to go with.

uh oh...

Didn't we get tied up in Iraq over stories that were similar to this?

As I recall it was:

Saddam is evil
Saddam has WMD's!
Saddam is tied to Al Quaida!

GO GET HIM!

Can we not go down this path again?  Look I don't think Iran should have nukes.  To be blunt I don't think anyone should have them, but that cat is out of the bag.

Boston....

I know I'm a day late, but I'm still in shock about what happened at the marathon yesterday.  I lived in Mass. for 16 years, and went to BU.  I've been to the Marathon a bunch of times and know people who run it.  My heart goes out to everyone up there and I hope your friends/family are safe and sound.

I sincerely hope they catch the person(s) responsible...

not even close...

I really need to stop reading news on the Internet.  I do.

This article showed up on my Facebook feed courtesy of a high school classmate.  Really that's about all it's good for anyway, and I clicked on the link.  I should have known better because this classmate, who shall remain nameless, mostly posts useless drivel and "cute" pictures of animals.

I'm not opposed to gay marriage on any grounds.  I think gay people should have the right to commit to each other and share retirement, benefits etc...  Just like I think straight couples should be able to share benefits if they live together.  An argument that I got into with HR when I was at EDS and found out that my ex-wife (then my girlfriend) couldn't go on my benefits even though I supported her.  A benefit that was provided to gay couples.  They didn't like it when I suggested I was being discriminated against because I was straight.

Anyway, to be blunt I don't care about gay athletes.  I'm sure there are some, and to compare being an openly gay athlete to what Jackie Robinson did is absurd and belittles what he did.    It's similar in the same way an apple and a banana are both fruits., but that's it.

Not nearly as dangerous, courageous or changing sports.  It's not like there's a "Homo-Leage" for gay baseball players.  Or the GayBA for gay basketball players, and they are EXCLUDED from participating.  A gay athlete simply keeps their sexual orientation to themselves.  Which, quite honestly, is where everyone's sexual orientation belongs...

RIP Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher died today, and while I won't be popular with my Irish wife, her family or friends, I am sad to see this.  I came of age during the end of the cold war, when Ronald Reagan was the president, and Britain was our biggest ally.  I was young, idealistic and conservative and shared my beliefs with Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.  She demonstrated that a woman could be an equal to any man at a time when women were struggling with that in the US.

I remember her standing up against the Russians with the US, and the incredible fortitude I saw from her.  The Iron Lady is how I will remember her, and with her passing a little bit of my childhood fades away.

I was saddened to find out she was suffering from dementia as she got older.  I can accept many aspects of getting old, but the one thing that truly terrifies me is the thought of suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's.  I would prefer a bullet to that.  As painful as my mom suddenly dying, I was a little glad that she never had to deal with dementia.

On a final note, if you have no idea who Margaret Thatcher was, or even if you do, you should watch The Iron Lady.  Glenn Close is a remarkable actress and she plays the role flawlessly...

Thank you spotify

Love that you have a native Linux client.  Just wish you had a little more classic rock (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc...)  I get that most people who use Spotify won't care about it, but it's a deal breaker for me...  Too bad because I really like the service otherwise.

Give me a break

So I made the mistake of reading CNN today and an article on immigration caught my eye, that and CNN's ongoing campaign against Carnival Cruise lines..  I'm more than a little interested in this, especially as my wife and stepchildren all have green cards.

What bothers me is that now it's "de-humanizing" to call someone an illegal immigrant because as this story says "When you inaccurately call me 'illegal,' you're not only dehumanizing me, you're offending them. No human being is illegal."

Are you fucking serious?

It means you are here (as in the US) illegally.  Not that any specific human is illegal.

And there is a campaign to "drop the i-word"...

How about a campaign to drop using Spanish in every store, automated system and in the DMV?  Oh, so sorry, we can't do that because it's "racist".  I guess all those people who congregate at the 7-11 in Herndon are here LEGALLY???

Give me a fucking break.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to anyone reading this.  Lent ends today so if anyone gave something up for lent enjoy...

On a different topic, today marks 6 months since I had my last smoke.  I'm glad I quit, but I do miss them from time to time.

On a related albeit different topic, I've lost 30 lbs since my high weight on January 10.  I have a hard time believing I let myself gain so much weight, but it's coming off nicely.  I certainly feel better and can see the difference in how my clothing fits.  I'm 1/3 of the way to my goal which I should get to long before we go on vacation next year.  I just wish I'd joined the lifetime challenge because I'm pretty sure I could win the whole thing.

Why Amazon....

So recently I've been looking into moving my music library to cloud storage.  It actually makes sense.  I have far more music than I could ever listen to.  I think the last time I checked I could play music for 105 days without repeating and, of course, there is some music in there I'd never listen to.  I'm moving towards having all SSD's in laptops and I don't want to take up the whole thing with my music collection.

Yes, I can have it on the file server, and I do.  It's on a raid array, but what an enormous pain when I need to move it, or add some new music, fix id3 tags etc...

So I started looking at the three major options.

#1 is Apple.  It's the logical choice for me.  I have an iPhone, and will for the foreseeable future.  I think it's the best phone/pda/media player on the market.   If you like your GS3, great.  That's a fantastic phone too, but nothing beats apple's iTunes/App Store integration.  Here's the problem.  Apple limits you to 20000 songs.  I have 37000 and growing.   Even if I prune out the shitty songs I've picked up over the years, that's almost 1/2 my library.  Not going to happen.  Not to mention that Apple only supports Windows and OSX. Yes, I wish I'd bought a Mac, but I didn't.  I have a really nice 17" HP laptop that's less than a year old and STILL costs less than a 2 year old refurbished Macbook Pro 17".  It runs windows 7 now, but will run Linux later, so Linux support is important.

#2 is Google.  First off, it's free, at least it's free now.  That's a great deal.  Second, it's Google.  They'll throw money at it until they crush the competition (Apple).  Third, they support Linux.  Yes they do.  Oh and their browser support is first rate.  There's even an iPhone/iPad app to play the streaming music.  Not to mention it's supported natively on my Galaxy Note.  This would appear to be the best choice.  Not so fast.  Google also has a 20k song limit, and there's no guarantee it's going to stay free.  I've also read it's not very smart at differentiating computers so you can duplicate the library.  I've also never bought music from Google.

#3 is Amazon.  This initially was my first choice.  The library size they support is absurd 200000 songs.  Yes, 10x more.  It's cheap at $24.99/year.  It's supported on the iPhone, iPad and Android, and they're the only one that lets you buy directly on the iPhone, except for Apple.  The player software on the iPhone is pretty nice, lets you mix cloud and local songs, and you can download directly to the device.  The only catch here is the songs are stored in the app.  Pretty stupid, except I'mg guessing it's something Apple did.  Sounds perfect right?  It was, until I found out they don't support uploading from Linux.  Why do you insist on using Adobe Air.  Oh and I can't download more than 1 song at a time.  That's not going to work either.  It''s really a shame, because otherwise this was a perfect solution.  I love the mp3 match, and the free mp3 downloads if you buy a cd.  Honestly, this would have been a perfect offer.

So, none of these are perfect, but I'm going to have to go with Google.  I *want* to use Amazon, but refuse to be trapped into running windows.   It's going to suck that I can only upload 1/2 the collection, but shit happens.  Since none are ideal, I'll take the free options.

Do you hear that Amazon.  You forced a customer who would happily have paid for your service to a competitor.  I get that Linux is a fraction of the desktop market, but I won't have a new laptop for 4 years, and the desktop I use runs Linux too.  Maybe by the time I install Linux on this Amazon will get its act together.

An update

So February is over, well almost over.  Can't believe it.

I thought I'd post a little bit of an update on my live healthy goals for the year.

It's been 5 months since I've had a cigarette.  Yes it's hard at times, but other than a few days (vacation and one day at work) I have to say I rarely crave one.  I miss it more when I'm at home and Merinda goes out for one.  That was our time and I feel like I've lost that.

On the weight loss front it's been a LOT harder.  I'm going to Lifetime four times a week, and working out like a fiend, but the weight isn't coming off as fast as I hoped.  I missed my goal for February, but most of that was from vacation.  I shouldn't be disappointed, but I can't help it.  At least I ended out the month on a high note.  Overall I think I'm still on track to hit my goal.  We booked our cruise for next year so unless I want to be fat on the cruise I have no choice...

Well that's enough rambling for now.  It's late and my typing is worse than usual.

Oh and fuck the IRS.  Our refund is about 1/2 what I hoped for....

Sales people

You know, I've gotten used to push telemarketers calling me at home, it's just a fact when you have a home phone.  Even if you're on the donotcall list, you still get harassed.  The newest thing are charities asking if you want to donate.  Yes, I'm happy to donate old stuff, but let's be honest, I don't have clothing/household goods to donate weekly....  Anyway I digress

The new thing is the pushy sales people calling at work.  No means "No".  Don't make me be rude to you, if I say I'm not interested, I'm not interested.  Getting pushy will result in the opposite of what you want.  I promise.

This made me laugh

Apparently I can make money from the blog.  Not sure how that would work since I'm the only person who's ever seen it.  Can't see that making much ad revenue.

Update:

Apparently not, I actually looked at the page view stats and there are some other people out there.  I'm shocked.

A new toy

Let me open this by saying that I am a gadget whore.  I love gadgets and absolutely can't stand when I don't have something that I want.  On top of that I am a consumer and unfortunately fall prey to needing "retail therapy"

So with that in mind I got an iPad Mini.  Yes I had an original iPad and liked it.  I was surprised that I actually liked it, because I thought it was nothing more than an oversized phone (it is), but it's a great device to browse the web, email, read or play a game.  I'm sure if you're reading this you've used one.

The problem was I saw no need to upgrade.  Yes, the nicer screen would have been a boon, but I couldn't justify spending $500 on a new one, especially since I got the original one for free.  Really, the only gripe I had was it seemed heavy if I was watching netflix or reading in bed.

So, one of the guys at work got a mini and it's exactly the device I wanted.  Sharp display and better yet, the right weight for me to use as an e-reader.  So I promptly bought one.  I wanted it for our upcoming vacation as I plan to read in the morning before Merinda gets up.

Let me say it truly is a nice piece of electronics.  Yes, it's expensive, but all Apple products are overpriced, and to be fair, $329 seems a lot more reasonable than $499 when I can have an 11" Mac Air for about $1000 and the Air is a full computer versus a toy.

My resolution....

So my resolution this new years was to be healthier.  Yes, I've already quit smoking thank you very much, but now I want to lose this extra weight I've picked up over the past few years.

Yes, I've gotten fat.  I know it.  I'm not blind you know, nor am I stupid.

So, it's back to the gym.  I'm actually looking forward to it.  I have a goal in mind, which I think is quite reasonable, and I'm going to achieve it.

So if you're inclined you can wish me well...  If you're inclined to laugh about it, feel free.  At the end of this I'll be in better shape and a better human being.

If I'm inclined I might comment on this from time to time.

Last thought for today is I'm crushed by the ND game last night.  I'll be honest and say Alabama was the last team I wanted ND to play, but I hoped it would be close, and before anyone calls me a bandwagon fan, my Grandfather went to ND, so I root for them out of respect to him.

A moment of silence please....

The Pirate Bay is apparently down.  No, I don't download movies or other crap, but I had to respect how long they stayed up for.  Not to mention it's a pretty cool logo...

Actually, with this blogspot theme...

 Is a much better choice...

On lossless formats

So I'm curious, what does it matter if I convert a file in .shn or .flac to .mp3?  I'm not redistributing the files in .mp3, but instead putting them in a format that my iPhone can play.

Here's where the question comes from.

I download Dave Matthews shows.  Yes the band allows, and actually encourages the taping of their performances.  It's a nice change for a band to allow this as it's a nice way to remember the shows you've been to, as well as to experience ones you missed.

Either way, many of the shows have dire statements saying "DO NOT ENCODE INTO LOSSY FORMATS".

Honestly, who cares.  I don't upload the mp3's.  Even if my iPhone could play flac I would encode them simply for the size.  Also, unless you are listening on a professional sound system with some crazy speakers/headphones, you're not going to hear the difference.

It's a live recording folks.  Made with microphones...  You're probably listening on your PC or in your car.  On crappy computer speakers, or cheap headphones.

Granted in today's world, where HDD's are cheap, well based on this, it's not unreasonable to store your music in lossless formats, but it's a pain in the ass to convert to put on a portable player...