My Floppy Died
Well, it finally happened. It was only a matter of time, really. Yes, that’s right… my floppy died.
First off, for those less geeky types, I should probably explain what I was using my floppy for. You see, hooking a computer directly up to the Internet is not unlike having unprotected sex with every woman in a two block radius. Why? Because all the computers in a two block radius are likely directly connected to yours (assuming you’re using cable internet), and so you’re vulnerable to any viruses, spyware, zombie computers, etc, etc, that happen to be buzzing around your local node. And I haven’t even covered non-local attacks.
Thus, it’s generally a good idea to use some kind of protection. This protection usually comes in the form of a firewall, which is not unlike a digital condom, acting as a layer of protection between your soft, vulnerable computer, and the harsh outside world. Now, there are two major kinds of firewalls. The first is a software firewall, and resides on the computer to be protected. Another is a separate firewall appliance which is physically located in the network path between the computer to be protected and the outside world. This would be this style that I favour.
So what about that floppy? Well, you see, as a geek, I thought it would be fun to build my own firewall. So I coupled some old spare parts with the Linux-based LEAF firewall package, and voila! Home-built firewall. And to improve protection (while, as it turns out, reducing reliability), I placed the actual firewall software on a, yup, you guess it, (read-only) floppy disk. Which has since died. :(
Fortunately, my wireless router can perform double duty as a simple firewall, so for now, this is my solution… though, at some point, I’d like to go back to a standalone firewall solution. Though, this time, I think I’ll put it on a CD-ROM.
Return Of The Knitting Bug
It’s been quite some time since I’ve worked on a major knitting project. I suppose this isn’t surprising… it’s pretty hard to convince oneself to sit indoors and play with yarn when you’ve got the beautiful sun shining outside and a deck begging to be built or a lawn crying out to be mowed. But, the time has come again for knitting and purling, hence my newest project (yes, another one… and yes, my Squeak project is still ever so slowly rolling along :).
But, before I tell you what it is, I must first warn Jori not to read any further or even glance down the page! Not that she’s likely to be reading my blog, but I’d hate for her to spoil the surprise. See, I needed an excuse to knit something. I mean, Lenore and I only need so many hats and scarves and so forth. And I’m not quite ready to start on a sweater project (or better yet, my Jump Suit). So I wanted a project I could foist on someone else, but something that was complicated enough to be interesting. Hence the Mountain Laurel Crib Counterpane (aka, neato baby blanket).
Pretty nice, eh? It will be a challenge, though. I have to make 25 hex motifs, 6 half hexes and 6 edge triangles, and then sigh sew them all together. Good times! I figure it’ll take me two solid months of work. And my progress? Currently, I have two hex motifs done, one of which you can see below (note, it hasn’t been blocked, yet, thus the details aren’t fully visible and the stitching is a little more cramped than in the final piece):
I think it turned out fairly well. It’s a very fun pattern to work on… lots of variation to keep me focused. :) And the beauty of it is I can work on it while riding the bus, as it’s composed of lots of small pieces that are easily transported.
A Pointless Update
I bet you’re wondering what I’m doing, right? Of course you are! Waiting with bated breath for my every word and phrase… how can I blame you, really? Well, just so you’re aware, no, I haven’t yet become fabulously wealthy, enabling me to abandon my roots and live a life of hedonistic pleasure seeking. Nor have I discovered a cure for some life-threatening ailment, thus securing my name in the annals of history.
However, I have found myself playing around with Squeak after a rather long hiatus, and I’m reminded again of how freakin’ awesome Smalltalk is as a language, and Squeak as a programming environment.
Of course, you might ask yourself… huh? Well, perhaps I can alleviate your confusion by explaining a little bit about Squeak and why it’s so, to repeat, freakin’ awesome. Imagine an operating system kind of like Windows. It has your usual complement of windows, dialogs, buttons, and so forth, and comes packaged with a couple interesting little toy applications. However, when you right-click on a window, you can pop up a debug menu with an option that says “browse class”. Selecting this option opens up a window which allows you to actually explore or modify the source code to the Window class itself. And this is true for any and all objects in the system.
So, can you see why this is neat? In essence, every single aspect of the system is exposed to the user, available should they want to explore or modify it. To top it off, the entire system is written in Smalltalk, which is easily my favorite object-oriented language. Frankly, I wish I could have had access to Squeak back in my formative years… given the way it encourages exploration, it’s really the ultimate child’s programming environment.
Review: V for Vendetta
Set in a futurist totalitarian England, a country without freedom or faith, a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask strikes back against the oppressive overlords on behalf of the voiceless. Armed with only knives and his wits, V, as he’s called, aims to bring about change in this horrific new world. His only ally? A young woman named Evey Hammond. And she is in for much more than she ever bargained for…
A visionary graphic novel that defines sophisticated storytelling, this powerful tale detailing the loss and fight for individuality has become a cultural touchstone and an enduring allegory for current events. Master storytellers Alan Moore and David Lloyd are at the top of their craft in this terrifying portrait of totalitarianism and resistance.
This paperback edition collects the classic graphic novel, which served as inspiration for the hit 2008 film from Warner Bros.
You can probably guess what this entry is about. Yes, it’s another book review, of a sort. This time, it’s about Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s dystopic graphic novel “V for Vendetta” (Now A Major Motion Picture! (tm)). This whole graphic novel kick I’ve been on was really inspired by the movie adaptation of this book (which is an excellent film, by the way), and so it stands to reason that I would tackle it at some point. My conclusion? It’s good. But I think “Watchmen” is better.
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