For the past week, when Wylie and I came back from our evening walks, there have been cars parked next door. This is new. Likewise, I’ve heard dogs barking a couple times.
I finally had a chance to talk to one of the new neighbors this afternoon (I first met them a month ago) and it’s official: They’ve moved in.
They seem like a nice couple.
They have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into. (Just for starters, there be pirates in these waters!)
Category Archives: Assorted Ramblings
Fair-weather Fiends
My new neighbors are still in the process of painting and such before they move in. They hadn’t thought about trick-or-treaters until they saw me putting out a couple decorations this afternoon.
Mom can probably tell you exactly many how many kids came by their house any year for as long as they’ve lived there. But when the neighbors asked me, I had to admit that I don’t really know. When the husband asked whether four bags would suffice, I allowed that it probably would.
The skies have been overcast for most of the past week. Right around sunset, it finally rained. Not a heavy downpour, and it only lasted a short time. But it was enough.
So far, fewer than two-dozen kids have come by this evening.
The new neighbors will probably never believe me again.
Cancer Awareness Month
October is, of course, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
According to the CDC, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women, and twice as prevalent as lung cancer, which is in the #2 position. (Regrettably, I can’t link directly to the stats, you’ll have to play with the selectors near the top of the page.)
Of course, even though Breast Cancer gets more press, it is (of course) important to remember that there are many other other types. The media seems to be picking up on that.
Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma on TV.
Early in the month, Angela discovered that on the show “Brothers and Sisters,” they’ve added a cancer storyline where one of the characters has Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. (This touches particularly close to home for Angela since that’s the type of cancer she beat two years ago. She’s been comparing it to her own real-life experience.)
Lung Cancer in the comics
Also early in the month, I was surprised to find a cancer story line in User Friendly in which one of the characters is diagnosed with lung cancer. UF is an online comic strip following the adventures of a small Canadian Internet Service Provider, so a lot of the humor is geared toward techies. Illiad has occasionally touched on serious subjects, so I was curious what he’d do with this topic.
I was quite pleased by how the subject was treated respectfully, yet Illiad still managed to sneak in some geek humor including (so far) a Monty Python reference, a Star Wars reference, and a few others.
Collected Links:
Safer Online Banking
I’ve been following the Washington Post Security Fix blog for the past year or so. Recently, Brian Krebs has been writing a series of post about businesses are having with thieves stealing their banking credentials, and then the subsequent financial problems since businesses don’t have the same protections as consumers.
One place where I do disagree with the author is the idea of the Macintosh as a safe-haven. In some of his other columns, he’s mentioned that Apple is actually less secure than Windows, but because Windows has more marketshare, that’s what thieves will mostly target. I agree with that much, but the logical leap of “therefore Macintosh is safe”…. I’m just not a big fan of “security through obscurity.”
Three recent articles dealt with the idea (including a How-To) of using a Linux Live CD for online banking.
- Avoid Windows Malware: Bank on a Live CD
- E-Banking on a Locked Down (Non-Microsoft) PC (Tutorial for creating and booting from a Linux Live CD)
- E-Banking on a Locked Down PC, Part II (Follow-up to the reader reactions)
Just to be clear: I don’t think Linux is any more of a panacea than Mac, it’s just a bit more obscure. What I like about this particular solution is that you’re booting from a read-only copy of the operating system. In effect, every time you boot the computer, it’s brand new. Once you’re done with the banking stuff, turn off the computer (you don’t even need to go through the normal shutdown!) and next time you fire it up from the CD, it’s back to the exact same state as when you started it the last time. Even if something does get on to the computer, it can’t save itself to that read-only OS.
I currently do my banking from a virtual machine which I use for absolutely nothing but banking. But I’m definitely digging this as an alternative.
The Butler Did It!
Every so often I hear a song on the radio with lyrics along the lines of:
Now I’m falling asleep,
And she’s calling a cab,
While he’s having a smoke,
And she’s taking a drag…
And so on. The song is called “Mr. Brightside” and it’s sung by a group calling themselves “The Killers.” The problem with this song is that one of the lyrics is, “He takes off her dress now.”
Every time I hear that line, I’m reminded of this joke:
Lady Brooks summoned her butler to her bedroom.
James arrived, she said “You know why you are here I assume. Take off my dress and do it with care. It cost a lot of money so do not tear it.”
“Take off my bra and stockings too.”
James diligently did what he was told to do.
“Take off my knickers, I know you have done that before.”
“If I catch you wearing my clothes again I will personally kick you out the front door.”
Now you can get that joke stuck in your head too.
Bombing the Moon
Many thanks to Squish for passing along a link to the news story about NASA’s plan to bomb The Moon. No, they’re not really going to “bomb” it per se, that’s just the spin MSNBC is using. What’s really going to happen is that they’re going to deliberately crash a couple spacecraft into a crater on the moon’s South Pole in order to verify whether the crater contains any water ice.
Boy, are they gonna be surprised when The Moon pops!
Of course, those of us with a sense of history remember what happened the last time there was an explosion on The Moon, ten years ago, on September 13, 1999…
Important Tip
Alcohol-based hand-sanitizer is not a good thing to combine with paper cuts.
Trust me on this.
How to Recycle an Airplane
A few years ago I recall seeing where someone out in (I think) California had bought a 747 which they were going to convert into a house. An interesting idea, though I’m not sure how long it would take before the novelty wore off.
Somewhere along the line today I ran across an article mentioning some other creative recycling ideas for used aircraft. I’m not sure which I like more, the “747 as a hotel” or the house using wings for the roof.
Why I'm still Single
I have no idea whether the female perspective punchline has ever happened.
Adding to the Mess
Back in the Spring, my office had an offsite retreat which included a presentation on the Intellipedia, a version of Wikipedia used by the U.S. intelligence community.
One of the reasons the intelligence community needs a tool like Wikipedia is the volume of information they deal with. The presentation started off with a video titled “Information R/evolution.” It’s kinda cool.