BunkBlog

Check out my wishlist at Amazon, or CDnow. Still time to get presents before Christmas.

OK, seriously, how about voting for my shirt designs? Or, maybe even visit my store and buy a shirt or teddy bear or some such? Those teddy bears are really cute with Origami designs on the front. 🙂

[organization] will be enforcing strong passwords to ensure that [network] logon passwords are compliant with current password policy. [network] password policy is based on recommended settings provided by the National Security Administration’s NT Security Technical Implementation Guide.

IMPACT TO CUSTOMERS: Each new password will be evaluated according to current [network] standards for robust passwords as itemized below. A new password that does not conform to these standards will be rejected and followed by a dialog box to explain why the password does not comply.
PASSWORD CRITERIA:
Passwords MUST:
1. Equal exactly 7 characters (no more, no less)
etc.

So, um, a password of a fixed length (rather than the much more common “at least 8 characters”) is strong security? Yeah, ok. Thank you for making it easier for crackers to break in. No reason to check for random length passwords, because they know they’ll all be the same length.

From an email received yesterday:

Hello Andy,
…yada yada yada…

At 04:25 PM 12/10/2001 -0500, you wrote:
Below is your form’s result. It was submitted by
Gary Bunker andy@andysocial.com on Mon Dec 10 16:25:23 2001.

Um, is my name not obviously Gary Bunker, based on the form results block? Why would I give my name as Gary and wish to be addressed as Andy? Morons.

I swear, I wonder about the logic used in naming government agencies. When I worked for the National Security Agency, the officers would bring virus-laden Powerpoint presentations into the secure area. Security. Yep.

Now, I work for the Defense Information Systems Agency, and nobody seems to understand computers at all. One of my 11 bosses (I have surpassed Peter in Office Space) doesn’t even know how to use Powerpoint, depending on an underling to make her slides for her. Apparently “Click here to insert text” is too complex a task and that help option is a complete mystery. Today, I get an email from one of my bosses, and he has sent me a URL to a password-protected website (the email was actually the “welcome” message forwarded through three guys), and wanted me to peruse it. Naturally, the site has no “click here to request access” option, and the boss was surprised at this. Way to check things before you forward them. Oh, and can I get more forwarded stuff with 800 headers attached please?

I’ve been assigned to one project that involves a secure network that I’d never heard of until I started working here. I’m not a network engineer, and about half of the terms used in describing the system’s problem did I even understand. But, apparently, since I “know computers” I was the obvious choice. Talking to that project’s bigger boss, he said I must have been selected for my common sense. Yeah, ok. So, after several weeks, I determine that the network is dead, irrevocably. The choices are a) put in new fiber or b) find a different path, such as copper plus fiber-copper connections at each end. Bigger boss doesn’t like these options, and wants to test the current line (which has been tested at least 6 times) and “get some answers” from the MIS guy in charge of the other end of the network. The answer is, of course, “It’s broken” but that is unacceptable and we must change reality now!

Information Systems Agency. pah!

This is hilarious. Cafepress runs a forum on EZBoard (questionable decision at best but whatever). This forum is “moderated” so the posts have to be individually approved by a CP employee. There was a 2-week period in October when no messages were approved, and the moderator eventually came up and apologized for not moderating the “previous week” (inaccurate) and they were just soooo busy they couldn’t handle the forum moderation as well as their new promos. I realize that CP can’t be a very large company, but they might be able to afford a couple IT folks, right? Now, there hasn’t been a single new post or comment approved on that board since the 19th of November. My opinion: unmoderated forums. You can always go in and nuke individual posts or users if they cross the line, but now nobody is reading, even though plenty of folks are talking. Bizarre, I tell you.
current_mood: bored

Johnny was a schoolboy
When he heard his first Beatles song
Love Me Do, I think it was
And from then it didn’t take him long
Got himself a guitar
Used to play every night
Now he’s in a rock ‘n’ roll outfit
And everything’s alright
current_music: duh?

I updated my Friends style, using one I discovered on the styles discussion group, modified slightly to suit me. I think it looks cooler than the Punquin-based one I was using.

I have too much time on my hands some days…

I have run into a relatively obscure limitation on my current webhost, and I would like to garner advice on other reasonably-priced hosts.

I’m using Virtualave, and they’ve been much better than my previous host, Freeservers. However, they don’t allow outbound port 110 traffic (POP servers). This means I can’t use the MailMan webmail host on my site. This is, obviously, not a big hairy deal most of the time, but it would be nice to have it available when I’m out of town and can’t clean out my mailbox by dumping everything to my mail program.

So, I’m paying $99/year for 75 megs of server space (which I’m using 27 megs of) and 1 gigabyte of transfer bandwidth per month (and I’ve used 548 megabytes in the past 30 days). I’d like to stick to a host that is somewhere in the same neighborhood, but hopefully allows telnet access as well as outbound port 110. Ampira and Cedant look good, but has anyone any other options?

Thanks and remember to vote often. 🙂

Heard this gem uttered from one of my coworkers to another:

They’ve got quick reactionary forces there.

Reactionary? Hmmm, I wonder how they handle pressure…

So, looking at stats for the first couple days of December:

• XXXmas is the #1 search term.
• “A t-shirt that slut on it” is a search item, so maybe someone will buy the SGT Slut shirt after all.
• Another seasonal search hit is “Santa’s Naked Helpers” which undoubtedly went to the XXXmas Archive from 2000’s Lianna Nekkid LJ Christmas.
• What did you expect to get when you used the search term “web” on Google, you twit?

OK, if you haven’t already gone to my wishlists, at least go here and think long and hard about how much you love me.

Sorry, got caught up in the whole “I’m a whore for attention” thing so prevalent on LJ this time of year. Maybe I should promise to flash my chest for presents? More likely be given stuff to keep my clothes on…
current_music: Cracker – One Fine Day
current_mood: amused

I’m trying to figure out something. Is the Flexistar from this site the same as the Hexyflex or Octyflex that I had 10 years ago? I can’t seem to find those older toys anywhere, so I’m assuming that the Flexistar line (which has a curiously similar name) is the successor. But, that Quix looks like the Octyflex…

Yep, I’m workin’ hard!
current_music: eror

Had to go to the staff meeting thingie this morning. I hate buzzwords. For instance, not only do these folks “talk to” a subject rather than about it, they take things “offline” for later discussion. OK, um, you’re not online now, bozo! What the hell do you think these words mean?

Other items I can’t stand yet hear all too often:

• collocated – pronounced “co-locate” The word is pronounced as one item, not two things slammed together. And, why not just say “located with” or “located near” instead? Does “co-located” make you feel good?
• Staff the document – Do you mean distribute for comments? Staff is a noun. It is not a verb. It will never be a verb. Deal with it.
• He authored that – You mean he wrote it? He’s not a damned novelist, he’s a tech writer.
• It’s in the wickets – Here’s a statement with near-negative information content. Where is it? “The Wickets” is not a neighborhood or region, so it must be “in the review process” or something, right? If you’re not sure exactly who has it, at least add some information to the exchange!
• Leverage – stop it stop it stop it!
• Out of the loop – Were you some kind of networking appliance?
• Utilize – Just say “use” eh?

And if I were a pointless internet survey, I’d be Buzzword Bingo.
current_music: Adema – Giving In
current_mood: amused

Shamelessly stolen from Infonaut on Slashdot.

The piece betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how foreign policy is shaped. First, the world we live in is not black and white. More often than not, we’re dealing with international problems that have no clean, clear answer.

For example, it’s easy to dismiss American Cold War fears of Castro’s Cuba. But then, he did ask for and receive assistance from the Soviets in the form of missiles, didn’t he?

The Vietnam War was by almost anyone’s estimation, a wasteful, stupid blunder of immense proportions. But let us not forget that a large part of the reason the US got involved in the first place was that the Soviets were making advances of one sort or another on almost every continent. They had what the US perceived to be a client state in North Vietnam.

The Soviet Union espoused a form of government that viewed the destruction of capitalism and the bourgeous democracies as a primary goal.

US foreign policy was dictated by the overarching threat of communism. Sure, now it seems a joke – it collapsed from the inside, from its own weight. But just as sabre-rattling from the West scared the Soviets, the US was scared by Soviet threats as well.

Yes, there are other factors at work. Yes, the Soviet Union is now dead. Yes, mistakes are still being made in US foreign policy.

But the September 11th attacks didn’t happen because Bin Laden was pissed off about the Vietnam War, or about the Bay of Pigs, or our meddling with Iran. Bin Laden was pissed off because we supported Saudi Arabia, a country whose rulers he sees as morally corrupt.

Our reasons for supporting the House of Saud over the years primarily stemmed from our desire to maintain stability in the Middle East. During the Cold War, the Soviets were trying as hard as possible to exert influence there, in hopes that by choking off the supply of oil to the West, Europe and the United States would become vulnerable.

We utilized balance of power politics, the same thing that Metternich used in Europe to avoid a major war for years. It’s not policy driven by right and wrong. It’s policy driven by expediency. It’s not perfect. Hell, it’s barely adequate much of the time.

But I’d much rather trust foreign policy to people who are thinking of overall balances and stability and peace, than people who would rather persue blindly optimistic policy based on idealism.

The track record of idealistic US foreign policy is pretty dismal. Woodrow Wilson got us involved in WWI too late, because he was loathe to go to war. Then his idealism failed at the Treaty of Versailles, because he went along with France’s desire to humiliate and punish Germany.

Jimmy Carter was so infatuated with the idea of working with the Soviets for detente, that when they surprised him by invading Afghanistan, he launched a massive arms buildup (yes, Reagan didn’t start it – Carter did) and sent the CIA in to support the mujahedin.

So while it’s easy to throw rocks, and it’s easy to look at history in retrospect, dealing with the day-to-daymatters of international relations is a mite trickier.

The UN won’t save you from terrorists. Germany won’t work to protect American jobs by keeping the price of oil stable. Japan isn’t going to keep India and Pakistan from nuking each other. It’s a big, complicated, dangerous world out there.

Finally, the argument that Americans are being misled by the government about US foreign policy is a load of crap. American foreign policy aims are well known to anyone who takes the time to read about them.

Foreign policy is a complex topic, and you can’t get a grip on it by watching E! Entertainment News. Less than half the eligible population of the US votes. News shows that stick to news get lower ratings than those that pander to the lowest common denominator.

Americans largely don’t want to think about international affairs. That is a far more serious problem for the US in the long run than any specific policy blunders.

OK, the T Shirt Countdown has reset the counters for the month. Please go ahead and wander over to my store every couple days and ratchet my counter higher. It’s pure meaningless puffery, but entertaining nonetheless.

Hey, while you’re over there, pick up a t-shirt or teddy bear for <insert holiday>!

According to a study of veterans and vet benefits:

Despite the fact that recently discharged service members are trained, skilled, disciplined, dedicated and drug-free, Principi said, almost 20 percent of those aged 20 to 24 are unemployed — a rate higher than their nonveteran counterparts.

The panelists ran into some hard truths when they explored veterans education benefits, he said. Under the current program, service members contribute $1,200 of their first year’s pay to enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill. Principi said about half of those who contribute fail to use their benefits.

While many young people cite education as the reason they join the military, the commission found that increasingly more of them see the military as a detour rather than as a route to college.

The commission recommended Congress pass legislation for the government to pay for honorably discharged members with four years on active duty to attend any school in America for which they qualify. The panelists said the scholarship should cover full tuition, fees and books, and provide a $400 monthly stipend. The four-year service clock would start on the enactment date of the new law; members already on active duty at that time would qualify by re-enlisting or extending to satisfy the four-year requirement.

Meaning, those of us who have previously devoted years of our lives will see no benefit from this overhaul, and will still be out the money (plus the bonuses we gave up for the College Fund for some of us) we donated all those years earlier. Any wonder why the military has a hard time recruiting people, even in the middle of this war? After 6 weeks of the current semester, and having started the VA benefits process in June to get a headstart, I still have seen not a dime of my vaunted entitlement and I’m still trying to prove to the VA that I really am owed the College Fund. I gave up a $5000 bonus in 1989 for that extra cash, I’m damned sure going to fight to get it.

I can really relate to the “detour” remark above, as can most veterans I’ve talked to (and the retirees I work with if they were honest with themselves). At 31 years old, with the array of knowledge I have gained from my own personal quests as well as the 12 years of military intelligence (it’s not an oxymoron) experience, I damned sure should have had more than 2 job offers when I got out of the military. And, more than one of them should have been non-insulting. Instead, I can’t get paid what I’m worth (and what my coworkers and bosses tell me I’m worth), because I haven’t got a piece of paper on the wall that certifies my ability to learn stuff. Actually showing them all the stuff I’ve learned is impossible, and nobody believes anyone without a damned degree anymore. Five years ago, I could have gotten out and had a kickass overpaid job, just because I knew what HTML stood for in 1995. Now? Phbt!

To support me, please go to my site and buy a “Friends don’t let friends reenlist” shirt or sweatshirt. I even have mousepads! The “Battle for Knowledge” design is so far my best seller.
current_music: life
current_mood: aggravated

An Excite@Home shutdown would strand 45 percent of the cable modem users in North America, disrupting small-business owners, telecommuters and even students, since many cable companies have donated high-speed data lines to schools.
current_music: Dandy Warhols – Godless

This was in my email this morning. One way of looking at things, I suppose.

In America, 50% of homeowners have firearms. That means 50% of homeowners have the capability to kill you if you knock on their door late at night. That doesn't mean they're going to. But if they want to, that's absolutely within their capability.

If America really wanted to declare war on Afghanistan, the place would be a radioactive glass parking lot. That doesn't mean we're going to nuke-and-pave the Silk Road.

We haven't firebombed Kabul (we did it to Dresden and Tokyo in WW2), we haven't carpetbombed areas inhabited by civilians (we did it during Vietnam), we haven't turned entire cities into ash (we did it to Japan in WW2), we haven't used chemical weapons on the Taliban (as was widespread all over in WW1), we haven't sprayed carcinogenics over civilian population centers (Vietnam), we haven't fought the decisive battle of the war a week after the peace treaty was signed (War of 1812).

If you think that what we're doing to Afghanistan right now is "waging war on the people of Afghanistan", you need to read a few history books. What you're seeing in Afghanistan is about as gentle a war as the United States has ever fought.

These are the assignments for the previous five weeks of economics. Notice how relatively simple they have been, easily understood etc.

• Discuss the difference between Laissez fair and a Central coomand economy in terms of production and consumption decisions. What is the position of the American economy in a wide spectrum of market structures between Laissez fair and Socialism.
• Discuss the price system and the alternative methods used to ration demand. Relate your answer to the types of economic Systems.
• 1. Define Inflation and Unemployment.
  2. Compare Unemployment both under the Classical theory and the Keynsian theory.
• Explain how we arrive at Personal Disposable Income from Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• Please discuss hyperinflation and its consequences.

Now, here is this week’s assignment:

Equilibrium is attained only when Aggregate Expenditures (AE) are equal to Aggregate Income (y), that is AE=Y; and if Consumption is part of both income and expenditure.
Y=AE– C+S=C+I, explain how the economy can be thrown out of equilibrium.

Yeah, that’s a logical progression from known to unknown. Damn, did this guy even take any Instructional Systems Development classes?
current_mood: amused

CIA Factbook entry on Afghanistan

Life Expectancy at birth: 46.24 years
Literacy: 31.5% (47.2% of males, 15% of females)
GDP per capita: $800 (estimated)

Do you think the bombs could make them more miserable?
current_music: – Fat Lip