ramblings

Why Security Questions are a Bad Idea

2008-09-18T14:42:00.001-07:00

Touted among some as a way to increase security, I always thought of security questions as a step backwards in security. To think that someone can guess a few simple facts about myself instead of the complex password I dreamed up defeats the point of that complex password.

In the old days, if you forgot a password, it was emailed to an email account. Now, most accounts have implemented these security questions and allow you to reset a password by answering the security questions correctly. The problem with this is that, in most cases, the security questions are too simple. Questions like Where were you born, what is your zip code, what is your pet's name, etc. Questions that anybody may be able to figure out by googling your name - particularly if you are a public figure.

In the news today, it was announced that Gov/VP Nominee Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account was broken into using these security questions (http://www.appscout.com/2008/09/hacking_sarah_palin_what_we_ca.php ). Questions such as birthday, zip code, and where did you meet your spouse. Those questions were answered correctly in less than 45 minutes, and then the perpetrator has access to her account and was able to change the password to something else.

Now an email account is a little different than most other website accounts, as you might not have another email address to send a forgotten password to. However, in no case should simple security questions such as these be the sole means of gaining access to the account. Besides the security questions, there ought to be some secondary means of authentication, or some other way to send a forgotten password - this could be sending a password via text message, or a telephone call to the phone number on the account. Security questions should be used to enhance an existing form of authentication. Using security questions as the only form of authentication is a step backwards in the world of security.

Evil OPEC Cartel

2008-09-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

The price of oil has dropped by 32% over the past few weeks from a high of $147 to todays closing price of $101. Not that we have also seen gas prices drop by 32%, but that is a rant for another day.

And how does the evil OPEC reward us for the falling price of oil? By cutting output to keep prices high. See, the OPEC countries have grown used to all the oil revenue that has been pouring in, and dropping oil prices mean less revenue to them. Although...less revenue is relative since the price of oil is still far higher than the $20-$30 range pre 2001.

In OPEC's decision to cut oil production yesterday, they said they wanted to cut supply to keep prices above $100. Excuse me? Yes, keep prices above $100.

The high price of oil is hurting our nation's economy, and hurting the worldwide economy as well. We are using less oil now than we were last year because we can't afford to pay for it at $100 let alone the peak of $147.

Now how is it that an organization can just artifically set the price of a commodity? Cartels are illegal in the U.S. and Europe because artificial price fixing is just unfair for the consumer. However, OPEC is not your standard cartel. OPEC is a cartel of nation states. As such, it is immune to anti trust regulations under international law and the doctrine of state immunity.

I guess all I can say is those Bastards!

Noah's First Visit with Mickey!

2008-09-08T19:56:00.001-07:00

I just had to post this...

Getting With The Times

2008-07-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

I finally got a facebook account.

Happy 3 Months Noah!

2008-05-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

Noah's First 2 Weeks

2008-03-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

Noah is 2 weeks old today.

We've had our ups and downs, but we've gotten through this so far.

Some Highlights:
Day 1 - born at 9lbs 10oz
Day 2 - we get to leave the hospital that night. Noah arrives home for this first time.
Day 3 - Noah's first night at home had us nearly in tears as he kept us up all night crying and wanting to constantly feed. This was a long day as we adjusted to a new baby at home. We also took him back to the hospital to correct a problem with him being "tongue tied". He slept for a few hours that evening, but was otherwise awake and fussy most of the day.
Day 4 - Another all-nighter, but we worked this one in shifts. Why can't he eat, sleep, and poop like a normal infant? He's awake and fussy most of the day. His first Dr. Appt is today. 8lbs 14oz. The Dr was concerned that he had lost so much weight since birth. 5-10% weight loss is normal, and he lost way more than 10%. Amanda's Mom and Kimmie arrive for the week, and we start feeding Noah more. The additional milk seems to do the trick, as he is less fussy, and sleeps more inbetween feedings.
Days 5-10 - Amanda's mom was a great help for us through these days. I don't know how we could have gotten through without her help this week. We actually got some well needed sleep, and the baby is doing much better. We also got the baby out of the house for a few days
for a few errands and a restaurant trip.
Day 9 - I went back to work for a few days and a few hours each day.
Day 11-14 - The rest of Amanda's family and a friend arrive. Becky comes up from Cancun to visit. Now we're taking care of a newborn and entertaining a whole troop of visitors. Where'd the help go? Things have finally quited down now as everyone has gone home except for Becky.
Noah is doing much better though and we manage a trip to the Mall for a whole afternoon.

100th Post!

2008-02-13T16:50:00.001-08:00

It took long enough. Hopefully the road to 200 posts is quicker than the first 100.

Update

2008-02-13T16:49:00.000-08:00

Well, in short. No baby yet.
We had our our last Dr appointment today and everything looked good except for Peanut being 9 days overdue. We go to the hospital tomorrow so they can run some additional tests to make sure the baby is doing well. If anything is abnormal, they will deliver the baby tomorrow. Otherwise, we are now scheduled to have labor induced at 8am this Sunday if it does not happen naturally before then.

Max at the Beach

2008-02-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

85 degrees in Fullerton in February. No peanut yet. How do you spend the day? At the beach of course.

I'm trying to keep Amanda walking as much as possible to help her pregnancy progress. So we decided to take Max for a walk on the beach this beautiful day. He loves the water even if it is a bit cold.

Super Tuesday

2008-02-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

Good News... The props went the way I wanted. 91-93 were voted down, and 94-97 were passed.

Bad news that doesn't affect me... City of LA voters were overwhelmingly duped into passing a phone tax by believing they were voting for a 1% tax reduction. In reality, the current tax was thrown out by the courts, so a yes vote resulted in keeping the tax at 9% instead of 10% (a 1% tax reduction) while a no vote would have resulted in the entire 10% tax being eliminated.

The Ugly News...Where do I start about the presidential primary. My worst nightmare is seeing McCain and Hillary battle it out in November. I can't stand the thought of another Clinton in office, and I serious don't know how McCain can call himself a Republican. Seriously, if it comes down to those two, I quit. Even though Obama would turn this country into a socialist state, I would vote for him before voting for McCain. I just can't trust McCain - his voting record shows the complete opposite from what he is saying right now. Obama truely believes in what he says even though some of what he says is truely frightening. The only thing Huckabee has going for him is his professed Christianity. His economic tax plan is hiddeous. Ron Paul has no chance of winning. That leaves Romney. I thought Romney had a chance of catching up to McCain, and was my choice for the Republican nomination, but yesterday was very disappointing. Romney now has almost no chance...and Huckabee and McCain are secretly talking (neither likes Romney). If McCain were to offer Huckabee the Vice Presidency, it would put the Republicans in a better position to challenge the Democrats. However, so many people like me just can't stand McCain.

The Libertarian party has decided to run Ron Paul on their ticket if he doesn't win the Republican nomination. Maybe I'll vote Libertarian in November if my other choices are between McCain and Hillary. Interestingly enough, Ron Paul ran for president once before on the Libertarian ticket in 1998.

CISSP I am

2008-02-02T23:35:00.000-08:00

I got the congratulatory email today. I am now a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Now to help the rest of the guys in my office to pass.

rebate or advance?

2008-01-26T00:18:00.000-08:00

All the news sources are raving about this $1200 tax rebate we'd be elligible for this year. Is it really a rebate that we can take for free? or are they being sneaky and going to make us pay it back next year?

Anyone remember the last time we were given tax rebate checks? $300 in 2001 as part of another so called stimulus package designed to help end the recession after Y2K. We gleefully spent that $300, and when 2002 rolled around we were all in for a shock. It was not a rebate, it was an advance. It was not advertised before, but we had to pay back that $300 advance on our 2002 taxes. 2002 tax refunds were $300 smaller, or if you owed taxes, you owed $300 extra to pay back the $300 advance we received.

Is this $1200 the same? Is it really an advance on our 2008 taxes that we have to pay back next year? Nobody is sure yet. But then again, no one was sure in 2001 either. I just know I really don't want a $1200 shock in 2009.

My Take on the CA Ballot Propositions

2008-01-21T20:26:00.001-08:00

7 Propositions have made the ballot for the upcoming primary. Here's my take.

Prop 91 - Transportation Funding Initiative - NO
Even the supporters of this measure say to vote no now. A law was recently passed that makes this OBE.

Prop 92 - Community College Funding - NO
Currently CA education funding is divided between K-14 education as needed. This would force the state to allocate specific amounts to Community Colleges leaving the rest to K-12. It also reduces the tuition to $15 a unit. This amounts to huge spending increases for Community College education either at the expense of K-12 or requiring the state to spend more for K-12 with no additional revenue source. In addition the reduced fees could only be increased if the per-capita income in the state increased by more than 7% in a single year (which has only happened once in the last 20 years). Thus the tuition fees are no longer a source of revenue, and they cannot be raised in the future - not even for inflation which would cause an even bigger burden on the state budget.

Prop 93 - Term Limits Modifications - NO
Currently a person can serve a total of 14 years - 2 4-year terms in the state senate, and 3 2-year terms in the assembly. This would reduce the total amount of time a person can serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years, but it would allow a person to spend the entire 12 years in a single house. However, this also allows all current members to serve a total of 12 consecutive years in the house in which they are currently serving, regardless of prior service. The proponents argue that they are reducing term limits, and promoting experience by allowing individuals to serve the entire time in a single house. That is a BIG FAT MISLEADING LIE. This measure was written and sponsored by the current assembly speaker and 46 others who would otherwise be forced out of the state legislature by term limits this year. They don't tell you that this measure really extends the legislative careers of those 47 individuals. Instead they wrap this in the guise of reducing term limits. Don't pass this misleading measure. Lets actually kick out those whose terms are expiring this year and shake up our current liberal legislature with new bodies by voting NO.

Props 94-97 Indian Gaming Amendment - YES
The governor recently re-negotiated 4 Indian gaming compacts. A petition was filed to stop the law ratifing these compacts from going into effect unless these propositions (one for each tribal compact) are passed. The compacts basically increase the number of slot machines each tribe can operate, and force them to contribute a larger share of their revenue to the state general fund. More slot machines plus a larger % being contributed to the state equals much more money to our general fund to ease our budget crisis. The critics are mainly anti-gambling folks and Nevada casinos who don't want to see gaming in CA. They also argue that it's not fair that only 4 tribes are included in these compacts. In actuality, any tribe can re-negotiate their gaming compact, and others have done so in the past. They only target these tribes, however, since they have the largest gaming operations now, and pose the largest threat to Nevada casinos. A YES vote would allow these compacts to be ratified, allow these tribes to expand their current gaming operations, and provide a huge boost of funds to the state general fund.

While this next measure doesn't apply to me (it only applies to LA city residents), I include it here because I can't stand misleading ballot measures, and this measure is extremely misleading (so for full disclosure):
LA City Telephone Tax
The city of LA currently has a 10% telephone tax. That tax was successfully challenged in court because it never had votor approval. This measure will reinstate a 9% telephone tax. The supporters of this measure are promoting it as a tax reduction from 10% to 9%. That is anything but the truth. The 10% tax was deemed illegal, and is going away. Thus this measure is really a 9% tax increase. It also prevents the city from having to pay back everyone for the illegal 10% tax they have been collecting. The only reason they set the tax rate at 9% was so they could bill this as a tax reduction for all the uninformed voters out there. In the end, since this doesn't affect me, I leave it up to the voter to make a decision. I can't stand the tactics used to promote this measure. However, I also understand that no city can survive on a loss of $270 million a year which is what voting no on this measure would mean. Voters should understand that they voting to legalizing a tax (or implementing a new tax if you see it that way) and not voting on a tax reduction.

I passed!

2008-01-21T08:39:00.000-08:00

I passed the CISSP exam I took in December!

This email was waiting for me this morning:

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have passed the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®) examination - the first step in becoming certified as a CISSP.

I still need to complete my resume and have my application endorsed by someone already certified in order to get my certificate.

Avoid Chicago like the plague

2008-01-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

I had a quick business trip to Ohio this week. On last trip before the baby is born. If only was that simple.

I started off Monday with a very comfortable flight from LA-Chicago. This was a nice 3-class 777 aircraft, and I was upgraded to business class which made the flight comfortable and enjoyable. The fun started as we were decending to land. Apparantly President Bush was leaving Chicago, and they had to basically shut down the airport while Air Force One took off. That caused us to land about 30 minutes late. No biggie, as I had a 90 minute layover for my flight to Ohio. Looking at the departure board, most flights are now shoing delayed due to the Air Force One isuue. As our new departure time approaches, it starts raining. If you've watched the news recently, even a single drop of rain can wreck havoc on Ohare operations. Our flight was delayed again. Then a thunderstorm hits....another shutdown of Ohare due to lightning. Our airplane still hasn't arrived as our delay keeps getting worse. Finally, they say the airplane we were supposed to travel on was diverted to South Bend, IN due to the weather and cancel our flight. I was fortunately rebooked on another flight that was not much later now due to all the delays. We board, and depart, only to be #26 in line for takeoff with another hour delay. Finally after spending 7 hours in delays in Chicago, the 45 minute flight to Ohio took off and I arrived at my hotel shortly after midnight. Grr..to 8am meetings the next morning.

I might add that the my original flight was on a smaller regional jet, so it left from the commuter F terminal. The commuter terminal was not designed for 7 hour delays. It was designed for short commuter flights. So, it was crowded, cramped, had little available food, and had a broken air conditioner which made for a bad waiting experience.

Now I sit in my hotel room with rain/wind pounding my window wondering how my flight home will go tomorrow. The only evening flight from Ohio to Chicago tonight that some coworkers tried to get on after our meeting ended up being cancelled. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Sick =(

2007-12-27T18:19:00.000-08:00

We'll I'm sick. At first we thought it was just the stomach flu, but after talking to other members of my family, could it possibly be food poisoning from Christmas dinner? Out of the 23 people who were at my parents house for Christmas, only 3 managed to not get sick. All the rest of us got sick at about the same time last night. At least I have a wonderful, devoted, wife who is one of the few who didn't get sick and takes good care of me. The good thing is that I'm starting to perk up this afternoon and am feeling much better.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T00:12:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

The CISSP Exam

2007-12-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Well, I but the bullet and took my CISSP exam last weekend. I took it then since I had just finished a review course the week prior and the next exam is not scheduled until the end of January. It was also the first fill in the bubble exam I've taken since my college days. Most of by other certification exams recently have been all computer based. But man was it gruelling. More than 60% of those who take the exam fail.

The exam is 6 hours long to complete 250 multiple choice questions. After the first 50 questions, I was questioning whether I would pass or not. I don't know what happened after that, but I seemed to get in a groove and the rest of the exam seemed to go much better in my opinion. I ended up finishing in 3 1/2 hours and was out of there to rejoin the family for their Christmas party.

I hope I passed. I guess it's now a waiting game. I have to wait 4-6 weeks to find out my score.

The past 6 months

2007-12-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

I realize it has been a while since I posted last. I've started many posts, but never one I wanted to be my first post back into blogging again. Where do we begin? look at all we accomplished? Repainted house, installed sprinklers in backyard, started landscaping backyard, redid baby's room (pictures later) and lots of travel. In fact, I travelled over 50,000 miles this year to make Premier Executive status in the mileage plus program. We'll see what next year brings with the new baby and all.

After Thanksgiving, I took a trip to Colorado Springs and Albuquerque. Travelling is nice in that I can see some of our old friends that have moved around the world. I saw Keri and Calvin in Co. We saw Dave and Cherilyn in Hawaii in October, and I hope to briefly stop in Phoenix soon to see all those who have moved there. Last week, I spent the whole week in a class cramming for my CISSP certification exam (it's a security certification) which I hope to take this weekend.

Blog Makeover

2007-11-18T22:55:00.000-08:00

I'm back, and my blog is ready for a makeover. Stay tuned.

Hot, Hot, Hot...

2007-09-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone hasn't given up waiting for an update. It was an eventful summer, and I have lots to write about. But first, an obligatory weather update. It's hot. I mean, it's way too hot for Fullerton. It feels like Vegas. In fact, it's hotter in Fullerton (107) than Vegas (102) today. My car actually says it's 111 outside instead of 107 - but once its that hot, the extra 4 degrees don't mean much to me. I'd melt if I had to live in this climate for more than a few days. Good thing it is supposed to be much cooler (15-20 degrees) tomorrow.

A Few Pictures From Graduation

2007-05-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from my graduation last weekend. I now hold a Masters in Computer Science / Information Security. Hopefully I'll be able to post a few pictures from our vacation the week after as well. Virginia and DC were absolutely beautiful.

Done

2007-04-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Turned in my last project yesterday and took my last final today. I am done. Next weekend I'll graduate!

One down one to go

2007-04-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

One final down, one more to go. I think I did ok on the first final. It was a mix of multiple choice, short answer and two essays. I nailed the essays and most of the multiple choice. There were a few short answers I had to BS though, but overall I think I'll come out ok. I have an A, A-, and A on my three projects for this class, so depending on what I get on my research paper, I should do well.

Now, I only have one more project to turn in and a final to take in my other class and I am completely done.

So Close

2007-04-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Almost there...

Two weeks from today I will be walking across the stage receiving my Masters degree in Computer Science - Information Security. Until then, I am finishing up a major paper on MS Windows Auditing for my Forensics class this weekend, turning in a project about server defense mechanisms in my Secure Operations class next weekend, and taking two finals next Saturday.

Two weeks from today I will be done. Done with 2 1/2 years of school, and just beginning the start of a weeklong vacation in our nation's capital.

For everyone out there trying this, I am proof that it is possible to complete a Masters degree in 2 1/2 years while working full time and still having time to spend with your wife.

My Birthday and more

2007-03-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

How does it feel to be a year older? I don't feel any different - Other than being in denial that my hair is still slowly falling out and getting thinner. Next year is the big 3-0.

We postponed my birthday this year as I was in San Jose, and Amanda was pulling two 14 hour days on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. So I took the day off on Friday and we celebrated by going to Disneyland in the morning. For dinner we indulged ourselves in a wonderful dinner at the Agora Churrascaria steakhouse. There is a buffet salad bar and side dishes, then the waiters come around and serve all kinds of chicken, pork, and steak. All you can eat steak is my kind of thing. If you're ever in the South Coast Plaza area, I highly recommend this restaurant. Then we finished up the evening with a little shopping. I got some new work clothes, as well as I have my eye on some noise cancelling headphones for all the travelling I'm doing.

These next two months will prove to be busy and challenging. I graduate with my masters degree on May 5, but from now until then I also have 3 work related trips scheduled (3 days in Baltimore, 3 days in San Jose, and another 3 days in San Jose) all in April while I'm trying to finish up 4 major projects and a major paper to finish my classes.

But, on May 4 it will be all over, and Amanda and I will be on a plane to Washington DC so I can walk in my Graduation on the 5th. We're also going to take a week afterwards for vacation to visit the nation's capital. In September we're going to spend a week in Hawaii as well! (I gotta use those frequent flier miles and 325 hours of accumulated vacation time somehow right)

A Letter to Hilton

2007-03-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

I just returned from a one night stat at the Hilton San Jose (Mar 6-7). This had to be one of the worst hilton experiences I have had. I am current a Starwood Gold member and try to stay at Starwood properties whenever possible because they know how to treat me as a business traveler. This time, the Hilton San Jose was the only hotel in the area with available space at a reasonable rate, so I booked a night there. The reservation was for a non-smoking room selected at checkin.

When I checked the night before on the Hhonors website, it said non-smoking confirmed, room selected at checking. Thinking everything was ok, I proceeded to the hotel. When went to check in, the desk clerk said there were no non-smoking rooms available - so much for non-smoking confirmed. This was not ok with me as I am very sensitive to the smell. I was given lounge access for the trouble, but there was nothing else they could do. I decided to try it.

I get to my room, and it is filthy. It is not what I would expect out of a hilton room, and is far below what Starwood provides. The room appears as if it has not been renovated in 20+ years. The bathroom is clearly dated, but the worst part is black stained grout in the shower, stains on the bathroom floor, and a toilet that occassionally ran. During the night, I noticed that the walls were paper thin. I could hear what was happening in the rooms next to me. In the morning I was woken up by their showers as I could hear all of that through the walls. The noise extended outside as well as my room overlooked a light rail station. I was kept awake at night by the constant clanging of bells every time a train entered the station.

All of that, while clearly annoying, can be overlooked for one night. However, in the morning when I got up to take a shower, I found that there was no hot water in the shower. I took a very quick cold shower in the morning which is completely unacceptable. Hot water is one of those absolute necessities whereever you go.

I don't know what you can do to compensate for my troubles, but something needs to happen if I am ever going to consider hilton again. I will be returning to the San Jose area twice in April, and have already reserved a Sheraton property for those stays even though it is farther away and more expensive than the hilton. At this point, unless something changes, I would consider staying at a Starwood property 30 miles away rather than a convenient hilton property.

Funny

2007-02-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2007021523638.jpg

Reminder set your parking brake...

2007-02-12T16:10:00.000-08:00

...or you could end up like this guy. Car tumbles off L.A. parking structure, driver survives.

A car tumbled several stories off a parking structure near a hospital today, authorities said. The driver survived and was taken to the emergency room.The sedan landed on its roof atop a steel awning two levels below. TV news helicopters televised the scene as a construction crane lifted the car shortly after the accident. "Somehow she accidentally jettisoned off the parking structure and landed below. How that occurred, we don't know."

Time for Change

2007-02-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

Well, we're nearing a year in our new home now, and over MLK weekend in Jan we decided to replace the floors in the study and buy some new furniture. We put in nice bamboo flooring, bought some new bookcases and an arm chair. It now has the ambiance of a study. The futon is now located in our guest bedroom. This means that guest actually get to stay in the guest bedroom and have their choice between a twin bed or a fill size futon. Overall, I'm very happy with the way it turned out, and we will definately be doing the same thing to our bedroom next.

Unfortunately, I do not have any good before pictures, but I have a bunch of during and after pictures...

Teens sentenced for cooking puppy in oven - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com

2007-02-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

Teens sentenced for cooking puppy in oven - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com

This is just sick and wrong...

- a dead 3 month old puppy was found in an oven
- the dog's paws and snout were duct taped shut
- there were scratch marks in the oven, so the dog was cooked alive

At least they got 10 years for this among other things including burglary, vandalism, and threatening children.

Freeway sweeper swiped from Anaheim lot

2007-02-05T14:35:00.000-08:00

This is a strange one. Why would anyone steal a freeway sweeper? "Strange things have disappeared over the years, but the bigger question is, why?"...And how exactly do you drive off a caltrans lot in a sweeper without being noticed?

Ok, I really need to get back into blogging. Look for an update soon.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T12:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas...Everyone.

I sure got spoiled. What did you all get?

The proud owner...

2006-11-13T20:58:00.000-08:00

of a brand spankin new 2006 Mitsubishi Endeavor. And, since it's a 2006, we got the car for nearly $10,000 off the sticker price. =)

An Interesting Experience

2006-11-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Amanda and I went shopping for a new car. Not because we really need one, but because I have an itch for something new, and we really want to cut our monthly payments. The payments on the CRV are killing me, and we really want something $100 less a month or more. So off we went to browse the dealerships looking for a new car.

We started with Mitsubishi. The salesman points us to an Mitsu. Endeavor SUV he claimed was sitting on the lot and they were really motivated to move. We climb in, like it and decide to go for a test drive. The battery was dead. The salesman had to pop the hood and jump start the car, all the while saying it had just been sitting there and they would make sure to include a new battery with our purchase. Once the car started, it was really low on gas, so he said we would need to get some gas. He walks in to the office and brings back a fuel voucher so he can fill up the car and proceeds to drive off the lot with us to the corner gas station. He parks the car at the pump, leaves the engine running (isn't it normal to shut off the engine when pumping gas?), and runs inside (I guess with a fuel voucher he had to go inside instead of using pay at the pump. Whatever happened to a corporate credit card?). He comes back and proceeds to fill up the tank...with the engine running and us customers still in the car. Our test drive did go well after that. But man, talk about a rocky start. That guy really wasn't earning points with us. When we got back, I asked to see the car next to this one, since I liked the color better. He put the key in...and nothing. Yet another car on the lot with a dead battery. Come on... We let the guy down nicely and continue our quest.

We went to Toyota next and hated all the cars we looked at. As we were leaving, another salesman who was not helping us, practically jumped on the hood of our car and pointed to the Disneyland parking tag on Amanda's car. He literally asked do you work at Disneyland, do you get free tickets? We rolled our eyes and thought, Not for you. Next. We couldn't wait to get out of the Toyota dealer. They were vultures there.

How did we fare? We looked at the Toyota RAV4, 4Runner, and Highlander and hated them all. I don't even fit in the 4Runner, I was bumping my head on the roof of the car. I guess they only make them for really short people. Honda Pilot was ok but very similar to the CRV only bigger. Nissan Murano was really nice (and ended up being my second choice pick) but it is a little too expensive. The new 2007 Nissan Altima is really sweet, I loved it, but it's a car and I really want to stay with an SUV if possible. And the Nissan salesman was the nicest and least pushy the entire day. Gold star for him. The VW Toureg...it's the one I really want, but at $37,000, it's way out of our price range.

In the end, I really liked the Mitsubishi Endeavor the best despite our dealership experience. If we do end up purchasing it, it will definately be from a different dealership.

John Kerry's Outrageous Remarks

2006-10-30T23:21:00.000-08:00

John Kerry made some absolutely outrageous remarks today talking to a group of college students in a campaign speech for Phil Angelides.

Kerry said, "Education, if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

That is just outrageous and downright disrespectful to all of our troops who fight for our country. And this coming from the mouth of a guy who fought in Vietnam.

I work for the Air Force, and work with some very bright and very well educated guys - many of whom have had at least one tour in Iraq during this war. People are in the military because they want to be, not because they couldn't do well in life. I can't believe this guy once tried to become the commander in chief of our nation and our troops (the same troops he is dissing now). He doesn't deserve anything after a comment like that against those who serve.

Even if you don't support the war, you don't say something like this. I hope the media catches wind of this, and you go down Kerry. Statements like this are totally unacceptable.

I've been busy

2006-10-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

I've been really busy recently, but took yesterday off to spend the day with Amanda and work on our house. We cleaned out our garage and fixed up our study. I ordered some garage door remotes, and once those arrive we will finally be able to park in our garage - it only took 6 months to get fully moved in. On the work front, we are in the process of recompeting for our contract. We all have every reason to believe that we will get to keep our contract, but if they select a competing company, we will all be looking for jobs in November. However, I'm not really worried since I got a call from my old manager two weeks ago saying that if things ever went sour here they would take me back in a heartbeat. Nice to have that fallback. This coming weekend Amanda and I are taking a trip up to Monterey for a family get together.

On the blogging front, I have a few topics to blog about over the next few weeks. Let me know if you are not interested in these or would like to suggest a different topic.

Oil and Gas Prices
91 Freeway Construction
Annual take on the ballot measures

An Interesting Puzzle

2006-10-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

http://n.nfshost.com/

Still Plugging

2006-09-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

I'm still here, I'll have another update for you all soon.

I am still in the photo contest. I don't know how long it lasts or how many semi-finalists there are, but I mailed in an afadavit that I own the copyright to that picture. The final competition will be held in the Fall of 2006.

On another note, some of you know that I recently applied to be a writer for the PC Support section of about.com. I recently got the following email from them.

Your Prep site has recently come up for review, and we regret to inform you that it will not be promoted to the live environment.
Below are some comments from the site's editor that will further explain how we came to this decision:
=======================
Thank you very much for all of your hard work during prep. Unfortunately, we have decided to graduate another candidate.
This was a tough decision, and several people looked over your site. The tutorials you created were really helpful. Ultimately, we felt the writing on the other candidate's site was a bit more smooth. Again, this was not an easy decision, and we really thought you did an excellent job on the sample site.
Thank you again for all of your hard work, and we wish you the very best of luck in the future.
=======================
Thank you again for your interest in About.com. We hope that your experience was pleasant and valuable and we wish you the very best in your future endeavors.

Big surprise!

2006-08-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

I received the following letter in the mail today: "After thoroughly reviewing and discussing your photograph, I am pleased to inform you that our Selection Committee has advanced your contest entry, 'A moment alone,' to semi-finalist in the People category in the International Open Amateur Photography Contest. Your photo will now be automatically entered into final competition to be held in the Fall of 2006...."

On a whim, I submitted this photograph in the contest and it has done far better that I would have ever thought. Who knew.

Let the Hack Attacks Begin

2006-08-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

Defcon comes to town, let the hack attacks begin...

Apple just released 26 security patches for Mac OS X.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33445

"The dangers may have been exaggerated, of course. Security specialist, Symantec, said that it doesn't know of current attack code for any of the issues, although some may not require specific exploit code."
But Symantec's claims seem silly now after reading this next article

Hack a Mac in 60 seconds Security smugness dissolved
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33458
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/08/hijacking_a_macbook_in_60_seco_1.html

I am going to Defcon in Las Vegas this weekend and anticipate quite a weekend.

Backseat Driver's Manual

2006-07-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

This was a hilarious advertisement booklet for a Jetta that I found in a recent magazine. Click on the images for a larger readable version.

Time for School...Again

2006-07-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Just 2 semesters left before I graduate...but it's time to order books for the Fall semester now. Classes start on August 28 and run until mid December. It looks like the courses that I am taking this semester are going to be Advanced Secure Software Engineering and Advanced Network Security. Both of these classes seem (at least by the titles and textbook titles) extremely relevant to my current job. And while the books are expensive...I already own the last one, so one less to buy.

The books are as follows:
CS621 Advanced Secure Software Engineering:
Using the Common Criteria for IT Security Evaluations by Debra Herrmann

CS660 Advanced Network Security
Network Security: Private Communications in a Public World by Charlie Kaufmann, et al.
Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol 1 by Douglas Comer

On another note, I was accepted into a training program to be an about.com guide for the focus on PC support topic. If I successfully complete the training program, I will "own" that topic on about.com and will write a full article once every two weeks and a short blog entry 3 times a week. It pays well and will be a good supplement to my income since I'm not teaching at Biola this sememster.

Meet Max!

2006-07-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

I'm back after a long break. I'll try to post more often now since I'm really not doing too much. Our home is slowly taking shape, so I'll post some pictures in the next day or two.

But first, I thought everyone would like to meet Max the newest member of our household. Max is a 10 month old yellow Lab mix that we got from the irvine animal shelter.

May

2006-06-02T22:50:00.000-07:00

I really need to update more than once a month. May began hectic and ended just right. So here's the month in a nutshell.

The beginning of May saw me in Colorado Springs for a conference on cross domain solutions. If anyone is interested, a cross domain solution is a device that can sit between networks of different classifications. Say if you want to connect to a secret or top secret network, the connection would require a cross domain solution in the middle to act as a guard.

Following the conference, I flew from Colorado to Indiana where I was a groomsman in Rachelle's wedding. Rachelle has been a wonderful friend since my freshman year at Biola. She was in my wedding 4 years ago and it is an honor to be in hers now. It was a wonderful wedding, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the sanctuary when her groom sang her a song that he composed himself. They then drove away in a replica 1964 Shelby Cobra that he also built himself. Now that they're back, the Cobra is up for sale if anyone is interested.

Once back home, and with school finished, it is time to settle in our house and embark on the next project. BTW - I got an A and an A- in my two classes if anyone is interested. We bought some new bedroom furniture and finished putting together our master bedroom. With new furniture and everything put away, it looks like home again. One of these days I really will post some pictures for everyone. With one room down and several more to go, I also started thinking about our next project...landscaping the yard, so I killed what grass was growing in our front yard. Rainbird has a cool sprinkler design service, so I sent them a diagram of our yard so they could design a sprinkler system for us.

The last week of May saw me in Colorado Springs again. This time for a training course on the DITSCAP process. In case anyone is interested, the DITSCAP is the process we use when certifying and accrediting computer systems for use. While in Colorado Springs, I visited Keri and Calvin and we had dinner one night and played cards.

I got back from Colorado just in time for Memorial day weekend. To some Memorial day is a time for BBQs, for me, it was time to embark on our landscaping project. But first a little detour. Saturday was spent searching for the right dog for our house. Sunday, My dad came over and we rented a sod cutter and started ripping out the old grass that I had previously killed. That pretty much took all day, and so on Monday with all the old grass gone, we started digging trenches (we did rent a trencher so this part wasn't so bad) and laying new sprinkler pipe. We're probably about half done with the sprinkler pipe, so tomorrow we need to finish. The good thing is that all the trenches are already dug, we just have to lay pipe, install the valves, timer and get everything working. Once the sprinklers are in, we can plant the new grass in our yard.

On Wednesday (May 31), I stayed home from work and we visited the Irvine Animal shelter to bring home "Max" a puppy that we saw on Saturday. On Saturday he was on hold for someone else, but they never came to pick him up, so we grabbed him. He is a really cute yellow Lab/retriever mix around 9 months old. Max has tons of energy and will certainly keep is busy looking out for him. I owe everyone pictures of Max just like I owe everyone pictures of the house. Stay tuned...I really hope the next update is much less than a month away.

April

2006-04-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

April. Where did it go?

This has been an insane month and it is finally ending.

To start off with, we moved into our new house on April 8, so the first week of the month was spent packing and getting ready to move. But I never got a chance to fully move in because the next weekend (Apr 16) I had a major project due for my Database class. The following weekend (Apr 23) I had a major project due in my Cryptography class. Then Mon-Wed this week, I was in Baltimore, MD for a business trip.

Now it's study time for finals as next Monday I have my two finals back to back, one at 8 and the other at 10. Wish me luck. Then it's on to the airport in the afternoon for a business trip to Colorado Springs. Then on Thurs I fly from Colorado Springs to Chicago for my friend Rachelle's wedding. Finally on Sunday I get to fly back home and end the insane month of April and first week of May. Hopefully then things will slow down and I will have some time on my hands to actually put away all the boxes we still have in our garage and do the things around the house that I want to do.

Trains vs Busses Ammunition

2006-04-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

It amazes me when I hear opponets of an expanded light rail transit system. They claim that since rail lines (both heavy and light rail) are more expensive to build, money would be better spent expanding and improving bus service. Well, the Orange County Register just released some statements showing the big difference between the two in the county:

Train riders have a median household income of $72,000-plus a year, while 79 percent have access to cars. Half of the bus riders have household incomes of less that $20,000 , while more than 70 percent don't have a car. The statement was that trains aim to get people out of cars while busses aim to get carless people where they need to go.

These figures are quite striking. There is almost a class difference between the people who would ride a train and those who would ride the bus. With this in mind, more busses would increase access for those without cars, but would do little for congestion relief. Typical businessmen just have some sort of block against taking the bus. You need an efficient rail system that provides a good alternative to the freeway in order to get the average businessman off the freeway and into a transit system.

House News

2006-03-27T15:14:00.000-08:00

The move is rapidly approaching. This weekend we signed all the loan documents for our new house, and we are hoping to close escrow this friday. That will allow us some overlap time to make sure everything is ready to move. Currently we are planning to move the weekend of April 8-9. Anyone want to help? As soon as we get moved in and the weather warms up some, we'll throw a pool party for all to enjoy and see our new house.

As far as selling our house, we received a lowball offer on our condo this weekend. We also received word of another potential offer but it hasn't shown up on the fax yet. We sent back a counter to the original offer today standing firm on the price. We certainly can't afford to go as low as the lowball is asking. We'll see what happens from here. There have been more showings of our house this week than we've had the entire past month.

How the illegals justify themselves

2006-03-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

They believe the proposed legislation unfairly targets Latino immigrants.

This is baloney. We aren't targetting Latinos as a group. It doesn't matter where you are from, Mexico, China, Canada, Cuba or Iraq, you can't come to this country illegally. There is a process for coming to this country legally. We have nothing against immigrants who follow the legal process, we are against people who short circuit that process and come here illegally.

This is a country of immigrants, and this country would not be possible without us.

This is a country of legal immigrants. Law abiding individuals who contribute to our society.

We work hard to get here and we work hard after we're here, but this bill is trying to take all that away.

This bill will take nothing away from you if you are here legally, and it will do nothing to stop more legal immigrants from entering the country. Other immigrant groups are not protesting, why is it that Latino immigrants both legal and illegal are the only ones protesting?

We may be illegal immigrants, but we are human. We deserve the same rights as everyone else, not be treated like criminals.

If you are here illegally, you broke the law. Simple as that. Lawbreakers are punished when caught. Why should we make exceptions and not treat a group of lawbreakers as criminals.

More Moronic Politics

2006-03-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11964167/
"In reaction to the crack epidemic of the 1980s, laws creating drug-free zones around schools spread nationwide. Now, hard questions are being raised — by legislators, activists, even law enforcement officials — about the fairness and effectiveness of those laws."

What? establishing a drug free zone is not fair?

"such laws, which generally carry extra-stiff mandatory penalties, have done little to safeguard young people and are enforced disproportionately on blacks and Hispanics."

Who says so? Anyone who possesses drugs near schools or parks should be punished severly. These are our kids we're trying to protect. Zero tolorance is a great policy, why get rid of it? enforced disproportionately on blacks and Hispanics The law is colorblind. If more blacks and hispanics are getting picked up for this, then has any one considered the possibility that more black and hispanics are using drugs in or near schools and parks that whites?

but ample evidence that the laws hurt communities of color

It seems to me that any attempts to get drugs off the streats will actually help communities. If communities of color have a larger drug problem, then larger enforcement will only help those communities and not hurt them.

Instead of declining, drug arrests in the zones have risen steadily since the law took effect in 1987

Instead of looking at drug arrests, why don't you compare drug use statistics. Have they gone up as well? Perhaps cops are just enforcing the law more stringintly now trying to crack down on drugs in high use areas.

Though intended to deter drug sales to youths, the laws have been applied mostly to adult-to-adult transactions

So don't use this as an excuse. The transactions are still going on. If it were up to me, the zones would encompass the entire city and violators would get stiffer punishment and treatment. Besides, most youth sales occur on campus in areas where a patrol or under cover officer wouldn't normally be able to observe.

Stupid Illegals

2006-03-25T14:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11442705/
What are these people thinking? 200,000 people marching in downtown LA to protest the pending legislation to make being in this country illegally a felony. They must all be on drugs or something. Can't they see we're not against LEGAL immigration? I fully support anyone who comes to this country legally. What we are against is illegal immigration. And no one seems to get the distinction. Illegal immigrants violate the law to get here, pose potential terror risks since they haven't been properly screened, and most importantly, they cheapen the status process that all the legal immigrants went through to come to this country. This country is a country of immigrants, but those immigrants entered the country through legal means rather than overstaying a tourist visa, hopping a border fence or paying off a smuggler. I would think that any immigrant who came here legally would fully support attempts to curb illegal immigration, but that does not seem to be the case. Sad story.

Costa mesa is passing an ordinace to allow it's police to check the immigration status of people they pick up for other felonies. People are protesting that as well and business is down 20% in the city since that was announced even though it hasn't passed yet. Latinos are scared that they'll be stopped while driving through the city and not happen to have the right paperwork with them. Is everyone a criminal or do they just not understand the law? If the cop just happens to pull you over, he won't check your immigration status. Now if it's a felony stop, he'll do a background check on you and find out your immigration status. Legal residents have nothing to worry about, come back. Illegals also have nothing to worry about here unless they are planning on commiting a felony in which case we don't want them anyway.

Adventures in Albertsons

2006-03-06T20:24:00.000-08:00

First of all, I was extremely disappointed to see that the nice Albertsons-SavOn by our new house is closing. Sad...I wonder what other grocery stores are nearby.

But to get to the main point, the nice Albertsons-SavOn by our current house is also closing. The signs went up this weekend. I figgured this had to be something about the sale of Albertsons to that other company from back east and that they would eventually reopen under a new name or something, but no. I come to find out today that only the _nice_ Albertsons-SavOn by our house is closing, the _old crappy_ Albertsons across from Target is not closing. You all remember Amanda's adventure in the old Albertsons? Dread about what shopping is going to be like until we move.

Now why the hell would they close a nice large Albertsons-SavOn combo that gets decent business and keep open an old, dingy, small Albertsons whose parkinglot is always empty? My only guess is that some bean counter at corporate who never saw the stores in person decided that two Stores within 2 miles of each other couldn't coexist so lets close the one with more overhead even though it is much nicer and makes more money.

Fast forward to today. I go to buy some groceries on my way home from work. I have to go to the old Albertsons since the nice one only has clearance items and doesn't have anymore fresh meat. First, when I get there, they are out of shopping carts. After parading around the weirdly laid out store in the crowds cramming everything into my little hand cart, I'm finally able to check out. I get to the car and realize that they charged me $6 each for 2 6packs of propel that were advertised at 5/$15.

I go back in to get that adjusted and wait at the courtesy desk for 30 minutes before I am taken care of. The first 15 minutes are spent waiting for a clerk to even acknowledge that there are people waiting at the desk. The next 15 minutes are spent waiting for the 2 people in front of me to be helped. When they finally got around to helping me we walked back to the shelf and the price on the shelf certainly said 5/$15, but the deal ended on 3/3. Today is 3/6 - hello - take down your signs already then. They did refund my money and gave me the propels for free, but only after wasting 30 minutes of my time. Was that much money back really worth that amount of time?

Then when I get home, I drop and break the jar of marinade I was planning on using with the meat I just bought. Back to the store again I dreaded.

Top 10 Wacky Street Names

2006-02-26T23:17:00.000-08:00

The complete top 10 list included:

10. Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Texas

9. The intersection of Count and Basie in Richmond, Va.

8. Shades of Death Road in Warren County, N.J.

7. Unexpected Road in Buena, N.J.

6. Bucket of Blood Street in Holbrook, Ariz.

5. The intersection of Clinton and Fidelity in Houston

4. The intersection of Lonesome and Hardup in Albany, Ga.

3. Farfrompoopen Road in Tennessee (the only road up to Constipation Ridge)

2. Divorce Court in Heather Highlands, Pa.

1. Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich.

2006-02-26T12:03:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...I don't know about conventional. Certainly I would be a really bad dacer or comedian, but come on... Time Keeper, Secretary, Bank Teller? What is the world coming to saying that engineering type folks should be a Mail Carrier? I guess if I'm ever unemployed, I know what I could fall back on.

Your Career Type: Conventional

You are orderly and good at following a set plan.
Your talents lie in working with written records and numbers in a systematic, orderly way.

You would make an excellent:

Bank Teller - Bookkeeper - Court Clerk
Mail Carrier - Post Office Clerk - Secretary
Timekeeper - Title Examiner - Typist

The worst career options for your are artistic careers, like comedian or dancer.

What's Your Ideal Career?

Happy Valentines Day

2006-02-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

Celebrate with romantic moments and spots around the Disney parks: http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mm060214sl

50th Post!

2006-02-10T09:53:00.000-08:00

Things are proceeding slowly with the house. For those who are not aware, Amanda and I found a house that we want. We are still in the offer stage as another offer came in on the hose after we submitted ours. The seller is currently bouncing the two offers off of each other trying to get more money for the house. So, it's still not official that we have it yet. In the mean time our house is on the market and we need to sell it in order to pay for the new house. It will be nice to actually have a single family home with a yard.

I found some interesting close up pictures of the B-2 Spirit bomber doing some fly bys at the Edwards AFB air show. There are some fantastic pictures here. If you are interested, there are also some pictures of the F-22A Raptor on that site.

Word Verification

2006-02-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

I hate word verification.
These word verification thingys are really getting out of hand. The latest one was whmtgebg which is the longest I've seen (and apparantly not correct because I entered it wrong). At least I can usually make out the letters on blogger better than most other places. Half the time on other services, I go through 2 or 3 tries before I actually enter all the letters correctly. There's got to be a better way of stopping the %$#& without hindering everyone else.

Ding-Dong Ditch

2006-01-11T17:51:00.000-08:00

Did you ever play Ding-Dong Ditch as a kid? There is a group of young (age 10-12) kids who are running around our complex right now and think that it's funny to ring everyone's doorbell as they run by. Needless to say I just got dinged (my doorbell doesn't go dong).

What is it with electronics these days

2006-01-08T22:05:00.000-08:00

So our DVD player died today. This is our 2nd DVD player that died in the past 4 years and each seemed to only last about 2 years. What is it with these things. It's not like these are noname brands where that would be expected...I'm talking about DVD players from Sony and Panasonic.

Our first DVD player which we bought 6 months or so before we got married was a sony DVD player which I really liked. It wasn't a cheap one either, but after about 2 years it started skipping while playing dvds or sometimes not recognizing them all together. Sometimes it displayed a C1300 error message which is caused by a bad pickup assembly. Turns out this was a common problem on Sony DVD Players from that time period. Some were threatening Sony with a class action suit over the faulty parts, but I never heard anything more about it.

Since the Sony died, I bought a Panosonic next. But just today, it died with the dreaded H07 error which means the motor is dead. This link shows that this is a common error with Panasonic DVD players in general. It won't play any movies at all right now. They all seem to die with this error after 13-24 months. One person even posted that he was lucky his lasted for 33 months. Several people even mentioned how their kids noname $50 player outlasted their nice panosonic one. It seems the group was removed, but one person started an H07 Hunters MSN group to see how many people were affected by the junk panasonic players.

We really should start a class action suit against Sony and Panasonic for the junk that they are producing. 2 DVD players in 4 years is outrageous, and when you combine that with the horrible Panasonic cordless phones and Best Buy experience I previously blogged about, you can see that these companies built up a good reputation so they could pawn off filth on us now.

So now I'm in the market for another DVD player. I can't even wait till the new HD-DVDs come out. Any suggestions ... and don't say another Panasonic. Seriously what would be a good DVD player now?

Christmas, New Years, and Sunday

2005-12-29T21:45:00.000-08:00

The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was 11 years ago. I don't know if much has changed since then, but certainly 11 years of maturity cause you to see things differently. Here are some thoughts on a recent article I read: Christmas and Sunday Collide and some Churches Scramble.

Why is it that Christians dodge church on a time when Christmas falls on a Sunday? Churches expected low attendance and adjusted accordingly. My church normally has 3 morning sunday services and 2 evening ones. This Christmas Sunday...only 1. They expect that less than 1/5 of the church will even bother showing up Christmas morning. Some other churches cancelled services all together. It's not like Christmas isn't some religious holiday or something. I mean why bother going to church at all on the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus let alone when that day falls on Sunday. What?! Here's an idea...let's pre-empt Sunday services because they fall on our own Holy holiday.

With any other religion, a religious holiday would be spent in a place of worship. Why not Christians too? We all pack our churches on Easter to remember His death and resurection...why can't we do the same for His birth. Without Christmas, Easter would never have happened. And yet, this Christmas, churches lay empty while everyone is at home seeing what some guy in a red suit brought them this year.

It seems that Christians have bought into the secularized Christmas. It's all about a man in a red suit and how much you can get. They bust their buts day and night to get all their Christmas shopping done, sometimes staying up all night to make everything perfect for their kids in the morning. And yet, they can't take a hour out of the day to gather together on the day chosen to celebrate His Birth. Some religious holiday. It's a good thing we don't try to hold services every Christmas.

Don't get me wrong. I love the presents, the happy people, families, snowmen, santas, and everything else that has come to represent Christmas. But let's not forget the reason for all of this in the first place: the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

New Years is coming up in two days and again falls on Sunday. The Rose Parade and Rose Bowl are being held on different days so as to not spoil church attendance. Six years from now, Christmas will fall on Sunday again. What will happen then? Will the trend be even worse or will we discover that Church and Christmas don't collide, they go together.

Disneyland...in 1955

2005-12-23T22:37:00.000-08:00

I recently came across some old photographs of my dad, his siblings and my gradparents at Disneyland in August 1955...one month after the park opened on July 17, 1955. And how things have changed since then. I am going to try to get some recent pictures to compare with these old ones, but for now...enjoy.

A new job...The first few days

2005-12-13T22:59:00.000-08:00

Honestly, not much as happened yet in my first two days. I have an office that is full of boxes, but they promised me it would be clear by tomorrow morning. I don't have a phone or a computer or a computer account yet. Something about it being government (since I'm actually on the AF base instead of in a northrop facility) means they can't process these things prior to you arriving. I remember my first day at northrop, 3 1/2 years ago, I had everyting waiting for me, phone, computer, accounts, badge, etc. I just picked up my AF badge today so I don't have to be escorted around the base any more. But I swear, they run their badging office like the DMV.

Aside from HR orientations, and completing paperwork, and running paperwork all around the base so they could process the things I need like a computer, phone, accounts, badges, etc. My days have been spent reading. I was given several large binders full of DoD Directives, AF Instructions, etc. because they are the procedures that we follow as we do our work. Kinda dry reading, but then I'm new at this. One thing I do know, this job will require lots of reading.

So what will I be doing exactly... (more later)

I got the Job!

2005-11-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

I got the computer security engineer job. :) I will be working for Northrop in the MILSATCOM Program Office at LA AFB. I am really excited, and this is a great opportunity for me to start working in the information security field which I am going to school for. Tentatively I would start on Dec 12, so that date is rapidly coming up.

My manager already knows, but I spent yesterday and today talking to my various leads and customers informing them of my new Job. I am also working on listing out all my duties so they can form a good transition plan...so far I'm at 3 1/2 pages of tasks with still more to come, and that doesn't include documenting each task.

We also had a planned power outage over Thanksgiving weekend. I hate those. This time it meant that all our systems had to be powered down. I thankfully wasn't there for the powerdown as I was on my way back from Florida, but my systems did not power up gracefully when I turned them on Monday morning. One Sun system had a bad power supply. Another Sun system had a bad I/O Board. A disk array had some sort of problem causing it to report 16 drive failures. There weren't any drive failures, there was just another problem causing it to report the drive failures. When I recovered from the drive failures, I find the data is corrupted or not there, so now I have to recover from tape. 2 days later, and I'm still recovering these systems. I hate this. I enjoy doing system implementation and system integration work, but I hate doing routing system administration and especially recovery after failures. I guess in simplistic terms, I like building complex systems, but not maintaining them. Thankfully my new job will put me out of this maintenance and recovery business.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2005-11-24T23:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings From Florida

2005-11-21T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back in Melbourne, FL for a while. I've been here for a week now arriving last Sunday and will be here for a total of 10 days leaving this Wed the day before thanksgiving. Leave it to me to have to travel on the busiest travel day of the year. This trip was totally unexpected, as my manager called me up Thursday morning on the 10th and said "So...you want to go to Melbourne? You leave this Sunday." I guess they were very shorthanded out here and needed an extra person to work on some projects. There was one project that had a deadline to get some servers online by last Fri that I needed to work. The one part that actually sucks is the holiday this week makes it hard to collect any overtime pay. In order to get overtime pay, I have to first work 80 hours of regular time not counting holidays. So at the most, I can postpone the holiday taking an extra holiday later instead of taking it now.

I ended up going to the Florida Disney parks this weekend. I went to Animal Kingdom and Epcot on Sat and MGM on Sun. It was rainy Sunday afternoon though, so that kinda cut things short there. The Florida parks are nice, but nothing beats the Disneyland Christmas celebration. They don't have anything comparable out here.

Still haven't heard anything about the job yet. The HR rep who was working it was out of the office all last week. The hiring manager is getting anxious as he needs someone, and he sent an email last week saying he'd touch base with me today. Right now, the next pay period ends on Dec 9. My current manager does know about the possibility of my changing jobs as I wanted to warn him before he sent me to Florida. Since nothing is official though, we left it at that, and he asked if I wanted to go to FL anyway.

Job News!

2005-11-09T13:09:00.000-08:00

So I interviewed for a System Security Engineer position yesterday with Northrop. In this position, I would be working with the system designers and developers for military satellite programs. This is very exciting and would be down the information security career path were I am headed with my education. My office would basically move across the street from where it is now onto LA AFB.

The interview went very well, and I received a call from the HR dept from that business unit just a few minutes ago to start all the paperwork for the internal transfer process. So it really sounds like they want to hire me and would extend me an offer. If all goes well, I could start there as early as the 28th of November or the 5th of December. This is very exciting!

Election Blues

2005-11-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

What's the point of having a special epection if every single ballot measure is going to fail. These were extremely important reforms, however they failed because of a high budget slime campaign brought on by labor unions. The California Teachers union spent $120 million to defeat these ballot measures with untrue slime commercials. The union spent so much money that it went broke, took out a loan to cover the campaign expenses, and then slapped every teacher in California with an extra $60 a month mandatory union due increase to pay off the loan for the campaign expenses. That right there is why we needed Prop 75 to pass. To prevent the union from doing something like that to all teachers. Let's let only those who support the union's politics give their money.

Californians want change. They've said so. Weeks before the election each of the important ballot measures had overwhelming support and were expected to pass by huge margins. Then comes the slime campaign and what happens. We loose by landslide margins because the stupid liberal left wing unions don't want change. They are so out of touch with what their membership wanted. Over 50% of union members were even expected to vote against their union initially until the scare tatics started. When the unions spend over $200 million combined, it is impossible for anyone to compete fairly. The worst part is that much of that $200 million came from mandatory contributions from people who didn't support the cause. The pro side only spent about $34 million so it's no wonder they were completely overwhelmed by the slime campaign.

Long time no post

2005-11-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

I'm still here. It's been a long month, but things are going well. Our kitchen remodeling project is nearing completion. It's very trying to have your house torn apart for 6 weeks while you work on something as important as a kitchen. You can't shut the door on in when you're not working, instead you have to live in it, step over boxes containing the contents of your cubbords and drawers, dig through them when you want a cup or a spoon, or decide to cook, and you have to use the half completed kitchen everyday to survive. In the end it will be worth it. Hopefully this this the last week of it. This weekend we just have some moulding to put up and some polishing to do! When the end is near, I'll post before and after pictures so you can see, you could also come to our christmas party and see for yourself. It already is looking amazing in it's almost completed state.

The job front is looking quite interesting indeed. In the re-organization they did, I was offered a job at the same level, same pay rate in the new organization as I already had which is good. From what I hear many people were very unhappy with the transition and some had very significant pay cuts. A pay cut could have been disasterous for us in the middle of a remodeling project and all. I accepted that offer and will start in the new org Nov 14. (same job, same coworkers, different management is all) Since Jeff moved out of the office, I sure hope that they decide to move someone else in there since the office is awfully lonely without a coworker to share it with.

In other job news, I applied for a few other positions in Information Security during the re-organization as I wanted backup in case something went wrong during that transition. For those that don't know I am currently working as a System Admin, but am working on a Masters in Information Security and want to head down that path career wise. I applied for a position I wasn't necessarily qualified for, but was one in the Information Security field where I was headed. The hiring manager called be back and said that since I am new to the field I would have a very hard time being successful in that particular position. However, he still wanted to get together with me to see if I might fit into some other opportunities in the InfoSec field. I met with him last thursday, and afterwards he passed my information and resume along with a recommendation to another manager who I am meeting with tomorrow. This is very exciting, and I would to get one of these jobs as a computer security or information assurance engineer. If nothing works out, I still enjoy my old job, but I have my hopes up for the future.

All -- make sure everyone gets out and votes tomorrow. This is one of the most important elections that we've had in California, and there are some extremely important ballot measures. Arnold promised he'd change California, and here is our chance to make that change. These will bring change for years to come.

Ben's Voter Guide:

Prop 73 - Yes - Require parental notification for abortions
Prop 74 - Yes - Extend Teacher Tenure to 5 years, and allow firing after 2 consecutive negative performance reviews
Prop 75 - Yes - Union Dues cannot be used for political purposes without prior authorization
Prop 76 - Yes - Slows down the rate at which the budget can increase each year. Governor has authority to strike spending from budget if there is an inbalace that the legislature can't resolve.
Prop 77 - Yes - Retired judges draw legislative districts instead of legislature. districts approved by voters
Prop 78 - No - Discount perscription drugs to low income families
Prop 79 - No - Discount perscription drugs to low income families
Prop 80 - No - Electricity regulation

How 'bout them angels

2005-10-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Man... I was really rooting for another Angels World Series victory like they had 3 years ago. 3 years ago was so much fun as I watched all 7 World Series games in Downtown Disney with 10,000 other fans crowded around 3 giant jumbotron screens. It was such a high energy celebration.

The Angels were off to a great start this year. 3 games on 3 consecutive days in 3 different cities and 3 victories - First in New York, then in Anaheim, then in Chicago. The last victory in Chicago no one expected them to win since they were so road weary, but they proved everyone wrong. Then comes the second game in Chicago. 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning, 2 outs, and the umpire makes a stupid call on strike 3 that put a man on first instead of ending the inning. Every replay, and every television announcer clearly stated that the ump made the wrong call. The next batter hit the ball to allow the White Sox to win. The umps call gave the White Sox the victory instead of allowing a fair battle in extra innings. No one knows who really should have won that game, but the unfair loss in Chicago sank their spirits. The Angels then went on to lose 3 in a row in Anaheim to give the White Sox the American League championship. I guess this year isn't their year this time. Maybe next.

(As I'm writing this, there is a cool lightening stom going on outside. :)

Prop 75 - Restrict Political Contributions with Union Dues

2005-09-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

Vote Yes!

This law prohibits public employee unions from using union dues for political purposes except with the consent of individual employees.

All I say, is that it's about time! My only complaint is that this only covers public employees and not private sector employees. However, it's a step in the right direction. Let's pass this and then tackle the private sector in the next election.

I heard on the news today that many teachers are crying out because the teacher's union is raising their dues by $20-30 a month to payback a loan they the union took out to help fund the latest television slime campaign against the governor. That is simply unfair. And teachers simply have to pay the extra fees regardless of whether they supported that ad campaign or not. This now gives them a choice. My wife has to belong to a union for her job and I cringe every month when she pays her dues knowing that at least half of them are going to liberal political purposes. In the last election, I voted opposite the union on every single item. So why is my money going to support their views when they oppose mine?

The opponents continue their rant about teachers being under attack with this law. They claim that there is a hidden agenda to limit the effectiveness of the union. duh! It allows those with opposing viewpoints to contribute their money elsewhere. If enough people do this, then yes it will limit the power of the unions. Unions have too much power anyway, and the liberals can't tell the difference between an attack on unions and an attack on individuals. They like to personalize it to appeal to our emotions. Under the new law, the unions will get the political contributions of those who actually agree with their political views. Perhaps this will make the unions more moderate or conservative in order to keep the money coming in from people who can't stand the liberal left.

The other complaint from the opposition is that it limits the effectiveness of the public employee unions while doing nothing with the private sector leaving their unions powerful. I grant them this, but we have to start somewhere. Let's go after the private sectory next. My wife works in the private sector and will not reap the benefits of this law. But I want to see a similar law on the next ballot targetted at the private sector.

Vote YES! and give public employees a choice as to where they contribute their political dollars.

Prop 74 - increase probation length for teacher tenure

2005-09-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Vote YES!

Prop 74 would increase the length of a new teacher's probation from two years to five. This requires teachers to perform well for longer and gives principals more time to evaluate teachers before they are granted tenure.

Under current law, tenured teachers are very hard to remove for unsatisfactory performance. This law allows schools to fire tenured teachers after two consecutive unsatisfactory evaluations.

I really hate the bogus lies that the opponets to this proposition use in their ads. They don't really say anything about the increased probationary period, but they are really opposed to the rest of the law. They try to appeal to our emotions by saying that this proposition is an attack on our teachers and designed to punish hardworking teachers. There is nothing farther from the truth. This law does not punish or attach teachers. It simply ups the standard. Poor performing teachers are the only ones who have to worry. Good teachers have nothing to worry about. Even an occasional unsatisfactory review won't deny them their teaching job. Under this law, tenured teachers can be fired after two consecutive unsatisfactory reviews. There is nothing novel about that. If I got two consecutive unsatisfactory reviews in my private sector job, I would certainly be fired. Since we're entrusting the care of our children to these teachers, they really should be held to an even higher performance standard, but sadly, the opponets of this law don't want that. Instead they want to lie to everyone and appeal to our emotions.

Vote YES!

Prop 73 - Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy

2005-09-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

Vote YES!

Prohibits abortion in California for a minor until 48 hours after a physician notifies a minor's parent or legal guardian, and permits judicial relief if someone is attempting to coerce a minor into having an abortion.

This Proposition partially reverses a 1953 state law that allows minors to receive pregnancy care and abortions without parental consent or even notification. A minor can't normally get an aspirin from the school nurse or even a flu shot without parental notification, so why can they get abortions? The opponents argue that this law would complicate situations in abusive households when parents received notification. Perhaps in those situations the minor would think twice about actually killing their baby. Or if they really felt threatened, the law does allow the minor to go to Juvenile court to get a waiver to this law with insinuating circumstances.

While it doesn't prohibit the heinous act of murdering unborn children like we all want, it is a step in the right direction. Most parents have invested attention and love in their daughters and care about them. While the minor still has the ultimate choice, the parents can help her understand all the alternatives and obtain better care.

This law doesn't go as far as we all want, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Vote YES!

Coming soon....

2005-09-22T18:34:00.000-07:00

My take on the latest California ballot propositions. I know it's early, but the false emotionally charged TV ads are already getting on my nerves.

Awesome Halo Game

2005-09-04T15:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, I just had to share this because this game was really awesome. Check out my shots fired. In this game, two of us went around in the jeep for the entire game killing people with the turret or running them over with the jeep.

Penny Pinching...

2005-08-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

I got this from an old friend and thought it quite funny.

Look at my piggy bank after I bought gas yesterday.

In other news, we are remodeling our kitchen. :) We bought new cabinets over the weekend. Now we just need to pick out a countertop. We're getting white cabinets, and probably a blue with white marbled countertop. We're really excited even though redoing a kitchen isn't really that cheap.

New Digital Camera

2005-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

We purchased a new digital camera this week. It's a Casio exlim ez-z55 for those who care to know the details. So we had to go out and take some pictures to test it out. There is no better place for pictures than the beach, so off we went yesterday on a picture quest to Huntington and Corona Del Mar beaches. Here are a few small samples below, but all the shots are in a photo gallery on our website. For those who haven't visited our website recently, I finally changed the template and will be updating content soon as well.

My Green Thumb (or lack thereof)

2005-08-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

So I was looking at our flowers this evening, and it seems like no matter what I do, I always seem to kill our flowers. Takes these ones for instance:

The plant in the pot on the left died shortly after planting. And the one in the middle has just a smigen of green trying to hold on. The rest has long died off. The one on the right really wants to fight but is it a lost cause? It's not like I don't water them.

These ones are really dead. There's no question about it, I'm a plant murderer. Can I be forgiven?

This is my one hope. A large ficus tree we have near our front door is just doing great. There are even some impatiens in the pot with the tree that are also doing well. Our tree is doing so well, that we've had to cut it back several times because it gets too overgrown and bushy for the location. Both of our parents are also quite surprised at how well this plant is doing since ficus are supposedly hard to grow and keep looking nice. So why do I succeed with a ficus and fail with all the other plants we tried? So do I really not have a green thumb with all the dead plants? or is there some hope after all with the ficus?

Summer Grades

2005-07-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

Grades are in. I got a 93 on the final for my summer law class which gives me an A in the class. WooHoo!

Checking In...

2005-07-31T01:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted. sorry, I'll try to not let that happen again. Let me know if you're still reading this after that period of silence. I really did not fall off the face of the planet, so to catch everyone up with the events of the last month, here goes.

Amanda and I went to Vegas at the end of June to celebrate our anniversary and Amanda's birthday. It we stayed at the Venetian hotel and enjoyed gambling our hard earned money and seeing the other attractions there as well. Amanda's big boast is how she turned $50 into $200 at the blackjack table the night of her birthday. A big birthday present as the dealer put it. I wasn't so lucky, but then again, it wasn't my birthday.

Coming home leaves me to work on my summer Law class for my infosec masters program. This class was taught using the socratic method in an online discussion board medium. We had an awesome professor, and I really enjoyed the class, and the discussion overall. When you study Law, you realize there are so many things we don't consider in our everyday dealings with people. It really provoked my thinking into some issues (perhaps more on this later - does anyone want to know some of the implications of the recent MGM v Grokster decision?). Still don't know what my final grade will be though. We had a killer take home final exam due last weekend. We had to read a fact sheet about a case, and then answer 20 questions. Of course, our answer to each question had to be well researched with appropriate supporting citations. It took me 10-12 hours of work to complete the final exam.

Next weekend my brother Mike is getting married, so this week will be busy with preparations for everything. Yesterday we had an evening at Rainforest cafe, Dave & Busters, and a poker game for his bachelor party.

The trials of home ownership are proving interesting for me right now as I discovered yesterday that the drain pipe for the condensation out of our air conditioner is clogged. This is causing the condensation to back up and overflow the pan which really causes a mess. For now, I've rigged up a way to vaccuum up the water before it overflows. What this means, is that about every 4-5 hours of running the air conditioner, I vaccuum up about 1 1/2 gallons of condensation out of the drain pan and drain pipe.

Well, that's enough for now. Goodnight everyone.

More or Less Rain?

2005-06-26T00:38:00.000-07:00

Is there ever a right amount of rain? I keep hearing that this year is going to be a bad fire season because of all the rain (possibly worse than last year when we got barely any rain). Apparantly with lots of rain, the brush grows thicker, so when it dries out like it does every year, there is now more brush to burn. But they also complain about bad fire seasons when we get little rain. You'd think that with less water there would be less brush, but I guess it's just drier. Whatever. I don't buy it at all. Is there a right amount of rain that will give us a "better" fire season? or are they going to complain every year that it is going to be a bad fire season.

I thought of this as I saw two brush fires recently. The first was on Father's Day on my way home from my parents house. There was a fire off to the side of the 57 freeway near the 10 freeway. Then today on my way to my niece Katie's dance recital, there was another fire on the side of the 57 freeway this time in Diamond Bar. They should just make it extremely illegal and really start cracking down on people who throw cigarette's out the window especially in fire prone areas. Have you ever seen someone pulled over and fined the $1000 for littering for throwing their cigarette out the window?

Credit Card Liability Questions

2005-06-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

I wrote this for my summer law class, but I feel strongly about it, so I'm also posting it here:

I wonder if the CardSystems/MasterCard case will shed light into this issue of liability as it's exposed. "The data security breach, possibly the largest to date, happened because intruders were able to exploit software security vulnerabilities to install a rogue program on the network of CardSystems Solutions"[1]

I am expecting to see some interesting fall out: (my predictions)
1. CardSystems Solutions will be held liable for not fixing software vulnerabilities or otherwise exercising care to protect customer data. This is a given similar to the TJ Hooper case.

2. Since none of the banks are going to do anything about the known compromised accounts except watch them for fraud and only intercede after fraud happens, I would expect there to be some action against the banks for failing to notify customers that their accounts were compromised. I'll have to do some more research to see if there is any legal precedent for this.

3. Ultimately, except with American Express the merchants are the ones who are going to suffer with the fraud related chargebacks. American express has stated that "American Express would bear the financial burden, assuming the merchant has followed all standard card acceptance procedures."[1] Does American Express's decision set another precedent that the other card companes will have to follow? or will there be another legal battle between the merchants and the card companies over the fraud related chargebacks.

4. Assuming 1, 2 and 3 happen, All the fingers are still pointing back to CardSystems Solutions. And there will be serious ramifications for that company.

While we don't know all the details yet, it seems like a clear cut liability case as CardSystems could have kept their systems patched, or better used technology such as Firewalls, IDS, and other security software (I am not doubting that there were some of these in place).

[1] http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5754661.html

New Web Page Template

2005-06-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

We're finally getting around to updating our webpage. We've put together a new template that you can check out at http://www.benlovesmanda.com/new. Let me know what you think. This one will be much easier to update than the previous one which will make it easier for us to keep up to date. Hopefully we'll find time in the next few weeks to complete the new website and replace the old one.

Weekend Fun, School Starts

2005-06-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

I just enjoyed a nice weekend with lots of xbox game playing and a trip to Disneyland Sunday evening. I decided to re-sign up for my xbox live online gaming account that I cancelled back in March because I hadn't used it in 2 months. I also spent the first weekend playing several hours of halo2 online since New Years.

It's nice to finally get back into some of that fun, and I hope it lasts, but for the next 7 weeks, I'm going to be a busy boy studying for the next class in my masters program. A law class on cyberlaw. It's the first law class I've ever taken, and it looks to be quite a challenge. There is going to be tons and tons of reading and doing case studies. Also 3 major papers and a written "take home" final all in 7 weeks. Everything including our our online discussion has to be propery cited. An opinion given without proper documented support as well as synthesis of the citation is a negative contribution to the discussion and counts as negative participation points. I hope I survive - I guess Torrey should have prepared me for some of this. In fact the early discussion from today reminds me very much of Torrey.

I'm taking a break during the middle of my class for a little while because it's our Anniversary and Amanda's birthday. We're going to Vegas for 4 days from June 27-30, and staying at the beautiful Venetian hotel. Who knows, maybe I'll win some cash while I'm there too. :) I just hope it doesn't set me back too far in my class to miss those days.

Memorial Day

2005-05-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

A time for remembering. Remembering troops who have died to protect our country. I suppose it's also a time to remember great movies by watching the original Star Wars trilogy after seeing the new Episode III. What did you all think about the new Star Wars film? I thought it was great aside from a few small plot points.

Great quote from Empire Strikes Back: Sir it's quite possible that this asteroid is not entirely stable.

Well, I'm on call for work tonight for some upgrade that's going on. I hope I don't actually get called, but I'm supposedly the expert on this system if something goes wrong.

16 Reasons Why Alcohol Should Be Served at Work

2005-05-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

I found this on our network at work and it's quite humorous.

16 Reasons Why Alcohol Should Be Served at Work

It's an incentive to show up.
It leads to more honest communications.
It reduces complaints about low pay.
Employees tell management what they think, not what they want to hear.
It encourages car pooling.
Increase job satisfaction because if you have a bad job, you don't care.
It eliminates vacations because people would rather come to work.
It makes fellow employees look better.
It makes the cafeteria food taste better.
Bosses are more likely to hand out raises when they are wasted.
Salary negotiations are a lot more profitable.
Employees work later since there's no longer a need to relax at the bar.
It makes everyone more open with their ideas.
Eliminates the need for employees to get drunk on their lunch break.
Employees no longer need coffee to sober up.
Sitting "Bare ass" on the copy machine will no longer be seen as gross

How many engineers does it take to keep a bathroom clean

2005-05-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

I really want to post this sign in our restrooms. I guess it doesn't matter how many well educated engineers you have in a building, you still end up with pee on the floor. I've walked in our restroom at times and been absolutely disgusted. And then the sink ends up with a sheet of water on it from people dripping their wet hands.

Support

2005-05-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

Support -- so it'd be nice if different groups coordinated their absenses. We had an "emergency" issue yesterday that required the support of Network Engineering, and the Firewall Team. Only between vacation, sickness, and jury duty, there was only _one_ firewall engineer in the entire company who was available to work with us yesterday. And even this person had other priorities that caused her to not answer pages and make us wait 2+ hours for assistance. All the while I was in a different building without a computer to work on and my lead was in Florida on the other end just sitting twittling our thumbs waiting for a call back. Same story trying to get a hold of Network Engineering... seems nobody was also around yesterday. Now I know they are two different teams, and you can't really plan for sickness or jury duty, but come on... yesterday was just ridiculous.

On a nicer note, there is a new NASA program on site that I get to help design the network for. I love all the cool little projects and programs that we get to work on. :)

Grade Reports

2005-05-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

Well, Finals went much better than I expected, and I ended up with an A and an A- in both of my classes. Now on to all the paperwork to get work to pay for the courses. (You need a minimum of a B for reimbursement) My first final was way easier than I expected, and other than having to deal with some registration issues at the testing center (they didn't have my student id, so the test wouldn't load), I breezed through that final in less than 15 minutes. Way easier than I expected. My second final was an essay one, and it took me a little over an hour to complete. When I walked out of there, I felt like I was so dead because the questions were on things I hadn't studied as much. Out of 7 questions, I knew I got about 3.5 right. I completely blanked on one, and had absolutely no clue on another. I guess I came up with good enough answers as I ended up getting 38/40 on this final. go figure. The prof said he was curving the test, so I guess that's my curved score. I don't really know my raw score.

New Computer Security Website

2005-04-27T18:59:00.000-07:00

Drumroll please...

I'd like to officially announce the launch of the Hepteleos Computer Security Guide website that Jeff and I have been working on for some time now. There are still a few quirks to work out, but the page is now functional and there is content. More content will be constantly added since thanks to blogger, I have an easy way to add articles and content. Most of the page layout is courtesy of Jeff and the content is mine.

For your bookmarking pleasure you can visit the site through either of these links:
http://www.hepteleos.com/
http://www.computersecurityguide.com/.

Please also sign up for our mailing list, and we will send computer security notifications and reminders to your email box. We promise not to spam. =)

Still Coming soon:
Links to other security resources
Bookstore - possibly a full fledged store
.....Let me know what you would like to see.,

Phone Advice Please

2005-04-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

I hate Best Buy. Let me say it again...I hate Best Buy (and panasonic)
Don't ever buy an extended warranty or product replacement plan from Best Buy.

A year ago, Amanda and I bought a new Panasonic cordless phone set. 2 handsets, expandable to 3, with an answering machine. We also bought a product replacement plan to go with it just in case. Well, we didn't even have the phones for 6 months before we started having problems with one of the handsets cutting out on calls. The other one was fine and still is fine. We lived with it for a while until the battery also died and won't keep a charge. We haven't even had the phone for a year, and already one of the handsets is dead. They have also been interfering with our wireless internet since they use the same frequency.

In January, I tried to use the product replacement plan to replace our phone. I find out that you cannot return the phone to the store. You have to call an 800 number and they mail you a prepaid mailing label and RMA slip so you can ship the product to some claim center. Once they receive the product and check it out, they then send you a voucher for the original purchase price that you can take into a Best Buy store and use it like cash for anything in the store. Well, our problems started when we never received the prepaid mailing label and RMA slip in the mail. After 4 or 5 weeks, I call back and say I never received anything in the mail. They verify my address (they were missing the unit # of my condo the first time, but that has never stopped mail from being delivered to me), and say they are going to resend the RMA label and I should receive it within 14 business days. Another 3-4 weeks go by with nothing arriving in the mail. I call a third time, they supposedly resend the label, again it never arrives.

I call a 4th time, this time I'm really PO'd at the process. I really just want to take my phone back to the store and deal with it there. The lady on the phone is apologetic and offers to send the voucher in the mail right away so that I can get my new phone and not have to worry about waiting to send my old one back first because of the problems. The voucher never arrives. I called last week after waiting 3-4 weeks to find out about the missing voucher. The person on the phone this time looked at the status and it showed that there was "an error" processing the voucher.... I wonder of there was also "an error" processing all the previous things they supposedly sent me. This person asked me to hold while he looked into the error. He came back on the line and said the error was fixed (without explaining what the error was) and my voucher was on its way and that I should receive it within 14 days. 2 days later the voucher finally arrived in the mail 4 months and 5 calls after my original attempt to redeem the product replacement plan.

So now I have a voucher for $136 to use at Best Buy and I'm not sure what kind of phone to get now. Definately not panasonic again because of our problems, and Amanda knows someone from work who also has a panasonic phone with problems. Problem over half the phones Best Buy sells are Panasonic. We bought a Motorola phone after our wedding, and that lasted less than 2 years before the phone was completely dead. It was a crappy phone that we didn't like anyway - so motorola is out. Since 2.4GHz was possibly interfering with our wireless internet, that leaves the 5.4 Ghz phones. With panasonic and motorola out of the picture, the only remaining brands that Best Buy carries are AT&T, VTECH, and Uniden - and they have to support multiple handsets. Which one to get?

I long for my old phone back. I had a Toshiba cordless phone that was a rock. It lasted me over 12 years from 8th grade through high school, college, apartment life, and our first year of marriage before it finally died. Why can't I find another phone that will last us like that? Best Boy doesn't sell Toshiba, and I don't even know if they make cordless phones anymore. Whatever happened to quality craftsmanship these days?

I am never ever buying another product replacement plan from Best Buy. Possibly never shopping at Best Buy again either.

Scary Finals

2005-04-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have finals in a week for the two classes I'm taking - May 4 and May 5. I'm scared of what's going to be on them, don't know what to study for, and starting to panic. The thing about Master's classes is that they don't give you nice little study sheets for the finals. Is there going to be a study sheet someone asked? The syllabus would be a good place to start the Professor said. Fortunately the syllabi for both classes listed very clear objectives for each week.

My formal methods class which I only semi understand has a 40 question multiple choice final worth 40% of the grade in our class. This class has been challenging. The first half of the class was spent covering first order logic, and fomal methods in the Z specification language which is based on set theory and first order logic. The second half of the class was spent reading very academic papers on Information Security which used these formal methods to develop formal proofs about the security models they were presenting.

My operating systems class was much easier since I also took an operating systems class at Biola. But this final is going to be 7 questions also worth 40% of my grade. I'm really not sure what to expect here.

I wouldn't stress so much except that I have to get at least a "B" in the class in order for Northrop to reimburse me through our tuition reimbursement program. Having to pay for the class out of my pocket if I don't do well enough is a good motivating factor, but stressful as well.

if at first you don't succeed, then try, try again...

2005-04-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is just scary... 272nd time a charm for man on driving test. I don't really want to be happy for him - I'm scared of what he'll do to all the other drivers on the road. Driving just doesn't seem like one of those things you should learn how to do by trial and error.

Greetings from Florida

2005-03-31T19:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm now in Florida moving those servers that I told you about previously. This whole thing went smoother than we ever thought it would. In fact it looks like we'll be done way early. The servers are in place, configured and seem to be working. There are a few issues that we need to take care of in the morning, but other than that we're done and this was a very successful trip. We planned the extra day just in case something went wrong. Since we're not leaving till Saturday, when we're done working tomorrow we are going to hit the beaches and one of the IT guys in Melbourne is taking us sailing tomorrow afternoon. Then on Saturday we'll hit the Disney parks before we fly back on Saturday night.

You gotta love Spring break in Florida. The weather is perfect. It's sunny but not hot or humid yet (although today had a bit of humidity) . (Funny thing - as I wrote this we just has a brief thunderstorm roll through, the first since we've been here) The only problem is that everyone wants to gouge you. We tried to get a hotel in Melbourne where we're working, the problem is that with spring break, all the hotels near the beach have tripled their prices and sold out of rooms. When making my reservations, I waded through 5 pages of sold out hotels before I found one that had a room available. When we drove by it after we got out here, I immediately cancelled the reservation as it was a trashy hotel in a junky part of town. We ended up staying back in Orlando about an hour drive away. I guess I'm used to the hour commute to work in the mornings. We got a very nice Sheraton hotel by the airport in Orlando for much cheaper than the junky hotel in Melbourne by the beach.

Florida drivers are horrible. I felt uncomfortable driving here when Amanda and I were on our honeymoon, but I think they've gotten even worse. Or I guess I've gotten used the LA drivers. Florida drivers - don't signal, just change lanes even if there is no room, will pull out of a driveway right in front of you, run red lights, and drive eratically. You frequently rapidly come upon someone who is going 20 in a 45 or 50 zone - and everyone just swerves around them without looking even if there are cars in the other lane.

How do they do it?

2005-03-18T21:57:00.000-08:00

Long update...Breathe deeply...

How do people normally backup entire computer systems and restore them on different hardware when systems crash? It seems like it would happen all the time. Yet there is neither very many tools to do such a thing, nor wads of documentation to scour on the internet regarding this when things go wrong. It seems that in today's world, it's easier for someone to build a new system from scratch, and then restore any user data on the system from a backup, rather than restore an entire identical system from a backup.

I had the opportunity to do such a thing this week except that the computer didn't crash first. We are moving 4 servers to Florida next month, and we had to build 4 temporary servers to keep operating here in California while the real servers are in transit to Florida. The temporary servers had to be exact copies of the real servers so anyone using them wouldn't know that they were on a different system. If fact the goal is to move the servers without causing any impact. However, to get back to my point, nobody seems to build exact copies of servers on different hardware anymore. It wouldn't be an issue if the temporary servers had identical hardware to the real ones. Since all this has to be done after hours as well, it was a few long days this week. Jeff and I worked 12 hours on Wed, 15 hours on Thurs, and 12 hours Today - and that was only for 4 systems. Even after we did that, there are still some problems with the temporary servers - stuff didn't all copy right or something. But at least the applications seem to be working. And there is overtime $$$ for the extra hours.

On another note, Gas prices seem to creep even higher and Oil has hit a record high of $57 a barrel. This is even after OPEC said they were going to put another 500,000 barrels per day into the market. You'd think that an increase in supply would lower oil prices. But this is a different market now. OPEC no longer has control over the market by their traditional supply/price fixing, profits now are king at the expense of consumers. It seems like we are repeating history. In the past, the end of an oil price boom does not come from an increase in OPEC output to provide a surplus supply, but rather a recession in the oil consuming world. High oil prices cause inflation, which cause rising interest rates and eventually the falling profits and stock markets. Eventually there will be an economic crisis in this or other high demand countries which will slash oil demand and reduce prices to something more in line with what consumers can handle. No oil price boom has ever ended without causing a recession in the oil consumer countries. The real question is how long it will take for this to happen and whether it will be gradual or sudden. In the mean time, I guess I just have to continue to whine and complain about the price at the pump and grumble even more as it goes higher. Bush's plan for exploring the Artic for Oil is good in that it will make us less reliant on OPEC and foreign oil, but it won't do much to end this era of high prices we're in.

I haven't written much about our vacation since we returned. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. They turned out wonderfully, and Napa is such beautiful country. Of course we visited in the spring when wildflowers were blooming and everything was green for California. We toured several wineries and tasted the different varieties of wine bringing home a number of bottles we just loved. We stated in the cutest Bed and Breakfast that was a historic Victorian mansion. To make it even cuter, they were filming the show "Trading Spaces" at the Bed and Breakfast where they traded with another B&B to redo one room. On our way home we traveled through San Francisco, and on down HWY 1 along the coast. That is a stunning drive if you've never done it before. I could go on and on for hours about the trip, but I put it better in speech rather than in print.

Napa Pictures

2005-03-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

We just returned from our vacation to Napa. I'll post more about it later, but in the mean time, you can view our pictures here.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2005-03-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, I'm old. I'm off to enjoy my Bday at Disneyland and whatever else Amanda has planned. What a way to start a week of vacation!

I hate the msn homepage

2005-03-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

I've used the MSN.com webpage as my browser homepage for years. I always enjoy the articles they post usually creating some sort of diversion as I'm online. However, I absolutely hate the new re-designed page. The msn search dialog now steals my curser as soon as the page is fully loaded. It doesn't matter if I've already typed in half of an address in my address bar or in the google toolbar. When the msn page fully loads my curser automatically gets put in the msn search dialog. This nearly always causes me to have to re-type whatever I had been previously typing in another place. Also it seems like most of the links now go to video news stories. I don't want to click on links when I first open a web browser to watch some news video where I have to first watch a 30 sec ad. I click on links because a headline looked interesting, and I want to quickly see what the story is all about. You can't do that with video. I've gotten to the point now where as soon as I click on a link and see it's a video, I hit the back button and don't waste my time.

So I'm going to switch browser homepages now. Any suggestions on what I should use as my new homepage? I already have the google toolbar so I don't need google as my homepage. about:blank also doesn't do anything for me. It's got to be something interesting. That's why I previously liked msn. The page loaded fast, there were always interesting headlines, and they were constantly changing. Suggestions?

And they're still rising

2005-03-02T18:38:00.000-08:00

Gas today was at $2.19 and word is 'still rising'. When is it ever going to stop? Is anyone else as PO'd about this as I am? When can we return to the good old days. I remember one occasion when gas reached 88 cents a gallon while I was at Biola - an entire trip to northern california and back for $22. Then I was whining and screaming when it hit $1.60. Now the oil companies are just pocketing the increases. And to think that the forcasts are for $2.50+ this summer...

On a better note, Amanda and I are going to be enjoying a nice vacation in Napa next week. I get to enjoy my birthday and a week off of work at the same time. Can you believe that I'm really going to be 27 next week? Geez...I really am an old fart. Well, Amanda's grandma has given us several bed and breakfast gift certificates as gifts in the past. We're finally using them, and this is going to be a wonderful vacation.

Also I hear good news on Amanda job front, but I'll leave her to tell all.

Well, I'm off to study now and then work out. Operating Systems here I come.

MSN Money - The Basics: How 7 experts would invest Social Security cash

2005-02-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

MSN Money - The Basics: How 7 experts would invest Social Security cash

Most of the experts are in favor of these "private accounts". I just wish they would go further and allow us more than 4% to put into them.

Someone else feels the same way

2005-02-22T21:55:00.000-08:00

So I was getting gas again today, and I was inspired by the graffiti on the pumps. Someone wrote F*** Gas Prices just above the price area. Glad someone else feels the same way - time to revolt.