Minimalist Dong

The last time I got this pissed off with a PC of mine, I bought my first brand-new Mac the next day. Fortunately, I don't have a couple of grand sitting around this time ... because I'd be handing it over first thing tomorrow morning.

My lovely little MacBook is keeping me sane, but does suffer from its inability to contain a comfortable amount of disk space and - let's face it - the graphics hardware is very underpowered.

Between Windows XP refusing to accept that 1680x1050 is a valid choice of desktop resolution for this monitor, Ubuntu only producing sounds from half of my applications (and those only when the planets align right) and both operating systems only producing any screen display at all when attached via VGA instead of DVI ... it's getting close to "this machine is going out the window" time.

The worst part is that it all worked perfectly a couple of months ago. Something's silently updated or changed itself in both operating systems, and I don't know what.

Maybe it's time to spend a couple of days on this again ...

OK, for anyone that still uses some sort of manually updated address book thingy, please note that my primary email address from here on will be mike@bremensaki.com. The whole Bremen Saki website thingy will finally be getting sorted out once and for all soon, and this blog will be moving there.

Of course, all the old stuff will be redirected and repointed and stuff, because I'm not large with the whole "clean break" concept. Hell, my email address from 1996 still works.

Of course, this is more part of the folding up of the "Grouse" identify and de-emphasising that, than it's about starting something new.

What he said. Although I'm not one to talk when it hits the depths of winter and I don't want to go anywhere without my doona.

Dear Mum,

How have you been? Last week I helped to overthrow the government. It was fun.

I must remember to call you sometime soon. Maybe this will remind me.

Love,
Mike.

OH FUCK YES!

Could only have been made better if Costello had lost his seat too, but let's not be greedy. Not liking the look of how the Senate's shaping up though.

Tired now. Looking forward to waking up in a country without John Howard in charge.

Today was Eris's school fete. It was pretty good, and well-attended. The rain stopped about ten minutes before the official opening time, and the sun was soon cooking everyone quite nicely.

I was intending to make some nifty biscuits for the cake stall, but the necessary modifications to the recipe for a modern environment (NUTS! AAAAAAAH! RUN!) left me with a mix that was probably a little heavier on the moisture than desirable. I was well on the way towards dialing in the right oven temperature and so forth, but just ran out of time.

If anyone needs irregular fruitcake biscuits, please see me. I have many, and more dough.

Getting Eris away from the rides was fun ...

It's well known in the IT industry that security is a process, as opposed to a product or something. By this, we mean that there's no such thing as a boxed item that can fix problems, no matter what the reassuring face of Mr Norton might imply. It is an ongoing saga, in which ease is traded for safety, and back again, and adapted again as new information comes to light.

Often, what causes this information to come to light is a disaster. A loss, or a scare, or just an uneasy feeling that something's not quite right. In the course of disaster, lines of communication open and data gets shared; "Is this happening to you too?"

In the course of these exchanges, the ideal security process takes new data in, asks questions that this data raises, an often brings things to light as potential matters to incorporate, even if they're not directly related to the immediate issue at hand. The security process is, of course, driven by people. This sort of brings me towards my point.

So now let's talk about people ...

People do not necessarily know things that I know unless I tell them.

... I had a great night out last night, one that I really needed, and it was all awesome.

On the other hand, I should probably not be allowed near computers when I'm drunk. Maybe something like one of those car locks that shuts everything down if you've got alcohol on your breath could be adapted.

So it appears that I'm writing in this thing again. I must be bored. I've noticed that trend, actually. I blog less when I have something to do, which means that the only time I actually write entries, I don't have anything to say. I really should get out of the house more ... except I have no idea what to do or where to go or with whom. Great.

I hit a woman's car in the car park early last week and even she hasn't called me. I don't know what that says about me ...

My daughter, for her bedtime story tonight, had me read several poems by Edgar Allen Poe. She now plans to draw a picture of Lenore, being taken young from this Earth, at some point in the near future.

She is currently falling asleep listening to "A Slight Case of Overbombing", the Sisters of Mercy greatest hits compilation album.