Mark Zaugg and Family

And this, kids, is why we have to pay attention. 

SPAM, how I love thee.  I'm sure if you've ever used the interweb you've probably got one or two of your own along the way.  One of my tasks is to cut back on the SPAM that gets through to the rest of the staff, but in the meanwhile to try to minimize the number of false positives.  Fair enough, it is what we've brought upon ourselves with the underpinnings of email.  Spammers take advantage of how email was designed to work.  Our email system was put together years ago when most people on the net trusted each other - often because they actually knew each other as they met through conferences and collaborations, using email to work together from distant locations. 

I don't know the network admin downstairs, let alone the guy managing Shaw's network or AT&T's network or Reinhardt College's network.  Well, not personally, anyways. 

So you gotta think I'm pretty familiar with all the SPAM tricks and can spot them a mile away, right? 

*sigh* 

I get an email allegedly from Delta Airlines to a former employee.  Wanting to be nice and helpful I happily forward it back to him.  It's confirmation of a ticket, ferghod'ssake, so it's got to be important and get sent to him pronto, right?  I even laughed at the utter stupidity of Delta Airlines to include a PASSWORD in PLAIN TEXT in an email - that's just stupid kids, never, ever, EVER send a password in an email.  It's flat out idiotic.  People watch for stuff like that.

The truth:  It really was spam.  I got completely utterly sucked in by half-paying attention and trying to be helpful without cognitively processing the email.  Well, I certainly feel stupid after the fact.

If nothing else, it emphasizes the point that security is a process.  There is no one single thing you can do to be safe.  There are a whole lot of things you need to do to reduce the risk, but there are no guarantees.

Outlook Express and it's big brother Outlook has proven itself to be a massively huge security hole in the past and continues to have my scorn as my single most hated application.  I hate a lot of programs.  It takes a lot to make #1 on my list.  Not everyone can get off Outlook, but I certainly recommend you try to get off it entirely.  Is Windows Mail (the replacement that comes with Vista) any better?  I don't know, I have so little trust from past history I refuse to touch it.  Fool me once, shame on you...

If you have a safer email program, there's no guarantee you're not going to blow it and mistake spam for a real message.  It happened to me, and I'm a professional.  Think about your system settings next.  Are you hiding the file extensions on Windows?  It remains the dumbest default setting I can think of in Windows.  You need to be able to see what the real file name is ALWAYS.  Go to Windows Explorer (Windows-E for the short cut), go to Tools --> Folder Options, then the View tab and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types" in the Advanced options.  I don't care if you barely understand that sentence, if you run Windows you should be doing everything you can to find that setting and change it.  You're not going to have evil.jpg.exe sneaking onto your computer to do damage when you see it's an executable file pretending to be a picture.

Okay, so you've dumped Outhouse, you've changed your settings to be more secure, and you're still dumb enough to open that lousy email.  I laughed once I saw it, because it wasn't going to run on the Mac no matter what.  Woo-hoo, I am mighty and invulnerable on my shiny aluminum shield of impregnability!

Nope.  Sooner or later there's going to be a script written that's going to target OS X and punch through in a meaningful way.  Eventually there's going to be some program that runs in the background on Linux.  There already are, but for design decisions it's more difficult to run rampage across your entire computer in OS X and Linux.  Any computer professional that is honest with his or herself sees the benefit of not running as administrator (as found in Linux, OS X and Vista) and they also know that running as a limited user is not a panacea.

So it's hopeless and we should all turn off our computers and get off the net.  Perhaps not a bad idea, but a little cynical even for me.

It's an arms race out there and we all have to take our own responsibility for our computers.  Patch according to best practises.  Try to limit your risk.  Think when you open your email.  Never buy anything that came unsolicited into your inbox.

You'd think it would be obvious.  But if it was, the profit motivation for spam would have dried up years ago and we'd severely cut back our attack vectors.

No one is safe.  No one is immune.  The onus is on us all.  We all have to take charge and fix this.

Ohmighod ohmighod ohmighod ohmighod ohmighod!

I collected on my Christmas gift today.  Waitasec...  I don't have it all out of my system yet.

Ohmighod ohmighod ohmighod ohmighod ohmighod!

11:00 PM last night:  At least the nights have cooled off.  I ought be be able to get to sleep.
 > toss toss <
 > turn turn <

6:00 AM:  Wide awake.  Feeling fidgety and nervous.  Check the weather.  Scan my standard set of morning websites.  Check the weather.  Listen to the radio.  Check the weather.

6:30 AM:  Feeling nervous and fidgety.  Shave.  Cut hair.  Shave again.  Check the weather.

6:45 AM:  Shower.  Cut hair.  Check the weather.

7:00 AM:  Out the door.  Turn on the radio.  Listen to the weather.

7:30 AM:  Down the Deerfoot, arrive at Race City Speedway.

7:35 AM:  Park.  Look out the window.  Check the weather.

7:40 AM:  Get out of the car.  Chat with the guy getting out of the car beside me.  Walk over and take a look at one of these beauties. 

7:41 AM:  Allen Berg walks over and introduces himself. 

<DAY BEGINS> 

<LOTS OF COOL STUFF HAPPENS> 

<DAY ENDS> 

---

Sure, the interest lies in the details.  Allen Berg put together his racing school a little more than a year ago, and he decided to build it from the ground up and to do it right from the start.  Allen is one of three Canadians ever to drive in Formula 1.  (The other two are named Villeneuve.) 

Allen's cars are Formula Renault open wheel racers.  Formula Renault is considered an entry-level formula series for up and coming drivers.  These are serious racing cars and are raced by serious drivers - do not make the mistake of taking them lightly.  The cars are carbon fibre chassis - not the older tube frame chassis run by other schools.  Allen's cars are modern, safe and exciting.  The chance to drive technologically modern cars is worth the price of admission alone.

The cars themselves are worthless without a good team, and Allen has put a solid team around him.  When I think of a Formula 1 racer, I think of a cocky, arrogant, difficult to work with and difficult to be around jerk and adjust from there.  Allen is warm, generous with his time, enthusiastic and interested in making sure every student gets a top notch experience from their time at his racing school.  His name isn't just on the side pods, he's active in making certain his students become better racers.  Come prepared to be treated like a professional race driver;  you may not be, but that is precisely how you'll feel for your day.  On the other hand, Allen sat beside me during lunch and was gracious answering questions and talking about his time driving.

Dave is the other instructor who makes a good compliment to Allen.  He's also open to sharing his knowledge and teaching you, and after you've had your whirl at it he'll take you around the track and show you how it should have been done.  Sam is one of Allen's mechanics from his time in Mexico and it was very comforting knowing the cars were maintained by professionals.  I have to apologize (or be corrected) by the others who's names I've forgotten.  Edouard was our course marshall, we had a fellow from MoTeC (Chris?) taking care of our telemetry, and Kyle made sure we came back with data.  I appreciate the other guys who cared for us out there, making sure we had good track time and a good experience.  Every moment was professional and serious.

I should mention the split between class time and track time.  I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten Allen to talk about theory and then to get out on track and execute (or at least try to approximate executing) what we spoke about.  The time in the classroom was also very important to me to return feeling into my chassis-brain interface.

Talking about racing theory and actually doing time on track in a modern car are very different things.  Check everything you think you know about driving race cars - unless you have experience doing it you've got everything to learn.  I learned both on track and off.  With the telemetry on Allen's cars, professional drivers have a huge opportunity to get better and improve their times by being critiqued by one of the best.  I'll be shocked if Allen doesn't start filling his times with aspiring drivers looking to improve their skills - it's an honour to be driving with that group.

Approaching the programme seriously will significantly magnify what you get out of it.  Sure, it's great for tubby white guys like me, but if you want to get the most out of it, try to show up fit and clear minded.  Racing is hard and it takes a great deal of effort from you.  I was breathing heavily after getting out of the car after the final run.  It was work, a lot of hard work, and the thrill of a lifetime.

Was it worth it?  Absolutely, completely, it was a life's dream fulfilled and I'll do it again in a heartbeat.  I'm planning a return down the road for a shot at the two day programme with more laps and more analysis of my telemetry.  I recommend this programme for every single driver on the roads today.  Every one will improve their vision on the roads and improve their car handling and management.  You will be better and safer on a day to day basis out there on the roads if you listen and learn and follow the basic driver skills you will be taught.  You will learn why tailgating is such a bad habit (it leads to tunnel vision) and learn how to drive predictably and stay well within the limits of your tires for safety.

The cars themselves are worth the trip.  The staff get you away safely.  The telemetry and the basic technology is eye-opening and should be considered essential for modern racing schools.  A modern racing school like this should be considered essential to any driver today.  I want my kids to be involved with Allen's carting programme before they feel they have to get out on the roads and push their road car so they learn this early and get a lifetime's worth of advantage.

Thanks Allen.  Thanks Dave.  Thanks to all.  What a fantastic day!  I'll get rid of this smile in a week or two.

I love those little snippets of dreams we wake up to. 

In this case, I'm sitting down with the company Sales Weasel over lunch and he pulls out a fresh, brand new copy of the Bible. 

"Oh," I'm taken aback.  "I didn't realize you were a spiritual man." 

"This is the new edition.  I absolutely LOVE this book.  It speaks directly to me and it's changed my life from the moment I got it.  My favourite is Revelations."  He flips the book around so I can see. 

"Just look at all the advertisements in there for shoes!"

Some things surprise me still, cynical as I have become lately. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not some long haired hippie running around in my beaded underpants screaming, "Free Tibet!"  Although I would, in fact, consider it much more graceful if China did decide it would probably be okay to let Tibet fall under self-rule.  I'm just not involved or aware enough to make an enlightened decision on what is right, although what I do know leans towards a desire for the Tibetans to be self-deterministic.  I reserve the right to be proven wrong if someone comes up with a strongly compelling argument, but I haven't been hearing one.  I'm favourable to Taiwan's independance, Kosovo's independance, and even Quebec's independance if they truly decide they want independance and not some wishy-washy "Sovereignty Association" half step. 

It's a really touchy subject in Canada because the threat of Quebec separation has been wielded here too frequently, often for dubious-sounding means, at least to a Westerner.  Personally, I'd much rather see a country-wide revolution of showing how much stronger all of us are when we mix and participate and share our culture with each other, but that's my opinion and I claim no righteous indignation above anyone else's. 

I distrust nationalism for the sake of itself.  I'm not saying I'm better than you because I'm Canadian.  I'm not saying I'm better than other Canadians because I'm Albertan.  I'm saying that my life has been strongly enriched by people from all areas of the country and the globe. 

Not that I have to trumpet it in anyone's face.  I don't need to parade through your town holding a banner or a sign or an Olympic Torch or anything. 

Ah, yes.  The Olympic Torch Relay.  That's what set this whole rant off in the first place.  First started at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, it was one of those masterful propaganda pieces.  I had no idea it was a creation for the Berlin Games until I read this column by Gwynn Dyer.

"There had never been a torch connected with the original Olympic games in ancient Greece, and the revived Games got along without an international relay race just fine for 40 years before the Berlin Olympics of 1936 -- but if there was one thing the Nazi's did well, it was propaganda."

Does that taint the memory of others of the torch relay during Calgary's 1988 Winter Olympics?  Not such a nice thing when coloured with Nazi Propaganda, eh?  Or is it different when the torch winds solely within the host country as opposed to the six continent, multi-national, behemoth globe-trotting event that's going on right now?

Well, having read that article I've had one of those rare moments that pretty much reversed and hardened my stance on an issue.  The torch relay (particularly one themed the "Journey of Harmony") now seems to be a silly, pointless moment of national self-importance that has absolutely no business being rubbed in my face.  Shut it down.  I suspect I'd tolerate it if the torch was lit at Olympia and then skittered prancily throughout the host country, but to hell with this country to country propaganda move.

In fact, to hell with the whole Olympic movement and what it's become.  To quote Mr. Dyer once more:

"Never mind the silly torch, and the equally bizarre three-layer cake that is the actual Olympics Games of today. (An international athletics competition on the bottom, an orgy of nationalist self-congratulation in the middle, and a sickly-sweet pantomime of international love and brotherhood on the top.)"

I don't care anymore.  I'll probably give an "attaboy / attagirl" to our athletes, but don't count on me watching any of it.  I probably won't change my mind much in two years when it's in Vancouver or Whistler or whereeve the hell it's going to be.  Strip off the top two crappy layers of the cake and maybe I'll get interested again.  Until then, just go away.

I have an affliction.

I am a geek. A nerd. One of those social dysfuntionals that loves freshly printed circuits more than the soft caress of life itself. Once I spoke with a recruiter who was supposed to be helping me fill out a list of my interests. She said something to the effect of, "You don't want people to think that after you go around at work for 8 hours that you go home and do more of the same." I'm a System Administrator / Network Administrator / Database Administrator. It's a little bit systemic, don't you think? There's a section of my brain that doesn't turn off, I'm always trying to improve myself and do my work more efficiently. 

Even worse: It's FUN! I still get a kick from sitting around learning how to do something new, installing a program for the first time, optimizing a computer, configuring a webserver, discovering a new piece of hardware, or some such. It's accomplishment in getting something new done. It's a great feeling knowing that I'll be able to use it someday in my job to great advantage.

My financial guidance counsellor has been making a lot of hay with my story. I made a plan and we've stuck to it through some divots and some road blocks, and at the other side I'm working in the IT field and I'm proud of the consulting business I've managed to slowly build. Without the work I put in to repairing, optimizing and restoring other people's computers I would never have had the confidence or show my ability to administrate on a professional basis. The plan was important, and actively working towards my goals has been the only way this could have happened.

So, let me mention another little plan that's going on. Nicholas Negroponte had a vision to put low-cost, quality built computers into the hands of children in the developing world so they could achieve a higher standard of education. Not everyone will be a geek like me - nor ought they. But I believe that everyone deserves a chance to find their talents and discover just how good they can become with the right tools, a little helpful encouragement, and a whole lot of drive to follow through with the dreams they conjure.

The result of Negroponte's vision was One Laptop Per Child and the XO laptop. Last year they had a program called "Give 1, Get 1." If you bought TWO XO laptops, they sent one to somewhere in the developing world and they sent one to you. I waffled for a while over it, but finally decided it was a very worthy idea I could get behind. The program is now ended, but I have hopes they will revive it again.

Last Friday I received my XO laptop. I was tickled green to get it. Like so many other parents who got involved in the program, I planned to share this computer with my kids and let them have at it to see how useful it was to them. They've been complete pros with it, messing about hither and thon, teaching me things I hadn't figured out on my own yet. I'll primarily use it as an eBook reader on the bus. Already I've found a ton of books via Project Gutenburg that I'm looking forward to reading. The kids can pretty much do whatever they want on here and all the power in the world to them.

But there is one aspect that's missing to me in this: This isn't meant to be a cheap laptop, it isn't meant to be just-another-charitable-donation, it isn't meant to be a toy to be neglected by the kids. I want to turn MY little corner of Negroponte's vision into my own little educational venture. Hopefully I'll be able to leverage this into learning Python and improving my programming skills. Or - dare to dream - actually write some fun and educational game that gets used by some kid half a world a way.

This computer is something special. It's comprised of hardware, software, and ideals.

---

Postscript:  Clearly the XO is not perfect.  It didn't send line returns correctly so I had one long run-on post until I logged on this morning and fixed it.  I didn't have the ability to embed links.  And I got as far as the first paragraph before I plugged in a USB keyboard so I could actually type at speed.  But as a learning tool, I'm more than impressed.

I'm getting around to the classics eventually.  We got The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester last week and I'm just past half-way through. 

One of the themes the main character Reich uses (to avoid telepaths) is a catchy song. 

"What's the most persistent tune you ever wrote?"
"Persistent?"
"you know what I mean.  Like those advertising jingles you can't get out of your head."
"Oh.  Pepsis, we call 'em."
"Why?"
"Dunno.  They say because the first one was written centuries ago by a character named Pepsi.  I don't buy that.  I wrote one once..."  Duffy winced in recollection.  "Hate to think of it even now.  Guaranteed to obsess you for a month.  It haunted me for a year."
...

It was the quintessence of every melodic cliche Reich has ever heard.  No matter what melody you tried to remember, it invariably led down the path of familiarity to "Tenser, Said the Tensor."

Oooookay, that resonates with me.  And what are the lyrics to the song?

Tenser, said the Tensor.
They're the modern stone age family.
Tension, apprehension
And dissension have begun.

Help me.  Get it out of my head.  Help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

As the world knows by now, there was a very unfortunate death at the Vancouver airport involving a Polish immigrant to Canada who was tasered. 

The details are abundant enough I don't think I have the stomach to go through it. 

I'm a dog's breakfast as far as my heritage goes - a cur of Europe and proud to call myself Canadian.  I'm happy to welcome anyone to this country who is willing to be proud of both their own heritage and the citizenship of Canada equally, and who is willing to make this country and the world a better place.  The Polish side of me runs strong in my veins and it's very hard to not get upset and deeply bothered by the entire affair.

My first response of anger was to defiantly learn Polish.  My vocabulary would have the following conversation available:

Yes.  "Tak."
Good.  "Dobry."
This is my nose.  "To jest mój nos."

Probably none of which would help should I encounter a similar situation some time down the road.  I need to at least learn, "This is my nose.  Would you like to punch it?" 

"Tak."

Okay, maybe the whole "learning Polish and saving the world one airport at a time" isn't going to work for me.  Screw that - there is one thing I DO know and I know computers well.

On my Mac, built right in, is the Dashboard application.  It's one of my favourite things about the Mac - and now Vista - with the various Widgets you can plug in.

One of my favourite widgets is a translator.  Built right in.  Nothing to buy, it just needs to get turned on.  I'll even plug that it's put out by Systran.  They've also the people behind Babelfish now, it seems.

No, it does not have an English to Polish translator.  There's no lack of them you can find with a simple search on Google.

Computers are cheap.  PDA's are powerful.  And there lies one solution to the problem.

It is unacceptable any longer to have international customs without a computer available for use of all passengers for immediate access to translation.  Translation may not be very good, but it only has to be adequate to avoid the same sad affair.  Mr. Dziekanski threw a damned computer - why did it not have translation available to him?

Translating computer in EVERY airport near the passenger side of customs.  NOW.  Not next year.  Not after the inquiry.  Now.

Firewall them off.  Don't give access to anything other than the translation software.  But make them available right away.  Period.

I could have saved a life with my laptop.  There's no excuse not to have fixed computers with limited access available for travellors who don't speak English or French.

I just don't have words for how insanely awesomely cool this is.

Just read it from the BBC, ja?  Colossus Cracks Codes Once More.