Security

Oh, Novell, Where Art Thou?

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Anyone who worked as a Novell NetWare administrator probably has a story like this one to share:

The University of North Carolina has finally found a network server that, although missing for four years, hasn’t missed a packet in all that time. Try as they might, university administrators couldn’t find the server. Working with Novell Inc., IT workers tracked it down by meticulously following cable until they literally ran into a wall. The server had been mistakenly sealed behind drywall by maintenance workers.

Funny. I personally found one completely covered in nurses uniforms, hidden away in a wiring closet that had been converted into a, well, closet. We had remotely migrated its data to a new server and were just trying to find the thing so we could turn it off. It had been running without abend for years. Those were the days, eh?

On the flip side, the DailyWTF reports that some people think that servers should be placed in a location that is frequently visited:

Don had dolled out that task to construction project managers countless times, and they had always complied without issue: the server was installed in a secure and well-ventilated location. After all, where else would one put a $15,000+ computer running $100,000+ software to manage a $50,000,000+ construction project? When Don arrived at one particular location to setup the network, he discovered that the project manager had a slightly different interpretation…

You have to see it to believe it. Honestly, I would be scared to sit on a toilet that appeared to be connected to a Windows server. Note the unmistakable Ctrl-Alt-Del screen and the toilet paper roll on the floor. Please wash your hands before login?

Food, Security

Wellington Anniversary Day

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While reading about Anniversary Day for Wellington, I noticed some dissenting opinion. For example here is a report from 2005:

Wellington Anniversary Day commemorates the arrival of the first British immigrant ship in the area, marking the start of settlement and consequent taking of Maori land. The day also commemorates the formal settlement of the New Zealand Company which largely organised such settlement and theft.

[…]

The Foreshore and Seabed Act enables the elimination of Maori customary ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the name of public access while private ownership is upheld. The Act breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, and national and international human rights standards and laws, making a mockery of the government’s claims that it protects people’s rights.

“We’ve chosen Chaffers Marina to mark this anniversary of past and present theft as there are locked gates here and signs saying ‘No Fishing’ which is hardly public access”.

“Hapu and iwi, who have historically allowed others access to beaches and seabed, have had their rights stripped away – but the rights of private property owners who can and do deny access are protected. This is clearly discriminatory and illogical”.

Removal of traditional access fishing rights to award public access control to a private group that will restrict it…interesting control dispute.

History, Poetry, Security

You’d be so nice to come home to

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Performed by Chet Baker, Tokyo, June 14, 1987

Again, YouTube comes through with a fine example of rare jazz footage. This was video only available in the Japanese market until 2006, and only on long out-of-print Laserdisc. Now that 9 videos of the 13 performances have been made available again on DVD from Impro-Jazz, they also can be seen online (albeit low-fi) anytime. Amazing.

Tip of the hat to reader A for the link.

Something about watching Chet perform in his final year just makes me want to really think hard about what it means to take risks in life…and brings back to mind the story of violent assault in San Francisco (Chet was attacked in the city in 1966 and, like one of singers in recent news, suffered permanent facial damage that almost ruined his career).

BeforeAfter

Poetry, Security

If I Have My Ticket Can I Ride?

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How would these Jubilee Song lyrics change in today’s world of RFID passports and ID theft?

If I have my ticket, Lord, can I ride?
If I have my ticket, Lord, can I ride?
If I have my ticket, Lord, can I ride?
Ride away to Heaven in that mornin’.

This is what we Christians ought to do;
Be certain an’ sure that we are livin’ true.
For bye an’ bye, without a doubt,
Jehovah’s gonna order his Angels out.
They will clean out the world an’ leave no sin,
Now tell me, hypocrite, where you been?

I heard the sound of the Gospel train,
Don’t you want to get on? Yes, that’s my aim.
I’ll stand at the station an’ patiently wait
For the train that’s comin’, an’ she’s never late.
You must have you ticket stamped bright an’ clear,
Train is comin’, she’s drawin’ near.

Hope to be ready when the train do come,
My ticket all right an’ my work all done.
She’s so long comin’ till she worries my mind,
Seems to be late, but she’s just on time.

It keeps me always in a move an’ strain,
Tryin’ to be ready for the Gospel train.
Ever now an’ then, either day or night,
I examine my ticket to see if I’m right.
If the Son grant my tickit the Holy Ghost sighn.
Then there is no way to be left behind.

There’s a great deal of talk ‘bout the Judgment Day,
You have no time for to trifle away.
I’ll tell you one thing certain an’ sho’,
Judgment Day’s comin’ when you don’t know.
I hope to be ready when I’m called to go,
If anything’s lackin’, Lord, let me know.