today this article was in the Dutch newspaper “spits” commenting on illegal fireworks from Belgium.
Category Archives: personal
ok, this goes too far
I just went to see my microbiology-professor to hand in my protocol.
Walking there, I spot him with 2 students, explaining an ultracentrifuge to them.
The following conversation took place:
Me: “Hello! Can I give you my protocol right away? I was in the building and before I forget to bring it tomorrow for the exam I thought, I better leave it here where it belongs”
Him: “You know the exam takes place today”
Students: *snicker*
Me: *makes big eyes*
Him: “It was you suggesting this date if I remember you right.”
Students: *laugh*
Me: “Yes, of course, I just confused myself… err.. thanks and till later”
I walked away with a most unpleasant feeling. How can one be so confused???
Even worse: What, if I had not decided to pass by and hand in my protocol?
What if I had not confused my workshifts at the helpdesk? initially I planned to work from 10 o’clock till 1900..
Someone out there really loves me and takes care of me! I love this life :D
On the other hand, that’s probably just the usual chaos that I tend to accumulate around me ;)
Lebensbejahender Skeptizismus
Deutschlandradio gestern Nachmittag, Thema: Michael de Montaigne:
Der Autor dieser Kommentare war wirksam in einer Zeit, die durch Hexenverbrennungen und ähnliche Glanzleistungen zu recht zweifelhaftem Ruhm gekommen ist.
“…eine Gesellschaft, der Plato den Rücken gekehrt hätte, sie besitze kaum noch einen humanen Wert. Schlimmer noch, ihr sei der Sinn für das Gute, die Weisheit, abhanden gekommen.
Continue reading
friends
What’s a friend good for?
Sometimes, they know you better than you yourself, because they see you unbiased and tell you honestly what they see. Even your own mirror will lie to you but a friend is always sincere.
It might hurt if you have to face reality all of a sudden or even the truth.. but isn’t it better like this? I’d rather be unhappy but certain than happy on the basis of false assumptions.
We don’t know either, but we plan to find out!
Many cultures believe in the concept of enlightenment. They achieve this through meditation, the use of drugs or both.
All methods try to achieve the same goal of clearing the conscious mind of thought to access the unconscious mind.
However, the seventeen century french philosopher Descartes famously stated “I think, therefore I am!”
This was in conclusion that he could not doubt his existence for that very fact.
So do the enlightened doubt their existence? Do they indeed, exist? Doubt itself is a thought, so does it even bother them?
French Philosophers make my head hurt!
I found this in a Banner leading to “The Psychonautical Society”
www.psychonautical.org
It looks like a mushroom-worshipping community of some sorts…
Man, I am so happy I don’t do drugs anymore.. this constant questioning is so tiresome :D
cat manners
I just learned that when you live with a siemese cat, it is not enough just to give it water (in a bowl, how undignified…)
No, Siepke demands fresh water, poured into a glass for him. Damn aristocats ;)
too early
Standing in front of the sink and brushing my teeth I realized that this whole business (note: I hate brushing my teeth, somehow) is much more pleasant when one has the water running.
Of course, this is an economic/environmental disaster but still, I am curious why this feels so much nicer.
Thoughts of prehistoric humans refreshing themselves on small mountain springs came top my mind and I almost choked on toothpaste laughing ;)
I decided not to try driving the car yet and get another coffee instead. :) I might start hunting them down on the highway or something like that.
Note to self:
When you have to get up at 6:30 in the morning, don’t overdo training the night before.
hacked…
I don’t believe it!
I just decided to step away a little bit from being Admin for the biology and focusing my attention more on the studies. For 2 weeks now I did nothing for the servers anymore, just watching it do the scheduled backups and copying them over to my pc every week…
Today the IT department calls me on my mobile, informing me that the server has been taken over by someone and was therefore disconnected from the internet till it is fixed and the vulnerability is patched.
Great!
It turned out that it is an exploit of the Mambo content management system in conbination with php and mySQL that allows any person to run code on a defaced system. Seems that linux is not the “safe haven” of the internet concerning worms and viruses anymore… :(
The more userfriendly it gets, the more vulnerabilities will show up.
For all of you running portals using mySQL and php (e.g. Mambo / Joomla! / WordPress / blogging) , get patches immediately! Anyone using the exploit can gain wwwrun-permissions easily and execute all kinds of shell commands remotely.
Update:
The whole thing is now called a Mambo-worm and it is spreading fast.
Linux/Elxbot is a backdoor for the Mambo vulnerability. It will search on Google for vulnerable targets. Once it infects a computer it will connect to a predetermined IRC server where the attackers will wait and have the possibility to gain access to the infected computer. The attackers may also perform various tasks such as:
* Execute arbitrary commands
* TCP flood
* HTTP flood
* UDP flood
* Search Google for more vulnerable targets
* PortscanOn certain systems it will also download a perl script which will allow the attacker to create a backchannel and spawn a shell on the infected computer with the same privileges as the running webserver.
I love my car
you know, these things just happen..
Our car is an old Mazda 232 hatchback, not exactly a beauty and also not really what you would call “in good condition” but it brings me to Aachen safely and – most importantly – dry ;)
8 a.m., I start the car and it makes a screeching sound that is so frightening that I immediately switch it off again.
From my days in the Mercedes-callcenter I remember: This is the V-belt, the thing that connects the engine and the generator, it has gotten worn out and now in the coldness has lost its elasticity and slips over the discs producing this screeching sound.
Scenarios begin to appear in my head:
- Me on the Freeway waiting in the coldness for the technician that will never come
- me in a workshop in Aachen, not able to pay the tech who finds 20 more damages and won’t let me drive away anymore.
I realize, I am thinking in terms of “Mercedes” and not “18 year old Mazda that cost as much as your boots”
(although this is not quite true, my Dr. Marten’s boots cost 99,- EUR and the Mazda cost 125,- EUR but it’s close ;) )
so I open the Owners Manual and against all my fears I find the following passage:
…check the tension of the v-belt and make sure it does not move more than 10 mm if you press it with your thumb. If it does, open the screw above the generator and slide the generator to the left till tension is restored. Tighten the screw again and check tension again…
So instead of having to go to a workshop and leaving lots of $$$ there, I am even told how exactly I have to do it myself. I love this car :)
as time goes by…
Yesterday, while we had a funny sit-in and drank a considerable amount of Glühwein, Astrid (our neighbour) found my old german ID card and smiled at the photo..
It is true that I have changed _a little_ since 1999…
This resulted in me searching photos from all these years and putting them together here:
http://blueeyedcreature.net/blog/?page_id=18
funny how a person changes and at the same time looks the same (look for example at the smile of 2001 and the one of 2003…)