So this is thursday. Hmmm…
Yesterday was thursday, too.. at least for me :)
I can not remember how many people I wished a nice long weekend yesterday – I will meet them all again today, I guess ;)

This weekend I am SO going on vacation.
Stupid brain…

Quoting BBC:

“The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said cyber spying violated individuals’ right to privacy and could be used only in exceptional cases.”

Court President Hans-Juergen Papier said that using such software contravened rights enshrined in Germany’s constitution, adding that the decision would serve as a precedent across the country.

So.. STASI 2.0 has been averted for now.. or has it? It is still possible to tap a person’s computer by infecting it with a trojan horse… or to set up a “man-in-the-middle-attack” to get someone’s data straight out of his line. But court approval is needed now, putting it on the same level as wiretapping a telephone.

A small victory.. but one that gives me hope that there are a few people with a good sense (or a brain?) left in good old Germany (and they are in high positions, too)

It is over, I am done, 4 months of studying finally came to an end.. I am so happy :D

I just came out of the testing center where I lost approximately 20000 calories.. I should do more such tests to keep myself in shape ;) But who cares, because from today on I am a CCNA. And this is just the beginning! :)

I don’t eat regularly anymore, I get up at the craziest times and I feel like shit.
The stress and the caffeine have done me no good

The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that this will be the end of customer service.
No more call center, never ever again!

With the exam approaching I begin to feel the tension building.

Last week I spent in bed, unable to study due to some strange virus that flattened me with fever and nausea.. the full program.
Now that I can finally eat (and study) again, Anna is sick. Guess I am just challenging Murphy.

I haven’t been shaving for 3 weeks now, I begin to look funny (fuzzy) ;)

Catching a flu is not fun.. especially if you are supposed to study for an exam. (14 days to go… I hope I will be able to eat again, tomorrow… yesterday’s experiment with pizza did not exactly go well….)

However, reading slashdot’s summary email this morning made me raise an eyebrow (or two):

First of all, the number of submarine cables that are out of service is now up to 5 (five!) making it a little difficult for countries like Iran to be online at all…
Just to make it clear: Millions are cut off the net or have problems accessing the rest of the internet but Iran is not yet offline or cut off the net.
However, the author of this articlestates a couple of possible reasons that could be the reason for the cable cuts. Sure, it requires a little paranoia to believe in coordinated sabotage by the US government or by a major telco but do we really believe that a ship fighting against a storm dragged its anchor all the way from Egypt to Malaysia cutting the cable in the process?

Next is US voting machine manufacturer Diebold.
Having suffered a lot of issues concerning the safety of their machines (or the data stored within) they just did another masterpiece:
They apparently published a picture of a “master key” on their website which – when reproduced – is able to open all voting machines’ casings allowing access to the inside of the machines. Here is a nice article following the story.
Diebold has reverted their website in the meantime, taking the pictures offline and made a press statement admitting this was indeed a master key. And the United States are trusting these machines to elect the most powerful man (or woman) on the earth at the moment. Just fantastic :)

Last is the story of “the pirate bay
Apparently Tele2, a Danish ISP was forced by a recent court rule to take it off their DNS servers.. they now they decided to challenge the ruling stating that they “…do not like being put in a role where we as ISP have to regulate people’s freedom of speech.”
The story of the Pirate Bay keeps amazing me. Someone should write a book about them one day. “Why pirates are better than ninja” or something like that…

Ah, so much more refreshing to read some “real” news instead of bombs in Israel, naked celebrities and the ususal pre-digested news soup.

I will try to drink a cup of tea now. Wish me luck…

this is it..

Candidate: Andreas Rüdel

Exam: 640-802: Cisco Certified Network Associate

Test Center: Global Knowledge – Amsterdam

Appointment: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 / Start Time: 09:15

…my ticket out of customer service and into the engineering world. About time! :)

I realized today that it is getting serious when I did a “dummy” exam and encountered the following:

fig. 1-17:
R1# show frame-relay map
Serial0/0 (up): ip 172.16.3.1 dlci 100 (0×64, 0×1840), dynamic broadcast,, status defined, active

When analyzing Figure 1-17, what does the term dynamic mean as indicated in the output of the show frame-relay map command?
a) The Serial0/0 interface is passing traffic.
b) The DLCI 100 was dynamically allocated by the router.
c) The Serial0/0 interface acquired the IP address of 172.16.3.1 from a DHCP server.
d) The DLCI 100 will be dynamically changed as required to adapt to changes in the Frame Relay cloud.
e) The mapping between the DLCI 100 and the end station IP address 172.16.3.1 was learned through Inverse ARP.

and I had no problems pointing out the answer…
Anna just shook her head and said “well, it seems like you are an engineer now. I don’t understand any of this!”

I guess she is right. I guess I have my new passion :)

After watching the movie “the golden compass” for christmas (I was enchanted by the story/idea but a little disappointed by the movie) I did a little research… it is actually called “Northern Lights” and is the first part of a trilogy called “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman and it goes so much deeper than the movie.. I really don’t regret having banned television out of my life.. I think I might ban movies next.

This book has shaken me like few before.. partly because of the “steampunk” / fantasy setting but also because of Pullman’s way how he follows the protagonists – Lyra (and later Will) – and their “Daemons” through a fantastic adventure and (to quote wikipedia)

His Dark Materials, a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman, comprises Northern Lights (1995 — released as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000). The trilogy follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes against a backdrop of epic events. The story involves fantasy elements such as witches and armoured polar bears, but alludes to a broad range of ideas from fields such as physics, philosophy, and theology.

Now that I have a child (and I hope more will come) that might one day request from me to read them stories: This one is definitely on the list!!!

Spoilers follow, if you plan to read the book, don’t read on…

Continue reading →

They say that it brings bad luck if you shave before an exam..

What they don’t say is how long before an exam ;)

I have scheduled my CCNA exam for February 21 and I have not shaven in a week now. I never looked that fuzzy in my life :)

If I only had had this motivation when I was a the university.. getting up at 5 in the morning in the weekend to have some silent hours.. studying the whole weekend.. All it took was the small guy :D

Thank you, Vincent.. I am doing all that for you!