I, Curtis

Category: Random Thoughts

  • RT: Password Length

    If you have a password that is so long that you sometimes lose your place and have to start over, the password may be too long or too complex.

  • RT: Friends

    Enemies are closer to being your friends than strangers.

  • RT: Frustration of the Imagination

    It is really annoying when you try to think of something new and realize that you can’t conceive anything outside of what has been created before and then you feel certain that there is nothing new an interesting in the world, only to have the rational components of self to tell you that there must be something that has not yet been conceived, and then the frustration sets in.

  • Simple Excitement

    Friday night I ordered some bookmarks from Amazon, because I realized I only have one good bookmark, and I don’t like the picking up a random paper thing (I do that too much in books already). Anyway, I’ve been like tracking the package through UPS since it entered the system. I feel crazy because I am tracking a package whose total contents is worth like $1.50. WTF is wrong with me.

  • RT: Network Engineers Should Not Wear Tights

    https://www.arin.net/knowledge/comic.html

    I’m all for a friendlier ARIN, but WTF is this shit?

  • Wasted IP Addresses

    With the resistance of network operators and hardware vendors to accept IPv6, the lack of address in the IPv4 space is becoming more of a concern. I am personally wondering how many addresses in the IPv4 space are actually being used and how many are being wasted on frivolous assignments. Take for example, network 44. Network 44 is a fully class A allocation of 16,777,214 addresses that are assigned to the task of TCP/IP over Amateur Radio, also known as Amateur Packet Radio Network (AMPRNet). The technology has a maximum of 9600 baud, but usually averages 1200. That means the maximum speed of AMPRNet is about 8.72 * 10-4 % of the speed of the average cable broadband connection and well… microscopic compared to the links between backbone provider sites. I am not sure how many people still participate in this network (I couldn’t find any current information for it), but I do not suspect that they still require a full class A network. By its own admissions (HAMRADIO.UCSD.EDU), it is an experimental network that does not rely on connectivity to the global Internet. Wouldn’t that make them a candidate for a valid Class E use, or perhaps valid for NATing through a gateway (since they must still use gateways to obtain access anyway)?

    I have no complaint with the AMPRNet creators or users, but more a problem with the policies that have led us to our current situation regarding IP address assignments.

  • RT: Thoughts on Cloud Computing

    No matter how robust the server clusters are that operate “the cloud”, things will eventually fail. Even if the cloud itself does not fail, something will, especially those fragile little fiber optic lines that construction workers love to chop in half (btw, even in a cloud world, you still need real buildings, built by strong, sweaty, and somewhat ape-like construction workers).

    Take the present failure of Google’s services. I wanted to send a text message to a friend, while I can do so from my phone, or my home mail server, those things aren’t in the cloud, and I only have his full SMS address stored on my GMail account (sorry Oscar, I’ll try again in a little bit).

  • RT: Hypermasculinity

    Random Wiki Article of the day: Hypermasculinity

    I saw this term in a person’s profile earlier and decided to look it up. It is an interesting concept and I find that I myself am interested in some aspects of hyper masculine art. Psychologically it is a very thought provoking idea, perhaps one that might be worthy of study if I were to decide to pursue undergrad research.

  • Word of the Day: Weather-cock

    I have been staring at Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetry all day, and I think it is starting to get to me.

    I ran across a fun word used several times in Longfellow’s poetry earlier, Weathercock.

    Webster says: "Weathercock – weather vane in the shape of a cock". Still not much better for my tired brain and my lacking sense of humor. In short, it is a traditional weather vane, not one that looks like a farmhouse of a John Deere tractor or anything of that sort….

     

    A Weather Cock:

    image

  • RT: Riddle

    A man was to be sentenced, and the judge instructed him “You may make a statement. If it is true, I will sentence you to four years. If it is false I will sentence you to six years”.  The prisoner made his statement and the judge allowed him to go free. What did the prisoner say?

    [answer to be posted tomorrow, no cheating]