Random Musings from Randal

Nomad extended

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:03:43 -0700

I’m on the final day of a 60-day experiment: the longest I’ve been away from what I consider “home base” in my lifetime, and specifically the longest time I’ve ever been away from Oregon (seven weeks, previous record 4 weeks).

Since I haven’t actually arrived, I can’t give you the final pieces of this (I’ll blog later about that if it’s significant), but in the past 8.5 weeks, I’ve packed and unpacked 14 times. I’ve been on a cruise ship, slept in 4 different states, and 3 countries. All with the same set of ScottEVest clothing I left with at the beginning, and whatever I pulled for electronics from my boxes at “home”.

It was easier than I thought it might be, but if it means anything, my schedule through the rest of the year includes at least one “Portland Run” every 4 weekends. I’m clear that I’m capable of this and more, but I think it’s also a bit stressful.

On the other hand, I may get to Bill’s place (my current “residence”) tonight, and realize that sleeping there is no different from any of the 14 places on this trip. I don’t know.

But the experiment continues…

Life is good otherwise… I’ve got a steady stream of income, and friends wherever I go. My health is decent, although some arthritis flare-ups in my ankles and knees are causing some trouble.

More later.

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The utilities are off - I'm officially really homeless this time

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:17:39 -0800

Those of you following my “nomad” story over the past 18 months or so already know the backstory to this. In brief, for the rest of you, I’ve basically downsized my existance to where everything I own fit in a 10x10 storage bin in Beaverton, the back seat of my car, and my two carryon bags, and a spare room at the apartment of my longtime friend Bill. Part of this is in response to me finding a lot more work in Southern California than in Oregon. Part of this is because the bank wants me to make payments on a house that is overleveraged (and likely to get further that way), and I don’t think that’s smart.

Five months ago, I moved out of the house at 2385 SW 178th (the one with the great stained glass). At the time, I believed that the bank hadn’t gotten around to foreclosing on me only because they were still hoping I’d restart paying my highly-underwater loan, and they were dealing with a lot of other bad property at the same time. So, I moved the remainder of my stuff out, and moved a couple of college kids into the home so that the house would at least be occupied, all while waiting for the next notice from the bank about status.

This week, Bill informs me that the bank had already foreclosed on me last August, but hadn’t bothered notifying me. Thus, when I took those last pictures, I was already a “squatter” in a sense. Since there’s no chance of getting the house back at this point, I’ve cancelled the remaining utilities. And as the college kids have no right to be in the house (never did, actually, heh), they’re moved out as well.

Homeowner: 1987 to 2011. Now: nomad.

The journey begins.

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Mobile Malware Development Continues To Rise, Android Leads The Way

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:27:58 -0800

What happens when anyone can develop and publish an application to the Android Market? A 472% increase in Android malware samples since July 2011. These days, it seems all you need is a developer account, that is relatively easy to anonymize, pay $25 and you can post your applications. With no upfront review process, no one checking to see that your application does what it says, just the world’s largest majority of smartphone users skimming past your application’s description page with whatever description of the application the developer chooses to include. Sure, your application can be removed after the fact—if someone discovers that it is actually malicious and reports it. But, how many unsuspecting people are going to download it before it is identified as malicious and removed? This is precisely what is playing out in the mind of mobile malware developers today.

via globalthreatcenter.com

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Fake Science : Why Does Daylight Savings Time End?

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:59:55 -0800

via fakescience.tumblr.com

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Comic Sands

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:38:02 -0800

Client: “The layout is pretty spot on, but the hooky letters—”

Me: “The font, you mean?”

Client: “Yes, the font. It’s too snooty. It’s not any fun.”

Me: “I think it makes everything look quite professional.”

Client: “It’s too cold… What’s that sand one I like? With the sand letters.

Me: “I have no idea. I mean, I vaguely recall something called sand, but—”

Client: “Comic sands! That’s it. The Comic sands is the one I want.”

via clientsfromhell.net

Another great blog tipped to me by friends.

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The formula for pizza!

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:19:29 -0700

via usedpizza.com

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GEEKS ON BOARD a documentary on Vimeo

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:21:35 -0700

via vimeo.com

hey, does this mean I can get a SAG card? :)

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irony-when life imitates art.

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:30:52 -0700

via 500motivators.com

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Language Log » Three logicians walk into a bar

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:32:26 -0700

via languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

Adding this to my daily RSS feedwatch too!

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xkcd: Eternal Flame

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:01:05 -0700

via xkcd.com

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Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control - 2012 Elections - Salon.com

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:40:28 -0700

It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.

Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.

“We believe these man-in-the-middle attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines,” said Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team “We think we can do similar things on pretty much every electronic voting machine.”

via salon.com

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Final night in house, for real this time, I think

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:56:26 -0700

My house is going up for auction tomorrow, for the seventh time or so, so I’m still not convinced it will happen. For the back story, read all the previous posts that mention “nomad”.

I’ve decided to completely move out, so that the final transition will be easier. I’m moving two guys (both named Eric) into the place. In exchange for just paying the utility bills (no rent), they’ll house-sit for me, and keep up the external appearance so that I’m not an embarassment to my neighborhood. They understand that they might have to leave on short notice, whenver Recontrust and BofA finally get the paperwork together and the Sheriff shows up at the door.

Even though Bill had already moved my stuff out to his back bedroom (my new legal residence), I said I wanted to sleep in the house one last time. So he set up my couch, and left a towel here for me to use. I watched some Netflix and Hulu+ to fall asleep (both on my laptop, because my TV is already at the new place).

In a few minutes, BIll and the two Erics will arrive to move this couch. I’ll be powering down the Drobo and the associated laptop that I use for remote file access, and putting them into the rental car for the 3 mile trip to Bill’s.

I’ve been here for 15 years. And because of the recent financial crisis, the house is worth $100k less than the loan, which was only an 80% loan-to-value refinance four years ago. The prices around here are likely to drop more before beginning to appreciate again, and a strategic default seemed the best advice all around. Sure, my credit will suck for a while, but that’s better than staying in a very underwater loan, locked into this house unable to sell it. Of course, the bank won’t be able to sell it either, since the titles are all messed up thanks to the robosigning scandal.

Goodbye, house in the woods. Goodbye, big Mt Hood stained glass. Hello, nomad mode.

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Oracle adding close source extensions to MySQL

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:02:23 -0700

What is most important to understand about an Open Core project is that it has nothing to do with an open source project. If you are depending on a single closed source component then you have to regard the whole project as a closed source project as you lose all the benefits of open source:
You are depending on one vendor.
You can’t do any bug fixes yourself and you can’t contract anyone except the original vendor to get things fixed.
You can’t examine and improve the product (not any part of if).
You can’t use any open source or commercial extensions from anyone else. This is true also for any plugins that access any internal parts of the product (which is true for most MySQL plugins).
You are limited to the platforms that the original vendors makes available. (In MySQL’s case you can’t for example use the new commercial features on RedHat 6 as it’s not a supported platform).
The builds you are using are not tested anymore by millions of users (more bugs).
The product is not checked by the open source community for security problems or back doors.
The new features will not be adopted by (and may even cause conflicts with) other open source projects.
You are subject to one vendor’s price politics which they can change at their convenience.

via monty-says.blogspot.com

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Vader Lumburgh

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:46:14 -0700

via celebs.icanhascheezburger.com

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Fake Science : Protect Against Hangovers

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:42:12 -0700

via fakescience.tumblr.com

Heh. Some bars I know are doing that for me already. :)

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BFE - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:54:01 -0700

The acronym BFE can stand for:

Broad Future Education, a private tutorial school in Vancouver and Shanghai

Bacterial Filtration Efficiency, a measurement of filtration efficiency of filtration systems such as surgical face masks.

Base Flood Elevation, a level set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency based on 100 year flood models.

Beweissicherungs- und Festnahmeeinheit - Special arrest units of the German Police

Beyond Forest Edge — see also Butt Fucking Egypt

Big F’ing Empire - Business strategy as used by Tim Nye of Geosign

Biofeedback Foundation of Europe

BLACKER Front-End encryption device used by network hosts to communicate across unsecured WANs

British Forum for Ethnomusicology

placeholder location name for a place far away from populated areas.

Buyer Furnished Equipment, a term used in the aerospace industry to denote components supplied at no charge to the manufacturer by the purchaser for use in the assembly procured by the purchaser from the manufacturer