Midwinter, Harry Potter, Labor Party, CCNA, Hack the Army, and Space!

[tcpip]

With the passing of midwinter (which, for some unfathomable reason, always seems significant to me), I've taken stock with my activities for the year. Surprisingly, because I always tend to overextend myself, I'm on target. My thesis is on target. My publications are on target. My skills are improving at the rate that I wanted them to. The only thing that is out of whack is my budget and the inability of AVI to find me another overseas placement - not that I entirely blame them - the organization has been defunded for all of their state offices and placements are now "competitive".

On Sunday, severina_242 organized a little group to see Harry Potter at the Gold Class cinema (i.e., recliner seats). I went as Professor Snape of course, and played his demeanor sufficiently well that I was asked whether everything was OK. As far as enterainment goes, the Potter thing is OK, certainly better than most rubbish that is churned out under the name of 'culture'. One must also appreciate the marketing skills involved - I can easily see one book per year, one film per year after the book and we'll have Potter for the rest of our lives.

The following night I found myself in the role of guest speaker as president of Labor for Refugees at the Williamstown branch of the ALP - unbelievably it is the first Labor Party branch meeting I'd been to since I'd returned from Timor. Maybe I'm getting a taste for politics again. The branch were an extremely smart bunch, well aware of the tactical issues involved, and asked all the right questions. I was presented with a box of chocolates at the end of it, which was thoroughly unexpected!

Another unexpected event this week was some linguistic institute asking me translate some phrases into Tetum, which I carried out with a minimum of fuss. Guess my knowledge of this obscure Austronesian language is finally paying off (literally!).

My CCNA reseach and course preparation goes well, although I'm getting much more out of the CCNP books. Whilst more or less on topic, I'm must confess I'm in a bit of a quandry. What do I specialize my programming efforts on? C/C++ is something I've had a lot of history with and it has enormous flexibility. Java/J2EE has that incredible pre-existing webpresence and it's good to know if you want to hack build dynamic websites whereas PHP is a clear and simple language that works very well with databases. *sigh* I'll probably do all three.

My social calendar for the upcoming week is too busy! ruthalas has birthday drinks on Friday, there's the Kilmore Celtic Festival where smilesnspiders will be on Saturday, ditto for Tim's fourtieth birthday gathering, Tariq Ali on Monday, reynardo is having a birthday dinner on Tuesday....

Thanks to the generosity of ravensbreath I now have a gmail account. One gigabyte of storage. I guess that means my speedymail's (paid) life is limited.

So, now there's no weapons of mass destruction and it's been shown that there were no links with 9/11. Meanwhile Australia resumes links with the biggest and most dangerous terrorist organization in south-east Asia -
Kopassus. Seems to fit well with our policy of knowing about torture and not doing anything about it. And, on a technical notes, an opportunity to hack the Australian army....

Brain breaker. Possibly caused by recent viewing of a 12-part 'Space' series on video. Nearly seventy percent of college students claimed that matter existed before the big bang. Personally, I think answering a question like this wrong should exclude one from voting. Or something like that... Grrr...

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Somehow the whole Kopassus thing slipped under my radar.
I thought Howard et al were keen to distance us from the 'Slanty-eyed Terror' to the north in all ways.

You know, I haven't given the concept of matter prior to the Big Bang any thought in recent times, and the concept of 'something from nothing' breaks my brain.

Last I heard the Big Bang Theory was on the outs.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I thought Howard et al were keen to distance us from the 'Slanty-eyed Terror' to the north in all ways.

Not at all. The fact that Indonesia was governed by a brutal dictatorship was in the interests of Australian capital.

Democracy is an annoyance for these people. Their commitment to it is pretty much a joke.

the concept of 'something from nothing' breaks my brain

It would be if I was something new out of nothing. Remember "before" the big bang there is no space/time.

Last I heard the Big Bang Theory was on the outs.

Against what?

[smilesnspiders.livejournal.com]

Does this mean that the two of you are coming along to the Celtic Festival market? Would you like a lift out to be organised?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I reckon it's a goer... We have your number... Will bring two rodents as well!

[smilesnspiders.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to meet the rolly polly boys (-: I'll set up a little cage for them. It will be great for our Mouse to meet other ratties too, he has been an only child for just on five months now.

Just let me know if you need a lift arranged or directions (-:

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Well it's only really Harlequin who is rolly and I think he's lost weight. If you have scales we can go for a weigh in :) You'll get to hear the Monte snortle too... it's weird.

Hope you don't mind me asking tcpip along though

[smilesnspiders.livejournal.com]

Of course I don't mind!! (-: It has been a number of years since I last had a chance to catch up with tcpip.

Hahaha!! All boy ratties are rolly polly compared to the sleek little girls. We will definitely have a weigh in - that is if Harlequin fits in my little scales (-; I am looking forward to Mouse meeting other ratties (-:

Remember to rug up - it will be rather chilly in Kilmore this weekend.

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Monte is rather sleek - but then he is an active boy - runs round like a girly rat (when he's not asleep in his desk drawer or the bed!!!!! I'm sure Harley will fit in the scales - I look forward to seeing if he is still as heavy or not! LOL It will be great to finally meet the Mouse too...

Will dig out the thick stockings, three or four layers of jumpers and jackets, thermals etc LOLOL I've never been up to Kilmore so it should be interesting. Are you anywhere near the Healesville Sanctury as well?? Always wanted to go see the platypi - I'm a sucker for animals :)

[smilesnspiders.livejournal.com]

Kilmore is North where as Healesville is East...different highways. But very good things come out of Healesville (-:

We have Platypus in the creek on the property where we live. Next breeding season you'll have to come out and see them. Breeding season is the best time to spot them because the boys are on the prowl defending their territories from other males. We also have a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles nesting on the property, and Wombats, Eastern Greys, Swamp Wallabies, Echidnas....

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Then I'll really look forward to exploring your "back yard" :) I haven't met a wombat yet

[smilesnspiders.livejournal.com]

Never met a wombat?! Oh, that's no good at all!! We will fix that this coming Spring!

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Cool!!!! Something to look forward to. I have only seen wombats in zoos :(

[smilesnspiders.livejournal.com]

At the zoo at least you know where the animal is going to be - it can't move far or hide much in most circumstances...but Wombats in the wild move about a bit and may have a few burrows that they inhabit at any one time...but we will find them (-:

programming

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

On the programming question, of course it depends what you actually want to do. Horses for courses and all that - and even if your intent is mostly just to learn, learn what exactly?

If you do go the J2EE route, you really don't want to just head in, because the basic J2EE frameworks suck. There are plenty of libraries etc that make it suck far less. I like the looks of Tapestry for web apps, and Cayenne for dealing with the database side, though some swear by Hibernate.

Love to email chat about programming should you feel the urge

Re: programming

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

of course it depends what you actually want to do. Horses for courses and all that

I guess at the end of the day it's primarily web applications and particularly database administration (I have SQL firmly under my "I really know what I'm doing" banner). So PHP is probably the way to go. But there's that small tonnage of Java already out there... and I've years of familiarity with C...

I think I'll email you in a couple of days once my brain has overcome its confusion. I'll check out your links too...

Re: programming

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen, the differences between PHP and alternatives like the mentioned J2EE stuff (or WebObjects, from which they steal some of their ideas) is in maintainability and clean design. With PHP you have to work hard to make a design that cleanly separates your data model and your user interface, you have to work hard to make your program database independent, you have to work hard to make sure data integrity rules are always maintained, and so on.

Re: programming

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, I had a fairly comprehensive read of the SAMS PHP book last night, your comments are certainly correct. One really does have to be conscious of the fact that the data and the user interface are often combined in the same script.

I must confess however in the immediate future I'm unlikely to be doing any server-side scripting, but at least it was good to know that it seems relatively simple.

So I guess it's on to Java for the time being...

[morrigan77.livejournal.com]

All sounds good!

I love mid-winter; such a lovely moon and feel, contentedness all round - My mood was one of peace until I realised that it's not exactly MID winter but onethird-winter and THEN (insult to injury) it was pointed out that summer is thus closer (only a sun-lover could think of this) as the days now get longer. :) Ahhh how brief the joy! Enjoy the Celtic Festival, there really aren't enough and at least this time of year is excellent for large fires!

I have been happy to pass over the Potter movies - favouring Shrek sequel!

Midwinter!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Several years ago when I flirted with the Celtic pagan ideas, I held a "midwinter night's feast" at the Carlton Neighbourhood House. A traditional medieval feast (we pinched the recipe from a 14th century German king's feast), with mulled wine, Roman Polanksi's MacBeth, readings from Shakespeare and to top it off, a "prayer" and a planting of a tree to Cernunnos.

About thirty or so people turned up. It was a lot of fun.

[blow-saidjulian.livejournal.com]

'I was presented with a box of chocolates at the end of it, which was thoroughly unexpected!'

I once received a huge block of Socialist Left preferences from Williamstown/Yarraville, in a Young Labour Left election, despite being - shock, horror - tne Youth convenor of the Pledge at the time. IMHO, yes, they can be quite unexpectedly sweet :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

You were in the Pledge?!? (double checks) Ahh, I thought I recognized your name... lived in Rushworth for a while, right?

It would have been very tough days back then to be a Pledgie, what with the SL and Unity chewing at their heels..

You'd obviously know the likes of Frans Timmerman, Peter Mitchell et al...

I count myself as being the person primarily responsible for (eventually) getting (most) of the SL and the Pledgies back together again. We lost Ian Jones and the VBU on the way (they joined up with Greg Swords 'Modernisation Alliance'), but that's politics...

[blow-saidjulian.livejournal.com]

Lived in Rushworth for eight years or so now.

I committed the equivalent of political suicide (over a matter of, as always, great importance, at the time), at a student political level, the year before I left and dropped out of the party once I moved here.

I have attended, as a guest, a few Kyabram Branch meetings. Interestingly, my name remained on the party members list for a quite few years - I always assumed that someone was renewing my membership and voting for me!

I was in Young Labor left in the early 90s and came into the Pledge via Liz Humphrys and Kathy Hegarty - both circa paula_angela's time as a Melb Uni Office Bearer (I was in the following year as Gen Sec).

I know Frans, Don Nardella et al. Bumped into Peter, a few years back when the Ky Branch had a meeting in Rushworth (they vaguely cover this area) and Peter was guest speaker.

If I ever went back in, it would be as a Pledgie - I liked the 'o.k., if we're doing deals then lets do damn good ones!' honesty and the genuine attempts at an open caucus (to paraphrase Lenin said - a bound caucus only works if all can exercise free will within it).

I'm still at odds with the right dominance of the party but the Pledge guys (and, sad to say, they were mainly guys) seemed to make it clear that my political hari kiri was only at a student/youth level and they didn't care. I was sounded out for, what were then, the ACTU traineeships but I went bush instead.

That's my potted history ... if we ever meet face to face, by the sounds of it, we could swap some of those anecdotes that no-one else seems to find interesting :)

[zey.livejournal.com]

My recommendations:
C++ if you want to do X/MS Windows apps programming.
Java/J2EE if you want to get a job.
PHP if you want to do web programming that actually does stuff :-).

Not specifically useful for CCNA qualification per se, but, for Cisco related knowledge, you can't go past The Cisco Router Handbook, published by Osbourne Press.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Heh. You've just told me to do all three ;-)

I'll keep an eye out for the Osbourne book, although I must confess that in addition to the three very chunk CCNP guides, I do have another fifty Cisco books.. hangon there it is... Cisco Router Handbook... Ahh, this is McGraw/Hill version..

20000 Rupiah for that CD-ROM was a bargain ;-)

[zey.livejournal.com]

Personally, of that list, I've done a bit of the first and consider myself pretty good with the ast. Java doesn't appeal much to me. But everyone's different :-).

Looks like it's the same book. Mine's a dead-tree version of the 2nd Ed. Says Osbourne on the outside cover, McGraw/Hill on the inside. A bit odd, that.

[redcountess]

please give my best wishes to ruthalas for Friday :-)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Will do....

[cptjohnc.livejournal.com]

I'm fluffy...

Potter movies have always been disappointing for me, but entertaining enough not to be terrible. The books are fun stories, and I can enjoy them unabashedly, while acknowledging that they are not 'great works of literature' But then, what is these days? only time will tell.

Big Bang: I read something someone wrote referring the big bang as the theory explaining the 'end of the world'. Made me grin. might have been in convert_me

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

But then, what is these days? only time will tell.

I tend to pitch on the following. Call them "tcipip's rules for great literature" if you like.

1) A dramatic narrative that deals with universal existential themes expressed in symbolic motif.
2) Has ordinary people engaging in extraordinary tasks resulting in significant character development.
3) Has a detailed setting which avoids anarchronisms.
4) Is of interest to literary scholars for representing both an example of contextual ideologies and as part of the literary tradition.

Potter doesn't cut it ;-) Actually, nothing for quite some time does it....

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Have to agree with you about most "modern" literature. I'm trying to think if something I have come across would meet with your criteria - and I'm having problems.

The Collector does sort of come to mind - but it borrows so much from the works of Shakespeare - it's just a scary story about how *fucked* some people's minds are.

I know I read "trashy" books (hey, I like some light entertainment) so I look forward to hearing if anyone has any titles to suggest :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it Neuromancer could have made it if Gibson took a little more care....

The great SF book still waits to be written...

(and don't look at me.. yet)

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Neuromancer wasn't too bad at all. Combination of many genres can often make for interesting contrasts.

The great SF book still waits to be written...

What about general fiction?? Though I do admit to favouring sf/fantasy myself for the most part.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

big bang as the theory explaining the 'end of the world'

In a sense it does, because a lot of comes down to whether or not there is enough matter in the universe to ensure continious expansion or even stablility, otherwise the universe collapses in on itself. The problem being is that to date we're missing about 90% of it. And I just don't buy hypothetical "dark matter".