The Engineer's Creed

With all due respect to the US Marine Corps, my good friend Jeff provided me with the following "Engineer's Creed".

I could not have said it better myself.

This is my calculator. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My calculator is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My calculator, without me, is useless. Without my calculator, I am useless. I must key my calculator true. I must calculate better than any enemy who is trying to out-calculate me. I must calculate him before he calculates me. I will....

My calculator and myself know that what counts in this war is not the problems we solve, the size of our graphs, nor the equations we make. We know that it is the trig that counts. We will trig...

My calculator is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its function and its keys. I will keep my calculator clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God I swear this creed. My calculator and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but Peace.

Buh-bye, Skippy!

Skippy's List is off of my blog list. No more will it's URL darken this site, or any I run. Why? Well, it's gone well off the deep end, and wound up in "let's talk some seriously deranged, mental s___".

End of discussion.

Monday Night Homework Blues

This will be quick. I'm reading through my textbook, "Digital Telephony", for my master's class. Came across the following quote, "It's well known that..."
Let me be crystal clear here. The following phrases should NEVER, EVER be found in a textbook:

• It's obvious...


• It's easily seen...


• It's clear that...


• It's well known that...

Out.

Rob Huddleston: Your Book ROCKS!

I've been working on some simple HTML and CSS pages. But I was working from books that were 10+ years old. Today, I went out and bought a new HTML / CSS / XHTML book, "HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Your Visual Blueprint for Designing Effective Web Pages" by Rob Huddleston. One of the first pages pointed me towards a VERY cool CSS site, called "Under the Sea" by Eric Stoltz (no, not THAT Eric Stoltz).

To start, just the link to the CSS Zen Garden was worth the price. The "Under the Sea" page alone has enough cool tricks on it that I'll be parsing it for the next week.

The book itself is very well laid out, in my opinion. The information is presented well, not overbearing, does not insult my intelligence, and is straightforward. Well worth the price. (Which was $30 at Borders. Amazon.com may have it cheaper.)

Frankly, if you're looking for a good book on XHTML and CSS, this is it.

Colts vs the Patriots

I sent my younger brother a text message asking where he was.

He sent me this.



I'm pretty certain he was adopted.

God Speed, Col. Ripley

Retired Marine Col. John Ripley, who was credited with stopping a column of North Vietnamese tanks by blowing up a pair of bridges during the 1972 Easter Offensive of the Vietnam War, died at home at age 69, friends and relatives said Sunday.

You will be missed, sir.
God speed.

Nyet, Alexey! No worm from you!

I check out I Can Haz Cheezburger fairly regularly. Like many of the larger sites nowadays, it has a boatload of small adverts all over. Just this morning, as the site was loading, Norton popped up a message:

Attempted Intrusion "HTTP Misleading Application Detection" against your machine was detected and blocked.

Bah-ROO!!??

A quick check of the Norton log shows the following:

Details: Attempted Intrusion "HTTP Misleading Application Detection" against your machine was detected and blocked.
Intruder: infoclicknow.com(http(80)).
Risk Level: High.
Protocol: TCP.
Attacked IP: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
Attacked Port: 1463.

So, who is "infoclicknow.com", I wonder?

A quick ICANN check provided the following:

Registrant:
Alexey Vasiliev +7.3834427722
Alexey Vasiliev
Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
Moskow,NSK,RUSSIAN FEDERATION 630122

Domain Name:infoclicknow.com
Record last updated at 2008-10-22 13:03:18
Record created on 2008/10/22
Record expired on 2009/10/22

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.freefastdns.com ns2.freefastdns.com

Administrator:
name: Alexey Vasiliev
mail: tel: +7.3834427722
org: Alexey Vasiliev

address: Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
city: Moskow
,province: NSK
,country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
postcode: 630122

Technical Contactor:
name: Alexey Vasiliev
mail: tel: +7.3834427722
org: Alexey Vasiliev

address: Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
city: Moskow
,province: NSK
,country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
postcode: 630122

Billing Contactor:
name: Alexey Vasiliev
mail: tel: +7.3834427722
org: Alexey Vasiliev

address: Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
city: Moskow
,province: NSK
,country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
postcode: 630122

Registration Service Provider:
name: Regtime.net
tel: +7 8462698077
fax: +7 8462698057
web:http://www.webnames.ru

Imagine that? A Russian who is trying to pass malware? Whoda thunk it?

Jaless Alexey! Nyet!

NOTE: Very poor translation: S____ Alexey! No!