I start off the day wondering about where we stand in the universe. This thought process is a evolution of the more personal, where do I stand in the universe.
First the personal, I ask myself what is the goal. What am I trying to do and is there more than this. I am thinking this morning that I recognize that I have desires but why do I desire these things. And because there are variables that are outside of my control, how can I reach those things. I’ll also note that I’m a bit crazy so that doesn’t help.
Now for the macro. I find myself attempting to wrap my head around the idea that we live on a rather small planet, revolving around a rather bright star in the suburbs of our average galaxy, which is one of among potentially hundreds of billions of galaxy which in turn contains an estimated hundred billion stars. To make things worse, I’m also trying to wrap my little minds on the concept that we don’t live in a snapshot of time (which may have been a funny use of the term of time but I’m not smart enough to take advantage of it) and from the best knowledge available, we are all moving away from each other at a faster rate than first predicted.
So it’s like we’re on a single life boat in the ocean that is the universe. We share this life boat and for some reason we can’t share what rations we have, the water we have. Instead we bicker and complain. There are a few of us that stare off into the distance looking for others but because of the distances we are talking about that if we found another boat capable of supporting life that they would be tens and hundreds of years away/old. That’s if we only look at the hundreds of billions stars in our one galaxy alone. If the only other life boat in the universe exists on another galaxy, well if they happen to look in our direction would still have to wait some 2 million years before they would see that intelligent life has come.
It’s an amazing feeling. Both incredibly lonely but at the same time I am filled with wonderment at the raw beauty of the universe.
This weekend Kelly and I queued up for some heroics in WoW. The way queuing up for heroic instances works, you use the dungeon finder tool and you are put on a waiting list until they can find four other players to go into a dungeon. Its a little more complicated than that as there was roles that you will provide for any given instances but that’s not important here. In one particular run we ran into someone that took the time to look at everyone’s gear, spec, etc. Then started to deal out advice. Now normally, advice is always good but it was done with the tact of a high school locker room. A bit mean spirited coupled with an attitude of superiority.
The player calling people out claimed to be a part of an elite guild, in game. Giving them the right to belittle someone they don’t know. It wasn’t me they were calling out, nor Kelly. Just another person that had queued up to play in an dungeon for a chance at gear, emblems, or they just wanted to do something other than chase after zhevra hooves. It was ugly enough that the player who was the focus of the tirade left before we even got started.
Kelly was irritated by the whole show. I just shook my head and kept quiet. In a way, I’m as much a bad guy as the critic because I didn’t ask him to just shut up as Kelly had. In the end, it was just easier for me to just let the blowhard pound his/her chest about how awesome they are so we can just move quickly through this dungeon to get our emblems or whatever and queue for the next one with hopes of finding nicer people. Not that it matters since I’m not forming any long term connections with any of these people. I play with these anonymous people for 30 minutes to an hour (the exception being The Oculus, you know who you are) and then I’m back on my server.
This is an ageless talking point. Why are people so mean when it comes to things that provide them anonymity. Be it an online game like WoW or comments on a website. It’s been debated many times and I won’t rehash them but it still makes me a little sad that there is this attitude that permeates the social online world. Is there some benefit to being an asshole that I’m completely unaware of? Is the moment of euphoria in belittling or showboating that makes it all the more needed? Maybe it’s just an individual acting out because they have so little in real life that they can control it when no one knows them online. It’s probably not that drastic. I don’t need to paint that broad, perhaps there is a part of our social makeup that requires us to convince others we’re important. Some may act on it by being bombastic while others don’t.
In the end, it just makes me a little sad because its all futile. Just have fun, allow others have fun and its all good.
I find myself looking at code and concepts. I am so lost. It is all hard to wrap my head around. I wonder if its because I don’t care anymore. Has the passion of figuring it out fizzled out? Is the concepts just so full of buzz words that depart from the simplicity I enjoyed that I throw up in my mouth a little as I do research.
I get the idea that things naturally become more complex as we move along but as I read technical manuals I find my eyes squinting (and not just because I’m blind) and my head shakes.
It kind of reminds me of my old podcasting days. When it was still relatively new and anyone could jump in, there was his frontier feeling. A communal feeling. Now that podcasts are “professionally” done, it just feels a little lesser.
Part of the issue I’m having is my fault. I’ve allowed myself to fall into a rut. Just keep the status quo. But for too long and now it’s hard to find passion in any of this. The fire is now just a collection of dim embers. I need to find some kindling and blow.
So the last day has been interesting. A server was exploited and I’ve been involved in seeing why it happened and what can be fixed. The issue lay from my understanding thus far is human engineering one as well as a security issue.
I’ll start with the security, the server I am speaking of is an older server. Its been up for 5+ years, doing what it does. No fuss, no muss. It provided its service but it was set up simply to give access to those that needed it. Not a lot of concern was put into security. It wasn’t a complete honey pot but it was left alone for years. Technology changed and the box wasn’t kept up.
This leads to the human factor. Both from the administration and user side. From the admin side, the box was left to languished because it wasn’t a big trophy item. It did its job but the squeaky wheel gets the oil and this particular server wasn’t squeaky. So as security options improved, the box was left old school. Then you have the user side. Those that were granted access to the server. The login accounts were given to people but there was never a plan to manage those accounts. So when people left, no one told anyone so their accounts could be removed. Even better, a person would get an account and then hand the username and password to someone else because it was easier to do that then have them get their own account (if they could get their own account, a few were given to people that shouldn’t have had a login).
No you could argue that this is still an administration issue. Those in charge of this server should have been watching it, regardless of their users. I agree but at the same time, its this pass the buck mentality that keeps this problem from popping up again and again. The fact that its up to some mysterious voice on the other end of the phone to fix our problems rather than look at what you may be doing and how it effects others that causes these shortcuts. Its easier to not deal with creating new accounts or make sure my computer is not compromised. Ignorance is bliss. Until access to a server is shut down and work to find out what happened.
This is only starting but I have to admit I am already tired of the backtracking that’s happening but at the same time, I am enjoying the mind exercise. It’s been a while.
I knew of most of the performances and what day they were going to play but now they seem to have them locked into particular time. I’ve only browsed the schedule quickly but the only conflict I’m seeing at this point is the Beastie Boys and Kings of Leon who both are playing Friday night. I’m sure there are other conflicts but I haven’t seen them yet.
This years ACL is going to be interesting. A tinge of nervousness as Diana may be coming, but that’s a discussion for another day.
One thing of note, I noticed on the schedule page that they had a link to an ics file for adding to calendar applications but as of this morning it tells me that there is a server error. I’m all about pushing stuff out quickly but you’d think they’d make sure just a prominent link was good or at the very least hide it until it was ready.
Not a big issue but it reminds me a lot of what I see every day.
Update: News is that the Beastie Boys have canceled their tour schedule. Rest well, Adam Yauch and get better.
I start off the day wondering about where we stand in the universe. This thought process is a evolution of the more personal, where do I stand in the universe.