I have to say goobye to livejournal now. LJ has been rash and acted without thinking a number of times. In the most recent episode, Livejournal explicitly stated that users are responsible for the content of links that they post. However, they simultaneously say that they are not responsible for what happens on servers not under their control. Confusing at best, and flat-out lying at worst, this is too much to deal with. This, coupled with a clumsy interface and limited features, has encouraged me to move to a blog of my own creation. While the new blog is not quite online, I hope it will available at jason.cerundolo.com and jasonc.caltech.edu.

And, since it hasn't happened in a while, a double quote of the week:

"People have to have this, Kara: trust. Your word, and my word. We don't have this, then we really are no different than the Cylons."

"Look at us. Do you even know why you're supposed to kill me?"

"I used to not care. I just went along with orders and hoped that everything would work out for me. But after all that's happened, you know what I've learned? It's not about hating the guy on the other side because someone told you to. I mean you should hate someone because they're an asshole, or a pervert, or a snob, or they're lazy, or arrogant, or an idiot, or a know-it-all. Those are reasons to dislike somebody. You don't hate a person because someone told you to. You have to learn to despise people on a personal level, not because they're red, or because they're blue, but because you know them, and you see them every single day, and you can't stand them because they're a complete and total fucking douche bag."

Thanks to the Rooster Teeth guys for 5 awesome seasons of Red vs Blue: Blood Gulch Chronicles. It has truly matured during its time, and I appreciate that. I look forward to more RvB in the future.

I got a lot done at work today. I am getting closer to completing my project. I have pretty much gotten each piece to work independently. I only anticipate a few more hurdles, which include writing a script to run everything together. Once I learn how to do that, completing the project should be a few hours of work away.

On another note, ITS/IMSS Security (Caltech's network administrators) has determined that my computer be disconnected from the Internet, citing security concerns. It appears that people have been abusing the Tor network for illegal purposes and some of the traffic had been coming out of my node. I am trying to convince to let me keep the node and let traffic exit, but being more security minded, they are pushing back. Eventually I hope to find a balance. I have already had to restrict the traffic because of DMCA takedown notices. I would like to submit counter-notices and see what they say to that. However, I do not have the time right now to win a lawsuit against them. Now the problems appear to be people using Tor to send signals to zombie controls through IRC.

http://tor.eff.org/overview.html.en gives a good overview of the concept and uses of Tor. I will continue to fight to support our government, our military, and our law enforcement, all of whom use Tor, as much as I can. I hate to see Tor used to hide illegal activity, but the consequences of shutting it down could be drastic. The costs of running Tor are measured in dollars. The costs of not running Tor are measured in lives and freedom.
Quote of the Week: "We've been at war so long, sometimes we forget what we're fighting for. To raise our kids in peace, enjoy each other's company, live life as people again."

We can't give our rights in order to protect them. Like all things all things, a balance will be established. Unfortunately big business and FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) is tipping the scales against personal freedoms. More updates on this Tor thing as stuff happens. At the worst case, I'll just run a relay node with no exits. I need people out there (outside of Caltech) to run exit nodes to provide access points for people using the Tor network, as Caltech seems to unwilling to support freedom.

I am trying to get into updating my journal more often now, hopefully daily.

Today was a pretty good day for me, not so good for my manager at work. He came into work to find the network down, the HVAC upgrade crew showed without prior notice and kicked him out of his office, and FedEx lost one of our $80,000 cameras. I, on the other hand, got a lot of work done, met with a friend who just got back in the area, and fixed my hd (thank you xfs_repair). I have to respect Linux for its ability to do anything, as long as you know how to do it. Now with my hd back, I can get valuable data off of it, like BSG episodes in file form.

Our meat-based cooking collective starts Saturday with a trip to Restaurant Depot. If you have never been, it is essentially a warehouse full of food. The fridge is the size of a mid-size house, not including the freezer. Once we start cooking, I'll post recipes here, which hopefully will be optimized for ease of cooking and time. I hope to put together a collection of easy, fast, simple, cheap, and tasty recipes. (Copyright Notice: The Unauthorized reproduction and/or distribution of my recipes is LEGAL, in accordance with the Creative Commons Share-Alike license. Basically, just put my name in somewhere). This will start implementation of my idea for an Open Source restaurant/bakery.


Quote of the Week (I know it's been a while):
"If we can't do this is a training scenario, how the hell are we supposed pull this off with Cylon Raiders on our asses? Huh? TELL ME!"

For that day when we all have the time. - William Adama