Tuesday, March 5, 2013

New Website!

P writing blue
P writing blue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Well, I did it! I finally went and reinstated my Web Hosting.

Now you can find me at evildawg.me or evildawg.net.

I will keep this blog for more news and topical stuff and my site will be geared more towards my personal life and writing.

There is a really interesting article about why we blog that I am including in this post:



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Monday, March 4, 2013

New Domain Names

I just got evildawg.me and evildawg.net.

Still working on securing evildawg.com, not sure what the issue is.

More later.

Dawg

Monday, January 14, 2013

Anonymous Replaced MIT Website with Memorial for Aaron Swartz

Overnight, the "Hacktivist" group Anonymous, hacked MIT's website, replacing their normal home page with  a memorial to Aaron Swartz who was found dead this last weekend from an apparent suicide. The image of the hacked MIT home page (below) speaks volumes:

Aaron was a political activist and known for helping create the popular forum, commenting site Reddit. Aaron, to his credit, was a stern advocate of a free and open internet as am I.



Moreover, Anonymous speaks of the possibility that this wasn't a suicide but a clever (or not so clever) government action. While I don't know about that nor do I want to speculate, stranger things have happened.

Now MIT is announcing it's own internal investigation into any role they may have had in his death and has tweeted, along with other academics copyrighted journal articles in an effort to honor Aaron Swartz.

More on this as news develops...

Dawg

Saturday, January 12, 2013

IT Work on the Weekends

As most IT Professionals know, there is no rest for the wicked. One of the things I like and, at the same time hate, about being in IT is knowing that I alone am responsible for all of the issues, projects and preventative maintenance of the facilities under my care.

 This weekend we are doing a server rack move from a floor rack to a wall-mounted rack high above the floor. I guess Koreans (my employer) don't like to see much on the floor, but, in their defense, it does already look better. I was here until about 11:30 pm last night until we finally the move completed and the network back up. A 17 hour day yesterday and a projected 12 hour day today.

Today will be another long day of running cable drops to our control room to expand capability for future equipment. 

Having very little sleep and a pregnant wife home alone, I can't wait for this to be done and I can get home and relax for the remainder of the weekend.

Here's hoping that we all do what we love, even when we don't love it all the time.

Dawg

Monday, January 7, 2013

"Quantum Knot" by Evildawg


“Optical Processors are functional, Holographic Memory is functional, Quantum Database is functional. All systems are functional Captain,” the computer reported.

“Thank you QuIPU.” The Captain replied, looking down at the screen in front of him. The monitor was a see-through plate of glass that displayed the results of the Quantum Intelligence Processing Unit, or QuIPU for short.

“You're welcome Captain. Is there any other data that you require at this time?”

“Please explain why you shut down life support to the entire ship.” Captain Dawkins flipped through screens of data on the display, looking for any reason why QuIPU would do this.

“Unknown Captain. I see that it has been suspended but I have no memory of that incident.”

“Well, turn it back on.” Dawkins checked the status of the life support on his monitor: 15 MINUTES OF LIFE SUPPORT LEFT

“Unable to comply Captain.”

“Explain please.” This was unacceptable. Captain Dawkins pushed the screen away on its swivel and stood up. He looked around at his crew as they looked at him. He was trained to remain calm in stressful situations but found it hard to keep his composure.

“According to my programming, the Life Support is to remain off per your orders.”

“My Orders?” He exclaimed. “I gave no such order!”

“Incorrect. You gave the order at fifteen thirty hours on solar date 22143.1530.”

“Quipu, according to your display it's 22124.1225. It would be impossible for me to give an order at a future solar date.” He felt nauseous, queasy. This can't be happening.

“Incorrect.”

“Explain.” He sat back down and pulled the display back to its position in front of him.

“You, in fact, did give this order, however I am unable to retrieve it for playback.”

“How convenient. Re-route auxiliary power to life support.”

“Unable to comply.”

“And why would that be?” He waited for another asinine response.

“We have no auxiliary power.”

“What?! How can that be?”

“Records indicate that you ordered them to be shut down.”

“Turn them back on!”

“Unable to comply. No data exists for that operation.”

“We need to get Life Support back online and get the hell away from this Black Hole! We are too close and feeling the immense gravitational pull.” Just then the engines shut down, the normal hum in the flooring of the ship went silent.

“What's happening QuIPU?”

“Engines offline.”

“Why?” He was finding it increasingly difficult to keep his head clear; failing to remain calm could be a death sentence, he remembered, and sat back in his seat, slowly breathing deeply in and out.

Captain Dawkins and the other six bridge officers started sliding in their seats, unable to overcome the incredible pull from the singularity as they sped towards the Event Horizon. Objects and furniture became elongated and time itself seemed to become incomprehensible.

“Records indicate you ordered it but I cannot locate it in the database.”

“Run a Self Diagnostic”

“Optical Processors are functional, Holographic Memory is functional, Quantum Database is functional. All systems are functional Captain,” the computer reported.

“Thank you QuIPU.” The Captain replied, looking down at the screen in front of him. The monitor was a see-through plate of glass that displayed the results of the Quantum Intelligence Processing Unit, or QuIPU for short.

“You're welcome Captain. Is there any other data that you require at this time?”
© Copyright 2009 EvilDawg

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Atheist Census

Now is the time to register your name in the Atheist Census:

Atheist Census

I am now and will forever be an Atheist. I grew up Lutheran but no one could answer the most simple questions, so I went looking for them myself, in science.

Stand up and be counted!

Dawg

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Recipe for Vampire" by EvilDawg


This is one of my first stories I wrote for Writing.Com and this one was for a contest. The words in bold were words that had to be used in the story.

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“Hey, Princess, you want a piece of me?” The gruff voice came from the bar. Evan looked around and saw a tall, biker looking guy staring at him.

“Excuse me?” Evan looked at him for a moment and turned back to his dinner guest when he didn't respond. Svetlana paused, turned around to see the man, then looked back at Evan. She leaned in close, “Some people, huh?”

“Yeah.” Evan reached out and held her soft hand, rubbing his thumb gently over it. “Anyway, I had a really good time last night, I hope I didn't embarrass you too much, we had a lot of wine.”

“No, you were a perfect gentleman,” Svetlana grabbed his hand with her other hand and caressed it. “I had a great time last night too.”

Just then, a voice from right behind Evan, “How sweet, young love, it warms the cockles of my heart.” Evan jumped in his seat. How did he get behind me so fast and why no warning from Svetlana? Evan glanced over his shoulder and could smell the foul breath of the hulking biker. He looked back to his date, her eyes widening as she realized how incredibly fast the biker moved. One second she was talking to Evan the next the biker was there.

“Is there something I can do for you, or are you going to taunt us all night?” Evan found some confidence, maybe he was showing off for Lana, either way, he was getting pissed.

The biker slowly moved around and grabbed one of the two empty seats on either side of the couple, turned it around and sat in it, arms over the back rest, legs hung over each side. “Fact is, you can do something for me.” He looked around, acting like he didn't want anyone to hear, and leaned closer. “I want you two to come outside with me.”

Shocked at that statement, Evan shifted in his seat. He looked at Lana and she looked like she was ready to get up and bolt out of the restaurant any second. “What? Why would we want to do that?” He turned to look at the biker.

“Because if you don’t, my friends will force you too,” He motioned over to the bar. Several men stood, watching them. One in particular, a smaller man with a wiry build and black hair, smiled, showing that he had some of those prosthetic vampire teeth put in. The biker wore a menacing smile and pushed himself up out of the chair, turned it around and slid it back in. “Shall we?”

“No sir, we shall not! Just leave us alone.” Evan reached in his pocket and pulled out his iPhone. He started dialing 911 when the phone suddenly vanished. He looked up at the biker looming over him, who flashed the phone in his hand to Evan. “Just let us go and we will be like ghosts, like we were never here.” Evan was visibly shaking, but he tried to keep up tough appearances for his young date; which proved to be unnecessary.

Lana stood up and looked at the biker, then the men at the bar, appraising the situation. “Listen fellas, if you leave now, and I mean leave and don’t ever come back here, I will spare you not only pain but also embarrassment of getting your ass kicked by a girl,” she said as she kicked her chair back with enough force to slam into the vacant table behind her.

The biker looked back at his friends and laughed a hearty, evil laugh. “You’re gonna take all six of us?”

Lana looked more confident than Evan had ever seen her, which wasn’t many times. “Uh huh.”

Evan stood, and held his arms up, “Okay, everyone just calm down. No one is going to hurt anybody.” He glanced over at Lana and glared at her as if to say, Are you freaking kidding, what the hell are you doing?

“And just how do you plan on doing that,” The biker motioned for his pals to come over.

The table was now surrounded by these miscreants, they growled and hissed at the couple. Evan noticed that they all had patches on their jackets, some kind of pumpkin or jack-o-lantern with swords going through it diagonally. 

“Evan, I’m sorry” Lana said, “This will be over in a flash.”

Lana raised her arms up and started chanting, Evan couldn't make out the words, it was as if as soon as you heard them they disappeared from memory. Like words on a wind that you forgot when they passed you by. Suddenly a bright globe of light appeared above the table. It grew to be about the size of a beach ball, growing in intensity.

The biker and his gang fell on the floor, writhing in agony as the globe pulsed light to every corner of the restaurant. 

Evan had to close his eyes to shield them from the light. Lana continued to chant and the light grew brighter.

Evan felt a strong heat on his face and hands, he cautiously raised an eyelid and saw that every one of the men who intended them harm were on fire. They burned with ferocity and soon were nothing but a pile of ashes. The globe faded away and the room returned to normal.

“What the hell...” Evan sat down in his chair and surveyed the area, then looked at Lana.

“Sorry Evan, I had to protect you. Those Vampires would have killed you for sure.”

“Killed me? Killed us!” Evan added.

“Actually no, see... I am a Witch. I suspected that we were in a vampire haven but wasn’t fully sure until it was too late. Luckily they didn’t see my true nature.”

Evan wasn’t sure what to say. He felt betrayed, but at the same time was grateful to Lana for protecting him.

“Let’s get out of here Evan. Let’s start this night over; this time, I pick the restaurant.” She smiled and took Evan by the hand. She whispered in his ear, “I hope tomorrow you tell me you had a good time tonight...”

The couple left the restaurant, hand in hand.

“Are there any other secrets you’re keeping from me?” Evan asked Lana. She just turned to him and smiled, then closed the door behind her.
© Copyright 2009 EvilDawg