Still silent movies

silent movies are still haunting me. its like 5:17 am, my local time and I have office at 9:00 am.. what am I doing here? someone please switch off that tv. i guess its not possible. -the end-

Anti-drug show?

Tonight I while coming back home; I called a friend, he said he was at a cafe'. So I go there and there was this music show which was going on. Seem to be an anti-drug show. WoW! That's good thing. They should do this more often. shoud they? I mean I don't mind and have no problem with shows, but for me its just a big joke.

I have seen these kinda shows for like more then 10 years now. I have been also involved in some at some level, or known people who are. The funny part is everyone! I mean everyone refers to it as "drug show". I don't know if they mean it or now. Also I might be wrong here, but half of the guys who play music are high on some sort of drug or maybe on weed. Not to mention the crowd. Good work guys! As my friend was telling me some 2 days back, if one would write a letter to the authorities saying I want to import heroin for a anti-drug awareness program and show it off and all, they would say; Yeah go on do it. You wanna have a DJ call it an anti-drug DJ and its permitted. By the way I think DJ's are not such a bad idea. People should get more of that sort of entertainment. Not just coffee houses. What do you expect? They will just take coffee and smoke a ciggy and stop there (or maybe go to some anti-drug show). People and kids of today need more then that guys. You can't stop them, unless you think like them.

I know a lot of people will be against my way of thinking, but this is just my view. People should be made aware of what is what, and the effects and everything about them. Not just slogans say'n "say no to drugs".What does that mean? Nothing. What do u call drugs? Which is which?

Silent movies

Something about them. Which is hard to explain. Its effective and it has infected me. I think I can feel the change too. I don't like color or sound anymore. But I hope I don't look for images in white noise.

Gabriel vs TVM

Latest news is TVM is taking over Gabriel.. scores are very close. .... and ... TVM saves the day. I love you TVM. I really do... good show boys and girls.

mvblogosphere

http://www.mvblogs.org/ is a project started by Senn, Shahee, Simon and Inn (3si). If you are a Maldivian blogger you might want to check this out. Cool work guys..

email reminded of school

Today I got a mail titled "Attitude for weekend", from our HR manager sent to all the staff, which said..

Guys – Just a little work on attitude. Have fun. Here is what you need to do. We all need to work on our attitude, don’t we?

• If a = 1%, b = 2%, c = 3%, etcetera, what does ‘attitude’ add up to? ….. (Work it out & see for yourself – ask NO questions just think about it)
  

Cheers

This totally reminded me of the school programming assignments that we use to do (when you do programming 101 kinda subjects). Ok. . . since it reminded me of programming exercise, I did exactly the same.

#! /usr/bin/python

#
import string

alp=''

for per in range(97,123):

alp = alp + (chr(per))

didisaid = string.lower("attitude")

l = len (didisaid)

total=0

for cal in range(0,l):

c = didisaid[cal]

val = alp.find(c) +1

print c,"=",val

total = total + val

print "total value for :",didisaid," =",total,"%"

digg vs Slashdot

Yeah; even before I start off, they both work in different styles. Totally agreed. I have been visiting Slashdot daily for my news. Its been like that for over 5 years now. Slashdot is also set has my default web site on my browser. Digg has been around for a while, I use to visit it once in a while, but lately Digg has taken over slashdot on my browser. I think digg is far better then slash in terms of news. Example there is this news about Korean police and army robots, I read that 2 days back at digg, just only today hit slashdot. So this does not make it better then slashdot, well no. I also read about this first mid last year on about plans for this project, maybe on slash. But this is my view, I follow both and I think digg is more up to date then slashdot. But slashdot got amazing comments and members. There is humor and a lot of informative content on it, that's the plus point.

Who knows it might turn out to be another yahoo and google kinda thing. There was yahoo and now there is google. There still is yahoo. bla bla bla.

Fedora Core 5 Test 2 Out

Not a new thingy; but its out again. here (and i saw this today)

The ship island

I was reading digg.com a while back and saw this post. Which lead me to this page. Its an interesting one, about a man who build an eco space creating ship, sort of like an island. The guy has a good point in it besides the work he did. If its an island you can't own it. Even in Maldives. The gov will claim it; or some times won't even let you create one.Even though Umar Zahir and Some others made it. I live in a man made island now; hulhumale'. The gov will make good money out of this place and is a good place to live too. Anyway point I wanna bring is, what if this kinda thing is done here in Maldives. We have safari boats, where tourists can come and stay. Its hard to get a resort island these days, funny policies they have. The highest bidder always gets it, so you need money, loads of em. And some times it won't even be worth it. I don't know, maybe the experts in this area will know better.

It is a cool thing if someone really tried these kinda things in Maldives, a floating island concept. You can have a house or even many rooms like in resort islands, etc. Or just live there. Have it off hulhumale'. You have a ferry every 30 mins to Male'. Keep it docketed in the hulhumale' lagoon or even in far away lagoon. Anyway just a crazy thought.

NeXT?

So what was NeXT ? Well Mac OS X :) I am thinking of switching to Apple for my desktop needs (been way too long), so was just thinking and reading a bit. If its a worth move to make? Well for the last few years now my desktop runs on Linux, I get almost everything I need to get done on Linux. I don't play games. So no need of Windows. I don't do graphics so not much need to all those fancy s/w. If I needed gimp is always there. For word processing and other office work, I use OpenOffice. As an email client I use evolution. For a browser firefox. vim is my choice of editor. So everything is there. Ah and I use GNOME and a Mac OS X theme. Kinda used to it and like it as well.

So why switch? Just wanna give it a try and see. I thought about it and I think Mac OS will be a far better choice in terms of a desktop machine. OS X is far better then X and GNOME combined. All the needed applications are there. Besides that its based on unix. So I'd have the console if I needed it. I always have a Linux box under my table, so can always work on it remotely. So thats it.

As for Mac OS X. Its the next level of NeXT after apple computers bought NeXT, which was based on UNIX and with the famous GUI. A lot of Window managers were clones of NeXT like the afterstep and window maker. Its also worth to note that the worlds first web page was hosted on NeXT as well.

Friday the 13th

I don't know how many peple actually still believe in this. But seems all over the globe the Friday which happens to be a 13th is considered unlucky. hmmmm! Never really knew why it was so. Never even bothered to find out, until today.

"The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia, paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia, a specialized form of triskaidekaphobia, a phobia (fear) of the number thirteen." , WOW. These humans, crazy creatures ey.

According to wikipedia, The origin of the Friday the 13th superstition has been linked to the belief that there were 13 people at The Last Supper of Jesus, who was crucified on Good Friday, but it probably originated in medieval times. It has also been linked to the fact that a lunisolar calendar must have 13 months in some years, while the solar Gregorian calendar and lunar Islamic calendar always have 12 months in a year. Another suggestion is that the belief originated in a Norse myth about twelve gods having a feast in Valhalla. The mischievous Loki gate-crashed the party as an uninvited 13th guest and arranged for Hod, the blind god of darkness, to throw a branch of mistletoe at Balder, the god of joy and gladness. Balder was killed instantly and the Earth was plunged into darkness and mourning as a result.

Madagascar

I saw the movie a few months back, again saw a review of it on TV; suppose to be one of the best of 2005. I loved the penguins. Daaa! cos they represent Linux! Bingo. I think it did. Seems the movie was rendered on Linux and on the GNOME desktop. If you noticed and watched the movie; the part where the penguins take over the ship and hack into the navigation system(HP-UX) of the ship was cool too.

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Nothingness! Anyway Last few days I have been practcing the art of doing nothing. During which time I spend most of my nights just watching TV and some times browsing. Almost half of the day is spend on bed (sleeping). Wake up to my girl friends phone calls. She drops in and cooks or brings some food over. So I don't even have to go out or cook! Anyway... after a chat with a friend I met online... the question popped up. "Why is there something rather then nothing?". So it seems we are not the only people who have asked this questions. Millions and maybe millions of times.

After a bit of read ups I came across this...

In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo contrasts universal negation with universal affirmation:

All roads are blocked to a philosophy which reduces everything to the word ‘no.’ To ‘no’ there is only one answer and that is ‘yes.’ Nihilism has no substance. There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist. Everything is something. Nothing is nothing. Man lives more by affirmation than by bread. (1862, pt. 2, bk. 7, ch. 6).

As far as simplicity, there is a tie between the nihilistic rule ‘Always answer no!’ and the inflationary rule ‘Always answer yes!’. Neither rule makes for serious metaphysics.

[root@localhost] # uptime

Ok, you got the service up now what? next level is to keep them up and running. This involves a lot of hard work. Getting something up is just 20% of the work completed. The rest is the real challenge. It sure is fun to break into something; but trust me keeping something up is more fun. Even if you think in terms to intruders into a system. If you want to keep your systems up, you need to think like people who want to break in too. This takes time and effort. It does not happen over night. Its like a war you fight. The whole point in it is though you loose a battle, does not mean you lost the war. You learn from the battles you loose and add to our experience. To keep the so called “hackers” is just one part of it. There is a whole lot more then them to having an ideal “100% uptime service”.

There is a whole aspect of things you need to know and know well. Starting from the simple hardware, the network to the software. Everything about the system. Yes, things like even power. Daa! you thought you were an IT guy and you don’t have anything to do with power. Hello, wake up buddy, welcome to the real world. Your systems should have redundant power and everything else. Ah don’t forget the air conditioning. Yes! what if that fails, and over heats your systems? you need to think and visualize everything. I mean everything. What if someone trips over the power cable? I can go on and on. A lot of times most of the simple things are ignored. It takes mistakes to be done, for one to learn and experience all that. I had my bitter side of it too. Which is good. I’ve learned and still am, and a whole lot more to digest. Its easy to say then to get all those in place. Neat and documented cables and diagrams and well documented scripts. Organize the backups and schedules. Everything becomes a nightmare at a point, but then aaah some how it slowly starts to make sense and fit in some place. If one can achieve a system that is 100% fail proof I will be a slave to that person. I mean I think thats something which is practically impossible. But at the same time, I would say we should never stop working to achieve this.

It all comes down to the users. Yes. Bob Dylan says “you got to serve some body”. We server the users, they maybe the users, customers, what ever you call em. I’d say the users to make it short. Keeping those applications up is damn a lot of fun. You don’t care what garbage they enter or process. As long as you have them up thats the job. That keep you happy, and during the whole process you learn so much. Thats the excitement. What if the database crashes what if the machine has a hardware fault? How to achieve the optimal performance? Planing your systems such that if something crashes it fails over to the rest and how to get the faulty system back up ASAP. What if during that time something goes wrong with another node? daaa! things that sound crazy, but someone needs to figure them out. Clustering is one method where it saves your ass from all those troubles. Managing fail overs and fail backs and load balancing, etc. Keeping it all up is enough the challenge. What about the challenge and the fact that if it goes down and under worst case scenario; how to get them backup again. Do you have the backups, how about hardware and infrastructure? Ah still I need to think and work on an alarm system. Stuff like auto SMS when something goes wrong, kinda like alert systems for all the services from the power to the applications, services and intruder alerts.

Anyway I just thought of all this cos I am one frustrated systems administrator. A lot of times not many people in Maldives in the IT sector has to think to this level. I don’t know if its a blessing or a curse. But I sure would be happy to see more people who will think and get the dirty work done and who are really interested to do that, then to talk about having “hacking days”. I feel they can do a lot more. Maybe I am wrong ? I know so much of talent is out there, we need that to be utilized and given a chance.

Faith version 0.2a

It's Eid for all Muslims. Eid mukaarik? Ok! So what is it all about? Kinda like a celebration of the end of the Hajj also referred to as The Festival of Sacrifice? So what's the story behind this? What sacrifice? Well I think it goes way back to the old days of Ibrahim. The Qur'an describes Ibrahim as follows:

"Surely Ibrahim was an example, obedient to Allah, by nature upright, and he was not of the polytheists. He was grateful for Our bounties. We chose him and guided him unto a right path. We gave him good in this world, and in the next he will most surely be among the righteous."

And "We made him (Ibrahim) pure in this world and in the hereafter; he is most surely among the righteous. When his Lord said to him, 'Submit,' he said, 'I submit myself to the Lord of the Worlds.'"

.... Now one of his biggest trials was to kill his own son (only son). Sacrifice him to Allah (god). And he did obey god. WOW! I mean I can't do it! Damn right I won't (sorry god, but that explains a lot). But Ibrahim did. Well he did not get to execute the command. Just typed it on the console. And god was more then happy. Since Ibrahim submitted to god and was willing to do this, god finally revealed to him that his sacrifice was fulfilled. He proved his faith to the GOD. hmmmmm! Ok! So as a substitute goats or some other animal was sacrificed. Now where were the animal rights people back then and now? So I guess that's the thingy! So what am I suppose to sacrifice on this day! You can't even get a live chicken now. Plus the bird flu! Oh oh! God how about fish? What if I go fishing and kill a fish? Will it please you god? I mean god, please understand we don't get goats and camels here! bzzzzzzz! god? bzzzzzzzzz! ya habeebee?

Influenza or the Common Cold?

aaaachooo! bang! bang! ? ! I don't know how I got this thing, the doc I saw today said it was an upper respiratory tract infection. I guess she ment it was more a common cold, with all due respect to her, I don't think I am going through that. I mean freaking things been after me for almost a week now. I can hardly talk! and yeah I simply can't talk. This morning when I walked in to the office, met an old buddy and tried to talk for the first time today. The f**king voice simply won't come out. Now this is starting to bug me! Come on!

So I am stuck at home with the TV. The news networks are very good! :) My parents called up asked about some shit on the net AGAIN on FM about me, and some other issues. Well what more can I say ? daaa! I simply told my dad; "nothing new". Who cares. I mean some people just want me to dance to the drum beats they play! ah aah! that an't gonna happen baby! no way!. Anyway I think I got better stuff to do and enjoy then to answer to stupid questions and so called "gas games". Plus most DOGS do bark, but was a bit disappointed cos other innocent people are being dragged into this shit.

woof! woof! aaachoo! hehehe! anyway please someone find a cure for this! help! bang! bang! goes my chest! I can't even F**KING smoke. Imagine that!

Games?

I did a bit of a thinking and realized games is addictive. hehehe! yeah! "thinking". Anyway this time I was kinda shocked to see and realize how much people are addicted to slot machines. I was in a casino with some of the guys; and it was amazing how much time and money people spend on these games.

Being there; I gave it a try as well. First round was a big blow, lost about 5 USD. Which is ok, and good. Second round with the same amount some how I got close to a 300. This was pure luck I would say. I did give a few more tries like 5 times but it was just a waste. But keep aside the slot machines, even though you loose money a game of black jack is not a bad idea once a year.

Hmmm! woof! woof! grrrrrr! :)