by GothNinja | Jan 17, 2011 | Freemasonary
In November I enter the Chair of KS, and as the shadow of that chair starts to fall on me, I am beginning to feel the nerves awaken. My original plan was to enjoy my year as SW and ignore the chair until half way through the year, and then start to worry. Alas this plan has gone the way of so many plans over time.
The Shadow first made its presence felt last December at our Christmas Social. Half way through the meal, our ADC who was sat opposite me started asking how I was doing looking at the bits to learn for Installation (And we had only just had the last Installation at our last meeting). I informed him that the event was not till next year so I had made no start yet. The Shadow slipped out of site for the rest of the meal, only to return at the end and grab me by the arm in the guise of the Treasurer. “I’m just going to pay the bill and was wondering. Do you want me to provisionally re-book the place for next year?”
On Saturday we had a rehearsal for our next meeting. As we were all greeting each other and wishing “Happy New Year” and catching up, the Shadow tapped me on the shoulder and took me to one side. “Happy New Year, so have you considered who you would like as Organist & Singer for Nov? you need to book them early” *MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP* and my answer of “It’s not till next year” is now invalid.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to my year in the Chair. It’s just that I am feeling the nerves of the responsibility (I’m a naturally shy person). And I will do the required planning/learning but I’d just wish the Shadow would let me at least have a few nights as SW before i have to worry.
by CodeNinja | Jan 14, 2011 | Work
I know “Red Tape” is often required, and there are sometimes valid reasons for having it, but the people with the tape should have the sense to spot when they fall into a recursive loop and have the ability to produce “The Scissors of Doom” to sort things out. Let me give you an example, and its a real life example. I know because it happened to me, earlier this week.
Phone Conversation over BETA testing some new Busby servers/systems
Busby: “Can you confirm you can connect to the server fine?“
CN: “Yes, I confirm that, and i sent in signed form saying so.“
Busby: “Good. Can you confirm you downloaded our test file ok?“
CN: “What’s the file name, I’ll grab it now. I’ve been using your new systems for other departments, so the server area is full of files.“
Busby: “Our systems team say since you are already using the system there is no test file.“
CN: “ok“
Busby: “So can you confirm you downloaded our test file?“
CN: “But there is no test file?“
Busby: “You need to download our test file to show you can connect OK then we can move on.”
CN: “Talk to you main sys.admin. I tested connection to your server when you first set it up. I helped with the speed tests with the different secure connections, and port ranges. I was one of the first non Busby people using the system.“
Busby: “So can you confirm you downloaded our test file?“
CN: “ARGGHHHHHH!”
by GothNinja | Jan 7, 2011 | Illness
This Christmas I was afflicted with “Vampiric Eye” again (Or iritis for those of you who like medical terms). Now there is nothing special about this, other than I am getting slowly fed up of the repeated outbreaks, and there will be vengeance on whatever is the cause (And there may be a new clue).
I only mention this outbreak now as I am reminded of the great “Bedside Manner” of the Doctors who treated me in A&E, and the great way they put my mind at rest, and alleviated worry.
I turned up at A&E since the eye outpatients was closed over the Christmas holidays. I signed myself in and waited upon Triage, I should have been tipped off it was not going to be a good day when I got Triaged twice by two different nurses. Eventually I made it into the examining rooms and was seen by a young Doctor, who was confused by the state of my eye, and just kept muttering to himself (Possibly a curse to ward off the evil eye?). After a while, he asks me to wait while he goes to find a senior Doctor since he admits to being clueless.
The Senior Doctor working in the A&E comes to see me, He looks at my eye and starts muttering to himself. He then calls the junior one over and they start talking to themselves.. “Have you seen the shape of the eye? why is it that shape?“, “Have you ever seen one bulging like that? its all swollen“, “Wow, its like the inside is all full of gray puss“. All the while I am sat there, in earshot, in pain, and getting worried.
The senior Doc returns to me and says with full confidence. “Could you go back and wait in the waiting room please, we don’t know whats going on so we are calling an eye specialist to come in to the hospital to look at you!“. Great, its Xmas time, and a Doctor is being phoned up at home, to travel through the snow to the local hospital to look at me, I sense painful eye prodding & drops in my future.
My eye is 90% fine as of Wednesday, So I feel I can poke fun at the events involved.
by GothNinja | Dec 13, 2010 | iPhone, Films
I recently installed an application on my iPhone called “System”, Its a handy little app that gives you information on you phones memory, processes, disk, batter, and general info. It’s a handy Application for checking your phone, or getting info from it.
The first time I used it, after installation it told me off. “Apparently” I had never done a “Full Charge” since having the phone. What my phone explained to me was this, “Batteries degrade with time, and the memory and life of the battery is constantly getting smaller. So over time the charge lasts less and less. Now if you do a full charge every so often you can extend the life of your battery” This is a good thing, so I read the instructions which were as simple as 1)let your battery get below 20% charge, 2)start system, 3)plug in charger and accept full charge. So I made a mental note to do this at some point.
Last night was that point. I noticed about 10pmish that my phone was down to 6% battery and needed charging, so I figured why not do a full charge. On plugging in the phone and accepting the prompt for full charge, I was given a message saying “Time to full charge 1h 50m”. So I left the phone plugged in and went to watch Star Trek (the reboot one).
<Sideways Tangent>
So the reboot Star Trek ends with Spock Prime going off with the few surviving Vulcan’s to try and build a new world. Now am I the only one thinking this is a stupid ending?
How many times in the TV series & Films has Spock gone back in time? He’s almost a big a time traveller as the Doctor! And he just lost his homeworld, and most his race. Surely that would be a good reason to go back in time and fix it. You could go back a few weeks and evacuate the planet so that no Vulcan’s die in the attack?
Or he could jump back a few years and use his knowledge of future technology to help build a starship with weaponry & shielding to defeat the attacking ship?
Hell he could even just go destroy Romulus now, which means Nero would never be born, and hence be unable to come back in time to change the future. Or do nothing since now Vulcan has been destroyed, then they will not be the technologically advanced race in the future, and so will not be able to invent and build a red matter powered ship, thereby preventing the wormhole being created that brought Nero back into the past to destroy them. Of course If they don’t invent the red matter ship, then they will not get destroyed allowing them to advance to the point they create the red matter ship.
Arggghhhh. This film just created an unending time loop.
</Sideways Tangent>
Before going to bed I checked the phone, it claimed the full charge was done, and it was just doing a trickle charge test which would not take long. So I left the phone plugged in and went to sleep.
at 4AM I was woken by a large siren going off. Turns out that there’s a hidden option on “System” to have a full charge finish alarm or not. And that the soon to be finished trickle test goes on for quiet a while. *mutter* *mutter*
So, where as I recommend people to do their best to extend the life of their phones battery, I suggest they turn off any annoying alarms.
by CodeNinja | Dec 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
Today at the Asylum we lost the interwebz for a reasonable length of time. And everyone looked confused over what to do, while those with iPhones tried to grab bits of the net to hug and pet, and remember the good times.
This led to the question being asked “what did we do before the Internet”
Suggestion 1 was read. Err I read ebooks these days that I store online till I need them
Suggestion 2 was chat to people but with every flavour of I’m down how could we chat. And how exactly do you LOL or use smilies without a keyboard?
Suggestion 3 was write. Apparently with pen and paper?. Then you would put the letters inside other bits of paper and write someone’s name on it and drop it in a box. A box on the side of the road?. Some people would come along then and take it to whoever’s name you wrote on the envelope? It could take days to get there, if it got there at all. Well without ip’s or mx records no wonder it would take so long.
So there you have it, in these days of working online, using cloud services, VoIP phones, emails, even IM for internal communication, the average office worker is lost and unable to be productive without the Internet.
Personally I was scanning the area for unsecured wifi to deal with my addiction.
by GothNinja | Dec 3, 2010 | Family
Nephew: “Why do they say every cloud has a silver lining?“
Me: “It’s because the outer edges of clouds, where the condensed moisture particles hit the ionised atmosphere, interacting with pollutants in the air causes a peculiar affect where the particles oxidise forming silver particles.“
Nephew: “WOW!” *looks back at sky* “So you could fly aeroplanes through clouds and collect silver?“
Me: “No, don’t be silly!“
Nephew: *dejected look*
Me: “Aeroplanes travel too fast, the air pressure they form in front of them pushes the clouds away preventing them collecting the silver. What they use is air ships, which the float slowly through the clouds with special collectors attached to the basket. they just float about in twelve hour shifts harvesting the cloud silver. It also means they make more money from it, sinceit uses much less petrol than planes.“
And that was the moment my Sister banned me from answering any questions my nephews may ask. Well There was an incident when one of my nephews got excited in school when the teacher asked a question that he knew the answer too, because his uncle had told him.
by GothNinja | Nov 23, 2010 | Work, Comedy
We at the Insane Asylum have been running some updates on our antiquated control systems, and during this update I had cause to check the Polychronicon that is the Asylums Wiki. While trying to find the list of perl modules we need to re-install after a major update to allow some of the older systems to continue working (Which I could not find) I came across an odd link to an article simply titled “Were Ninja” Intrigued I had a quick read, and memories of the old days came back, especially of the “Were Ninja” Himself. So I’m reprinting the article here.
Were Ninja
I have been researching a rumor I heard, about strange occurrences in some of the local woods. of a dark figure fleetingly seen from the corner of the eye, strange symbols, glyphs tracks. And most concernedly the noises and screams that echo out of the darkness.
I can now give a slight insight to these happenings..
It starts with a quick 10 minute job after hours, a job that ended up taking longer than was expected, It started with a man tired after hours of staring at a monitor, a man too tired to know what he was doing, It starts with an innocent chain-letter email, one that had to be sent out to a dozen people within thirty minutes or else.
It starts with someone we will call Mr X. He was a normal mild mannered I.T. professional, but one day while taking a break from his work he read his e-mail, the stuff he would normally just junk. It was while reading this e-mail he stumbled upon the book of e-vile! He innocently read out allowed the text from the satanic summoning kanji of death. And because the smtp server was down he could not fulfill the requirements of the chain-letter and the chain was broken, allowing him to be possessed by the spirit of a were-ninja from 14th century japan.
Now on nights where theres a moon he roams the welsh countryside. doing unspeakable things
by GothNinja | Nov 15, 2010 | Family, Competition
Saturday evening I was informed that my niece had a Karate competition day on Sunday, and that she wanted me to go and support her. So there went my plans of a productive Sunday catching up on my ever-growing todo list. OK! by productive day I mean a day playing “Call of Duty: Black Op’s” which I purchased Saturday.
I don’t normally mind going to support her, since it makes her happy that someone cares, and she likes to talk about the different matches with me, and its normally an interesting day out.
My niece does Shotokan Karate, and the club she goes to is associated with several others in the area, and they take it in turns hosting the competitions. This time there was even some clubs from Luton & Yorkshire along for the day. And the even was held in Hawrden High School’s sports hall.
Now I should point out this is a sports hall with brick walls half way up, then metal sheeting the rest of the way, a metal sheeting roof, and plain concrete floors. There is also building work going on so part of the walls are simple boards while work is being carried out. Oh, and did I mention there was ice on the ground outdoors, and no heating on indoors? The poor kids in bare feet, and Gi’s that are no more than pyjamas really must have been freezing, cos the adults watching were and they had big coats on.
First off was the Kata rounds, so Niece and another girl get up, do their kata and sit down. The next person to get called was called alone, and the ref informed them they were through to the next round. In fact three of the four people in the final to work out places never had to compete against anyone, they just got given their placements. (Can anyone say fix?)
This shall we say for legal reasons “Apparently biased marking” turned into the theme for the day, when you had matches and all four (or six depending on match) ref’s holding out the same colour flag to show who was winner, and main ref (always after quick look to people in background holing forms) would award fight to the other colour. At one point one of the local Sensei’s told his students that one of the clubs who had travelled four hours to turn up were being marked up as a thanks for coming all this way and to not take it personally. Well by the end of the day, the local students had lost all heart and were barley going through the motions in their rounds.
The other let down of the day was the fact that the club that was being allowed to win everything may have been the “Cobra Kai” in disguise. Well they were as dirty fighters as the Cobra’s, with sneaky leg swipes, feet stomps, and face/eye shots. The list of injuries to the local kids was, several broken toes, and sprained back, and several kids with smashed and bleeding eyes.
The Adults associated to the club were even pointing out nice spots on the face to go for to slow down, or take out their opponent, and congratulating them while the other kid would be crying on the floor with medics dealing with them.
I know full contact Karate competitions can be violent, and lead to injuries, but this was a Children’s competition, and the local clubs do not do much full contact fights, and it was supposed to be friendly.
I must admit it was the most badly run & organised rip off I have ever seen. The matches were all fixed and they did not even attempt to hide the fact. There was no food laid on for the kids (they normally lay on food for them out of the attendance fee’s), No heating, The hall rental was a school gym that they normally use, so would not have cost much. The medals were of poor quality, and for the first time in the years my niece has been going there was no “competitors medal or certificate” to give to those who competed (apparently there was no money for them). And yes on the Saturday traiing day there was 100 student (approx) and there must have been 60 or so on the Sunday (all at £20/day).
by GothNinja | Nov 11, 2010 | Friends, Wales
Recently it was National Nostalgia Week, and to keep the nostalgia going here’s a photo review of an event that marked the end of an era in North Wales, the closing of the Tiv as a rock venue and leaving north east Wales with no rock clubs at all.
The Last Ever Rock Night at The Tiv!!!!
[Saturday 29th May 1999]
(more…)
by CodeNinja | Oct 29, 2010 | Customers
This week at the Asylum has been a bit weird (And I mean weirder than normal) We’ve had two customers fighting to be crowned “The King of Idiots.” Now you would not think that was a title anyone would actively seek out, but I swear the two nominated contestants must have been. There is no other explanation for the level of stupidity involved.
Contestant 1: (We shall call them Santa & the Elves)
For several weeks now Santa has been emailing our Support department asking for some DNS changes to be made for their domain name. And every week they have been informed the changes were done weeks ago. This finally got escalated to me to look at, and I inform them that the changes have all be done.
I get an email from Santa saying that where www is working and pointing at the correct IP, the domain name by itself is not pointing at the right IP so could an A record be created. So I point out www is a CNAME that points at the domain. so whatever IP www goes to is the one the domain name by itself goes too. *Repeat four Times*. Since Santa is getting nowhere with emails, he decided to phone me up and explain again how www goes to the right place, and can we point the domain to the same place as www. This time as well as explaining it all to him, I logged onto our primary NameServer and emailed him the actual zonefile for his domain to show him where things went.
Santa then asked would I mind talking to his head IT elf, I agreed so the IT elf phoned and used the same words as Santa. I explained again, and the elf came up with this solution. “If we change the www from a cname to an a record it may work?” I had to check I had heard him right and that his plan was for me to change the one he claimed worked, and set it up exactly as the one he claimed did not work?
Santa then decided we need a conference call with all the elves, and some clever dwarfs who were walking past at the time. In this call they suggested that since www worked when it was just an alias for the domain, that couldn’t we leave it pointing to the domain, and change the domain to point to the www? I believe they could tell by the sound of *BANG* *BANG* as my head banged against my desk, that maybe that would not work.
It was during this conference call while their head IT Elf was muttering that the DNS was all wrong, and his load balancer was not working because of it, which in turn stopped their certificate from working. As soon as I heard cert, I stopped them to ask was this about a SSL cert? (Which it was). They had got one www.domain, only when they went to domain it was giving warnings. And they believed if they could just get the DNS & load balancer working right, this problem would be resolved.
I had to explain what DNS and URL’s were, to several people who were IT professionals, with claimed experience in hosting, networks, dns, etc..
Contestant 2: (We shall call the Seaman)
I was asked in my role of Linux Sys.Admin to help the Seaman with any problems he had moving the hosting of a website over too us. Now there should have been no problems really since the Seaman is a professional web developer.
Now, His entry was a late one, and only lasted one day, as opposed to Contestants 1’s weeks. Yet on that one day he managed to phone up for help over a dozen times, heres a few of the problems he had.
P: FTP will not let me connect to the server.
S: Spell FTP correctly, and it will work
P: It says it can not load the file, but the files there
S: You realise Linux is case sensitive right?
P: I can not write collected email addresses to a file
S: Make the file writable and not read only.
S2: Errr why are you using a flat file, you have a MySQL DB with that account?
I’ve not decided on the winner YET. I’m leaning towards Contestant 2. Mainly because “How do you spell FTP wrong?” come on, its three letters, and you say the three letters when saying the word F T P?
