The Voyage Home

An update on the long day I hinted at yesterday…

So, we get up at 0630 to dress, wake the kids, and catch the 0730 train to Gatwick. We could have slept in 30 minutes longer, but the very nice ticket agent suggested that we take the earlier train, since it started empty at our station.

We change trains at Clapham junction (with four adults, three children, and lots of baggage this is harder than it sounds :-), and arrive in Gatwick airport at 0845 to check-in for our 1155 flight home; air transat wants you to checkin three hours early for international flights. We clear security, deal with some VAT refund issues, and have breakfast in the departure lounge; all normal so far.

WISH 54: Background Hooks

Perverse Access Memory: WISH 54: Background Hooks

bq. Do you like to have bits and pieces from your characters’ backgrounds appear in the game? Do you write hooks into your character background for the GM to use in the campaign for your character? Do you like it when the GM gives you a background hook into an adventure or scenario with a previously unknown hook, such as creating an old friend of your character’s who is somehow involved? What are some examples of cases where hooks have worked or not worked for you?

More Manned Spaceflight

Another article on manned space flight, which suggests that we should leave human exploration of space to the millionaires (e.g. Steve Fosset, the round-the-world balloon guy).

Interesting, but I’m afraid that one possible result would be Space Feudalism…

(2025 update: two words - Elon Musk)

Do we need astronauts?

How Science Brought Down the Shuttle (Free NY Times registration required).

Scientific experimentation in space can be safer and more cost effective using long-duration remote controlled orbital spacecraft.

This is true, but there are many other reasons why we are in space. My favourite set of videos from the recent ISS mission are the four-part series on eating (with all sorts of cool surface-tension physics hidden inside a mundane task), and the water film experiments by Don Petit. In both cases, an astronaut combined his love of science with a little spare time and came up with something entirely new, something that probably would never have made it off the ground otherwise.

High Availability is not Cheap

Jeremy Zawodny’s blog: High Availability is NOT Cheap

The system will fail at some point, no matter what, even if it’s only for a few seconds. That’s reality.

Well said, bro. The context was discussions on the MySQL mailing list, but it applies to my areas of expertise (networks and security) just as easily.

Networks are fun because they can fail in surprising ways. The most obvious example is an expensive, redundant network connection that, at some geographic location, shares the same copper or fibre bundle as its primary. The backhoe takes them both at the same time! There are many less obvious failures, too. The host that starts transmitting garbage packets on a network; the network is still up, just unusable…

Train Station Security

A friend of mine need to do two things: change trains at the station near my office, and give me an attachment for his digital camera. It made perfect sense for us to combine the two.

So I wander down to the station, and walk over to the escalator for the appropriate track. “I’m sorry, only passengers are allowed on the track level. It’s for safety, and it’s a policy. You can meet your friend over there at Arrivals”. As a regular commuter, I probably spend more time on train platforms than he does, but whatever. Sadly, I understand droid mentality, even if it makes me cringe.

Bicycle Theft

Well, we had a bit of excitement today! My neighbour knocked on the door at about 4PM to tell us that a couple of kids had walked into our open garage and taken my son’s brand new bicycle. He’s had it for a week, and thanks to the weather he hadn’t even taken it for a ride yet! The garage had been open for about five minutes; my wife opened it and then went to the back yard to use the hose.

Kid’s Books I Really Like

It suddenly hit me today to do this. There are many more books, and I’ll add them as I remember them.

• Manjusha Pawagi, The Girl Who Hated Books
• Thomas King, Coyote Sings To Moon

People Still Don’t ‘Get’ Passwords

blog.org → The Register:

Nine in ten (90 per cent) of office workers at London’s Waterloo Station gave away their computer password for a cheap pen, compared with 65 per cent last year.

Workers were asked a series of questions which included: What is your password? Three in four (75 per cent) of people immediately gave their password.

If they initially refused they were asked which category their password fell into and then asked a further question to find out the password.

WISH 47: Lessons Learned

Another WISH - WISH 47: Learning Your Lesson has caught my attention:

Name one lesson you learned in gaming that you will (hopefully) never have to learn again.

I guess I’ve been fortunate; I’ve never experienced the kind of interpersonal conflicts that others described in their responses…

Instead, my biggest lesson has been a game-playing one. In many cases, combat means you’ve failed; all that’s left is damage control. Sure, sometimes you’re there to clear all of the monsters out of a dungeon; hack and slash away in those cases! But sometimes the opponent is bigger/better/stronger than you, and combat will get you killed (or worse, locked away by the city guard :-). With a good game master, shrewd negotiation will get you a better prize than death and destruction. Besides, it’s more fun!

Kite Flying

Well, no kite pictures. I was having way too much fun flying kites to bother with the camera.

The three of us woke up early, and even with a lazy morning we still arrived at the kite field at around 9:30. I helped a bit with setup while the kids ran around saying “hello!” to all of the TKF members the recognized. It’s nice that everyone is now treating them as just part of the gang. Speaking of which, the kids were angels all day; they flew kites, they made paper airplanes, they helped people, they entertained themselves. It was a pleasant break from normal sibling squabbling.

They Grow Up

So he’s about to turn seven on Monday. Eeek! They grow up too quickly.

After a long winter, it’s always nice to get outside in the sun and fresh air, so we always hold Gareth’s birthday party in a nearby park. The weather has been obliging so far; this year it was slightly chilly (13°C), but sunny and with a nice breeze. We flew some kites, played on the climbers, ate sandwiches and cake, and even had a water balloon fight!

WISH 44: Picking Games

Perverse Access Memory: WISH 44: Picking Games

I’ve been reading PAM (and its predecessor) Since about WISH 27. This week’s question prompted me to finally answer one. At some point I’ll go back and fill in other interesting ones.

How do you choose games to join or to run? What factors influence you: timing, people, system, genre, etc.? Do you weigh different factors for different kinds of games, e.g., online vs. tabletop vs. LARP? Is it a group decision or a decision you make on your own?

SMTP works just fine, thank you

Joel on Software → Internet Security: Too Broke to Fix?

Larry Seltzer wants to replace SMTP with something that has authentication and resource limits. Well, SMTP already has authentication, and many MTAs already have resource limits…

Many people discover SMTP’s authentication when they try to send e-mail while travelling; their ISPs don’t let them. SMTP can already use TLS with certificates, SASL, or POP-before-SMTP, and many ISPs are starting to require one or more. My hobby server supports all three, so it can’t be hard. I haven’t seen anyone do resource limits out-of-the-box yet, but that’s because it doesn’t really solve anything; spammers will always be able to hide inside “legitimate” usage profiles.

Weight Watching continued

So I’m four weeks into Weight Watchers’ maintenance program. The idea is that you try to be consistent (so that your weekly weigh-ins are reasonably accurate), and add points to your daily regimen until your weightloss flattens out.

As you can see from the new graph on the left, I haven’t flattened out yet. Instead, I’ve lost another 4.6 pounds; in fact, I’m losing more weight now than I was in the last month of my regular program, even though I’m eating more. Frankly, I’m confused! I don’t think I’ve significantly increased my activity level; I haven’t started my formal spring exercise program yet, and I’m a week off curling now.

Good Weather and 802.11b

So I’m sittin’ on the Group W bench…

No! I mean I’m sitting on the front porch, reading e-mail and writing this blog entry; my daughter (home from school today, remember?) is playing on the sidewalk. We’re waiting for the towels and swimsuits to dry, so that we can pack them up and head to the park for the rest of the afternoon before swim class.

It’s summer out here, about 25°C and sunny. It’s only going to last today, apparently; tomorrow’s forecast is for a high of 16°C in the morning, them falling to 0°C with a freezing rain warning, so I’m enjoying the weather while it lasts.