The Boston Diaries

The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”

Go figure.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Sexism is alive and well even today

The Younger has yet to pass the magnets, so he's still in The Hospital.

Sigh.

And so far, despite repeated corrections, most of The Hospital staff still refer to The Kids as “girls.” Okay, understandable given the shoulder length hair both have, and slender bodies.

But repeatedly?

“So, is she with you?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Should I give her a badge?”

“Yes, you can give him a badge.”

“Here you go little girl.”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaarg!”

(Not to mention that one staff member not only though The Younger was a girl, but still wore diapers! I mean, yes, we're waiting for an event from down there, but The Younger can hit the bathroom for that. Sheesh!)

Didn't we learn that long hair isn't an indication of gender during the 70s?

It's enough to make me want to put my head in my hands and sob uncontrollably.


Stupidity is alive and well today too!

On the way to work (after dropping off Wlofie and The Older at The Hospital), I stopped off at a gas station to fill up Lake Lumina. There are two pumps next to each other, both free. I'm trying to negotiate my way there when an SUV cuts in. But does the soccer mom driving said SUV pull all the way forward?

No, of course not.

She pulls up to the first pump, and stops.

Would it hurt her to pull up to the next pump, free of any vehicular obstruction and fill up there?

Yes, of course it would.

So I have to drive around this bree munching Yuppie soccer mom and circle around to some other free pump.

Then, when said bree munching Yuppie soccer mom finished filling up her SUV (I didn't actually see her get out of the vehicle and pump any gas, although I did see her talking on a cell phone), does she pull forward to circle around the lot to leave?

No, of course not.

Instead, she backs up and tries to negotiate a three point turn right there in front of the pump.

It's at this point that I want to put her head in my hands and shake violently.


Monday, only this time, on a Monday

From: Dan the network engineer <XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>
To: Sean Conner <sean@conman.org>
Subject:
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:12:05 -0500

Hey Sean,

XXXXXXXXX's traffic issues have not been solved, and, in fact, are still causing some major issues.

I believe this server has been hacked and needs to be taken off-line …

Okay, see! This is a Monday thang …

Sigh.


Not that bad, as these things go

Well, the server was hacked, but it looks to be a customer account was compromised, since the executables where owned by a customer account, the processes were running on unpriviledged ports, and the server was being used as part of denial of service attacks, with executables hidden under a hidden directory in /var/tmp.

Fortunately, the system hacked is running Linux without module support, so patching system calls to hide activity is impossible without a reboot (which would be noticed).

And as always, it could have been worse.

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