Didn’t have time to finish reading 1984 for tomorrow, I still plan to finish it though. Pulled up the SparkNotes, printed out the important stuff and I hope I’ll do OK. I’ve read about a third of the book, so I also have that to fall back on. I’ll be fine, I hope :?. Made good money this weekend, but $590.10 will soon be gone for car insurance :(. But I got to drive the G35 (AKA Fun Car) a bunch today. I love that car. Takes turns soooo smoothly and quickly ;). Did I mention it can MOVE, turn on a dime, and brakes like crazy. I want that car.
Monthly Archive for February, 2004
It’s not bad overall. I would say it’s a bit slow, but it’s makes some really good points. Language is a method of expression and deleting words prevents expression and spreading of unorthodox thought. Changing views to control society; in this case, vilifying sex so that people feel sick when they have it under mandated circumstances. How the government is always watching (which they can, and to a technological extent, already do). Big Brother isn’t a concept explored too deep yet. It’s been introduced as a fundamental concept of life, but nothing too much on fighting it and whatnot. Reading and doing 6 hours of computer stuff (work) was my day! Tons o fun!
I setup LJCrossPost on my vastly superior MovableType blog. I was even able to get my last 30 days of posts posted to my LJ. Everything is seamless too, I just post to my blog like normal and the tags I have in my templates talk to scripts and whatnot and it all just works. The only downer is that LJ doesn’t translate my emotions like 
into a graphic. But hey, it’s all good. Oh yeah, my livejournal username is justinosx and can be found here.
The wind crashes into my house. The frame creaks and the cat’s eyes widen. It’s pretty windy, my room is pretty noisy with all of the wind hitting the house. The Jar was freaking out downstairs when the house creaked, so she’s laying on my bed now. Finished my Tech housing stuff. All I have left to do now if call medical records and see when that stuff is due and setup my final transcripts to be sent. I got my $100 check from Chatahooche Tech today for dual enrollment in AP Computer Science. One thing that’s really on my nerves lately is my mom’s affinity for always making sure I tell people that I got into Tech. Arghh! I hate bragging. My brother calls it “My Baby Boy Syndrome,” pretty accurate sadly. Day 5 and still no SSL cert, tomorrow is day three after they’ve gotten the documentation (their servers freaked it up the first time) and that’s more than enough time. Arg. Well, I have Tech to look forward to.
Everyone seems to be getting senioritis. 80% of my advisement is failing at least one class (I’m in the 20% :)). It seems to be that way with just about everyone. I only have my math grade to worry about, and that will end up being a B. Still waiting on my SSL certificate :x. If it doesn’t get resolved by tomorrow, I’m just gonna drop this SSL thing and use a self signed certificate. There’s a way I can import it so I won’t see the warning from the self signed certificate, but that only works on my computers :?.
Still waiting on the SSL cert. I think my S/MIME signature may have been stripped by InstantSSL’s servers destroying my email. I sent a non singed version with the request I got in my inbox today. So hopefully I’ll get that dealt with tomorrow. And with my unending journey to improve my site, I’ve been looking into other webmail clients. Squirrelmail does its job quite decently. It’s just soooo plain looking. I found a really neat client, hivemail, which looks amazing. But it lacks IMAP support (POP only) and I have some concerns about it being too CPU intensive (which isn’t very cool on a shared server). But it’s biggest barrier is that it’s price tag is $130 :o. So yeah, I might try the trial, see if there’s a way for me (or Dreamhost) to do a quick check on it’s CPU usage. I can’t find any info about it on Google or DH’s support sites. I’d REALLY have to like it to spend that kind of money.
I’ve started the process of getting an SSL certificate (refer to previous post for more info). I’m just waiting for my ID to be verified, since SSL works based on a web of trust. Once that’s done, I’ll get a long string of data that I’ll stick into a nice admin panel and SSL will be working completely. Right now, I have a pseudo certificate (which gives out a warning whenever SSL secured stuff is accessed). So that’s good. Sleep time…
Currently listening to The World Has Turned And Left Me Here from the album Weezer (Blue Album) by Weezer
Just got back from Eurotrip with Joe and Jacob. Funny as crap. Two scenes were utterly horrible. They were just… so…. horrible. But the rest of the movie was hilarious. And there was this song…. Scotty Don’t Know. Too bad I can’t find it on iTunes. On a totally unrelated note, I’ve been considering (quite heavily) getting a SSL certificate (encrypts stuff on the internet- my primary concern being webmail). Well, the latest “upgrade” the CCC (Cobb County Communists- a term coined by Zollo) has really screwed up the internet. First, I now have to login to do anything (which isn’t a big deal), but their stupid proprietary crap has a self signed SSL certificate (which should not really be trusted since there is NO web of trust that backs up that that login is generated by the CCC) and won’t work with Safari. Firebird works well enough, but Safari has a Mac UI and opens faster. This upgrade also has created problems for everyone with images (they don’t load half the time). There “no expectation of privacy” login screen concerns me and with this latest upgrade has made me concerned enough to ask myself, “what’s to stop them from looking at my webmail? There servers overzealously cache stuff. They could just cache my webmail to, under the guise of school saftey, make sure I’m not doing anything ‘bad’.” My logic is, these people have no right to enter the digital equivalent of my mailbox regardless.
My research into the CCC has yielded the find of big brother clauses in their tech use policy:
3.1. Privacy and Security 3.1.1. The user understands and agrees that he/she shall not have an expectation of privacy in the use of and storage on Cobb County School District’s technology. By using Cobb County School District’s technology, the user consents to routine monitoring and maintenance of Cobb County School District’s technology performed in the ordinary course of business to maintain security and integrity. Monitoring includes, but is not limited to, reading, listening to, or otherwise monitoring the user’s wire, oral or electronic communications, including screening e-mails and tracking the user’s on-line Internet activity and other computer usage. This routine maintenance and monitoring is necessary and may lead to discovery that a user has or is violating this Technology Use policy and implementing regulation, other Cobb County Board of Education policies and implementing regulations, or the law. In addition, backup files may be maintained for archive purposes and may contain copies of all user files, records and communications.
It gets better
3.2.5. User communications, including e-mail, conducted on or using Cobb County School District’s technology may not be encrypted in order to avoid security review without the prior authorization of the Chief Information Officer of Cobb County School District.
Luckily, I am required to make sure my username and password is protected. I’ll choose to ensure the security of my username and password with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.
3.1.2. The user will be ultimately responsible for the use of his/her individual computer and email accounts and all activity that occurs there. The user will take all reasonable precautions to prevent other users from gaining access to and using the accounts. Users will not share any account names and passwords, including e-mail, with other users or leave computer files, emails, or electronic network sessions open or unattended. Users will change passwords on a regular basis as they expire or sooner if necessary to ensure security. The user will immediately notify appropriate personnel if a potential security problem is identified.
Needless to say, I’ll be getting a SSL certificate. Which will cost me $50-150 depending on how long I want to wait to deal with this again :?.