Convalesco

When I was a fanatic GNU/Linux user, using a Gentoo desktop all day long for every single task, I was addicted at readings like BoF and affiliate journals or jokes. Talking to many people, who in the hearing of “Linux” reacted with admiration over me, I was confident that I’m way above the average computer user level.

The most stupid thing I can remember is, working via secure shell and shutting down the service. I can’t remember if I shut down the demon after a new configuration of the ssh server, locking myself and everyone else outside(!) of the server, or was it an iptables rule that I didn’t test? Can’t remember right now.

A couple of days ago a friend asked me to move his server to my office, because he needed a 24/7 static ip, stable internet connection. So I said okay. Once we began to install the HP server, running Win2K server, a VPN network and other applications, we connected everything, the USB UPS, the Ethernet cable and the server was accessible from the office LAN, but not the internet. I insisted to my friend that I can manage to make this thing work. I took a quick look to the hardware configuration, the ethernet cable was there, the USB UPS was connected, everything looked fine.

I lost like 5 hours to make the damn thing work with the current configuration. Switched 2 ADSL+2 routers, I spend 100 € and then I called my friend and told him to call the technician who configured the machine initially, Stelios. He is one of the leading members of DWN and one of the few people I know in my town that are far better than with UNIX machines. I know many tech people here, because the city is small and at the office I call support for hardware or software level (Windows) issues often. I know many pro technician that call me and ask me my help in the rare occasions that they need a UNIX server. Anyway, I called Stelios with the attitude of the knowledgeable guy, talking to him about the router’s problem with the PPTP protocol, the Firewall configuration and other fancy words. Deep inside I wanted to let him know that “Hey Dude, I’m capable! I can do UNIX and this Windows shit are easy for me!!!“. After yelling overconfident for 5 minutes straight, he asked me about the network configuration, because the computer had 2 NIC’s. I said, yes, the iLog and the regular NIC. He said “No there is another, PCI Ethernet which I installed”. I took a careful look at the computer and the following conversation took place:

Me: “No man, there’s just a USB PCI card that we plugged the USB UPS and nothing else, I’m sure, I’m looking at it”

Stelios: “No, I can’t be wrong. I configured that computer myself and there’s an ethernet NIC on the PCI interface, so it has to be there!”

Me: “No there’s just a USB plug nothing more, I’m telling you that the UPS is plugged on it!”

Stelios: “Excuse me, the UPS is plugged on a PCI USB card???”

Me: “Yes”

Stelios: “Who did the set up the computer, did you?”

Me (n an overconfident and self approving mood): “Yes, I did”

Stelios: “Can you please unplug the USB from the Ethernet port now?”

Me: “What are you talking about?”

Stelios: “I don’t know how you did it, but I’m 99% positive that you plugged the USB UPS on the Ethernet card, because that computer 2 USB ports in the front + the fact that I had plugged the UPS to the keyboard’s USB originally.”

Me (Feeling like a total idiot while accepting the truth, the port was a f*cking ETHERNET!!!): “Oh my God!!!”

Stelios: “You got the point, how the f*ck did you do that? It’s probably the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard by phone”

Me (With the ego crashed down and a will to continue the conversation converging exponentially to 0): “Hmm, yes, well probably I didn’t take a careful look at it, I just plugged the USB PCI and…”

Stelios: “Yeah yeah, okay. There you go, you should be all set now. The 2nd Ethernet has just a few ports open to offer services via Internet. The Firewall is specifically configured to do that on that NIC. So you should just plug an ethernet cable from that NIC to the router and you should be fine.”

Me: “Okay, thank you”

Stelios: “You’re welcome, see you.”

The phone call ended a bit brutally. I made so many changes to the WindowsNT server’s firewall that Stelios had to come to the office and fix the damn thing by himself. I was on a business trip so, I was not there to face him. This is by far the most stupid thing I’ve ever did with a computer related configuration. After using almost daily, 3 operating systems (MacOSX, Linux & Windows), after configuration the MS-DOS applications that most paid tech savvy people who passed from my office failed (DeFacto, Bar Code printer and now I’m dealing with a professional DataCorp bar code printer that - for now - doesn’t work as it should), after being an operator in Grnet’s #Linuxhelp and helping some (few probably) people with basic Gentoo / Linux configurations, after posting solutions in many, many forums, I did something unimaginably stupid just like that.

So, it’s better to hold our horses when why try to prove that we know, time will tell.

If you are really good at something and if you are not, hey it’s not a big deal, just think that you have enough to be happy with

This year, me and my girlfriend decided to stay together. I wanted since I was 25 to live away from my parents house and my girlfriend was living alone as a student in my town so it was kinda expected situation for both of us. These few days, I’ve spend in order to look over the house, I found myself in a lot of weird trouble.

First, it was hard to find a house that was new. Everyone is trying to sell and not rent the building if possible. Then, rentals can vary very much, to the point that you don’t know if you are paying too much or too many. Then I had to match different needs. I have an expensive car so I need a place to park it. My girlfriend has no car or motorcycle so she needs a place that it’s near the city centre in order be able to do everything by feet. Another problem for me is space. I don’t want a small house because I hate small spaces. The choices are 2 or 3 rooms? We sure need a bedroom and I want an office to work properly. Another room wont harm, we could turn that into a second office for my girlfriend or a small bedroom for guests(!). Actually we don’t need that, my parents house is big enough to guest 4+ people. The big house will be more expensive to warm up and maintain. So the expenses will grow and my official income is not that good yet, but the two incomes together should be more than enough for a 3 bedrooms house. I said official income because I have the possible to add some extra plus, but I don’t want to count uncertain incomes when doing calculations, it’s unhealthy

I am mostly excited because I will finally have my small “computer centre” inside the house. All I need is a good, big office that will be able to host my iMac, my laptop and my Linux server, a computer that acts as file server and in the future it could have further dues, firewall, internet server (httpd, ssh, etc) and much more.

I’ve already calculated how is going to cost a Forthnet 24Mbps connection along with land line phone calls all over Greece. The rest doesn’t come cheap in Greece: Electricity & Water. But everything is gonna fit in the end, I’m quite positive and can’t wait…

With approximately 45 days left, I can’t wait for this period of my life to end. My military term didn’t teach me much. It confirmed what others say, war is not a solution. You can see the lack of common sense even by playing around war, without never really going to one, but hey there’s no way to bypass this time-losing estate.

I’m loosing, oh boy I think I’ve already lost it some time back, the interest in introductions and even the opposite sex. I’m just too bored to do whatever, I just wanna have fun and even this is turning hard lately. I feel like I’m loosing time in every way, professional and personal. Nothing feels right. Is this a complete feeling of emptiness or I’m just ungrateful? A spoiled little guy! Hah, who can tell?

I had travel plans after the end of my military term, which is 07 May 2008, but I’m seriously thinking not to go nohere. I was about to go to Italy, visit my college mates in Milan, Rome and Naples first and then getting ten days of rest in my parents in Sicily. On the other hand I will never get mentally rest unless I take over my day-to-day job completely. This takes time and I feel like I’ve lost already too much. I have other things to do, like getting an English degree and finishing the ECDL examinations, which is completely Microsoft driven shit-storm, especially for my level it’s completely useless, but since I joined I’ll get the degree.

It’s like riding on the storm, what the fuck does it take in order to be smooth? I never wanted a placable course of life. But what tempers you, are your inner feelings. It takes clear thought and strength to follow your dreams and risk the comfort of an easy, compromised life. But some things come from inside. It’s like a childhood dream that takes something more to follow it, because you never thought what you will lose by following it, only what you’re gonna gain. Still, feels like destiny.

Maybe I’m doing a big deal of what something that’s not. Maybe I just have too much to think, guarding on an average of six hours per day, gives you much time to think…

Before joining the army I was addicted to sleep. I was sleeping 11 hours per day. It was really hard for me to wake up when I was sleeping. After joining the army, sleep became something rare for a list of reasons. Most of them are related with the army. You rarely sleep more than three hours straight. Every three hours you have to wake up and do something. This means, that I rarely achieved REM status.

Although I am very happy with being to sleep just three hours per night for a few days and be fully functional, without the apparent need for sleep as before joining the army, I had a few bad experiences. The first one was four months, when after of four days of not sleeping, for various reasons, I had a sequence of illusions. I had to stay awake until 14:00. Before 11:00 the same day, I was not able to hold my eyebrows up for more than fifteen seconds. I was closing my eyes and watching dreams instantly. Not just random scenes, I’m talking about entire dreams. What I understood is that my dreams were related with the people that were joining the room I was sitting too. Yes, I was falling asleep while sitting on a wheelchair. The words and the laughs of the people that were joining the room were a part or the introduction of a dream. A dream, often, doesn’t have a logical script. I see people flying, or see weird scenes, apparently not correlated. While I understand the meaning of these random scenes put together in that specific order, it’s hard to explain them in a reasonable way to others, or even describe them here. Although this seems oxymoron, because we dream in REM status. In order to achieve REM status, you need to sleep for a few hours. Seven is the optimal number of hours, for my age. I’m 26 now.

Today, I came home at 16:28 . I took a hot bath and fell asleep. I just opened up my eyes, I can’t remember nothing, the ring phone woke up me. My sister called at 21:54 . I was still deeply sleeping. I woke up and ate a hot soup with my mother. I’m still feeling the desperate need for sleep. Probably I accumulated many (almost) sleepless nights. It’s the second time since I joined the army that I feel so tired. I’m feeling physically tired. Snowboarding and guarding came all together these last five days without much sleep, three to four hours per night max. However, I didn’t felt tired in the morning.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to get some sleep after my term finishes on May 07 2008.

            Είμαι φαντάρος εδώ και δύο εβδομάδες. Το προηγούμενο Σάββατο ορκίστηκα «να υπερασπίζομαι την πατρίδα και εν τέλη να διάγω ως πιστός και τίμιος στρατιώτης». Ο όρκος είναι το λιγότερο ανόητος. Λοιπόν δεν θα μπω σε λεπτομέρειες για το στρατόπεδο. Είναι πάρα πολύ καλό για στρατόπεδο, το φαγητό είναι άψογο και σε ποσότητες. Οι ανώτεροι μου είναι πολύ καλοί με ελάχιστες εξαιρέσεις.

            Το πρώτο ευτράπελο που θέλω να αναφέρω προέρχεται από (που αλλού) τον Χριστιανικό ναό που έχουμε στο στρατόπεδο. Ο ιερέας έβγαλε έναν φλογερό λόγο. Ούτε λίγο, ούτε πολύ, μας είπε ότι όσοι δεν πιστεύουν στον Θεό και την Εκκλησία (την Ελληνική αυτοκέφαλη εννοείτε, δηλαδή μόνο οι Έλληνες…) θα πρέπει να μας απαλλάξουν με τον θάνατο τους.

            Μου έκανε εντύπωση. Το ερώτημα μου είναι: «Γιατί ο στρατός και η εκκλησία είναι τόσο στενά συνδεδεμένοι;». Μετά από 45 δευτερόλεπτα σκέψεις βρήκα την απάντηση. Και οι δύο αυτές «οργανώσεις» απειλούνται θανάσιμα από την αμφισβήτηση. Αν αρχίσουμε να σκεφτόμαστε πριν πάμε φαντάροι, τότε θα καταλάβουμε ότι είναι τελείως άχριστη σπατάλη δημόσιου χρήματος. Αν σκεφτούμε για τις καλές προθέσεις που έχει η εκκλησία τότε μπορεί να μάθουμε ότι δεν υπήρξε ποτέ κρυφό σχολείο (1821 κτλ), ότι η καθολική εκκλησία στήριξε τον Χίτλερ στον δεύτερο παγκόσμιο πόλεμο παρόλο που γνώριζε για τον αφανισμό των Ευρέων ή μάλλον, για τον αφανισμό γενικότερα.

            Υποκριτές και οι μεν και οι δε, δεινόσαυροι, κατάλοιπα μιας ρατσιστικής αμόρφωτης κοινωνίας. Χρειάζονται; Μακάρι ο στρατός να μην χρειαζόταν καθόλου. Δυστυχώς χρειάζεται. Αναρωτιέμαι τι στρατό μισθοφόρων θα είχαμε αν δίναμε όλα τα χρήματα που δίνουμε, σαν κράτος, σε στρατόπεδα κι υψηλόβαθμα στελέχη που τα ξύνουν όλη μέρα, μέσα σε αυτά τα στρατόπεδα. Ένας Ανθυπολοχαγός από την σχολή ευελπίδων (όνομα για σχολή, «ευελπίδων», βέβαια η ελπίδα, το αύριο της Ελλάδος βγαίνει από αυτήν την σχολή!), παίρνει αρχικό μισθό 1.000 ευρώ καθαρά + ασφάλειες κτλ. Μην ρωτάτε, το εργασιακό περιβάλλων είναι άθλιο. Μόνο από ανάγκη πας εκεί.

            Είμαι πολύ αισιόδοξος για το μέλλον. Αν και τα τελευταία γεγονότα στην Τουρκία είναι αξιοθρήνητα. Δυστυχώς μας έδειξε για μια ακόμη φορά η Τουρκία πόσο μακριά είναι από τις Ευρωπαϊκές χώρες, φυσικά κι από την Ελλάδα.

            Τέλος να πω ότι τα «σκηνικά» δεν λείπουν, κάθε άλλο. Κάθε ημέρα που περνάει γελάς όλο και παραπάνω με ευτράπελα που συμβαίνουν, a la «Λούφα και Παραλλαγή» στο στρατόπεδο. Πάντως ο στρατός είναι το πιο γραφειοκρατικό, δυσλειτουργικό, σύστημα που έχω δει. Οι διαδικασίες είναι απαρχαιωμένες και τραγικές το λιγότερο. Η οργάνωση δεν υπάρχει. Αυτό πιστεύω ότι γίνεται γιατί η επικοινωνία είναι απόλυτα μονόδρομη, από πάνω προς τα κάτω. Ότι διατάξει ο ανώτερος γίνεται χωρίς συζήτηση. Ακόμη κι αν είναι ανοησία. Φυσικά για αυτό λέμε ότι εκεί που σταματάει η λογική αρχίζει ο στρατός. Μια από τις πιο τραγικές αγγαρίες που έκανα, ήταν να σκουπίσω μαζί με τον υπόλοιπο λόχο, την πλαγιά ενός βουνού. Δηλαδή έλεος! Πως σκατά σκουπίζεις με σκούπα ένα βουνό; Έπρεπε λέει να μαζέψουμε τα φύλλα. Φυσικά την επόμενη μέρα είχαν ξαναπέσει άλλα φύλλα.

            Τώρα είμαι Αθήνα και περνάω πολύ καλά! Η πόλη είναι super πολύ ανώτερη από την Θεσσαλονίκη. Τουλάχιστον για τα δικά μου γούστα. Ίσως κάποια στιγμή στο μέλλον έρθω για να ζήσω. Προς το παρών θα έρχομαι μόνο για διακοπές.

    Αύριο το πρωί ξημερώματα φεύγω για Αθήνα και μεθαύριο παρουσιάζομαι! Δεν θα πω που ακριβώς, δεν είναι ο Αυλώνας! Το ηθικό έχει πιάσει πάτο, δεν σας το κρύβω, σπάω το κεφάλι μου για να δώσω μια λογική εξήγηση σε αυτήν την παράλογη μαλακία που λέγεται στρατός όμως δεν μπορώ.

    Αυτό θα είναι το τελευταίο μου post για καιρό (λογικά). Να ‘στε όλοι καλά σας εύχομαι και τα λέμε σε περίπου 1 μήνα!

Your results:
You are The Flash

The Flash 70% Hulk 70% Green Lantern 65% Catwoman 60% Supergirl 50% Wonder Woman 45% Spider-Man 40% Superman 40% Robin 37% Iron Man 35% Batman 30%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…

Oh it’s weird! Since the last post I didn’t had the time to open the Objective C manual!!! Isn’t that weird? Even now I’m writing this post from my working Office! Many things to do the last week. I hope to have some time to work with TextMate and Objective C a bit more. I’m on the 4th chapter and Objective C seems fairly easy, maybe I should wait a bit more before making this kind of statement heh!