EXPERIMENTAL ///

The Experiment continues.

EXP I was an exercise in running UT99 on Slackware. I cut my teeth on Slackware 1.3.18 back in 1994 and I'd always been fond of it.

Sometimes, when you love something, you just have to let it go.

But in my case, the honeymoon was over and I kicked its sorry ass out on the curb. Slackware just doesn't cut it anymore.

EXP II was a continuation of EXP I, which had a secondary goal of going wireless. After a few headaches finding the right card, it was all systems go. And it ran decently, until a few kernel upgrades ago when it started dropping packets.

Hence, EXP III (alternative title: Back to the Drawing Board). The 802.11g is gone and the wire is back in style. I had a 1996 vintage, thirty foot chunk of CAT5 lying around on the garage floor, collecting serious dust and cobwebs. It was an emergency crossover cable I kept in my trunk back in my consultant days (along with a twelve foot parallel LapLink cable, which saved my ass more times than I care to remember).

It was just long enough - by a couple of inches - to hardwire EXP into HinkyNet without rearranging the entire Data Center (also known as "The Fambly Room").

Oldtimers should notice a definite improvement.

I am still on Phase VI of my Disaster Recovery Plan, but various events have kept me from implementation. I have been very busy at work breaking in the new Chief Security Officer. He's a good guy and knows his shit. But he's learning what an incredible fucking mess my coworkers and an insane middle management team have made out of Information Technology.

In fact, at times it seems they only hired him so we could pass our yearly Financial Security Audit.

I hope that's not true. On the bright side, a re-org is on the horizon. The middle managers are going to be shuffled and they're not happy about it. The CSO likes my style and it seems my position will not change, but this guy is an ascended master of Social Engineering, so I keep my Big Fucking Grain of Salt handy.

February 2008 is going to be an interesting month.

Stay tuned, boys and girls!