The last Friday in July is a day when IT folks finally get the appreciation they deserve! Today is the 10th annual SysAdmin Day!

A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. All to serve this webpage.

A sysadmin installed the routers, laid the cables, configured the networks, set up the firewalls, and watched and guided the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer. All to make sure the webpage found its way from the server to your computer.

A sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working. A sysadmin makes sure your computer is working in a healthy way on a healthy network. A sysadmin takes backups to guard against disaster both human and otherwise, holds the gates against security threats and crackers, and keeps the printers going no matter how many copies of the tax code someone from Accounting prints out.

A sysadmin worries about spam, viruses, spyware, but also power outages, fires and floods.

When the email server goes down at 2 AM on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work.

A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work — to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.

So if you can read this, thank your sysadmin — and know he or she is only one of dozens or possibly hundreds whose work brings you the email from your aunt on the West Coast, the instant message from your son at college, the free phone call from the friend in Australia, and this webpage.

Show your appreciation

So for all of my fellow SysAdmins of varying occupations within the IT field, I present this certificate of appreciation. Especially to Corwin over at Last Exit to Babylon for all his help with server-webby stuff!

The test says:

Dear Wondrous SysAdmin,
I present to you this small printed token of appreciation in recognition of the fact that you could easily turn my e-mail address into a spam sewer if I didn’t. I pity the fool who doesn’t give you one of these today. I am not worthy. Please hurt someone else.

Go forth, Sysadmins! Treat yourself today! Or make someone else treat you!

Technorati tags: full of fun fridays, sysadmin day

I’m an introverted person. I’m not one to talk to someone I don’t know well, and some days I just don’t feel like being sociable. I generally will respond with a “Hi” or “Morning” back to someone who says something to me though. Mostly that’s enough for people; even those who are the chipper morning people. You know the type. They are always smiling and saying “Hi” to everyone, asking how your weekend went, that sort of thing. So. Not. Me.

But lately I’m getting more and more of the chipper and outgoing people who just won’t leave me alone in the elevator. Especially when I’m deep in thought, or deliberately trying to look that way to avoid talking to anyone. Call it a bad mood, or “not had my morning caffeine yet”, or just plain old hugely introverted. I say “Hi” back, but they just keep on talking to me. Saying “Smile!”, or like the other day, waving their hand in front of my gaze because I didn’t look at his face when I said “hi” back.

Listen guy. I acknowledged your greeting. I was deep in thought, thinking about a work project that I was working on, and you broke my train of thought. More importantly, you just about violated my personal space with your hand waving and made me uncomfortable.

Why is it that people like me are considered rude and not the ones who keep pushing their personality onto someone who obviously isn’t reciprocating? Take a hint. Not everyone is comfortable making chit-chat with people they don’t know very well. Hell, even if I do know a coworker somewhat well that doesn’t mean I feel like talking to them every time they say hello in the hallway.

It’s not personal. It’s just how I work in the real world. I like my personal space, and if you try to force your way in by continually trying to engage me in conversation, you’ll find I don’t become more friendly. I become as distant as I can while keeping a professional, working relationship.

So extroverts, keep all that in mind the next time someone looks lost in thought or ignores you when you get on an elevator. It’s not always about you. They may be like me and just want to be left alone to their thoughts in their own little world.

I’d like to ask EA what the fuck it was thinking with how they are promoting Dante’s Inferno. First they failed at a fake Christians-protesting-a-Hell-videogame at E3. Some Christian bloggers were upset that EA was exploiting Christianity and reinforcing stereotypes of the fanatical fundie religious nut for cheap publicity. It did garner publicity, but more because they faked the protest and how bad their judgment was. Personally I wasn’t impressed.

But for Comic-Con EA’s marketers sunk way low. The contest, called “Sin to Win” was supposed to represent the Second Circle of Hell, but instead comes off as horribly sexist.

In case you can’t see it, the rules are to “Commit acts of LUST. Take photos with us or any booth babe.” Then you send the photo to the Dante’s team and repeat! One winner will get “Dinner and a sinful night with TWO hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty”.

Gee, just what any straight girl (or gay guy) would want as a prize!

Leaving aside the encouragement to “commit acts of lust”, since that’s been covered at Ars rather well already… EA, why couldn’t you have just said the winner and two guests get a night on the town instead of offering up women (excuse me…TWO HOT GIRLS) as trophies?

EA issued a sort-of apology that clarifies their wording, but not for the contest itself:

We understand there’s a lot of debate right now around our “Sin to Win” promotion at Comic-Con and wanted to clarify a few things. We created this promotion as part of our marketing efforts around the circle of Lust (one of the nine sins/circles of Hell). Each month we will be focusing on a new Circle of Hell. This month is Lust. Costumed reps are a tradition at Comic-Con. In the spirit of both the Circle of Lust and Comic-Con, we are encouraging attendees to Tweet photos of themselves with any of the costumed reps at Comic-Con here, find us on Facebook or via e-mail. “Commit acts of lust” is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps. Also, a “Night of Lust” means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante’s Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes.

We apologize for any confusion and offense that resulted from our choice of wording, and want to assure you that we take your concerns and sentiments seriously. We’ll continue to follow your comments and please let us know if you have any other thoughts or concerns. Keep watching as the event unfolds and we hope you’ll agree that it was all done in the spirit of the good natured fun of Comic-Con.

I understand the point that there is a theme to the contest. That part I find clever and interesting. But when you decide to encourage the objectification of women and carry out the contest in such a way in alienates gamers (just like when IGN had a Comic-Con contest for men only. After IGN was called on it at least they created one for women as well.) don’t be surprised when there is criticism.

For us feminist gamers, it’s really not surprising that the comments to the articles are saying we are overreacting, too sensitive, and that women aren’t going to play this game anyway, so why are we getting so upset.

*sigh*

And then the video game/comic/geek industry wonders why there aren’t as many women around.

(See also Girl’s Guide to Comic-Con)

Technorati tags: ea, sexism, misogyny, comic con, dante’s inferno

Marion Gooding, the musician who was arrested in Tulsa for allegedly desecrating the US flag, won’t have to fight anything. The District Attorney’s office announced they won’t press charges, citing the Supreme Court’s decision that protects such acts under the First Amendment.

“The fact that an audience takes offense to certain ideas or expressions does not justify prohibitions of speech,” according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office.

While this is a Very Good Thing, take a look at what Gooding’s attorney had to say.

Gooding’s attorney Tim Studebaker has not viewed the video but said he believes the decision not to press charges means that his client’s version of the facts was right.

“We said all along that this was an accident and not as egregious as the deputy marshal said it was. I think the video tape exonerated my client,” he said.

…

Studebaker said that Gooding uses the flag on stage as an act of patriotism. Gooding came out wearing the flag draped around his shoulders, then draped it over a speaker, he said.

He didn’t trample the flag but did admit to accidentally stepping on the portion of flag that hung to the floor, Studebaker said.

It doesn’t matter if it was an accident. You know, I don’t have a fancy law degree, but even I understand enough to know that Gooding could have done things that many people find extremely offensive, like spit on the flag and set it on fire, and it would have been protected under the First Amendment. Although if he did do something that extreme he would probably be arrested due to attitudes like this:

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said, however, that he believes Ketcher acted well within the scope of his duties.

“On a personal note, I’m proud of the action he took,” Walton said.

Walton said he has not seen the video but hopes the public gets a chance to view it, noting that Ketcher and Gooding’s accounts of what happened are very different.

“It’s certainly (the district attorney’s) determination to view this in terms of prosecution merit. I think what the man did was very outrageously disrespectful to the United States,” Walton said.

Don’t you just love police and law officials who don’t give a fuck if someone’s rights are violated?

Technorati tags: free speech, first amendment, oklahoma, flag

UPDATE! There won’t be charges pressed. Check out this post for more details.

Last week a musician from the band Smunty Voje was arrested after their performance at a Casino in Catoosa. The arresting Cherokee marshal said the reason was “treating the American flag with indignity”, which is a felony offense here in Oklahoma. Here is what allegedly happened:

Ketcher, a veteran of the Gulf and Iraq wars who served with the Marine Corps and Army National Guard, said in his affidavit that he saw the incident while on duty and standing in front of the entrance to a new night club, Friction, at the casino.

Ketcher said in his affidavit that Gooding had the flag draped around his neck and shoulders. Later in the performance, Gooding “allowed the U.S. flag to touch the floor multiple times then he wadded up the flag in his fist and shook it in the air before he threw it to the floor then trampled, stomped and danced on top of it,” he wrote.

A security officer later picked up the flag from the floor, where it was “wadded up next to an amp with guitars stacked on top,” Ketcher said.

First, I question Tulsa World on why they felt the need to include Ketcher’s prior military service in the story. Is it meant to sway the reader to think “Well, of course he should have arrested the band member! The guy fought for his country and risked his life! He shouldn’t have to watch the flag desecrated!”

Except that later on in the same news story the point is made that Oklahoma’s law is not in line with the Supreme Court.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Abitbol said that while state law prohibits flag offenses, federal law protects it as a display of free speech.

“It was apparent that if a charge was filed it would not be a felony,” he said.

“It’s one of those situations where Oklahoma has the offense on the books, but federal (law) and the Supreme Court have upheld that type of action as protected free speech.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that a Texas man’s burning of a U.S. flag during a demonstration at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas was constitutionally protected. [See Texas v. Johnson]

“It’s our job to follow the law,” Abitbol said.

“I don’t agree with it, but that’s the law. It is not a crime to do things to the U.S. flag that most people don’t like.”

Gee, this sounds just like what I said back when when a Marine was arrested for assaulting one of the Westboro members who desecrated a US flag. And something I’ve said many times here before. Free speech means free speech for everyone. Even for people who may say or do things that most people don’t agree with. That means yes, the KKK have the right to hold a parade, Westboro gets to protest, Sally Kern gets to spew her vile beliefs, groups can hold “Tea Parties” at the Capitol, and we must protect their right to do it. When we start deciding that some people’s speech isn’t protected just because it’s offensive, we start losing what makes this such a great country. And what the founding fathers meant for this country to be.

While I don’t agree that the ADA is required to file charges here just to “follow the law” (charges weren’t brought against the Marine in the Westboro incident who broke a law), this does point out that our law needs to be challenged through the courts and have it removed from the books. Hopefully the Oklahoma ACLU will step in if charges are filed.

Technorati tags: free speech, first amendment, oklahoma, flag

This story is just coming out, so the motive behind it is still unclear, but it reaches a whole new dimension of irony none the less.

People who bought Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight. It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic version, and Amazon caved into their demand to sneak into people’s electronic libraries and take back the book at the publisher’s request.

The Kindle owners accounts were credited, but it still shows just how evil DRM can be. Sure you may have paid for the books, but they aren’t really yours. You are basically just purchasing the right to read them. Want to re-download the books you’ve already paid for? Nope, no can do. Done with the book and want to resell or donate it to someone, like you would a physical book? Again, nope.

It’s the DRM and tight restrictions of rights I have that has kept me from the Kindle. I shouldn’t have to wonder if the book I just got will be deleted because the distributor or publisher wants to pull the digital rights.

Speculation on the Amazon boards is that the distributor didn’t have the rights to begin with, so when Amazon found out, they pulled the books off of the Kindles. While this may be a very logical explanation, it’s still pretty Big Brother that Amazon is able to delete an e-book that someone bought in the first place. Boing-Boing said it best:

This kind of bullshit will encourage readers to visit Web sites in countries where the copyright has expired on Orwell’s books so they can get free un-stealable electronic copies.

Poor Orwell. It’s a good thing he’s not alive to see this.

Technorati tags: orwell, kindle, digital rights

I got an unsolicited email this week that, at first, I thought was spam.

Hi Jessika,

I work for Linkstar, a leading broker of online advertising, dealing with many thousands of independent webmasters worldwide. We currently have a client in the Finance industry for whom we are looking to acquire advertising from quality websites.

We’ve had a look at your site Middleragedpunk.com and think that it would be a good match for our client, whose target demographic is similar to your own.

We would be interested in purchasing advertising in the form of a text-based ad on your site. To reduce unnecessary admin and hassle, we prefer to pay a fixed annual upfront fee for such advertisements. Once the ad has been placed, payment can be made quickly by PayPal.

Now, I’ve been around the intertubes long enough to know that one does not automatically reply to emails that seem odd. And this one did for a few reasons.

- My readership is very small. So small that even 50 visits in one day is a lot for me. Many days out of the month I have zero visits.

- A client in the Finance industry is trying to target middle aged-liberal-video game-etc-geeks? Really? That’s specific.

- It was unsolicited AND from a UK based URL.

I decided instead of replying, I’d rely on Google to tell me more info. I figured I couldn’t have been the only one to get one of these. I was right. Dan Tynan, who blogs at Computer World, also got one:

Sure, I said, I’d be happy to take some of your money. But first, could you tell me a little more about Linkstar?

You’d think the answer to that question would be simple. It wasn’t. The more information I sought, the more elusive it became.

After I pressed Sarah to tell me what kinds of ads they had in mind, who their advertisers were, if they an affiliate-based ad company, and who actually owned Linkstar, her supervisor “Steve Martins” replied and said Linkstar was no longer interested in advertising on my site.

After he realized I was a journalist (which is pretty obvious if you’ve ever visited my blog), he warned me that the firm’s solicitors would vigorously pursue legal action against any one who published defamatory comments about the company.

Well, saying that to someone who does investigative journalism just for fun is like tossing raw meat to a hyena. So I started digging.

[Note: Libel & free speech laws are much different in the UK than the US, hence their threat of legal action on defamatory comments. But that’s an issue for another day.]

He turned up some interesting info about the domain registration and the real owner of the company, and he thinks:

Linkstar isn’t doing anything illegal or particularly shady. But its penchant for secrecy is troubling. As a general rule, I don’t do business with any online company that does not clearly identify its principals or provide its actual place of business - and I don’t think other people should, either.

After reading his experience, as well as many comments on his post, saying the same thing happened to them, I’m not going to even reply to the email.

Besides, I really don’t want ads here. Even if they do seem different than ads that pop up based on keywords, I don’t want the chance that I’d see an add for Rush Limbaugh, or a sexist ad, or a diet ad like this one:

I mean COME ON! Not only is this the typical Headless Fatty picture, but it’s obviously not even the same person. I wonder if it was on purpose, like some kind of subversive anti-diet thing, but I don’t want to generate ad revenue for a diet ad to find out. If anyone else does though, let me know.

Technorati tags: ads, linkstar

Oh, Marvel. First you don’t care about insulting and alienating readers by offering up “hot sexy fun”, but now you want to help us look stylish!

The article starts out innocently enough by plugging the costumes for sale in their online store. Since they only stick to four of their big named heroes that are tied into movies lately, it’s understandable that there aren’t any female costumes featured. But fear not ladies! They have some products just for us!

The consumer products team at Marvel is thinking big when it comes to females.

The entertainment company, best known for its library of comic book superheroes ranging from Spider-Man to Iron Man, is starting 2009 with a major push into the women’s apparel, cosmetics and accessories markets.

Thanks, Marvel. You really just see us as either entertainment for men or as a dollar sign, don’t you? In case you’re curious, like I was, what the hell were they thinking:

[W]hat is the messaging behind a Marvel branded line of make-up and how does it relate to the Marvel characters and stories?

“With a branded line of make-up from Marvel, girls will be able to feel as if they are going from ordinary to extraordinary just like the super hero characters in the stories, ” he explained. “There is also such a nostalgic undertone that either young or older girls are drawn towards because of the long history and brand behind the name Marvel.”

The lip glosses come in an assortment of yummy flavors and give the lips a shiny tint; just the right amount of color for summer. For less sheen, the lip balms are a great way to keep your lips perfectly pouty.

Can someone please tell me what super heroine used lip gloss to gain superpowers?

Between the condescending Girl’s Guide to Comic-Con and this latest fiasco out of Marvel, it’s no wonder females aren’t flocking to read comics. And those of us who are geeks are becoming more pissed off and vocal about the sexism and misogyny everywhere in geek culture.

To top it all off, I took a look at the online store plugged in the article. One could find costumes for plenty of male Marvel characters, but only one lone costume representing female characters. Spider-Girl. And she’s “Sassy”, with a short skirt and everything. Come on, they couldn’t even include Invisible Woman for fuck sake? They have the other three of the Fantastic Four costumes, but not her! Guess she wouldn’t be sexy enough.

Some days it sucks being a female geek.

Technorati tags: marvel, comics, sexism