Archive for January, 2008

  

Always saddens me when I read things like this I mean, it’s a timeless story. Frankly I’m sick and tired of the whole ‘politically correct’ brigade…seems to me if they didn’t exist the government might actually save a penny or three?

So what if people occasionally get offended by something; whatever happened to freedom of speech? Or is Censorship really that high on any governments agenda that they see fit to belittle a kids story?

The mind boggles…

Comments No Comments »

  

First interactive Widget of the day! I will never need to navigate away from my blog to enjoy my Dilbert Mantra! This is sooooooo cool!

Comments No Comments »

  

It still amazes me the number of stories about apparent lack of security where IT information is concerned - but are moves like THIS perhaps too little too late? For many people all this media attention of alleged security lapses with laptops in security organisations does nothing to instill any confidence, especially post 9/11. It certainly drags something of a stain across the IT industry in general, I mean - just who are these people hiring?

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not ‘the’ expert on IT security - but there are basic common sense approaches that don’t cost huge budgets, and certainly don’t require extra equipment. A lot of security lapses are usually down to a lack of education within the staff hierarchy which negates any and all security efforts at the end of the day. It’s like building a farm and filling it with accountants! The crops won’t grow on money alone. You can have the best infrastructure in the world, the best firewalls money can buy, but when it boils down to it - when you throw ignorant (and in this context I mean ignorant as in lack of the correct knowledge) end user’s into the mix? You may as well remove all encryption, and switch your firewalls off. I have to say also that from my experience and perspective it’s sometimes IT staff who are the worst offenders!

This is a gross generalisation but it’s just the way my point appears to have come across. Too much Arbitration not enough Control where security is concerned. That’s my current take anyways :P

Comments 2 Comments »

  

Or is that the other way round??? :loopy:

well I did it?! I walked there and back again (but this was no Hobbits Tale?!)….went for a bit of a “tramp” (aka hiking) with Andrew (bossman) and Ann-Marie up the ridge line to the top of Mount Lowry, then on to Day’s Bay for a bite to eat, and then back by a ’slightly’ different route - probably the longest one we could take too!!

The route...there in blue back in red

This whole round trip took somewhere in the region of six hours, yes you read that right six hours…..I am currently creamed crackered to the Nth degree. I may be having a lie in tomorrow that’s not entirley by choice. Still was worth it for the exercise since it is a close comparison to Mount Butler - I’ll be looking at walking this a few times (Rachel?? Bring it on!!) unfortunatley Mount Lowry is only 1224 feet high; but there are a lot more ups and downs (and if you walk our route back) some barely visible track and fallen trees to navigate around, which when you are trying to climb up to the ridge line is certainly a challenge!

The view towards Petone

The above picture was taken approximatley a quarter of the way to the top of Mount Lowry at the beginning. When I do this walk again, one lesson I have learned is that I will be taking a lot more fluids?! I needed to ration my water supply slightly on the way back. Anyhoooo…. one last photo for you picture junkies out there - this was taken of the “Shrooms” we saw along the way; and my guess is they could be bonifide Toadstools!!! Certainly looked the part…I’m currently boiling some up now to give em a try! (joke!!)

Toadstool

Fun Fun Fungi… (cough)

…(waits for tumble-weed)…

That about sums up today, I’m gonna grab an early night to sleep this whole thing off!

Comments 5 Comments »