I finally decided to get more serious about learning the Ruby programming language. My thoughtful and Internet-savvy mother-in-law got me the Ruby Cookbook off my Amazon Wishlist back at Christmastime, but it's been sitting on my shelf, just itching to be touched. Still, I don't know why I chose now in particular to get into it, when I'm about to take Part One of the CCNA test, but hey...

Finally managed to fit a meeting of the local Ruby User's Group this week, too—lots of fun, in a geeky sort of way. Nicholas Stuart presented to a ragtag handful of misfits on some random features of the language, while we toodled on our laptops and tried them out or asked inane questions. (BTW, why don't they call the user group a RUG? I think that's a great acronym!)

Then, to stem off boredom the past couple evenings, I've read some of Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. I must say: perhaps I didn't take enough hallucinogenic substances as a youth, because much of the author's randomness seems waaaaaay out there to me, but it does keep you reading. And the theory says that maybe I'll remember it better that way, rather than skimming a very dry programming manual and forgetting it almost immediately. The Guide is probably aimed at less-informed programmers, in that in tries to explain concepts that you would already know well if you've programmed before; but it is entertaining and, uh, possibly psychotic.

So anyway, I'm enchanted with Ruby nonetheless, and looking forward to much lazy, impatient, hubric scripting in the future.

Once again, I must say, in the words of Mark Twain: rumors of my recent demise have been greatly exaggerated. I'm still breathing (barely, sometimes); I just haven't posted in a while...

Anyway, I recommend you read the following article, even if you're not interested in InfoSec software: How Security Companies Sucker Us With Lemons.

That's all for now.

Attn: Security Wonks

If you have not already checked out version 3.0 of the Metasploit Framework, it is high time you did so. It is pretty darn amazing, even just for the fancy interface!

To see it, you don't even have to install: just check out these intro vids at EthicalHacker.net: Part 1 and Part 2.

(Oh, and while you're there: you may enjoy Tom Liston's latest "Skillz Challenge": Microsoft Office Space: A SQL With Flair.)

One of the smartest things that Ainsley & I have done was to take a class from Dave Ramsey on managing our money. The more we follow the advice, the better off and more peaceful we are.

But—wouldn't you know it?—just recently I've found an even easier system. You can learn about this remarkable financial management system from this short commercial they showed during Saturday Night Live.

I've been studying for the CCNA lately, and it inspired me to create the following nerd joke:

Question: What do you call a 100Mbit Hub?

Answer: Half-Fast Ethernet

If you get it, this is funny on so many levels (or not). If you don't, it's not. I'm mostly amusing myself here.

Still dealing with some fallout from the last webhost switch and Postnuke upgrade. Admittedly, if I were to do it all again, I would not choose PostNuke as my CMS... and sometimes I think when I get "free time" (I know: "What's that?") that I'd like to make a database converter to move the content from PN to another more popular, more manageable, more flexible CMS. But until then: oh well.

Anyway, last night a friendly fellow named Chris informed me of some issues with new-user registration on this site. A little investigation showed that it's the XUser module I've been using to ease the registration process, and of course it's all but abandoned. So, until I find a replacement, the place to go to register an account with the site is ewall.org/user.php. Sorry for the fuss... Maybe I'll have some "free time" this weekend.

Oh, in other site news: I did fix the Repacking for Windows Installer index page. Urp, sorry 'bout that—I know that's pretty much the only reason many of you come to my site. But it works again.

Today when I logged into my work computer it informed me that there was a new version of the venerable Gaim open source instant messaging client I use... but when I browsed to the Gaim site at SourcForge.net, it was gone. It turns out that, once again, another fine Open Source product has been forced to change it's name by legal battles with the Big Bad Corporations. Dang them! Now, The Program Formerly Known As 'Gaim' is called Pidgin. Okey-dokey.

The last time this happened [to me] was with Ethereal—I still can't get used to the new name Wireshark, and always have to go looking on my computer to figure out what it's called now. I guess this is why companies invest so much in branding and don't want to change their names... and why the Big Bad Corporations love forcing the Open Source products to change!

...and I don't mean ironic "like rain on your wedding day; like a free ride when you've already paid;" as my fried Tyler used to say, most of those things in Alanis Morrisette's song aren't ironic at all, they're things that just suck.

The real irony here is this: It was only this past Sunday night, as the rain and wind was beginning to batter on my windows, that I wrote that last post about power outages in Africa. By lunchtime the next morning we lost our power here in my comfy little American city of Portland, Maine, and now a day later there haven't been signs of it coming back yet. It was a dark and chilly night, I tell you!

Y'know, last August I promised you I'd share more stories from that summers trip to Central Africa. It's been more than a few days since then, so maybe I should get on that, eh? Okay, so here's an amusing little anecdote that I've been meaning to share:

As is no surprise, the electricity is not particularly dependable in some of the places we traveled, even in parts of the larger cities like Bujumbura (Burundi) and Kigali (Rwanda). And it seemed that every time we were sitting around a table chatting and the power went out, someone would say to me, "Ah... This is Africa!" as if power outages were a defining element of African culture. I tell you: every time there was a power outage, someone said it.

But once during our trip—at a wedding reception, in fact—there was a much better "This is Africa!" moment. The power had been dimming and already blinked a few times, and the customary "This is Africa!" had already been said, and there we were: hundreds of people sitting there in the dark. As honored guests, we white Americans were up on the stage with the wedding party and family, and had a great view of the other guests—at least until the lights went out. Then it happened: hundreds of cell phone lights flickered on throughout the hall—some phones with built-in flashlights, some just held up in the air with the screens on. It looked like waves of lighters at a rock concert, or a choir with candles at Christmastime.

That, my friends, is my quintessential "This is Africa" picture: a sea of cell phones glowing in a pitch-black room.

Why cell phones?, you may ask. Well, you see, most of Africa effectively missed the movement for "land lines"—which to this day are very expensive and impractical there—and skipped right ahead to cellular. Now nearly every man with a reasonably good job has a pay-per-call cell phone. It seems to me there are more cells-phones-per-capita in the Great Lakes region of Africa than in the United States! Can you believe it?

I'm sitting in my living room half-watching Elvis: King of Entertainment, a Christmas/birthday present from Whitley, my sister-in-law—who knows my soft spot for the King of Crooners. It's a sort of Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Elvis Aaron Presley And Other Things You Didn't Think To Ask.

But then I realized that I may have never told you my theory—or rather, my proof—so here it is: my Ontological Proof That Elvis Is Alive And Well And Working At 7-Eleven.

It's simple, really. Take the letters of his name: ELVIS PRESLEY...

Now rearrange them. (You may find the Internet Anagram Server useful. Or not.)

The letters in the name ELVIS can be rearranged to spell LIVES. Who could die with a name like that?

And the PRESLEY part, well, that's a little more challenging—after a few false starts, you should come up with the word SLERPEY which is, more-or-less, the trademark product of 7-Eleven convenience stores. You thought those stories of gas station sightings were a myth, but my hypothesis suggests he actually works for them now.

(Extra Credit: If you were still trying to figure out what to do with Elvis' middle name, AARON, than think about how the Slurpee's little straw-with-a-spoon-at-the-end looks like AN OAR.)

Heh... Anyway, so now you know. Next time you're at the ol' corner convenience store, keep an eye out for the King, okay?

Also: for a little more, er, thoughtful take on the topic of Elvis' life and/or death, click on over to Jesus is Alive, Elvis is Alive, What's the Difference?.