Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Oct 07 2005
One Hare-Brained Post
A few days ago I mentioned an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Cathy Smith had reported on a stand-off between local police in Boulder Creek and a pig named Kate. Cathy followed up her story today with word that Kate was tranquilzed and successfully removed from the property. Kate's temporarily being put up at a local SPCA shelter.
Another animal, Carly, was taken from the same property and also placed in a shelter. Carly's plight has no true relationship to another recent story about her kind, but I thought it might be best to avoid any mention of her particular species, due to the recent agitation over the new Wallace & Gromit film. Let's just say Kate's one of those "furry things".
Eastertime must be particularly stressful for folks on the British island of Portland, what with all those animal-tryouts for Easter Bunny on the Cadbury commercials. Maybe they just don't allow those commercials to be shown on Portland.
I guess Elmer Fudd would be acceptable because Elmer only mentions "wabbits". But fellow LooneyToons character, Yosemite Sam, must surely be banned.
Halloween gatherings surely include showings of the stewed-bunny scene from Fatal Attraction and all those giant furry things towering over homesteads in Night of the Lupus.
Please note: The animated characters and film titles mentioned in this post are owned by their respective trademark or copyright holders. No mean-spiritedness, libel or owner infringement is intended. I'm also sure the good people on Portland will take my post in the lighthearted spirit in which it is written. I'd hate to think one among their community might sneak up on me in anger and deliver a well placed bunny punch.
posted at: 15:37 | category: /Playing | link to this entry
A few days ago I mentioned an article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Cathy Smith had reported on a stand-off between local police in Boulder Creek and a pig named Kate. Cathy followed up her story today with word that Kate was tranquilzed and successfully removed from the property. Kate's temporarily being put up at a local SPCA shelter.
Another animal, Carly, was taken from the same property and also placed in a shelter. Carly's plight has no true relationship to another recent story about her kind, but I thought it might be best to avoid any mention of her particular species, due to the recent agitation over the new Wallace & Gromit film. Let's just say Kate's one of those "furry things".
Eastertime must be particularly stressful for folks on the British island of Portland, what with all those animal-tryouts for Easter Bunny on the Cadbury commercials. Maybe they just don't allow those commercials to be shown on Portland.
I guess Elmer Fudd would be acceptable because Elmer only mentions "wabbits". But fellow LooneyToons character, Yosemite Sam, must surely be banned.
Halloween gatherings surely include showings of the stewed-bunny scene from Fatal Attraction and all those giant furry things towering over homesteads in Night of the Lupus.
Please note: The animated characters and film titles mentioned in this post are owned by their respective trademark or copyright holders. No mean-spiritedness, libel or owner infringement is intended. I'm also sure the good people on Portland will take my post in the lighthearted spirit in which it is written. I'd hate to think one among their community might sneak up on me in anger and deliver a well placed bunny punch.
posted at: 15:37 | category: /Playing | link to this entry
Slow Packets And Back Door Vandals
We don't know which came first--the general slowdown due to some ISP troubles in the greater system out there--or the attempts to do a denial of service attack on our web server. It's possible that the two came at the same time by coincidence. Or it's possible that the offending party knew about the difficulty in packet loss in our particular geographical area and decided to use his or her brain activity in one of those socially unacceptable ways that doesn't require actually having to look another human in the eye. In any event, we've been in touch with the technical people at the ISP. The other offending vandal's machine has been banned from the firewall. If other action is needed later we'll deal with that. In the meantime, we'll attempt to get on with life.
I suppose in the overall scheme of things denial of service attacks on small domains are a relatively mild way for these folks to vent their feelings and flesh out their lives a bit with a little excitement. It's better than having them take down big business sites, charitable pages or government domains. But it does make one wonder a bit. Was our domain chosen at random or did we do something specific that they twitched at? Either idea seems sad. I guess I just don't get the point of vandalism in any form. And since most of those who do this sort of thing are often young people it seems doubly sad.
Every generation seems to have its share of vandals. I'm glad every generation also has its share of hard-working heroes. I do wish they got a whole lot more attention than the vandals do.
posted at: 10:48 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
We don't know which came first--the general slowdown due to some ISP troubles in the greater system out there--or the attempts to do a denial of service attack on our web server. It's possible that the two came at the same time by coincidence. Or it's possible that the offending party knew about the difficulty in packet loss in our particular geographical area and decided to use his or her brain activity in one of those socially unacceptable ways that doesn't require actually having to look another human in the eye. In any event, we've been in touch with the technical people at the ISP. The other offending vandal's machine has been banned from the firewall. If other action is needed later we'll deal with that. In the meantime, we'll attempt to get on with life.
I suppose in the overall scheme of things denial of service attacks on small domains are a relatively mild way for these folks to vent their feelings and flesh out their lives a bit with a little excitement. It's better than having them take down big business sites, charitable pages or government domains. But it does make one wonder a bit. Was our domain chosen at random or did we do something specific that they twitched at? Either idea seems sad. I guess I just don't get the point of vandalism in any form. And since most of those who do this sort of thing are often young people it seems doubly sad.
Every generation seems to have its share of vandals. I'm glad every generation also has its share of hard-working heroes. I do wish they got a whole lot more attention than the vandals do.
posted at: 10:48 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry
