Category Archives: Daily Scribble

My random thoughts of the day.

night life

I think I am really getting old. Tonight I went to a bar, Bar None, in Yale Town with Pat and her friend, I found myself not really enjoying going to those places, I think the music is too noise and meaningless, the people there are doing nothing really interesting except maybe someone is trying to pick up someone. I felt tried and bored at 12a.m. already. I remember I used to go clubing quite alot in university days, and I did enjoy it. Now, I would rather go to a jazz bar or piano lounge with life performance. Why people like to hang out in the street at night? I can no longer understand it although I was part of them. I prefer to stay home to get some work done or catch up with my readings and writings. I always think myself is an extrovert but it seems I had became more like a typical introvert engineer.

Talk to the CEO

Today during lunch Bob Bailey, the CEO of PMC, sat with our table. I knew this is going to happen when we picked his usual table in the first place. This is the first time I had ever talked to him since I joined the company. He is pretty much up to my expectation, a typical CEO. Can’t really say I like him or dislike him, he just exists, so my concern is how to make him most beneficial to myself. Most of the conversation are weather talks, nothing much other than bragging long hours or questions about the prespective of our products. His response is pretty typical too. At last I put up my courage to bring up the idea of giving two monitors to every engineer to increase productivity. He seems quite interested in the idea and asked me to give him follow up information. So I wrote up a memo in the afternoon and send it off to him together with the reseach paper I had. I don’t know what this will lead to, probably he will just throw it away without looking. If he indeed like the idea, then finally I will have dual monitors after trying so many times. I have nothing to lose anyways.

hacked

I’m so upset today, my website at home got hacked and the front page is defaced. I suspect it is due to a loop hole in the Apache server since port 80 is the only port opened to my linux box thru the router. So I patched Apache to the latest version at once and re-store my portal page. Luckily the SQL database is not affected or I’d lose all my recent articles. I just don’t understand the mind of those hackers, what do they gain from wacking others’ web server? Why can’t they spend their talent in more useful place, such as hacking the bank system for real money or hack and leak out secret documents for our amusement? Targeting amature web hosts for their low security linux box is not a real accomplishment at all. After I had my thesis completed, I’ll definely re-install my linux box to tighten up the security, and probably give my website a renovation which I always wanted to.

time keeper

My name Horace is originated from the God of time keeping in Greek (not Geek) mythology. I used this the opening line in my Toastmaster timer speech. Unfortunately, a good opening doesn’t lead to a smooth ending. I had too many um/ah and dead air during my speech. I also forgot to address the chairman and the fellow toastmasters in the beginner and lead the forum back to the chairman at the end. I hope I will do better next time.

enoki mushroom beef roll

Tonight, I made enoki mushroom beef roll for dinner the first time. I spent quite some time in preparing it and the out come is very delicious. This is the latest addiction to my favourate recipe.

Other than that, nothing much happened today, except I went to see an allergist. My forearms got poked many times for the skin test and have some itchy rashes due to positive reaction afterward.