Archive for November, 2007

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Aquarium of viruses and malware goodness

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

I love pets but am too busy to tend to one. I could take care of a plant, but I can’t take a cactus for a walk. This, seems to be right within my realm! I do security research for Websense, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier!

(click for bigger)
xkcd-network

xkcd is my kinda comic. It’s funny and nerdy. Hmm.. I wonder how I can implement this.

The flatscreen LCD would be the most expensive. Then I’d need a pretty beefy machine (as host) to run that many virtual machines. For visualization, I guess I need to translate their actions into a network graph; for instance, if one machine DDoS’s another machine, the graphic would show one node firing small bullets at another machine rapidly. This sounds pretty cool, actually! MMmmmmm …………..

Update: I liked it so much I stuck up a print out of it on my cube wall:

IMG_2227

Posted in geeky, humor, ideas, security research, websense | Comments

Failure quotes roundup

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

As many have noticed, I collect quotes and live by them.

Many are afraid of failure, myself included. That’s why I take comfort in these quotes. May they inspire you and change your outlook on failure like they have done to me!

If you’re doing your best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure.
–Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Failure is an event, never a person.
–William D. Brown, Welcome Stress!

The only time you don’t fail is the last time you try anything – and it works.
–William Strong

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
–Thomas Edison

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Posted in failure, fear, things to remind myself | Comments

Take pride in how far you have come, and have faith in how far you can go

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

Take pride in how far you have come, and have faith in how far you can go!
– Christian Larson

This quote here today is for a very dear friend of mine. She is very direct/honest, a meticulous planner, and she makes for a great project manager. She measures progress, foresee roadblocks (drawn from experience), and delivers a hundred and one percent, on time.

Recently, we were talking over after hearty meal, and I noticed that she was self-limiting herself inadvertently by planning too far ahead. The lesson here however, is one that many people can learn from, and I’m writing this here to remind myself of this as well. Just as I have previous written here, Vinod Khosla (famed Silicon Valley fellow) has said that he has seen so many brilliant teams limit themselves by self-imposed limitations (they couldn’t think big enough).

Not that she was narrow in thought, but sometimes I feel she plans too far ahead. Just like my dad. He plans too damn far ahead. And I know he reads this blog. Just to put things in perspective, this is a person who would literally “book” me to come over for Thanksgiving dinner a year in advance (ok, so I’m exaggerating–but I dont mind it at all actually, I was just trying to illustrate a point). Sometimes when you plan so far ahead, then you just never get anything done, period.
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Posted in fear, stanford, things to remind myself | Comments

London to Bruxelles, Belgique

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

Update 2 DEC 2007 – My attempt to upgrade WordPress has left some formatting on this post messed up. I am aware of it, and I’ll fix it as soon as I find some time. I’m kind of busy at the moment.

london-to-bruxelles

Wow, I have been super busy since I last blogged about my Europe backpacking marathon. Oh where was I? Oh that’s right, I was in London on my way to Brussels, Belgium. In French, Brussels is “Belgique” and Belgium is “Belgique”, so if I interchange the words, I still mean the same thing. Personally, I think the French equivalent sounds better on the ears :p

I got to meet up with my ex-girlfriend Caroline, from my college days in Louisiana. She showed me around the country a bit. It’s a small country, so we covered a lot of ground in just a few hours.

Belgium, among other things are known for their waffles. Here you see me munching down a Belgian waffle in the middle of some really important historic building. I did it for the waffles. And the priceless picture.

Picture 010

Here’s the building again, from a distance. I really like the flag flapping in the air. It almost looks like a little flame, just suspended in mid air by magic. The grass is very well kept, and it’s nice to just sit down and enjoy the scenery.

Picture 014

Downtown Bruxelles, the streets abuzz with people and food, enjoying the good Belgian life! Notice the pavement: someone had to arrange those bricks by hand. This was very common throughout Europe. Some of these places had to bricks laid there since hundreds of years ago.

Picture 022

A building, designed by a famous architect in all Belgium.

Picture 017

Caroline and me.

Picture 021

What do you eat in Brussels? You eat mussels and french fries, of course!! Did you know, french fries was invented in Brussels? (If it wasn’t, then all the Belgians just lied to me)
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Posted in backpacking europe, travel | Comments

If at least one person on this life has breathed easier, ..

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

And today’s quote is .. *drumroll*

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch… to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!”

–- Ralph Waldo Emerson

And on a related quote, by an unknown author:

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away.”

Speaking of changing the world, the non-profit microfinance startup, Wokai, that I am currently assisting on a volunteer basis is having it’s inaugural meet-and-greet for the San Diego team (and anyone interested). We’re hosting it tomorrow at Roger’s place at 2pm PST. Contact me for details (I’m not going to randomly posting someone’s home address on the web!)

Posted in changing the world, microfinance, quotes, san diego, startup, things to remind myself, wokai | Comments

Ubuntu touchpad fix

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

At work, my company issued me a Dell D620L laptop. For whatever reason, the touchpad moves the cursor painfully slow in Ubuntu (but not Windows). As a quick stop-gap measure, I just stick in a USB mice and use that. Today, I forgot my mouse so I decided that I’d look to see how I could fix it.

After some digging online for documentation, this is what worked for me:

  1. Open xorg.conf for edit (I found mine in /etc/X11/)
  2. Look under “synaptics” and add the following options 
       Option	"MinSpeed"	 "1.5"
   Option	"MaxSpeed"	 "1.7"
   Option	"AccelFactor"    "1.8"
  3. Tweak these three numbers as necessary to suit your taste

Here’s a screenshot (click for larger):

ubuntu-touchpad-fix

I hope this helps anyone facing the same annoying problem I did.

On shameless-promo note, check out my cool wallpaper :p The scenery is a picture I took when I was in Grindelwald, Switzerland.

Posted in howto | Comments

Quotes: Invention and execution

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

One thing I feel most passionately about: love of invention will never die.”

–Karl Friedrich Benz

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back– Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Prelude at the Theatre,” 1983

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Posted in execution, things to remind myself, uncategorized | Comments

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