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Life's not a cabaret...but a masquerade!
Sep. 3rd, 2000 07:51 pmWell, it's taken the better part of the weekend, but I now know a whole lot more about IP masquerading in Linux than I did before. It turns out that the version of Linux I installed on the new machine had a rather interesting approach to the implementation of IP masquerading...enough so that it made sense to recompile the kernel. Speaking as a techie, Open Source is pretty cool; speaking as a marketing puke, the concept sucks dead bunny rabbits through soda straws, at least as far as Joe and Jane Sixpack are concerned.
At any rate, I'm trying to put the finishing touches on the whole process, so that the firewall and everything are loaded automagically when the machine boots up. I've got the proper script executing when the system hits the appropriate runlevel, but nothing - except installation of the firewall rules - seems to come of it. I may have to go with the one-line command approach, which will satisfy Lee and her MUD-madness.
Truly, the first 90% of any project consists of building a workable prototype; the second 90% consists of making it look good.
In other news, it's wheels up for me at just after 1 pm tomorrow, to Orlando via New Orleans. One of the controlling questions of the hour will be whether I should take along the latest Clancy novel. I like to travel light, and this book is rather, um, heavy. Then again, I have weightier things to worry about between now and tomorrow.
As far as the book is concerned, I am about halfway through The Bear and the Dragon, and - compared to, say, Red Storm Rising - there's not a hell of a lot going on, except that I can see where things might be going, which raises a whole lot of unanswered questions in my mind, which is what keeps me reading.
So actually, I suppose there are a lot of things going on, plot-wise. It's just that Clancy is getting better at maintaining the suspense as he gets older.
BTW. as far as what some reviewers consider to be "simplistic" conservatism in the book, I find the views expressed no more objectionable than any set of beliefs held by a character in any other book for the purpose of creating dramatic tension. Heinlein was a master of this; he could make his heroes espouse anarchism, communism, or any other kind of -ism and make it stick. It's a dramatic device, in an age that does not recognize dramatic devices when they walk down the street and smack people alongside the head. Heck, if everyone in an action yarn shared the same beliefs, then why would there be any action?
My concern is whether I'll have any (spare) time in which to read the rest of the book while I'm in Florida. Should I leave it as a treat for when I get back? Or should I take it along with me, and read snippets of it in the evening, after everyone is tucked in? (Actually, in rereading this last sentence, I see it for the lie that it is...my concern is whether I'll have any time to speak with Vasiliy Tsibliev, who was Mir commander during the Progress collision. I've met him before and he is - I am not ashamed to say - my hero among Russian cosmonauts.)
There are many things to think about as I go and start cooking the top sirloin I picked out earlier today. I do so want to have a good meal. I have not had a good meal since Galina left to visit her sister - don't ask me why, Jack, I just haven't, okay? - and I think I ought to force some nutrient down my throat tonight. And Lee is here, which makes the exercise more delightful.
Florida is tomorrow.
Cheers...
At any rate, I'm trying to put the finishing touches on the whole process, so that the firewall and everything are loaded automagically when the machine boots up. I've got the proper script executing when the system hits the appropriate runlevel, but nothing - except installation of the firewall rules - seems to come of it. I may have to go with the one-line command approach, which will satisfy Lee and her MUD-madness.
Truly, the first 90% of any project consists of building a workable prototype; the second 90% consists of making it look good.
In other news, it's wheels up for me at just after 1 pm tomorrow, to Orlando via New Orleans. One of the controlling questions of the hour will be whether I should take along the latest Clancy novel. I like to travel light, and this book is rather, um, heavy. Then again, I have weightier things to worry about between now and tomorrow.
As far as the book is concerned, I am about halfway through The Bear and the Dragon, and - compared to, say, Red Storm Rising - there's not a hell of a lot going on, except that I can see where things might be going, which raises a whole lot of unanswered questions in my mind, which is what keeps me reading.
So actually, I suppose there are a lot of things going on, plot-wise. It's just that Clancy is getting better at maintaining the suspense as he gets older.
BTW. as far as what some reviewers consider to be "simplistic" conservatism in the book, I find the views expressed no more objectionable than any set of beliefs held by a character in any other book for the purpose of creating dramatic tension. Heinlein was a master of this; he could make his heroes espouse anarchism, communism, or any other kind of -ism and make it stick. It's a dramatic device, in an age that does not recognize dramatic devices when they walk down the street and smack people alongside the head. Heck, if everyone in an action yarn shared the same beliefs, then why would there be any action?
My concern is whether I'll have any (spare) time in which to read the rest of the book while I'm in Florida. Should I leave it as a treat for when I get back? Or should I take it along with me, and read snippets of it in the evening, after everyone is tucked in? (Actually, in rereading this last sentence, I see it for the lie that it is...my concern is whether I'll have any time to speak with Vasiliy Tsibliev, who was Mir commander during the Progress collision. I've met him before and he is - I am not ashamed to say - my hero among Russian cosmonauts.)
There are many things to think about as I go and start cooking the top sirloin I picked out earlier today. I do so want to have a good meal. I have not had a good meal since Galina left to visit her sister - don't ask me why, Jack, I just haven't, okay? - and I think I ought to force some nutrient down my throat tonight. And Lee is here, which makes the exercise more delightful.
Florida is tomorrow.
Cheers...
