I am so sad.  I think this jacket is awesome.  Well it would be at least awesome to own, I’m not sure how much wearing it in public I would do.   I have an NES backpack with the same design I don’t really use.   I caught this from my Engadget RSS feed, I do agree better looking people could of modeled this.  That being said I don’t think I would have looked any better.

Picture from here

Yesterday on the radio they were ranking which was the most important moments in history in which you can remember what you were doing. I found the link to the quiz they were using, which was originally put up by Slate. While I do rememebr some of the events, others seem to go by without notice. I wanted to comment on the moments that happened within my lifetime. At least it will give my future son an idea of what I thought about the events that we consider important in history. This list is not in order of importance, it’s just the descending order in the slate list.

Berlin Wall comes tumbling down – I can’t say I truly remember the actual day the Berlin Wall fell down. It was a vague thing, something that was expected for awhile that was built up over time. I could be wrong on that. The one thing I thought was kind of cool about this was the fact that at Higbee’s you could purchase pieces of the Berlin Wall in a sack. These days that type of action would make me immensely sad, it’s a sign of America’s need to profit off of an event. In retrospect how did we know that they were pieces of the actual wall?

Mount St. Helens Erupts – Though I was four I remember this. I also remember President Carter on TV so I have a good young memory. This was a scary thing to me. I think I had this thought that volcano’s didn’t exist any more, that they were something that was from the time of dinosaurs. That it could happen in real life was very scary to me. I’m sure I watched this at my grandmother’s house on her floor model console TV.

Katrina Hits New Orleans – For Hurrican Katrina Xie and I were at home, we were playing SWG and attempting to get a hold of our friend that lived in New Orleans. We managed a day or so later to get a hold of him and post a picture of his house. It was scary knowing someone that was going through the disaster. We almost went down to help but didn’t. The evacuations and such were keeping people at bay we didn’t know when to go or what to do. We both wish we had gone, but that time has now passed. We are left with what we did do.

Miracle On Ice – Ok this happened while I was alive, but I remember nothing about it.

John Lennon Shot – This is another one of those where I was alive, but I don’t remember it.

Elvis Presley Dies at 42 – I definitely don’t remember this one since I was only one year old.

San Francisco World Series Earthquake – If I had followed sports ever in my life I think I would have paid more attention to this. I do remember the earthquake and wondered if California was going to fall into the Ocean. If this was the proverbial big one. I’m influenced in that thinking because of Superman II.

Princess Diana Dies – I remember this. I also wsan’t sure what the big deal was. I know one of my uncles cried because of this. To many people Diana was the last true royalty. This was probably because she was the modern storybook princess.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident – Once again, I was too young and do not remember this one.

Reagan Shot – We heard about this when I was at school. Since it was a private christian school we all had a prayer session for the president. Reagan was like a god to me back then, the invulnerable most powerful man. This re-affirmed that when he survived, but I was on shaky ground at first. I was young and scared for the life of our president. To this day I still personally think he was one of four greatest presidents of the last one hundred years.

Shuttle Challenger Explodes – I was in school again when this happened. It was a big media event with the first school teacher going up with the shuttle. This was the event that shocked the nation. We got out of school early that day and I do remember being upset. For what seemed to be weeks they showed that footage on the news.

JFK Jr. Dies in a Plane Crash – I’m not sure why this made the list. I remember it, and I was sad in the abstract, but it didn’t really pull at my heart strings. Around the same time I remember John Denver dying – I think the guy that who sang with Kermit the frog being gone affected me more.

Shuttle Columbia Disintegrates on Re-entry – I woke up early that day and was watching TV in the family room in the Oregon house. I was shocked and hurt when I saw this. I started crying. I thought this was the worst disaster that I had witnessed since it would hurt human’s getting back to the stars which I felt was our future. I woke up Xie and told her, she didn’t understand why I was upset. I just was. This event truly affected me.

9/11 Attacks – I was driving to work at Symantec on the beltway and a radio announcer talked about plane hitting the trade center. I’m not sure if the second plane had hit or not at that point. I thought it was some weird joke by the disc jockey’s. It turned out it wasn’t. When I arrived at work ewe were told that if it was too much for us, then we could return home (paid). I went on with my day following events online. I called Griffaw and Xie at home to turn on the TV at home to see what was happening. We kept in contact through out the day via IM. Griffaw didn’t move form that TV for four days watching everything as it unfolded. I’ll leave my own political comments about this time out of this post.

Asian Tsunami – We didn’t watch a lot of news at this time. I was aware of the event and read about it online, but it wasn’t an in your face major thing for me.

Dale Earnhardt Dies at Daytona – Really? I don’t know why this made the list. I don’t know where I was or even if I cared at all. I don’t follow NASCAR so someone dying in a car crash is a risk that I was aware that drivers took.

There is one more I would like to do that isn’t on that list:

Kurt Cobain’s Death – I didn’t watch MTV so I wasn’t immediately informed of Kurt Cobain’s death. At this time period I didn’t even like Nirvana’s music (they are one of my favorites now). I was one of those kids the next day mocking the other kids that were crying. I understand this now though. Some people may disagree but in a way Cobain was a Lennon for our generation. A voice that spoke out and said what we were feeling. Someone who we could identify with. I have never had a living musician that I felt that way about, but I understand why everyone else was upset. Wisdom is granted with age.

If you don’t see all the video links make sure you view this a creeva.com.

Picture taken from here

Last night I we had our community band practice moved to a church for the night.  Ironically it was the church of the girl I lived with before I was with my wife (over a decade ago).  I wish I could tell you that we broke up over a mutual disagreement where we went our own separate ways but it didn’t work out like that.   Since at one point of time she was once a huge point of my life I thought I would document her, at that point the facts will be recorded and I’ll put the past behind me.

When I was a freshmen in high school I met Kim the night of the High School Homecoming dance (back in 1990 – cripes this memory is of legal age).  I had friends in marching band (this was the year before I started playing trumpet at all) and I was hanging out with them some girl was just wandering around a circle of people crying on the shoulders of those around her.  I was one of those people, this girl was Kim.   She had just been dumped by some guy and the marching band members were taking the pity circle approach.  She started crying on me and I didn’t know who the hell she was.   Eventually she moved on to the next person.  A few weeks later she started dating my best friend, fortunately I didn’t go out with them to do anything so I saw very little of her the rest of the school year.  She popped up occasionally but for the most part she was a non issue.

Picture of me and my best friend that brought Kim into my life – bastard.

The next summer I got conned into joining marching band (ironically I didn’t play an instrument at the time) and I was there around the time my friend dumped Kim (who graduated the previous year) so he could have a shot at chasing after another girl.   Kim hung around the marching band practices like graduated seniors with nothing better to do occasionally do.  One day it was raining and I asked her for a ride home – curse her.   This started to be a regular thing, she was still upset with my friend leaving her so she would talk to me about him, and other things.   After a couple months of becoming good friends we started dating.   On a cool fall day down the road from house at her friend’s house I had my first kiss sitting on the hood of her 1991 powder blue Topaz.

I started sneaking out a lot at night to see her, I think this was the start of my 4 hours a night sleeping routine.   I had sneaking out of my house down to the science.   Sometimes I wonder which was greater, the nights I did sneak out or the nights I didn’t.   My parents were not too ecstatic with their 15 year old son dating an 18 year old.   I’ll also be kind enough to leave out details and allow you to read between the lines when it comes to intimate details.

This was also the year I started writing.  I started with poetry and found I had a knack for it.  I did the silly love letters and so did she.   I think I still have a few of them.  Almost all of my poetry is already is already on this blog but I’m sure there are some journal pages (folks that was analog blogging) I’ve left out.   I’m sure reading them today would sound very Emo-ish.  If I can find them and read through my chicken scratch hand writing I’ll put them up.

The summer that followed we spent most of our time with one another, we went to movies, to Cedar Point, and other related activities.  One thing I can remember sticking out in my mind was when we left Cedar Point because the weather was picking up.  As we were driving back there was a Tornado siting in our town.  We watched the skies carefully and made it back to her parent’s house.   We found out later that a tornado did touch down about 2 miles from us.  It was very crazy and stupid to be driving out in that.

We dated for 9-10 months and the following year in marching band I took my friends lead and dumped her.  I started dating another girl Mari.   About 3 months later that relationship didn’t work out and I left Mari.   We’ll discuss more on Mari another day.   At this point Kim was going with Nate, some guy ahead of me in school.

Mari from back when I dated her.

Well Kim and I started talking again since we had always been good friends.  On December 31st, 1992 I was having a New Years Eve party at my house (with a fair amount of people as I recall) and I get a phone call from Kim.   She wasn’t going to stop by because some of the people there didn’t like her, which was fine.  She was at her friend’s house at another party just a couple streets over.  What ever was going through her mind, because though we had been talking again off an on, she wanted me to stop over and talk for a few minutes.   So like a good friend (fool) I wander over to talk to her.   What I don’t remember if she told me was that her boyfriend Nate was there.

We were talking (and sitting on that damn Topaz again) and someone started yelling inside the house.  Out of this house busts this big guy.  All he said was “Nate wanted me to mess you up.” and I got punched in the face.  Since I was on the edge of the car he caught me in a spin and knocked me down a few feet from where I was standing. This was the second time in my life I have been punched (in a true fight and haven’t been punched since).  I think he may have gotten in a couple more shots, it’s been so long ago it’s a blur.  This guy’s girlfriend and Kim dragged him off an pulled him back into the house, Kim apologized and I wandered back home.

When I got there I was fuming, I grabbed a baseball bat from my bedroom and started back towards the front door.  Luckily from a police record stand point I was talked down by the people at my party.   Granted half the guys wanted to go over there and start something, but the girls at the party and some of the other guys cooled down the situation.  I never went over.   Since that night was one of the few times I have been punched it’s etched into my brain.

Things calmed down and Kim and I continued talking.  A few months later things didn’t work out between her and Nate and they broke up.   We dated a little bit for a few weeks, but just kind of maintained a friendship point of view.  After that we went our separate ways for awhile.   In spring of 1994 my girlfriend at the time dumped me right before prom (today we have different takes on how this went down).  Shortly after that (somehow I don’t remember) Kim and I started talking again.   Talking lead to dating.    This was the road that it always was with Kim.   Being friends and trying to keep it platonic always lead to something more.

We dated through the summer and she even went to my Mother’s wedding.  My step-father and I never really saw eye to eye, he came into the house trying to be an alpha male.  It wasn’t happening though.  We never got along though for time periods we could fake it and even be civil to one another.   Why is this relevant?  Well right after the wedding took place ( I played trumpet so I was part of the service) I guess my step father made a lot of derogatory remarks to her about her and about me.  Then and there I didn’t know this.  She told me as we were driving back to my mother’s house for a wedding reception.

I was fuming.  I arrived to the house just a couple minutes before my mother and my new step father.  I happily started a screaming match on the front lawn.  Luckily Kim was house sitting at her sister’s place for a couple of weeks I went inside and grabbed a couple changes of clothes and left for a few weeks, never even calling.  Sometime during this time frame being an young fool I asked Kim to marry me and she said yes.  I was just a couple weeks past eighteen and I was engaged.

I came home and stayed for a couple weeks before I was to leave for college.   The big day arrived and I was supposed to use my mother’s mini van to haul all my stuff an hour south to school.  Originally my mother was going to drive me down to school and Kim and my friend Tim were supposed to come and help move stuff.  My mother said she would go but my step father also had to come.   I didn’t want him there and asked if we could just take the van and Kim would bring it back afterward.  Well this escalated into a screaming match that rivaled the wedding reception just a month or so earlier.

I hadn’t been on speaking terms really with my father at this point, and there was a lot of animosity between my mother and him.  My step-father helped fuel this by mocking me and saying my father should take me down (I literally had to be at the school the next day for college marching band camp).  Time was dragging on and the fighting escalated, I ended up kicking the mini van in the front passenger side fender and leaving a huge dent that stayed there for a few years until my step father pounded it out.   For a little FYI the mini van was already packed and filled with all my stuff.    Even if I had compromised and capitulated and had him go there literally was no room for a fifth person in that van.  My mother had enough at this point and handed us the keys.

I think I cried the whole way down to college this was the second time my mother chose my step father over her child in what was an important day in his life.   We made it to school and I settled in.  We were going to do the long distance relationship.  There was a phone on campus where i used to make collect calls to her (or I had a huge roll of quarters sometimes).   When I called collect I used a fake name so her parents wouldn’t know it was me and think it was a wrong number if she didn’t answer the phone.   She came down and visited once (which looking back for a 40 minute drive really is pathetic – that’s less then one way in my daily commute).   After three of four weeks I had enough and broke it off with her.  I started dating someone at college and I called it a day.

Christmas break rolled around and I was kind of in between girlfriends at the time (another post for another time) and Kim and I managed to get back together.   We spent most the month with each other and when it came time to go back to school, I took a side trip to see my grandfather who was in the hospital.   We drove down to the Dayton area about 4 hours away and stayed at my my grandfather’s house since no one else was there.   That night Kim went to bed and I stayed up and wrote a letter to my grandmother.  The next day we headed to the hospital but stopped at my grandmother’s grave and I left the note for her there.   We went and visited my grandfather who had suffered and stroke and lost 60% of his body mass.  She was there for me and I appreciated it.

School rolled around and I reconciled with my girlfriend from the previous semester.  Now for some reason this should have been a straight break up with Kim moment.   I held off for a couple days and Kim came down to visit.   The situation was not a surprise to my college girlfriend, she knew what was happening.    I took Kim to the local mall and we walked and talked, but my college girlfriend stalked us and was obvious about following us. After getting back to the car Kim asked what it all was about, I explained and broke up with her.  She dropped me off at my dorm room and I thought then that she left.   I went up and spent time with my college girlfriend, while this was happening Kim proceeded to make out with my roommate’s best friend.  That’s the kind of rebound girl she was.

At this point you would think that the Kim college years era was over, well not quite.   I get a phone that she is pregnant and needs to talk.   I arrange it that I come home that weekend to talk to her.  Problem was college girlfriend insisted on going and I had not told her about the pregnancy.  I manage to get up north and slip away for a little bit to talk to Kim.   This leads me back home and my college girlfriend is upset.  She tells me she is pregnant (I had not told her Kim was pregnant yet).  So I’m 18 years old and I find out in less then seven days that I have two girls pregnant.  To add to the top of the tower here, college girlfriend and I break up.

A few weeks later I’m dating someone else and I find out both college girlfriend and Kim have miscarriages within a week of each other.  I don’t tell anyone and did not tell either one of them, so it’s coincidence that they both told me, and today I think they were both lying to me over the incident.   Around this time period my grandfather died and I was dealing with that also.   College progressed mostly Kim until summer rolled around.  I was not going back to school the following year, so two weeks after moving back I moved out of my mothers house and moved in with Kim who had taken over her sisters apartment.

Kim managed to get me a job at the local Speedway, which at the time was about the size of two of the cubicles I have at work now.   I enjoyed working there, I enjoyed the night shift.   One day however I got in a disagreement with the manager and just up and quit.  After that my high school friend that originally dated Kim secured me a job at a local marina.   I did that for a year paying the bills until I secured my first computer job.   All through this Kim and I stayed together.   One day a girl saw us at a restaurant and told me (a year or so later) that she felt so bad for me she wished there was something she could do for me.   I used to go out and hang out with friends until early morning hours and around this time I finally got my drivers license (I was twenty).

One night Kim went out and didn’t come home, she stayed at a friends house – a single male friends house – after a night of drinking.  from all accounts nothing happened, I don’t happen to believe that.  The reason I didn’t believe it was that my high school friend kept saying she came on to him when I wasn’t around.  I believe him, not her.  Things were getting worse and worse over the next year, I would go out more and she would do her own thing.  She criticized my friends, or say they were too young. or into the wrong things.   Though we did manage to go camping twice while we lived together.

The first time we drove to somewhere in the backwoods of Pennsylvania with her parents.  Her parents treated me even worse then she did, so for the week we were there I hated it the whole time.   It’s hard to get me to go camping as it is now (ask Xie) let alone with people I don’t really like.   The second time we went camping I took a friend with me, in the middle of the trip Kim went storming off and said she was taking off and going home leaving use 300 miles away from home with no way back.  While she was so confident and storming off to her car I told her to “Screw off, ” I then laughed at her and told her I had her keys which she asked me to hold.   My friend and I left her at the camp and went off hiking.   Things reconciled and at this point we are at July 1997.

At this point I was hanging out in a different crowd with people with which I’m still friends with some of them until this day.  There was a girl who caught my eye and I was interested in.  My friend from the camping trip and were talking and I asked him if this girl would be interested in me if I was single.   He said she probably would be (he had no clue).  This is a Tuesday night.  I went over and talked to my mother and asked her if I could move my stuff back home.  I then showed up at the apartment with at least 10 people with 3-4 vehicles and I told Kim I was moving out and the group then paraded through the apartment and had me moved out in about 20 minutes.   I told Kim I would come back and we could talk about it after I got everything unloaded.

I went back and spent the night at the apartment (nothing happened) and we talked most the night.   She borrowed 100.00 from me so she could pay rent.   The next day I asked the girl I was interested in out on a date.   Kim called me on Thursday night to see if I wanted to do something on Friday.  I told her I had a date.   The next morning there was books and items strewn across my mothers lawn.   Things that I had forgotten to take with me.   The date went off without a hitch and the girl told me that a year or so earlier she had seen me at the restaurant broken and wished she could have helped me.   This girl was Xie and I married her.

You would think this is where it ends, but there is an addendum.   Xie had recently broken up with her boyfriend.  For some reason it was in her boyfriend’s head  and Kim’s head that we mutually dumped both of them to be together.  It was a matter of circumstance, but to them they felt the logical thing was to date each other.   Xie and I laughed and let them be on there way.  Kim degenerated more and more, she slept around a lot, somehow everyone thought I wanted to here and know about the stories so they filtered in.  After trying to make me jealous didn’t work she dated a couple people and then one day a couple years later I get a note on the windshield of my car outside the apartment Xie and I had.   It said she missed me and really jsut wanted to be friends.   Well we’ve seen how being friends worked out in the past, I never called her.

I did have to deal with her for a few years at the High School Alumni Band every year, but I guess while I was in Oregon she got in a big huff with someone and said she was never coming back.   Yay me!  That was a treat to hear when I came back.  Other news that passed through the grape vine while I was in Oregon was that she worked as a lunch lady for a little bit, my sisters told me they saw her working at the school.  She was married, but the marriage only lasted a few months.   Now it seems that I hear that she is single and can’t find anyone that wants to settle down with her (I don’t blame them).

The last year we were together she was working for my father, and still worked for him a little ways after the break up.   She borrowed 100.00 dollars from him and never paid it back.   So she owes him and I each 100.00 dollars, it’s definitely worth eating the loss to have to not deal with her again.

The last couple years she has been at the sidelines with Tim who helped me move to college all those years ago (as friends they always have been) during the Vermilion Woolybear Festival while the whole band is on the float.  She kept her head down, pulled a hood over her head and wore sunglasses, but it was her.   I think she was hiding from teh band in general then just me since Tim looked shocked my first year back from Oregon seeing me on the float so I’m sure she had no idea I was up there before hand.

I started this off by saying I had practice in her old church.  While on break I wandered around a little bit and saw a K Pearce in the member mail box area with a pamphlet in it.  I then found a board that had pictures of all the members and who they were.  There was her picture.  She looks a good 10 years old then she she should and who knows if the picture is recent.  I thought for a minute to put my initials in an art style she would recognize as knowing where they came from on the pamphlet in her mail box.   I thought about putting my email address, or just typing in “Google Creeva”.  I then realized I might find it funny or humorous at that moment, but it wasn’t worth it.   The humor did not out weigh the pain of maybe actually having to hear from her or deal with her in any way.

If you know her and see her, you can happily tell her about this.   I’m happily married and in January it will be my tenth wedding anniversary.   I’ve managed to sum up most the highlights in the relationship in a few paragraphs.  If she wants to meet in public and talk about them I’ll be happy to…….as long as she has the 200.00 she owes me and my father.  I’ll give her time to finish a coffee at the very least.   I’d even bring the coffee, all conditional on the back debt being paid.   Otherwise I just look at the life she has, where she has gone, and what she has brought upon herself.  Do you know what I do when I do that?  I laugh.

]]> http://creeva.com/2008/06/20/my-ex-girlfriend-looks-ancient/feed/ 7 http://creeva.com/2008/06/08/twitter-is-brave-bets-on-a-twitter-outage-at-wwdc/ http://creeva.com/2008/06/08/twitter-is-brave-bets-on-a-twitter-outage-at-wwdc/#comments Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:52:28 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=2860

Image from Techcrunch in this article

It seems that Twitter is a being a little excited about the next big tech event, WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference – it’s an Apple thing).   I first got the news from the Techcrunch article linked above, but it seems that Twitter made an announcement that there will be no down time tomorrow – I call shenanigans.   They outlined the precautions in this article, among them are the following:

We’ve moved much of the load off our database by utilizing more memcache, employing more read-slave servers, and by fixing some bugs for improved efficiency. This work is in intended to help handle the load and keep Twitter up and running while Steve Jobs talks about all the new products and services Apple has planned. Of course these improvements will continue to serve Twitter beyond the WWDC as well.

Now it may just be me, but I’ve seen Twitter fail on slow days.  I know they have had experience with similar traffic load form other major teh events, but they crashed then.   While they may have some idea of the data they will need to handle, I’m not sure if they can truly appreciate the amount of data they need to handle when the tech world needs it’s geek porn instant updates.

Ironically there is no news if they are going to be taking updates via IM or SMS tomorrow, I’m betting not.   This way they get to handle a “larger load” – i.e. people that won’t be going to the site itself won’t be updating.  So it’s a win by not generating as much traffic.  Cheaters!!

For those that want to use twitter via IM to post updates (but you can’t receive them this way) I recommend trying Imified, it allows you to post to Twitter via IM even when Twitter doesn’t take IM updates through it’s standard channels.

Tweet, tweet.

Picture from here

Today I read a comment on slashdot that inspired me to write on this subject.  The comment was written on the Secret History of Star Wars article and was given by Omestes and was as follows:

Oh god, the Nerd/Dork/Geek argument. We always went with nerds being unwashed, antisocial geniuses who small vaguely like cheese, and somehow manage to reference Yoda, and differential equations in every utterance. Dorks are just like nerds, but dumber. And geeks are the swashbuckling generalists who get all the chicks (er…) because they have some modicum of social skills, while still knowing their swallows apart.

By your jargon though, there still is a deep relation between nerds and dorks, since both of them are “systems” people. D&D is just another complex system to play with, just like math, code, and circuits. As is, oddly, the various nerd friendly mythologies. Both groups, by your classification, are equally likely to get the chicks… Not very. Neither math nor D&D impress many of the chicks I know.

So where does arguing over the semantics of nerdery put one?

Now this has been written about hundreds of times (if you don’t believe check google), but wanted to stick my two cents into this discussion.   Let’s go over my own defintions:

Picture from here

Dork: A dork is an invidual that has an interest in something in so far that they are singled out and people believe because of some title given to them they are thought to be an expert.  In all actuality they are no better then a lay person and has the largest social anxieties and problems dealing with others.   They normally think they are smarter then they are, but yet normally lack in depth knowledge to move them up the dork/nerd/geek ladder.

However there is a missing factor to this definition, that is the fact that a dork is more likely to be the one that non dorks/nerds/geeks are most comfortable around.   They are the ones that come off lovable – like when your friends or significant other says “You big dork”.   While in some terms dork is an insult, when you properly it is definitely the least offensive to the general population at large.

Picture from here

Nerd: Nerds are the individuals that have an interest in things the goes so far that not only do they have to prove tehy are better then everyone on the subject of interest, they also are so intensely interested in there area of focus that social situations really don’t bother them.   It’s a waste of time for them.  They don’t know why you don’t want to dig into replicating a hologram in your microwave with tin foil and baking soda, which they do daily for amusement.

Picture from here

Geek: Geeks usually can deal with society the best, but completely zone out similar to nerds to nerds, but are normally capable of human relationships, though they took the hologram in the microwave and made a short film out of it to upload to youtube.   They are interested in the obscure and bringing it into fruition.   Normally geeks wear the term geek on themselves with a badge of honor.

Me and my grandparents – Years Ago (Years and Years)

I can say in certain areas I’m all three, but I’m mostly a geek.   I’m normally quite knowledgable in the things I have extreme interest in, and i’m capable of zoning out.  Most of my family considers me a nerd when it comes to social networks (and I really am when it comes to crossposting).  When it comes to certain items and gadgets I’m definetly a dork trying to be a geek.

Wait what am I saying I was a pimp, I don’t know why I’m sticking myself into any of these groups.  You don’t believe me?  Behold Creeva with a mullet (once again many years ago):

So which do you identify with and what is your definitions?

From the title I put in this post and what it is actually about are two completely different things, but they are related.  Trust me.

So last night, Xie and I were debating away like we are prone to doing and I was sitting on the floor smoking a cigarette.  Now pay attention to the fact I was smoking as it’s important to this discussion.   For some reason I started to get up quickly and smacked the cigarette on my knee.   It left a black spot on my pants I was wearing, but I decided to just sit back down and worry about it later.

A couple minutes later I was still smoking and I feel a kind of pinching in my crouch area.   A sudden warmness also.   I realize that when the cherry broke off the cigarette it landed on my crouch.   I patted it out and thought it was fine.  I was wrong.   It then proceeded to burn through my underwear.   At this point I’m standing up and Xie asks if I’m ok.  I say NO.   She asked what she could do as she was jumping to her feet.   I yelled NOTHING.   At this point I managed to literally tear off my pants and take off my underwear in the middle of the living room.  I guess it’s good we didn’t have guests over right then.

I think in the panic and ensuing chaos the cherry went out since it wasn’t found after the fact, and there was no charred carpet.   I do have a burn on my lower twins, and was quite angry as Xie was laughing away.  I admit in the grand scheme it’s funny, but not immediately after it’s happened (literally seconds after she was rolling).   The underwear held an entry and an exit hole.  Both the underwear and pants were placed in the trash, ruined.

I know that smoking is hazardous to your health, but I never thought it would be in this way.   My burning loins, literally.

Alignment:
Chaotic Evil characters are the most ‘evil’ people out there. They are willing to do anything to get ahead, and will kill anyone who stands in their way. A chaotic evil person sees no value in order and governments, and believes to the utmost in the tenant that ‘Might Makes Right’.

Race:
Humans are the ‘average’ race. They have the shortest life spans, and because of this, they tend to avoid the racial prejudices that other races are known for. They are also very curious and tend to live ‘for the moment’.

Primary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.

Take the Quiz here and post the results on your blog.

One of my best friend’s agrees with me that Charles in Charge was one of the greatest shows ever made.   It ranks up there with Mr. Belvedere and Growing Pains.    It was true sitcom bliss.   One thing that we found odd is that they freaking switched families between season one and season two.   Now you think, well he got a job with another family.  That may be correct, but it’s the same freaking house.

Did the realtor go through and list the house as having a “Charles in charge” as a feature?

“Over here we have the washer and dryer and in the room beneath the stairs is where the Charles is located”

“The Charles?”

“Yes, yes the Charles. “

“What the heck is a Charles?”

“He’s a new boy in the neighborhood.  He lives downstairs and it’s understood that he’s there to take good care of the family.   He is even trained to act as one of the family if you accept him in.   He  can be in charge of your days and your life.   You can have Charles in charge of you.”

“That’s fantastic, we’ll take the house.”

That’s the only way it could have gone down.   My wife already thinks that my friend and myself both have man crushes on Charles, so there was no way I could have bought a house with a Charles in it.   I just want him to be in charge of household tasks it wouldn’t have to go beyond that.    Maybe I would have him do some cooking to ease the household strain, but absolutely no Buddy’s would be coming over.

Moving on.

Let’s move into modern day.  Jan a lovely teenage girl receives a notification

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: Whu R U

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: I’m a new boy in the neighborhood just trying to meet the familes.

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: Wat U Want wit tat?

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: I’m looking for a place where I can live downstairs in the people’s basements

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: LOL, we have a basement my brother keeps his trains down there

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT:  You have a brother?

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: nd a sis that’s 17, I’m 16 and hez 10.

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: Hey can I come check out your basement?

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: dunno my rents rn’t hom

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT:  I can just come over and wait for them, they’ll think of me as one of the family.

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: K, come over my address is 1435 Main, I’ll leave the door unlocked.

CHARLESINCHARGE MYSPACE CHAT: Ok, I’ll bring my friend Buddy with me.  Is that ok?

Jan’s MYSPACE CHAT: wutevr

Charles (looking like the picture at the start of this post) and Buddy then arrive over at Jan’s house and discover that it is a “Catch a Predator Special”.    Chris Hansen would sit Charles down and it would go over something like this:

Chris: So Charles you came here expecting what from this teenage girl?

Charles:  I’m just a new boy in the  neighborhood and looking to live downstairs somewhere.

Chris:  And what do you expect to do downstairs?

Charles:  Chris I  know what your thinking, but this is innocent.   I want to live downstairs and it would be understood, I’d be there to take good care of the kids.

Chris:  What do you mean by care?

Charles:  You know I would be part of the family.   I would be in charge of their days and their lives.   They want Charles in charge of them.

Chris:  You do realize you referred to yourself in the third person.

Charles:  Hey Chris, respect the fact that Charles is in Charge.

Chris:  How do you explain the fact that your friend “Buddy” was bringing in a beer keg on a red wagon?

Charles:   I think I need to talk to a lawyer now.

No I don’t think Charles could exist in the same context today as it did all those years ago.   The especially creepy thing is that he stayed with the house when they switched out families completely.   I’ll still enjoy the occasional sitcom joy of watching Charles in Charge and when my friend finally makes it over to hang out we’ll do a Charles in Charge marathon, but I’m not sure that a family just moving in would trust their two teenage daughters and their pre-teen son with this guy on a daily basis.

Maybe it’s all me and in my head, but would you want Charles in Charge of you today?

]]> http://creeva.com/2008/05/06/would-charles-still-be-in-charge/feed/ 0 http://creeva.com/2008/05/01/overzealous-social-network-blocking/ http://creeva.com/2008/05/01/overzealous-social-network-blocking/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 22:09:04 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=2763 Work has always blocked social networks (ironically facebook always worked), but now in the days of internet applications, news sources, and social networks the distinction is getting blurred.    This is not a good thing.    I understand blocking users access to myspace (and facebook), but today the web blocking finally really interfered with me.

I would like to preface that I work at a place which is known for it’s high technology.    This brings up the irony of what is happening.    I logged in and found a site that I wanted to bookmark, since I’m at my work computer and may actually want to look at it outside of work I attempted to save it to my del.icio.us account.   I hit the bookmarklet and BAM – you are not authorized to view this page, this is a social network / dating site.   What the hell?  It worked last week.

I grunted and figured if I really must I could use the google firefox plugin to replicate my bookmarks.   It’s not really that important to me, and I can just email myself the link and save it later.   It doesn’t change the functionality that is missing.   I agree that del.icio.us is a social network, but not in the same vein that myspace is.   I use del.icio.us to actually do work and search tags.  If I was just going to browse something to waste time I would just go to wikipedia.

Later in the day I was using google reader to go through my RSS items and there was a digg story I was curious on.   I clicked the link and BAM – again YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED SOCIAL NETWORK/DATING SITE.  Now someone most really have their panties in a bunch today.   A couple times a week I’ll run up against a blog or something that triggers the filter, but not del.icio.us or digg.    From a social standpoint, other then your friends can see what stories you are “digging” it isn’t a really social place.   at least not so much more then the slashdot forums.

Ironically I didn’t try reddit or stumble upon today.   I wonder if those get tagged under the same heading digg does?   I would say I would be screwed if they blocked gmail at work, but I could just tether a PDA or N810 to my cell phone and problem solved.   I use gmail for twitter, my rare IM conversation, and of course email.    As long as I have a method to send out email I can still blog and tweet (though I think IM would be dead – but i think I use it less then anyone else at work).

So to all your overzealous web filters out there – a very very small percentage of users are actually hanging out and wasting time socializing with their friends on digg or del.icio.us, we are not chatting the day away.   We are reading and researching.   To those blockers I have one thing to say – I hate you.

I think I may have angered the google gods.   There truly is only one way to solve this mortal combat.

Unfortunately I think with all the information in it’s databases it know infinitely more ways to kill me then I could come up with to kill it.

Thinking about that though – if Google decided to become a serial killer it would know more ways of killing people then that guy from Saw could ever come up with.

Would you accept a pony instead?

and yes I do have that hanging in my cube.

]]> http://creeva.com/2008/04/08/when-i-get-asked-to-create-unrealistic-goals/feed/ 0 http://creeva.com/2007/12/04/web-wandering-dump-71/ http://creeva.com/2007/12/04/web-wandering-dump-71/#comments Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:39:00 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=602 h1 a:hover {background-color:#888;color:#fff ! important;} div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div ul { list-style-type:square; padding-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div blockquote { padding-left:6px; border-left: 6px solid #dadada; margin-left:1em; } div#emailbody table#itemcontentlist tr td div li { margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:1em; } table#itemcontentlist tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active { color:#666666; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;}

Web Wandering Dump

via images.starpulse.com Posted: 03 Dec 2007 02:28 PM CST via images.starpulse.com

Nothing says “Merry Christmas” like pizza and free Xbox 360s [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 02:17 PM CST National pizza chain, Domino’s Pizza, is giving away Xbox 360 premium systems in hopes of getting more people to order its pizza online.

via www.winkk.com Posted: 03 Dec 2007 01:28 PM CST via www.winkk.com

““It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on…” Posted: 03 Dec 2007 01:26 PM CST ““It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” -Samuel Adams”

Facebook Beacon Loses Retailers. Lying Doesn’t Pay. Posted: 03 Dec 2007 12:18 PM CST Facebook Beacon Loses Retailers. Lying Doesn’t Pay.

U.S. Plans to Screen All Who Enter, Leave Country – washingtonpost.com Posted: 03 Dec 2007 12:09 PM CST U.S. Plans to Screen All Who Enter, Leave Country – washingtonpost.com

Naomi Wolf: Ten Steps To Close Down an Open Society – The Huffington Post Posted: 03 Dec 2007 11:55 AM CST Naomi Wolf: Ten Steps To Close Down an Open Society – The Huffington Post

via i163.photobucket.com Posted: 03 Dec 2007 11:51 AM CST via i163.photobucket.com

Ron Paul Leads in the Wall Street Chatter Chat Room Presidential Poll [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 11:35 AM CST Wall Street Chatter Ratings (www.wallstchatter.com) has reported today that of the 9 primary Republican presidential candidates, the Wall Street Chatter Presidential Poll has Ron Paul leading as the most talked about Republican candidate.

8 Things You Should’ve Memorized a Long Time Ago · The Cranking Widgets Blog Posted: 03 Dec 2007 11:18 AM CST 8 Things You Should’ve Memorized a Long Time Ago · The Cranking Widgets Blog

Fox News refuses to run pro-Constitution ad [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 11:13 AM CST Fox News has refused to air an ad produced by the Center for Constitutional Rights that criticizes the Bush administration for “destroying the Constitution” by the use of renditions, torture, and other tactics. Media Matters has Fox’s email…

Game Review: Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (DS) Posted: 03 Dec 2007 11:02 AM CST Game Review: Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (DS)

via www.blogsmithmedia.com Posted: 03 Dec 2007 10:57 AM CST via www.blogsmithmedia.com

AT&T to hang up its pay phones – Engadget Posted: 03 Dec 2007 10:56 AM CST AT&T to hang up its pay phones – Engadget

Message from Ron [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 10:39 AM CST Want to know a secret? There were two moments I especially enjoyed at the CNN/YouTube debate — despite my frustration at some of the questions, and the maldistribution of time.

via www.frederiksamuel.com Posted: 03 Dec 2007 09:01 AM CST via www.frederiksamuel.com

Stealing Books For The Kindle Is Trivially Easy Posted: 03 Dec 2007 08:42 AM CST Stealing Books For The Kindle Is Trivially Easy

8 Lessons I Learned From The Cheapest Family In The Nation Posted: 03 Dec 2007 08:31 AM CST 8 Lessons I Learned From The Cheapest Family In The Nation

7 Alternatives to Flickr [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 07:58 AM CST These are seven nice alternatives (not necessarily better) to Flickr for photo sharing communities.

The 10 Most Irritatingly Impossible Old-School Video Games [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 07:28 AM CST Back in the day, a good game was one that made you want to bash your head through the wall. Includes Ninja Gaiden, Punch Out and a bunch of others I’d forgotten about.

Vegetarians and vegans have their first social networking news site [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 07:19 AM CST Last week VegBang was launched, the first Web 2.0 social network for people to share the best vegetarian related Internet content. From news to recipes and from health documents to weblog posts, it’s all about sharing the latest green finds.

Where to Get Video During the Writers’ Strike [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 02:26 AM CST “Our choice, it seems, is to either be legal, or to be ethical. Legally, we can watch shows off the network’s websites. Ethically, I can steal from the networks, depriving them of revenue until they consent to share with the artists.”

Top 8 Most Dangerous Roads in the World [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 01:19 AM CST Here is a collection of pictures depicting some of the most dangerous routes you can take around the world.

Sen. Webb: Bush using ‘fear tactics’ for more war funding [Digg] Posted: 03 Dec 2007 12:29 AM CST Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) went on the offensive over the delay of supplemental funding for the war in Iraq, dismissing recent comments by President Bush saying delays in funding puts troops in harms way as “fear tactics.”

Giuliani nearly drowned out by rival’s supporters [Digg] Posted: 02 Dec 2007 10:43 PM CST It was Rudy Giuliani campaigning for president on the Marietta Square on Sunday afternoon, but anyone listening may well have thought the candidate’s name was Ron Paul..”RON PAUL! RON PAUL! RON PAUL!” — a crowd chanted from Glover Park, effectively drowning out comments from the former New York mayor…

Paul Expects Over $12M in 4th Quarter – Forbes.com [Digg] Posted: 02 Dec 2007 10:24 PM CST Paul’s numbers are rising and so is his grassroots .

Kucinich believes HR 1955 is unconstitutional. Posted: 02 Dec 2007 09:26 PM CST “If you understand what his bill does, it really sets the stage for further criminalization of protest,” Kucinich said. “This is the way our democracy little, by little, by little, is being stripped away from us. This bill, I believe, is a clear violation of the first amendment.”

Salon’s Michael Scherer Interview with Ron Paul [Digg] Posted: 02 Dec 2007 08:58 PM CST Texas congressman and Republican presidential contender Ron Paul took some time out of a busy campaign schedule Saturday to speak with Salon while in Nashua, N.H.

Ron Paul Mania! Wolf and Ron battle it out in a no holds barred interview! Posted: 02 Dec 2007 08:54 PM CST Who doesn’t heart Ron Paul. I LOL’d.

Modded PC in NES console [Digg] Posted: 02 Dec 2007 08:50 PM CST If you’ve ever been interested in purchasing a computer encased in a NES console, now’s your chance. This mod is for sale via Ebay France [...] For those of you like us who’ve developed more of a “look but don’t touch” policy when it comes to cool mods, and therefore have no interest in bidding, check after the break to see more pictures & a video

CNN: McCain ‘Hitler-baits’ Ron Paul Posted: 02 Dec 2007 07:03 PM CST Ron Paul: Iraq is not Nazi Germany. Also, the American people didn’t want to invade, and we can’t even afford to be there without borrowing from China.

New PSP RPG with a nice art style Posted: 02 Dec 2007 06:46 PM CST Gaia developers have announced Coded Soul. This game is a brand new Role Playing Game to appear exclusively on the PSP and we have the first screenshots here.

Republicans are Rigging the 2008 Election! [Digg] Posted: 02 Dec 2007 06:08 PM CST This is not a joke, this is not partisan FUD… We cannot allow this latest Republican act of treason to take place!

Why the Smoking Ban is Bad for the Environment Posted: 02 Dec 2007 06:04 PM CST Smoking bans are all the rage these days. You’d think, or hope, that a smoking ban would be good for the environment. In theory, less people would be smoking because it’s more difficult. This would mean less smoke being emitted, at least. A new study says that’s just not happening. It argues that the smoking ban has actually caused far more harm.

The seminar is scheduled to be 1 hour and 15 minutes – unless it’s a really short seminar and its only 1 minute 15 seconds – in that case I guess this is a hug waste of time.

Waiting for the moderator – we just got a message that the seminar will start in 3 minutes – 2 minutes late btw.

The presenter according to the slide is Kevin Haley, Director of Technical Product Management in the Endpoint Security Group.

Since my understanding is that replaces Symantec Anti-virus there is a drastic change as they consolidate all the products they have purchased in the past trying to get them to work cohesively.

The seminar just started only 4 minutes late.

Kevin is responsible for Symantec End Point protection.

Agenda:
Goals of the seminar
Overview of the product
Migration and Migration issues
Additional tools

Goals:

They’ve muted the participants for our own anonymity *roll eyes* – I know from experience that this is solely to not get stopped by possible trigger points that listeners may have.

We have options of typing in questions and getting them answered in real time.

Product Overview:

Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Multi-tier protections 11.0

Multi tier is the new version of SAV Enterprise Edition 8, 9, 10 – customer with upgrade protection and support with Symantec will get a free upgrade. This also includes SAV for Mac OSX.

Endpoint protection 11.0 – is the upgrade for SAV CE, SCS, Symantec Sygate Enterprise Protection, and Whole Confidence online for corporate PC’s get this in their upgrade contract

They now took a poll if we entered the beta test for Symantec Endpoint Protection – 9% did public – 20% did external and 69% did not (this was a seminar poll for the participants.

They are talking about the reasons for integrating everything

Parts

Antispyware – Leads in root kit detection and removal *unless they are keeping quiet for Sony
Antivirus

Firewall technology – taken from Symantec Client Security and Sygate

Intrusion Prevention – Behavior Based Threat protection – SONAR whole security – network traffic protection

Device Control/ Application Control

Network Access Control – add on client

New client is all bubbly and vista like – take that how you want. New help and support button allows some basic troubleshooting info in one spot. Access to windows accounts info, disk space, log files, and version information. You can also import or export policies from the client. Any client installed by default from the CD are initially self managed – if you want them to be managed by default you need to create an installation package on your management server.

You can change all policies not just the firewall based on location.

The file that tells if the client is managed or unmanaged is located in the file sylink.xml – contains also server list, certificate info, heartbeat, and communications. There is a tool to auto edit the file included on the cd for easy managed to unmanaged deployment. You could also edit this manually and the file is said to be documented.

Intrusion prevention capability – network based intrusion prevention tied into the tcp stack – generic exploit blocking from SCS and Sygate IDS which supports custom signatures – signature format is similar to Snort. Behavior blocking – proactive threat scan from whole security – innovative behavior based analysis – uniquely accurate low .004% false positive rate (testing for 2 years) via the web site and the consumer product (your enterprise beta testers) – enables broad deployment on endpoints. 20 million installations during the test – so 40 false positives for every 1 million PC’s – can also do white listing so false positives only show up once.

Stupid picture of a cookie jar with a digital camera and video camera – cookies disappear in the night and you want to catch who is doing this used camera for random images or camcorder you can review the film later but the camcorder solution is more expensive – so proactive threat scanning takes a picture of all the processes every 15 minutes and analyzes it. *is this seriously the best analogy?????????

Application Control – you can disable certain application

Device protection – block devices by type – trying to stop items like USB, infrared, Bluetooth, serial , parallel , firewire, scsi, PCMCIA – can block read/write execute on burnable media drives – can block all USB except keyboard and mouse – *I would just use a browser

Features overview
email report distribution on a schedule
centralized event logging
customizable reports
real time event viewing
notifications view
event export to SSIM or 3rd part
Embedded and MS SQL support
Client install package builder
patch and update
remote installation
import and sync with Ad
authenticate with AD
customized agent package installation
Migration from SAV, SCS, SSEP,& SNAC
Centralized Web Based console
Simplified interface for SMB and enterprise
Role Based Access
Administrative domains
Assign rights by user or group
User defined multi tier groups
RSA SecurID
Integrated management of all agent components
single console for management of AV, FW, NAC and other policies
Group based polices
- I missed the last two.

Migration

Standard migration steps so far – document, design, install architecture, migrate existing groups and policies, configure reporting, configure server/site (policies, groups, Admins, notifications etc. , create and test client packages,

Java based Management – talk to it on HTTPS (admin and client) clients can be configured for HTTP if you want unencrypted traffic- SQL database for storage.

Database contains
Group structure
policies
patches
logs
content

only replicates
Group Policies/Logs/Content

SQL can be separate from the management sever – many management servers can use a single database. Numbers are to be determined but there is basic info in the documentation – hard numbers will not be available in FCS (First Customer Shipment)

Distributed environment – multiple management servers and databases – Management servers always replicate policies and group information between them – so they will all know about ALL the clients and policies – any client can check into any server – but you can restrict that by server or server group – you can also setup a order it checks in. Logging replication is optional and they call it filtering – if you have a current architecture where all information rolls up to a master server you can still do that – or you can replicate all logs to all servers.

Supports migration from SAV, SCS, and SSEP – clients upgrade to SAV 11.0 will automatically connect to new SESM

Look and feel for reporting data is the same

First use wizard simplifies initial setup

SEPM can run on the save server as a SAV management server since they are designed to coexist since they use different executables.

Migration 1 – on same server as your SAV server
Install SEPM
Move Group and Policy info from SSE
Install SAV 11
Decommission original Parent server

Migration 2 – different server
Policies can migrate with first use wizard – other steps very similar

Reporting migration

Sav 10.1 – you can redirect clients to the new SEP 11 database for reporting.

Client installation – support to install over SAV 9-10.1, SCS 3-3.1, SEP 5.1, SPA 5.1 (don’t have to uninstall these products)

Already rolled out internally at Symantec with 5000 users

First use wizard – which will enable you to migrate your groups, policies, users to your new management server – they will not install the client automatically on a management server-so this will have to be done manually. They warn about installing the client firewall on the servers install – LOL – I can see why but I wonder how many administrators actually did that.

Content distribution

SEPM gets client updates and content from Symantec live update – clients can be patched from management server using only a small difference file that can be pushed down.

Still can get content from central internal live update server or rapid release definitions

Clients send events, operation state, and command status to the SEPM server – commands are sent to client from server, profiles, content, updates sent to client – content and updates only the different micro definitions they don’t’ have are sent instead of all the definitions each time.

Clients with a group update provider – will go to the group update provider for content (av defs, etc.)

The group update providers caches information from the SEPM server – designed for low bandwidth architectures.

Unmanaged clients can still go to live update on their own

Additional tools

http://edm.symantec.com/endpointsecurity/

http://www.symantec.com/endpointsecurity/migrate – migration information
Consulting Services and support

Goodbyes and that’s the end

Questions and Answer from the text box:+

Question: Sorry missed what said… Did you mention Macintosh would be included?
Answer: Yes, MAC will be included

Question: Will the Multi-Tier console server handle Macintosh clients?
Answer: MAC will not be managed by the SEPM console this release

Question: Will it be Vista compliant?
Answer: Yes

Question: Will the Symantec Multi-tier Protection for MAC be able to utilize the Parent Servers for Windows?
Answer: No. MAC has its own console as it stands today.

Question: Asking about the console. Will there still be a seperate console server for Macs?
Answer: Yes

Question: So there won’t be a Mac solution if we’re a SEPM customer?
Answer: MAC is included in the Multi-Tier Protection but it is managed by a seperate console and server structure

Question: What is the upgrade from SAVCE
Answer: Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0

Question: is the full endpoint suite required, or can you still purchase products separately?
Answer: You get everything as long as you are current on maintenance.

Question: Assuming no more console?
Answer: MAC will be managed by its own console. SEPM will manage all windows clients

Question: Can you turn off various components?
Answer: Yes, you can enable and disable the features as needed.

Question: Will it have built in reporting capabilities or do we need to continue with SAV reporter?
Answer: SEPM has reporting built in.

Question: Will the SEP v11 console be able to managed legacy clients (SAV10, etc)
Answer: No. It will not manage legacy SAV clients

Question: Will this all still be in a single agent?
Answer: Yes, Single Client with all the mentioned technologies

Question: Will these products be Vista logo’d or just Vista compliant? Also will you be providing both 32bit and 64bit clients?
Answer: Yes, we will be providing both 32 and 64 bit versions of the client. Vista compliant.

Question: What? We will need to run multiple consoles? Will they all feed into SSIM?
Answer: SEPM will manage the windows clients only with this release. Yes, we will have a collector for SSIM

Question: Will we go over migrating an existing Reporting Server to the built-in reporting in SEPM?
Answer: There is a white paper that will be available as well as a migration wizard

Question: would this be red if I disabled it from management side?
Answer: Yes

Question: does the user need admin rights to execute a FIX
Answer: The fix can be run as system by the client

Question: Are there different levels of users provided in the SEPM?
Answer: Yes, administrators can have different functions and rights as configured. There is limited administration.

Question: Will the 64-bit client differ by processor type, or will the 64-bit client be universal?
Answer: Universal

Question: Current installation from CD presents you an option to choose the management server if you want to install managed. Why has that been removed?
Answer: You can create packages that are “unmanaged” still it is just a different process.

Question: can it be locked so a cleint can’t remove from a server?
Answer: Yes

Question: In previous versions, we could specify management server. This is not possible

now?
Answer: Yes. It still is possible to specify the server that will manage the client.

Question: Will the client upgrade handle all current individual components that may be installed on the desktop (SSEP, SAV10, etc.)?
Answer: Yes, absolutely

Question: Does the new policy import/export replace the usage of GRC.dat and the need to at times manually implement it.
Answer: Yes. Sylink.xml is the new file used.

Question: Will the SPEM have the ability to set security access for other users/groups to manage their servers or sites?
Answer: Yes

Question: So the sylink.xml replaces the grc.dat except it doesnt disappear once processed by the client?
Answer: Yes, exactly

Question: When will this release be available?
Answer: End of the month

Question: can you import SNORT signaturs?
Answer: No, we support REGEX and have a language similiar to snort

Question: Is there a maximum network latency value between a policy sevrer andf end client that we should consider when determine the count and location of policy servers on our global network?
Answer: We will have a scalability document for distro

Question: Does the current license also include the signature subscription for IDS?
Answer: Yes

Question: Has the port range for communication between SErvers and Clients decreased? Or will it still range from 1024-4999?
Answer: It will be SSL

Question: Will this presentation be available for download so we can share with upper management?
Answer: Via email

Question: Does the client upgrade require a reboot from version 10.x
Answer: to start the firewall but not for AV protection

Question: We currently install the SAVCE client on Windows Server OS managed by a Parent server. Which product is recommended for Windows Server OS or which components are recommeded to be disabled on Server OS?
Answer: SEP can be run on servers and clients. All technologies are portable

Question: is the management console still MMC based?
Answer: No

Question: Is there a reporting server for this similar to the SAV 10 reporting server?
Answer: No, it is integrated now.

Question: When will training be available for SEP 11?
Answer: At release

Question: will we be able to customize the white list
Answer: Yes

Question: Does Behavior blocking handle rogue keyloggers?
Answer: Yes

Question: Will the new console be able to communicate with “legacy’ SSEP agents (or, can we upgrade the SSEP-PM without requiring the SSEP agents to upgrade at the same time)?
Answer: It will support legacy SSEP clients but not SAV.

Question: so just 443 and 80
Answer: Exactly!

Question: Can specific applications be “black listed”?
Answer: Yes

Question: what are the functionality differences between Sym Endpoint Protection and Sym Multi-tier Protection?
Answer: Same technologies SMP includes email protection and MAC/linux

Question: will the clients listen on a port for server initiated communication, or is the communication only initiated by the client?
Answer: no client listen port. Client initiates all communication to the server

Question: Will SEP require SQL?
Answer: You can use SQL but the embedded (included) DB is Sybase

Question: Will mobile devices be supported? If so, what devices?
Answer: Seperate product

Question: Will the Q&A be made available after the call?
Answer: Yes

Question: any chance of getting a copy all the slides to review after the meeting?
Answer: Yes

Question: Is there an estimate available of the resource impact on a host machines due to the proactive threat scanning?
Answer: We will have this documented and available in a whitepaper
Question: Will SMS5 – Symantec Mobile Security Suite 5 integrate into SEP?
Answer: No.

Question: Do the antivirus capabilities within SEP 11 use less resources on a typical client and server? We have many problems with SAV 10 chewing up too much memory and CPU utilization, especially on virtual servers.
Answer: Yes, lower memory footprint

Question: Is there an override for the USB blocking?
Answer: Yes

Question: Can devices be blocked based on Manufacturer / Model?
Answer: No- windows class ID, not vendor class ID…..coming in the future though

Question: can usb thumb drives be blocked but other usb devices, ie scanner, printer be allowed?
Answer: Absolutely!

Question: is patch/maintenance release management going to be simplified over previous versions? (i.e. all inclusive rollups not requiring previous upgrades to a base version)?
Answer: Definitely

Question: so SMP includes the sygate firewall technology?
Answer: Yes!

Question: A new version of packager come with this – I am aware its unsupported but if new version does come with it will it be supported? If not any idea when?
Answer: Packager is gone. The packaging mechanism is the Sygate technology

Question: Will the schema be available for the database, so we can query it?
Answer: Definitely!!!

Question: Will SMSDOM (Mail Security for Domino) Still be supported as well as Premium Anti-Spam? How about for Exchange?
Answer: Yes

Question: Are the INTEL portions from previous NAV/SAV versions been eliminated altogether?
Answer: Yep

Question: Are the policies for the client available to be pushed via Group Policy in AD?
Answer: Yes

Question: can you restrict file types allowed to write to USB drives? i.e. allow MP3, but not DOC or XLS?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Can the Class ID blocking be managed by OUs, say the Director level can use usb drives, regular sales cannot?
Answer: Yes, using grouping

Question: Can individual components – say, the firewall portion – be disabled selectively? For example, we may want AV on a server but not necessarily firewall (even more specifically, for performance savings?).
Answer: YES!

Question: What version of java?
Answer: Local version

Question: how much space is required for the sql ie per machine?
Answer: DB size will vary by client count

Question: Does this version get away from storing client information in the registry?
Answer: Yep

Question: Can the management server be installed on VM?
Answer: Yep!

Question: Did he say the client port is 80?
Answer: Or 443 depending on selection by administrator

Question: is a certificate server required?
Answer: no

Question: In the current version of SAV10 Reporting, there is a vulnerability of the PHP component. Will SEPv11 provide better response to layered components that have known vulnerabilities?
Answer: Absolutely!

Question: the client/server traffic is based on port 80/443 correct? How is that going to affect clients running websites using port 80/443?
Answer: There should not be a conflict but the ports are configurable

Question: from the remediation aspect, will SAFE mode be required for a 100% detection and cleaning?
Answer: Depends on the threat. SEP 11 will clean better than SAV 10 though

Question: For replication what type of nbandwidth does it use over a WAN?
Answer: All documented in the scalability doc

Question: Since the client information is no longer in the registry how can we check AV status through scripts? Is there a WMI interface?
Answer: Some status can still be checked via the registry
Question: Since this is running on 80 or 443 is it using some type of web server underneath for communication (e.g. Tomcat/Apache/etc.)?
Answer: on the manager yes. There is a tomcat server and IIS

Question: We have encountered issues with the volume of network traffic generated by corrupted defs. How does the 11.x version address this issue?
Answer: corrupt defs should be a thing of the past.

Question: are there any JRE versions that are not supported or are recommended for the management console? Will the client itself require JRE to be installed for SEP to work?
Answer: CLient does not require JRE. The version installed is a local version specific to SEPM.

Question: will registry still use intel\landesk\virusprotect6 structure?
Answer: Nope. All intel technologies for management are gone and the registry has been changed as far as structure

Question: How can we obtain the scalability document?
Answer: It will be posted at release

Question: has sepm been certified for vm
Answer: We support VM environments. Not sure if it is certified by VM

Question: Why is this not backwards capable with SAV 10 or 9? Upgrading an entire enterprise can take a while.
Answer: Completely different management architecture.

Question: is there a method for users to alter administrative scan schedule (but not any other option)?
Answer: Yes

Question: what about Sygate 4.1?
Answer: no

Question: Will you be able to save all the old data from the SAV 10.1?
Answer: yes, migration wizard will cover this

Question: no over intall for 7.x is that correct
Answer: right

Question: OVerinstall of 10.2 for Vista supported?
Answer: yes

Question: he said that scalability doc will be available about a month after SEP 11.0 release
Answer: probably sooner
Question: when you overinstall does this require a reboot on the endpoint
Answer: Yes, but not for AV, just for the FW

Question: Will the overinstall work even if the previous client is password protected? Or will it still require a registry hack to remove?
Answer: It will work

Question: can SAV10 client groups be migrated, or is there granularity to support that type of group?
Answer: Migration wizard will allow this

Question: Does SEP support NT4.0 clients?
Answer: no
Question: does it work on vm . Currently version 10 I have on vm
Answer: Yes

Question: Is the upgrade to SAV 11 more reliable than the upgrade to SAV 10? We were forced to use NONAV to pre-clean the SAV 8 and SAV 9 systems before going to SAV 10
Answer: Yes.

Question: What is the SEPM blog URL?
Answer: https://forums.symantec.com/syment?category.id=endpoint

Question: Is the installer follow standard MSI best practices?
Answer: Yes

Question: will management server install require reboot (windows server 2003)?
Answer: no

Question: This includes central management and reporting for the FW?
Answer: Yes

Question: Any problems creating an SMS package for installing to clients?
Answer: no

Question: to install over 4.1 do you need to uninstall 4.1, reboot and install SEP or can you uninstall 4.1, install SEP and reboot?
Answer: Yes

Question: Can our TAM answer questions regarding SEP 11 yet? Or do we have to wait until the release?
Answer: Yes

Question: We run Symantec Mail Security for Exchange. If we run SEPv11 on the same box, are the defs compatible? Can they co-exist?
Answer: They can co-exist

Question: you mentioned earlier that the client initiates all contact with the server. What about Virus sweeps, updates that you want to push, do you have to wait til the next time the client checks in
Answer: No

Question: does the patch require a reboot? We have lots a 24×7 servers.
Answer: no

Question: Will the dif patch require reboots on the clients?
Answer: no

Question: No problem to run in a mixed environment, e.g. legacy clients reporting to previous management console, newer clients reporting to newer management console?
Answer: no problem with a parallel environment

Question: We are going to have a lot of language requirements (Thai, German, French, Russian, Swedish, Japannesse, Chinesse). Is there a link on your web page to the supported language versions?
Answer: It will be posted but is not right now. Should be at release time. We are localizing alot of languages

Question: For definition distribution, what is the approx size of the diff-defs? If a client has been off the network for a week or longer, what is the approx size of the diff-def?
Answer: will vary

Question: Thanks for the GUP!!
Answer: :)

Question: If a client goes to a GUP and then that client goes to another group will it still look for the GUP group A
Answer: no

Question: With ver9 and > Symantec expanded the feature set to combat spyware and malware, many customers complained of CE being bloated, memory-intensive, and causing issues with many line-of-business applications. With all these added features in this new product release can you point to any documentation related to this version benchmarks and/or performance specs compared to previous releases?
Answer: Its all documented. Check the portal

Question: will rapid release definitions be available for the Liveupdate server?
Answer: yes with LUA 2.5

Question: Not sure if this was asked. But when a client connects to a 11.0 server does it use a certificate like in the past for communications?
Answer: no

Question: Can the gups be configured as Primary, secondary, and can the clients recognize that
Answer: no

Question: when will this be available for download from the platinum site?
Answer: end of the month

Question: Thank You
Answer: You are welcome