Living with a bipolar disorder is like being strapped to a jetpack at all times.
When the thing’s on, it is almost impossible to control and there’s a high likelihood of hitting a wall or going up in flames.
When it’s off, it is just a dead weight you have to carry around every day. That is, if you can get up and move.
Yours truly, Andy
Category Archives: Thoughts
Random showerthought #253
I’ve learnt to hack devices, develop software and secure servers.
Yours truly, Andy
Looking back, I should have spent more time learning how to hack my brain, develop relationships and securing my future.
On Mental Architecture
If I may, let’s compare someone’s mentality and world views to buildings or dwellings.
Someone can live in a cardboard box under the bridge their whole life and feel fine about it. Anything outside their box is frightening and foreign. Yes, it’s gloomy and damp but it’s their home and their palace.
Who can blame them? It is a big an dangerous world, indeed.
Another person might live in a posh mansion. It’s surrounded by lush, green gardens, dotted with Greco-Roman sculptures. Here, anyone is welcome to wander and explore the surroundings. The owners usually don’t mind new additions to their property and oftentimes may tear down and rebuild whole parts of it. I like this kind of places but not all owners are as inviting.
Some of them even own horses. High horses. And when they’re on a Sunday ride, oh my…
Then, there are some who live in a fortress, surrounded by embattlements and a moat with sharp sticks. Only friends are welcomed inside, but foes – and most everyone else – have to walk around wondering what lies beyond the walls.
There might be a cosy tavern inside, where one can sit down to enjoy a jug of mead amongst friendly folks. The citadel could house a library which holds scrolls of wondrous stories about heroic adventures in faraway lands. Or there could even be a carptenter’s workshop where anyone can find helping hands.
Alas, you’ll never know, unless you put in the effort to scale the walls or persuade a guard to open the gate.
But I digress.
A small hut on the edge of a high cliff might look out of reach and not even worth a visit. But don’t let that first impression dissuade you. That homestead might hold a warm and inviting fireplace with a steaming pot in it.
Here, you may sit down for a tea or enjoy a bowl of home-made porridge to mend your hunger and cold.
I’m sure, you know a friend or two who might live here.
What kind of building is your mind, my anonymous reader?
No matter what kind of building your mind is, you have to keep it clean and tidy. You never know who might pay you a visit.
What kind of building am I? Well, I’m not quite sure.
Perhaps, a combination of many but not the cardboard box, for sure.
To be hones, mine is not even close to tidied. I think it would resemble a huge storage house packed full with stacks of paper sheets, random bits of information scribbles on most of them. Yep, that feels about right.
However, the door is wide open most of the time and the owner is inviting to visitors.
Thank you for reading this far. I appreciate your time.
Sysadmins these days
How can a person working as a server admin look at following PHP lines and in all seriousness decide that it’s suspicious?
if ( preg_match( '/^\s*(create|alter|truncate|drop)\s/i', $query ) ) {
$return_val = $this->result;
} elseif ( preg_match( '/^\s*(insert|delete|update|replace)\s/i', $query ) ) {
if ( $this->use_mysqli ) {
$this->rows_affected = mysqli_affected_rows( $this->dbh );
} else {
$this->rows_affected = mysql_affected_rows( $this->dbh );
}
Yes, it’s impossible to knows every PHP function, but not bothering to RTFM and not being able to “decipherer” a fairly simple regular expression, shows complete lack of competence.
I’d stay away from any company employing this tech monkey who asks for help on Twitter. The second noun in his Twitter moniker explains more than the first. Hi there, @monkeypigs.
His allegations would not bother me if not for subsequent spreading of FUD on Twitter and forums. That was a prick move and not acknowledging the mistake is irresponsible at best. I didn’t deny responsibility for my actions. Now’s your turn to show some responsibility and retract your failed allegations, Garry.
Final verdict: People should not make any decisions if they don’t understand what they are talking about.
Live each day as if it’s your last
There is this saying:
Live each day as if it’s your last
I never liked it because it allows for wide interpretation.
I believe, everyone should strive to live every day so that people have something nice to say and remember when you are gone. They shouldn’t have to come up with general phrases like “He was a nice person” and similar.
Alan Turing – The Codebreaker
An obligatory TL;DR
Alan Turing was a genius who defined the basic principles of how computers operate and he helped to end World War II by working on deciphering of Enigma messages. He was a homosexual.
The actual post
In the light of upcoming flick The Imitation Game, I re-watched an earlier TV documentary about Alan Turing – Codebreaker. This time it touched me more than the first. What follows are my thoughts and expansion on the main facts.
When Alan Turing took his own life, he didn’t leave a note. However, he left a legacy with far reaching effects and it has to be appreciated.
UK could have become the major player in computer technologies if they hadn’t treated the genius as badly as they did. Especially during his last years. Many people nowadays should be thankful for having jobs and opportunities that would simply not be there if not for a man who started the revolution of computing machines. Although, society has come a long way since then in regard to treating people with different sexuality. Who knows – first personal computers could have been created by the Brits as early as 1960s if it wasn’t for the draconian laws of that time that were made even worse by cold war paranoia.
This could and should be used as a perfectly valid argument to make arguing homophobes shut up if he or she had ever used a computer or even works in the industry. And don’t get me started about those on-line comments by homophobic trolls.
If you are homophobic and you’re not reading this on a piece of paper, just think about the hypocrisy. Even the screen you are reading these words would not be possible without the basic principle of using ones and zeroes in computers, and it was invented by a gay person.
I’d like to finish this piece with a quote;
Science is a differential equation. Religion is a boundary condition.
— Alan Mathison Turing
Post image: by Charis Tsevis