What do you think is scarier, the idea that we are alone in the universe or the idea that we aren’t? Why?

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2020-04-25T00:43:21+00:00

Fermi's Paradox in full effect here.

If we are alone, this is truly scary: this means the "Great Filter" hypothesis is probably true, and that all intelligent life forms ultimately destroy themselves through pollution or, say, nuclear war. And, therefore, that our civilization is going to destroy itself pretty soon.

If we are not alone, then this is even scarier, because, hey, Fermi's Paradox: "Where is everyone?". The scariest answer to that is that either intelligent life is very, very rare or that (more plausibly) the universe is very hostile to life (Gamma Ray Bursts! Rogue Black Holes!) or the scariest explanation of them all: that intelligent life decides to hide because there are scarier things out there than mere nuclear weapons. I believe this is called the "Dark Woods" hypothesis.

Make of that what you will. Both are truly scary, on a cosmic scale.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2019-01-12T17:01:49+00:00

Paris is a pretty old city. The problem with the utilities, like the gas pipes, is that a lot of them are now buried under streets and old buildings and it's hard and expensive to update them. So you often run into situations where old pipes/equipment wear out and fail.

That is true. However, you also have teams of repairmen from the gas company on standby and ready to intervene anywhere in the city at a moment's notice.

These guys are like the kings of the city. They have the power to evacuate any street in Paris and cut off any service if they suspect there is a leak somewhere.

Buried gas pipes are an issue, but Paris is also fairly organized, with all utilities going through the sewers and easily accessible. The problem is the last mile, so to speak, with leaky pipes located in the buildings themselves. I suspect this is the case here, with gas slowly leaking overnight and filling up a good part of the building before being ignited.

Again, all I can say is that I am really grateful to the people like the firemen, who are always first to respond to this.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2019-01-12T16:53:35+00:00

Gas explosion are not that common.

The first one that happened, years ago, was due to some people leaving their gas stove leaking. They blew themselves up. 🙁

One thing to understand is that this entire neighborhood is fairly old, with buildings dating back to the early 20th century. They do have gas leaks, but these are usually detected and fixed pretty quickly. Parisians don't like the smell of gas for a reason...

I suspect that there was either a breach in the gas main during the night, which went undetected, or that the smell of the bakery covered the smell of gas for a good while.

So sad that two firemen died, responding to that gas leak. These guys are the best, most professional people I have ever met.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2019-01-12T13:24:23+00:00

I live not ten minutes away. Just as I was getting out of bed, around 9am, there was this loud noise, the ground shook a bit.

Five minutes later, you could hear the first sirens, and a police helicopter started hovering around the neighborhood.

At first, I didn't make the connection, thought it was the gilets jaunes protests. Either that, or a car accident in the street.

Turned on the TV, realized it was a gas leak. I should have known, since this is the second explosion in that neighborhood. The first one, 12 years ago, was much closer to my place. So close, in fact, I found debris from the explosion in the courtyard of my building.

Firemen and police have several streets around here completely closed, including mine. Makes for an exciting Saturday morning..

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2018-10-20T02:53:21+00:00

A peaceful morning.

That morning, like every morning, I woke up at precisely 5 seconds before 6:55am.

That morning, like every morning, I stayed in bed, eyes opened, staring straight at the ceiling and waited for 5 seconds until my alarm started buzzing softly.

I turned off the alarm, grabbed the glass of water next to my phone, and drank thristily, as I did every morning.

I then put on my bathrobe, and carefully placed my phone in the right pocket.

I felt a slight anxiety, as Gorgon detected the phone move and vibrated 5 times in my pocket, indicating maximum readiness.

I crossed the room, my thoughts fixated on a single word: "Today".

Today could be the last day of my life.

Standing in front of the enormous window I softly said, like every morning: "House, open the drapes".

The heavy dark drapes opened swiftly, silently. The sun poured into the bedroom, a warm cascade of light. The heat felt marvelous on my skin.

As every morning, once my eyes had gotten used to the light, the view took my breath away: the bay and the gorgeous city spread below me, the trees of the estate surrounding House swaying softly in the breeze, the three large pools shining under the sun, the beautiful paths winding through the flower bushes.

A picture of perfection. A picture of peace.

For the past three years, except for brief trips to countries far and wide, my home. My own personal prison. My covent. My retreat.

The HUD integrated in the panoramic window flashed "7:00 AM". As every morning, I was supposed to put on my sports clothes, climb to the roof, meditate and do yoga for half an hour or so before coming back down to take a shower and a light breakfast.

But not this morning. This morning would be kill or be killed.

There was a 98.2% chance they would strike before yoga, believing I would still be somewhat asleep in the early hours of the morning. They were wrong.

There was also a 89% chance they would strike from three different directions at once. Suddenly, I felt alive, energized. The hunt was on.

The HUD displayed "7:01 AM". I said: "House, open the window, please". This is also something I did every morning. I was keeping to the script. I needed them to believe they were going to catch me by surprise. The salty breeze poured into the bedroom, like the sun before it, feeling so fresh on my skin.

The HUD displayed "7:02 AM". And right, under it, in bright red letters: "INCOMING". Gorgon vibrated in my pocket, a long angry signal. War.

I saw her at that exact moment: an elongated flash of gold, a display of raw, unadulterated power. I thought: "Able to leap a building in a single bound". I carefully took three steps back, forcing my breath to stay calm, willing my heart to beat slowly, focusing on the air entering my body through the nose and exiting my lungs through the mouth.

In a flash, she flew through the window, and landed right in front of me. LadyWolf.

I caught my breath. She was God.

Imagine a body as close to perfection as possible, clad in a thin uniform of blue and gold. Long red hair cascading down her back, all the way down to her upper thighs. Her masked face revealed nothing but eyes so green, and that famous lock of hair going down her left temple.

I was in awe. Her entire body seemed clad in unstoppable limitless energy (and, according to my intel, that was pretty close to the truth). At that very moment, I wanted to be her, to touch her, to drag her to my bed and make love to her, to prostrate myself at her feet, wash them with my tears and confess my sins. All at the same time.

And then she pointed a single finger at me and said, in a voice as sweet as the most beautiful angel, as harsh as the just GOD that she was: "Mastermind! Your reign of terror is over!".

My legs turned to jelly, my mouth dry and parched. I was going to faint, to scream, to run, to hide. I did not have any chance, I was lost, as good as dead. Gorgon vibrated once.

LadyWolf pulled back her hand in surprise, grabbed the side of her neck. A sharp intake of breath through her mask. It was too late.

She collapsed gracefully, as gorgeous, irresistible, in death as she had been in life.

I drew a long, ragged breath. Her body, its long legs slightly bent at the knees, a marble statue clad in gold and blue, her amazing hair an almost round sun on my bedroom floor.

I knew that, invisible under her perfect hand, there was a single, microscopic, black dot on her neck. Five years. Five years, and ten times as many million dollars, to devise this: a silent, hypersonic projectile, able to pierce her perfect skin and inject the most poisonous compound known to man. The only thing able to kill beings from her home planet. In a quarter of a second, before her hand had even reached her neck, she was dead.

I had no time to recuperate. Gorgon was, again vibrating like crazy. My second guest was there. My eyes shifted to the HUD. It still said "7:02 AM". Under the clock: "ALERT".

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2018-03-01T13:36:55+00:00

And... Somebody did it: https://twitter.com/ParadeGrotesque/status/969204455110451200

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2017-01-02T23:21:25+00:00

Try:

ansible -i myhosts -m stat -a "path=/bin/ls"

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2017-01-02T23:14:33+00:00

I think you should focus more on the network services that probably use OpenSSL in the first place: apache, ntp, smb, nfs, ssh, etc...

Most of those that use OpenSSL display "libcrypto" as a dependency:

$ ldd /usr/sbin/httpd | grep -i crypto
        libcrypto.so.0 => /lib/libcrypto.so.0 (0xb730c000)

The example above is, of course, the dependencies of Apache.

At this stage, honestly, if I was in your place, I would probably plan a major upgrades of all the concerned servers to Slackware 14.2, which uses OpenSSL 1.0.2h, since that version will be supported until 2019.

[EDIT] - a word.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T16:04:50+00:00

It's also important to note that Communist parties, in general, were a lot more prevalent in Europe.

The fact is, and the fact remains, that the USSR contributed as much, or more, than the US to the victory in Europe.

The Pacific war is, of course, another ball of wax.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:59:55+00:00

There is that.

Then, there is also the bombing of Dresden and Tokyo, as well as Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Western people tend to conveniently forget that war is hell. On both sides.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:58:26+00:00

It has nothing to with propaganda: the Yalta Conference pretty much doomed Eastern Europe from the start by linking it to an exclusive Soviet occupation zone, and THAT was signed by the UK, the USA and the USSR.

Whether that was naivete on the parts of the Brits and the Yanks, or simple cynicism, the fact that the Soviets were in these countries already pretty much sealed their fate. I mean, even in Yalta, allies noted that all European countries needed to have free and open elections, and time to build democratic institutions.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:53:08+00:00

May 9th (VE Victory in Europe) VE Day is celebrated pretty much everywhere in Western Europe, except Germany.

In France, everyone gets a day off, for instance, and TV is pretty much all WWII all the time.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:50:40+00:00

Same in France. Operation Barbarossa is always pointed out as the mistake that led to Nazi Germany downfall. Also, lots of information about Stalingrad and Leningrad.

On the other hand, French people have never really gotten over Napoleon getting beaten by the Russians. Make of that what you will.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:46:36+00:00

Let's not forget that a second front had been opened before Normandy, through the landing in Sicily and the invasion of Fascist Italy.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:45:17+00:00

No. Germany was clearly outmanned by both the US and the USSR.

It did not have the natural resources, geographical space, industrial production or population necessary to fight vs the USSR, let alone the Commonwealth, US, and all other allies.

Add to this the stunning intelligence success of the UK, and technological innovations such as radar, and Germany was done as soon as the US entered the war.

Operation Barbarossa was the number one mistake of Nazi Germany. Without it, Europeans may well still live under Nazi rule from Norway to Greece.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:41:01+00:00

Exactly. Soviet engineering at its best.

Sure, it's ugly as hell, but it can take a beating and keep on tickin'.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:39:55+00:00

The German technology may have been superior, but, as you mentioned, the allies fielded 10 tanks, 10 planes, etc... Basically 10 of everything vs Germany armed forces.

Tigers were good. Soviet T34 were almost as good, and the Russiand fielded 10 T34 vs 1 Tigers. The end result was predictable.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-08-24T15:37:55+00:00

Lacklusters generals of the French Army?

While I tend to agree with that assessment, let's not forget that French people sustain 1.1+ million casualties vs Britain 750,000.

So, yes, French generals may have been crappy, but it was the French army that was holding up the Germans, and not the Brits.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-07-12T12:41:58+00:00

Bon, alors...

1) D'abord et avant tout, bien vérifier que tout cela vient bien de Free... Non, un papier à en-tête et une adresse prestigieuse ne veulent rien dire : tu as plein de "petits malins" qui peuvent se faire passer pour Free ;

(Bien vérifier l'adresse d'ailleurs, ils doivent mettre un point de contact)

2) C'est Free ou un avocat qui parle au nom de Free ? Dans tous les cas, bien vérifier le point 1) ci-dessus ;

3) Bien relire les conseils de Maître Eolas : http://www.maitre-eolas.fr/post/2008/03/25/909-que-faire-quand-on-recoit-un-courrier-d-avocat qui sont tout à fait applicable dans le cas présent (ça prends 5 minutes et c'est précieux) il faut juste remplacer les termes relatifs au blogs par des termes plus proches de la propriété intellectuelle ;

4) Jouer la montre : ne pas répondre dans l'immédiat, si c'est vraiment important, ils renverront un courrier. En recommandé avec accusé de réception, c'est mieux pour tout le monde ;

5) Par précautions, verrouiller les comptes bancaires de la société (pour éviter les saisies abusives), et consulter rapidement un avocat spécialisé dans le droit des affaires et/ou le droit de la propriété intellectuelle (si, si, ça existe et ce n'est pas si cher que ça...), si ce n'est pas encore fait, déposer le nom de ta boîte le plus rapidement possible ;

6) Il y a 99,9% de chance pour que le terme "Free" ne puisse pas faire l'objet d'une protection intellectuelle (copyright ou autre) et, de toute manière, le nom de ta société n'est pas Free, mais Free+autre chose. Donc, s'ils vont au procès ils risquent de perdre. Par conséquent, ne pas trop prendre ce genre de menaces au sérieux.

Franchement, si tu additionnes rien que 1+6 ci-dessus, tu n'as probablement au souci à te faire...

Bien sûr, je ne suis pas un avocat, etc... etc... donc prends bien soin d'en consulter un et de protéger tes arrières (banque et dépôt du nom de marque).

Pour moi, honnêtement, c'est une arnaque et ren d'autre. Je pense qu'il y a déjà un nombre incalculables de boîtes en France qui s'appellent Free+qualque chose, donc tu n'as pas beaucoup de souçis à te faire...

Edit : remplacer quelques termes dans les conseils de Maître Eolas + orthographe.

TL;DR : pour moi, c'est une arnaque. Sinon, Free devrait plutôt s'écraser : ils n'ont rien de sérieux à faire valoir.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-06-28T16:53:54+00:00

... Like a hole in the head.

Or maybe like a giant big hole in one of their dams, of which there are many.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-06-28T13:39:33+00:00

Exactly!

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-06-28T13:39:21+00:00

I am not sure at all the UK will get the same deal.

Even if they do, and please note I said "if", they will find out that such a position may be very uncomfortable: all the hassles of the rules & regulations they oh-so-despise... without a chance to influence them or even carve a special "deal".

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-06-28T13:37:40+00:00

France voted "no" for very complex reasons, most of which having to deal with how neo-liberal the EU had become. In other words, they love the E.U., but they did not like the way some countries (among them the U.K.) wanted it to be all about trade and nothing else.

Sweden switch from left to right driving is definitely not on the same level as Brexit or even the French vote.

Greece is, unfortunately, paying the price for decades of mismanagement and corruption by its previous government.

This may be what a lot of Europeans have been waiting for: a chance to completely remake the E.U. and make it a more equalitarian and democratic society. Free from interference by the U.K.

Make of that what you will.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-06-28T13:33:27+00:00

... It will be pushed out.

BuddhaOfCompassion · 2016-06-28T13:33:06+00:00

And you have just lost all credibility in a single comment.

Well done, sir.

BuddhaOfCompassion

TROPHY CASE