The Integrated

So, I’m out of the Air Force now. I drove over 4,000 miles from Anchorage, AK to Jackson, MI, then drove back to Minneapolis a few weeks later to move in to my new apartment. Now that I’m settled here and school is underway at the University, I’m looking to start blogging again.

I’m still gathering topic ideas and links, but I do want to make a note right now on the password management system I wrote about. One issue that I’ve encountered is that TrueCrypt requires local administrator privileges to run. That may or may not be an issue for you. If you need to get into KeePass on public computers in computer labs or internet cafes, TrueCrypt’s not going to be usable, unfortunately. In this case, I would lock KeePass with a password rather than the keyfile, and use the password guidelines I described for the TrueCrypt container. Obviously this has the downside of not having that nice safe storage space for sensitive data in case you lose your thumb drive, but you will still have safe, secure passwords.

I also want to continue Project Euler but I may not for a while, perhaps not until I get into my comp sci coursework.

• ASUS’ upcoming Maximus Formula III motherboard looks slick as hell. And I dig the RoG Connect.
• If I’d been in the military 50 years ago, I might’ve worked on this beast of a system.
• Obama’s plan for gay rights.
• Here’s a hilariously truth-free promotional page for Internet Explorer. Oh, Microsoft, you never fail to fail to create believable hype. Or fail to maintain IE’s status as the shittiest modern browser. Free advice for you: I wouldn’t boast about web standards when your product scores 20/100 on Acid3 and your competitors score 94, 100, 100, and 100 (FF 3.5, Chrome 2, Opera 10, and Safari 4 respectively). Also: The reason you can claim that IE is compatible with the most sites on the internet is because you single-handedly held the development of the Web back by a decade with IE 6.
• Slightly old, but: This is a good article about a master of compromising physical security devices.

I installed a new WordPress theme, and I’m still tweaking it and getting things set up. So it may be slightly unpolished for the next couple of days.

Well, I don’t know if M-W-F is going to work. I don’t know what is. In the infancy of this thing I’m going to have to experiment to find the format that’s most comfortable to me. I’m thinking of trying a weekly or biweekly podcast—everyone’s always told me my voice is perfect for radio anyway. I think I’ll at least give it a go once and see what turns out! Stay tuned, friends!

I’ve decided to commit myself to posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’d like to eventually post five days a week, but I’m going to ease into it since I’m still very new at this.

Shortly after arriving here on Elmendorf AFB in 2006, I heard about a volcanic eruption that had occurred some years ago, coating the base in ash. I promptly put it out of my mind, and didn’t hear anything about it again…until yesterday, when suddenly I became aware of the Orange alert issued for Mt. Redoubt.

Mt. Redoubt, Alaska

Map of Alaskan Volcanoes

According to geologists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, Redoubt is likely to erupt in the next few days. This has caused a scramble to plan and prepare at work, as well as at home. As it turns out, volcanic ash is a lot nastier than ashes from a fire. It’s made of up tiny, jagged particles of rock and glass, and that makes it a nuisance to clean up. If you just wipe it off dry, you’ll scratch many surfaces. Electronics will be destroyed without carefully dislodging the material using compressed air and vacuuming it up. Driving in ashfall is hazardous to your vehicle. You have to wear a mask and stay indoors as much as possible. In short, we’re looking at a huge mess here, and the only question is how much ashfall we’ll get in Anchorage. This page at the AVO website allows you to watch the projected movement of ash clouds depending on recent conditions and the initial eruption height.

Mt. Redoubt erupts in 1990

The current forecast is that the eruption will be, at most, on the order of the 1989-90 event; if that happens we would see “trace to several millimeters” of ashfall. Not a catastrophe, but a problem nonetheless. In order to be ready for this, I’ve had to unplug my computers at home and cover them in trash bags to keep out the ash, should Redoubt blow during the night or while I’m asleep. The entire installation will be taking similar action for our government systems as well, if and when the eruption occurs—including the server racks and equipment my shop maintains. Our best hope is that the wind will change and blow the ash away from us, perhaps out to sea, but odds are good we’ll have a dusting of glass shards to deal with here soon.