So apparently there’s a new window virus going around, which instead of using addresses out of the luser’s MS Lookout address book for the from> and the to: fields, it uses a “well-known e-mail address” and sticks that in the sender field instead. And apparently, I happen to be one of the lucky ones, and my e-mail address has been hard-coded into some Windows e-mail virus. Oh happy, happy, joy, joy….

In yesterday’s New York Times, I found an article entitled “A Boxed Set in One File? Online Music Finds a Way”, on the front page of the Arts section. It described a new kind of technology that was promising to threaten the livelihood of record companies. Evil on-line music traders were using this technology to exchange not just singleton songs, but entire albums, complete with cover art. What was this new threat to world order?

Last night I had a great reminder about why I like to be home — I treated myself to Wonderful Dinner ™. First course was jumbo shrimp with cocktail source, which took the edge off my hunger. Then it was off to the kitchen to start preparing the main dish, which was grilled Cajun-rubbed trout. After scaling the fish, and then rubbing the fish with a mixture of paprika, ground pepper, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic power, and Italian parsley, I threw it on the Foreman Grill (wonderful device!

I gave my Linux kernel tutorial at NordU yesterday, and unfortunately the jet lag choose yesterday as the day to hit hard. With a vengence. I managed to give the class without many major screwups, but it definitely wasn’t my best effort. I had a few people complimenting me afterwards, which felt strange because I knew the talk wasn’t as coherent and as organized as I would have liked. Afterwards, I went to have dinner with an old friend (one of the FTP maintainers of ftp.

I’m currently sitting in JFK AA club, syncing up mail before I head off to Helsinki. Bleah. Ted Is Travelling Too Much.

The good news is that I have a trip to Minneapolis in March, and then Monterrey (for Usenix) in June, but that’s all the trips I have scheduled for the moment, and hopefully, it’ll stay that way!

… is very pleasant. Last night, I went out to dinner with a bunch of OzLabs guys. We went to a Thai restaurant, and had a very nice meal, for $15 dollars — Australian! — each. It was a very reasonable price in U.S. dollars, but with the exchange being 2 for 1, at $7.50 USD, it was an absolute steal. This morning, I woke up, ate breakfast at the hotel, and then wandered over to a Newsagent, where I picked up another book by the Dalai Lama (“The Transformed Mind: Reflections on Truth, Love and Happiness”), and two chocolate croissants and two chease rolls for the princely sum of $4.

Five other IBM’ers and I flew into Canberra from Brisbane yesterday evening, at the end of the linux.conf.au conference. The last time I was in Canberra, it was two years ago, and they were working for LinuxCare, and I was working for VA Linux Systems. How things change, and yet how they stay the same…. it was so much fun spending time with them, as we traveled as a gaggle through the Brisbane and Sydney airports, geeking about Linux kernel internals, terrorizing Quantas Club attendants, etc.

So here I am with a few spare minutes in the linux.conf.au terminal room in Brisbane, and feeling compelled to do an LJ update, so here goes…. Pulled an all nighter on Saturday (2/2) trying to finish up everything critical that has to be done at home before I leave for Australia. Showed up at church on Sunday at 7 a.m. to make sure that our supply priest didn’t need any help with the early service (Linda, our rector, was in Florida dealing with her mother’s funeral who very suddenly and unexpectedly passed away last week), and to install a new printer in the church office (since the 3 year old HP printer also suddenly but not-so-unexpectedly also passed away last week).

So I get home from Linux World, and I have today to run a bunch of errands: Buy and install a new printer for my church Do Laundry Catch up with with my bills and expense vounchers Mail some very late Christmas presents …and then it’s off to get Australia for linux.conf.au. And after I get back from that, a few days later, it’s off to Helsinki where I’m teaching a tutorial for NordU 2002 conference.

I was recently getting up to date with a friend’s weblog, when I came across an entry which linked to an entry on the “best of craigslist.org” — One bedroom apartment plus boyfriend. Dria described the page as: One of the most strangely romantic things I’ve read in a long time…especially the part about the ham sandwiches. I could kinda see how it might be viewed as romantic; it certainly describes some of the attributes of a romantic relationship.