So after waking up late, Robin and I barely made it to the airport. But we did and now we are one our way to Sydney. Well actually on the way to London and then to Sydney. In London we will have to change money and maybe hit duty free for some shopping. Ipersonally and planning to get a quick massage and skin therapy treatment at the Molton Brown Travel Spa…if there is time. And then finally we need to try and get better seats on the flight to Sydney. Whilst business class seats are terrific, I think that the Qantas 747 plane has a business class on the upper deck and that is where I would rather be.

Here is to the beginning of what I hope will be a great vacation!

It feels like it has been a cat year since I have last written in my journal. Things have been really busy sure…but most importantly, I have been trying to clear up as much work as possible before I head away on vacation tomorrow. I am going to spend 2.5 weeks in Sydney, Australia. It is going to be such a nice time and I am so excited. I liked Sydney the first time that I was there, so it is good to be going back. Sadly, Steve won’t be joining, but we will see him soon.

The day begins at 04.00, since the flight leaves at 07.00. It is going to be a struggle to get up that early, but I am going to get to bed at 01.00 so that I can wake up and not be too tired. Besides, I am too excited to sleep.

The other reason why this vacation is so rewarding (other than that it is summer in Australia) is that I am rewarding myself with the miles that I collected during the 3.5 years of travel with IBM’s Internal Audit. And since you can’t be too sure that the airlines will be around anymore, I am not one of those people who was going to save them until retirement! Rather, I am making sure to enjoy them now — and I am doing so in business class with the hope that I can con my way up to first class! ,)

So the planet tickets and the hotel for the first week was paid for through points. The remaining time will be paid with cash, or better yet my hotel-branded credit card which will get mega points. And since I have been saving for this vacation since June 2004, I am fairly well prepared to enjoy it. I am even thinking about getting in a hang gliding experience while I am in Sydney. I don’t wanna spend every day drunk — I do that at home (kidding…I think 😉 The hardest part was getting someone to watch the apartment here, but luckily we managed to find someone who can stay in the apartment while we are gone.

Anyway, you can be sure that there will be regular updates and pictures as I want to share the experience as I experience it. Be safe and have fun everyone! I know that I will 🙂

I have this feeling like my computer is very vulnerable to attacks. I am not entirely sure why, but it really feels like it is less secure now that it was when I completed the last Security Assurance Review and Security Technical Test for my Thinkpad.

Now for those who are uninitiated, a SAR/STT is an IBM term describing 2 ways in which they test their systems for security. They usually apply this the servers that they manage, not typically to Thinkpads or desktops. However, I feel like since I connect this computer outside the IBM network, I have a responsibility to apply a higher level of control than normal.

So now I scan the compter twice a week and review the traffic through the firewall once a month. To secure the “personal” side of my Thinkpad, I now have digital certificates in place for my personal e-mail address to secure communications a bit more. And on the home front, I recently upgraded the hardware in my desktop so that it could function as a firewall at the same time. I am even thinking that maybe I should get a cheap basic desktop to use as the firewall and router between me and the rest of the world.

This security stuff is mindboggling. All of this, and the most secret thing at this point (my data files I use reside on a detached drive that I only connect while I use it). Why do I worry about these things?

Hmmm….there must internal issues for which a licensed psychiatrist could answer…

I just found 9 CDs (6.3 GB) worth of MP3 songs I had burned back in 2002. I am adding them to my portable hard drive now, which means I will also add them to my iPod once I connect it. I’m really happy about that. I am planning to establish a huge “Music Drive” which I can access from anywhere in the world since I will create the virtual drive behind my firewall at home.

I did a count of the all of the CDs in the house. As it stands today, I probably have 100 GB worth of songs. That will be about 20,000 songs assuming 5 MB per song. Of course, from that 20,000, let’s assuming a duplicate rate (because I buy a lot of complication CDs as well) of 5%. That still means I’d have about 19,000 original songs to have access to whenever I wanted.

Yay me! 🙂