You’ll be glad to know that the M5 didn’t skip a beat (even when Chris was driving…), apart from serious brake fade coming down the Stelvio, so that’s one AP BBK to add to the list when I eventually sort out a job and earn some money.

Can’t wait to do it again.

• How to Rob a Bank (2007) I watched this on the train down from LA to San Diego.  I nearly turned it off a few times as the lunch the guy next to me was eating was more interesting, but stuck it out as the film’s single saving grace - Erika Christensen - is so hot.  The story is fucking stupid, the acting is utterly atrocious, it’s stylish in an overly annoying way, and it’s predictable in the extreme.
   
• Salem’s Lot (1979) This was picked as a laugh (most of the old Stephen King films are amusing) to watch on a projector in someone’s backyard here in SD.  I could have sworn up and down that I’d seen this, but it turned out I hadn’t or at least not this particular version.  It’s long as fuck (3 hours), and just outright boring as a result.
   
• Mission to Mars (2000) I’m a sucker for sci-fi and I hadn’t actually seen this before, so when it was on TV last night I decided to watch.  It came out long ago enough for the bad reviews I’d seen at the time to be forgotten, and anyway everyone slagged off Event Horizon but I still enjoyed it.  This wasn’t the case here though.  Despite having a pretty awesome cast the acting was either weirdly hammy or just pathetic, the soundtrack was fucking bizarre in an annoying way, and the story was just plain stupid.

I might avoid TV for a while.

While we’re on the subject (BMX, not cheap lenses…), here’s a few taken down at Seedless Clothing where me and Ry found a sick and almost totally original Mongoose Motomag lying around in Skeet’s office.

More updates soon, promise xox.

20:11 nick: lol???
20:11 Dimey: took about anohter 10 mins
20:11 nick: omg :(
20:11 Dimey: and man i bled :/
20:11 nick: surely it would have been better just to buy some laxatives?
20:11 Dimey: oh i did
20:11 Dimey: thats what made me go in the first place
20:11 nick: lol
20:11 Dimey: but the shits were like bullets
20:11 nick: that can’t be right surely :/
20:11 Dimey: bullet billz
20:11 nick: that’s fucking grim
20:11 Dimey: it wasnt very nice
20:11 Dimey: 8(
20:11 nick: lol man
20:11 nick: i hope that’s something i *never* have to experience
20:12 Dimey: it was weird man but there was no way it was comming out
20:12 Dimey: it was about 4 times as wide as my ass the shit inside
20:12 Dimey: had to keep picking bits off :/
20:12 nick: ll
20:12 nick: stop:/
20:14 Dimey: pity no one else is around to read this!
20:14 nick: lol
20:14 nick: the grossed out reactions
20:14 nick: and the obligatory comments about you sticking things in your ass
20:15 Dimey: aye
20:15 Dimey: my middle finger still reeks of shit
20:15 nick: lool
20:15 nick: impacted shit
20:15 Dimey: cant get rid of it
20:15 nick: been there for days
20:15 Dimey: scrubbed it 3 times
20:15 nick: i hope you’ve been wafting it under people’s noses
20:19 Dimey: will have to strategically work on that
20:21 Dimey: nick do you use vista at all?
20:24 nick: yeah
20:25 Dimey: ultimte?

Later…

14:47 fletcho: Dimebag and the shitpickers
14:47 fletcho: his new band
14:47 fletcho: new album “my finger stinks of shit” due in early august

Cleveland police have today confirmed that six people have been arrested for allegedly sharing music files via the defunct BitTorrent tracker OiNK.cd.

More over here.  Unreal.

And on the subject of sharing, here’s something worth listening to.

I walked out of football before to see these two parked either side of my car:

Looks like they were trying to make a point, especially with that 911’s parking.

I can’t whinge quite so much now about now having nothing new to listen to.  The Night Marchers are fucking awesome.  And Fork’s new band, Obits are shaping up nicely as well.  Good times.

The former are on tour in the US and pretty soon the UK as well (June) - you don’t want to miss them.

14:27 <nick> christ
14:27 <nick> heather mills got 24.3 million
14:27 <nick> sick :|
14:28 <Durz|work> 24.3 mil for just being associated with someone famous
14:28 <nick> yeah
14:28 <Durz|work> not a bad deal really is it
14:28 <nick> i’d bum paul mccartney for 24.3 million tbh
14:28 <nick> no danger
14:28 <Durz|work> aye, same
14:28 <dan`> I wonder if McCartney is pissed at that
14:28 <Durz|work> id bum him for 2.4mil
14:28 <Durz|work> with a smile on my face
14:28 <Durz|work> 2.43m!
14:29 <nick> same
14:29 <nick> lol
14:29 <nick> “:D”
14:29 <nick> pumping away
14:29 <Durz|work> its not gay if you’re giving
14:29 <nick> thinking of the money
14:29 <Durz|work> lol
14:29 <Durz|work> :/
14:29 <Durz|work> bum only, no spooning plz macca
14:29 <nick> sick
14:29 <nick> you’re thinking it through
14:29 <Durz|work> ool
14:29 <nick> probably fighting a semi
14:29 <nick> sicko

14:33 <exor-> lol
14:33 <exor-> would you suck him off and swallow for 2.4 though daz?
14:33 <exor-> (I would)
14:33 <Durz|work> lol
14:34 <Durz|work> jesus :|
14:34 <exor-> I wouldnt feel much pride, if I’m honest
14:34 <dan`> bit much
14:34 <exor-> but 2.4…man
14:34 <exor-> its a nice payday

14:35 <nick> 2.4 million goes a long way to massaging that pride back up to scratch though tbh
14:35 <nick> you can buy alot of whores for that!
14:35 <Durz|work> what about £234k paul? £23.4k? :/
4:36 <Durz|work> what did she win again? 24.3 mil?
14:36 <Durz|work> so £243k, £24.3k etc
14:36 <dan`> silly bitch
14:36 <nick> i dunno :/
14:36 <nick> 24k no way :/
14:36 <Durz|work> its a nice house :/
14:36 <nick> 2.4k :/
14:36 <Durz|work> lol
14:36 <nick> i bet dan would do it for 2.4k
14:36 <nick> it’s still double what he won on the lottery
14:36 <nick> huh dan
14:37 <Durz|work> fucking lol
14:37 <dan`> :p
14:37 <Durz|work> £24.3k for 10 mins work………………………………………………
14:37 <Durz|work> eh paul?
14:37 <Durz|work> (depersonalising it so I dont have to answer)
14:37 <dan`> sick
14:37 <Durz|work> cmon exor???? 24.3k???
14:37 <nick> grim
14:37 <nick> 243k is as low as i would consider
14:37 <nick> 24k to live with the fact that you bummed a guy
14:37 <exor-> lol
14:37 <nick> not enough :/
14:37 <exor-> nah
14:37 <exor-> not a chance
14:38 <exor-> actually
14:38 <Durz|work> lol
14:38 <Durz|work> second thoughts
14:38 <exor-> I’ve just gone through it in my head
14:38 <nick> lool
14:38 <exor-> I am not convinced I could do it for 2.4m
14:38 <Durz|work> pauls itemised the bill
14:38 <Durz|work> send paul an invoice afterwards
14:38 <exor-> in all seriousness :/
4:38 <nick> i’d do it for a 1 mill plus
14:38 <nick> e-z
14:38 <Durz|work> aye me too
14:38 <nick> set up for life
14:38 <exor-> I would like to think I could
14:38 <Durz|work> 2.4m easy
14:38 <exor-> deffo
14:38 <exor-> but I am not sure :/
14:38 <exor-> it’s pretty sick swallowing cum I bet :/
14:38 <Durz|work> lol
14:38 <exor-> if you’re not a girl anyway :D
14:38 <exor-> obviously it’s ace for them
14:39 <Durz|work> what are we talking about here? bumming or bj ? :|
14:39 <nick> lool
14:39 <exor-> bj:/
14:39 <nick> paul has switched it
14:39 <nick> man
14:39 <nick> price of a bj plus swallowing goes up
14:39 <nick> quite a bit imo
14:39 <exor-> lol
14:39 <nick> still do it for 1mill+ imo
14:39 <exor-> 1.005 huh nick?
14:40 <Durz|work> if nothing else you’ve got a story to tell the kids
14:40 <nick> lol :(
14:40 <nick> the day grandad bummed macca :/
14:40 <Durz|work> did I tell you about that time I bummed the guy from the beatles? it was before your mother

Some time later…

15:25 <booz> Heather Mills says she is “very pleased” after she is awarded ?24.3m in her divorce
battle with Sir Paul McCartney.
15:30 <fletch> I’d be very pleased with a 24.3M? bonus
15:31 <fletch> tbh, I’d fuck paul mccartney for that
15:31 <exor-> oh god
15:31 <exor-> dont start that again
15:31 <dan`> lol
15:31 <fletch> start what?
15:32 <dan`> fletch would for 24p

Daft Punk - Alive 2007

No.

Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
“Zach Condon’s horn and ukelele…”

Horn and ukelele? No ta.

James Blackshaw - The Cloud of Unknowing
“… acoustic guitar music…”

Acoustic guitar music. No.

Bowerbirds - Hymns for a Dark Horse
“… folk …”

Folk. Fuck no.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Scribble Mural Comic Journal
“Philadelphia tweegazers keep up ambient-pop’s ethereal flame…”

Tweegazers? C’mon. Fuck that.

And so it continues over tens of pages. Grim. Seriously, what’s happened to all the good stuff that used to come out of DC, Chicago, et al?

On the face of it, 1600 miles of driving in three days across various parts of Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy) might seem a bit crazy. But when you do it in some of Bayeriche’s finest (an E39 M5, a Z3 M Coupe, a Z4 and a 745i) and cover some of Europe’s best roads you start to understand the appeal. The roads and views we encountered have to be seen to be believed, and thanks to the miracle of technology that is the Internet you can right here. They’re up on Facebook as well but that does a pretty good job of mangling colour profiles and compression so they look a bit cack. I’ll whack them up onto Flickr too at some point just for good measure.

I didn’t take as many shots as I like as I spent approx. 99% of my waking time over the weekend behind the wheel but there’s a few good ones in there. Fletch took a shit load as well with both his camera and mine, and he’ll no doubt write something more descriptive fairly shortly. All in all it was an amazing weekend, great roads and good people to be on a road trip with. Highlights for me had to be Faz’s physics-defying driving in the 745i, Fletch’s ability to control the weather by singing various songs, Matt’s psychotic overtaking manouvres, and the views from along / around Great St. Bernard’s pass.

So when’s the next trip? :-)

The Prime Minister’s Office has responded to that petition and you can view it here: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page13600.asp“

The bit that we care about:

However, the Government understands that the council has had a change of heart and that Southsea skatepark will now remain open throughout the winter and beyond. Government further understands that the council is committed to the future of the park and is looking at a range of options both internally and externally.

Best get down there really and ride it before it does eventually disappear… KOC 2008 anyone?!

Recently our world lost one of its finest members. Gary A. Nesbitt’s body was found in the San Diego Harbor on Sept 29th. Gary has had a tremendous impact on many people. He has no close family so as his friends, we are all he has. We are making arangements for a memorial service at the Clairmont YMCA skatepark. If you would like to help plan or contribute to this event, please contact Taylor Robinson at 619 987- 7433 or email taylorpagerobinson@gmail.com. please foreward to any and everyone who was blessed to know Gary. We are all deeply saddened by this loss.
You are gone but not forgotten

A memorial service is planned for Saturday Oct 6th at the clairemont skatepark
3:30 pm-5:00 pm bike jam
5:00 -? memorial service
please bring food, drinks and stories of how gary impacted your life.

Gary wasn’t a myspace-er. I started this page after hearing of his death. I invite everyone to log on to his myspace page and make it “savage” style. Please sign out and re log on as garynesbitt@yahoo.com with the pass word savage1 and post any thing (pictures, stories, movies) that you would like to share with Gary’s friends.

http://www.myspace.com/garynesbitt

Gary was one of those people that you meet that you instantly consider a friend. He’ll be sorely missed.

RIP Gary.

Enter pf, and a trivial rule such as this:

pass in on $ext_if inet proto tcp from any to { $fork, <jails> } port ssh \
flags S/SA keep state (max-src-conn 15, max-src-conn-rate 5/40, \
overload <bruteforce> flush global)

So we have a table called ‘jails’ which contains a list of IP addresses for each hosted jail, and a persistent tabled called ‘bruteforce’. SSH to port 22 is allowed, however if there are more than 15 connection from one source, or if the connection rate exceeds 5 every 40 seconds, they’re stuck into the ‘bruteforce’ table. And right at the top, we have:

block quick from <bruteforce>

So they’re instantly blocked and tracked for future reference. A few days later…..

$ sudo pfctl -t bruteforce -Tshow | wc -l
130

So 130 IP addresses caught and tracked. Nice.

Unfortunately, that smile didn’t last as it broke down earlier today just as I left the M4. I was actually on my way back to the dealer to get something minor checked out when I pulled off the motorway at the exit, engaged third - or attempted to - and went precisely nowhere. The engine revs fine, but the clutch doesn’t seem to engage at all. So that was that, I sat at the side of the road somewhat nonplussed with the odd random past driving beeping their horn at me (another problem with owning an M5…) whilst waiting for the rescue truck to take the car back to the dealer.

No idea what it is yet but the premium for purchasing an approved used BMW has already saved me, with the recovery being free as well as the courtesy car (a very nice new 320d Touring), and the work done will be under warranty so I shouldn’t have to worry about any kind of obscene bill. One of those things I guess….

The future of Southsea Skatepark is looking uncertain. Portsmouth City Council is preparing to close the park in September of this year unless a suitable plan can be made in conjunction with a private party that would need to take over the lease of the facilities. A private party with the full support of current skatepark users has approached the council and their business plan was rejected due to out-dated views expressed by council members as to the usage and potential user groups associated with the park. The users of the park; skateboarders, BMX and inline have united to form a user group that will hopefully convince the Local and National Government that these facilities are a necessary part of the local community and that the park is unique and an investment in the future of all active members of the public young and old. Please add your support if you use the park, have ever used the park or if you value a genuine piece of British skate and sporting heritage and the right to campaign for adequate sporting and recreational facilities for the present and future.

I’ve got so many good memories from this place, and I was looking foward to making the trip there this year depending on weather. Make sure you sign the official petition here.

Moving forward I’ll probably set up a mailing list so that people hosted on this new box can be easily notified of any work / outages, and I’ve been threatening to resurrect the old freebsd.cx website as I know you can import old PHPNuke sites into WordPress…