General thoughts while diving off Bundaberg
The diving here is great. The water is warm, we've got a huge variation in sites, and visibility is good. We've seen white-tipped reef sharks, huge wrass, an octopus, a ray that's wider than my desk, and more sea turtles than I can count. Even the dull dives have been exceptional.

However, looking at all this beauty also makes me aware of the damage that divers are causing to the reef itself. Most divers are quite environmentally aware, and have a 'look but don't touch' attitude. However, I've also seen plenty of divers that have poor buoyancy control and awareness. They go crashing into the bottom, they knock things when turn, and if they're distracted they'll drift into coral and other obstacles. I've been determined to avoid doing the same, making a concerted effort to stay aware of my buoyancy and situation at all times, but in in strong currents or crowded situations I find that mistakes still happen, so I'm certainly not blameless.

However, none of this damage compares to that done by the boat itself. While the skipper tries very hard to drop anchor on sand or rock, it's not always easy to tell by the sonar, and the anchor will naturally drag along the floor until it sticks. Sometimes it's quite clear that the anchor has caused significant damage, or will cause damage when it is lifted.

In the Whitsunday Islands (further north, and more protected) this problem has been solved by the deployment of permanent anchoring buoys. Ships are not permitted to drop anchor, instead they must attach to a buoy instead. If no buoy is available, then the ship is required to wait until one is, or move on. I'd love to see a similar policy in place for the rest of the Great Barrier Reef region.

Note: These entries will appear out-of-order with regards to the rest of my journal.

Day 0, Melbourne, 2004-12-27 13:01 (GMT+11) -- Be nice to everyone

I'm going SCUBA diving interstate, and I'm bringing my own equipment. Even without tanks and weights, it still weighs a lot. The bag I carry it in is also reinforced, to protect it from damage, and so it weighs a lot as well. I'm only allowed 20kg worth of baggage in checked luggage on the flight, so I'm expecting to pay an extra tariff for the excess.

I arrive at the airport and things are pretty quickly, so I quickly get to the check-in counter. I smile, show my ID, mention that I have some heavy bags, and ask about how the attendant's day has been. First bag goes onto the scale -- 23kg. Yikes, I've still got another one to go.

The attendant asks about my weekend, we talk about the holiday season and what she has planned. Second bag goes on, 8kg, putting me over 30kg, so I'm looking at a $20 tariff. I ask politely if I may be able to remove a kilogram from one of the bags and put it into my hand luggage, so I can squeeze under the 30kg limit.

The attendant says that she has a better idea. Transfer some of the things from the lighter bag (8kg) into the heavy bag, and then I can take both my laptop and lighter bag as hand luggage. When I enquire she explains that yes, usually my hand-luggage quota would be filled by my laptop bag, but as the flight isn't full there'll be plenty of space to carry on a second bag. It doesn't matter that the bag is bigger than the allowed size, nobody ever checks that anyway, and she's giving me special permission.

I thank her graciously, and transfer some books from the light bag into the heavy bag, bringing it up to 25kg, and she checks it in for flight. My lighter bag now weighs 6kg, and I'm asked if she can weigh my laptop. Uh oh, I know that bag is heavy, I tend to carry things like spare batteries, chargers, wireless mouse, headphones, books, USB keys, cables, pens, pads, and all manner of bits and pieces as well as the laptop. The bag weighs in at 8kg, which is more than the hand-luggage weight limit. The attendant smiles, says that will be fine, and wishes me a good holiday.

Now, my checked luggage is still more than the 20kg allowed limit, so I ask how I'll settle the $10 tariff that I'm still expecting to pay. The attendant lets me know that for only 25kg it isn't worth charging me a tariff, even though I'm overweight with my checked luggage, as well as carrying on board twice as many pieces of hand luggage as I'm allowed on the ticket. One item of hand luggage one is oversized, and the other one is overweight.

I'm obviously thrilled not to be paying the tariff, and wish the attendant a very very happy holiday period and new year.

The moral of the story is that if you're nice to other people, they will be nice to you in turn.

Happy New Rootkit
I'm back from holidays, and had intended to write about all the interesting diving I had managed to get done.

Unfortunately, the machine of one of our clients was compromised this afternoon, so instead I'm currently in the process of cleaning things up. I know how the attackers got in, and I have clean backups that verify without an issue. The main thing now is gaining physical access to the machine and the dull dull task of cleaning the disks and initiating a restore. There's reason to believe that the kernel has been modified by a direct write to /dev/kmem, so nothing the machine tells me can possibly be trusted.

This particular compromise falls into the "What? I didn't know we had that installed (outside of the packaging system)" category.

More Diving
Leaving soon for my dive trip. While performing pre-flight checks on all my equipment, I discovered a pressure gauge that rattled. Now, most pressure gauges do rattle when they're not pressurized, but this one rattles noticably more. It was working fine last time I dived, but maybe it got damaged in transport, or got dropped when it was in for servicing? Maybe it's fine, and has always rattled like that.

Normally I would just cycle down to the nearest dive shop, have a chat to the staff there, pop the gauge onto a tank of air and make sure it gives a good reading. Unfortunately, it's holiday season, and all the dive shops I could possibly reach are closed before I take off for a few days on a boat.

I'm going to contact the boat operator and ask if they can bring an extra set of regs, or just another pressure gauge, just in case this one is having problems.

Going to be a pain if the gauge is broken, luckily I believe I still have all the warranty papers to go with it.

Approaching Holidays
The holiday season is upon us. Jacinta has gone interstate to visit her sister, and so come Sunday I've found myself along and with a day free with no social commitments. Hurrah! That means that I can satisfy my inner-gamer.

What's interesting is what game I settled upon. Not a networked game with beautiful graphics, and engrossing gameplay, and the opportunity to be called a 'lame n00b' like Allegiance. Not a beautifully crafted atmospheric game like System Shock 2, or a strategy classic like X-COM, or even entertainment at its FPS-best like Halo or Half-Life.

No, I have a souped up machine with dual monitors, acclerated graphics card, and pounding sub-woofer so I can play Angband; without those silly tiles -- only ascii characters for me, thanks. Specially, I played a variant called Troubles of Middle Earth (ToME).

ToME is pretty good. It's got a lot of ideas that are very similar to ADOM, like skill systems and overland travel. It also has some very unique things -- a class that can befriend and enter symbiotic relationships with molds and slimes, 'unbelievers' who are able to suppress the manifestation of magic, and alchemists who are able to extract essences and craft new items. The Tolkienesque aspects have been enhanced on top of that from vanilla Angband, which I've found to be a real treat.