Daemons

March 13, Sunday, in my bedroom.

It was seven in the morning when I got a call from our Operations team saying they could not access one of our production servers.

It didn't take long for me to start troubleshooting the problem because I had my laptop next to my bed which was already connected to the office through VPN.

The server keeps on going down because of a memory chip problem. Parts are on their way and it should be fixed soon.

I went in to the server and checked around to see if there is anything else failing besides the hardware. I browsed through all the log files but didn't find any WARNING or ERROR messages pertaining to the problem we're having. I can only see what the problem is through the console. Weird.

Anyway, I checked all the running processes and they were all working fine. Including all the daemons. Daemons: why the hell did they use daemon as a term for a background process? I've known this computer term for over a decade but I never really wondered why it was called a daemon until now.

So I made a research. And I pretty much got everything I needed to know from dictionary.com. So here it is, copied-and-pasted.

dae·mon ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dmn)
n.

1. Chiefly British. Variant of demon.
2. Variant of daimon.
3. Computer Science. A program or process that sits idly in the background until it is invoked to perform its task.

n 1: one of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian belief [syn: devil, fiend, demon, daimon] 2: a person who is part mortal and part god [syn: demigod]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

daemon

/day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ (From the mythological
meaning, later rationalised as the acronym "Disk And Execution
MONitor") A program that is not invoked explicitly, but lies
dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. The idea is
that the perpetrator of the condition need not be aware that a
daemon is lurking (though often a program will commit an
action only because it knows that it will implicitly invoke a
daemon).

For example, under ITS writing a file on the LPT spooler's
directory would invoke the spooling daemon, which would then
print the file. The advantage is that programs wanting files
printed need neither compete for access to, nor understand any
idiosyncrasies of, the LPT. They simply enter their
implicit requests and let the daemon decide what to do with
them. Daemons are usually spawned automatically by the
system, and may either live forever or be regenerated at
intervals.

Unix systems run many daemons, chiefly to handle requests
for services from other hosts on a network. Most of these
are now started as required by a single real daemon, inetd,
rather than running continuously. Examples are cron (local
timed command execution), rshd (remote command execution),
rlogind and telnetd (remote login), ftpd, nfsd (file
transfer), lpd (printing).

Daemon and demon are often used interchangeably, but seem to
have distinct connotations (see demon). The term "daemon"
was introduced to computing by CTSS people (who pronounced
it /dee'mon/) and used it to refer to what ITS called a
dragon.

[Jargon File]

(1995-05-11)

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2004 Denis Howe

daemon

/day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ n. [from the mythological meaning,
later rationalized as the acronym `Disk And Execution MONitor'] A
program that is not invoked explicitly, but lies dormant waiting for
some condition(s) to occur. The idea is that the perpetrator of the
condition need not be aware that a daemon is lurking (though often a
program will commit an action only because it knows that it will
implicitly invoke a daemon). For example, under ITS writing a
file on the LPT spooler's directory would invoke the spooling
daemon, which would then print the file. The advantage is that
programs wanting (in this example) files printed need neither
compete for access to nor understand any idiosyncrasies of the
LPT. They simply enter their implicit requests and let the daemon
decide what to do with them. Daemons are usually spawned
automatically by the system, and may either live forever or be
regenerated at intervals.

Daemon and demon are often used interchangeably, but seem to
have distinct connotations. The term `daemon' was introduced to
computing by CTSS people (who pronounced it /dee'mon/) and used it
to refer to what ITS called a dragon; the prototype was a program
called DAEMON that automatically made tape backups of the file
system. Although the meaning and the pronunciation have drifted, we
think this glossary reflects current (2000) usage.

Source: Jargon File 4.2.0

daemon

the Greek form, rendered "devil" in the Authorized Version of the New Testament. Daemons are spoken of as spiritual beings (Matt. 8:16; 10:1; 12:43-45) at enmity with God, and as having a certain power over man (James 2:19; Rev. 16:14). They recognize our Lord as the Son of God (Matt. 8:20; Luke 4:41). They belong to the number of those angels that "kept not their first estate," "unclean spirits," "fallen angels," the angels of the devil (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:7-9). They are the "principalities and powers" against which we must "wrestle" (Eph.6:12).

The five people you meet in heaven

Today while still on the shuttle, on my way to the office, I finished reading Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

This little book put an interesting perspective on what we may expect in the afterlife.

The story was about a wounded war veteran named Eddie. An old man who has lived, in his mind, a life that is somewhat luckluster or uninspired. He is lonely and transformed himself into a bitter old man, consumed by the thought of not having to accomplished anything worthy in life. He spent most of his life maintaining the rides at Ruby Pier, a seaside amusement park, greasing tracks and tightening bolts and listening for strange sounds, "keeping them safe."

On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart.

He woke up in heaven and encountered five pivotal figures from his life who showed him the true meaning and value of his life. One by one, these mostly unexpected characters reminded him that all of us is somehow connected in many ways; that all our stories are somehow intertwined. With each person Eddie meets, a part of his life is revealed, even if he does not appreciate its significance at the time.

The last person he met was a young girl from the Philippines. The girl he tried to save from fires he caused when he burned the huts where he, along with his fellow soldiers, were imprisoned and tortured for months.

Through these five people Eddie understandood what the real meaning of his life was. And it's his turn now to enlighten the others.

-oOo-

Everything happens for a reason. Hmmm..... Wait, that may be debatable if you read Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" where he explains the origin of antimatter.

But I do believe that every person you come in contact with throughout your life, has a purpose. And I've got a list of people whom I wanted to meet in the afterlife, whether it be heaven or something else. One of them is my father.

Hairline Fracture

Monday, 11:40 AM, Doctor Lago's office, at Kaiser Permanente in Milpitas, CA.

The X-ray result was negative, but I felt something tender on your ribs which I suspect a hairline fracture.

Those were doc's words. I should be happy for not having any broken bones. But darn, it's very painful especially when I sneeze. He adviced me not to play for at least a month.

That's what you get for playing physically unfit!

Well, honey, this may sound unfit for a catch-22 phrase, but yeah, I play to get fit.

My wife always seem to be hesitant on letting me play basketball because I don't look healthy enough to play with the kind of guys who play here.

But It's just one of my ways to unwind after a whole week of hard work. Besides getting fit and all....

A Bad Dream

It happened at 2:00 AM this morning. It was about my brother.

This was one of those weird dreams. In my dream I was asleep and was dreaming of something else. This sub-dream was about me and my brother going to a church on a hill. Although I have never seen that church before, it looked familiar but there was something different about it. It was very old and was surrounded by ruins like that of the chittorgarh or the arch of the septimius.

Then an old man came and put his hand around my brother's shoulder and walked with him -- away from me. From that moment, I kinda knew it was only a dream and for some reason I knew what it was all about. My brother knew what was happening too. He came to me and told me that he was sick; that whenever he coughs his head starts to feel pain and his face starts to feel cold -- like ice; that he will soon be leaving us; and that this old man will show him the way to the next life.

Then the sub-dream was over. I woke up and looked for my brother. He was supposed to be sleeping next to me but he was gone. Then I saw him rushing down a hallway towards the bathroom. He was dragging his right leg because he couldn't bend his right knee. I saw my mom, woke her up, and told her what was happening. She ran after my brother and I followed her. But she was slow. I was pushing her forward when I realized -- she wasn't my mother. This lady had a long blond hair.

My brother collapsed in the bathroom but I was able to catch him before he fell onto the bathtub. I carried him outside and asked for help. I was crying and screming but nobody could hear me. I found a white guy sitting outside, next to the door, but didn't do anything. No-one could hear me so I yelled out louder and tried to punch the wall to get more attention.

Then, someone came -- my wife. She heard me moan so she woke me up.

I thanked God when it was over and that it was only a dream..... But my heart was pounding hard and I couldn't breath for a while.