DELETED
Biff is under a bit of stress these days and might be losing it. This afternoon, I noticed that there were several empty cans in my bag. Pretty much since I've started at Infowave, I've just reached over and stacked my empties on his desk. Rude you might say but wait; Biff has this deluxe cube that used to house all our servers until we found a co-op entangled in the cabling behind the rack and near death from the heat.
His cube is H U G E and he has tons of room to spare so I figured it would be no problem. Of course I had every intention of taking them out of there someday but then I noticed that he had started clearing them and not saying anything. "Wow, this is working out better than I could have hoped for..." I guess today he had enough and started to dump them in my cube. How immature... Maybe I'll buy him a plush toy to soothe his feelings.
In news that doesn't invole Biff having a hissy fit, AOL is in trouble for this. Now AOL users ain't the brightest group so maybe it's ok for them. Basically, AOL went onto their users computers and turned off a service that could deliver a spam message. The thing that has people pissed is that AOL didn't even have the brains to ask permission. I mean how hard is it to display a popup and give people the chance to opt out (it is AOL, after all)? Another example of a good idea, poorly implemented.
Sort of like this site...
Stunning weather yesterday. Went out to see Kill Bill and I thought it was excellent. There were more amputations per minute than I have ever seen in a movie! There was Anime, great action and Lucy Liu; I can't wait for part two.
Calvin was telling us about it earlier this week and he and Paul started to spew off about how wonderful Quentin Tarantino's movies were. I'm not a movie guy, so I was like "I've never seen any of them." They both just looked at me with these incredulous looks on their faces. "Really? Are you serious?" It was as if I had just told them I was a virgin.
I think I understand what they were talking about now, but I doubt I'll be renting Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs anytime soon
When I came home I noticed that www.Sevenapril.com was displaying some other site! "Holy shit! I've been hijacked!" I pinged my domain and the IP was wrong so I went into full panic mode and called my host. They said they'd look at it while I looked at the server to see if my files were still there. It turns out my ISP is having some DNS issues and there was no problem with the site.
I had an interesting blast form the past yesterday; I returned to the shop for a visit. I hadn't seen anyone in a long time and not since they had moved into their new location. Pretty much the same crew there though the big surprise was that the GM had retired a while back.
I was also happy to see that they had laid it out almost exactly the way Big Al and I had planned it. That was one of my last tasks for them three years ago. They were pissed when I told them that I had been laid off in 2002 and didn't call them. I didn't really say anything to that...
So being Friday, I ran out to Safeway this evening to get something to eat and on the way back I witnessed three people trying to pack their car in the alley. One driving and two guiding. The spot was clearly over two feet smaller than the car and yet still they tried. I actually stopped and watched for a moment which seemed to give them the idea that this wasn't going to work.
My host had a hard drive failure today which resulted in the site being down. I'm not really sure when it went down as I didn't notice until after work. I was sitting on hold with Shaw and browsing the web as the soothing sounds of muzak filling my cube over the speakerphone...
I never did get through to them so perhaps they suspected I was about to slash the number of channels that I get. I find it hard to justify what I pay when all I really watch regularly is Tech TV. If I can knock my bill down I can live without it. Maybe I can still get it but that remains to be seen. Saturday, I battle their muzak again...
Given that this post has gotten completely stupid, I'll point out the obvious. I changed the angle of the patio cam so that it highlights my 'garden'. I think the other cam is down and out. I noticed it stopped updating (again) so I went to access it through VNC and the drive made an ugly noise. Grinding ugly. It's a six year old P200 so it might be time to give it a rest. Of course I have spare drives littering my apartment so maybe I'll rebuild it. I need to rebuild this box as well and I have a ton of new software so it means my image is out of dare. That means P200 rebuild won't be anytime soon.
Not a lot to say today. Neither does Biff so he has taken to ragging on Angelo which I find funny as hell. He does have a point though; Angelo constantly blogs about how nothing is new, how he has no time and how he intends to post pics of Zack.
The time that he spends writing about it, he could have put up the damn pictures! I expect a scathing rebuttal from Angelo in his next post, so check out his page sometime in mid-November...
Actually, Angelo has already posted a picture of Paul in a dress to retaliate for the picture Paul posted on Angelo in drag. Finally, someone but me... Also, I think Angelo mentioned that he did put the new Zack pics up, but I think they of the 'imaginary' variety and as such, I didn't see them. Like I said, mid-November...
In other news, I'm planning on adding a couple of new links to the Tools page and updating the layout to the 4x version so that it works (better) in Mozilla. As I'm still playing with the new tools, don't expect it to change for a few days.
Weekend update and it's going to be short. I think I have a cold brewing; I spent most of yesterday sleeping and still felt tired. Today was a bit better but I'm still feeling run down. And my nose is running which is always pleasant.
Along with forest fires and then floods, I've noted an unusual number of lady bugs around the building the past few days. Not a handful but real swarms flying around and doing whatever it is they do. Perhaps they are mating. Good for them; it's comforting to know that someone's getting some.
For some reason I've never been bothered by lady bugs. (Please keep in mind that I'm heavily medicated as I write this...) Right. It must be about time for another NeoCitran.
I just saw that Winamp has released a beta version of their player. I put it on my laptop and it looks pretty cool and doesn't peg the CPU when it runs. Grab it here.
Now that I'm finally drying out and have my water wings safely stowed away, I figured that I could do this week's Friday Five.
1. Name five things in your refrigerator.
Uh, mustard. Cheese. Cherry Yogurt (possibly expired). Bread. A bottle of green tea that Ayako gave my two years ago.
2. Name five things in your freezer.
Hmmm... bread. Uh, ground beef. *ponders* Perogies. Fish sticks. (Damn, this is hard...) Frozen vegies.
3. Name five things under your kitchen sink.
Garbage. Empty grocery bags. A box of baking soda. One fire extinguisher. Vinegar.
4. Name five things around your computer.
One stuffed Dogbert. Bills; paid and unpaid. Various Post-it notes. Remote controls. File cabinet.
5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet.
Not really fair given that I rarely look in it but whatever... Sleeping pills. Box of Q-Tips. Tums. Pepto Bismol. Uh. *Gets up and looks* Visine.
It's Wednesday so you know what that means; Microshaft has released the latest round of patches. I had five critical updates to download, so head over to Windows Update and get yourself patched. At least you'll be 'safe' until next week...
What's really funny is that all the patches address buffer overruns and overflows and even Server 2003 is vulnerable. How long has Server 2003 been available? A few months. "Good job boys!" That Trustworthy Computing initiative has really paid off.
So I did something today that I haven't done in a long time. I invested some money in the stock markets. A Canadian small cap mutual fund, an Emerging Markets fund and an International ETF. I'd been sitting on a hoard of cash for a long time now and decided that it was finally time to get a little more aggressive with my money. I only put in half of my allocation for the International fund as it's been on the way up lately. I got nervous and decided to put the rest in later on when it pulls back. I really wish that I had done this back in March; I'd have some good returns for once.
Finally, I added a new link to the sidebar. Geeks only, but if you're feeling geeky, by all means go for it.
OK, my host seems to be down. I guess I'll post this in the morning.
Biff sent this to me today. It's funny and sad all at once...
Aesop's Fable The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
The Canadian Post Modern Version The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The shivering grasshopper calls a Press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate like him are cold and starving. CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table filled with food.
Canadians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural festival special from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts them singing "We Shall Overcome."
Svend Robinson of the NDP rants in an interview with Pamela Wallin that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
In response to polls, the government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant's taxes are reassessed and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. The ant moves to the US, starts a successful agribiz company.
The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food though Spring is still months away, while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hadn't maintained it. Inadequate government funding is blamed and Roy Romanow is appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.
The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose and the Toronto Star blames it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity. The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, praised by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural diversity, who promptly terrorize the community.
The Ant is well, thank you and has retired to Arizona.
Many thanks to NAK for hosting Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. We ate ourselves silly and enjoyed each others company a great deal. The next time we are together, there'll be an additional setting at the table for Max and we're all looking forward to it. Chrissy & Bryan still have Max 'in the oven' but he's due at the end of next month.
I played This Old House with Paul and Rachel on Saturday and while it was a lot of work, it was also good fun. Too bad I'm busy for the foreseeable future...
Last night I decided to create a custom 404 page for the site. A 404 error is generated when you mis-type a URL in your browser and the page can't be found. Normally you get a generic server error but I thought it would be nice to display a custom page.
The problem (why is there always a problem?) is that the images don't load when the page is triggered. If I enter the absolute path the page is displayed normally, so I know the page is working. I created the 404 page just like every other but this one doesn't load the images. *curses*
Squatter To settle on unoccupied land without legal claim. To occupy a given piece of public land in order to acquire title to it.
I think the Vancouver city council may have lost it's collective mind. Faced with the prospect of the homeless squatting in our city parks, some have actually proposed allocating city land to set up a tent city for the squatters. A shanty town. In Canada. It was also mentioned that for the city to avoid liability issues, they would need to provide water, sanitation and medicine to the squatters.
Now there are different types of homeless in these squats; the truely down and out, the mentally ill and the bums. The mentally ill and destitute need help and it's wrong that there aren't enough services to provide these people with the help they need. Given our crushing tax burden, it's amazing that this is even possible.
Then there are the bums... Lazy shits who've decided that they have a right to set up a tent anywhere they see fit and save on the rent. Maybe we should all do that... I know I'd save $900 on rent alone and I could catch the train to the office, grab a shower and have a nice breakfast all before anyone got in.
The point of all of this? This is Canada. A country of so much opportunity for those willing to put forth the effort. Social programs that are the envy of the world and provide more than ample protection for it's citizens.
Last year there was the chance to make a statement at the Woodwards squat and do something to ensure this wouldn't happen again but it was an opportunity missed. Perhaps because many people didn't find themselves in that part of the city. Now that the squats have moved to the parks and park visitors are being accousted, sworn at and harassed, something is being done.
If it were up to me, I'd give the bums 24 hours to pack up and move on. If they're still there the next day, turn firehoses on them. If they show up at a new squat, you meet them with firetruck until they get the idea. There are certain rights in Canada that are rights. Squatting is not one of them.
Paul (known as 'Paula' for the balance of this entry) disappoints me. No surprise there but some background before my rant. This summer Paula went to A&B Sound to buy a new CD player for his car. A&B Sound jerks him around and screws him out of $90 when it comes time to install the player. Pissed, Paula tells A&B Sound to go to hell, rants on his blog and gets the player from Future Shop.
A bunch of people post comments on said blog defending A&B Sound (I have no idea why...) and this spooks Paula causing him to reconsider his temperment at the time his posted his blog. Undeterred, he politely counters the comments and considers the case closed.
Fast forward to this week and Paula calls me over to his cube in order to show me that he's getting page views from A&B Sound in his site logs! I was giddy with the blogworthy possibilities to ridicule and generally make light of the fact that his URL is being passed around the offices of A&B Sound.
I patiently await his response after trying to pepper him with suggestions. What does he come up with? Some drivel about how wonderful it is to have a site so that the common man can have a voice (very true, but come on). Act like you've got a pair!
I've noticed that I don't have much to blog about lately. I guess I'm getting tired of chronicling the details of my life here. Maybe I should do one of those audio blogs so I don't need to type. Instead of blogging, I've been cleaning up some of the older pages so that they work (better) with Mozilla.
The whole Lotus experiment is going ok at work. It's frustrating at times but not all that different. In many ways it can be compared to learning Linux after using Windoze for a long time; many of the principles are the same but the architecture is different. Of course it's not as large a jump as moving to Linux is.
I sat in on my first interview on Monday and that was interesting. I've never been on that side of the table but it was great after being on the other side so many times. What was a real eye opener was the discussion of all the candidates afterwards.
Some can be eliminated easily while others have their good and bad points which get debated. When you are being interviewed, it usually seems so cut and dried; either it went well or it didn't but from the interviewers position it's difficult to get a clear picture of the person. Should be interesting to see who gets called back for round two.
I noted with some interest that Angelo finally figured out that Paul and I were tipping the scales on his recent site poll by spamming him until we got locked out. "Your threats bother me little..." Perhaps you would like to correct the runtime error on your page before you launch your 'attack' :)
*Phhhhbbbbbt*
Hmmm... The Friday Five is sorta interesting this week...
1. What vehicle do you drive?
1990 Honda CRX si
2. How long have you had it?
I just passed the ten year mark. It's the longest that I've ever owned a car.
3. What is the coolest feature on your vehicle?
The lack of any sort of power assist. No power windows, locks, mirrors or brakes. The sunroof is electric and it doesn't work.
4. What is the most annoying thing about your vehicle?
It's rusting. Other than that, the fact that people seem to enjoy stealing it (or just parts, depending on their needs). Haven't had much trouble with that sort of stuff lately *touches wood*
5. If money were no object, what vehicle would you be driving right now?
A BMW of some description. Maybe an M5 or something. I'm too old to care anymore and could easily go back to walking.
You might have noticed that the site was unreachable last night. My host was moving servers or something so it was offline for a while. For some reason they figured that 6 PM would be a good time to do it when all the other upgrades they did were at midnight.
I don't know what's the matter with me. I was sitting here last night and totally forgot that it was Thursday and that Survivor was on. I watched Friends last week so I thought I would give Survivor another go and blindly watched Letterman. You can never go wrong with Letterman. Seeing that the sun came up this morning and so far, life seems normal, I'll forgo Survivor and Friends in the future.
Shnewt pointed out, with some delight I might add, that Angelo has started to take swing lessons. We debated coming up with some eloborate tales to humiliate him but in the end, decided against it. He never did catch on that it was us spamming his poll despite my doing everything but telling him straight out that it was us. Ah, friends are fun...
In other news, it seems that I've lost a cam... I know this will come as shocking news to those of you accustomed to spying on what I'm watching on TV. Hopefully the software has just crashed again and it's not the box that has died. Until I get the motivation to look into it, I'm afraid that it'll be frozen in time. The horror...
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