December 2003 Archives

Ouch! In honor of my friend Bayly's holiday tradition of playing paintball after Christmas, I went with him and 8 other people to Paintball Arkansas in Mayflower. 500 paint balls and 3 hours later, I realized I was pretty sore. I guess when you are fired up with adrenalin and running around the woods trying not to get tagged with a rapidly moving paintball, you don't notice pain much. So it's been two days, and I still make all sorts of old-man sounds going up stairs. I think I'm beginning to see the reasoning behind such products as Icy Hot. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine I'd need something like that. But my quads are killing me. I know, I know-- a bit of exercise would help that, but where does one find the time? In between work, sleep, and cooking lo-carb food, I barely have time to watch a TV show from beginning to end. If anyone has extra time on their hands, would you kindly zip it up and email it to me?

In other news, I hope everyone had a great holiday. I didn't do much but blow the diet and laze around. The perfect vacation from work in my opinion. I was too lazy to even post anything on my blog, which is pathetic. I did get to see some old friends which was nice, and I was introduced to the best fried chicken ever. Bo Jangles on south University down the road from UALR. Great stuff!

In completely unrelated news, I got a notification email that someone posted a comment to a previous entry. The post was not very nice and has been deleted, but the interesting thing is how much I can learn from such things. For instance, the poster came from a source address of 207.19.62.150. If you use a free service called Whois (whois.arin.net is my fave) you can see who owns the block of addresses that one fell in. Whois returned this information:

BW whois 2.9 by Bill Weinman (http://whois.bw.org/)
Copyright 1999-2001 William E. Weinman
Request: 207.19.62.150
connecting to whois.arin.net [192.149.252.43:43] ...
UUNET Technologies, Inc. NETBLK-UUNETCBLK16 (NET-207-16-0-0-1)
207.16.0.0 - 207.19.255.255
Mercedes Benz of North America BENZ (NET-207-19-62-0-1)
207.19.62.0 - 207.19.62.255

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2003-12-28 19:15
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

I think that's pretty interesting, because the smaller block is owned by Mercedes-Benz (I apparently attract high-class detractors), who in turn, lease it from UUNET, a very large network provider.

Incidentally, they used the email address of: terrismith323@hotmail.com. If you receive spam email for penis enlargement, low mortgage rates, or any other junk, please use this address when responding.

Today a Federal appeals court ruled that the RIAA can't force internet service providers to reveal the names of people using filesharing apps or swapping files on thier networks. This constitutes a huge blow to the RIAAs witch hunt for file sharers. Read a mirror of the AP story here.

It's good to know that the large ISPs will go to bat (and probably at great expense) for their users rather than just rolling over for unconstitutional subpoenas. Perhaps we will finally see a downward trend in CD prices to counteract file sharing. If CDs topped out at $10, it certainly wouldn't be worth it to me to find music on the internet.

Now THIS is funny. I have tears in my eyes as I type this. Go on, read the whole thing, it's hilarious.

My Christmas letter for this year is finished. It's in the extremely portable PDF format, so you have no excuse not to read and share it. Pass it on to other people in the fambly that may bot have a chance to read my 'blog!

opens in a new window

If you don't have the Acrobat reader, click below:

Now I'm sure you all have seen the latest ad campaign from Apple, called Switch. Well, here is a clever little Flash animation with Anakin Skywalker pitching a Switch to the Dark Side. Enjoy!

It's interesting to me, that following our deposition of the current regime in Iraq, a Linux User Group (LUG) has sprung up. Currently they only have two members, but I think that's a fantastic leap forward in both cultural and business thinking. Today, Slashdot broke a story on LinuxJournal from a tech-savvy American reporter in Baghdad as a follow-up to this event.

The thing that interests me about this is that Linux and the open source movement appear to be the first to grow, almost like a scab over a wound, in situations where a people are suddenly exposed to freedom of information and thought. I wonder if Microsoft sees this trend and is lobbying our current administration to not help bring oppressive and culturally strict nations into the realm of free thinking.

Considering such events as Peru going open source and MS bullying the Lindows operating system into not using the name "Lindows"; I think that open-source software is well on it's way to being the bootstrap technology for developing nations. Imagine if you lived in a country that strictly mandated what you could do, see, read and say. Then suddenly, those bans were lifted and you became exposed to open-source software, collaborative developing, and the vast untamed internet. Then, when you started to take advantage of these things, big American business steps in and wants to impose it's will on you. Wouldn't that remind you of your earlier oppression by your government? Anyway, it's my hope that Microsoft continues to embarrass itself lumbering through the china-closet of the newly-emergent tech world like a 800 pound Brahma bull.

Of course as a bespoke software developer, without Microsoft (and it's never-ending security patches and eclectic development environment), I'd be out of a job... at least until I could learn PHP/Python/PERL.

Want to celebrate the fall, especially football season?

Here's what you need to do it properly:

1. Nothing to do


2. A sharp knife


3. A large lime


4. A patient cat


5. Too much tequila

click to enlarge

Mad props to Debbie Hopkins for the source image

So here I sit in front of the computer eating some pistachios. My eye glances down to the can. I see the ingredients list: Pistachios, Salt. Then, right below it, I see the strangest thing ever. Three little words: "MAY CONTAIN PEANUTS". What? How does THAT happen? I'm fairly certain that peanuts and pistachios are pretty different. One comes from trees, the other from bushes. Don't believe me? Grab a can of shelled pistachios from Inter-American Products, Inc. of Cincinnati Ohio. Very strange, but that's pretty much par for my life.

I've found it! The all-encompassing collection of the Bud-Light Real Men Of Genius series. Here it is (opens in a new window). My fave is Mr. Centerfold Retoucher. Although Mr. Company Computer Guy is a close runner up.

As you may or may not know, my aunt and uncle live aboard their boat. They are getting her ready for an open-ocean trip down to Mexico from Vancouver Island. They have a little site up, showing some of the mods they've done to get her ready for open sea travel. Check it out here.

Notice the banner ad at the bottom of the screen. This is not your normal ad, I don't get money if you click on it. My co-worker, Phyllis, has been building a shopping site as a foray into the world of online commerce. So I said I would put up a banner link to her site. Check it out, buy some stuff if you wish.

Blockbuster out of that new release you wanted to see? Cinema prices got you down? Instead of renting that same-old same-old, check out a Bad Movie. This site rates the worst of the worst. My two new faves are "The Shape Of Things To Come" and "The Crippled Masters".

Last night I made the Feta Burgers from the Atkins site. My friends Bayly and Emily came over for dinner and they were a hit! The burgers were expecially good with a bit of Ring Of Fire hot sauce smeared over them. My mom mentioned a similar recipe with olives and walnuts that I can't find on the Atkins site. Maybe she would post it here.

Weight loss to date: 12.5 lbs

So tonight I tried to make the Atkins Crab Cakes. No lump crab meat to be found, so I thought I'd use crawfish tails instead. Bad idea. After dirtying almost every pan in the house and having to clean the floor twice and change shirts once, I have a collection of what could only be called Crawfish Gravel. No amount of Keto Crumbs made them hold together, nor a surgeon-like gentleness, or much threatening with spatulae. Argh! Oh well, I guess failure is the mother of invention. Tomorrow night I'll try the feta burgers my friend Emily (Bayly's wife) recommended.

In other news, my sister has moved to Spokane, so if you are close, stop off and see her cats: Jasper and Onyx. Also give her a job. Preferrably one that pays very well-- she deserves it.

Also-- I've been discovered by another Kelly Adams! Read the comments on this post here (opens in a new window) from a few weeks ago. I think we should form a credit union or something. Or maybe a secret society a la H.P. Lovecraft.