May 2004 Archives

Is astronomy geeky? Probably more so than astrology… That being said, today is one of 2 days all year that the sun will set directly in line with the grid that New York City is laid out on. In case it's cloudy, the other day is July 12th. See a few pics and a better explanation at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040528.html.

For me, today is a little different as well. This morning I was awakened by the plaintive screaming of my battery backup UPS because the power was off. After finding clothes by candle light, I came down here to the bakery (and thier wi-fi) to try to do some work. Of course all the source for the project I've been working on is on my server at home-- now turned off. So I guess I'll make the best of it by eating toasted everything bagels with cream cheese and a gigantic cup of java.

From my friend Carrie: http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/recycle/cdrecycle.htm.

Recycle your old CDs/jewel cases/tapes/floppies! I wish I'd known about this when we shut down the office in Little Rock. We had to have several boxes of tapes and media destroyed, and it would have been nice to recycle that material.

Here is the time lapse video I shot out of my front window today. It's 1.51MB and stored in MPG format.

I put up a bunch of new pics in the May 2004 gallery in my online photo album. These pics are from the trip to Dallas we took on Friday and Saturday, and my friend Misha's surprise birthday party at the Flying Saucer. Check them out here, or follow the link on the left bar. The bar pics came out a little strange-- I think because I was in slow-sync mode and really needed a tripod. Still, they are kind of interesting. So far, I'm extremely happy with my Canon G5 with the 420EX Speedlite. Today I might experiment with time-lapse stuff.

Before:

After:

I have upgraded the blog to Ver. 3.0D of MovableType. It looks pretty neat so far, and now you all can become Registered Commenters! That means it will remember you, and it will further protect all of us from spam. Go to www.typekey.com to become a Registered Commenter. If you are not registered, then the comments go into moderation before they show up on the site. This is because MT3 breaks the blacklist spam filters I had in place, so until that's fixed, I've got to be able separate the spam from the real comments. If you get registered, then all your comments are auto-approved unless you get banned.

Since I can't think of any other subject matter right now, here are some test pictures of the cats:

Alice:	Lucky:	The WRX:	Afro (Clay's cat):

Today's odd-ball link comes from my friend Carrie. She found an online quiz that tests your ability to discern serial killers from inventors of computer programming languages based on photos. Check it out here (new window).

In other news, my new digital camera arrived yesterday evening, so maybe I'll be posting some photos later today. After I figure out how to deal with messages larger than the buffer size coming off the IP stack...

For other photos, check out this album of my god-brother Jeff's kid Maya. His wife, Pamela, has a bunch of cute kid pics online here (new window).

Wow, the RIAA has become almost as bad as SCO. Check out this recent article that was posted to Slashdot here.

To paraphrase drastically: the RIAA says that sales are down 10% because of piracy and Soundscan (the Neilson ratings of music sales) says sales are up nearly 10%. They are both right, sort of. RIAA counts a "sale" as a unit shipped to a store, Soundscan counts a "sale" as a comsumer buying a unit from the store.

To borrow the author's great simple example: If I own a record store and Q4 2003 I ordered 1000 Brittany Spears CDs and I sold 700 of them. Then in Q1 2004, I sold 770 CDs but I only ordered 930 from the supplier. Q1 vs. Q4 shows an increase from 700 to 770 units that I sold to customers, but according to the way the RIAA measures things, my "sales" would be down to 930 from 1000.

Why is this? The author did ask this question, which was neatly evaded by the RIAA spokesperson. Basically, I think it's because the RIAA wants to say that sales are down because of piracy and filesharing, thus justifying it's protection-racket of sending people letters that basically say "send us money and we won't sue you". See, that Econ you took in college does come in handy!

As you may or may not know, there is a lot of questionable content on the internet. And I mean a lot more than just porn. If you are a person of a reasonably sound mind, you probably have some sort of Anti-Virus software loaded on your computer. You probably also regularly download updates to your virus software and so you sit calmly at your computer assured of your invulnerability to evildoers on the internet. You may be less secure than you think. Another form of software, one that anti-virus software will not detect because it doesn't self-replicate, is malware or spyware. These are little programs with little or no graphical interface, and they can bind themselves to your internet browser so they won't even show up in the Task Manager. Some are written in Java and can run on non-windows platforms. Most of these little bugs have been created by marketing and advertising companies to track surfing habits, pop-up offers or ads (very annoying), and monitor hits on various websites. Some of these malware have even more sinister intentions; they can open ports to your machine that allow it to be remote controlled, they can watch for credit card numbers or passwords and send them to unknown persons, some of them can even allow other complex processing jobs to be executed on your machine when you are not using it (similar to SETI@home, but without your knowledge).

So what do you do about these non-virus baddies? There are several solutions out there. Some are freeware, some cost money, and in fact, some are just malware themselves. Consider SRC Technologies in Hilliard Ohio. They make a product called SpyBouncer that claims to remove malware and spyware from your system. You can even scan your system online , but you have to pay to have the found items removed. The interesting thing is that under a parent company called Stingware, SRC Tech. also produces a program called Keylogger. This crafty little tool will run hidden on a computer and log every key that is pressed on the keyboard to a file. This file can be retrieved and searched for passwords and other sensitive information. The thing that I find questionable about this is that Keylogger does the same things as many of the spyware/malware programs that Spybouncer claims to find and remove. Ethically, I think there is a problem with inventing a disease and then selling the cure. Today I emailed the sales team at Spybouncer to see if it can detect and remove Keylogger. I will post the response when I receive it.

So what to do? Like I said, there are several solutions out there, the best listing and reviews of their various pros and cons I've found is at www.nondisputandum.com. Plus, I also enjoy Latin, and their name can be loosely translated as "There is no accounting for taste or color". Currently I use Spybot Search & Destroy and I have donated to his cause via PayPal and I recommend the same. Spybot SD provides very detailed listings of each item it finds, including what the malware does, and sometimes links to the creator's privacy statements online. Plus it gives you the ability to un-fix malware in the event that removing it has broken something useful to you. Thus endith my two cents...

-This just in- I've been quoted by the author of the NonDisputadem website! Check it out here. -Kelly 5/17/2004

Last night, Clay, Bayly, Emily and I went to see Van Helsing starring Hugh Jackman. It stunk.Sure the creature effects were cool, and the sets were very gothic and believable, but what a rotter. The acting was waaaaay over the top, the story had more cheese than grandma's lasagne, and at points, the learned friar character was forced to read parts of the plot off of walls and paintings. When this ones comes out on DVD (which should be any day now), it would be good for use as a coaster, not much else. It seemed that they just wanted to do too much in one movie-- the whole vampires vs. werewolves vs. Mr. Hyde vs. Frankenstein's monster just spreads the plot far to thin. Honestly, I feel slightly dumber for having seen this movie. So, in my humble opinion, steer clear of this one and look for another summer blockbuster to fill your quota.

This part may get a little geeky. With the arrival of the new laptop last night, I've got everything set up to be mobile. Today I put in a 802.11g wireless access point and set up 64-bit WEP encryption. Now no one can get on my wireless network without knowing 4 different 10 digit hex keys. Plus, with an extra Neoware ICA thin client, I set up a wireless bridge in the kitchen, so now I can listen to music and browse the web while I cook. This is pretty cool because I use www.foodtv.com a lot. So right now, I'm sitting on the front porch writing this blog entry. Life without wires is a good thing.

Last night was the first night on the new bed. It took a little while to get to sleep; I kept thinking I was in a hotel on the road somewhere. Eventually I drifted off and had a great night's sleep. Man, I can't believe I have lived this long sleeping on an old lumpy futon. The cats love it too.

In other, completely unrelated, news--
I got this rather funny note from the dog:

Instructions on how to clean your toilet

1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.


2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.


3. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids. You may need to stand on the lid.


4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.


5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a "power-wash" and "rinse".


6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.


7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids.


8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.


9. Both the commode and the cat will be sparkling clean.

Sincerely,

The Dog

Thanks for Julie for the funny forward...

Today marks the first day without a job. I will certainly miss the folks from Textron Financial, Small Business Direct (as our group in Little Rock was called). Yesterday was sobering and filled with goodbyes, but several of us spent a fun time together at a few local bars. Everyone seemed a bit relieved it was over, having hung in there for the great severance and retention package. As I prepare for my next journey, contracting back to Textron's TBS group, I hope to be able to use some of the knowledge I've gained over the past five years.

If you look over at the sidebar on a left, you will notice the Unemployment Countdown timer is now gone. Maybe I'll start another one as the term of my contract nears it's end.

In other news:
In preparation for the new contracting gig, I decided I needed a mobile development platform. So I bought a new custom-configured Asus M6N laptop. It sports a 1.5 gHz Intel Centrino chip, 1GB of DDR333 RAM and a 5400 RPM hard disk with 16MB of cache. This should last me for several years to come. To protect my investment, I also purchased a Zero Halliburton Z5 aluminum computer attache case. The darn thing is bulletproof and has a gasket to make it water resistant and dustproof. Just the thing for a road warrior. Both should arrive this week.

Also scheduled to arrive this week is a new bed. For the past ten years or so I've been sleeping on an old futon I bought from my god-sister Julie for $50. It will be so nice to have a real adult mattress, complete with plush top (I didn't even know what that was a week ago). So look for a posting Wednesday morning after my first night's sleep in real orthopedic comfort.