Orb Designs Graffiti, a Daily Blog - June 12, 2006 thru June 18, 2006

GRAFFITI -- June 12, 2006 thru June 18, 2006

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Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

MONDAY Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
June 12, 2006

0854 - Good morning. Not too bad an attitude this morning, given a rainy, sucky drive that introduced me to several multi-mile backups and about 1.5 hours of one-way commute. My only consolation is that it's just barely possible that this afternoon will be better.

Marcia and Linda Rose had a good time in Atlantic City. Marcia lost, Linda Rose won, but no one came home with new tatoos, so I count the whole thing as a win. Last night, Marcia and I tried to watch yet another Thin Blue Line disc (a Ben Elton series starring Rowan Atkinson). Every one that Netflix has sent us has been damaged. I know that they've turned at least one reported disc right around and sent it to us again. The one last night (disc 2) had visible internal layer delamination. By gum, it was reasonably unplayable. Grrrrr.

I finally got Ubuntu Server 6.06 LTS burnt and ready for some experimenting, so I'll be getting up to that this morning. More about that when it's worth reporting. I like that it's an install that is supposed to be supported for five years, and that there's commercial support available for them's as needs that. To work with me, ciao!

Top / Email Brian

Mon TUESDAY Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
June 13, 2006

0824 - Good morning. Friday the thirteenth falls on a Tuesday this month. Lucky for most of us, but not for the bits of Florida that are about to catch the first "little" hurricane of the season. Oh, and hopefully it'll be a luckier day for Ben Roethlisberger, too. Of course, after 7 hours of reconstructive surgery yesterday (following his face-meets-windshield event), it's unlikely that he'll be on a new bike today. Since the bloke chooses not to wear a helmet, isn't it oddly coincidental that "roethlisberger" is german for "organ donor"?

Work went entirely not as planned yesterday. I had a batch of revenue-related chores to accomplish, and a new demo system to puzzle out. That let out the Ubuntu Server stuff and virtualization stuff entirely. I'll try to get to that today, at least until today's reality makes itself known to me.

Google Earth is out with a new beta, including a Linux client. The license is a relatively standard binary app, user-has-no-rights type of document. This seems surprising to some, engendering the usual barking of primates on the attendant Slashdot story. Look, folks: Tools are tools, shiny things are shiny things, and if you don't want a free-as-in-beer (but closed source) application on your system, don't install it. Sheesh. Whiners.

Okay, back to the grindstone. Ciao!

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues WEDNESDAY Thu Fri Sat Sun
June 14, 2006

No Post.

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Mon Tues Wed THURSDAY Fri Sat Sun
June 15, 2006

1138 - Good morning, as long as I hurry ... Yesterday was consumed by mad little lemmings. I was fighting against old hardware and DNS mistakes. Guess which I wrongly suspected of trouble. And worst of all, the DNS errors were mine, and carefully documented in one place (but not the other place, where I looked). Life is like that sometimes. I finally puzzled out the last piece this morning, and everything is hunky and dory on that front. Now I'm working on configuring a Ubuntu Server. So, lemme get to that.

Oh, the Plextor ConvertX that I borrowed from Bob works like a champ. I used it last night to convert our wedding video to digital from the deteriorating VHS tape it was on. Dodged that bullet, didn't I? Whew. Anyway, the hardware and software works as advertised. I haven't finished figuring out how to accomplish the authoring bits yet, with menus and whatnot on the DVD, but that's next. Oh, yeah, Windows only. Sorry. Ciao!

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues Wed Thu FRIDAY Sat Sun
June 16, 2006

0816 - Good morning. The day has started with a lighter than normal commute, but that'll be paid for this afternoon, as Friday's are always "escape" days around here. The traffic starts up heavy shortly after noon, and doesn't let up until well into the evening. Such is life.

Did you notice that Black Tuesday offered us a rather heaping portion of Windows and Office patches from our favorite Redmond company? Well, yeah, and some of the errors that they were fixing were just plain stupid, and bloody dangerous to boot. If you have automatic updates turned on, and upgraded to Microsoft Update (from Windows Update), then you'll probably have all of your patches applied by now, and your system's rebooted itself. But do yourself a favor, and go check via the Update site to be sure that you're up to date. It's far better to be proactive than to figure out how to rebuild your machine after it's been owned by a spambot overlord.

I completed the digitization of the important videos: Our wedding, Marcia's mom, singing in Maine, and the tape of the production of one of the plays that Marcia wrote. The data is now on both optical and magnetic media, and is bound to spread out a bit further, as Marcia asks for copies of this or that to send to X, Y, and Z.

I've been hard at work for a while and it's time to get back into the groove. Have a happy Friday!

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri SATURDAY Sun
June 17, 2006

0657 Good evening. Gaaaah! I spent about 6 hours in the yard today. We started out with a nursery run to pick up compost and manure. Then we began stripping out and refurbishing the strawberry beds, both of which were a bit root-bound. After struggling with the plants for a while, we decided to order new strawberries rather than save and replant... it would be likely not to work, Marcia thought. So I finished stripping out the old beds, amended and turned the soil (with the fork, not the rototiller) several times.

I took some of the left-over soil from pulling the berries and 4 bags of leaf compost down to the base of the yard. I stripped off all the weeds from the mound at the back corner of the fenced yard, then used the pickaxe to break up the soil a bit. Breaking out the rototiller at this point, I turned over the mound, then turned in the amendments. I've shaped the bed, and we'll probably edge it and plant something in the next week or two. One fun discovery was the bee's nest in the mulching box at the foot of the yard. Um, yay? Not really ... but I was only stung once, and they're well buried now. Should they tunnel out new entrances, then I'll pick up some bee killer.

I received an email from a friend about my Microsoft security update post lighting a fire under them to get their system properly updated. It has been more than a year ... and still SP1. So I wrote this in reply:

Read this whole message and think about it for a while.

SP2 is good. Do you have the ability to do a backup that you can restore your whole system from in the event of bad things? Then do that, just in case. (Strongly recommended)

Run Windows Update and let it install SP2. Then apply ALL the critical updates. That's at least TWO reboots and depending on download speed, could take a while. There could be critical updates that need to be installed BEFORE SP2, too. Just following the bouncing ball.

If you also have Microsoft Office, then at some point in the process you'll be offered the opportunity to "upgrade" to Microsoft Update ... take that path, then you'll get critical office updates, too.

I strongly suggest that you get some sort of tools for use in reinstalling your current system PRIOR to starting the process. There are USB Maxtor things you can purchase at best buy that "usually" come with software for disaster recovery full system restore. It'll be a couple hundred bucks, but probably a good thing to do first.

In an ideal world, you have ALL of the programs and discs you need to reinstall your system from scratch. If it were me, I'd probably back up all my data, wipe the system and reinstall Windows from original media, then update it all the way to current. Then I'd install Office and update that all the way to current. Then I'd go through all of the application discs that I have, install and update those applications one at a time. THEN I'd copy the data back onto the fresh newly installed system. That could take a couple of days, I know, I've done that with Marcia's system on more than one occasion. It yields a more stable system than just updating the hard drive and OS that's been running and accumulating dust, rust and kruft all these years.

I'll leave you tonight on that note. Have a lovely evening, catch you tomorrow.

Top / Email Brian

Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat SUNDAY
June 18, 2006

1241 - Hullo. We've got a house-warming, Father's Day, some-other-damn-thing party to attend this afternoon. Only this part of "We" may not make it, as I seem to be descending into a migrane. Lovely. Let me take a moment, though, to honor the fathers, and all the other men and women in our uniformed services. This week we not only had losses, but kidnappings. And people wonder why soldiers behave like soldiers when faced with a civilian population that harbors the enemy?

2nd Lt. John S. Vaughan, 23, of Edwards, Colo., died in Mosul, Iraq, on June 7, when he encountered enemy small arms fire during dismounted combat operations.
Sgt. 1st Class Clarence D. McSwain, 31, of Meridian, Miss., died in Baghdad, Iraq on June 8, of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy vehicle during combat operations.
Pvt. Benjamin J. Slaven, 22, of Plymouth, Neb., died on June 9, in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
Hospitalman Zachary M. Alday, 22, of Donalsonville, Ga., died June 9 from injuries sustained earlier in the day when the vehicle in which he was riding struck a land mine.
Lance Cpl. Salvador Guerrero, 21, of Los Angeles, Calif., died June 9, of wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
Lance Cpl. Brent B. Zoucha, 19, of Merrick, Neb., died June 9, of wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
Cpl. Bernard P. Corpuz, 28, of Watsonville, Calif., died in Ghanzi, Afghanistan, on June 11, from wounds sustained when his convoy came under enemy small arms fire and an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations.
Lt. Col. Charles E. Munier, 50, of Wheatland, Wyo., died on June 12 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., from a non-combat related cause, which occured on June 5 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Sgt. Roger P. Pena Jr., 29, of San Antonio, Texas, died in Musa Qulah, Afghanistan, on June 14, when his convoy came under enemy small arms fire during combat operations.
Cpl. Michael A. Estrella, 20, of Hemet, Calif., died June 14 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
Capt. Patrick D. Damon, 41, of Falmouth, Maine, died in Bagram, Afghanistan, on June 15, from a non-combat related cause.
Sgt. Russell M. Durgin, 23, of Henniker, N.H., died on June 13, in Korengel, Afghanistan, when his unit took small arms fire.
Spc. Jeremiah S. Santos, 21, of Minot, N.D., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 15 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
Spc. Brent W. Koch, 22, of Morton, Minn., died on June 16, in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.

Now I'll go make some salsa for Marcia to take to the party, then I'll lay down for a nap, and see if that helps any. Have a better day than I am.

Top / Email Brian

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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

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GRAFFITI -- June 12, 2006 thru June 18, 2006

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