Looks like there are still people unhappy with AS&T. SBC is, at the very least, faster and doesn’t blackhole your ip. However, they do charge you $60 for a service call without telling you. Now isn’t that nice!

I decided not to use an allusion to “fish” as opposed to everybody else this side of the river. In any case, the Cubs were able to relax last night during their 12-3 win. Luckily there was a bit of humor as one of the Marlins relief pitchers threw his super-secret “dugout” pitch. Back from commercial, you could see his teammates in the dugout taunting him with a catcher’s mitt and chortling like crazy. At least they kept their sense of humor, I suppose…

Looks like it’s ladybug season again. Sitting out here on my deck enjoying the nice fall day, I can see about 3 or 4 of them crawling on the woodwork. When I look over the edge of the deck, I see even more swooping through the air.

It’s already quite chilly in Chicago - today has been nice and clear, though. Perfect weather for the Cubs vs. Marlins game tonight!

Back to catching up on reports while on vacation again…

I’ve made some fairly significant additions in terms of content tonight. On the right, you’ll see a listing of recent posts if you ever feel the need to go directly to one. In addition, when you are on a specific post, it will show you links to the next and previous posts by date. Pretty nifty.
As for fun, nifty, usability features - I’m still working on that. Those are always the toughest to code and I tend to avoid them until I have nothing else to do. For now, I want some code to dynamically generate my links. :) But…I suppose I should rest.

I’ve got to figure out a way to move everything over to the new site once I’ve got it to a point where I can move it off of dev. :-\ Soon…Soon…

I recently started playing with Gentoo. So far I like it a lot. Running it in VMWare is painful due to long compiling times, but it seems to be able to handle different versions of software rather well. I’ll have to keep playing with it. It may become my second favorite to Debian.

I’ve been looking for a VPN recently that I can set up between my home network and my co-located virtual server (the server you are reading this web page on). There are some very nice VPN solutions out there such as VTun and tinc, but there’s only one problem: both of these solutions require use of the tun/tap driver. Unfortunately, I do not have the ability to create virtual devices on my colo. So, for now, I have no option for an easy colo-to-home vpn solution. :-(

I hate hotel bathrooms. Have I made it clear exactly how much I hate hotel bathrooms?? Most of you are familiar with the "finger" incident. Well last night, I was hopping out of bed to turn off the light in the hotel bathroom and thwacked my fourth toe into the wall. I think I broke it. I hate hotel bathrooms. I must be getting old and starting to lose my youthful limberness and nimbleness. Is this what it’s like getting old and slowly losing control of your large motor skills?

Sorry - I’ve been real lazy lately. Maybe one of these days I’ll have time to post some updates. Until then, I’m in Indiana for the week…right around Purdue. Anybody you want me to stop in and say hi to?

I recently made a few, 3 to be exact, bids on eBay for a particular item. Not long after, I had 3 emails in my inbox regarding an item similiar, if not exactly, like the one I was looking for. Here’s a sample of the email:

I see at ebay u are interested in this product and i finked i’m not have anythink to lose if i send u a email.

Very professional and well written! How convenient that somebody has the exact item I was looking for. But wait…it gets better:

If u are interested please contact me for more details and for the price,about the price i tell u we cantalk and fixe a price good for both of us.

This person seems very flexible - they’re even willing to accept a MoneyGram! No…I’m not kidding!

PAYMENT: Western Union or MoneyGram

Where do I sign my name?!

I’ve seen the eBay emails that go around asking for personal info, but this is just blatant trickery and thievery. It doesn’t help that the person must be completely uneducated. Some of the other 3 I received were somewhat better written, but still nothing a 5th grade English teacher would be proud of. These people seem so accomadating, though:

I am looking for a fast,safe and clean deal for both of us,so i do not want any money in advance and meeting in person could be arranged.

What amazes me is that they do this with actual eBay accounts. This is very similar to the Nigerian Banking Scam, if anybody is familiar with that. People are amazing…