Damon Cortesi's blog

Musings of an entrepreneur.

Patriotism Not Unrestricted

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It seems that the extent to which people can be patriotic does have a limit. Seems a neighbor couldn’t sleep because of a noisy flag. Aren’t you supposed to take the flag down at sunset though? Or has it become patriotic to fly the flag at all times?

Stick Driving Techniques

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I definitely need to learn the heel-toe technique. At this point in time, I have some sort of pseudo-heel-toe, but it’s more of a mistake than a concious effort.

Possibilities for SMTP Authentication

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I am attempting to find a desirable solution so I can send email through my colo server from anywhere. In the past, I was using the POP-before-SMTP method, which opens up relaying for a small timewindow if you check your mail first. I would kind of like to do actual authentication in order to make it just that much more secure. However, I do virtual hosting and store passwords in a MySQL database, of course. Postfix does not play nicely when it comes to SMTP authentication and MySQL. It looks like this may be my only solution, but I’ll have to scrounge around a bit more.

Invisibility!

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Alright - an invisibility cloak. I can’t wait ‘till I can buy this at my local….yea, We’ll never see it in stores. It will probably be illegal to own one and if you do, you will have to register it.

Perhaps I should get off this anti-anything sting. grin

Down With AS&T

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Once again, I must complain about my ISP - AS&T. I woke up this morning to find myself without Internet access. Do what I would, I was not able to ping anything outside of my ISP’s router. I called them up on the way to work to request service and the earliest they can get somebody out to me is on Thursday - that means at least two full days without access. While this is most definitely not the end of the world, it is extremely inconvenient in that I work from home at night, and I will not be able to work from home. In addition, two days is what I would consider an unacceptable timeframe for a technician to even come out and look at the problem. I will do no less than call up and demand that they pro-rate my payments for this month (of 28 days) to reflect the two days I will be without service. I seriously want to strangle AS&T - I have never been happy with their service and can’t wait for the day when I can cancel their service. Reasons why AS&T is incompetent:

  • Poor customer service - did not notify me when they started requiring Basic cable service for cable Internet customers - simply started charging me more. When I called because they started charging me more, they moved my service level back down to Basic limited. This happened for three months until they finally cut off my cable service. When I called, they finally explained the situation to me.
  • Poor technical service - I occasionally get what I call a blackholed IP address. If you try to do a diagnostic traceroute to it, it starts bouncing around in the middle, which is indicative of a poorly configured router.
  • Poor billing procedures - When AS&T switched to a new billing provider, I received a bill for nearly 4-5 times my normal bill. The reason being was the problem mentioned above (getting charged for Basic) in combination with them not acknowledging my previous two months payment. I got it worked out, but only after many calls.
  • Poor internal communication - The technical side does not know what the billing side does not know what the administrative side is doing. This kind of incompetence makes it impossible to get anything done without attempting to coordinate three different viewpoints (if you’re lucky to get the same people).

OK, I’ve ranted enough. [Grrr]

What Are You?

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Wow - this actually seems rather accurate! ;-)

I am, of course, none other than blank verse.
I don’t know where I’m going, yes, quite right;
And when I get there (if I ever do)
I might not recognise it. So? Your point?
Why should I have a destination set?
I’m relatively happy as I am,
And wouldn’t want to be forever aimed
Towards some future path or special goal.
It’s not to do with laziness, as such.
It’s just that one the whole I’d rather not
Be bothered - so I drift contentedly;
An underrated way of life, I find.
What Poetry Form Are You?

Guns Are Not the Problem, People Are!

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Keith has a great article about the Swiss and their usage of weapons. I’ll quote his quotes:

Shortly before World War I, the German Kaiser was the guest of the Swiss government to observe military maneuvers. The Kaiser asked a Swiss militiaman: “You are 500,000 and you shoot well, but if we attack with 1,000,000 men what will you do?” The soldier replied: “We will shoot twice and go home.”
Still today, every Swiss male on reaching age 20 years old is required to attend recruit school and issued a Fucile d’assalto 90 (model 1990, 5.6 mm selective fire rifle) to keep at home. Many women also participate in the shooting sports, as do teenagers and elderly persons. Weapons are carried so commonly on public transportation, around towns, and to hotels - especially when a shooting match is about to occur - that foreigners think a revolution is occurring.
Keith goes on to discuss the process he’s going through on his handgun permit application.

I don’t have much to add to his observations - he’s right on the mark. Here is the interview about the armed Swiss.

How to Fly Without ID

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An interesting article here about how there is no actual law stating that you must show a goverenment-issued ID to fly if you are an American. I’d try this, but I don’t feel like fighting those battles. As a matter of fact, on two recent flights I was on, they frequently did not check my id. Whether it be at the gate, the security checkpoint, or actually boarding the plane, my id was not checked at one point for all of those situations. How very odd.