Tales of Ordinary Madness

NPS e-Week Dec 2010

2010-12-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

So this week is what they call “e-week” at Naval Post Graduate School. The ‘e’ stands for enrichment, which is basically a week to cure a finals hangover. Just kidding.. they offer different workshops and seminars. I attended a Google API seminar this morning and attended two film seminars this week as well.

The two films that were featured and ones that you may want to check out:

La Vida Loca (2008)

Directed by Christian Poveda in 2008. The film maker was killed making a follow up in 2009. The documentary is pretty raw and uncut. The one I watched didn't have subtitles or over-dub, we had a fellow student who spoke Spanish providing commentary in the audience.

The film is pretty raw and uncut. No music, no narration, no real story line... just a snap shot in to gang life in El Salvador. Gangs have been growing as a result of the civil war that occurred 20 years ago. I am not an expert on the subject, but something went down where a number of people where sent to the United States (L.A.) and then returned to El Salvador and ultimately planted the seed for gang violence in El Savador.

The Yacoubian Building (2006)

This is a long film (2hr 45min) about the current state of Cairo, Egypt. In the beginning of the last century Cairo was on par with cities like Paris. In 2010 it is a city that is struggling. This film is based on a Novel of the same name. It explores various factors that have contributed to Cairo's (and Egypt's) "fall from grace".

That's all for now.

-D

Capt Mark Frank Email Received 16 March 2009

2009-03-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

Received at my 'yahoo.com' account, you can clearly see that I must have been BCC'd or something. The grammar/punctuation doesn't appear to be all that great. So I decided to dig a little on the email file by first looking at the underlying source information, which revealed the following:

~~~~SOURCE~~~~

From - Mon Mar 16 17:13:51 2009
X-Account-Key: account2
X-UIDL: ABQmvs4AAKlKSb5IHw5/Emvq0EQ
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
X-Mozilla-Keys:
X-Apparently-To: removed'at'yahoo.com via 206.190.38.20; Mon, 16 Mar
2009 05:37:51 -0700
X-YMailISG:
Cdxe2zkWLDshPaq0sc5Z1aQuoQjyTNioG6bJfrCFf0iPJnvlQ8g6yEds1fe_Zhc8JxhcikSaxvQDgvWy
nDlSDRyoQomD4aPmAVngTqpubFM9ldpcveK_T_atB85IjVEtwBYwA32Dx.
wL8pUMNQtV7lr82H7F97IKTK1zqrkcoCfC38xC15p7wba.8HnHl9O0X.
lDeZpwjZU_iSF4nGYRZIx2EFAflP5ArMAbMQJAeHStt2Jr1Aum3yJ_4CFNnyhudf86FK9gGXfBR5Qvt1
BeFj_86lZmu7PMvQtBIZWPjyiozn3p7HB1X.Sd0cv.
Vy8r4bQ6juI6UlEL5EWa7NXG7BvOKhbgqcGGmfR0DSM1Trf8hSq1R0Cz_GwogcQzbhS1TJULpyYf4n59
fzjaBQJdntgdnK_FNDxoZmCA9KZiUFJqjhL.0YWX73tI8cotCw--
X-Originating-IP: [208.47.184.3]
Authentication-Results: mta353.mail.re4.yahoo.com from=embarqmail.com;
domainkeys=neutral (no sig); from=embarqmail.com; dkim=pass (ok)
Received: from 208.47.184.3 (EHLO mailrelay.embarq.synacor.com) (208.47.184.3)
by mta353.mail.re4.yahoo.com with SMTP; Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:37:51 -0700
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; d=embarqmail.com; s=s012408; c=relaxed/simple;
q=dns/txt; i='at'embarqmail.com; t=1237207067;
h=From:Subject:Date:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type;
bh=D5d+YTIs7q6hIwWyphgRG8DITaM=;
b=U7T07LgzA+xN+Q2cWgyewVU++VTVAak0bLZK0Lstd87Xb3Pq/gE60vjpSvdAAspW
leZwW6Fyr7/B6lOmgNzTdHcN5haup1aS7Su666h7CtbI03s4JFd/Rnm758YRDPwQ;
X_CMAE_Category: 0,0 Undefined,Undefined
X-CNFS-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=db1WoY3_u15ndpFEqzMA:9
a=vw2fgMzCmmqv7su_benpAc6o448A:4 a=b8hG5vVbyAkA:10 a=MPEGXx7wpfpevfbO2JAA:9
a=KI2MO-ewXrNnsu6gVAIA:7 a=7SAkcumqS4tqj0Txf06dtQAD3rsA:4 a=37WNUvjkh6kA:10
X-CM-Score: 0
X-Scanned-by: Cloudmark Authority Engine
Received: from [10.10.5.32] ([10.10.5.32:41145] helo=md24.embarq.synacor.com)
by mailrelay.embarq.synacor.com (envelope-from
<char7348'at'embarqmail.com>)
(ecelerity 2.2.2.36 r(27513/27514)) with ESMTP
id 50/95-00375-A184EB94; Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:37:46 -0400
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:37:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mark Frank <char7348'at'embarqmail.com>
To: captmarkfrank'at'gmail.com
Message-ID:
/1127301481.13432231237207066775.javamail.root'at'md24.embarq.synacor.com
Subject: Crew Member Needed Urgently
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_Part_629234_298161876.1237207066773"
X-Originating-IP: [41.219.211.135]
X-Mailer: Zimbra 5.0.11_GA_2696.RHEL4 (zclient/5.0.11_GA_2696.RHEL4)

------=_Part_629234_298161876.1237207066773
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello,

My name is Capt. Mark Frank, i work with Bridlington Yacht Club located in
United Kingdom. I came across your profile and decided to mail you regarding a
job offer. We are seeking for crew member. If you are interested send me a mail
along with your resume.

Hope to hear from you soonest.
Best Regards
Capt. Mark Frank
------=_Part_629234_298161876.1237207066773
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello,

My name is Capt. Mark Frank, i work with
Bridlington Yacht Club located in United Kingdom. I came across your profile and
decided to mail you regarding a job offer. We are seeking for crew member. If
you are interested send me a mail along with your resume.

Hope to hear
from you soonest.
Best Regards
Capt. Mark Frank
------=_Part_629234_298161876.1237207066773--

I'm curious. Is there really a “Capt Mark Frank” or a Bridlington Yacht Club in the UK? What is Embarqmail? What do these IP addresses correlate to and does it all add up? Not that I want to email this guy, but if it was genuine I would want to help him out and respond. But I am guessing this email is bogus. Let's check it out....

Tools: Google (of course), traceroute, & whois.
1. First I did I search based on Yacht clubs in Bridlington: Yacht Clubs do come up in the search, but nothing directly correlating with Bridlington.
2. Search of captmarkfrank'at'gmail.com comes up with nothing concrete.
3. Search of char7348'at'embarqmail.com brings up a spreadsheet of contact information for a club of some-sort located in the state of Ohio at this link:
www.nationalitpa.com/documents/appendc.doc.xls
4. A search of Embarqmail.com brings up a broadband Internet Service Provider in Ohio as well. Still missing a solid connection to the UK here and things are not adding up.
5. I searched the IP addresses highlighted in blue above and the most revealing was 41.219.211.135, results:

whois 41.219.211.135
% This is the AfriNIC Whois server.
% Note: this output has been filtered.
% Information related to '41.219.211.0 – 41.219.211.255'
inetnum: 41.219.211.0 – 41.219.211.255
netname: ORG-SA57-AFRINIC-20050513
descr: Assigned to Lagos dial-pool customers
country: NG
admin-c: NS4-AFRINIC
tech-c: CM9-AFRINIC
status: Assigned PA
mnt-by: STARCOMMS-MNT
mnt-lower: STARCOMMS-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
parent: 41.219.192.0 – 41.219.255.255
person: NAVNEET SINGH
address: Plot 1261, Bishop Kale Close, off Saka Tinubu
address: Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
phone: +234-1-804-9370
fax-no: +234-1-811-0301
e-mail: navneets'at'starcomms.com
nic-hdl: NS4-AFRINIC
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
person: Catalin Miclaus
address: Plot 1261C, Bishop Kale Close, off Saka Tinubu
phone: +234-7028000733
fax-no: +234-1-8110301
e-mail: catalin'at'starcomms.com
nic-hdl: CM9-AFRINIC
source: AFRINIC # Filtered

6. So basically we've established that the email is bogus. I figure the goal here is to get more personal information via a resume. It would appear that someone's email address is being spoofed or even hacked.
7. Where to go from here? Respond from a bogus email with a bogus resume and see how long I could keep this going? Write a blog to inform others? Or just hit delete? Anyone else have any more info?

Linux Saved My Laptop

2009-02-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

So you've read my previous post about my P.O.S. laptop. I recently tried to resurrect it and ended up trying out SuSe 11.1. I'm all thumbs with this distro, but I have been impressed with the way it has handled this challenging hardware environment. I managed to order the recovery discs for my laptop and it wouldn't even reload Vista. I did get SuSe 11.1 to install on the computer and it managed to work with my difficult WiFi card. I still favor Ubuntu, but that distro has had problems with my laptop hardware and I don't blame it. Even when I install Ubuntu I have to work some magic to get that notorious Atheros WiFi card to work. With SuSe 11.1, it seemed to work with it right out of the box. I still have to figure out how to navigate this flavor of Linux. I won't spend too much time... since Ubuntu still reigns... but Linux just kicks ass!!!

Compaq Presario V6000 (junk)

2009-01-31T21:16:00.000-08:00

So I bought this laptop on sale at BestBox about 9 months ago. I think that I have lost 9 months of my life working with this thing. At first I blamed the installed OS (Vista) for it not booting properly, rebooting or not booting at all. I have since installed several iterations of my favorite OS (Linux) and now I am facing similar problems. I have replaced the RAM, hardrive and operating system. I am now faced with erratic booting and CRC errors which completely halt the system. I have looked for BIOS updates which are provided by HP-Compaq for systems that have Microsoft Operating Systems on them. So my guess is that I just have bad hardware, which for a laptop the options of replacing parts become quite limited. I have had problems getting the built in WiFi (Atheros) card to work with my favorite OS. So the bottom line to this rant is to NOT purchase this type of laptop. The hardware seemed so promising when I bought it. Dual core, NVIDIA, 2GB of RAM.. would be more mobile computing power than I needed. My old IBM Celeron lasted for three years solid.. it was slow, but dependable. This one is fast but fails.

Bukowski Quotes

2008-12-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Charles Bukowski is an inspiration to all of us:

"(Drinking) gets me out of the normal person that I am. Drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now."

"Wine helps my writing. Wine helps keep things normal. I used to drink beer and scotch together. And Write. But you can only write for an hour, or maybe an hour and a half that way. Then, it's too much. But with wine, as I said, you can write three to four hours."

"Beer, well...you have to go to the bathroom every ten minutes. It breaks the concentration. So wine is the best for creation. The blood of the gods."

Linux Frustration

2008-04-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

I finally purchased a new laptop in March. My 2005 IBM laptop was in dire need of replacement. When I purchased the IBM laptop it was bottom-of-the-line at just over $900.00 Intel Celeron D processor at 2.2Ghz, and mayb 256Mb RAM, which I had upgraded to 1Gb. The Intel Celeron D processor turned out to be a disappointment towards the end of 2007. It choked all the time and couldn't handle most of the applications coming out. So I purchased a Compaq Presario V6000 on sale at the local big box company. AMD Dual core, 1Gb of RAM, Nvidia graphics card. Should be Linux friendly. I probably should have brought a live distro to test it out. When I went to install/run Linux I ran into 'problems' with the WiFi card. The card is an Atheros AR5007. Didn't work right out of the box with Linux. So I immediately had to start looking for community support. I haven't had the time to fully research and figure out a solution to the problem. Looks like I will have to use the NDIS wrapper approach, which I haven't used before. In the meantime I have used Innotek's (Sun's) VirtualBox to run Linux without too much fuss.

2008-02-24T02:02:00.000-08:00

Who's Going?

Independent Hip Hop Festival: Paid Dues. Saturday, March 22, 2008 at The NOS Events Center San Bernardino, CA.

General Admission: $40.00

VIP Status: $100.00

Puppy Linux 3.01

2008-02-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

I've heard about Puppy Linux in the past, but never really took the time to check it out. I don't know what prompted me to look into light-weight & small distros this evening but that is what I did. I currently have it running on my IBM laptop, which is older but has a ton of RAM and the performance of this distro is awesome. It did take me a few minutes to setup the wireless networking, but I was impressed w/ the way Puppy Linux kind of walks you through it. Definitely not for the novice computer user. My wife wouldn't have been able to set it up. Unlike other live distros, this one will allow you to save your settings/files to either hard drive, cd-rom or USB/flash drive upon exit. So even though you are using a live distro it will be like you have a portable computer in your pocket. Just find any computer with either CD-ROM drive or USB port and it might as well be yours.

Even my wife thinks this distro is cute, it barks at you when you initially boot it up. I just might get her to switch to Linux after all.

2008-02-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

Late

Once again Linux has me up until 1am. I spent about 1hr 30min trying to get that PowerJournal app to work on Ubuntu. The application is written in Java and I haven't had any success with getting it to work. I've posted at the SourceForge webpage. I doubt I will hear anything back. It seems as though that project has been abandoned. Tired.

2008-02-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

Gnome Blog App for LInux

Check out this application Gnome Blog. In my quest for a journal/diary application I have came across this application. Not sure if it is worth anything yet. It appears to at least work unlike Drivel, which appears to not work with the Blogger API.

Open Source Journal Application

2008-02-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

I’ve been looking for a journal application for a computer and I think that I have stumbled upon a good one: http://sourceforge.net/projects/powerjournal/

It’s an older piece of software but it is cross platform, free, and light-weigh (hopefully not abandoned or orphaned). It has the exact functions that I would be looking for in a computer-based journal.

Sure there are blogs, but maybe you don’t want to share everything with the public and what about when you don’t have Internet connectivity? Yes, there is Microsoft Word, but it is inefficient for keeping a day-to-day journal.

I was able to get this application to work on WindowsXP and was looking forward to getting to work on Ubuntu. Downloaded the bin file. Changed the permissions and attempted to install. Received errors telling me that there are missing directories and shared libraries. I'll try compiling from source and see if that works.

The download is only 8MB. Check it out.

Open Source DJ Tools

2007-10-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for some open source DJ tools for awhile. I haven't been looking that hard. It has just been something in the back of my head for awhile. I currently use Rane Serato Scratch Live. I've been on the forums at Rane's website and have come up empty-handed. I would love to run Rane Serato Scratch Live on a Linux platform. According to what I've read on the forums at their website... people want it and have tried to get it to work but it just hasn't been done yet. Between the hardware requirements and proprietary code Rane has it locked (Stanton appears to have released an open source version of their Final Scratch app.)

I hate being a DJ in this modern world because I have to be a slave to Windows/Apple platforms. I finally got around to doing a Google search for Linux DJ tools and came across: www.openjay.org. It doesn't look like this site is highly maintained. The current news/articles listed are from May 2007 (nearly six months ago). Maybe there haven't been any developments since then. I was impressed with the various tools that are available for the Linux platform. Now whether they work good or not is a different story. I've been messing around with the Mixxx DJ application. While it is fairly limited when compared to Rane's Scratch Live application.. it is still promising. Another application, XWAX, looks really good. It appears to follow the footsteps of Rane's application. I'll have to try it out soon. My current DJ tools that I cannot live without: iTunes (used for cataloging and indexing my 270Gb music library) and Rane Serato Scratch Live. I can easily replace iTunes with Amarok or Rhythmbox... now I just need a decent Scratch Live replacement.

Free Anti-Virus Software???

2007-09-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some recommended free anti-virus software companies:

AVG Free Advisor: "Free basic anti-virus software for home and non-commercial use."
ClamWin: "ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and 2003."
Avast!: " Avast! Home Edition is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use."
Avira: "Free virus protection for Windows 2000/XP/Vista 32Bit and 64Bit and for Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris."

I know what you are thinking, "You get what you pay for." I can't tell you if that is the case or not with these companies and their offerings. I have used McAfee anti virus software for ages (approx. 10yrs). I've never used anything fancy... always the basic entry-level offering and I've never had a reason to switch. Now I am thinking about ditching my subscription for one of the applications listed above. If you've used any of these before... let me know if it is worth what you paid for it.

Disenchanted with Maximum PC magazine Part II

2007-09-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's been a few weeks and I figured that I would clarify the title and opening of my last entry. What am I disenchanted with the magazine that calls itself "Maximum PC"? Well I initially subscribed to the magazine because they reviewed and tested at all cutting edge hardware. In an effort to stay on top of what is new and hot I subscribed to the magazine. They have become nothing short of a Microsoft gaming magazine. They review and test hardware specifically for gaming and not much more (music and videos). I'm not a gamer and i am sick of reading about how to build the best machine for Microsoft products. They build their 'dream machine' and make it a dual boot box w/ XP and Vista (hold on while I throw up...). Maybe they should change the title of their publication to "Maximum Microsoft PCs". What about some real hardcore computing stuff? Unix? Linux? Where is the monthly Linux section? They run an article about once a year (if that) saying, "Yeah, there is also this OS called Linux." I'm not saying they should turn into a Linux computer mag but to just stop focusing on talking about how to build over-bloated XBOXs.

I would expect that most Maximum PC readers would be computer junkies like myself and have all kinds of equipment, pieces, parts, etc. what about all the projects out there? How to build a Beowolf cluster with a couple of PCs? And then go into what you can use it for. How about building a Asterisk PBX or a MythTV? No... they show you how to build a dual-core PC in a cardboard box (latest issue) and then call it basically junk because it won't run the latest Microsoft Game in DirectX whatever. How about how to build the best data center for under X dollars using parts from eBay and old computers from friends. What about WiFI projects? Just look at books called Linux Toys Vol. I & II. The magazine no longer contributes to my maximizing of my PC. I'll have to look for something else to satisfy my extreme PC needs.

Disenchanted w/ 'Maximum PC' Mag

2007-08-31T16:08:00.000-07:00

I continue to be un-impressed w/ Maximum PC magazine. Here are some websites pulled out of their article "The 15 Best Web Apps You've Never Heard Of."
www.wayfaring.com - um... not impressed w/ this one. Waste of time.
www.backpackit.com - what is the difference between this and a 'wiki'?
www.zooomr.com - Flickr is fine.
www.soonr.com - access the files on your PC. Wow! What a concept. There are a few different apps you can use to do this... not sure if this is the 'one'.
www.slacker.com - I get, 'We're sorry Slacker Personal radio is not available in your area.'. Sucks. It looks like another web-based media player... exactly what we need more of.
www.blinkx.com - online videos. Yes, we need more of this. Youtube, google video, my space videos, joost, etc... we still don't have enough options.
www.widgetbox.com - this might be something worth checking into.
www.meebo.com - one-stop web-based IM Client. Great.. but will I be able to run it at work?
www.yousendit.com - this one may come in handy if the other large file delivery site doesn't work.
www.odeo.com - what the hell am I supposed to use this for. (that goes for WayFaring.com as well)
www.mindmeister.com - Map out ideas online w/ collegues using this app. I usually do this at work face-to-face.
www.twitter.com - what a waste of computing power

Most of these web apps... I still wish I've 'never heard of'.

Back-up Your Rane Serato Scratch Live Control CDs

2007-08-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

DJ's using Rane Serato Scratch Live, have you ever though of what would happen if you showed up to a gig, set-up your decks with Serato and realized that you forgot your Control CDs? It hasn't happened to me yet, but the nightmare has crossed my mind along with some others (crashed hard drive). I've seen that you can purchase extra CDs, but I figured that I would just 'back up' the ones that I have. The easiest way for you Mac and Windows users: iTunes. Put the Serato control CD into your computer. iTunes will recognize it. Click 'import disc'. When iTunes is done importing the two tracks you can locate them in your iTunes library and burn them to a blank CD-R. Keep copies handy in case you lose, forget or break the ones you have.

Firefox Add-ons

2007-08-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

AdBlock: This Add-on will allow you to block ads on web pages you visit. I've given it a try and it works just as easy as it is states on the web page: " Just right-click: Adblock: done." When I installed and restarted Firefox... I went to some pages to test it out and what I quickly realized is that a lot of the advertisements are Flash-based which this Add-on will not block. Just don't install Flash and voila' no Flash enabled Ads.

DownThemAll!: Apparently this thing will allow to download all content on a specific page in just a few clicks. This may come in handy.

Session Manager: Tired of having to re-open all your web pages when you have to restart your computer or restart your favorite, Firefox web browser? This Add-on should solve that problem.

Format C:

2007-08-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

Need to format your hard drive? Cops knocking at your door? Keep this handy: Darik's Boot and Nuke. Allows you to boot via CD-ROM or even a USB device and delete your hard drive. From the website: "DBAN prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis." Sounds impressive. I haven't had a reason to use it just yet. Will come in handy when I go to sell that old laptop.

Your Own PBX - GrandCentral.com

2007-08-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Work phone, cell phone, home phone, which phone number can you be reached at? How about one number to reach them all? This is exactly what GrandCentral.com can do for you along with several other things. According to their website, they have been acquired by Google.. so you'll probably start hearing more about them. I currently use Skype In to solve the multiple number problem along with having a U.S. number while I am living in the U.K.

Asus' Eee PC701

2007-08-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

I would love to get my hands on one of Asus' new Eee PC701. Classified as a 7-inch, ultraportable laptop. And being priced at $200.00 it doesn't appear that you can go wrong. Now when do they go on sale???

More pictures and info: Gadgettastic.com

Notable Web 2.0 Sites

2007-08-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

Recently read the August 2007 edition of Laptop Magazine which had a review of the 'Top 50 Web 2.0 Sites'. Some noteworthy ones (at least for me):

www.lifehacker.com (learn something new)
www.lifehack.org (compliments the first one)
www.wordpress.com (for blogs. open-source, cleaner than blogger)
www.centraldesktop.com (project collaboration for teams and there is always PBWiki)
www.dropsend.com (to send large files without having to set-up an elaborate FTP server like me)
www.mozy.com (for online backup/50GB - $4.95/mo. Then you don't have to keep purchasing external hard drives/tapes, etc)
www.citizendium.org (wiki w/ a conscience. Hard to tell how this one will fair. Too many people already use Wikipedia)
www.lala.com (cd trading. I have a ton of CDs that I could trade.. I'll have to look into this)
www.orb.com (to stream your stuff - videos/photos/music from your PC to ?)
www.joost.com (for TV stuff - not available outside the US)
www.jumpcut.com (edit videos w/out software)
www.kayak.com (travel site, yeah so what... there is travelocity, hotwire, etc... apparently this site searches all those sites)
www.airfarerwatchdog.com (for cheaper flights)
www.tripadvisor.com (for hotel reviews)
www.mapskrieg.com (goggle + craigslist real estate postings)
www.zillow.com (find out how much your house is worth or how much that house you're buying is worth)
traffic.poly9.com (google+yahoo traffic+weather)

I haven't checked all these sites out yet. Some look quite useful. I gave Citizendium a try by looking up 'Web 2.0' and it didn't have any results, so I still had to resort to Wikipedia.

Fraudulent IP-7STARSALES.COM

2007-08-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I had the following transactions show up on my Visa Debit Card:

1.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00
2.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00
3.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00
4.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00
5.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00
6.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00
7.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00
8.) 08/16/2007 Pos Debit IP-7STARSALES.COM $160.00

I couldn’t recall making a $160.00 purchase on August 16^th, let alone eight purchases for that amount. Initially there were only two transactions on my account under the ‘pending’ section. I figured that I would keep my eye on the activity to see if it was just some erroneous error that would go away. When I checked my account less than an hour later.. there were five transactions. It was at that point that I phoned my bank’s 1-800 number. The bank representative informed me that since the transactions hadn’t completely gone through there wasn’t much the bank could do for me aside from cancel my card right away. I told that bank that I would wait until the next day and speak with a representative face-to-face at the local branch. The following morning I was informed that there actually 10 transactions, but the last two were denied. My banks policies are in question on their lack of a quick response to this activity, but that is another story. Later that evening there was another attempt at sending 10 transactions through for the same amount at the same website.

I cancelled my card, filled out the required paperwork to get my money back and open an investigation into the activity. A total of $3200.00 was attempted on my account, $2560.00 actually went through. Needless to say, I was a little irate.

When I got home I figured I’d try to find out a little more information about the website attached to the transactions. Sure enough.. the website is of shoddy construction and has ‘shady’ written all over it. They even prompt you to enter your credit card information to look up the questionable transactions and then try to use scare tactics to prevent you from going to your bank and deny the charges. I ran PING, WHOIS, TRACEROUTE, etc… which gave me the following info:

jon@lanai:~$ whois 205.214.216.112
Cable & Wireless (Barbados) Limited BDS-NET1 (NET-205-214-192-0-1)
205.214.192.0 - 205.214.223.255
St. Kitts & Nevis Telecommunications NET-SKB-SURF (NET-205-214-215-0-1)
205.214.215.0 - 205.214.216.255
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2007-08-17 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
jonschroeder@lanai:~$ whois ip-7starsales.com
Whois Server Version 2.0
Domain Name: IP-7STARSALES.COM
Registrar: INTERCOSMOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. D/B/A DIRECTNIC.COM

Whois Server: whois.directnic.com

Referral URL: http://www.directnic.com
Name Server: NS0.STKITTSDNS.COM

Name Server: NS1.STKITTSDNS.COM

Status: clientDeleteProhibited

Status: clientTransferProhibited

Status: clientUpdateProhibited

Updated Date: 13-jul-2007

Creation Date: 12-jul-2007

Expiration Date: 12-jul-2008

>>> Last update of whois database: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:42:43 UTC <<<
Registrant:

Sys Admin
1058 The Amory Building
Victoria Road
Basseterre, Basseterre 0000
KN
12063392680
Fax:12063392680

Domain Name: IP-7STARSALES.COM
Administrative Contact:

Joseph, Jason josephcorp@gmail.com
1058 The Amory Building
Victoria Road
Basseterre, Basseterre 0000
KN
12063392680
Fax:12063392680

Technical Contact:
Joseph, Jason josephcorp@gmail.com
1058 The Amory Building
Victoria Road
Basseterre, Basseterre 0000
KN
12063392680

Fax:12063392680
Record expires on 07-12-2008
Record created on 07-12-2007
Domain servers in listed order:

NS0.STKITTSDNS.COM 205.214.216.112
NS1.STKITTSDNS.COM 205.214.216.112

jonschroeder@lanai:~$ traceroute 205.214.216.112

traceroute to 205.214.216.112 (205.214.216.112), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets

1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.891 ms 0.511 ms 0.458 ms
2 ??????????????????????????????com (1.1.1.1) 8.752 ms 9.156 ms 9.334 ms
3 //////////////////////////////// 8.662 ms 7.752 ms 8.581 ms
4 ge-2-2-0-ycr1.mcr.cw.net (208.175.252.105) 9.135 ms ge-1-2-0-ycr1.mcr.cw.net (208.175.252.9) 8.831 ms ge-2-2-0-ycr1.mcr.cw.net (208.175.252.105) 9.245 ms
5 so-2-0-0-bcr1.lnd.cw.net (166.63.163.225) 15.262 ms 15.930 ms 15.193 ms
6 ge-5-0-0-dcr2.lnd.cw.net (195.2.9.90) 15.300 ms 15.381 ms 15.697 ms
7 so-0-0-0-dcr2.nyk.cw.net (195.2.10.113) 85.844 ms 85.921 ms 85.892 ms
8 so-5-0-0-dcr1.nyk.cw.net (195.2.10.241) 86.278 ms 119.404 ms 85.925 ms
9 so-0-0-0-1-ecr1.mna.cw.net (195.2.10.206) 116.569 ms so-0-0-0-2-ecr1.mna.cw.net (195.2.17.2) 122.696 ms so-0-0-0-0-ecr1.mna.cw.net (195.2.3.22) 116.309 ms
10 cw-barbados-gw.mna.cw.net (195.2.6.198) 154.516 ms 154.826 ms 154.465 ms
11 cwgate1.caribsurf.com (205.214.192.10) 167.324 ms 166.643 ms 167.232 ms
12 bgi-skb.caribsurf.com (200.50.76.38) 156.986 ms 157.004 ms 155.648 ms

13 206.48.56.66 (206.48.56.66) 157.712 ms 157.545 ms 158.862 ms
14 205.214.216.26 (205.214.216.26) 159.886 ms 159.022 ms 159.339 ms
15 205.214.216.112 (205.214.216.112) 161.802 ms !C 159.798 ms !C 160.089 ms !C

I also discovered some other websites attached to the same IP ADDRESS (http://bestdeal4rx.com/cart.php) . More shady business store fronts for prescription type drugs, etc. Where is this Basseterre place? Quick check at Wikipedia revealed that it is down in the Caribbean. Also started doing some Google searches using the data from above and came across some other information. A blog called ‘Around The Crux’ discusses another fraudulent website (IP-MYSTORE.COM) with the same contact details as listed for IP-7STARSALES.COM. Another Google search for josephcorp@gmail.com reveals that other people have had similar problems over at the BingoPlayersUnion.com and still more information located here: 800Notes. It appears that quite a few sites starting with ‘IP-‘are fraudulent and connected with ‘The Armory Building’ down in Basseterre. I wonder if that building even exists. Their ISP, Cable & Wireless, should shut them down.

WATER & OIL (Linux & Windows)

2007-07-29T08:35:00.001-07:00

OK, so here we have two instances of Linux Virtual Appliances running on top of Windows XP. One is StartCom's version of RHEL 5 and the other is Debian 'Etch'. The hardware is: AMD AthlonX2@2GHZ along with 2GB of RAM. What would make an ideal hardware set-up for virtualization? More cores? Yes! More RAM? Yes! Yes! More processors, cores and RAM? Installing and setting-up VMWARE Player on the WindowsXP platform is fairly simple and straight forward. Then you just have an overwhelming number of appliances to choose from. It will keep you intrigued for days... or maybe that is just me.

Project OIL&WATER (Linux & Windows)

2007-07-29T05:21:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I set out to try virtualization software on Linux. My hardware: AMD AthlonXP running at 1.5Ghz and 512MB RAM. This is not an ideal platform to run virtualization tools on. I figured I'd try it out anyways. The software choices: Ubuntu 7.04 and Qemu (open source processor emulator).

I used the Ubuntu Community Docs as a guide for how to install WindowsXP under Ubuntu 7.04. Installation and configuration of Qemu wasn't too bad. Everything seemed to install just fine. Except I was restricted to only using about 128MB of RAM. I initially tried to use 256MB (half of the 512MB)... but I received some errors and had to reduce the value to 128MB. 128MB worked fine.. except the install of Windows was painfully slow.

When all was complete and the virtual machine rebooted itself into Windows this is what I was looking at:

Then I tried to login in:

"A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license of this computer" is the error I receive. After some more research.. there is a work around by installing SP2. This particular flavor of WinXP didn't have SP2 installed. I have another, more up-to-date, copy of WinXP. I'll just try that instead.

I've tried the reverse of running a virtual Linux machine on a Windows platform. The hardware I had for that project was more robust that this setup (AMD AhtlonX2 running at 2GHZ, with 2GB of RAM). The software was WinXP Pro, VMWare Player and a Debian VMWare Virtual Appliance. Ran beautifully and really opened up options for maximizing the use of hardware.

Office Ubuntuized

2007-07-22T15:34:00.001-07:00

This office is on the right track. Now they just need to upgrade their hardware.

Always Connected. Not Quite.

2007-07-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

You know I am all about web-based applications but the single most frustrating factor is what happens when I don’t have Internet access? Your laptop becomes as useful as a mobile phone without service. You spend $2200.00 dollars on a high speed laptop which becomes totally useless as soon as it doesn’t have Internet access. This frustration came about when I was working with Google’s calendar function. I saw how powerful their Gmail/Calendar/Document tools have become. How powerful are they if you can’t access them… totally useless. Even when Wi-Fi becomes as accessible as GSM/Cell service is… you will still have a large number of areas where you will be unable to ‘connect’. How many times have you been frustrated with your mobile because you cannot get service? This will carry over into the next generation of wireless networks. If you live and work in a major metropolitan area… then you may not experience the loss of network connectivity as much as people not living in those areas. These tools are great while your connected… but we’re not always connected.

Thunderbird Lightning

2007-07-21T04:49:00.000-07:00

I have been a fan of Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client for some time. Even though I was a fan.. I contined to use Microsoft’s Outlook email client. The single biggest factor for my continued use of Outlook was that I relied heavily on its tightly integrated calendar. I knew about Mozilla’s Sundbird calendar and tried using it along with Thunderbird. I would have two applications open and running, which I didn’t like. I tried to do it in order to pry myself away from Outlook, but it just didn’t work. I figured there was a plugin out there for Thunderbird but never got around to looking for one until I read a write-up by Nathan Willis on Linux.com. He went and answered all my questions and provided links for obtaining the Thunderbird calendar plugin called Lightning.

I have Lightning set-up in Thunderbird and will continue to explore all the capabilities especially when you integrate it with Google’s web-based calendar function.

So freeing myself from Outlook is looking more and more promising. Now, if I can only get my employer to do the same.

-djr

Need a Router/Firewall.. got an old PC?

2007-05-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

You can setup a dedicated computer for an industrial-strength and highly-configurable router and/or firewall (free):

Smoothwall : http://www.smoothwall.org/

Router (using webmin): http://ubuntulinuxhowto.blogspot.com/2006/06/setup-your-computer-to-be-router.html

The minimum specifications required for SmoothWall:

Pentium-class Intel-compatible PC running at 200Mhz or higher (hey my friend is giving one away)
32MB of RAM
512MB of disk space.

A more optimal configuration:

500Mhz processor
64MB of RAM
2GB of disk space.

You will also need a CD-ROM drive and at least one network card (typically two, if the WAN interface is Ethernet).

These are just two examples. There are many more available in the Linux community.. such as LinTrack (http://www.lintrack.org/)

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 4 .2 - BIOS Settings

2007-05-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

After sleeping on it, the only idea I've come up with thus far... is something in the BIOS settings. I booted into BIOS and reset to 'default settings'. No change... same errors. I didn't run into these errors when I had a live distro running for almost an hour. hmmm...

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 4 .1

2007-05-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

Here was a brief window of opportunity for me to take a screenshot of both CPU's going at it.

More tomorrow.

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 4 - Closer.. but still no cigar

2007-05-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

Well.. the battle continues. I made progress this evening. After shelving the project for a month, I decided to pull the IBM 330 off the shelf and attempt to get it set up. I pulled the heat sinks on both CPU's off. Scrapped the old, dried-up heat-transfer compound off the bottom and replaced it with nice, new compound. Everything appeared to work fine. I managed to get Ubuntu 7.04 installed and somewhat configured. I wasn't that far along before problems became apparent. To start off.. during the install there was a continuous short beep. I didn't experiences this before and looking it up in the manual it stated that it was possible an input device problem (mouse and/or keyboard). I completed the Linux install without an further incidents and then rebooted. It rebooted again before coming up for the first time after the install.

When I open a terminal window I receive the following errors, line after line... which makes it hard to type in anything on the command line.

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:46 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 433.381884] Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:46 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 433.381889] Dazed and confused, but trying to continue

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:46 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 433.381889] Dazed and confused, but trying to continue

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:50 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 437.380468] Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 34 on CPU 0.

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:50 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 437.380468] Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 34 on CPU 0.

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:50 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 437.380491] Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:50 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 437.380491] Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:50 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 437.380496] Dazed and confused, but trying to continue

Message from syslogd@pearl-city at Tue May 8 23:09:50 2007 ...
pearl-city kernel: [ 437.380496] Dazed and confused, but trying to continue

Checked the power set-up parameters (there aren't many) and everything appears normal.. like I figured it would. I receive the same, repeating message via the command line.. whether it is a local command line or via SSH. It is getting late... and right now the system is rebooting every 3min. Off to bed... to dream of new options.

The Office

2007-04-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

This office could use Ubuntu.

Windows/iTunes Replacement = FireFly/Amarok

2007-04-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

I have a home theater PC (HTPC) in my front room, which I use for all the usual stuff: stream music and other media to my 52" LCD TV and living room sound system. Ridiculous I know. I have a Linux server hosting all my content in my office. I also have iTunes running on another workstation which is used to catalog and manage all my MP3s (160GB worth). I share the iTunes library on my one workstation so that I can connect to it on my HTPC. Now, as you can see iTunes is critical in this current set-up. I've been looking to get away from iTunes, especially on my HTPC so that I can put a Linux distro on it. I've been a fan of Amorak for sometime and just needed to figure out how to get it to connect to a shared iTunes library. The latest version of Amarok has that capability. In order to get completely away from my dependency on iTunes, I installed FireFly media server on my main Linux server and had it scan the directory with all my music.

Once I had FireFly up and running, the next thing to do was test it. iTunes was the first test, no problem. Found the shared library and was able to connect to it. Now for the Amarok/Linux test... pulled out a live distro with the latest version of Amarok on it. Linux Mint Bianca was the distro of choice in this case. Booted into the live environment on my WiFi enabled HTPC. Launched Amarok and connected to the FireFly server. Awesome. Works beautifully. Now, when my "evaluation copy" of Windows Vista runs out in.. 23days.. I have a viable replacement. Windows and iTunes free at that.

While I had Linux Mint Bianca booted up, I decided to take it through a media test run. I know that there is some heartache out there with all Linux Mint decided to bundle in their distribution. I threw MP3s, WMVs, MPEGs, and even DIVX (or was it XVID?) files at it. Linux Mint Bianca handled them all; in a 'live' environment at that. I was surprised when it played DIVX/XVID files without a hitch. I don't think Windows can even do that 'out-of-the-box'.

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 3 - Show Stopper

2007-03-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally received the last piece of hardware this week. After over a month of trying to obtain a SCSI hard drive tray on Ebay, I was finally able to obtain one for around $12.00. The last one that I thought was on it's way was canceled. The reason the person gave me was due to 'an inventory error'.

The $12.00 tray came with an 18GB SCSI hard drive. Small, but still a nice bonus which I didn't expect. I installed the hard drive, got everything hooked up and then booted the machine with a Linux distro to be installed. It booted up fine into the 'live' function of the Linux distro's CD. I then went to install and the installation was able to get about 24% done and then the server reboots itself. This is the same problem I experienced previously. At about 12-15min, the server just reboots. I tried three times to install Linux and the machine just can't make it through the process without rebooting.

Like I've mentioned before, this is usually a characteristic of an overheating CPU. The only symptom that plays against this is the LED fault readout on the motherboard I interpret to be a PCI bus problem. With no PCI cards installed that equates to a bad motherboard. Maybe I can find an inexpensive IBM x330 motherboard on Ebay, which will continue to increase the price of this project.

It is back to the drawing board for now. I will research more and see if I can solve this rebooting problem or if it is feasible to purchase a motherboard replacement. If not, I will pass this hardware on to someone who has more time, resources, know-how and/or $$ to breathe life back into it.

Modest Linux Server

2007-03-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

So while I am waiting for that hard drive caddy to come in the mail, I figured I'd reflect on what I have running right on my primary server right now. It's a modest server running Ubuntu 6.06 on the following hardware:

AMD AthlonXP 2.2Ghz
RAM 1.5GB
SATA Hard Drives X 2 @ 330GB/ea
IDE Hard Drives 1 X 80GB, System Drive 1 X 20GB

It handles my requirements just fine. I don't know how many users it would take until it got 'bogged down'. The list below is everything I am using it for and have running on it all the time.

Apps Served
==========
-SMB File Server (Samba)
-Apache Web Server (LAMP)
-Wildfire Chat Server
-VSFTPD FTP Server
-CITADEL Groupware Server
-SSH
-Folding @ Home (no rest for the CPU)

The next hardware upgrade will be 2 X 500GB SATA hard drives. I will set them up to mirror each other like the 330GB hard drives are currently configured. So yes, I will be adding a terrabyte of storage space, but I will only use "1/2". I will be looking into adding a DNS server to the app list.

Is Linux a Myth?

2007-03-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

Just read "The Five Things You Aren't Allowed to Discuss About Linux" by Rob Enderle. Excellent analytical article on 'Linux'. This is the first time I've seen Linux approached as some sort of abstract 'thing'. Linux may not be ready for your desktop, but it's been ready for mine.

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 2.2

2007-03-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

So I downloaded a new flavor of Linux the other day and decided to burn the ISO file to CD. Then I figured I'd feed it to the x330. I did just that and booted up. It has been up 30min. No reboots. Hmmmm.....

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 2.1

2007-03-05T13:06:00.000-08:00

Ok... so I've replaced the CMOS battery in hopes the the 'BAD CMOS BATTERY' error would go away. Rebooted the machine... error is still there. I monitored the motherboard LED readout while it rebooted itself during the last post and ran into LED error code P9 or bd depending on which way you are supposed to read it. Not sure what the error code means, will have to look it up. Ordered a proper hard drive caddy off Ebay. This time I inspected the picture to ensure that I got exactly what I needed. Another $22.08. Which brings the total to: $406.01 (I'm over $400.00!!). Oh wait a new CMOS battery was $6.00.. so the total stands at $412.01.

As soon as I get the drive caddy installed along with the hard drive... I will get Linux installed and see if I continue to experience auto reboots. This thing may turn into a $412.01 paperweight, which would be too big for my desk.

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 2 (It's Alive)

2007-03-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Finally received the C2T Cable the other day. After a crazy week, I was finally able to put everything in place this evening an give the server an initial test. Still have some hardware problems at this point. I received the SCSI hard drive, but it did not come with a caddy as I had hopped. The other hard drive caddies that I received where in fact.. inserts. So I will be unable to install the hard drive until I get a caddy to support it.

Upon initial boot up, I got into BIOS just fine. The only error I received was a 'bad CMOS' battery. OK, so that needs to be replaced. Checked the boot order sequence to see if CD-ROM was the first boot device. Yes. Pulled out an UBUNTU 6.06 CD and decided to see if we can get a live distro up and running on the server.

The machine had no problem booting into UBUNTU and getting online. Although it take it's sweet time loading which is expected when using a live CD. It was up for approx. 5 mins before rebooting itself. Not sure if this is related to the bad CMOS battery or not. Currently it is back up and displaying the UBUNTU desktop. I have terminal open with TOP running. Going to monitor the machine for a few minutes and see if it reboots itself (my office is starting to heat up).

Uptime: 6min, the fans shift into high speed and then low speed again. What until I get that 10,000 RPM SCSI drive in there... I'm sure the db levels will increase significantly (the wife will thank me later). 7min.. all's good. Let's see if we can hit 10 and then call it a night. ... up time 10min. Time to power down, leave feedback for the person who sent me the C2T cable and then see if I can find a proper drive caddie so that I can feed this machine a Linux install and put it to work.

Vista Forced Down Your Throat

2007-02-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

Read a column in the latest issue of PC Magazine today entitled, "The Vista Supremacy" by Lance Ulanoff. Mr. Ulanoff states, "[...] consumers are wondering if Vista is right for them. The truth is that they really have no choice. Vista will succeed, have all of Microsoft's previous operating systesms."

He is kind of right. When he states that "[consumers] have no choice" he has underestimated the power of Linux. If you order a computer from a major computer vendor, odds are that you will get Vista pre-loaded onto it. No choice. The only choice you will get is whether or not you want Business Vista, Home Vista, or Ultimate Vista. A lot of consumers don't even know that they have a choice or that YES, THERE IS A CHOICE!! Most of them will prefer Windows anyways because that is all that they have been accustomed to. Oh well. Some are hopelessly lost forever.

He also goes on to say in his column, "[...] some tech geeks lined up at retail stores at midnight on January 30[th] to buy the very first copies of the new OS [...]." Good for them. I would hardly call the people buying Vista tech geeks. Your mom and probably grandma can operate Windows (which is a good thing and one of the reasons why Windows has been a success). Hardcore geeks know that there is a choice and are foaming at the mouth to get their hands on Vista. They've already hacked it.

Windows Vista

2007-02-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to have a post out here about Windows Vista. So this is mine.

I checked out Vista at PC World today. You walk into that place and they are practically shoving Bill Gate’s product down your throat. It is everywhere as soon as you walk through the door. Every PC screen in that place has it running through Demo Mode. Then when you buy something.. they have Vista ads on the back of the receipts they give you and then more Vista ads on the bags they put your stuff in. There is no escape. If you want your computer to be a VCR/CD player get Vista… if you want your computer to be a computer.. get Linux. As far as Vista goes… it is slick lookin’ just like Windows95 (when it came out). Other than that… it is XP with a new paint job. Granted I didn't check it out in great detail, but you know what it does... plays DVDs, CDs and Games; just like the XBOX.

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 1

2007-02-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to do this IBM server project where I would purchase an older IBM rack-mount server from Ebay. How cool would it be to have your very own 1U rackmount IBM server? Ok, I guess it is just cool for me.

The server:

IBM eSeries x330 1U
RAM: 512MB
Processors: (2) PIII 1GHZ
Hardrives: 0

Ok, so not too bad. Enough power to do some good server tasks. I still don't know what I am going to make this 'box' do. One thing already against me: I'm in the military on assignment in the UK, so shipping can be a bear. I do have access to the APO service, but not everyone on Ebay will ship to an APO address.

I bought the server for a steal at $52.05. Shipping: $49.95, so the total: $102.00. The people I bought it from won't ship to APO, so I had to use the www.shipitapo.com company. Cost to use their service: $56.04, shipped via the slowest method possible.. so another 6-8 weeks to go. Total at this point: $156.04.

So now I have this server coming to me. I check out the pictures online and realize that there is no place to plug a monitor-keyboard-mouse into. Perplexed I started doing research and found some manuals online. I need to purchase a proprietary C2T cable. Damn. So I easily found one on Ebay. The thing, a cable mind you, costs $140.00. I needed this cable or the server will be a large paperweight (keep in mind I still need hard drives). Total for the C2T cable: $155.95 shipped via APO. Total now: $311.99

The server arrives. Beautifully packaged. I also received an IBM keyboard and mouse. How awesome is that? There are no hard drives. No problem, but there are two large holes in the front where the hard drive caddies would sit. I search Ebay for SCSI hard drives w/ caddies. Bid, lose, bid, lose. Engage Auction Sniper and win a hard drive for $5.00 plus $10.00 shipping. Cool. Except no caddie. No Problem... search Ebay and find a lot of 8 for $10.00, no 'buy now' option, so I have to wait. I win. $10.00 plus shipping.

NOw I get some follow-up emails on both these items. One person won't ship to APO and the other doesn't understand how to ship to APO, even though on their Ebay site it states that they ship to APO via USPS. I explain how to do it and they respond with 'no problem'. The hard drive caddy guys won't ship to APO so now I am have the $10 item shipped internationally. Total price for the caddies: $56.99. Sucks. Total for the hard drive: $15.00. Total at this point: $383.93. This $52.00 server isn't looking like such a good deal after all.

At this point it has been about 10 weeks since the initial server purchase on Ebay. I am waiting on the C2T cable and the SCSI hard drive. Patience.

Linux is Awesome

2006-09-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

Doctored up this photo of a Swiss Army Knife. Linux is truly the "Swiss Army Knife" of operating systems.

The Ubuntu Linux Test

2006-09-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days I have installed and configured Ubuntu Linux on a friend's laptop. It was an older Sony VAIO and it either needed WindowsXP reinstalled or a fresh cup of Ubuntu. My friend is a avid Windows user but was open to the idea of trying Linux. He wanted a copy of Xandros he saw at a store installed. I told him that it was unecessary to purchase a copy of Linux. The Xandros marketing was slick.. it showed all sorts of Windows applications running in a Linux environment. Of course part of the price tag was Cross-Over Office.

The Ubuntu install on the Sony VAIO went rather smoothly. One of the primary concerns was what was going to replace the coveted iTunes. Amarok was the choice and it worked out rather nicely. He was able to watch DVDs, play MP3s, WMAs, and WMVs. Open Office took over for MS Office rather nicely. The WiFi worked perfectly where in Windows it did not. Hooking up and syncing an iPod couldn't be easier. The one minor thing that didn't work was the media card reader on the side of the laptop.

The biggest thing to over come was the training aspect of migrating from a Windows enviroment to a Linux environement where things are well.. slightly different.

The laptop was a solid build, I would be happy to use it. I received the phone call today (after only 36hours) I had been expecting. "Dude, you are gonna' be pissed at me." I thought that he crashed the system or something. "Can you just put Windows back on? I've been trying to play with these updates and I just want to go back to Windows."

The words made me cringe. All in all I spent about 6hours on that little machine and now... I will be shoving Windows back down it's throat. This was the first time I installed and configured Linux for a non-Linux user. I was interested in how this was going to work out.

For those of you who have done this for someone you know what I am talking about when I say that reality really sets in when you are setting up Linux for a Windows user. The average Windows user just wants things to work with little or no thought. In a Linux environment for Linux users we think that Linux is at that point. While I am setting Linux up on my friend' s laptop.. I am explaining the steps to get things configured properly... "Now we just need to do 'apt-get install'. This is too much for the Windows user to choke on. They just want a .exe file to click on. For those of us used to a Linux machine, we can get it to do whatever we want and sometimes things need a bit more tweeking. And usually it doesn't seem too tasking for us.

So when I say reality set in during this Linux install for a friend... I mean I realized that as much as I thought Linux was easy and didn't understand why I haven't seen more and more installs around, it was apparent that it is still complex to someone who is used to Windows.

I'll still try to win over Windows users by spreading the good word about the powerful Linux OS. But for now... this test has FAILED. I'll be installing Windows on that machine in the next day or so.

Caine Mutiny

2006-09-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

A quote from the book that I particularly enjoy, which sums up the secret to my Navy career:

“The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you’re not an idiot, but find yourself in the navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and common sense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to quash them. Constantly ask yourself, ‘How would I do this if I were a fool?’ Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you’ll never go wrong [. . .]”

I was thinking of putting this portion of the quote in my ‘signature’ block:

“The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots.”

I don’t know how well that would go over.

I have been in the Navy for just about 13yrs and was slightly taken back when I read that passage. I don't consider myself an idiot, so I guess that is why I have had a successful career in the Navy by just doing my job. It is coming up on 2am.. I need sleep. This isn't the first time I am up most of the night and it won't be the last.

ATL Oct. 2004

2006-09-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Sitting here trying to connect to the wireless Internet at the Atlanta airport. I have been unsuccessful. I have 1hr until my flight departs. I find it hard to believe that OCS is over. 12 weeks came and went. It seems just that easy in retrospect but I know it was damn hard some days. I have a renewed sense of pride (in my professional life) now that I am a United States Naval Officer. Yesterday I graduated and received my commission. I was issued plane tickets flying out of Pensacola this morning. Since a hurricane called Ivan hit Pensacola, hotel rooms have been scarce. Between people who have lost their homes and contractors from out of the area coming to help out (and make some money) there are virtually no rooms available. So being out of OCS, I no longer had a room at the school and didn’t have one out in town. I was planning on sleeping in a chair at the airport. The USO was open so I checked in there and the gentleman told me that it was closing and that they don’t let people stay there. He had lost most of his house in the hurricane and was staying there himself. Since he was part of the staff he said that I could stay the evening there and make an exception to their current policy. I was able to get a fair amount of sleep commensurate to that of which I have been getting over the past several weeks. I am looking forward to getting back home later on today. I can’t wait to put my arms around my wife, Tissha. I don’t have much planned for the next 2-3 days other than unpack and spend time with both Tissha and Jaden. I have to make sure that my uniform is ready to go for Wednesday morning when I am scheduled to report for temporary duty at NSGA Kunia. It will be a new experience for me. I don’t know much about the Cryptology community. I suppose the idea is that the only people who know about the Cryptology community are the ones who are in it.

Sitting here reflecting about the last 12 weeks, I have to say that yesterday morning I found myself holding back tears during our morning routine at the galley as well as when my class was formed for our final dismissal. Myself and 44 others graduated yesterday morning and then hit the road or the airport to proceed to various destinations through out the United States and the world. As of right now, I am the only one headed to Europe. Four of my classmates are headed to Japan and the rest are headed elsewhere within the boundries of the United States. No one received orders to Hawaii, which is where I am currently headed to today. A large number of my classmates were assigned to extra schools and will receive their duty station once they complete their assigned training. So it would be safe to say that I won’t see any of my classmates until I report for Cryptology school in January.

It is coming up on 10am here in Atlanta. I contemplated calling friends and family, but in Hawaii it is approaching 6am (early for a Saturday morning). West coast would be more feasible (8am), but I will wait until I land in Los Angeles. Well I need to pack it up and head to my assigned gate (T3)…

Pensacola Sept. 2004

2006-09-14T15:13:00.000-07:00

So here I am in Pensacola. Still. I was able to get out in town for just under two hours this evening. Haven’t had access to the Internet in almost two weeks and I still had no luck this evening. This Pensacola place is unlike anywhere I’ve been to recently. More of a large, spread out town than a city. It has a few components of a city. It has old buildings. Some historical stuff downtown. At any rate, I couldn’t find any Internet connectivity out in town. A friend and fellow classmate of mine was kind enough to invite me to leave the base with him, otherwise I would haven’t been able to get very far if anywhere. With less than one hour left until we had to be on base we stopped off at one of the local watering holes, Brews Brothers. A quaint looking establishment, with more beers on tap than pages in the bible. About six of our classmates were already there and well on their way to getting trashed. They were finishing a pitcher as we stepped up to the bar. A beer seemed mighty nice, but I had a fine martini on my mind. I requested a Ketel One martini. They didn’t stock Ketel (sp) One, so I ended up settling for Level One (what is with the “one”) Martini, served up and dirty. The young lady bartender ended up making the martini a little dirtier than I would have liked. I drank the whole think rather quickly and then participated in some shots before we had to get on the road and head back to base. It was good to see some of my classmates outside of the Officer Candidate School environment. It also good to see some of them a little tipsy. I would have liked to spend more time hanging out with them, but time just doesn’t allow that sometimes.

I find myself missing Tissha immensely. Anytime I am not actively involved with something. I find my mind wandering towards her. She is always on my mind, which is good most of the time. I found myself thinking about her while I was showering. There is absolutely no privacy in the shower and I almost couldn’t contain my manhood (you know what I mean). I can’t wait until I can get my arms around her next weekend. I will wrap my arms around her and inhale deeply taking in her lovely scent (provided she just didn’t get done smoking a cigarette). Speaking of cigarettes, I just ruined the moment.. I really wish that she would stop smoking. Tissha has truly been an angel for me as I proceeded through this training. She sent me countless love letters, letting me know that she was there for me, thinking about me, missing me. They made me laugh, smile, and cry. God I can’t wait to make love to her. Ok, ok, ok.. enough of the mushy stuff..

Tomorrow is Sunday, the beginning of my last week at OCS. The days just keep getting longer. I know that I can’t wait to get out of here and get away from some of my classmates however; I know that I will remember and miss most of them. We have spent just about 12 weeks together, closer together than other classes have experienced. We have had our living quarters together as a class for the whole time. Normally, a class gets split up around their 9^th-10^th week of training. Our class hasn’t experienced that. In fact, we have experienced the exact opposite with the occurrence of hurricane Ivan. We’ve had to stay in close quarters (no privacy) at Corry Station. Sprawled out on classroom floors with nothing more than blankets distinguishing one living area to another. 2200.. time for bed (the rack), goodnight.

Hurricane Ivan Sept. 2004

2006-09-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

So, there I was… 10 weeks into Officer Candidate School and in a hurricane shelter. It is 8pm and it feels like 3am. My bed (if you can call it that) is a thin wool blanket on a laminate floor. It is more like a marker used to claim the area in the room where I place my stuff. I have never been in a hurricane. This will be my first. Apparently it will be the worst one to hit this area in quite sometime. I am bored. I have a laptop with a DVD player that won’t play DVDs. I have a song collection that I built using my classmates CDs from earlier today. Two books that I have been reading. One is a collection of stories and the other is a current NY Times Best Seller, The Davinci Code. I have no access to the outside world, actually there are a few people in this shelter that have AM/FM radios and they relay information as they get it. But that is the extent of it. No phone, no internet, no TV. Am I crying about it? No. There are people scattered about. Some sleeping. Some reading. Some watching DVDs on laptops. Some gathered in rooms around laptops. Me, I am hidden away behind a row of consoles. The latest update is that the hurricane will hit land fall by 1am. I have been hearing about this terrible thing for over a week now and I want it to hurry up and come so that I don’t have to keep hearing about it. Still… two weeks left in training and everything comes to a slow crawl. The next 48 hours will probably drag by. It would have been nicer to stay on our regimented schedule and the days would continue to click away. If that was the case I would probably be bitching about that too. We have had a new class of 42 come in this past Sunday (today is Wednesday). I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. We (my class) have quite a bit of luxuries that the junior classes do not. The real junior class has it the worst. There are 8 showers available for all the males in this shelter and we must share them with another group. The showers are not located in this building.. they are located about 150 yards across a parking lot in the gym. If the hurricane is barreling down on us tomorrow, we will not get showers. No shower until Friday. Not a very comforting thought. The muscles in my legs ach. I don’t know why. It may be due to lack of exercise today. I haven’t done nearly as much walking as I have been accustomed to over the last several weeks. I am curios as to what will happen tomorrow. What time will we have to be up? What will breakfast consist of? Will tomorrow be more books, DVDs, etc? Will tomorrow go fast than today? It doesn’t matter what we are doing. I wouldn’t be truly enjoying myself either way. When Oct. 1^st comes and I am able to gain my life back, then I will start enjoying myself. I still don’t have orders which will tell me exactly what I am supposed to be doing after Oct. 1^st. I have a general idea or maybe you could just call it a theory. I just might be totally caught off guard by the orders I am actually issued.

I have been observing my classmates and as myself the question, “Have we really been transformed over the last several weeks?” Some type of change has taken place. We have all gotten to know each other. And those who have never been in the military have learned some common thread of language.

I will be glad to leave Pensacola Florida. There isn’t much that interests me here. I haven’t been able to explore much, but from what I have seen so far makes me want to move on to other places. The place has only one Starbuck’s. Can you believe that? The weather has been miserable over the past 10 weeks. If it isn’t so humid you could swim through the air… there is a hurricane coming to ruin your week. No wonder property is cheap in these parts. I was told that this is a popular retirement place? Why? Because there is nothing to do here and retired people won’t feel like they are missing out on anything?

People are eating all kinds of junk. Snacks. Chocolates and candies. Potato chips and candy bars. Why? Is it because we were without it for several weeks or is this normal? I have to confess that I have chocolate urges like I have never had before. It sounds retarded, I know, but it is the truth. Try not eating chocolate for 6 weeks. I guarantee the 1^st piece of chocolate you taste after that long without will be the best tasting piece you will ever have.

Anyways… enough for now.

Frustrated.. Listening to music right now trying to escape. Have been trying to shave and brush my teeth for about 40min now. If it isn’t on thing it is another. The junior class had to use the restroom and now everyone was instructed to fill their canteens in case we loose plumbing. 150+ people using two sinks to fill their canteens. Gotta’ wait 30min or so before trying again. I would like to shave and brush my teeth and then put myself down on the floor to sleep this evening. It is now 10:15pm or 22:15 for you military types. Listening to some tribe called quest. Some good tracks. Missing Tissha. Wish she was here. Actually, I wish I was there. Here is boring, but she would make it more bearable. 2 and ½ weeks to go. Tomorrow it will be less. The big count down. How many count downs have I done in my military career? How many times have I done this pulling into port? And here I am again. No one to blame but myself. Remember, I asked for this. I had plenty of opportunities to something else. To count down something else. Here I am. I am really excited about the 1^st of October. I have been working towards a commission as an United States Naval Officer for over a year now. Even longer if you count my school time. It took a lot to get to this floor where I am sitting this evening, bracing for the impact of the great Hurricane Ivan. I am the closest I have ever been and I am only getting closer.

I would like to get out on the open road with Tissha in a nice, fast car, just us and the road going wherever our hearts take us. I think a road trip is in order. I have been restricted, locked up, whatever for so long… my mind wanders. A road trip is appealing because of the freedom involved. Music, nice weather, nice car, and the road to ….?? Wherever. Watched Ocean’s 11 this evening (the new one w/ clooney), yes, Now I want to go to Vegas. Anywhere, but here in this brick building without windows.

I miss DJ’ing. I have had several ideas for mixing songs over the past several weeks and I have been unable to do much of anything about them. Wonder if I will be able to get back into the game back in Hawaii or wherever. Would like to sit down with the music collection and listen/mix music for a few hours. Get some quality practice in (not that I was ever that good).

Electrical Power comes in and out in this building. The surges have been becoming more frequent. Lights on, lights off, like someone is playing with the light switch. Lights off and then a number of beeps coming from the equipment in this room. Mostly the APC units. People are starting to get on my nerves. Nothing that I can’t tolerate and deal with. This is an old hat to me. Couped up with 100+ people.. just like the USS Chicago (SSN721). Slightly different. No watch here.

So I am back (giving you a play by play).. shaved and teeth brushed. Damn forgot to cut my finger nails. That can wait until tomorrow. Listening to this Tribe Called Quest song again for the umpteenth time. It is a good track (obviously). Going to listen to some music and then try to get some shut-eye.

So here it is a week and a half later… still in the same place, just got electricity back today. Sucks. To sum it up in one word. One week left to OCS. I am getting fairly tired of most of the people around here. At times here doesn’t seem like there is any way to escape all this. They tell us that this weekend we may possibly move back into the barracks. At this point it doesn’t matter…

The past 3 days have been full of hard work. I have been with a select few candidates to go on working parties to houses out in the area. The people we have been helping have been very grateful and have fed us well. I have had a beer everyday for the past three days. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if you were in OCS you might understand. The people we have helped have been related to the armed services in one form or another. We’ve helped two retired captains, a former aviator, and a intelligence director for the US Coast Guard.

I never imagined that I would be in a “hurricane shelter” this long. My parents, my wife, my cousin and my friends will not be coming to Pensacola, which is a good thing. This place is a disaster area, most people would want to leave and people I knew wanted to come here. The building I am staying in received power today, however no one wants to reset breakers and we have less light in certain areas than we did without power. The big push was going to be getting air conditioning up. It was quite humid today which is carrying over into this evening. Getting back to normalcy will be good. Goodnight.

I am now back in the battalion building. I will be sleeping on a mattress for the first time in over a week and a half. We have electricity, more than two sinks for 40+ people and I have two new roommates. One of my roommates has remained the same. I was supposed to be in a different room than the one that I am in now. My previous roommate insisted that I swap with someone so that I would be his roommate again. At this point it doesn’t matter to me. I normally would not have switched assigned rooms but he did the swap before I was in the building. Less than a week left before I move out of here, I could practically room with anyone for a week. This reminds me of being underway on a submarine, not being able to totally get away from the people you don’t want to be around.

I was able to speak with the detailer today. I attempted to get orders to Hawaii, he was quick to tell me that it was not going to happen. I was dumb-founded when I was told this and didn’t know what to say in response. I then asked for Washington D.C. and again was told the same thing. He then said, “How about Europe?” I was both excited and apprehensive about being stationed in Europe. I told him that I was up for it. So he told me that he had a position in the UK that would go with my current security clearance status. I spoke with Tissha today and she was excited to hear about it. Luckily I had mentioned the possibility of being stationed in Europe earlier this year so that her subconscious had time to “chew” on it. I need to remind myself to not try to plan out the whole move in my head. The logistics are overwhelming, so I need to focus on one step at a time and eventually everything will fall nicely in to place. I have a number of questions and I am sure Tissha does to. I haven’t spoken with my parents about it. The biggest thing about being stationed outside the United States is the fact that I will be so far away from family. I thought being in Hawaii was somewhat of a hassle. I think that my parents will be somewhat distressed over me being stationed all the way up in the UK (it rhymes). I wonder what problems I will run into being stationed in a different country. Will I be able to subscribe to American Magazines? I wanted to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal but I am not sure if that is possible. I was grateful to get the Wall Street Journal delivered on time to my doorstep in Hawaii, but in the UK? My brother, Jason, has given me the idea of subscribing to the National Geographic, which I may still try and do.

I have a lot of things to tie up in Hawaii. I have a house, a car that I don’t think that I can drive in Hawaii. I am a partner in a business with one of my best friends, Sal. I have yet to break the news to him. He will be upset and want to sell off the business, he may surprise me and choose differently. I will be supportive either way. I would like to be stationed in Hawaii and continue to support the DJ/Dance/Music scene the same way that I have been for the past 3-4 years.

I am finding myself doing limited research on my laptop, w/out Internet, on the UK, London, etc. Interesting, but I need the Internet to give me more current and pertinent information.

AA Flight #55

2006-08-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

I always dread the flight from the UK back to the states. Typically I leave from Manchester and arrive in Chicago. I chose this particular set-up this time to avoid having to go through London-Heathrow airport with all the recent terrorist hype of the past few weeks. I ended up on American Airlines Flight #55 which was diverted to Bangor, Maine. All the passengers were informed that there was a sick flight attendant on board and the individual needed medical attention. The flight was uneventful for the most part. No turbulence, no unruly passengers, and nothing out of the ordiniary. The only thing that passed through my mind was that one person couldn't wait two extra hours for medical attention? I didn't notice anyone with a severed limb and no one was screaming in pain, so how bad could it be? It seems as though that the whole 'sick flight attendant' was used as a cover-up for something else. When we deboarded the plane we were in the middle of the tarmac, far removed from any buildings and the terminal. There were several customs cars and plain clothes officers. I was near the back of the plane so by the time I got out, it appeared that they had someone (might have been two) in custody with their shoes removed. We were quickly loaded onto buses which took us to the terminal. We weren't feed any information other than what we needed to do next. All the passengers had to be interviewed by the FBI. The FBI was particularly interested in interviewing the passengers who were seated by the suspect individual(s). I had nothing to add when it was my turn. 7hrs later we were back on the same plane to Chicago. I've never had to go through so many security checks in my life along with showing my passport to so many people. We were taken out of one room so that we could check-in with immigration and go through customs only to come back to the same room and having to go through the same security checks again (remove shoes, belt, open laptop bag, emtpy pockes, etc). I am now in a hotel room in Chicago, catching the first flight out to San Francisco tomorrow. I was supposed to be there today. It has been a long 24hrs.

Story from BBC here

Ubuntu Linux 6.06

2006-06-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Just fed my laptop the latest Ubuntu distro, Dapper Drake (aka v6.06LTS). No, I didn't do a full install. In an effort to preserve the WinXP Pro version that I paid hard cash for, I am merely just running Ubuntu via the live CD. I've tried a live Knoppix distro before as well as Damn Small Linux (DSL), both failed to work with my WiFi card. I probably could have done some extensive research and tweaking to get the WiFi card working but I didn't want to bother. Dapper Drake is working perfectly with my WiFi card. One word to describe this experience... Awesome!! The thoughts running through my head... maybe I should just ditch WinXP Pro on this machine and run Dapper Drake exclusively or I could try configuring a dual boot option. As this is a low end IBM laptop with a 20GB hard drive, I would imagine that a dual boot option would eat too much of my precious hard drive space, but still worth considering.

I picked up a Linux magazine today that came with a DVD which has SuSe 10.1. According to the DVD packaging you can use it as a 'live' DVD or typical install. I fed the DVD to my lap top and to my dismay a message popped up at about 30secs into the boot stating that "SuSe 10.1 needs a minimum of 512Mb unshared RAM to work". While 512MB of RAM is quickly becoming the norm, I don't need that much RAM on my laptop. It does have 512MB of RAM but the video shares few megs out of it. So, SuSe 10.1 quickly was ejected and replaced with Dapper Drake. The only thing I don't like about Ubuntu Dapper Drake is the quirky name. I am still trying to get used to saying 'Ubuntu' and never got used to the previous version name, 'Breezy Badger'. They just aren't techy enough. That is the goal of Ubuntu, Linux for humans. So the reason behind the quirky names is obvious. I will have to look into why or how the names are chosen. I'm sure there is a story behind each one.

Feed your computer a copy of Ubuntu, it will thank you for it.

Chuck Palahniuk

2006-05-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recommended books by Chuck Palahniuk. He is often referred to as the guy who wrote "Fight Club". I am sure that pisses him off. Kind of like the DJ Mix Master Mike who is referred to as the Beastie Boy's DJ. That pisses him off.

Started reading “Diary” this evening. Weird so far. I’ve managed to choke down a few chapters and I’m still not into it. Maybe I just need to adjust my mindset from reading Bukowski to the insane mind of Palahniuk. Actually both of these writers are probably insane. It is just Bukowski’s insanity is more inline with the every day insanity that comes with life.

Required Bukowski Reading

2006-05-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just finished Factotum.

One of my favorite passages:

CHAPTER 85

“Sundays were best because I was alone and soon I began to take a pint of whisky to work with me. One Sunday after a hard night’s drinking the bottle got to me; I blacked out. I vaguely remembered some unusual activity that evening after I went home but it was unclear.” I told Jan about it the next morning before I went back to work. “I think I fucked up. But maybe it’s my imagination.”

On the cover of the book it states, “A laureate of American low life”. I don’t know if Bukowski would appreciate that tag line.

The book is a good read like most of Bukowski’s novels, but he drinks and drinks and drinks. This story is just about him traveling around at a young age getting a full taste life in America. He has gets hired and fired from more jobs in the time frame of this book than most people go through in a life time. Hooks up with some of the nastiest women ever.

Definitely required Bukowski reading.

Starbucks, just not today.

2006-04-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

You know, I like coffee a lot. I drink at least a cup a day. I've been a Starbucks fan since before it was cool. But I don't always need to go to a Starbucks to get a cup of coffee. I enjoy venturing into other coffee houses to try their various offerings. I usually stick with a plain cup of coffee or go with a double espresso. My wife is a Starbucks fan much like myself, however that is just about the only coffee she will drink. She always has the Caramel Macchiato (extra caramel) which you can hardly call coffee. The other day I wanted to get a cup of coffee and I mentioned that it didn't necessarily have to come from Starbucks. She was a little iritated at this and said "O-K" which judging by the inflection in her voice said, "Like where else is there to go?" But guess where we ended up. Yep, Starbucks.
Starbucks is a good place when you aren't willing to settle for anything less than you know you'll get exactly what you like. I have been to a lot of different coffee places and sometimes what they have to offer is repulsive. However you don't usually find that out until after you order, pay for, recieve and taste their product. If it is bad or not to your liking, then either you never go back or you know to order something different next time. A double espresso is usually a sure bet everywhere you go, it is hard to screw one of those up.

Apple moves closer to Windows

2006-04-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

Apple moves closer to morphing into Windows. I don't know which one is the lesser of two evils. Apple Computer's first step was moving to Intel Processors and now they are providing 'support' in order to enable Windows Operating Systems to run on their harware. Apple Computers are beautiful machines, but their cost and proprietary hardware makes them unappealing. I enjoy designing and building computer systems and networks. I choose Linux Operating Systems to run networks, Windows for my workstation and an Apple to eat. http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
Windows are for breaking, Apples are for eating, and Linux is for computing.

Perfect Martini

2006-04-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

What makes the perfect martini? Chilled Vodka and not much else. You don't need the top shelf stuff. Smirnoff is fine. Stay away from that bottom shelf stuff that comes in the 1L plastic bottle. You might as well as use hairspray or rubbing alcohol if you consider using that stuff. Even when times are hard you should be able to afford Sky or Smirnoff. Don't torture your palate with anything less. I highly recommend a 2 to slightly less than 1 mixture. If you plan ahead you should chill the martini glass to make the experience that much more enjoyable. Some purists will argue that a true martini is made with gin. A true martini is a vodka martini, who the hell wants to drink pine sap with olives? Gin is best with tonic, but we will discuss that another day.

2006-03-12T09:13:00.000-08:00

Snowing here in England today. We had a brief snow ball fight in the park while we were out in town. Summer can't get here soon enough.

SeaMonkey

2006-03-12T08:13:00.000-08:00

The SeaMonkey Project:

Check out this latest release from Mozilla.org. This is an all-in-one Internet suite. Web-brower, e-mail client, newsgroup client, IRC client, and a HTML editor. What more do you need?

Why we have to be concerned with Iran

2006-03-12T04:25:00.000-08:00

wiran12bbig.jpg (JPEG Image, 900x629 pixels):This image from The Telegraph sums up why Iran is a country to be concerned with.

Somewhere in SoCAL

2006-02-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

Jon, David and Sheree return to the Motel6 after a long day of wine tasting in Temecula.

Back in the UK

2006-02-12T17:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a week since I have been back in the UK. I would dare to say that I am almost over the jet lag. My first week back at work was rough. I had to suffer through 12hr shifts on top of the jet lag. The Southwest Tour 2006 was well worth it. Two weeks of blazing through the Southwest, starting in California and ending up in Texas. It all started with a phone call from a friend of mine, Victor.

"I'm getting married on Feb. 4th and I would like you to be in it."

Victor and I go way back, so there was no way in hell I could not be there for him. Since I was going to have to travel from the UK back to the States, I decided to make quite the road trip out of it. Why would I want to spend 20hrs of travel time for just a weekend?

The planning started early. I would hit California and work my way towards San Antonio over a two week period. I knew enough people in between L.A. and S.A. to make stops at several cities along the way. The original plan was LA -> Vegas -> Phoenix -> Albuquerque -> San Antonio -> Corpus Christi. Vegas was cut out early on and substituted with San Francisco. Most of my family resides in the Bay Area so that was an easy decision. Corpus Christi was on the agenda up until the very end, but I was just never able to fit in a trip down there. The week I was in San Antonio it was hectic with all kinds of stuff going on. I was glad to be there with Victor to help him maintain his sanity as Feb. 4th drew near.