Sheep Guarding Llama

I obviously slept in a but this morning. Loopy was still awake when I got up – he too is trying to get ready to adjust his sleep schedule to our work that starts tomorrow. I assembled the new stationary bike that we got and tried it out. It was really cheap but I am happy with it. It seems to be really stable and it would appear to work pretty well. Good value, I think. It does everything that I need. I plan to come up with a way to be able to play video games while I am using it and to watch DVDs because that will make it so much easier to get a decent amount of exercise.

It turns out that Susan brought us her Nordic Track before she left for Miami but I hadn’t realized. So we actually have more or less a full gym now in the house. We have three pieces of excercise equipment. Loopy would really like to get a treadmill and so would I so sooner or later our gym will really be complete. It is neat to have so much stuff right in our own home.

Today is a really short day both in time and in the update. I will try my best to provide updates this week while I am out of town. It will be tough but I will likely have a ton of free time while I am hanging out at the Econolodge in Schenectady with John and Loopy. I did install zSNES (the Super Nintendo emulator) and Nestron (the Nintendo Entertainment System emulator) onto my laptop and I managed to track down Earthbound Zero (Mother 1) – the prequel to my favorite console video game of all time – Earthbound. I am really excited that I will be able to play it this week.

I spent most of my short day today working on getting the X-Terminal system working to show for use in Washington. I am part way there at least. I have all of the software that I need installed and some of it configured and the workstation seems to be all set. It is booting properly, not giving me any error messages and looking out on the network for the Linux image. So, I am getting close I think. I also had to pack today because I will be dilerious in the morning.

Min and I got up this morning and headed straight out to Frankfort to visit her family. It is winter weekend for her brother so he is getting all dressed up and heading off to the school dance (winter weekend is apparently a mix of what I remember as homecoming and the prom.) On the way out of town we stopped by Borders to try exchanging that bad DVD for the new one that they were holding for me. After having two bad experiences in trying to get this problem resolved, I was just waiting for something bad to happen today as well. But, the girl working at the desk who helped me actually did some redeeming for Borders and told me that I would not have to get another copy of the same movie and she happily refunded my money. Then I bought three books there so they made out pretty well. So, I was not nearly so upset after that. We had tons of laundry to do so it was good timing for us to be near a washing machine:) It seems like we washed clothes pretty much all day. We did eight to ten loads, I am sure. We watched a number of movies while we were doing it including Father Goose with Cary Grant, Clambake with Elvia Presley and Toy Soldiers with Sean Astin. We also made a trip out to Walmart and did a little shopping there. We managed to find an awesome deal on a recumbant stationary bicycle so we decided to go ahead and pick it up. It was only $100 which is pretty cheap for excercise equipment. We also found a small stair stepper machine that was all that we needed for only $50 so we picked that up too. It is like having a major portion of a home gym and having only spent $150. Not a bad deal. We do want to get an elliptical machine yet and that won’t be nearly as cheap (we have both used a Gazelle and they totally suck and they can fall over when you get going hard. We found a really nice real one at Dick’s for the same price that we really like that we will probably end up getting eventually.

We went out for dinner with Dominica’s parents at Lotta Burger in Utica which is a funny name but the place is really nice. This is my second time there and I really like it. We stayed out there until 1:30 am and then drove home. I didn’t end up going to bed until 5:00 am which was a bit on the late side. I am trying to get ready for my sleep schedule next week and that is going to be really rough. Especially with three guys splitting a hotel room for four nights.

We didn’t end up having enough to get all of our laundry dried so we have a bunch that we are going to have to dry at the house tomorrow. I did get the stair stepper set up while we were in Frankfort and I tried it out a bit and it seems really nice. I am glad that I got it.

Loopy is planning on staying up all night tonight so that it is easy for him to adjust his schedule tomorrow. He emailed me today to tell me that he had figured out how to start writing his own operating system and managed to get a basic kernel written and to get the GRUB bootloader to load it up and that it ran really well. It doesn’t do much of anything yet but it is there and it really works. For those of you unfamiliar with operating system development, it is one of the hardest things to make. Writing code designed to run your computer is very different from writing code that runs on an operating system that is already there. Imagine trying to work on a computer that does not have anything at all on it. That means NO Windows or DOS or ANYTHING. This is a really big deal that Loopy managed to do this. Most people who work on making their own OSes never make it this far. And this is only day one! Of course, now he is going to be out of town for a week 🙂

It is a good thing that I update this site everyday or I would completely forget what the date is. One week until Valentines Day!

I added stuff to my calendar first thing this morning since I added the Calendar button yesterday. I figured that it might as well be accurate. More work on the Web Server today. But it looks like we are not going to be able to go to DC this afternoon because of the really bad weather that we are expecting to be getting. Southern Pennsylvania started getting hit with a big winter storm early this morning and tons of snow is falling on the 81 corridor. After getting stuck in Hazleton just two weeks ago, we are a little gun shy of driving down there in bad weather. Eric and I got stuck in Scranton last winter. Only that little area have I ever been snowed into while traveling. Winter is starting to wear out its welcome around here. I am looking forward to spring already. I like the cold weather during the night and it makes my computer run better but other than that, I can do without it being this cold. This seems to have been an extra cold winter. Summer is too much but Spring and Autumn are okay for me. I am going to need to do something with my computer so that it doesn’t overheat once the warm weather starts to come. I have a couple of things that I want to try that might make a big difference. I need to re-grease the heatsink with better grease. The current heatsink is on with the factory grease which is never done very well. I may try installing a newer and better CPU fan and heatsink altogether. And I want to get round cable for the inside of the case that will allow for better airflow. Right now, I have the normal flat cables and they block most of the air that would flow through the case and that is definitly not helping anything.

I added SuSE Firewall to the new webserver today. That is step one in securing it. I have done my best to make it secure by default but it takes a lot to protect yourself these days. We once installed a test system in DC and it was hacked within two days. We had only ever logged into it remotely once and that was all it took for someone to grab the root password and take over the system. It is amazing how much people will do just to be able to send out spam mail (that is what seems to always happen when your computer gets hacked.) It isn’t like there is anything of value on these machines. Mostly they are just web servers and you can download all of the info that is on them anyway.

Well, my afternoon appointment got cancelled due to illness so I have ended up having the day mostly free. Maybe I will get that server all ready (but then I won’t be able to take it to DC because of the weather 🙁 Well, at least this will prevent me from delivering it to DC prematurly. Of course we cancel the trip to DC after I already pulled out the new Sue Grafton books on CD that we were going to get to listen to on the way. I was really excited about listening to “N is for Noose” because it is the only one that I have missed so far. You would not believe how much I love listening to those books. Yesterday I finished listening to Scott Adam’s latest Dilbert business book “The Way of the Weasel.” I don’t think that it was as good as some of his older ones like “The Dilbert Principle” or “The Dilbert Future” but it was pretty good. It also isn’t fair because I read those two and only got them on tape later. So they weren’t abridged when I first read them. The only one of the Dilbert books that I have left to read is “The Joy of Work” – which I have but just haven’t gotten around to reading yet.

I took some time and finished working on the computer that Bob put together. The final part came two days ago, the graphics card and I got that installed this afternoon. It was an easy installation and now that computer is all set so it is one more thing that I can get out of my hair. Too many computers around here, I can’t take it. I need more floor space. I think that they are multiplying, I don’t recognize all of them.

Emily stopped by around noon. It was nice to be able to visit, we have had so little time in so long (which is weird because she reads SGL everyday but we never get the chance to talk.) We hung out for about an hour and then Min called from work and we picked her up and went to Friendlys for some lunch. We had a really good time and Min got to play with the baby, which always makes her happy. After lunch, Emily raided the DVD collection and took off to run more errands.

Nate went out to spend the weekend in Perry and Zach is in Tully with his family. Tonight, it was just Bob, Loopy, Min and I – so we all went to the mall for dinner and then we did a little shopping. We went to Dick’s and Min and I tried out some different recumbent stationary bikes. We found one that we really like so we just need to compare it against the similar one at Walmart that we were thinking about before we decide what one we are really interested in. We walked by Borders and we noticed Eric (Eric that teaches with Nate and Bob) was playing with a band there (it is so nice that Borders has a place for live music – as much as Ithaca has live music, it doesn’t tend to have much of that style anywhere.) So Bob stayed there and watched while we did some more shopping. We eventually came back to Borders and Dominica noticed that Borders had the movie that I tried to exchange just a couple of days ago on the shelf and that they hadn’t contacted me about it and, of course, I didn’t have my copy with me because I hadn’t been told that they had got a copy in. So, I wasn’t very happy that they didn’t contact me and that they put the copy that I technically already owned on the shelf for someone else to buy. I brought this to their attention and they explained that Borders didn’t have the common courtesy to have an inventory control system so that they would have any way of knowing if I was waiting for something to come in or if it was really in the store anyway (this has been seen a number of times there with the system saying that they have things that they don’t and that they don’t have things that they do, etc.) So, they are now holding (for only four days, mind you – it isn’t like I already paid for it or anything) the copy that they have at the register so that I can come back and pick it up. We will see what happens when I finally try to pick it up tomorrow. Maybe they will actually give it to me. But there will probably be a hassle.

After shopping at the mall we all headed home and watched the original James Bond flik Dr. No which really isn’t very good but it is a classic anyway. Sean Connery was pretty young there.

I stayed up late last night working on upgrading my SuSE 8.0 computer to 8.1. This, however, could not be completed because 8.1 wouldn’t recognize the old system:( I am hopeful, however, that I will soon be able to load 8.1 onto my screaming fast Promise RAID array because since the last time that I installed Linux, Promise has made the drivers available. So I no longer have to keep Windows on the good drives. I wanted to upgrade to Windows XP Pro anyway and changing partitions would seem to be the perfect time to do that. So I can update the entire machine all at once. It will be like getting a totally new computer. I have been wanting to get more memory as well since I do run out occassionally (512MB just isn’t enough these days.) I am excited to be upgrading the machine but it does mean a lot of work has to be done and I have to wait until I can afford to pick up Windows XP. But at least I have something to look forward to. SuSE 8.1 is supposed to be blazing fast compared to 8.0 and with the faster drives it should really kick some major butt. I can’t wait to try it out.

Emily is coming into town on Friday (tomorrow) and is going to be stopping by to visit. I haven’t seen Emily more than two or three times since she has moved back to New York (I think I saw her AND Craig more when they were living in Colorado!)

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Emily is visiting in the morning. I am spending the afternoon meeting with Steve Lucente, the owner of Lifestyle Propeties, as we discuss homes and offices and stuff for the coming year. Then, after all that, Min and I are driving to DC. It makes for a long day.

Today was another day of working on the web server. I am getting there, really I am. I got a lot done last night and it is going well. I am feeling really good about it. Eric is working on setting up his own test environment for producing PHP pages but he is having less luck than me. I really wish that I had a couple of more days before I had to go to DC so that I could have this machine ready for the trip. I want to get it down three and installed and ready to go. The sooner it is out of this house and in place the sooner it can start doing me some good. Right now, it is in the way! I need more space (lol.)

Dominica did read the update yesterday and caught my joke:) I decided that I was tired of everyone always saying that they don’t look at my calendar or don’t know how to get to it so I decided that I would add a Calendar button to the navigation bar on the right so that everyone can just click there and instantly see what my calendar holds for me. It is mostly accurate. Far from perfect. But it helps give the general impression of where I will be when.

Min hit the hay early (like 9:00!!) but I stayed up late working on that new server. I think it might be ready to go when we head down to DC tomorrow but I don’t like to count my chickens, I have attempted putting it down there before when it wasn’t ready and it just ends up making for extra work. We will see, it all depends on how tomorrow goes. At this point, all of the features that I need are implemented. What I am working on now is locking it down for protection (our DC facility is hit by crackers (mostly script kiddies, thank goodness) hundreds or even thousands of times a day. So security is a must. Loopy has to go to bed early tonight because he actually has a 9:00 am meeting. But he might as well start getting up earlier since we have to be up at 3:00 am on Monday morning and between 6:00 and 7:00 am the rest of the week. Might as well be ready for it. I am going to be going to bed really early on Sunday so nobody call me Sunday night!

I was talking to Natalie today (our Canadian Blonde) and she informed me that SGL has become quite the sensation in the Toronto area. Apparently there are quite a few Canadians logging in to see what is going on here in Ithaca. There is, unfortunately, very little exciting news coming out of Ithaca today. The weather has been bad – the winds are hitting as high as 50 mph (80 kph for the Canadians) coming from the west off of Lake Erie and driving ice onto Western NY. Luckily we have only been hit with the wind but it is still bad. It is actually hard to sleep at night from all of the noise.

Loopy and I and John Stephens (who works with us from time to time) have managed to scrounge up an entire week of work next week out near Amsterdam, NY (that is in the Greater Albany area.) That is forty hours of work each on a decent sized PC Migration project (people are starting to know who we are apparently.) This is the biggest block of PC Tech work that we have come across so far. And the money is looking to be good as well, so we are really excited. Loopy has been getting down to the wire and is starting to think about non-IT positions to hold him until something IT related comes up. This will be enough money to let him hold off for 2-4 weeks at least. And John will be excited as well since he works at Lockheed-Martin in Owego where layoffs are coming down quickly and everyone’s jobs are short lived. We are going to have to get a hotel room in Amsterdam for four days because it is just too far to drive each day. It is just over three hours in each direction for Loopy and I and closer to four hours for John. So, Loopy and I will be away all next week. Nate and Bob are packing up and heading off to New York City for the week to go to a conference next week. They are staying with Ryan (whom many of you know from New Year’s pictures over the years.) So it is just going to be Dominica and Zach at home all week. Min will probably be able to finish playing Kingdom Hearts with so much time to herself. Min and I are planning on leaving for Annapolis on Friday. There is a party on Saturday that we are trying to make it to. We will have to be back early on Sunday, though, because I have to be up around 3:00 am to be able to hit the road in time to make it to that job out in Amsterdam (it is actually Rotterdam Junction.)

Loopy got tons done on his video game last night and today he is focussing on an update to the Waste Watcher web site. He originally did the work on that site back in April of 2000 so the site is looking a bit dated and it really needed touched up. We are hoping to start getting some business for doing web site design (I need no introduction as a web designer to those of you who read SGL everyday 🙂 Loopy has done web site design in the past for Niagara Telecom and Nicklin Associates with the Waste Watcher and for Lifestyle Properties with their homepage (which can be linked to from the button on the left.) My main sites include SGL and Ithaca Portal (also linked to from the left.) Loopy and I do very different types of web design. He is more of a designer and I focus on code compliance and client side technology. We are more of a team than independant designers. I got my start in code compliance working for Oil Navigator back in 2000. I became really interested in code compliance there and had an opportunity to learn a lot. (Update in June, 2006: The web site for Oil Navigator was finally taken down. Most likely the ownership of the domain expired.)

Eric was nice enough to forward me the funniest email that I have seen in a long time and it is already posted over in our Funnies section. Take a look at The Best Headlines of 2002 . I was laughing out load sitting at my desk while I was reading it. It is not often that that happens.

Min came home from work and she, Loopy and I went out to the State St. Diner for some food. We are all out of money but Min has a credit card and we all missed being able to go out to eat so we splurged. It tasted really good.

Since today seems to be the day of links in the dalies I am going to add one that is totally irrelevant to anything, whatsoever. My aunt sent me this link today and it is pretty dumb but it is still pretty cute. Go and see what the FBI is up to now. Like I said, it is a silly link but you will get a kick out of it. Also, for all of you vegetarians out there (I know that we have quite a few in our readership) – Min and I have discovered the most amazing meat substitute ever. It is called Mycoprotein and it has been popular in Europe for years but it has only just come to the states and you can now buy it at Wegmans (and other fine grocery store chains.) It is sold in the US under the brand name of Quorn and you can find it in the frozen health foods section. It is totally delicious. You must all try the chicken cutlets and the ground beef substitutes. It is really nice for use veggies to have something with protein without resorting to soy products all of the time. You can see all of their products on their web site.

Well, there might not have been very much news today but there sure is plenty to write about, isn’t there? Min put her name in for a drawing at work hoping to win a used computer. They apparently have a number of them that they are getting rid of and she might win one of them in a drawing. There are old PCs and Macintoshs available. Strange as it may sound, I think that a Mac would be more useful to us since we already have a large collection of PCs around the house (I have four on my desk right now!) I have never owned a semi-modern Macintosh and it would be interested to learn how to use it. It would be really cool if she got one that was new enough to be able to load OSX on it but I am sure that that will never happen. More than likely, I will be trying to make a dual-boot Mac OS 8 / PPC Linux machine out of it. Hopefully it will be a PowerPC machine and not an ancient Motorola 68K machine (can you believe some people still own those?)

I did more work on the new server today. Lots of work (you guys probably don’t believe that this much work can go into preparing a machine, do you?) Today I pulled the current operating system (SuSE Linux 8.0) off of it and installed the newest version (8.1.) This was my first real install of 8.1 so I had a lot of learning to do. Luckily, I have worked extensively with SuSE since 6.4 and know their products really well. Loopy and I started working with SuSE back in the days of IBM in Endicott in the winter of 2000/2001 when SGL was an infant website (lol, now we are considered ancient in the blog world.) Many a book on blogging has been written by a person with tons less experience at it than I have. How terrible is that. Anyway, the install took a long time but I have it completed and I am now redoing all of the work that I did earlier this week (this was intentional, those were all trial installs, these will be the real deal.) The machine inches its way towards deployment in DC. We will all be very excited when it finally goes up. There will be lots of announcements about it here! If anyone would like to try out SuSE 8.1 to see if it would be right for them, I have a Live CD Eval version of it that I would be happy to let anyone borrow. This CD boots just like it is doing the install but instead of installing, it runs right off of the CD. This allows you to see how easy the install would be and see how well it will run on your computer. You can also get a feel for how gorgeous the desktop environment of KDE really is compared to those silly Windows XP systems and how easy and fast it is to install. The Live Eval CD is a great idea. You can even use it as your regular system if you don’t feel like owning a hard drive! (No, I’m not kidding.) The Live CD has a great office suite built right onto it. I dropped the Live CD off with Nate so that he could try it out. I would like to get the opinions of some people who have never used Linux before on how they like this version, how easy it is to use and how it compares to OSes that they have used. We are planning on rolling out SuSE 8.1 in our DC office soon making it the standard for our entire company.

This is a random thought but I had it so here it is. Anyone who is serious about working long hours at a computer needs to have a workstation light that is easy on the eyes. I have two Eclipse workstation lights (commonly known as geek lights) that really making working at the computer a lot easier. You can take a look at them at Think Geek. I have the light in this picture on my main computer and the older style on my server that sits behind me. The entire wall behind my desk is lit by them and it is really awesome. They are so adjustable in useful ways. If you are looking for cheap ways to make your computer tons more enjoyable – 1.) Get yourself a Logitech Optical Mouse for under $20US at Walmart and B.) Get an Eclipse Workstation light. You will love working on your computer again and for only $50US total. (Yes, I am well aware that I said 1 and then B, it is an inside joke that our Llama of the Month had better get!)

I am still doing a lot of reading (and I am sure that I will be doing even more next week as I have four nights in a hotel with no money to spend in a boring little town.) I am hoping to have three or four books finished before the weekend. Min is reading “The Dilbert Principle” now and has joined Dogbert’s New Ruling Class (in case Dogbert succeedes in taking over the world she will not become a slave this way.)

Ok, I am not trying to go for a record for long updates here so I am going to go to bed and call it a night. Today’s update is almost 10KB and that is enough for anyone in one day.