Tag Archives: Gadgets and Nerdery

Never been so thankful for Pinball Pete’s

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The car has glass in it, and is able to be driven. Which puts me back to the repair that I was -about- to have done before a tree fell on it. Heh.

Ever see a seven year old video game lover walk into an arcade for the first time? I have, and it was just about the coolest thing ever. I even have one of those cheesy four-picture Polaroids to commemorate it. It’s hanging in my cube, labeled “My first Father’s Day, Hunter & Dave, June 2008.” Also, he told the waitress at Emil’s that I was his “part-Dad”, and I don’t think that I could have smiled any bigger. If you’re scratching your head, wondering how a guy without kids celebrated Father’s Day, read this post.

I have fifteen virtual servers running SETI@home on an OpenVZ test box. I’ve been working on this project in my spare time here at work for a long time, and it feels like I’ve earned a whole slew of geek points.

*sigh*

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Attention Canonical:

Please do not use a piece of beta software as the primary/default browser for your next release of Ubuntu. Firefox 3 Beta 5 is sucking so loud I cannot hear my industrial beats.

In short, don’t do this:

SUCK > 00NTZ

Thank you, please drive through.

The Tubes

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I used to work for Comcast, doing support for their cable modem network in the metro Detroit area. I know how their network works, and exactly how underhanded they can be.

After reading this article by Cory Doctorow and this one by Charlie Stross, it’s giving me a flashback. The comments on Mr. Stross’s post note that even BT (British Telecom) is knees deep in screw-the-customer-because-we-can land.

My options, here in Lansing:

Free wireless provided by my apartment complex
Unreliable. Too small a pipe for two apartment buildings. They seem to be blocking content somehow, as Pidgin will drop certain IM networks (like gtalk over jabber), but it’ll work fine from within gmail. Currently, the only option I’m willing to use. The upstream provider? TDS Metrocom.

Comcast
Did I mention that I worked for these corrupt wanks? I want to be able to distribute legal files over P2P software, so this group is out. Not to mention the difficulties with getting Windows-based VPNs to work over their network.

Also, I’m not paying for a tech to come out and fix Comcast’s broken shit ON TOP of their ludicrous monthly rates, and taxes directly passed on to the customer as fees. All I want is a pipe to the internet, at a reasonable cost. Unless I buy their TV and phone services, I can’t get it through them. No matter what, I pay close to or over $100 a month.

Um, no.

DSL Options
As far as I know, AT&T owns all of the local lines. Any other DSL provider has to use AT&T’s equipment at least up until the CO-to-customer hop. This makes me extremely nervous. AT&T was the primary cooperator in our government’s illegal phone-and-internet tapping program. While I’m generally open and free with my information, I do not like to reward idiocy with my money.

AT&T: Your world delivered… to the NSA.

As far as I know, that’s all the options I’ve got. I don’t have the ability for satellite, as my apartment complex has strict rules about putting dishes on the roof, and I don’t have a balcony. I have no idea how far Ethernet over Power has come, though I’m pretty educated about Power over Ethernet. Heh. Arialink has said that I’m out of range of any of their wireless solutions.

Peter’s mesh network idea just keeps coming back to me as a good one. Intrinsically anarchic, but good. Lansing-wide ad-hoc network, anyone? Maybe Google will put up a network here, since San Francisco won’t let them out there.

Vastness of space.

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Barack Obama speaks on the need for supporting the troops, especially after they return home, and of the war’s cost to our economy: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6ztgD1d4fL8

UNICEF tries to tackle water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OmN4B7yyS8

After a wonderful little thing called Envy, Ubuntu 7.10 now works -with- my laptop’s video card instead of against it.

I wonder if anybody else looks at popcorn kernels and sees spaceship designs.

I wonder if anybody else sees a person that’s significantly older than them, and wonders if that’s a Future You come back in time.

I remember that Tai Chi, when I was introduced to it in Japanese class in high school, made me feel good.

I wonder what happened to landing people on Mars.

Life doesn’t divide neatly into compartments.

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Obama outlines his goals in regard to foreign policy:
Barack Obama: On Iraq and National Security

Given that a primary complaint has been that he doesn’t lay down specifics, I’d have to say that he lays down more here than he ever has before. He’s creating serious momentum after his speech on race yesterday.

, your old Dell now has 1 GB of RAM. Which, according to Dell, is its max. It will have mighty Ubuntu muscle, as Dell lied to me about shipping me the restore CD. Or they’re just incompetent. Whichever. Also, it’s going to be interesting getting that wireless card working. Fun, but interesting. :)

My car insurance is going -up- when it renews. No accidents, no tickets. Time to shop around.

It’s pretty warm in this office. I think I’m going to go outside and have a breather.

My old boss from MSU SNS passed this along to me. Check it out if you’re interested.

Wes Mininger worked for me when I managed SNS and the Computing Service Centers. Please share the message below with any IT person that you know may be interested in a job in Abu Dhabi.
Read on – his contact info is below.

Thanks /Linda

Subject: Job opportunity for IT staff – Please pass this on!
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:04:15 -0400

Hi Linda, I hope you are doing well. I am currently working in Abu Dhabi (the richest city in the world!) at a new english newspaper that is starting up. The city is flush with money, and the United Arab Emirates in general is seeking to become a world class destination. By this point, most people have heard all about Dubai and the Palm Islands they are constructing as well as many other things of great beauty, expense and grandeur. Abu Dhabi is about an hour away from Dubai, but has even more money available, and it looks like a grand rivalry has begun with each city trying to out engineer and beautify the other. This is a great time to be living here, and both I and my wife (I just got married a few months ago!) love it here. The pay is great and the cost of living is very low, giving anyone who comes here the chance to live a really great life and save a lot of money at the same time. Because Abu Dhabi is seeking to become a major player in the worlds of finance, tourism and the like, they know they have to provide the sort of lifestyle that appeals to visitors from many countries, and one of these requirements is a world class english newspaper. They have hired many different people from around the world to come here and start one up. My wife was one of the first people to be chosen for this project because of her background in design, and she is responsible for the layout, design and art direction for the weekly entertainment/arts and life section. After she got the job I found that they needed people who are good IT staff to support the new paper. The IT staff for the Arabic paper that is also produced here, Al Ittihad, are very good at their jobs and good English speakers, but it is helpful that I am a native English speaker in working with all the expats.
I am writing you because I suspect that you can point this towards someone who might be qualified to be an additional IT support engineer. I am currently the first of two who will be supporting the newsroom staff. The requirements are such that the job is not very difficult, and I could support the newsroom by myself excepting the hours of work here are 10am to about 10pm, six days a week. We need to find one more person so that we can work a split shift where one of us covers the morning from 10am and the other covers until the paper closes all the pages around 10pm. The pay is very good compared to the same type of job in the US, I am now making about 5000USD a month with a yearly bonus equivalent to one month salary, a once a year round trip ticket back to the US, and a once a year ‘furnishing allowance’ to buy stuff for our apartment, along with a generous 30days vacation each year. This is a lot better than most people will get in the US, and ends up being a pretty good incentive to move here considering how easy it is to ‘live the good life’ for cheap and put extra savings in the bank. The Dirham, the UAE’s currency is pegged to the US dollar, so there is no chance of fluctuations in the value of the salary here, and if they do depeg the currency, it is widely known that the Dirham is currently considered to be undervalued by estimates of 10-20%, and would increase our earnings by that additional amount relative to the USD if the depegging happens soon as is widely expected. This has given me a great chance to pay down my student loans quickly and still save money.
If you know anyone who would be interested in this opportunity, which is open right away, the sooner they could start the better, please pass on my contact info!
Anyone who has experience doing IT work is good at being helpful, friendly, a good problem solver and can handle support for about 170 people along with me would be great for this job.
My contact info is: wes.mininger@admedia.ae They are going to change the emails to reflect the name of the paper when the print launch happens in about 2-3 months, but currently the name is top secret and all emails are for the company Abu Dhabi Media Company. I would be happy to answer any questions from anyone interested in the job, no Arabic is required to get around or live in the city, although it might be helpful to learn (which I will start as soon as things calm down here)
The contacts to whom any applicants would need to send a CV (or resume would do if accompanied by as much detail about past work are the 2 following addresses:
laura.koot@admedia.ae
magdi.hanna@admedia.ae
This email ended up being a lot longer than I expected and I am being called away to assist some people with a problem, but I hope you are doing well at MSU still, it will be nice to come back and visit the campus this summer as one of our friends is getting married at the Wharton center! The summers there will be beautiful in comparison with the high heat here at least!
-Wes

*STAB*

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Dear Windows XP, Professional Edition:

I know that the update that I installed requires me to restart the computer. I did the installing, so this information was communicated to me.

When I clicked on “Restart Later”, I meant that I didn’t want to restart the computer right now. It would be really helpful if you stopped with the popup reminders. Because, really, after clicking “Restart Later” 30 times, you’d think that you’d GET THE )@#$(*_$@)#(* HINT!!

*ahem*

So, in closing:

Stop it.

Sincerely,

Dave Crampton, Esq., DIAF