Diary of a Network Geek

Sitting in front of your computer can kill you!

Well, sitting in front of your computer for extended periods of time can possibly cause blood clots, which can possibly kill you. Of course, the truth is never quite as interesting as a sensationalist title, eh?
Here’s the story at The Australian.

Jig-a-Jig-Jig!

Well, if you’re reading this, that means RyuMaou.com has been successfully moved to a new web host! If you’re not reading this, it doesn’t really matter, now, does it?
And, if you got the reference, you’re a Blade Runner fan.

Hey, we’re moving!

Yep, that’s right, we’re moving to a new hosting company. These people we’re with now keep getting worse and worse and provide less and less service, so we’re off to join our Comrades in Arms, Fantasist.net and HavePalmWillTravel at their new hosting company.
There might be a slight interruption of service this week as a result, but we’ll be back up soon. Thanks for your patience!

Another grey winter day in Houston.

Not much going on here in Houston today. It’s just another grey, Winter day, like so many before and so many to follow. We’re in the icy heart of Winter and my soul is cold today.
Instead of working out this morning, I fell asleep on the floor for one-half-hour. That really irritated me. I like the activity of my little morning work outs. Sure, sometimes it’s hard to do, but the rewards are clear when I look in the mirror. Maybe that’s why I feel a little extra depressed today. Like nothing is quite turning out the way I’d like. Of course, I tell myself that the way I’d like things to turn out aren’t always the best way, but still, most of us like getting our own way, right?
The other thing is, I saw that Novell had a job opening in Houston, still. I applied there back in late October, or early November, but never heard back from them. I’m fairly sure that they were looking for a NetWare 6 CNE, but I’m just a NetWare 5 CNE still. The catch-22 is, I can’t get the book to update to NetWare 6 for several months and by then I hope to be deep into working on my MCSE. Well, I sent them my resume again, just in case. I honestly don’t think they’ll look at it any more seriously, but I can’t pass up the potential chance to work for Novell. It’s really frustrating to feel like my career is in limbo while I try to pay bills, get back on my feet, and retrain. I hate that feeling. But, that’s where I’m at right now. That is my reality. So, there’s nothing else to do but keep on going.
If I could set up some kind of side business for extra income, I don’t think I’d mind quite so much. I’d write, but that takes so much time and pays so little that it almost doesn’t seem worth it. But, I don’t really have too many other bankable skills these days. Oh, maybe I could do up some fonts for sale, but they’ll be pirated before I can blink. The same thing goes for my maps and just about anything else I can think of to sell online. Maybe people are more honest than I think, but I doubt it. I don’t know, maybe something else will occur to me.
In the meantime, I’m going to try not to give into the depression.

What can be learned from the 50’s?

Well, plenty, I’m sure, but mainly it’s just fun to point and laugh! I was sitting on the floor watching television with my wife the other night and noticed a book she bought a long, long time ago called
Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970. It’s a real hoot! It’s a guide to all the “mental hygiene” and “health” films from the mid-1940s through 1970. There are some real winners in here!
My favorite is either “Duck And Cover”, which is about surviving a nuclear blast, or “The making Of A Shooter”, which is all about gun safety, not psycho-killer snipers. These are really fun films and provide a hillarious look at what kinds of things infulenced our parents growing up. For instance, I noticed that the “Red Threat” seems to loom large in their awareness. So, too, did teaching kids about sex and interpersonal realtions. In particular, making sure everyone was all properly socialized. I wonder why we don’t seem so worried about that today?
In any case, if you want to find out more about how the communists are behind the pornography industry, or what to do in case of acne, or any of a number of terribly usefull things, you can check out the Prelinger Archives at the Library of Congress. (Just click the link.)

All dry!

So far, so good. In spite of having some problems with a very minor leak Monday, it seems to have stopped. My dad, who has “retired” to working in a hardware store, said that it’s not unusual for it to take several weeks for plumbing joints to finally tighten up. Apparently, that’s what was going on because my wife has run the dishwasher twice and still no drip. I’ll leave the bucket under there a little while longer, just in case, but it looks like I’m going to be okay.
Next, I’ll need to take a look at some wiring around the house, but not for a couple of weeks. I worked hard on my plumbing projects this month and I deserve a break! So, I’ll do some fun stuff for a month or two and rest up.

Onward and upward!

Fluid Networking!

Well, I was under the sink again this weekend. The kitchen sink this time, though, not the bathroom again. I replaced our old, leaking garbage disposal with a new, heavy-duty one horse-power InSinkErator Model 777S. And it rocks!
I got it Saturday from our local Home Depot, along with my new friend, Mr. Plumber’s Putty. I opened the package up and read through the directions, just so I knew how it was all going to go together.
Sunday morning, I got up early, for a Sunday, and found the circuit to cut off the disposal, after a little trial and error. Then, I was off to work. I started by disconnecting everything I could manage from the old disposal, except power. After banging on the old locking ring with a hammer for 20 minutes, I got the old disposal loose. Then, I set about trying to get the electrical connection off. In the end, it was so corroded that I just ripped off the metal plate that covered the connection. The rest was a matter of trimming and stripping wires. No problem.
Next, I pop the old mounting ring out of the sink and clean the hole up. At this point I discover the reason it was leaking was that there wasn’t any plumber’s putty left around the opening. No putty = No Seal! So, I smear a bunch of plumber’s putty around the hole and press the top part of the mounting ring into place. Now, I need some help holding that down while I get the bottom half of the mounting ring together. Luckily, my lovely assistant (aka My Wife) is there to help out.
So, now I muscle the new disposal into place and hook up the electric. Whoops! My first trip back to Home Depot for parts: wire nuts. Got to make sure there’s a good connection that’s nice and dry. Electro-convulsive therapy should never be an after dinner surprise!
Now to get the new disposal mounted on the bottom of the sink. It’s so heavy that I can just barely hold it up to the ring with both hands. Again, my lovely assistant is there to slide the mounting ring into a semi-locked position. I get it the rest of the way in.
Time to hook up the plumbing. The connection from the dishwasher is actually very easy. It’s just two wire hose-clamps. A couple turns of a screwdriver and that’s done. Next, the drain to the sewer. It seemed straight forward enough, but working in such tight quarters made it hard to get things tightened down. I thought I had it, reconnected power and ground some ice. No problems, so I figure I’m done. It was about 12:30pm. Not bad.
But, wait! A couple hours later, I go back and grind some actual food. Whoops! There’s a leak! And, not just a little “drip, drip” leak, but a steady stream. So, I’m back under the sink, cursing to make a sailor blush trying to tighten the locking nut. “POP” Out comes the 90 degree connection to the trap! Damn! So, I try and get that tight again, but to no avail. *sigh* More plumbing on Monday (today).
So, I was up around 9:00am again today. First, I tried to tighten down the 90 degree connection, but the PVC had actually been eaten away, so I couldn’t get a decent connection. I spent about 15 minutes on that before deciding to just replace the whole trap and connection to the inside sewer connection. Back to Home Depot. A few minutes later, I’m back home measuring and trimming my new PVC connection. A little plumber’s putty at every connection and a quick poke with my new sink auger and I connect everything back up.
Finally! Every-thing’s together and I’m grinding and running water for more than 30 minutes without a leak. So, while I’m filthy and feeling good about getting the work done, I clean out the nasty, ancient remains from our refrigerator. It’s looking great, but I check on leaks anyway. Uh-oh. Drip, drip, drip. So, it’s only a little and I figure I can tighten it down some more. I start running water and grinding some more. Finally, finally, it looks okay.
Later, when I was talking to my Dad about my plumbing adventures, he said that it might take weeks for it to finally tighten down under there. So, a cheap bucket is under there now. I’ll just have to keep my eye on it and make sure that nothing gets worse. If it does, I’ll just get some silicon sealant and “fix it real good”.

But, all that aside, I have to say that I a) love the feeling of accomplishment that I got from doing it myself and b) love the sound that super-quiet 1 horsepower disposal makes when it sucks down garbage. Cool.

This is a little creepy.

Okay, so everyone remembers what happened on September 11, 2001, right? That whole crazy terrorists fly planes into the Twin Trade Towers to make some insane point only they truly understood thing, right? Well, I was just looking through the archives I imported yesterday and noticed a strange little entry at the bottom of the September 2000 Archive. It seems that I was watching Black Helicopters circle my building exactly a year before the Trade Tower tragedy. Man, that’s just a little to freaky for me. It honestly made me shiver when I saw that.
Is there any real connection? Of course not. I guess the latent conspiracy theorist in me wants there to be a connection, but I have to admit that it’s just an odd coincidence. Still, it is a little creepy.

Isn’t that an oxymoron?

Anyway, you might have noticed that I have some “new” archives in my blog. What I did, at the suggestion of my darling wife, was to import all my old, pre-blog entries for the Diary of a Network Geek into the new system. It took a little prep work, but it was worth it! Now, I have a single, integrated blog, without any of the old-fashioned, html-only archives. I’ve also done away with the goofy old html links on the side, which are just about balanced out by the new archive links. In any case, it’s done and they’re all in one, easy to manage place now.
So, just for reference, all the archives before September of 2002 are the old, pre-blog archives that I’ve imported. September of 2002 starts the “new era” of the Diary of a Network Geek.

Cool.

Notice anything different?

Well, you should! My darling wife has totally redone the look and feel of our website. I think it’s much, much nicer now. And, it all matches. Except for this little slice of the site, but even that’s pretty close!
Anyway, I let go and let her control the look and color scheme and everything. I just make small suggestions and retain veto power over anything that just completely offends my sensibilities. And, let’s face it, most Novell NetWare Net Geeks really don’t have many sensibilities left!

In any case, the new colors and professional web designer input are a sign of the times and my new, kinder, gentler self. Oh, BTW, I’ve got a nice bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you….