Diary of a Network Geek

Oh, Lord, how am I going to choose, now?

Okay, so there’s been this big issue with Movable Type licensing that made me think it was time to change blog systems. But, today, I get an e-mail from Movable Type that says “For personal, we actually will no longer have weblog limits. This
adjustment, due to the feedback we’ve had from users, will be online early
next week (the free version will be limited though).” *sigh* So, now, just when I’d decided to move to b2Evolution for my blog, I have to reconsider! See, I did a plugin for Movable Type that lets you do some custom date things and it was a lot of work. Of course, it probably won’t work on the new version, but still, I should be close. And, I know this blog system fairly well. I really do like the interface better than anyone else’s that I’ve seen. I had been waiting to pay for version 3.0 because I expected it to have spell check in it, but it doesn’t, yet. And, then, there’s the whole money issue. I mean, I can get a blog system for free that does seem to work just as well. At least, my wife seems to get it to work just as well…
So, now, I’m in a quandry. Stay with Movable Type, which I know, but will have to almost relearn for the new version. Or, just start learning a new system from scratch. Oh, hell, I think I’ll just go see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban! (But, I’m sure I’ll talk about it more, later.)

is back!

Well, at least the Warehouse 23 Basement is back. And, frankly, that’s all that matters. It’s loads of fun, especially if you’re a gamer. Or, and Indiana Jones fan, oddly enough. It’s acutally based on that huge warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Who knows, you might even find the lost Ark of the Covenant!

Anyway, it’s Friday, so go have fun!

Well, it’s official. I’ve given notice, both in e-mail and on paper. My last day at Loomis will be Friday, June 25th. My first day at Oceaneering International will be July First. I’m going to have to wait a week or so before I start growing my beard back, though. Some kind of crazy insurance policy thing that might mess up my current boss if I started growing my beard before I’m almost out. Eh, whatever. I can wait a few more days to be my old self again.
And, finally, a job using all my Netware skills and my shiny, new Linux skills, too!

Yes, there’s more than one down side.

And, no, I don’t mean the lost domestic jobs. While this article on AustralianIT details practices in that country, I’m sure the same thing is happening here: Body-Hire Scams. Basically, IT workers from “less advantaged” countries are brought into a highly industrialized country, like Australia, with the lure of good jobs and a better life. Then, the job either ends early, or never materializes, and the victim is left to find a way to maintain their status. The truly ugly part of the scam is when the predatory company offers to keep the victim in the country, for a price. Nasty, nasty, nasty. So, watch out for shifty IT recruiters, you H1B1 visa folks! Don’t get scammed!

Okay, this is kind of self-referential, but…

According to this article on AustralianIT, the fine people who make the Opera web browser, are making a blog browser. Sort of an interesting idea, I thought, considering how popular blogs are getting these days.
But, when I read the details it turns out that what they’re doing is incorporating Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, into their web browser so that users can have new items from blog RSS feeds that they subscribe to come in as individual messages in Opera’s mail client, which is packaged with the browser. Which is still not a bad idea. Interesting article, anyway.

Notice that I filed this under “Personal”?

Because, yeah, I take it quite personally. Damn bottom-feeder. Anyway, I’ve written up a little article about the whole thing and why it made me so mad. I actually have several copies of the article, as examples of what kind of thing he did to me. You can find them all at:
The “Original” Article
The First Copy
An Example of how he hacked my page
And, another one.

(Those last two are the same filename he used on his site.)

Yes, it really does exist!

And, some of it is pretty good. What, you don’t believe me? Well, there’s a website dedicated to that very subject, Adherents.com. They list pretty much all the big hitters, both in science-fiction and religion. You can search here based on author, religious affiliation, and title. It’s really fascinating to see what some of my favorite authors think about religion and how it fits into their work. Or, doesn’t, as the case may be.

I did find it interesting that two notables were apparently left out. First, there was Single Combat by Dean Ing, which has numerous references to the Mormons/Latter-Day Saints. Second, there was The Man of Gold, Flamesong, and the rest by M.A.R. Barker. These don’t reference any particular existing religion, but religion is a central theme in all his books and his created religions are influenced by the Mayan, Incan, and East Indian religions. In fact, Professor Barker has written at least one article about the role religion plays in fantastic fiction and role-playing games. Fascinating stuff!

In any case, it struck me as an interesting website. Well worth a look. (And, worth mentioning twice, because this also appeared on my other website, Fantasist.net!)

This is going to be a fight!

But, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get my rank back. Well, short of spending money! Okay, so far, I’ve gotten the Googlespammer to remove images and text that relate to my website. He still has the #1 spot, though, and he named the page after my own domain name. That page still exists and will still be getting hits. The only thing I’ve found so far about this is a spam reporting page at Google: Report a Spam Result

So, if you’ve had a similar experience, you can report it. Also, at some point in the very near future, I’ll put up an article about Googlespamming. You know, how it’s done and what you can do to fight it.
In the mean time, watch the skies! (Sorry, obscure science-fiction references just seem to spout out of me when I get Googlespammed!)

“He’s go the whole blog, in his hands!”

My darling wife sent me a link to the World as a Blog, which is as fun a site as I’ve seen. It shows you a map of the world and, as registered blogs update, it pops up those updates in little windows! How cool!
So, if you sit and watch, you can see what bloggers all around the world are posting about. In real time! I haven’t signed up for this, yet, but you can bet I will!

Now, it’s Friday, go have fun!

On Google, at least.

For the longest time, I was the #1 hit on Google, when you searched for “CNE Resume”. But, now, I’m not. If you do a search, you can see that some bottom-feeding scum-sucker has illegally pirated my page to manipulate himself into the top postion. When I looked at the source of the page, I see my entire HTML code that I so carefully crafted to optimize my page for the engines. If you notice, there is now a copyright at the bottom of my resume. So, now it’s explicitly clear that this low-life scum-bag has violated Federal copyright law by illegally reposting my copyrighted material. So, should I send a “cease and desist”? Should I hire a lawyer to do it? (I know a few and could probably get one to draft a letter cheap.) I’ve even thought about being less than morally upright and hitting the nasty, little bugger with some DNS Spoofing. But, of course, that might have legal ramifications, so, I won’t. Still it was nice to contemplate…

Anyway, if you want to help me out, loyal readers (reader?), link to me. Check Google once in awhile and click on my valid link. In the meantime, I’ll be updating my page and working on my keywords!!