Diary of a Network Geek

No, not me!
Prisoners! First there was Prison Blues, the tough-as-nails clothing company with instant street cred. (Which, incidentally, was an idea I had for years before I saw it on the news.) And, now, there’s Big House Choppers, a custom motorcycle company run by the prison in Carson City, Nevada, according to this article on MSNBC.com. Billing themselves as the ultimate “outlaw” bike manufacturer, I’d imagine these folks have a certain built-in fan base. Especially with the kind of folks that would really dig Prison Blues. Somehow, that authentic outlaw feeling must just seep into these babies as the convicts work on them. In fact, these “choppers” will have actual prison bars worked into the body and a certificate proving that fact. You can see an example of their work here. And while I am tattooed, I am not a motorcycle owner or rider, but, I still have to say, this is a fine looking piece of machinery.

Oh, it just never ends!

Back in September of last year, I commented on internal “smart-card” passports. Well, there are still issues with internal documentation.
The first is an interesting case about the right to refuse to give identification. This WiredNews story talks about a man in rural Nevada who refused to give a police officer his identification, based on the fact that he had not committed a crime and was jailed for “impeding an officer”. He was released and all charges were dropped, except for the $250 fine for impeding an officer. The case is going all the way to the Supreme Court. Fascinating.
The second story, also on WiredNews, is about an ordinance being voted on in San Franciso that, basically, protects citizens from the prying eyes of the Patriot Act. I doubt it will pass, much less stand up in court, but it’s interesting that people are trying to do something about what they percieve as an injustice.

The link between these two is the right to privacy. Some folks would argue that we’re not garanteed that right in the Constituition, but the majority of us think we are. I feel that my privacy is protected by the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. What about you? What will you do when the fight comes to your door?

Well, it sure has been a long time since I did any updates on this page! In fact, it’s been literally months!! I can explain…

First off, I’ve been pretty damn busy at work. After my little adventure in the New Orleans airport, I hardly had a chance to sit down. Not only have I had to roll out two sets of patches, or “Service Packs” as they’re called now, on our Novell servers, but I’ve had to set up a Novell BorderManager Proxy server. Man, the troubles I’ve had with that! The initial setup was okay, but getting the VPN (Virtual Private Network) working has really bedeviled me. It’s been so bad that my boss, the CIO, had to raise some ruckus with our sales reps at Novell. He’s finally gotten me a connection with our local Support Engineer, who’s promised to come take a look at our configuration for me. Hopefully, he can find what a CNE (Certified Novell Engineer) with more than eight years experience has missed.
Second of all, I finally got my gorgeous girlfriend/fiancé to marry me. On Saturday, March 10th, 2001, Anne and I got married in the Canterbury Wedding Chapel at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Allie, Anne’s daughter, was our ring-bearer/flower-girl. The service was nice, short and attended by the photographer. We thought it was the perfect way to get married. No one hassling us or telling us what to do and how to do it. No meddling mothers or aunts or sisters to make us miserable. No seating charts or receptions to worry about planning. Just a cool, quick wedding and a great steak dinner afterward. After that, we spent most of the week running around Las Vegas doing tourist stuff. We went to see Sigfried & Roy, Tournament of Kings and The Blue Man Group. We also went to see Star Trek:The Experience, where I bought “genuine” Romulan Ale and Klingon Blood Wine. But, of course, work intervened and I had to come back a day early to “fix” something that had gone wrong. What would they do if I ever quit?
Finally, now that we’ve done all that, we’ve been looking for houses. It looks like we found a nice four-bedroom, two-bath, two-story house on a lot that’s almost double-deep! And, even with all the flooding that we’ve had here in Houston, it stayed dry. What could be better?!? Two koi-ponds, that’s what. That’s right, the property already has two koi ponds on it, complete with koi. There’s a fireplace with a Ben Franklin stove in it and a partially finished garage. There’s a covered car port that’s connected to the house by a covered walkway. It’s really great and I hope the sale goes through okay. We’re scheduled to close this Friday, 6/29/2001!
And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my kidney stone. That’s right, as if all the work I’ve been doing isn’t enough, I was doubled over in pain by a kidney stone last week Monday, 6/22/2001. It got so bad, that I had Anne take me to the emergency room. We ran into Charles, our paramedic friend, there who told the nurses to take good care of me, which they did. I got moved through as fast as I’ve ever been. And a nice, young doctor gave me some great pain medication. I still haven’t passed the damn thing, but I’m off to see the friendly urologist tomorrow. I plan on demanding that he “do something” about it because I’m tired of peeing through a strainer!
Until next time….