Orchard and Panes

EDIT: All Things Digital killed the link in this post. I will try and find another link to replace it and certainly won't use the Wall Street Journal as a source anymore.

Found a an interesting video with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates being interviewed at the same time on All Things Digital. If you click on this LINK you can see a short highlight of the interview. It's entertaining. If you are an uber geek then the whole interview is available in 7 parts just below the highlight window. They have both mellowed thru the years and Jobs didn't put a booger on anyone for a change. The MAN is still Gates.

"I regularly read Internet user groups filled with messages from people trying to solve software incompatibility problems that, in terms of complexity, make the U.S. Tax Code look like Dr. Seuss."
~Dave Barry

Browsing, Beach House Style

Best internet browser? Hmmmmm? Five are used at the beach house.

Internet Explorer 6 has been upgraded to Internet Explorer 7. You must run Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Vista to download and use it. It will also run on Windows Server 2003 and folks don't try to uninstall Internet Explorer if you opt for another browser. Can we say chaos? There's a bunch of hoorah on Windows site about version 7 and they seem proud of it. At best, it's okay. Go to the IE7 site to download.

Just downloaded Opera 9.2.1. This is a browser that's been around for a while. For years you had to buy the full edition which is one of the reasons it is not well known. Several years ago they decided to go "free" and some people swearr by it. It is a very clean, easy to use, lightwweight browser. It's fast, very fast. Try it you might like it.

SeaMonkey does exist. I didn't make it up. It comes to us from the folks at mozilla,org, the home of the Firefox browser (more on that below). It will run on Linux, Mac, Windows and OS2. OS2? If you don't know don't worry. This is an all-in-one browser, email, chat, news feed, HTML editor that has the look of the last Mozilla thangy before Firefox. How can you not like something called SeaMonkey?

Favorite browser used at the beach house for Windows machines? That winner is Firefox. Yes, you do have to download 2 or 3 plugins after installation, but when they are needed you just click on the download button (it looks like a piece of jigsaw puzzle) and they install in seconds hassle free. You only download these once. Then it's off to the safest, coolest browser out there. The addons for Firefox are many and some are tremendous. Good product.

Yes, there is a number 5. KDE's Konqueror is my favorite for Linux. It is clean, constantly improving and there's just something about the way text, photos, graphics, etc., look inside Konqueror. It's just better. Before you ask, yes, it will run on Windows XP. It's not your "average" installation. The beach house is working on it and will report the findings later.

Check out Gizmo Richard's opinion on web browsers at Tech Support Alert. This dude is a great source of info when it comes to freeware. Meanwhile, browse away. Browse back here often and please browse amongst your friends and give them this address: http://cybersouth.blogspot.com. Hope this helps!

"First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII - and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we've realized it's a brochure."
~Douglas Adams

Tribute

Memorial Day is special. Upon returning from the last tour of Vietnam my life was a wreck. Lost, I wandered the world seeking an explanation of why the nightmares wouldn't go away. It was rough. Real rough. God helped me get to the beach house eventually and a lot of my journey is over. Finally it's possible to relax. The nightmares don't visit as often now. Wish I would have sought help when leaving the service which was many years ago in the month of May. My broken heart might have mended at a faster rate and my soul could have been more at peace.

Life is such a blessing now. My two wonderful daughters and their families are supreme joys. My friends are super. The Lord has been good to me, even during the hard times. Today has been quiet and leisure is the word of the day. Working on several PCs that need to be back with their owners tomorrow and 'dialing' into my networks for maintenance is a wonderful way to take it easy. Enjoying a great cup of coffee here plus giving thanks for those that have died and those that have lived to keep freedom ringing. Prayers for all the families are necessary.

Here's is a link to a 15 year old's take on today, tomorrow, and the future. This has received 7,000,000 hits as of this morning. Sit down, turn up the volume, lose distractions for a few minutes and be awed by a fellow human heart:

Tribute

Thanks my friend Ed for a wonderful link. And thanks Lizzie, you are a beacon of hope.

"On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!"
~Parsons

In a Galaxy Not So Far Away

Okay, okay, I am a Star Wars nut. There's a 30 year celebration happening. Lucas and company are all over the TV and there are some hilarious You Tube clips available. Try these:

Star Wars LOLOL

Vader vs Japanese Police

The Japanese thing cracks me up. More short films are available. Just click on one of the links located to the right of the You Tube screen. Some people are very creative. Then some have too much wasted time.

Feeling creative? Try making your own Star Wars parody at the Official Stars Wars Site. Check out the Robot Chicken clip while you're there.

My family is visiting today so I must check and make sure Revenge of the Sith is in the DVD player. Later.

"There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part."
~Bram Stoker

Craftsman ElectraGlide in Red

My push mower is a Craftsman with a 22" cut and in very good shape. This morning I must go to the gas pump and pay over $11.00 to fill a very small gasoline can in order to fuel part of my chores today. Can we say absurd? Then it's back to doing a few rounds of mowing at a time alternating with housework. This pattern is due to back strain.

As I whined about this on the phone with Mother yesterday she commented, "It's amazing you can ride a motorcycle over 2000 miles to Daytona, Florida and back in 6 days without back problems, but every time you go to mow the yard it's a major ordeal." Having known Mother all my life I shut up about it and changed the subject to something that included no complaints. In the back of my mind that little voice was shouting, "You like that Harley a helluva' lots better than that Craftsman." Besides, I can't ride the Craftsman.

Must go do my vacuuming, dusting, dishwashing, mopping, tile scrubbing and lawncare. Mother will be visiting tomorrow, along with my brother's family. Kristi and Jay will be here with new baby Mallory. Have a casual Saturday.

"A family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold."
~Ogden Nash

Hold 'er in the Road, Knute!

If you are traveling today, please be careful. The life you save may be my own. Wear seatbelts. Pay attention to the other drivers. Yes, watch them carefully. Above all, please don't drive drunk. Hey, it's Memorial Day Weekend and there's nothing wrong with refreshing beverages. If there's a chance you might overdo it, make prior arrangements. Appoint a designated driver, call a cab, or sleepover.

Hang in there and enjoy the weekend.

"The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it."
~Dudley Moore

Touch That Loose Wire to Your Tongue 'n See If You Feel Anything

The new power supply is now installed in the beach house server and has worked overnight without any problems. The last one was shorted to ground by a loose wire on a case fan that was out of sight behind a cable bundle. That smell of carbon burning was in the air and the "new" 300 watt Antec supply is now history. The loose cable was the ground wire on the 5 volt side and it had slipped out of the molex connector and was grounding against the case intermittently. Can we say confused amperage?

Wow, just couldn't see it. It's a Coolmaster fan, which have been dependable down through the years, but the money will be spent to replace all fans with Antec devices. Hopefully this mysterious problem has been resolved and all the weirdness will stop. The new Inspire 500 watt supply is built for servers and even with SCSI drives it is much quieter than the old ones. That 300 watt power supply wasn't enough for all the SCSI devices in this machine.

Thanks to everyone for understanding the cancellation of the LAN party. The nice messages through comments, email and phone calls helped shore me up from several weeks of negativity which is a record around here. Everyone has bads days occasionally. Well, some folks have bad days every day because their head is up in that place where the moon doesn't shine. I pity them. My recent lack of energy is at the top of the list for discussion when returning to the doctor in a few days. Forgive my whimpiness in yesterday's post. Repetition will try to be avoided with the gusto of a hound dawg.

Maybe tomorrow discussion here will be back to tech help and fun stuff! We're less than 2 days away from long weekend so hang in there.

"When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity."
~John F. Kennedy

No More LAN Parties

Yes, it's called off. I cannot get everything done in time, too many problems have arisen this week, and it is not a good time financially. This is also the LAST time I am canceling because there probably will be no more at the beach house. Sorry about the short notice, but the stress is wearing me out. Maybe I can spend a quiet weekend completing some projects like repairing the riding lawn mower then using it, cleaning out the 5 year old mess in the garage, painting the garage, pressure washing the house, finding a decent vehicle to drive, etc. This is truly heartbreaking and hope everyone understands. Just at my wit's end and am saddened because I won't be able to enjoy the fellowship of my great friends. Please forgive me.

I Sing the Car Electric

Gas prices are ridiculous. When that 30 bucks didn't even net half-a-tank it was depressing. New York city has declared that all taxis will have to eventually become hybrid cars. If only one of the big auto makers would come up with a decent electric car this price gouging would stop forever. Pollution would drop tremendously, noise would decrease noticeably, many new industries would rise out of such a changeover creating new jobs and a new workable technology could advance our civilization. But, it won't happen and we know it. Sad that our great nation has fallen victim to these thieves in the oil business that reside (well, most of 'em) in the spawning ground of terrorists fools.

This just about says it all:

Please remember it is not the local dealer's fault that prices are so high. They can only pass on current market prices. When we start buying gas by the quart may be our legislators will take appropriate action. It's for damned sure they have the time since it appears they are doing NOTHING. Good Lord, this country needs new direction and responsible leadership that embraces the "by the people, for the people" attitude. This is not a statement about political affiliation. I am still a Republican and will NEVER be a democrat. My democratic friends are given an ear though; as long as they don't mention the Hillarybeast.

The second muscle relaxer is making my eyelids droopy. Backaches suck. Please bear with me, hopefully the car will be mobile tomorrow. When it rains, it pours...

"Adversity introduces a man to himself."
~D.N. Jennings

Windows Nazis, Flame On!

Windows Vista ate Sunday. Ever since the initial installation Windows Media Player 11 has been weird. Now it is just a light show and efforts to make it stable are over. If you are using Nvidia products be very careful about upgrading drivers. After several hours of manipulating, the older drivers are now re-installed and the machine is once again usable. Initially there was a nightmare with the audio drivers, but that was child's play compared to yesterday's adventure.

The SLI configuration has never been right. Who knows? May be a user issue and not Windows. The CPU stays at 100% usage if Guild Wars is running. Machine functions okay, but why this high percentage? Memory usage was reduced from 35% to 26% (when idle) by turning off unecessary services running in the background. Please realize that this operating system is using half a gig of RAM for something when it sits supposedly doing nothing The network card drivers have to be completely re-installed at least once a week. Do I format the hard drives and do a fresh installation or purchase another copy of XP and put Vista on the shelf for a while?

Time is too valuable to have a part time job with Microsoft alpha testing their new OS especially since the pay is zilch. They need to lay off the opensource people about patent violations and "fix" their latest product now being forced on the public. My opensource PCs, Linux and FreeBSD, have no problems. Might be a good idea if Microsoft asked for their help instead of making efforts to sue them. This is all very frustrating.

Save your money for now and stick with Windows 2000 or XP unless purchasing a new computer. Be sure and don't purchase Vista Home Basic. It really has issues. Folks this is real life. Most of us don't have the time to patch and shore up our PCs every day. It is probably a good plan to put Vista aside instead of running hot and cold all the time. I really want to like this product. Wish the report could be better, but so it goes...

"There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time."
~Napoleon I, Maxims, 1815

Green Guy, Pirate Dudes and the Silver One

Shrek III is making box office news and is expected to set records. The reviews are good. You can read an article about Johnny Depp and Keith Richards "Pirate3" adventures over at RollingStone. You might be able to watch a trailer of the Fantastic Four/Silver Surfer movie here after an annoying ad. A plugin may be needed for Windows Media Player if you use Firefox. This was unstable, but I think that was due to a Windows Vista issue. Try it and let me know.

Now it's time to research why the media player in Vista is flickering like a 60s strobe light. Have a swell Sunday.

"Why should people go out and pay money to see bad films when they can stay home and see bad television for nothing?"
~Samuel Goldwyn

All of a Sudden Anonymous Has Decided to Target the Beach House

To the person that sent me the snail mail chain letter from Memphis, TN. Please cease this activity immediately. I rarely forward anything. DON'T send anything my way again. That handwriting is vaguely familiar. Oh yes, nothing especially good or financially rewarding has happened in the past four days. I'll think about and pray for you on the way to the Coinstar to cash in my pennies and dimes so the electrical bill can be paid Monday.

Your form of "good luck" is not needed at the beach house. Please take that extra time and find something constructive to do. St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis always needs volunteers. Just be careful traveling there and don't let that mass of gangstas and criminal wannabes shoot you. They like to hang out all over Memphis. What a dirty, sad, pathetic town. Willie Herrington, the horse's ass Mayor, should be tried and executed for destroying a once safe, pretty city. If I do receive anymore such mail it will be reported and a complaint filed. The Post Office frowns on such activities. Meanwhile, God help you as you try to live in that horrible city.

To those that forward email to me: please don't stop! This is in no shape, form or fashion directed towards you. Love all the stuff I get and sometimes use it in posts. This is for only that anonymouse snail mail person. Wow, a dis and a chain letter in the same week.

"Life be not so short but that there is always time for courtesy."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday Filler, Not One of My Finest Moments

Tried to write a c/w song over a year ago and no one picked it up. A person that wants to remain un-named wanted the words again. K, this is horrible but here goes:

She Won’t Yahoo Anymore
By Dock


She won't Yahoo anymore
I lie writhing on the floor
My crushed heart lays at her feet
Life is not so sweet

She won’t Yahoo anymore
Now sailing from my shore
Won’t even make a call
I just sit and bawl

Oh Lord, what’d I ever do
To get instant messaging blues
She’s ignoring me
This much I can see

She won’t Yahoo anymore
Her smileys I adore
Just sit around and cry
May eat a worm and die

‘cause
She won’t Yahoo anymore

Okay Robi...uh miss nameless, I have embarrassed my self again, but your request is fulfilled.

"Music is in the ear of the beholder."
~Mike Murphy

Go Google! And a Word or Two About the Thought Police

While doofus Steve Ballmer is busy at Microsoft doing his utmost to make our lives miserable, the boys and girls at Google are improving their contributions to computerese with more innovations concerning their search engine. You can read about it at InformationWeek. "Google's Web search now returns relevant videos, images, news, maps, and books, alongside Web site links," says Thomas Claburn in a well written article. Check it out and read about some of the good guys.

An email was received from someone dissatisfied with one of my comments in yesterday's rant. My calling Erica Hill a smoking babe did not seem appropriate to Anonymous. Well, my take on this is that if she's a hottie what's wrong with that? I've been a fan of Erica since her days as tech news reporter at TechTV. She's a self professed parrothead and I just don't think she'd take offense. Besides, I am not here to be politically correct. If the the liberal creeps had their way our use of adjectives and adverbs would cease. You can read about this in Orwell's 1984. So the post won't be edited. Best I remember we have freedom of speech in the US of A.

Hang in there the weekend is almost here.

“Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred”
~Jacques Barzun

Rosie, Why Don't You Move to Patagonia?

American Idol is not part of the beach viewing schedule. Never has been and most likely won't be seen unless a gun is pointed at my head. If that Simon creep ever shows up he'll be slapped right off the veranda. Okay my violent tendencies must be curbed. But hey, the door won't be answered. Now if you watch this show that's great and more power to you. I don't like that survivor thing either and NEVER will I watch ANYTHING with Rosie O'Donnell in it. I don't care if Celtic Woman, Jimmy Buffett and the ghost of Ronald Reagan are on the View it's not permitted to air at the beach house. Don't even look like you're gonna' ask.

I will never buy GEICO insurance. If that cheesy lizard comes on the tube the channel is changed immediately. Eveready batteries are never used. If that stupid bunny with the drum shows up on the veranda I will shotgun him to rabbit hell. If I never see another cave man commercial it'll be too soon. Prep H grosses me out and those womenses napkins n devices are just as bad. There are some sick folks in the advertising agencies. Don't drink Bud here because of the commercial they made centering around a horse farting. GROSS! If I ever see a bear in the wild it's almost a sure bet toilet paper won't be hanging from a nearby tree.

Used to never miss 2&1/2 Men on Monday night. Then Sheen popped off about the President while spoutiong liberal garbage and I don't watch it anymore. George Clooney and that Baldwyn dude, the one with the greasy hair who is terrorizing his daughter and Kim what's her name, are Hollywood halfwits. How many Baldwyns are there!??! Brad Pitt said it best when Oprah asked him to comment on politics. He replied, "Why are you asking me? I am just an actor and should keep such matters private."

Yes, I do watch Oprah about once a month. My intent there is to find out what she has told women to do with our missing socks. Al Bundy brought this to my attention. Anyone needing just one sock of a pair let me know. This dilemma has moved into appliance manufacturing as well. It seems most women blame the washer or dryer for the missing sock problem. I don't believe it for a minute! Hah, it's the modern underground railroad for socks of mystery. Oprah must own stock in GE and Maytag. Being a happily divorced bachelor of 15 years it amazes me that this conspiracy continues. Are women sneaking in and taking the socks and laughing? Oh, the insanity of it all!

When I do view news it's ONLY Fox. CNN/HN Sucks, but Erica Hill is one smoking babe for sure. The liberal leftwingers need medication. If that bitch from hell Hillary Clinton gets elected I will go live in the woods and wait for the Apocalypse. She will tap Bill as VP. Yep it's legal. My lawyer told me so. This scared me and I think there was fear in the lawyer's eyes. Please democrats, unite and elect Edwards, he seems like a nice man with some sense. I said some. The democrats stand a good chance to win the next election so use good judgment and put your most sane candidate at the front. The Republicans have a motley crew. Rudy could win no doubt but the idiot is pro gun control. There's the southern voting block gone. He'll need us to win.

These are my stories and Ima stickin' to em. Later.

"Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason."
~Daniel Franklin West

Steve Ballmer, YO MAMA!

To Mr. Steve Ballmer;

This is an open challenge to meet me in a sanctioned boxing arena for 3 rounds, lasting 3 minute per round, for a charity sporting event with proceeds going to those unfortunate that are not able to buy hardware or your ridiculously expensive constantly beta platform software. The winner will have contributions from proceeds distributed, in his name, to preselected charities which will be published before the match. The loser shall cease and desist from all public activity concerning all things computerese. Please reply soon so we can establish a venue and rules.

Sincerely,

Dock West



Personal note: Hey, lardass. Yeh, you Ballmer Stooge. Quit making everyone miserable. Do something positive for community service and awareness. Your company has a vulgar amount of capital and your efforts to squash anyone opposed are reminders of a dude named Adolph and an organization known as Nazis. Stop your whining, don't throw anymore chairs across a stage and act like a man. As a matter of fact be innovative and act like a sane man.

You might like the idea that I am your senior by several years and am as out of shape physically as your fatassness. We can specify a 60 day training period, medical certification and then proceed to the squared circle where I shall thoroughly thrash you down to the mat exposing you as the sick sniveling weakling who poses as a sane man with a company that seems headed for the dumpster if they don't quit picking on decent folks trying to compete.

Mr. Ballmer, there is no doubt that you are NOT Southern. If you were native to the Deep South someone would have put you to sleep long ago. Be forewarned, even though I am out of shape and this challenge seems utterly ridiculous (my money says you are just too yellow and cowardly to accept this challenge) the gauntlet is thrown down and I WILL meet you under the aforementioned conditions for a most entertaining sporting event. Trust me fight fans will get their money's worth because I won't knock you out until the third round.

It might behoove you to do some research. Being a proud Mississippian I feel the need to inform your sorry Yankee ass that even though that Yankee War of Aggression favored your kind, our ability to fight and persevere is legend. For every Rebel soldier that died in that conflict four, that's 4, you know 1 2 3 then 4 Yankees died. Google it and BTW, please use Google - that MSN search thangy you promote is downright goofy. A message to all my Northern friends; know that I am "firing for effect/affect" here. This is certainly not a slap at y'all, just ole lardass.

Preferred referee of my choice? Steve Jobs of Apple, Don King, George Foreman, Linus Torvalds, Ashby Rhett Culpepper, III, Esq., Jr., or even Bill Gates. It won't matter because you will be thoroughly accosted and exposed as the baboon you really are...Two sounds, two sounds will be heard. My fist hitting his buckethead and his lunchbucket ass hitting the mat!

Ballmerbutt, let me know something. Act like a human being for a change.

In extreme loathing mode I am

Dock West

"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."
~Mark Twain (Ballmer has neither)

Senor Boogey Man May Be Lurking

Tomorrow is May the 15th, thank the Good Lord. Finally the emails about the gasoline boycott will stop for a few months. This has been going on for years. Please go to Snopes.com and read about this old, worn out urban legend. While you're there check the article about that Venezuelan mule's ass Chavez and the CITGO connection. Beach house stance? If gas is needed tomorrow it will be purchased as long as they don't ask for a child, limb, soul or one of my characters in Guild Wars.

Gas prices are ridiculous. It's very likely that gasoline won't be purchased at a CITGO, even though I really like their local convenience store; very clean and employees are cheerful. Cheerful retail work force people are so rare. If you don't believe this go to the local Cingular store by Sam's Club and see the circus of hateful gnashing creeps. Satan lives there part time and she's not happy. Most of the other time she spends at tech help COMCAST in Huntsville, Alabama.

Throughout the day power management tests will be run on the beach house web server. There may be short down times and all this should end before the sun goes down. Hey, just trying to conserve energy...and money. This is an ongoing effort to improve service and we are geeks you know. Tinkering is our greatest obsession in the search for 'more power, grunt, grunt'.

Monday does not worry me this morning. It actually started Friday. In the powerful words of that Texas philosopher Ed Coffin, "Have a better than expected day."

"The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer."
~Edward R. Murrow

IT'S ALIVE! (well, sorta')

After an allnighter, much wringing of hands and pulling of hair the Web Server is back online. Teamspeak users have the same user names and passwords. Thanks out to Beagle and Mudslingr for the loan of their server and to Ashby for the help in troubleshooting plus resolving the problems. I played Egor to his Dr. Frankenstein. We will be improving the server during the next few weeks, but these changes should be invisible to everyone. It's a general consensus that leaving Windows based programs and migrating to Linux or Unix will greatly enhance speed and quality. We will see, oh yes, we WILL see.

My butt is dragging and I must rest. Have a great Sunday afternoon and enjoy the beautiful day.

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."
~Ovid

Satuday's in the Park?

The day has been spent working on various PCs. We are following through with our temp fix concerning the Teamspeak server and I hope it's back online tomorrow. There's a laptop that's giving me a fit about powering down. It may have something to do with the power switch over from battery to AC. Guess the yard mowing, pressure washing, garage painting, car washing, house cleaning will be further delayed although the house is looking better.

This may be a long night. You know what? It's just life and will come together. Later.

"Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it."
~Mark Twain

Memorial Day LAN Party Update

The LAN Party scheduled for Saturday evening during the Memorial Day Weekend will be a simple affair. Due to an extensive project that will be underway at that time and lack of funds, the foods of selection will be burgers, dogs and chips. Some beverage will be available and I promise to pay the water bill. If you want to help in any way please contact me. Yes, I do need help. Labor Day is the target for ribs, etc. We've scaled back the menu in order to avoid cancellation. Ample switching and cable will be provided so bring your uber gear, laptop or just yo'self and enjoy a round of Guild Wars, Video Trivial Pursuit and maybe even some Wii. Ahhhh, geekdom at its best!

Please keep in mind that there is NO TOLERANCE by the Saltillo PD for speeding or drunk driving and we like it that way. You are welcome to bring refreshing beverages, but if too intoxicated you must stay and sleep it off. BTW, no one has ever had to do this; we have a calm non-rowdy bunch, lol. Please do not park with your car heading the wrong way on the side of the road. That will almost assure a ticket. Don't believe me? Reads the signs as you come down Main/Mobile Street. Our Police Dept has nice, courteous people employed and even though the Chief is my neighbor there is NO way I can alleviate tickets.

Remember that Hawaiian shirts, flip flops, beachwear, kewl T-shirts, sunglasses, boat drinks, and casual attitudes are encouraged, but certainly not mandatory. And if you decide to show up WITHOUT the intent of having fun, smiling , laughing, and enjoying the celebration juz keep yo negative ass at home. Nuff said!

"At every party there are two kinds of people - those who want to go home and those who don't. The trouble is, they are usually married to each other."
~Ann Landers

We No Speekin' da Binary

Hardware configuration has been underway at the beach house concerning the web server. It will be brought back online with the old Win2K operating system on a dedicated drive to serve Teamspeak. During off hours Ashby and I will be configuring a new root/boot drive that will run several applications including Teamspeak, but instead of Windows this will be FreeBSD based with a layer that will give us the ability to run Linux applications. We are going for speed and stability. Also, we will test the possibility of running Ventrilo native in FreeBSD. Enough geek speak, Teamspeak will be back online this weekend, probably Sunday, at least with the old configuration.

Thanks to everyone for patience and help.

"I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'."
~Henry Moore

Urban Blight? Nope, Don't Think So

Saltillo is growing. We've gone from one red light to four. When you look around town it seems some new business is breaking ground almost daily. I am glad for Saltillo, but being around a large wad of people is just not my thing. Thank goodness for good neighbors. I certainly like being around them. It's always a joy to be around happy, smiling people that have good moral and religious convictions. Thanks Larry, Charlotte, Josh, Jerry, Linda and all. Please let me know if the music ever gets too loud.

I must be diligent and keep up the yard better. N pressure wash the house. N paint the garages. N clean up the storm house. N replace the fence this fall. N work the flower beds. Excuse me while I go sit on the veranda and think about this further. The sweat is killing me. Later.

"Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend."
~Plautus

Late

The Queen of England talked to cosmonauts in space, a California princess begged Arnie the Govenator for leniency, Windows issued updates on patch Tuesday, and it's summertime in the Deep South. So goes the news. It's late and tomorrow's post will probably be in the evening hours. Now it's time to study Linux for an install of server software on an ailing beaching house machine. Have pleasant dreams and a productive tomorrow.

"If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing."
~Saint Augustine

Engine Red Line

Friday I posted very late, actually it didn't go up until Saturday. A long time friend from Tishomingo County brought a laptop by early afternoon. It received a baptism last week sitting on a tail gate when a sudden shower came up. While traveling he'd been using the wifi service at the motel and stepped away for a few minutes. He immediately rushed out and grabbed it. Anyway, it had dried out for two days, but would not read the recovery disk and initialize the hard drive. After using the hard drive out of my Toshiba laptop for test purposes it was determined it might revive with just a new storage device.

During the initial recovery phase with the new drive it decided to power down. This prompted him to return to Best Buy where the hard drive had been purchased and pick up a new Toshiba laptop. He possibly got the "best buy" ever on a laptop and I am still drooling. The "geeks" told him they had to remove their A.R.C.H.I.E. software which contained Deep Freeze and this would take several hours. It was marked down because it was a display unit. After calling the beach house and letting the tech talk to me it was reluctantly released and he returned with the new laptop.

The "geek" said he doubted I could remove the software. Let's see, owned several computers before anyone had even heard of Windows, even know the meaning of Warez, Phrozen, ARPA, DARPA, EFNET, thought DOS Shell 5 was the bomb, learned Linux Mandrake from Ashby Rhett Culpepper in the 90s and so on and so forth. After using Killdisk to zero out the drive the recovery went smoothly and the new laptop was jamming. All the appropriate protection software for Vista Premium was downloaded and put in place then he left late that evening a happy boy with an awesome new computer. After a little research it seems the recovery disks alone would probably have sufficed. Oh yeah, the blessed by water laptop was also back up and running. Toshibas are tough.

Since it was still powering down on its own I spent around 3 more hours doing research and that problem may now be resolved. Anyway this was the prelude to an almost sleepless weekend with several service calls being delayed. It was a pleasure to accomplish all this for a friend I consider a brother and when I turned in around 3:00AM Saturday morning my sleep was not too troubled. Then the fit hit the shan. After coffee and shower tools were being collected to do several service calls and I checked the beach house web server on the way out which is part of the normal departure procedure that includes checking the stove, turning off all lights, making sure the windows are locked, etc. The server was NOT online.

Okay, just went through a half rebuild of this PC a few days ago and now the rest of the weekend has been spent trying desperately to revive the device. It's still not working and yes, I know, there's been whining here about the problem already. Why the lengthy post? Hopefully as I go through the week doing my utmost best to look and act like the bluebird of happiness just flew up my butt and someone sees a tear in my eye they'll forgive me. On top of all this it was discovered a long time friend is a closet democrat. Is the beach house operational mode in a 'woe is me' state? Not hardly. All this too shall pass. I am a blessed man with two beautiful daughters that love me and care about me. Then there's all my great friends GOP, Libertarian, Democrat or whatever. Shucks, my neighbors are the best in the world. All of my clients are super. Yep, peoplewise I know some good folks.

Part of that exit procedure this week will be to make sure my red bandana is in the pocket for obvious reasons. Now the whine engine must be detuned back to impulse mode before it explodes. Prayers are always appreciated. Later y'all.

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."
~Auguste Rodin (He didn't own a computer)

Delays, Servers and Further Whines

After sleeping on a problem, this morning the problem awoke me. It seems so weird that a machine so stable has started encountering so many UNRELATED problems. My method will be logical deduction until the source is found. And, if I stay alive , it WILL be found. Getting some different protection hardware today. This may be the time to switch to Linux server software as well. As a geek this should make me happy, but other work was planned and now that will be delayed. Everyone please bear with me. The next week will see a lot of evening work so Ken, Dianne, Kim, etc., y'all are not forgotten.

Yes, the phone was off for about 3.5 hours last night. If you call my phone, your number will show up. If you leave a message on voice mail it'll most likely be garbled or I don't receive it until later. So voice mail stuff is very low priority. Nothing is more frustrating than to listen to a bunch of garbled message goop when busy. Besides, I usually don't check it but once a week - that way it's only about 45 minutes of garbled goop that I sit and delete. Wish there was some way to fix it or delete it from the phone. Cingular, they have the least dropped calls you know. They tell you that on TV several times a day. If this is true then apparently Cell South, Sprint, Verizon, etc., must only get one or two partial calls a week. Cingular is changing society in a bad way - being polite and saying goodbye has become almost impossible.

Puh-lease don't message me in GW and ask about the server. Have a little respect for my efforts to practice what little patience is inherent. Whiner boy out...

"Patience: A minor form of despair disguised as a virtue."
~Ambrose Bierce

Chill & Enough

All day has been spent trying to resolve issues with internet connectivity concerning the beach house web server. These problems started when Windows 2k Server was installed a month ago and escalated with a power spike several days ago. Several hundred dollars later and a day of frustration brought the system back online. Now we are having more equipment issues. I am tired of fighting hardware that is in a constant state of flux and will not host Teamspeak for several days. Ashby, thanks for trying .

I need to take my meds.

John Deere, Cub Cadet, I Love You

In 6 days I will celebrate a birthday. My ability to remember my exact age has become part of the gray area of my feebled mind so don't ask. It's somewhere around 100. Well I think my lower back is actually several years older. Anyone know if they do back transplants? The effort to mow yard results in two or three rows n then rest for a few minutes. Hey if I take Flexiril and try to mow the results will end up looking like a psychedelic pattern from the air. Or someone will find me asleep in the yard.

Wow, can't seem to shake whine mode. Will try to do better...


"Sweat silently. Let's have no squawking about a little expenditure of energy."
~Martin H. Fischer (It's apparent Ole Martin never broke a riding lawn mower cable)

How's That Email Workin' For Ya?

After checking email this morning I deleted 1420 pieces of spam that had collected in less than a week. Why so high? The email address is posted on this site. So the sharks feel free to abuse me with all this garbage that means nothing. There's a large amount that is in foreign languages using alphabets not known to English speaking people.

Even though these jerks would worry the piss out of a bullfrog I get the last laugh. The deletion of this 1420 pieces of creep junk happens in just a few seconds with two keystrokes because GMail is used here at the beach house. Out of the 5000 pieces of spam filtered each month less than 2 pieces a week slip through. I report it and never see such dung again. And GMail is very easy to install. My iGoogle homepage even previews new mail that has arrived. Is that kewl or what?

Want a nice hint about web browsing? If you ever come across a page that wants an email address and states that GMail addresses are not accepted leave the page immediately. There's a very good chance they are loading spyware on your computer. They know that GMail is set to defeat them.

Need more info? Try the About GMail site. Want an invitation? Email a request to cybersouth@gmail.com. BTW, this service is freeware at its best!

"He who sends a message by the hand of a fool
Cuts off his own feet and drinks violence."
Proverbs 26:6

Coffee Grinder Usage Is Up

After several days of running a fever and going through stages of dehydration, chills, the 'sweats', etc., it seems the stomach virus has passed. My ability to shake off illness has diminished over the past few years. Several people have asked about the Mallory & Big Daddy meeting. It didn't happen. No one has needed to "see" me for the past few days. Actually made up my mind to go to the Emergency Room, but fell asleep for several hours without throwing up and decided to delay the trip. Was able to drink coffee yesterday, an important daily function, and will resume the regular pace today. Being sick sucks!! Enough whining.

"I assume that to prevent illness in later life, you should never have been born at all.”
~Shaw (Funny, George Bernard, real funny...)

Need Gadgets?

Google recently changed the name of their personalized homepage to iGoogle. They also have gadgets. This company never ceases to amaze me. The Biography TV Channel has an episode about the two creators of this super internet company. Haven't seen it, but will view the next time it's aired. Google rocks!

Have a casual day.


"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!"
~Lee Iacocca