Starting this Saturday, the Fall 2005 instance of my BioPerl class starts up. Pretty much all my spare cycles have been going towards preparing for it, which is why it’s been so quiet around here. I’m hoping things calm down a wee bit once the class gets underway, but that’s probably unrealistic. Worst case, I’ll be back around the end of November…
Awesome first-person story from a sysadmin who tracked down a sendmail issue after an initial problem report that seemed to be completely off the tracks. Great example of “well, that sounds nuts, but let me try to verify the error report…” school of problem solving; linking it here because I need to think of a way to bring this up at work and I suspect some of the people I want to see it will, this way. (The associated FAQ is worth checking out as well.)
via Jay.
From Dave Farber’s IP list, news that FEMA’s mail servers and domain name information was set up incorrectly, making it impossible to contact them via email. This stuff can be tricky to deal with properly , but it isn’t rocket science. It also doesn’t break itself — these problems were in place before the storm, probably for a long time. What does it say about your organizational culture that nobody from outside can send you email, and you don’t notice?!
We’ve got a first-generation Phillips-branded TiVo that we bought way, way back in the Dark Ages — back when people didn’t really understand what the point was, back when plunking down the cash for the lifetime subscription deal felt like a bit of a risk, because who knew if the company was going be even be around in two months, let alone a year? In that time, I’ve had a TiVo sticker on my car, I’ve praised TiVo to friends and strangers, and I’ve generally been an advocate for the brand.
TiVo is repaying my loyalty and support by crippling their new and existing products.
So, buh-bye TiVo. Sticker’s off the car, friends and strangers are going to get told “get anything, just not a TiVo”, and the new TiVo I was planning on getting for the new AV room in the basement is going to be a MythTV box instead. (Anybody in the DC area interested in collaborating on a Linux-based PVR project, give a shout — I suspect this is going to be a significant undertaking and some company on the trip would be nice.)
Heinlein fans, rejoice — somebody has finally started a company called We Also Walk Dogs.
It would be much better if they actually listed dog walking under services, though.
The site outage this afternoon (and now on into the evening) is brought to you courtesy of the Los Angeles blackout, which knocked my hosting provider offline. I’m still not clear on why their datacenters lost power, and from looking at their blog, neither are they. Yay for SLAs and all that good stuff.
The timing of the power outage is interesting, to say the least. The current story, according to Bloomberg, is that “a worker with the utility accidentally overloaded a transmission line, tripping circuit protectors”. So, good news: it ain’t the terrists. Bad news: the power grid seems pretty fragile…
So, like all the other cool kids, you’re toting around your Hipster PDA — but yer stack o’ cardage isn’t going to do you much good unless you have something to write on it with when the moment strikes. The canonical pen partner of the hPDA is the Fisher Space Pen — small, compact, relatively pocket friendly. I’ve been carrying one for a number of months, and I’m reasonably happy with it.
On my recent visit to Iowa City, though, I came across a Lamy Pico. Similar idea, in a much slicker package. I ended up buying one, and have pretty much switched over to it. The thicker barrel is much nicer to write with, and the finish seems to be standing up to life in a pocket much better than the matte black Space Pen. My only complaint: I really wish there was a rollerball refill available; ball point is not really my favorite.
Here are some quick shots to compare the Lamy to the better-known Space Pen, with a 3×5 for sizing:
Another harrowing post-Katrina tale:
People are furious. They feel they’ve been abandoned. You have to understand, there’s no power anywhere. The rescue crews are going through New Orleans proper but not all the neighborhoods where people live. Most people don’t even think there’s a rescue effort underway at all. It becomes clear to me the one thing people need is communication; without it fear takes over. There’s nothing more important to restoring order than giving the leaders an ability to get messages to everyone.
JMason says “Automated CR systems considered suckful“. My spam situation is about the same as his: all my actual spam is controlled; the crap I have to deal with now is wading through CR responses and “you seem to have sent us a virus” crap. Grr.
