Sarah was accepted to Drexel University

Sarah was accepted to Drexel University this week! Georgia Tech is still her first choice, but Drexel has a great program and would be a good fit for what she wants to do now. The down side is that its so close (her words, not mine) and the campus is not as nice as other schools.

I am very impressed with the acceptance package. It included a signed (by a real person) letter of acceptance, a certificate (suitable for framing), a newspaper announcement outline (usually the real estate and sales people submit these for local papers, its about time the engineers start taking advantage of this...), a contract with deposit information and a Drexel sticker (cool dragon logo and DU URL).

I will post scans later today.

Periodic Table of Condiments

My World and Welcome... Info Pages: Table of Condiments

Very interesting page - listing of condiments and shelf life in the form of a periodic table.

I'm tired

I'm in VA for a project overnight.

I'm really tired and bored. Also, I could not VPN into the clients network because the hotel is NAT'ed to a 10.0.0.0 network and the clients network is also a 10.0.0.0.

Routing is broken.

This sucks. I need to bring my own router for future trips. Geez!

Nit-Pickers Guide to The Lord of the Rings

Nit-Pickers Guide to The Lord of the Rings

This is an awesome list. I remembered maybe a handful of differences between Jackson's LOTR and the original books. Now I want to make time to re-read the triology and watch the DVD's.

Software and Drivers - download Secure Shell Component for Windows, 1.0 A

Software and Drivers - download Secure Shell Component for Windows, 1.0 A

OpenSSH for Windows - support HP InSight Manager. Need to test, but it looks pretty promising.

States I visited

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

This is an interesting site. These are the states I have visited. Found this link on the J-Walk Blog.

Yahoo! News - RSS syndication working

Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News

Lots of feeds, you can add RSS links to My!Yahoo as well

833401 - How to configure RPC over HTTP in Exchange Server 2003

833401 - How to configure RPC over HTTP in Exchange Server 2003

Check config on server, this was working before my uninstall/reinstall of Exchange 2003.

xISBN [OCLC - Projects]

xISBN [OCLC - Projects]

Very cool project. There are many times I'm interested in related information when I'm doing research.

555040 - Common Mistakes When Upgrade Windows 2000 Domain To Windows 2003

555040 - Common Mistakes When Upgrade Windows 2000 Domain To Windows 2003

Link from Bink.nu. Good overview of what you need to consider when upgrading your Win2K domain (DC's, schema, Ex2K issues, etc).

Compaq Network Management and Configuration Software (CNMS) V 2.2.2

SoftPaqs - Networking & Communication Products - Software - Compaq Network Management and Configuration Software (CNMS) V 2.2.2

Installing for my Compaq repeater.

PVR Software for the PC

PVR Software for the PC, SageTV and SageRecorder Let You Pause Live TV, Instant Replay and Record Your Favorite TV Shows

We have a ReplayTV that I really, really like. I have also experimented with an ATI TV card that works well, but the TV guide software is 'marginal' and I don't want to spend the time to configure a turnkey solution and have a PC sitting beside my TV in our family room.
This is an interesting alternative that I will look at later.

HTML Quick Reference Guide

HTML Quick Reference Guide

There are others, but this covers the basics on a single page.

iPod Sound Quality

iPod Sound Quality

Nice analysis. I liked the AAC vs MP3 comparison and would like to do the same for my CD/MP3 player. My MP3 ripping software seems to cause 'drop outs' at high bitrates. A 128 kbps bit rate recording is OK for driving in the Taurus, but I would like to test it at home with my Koss headphones on the stereo.

Inventions?

Inventions

Wack jobs list 'top ten inventions'. Extracting hydrogen from water using resonance "at greater than 100% efficiency". Why does this not quite ring true? The only reason I post this is to follow up on some of the patents referenced on this page.

AntiVirus Product Comparisions

Product

First feature-by-feature comparison on mainstream anti-virus products.

DNS Resources Directory (DNSRD)

DNS Resources Directory (DNSRD)

Just what the page name says.

Secure Administration using SSH & RDP

WinBeta.org -> Security: Secure Administration using SSH & RDP

Very interesting article on how to use SSH in conjunction with RDP for secure terminal service sessions. Test this week!

DNS Tools by Paul Balyoz

DNS Tools by Paul Balyoz

DNS tools - any for Win32?

USPS International Calculator - Country and Weight

USPS International Calculator - Country and Weight

International Postage Calculator. It als

The main link for packages, envelopes and postcards is here.

Feds seek input on spammer sentencing

SecurityFocus HOME News: Feds seek input on spammer sentencing

I really have to follow up on this one.

297121 - XWEB: How to Hide the Change Password Button on the Outlook Web Access Options Page

297121 - XWEB: How to Hide the Change Password Button on the Outlook Web Access Options Page

The default for Exchange 2003 is to have the Password option disabled! Ah Ha! You have to do a registry update on the front end and back end servers to enable password changes.

10 Things College Financial Aid Offices Won't Tell You

Smartmoney.com: 10 Things: 10 Things College Financial Aid Offices Won't Tell You

I'm drawn to articles like this like a moth to the flame. I filed for my FAFSA pin and have not received it yet, time to give them a ring.

LinuxISO.org

LinuxISO.org - A place to learn about, download, and discuss Linux.

Yum! Fresh ISO's, just like Mom used to make! Great site.

Bink.nu | IIS Compression in IIS6.0

Bink.nu | IIS Compression in IIS6.0

Compressing data over the wire. We did it with modems, why not with broadband?

I have been looking at gzip for Apache and this is a complimentary solution for IIS 6.0.

Rob Galbraith DPI: Shooting the D1X for National Geographic

Rob Galbraith DPI: Shooting the D1X for National Geographic

Very interesting article on the first cover story for National Geographic shot entirely with a digital camera (a very high end Nikon D1X).

National Geographic has always been a reference standard for high quality photography, so this is a significant article IMHO.

TravisHamilton.us | Microsoft Exchange Tips

TravisHamilton.us | Microsoft Exchange Tips

100 Exchange Tips - link from Bink. Most of these tips are 'old hat', but there are several I have not used or had not thought about, so its worth some time to review.

Free After Rebate - The best things in life are free, after six to eight weeks

Free After Rebate - The best things in life are free, after six to eight weeks

Gotta love it. Don't buy what you don't need, but its nice to get some of your frequently used goods for free.

Internet 6.0

Internet 6.0

I really like MIT Technology Review.
I really respect Simson Garfinkel.
But... I don't follow his logic that all the existing IPv6 code is evil (insecure).
I do have to look into RSIP and IPv6 further.

The Top Ten Nanotech Products Of 2003

Forbes.com: The Top Ten Nanotech Products Of 2003

What the heck is nanotech and why do I care about it?

I'm not sure what non-engineers think nanotech is, but this list is a good example of how engineers are designing products at a molecular level to design new products. The ski jacket and ski wax are probably the best examples.

SMTP+SPF: Senders Permitted From

SMTP+SPF: Senders Permitted From

I'm not sure where this will head, but it appears that AOL is already publishing SPF records on its DNS. Time to at least check it out. Not sure if Microsoft/Hotmail will follow.

I'm also looking into IPv6 for BSD. Windows 2000/2003 supports it, but I have to sort out the BIND issues and test first.

FAFSA on the Web

FAFSA on the Web - U.S. Department of Education

We laugh, we cried, we fill out the FAFSA form and beg for money from the feds to send our daughter to college...

How will the US complete on a global scale unless they have an affordable higher education system to produce the engineers and scientists we need to move technology and the economy forward?

Its amazing to me that so few people really understand the massive technology and manufacturing challanges that have were overcome to put that tiny cell phone with batteries that last DAYS into your pocket or purse...

The Club for Growth

The Club for Growth - Limited Government and Lower Taxes

Is this a joke?

I don't want federal tax cuts. To be honest, local taxes, medical insurance and college costs ECLIPSE my federal taxes.

I want Bush to get the hell out of my life - No Child Left Behind forces all sorts of initiatives that WE pay for at the local level. I would like education to be managed by the people who pay for it - Local Taxpayers.

In Mount Laurel, we pay for 92% of the cost of education. Geez, at this rate, it might be cheaper to drop (even) state support...

Ideal Digital Photographer's Workflow

O'Reilly Network: Moving Toward the Ideal Digital Photographer's Workflow [Dec. 18, 2003]

Good article about digital photography 'workflow'. I'm interested in optimizing image processing, cataloging and archiving. I'm using Adobe Photoshop Album and Photoshop Elements which are the best tools I have found. They are a good balance between the full Photoshop (which can bring even a powerful workstation to its knees) and apps that lack some of the more advanced features I need.

Earth's Magnetic Poles May Be About To Switch

Earth's Magnetic Poles May Be About To Switch

Good overview of changes in the magnetic orientation of Earth. Originally published in The Guardian.

Mars Photos - JPL

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Great photos from the Rover Spirit in the Gusev Carter on Mars. They plan to raise the antenna which will give much better photos in color later this week (tomorrow?).

IEEE Spectrum Online

Welcome to Spectrum Online

IEEE Spectrum has a cover story on "2004 Forecast & Review". Good stuff. They broke it down by technology (Communications, Electric Power, Semiconductors, Transportation, Computers, Bioengineering) and selected a Winner, Loser and Holy Grail for each technology.

Thought provoking, and IEEE Spectrum should be added to Kottke's 52 magazines or bust list if its not there already.

Great American Beer Festival - 2003 Winners

Great American Beer Festival - 2003 Winners

Paul likes beer.
Paul likes good beer.
Life is too short to waste drinking bad beer, wine or coffee.

I recently bought three 'growlers' from Iron Hill Brewery. I like their ales, but I think Yuengling's porter is better. To be fair, the Iron Hill porter had a coffee/chocolate taste that put me off. My favorites were the Ironbound and Anvil Ales.

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003 (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

I don't always agree with Nielsen, but he makes some good points here. The biggest issue I have with design is the choice of color for background and text. After that its lack of a search function and for corporate web sites the lack of comprehensive contact information.