Web log of things that annoy me, interest me and are important to me.

Trying to clean up after my 7 year old I learned a lesson.
Megan has had a box filled with torn paper for the past week or so. I was bound and determined to start throwing out things we don't need and things the girls leave lay around the house. I started to pick up her box of torn paper filled with clay bits she had painted. Barb pointed out that this was a manger scene that Megan has created over the past week or so. She even had faces painted on Mary, Baby Jesus and Joseph. OK, I felt like a turd, I didn't throw anything out and its just another humbling experience of fatherhood.
posted by Paul Begley at 10/22/2001 11:01:01 PM

I am bound and determined to Blog more frequently.
To catch up:
August - refinanced house and bought first new car (Chrysler T&C LXi so the girls fit in the van).
Breakaway closed most of the Solution Centers the last day of August.
Sept - Breakaway closed eSolutions practice and I was laid off the Tuesday after Labor Day. Wednesday they filed Chapter 11. Thursday I interviewed at Continental Resources. The following week we had the terrorist attacks and I accepted a position at CRI.
posted by Paul Begley at 10/12/2001 08:15:34 AM

Got my wheel a few weeks ago. Its great. Its so good that the detent in the DeRosa headset is pretty intolerable, so I will get that replaced shortly. The weld broke on one of the tandem rear cantilever brackets. I epoxied it for tomorrow, but will get it braised later this summer.

Dennis had a lump removed from his lung and a heart valve repair job last Thursday. He was released from the hospital this week and is doing very well. He still has a lot of work ahead of him, but he is on the right track. They used his own tissue for the valve repair instead of a pig valve or synthetic valve, so he won't have to take any antirejection drugs.

Internet worm problems Thursday with IIS4/IIS5. We handled it pretty well at work (www.breakaway.com), but even my home server was getting probed.
posted by Paul Begley at 7/20/2001 09:40:39 PM

Bicycle Stuff

I just ordered a wheel from Mel Kornbluh (http://www.tandemseast.com) last week after bending my third axle. The problem with my bike appears to be a combination of 126mm hubs, my size/weight, riding habits (bunny hop over road debris) and pot holes in South Jersey.

The new wheel will be a 126mm, 40 spoke Phil Wood hub with a Mavic T-217 rim. After careful measurement of both the frames, this wheel should fit both my DeRosa and Cannondale bikes. Mel should have it ready in about two weeks and I will post a note after I have a few hundred miles on the new wheel.

posted by Paul Begley at 6/26/2001 10:20:53 AM

Long time no Blog.

I feel GREAT. I passed a kidney stone yesterday after had 'attacks' in Mon/Tues/Fri of last week. Went to the urologist yesterday (25 June) and passed a 5-6mm irregularly shaped chunk 'o calcium into the cup. I feel *much* better now. Had blood test to check my parathyroid function and have 24 hour urine test scheduled for tomorrow.
posted by Paul Begley at 6/26/2001 07:44:52 AM

Found a very slick web ad filter Ad Subtract (http://www.adsubtract.com/). I am using it at home and it works very well.

I also bought some hardware this month. An Asus motherboard and 850 MHz Duron processor. This is for my home workstation. I am upgrading to do video processing and my previous system was a PII-350. The Duron really screams and I can overclock as well as upgrade to an Athelon CPU as prices fall.

posted by Paul Begley at 4/18/2001 02:22:20 PM

Its been a rough month so far:
Saturday I noted that some mutants have been using anon ftp (yes, I know I'm a bonehead for enabling it, even temporarily) to trade files. I nuked them, collected IP addresses and whined to the respective ISP's. What does this mean? I have my server behind a hardware firewall, only the ports I am using were enabled, I have it on a small separate file system and its as secure as an FTP server can be. I log all connections on all open ports. I do this for a living and I know what I am doing.

The scary part is that they found me so quickly and I was hit by Script Kiddies from CA, WA, France, Italy and Germany in a few days.
posted by Paul Begley at 4/18/2001 12:42:50 PM

Geez! Drivers have been a problem this week. I commute from New Jersey to an office just outside the city of Philadelphia. What I find is an ever larger group of morons who need to sit in the fast lane all the way through Route 38, then Route 30 (Admiral Wilson Blvd), the Vine Street Expressway and the Sure-Kill Expressway.

Here is a driving tip: If you have 5+ cars riding your butt, there is a 1/4 mile of clear road ahead of you and the right lane is empty, its time to pull out of the passing lane.
posted by Paul Begley at 4/18/2001 12:31:03 PM

Problems with NTBACKUP on Windows 2000 SP1. Active Directory logs are not truncated correctly. There is a hot-fix from PSS and it will be fixed in SP2. The KB article is Q272425.

posted by Paul Begley at 3/20/2001 02:55:28 PM

Is it just me, or are most e-mail users morons?
Speaking for everyone who ever managed a mail server, I have the following comments.

Every chain letter is either a hoax or MLM/ponzi scheme.
All SPAM is evil.
Every SPAM stock tip is a fraud in progress.
No message ever needs to be over 1 Meg. Ever. Really.
Post pictures of your kids, pets, house or cards to a web site and mail a link.
Same thing for any movies, etc.

====================================
Do the signs posted at busy intersections tick you off? A group named this Street SPAM. Check out thier web site - CAUSS - Citizens Against Ugly Street SPAM. Who cares if they have too much spare time? Its getting out of hand and if you remove the signs you remove the profit motive and the signs will go away.

Do you know anyone who LIKES these eyesores?
Locally, these signs are advertising URL's which go back to my rant above about e-mail SPAM.

posted by Paul Begley at 3/7/2001 10:25:05 PM

Got our Peet's Coffee sampler yesterday.

Two days semi-wasted this week due to a 'non-snow' event. Local weather forcasts predicted 1-2 feet of snow and we didn't get anything significant.

Changing cell phones at work - from AT&T to Nextel. Not sure where this will go. The reception is much, much better in NJ, but I have not sorted out hands free use and the quality of the speaker phone in the car. I also just paid for a Jabra hands free for my Nokia and I like it a lot. We are looking into car and hands free kits for the Motorola i1000 units.

posted by Paul Begley at 3/6/2001 05:36:28 PM

Good Things
Bought 512 Meg RAM for the server.
RAM is good. Servers like RAM. $175 from OnVia
Bought a Siemens 2420 phone system.
Its really, really neat. We are finally using both our phone lines effectively
iButton - very cool electronics - Java key fob unavailable until May

Bad Things
frustration trying to sort out paperwork
paperwork sucks
accounting sucks
financial stuff sucks
yelling and screaming doesn't seem to help
posted by Paul Begley at 3/1/2001 10:58:58 PM

This is my initial post. I am sorting out security for my FTP site before Barb misses me down stairs.
posted by Paul Begley at 2/24/2001 09:49:03 PM