only one more hour, and The Great Campout will be over. Starting at 0845 Thursday, I've had some contractors working to refinish the wood floors in my home. Good news: wood floors only cover 3 rooms. Bad news: those 3 rooms are in the middle, so while the contractors are working, I am cut off from the other side. So, the pets and I obediently camp on this side, waiting.
the salesman told me there would be dust everywhere, and they actually did a good job containing it to the 3 rooms. having said that, the stuff in those rooms was susceptible to a very fine sawdust bath. one of my clocks now refuses to move the second hand; a ceiling light in between the two rooms now refuses to light; and my shiny, sparkly thing (hanging from the ceiling) is now covered in a fine layer of wood atoms.
day 1: move the furniture; vacuum; strip old wood surface; apply crack filler as needed; sand (and sand and sand ...)
day 2: apply desired resin coating (I chose "neutral" so as to bring out the natural wood, rather than hide it); apply first of 3 layers of sealer
day 3: apply layers 2 and 3 of sealer. contractor says it'll be dry by 3pm, but is vague about when I can start moving furniture back into place.
day 4 (Monday): cleanup (not sure what that entails - yet)
Saturday, February 7
Friday, February 6
geek: biting the head off a live chicken or snake
I attended the Dallas-Fort Worth Unix User Group meeting last night (7p @ one of the many JC Penney buildings in Dallas).
stuff noted before and during the meeting:
stuff noted before and during the meeting:
- US President Gerald R. Ford, Jr. was born Leslie King, Jr.
- US President William Jefferson Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe IV
- Merriam-Webster dictionary defines geek as: (n) a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
- a past DFWUUG President (1995-7) was there. John Keohane (now living in Austin) recently wrote an essay re: Paul H Douglas, proving once and for all that there is Life After Unix.
- Linux Fair (0900-1330) is 21.2.4 @ Nokia in Las Colinas. The sponsor is the North Texas Linux Users Group
- mentioned: John "MAD DOG' Hall, President of Linux International
- The Career SIG meets @ 6p (before UUG); it deals with human networking, jobs available, etc.
- Tonight's topic was Intrusion Detection, Prevention and Response and the speaker was Kevin Wheeler (president of InfoDefense)
- A map of hacked Wireless Access Points in Dallas was shown, but there was no URL to view afterwards. I Google'd and found two likely candidates: wifinder.com and jiwire.com
- wireless security step #1: disable SSID
- new acronym (for me): IPS = Intrusion Prevention System
- Gibson Research Corporation known for LeakTest (free quick firewall check)
- Nessus (security scanner)
- netstat is included w/MS-Windows: Start/Run/cmd then "netstat -?" (many options)
- Fport is from foundstone.com (free tool that shows what programs on your system are opening which port)
- security certification: Information Systems Security Engineering Professional from (ISC)2 (International Information Systems Security Consortium)
- ABG Antivirus
Thursday, February 5
network malfunction
MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action has an ad that CBS allegedly refused to air during the Super Bowl (too controversial). In hindsight, I bet it wasn't as controversial as the Justin-Janet wardrobe malfunction.
Paul Krugman: Get Me Rewrite! is an article claiming the Bush administration is trying to rewrite history.
Paul Krugman: Get Me Rewrite! is an article claiming the Bush administration is trying to rewrite history.
Wednesday, February 4
Card-Carrying Member of the ACLU
I was delighted to see that I have read two of the banned books listed on the ACLU of Texas web site: Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Grapes of Wrath. Both turned me into a raving sociopath. Sadly, the ACLU-TX website appears dormant; the last updates appear to be from 2002.
Gotta git a new phone, I reckon
Plain Old Cell Phones Fading Away in U.S. says "the market for plain old phones -- no color, no camera, no music or downloadable games -- is drying up in the United States" and "black-and-white screens are going to go the way of the black-and-white television very rapidly.' "
Gotta git a new phone, I reckon
Plain Old Cell Phones Fading Away in U.S. says "the market for plain old phones -- no color, no camera, no music or downloadable games -- is drying up in the United States" and "black-and-white screens are going to go the way of the black-and-white television very rapidly.' "
Tuesday, February 3
the story of Jell-O Head
A Canadian co-worker forwarded the sad story of Robert Chetwynd (a.k.a. Jell-O Head) in the drive-thru at Tim Hortons (a coffee franchise, started North of the Border). Note: the double-doubles at Tim Horton's are unrelated to the double-doubles at In-N-Out Burger (California, Arizona, etc.).
Aside: I have no clue if Mr. Jell-O Head is related to Chetwynd, the city (which I would like to visit this summer).
This reminds me of the legendary Caribou Coffee places in the Yankee states, which compete with Starbucks down here in Dixie. You can never have too many Starbucks; there are 4 locations within 5 minutes of my home, and I spotted a 5th one under construction a few weeks ago.
None of us had coffee in our systems at bowling last night; each of us posted a 630+ (handicapped) series .. first time we've done that all season. Hmm .. gotta do that again next week, and the week after, and the week after ...
Aside: I have no clue if Mr. Jell-O Head is related to Chetwynd, the city (which I would like to visit this summer).
This reminds me of the legendary Caribou Coffee places in the Yankee states, which compete with Starbucks down here in Dixie. You can never have too many Starbucks; there are 4 locations within 5 minutes of my home, and I spotted a 5th one under construction a few weeks ago.
None of us had coffee in our systems at bowling last night; each of us posted a 630+ (handicapped) series .. first time we've done that all season. Hmm .. gotta do that again next week, and the week after, and the week after ...
Monday, February 2
Groundhog Day
my vote for best Super Bowl ad?
Shards O' Glass Freeze Pops. This ad made me LOL (laugh out loud) and nay, even snort (not to be confused with Snort.org (the network intrusion detection system), which does not run on the all-wooden computers made by Luddite Industries.
Also, I note with some amusement that Justin Timberlake did see Punxsutawney Phil's shadow this morning, meaning that another 6 weeks of winter is ahead of us. Since there has not been so much as a single snowflake here in Dallas this season, I simply say: ho hum.
Shards O' Glass Freeze Pops. This ad made me LOL (laugh out loud) and nay, even snort (not to be confused with Snort.org (the network intrusion detection system), which does not run on the all-wooden computers made by Luddite Industries.
Also, I note with some amusement that Justin Timberlake did see Punxsutawney Phil's shadow this morning, meaning that another 6 weeks of winter is ahead of us. Since there has not been so much as a single snowflake here in Dallas this season, I simply say: ho hum.
Sunday, February 1
In the presence of champions ...
Very cool news: Roger-Bob was named Volunteer of the Year at the Resource Center of Dallas' Volunteer Appreciation Party last night. He says they logged him at 504 hours last year, which is more hours that some people work for pay in a year! Great job, R-B!
What a mouthful
The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) has an item on their website about Not-So-Spontaneous Human Combustion, a topic which continues to fascinate me. Will I, someday, just burst into flames? This reminds me of the awe-inspiring 1998 Super Bowl Tabasco commercial, where a mosquito not-so-spontaneously combusted (and not a word of dialogue!).
Being Super Bowl Sunday, I will make my annual pilgrimage to the nearest Golden Chick Restaurant for some of their mouth-waterin' chicken wings. What? They don't have barbecued wings?!? Plan B: phone an order into WingStop (next to Kroger) or WingZone (next to Neighborhood Market) before the 5:25pm start! (None of this will mean much to the British Expatriates, who think football is played with a round soccer ball - ha!)
(speaking of Neighborhood Market) their parent company is in the news again: Wal-Mart on PR Offensive to Repair Image. The antithesis of Wal-Mart is small business, an example being the 12 people behind Guru Reports (Automotive-Related Research), who explain how I should wax my car (among other automotive stuff).
Random Spot: Texas Fast Facts and Trivia contains that silly myth about the Texas flag - the one that says it should be flown at the same height as the US flag is pure, unadulterated balderdash!
What a mouthful
The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) has an item on their website about Not-So-Spontaneous Human Combustion, a topic which continues to fascinate me. Will I, someday, just burst into flames? This reminds me of the awe-inspiring 1998 Super Bowl Tabasco commercial, where a mosquito not-so-spontaneously combusted (and not a word of dialogue!).
Being Super Bowl Sunday, I will make my annual pilgrimage to the nearest Golden Chick Restaurant for some of their mouth-waterin' chicken wings. What? They don't have barbecued wings?!? Plan B: phone an order into WingStop (next to Kroger) or WingZone (next to Neighborhood Market) before the 5:25pm start! (None of this will mean much to the British Expatriates, who think football is played with a round soccer ball - ha!)
(speaking of Neighborhood Market) their parent company is in the news again: Wal-Mart on PR Offensive to Repair Image. The antithesis of Wal-Mart is small business, an example being the 12 people behind Guru Reports (Automotive-Related Research), who explain how I should wax my car (among other automotive stuff).
Random Spot: Texas Fast Facts and Trivia contains that silly myth about the Texas flag - the one that says it should be flown at the same height as the US flag is pure, unadulterated balderdash!
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