the CS354 people might understand the context better; everyone else, just move along...nothing to see here...unless you read it...)

Interesting analysis of domain names over at http://www.yafla.com/dforbes/2006/03/29.html.

 

I actually got an email from someone that wanted to buy my domain name, which I thought at the time might've happened because the short domain names were running out.  Actually, it looks like someone else just had as little inventiveness as me.

Yes people, it is a new post!  That means that 1) I'm still alive, and 2) you can stop complaining about how it's been over a month since I last wrote a post.  I mean, it's nice to know I've got a dedicated following, but now everyone's getting demanding, which is the exact opposite of how I thought it was supposed to work: I get the following, and the following does stoff for me.  Anyway, some random issues from the last month:

 

CS 354 project: after working for two days straight, I only managed to get 84/100 points on the test cases (bad).  But I did show that I can live off of just donuts & diet coke for a day (good).

 

Origami: Brilliant idea!!  Oh, wait...I've already got TWO Tablet PC's.  Disappointed on the battery life and intro platforms (Sonoma instead of Lakehurst generation, so no Vista Aero).  Price is another problem, especially now that rumors are starting to circulate.  But....I can't help but still want one.

 

Spring Break!  It rocked!  I got to have sooo much fun going to warm, sunny places with lots of scantily clad co-eds.

Err...

Umm...

Nevermind...SSCI hasn't dramatically changed hiring practices, product lines, and location.  But I did get to have fun working a lot & spending hours chasing down email problems with the email admin at another company REPEATEDLY, which all turned out to be someone having left out a "g" in a really long domain name...and then getting what seems like half the company to enter that incorrect address into thoir private address books...and all those people deciding that their private address books were correct and the Corporate Contacts Email Address Book had been corrected incorrectly.

 

The big problem with Spring Break was power.  The Wednesday in the middle saw power outages and surges throughout the day.  And it turns out all my UPS' failed during it, and that my big SU2200 running the servers has dead batteries.  And the motherboard in my desktop system died.  So, a lot of damage from stupid power problems.  Isn't electricity supposed to be reliable or something?

 

Since break, it's been mostly a blur, which is pretty much how it's going to be until the end of classes in 4 weeks.

 

(oh, and for those that don't understand the title, it's a play off the MsgPlus command to request presence info (/ping); just my way of saying "I'm still here...sometimes!")

Well, since the first blog entry about donuts happened to be the single most visited page (by external users that weren't me) for the months of December AND January, I thought this topic needed a follow up.

 

Besides, it's always nice to find out you're not alone when it comes to opinions on a topic:

 

 

 

(and no, this post really doesn't have any content.  but that's what the "Personal" category is for.  and yes, I think a visit to the grocery store is soon to be coming...)

I recognize that spam is a big problem on the Internet.  At work, I'm responsible for manually reviewing all the messages that the server filters catch (propose idea of filtering | boss paranoid about losing important messages | lowest cost employee → me).  And I can tell you it's no fun going through thousands of drug, sex, phishing, and pirated media messages each week (just to find that someone's subscription to "Headline News" got caught this week…).  Although, if you're feeling particularly humane this week, and just really want to help those Nigerians get that cash out of the country, just drop me a line and I can see about hooking you up with plenty of addresses to contact…

 

Anyway, I KNOW that spam is a problem.  But I still think it's kinda extreme to just block all DHCP addresses.  Especially when there's no way for someone to get off the list.  Which is exactly what SORBS does.  Oh, and to top it off they make you go through one of those CAPTCHA things that's hard as hell for a human to read, but trivially beatable using AI techniques, to even find that that's the reason you've been getting NDR's for the last 2 days on all the messages from friends that you've been replying to!

 

So I got to spent hours fiddling around with Smart Host settings & DNS entries, then another hour to confirm that things at least looked like they were working securely.

 

On the bright side, it does look like the ridiculously complicated and convoluted method is actually working, so look forward to getting emails back from me in the future instead of sitting in the dark for a couple of weeks.

Today's "DUH!  I'M AN IDIOT!" award goes to...me.  Yay, I won something.

 

I get it for not putting the /* on the end of the path I was trying to publish with ISA.  The /extranet.aspx links should now work.  The funny thing is I forgot it despite there being other paths published in the same rule that correctly had the /* at the end.  So, basically, if I had just like, looked at the screen maybe, I should have seen the problem immediately.

If anyone wants a Windows Live! Messenger invite, I've got a bunch to give away.  Just email me at stultsj@ntldr.net from the email account on the Passport that you want to WL!M enable.

 

If you don't know what WL!M is, it's basically the next version of MSN Messenger.  If you don't know what MSN Messenger is, umm...do a search or something?

Update (2006-0213): okay, so half that stuff doesn't seem to be working properly...grrrrr...I'll look into it and update this post when everything is behaving properly.

 

A couple of changes have been made to this site design...not really sure whether I'll keep them.  Mostly just playing around right now.

 

Summary of changes:

 

Sidenote: I know that /default.aspx doesn't render properly in IE7.  I have no idea WHY right now, and it probably isn't just IE7 that has problems (although IE6 seems to work correctly).

 

Anyway, any thoughts on it?

Computer humor: http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/1688

 

Follow the two links in the post...

 

Context update: this was one of the fun things I found during OS's today, thus proving (again) that having PowerPoint slides available for a class leads to decreased attention.

Another Algorithms assignment due today, so I'm still basically brain dead.  But I installed the IE7 Beta 2 Preview, and thought I should at least test out if parts of my site still worked...

 

IE7 Beta 2 Preview is out...get it at www.microsoft.com/windows/ie if you're feeling adventurous and stupid (note the AND on those two conditions at the current time).

 

Funny post: http://kupek85.livejournal.com/71090.html.  I found it funny at least.  Preliminary feedback from testing on IM subjects indicates that part of the humour comes from knowing the people in the post.

 

Ah, the sorry state of local bloggers/information distribution/the level of attention I pay to Purdue announcements: I found out about the audio recordings for lectures from a blogger in Seattle...the recordings from the university I'm currently attending.  Yeah...  http://blogs.msdn.com/nadyne/archive/2006/01/25/517880.aspx  (direct link for the media: http://boilercast.itap.purdue.edu:1013/Boilercast/Index.html)

 

And the results from the logs for January are in...#1 most read post (as measured by people actually clicking on the link and reading the post) was ID81: Donut-ilicious (www.ntldr.net/Blog/DispForm.aspx?ID=81).  I have no idea why.  Explanations are welcome, especially funnier ones.  Or ones that actually make sense.