Posts

Posted on

14,600 Redux

Since posting about the DSL bandwidth bummers in the new house last week, the outlook has not brightened. Speakeasy put me in touch with their throughput gurus and we looked at the problem from every angle (I can’t recommend Speakeasy highly enough – their customer service is sterling). Conclusion – they can get me maybe 5% or even 10% more upstream, but we’re not going to get anywhere close to the 768kbps upstream I had in the previous house until the telco builds a closer C.O. Called the telco and got laughed at — “You’re already within DSL range — why would we build another C.O.?”

Started doing more research into cable options via Comcast. Just getting through to them has been a study in frustration. Half a dozen phone calls and emails unreturned. All I wanted to know was what their upstream cap was and whether they impose any restrictions on ports/servers. Their web site was totally unhelpful. Their commercial service sounded promising, but no details online. Finally, a sympathetic soul in tech support passed me to someone with a clue. Sure enough, 384kbps upstream cap and no traffic on port 80 allowed. Period.

So I’m back to square one. Home T1 too expensive. Colo probably affordable but will necessitate buying another box. Having too much fun running servers to throw in the towel, though someone with a less-thick head than myself probably would have long ago.

Posted on

Did Jesus Compile His Own Kernel?

What stranges me out about Does Linux equal socialism? is the fact that the author seems very careful to point out that the GPL allows for profit, and that open source therefore isn’t entirely socialistic after all. The implication is that if open source [anything] is socialistic in nature, we’d better steer clear because Jesus wouldn’t like that, but thank goodness Red Hat and IBM have profited from open source since that makes Linux capitalistic, and therefore okay.

The implication being that Jesus was a capitalist, or that there are anti-socialist teachings somewhere in the Bible. If you had asked me, I would have said that Jesus was a socialist. “We are our brother’s keeper” and all that. I would have thought Jesus would have compiled his own kernel.

Posted on

No Cable

Had it up to here [points to gullet] with the endless expanses of nothingness on standard cable TV. It’s not that there’s nothing on, just that every time we sit down we have usually half hour or so and just want to be entertained for a bit. More often than not the burrito is done before the commercials finally end, and what’s on is just plain bleak, unsatisfying. There are a few things we like, but the likelihood of them being on when we have free time is slim. Tivo seems like the grail, but to have that, you have to subscribe both to Tivo and to the cable or satellite to feed it.

Feh. Mutiny. Jacked in the 50-year-old antenna on top of the new house and whoa, we get almost a dozen network channels, most of them fairly clear. Unfortunately this also means no 24 hr news and no trigger happy tv, but we’re going to live with this for a while and see how it goes.

Posted on

Cahoustics

A while back a friend was was working as a janitor in a recording studio in L.A. During a session, another janitor walked in and exclaimed “Great cahooostics in here!”

Our new living room also has great cahoustics. Same gear. Same music. Way better audio. We rock.

Posted on

Dean Gets It

Stirring campaign announcement speech by Howard Dean. The more I learn about him, the more I like. And more than any candidate I’ve known of, Dean is using the collaborative power of the internet to build support. All politicians and candidates have had web sites, but Dean has a blog and a meetup space. More importantly, he’s somehow managed to generate more backing funds in a shorter period of time than analysts figured he’d be able to. There’s a lot to his platform, bu what seems to be lighting fires is his blunt declaration that we’re not just living through a standard right-wing pendulum swing — the country has been taken over by extremists who don’t represent what most Americans believe America stands for.

Gives me hope. Take it back.

Posted on

GFCIs, Oops Hole

A dozen receptacles in the new house are two-prong. Those always turn out to be the ones into which you need to plug a three-pronged electric cheese grater. Adapters aren’t really safe, elegant, or convenient, so I’m removing all the old receptacles and replacing with ground fault circuit interruptors. Which takes a bit of hard swallowing, since the old receptacles all had lovely bakelite covers, which now go into a drawer to gather dust.

Hired a pair of electricians to do the hard work prepping new circuits for the garage, add a receptacle to the kitchen, replace our antique fuse box, add a phone jack, etc. We love ’em, they’re great. But came home from a wedding today to a VERY contrite note explaining that a “miscommunication” had resulted in a 1.5″ hole accidentally being bored through our beautiful new floors. Mercy. I can just see how the moment unfolded:

“I got daylight.”

“I’m not seeing your drill bit.”

“I’m through.”

“Where are you?”

“Uhhh…”

They came up on the wrong side of a wall. Rather than behind the stove in the kitchen, the hole is near the stereo, in the living room. They’re willing to pay for repairs of course, but what a drag.

Posted on

Miles Walks… And Etc.

Miles has exploded on the scene. Two months ago he started standing up while holding onto things. A couple of weeks ago he started skipping the props and standing on his own. And yesterday he took his first step. Not a big daddy step, just a wee step followed by a crash, but it was a step. By the end of today he could take several small steps in a row. Pictured here as a mighty Teamster with industrial lunchbox and coveralls heading off to build skyscrapers.

He seems better at lifting one foot than the other, and sometimes walks in a semi-circle. Nine months old and already wallking. We’ve got our hands full. Amy was in the shower today and he crawled in to join her, clothes and all. Just looked up at her, “In case you were wondering where I was, well, here I am!”

A few months ago the game was for me to try and build a neutron tower faster than he could crawl over and knock it down. Now the game is that I build the tower sans cherry and he “walks” over and puts the little red cup on top (only his coordination is kind of gross — he tries to place it gently but whacks too hard, knocking it down by accident — that’s okay, it’s all fun).

Miles can pull toilet paper off the roll and eat it. Miles can steal keys off tables. Miles can change channels with the remote and can go to Picture In Picture mode (we hate that). Miles can pull turds out of the cat box (which is now safely out of reach). Miles can pull items off the shelves at the hardware store from his perch in the trolley.

You try moving into a new house with a Tasmanian Cutey Pie Tornado!

Delay on assembling the nine-month gallery until my server finds its way back home.

Posted on

Fly Me To NY

Just got a msg from MacWorld Creative Pro Conference and Expo confirming that I would be doing my “set up OS X as PHP/MySQL development rig” dog and pony show in NY City on Tuesday 15. Whaaaa???!!! First I’ve heard. But they’ve even set up a web page describing my presentation. Seems they’ve simply mirrored the lineup from MacWorld SF from last January. Hmmm…. I wouldn’t mind a trip to NY, especially if they’ll pay travel and lodging, and I definitely wouldn’t mind doing another MacWorld. But I doubt they’ll pay anything — perqs most likely limited to a free conf pass.

Blows my mind that the first I hear of this is two weeks prior to the event, and that they set up the whole thing without even inviting me. Sure, I’ll drop job, house and home, let Amy take care of Miles alone, and spend money we don’t have on travel and board just for the ego stroke. Happy to help!

Music: Cat Power :: The Devil’s Daughter
Posted on

Pollan on McDonald’s Anti-Anti-Biotics

In an interview with UC Berkeley’s Public Affairs dept., J-School prof Michael Pollan throws water on McDonald’s announcement of intentions to cut back on antibiotics in beef. Pollan distinguishes between antibiotics used to spur growth and those given to fight disease. McDonald’s has only agreed to cut back on antibiotics for growth.

What McDonald’s has done is say that they will favor suppliers that are not using antibiotics for growth promotion. Now they didn’t say anything about the other use of antibiotics. “Prevent disease outbreaks” is key. In that sentence is the license to continue including antibiotics in the feed every day. The other question that comes to mind: If you’re using antibiotics both for growth promotion and to control disease, how do you know which is which?

Something I didn’t know before reading this: Cattle are now ready for slaughter in 14 months, rather than in three years. Good thing, too, because they couldn’t live much longer on account of their livers being shot full of holes by an acidic diet of corn, rather than the mellow grass they’ve evolved to eat. That’s why we don’t eat beef liver anymore – 40% – 60% of beef livers are full of abcesses by the time the cattle are 14 months old.

This just makes me so, so sad. I really do need to read Fast Food Nation.

Music: Tosca :: Busenfreund
Posted on

Ohlone Greenway

First day back at work after the move. Miraculously, I was able to keep my bicycle commute (had been prepared to sacrifice that if necessary to become a home owner). It’s 50% longer than before, but the beauty part is, 80% of the ride is now totally off city streets. The Ohlone Greenway cuts north/south through Berkeley/Albany/El Cerrito, several miles of quiet asphalt amidst trees, along a creek, through grasslands, beneath the BART tracks. Not only is it an even better way to start the day, but Amy is happy knowing I’m safer on dedicated trails rather than battling for space with cell-phone drones in rolling caves.

Music: Mildred Bailey :: Someday Sweethart