Starship Dimensions

The other day while trolling around the chon.com's other citizen bloggers, I came across this fascinating link offered by Ree-C Murphey: Jeff Russell's Starship Dimensions.

Fair warning...this is a graphics intensive site. Be sure you have a good broadband connection!

Jeff has collected a vast number of sci-fi ships (and some historical ones as well) and offered them to scale for comparisons. Want to know how big the Death Star is compared to the BORG ship? This place has got you covered.

Use the tabs on the top to pick your scale. Some vessels appear on multiple tabs and some just on one so check them all out and use your scroll bars to take it all in. Wowzers!

For some scale, some earth buildings are included along with Godzilla and the Stay-Puff Marshmallow man.

If you use Internet Explorer, you can even drag and drop them to compare side by side!

Brilliant!

Too bad they don't have any on the Last Exile vanships...oh well.

Busy skies!
--Claus

Computer Forensics and other Linkage

Back on track now.

Turned the compost and found a major-big red fire-ant nest in there. I was really conflicted. If I apply ant-killer pesticides I might harm the good earthworms and other creepy-crawlies. If I don't, The nest will get bigger and they will spread into the lawn. So I skipped that area, and turned the rest of the compost. After an hour (to let them settle down) I went back and treated the mound. I also found the starts of 5 more mini-nests throughout the backyard. I guess it begins...

Lavie makes fun of me because generally, I will try to capture spiders and crane-flies and then toss them outside. (In fact--Lavie thinks this Kleenex video is me in action!) She doesn't approve of this method of disposal. She likes the SMASH-SQUISH-WIPE-FLUSH method of insect removal from inside the home. I just have an empathic feeling for the little guys...except fire-ants and roaches. Those two groups of creepy-crawlies get the BLACK ops technique: Search and Destroy with Extreme Prejudice.

Digital Forensics Department:

I don't know if Computer Forensics is your cup of tea. Grandpa was an FBI man so I always found this sort of thing fascinating from a technical point of view. I don't get to do "forensics" work on any of our systems...we have an Office of the Inspector General for that sort of work. We just recover the drives and duplicate them for the OIG team if requested. However, if you are interested in this sort of thing here is some linkage.

Helix, "Incident Response, Electronic Discovery and Computer Forensics" is a Live Linux Boot CD that has just released version 1.7 last week. It is really packed with goodies. It also has an auto-run menu of software for the Windows side. But it's real power is on the Linux boot. Check it out.

Penguin Sleuth Bootable CD was one of the first Linux Live Boot CD's I came across. It hasn't been updated in quite a while, but is still useful.

Other Linux Live CD's that are targeted for Forensics and Data Recover that I am aware of: Plan-B, FIRE, Portable Linux Auditing CD (48MB), and FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Boot CD.

So where do you figure out how to use this stuff and hone your l33t forensics skilz? Two favorite places:

My first is the team over at LiveAmmo Security News. Their blog has quite a few good items of note. The real goodies are their podcasts on Digital Forensics and Hacking Investigations. Go get some!

My second favorite hangout is over at SecurityFocus. They have extensive white papers on security and forensics. Really a great place to learn and do research using case studies.

Not quite forensics related--but informative and fun: Security Now Podcast with Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte. (I think I've already mentioned this one recently.)

Have fun! Now onto the Linkage Backlog:

Anime and Manga Department:

R.O.D.-The TV is now out as a boxed set. Kinda pricey though....I will have to eventually pick it up.

R.O.D.-The Manga is now being re-released Stateside. One more series to get hooked on here.

GhibliWorld.com (a.la Howls, Spirited, Kiki, Totoro...) News and Production website.

Software and Hardware Department:

In other news...Damn Small Linux released its Live Linux CD now at V 2.3 RC1. I REALLY like this build. It has one of the fastest boot-times for a Linux Live CD I have ever come across. Even running in QEMU virtual session. Nice work. And it still is just under 50MB in total. Sweet.

Big List of Useful Windows Software, nicely categorized by the SH/SC Wiki team.

101 Free Windows Games, arcade level quality over at the 1up.com site.

Also fun, Retrospec designs and creates awesome Retro-inspired versions of games. For starters, check out Head over Heels. Great screenshots!

Ever wanted to put Internet radio songs on your iPod? Use StationRipper [via downloadsquad].

Mark Rusonovich of Sysinternals shows us how to use his powerfully awesome Process Explorer application to run just about any application in a protected-mode wrapper. This is well worth the read.

The ISC-SANS teams gives us some good security thoughts on the risks of using a personalized website portal as your start-page. Also worth the time to read.

TweakHound shares Windows XP Backup Strategies for Home Users.

Tips on managing your Outlook email Inbox from ComputerZEN master Scott Hanselman.

Quake3 on 24 LCD monitors (thats 10240x3072 resolution!). Wicked!

Science Department:

Emilio Gonzalez discovers two more asteroid impact craters. Much to the amazement of geologists...he did it using Google Earth!

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to have successfully inserted itself into Mars orbit.

KV 63: A Look at the New Tomb. All about the newest find in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

Blog Enhancement Department:

28 Things to put in your Blog's Sidebar: [via listible.com]

The Performancing Team is developing a blogging statistics service. Looks promising.

Other Department:

Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion reports that ABC will be offering ad-supported versions of some of their ABC television shows for free. I could support that. Save me the trouble of VCR'ing LOST when I'm too busy.

Ok, enough fun for now.
--Claus

A BLACK Friday

I did something pretty brainless Friday night....let me explain.

I picked up the PS2 game BLACK a few weeks ago. The first mission, Veblensk City Streens was pretty easy, the second, Border Crossing was pretty challenging and took me three or so days to play through. I got through missions three and four (Naszran Town and Naszran Foundry) very quickly.

I was feeling pretty cocky Friday night so I decided to head into mission five, Tivliz Asylum around 10:00pm. BIG mistake. I finally cleared the mission level around 3:00am. My head hurts. The screenshot above is from the last section of that mission. There were six "mission objectives" to get through and with a little help from my game-maps I got through the first three in less than an hour. The last three take place in a single room. Do the math on how many hours I spent gunning in that room.

My "noobie" FPS technique is generally to advance, crouch and pick of the targets at a mid-distance. Pick up ammo and health packs and advance. If you are patient (and I am) you can eventually pick off all the baddies and then advance on without being attacked. Unfortunately two issues brought that technique to a grinding halt: the Shield Troopers and the game designers. The Shield Troopers crouch behind riot shields that are pretty much bulletproof and grenade proof. To get them you have to flank all around them--but they shift position to face you. So you kinda have to dash around them, taking their submachine gun fire and then blast them from the rear. Takes a lot of lives to get past this technique. The second issue is that even though I had cleared out the primary targets in the main asylum room, they kept spilling out of windows. Around 2:30am I decided enough was enough. If I quit I would loose my progress point (one glaring weakness of the game is the wide distance between save points). So I tossed caution and patience to the wind. I just blasted my way through the troops, ignored the two Shield Troopers who kept blistering me with fire and lobbed four grenades in succession at the machine gun nest to blow it--taking heavy health point losses the whole time. It worked. The final "objective" after destroying a fortified machine gun nest is to...walk out the door! (Now is that lame or what?)

Mission over. Bed.

Oh my head hurts from lack of sleep. (Alvis woke up about an hour after I went to bed with a migraine.) I don't know if I'm up to any self punishment today. Lavie is going to eat my lunch when she reads this...I hope she doesn't ground me or take away my PS2 privileges for the weekend.

But then, mission six looks sooooo cool! The Vratska Dockyard. Boats, docks, heavy cranes...lots of "destruction objective" targets.

Maybe I'll just go turn our compost pile over to exercise, and watch the new My Neighbor, Totoro on DVD first.

In related news, Mandolux has a nice, earthy dual-screen homage to My Neighbor, Totoro I put on the pc today. Although it reminds me of those Dixon Ticonderoga yellow pencils for some strange reason.

Other pencil links: The Pencil Pages , and the Dixon Ticonderoga web site. I remember reading The Pencil, A History of Design and Circumstance in high-school (for fun-I was a weird reader growing up). It was really fascinating just how much history and design work goes into making a product we don't even think about when we use it.

My secret habit is collecting ink pens. Not necessarily the fancy or unusual ones, though I have a couple. No, I have a burning intensity to buy office pens--most notably gel-ink roller ball and porous point styles. Lavie has learned not to let me wander unattended in the pen section of major office-supply stores. (Has anyone noticed a tendency for the clips on these pens to break off more quickly?) I also like drafting/art grade drawing pens--all colors welcome. I have a giant box full of them. Alvis loves to try to dig into it and I get kinda possessive if anyone tries to snatch one. I guess it comes from a desire to be a Writer that I've had ever since high-school. They are fun and neat, but honestly I think I collect them out of a sub-conscious desire to write. I mean really Write...like short stories and novels and the such. Now if I can just break out of that fear-factor and do it.

My favorite J.K.Rowling quote: "You will meet, we've all met, a hell of a lot of people who stand in bars and discuss the novels they are writing. If they were writing they'd be at home actually writing it." From transcript of Mugglenet.com interview with JKR, Herself.

Ouch-Oh! That one both hurts and encourages me at the same time. I keep it close. What can I say? I'm a glutton for self-punishment....

Hoping you have clear skies.
--Claus

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Each year our family joins with the family of a co-worker of Lavie to make the pilgrimage to the Event known as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo--or in these parts--just "The Rodeo". A month-long festival celebrating all that is Texas and Good.

Parking is generally off site. Attendees need to select one of many Metro Park-and-Ride lots around the city and are bussed in on public buses. Or you can park kinda close and hike it several long blocks. Fortunately (or rather unfortunately) due to Lavie's disability, we are able to park a good softball toss from the main gates in the handicapped parking.

It was a beautiful Saturday. The wind held a light breeze that worked well to convey the smoke from the barbecue pits across the entire grounds. I ended up getting a free mild sunburn. It was cool, but not cold.

The first sight that greeted us was the Reliant Stadium. This is the replacement to the Houston Astrodome. The Astros (our MLB NL baseball team) now plays in their own baseball stadium downtown. The Houston Texans (I still hate that name) NFL football team plays here. This is also where the main Rodeo events are held along with the concerts. It is massive and dwarfs the Astrodome...as hard as that is to believe.

Upon reaching the main gate, we were presented with this massive yellow semi. It was the Build-A-Bear workshop on 18-wheels. Alvis had to check it out. I find it interesting that last year this prime piece of Rodeo event real estate was held by the Army recruiting team. What a change a year makes--or maybe the bubbly Build-A-Bear sales girls were really black ops Army commandos recruiting the next generation of elite warriors...now that I think about it, there were some cammo outfits for the bears in there...

I think we spent most of the time shopping in the multitude of booths. The girls scored some crop-top denim jackets. There were lots of Tacky-Texas goods, lots of specialty/gourmet foods, loads of western wear from jackets to jeans to leathers to boots. Lots of handmade goods and a number of art exhibits. Quilts were on display. There were also some oddities such as a booth for hot-tubs, along with a boot for a new steam-iron, insole inserts, magic rubs (as in Dasterdly Dan's Magic Do Everything Snake Oil Special--guaranteed to cure every ailment). Ford (being a sponsor) had a number of vehicle exhibits: the coolest were the heavy trucks but they had cars there as well. Lots of farm implement dealers and tractors. Oh yeah, they also had some animals on exhibit. Goats, rabbits, cows, pigs, bees, chickens, etc....but who wants to see pictures of those things. Boring.

Ok, I do have to show this livestock related item. I guess it is a good thing chickens can't read or the Build-A-Bear special ops commando unit would be kickin into high gear. This was taken in the "kids educational center" and shows adult chickens eating from their feeder. Behind them is the helpful cartoon illustration teaching the kids (and the chickens) what awaits these cute and lovable cluckers the kiddies were all trying to pet. Notice the stages of chicken processing: Sedation, Picker, Eviscerator, Ice Bath, Packaging, Weighing, and Cold Storage. Damn, being a chicken really sucks. Rub it in Rodeo organizers--good thing the kiddies can read about as well as the chickens at this point.

Outside the exhibit hall is a series of tents where the more "bourgeois" eat. Here you will find the fancier smoked meats, mexican foods, and barbecues. And beer. Lots of beer. It's Texas, The Rodeo and Houston. What do you expect?

Beyond these tents are the Fairgrounds and Carnival, proper. Here is the real food. Just about everything is fried. Alvis had a fried Twinkie. I wasn't impressed but she thought it was awesome. Take a Twinkie, cram a stick into it, dunk it in corn batter, fry, eat. Yummm. The fresh-squeezed lemon aid was great (although Lavie and I would have preferred limes) and the roasted corn-on-the cob was to die for. Oh so good.

Alvis and I took a ride on the mid-sized ferris wheel. While airborne, I chanced a shot over my shoulder across the parking lot. In the distance you can see where the AstroWorld amusement park used to be. The only ride still visible is the old wooden roller coaster the Texas Cyclone. Previously, this view would have contained a large number of the steel frame coasters high into the air along with a dungeon-drop tower, the cable-car gondolas and the like. They have all now been auctioned off and dismantled. I had heard that the Texas Cyclone was too old to resell (in entirety) so it will never be ridden again. The other rides will be repackaged at other theme parks across the state and country. This is really sad. Alvis, Lavie and I had a lot of great family memories there. The land is worth too much against the value of the park income.

I'm a fuddy-duddy when it comes to the carnival games. I never found much pleasure in playing the carny games. They just seem rigged to me. I'd rather just hand the guy my money and walk away. That would be more entertaining. However it's hard to tell your kid/loved one "pass" with the colorful displays, the barking game operators, the smells of smoking meats and fried foods. How can you pass this stuff up. The past few years the carnies have kinda taken the edge of things. In most of the games, if you blow it bad, you still get to give the kiddies a "consolation prize". This being a tiny, small-scale toy/plushie. Oh well. Makes forking over that $5 spot a little more palatable.

The Rodeo proper kicks off around 4:45 each day. We filed into the Reliant Stadium with the other thousands of Rodeo/Concert goers. We watched: Bronco (horse) riding, Bull Riding, Chuck Wagon races, Barrel Racing (where the female rider races around three barrels in a timed event), Calf Roping, the ever delightful Calf Scramble, where kids get to chase calves all over the area floor and drag them into the center. If they succeed (more kids than calves) they get a scholarship to raise a cow for the next Rodeo and a chance to win a big time scholarship if it makes the grade and gets auctioned. The concert followed around 7pm'ish. Martina McBride was the artist. We lasted through two or three songs and decided to make a break for it. It had been a long day.

On the way out I snapped this picture at dusk of the mega-ferris wheel. It turned out pretty good. I think it was my favorite of the bunch.

I shot all the photos with our Canon Powershot S200 Digital Elph camera. Lavie has an older Pentax with tons of lenses. I have a Canon Rebel SLR I got shortly after we wedded. Both haven't been pulled out of their cases in years. I really am considering investing in a digital SLR. The pictures turned out pretty well, but are really just snapshot quality. I used to take much better photos but I just don't get the immediate satisfaction of film photography anymore. Besides, developing is still moderately expensive and you can't check then on the fly like you can with digital photography....I don't know. Just seems sad to have those nice cameras and know Lavie and I probably won't be using them much (if any) anymore.

Cowboy/Cowgirl Up!
--Claus

Media Overload

Just a quick post. Still here.

Survived the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo last Saturday. Took some pictures. I will post them soon, promise.

I've been down on the Island for the past two days working on some network issues. I was finally able to track down the source of our headache. It felt really good to resolve this particular issue. I was starting to take it very personal.

Anyway...so I get done and start the drive back into Houston. Fog was thick on the Galveston Causeway and it took me almost an hour to get down the backside of Harborside and across the Causeway, then another hour to make it home. Yuck.

On the way home I had a very important stop to make. Yesterday, was the tri-release on DVD of Hayao Miyazaki's three features: Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor, Totoro, and Whisper of the Heart. I was SO excited that these were finally out. I've been waiting since January for them. I didn't have any trouble getting Howl's but it took me some time finding the only copies of the other two the store had in stock. They seemed to have been misstocked. But succeed I did. I also grabbed the widescreen release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I was stoked. Network problems solved, THREE Miyazaki movies and HP:GOF. (Sighs) Couldn't last. When I got home and we had opened all them up, turns out I had grabbed the single disk version of HP:GOF, not the DUAL DVD release version. Alvis has been reminding me of this shortcoming for the past two days now....I guess I'll be getting that one soon... (Jim Thompson refers to the HP:GOF release at his place as the "Zero Day Exploit." I can relate, Jim!

While shopping I also picked up a player's guide to BLACK, that PS2 game I picked up. I really wanted it for the maps. I've been spending too much time lost in a forest. I'm picking the game-play up pretty fast now. The first mission had several stages. (Public notice: I admit I'm playing on the easy level right now.) I got past the first one (pre-guide) on the first day. It took me three days to get past the second stage. I got past the rest in about two hours. I cleared the entire second mission in three hours. There are a total of eight missions (I think). Once I clear these I'm going to replay on the normal level. If you clear all the missions on each higher difficulty level, you get to unlock some bonus treats with "silver-grade" weaponage (ammo never runs out). Clear all of them and you apparently get some super-awesome, mega destructive assault rifle--with unlimited ammo. For massive destruction. Well worth playing them all for. There are lots of strategy tips in the guide, but I really find it most useful (like I said) for the maps since there is a lot of territory to cover and it can get really confusing in all the trenches, pipes, and buildings after a while. Most hard-core gamers would laugh at me, but this isn't really my normal gaming fare. I'm having a real blast. Even Lavie seems to enjoy looking over my shoulder pointing out things for me to take out and collect! It's really funny. It's too brutal for Alvis and she is sulking about that.

We are watching Harry Potter Goblet of Fire right now. I really love the set designs and cinematography but I have to confess the writing and acting is kinda getting on my nerves in this release. It is way too serious--and comes off being almost over the top. We also are heavy readers of the series and this one takes some liberties with the plot and characters (missing in action in the movie). So although we are enjoying it, it is leaving a bit to be desired.

Been noticing some issues with my Roadrunner Cable broadband service. For the past couple of weeks downloads have been petering out halfway through. I am also having trouble loading large media files (ala Rocketboom). I've reset both my router and my cable router. No difference. Page loads seem ok, but it is just the larger downloads that seem to stall out. Happens on both Lavie's laptop and our desktop pc's. I've been too busy with my workplace networking issues to take the time to call TimeWarner, but this weekend I'm going to work the phone system there and get them to run some diagnostics.

Anyone else run into this problem with them?

See you in the skies...
Claus

The Odd Day Off

Ok, today I get a day off. It's Texas Independence Day. Even if it is a mid-week break, I'll take it. I checked and found I have accumulated a garmoungous pile of linkage for blogging--so I need to clean house. This may get long, but you might be able to find some gems in here.

Last post I mentioned that Lavie got a new laptop. It (and she) are humming along nicely, thank you very much. What I didn't mention is that a day later Claus had to get himself a new toy as well. See, our 14 year old VCR began to give up the ghost. It still worked, but replay of tapes were starting to show a funky split-screen view on playback. Sometimes I could fix it by popping in a commercial tape from our vast Disney VHS tape collection, but this trick was working less and less. So I went to get a new one.

I soon discovered that VCR's are hard to find. Oh, I had no trouble finding a VCR embedded in a TV unit, and there were LOTS of VCR/DVD combos, but I already had both a TV and DVD so I didn't need one more of either. I finally checked a local big-box electronics store and they had two (JUST TWO!) VCR models. I grabbed the Sony SLV-N750 model. At first I thought I was settling, but soon found it had a ton of features. It does some wicked-fast high-speed tape winding. It has some auto-search/skip features and to my surprise, it is even able to decode some carrier signals to display program names and times--kinda like basic TiVO. Neat! I'm not against DVR's like TiVO, in fact, I'd really like to try building my own some day. But we have that vast collection of Disney VHS tapes I just can't let go of, and it's hard enough to watch the few shows we VCR anyway. Overall, I'm very pleased with it. My first experience with VCR's was when my parents got a Betamax unit--although I can't remember if it was a Sony or Zenith. It was great. The tapes were small and the quality of replay high. The very first movie we rented for it was STRIPES. I really loved that movie. Bill Murray still rocks. He should have got an Oscar for his work in Lost in Translation. He was robbed!

On to the pile....

Update Headaches:
My iTunes (v6.0.1.3) reported (internally) that the new update version from Apple was 6.0.3. Time for an Quicktime Player iTunes update, right? Well, not so fast there partner. A little more checking found that the newest version was 6.0.4. So I downloaded directly from Apple and ended up getting version 6.0.4.2.

Next I checked ZoneAlarm. My current version was 6.1.737.000 and an internal check for updates found none available. Yet ZoneLabs has v6.1.744.000 now available for download--which I did. What gives?

So, dearest readers, what's Claus's tip for knowing the latest versions--even when the applications don't seem to know? I RSS feed a handy site called VersionTracker.com. Go check it out and add it to your feeds. Now you will never be behind the software times any more!

Gamage:
Unlike my brother, I don't usually go for FPS's. I tend more to circuit racing games, puzzle games, some fantasy quests. But I am going to go get Black for our PS2 next visit to my software dealer. Matt Brett gives a good review that is in line with most others I've read. Mowing down baddies full-auto looks to be a good stress reliever after beating my head against IPX frustrations.
If your tastes run to the more peaceful side, Stuff offers a freeware UNO cardcame simulator. We have about 10 different versions of this game in our house and it never stops being fun to play.
Neave Games offers some fun on-line (Java?) retro-arcade games including Asteroids, Space Invaders, Simon, Snake, Tetris, and Frogger is coming soon.
Sudoku on-line at the chron.com. [via JimThompson.org]
KatamariDamacy wallpapers galore.

Graphic Arts:
GLASHAUS - The Portfolio of Peter Hoffman. Beautifully Modern/Modernly Beautiful.
Mom had a couple Da Vinci sketches beautifully frames. So when I came across The Da Vinci Lode [via Drawn] I just had to share.
Tutorial - how to clone people (in Photoshop) [via energyface]
Paint.net - an incredible freeware app started by Washington State University and mentored by Microsoft. It has some very "Photoshop-like" tools, layers, etc. But is great for users who don't want to RTFM. (Note requires MS's .Net software.)
WetPaint - contains some very nice tutorials to show you some basics in using Paint.net. Worth a look. I hope to see more in the near future!
More OpenSource graphic applications (I've mentioned many before): GIMP (image editor/manipulator), Blender (3d modeler), Inkscape (vectors), Scribus (desktop publishing/layout), Xara (vectors/rendering). [via Libre Graphics Meeting in Lyon, France]
TypeNow - Free tv/movie themed font sets. (Like you don't have enough fonts already...)

Software Goodies:
100-downloads.com - A giant list of categorized freeware. Great reference link.
Partition Saving -- DOS level partition copy program. [via downloadsquad]
EarthView - dynamic desktop wallpaper/screen-saver. Shows earth with the solar terminator. Neato.
Clack Graphical Router Project on-line tutorial (JAVA) on how Internet hardware and protocols work. Kinda cool and geeky fun. Nice way to teach the in-laws.

Web-world/Google'ishousness:
Firefox Extension Development Tutorial -- Tired of using other's extensions for Firefox? Learn how to make your own!
gMail adds smart replying feature [via Lifehacker] Could be handy.
Tutorial - gMail guide for Webmasters (With more than one Email Address)
Google Page Creator [via Google Blogoscoped] (new accounts currently on hold due to popular demand--of course.)
Create your own favicon for your website. [chami.com] I'll be adding this to my blog later today--now, what picture to use.....
Take a peek into the facility at Google Japan! love those Japanese vending machines!
Box.net -- another free online file storage site. I signed up for this one. Paul Satamatiou gives a fantastic review of this service. It seems that bloggers could use this service to share files (keep it legal!) with readers. Use my referral link to sign yourself up for a box.net account and maybe I can get an upgrade! I'll let you know what I experience with it.

Anime/Manga:
New Ghost in the Shell related anime announcement. [via Anime News Network]
Sudio Ghibli annouces reopening of Totoro House.
Tenchi Muyo-Ryo Okhi volumes two and three coming in Fall '06 (FINALLY!)
Fred Gallagher (MegaTokyo) annouces DC Comics will publish Volume 4. Great interview and picture of the Volume 4 cover over at Comicon.com PULSE

PodCasts-IT Security:
LiveAmmo Security News Blog has Part 2 of a Podcast on Digital Forensics and Hacking Investigations up. Not for everyone, but some sysadmins may find it interesting.
Security Now podcasts Wonderfully informative content provided by Steve Gibson (GRC) and Leo Laporte (former TechTV host). Great stuff for everyone, not just sysadmins.

Odds at the End:
Ryugyong Hotel - Pyongyang, North Korea [via GoogleSightseeing] more info here. Kinda creepy.
Benjamin Franklin's Virtue Chart: More Info here.

Parting Thought:
NewYork City Union Square Pillow Fight. [via Rocketboom] Now if we could just work our our world-differences this way instead of spending bazillions in defense spending and wars......

See you in the skies,
--Claus

Lavie Happy, Claus Tired...

Yes dearest friends, we are still here. It's been very busy around the Valca homestead this past week....

Let's see...first announcement: Lavie has a brand new laptop. Last week I posted that we were planning on going out and looking at them. Well, we came back home with a laptop in tow. (I bet a lot of you saw that coming didn't you?) It is a Compaq Presairo V2575US model. Those who care can look up the link and check out the detailed specs, but to summarize: 1GB memory, 100GB HDD, 14" widescreen display, wireless, DVD/CD burner (with LightScribe), and oh yeah, it has a Turion64 processor. Geez, this thing is faster and more tricked out than my desktop. It came loaded with XP Home edition so we aren't pressing the 64bit processor yet. I think I will wait until Vista rolls out to upgrade it since (for now) Lavie won't be using any programs that can really take advantage of it. Here is a review of a similar model that is pretty close to our experience with it. Set up was much faster that the Dell. Almost no 3rd party ware and that was quickly removed with the Add/Remove list. Nothing sneaky found in the autoruns/startup groups.

I've had a really frustrating week at work last week. I've got a bunch of users who sit inside another location's network as part of the contract we maintain. They are our pc's but we get to use their network. It hasn't been a problem for years until two weeks ago when they upgraded a (yet undisclosed) component of their network. I suspect it was a switch or router. Anyway suddenly one of the programs they use (which uses IPX protocol) no longer connects up in a reliable manner. The office network team swears they have everything back to normal but it clearly isn't. My specialty is desktop support and security, not really networking. But I have been learning all about IPX protocol trying to troubleshoot the issue. See, if it was our network, we'd have it tested and inspected in about an hour, but this place is much different. IP works great and fast, just the IPX protocol is having issues. I can run ipx-ping and get good enough response times, but Win2K doesn't automatically pick up that there is an IPX protocol available. I have to go into the property settings and come back out (no changes necessary) for it to pick up the IPX network. Then I can do a ipxroute ripout (network) command and then run the ipxroute config to see that it found it correctly. It's this way across all the machines and even after doing a full system reload (just to test) the problem remains...so it is clearly an issue on the network side...kinda like the ipx network isn't broadcasting it's availability, but will acknowledge if it is requested. So since the location's network team swears nothing is wrong on their side, I'm working on a batch file to run at startup to clear the IPX settings on the board, then rescan and load the IPX network, so our app will work. It's very frustrating to have a site that was working perfectly fine go down due to a hardware upgrade. Oh well. I'm (kinda) having fun learning some of these arcane ipx command line tools....

Over at RetroThing, I found a link to the Casio VL-Tone. My brother and I had one of these things growing up. It was really fun to play with. I bet we tortured our poor parents to death. I really like the drum-beat that you could speed up the tempo with until it was almost unintelligiblly fast. Ah memories.

We missed a recent episode of LOST so I got searching for an episode summary guide (yes I could get it via iTunes but it's bound to rerun again soon). I found several fun things:

Episodes of Lost (season 2) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Episodes of Lost (season 1) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Download your own DHARMA countdown timer
Konfabulator Widget version

It's late. I have ton's more cool linkage I collected this past week, but my brain is tired, I still have five more loads of laundry to shuffle through the system, and I think I want to turn my brain off and watch "Lost in Translation" before going to bed.

I promise to share the linkage sometime mid-week-ish.

See you in the skies,
Claus