As I’ve hinted in a few posts, I received new machines for work. (Thanks Chuck!) I got a laptop and a desktop, both Dells, and I’m happy with both of them. I setup the desktop first, and was able to install Fedora Core 3 on it and move my existing home directory and configurations over to it fairly easy. My previous desktop was running RedHat 9, but things pretty much stayed the same. The big boost is the dual-monitors, which are growing more on me everyday. The key point on the desktop is I could move in without doing a lot of stuff.

I unpackaged the laptop this afternoon and started working on it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it came with Windows XP Professional with SP2. I figured we would have ordered the cheapest OS possible and done a reinstall when it arrived (since we have licenses for all the MS software we need.) Because everything was pre-installed, I can just work from there. It’s even nicer that the built in BIOS/OS functions, like the volume buttons and such, work out of the box. But, now it’s time to install software. What’s the first must-install packages you add? Here’s what I did so far:

1. McAfee VirusSan (8.0 version)
2. Firefox
3. WinZip
4. WinAmp

Trillian and Cygwin will be added soon. Acrobat, Flash, and Thunderbird will be installed soon too. The VPN client, some sort of SSH client (putty or the SSH.com licensed one,) TeraTerm Pro (for serial console access,) Microsoft Office, iTunes, QuickTime, Tivo Desktop (heh heh)… Anything else I’m missing?

The day I’m having a bad morning at work, I rip off the page-a-day calendar and it reads:

Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation. It’s not what they’re doing or should be doing that’s the issue. The issue is your own chosen response to the situation and what you should be doing. If you start to think the problem is “out there,” stop yourself. That thought is the problem.

It reminds me of my customer service training, and the fact you have to give permission to people to make you upset. The trick to keeping a cool head is never to permit someone to make you angry.

Or something. The wireless works. Honest. It might not work for you, but it works for the hundreds of other people who are in the building everyday. Your crappy card or tablet has a poor wireless implementation, either in hardware or drivers. I didn’t make your hardware or write your drivers. It’s not my fault. Buy better equipment. If your jalopy breaks down, do you blame the city that paved the road? [/end rant]

It’s been a few of those weeks where the days flow together, and although you’ve been busy the whole time, you can look back on it and not really feel like you did anything. That makes it difficult to record things. This will be a potpourri entry.

The students are back. My quiet, cozy college town got crazy again. In the last week, I’ve had more support requests at work than I can remember (for a spring semester,) and the killer is most of them don’t directly involve me. I’m getting contacts for things like spam and printing and passwords when they should really be going to someone else (or, better, getting answered on a webpage.) To show how busy I’ve been, my new desktop and laptop for work came in Friday and I didn’t even have the chance to look at the boxes. Setting up those machines will be a next week project. (Pre-answer, Fedora Core 3 and WinXPSP2 … and if you ask me which is which, you haven’t heard my rant on people who put linux on a laptop.)

The Illini have bettered their season to 19-and-oh, defeating every opponent so far, even if it wasn’t always pretty. Thursday was the closest win yet against Iowa in Champaign — a game that went into OT before the Illini pulled away. Tuesday, we have our toughest road game of the season… Going to Madison. The Badgers haven’t lost the last 38 games at home. The Illini haven’t lost the last 19 games this season. I have faith in our team, but Wisconsin’s no push over and they are going to be tough to squelch up in Madison. I wish I could be there to see this game. That’s the thing about streaks…. they’re only good until someone ends them. The good news is Kansas’s undefeated streak was ended this weekend with an embarassing loss to Villanova. I know we won’t go through the season loss-less, and I’m glad to see Kansas go first.

Campus parking notified me I came up on the waiting list for the parking lot just south of Siebel Center (named B2, thus the title of this post.) I’ve been on that list since I started full time a few years ago. It’s a small lot and there’s not that much turnover, so it took a while. But now that I’m in the parking deck, I think I’m going to stay there. The lot is cool because it’s closer and I could see my car from my office window. But it’s a rock lot outside. The deck is better because it’s covered (great for snow and ice handling,) but it’s a half block away. What do you think, faithful readers?

Went to a doctor this week to get my allergies/phelgm problem looked at. Turns out, it’s not an allergy but a gland problem on one-half of my face that’s swollen up my throat and is messing with my saliva process. I thought I was just gaining weight in the neck, but those are actually swollen glands. Been like that for a while. My doc referred me to an ear nose and throat guy, but I’m an educated person; I prefer to call him a otolaryngologist. Last time I was in Christie, I was helping Tony get his molars ripped out and the people were nice enough. I’ll let you know how that goes. My guess is I’ll get some antibiotics, and I’ll finally be able to finish a meal without gagging.

I’ve been trying to burn through my Netflix movies, since my queue has grown over 120 movies and with TV and basketball being on, I don’t watch enough DVDs. I “sold” one of my spots to Eric, so he’s got his own queue now and is loading it with his choice of sucky movies. Speaking of sucky movies, don’t bother seeing Three Kings. Elf was good.

In other news, Johnny Carson passed away today. I wish him a sincere and heart-felt goodnight.

TiVo on hunt for new chief executive.

I’m thinking about applying.

Thunderstorms in January are an odd thing. It shouldn’t be pouring down rain and thundering and lightning-ing when it’s 35 degrees out. If the rain turns to snow, I’m turning on Lewis Black.[1] The storms are making the power in the house flicker. This is the second time in as many days I’ve had power problems.

Yesterday morning, around 8am, I woke up to a BOOM, then a click, and then silence. I don’t know what happened, but it took all the power away. I figured it was just a momentary thing. If I laid in bed long enough, the power would come back on, and I could snooze the radio again and sleep a little longer. But it didn’t come back on. And the UPS in the other room’s beeping was more annoying than the alarm clock, so I got up to check things out.

It’s sad that the one day I get up early for work, and have time for coffee, I can’t make it because there’s no power.[2]

So, I scraped together as many candles as I could, and showered by candle light. That’s really odd. Can’t say I’ve done that before. I got cleaned up pretty quickly and was on my way to work in no time — the house is boring without electricity. As I was leaving the driveway (after manually raising the garage door, then going back through the house, struggling to get it to shut all the way, yadda yadda) I saw an AmerenIP truck nearby. I guess they noticed. When I got home that evening, I learned the power had been out for about 5 hours before it turned back on. Too bad it couldn’t have silently gone out; I could have used the extra hours of sleep.

The grad school application stuff is going in the mail tomorrow. Wish me luck.

The Illini are still playing well. We play tomorrow night at Assembly Hall and try to continue our 16-and-oh run. ESPN tonight was going on and on about how the Illini are coming to Wisconsin later this month, and Dukie V has penciled it “Upset City.” I really wish he wasn’t calling that game — he can be such a blowhole when he’s not stroking his beloved ACC. I agree the Illini will need all their wits about them. Wisconsin has the longest winning streak at home (37 games as of tonight.) Let’s try to end that.

I’m behind on reading on all the good things to come out of CES. I wish I could have gone; maybe next year. I did see Apple released their flash-based iPod today. I only need one more referral to get a TiVo iPod, and I’m close to getting that. I would still consider getting the Shuffle iPod, if Cstores is selling them at a discount. I’m better off putting my money into a new desktop at home so I can play with TiVoToGo, whenever I finally get it.

[1] BTW, Matt told me the big angry man is touring and coming to STL and CHI in the coming weeks. Anyone want to go?

[2] Bonus points to you if you thought of running the coffee maker off the UPS. I didn’t realize that at the time, but I had just woken up.

Halloween-2003 004

Originally uploaded by TromboneKenny.

Testing from Flickr.

Here’s something to think about for 2005. And I’m done for tonight. Honest.

It’s the Bruce Mau Design Incomplete Manifesto for Growth It’s one of those “Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten” lists, but not so lame. I think everyone could take a few of those ideas into their lives. Props to Chantelle for showing that to me.

[ Warning... This is one of those long, windy thoughtful, reflective posts. If you get bored easily, move along. ]

The week after Christmas is a relatively slow news time for most of the outlets I follow, and invariably many of them did ‘year in review’ articles. Some reviewed gadgets, some music, some news events. Some I read with a chuckle, some I agreed with, many I did not. For me, 2004 wasn’t really a bumper year. I’ve reflected on it, but I’m indifferent. I feel like I worked hard, I got some rewards for it, and I took opportunies when they were offered to me. I don’t have regrets, but I wish I could say it was a kick ass year. So that’s my first resolution: Have the 2005 wrap up be better than this one.

Post-Christmas this year wasn’t completely without news. The earthquake and tsunami that has devistated east Asia is massively terrible. Over one hundred and fifty five thousand people are dead, and the death tolls go up each time I check the news. Wikipedia tells me 2400 were killed at Pearl Harbor 60 years ago, and 3000 were killed on September 11, 2001. We’re talking about 155,000 people and I bet that number passes 200k before it’s done. I just can’t imagine one moment fishing in the ocean, in the boat your father’s father bought, and having it just end. I can’t imagine blissfully sunning yourself on the beach, on the vacation you saved up for months for, to be wiped away. I can’t imagine all of Champaign Urbana and its surburban towns just dying. It was easier on September 12th, because we could be angry at someone. This is the worst human tradegy I hope I ever see. I want to give to someone. I want to help someone who had lost everything, and everyone. I want to be that kind of person. I’m trying to find good aid places, and when I do, I’ll donate. I ask all of you to do the same. In 2005, and for the rest of my life, I will try to be a giving person. I’ll try to enjoy life, and the people I share it with, because, hey, you don’t know when the next wave is going to hit.

Other things, in no particular order that I liked about 2004 and wanted to reflect here about:

TiVo is a perennial favorite. I’ve had mine two years now, and still think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I’m glad to see the DVR market is expanding, and I think the future of television watching will have TiVo-like features. Make no mistake… TiVo is the Rolls-Royce of DVRs. If you have a DVR by your cable or satellite company, as I do as well — it’s no where near as easy, as functional, or as featureful as TiVo. I liked watching the summer Olympics on TiVo. I called them TiVOlympics. I recorded 18 hours of Olympics daily, and was able to fast forward through that coverage to watch just the sports I wanted. Some events, like running or swimming, I could do in fast forward (I called it “fast-swimming”) and just slow down for the starts and finish. I loved the instant reply with some of the awsome (and sometimes painful) events… (Like the opening and closing ceremonies.) TiVOlympics were great, and have me looking forward to the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Closely tied to TiVo was Jeopardy! and Ken Jennings. A week or so into Ken’s run I read about him online, and decided to make a Season Pass for Jeopardy! so I could watch it again. I haven’t watched the show since high school, and I’m much better at it now. I think 2004 was a great year for the show, because I know their ratings were up when Ken was playing. Ken did for Jeopardy! what Michael Phelps did for the Olympics. It gave all of us hope of being great, and sweeping success. I think both stars (athletes?) did a great job. I’m happy to be watching Jeopardy! again – it’s one of my favorite shows on the TiVo. If they ever have auditions nearby again, I think I’ll try out.

2004 was the year I found out all of my wisdom teeth are in, and they’re normal. No impactions or extractions necessary. How’s that for being evolved? I resolve in 2005 I will floss more, so the nice hygenist won’t yell at me.

Ars.technica called 2004 the year of the iPod. The little devices outsold everything else Apple produces. I don’t own one, so I don’t know what the buzz is about, but I know digital music had a big year. This year, I started using iTunes and downloading more music than I have before. It’s easy to find music online now, legally, and get info about new music. I listen to more streaming audio from net radio stations (like WOXY or Wazee or SomaFM) than I do real radio. I found the band Hawthorne Heights online, and bought their CD. I like using the Internet to learn and find new things. I like that I could go to a Dave Matthews Band concert, and then less than week later be listening to a taper’s recording of the show, which I downloaded legally on a Bittorrent network. Digital music is way cool. If you’re not using it already, you should try it in 2005.

I bought a house in 2004. That’s something, but I don’t think of it as a great personal accomplishment. In the end, it’s not like I did something nobody else could do… Buying is like renting. It gives you a roof over your head. That’s about it. It was an interesting process, and I liked the realtor multiple listing service for its searching and browsing. It’s made me very conscious of a whole other side to ‘for sale’ signs I see around the neighborhood. I still like my house. I would like to resolve in 2005 to spend more time in it, but I enjoy being social and visiting with my family.

I was going to save this to the end, but it’s a good segue. My family and my friends are some of my best reflections of 2004. I can’t imagine doing it again without you. It doesn’t matter if we were painting rooms, moving stuff from house to house, vacationing, site seeing, playing card or board games, watching movies, laughing, crying, gambling, eating… A year-in-review post would be horribly lacking if I didn’t mention the great people I got to spend the year with. Thank you.

I said in a previous post the 2004 was the year of the blog. I think for the most part that’s true. In 2005, I want to learn more about blog social networks and how to find information and people who blog like I do. I want to continue updating, tweaking, and improving my blog experience. I want to convince my friends and family to blog and share their thoughts, frustrations, and opinions. One of my other resolutions is to keep in touch with my friends and family better. Hopefully, blogs will help all of us towards that goal.

The final days of 2004 I submitted my application information for grad school. I hope that pans out. If so, this time next year I’ll be starting my second semester of grad school, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot to post about.

Poker was a hot, hot fad in 2004. You could tell by the little stands in the mall and at stores that poker chips and sets were big gifts this fall. World Series of Poker, Celebrity Poker Showdown, World Poker Tour… All are big poker shows. Online gambling is big, big money right now (but I don’t do it, and I resolve that I never will.) One of my new years resolutions is to start winning.

Of course, there are the standard resolutions: Be more active, be more giving, eat more steak. Those have been my three the last few years, although I don’t think I’ve made enough progress in any of them. But that’s what this blog post is about… reflecting on the past and looking forward to the future. I think I should sleep less in 2005 and do more, especially in the be more active category. That’s hard to do when it’s so cold outside, but I have a long year to work at it. Anyone willing to help me with those goals?

Happy New Year everyone.

To be admin, or not to be admin? That is the question.

It’s good system administration practice not to run as a superuser unless you need to. Normal operations shouldn’t require you to have system-wide affecting powers. If you get hacked, or a virus, the damage is more contained if you are just a user and not an administrator.

For that reason, my everyday Windows (and unix) accounts aren’t superuser accounts. I am a Power User on Windows. However, after the SP2 upgrade, I found out I couldn’t change the firewall rules without being an admin. And I’m not going to logout/log back in, twice, just to let one of my applications access the Internet. So I need to either disable the firewall or change my account to be an Administrator.

I chose to make myself an admin. That should fix a few other issues too, like software installs, and being able to make some changes to my wired and wireless interfaces. I don’t like doing this, but I think it’s commonly done. I wanted to post here to ask about that…. Do readers here normally run with admin privledges on their Windows boxes?

1…3…5…7, 1…3…5…7, UH. That means something to bandos.

01/03/05 means something to me. It was my 26th birthday, which (as someone pointed out to me) means almost nothing. It’s more than halfway to fifty, so that’s something. Hopefully my auto insurance will go down some more. That’d be nice.

It’s been a great holiday run, but it’s been busy. A week and days at home, a short hop back in CU, and a few more days in Indiana and Chicagoland have finally passed, and I’m back home. The house is trashed, all the clothes are dirty, the TiVo and Netflix are patiently waiting for attention, and I’m tired. Would I do it again? Of course I would. It doesn’t change the fact I’m tired. I have gifts to play with and thank you notes to write.

We went to the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, IN where I ended my craps run $10 up after losing almost $100. It was neat. I also stood next to a guy betting the Don’ts and learned a few things. Back at Casino Viciwek, I also played the Don’t and made over $300 in play money. I think I might have a new craps strategy.

My Illini are perfect going into BigTen play at home Wednesday night. 14-0. That’s more games than the rest of the conference, and we’ve won it all. There’s no way we will go the entire season without a loss, and I don’t anticipate one tomorrow, but damn it’s a good feeling. Football bowls are fun to watch too… maybe the Illini will be in one next year.

Mom called yesterday and said that Winston’s blood work came back low, which is not a good thing. This happened before that brought him to the ICU and almost death. We’re keeping an eye on him, but I know chemo is nasty stuff. He’s a fighter, though, so he’ll pull through.

TiVo released their TiVoToGo software this week, that lets you take content off the TiVo and watch it on your desktop or laptop. I think it’s pretty neat, and we’ve been waiting for it a long time. I’m waiting for my TiVo to get the update (they’re slowly introducing the update to measure support load, etc.) but I’m hopeful it will be cool.

Oh, and the pipes that feed water to the washing machine in my house are leaking, leaving big puddles on the floor and wet drywall. I’ve got them turned off for now until I can find where the leak is to even start to search for solutions or call a plumber. I can’t go without doing my laundry, but I don’t want yet-another-January bill. This comes right after the Maxima had its 30,000 tuneup (or, rather, half the tune-up because I didn’t have $600 to spend on preventative maintenance.)