Tuesday, March 23, 2004

I was feeling fine when I went to bed Saturday night. Then woke up in the middle of the night with the 'grumbles' (gas, bloating, burping, etc). So I spent all of Sunday relaxing between trips to the small reading room, and resting. Kept drinking water, had a bit of applesauce and dry toast, and made it through the day. But didn't even have enough energy to surf the net. I did get to the airport to pick up Pam from her trip to Idaho.

Still not recovered through Sunday night, I didn't sleep well that night, so stayed home from work Monday. Made it to work today, although there is still some residual rumbling going on. I get these symptoms occasionally, and it usually takes a couple of days to recover. Resting is a good thing.

I did get a few things accomplished today at work. I set up some more scheduled BindView auditing reports, with the results to be emailed to the appropriate network administrator in charge of that part of the network. I also worked on an update to the computer and laptop setup requirements.

My new iPaq also came in today, so I spent most of the afternoon setting that up and playing with it a bit. I need to install the sync program on the laptop here, and then get some additional programs installed on it.

After work, we went over to the in-law's house to show someone the travel trailer. They were interested, but they only have a half-ton truck. Since the trailer weighs about 9500 pounds, a 3/4 ton truck is needed to tow that thing. Pam's dad had a 2003 Ford F-250 (Diesel) that we also need to sell. They are going to think about it. It was the first response to the ad that started on Saturday. You can take a peek at it here.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

(3:30pm) "Oops" (as John Dominik and Brian C tell me), the links to the travel trailer pix were "borked" (aka "I screwed up"). I had rearranged things a bit, but didn't do a final test from these pages, because I thought I knew what I was doing (a common mistake on my part). All better now, including the links on last week's pages.

Thursday, March 25, 2004

I meant to write some more last night, but got involved playing with my new toy, an iPaq 4150. This one has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in. It's ultimate use will be to look for rogue wireless networks around work.

Yesterday, I stood outside the building (it's in the downtown area) and picked up several wireless nodes. I managed to connect to one of them, and was able to surf the net and send out some email. (Or attempt to send out the mail; I had the wrong values in the mail server fields.)

So when I got home, I decided to try to connect to my home wireless network. But first, dinner, which happened to be barbequed chicken breasts. While they were cooking, I watched the neighborhood wireless networks, and tried to connect to them. No luck, but after dinner I sat down in the family room and connected to my own wireless network, after I entered the WEP key. Although I could see the SSID name, and the iPaq could connect to the network, there was no authentication (and full connectivity) until I entered the WEP key. Once that was done, I was able to open Internet Explorer on the iPaq, and take a look at a few web sites. Pam was quite impressed with my geekiness.

Then I set up a printer on the iPaq (it comes with HP wireless printing support) that connected to my printer in the office through the wireless network. That was quite clever, too. All of that took some time, but it was fun to do.

Nothing significant at work today. But I was able to find some more time this afternoon to install a program call PocketWinC (from Cirond), which is a wireless network sniffer that works similar to Stumbler. It's quite clever, and works really well, and only costs $20 (you can download a full evaluation version that will work for 30 days). I again wandered around outside the office to sniff out some WAPs (wireless access points), and to get more familiar with the program. It was a bit rainy (light showers, mostly) this afternoon, so I didn't wander too far. I didn't find any open connections, but will be experimenting more.

After work (and dinner at home with some excellent BLT's -- Pam makes the bacon nice and crispy), we wandered over to Barnes & Nobles bookstore to check out some vacation planning information. We're thinking of the NorthEast, maybe Washington DC, or perhaps Hawaii. I picked up a 2600 magazine (got to keep up with what the hackers are thinking about, although it's mostly just low-level stuff), and a magazine about PDA's (there were some good hints in there for the iPaq). I had brought along the iPaq, but didn't sniff any WAPs inside the store.

Then we went over to Best Buy to wander around a bit. I wanted to look at a PDA stylus pen (the stylus that comes with the iPaq is a bit short for my large hands). They only had one for $13, but I figured I could find one cheaper at Cyberguys (I did later, a 4-in-1 with three color pens and a stylus for about $8.00). (Hey, John Dominik -- you make PDA stylus pens along with the other wood pens you make? [You should go check out his pens, they are quite impressive, and each one is hand made.] ) I did find a little laptop optical mouse with a retractable cord for $25, so I grabbed that. It connects to the USB port (doesn't everything nowadays?), and works pretty well. It takes a bit getting used to it's small size, though; it feels a bit funny.

Tomorrow is Friday, a welcome day. The weather is supposed to clear up and get back into the 70's (F) this weekend. And it's a three-day weekend, courtesy of Cesar Chavez (local farm labor hero around here). Good excuse for a day off.

Friday, March 26, 2004

Another day, another virus. This time it's a new Bagel; if you get a message with a blank subject line and message, it will include an executable file. Of course, don't open the executable. Just delete the message and move on. McAfee released an update today, since Bagel.U was starting to get widespread.

Bagel.U started appearing last night on our mail servers. Since we block all executables, no matter what, we caught a couple dozen of Bagel.U before McAfee released the update. As we've said before, blocking executables is a good practice for everyone.

I did a bit of cleaning and organizing in my cube today. Got rid of about three boxes of old files. That made a bit more room for current things. I also worked with the iPaq a bit more.

After work, we stopped by the AAA (auto association) to take care of a car registration; much faster than waiting in a big long line at the state's motor vehicle offices. It only took ten minutes. We also grabbed some maps and brochures, to help plan for our vacation. We still haven't decided where to go yet.

A stop at Target to look for a cell phone case for my Nokia 6800, but I didn't find one that fit quite right. I did find a book to read, though. Then off to Mel's Drive-In for dinner. I had a club sandwich with some clam chowder, and Pam went for the fish/chips with clam chowder. It was all good, of course.

Then home to work a bit on some church work; making some phone calls for appointments. Pam is getting addicted to the Jawbreaker game on the iPaq; it's a good thing I brought the charger home. I did order a USB charger/sync cable from Cyberguys; that should arrive next week. Cyberguys is a good place to find all sorts of computer stuff, including the 'extreme computing' stuff. Prices on cabling and other things is quite good, and shipping is reasonable and fast. Recommended.

The local PBS station has an interesting show "The Journey of Sacagawea", the young American Indian women who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition in the early 1800's. Interesting show. I think I'll pay a bit more attention to it now.

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Saturdays are good for sleeping in a bit. Rather than get up at 5:30am, I was able to wait until 7:30am. Shower, breakfast, then I helped a bit with the Saturday cleaning. My job is to vacuum, which does take a while in this house. Pam worked on the kitchen, and mopped all the tile in the kitchen and entry way. That also takes a bit of time with your standard spongy mop thing. We're thinking about getting one of those hard floor scubbers. The grout on the tile gets a bit dirty (the tile and grout is beige-colored). I think that would be a lot easier to do, and would get the floor cleaner. The floor needs a new coat of tile sealer, so the scubber would do a good job of prepping the floor for that job.

After a short break, we decided to go for a drive. The weather was excellent, just a few puffy clouds, and temps in the mid-70's. So we drove up to Nevada City and wandered around the old Empire Gold Mine, now a state park. The Empire mine was a big underground gold mine. It was quite large, with shafts a couple of miles deep and more. It covered quite a large area, and turned out 12 million ounces of gold over it's time. The place shut down in the 1950's, and all the mine shafts are now filled with water again, but there are still the shops and mining equipment left. We wandered around there for about an hour, then stopped into Raley's (grocery store) for some fresh BBQ Tri-Tip sandwiches, which were quite good. Then a drive through the foothills back home, through Colfax (another town established during the Gold Rush), and back home. It was a nice day for a drive, and was quite pleasant.

Once home, I puttered around in the garage a bit, putting some large hooks on the garage wall for the extension ladder. And I straightened up the workbench a bit. But this is a new house, and there isn't much puttering stuff to do on a Saturday. The yard is taken care of for me (the gardening service came with the house, and is quite reasonable), so I don't even have to mow the lawn.

So I grabbed a book and sat out on the back patio and read a bit. I also used the iPaq a bit more. It connects to my personal wireless network, so am able to surf the net a bit. Not all sites work well on the small screen of the iPaq. Some sites automatically reformat themselves for the smaller screen, others require a bit of left-right scrolling. I'm not sure of the reason for that yet.

I had mentioned the other day about the new little USB mouse I purchased at Best Buy. I heard from "Angus S-F", who said:

Too bad you didn't see this little gem: Fellowes 3-Button Cordless Mini Optical USB Scroll Mouse http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=99197

I took a peek at that. It's a wireless mouse that connects to a USB port, and costs about $18. It's looks like a good alternative for a wired mouse, but you do have to keep it recharged, or carry around extra batteries. The one I have has a retractable cord, and comes with a nice drawstring bag to hold it. So, there are other choices. This one works well for me, though.

And Brian C. tells me that I should be careful with my rouge networks. He thinks that color is just not right.

Last Week

Next Week

mail

bookmark

The Digital Choke story