I've fallen behind in my writings. My goal is to write something once a week. Why? There are all of 3 people that read this but that's not the point. I write because it feels good. Plain and simple.
In the past 2 months i've not been in a position to have my phone off anymore. My current job requires me to have my phone on 24/7 because of my on-call status. Irritating. I sampled what it felt like to have my phone off the other weekend while camping in Georgia. Phone died and i didn't charge it right away since i was with my friend/coworker. For the bulk of the day, i actually didn't have that weight in my left pocket like usual. It rarely rings. I rarely get txts/pages. Yet i'm constantly aware that it's there.
I used to believe that i could get by without my cell phone if need be. I've spent some idle time lately wondering if that's still true. If not for work, could i handle just walking away from my cell phone completely? Can i handle losing that level of attachment?
After much reflection i believe that i can still handle life without a cell (if not for that pesky job thingy). Those brief couple hours where my phone was dead while camping were nice. When my phone was in my tent, i never really felt awkward or even acknowledged that anything was different. It's not so much that i felt like i felt that my pocket felt "light" without it or even that i felt the absence of it. It's more that i just didn't even notice it either way.
I've since realized i tend to gravitate towards phones with a specific feel to them. They tend to be slightly heavier (not lead bricks but still). I like heavier phones because when they're in my pocket, i always know they're there. Perhaps i subconsciously want that style so that i'm always aware of my "tether" to society. I'm comfortable with them doing more and more but i'm hesitant to embrace anything especially light or small.
Perhaps i'm delusional but i'd like to think i'm still capable of "unplugging" at any given time. My biggest regret is that i can no longer go biking during the summer without it. It's always going to be there in my backpack while i'm trying to be carefree for a couple hours. My ears are always going to filter out background noise for my ringer...
...but nobody ever said i had to answer it when it rings though. :)
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Camping
November 13-16, I got to go camping in Georgia at http://www.gastateparks.org/info/georgels/ for work. The owner of the client company footed the bill for us to fly there and go camping. Needless to say, this was an opportunity that i couldn't pass up.
Thurs night (fri morning technically) we arrived at 230am at the camp grounds. Lucky for us, it had rained that day and the tent leaked. That meant we had to set up our sleeping bags after drying off the floor of the tent. Fri all day it rained off and on. Sat the sun poked through and then the temp dropped that night to 38. Sun morning i couldn't wait to get home and shower and warm up.
Overall it was a very cool time despite the weather. Beautiful park and i'd love to go back there again. Food was amazing (low country boil, fried dough, and meals that made me fat).
Highlights:
-A sign in a parking lot that was yellow with black text, appx 3'x8' and read GUNS
-Sign that read "cold beer needs a good home"
-One owner calling the co-owner's girlfriends cat-dog "gator bait" when he saw it
-More signs for Evangelical and Baptist establishments than pawn shops (there were 4 pawn shops within 3 blocks)
-Camping for the first time (sleeping bag, tent, no air mattress)
-Canoing for the first time
Isn't crazy how you can need a vacation after having a vacation?
Thurs night (fri morning technically) we arrived at 230am at the camp grounds. Lucky for us, it had rained that day and the tent leaked. That meant we had to set up our sleeping bags after drying off the floor of the tent. Fri all day it rained off and on. Sat the sun poked through and then the temp dropped that night to 38. Sun morning i couldn't wait to get home and shower and warm up.
Overall it was a very cool time despite the weather. Beautiful park and i'd love to go back there again. Food was amazing (low country boil, fried dough, and meals that made me fat).
Highlights:
-A sign in a parking lot that was yellow with black text, appx 3'x8' and read GUNS
-Sign that read "cold beer needs a good home"
-One owner calling the co-owner's girlfriends cat-dog "gator bait" when he saw it
-More signs for Evangelical and Baptist establishments than pawn shops (there were 4 pawn shops within 3 blocks)
-Camping for the first time (sleeping bag, tent, no air mattress)
-Canoing for the first time
Isn't crazy how you can need a vacation after having a vacation?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Coming soon...
The weather is getting cold so now it's time to start writing!
-Research project I'm trying to volunteer to help with
-Cell phone follow up
-Adopted cultural identity
-Cooking!!!
-Research project I'm trying to volunteer to help with
-Cell phone follow up
-Adopted cultural identity
-Cooking!!!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
CentOS 4.7 - Install (follow up)
It worked!
[root@null ~]# yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"
It took like 20 minutes do download and process the headers but it worked. Now all i have to do is type "startx" and i'm in. Hot damn. I must say though that the background that CentOS has by default in gnome is pretty fruity. Yikes. Seriously guys. Do you have to make your default backgrounds that ugly? I'm not exactly a fan of the Ubuntu brown theme but c'mon!
Off run updates and start the web server process (again).
[root@null ~]# yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment"
It took like 20 minutes do download and process the headers but it worked. Now all i have to do is type "startx" and i'm in. Hot damn. I must say though that the background that CentOS has by default in gnome is pretty fruity. Yikes. Seriously guys. Do you have to make your default backgrounds that ugly? I'm not exactly a fan of the Ubuntu brown theme but c'mon!
Off run updates and start the web server process (again).
CentOS 4.7 - Install
Oh great! I burned all 4 iso's just to find out that all i truly needed were the first two disks. Typical. I went through the same garbage with Fedora and look where it got me.
The real irritation about this install so far surrounds "xterm". It seems that the package which is on iso #2 is corrupt and thus your install won't get past that if you're using Gnome. I went through 3 downloads and burns of iso's before i figured this out. It seems as though that CentOS 4.7 i386 iso #2 on all of the mirrors have the same date/time stamp which implies they're all bad. I wondered if this is the same on the dvd version which is "newer" but then i don't have a dvd drive in that box so that's kind of a pointless issue for me.
My workaround has been pretty half assed and seems to be working for the moment. I did a bare bones stripped down install with no x server or gnome. In theory i could have installed everything and just unchecked the package for xterm in the x server packages but opted to go the stripped down route instead to prevent any further unknown issues like this. Well... that and i figured why the heck not see what it's like. :)
Install went fast and smooth which isn't much of a surprise. SSH was selected to be on right away and all i had to do was add a user account. Currently i'm SSH'ed into the machine and trying to install gnome via yum. OMG. YUM has been pulling down headers for the past 20 minutes and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.
I've decided to let YUM do it's thing over night and hopefully it'll be done in the morning so i can begin the fun task of setting up Apache in my spare time while at work. If successful, this will be my most half assed install of any OS to date. I'm starting to get the hang of this!
The real irritation about this install so far surrounds "xterm". It seems that the package which is on iso #2 is corrupt and thus your install won't get past that if you're using Gnome. I went through 3 downloads and burns of iso's before i figured this out. It seems as though that CentOS 4.7 i386 iso #2 on all of the mirrors have the same date/time stamp which implies they're all bad. I wondered if this is the same on the dvd version which is "newer" but then i don't have a dvd drive in that box so that's kind of a pointless issue for me.
My workaround has been pretty half assed and seems to be working for the moment. I did a bare bones stripped down install with no x server or gnome. In theory i could have installed everything and just unchecked the package for xterm in the x server packages but opted to go the stripped down route instead to prevent any further unknown issues like this. Well... that and i figured why the heck not see what it's like. :)
Install went fast and smooth which isn't much of a surprise. SSH was selected to be on right away and all i had to do was add a user account. Currently i'm SSH'ed into the machine and trying to install gnome via yum. OMG. YUM has been pulling down headers for the past 20 minutes and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.
I've decided to let YUM do it's thing over night and hopefully it'll be done in the morning so i can begin the fun task of setting up Apache in my spare time while at work. If successful, this will be my most half assed install of any OS to date. I'm starting to get the hang of this!
Friday, August 15, 2008
He's baaaaack!
Things have been quiet yet hectic here. Not much worth truly mentioning these days but the winds of change are blowing.
At this very moment i'm in the middle of installing Apache on my Ubuntu box. Why? Because this is one of my homework assignments. This is needed to start my learning process which will kick into full speed if/when i get a job that i've been working on.
Once i do a couple things with Apache here, i plan to blog about my accomplishments. I'm not exactly going to reinvent the wheel here but hopefully soon i'll have a better understanding and appreciation of the technologies involved.
More to come as i reemerge from my cave and come back to reality....
At this very moment i'm in the middle of installing Apache on my Ubuntu box. Why? Because this is one of my homework assignments. This is needed to start my learning process which will kick into full speed if/when i get a job that i've been working on.
Once i do a couple things with Apache here, i plan to blog about my accomplishments. I'm not exactly going to reinvent the wheel here but hopefully soon i'll have a better understanding and appreciation of the technologies involved.
More to come as i reemerge from my cave and come back to reality....
Friday, June 6, 2008
Playing with search terms in Google to get infected
Yet another EXCELLENT report from Alex Eckelberry. His blog is one of my personal favorites and a great way to stay informed.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is what i do all day instead of watching YouTube clips. Damn i need a job....
Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is what i do all day instead of watching YouTube clips. Damn i need a job....
Monday, May 5, 2008
Can't Take Me Out In Public Most Days
Saturday I had the opportunity to go roaming around with my friend and no adult supervision. Under normal circumstances this is not necessarily a bad thing but Sat was different. Our destination would be Best Buy. Our goal would be the purchase of a new monitor for my buddy. What's the worst that could possibly happen?
Turning a 100% USDA certified geek loose in an place like Best Buy is a recipe for trouble. As I'm running around, I'm constantly on the look out for security cameras and undercover's because old habits die hard. I'd hate for these individuals who have painfully boring jobs to not at least have some form of entertainment. Aren't i considerate of my fellow humans?
As soon as I walked in the main door my A.D.D. kicked in. So many bright shiny objects to look at. Do i look at software? TV's? Computers? Games? Mp3 players? Car audio? Focus damn it! The mission is to look for a monitor. Must... walk... towards... monitors. Resistance is futile.
Success. We were in the very back of the store and looking at their woefully pathetic selection of monitors. I managed to stay away from every other section of the store. Some would say this is a miracle. I consider this merely delaying the inevitable. We were by the monitors for less than a minute when my buddy points out the end display of RAM. The prices were pretty painful. I should note that i didn't make note of the stats of the RAM, or speed, and only vaguely remember basic prices. What i can tell you is that it wasn't anything out of the ordinary and the prices were in the $80-$120 range. Their prices are obscene to say the least which is when i started laughing. How bad are prices? Compare the same identical RAM from NewEgg.com and BestBuy.com. THAT's why i started laughing.
Immediately we're approached by a blue shirt Best Buy rep asking if we need any help to which we gracefully decline. Seemed like a nice enough person and wasn't annoying. He dodged a real bullet with us! As we're trying to determine the difference between an LG and Samsung monitor of similar prices, we see some late teen "kid" staring at the RAM behind us. Whatever. Eventually some blond girl comes over in a black Geek Squad shirt with him.
Ladies and gentlemen, the anti-christ has arrived on the seen. Do i opt to be a jerk and butt in and make her look bad? Do i try to get her number? Do i try hitting her up for a job? Bah. I'm not in the mood for these mere mortal games. I let her do her thing. So here we are looking at monitors (and making random customers nervous by how we're just flipping them upside down and giggling about how one of them beeps) and at the same time eavesdropping on "blondey" explaining to the "kid"what the difference between DDR and DDR2. W O W. I would have sworn the "kid" was a 6 year old the way she was talking to him. Maybe i shouldn't be surprised because most of the patrons don't know sqwat and need someone to give them a crash course in what i take for granted every day.
The LG was picked out after we decided that hunting down a sales rep was pointless. Target acquired. Mission accomplished, right? Not even close! Now we had to run the gauntlet of going towards the cashiers. Helllllloooooo ADD!!!
Right by the Geek Squad station we found 4-5 HP and Dell machines. The HP's have a sliding door on the front for you to insert external HD's etc. The size and placement of them in front was a perfect setup for lewd comments. Some of those comments may have included: "would it be cybersex if i stuck it in that hole", "I want to molest this one because it looks like a dirty whore", and "this is just down right retarded". From there we pretty much zig zagged around the store acting like rats lost in a maze to an outside observer when in reality ADD was in full effect.
FINALLY we were near the cashiers. I had a hunch that people were aware of our presence and the thought had crossed my mind that we might in fact get booted out for our lewd comments and general stupidity. Right by the row of cashiers was a sign. A picture truly is worth a thousand words and this one spoke to me.
Wow. Despite my constant instability with finding a job, i have never even considered selling my soul to these people. Not knowing what they get paid, i now have concrete evidence of just how obscene their prices are. They get $50 for "networking consultation"? Does that mean i tell you to buy a router when you have more than one machine that you want online? They charge $30 for "optimization"? WTF is that all about? Does that mean they go and take your new Dell machine and uninstall all of the excessive garbage that comes with it out of the box? They want $60 for diagnostic and $200 for both diagnostic AND repair?
I know for a fact i had a few strange looks at me when i was taking a picture of this sign but it was too good to be true. I'm still floored by this. Wow.
What bothers me the most is that i have people preaching to me about how i should take any job that comes up. Even if it's Geek Squad. Any money is better than none supposedly. To that, i say bull shit. I have a soul and a conscience. I'll not sacrifice what few morals i have in order to pursue the money to pay my bills.
Anyways, we left Best Buy with a VERY nice 22" LG wides screen monitor. It cost enough but it's a damn fine piece of technology and i'm sure he'll be happy for years to come with it (until i get something bigger and better). I had a lot of fun just being a total joker in the store and i'm quite thankful that i haven't gotten kicked out yet. Everyone needs goals in their lives. Mine is to get kicked out of Best Buy. I regret to inform you that i have failed once again at attaining my goal. Have no fear for "I'll be back!"
Turning a 100% USDA certified geek loose in an place like Best Buy is a recipe for trouble. As I'm running around, I'm constantly on the look out for security cameras and undercover's because old habits die hard. I'd hate for these individuals who have painfully boring jobs to not at least have some form of entertainment. Aren't i considerate of my fellow humans?
As soon as I walked in the main door my A.D.D. kicked in. So many bright shiny objects to look at. Do i look at software? TV's? Computers? Games? Mp3 players? Car audio? Focus damn it! The mission is to look for a monitor. Must... walk... towards... monitors. Resistance is futile.
Success. We were in the very back of the store and looking at their woefully pathetic selection of monitors. I managed to stay away from every other section of the store. Some would say this is a miracle. I consider this merely delaying the inevitable. We were by the monitors for less than a minute when my buddy points out the end display of RAM. The prices were pretty painful. I should note that i didn't make note of the stats of the RAM, or speed, and only vaguely remember basic prices. What i can tell you is that it wasn't anything out of the ordinary and the prices were in the $80-$120 range. Their prices are obscene to say the least which is when i started laughing. How bad are prices? Compare the same identical RAM from NewEgg.com and BestBuy.com. THAT's why i started laughing.
Immediately we're approached by a blue shirt Best Buy rep asking if we need any help to which we gracefully decline. Seemed like a nice enough person and wasn't annoying. He dodged a real bullet with us! As we're trying to determine the difference between an LG and Samsung monitor of similar prices, we see some late teen "kid" staring at the RAM behind us. Whatever. Eventually some blond girl comes over in a black Geek Squad shirt with him.
Ladies and gentlemen, the anti-christ has arrived on the seen. Do i opt to be a jerk and butt in and make her look bad? Do i try to get her number? Do i try hitting her up for a job? Bah. I'm not in the mood for these mere mortal games. I let her do her thing. So here we are looking at monitors (and making random customers nervous by how we're just flipping them upside down and giggling about how one of them beeps) and at the same time eavesdropping on "blondey" explaining to the "kid"what the difference between DDR and DDR2. W O W. I would have sworn the "kid" was a 6 year old the way she was talking to him. Maybe i shouldn't be surprised because most of the patrons don't know sqwat and need someone to give them a crash course in what i take for granted every day.
The LG was picked out after we decided that hunting down a sales rep was pointless. Target acquired. Mission accomplished, right? Not even close! Now we had to run the gauntlet of going towards the cashiers. Helllllloooooo ADD!!!
Right by the Geek Squad station we found 4-5 HP and Dell machines. The HP's have a sliding door on the front for you to insert external HD's etc. The size and placement of them in front was a perfect setup for lewd comments. Some of those comments may have included: "would it be cybersex if i stuck it in that hole", "I want to molest this one because it looks like a dirty whore", and "this is just down right retarded". From there we pretty much zig zagged around the store acting like rats lost in a maze to an outside observer when in reality ADD was in full effect.
FINALLY we were near the cashiers. I had a hunch that people were aware of our presence and the thought had crossed my mind that we might in fact get booted out for our lewd comments and general stupidity. Right by the row of cashiers was a sign. A picture truly is worth a thousand words and this one spoke to me.
Wow. Despite my constant instability with finding a job, i have never even considered selling my soul to these people. Not knowing what they get paid, i now have concrete evidence of just how obscene their prices are. They get $50 for "networking consultation"? Does that mean i tell you to buy a router when you have more than one machine that you want online? They charge $30 for "optimization"? WTF is that all about? Does that mean they go and take your new Dell machine and uninstall all of the excessive garbage that comes with it out of the box? They want $60 for diagnostic and $200 for both diagnostic AND repair? I know for a fact i had a few strange looks at me when i was taking a picture of this sign but it was too good to be true. I'm still floored by this. Wow.
What bothers me the most is that i have people preaching to me about how i should take any job that comes up. Even if it's Geek Squad. Any money is better than none supposedly. To that, i say bull shit. I have a soul and a conscience. I'll not sacrifice what few morals i have in order to pursue the money to pay my bills.
Anyways, we left Best Buy with a VERY nice 22" LG wides screen monitor. It cost enough but it's a damn fine piece of technology and i'm sure he'll be happy for years to come with it (until i get something bigger and better). I had a lot of fun just being a total joker in the store and i'm quite thankful that i haven't gotten kicked out yet. Everyone needs goals in their lives. Mine is to get kicked out of Best Buy. I regret to inform you that i have failed once again at attaining my goal. Have no fear for "I'll be back!"
Racial disparity in Milwaukee in drug cases among worst
Always nice to see something that i feel is obvious spelled out in black and white. Definitely worth a read even if the source is the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Consider this a follow up to these previous posts:
http://naughtatnull.blogspot.com/2007/12/crack-vs-powder-disparity-is-questioned.html
http://naughtatnull.blogspot.com/2008/02/one-in-100-us-adults-behind-bars.html
Consider this a follow up to these previous posts:
http://naughtatnull.blogspot.com/2007/12/crack-vs-powder-disparity-is-questioned.html
http://naughtatnull.blogspot.com/2008/02/one-in-100-us-adults-behind-bars.html
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Microsoft Gives Backdoor to Law Enforcement -- Well, Not Really
This article came to my attention via email (courtesy of Grypp). I found it to be an interesting read and thought i'd share it with others.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Born Again Idiot
I feel as though I'm a living music video these days. The song is Born Again Idiot by Anthrax.
Why do I explain myself when everyone's an idiot but me?
Every day I'm surrounded by those that don't listen. I try to point out the obvious and they opt to not listen to me. When the floor of your living room i sagging significantly, is that not a sign that you should have that looked at soon? If you're having swelling as a result of a drastic medication change that your doctor prescribed AND you don't feel you can talk to the doctor in the first place, is this not the time to switch doctors? If everyone around you tells you that you're making a bad decision, is that not a sign that you should at least reevaluate your decision? If you take your car to a mechanic and he says he's fixed the reason why it shuts off after 10 minutes, do you turn around and ask him if he had the car running for 10 minutes to ensure it doesn't still happen?
Kicking and screaming and dragged back into a life
Kicking and screaming and dragged back into a life
Like ten pounds in a nine pound bag
Still I come back to give you something that you never had
It's not that I'm professing to be perfect. I have a nasty habit of being right a lot of times specifically because i constantly analyze situations and look for warning signs. It's not up to me as to how people live their lives. All i try to do is give my input and it seems that more often than not people ignore what is blindingly obvious.
Idiot rules, I never fight I only win
Idiot rules, and I didn't make them
What's the point anymore? Seriously. I can't possibly know what I'm talking about. Since i don't have a "real" job, i apparently don't know what I'm talking about. Because i have a grunt BS job, i get looked down at by older full time employees because "clearly if you knew what you were doing you wouldn't be here". Because I'm perma-single i can't possibly know anything about relationships. It's futile to try to educate those that refuse to listen. I'm tired of my words falling on deaf ears.
Finish my smoke, down my drink, wipe my mouth and I just walk away
I love this line. If my life were this music video, right here is where i would get up from the bar stool and walk away with my hands up in the air while mouthing the words "F**k it". Surrendering to the idiots that surround me and letting them exist in their empty lives with blinders on.
What's the chance of finding something real and make it last
For that I'd carry all my bags and leave them in the past
Because I spend my life fixing mistakes that left me scarred
And when I stand and meet my maker, I'll be born again hard
Well put. What i wouldn't give for someone to actually listen once in a while so i know that i'm not wasting my breath. My motives are pure. My delivery is a little harsh but that's the only way that anyone listens it seems. No matter how straightforward you are, most people just don't get it.
Why do I explain myself when everyone's an idiot but me?
Idiot rules, I never fight I only win
Idiot rules, idiot rules
Idiot rules, and I didn't make them
Idiot rules, idiot rules
Idiot rules, I never fight I only win
Idiot rules, idiot rules
Idiot rules, don't judge me by my sins
Idiot rules, I never bend, I only break them
Yeah some of the lyrics were edited out. So what. Isn't that how it always is? We latch onto segments songs/poems/speeches and rarely keep it in context. It's a human element. We latch onto those elements which we believe to be the closest to our hearts and embrace the words as though they were our own. No song can truly explain what i'm going through. It's this very reason why writers continue to write every day to best describe what is in their head.
My point was that i'm tired. Tired of wasting my effort on people who won't consider my words. Tired of wasting time trying to help those that don't want to help themselves. Tired of trying to show others an outside and unbiased perspective. Seclusion draws me in more and more day by day. Tired of putting up the good fight to keep my head above water in a turbulent sea.
In a round about way, this is something that goes through my head when interviewing. I'm tired of trying to explain to people who are blinded by their ideas of interview etiquette that there is more to me than what they see on a piece of paper. How do you explain to someone that irregardless of your documented history, you're much better than a piece of paper with past accomplishments? More often than not, i walk out of interviews believing that i just wasted my time on people who are both blind and deaf. The irony is that they may be blind and deaf to me but they're still the ones with the money while i'm not. :(
Time to get ready for another night of mind numbing work for minimal money....
Why do I explain myself when everyone's an idiot but me?
Every day I'm surrounded by those that don't listen. I try to point out the obvious and they opt to not listen to me. When the floor of your living room i sagging significantly, is that not a sign that you should have that looked at soon? If you're having swelling as a result of a drastic medication change that your doctor prescribed AND you don't feel you can talk to the doctor in the first place, is this not the time to switch doctors? If everyone around you tells you that you're making a bad decision, is that not a sign that you should at least reevaluate your decision? If you take your car to a mechanic and he says he's fixed the reason why it shuts off after 10 minutes, do you turn around and ask him if he had the car running for 10 minutes to ensure it doesn't still happen?
Kicking and screaming and dragged back into a life
Kicking and screaming and dragged back into a life
Like ten pounds in a nine pound bag
Still I come back to give you something that you never had
It's not that I'm professing to be perfect. I have a nasty habit of being right a lot of times specifically because i constantly analyze situations and look for warning signs. It's not up to me as to how people live their lives. All i try to do is give my input and it seems that more often than not people ignore what is blindingly obvious.
Idiot rules, I never fight I only win
Idiot rules, and I didn't make them
What's the point anymore? Seriously. I can't possibly know what I'm talking about. Since i don't have a "real" job, i apparently don't know what I'm talking about. Because i have a grunt BS job, i get looked down at by older full time employees because "clearly if you knew what you were doing you wouldn't be here". Because I'm perma-single i can't possibly know anything about relationships. It's futile to try to educate those that refuse to listen. I'm tired of my words falling on deaf ears.
Finish my smoke, down my drink, wipe my mouth and I just walk away
I love this line. If my life were this music video, right here is where i would get up from the bar stool and walk away with my hands up in the air while mouthing the words "F**k it". Surrendering to the idiots that surround me and letting them exist in their empty lives with blinders on.
What's the chance of finding something real and make it last
For that I'd carry all my bags and leave them in the past
Because I spend my life fixing mistakes that left me scarred
And when I stand and meet my maker, I'll be born again hard
Well put. What i wouldn't give for someone to actually listen once in a while so i know that i'm not wasting my breath. My motives are pure. My delivery is a little harsh but that's the only way that anyone listens it seems. No matter how straightforward you are, most people just don't get it.
Why do I explain myself when everyone's an idiot but me?
Idiot rules, I never fight I only win
Idiot rules, idiot rules
Idiot rules, and I didn't make them
Idiot rules, idiot rules
Idiot rules, I never fight I only win
Idiot rules, idiot rules
Idiot rules, don't judge me by my sins
Idiot rules, I never bend, I only break them
Yeah some of the lyrics were edited out. So what. Isn't that how it always is? We latch onto segments songs/poems/speeches and rarely keep it in context. It's a human element. We latch onto those elements which we believe to be the closest to our hearts and embrace the words as though they were our own. No song can truly explain what i'm going through. It's this very reason why writers continue to write every day to best describe what is in their head.
My point was that i'm tired. Tired of wasting my effort on people who won't consider my words. Tired of wasting time trying to help those that don't want to help themselves. Tired of trying to show others an outside and unbiased perspective. Seclusion draws me in more and more day by day. Tired of putting up the good fight to keep my head above water in a turbulent sea.
In a round about way, this is something that goes through my head when interviewing. I'm tired of trying to explain to people who are blinded by their ideas of interview etiquette that there is more to me than what they see on a piece of paper. How do you explain to someone that irregardless of your documented history, you're much better than a piece of paper with past accomplishments? More often than not, i walk out of interviews believing that i just wasted my time on people who are both blind and deaf. The irony is that they may be blind and deaf to me but they're still the ones with the money while i'm not. :(
Time to get ready for another night of mind numbing work for minimal money....
Monday, April 14, 2008
I can't help but laugh
The other week, i was on the way out the door when the phone rang. By some miracle, it was a company that had seen my resume online. This is where i'm supposed to get excited. A year ago, i would have been excited. Today i'm far too jaded to get excited over a phone call.
I talked to the HR lady for about 15-20 minutes explaining my made-up work situation (freelance work as opposed to being just professionally unemployed). Conversation went really well. At the end, the lady told me that i should go to their website and apply for one of the positions that are currently open. Huh? What do you mean? I already applied there a month ago! You did? Yes. That's why i thought you were calling me. Well, no... you're not in our database and I found your resume online. Really? Well i have the confirmation email from you guys from last month saying that someone would contact me shortly. Well, i'll make sure that your resume gets passed along!
Hahahahaha!!!
I had applied with this company back in March. I had also applied with them last year. Once you apply for a job, their online application won't let you apply for the same position again until the end of the calender year. That means that since i applied in March this year, it won't let me apply for the same position again in October. More often than not i see the same position posted online which implies there's a nasty turnover rate or they're just that incompetent. After this phone call, i'm beginning to lean towards the latter.
So here i sit with a big grin on my face. I know they won't call me back. I know i can't apply again for the rest of the year with them. I was my usual pleasant and courteous self on the phone with the HR lady on the outside chance that they actually do contact me again. On the plus side, at least they bothered to call me unlike most companies that i submit my resume to. Then again, they didn't call me for the right reason but then what else can i expect these days?
At least i'm finally getting over my latest plague so i can get back to blogging and reality....
I talked to the HR lady for about 15-20 minutes explaining my made-up work situation (freelance work as opposed to being just professionally unemployed). Conversation went really well. At the end, the lady told me that i should go to their website and apply for one of the positions that are currently open. Huh? What do you mean? I already applied there a month ago! You did? Yes. That's why i thought you were calling me. Well, no... you're not in our database and I found your resume online. Really? Well i have the confirmation email from you guys from last month saying that someone would contact me shortly. Well, i'll make sure that your resume gets passed along!
Hahahahaha!!!
I had applied with this company back in March. I had also applied with them last year. Once you apply for a job, their online application won't let you apply for the same position again until the end of the calender year. That means that since i applied in March this year, it won't let me apply for the same position again in October. More often than not i see the same position posted online which implies there's a nasty turnover rate or they're just that incompetent. After this phone call, i'm beginning to lean towards the latter.
So here i sit with a big grin on my face. I know they won't call me back. I know i can't apply again for the rest of the year with them. I was my usual pleasant and courteous self on the phone with the HR lady on the outside chance that they actually do contact me again. On the plus side, at least they bothered to call me unlike most companies that i submit my resume to. Then again, they didn't call me for the right reason but then what else can i expect these days?
At least i'm finally getting over my latest plague so i can get back to blogging and reality....
Sunday, April 6, 2008
FTP server on a winXP box (II)
After a brief hiatus (3 months) , I'm finally back to working on this project. The results have been mixed and the growing pains have been... well... painful!
The current candidate that I'm experimenting with is Cerberus. After fighting with this off and on today, i believe i finally have it semi-successfully configured. The hardest part about this ordeal is not having access to a machine that is outside of my network. There's been a lot of configuring/tweaking followed by waiting around for someone to be online to test this out. Hurry up and wait. The story of my life it seems. :)
Initial install was a snap. Click next a bunch of times and nothing major to worry about configuring really. Creating a user account and granting them permissions was pretty intuitive.
The problems began to arise when i had my guinea pig... er test subject attempt to connect. No luck. According to log files, he could connect to my machine and authenticate but then after about 30 seconds would get booted.
(log file excerpt)
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 Incoming connection request on interface 192.168.1.101
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 Connection request accepted from 76.229.xxx.xx
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 USER wwwww
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 331 User wwwww, password please
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 PASS ***********
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 230 Password Ok, User logged in
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 FEAT
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 211- Additional features supported include: MDTM SIZE REST STREAM AUTH TLS AUTH SSL PBSZ PROT LANG EN* SITE CHMOD SITE PSWD 211 End
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 SYST
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 215 UNIX Type: L8
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 PWD
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 257 "/" is the current directory
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 TYPE A
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 200 Type ASCII
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 PASV
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 227 Entering Passive Mode (24,160,xxx,xx,xx)
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 Error closing connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 Connection terminated.
What's going on here? What did i miss? Why does he keep getting disconnected? Port forwarding has been set and is active in the router so all port 21 traffic is going to my machine. I created firewall exceptions in the Windows firewall just to be sure it works. Target directory is set to share with all users now. He kept getting booted after 30 seconds and was unable to transfer any data either way. I've seen this work no problem at a friends house so what is wrong on my end?
The fact that he could authenticate and access my box was a huge step but something was bothering me about him getting booted whenever it went to PASV mode. Documentation pointed to making sure that was configured properly. A-hah! When behind a router, make sure that you specify the ip address for PASV (typically the ip of the router). Still no luck.
After some consultation with a friend, i got a crash course that most documentation doesn't spell out for you. Yes, i had port 21 open which is correct. The problem is that when in PASV mode you need other ports open/forwarded. The default ports are 1025-3500. That means i had to forward all of these (excluding 3389 which is RDP for my roommate) to my box also. NOW things were making more sense....
After finally getting these extra ports forwarded, a friend was able to successfully connect and transfer data. Success! Essentially everything i'd tried to do earlier had no real effect on the situation because i missed something very simple early on. I made the mistake of assuming that i just needed 21 routed and that wound up costing me a lot of time. In hindsight this appears to be the same issue that i ran into with FileZilla Server a couple months ago. Lesson learned.
Now that everything is up and running I'm content. I can always open the ports if/when i plan to use this server app but for the time being they'll remain closed. What can i say? Why leave your doors unlocked when you're not home? Mission accomplished. I can share files if need be with people and they can download at their leisure.
Grumbles:
-No SFTP capability
-No means by which to limit bandwidth usage.
-Server Manager menu is clumsy (IMHO).
Pros:
-Logging is very straight forward.
-I like the small pop up notification for when someone is attempting to connect.
-IP manager seems very straightforward.
-User management is easy.
-Help documentation was.... HELPFUL!
Still looking for an app that will enable me to do SFTP and limit bandwidth. Suggestions are welcome. Eventually I'll be doing this on a Linux box but not having a functional Linux box (thanks to yPerr) kind of kills that idea. Stay tuned....
The current candidate that I'm experimenting with is Cerberus. After fighting with this off and on today, i believe i finally have it semi-successfully configured. The hardest part about this ordeal is not having access to a machine that is outside of my network. There's been a lot of configuring/tweaking followed by waiting around for someone to be online to test this out. Hurry up and wait. The story of my life it seems. :)
Initial install was a snap. Click next a bunch of times and nothing major to worry about configuring really. Creating a user account and granting them permissions was pretty intuitive.
The problems began to arise when i had my guinea pig... er test subject attempt to connect. No luck. According to log files, he could connect to my machine and authenticate but then after about 30 seconds would get booted.
(log file excerpt)
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 Incoming connection request on interface 192.168.1.101
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 Connection request accepted from 76.229.xxx.xx
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 USER wwwww
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 331 User wwwww, password please
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 PASS ***********
Apr 06 17:06:31 16 230 Password Ok, User logged in
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 FEAT
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 211- Additional features supported include: MDTM SIZE REST STREAM AUTH TLS AUTH SSL PBSZ PROT LANG EN* SITE CHMOD SITE PSWD 211 End
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 SYST
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 215 UNIX Type: L8
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 PWD
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 257 "/" is the current directory
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 TYPE A
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 200 Type ASCII
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 PASV
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 227 Entering Passive Mode (24,160,xxx,xx,xx)
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 Error closing connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.
Apr 06 17:06:32 16 Connection terminated.
What's going on here? What did i miss? Why does he keep getting disconnected? Port forwarding has been set and is active in the router so all port 21 traffic is going to my machine. I created firewall exceptions in the Windows firewall just to be sure it works. Target directory is set to share with all users now. He kept getting booted after 30 seconds and was unable to transfer any data either way. I've seen this work no problem at a friends house so what is wrong on my end?
The fact that he could authenticate and access my box was a huge step but something was bothering me about him getting booted whenever it went to PASV mode. Documentation pointed to making sure that was configured properly. A-hah! When behind a router, make sure that you specify the ip address for PASV (typically the ip of the router). Still no luck.
After some consultation with a friend, i got a crash course that most documentation doesn't spell out for you. Yes, i had port 21 open which is correct. The problem is that when in PASV mode you need other ports open/forwarded. The default ports are 1025-3500. That means i had to forward all of these (excluding 3389 which is RDP for my roommate) to my box also. NOW things were making more sense....
After finally getting these extra ports forwarded, a friend was able to successfully connect and transfer data. Success! Essentially everything i'd tried to do earlier had no real effect on the situation because i missed something very simple early on. I made the mistake of assuming that i just needed 21 routed and that wound up costing me a lot of time. In hindsight this appears to be the same issue that i ran into with FileZilla Server a couple months ago. Lesson learned.
Now that everything is up and running I'm content. I can always open the ports if/when i plan to use this server app but for the time being they'll remain closed. What can i say? Why leave your doors unlocked when you're not home? Mission accomplished. I can share files if need be with people and they can download at their leisure.
Grumbles:
-No SFTP capability
-No means by which to limit bandwidth usage.
-Server Manager menu is clumsy (IMHO).
Pros:
-Logging is very straight forward.
-I like the small pop up notification for when someone is attempting to connect.
-IP manager seems very straightforward.
-User management is easy.
-Help documentation was.... HELPFUL!
Still looking for an app that will enable me to do SFTP and limit bandwidth. Suggestions are welcome. Eventually I'll be doing this on a Linux box but not having a functional Linux box (thanks to yPerr) kind of kills that idea. Stay tuned....
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Rejection... My Old Friend Returns
Struck out again. At least this time when they said "we'll let you know by the end of next week" they meant it. Too bad too. Seemed like really nice people with a lot of potential.
What's the starting pay as a rent-a-cop these days...?
What's the starting pay as a rent-a-cop these days...?
Monday, March 24, 2008
Cell Phones
Like most people, i too have a cell phone. I've been a Sprint subscriber since 2000 and being a 20-something year old, I accept that it's part of my daily life. That being said, I've had an odd reoccurring experience lately.
While in school, classmates would turn their phones to vibrate (which is extremely loud in a quiet lecture hall) while mine was consistently turned off. I've found no statistics on what proportion turns their phones off vs vibrate even though it would be an interesting study. On one occasion i had a classmate who had his phone out but that's because his wife was pregnant and expecting any day which is 100% understandable.
Every couple weeks i turn my phone off for a day or even the weekend. I've come to accept that i am not considered "normal" because i do this. Once again, this weekend i had a friend call and was upset that i didn't answer my phone when they called because it was off. Because i have a cell phone, apparently i'm supposed to be able to take calls 24/7 from people. I find this idea to be deeply offensive.
It bothers me that in our culture of instant communication that people can have the nerve to expect that you should always be reachable. This is beyond a privacy issue in my eyes. When did we allow ourselves to reach this level of forced social interaction? There have been studies about BlackBerry users who are obsessively checking their emails and freak out when their service goes out for 10 minutes. (no url suplied but a simple search will find plenty of examples) Why is it that we as a culture believe now that we're supposed to answer the phone just because it rings? If you're in heavy traffic while searching for an address and the weather is terrible, do you answer your cell when it rings? I'm sure you said "of course not" but how many of you REALLY mean it?
I have one friend that doesn't have a cell phone and doesn't appear to be in any major hurry to get one. I have said repeatedly that if my phone dies or if Sprint pisses me off, i'll drop it completely and walk away from these devices. I know one person that was set on tossing his phone after his contract expired and just having a land-line. Even with his g/friend offering to pay for one, he seemed dead set on ditching wireless communication. Needless to say, he caved in and is still amongst us "normals".
The benefits of having a cell are great. I love the long distance for obvious reasons. It's also nice if my job needs to get ahold of me to call me in early (thus making extra $$). Internet access for a news fiend like me is another huge bonus. It's easier to get ahold of people if you go out and plans change. Despite all of this, i feel no true need to have one. I survived while in ireland for 3 weeks without one. I turn mine off all of the time. Oddly enough, the only reason why i carry mine as much as i do is because i'm used to the physical weight in my left pocket.
In the past 5-10 years we have made cell phones a key part of our every day lives. Most troubling is, walk into Wal-Mart (or wherever) and look at how many kids (under 15) are walking around with them in hand. Look at how many displays for cheap phones you see and how the packaging is geared towards that age bracket. Look how many kids you see using their cell phones as a music player as they walk through a crowded store. Now ask yourself if you see anything wrong with what is now the "norm".
My point???
It's politically correct to preach about energy conservation and recycling but heaven forbid if anyone looses their cell charger or even their bottled water!
We have artificial holidays like Earth Day and Sweetest Day. How about a day where people turn off their phones? I am seriously considering setting aside a day or even weekend every month that i will keep my phone off. If anyone is interested in participating and has suggestions as to when this should take place, i am willing to hear them.
While in school, classmates would turn their phones to vibrate (which is extremely loud in a quiet lecture hall) while mine was consistently turned off. I've found no statistics on what proportion turns their phones off vs vibrate even though it would be an interesting study. On one occasion i had a classmate who had his phone out but that's because his wife was pregnant and expecting any day which is 100% understandable.
Every couple weeks i turn my phone off for a day or even the weekend. I've come to accept that i am not considered "normal" because i do this. Once again, this weekend i had a friend call and was upset that i didn't answer my phone when they called because it was off. Because i have a cell phone, apparently i'm supposed to be able to take calls 24/7 from people. I find this idea to be deeply offensive.
It bothers me that in our culture of instant communication that people can have the nerve to expect that you should always be reachable. This is beyond a privacy issue in my eyes. When did we allow ourselves to reach this level of forced social interaction? There have been studies about BlackBerry users who are obsessively checking their emails and freak out when their service goes out for 10 minutes. (no url suplied but a simple search will find plenty of examples) Why is it that we as a culture believe now that we're supposed to answer the phone just because it rings? If you're in heavy traffic while searching for an address and the weather is terrible, do you answer your cell when it rings? I'm sure you said "of course not" but how many of you REALLY mean it?
I have one friend that doesn't have a cell phone and doesn't appear to be in any major hurry to get one. I have said repeatedly that if my phone dies or if Sprint pisses me off, i'll drop it completely and walk away from these devices. I know one person that was set on tossing his phone after his contract expired and just having a land-line. Even with his g/friend offering to pay for one, he seemed dead set on ditching wireless communication. Needless to say, he caved in and is still amongst us "normals".
The benefits of having a cell are great. I love the long distance for obvious reasons. It's also nice if my job needs to get ahold of me to call me in early (thus making extra $$). Internet access for a news fiend like me is another huge bonus. It's easier to get ahold of people if you go out and plans change. Despite all of this, i feel no true need to have one. I survived while in ireland for 3 weeks without one. I turn mine off all of the time. Oddly enough, the only reason why i carry mine as much as i do is because i'm used to the physical weight in my left pocket.
In the past 5-10 years we have made cell phones a key part of our every day lives. Most troubling is, walk into Wal-Mart (or wherever) and look at how many kids (under 15) are walking around with them in hand. Look at how many displays for cheap phones you see and how the packaging is geared towards that age bracket. Look how many kids you see using their cell phones as a music player as they walk through a crowded store. Now ask yourself if you see anything wrong with what is now the "norm".
My point???
It's politically correct to preach about energy conservation and recycling but heaven forbid if anyone looses their cell charger or even their bottled water!
We have artificial holidays like Earth Day and Sweetest Day. How about a day where people turn off their phones? I am seriously considering setting aside a day or even weekend every month that i will keep my phone off. If anyone is interested in participating and has suggestions as to when this should take place, i am willing to hear them.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Joys of House Calls (Part I)
(I'm confident there will be follow-ups on this topic even though this is the first posting.)
WinXP on a p2-366mhz w/ 256mb is painful. There's no other way to put it. Every time the user clicked on IE it would open up and then blue screen. Turns out she had the full M$N messenger suite installed and it was the M$N toolbar that was ironically causing the BSOD's. How did i figure that out? Simple. Remove any and all toolbars. No mercy. Never met a toolbar that i liked (excluding Google because Google is our lord and savior). Removed it and machine runs... er... walks just fine now.
Did i mention that i'm EVENTUALLY going to get $20 for this mess?
Later in the same day i went on a call to another house. Nice guy and very easy to work with. Not afraid to ask questions or call for help if he thinks he's even getting close to breaking something. Basically all i had to do was swap a networking cable with a known good one. Fired up FireFox afterwards to make sure the global interwebs worked and weren't clogged.
"Firefox did not close properly in a previous session. Would you like to restore the session?"
"Sure!" i foolishly said and clicked accordingly.
There's a naked dude on this dude's browser window. Well. At least it was artistic. As he's looking over my shoulder i just grab the mouse and click on HOME right away and don't say anything about it. Mutter a couple comments about various widgets popping up with the weather and how i would find them annoying and didn't say jack shit about the naked dude i just saw.
Sigh.
No charge for the networking cable swap because it didn't wind up solving the problem. Modem is probably dieing and so it's someone else's problem. I don't fix the problem means i don't get paid.
Sigh.
These two calls in addition to everything else that happened that day made for a very very odd day. Why the hell am i doing this kind of work again???
WinXP on a p2-366mhz w/ 256mb is painful. There's no other way to put it. Every time the user clicked on IE it would open up and then blue screen. Turns out she had the full M$N messenger suite installed and it was the M$N toolbar that was ironically causing the BSOD's. How did i figure that out? Simple. Remove any and all toolbars. No mercy. Never met a toolbar that i liked (excluding Google because Google is our lord and savior). Removed it and machine runs... er... walks just fine now.
Did i mention that i'm EVENTUALLY going to get $20 for this mess?
Later in the same day i went on a call to another house. Nice guy and very easy to work with. Not afraid to ask questions or call for help if he thinks he's even getting close to breaking something. Basically all i had to do was swap a networking cable with a known good one. Fired up FireFox afterwards to make sure the global interwebs worked and weren't clogged.
"Firefox did not close properly in a previous session. Would you like to restore the session?"
"Sure!" i foolishly said and clicked accordingly.
There's a naked dude on this dude's browser window. Well. At least it was artistic. As he's looking over my shoulder i just grab the mouse and click on HOME right away and don't say anything about it. Mutter a couple comments about various widgets popping up with the weather and how i would find them annoying and didn't say jack shit about the naked dude i just saw.
Sigh.
No charge for the networking cable swap because it didn't wind up solving the problem. Modem is probably dieing and so it's someone else's problem. I don't fix the problem means i don't get paid.
Sigh.
These two calls in addition to everything else that happened that day made for a very very odd day. Why the hell am i doing this kind of work again???
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Yet Another Head Hunter Bytes The Dust (Follow Up)
When we last heard from the hero of this tale , he was patiently awaiting the call from the head hunter. "I should know by Tues evening or Wed morning about interviews," he said to me. Translation: I knew i wasn't going to hear jack until fri.
Today at 1pm this joker called me up. Wanted me to interview tomorrow @ 830am. That's less than 24 hours notice for an interview. The problem with that is that i have a doctors appointment from 9-10am which means i can't do the interview until after. Realistically it would be 1130am at the earliest that i could actually be there (it's appx 30 min away) and that includes hauling ass. So the guy tells me that he'll call me back later with a time that i can work with better. It's now 11pm and i never heard a peep from him for the rest of the day. Thanks. Real classy.
How much is it to ask for 24 hours notice? Companies can take their sweet time making decisions on whether or not they want to decide as to when they'll have a meeting about the decision to set the date that they want to decide on interview dates. In the meantime, people like me are supposed to drop everything and run and get punished for having prior commitments. They have no idea what my doctors appointment is about and it's honestly none of their business. It's called courtesy. Anything less than 24 hours and you're setting people up to fail. How am i supposed to properly prepare for an interview with < 24 hours? Banking an awful lot on me having proper preparation for the interview!
So....
Tonight i got home from work and there were to messages on the answering machine. Some head hunter from the 412 area code (Pennsylvania) called about a job. I wanted to punch her in her face when i heard the message. My name is Sean. It's NOT pronounced "SEEN". Got it? Why are you even bothering to call people when you can't pronounce their name? Not only is that annoying but i find that highly rude. I understand butchering last names. That's why you apologize for it and ask for proper pronunciation. It's called courtesy.
And so continues my stint of being "Professionally Unemployed"....
Today at 1pm this joker called me up. Wanted me to interview tomorrow @ 830am. That's less than 24 hours notice for an interview. The problem with that is that i have a doctors appointment from 9-10am which means i can't do the interview until after. Realistically it would be 1130am at the earliest that i could actually be there (it's appx 30 min away) and that includes hauling ass. So the guy tells me that he'll call me back later with a time that i can work with better. It's now 11pm and i never heard a peep from him for the rest of the day. Thanks. Real classy.
How much is it to ask for 24 hours notice? Companies can take their sweet time making decisions on whether or not they want to decide as to when they'll have a meeting about the decision to set the date that they want to decide on interview dates. In the meantime, people like me are supposed to drop everything and run and get punished for having prior commitments. They have no idea what my doctors appointment is about and it's honestly none of their business. It's called courtesy. Anything less than 24 hours and you're setting people up to fail. How am i supposed to properly prepare for an interview with < 24 hours? Banking an awful lot on me having proper preparation for the interview!
So....
Tonight i got home from work and there were to messages on the answering machine. Some head hunter from the 412 area code (Pennsylvania) called about a job. I wanted to punch her in her face when i heard the message. My name is Sean. It's NOT pronounced "SEEN". Got it? Why are you even bothering to call people when you can't pronounce their name? Not only is that annoying but i find that highly rude. I understand butchering last names. That's why you apologize for it and ask for proper pronunciation. It's called courtesy.
And so continues my stint of being "Professionally Unemployed"....
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Yet Another Head Hunter Bytes The Dust
I was recently contacted by yet another head hunter. Phone contact went well and i got the honor of going to meet the guy face to face. As i think back on this experience, i can't help but laugh. I laugh and shake my head at the same time.
The head hunter i met admitted right away that he knew next to nothing about computers and "is happy when it just works". Oh great. How am i supposed to tell this guy that i'm a viable candidate when he doesn't know wtf i'm even talking about?
I knew i was in for a world of pain just based on the job description. Here are some highlights:
IT Network Technician
Duties:
5. Provide user training, including e-mail, Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, Company internal programs and general Windows 95/98.
7. Present professional image at all times.
8. Follow procedures and rules in company employee manual.
9. Communicate effectively, both written and verbal.
10. Demonstrate professional attitude when approaching work assignments.
11. Promote positive, self-motivated atmosphere, promoting a team environment.
12. Maintain helpful, friendly attitude while always keeping internal and external customer service in mind.
Specifications:
2. Possess high level of self-motivation.
Physical/Mental Requirements:
1. Prolonged sitting.
2. Extended periods of computer use and keyboarding.
4. Understanding vague and implicit instructions.
5. Emotional stability and personal maturity.
For the love of all that is holy, what kind of person are they looking for??? The head hunter and i are hoping that the windoze 95/98 is a mistake!!! What little technical stuff they have listed relates to desktop support and NOT networking. Why for he love of Xenu is this listed as an IT Network Technician? Imagine what a Cisco-guru would say if they saw this description!
So when i met the head hunter the other day, i pretty much destroyed him. Poor guy. He had no idea what hit him. After about 5 minutes of me asking for more specifics followed by "i don't know" i threw in the towel. I came out swinging and wound up squaring off with the equipment manager of the grade school kick ball team. It was bad. Poor guy looked like a deer in headlights when i got on a tangent about the pros and cons of open source solutions vs the standard M$ suite of headaches. At least he didn't pull out the generic 5 questions that they seem to ALWAYS ask. "How much experience do you have with TCP/IP?" On more than one occasion i've laughed out loud on the phone when they ask that one because of how vague it is and they have NEVER been able to elaborate.
After a couple minutes of him turning pale and having a blank expression on his face i brought the conversation back to something that he can understand. Soft skills they call them. The job description is essentially looking for someone who can spell IBM and can play nicely with others. Personal maturity... yeah count me out right there! ;) I eventually took pity on the guy because he normally staffs skilled tradesmen and similar people. I took the time to explain a few concepts with examples so he could begin to grasp what i was saying. For example, when i mentioned open source he said he had no idea. I mentioned Firefox and all of a sudden he now has something familiar to him that he can relate to. *Sigh*
When i walked out of the meeting/interview/whatever, i was grinning from ear to ear. I know he's going to get me an interview with this company. I know i'm going to go to the interview and come out swinging which is what i do best. I'm going to sell myself and not short change my knowledge. I'm going to get turned down for someone who is cheaper and less experienced because they're going to view me as someone who will want to reinvent the wheel. I'm comfortable with this. They are going to say they want experience but they really want someone they can mold into their backwards and half-assed ways. Thus i will continue my current run of being "professionally unemployed". :)
*Sigh* (again)
I guess you had to be there....
The head hunter i met admitted right away that he knew next to nothing about computers and "is happy when it just works". Oh great. How am i supposed to tell this guy that i'm a viable candidate when he doesn't know wtf i'm even talking about?
I knew i was in for a world of pain just based on the job description. Here are some highlights:
IT Network Technician
Duties:
5. Provide user training, including e-mail, Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, Company internal programs and general Windows 95/98.
7. Present professional image at all times.
8. Follow procedures and rules in company employee manual.
9. Communicate effectively, both written and verbal.
10. Demonstrate professional attitude when approaching work assignments.
11. Promote positive, self-motivated atmosphere, promoting a team environment.
12. Maintain helpful, friendly attitude while always keeping internal and external customer service in mind.
Specifications:
2. Possess high level of self-motivation.
Physical/Mental Requirements:
1. Prolonged sitting.
2. Extended periods of computer use and keyboarding.
4. Understanding vague and implicit instructions.
5. Emotional stability and personal maturity.
For the love of all that is holy, what kind of person are they looking for??? The head hunter and i are hoping that the windoze 95/98 is a mistake!!! What little technical stuff they have listed relates to desktop support and NOT networking. Why for he love of Xenu is this listed as an IT Network Technician? Imagine what a Cisco-guru would say if they saw this description!
So when i met the head hunter the other day, i pretty much destroyed him. Poor guy. He had no idea what hit him. After about 5 minutes of me asking for more specifics followed by "i don't know" i threw in the towel. I came out swinging and wound up squaring off with the equipment manager of the grade school kick ball team. It was bad. Poor guy looked like a deer in headlights when i got on a tangent about the pros and cons of open source solutions vs the standard M$ suite of headaches. At least he didn't pull out the generic 5 questions that they seem to ALWAYS ask. "How much experience do you have with TCP/IP?" On more than one occasion i've laughed out loud on the phone when they ask that one because of how vague it is and they have NEVER been able to elaborate.
After a couple minutes of him turning pale and having a blank expression on his face i brought the conversation back to something that he can understand. Soft skills they call them. The job description is essentially looking for someone who can spell IBM and can play nicely with others. Personal maturity... yeah count me out right there! ;) I eventually took pity on the guy because he normally staffs skilled tradesmen and similar people. I took the time to explain a few concepts with examples so he could begin to grasp what i was saying. For example, when i mentioned open source he said he had no idea. I mentioned Firefox and all of a sudden he now has something familiar to him that he can relate to. *Sigh*
When i walked out of the meeting/interview/whatever, i was grinning from ear to ear. I know he's going to get me an interview with this company. I know i'm going to go to the interview and come out swinging which is what i do best. I'm going to sell myself and not short change my knowledge. I'm going to get turned down for someone who is cheaper and less experienced because they're going to view me as someone who will want to reinvent the wheel. I'm comfortable with this. They are going to say they want experience but they really want someone they can mold into their backwards and half-assed ways. Thus i will continue my current run of being "professionally unemployed". :)
*Sigh* (again)
I guess you had to be there....
Friday, February 29, 2008
One in 100 US adults behind bars
According to recent news article the United States:
More than one in 100 adults are now behind bars in the United States, home to the world's largest penal population, with a startling one in nine young black men incarcerated, a study has shown.
The prison and jail population rose by 25,000 to 2.3 million last year, out of a US adult population of 230 million, bringing the incarceration rate to one in 99.1 for the first time in US history, the Pew Center on the States said.
By comparison, China, with a population of one billion people, was second in the world with 1.5 million inmates, followed by Russia with 890,000 people in the slammer, the study said.
America also has the dubious distinction of leading the planet in the rate of incarceration, which is higher than nations like South Africa and Iran, the study said.
(continued...)This is obviously a subject i'm very passionate about. A friend of mine and i talked about this briefly and he questioned what the results would be if you exclude all "white" people. Sad but true.
What bothers me the most about this is how do we as Americans allow this to happen? Are we so blinded by fear that we believe "criminal" is an ax wielding maniac who is going to loot and pillage because they've been convicted of a crime? Have we bought into the whole "lock them up and throw away the key" mentality that we would rather live in a police state than actually show empathy towards a fellow human?
This being an election year, one of the reoccurring issues is how a candidate deals with crime. Candidates will bend over backwards in local elections to demonstrate that they are "tough" on crime. Heaven forbid if they ever showed any leniency in the past. Ironically, these are the same people that we as citizens will be begging for leniency from if/when we find ourselves caught within the judicial system.
What's most disturbing about this news is that it reflects our society today. As wide spread as the results of this study have been, I have seen no attempts to put it in context. How exactly has the US gotten to this point? It's not as though we collectively locked up that large of a portion of our population over night. The reality is that these results took years to attain. An undeniably large factor in these total incarceration numbers is the Federal Sentencing Guidelines which have recently been recently overturned. The fact that one in 100 US adults is currently behind bars has been over 20 years in the making.
My biggest fear is that people will be too shortsighted to truly grasp the bigger picture. The knee jerk reaction that we collectively have is "we should do something about this." The problem is, in a couple days we will watch the news and hear about how a young black male shot someone while robbing a liquor store and only received 18 months in jail despite their history of being violent. The belief that this "menace" should be "locked up in order to make our streets safe" becomes everyones new attitude. Never once is it mentioned that this alleged menace has a history of substance abuse, physical/sexual/psychological abuse, and that this individuals father is currently incarcerated for 10 years for possession with intent to distribute (drug dealing) courtesy of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
After reading the article in question, I ask that you ask yourself why these numbers are so steep. As frightening as they are, now I ask that you consider the number of people that are on extended supervision (parole, probation, work release, or pending trial/conviction/sentencing).
Do the math.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Advertisements
Yep, i sold out. Thought i'd give it a shot to have an ad on my page to see what happens. This is currently an experiment of mine. Since i know virtually nothing about online advertising, costs, compensation, rates, etc this will be a learning experience. Any/all ads will be removed if enough people complain or if they become intrusive to my content.
With that being said, let the games begin!
With that being said, let the games begin!
Alive.... Barely
My last posting consisted of me complaining about my wisdom tooth. Well it wound up just being an infection and was treated accordingly with antibiotics. Dodged a major bullet there!
I have had to pull my Radeon 9700 Pro card out of my box and insert a Radeon 9200. The fan was dieing and was waking me up. You can only punch your case so many times before you break something important! The 9200 is only analog and so i can only have one monitor plugged in whereas the 9700 had both DVI and analog. Pretty sure the PSU i had was junk too. Figuring out which fan was bad took me almost 2 weeks and i still have a feeling my case fan is on it's last legs. Argh!
On Jan 17th i posted that i had tendinitis in my right elbow. This is apparently incorrect. For the past month i have been treated for it and the pain has not gotten better. I would even go as far as to say that it's worse now than it was a month ago.
The physical therapist i have been seeing via work-mens comp has done the usual heat/ice packs with no success. I have done the recommended stretches and exercises with no measurable success. Needless to say, this is not good. Originally we thought it was in my elbow because that's where the pain was. After a couple weeks we narrowed it down to my bicep because that seems to be the very beginning of the pain. Pretty much it starts with a dull tightness/ache in my bicep and goes to shooting pain in my elbow and upper forearm. Nice.
(As part of my rehab, i have been attempting to cut back my interwebz use/abuse hoping that the down time will help.)
Tomorrow it's back to the doctor for a follow up so i can tell him that i've made virtually no progress. Can you tell i'm nervous?
All projects are currently on hold while i deal with this issue. My search for a windoze SFTP server is on the back burner for now, although during this down time i have gotten some advice for which client i should use. I have a new strategy for the job hunt now courtesy of yPerr but alas i can't mentally commit myself to this while dealing with the current stresses of my arm and family stuff. My search for spare cd-rom drive (i swear i saw one the other week) for my linux box is on the back burner because i'm honestly too lazy. If/when i find a spare drive, I'm kissing Fedora good bye (again) and debating on Debian or Ubuntu (yes i know the similarity but i'm not a fan-boy). Figuring out WTF is going on with the gas mileage is not on the back burner. In fact, it is becoming my primary obsession these days. More to come on the topic of my car on a later date.
Being on light duty at work sucks. I get to sit in the office and answer the phone when people call in sick. That's it. Oh yeah, i get to read the comics too. Ugh. That means no chance at picking up extra hours/$ and i continue to barely get by.
Yay for the announcement of upcoming Terminator movies!!! :) http://www.realmovienews.com/news/1478
Sleep sounds like a good idea right about now.
I have had to pull my Radeon 9700 Pro card out of my box and insert a Radeon 9200. The fan was dieing and was waking me up. You can only punch your case so many times before you break something important! The 9200 is only analog and so i can only have one monitor plugged in whereas the 9700 had both DVI and analog. Pretty sure the PSU i had was junk too. Figuring out which fan was bad took me almost 2 weeks and i still have a feeling my case fan is on it's last legs. Argh!
On Jan 17th i posted that i had tendinitis in my right elbow. This is apparently incorrect. For the past month i have been treated for it and the pain has not gotten better. I would even go as far as to say that it's worse now than it was a month ago.
The physical therapist i have been seeing via work-mens comp has done the usual heat/ice packs with no success. I have done the recommended stretches and exercises with no measurable success. Needless to say, this is not good. Originally we thought it was in my elbow because that's where the pain was. After a couple weeks we narrowed it down to my bicep because that seems to be the very beginning of the pain. Pretty much it starts with a dull tightness/ache in my bicep and goes to shooting pain in my elbow and upper forearm. Nice.
(As part of my rehab, i have been attempting to cut back my interwebz use/abuse hoping that the down time will help.)
Tomorrow it's back to the doctor for a follow up so i can tell him that i've made virtually no progress. Can you tell i'm nervous?
All projects are currently on hold while i deal with this issue. My search for a windoze SFTP server is on the back burner for now, although during this down time i have gotten some advice for which client i should use. I have a new strategy for the job hunt now courtesy of yPerr but alas i can't mentally commit myself to this while dealing with the current stresses of my arm and family stuff. My search for spare cd-rom drive (i swear i saw one the other week) for my linux box is on the back burner because i'm honestly too lazy. If/when i find a spare drive, I'm kissing Fedora good bye (again) and debating on Debian or Ubuntu (yes i know the similarity but i'm not a fan-boy). Figuring out WTF is going on with the gas mileage is not on the back burner. In fact, it is becoming my primary obsession these days. More to come on the topic of my car on a later date.
Being on light duty at work sucks. I get to sit in the office and answer the phone when people call in sick. That's it. Oh yeah, i get to read the comics too. Ugh. That means no chance at picking up extra hours/$ and i continue to barely get by.
Yay for the announcement of upcoming Terminator movies!!! :) http://www.realmovienews.com/news/1478
Sleep sounds like a good idea right about now.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Ouch!
Wisdom tooth HURTS. This after being sick all last week. Yay. Another bill for me to try to pay off with my lack-of-a-real-job.
When it rains, it pours it seems....
When it rains, it pours it seems....
Thursday, January 17, 2008
ARGH!!!
In the past week:
-Got rejected for a job that i truly believed i had in the bag.
-Tendinitis kicked into full effect in my right elbow (thus typing is bad and downright painful for me)
-Did a self-diagnosis on my tendinitis because i've got no prospect of having the $ for a doctor visit let alone insurance
-Offered to do "charity" work on a laptop for a friend of a friend. Apparently when you do something voluntarily and for free, people think they have grounds to be demanding and picky. This of course coincides with them being very demanding of your free time. No good deed goes unpunished it seems.
-Tangled with another laptop at the same time for a friend's ex. Not getting paid a whole lot but then i don't mind in this case because there's 100% trust in my assessment of the situation. Oddly enough, this is the one that is the least stressful for me.
-Accepted the fact that paying $1200 in order to get a part time job that pays $7.50 is just stupid.
-Consistently gone to sleep after 4am and had people wonder why i have trouble getting up at 10am.
-Completely dropped the ball on my friends bday. All we wound up doing was going out for dinner after work and didn't even have the $ to buy him a beer.
-Done nothing around the house since sun evening. Dishes, vacuuming, laundry, cat litter, sweeping, and random cleaning are severely behind schedule.
ARGH!!!!!!!
-Got rejected for a job that i truly believed i had in the bag.
-Tendinitis kicked into full effect in my right elbow (thus typing is bad and downright painful for me)
-Did a self-diagnosis on my tendinitis because i've got no prospect of having the $ for a doctor visit let alone insurance
-Offered to do "charity" work on a laptop for a friend of a friend. Apparently when you do something voluntarily and for free, people think they have grounds to be demanding and picky. This of course coincides with them being very demanding of your free time. No good deed goes unpunished it seems.
-Tangled with another laptop at the same time for a friend's ex. Not getting paid a whole lot but then i don't mind in this case because there's 100% trust in my assessment of the situation. Oddly enough, this is the one that is the least stressful for me.
-Accepted the fact that paying $1200 in order to get a part time job that pays $7.50 is just stupid.
-Consistently gone to sleep after 4am and had people wonder why i have trouble getting up at 10am.
-Completely dropped the ball on my friends bday. All we wound up doing was going out for dinner after work and didn't even have the $ to buy him a beer.
-Done nothing around the house since sun evening. Dishes, vacuuming, laundry, cat litter, sweeping, and random cleaning are severely behind schedule.
ARGH!!!!!!!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
FTP server on a winXP box
This weekend i started investigating in my free time what my options were for setting up an FTP server on my winXP box. After asking a few others that have more experience with this, i was given the following options:
Cerberus: http://www.cerberusftp.com/
FileZilla:http://filezilla-project.org/
SSHWindows:
http://www.digitalmediaminute.com/article/1487/setting-up-a-sftp-server-on-windows
Serv-U: http://www.serv-u.com/
Madsonclan.net
I consider myself an experienced user of FTP clients and my current favorite is FileZilla. The goal of this project is to find an SFTP server which i can run successfully on my box whenever i want to share media upon request and at the same time be easy to administer. My biggest concerns are SFTP vs FTP, ease of use, "footprint", and bandwidth capping. I'm sure most applications will meet my criteria but this is still what i will be judging them on.
My first trial has been with FileZilla and the results were mixed. Obviously needed to forward the necessary ports and the setup seemed fairly simple. The documentation provided by Madsonclan.net was especially helpful in helping me understand what was going on as i kept clicking NEXT. Using my friend as a guinea pig, I determined that this test was a failure. Eventually he was able to connect but could neither view nor upload to the shared folder. Furthermore, he was only able to connect using FTP and not SFTP. Documentation about FileZilla Server has been vague as to whether it can truly support SFTP but it appears that is not the case. Our first couple of attempts were unsuccessful because i needed to open the proper port (21) in the Windows Firewall. Once the ports were open, he told me his client said he was connected (verified by the server GUI showing that he was connected).
So.... close.... but.... so.... far....
Before i move on from FileZilla to another app, i intend to figure out why he couldn't see anything in the directory let alone upload to it. No sense in trying to tackle this problem while i'm learning my way around yet another new application, right? This sounds like a file permission issue but the account has all of the necessary permissions for that directory. Why does it still sound like a permissions problem then and why do i have a feeling i'm close? About 10 minutes after testing was concluded (i was hungry), i came up with a couple ideas.
During the next testing round i need to remember to check the folder permissions (right click -> properties -> sharing -> share this folder).
Testing is complete for the moment and now it's time to get my quality killing time in. Updates to follow each round so stay tuned!!!
Cerberus: http://www.cerberusftp.com/
FileZilla:http://filezilla-project.org/
SSHWindows:
http://www.digitalmediaminute
Serv-U: http://www.serv-u.com/
Madsonclan.net
I consider myself an experienced user of FTP clients and my current favorite is FileZilla. The goal of this project is to find an SFTP server which i can run successfully on my box whenever i want to share media upon request and at the same time be easy to administer. My biggest concerns are SFTP vs FTP, ease of use, "footprint", and bandwidth capping. I'm sure most applications will meet my criteria but this is still what i will be judging them on.
My first trial has been with FileZilla and the results were mixed. Obviously needed to forward the necessary ports and the setup seemed fairly simple. The documentation provided by Madsonclan.net was especially helpful in helping me understand what was going on as i kept clicking NEXT. Using my friend as a guinea pig, I determined that this test was a failure. Eventually he was able to connect but could neither view nor upload to the shared folder. Furthermore, he was only able to connect using FTP and not SFTP. Documentation about FileZilla Server has been vague as to whether it can truly support SFTP but it appears that is not the case. Our first couple of attempts were unsuccessful because i needed to open the proper port (21) in the Windows Firewall. Once the ports were open, he told me his client said he was connected (verified by the server GUI showing that he was connected).
So.... close.... but.... so.... far....
Before i move on from FileZilla to another app, i intend to figure out why he couldn't see anything in the directory let alone upload to it. No sense in trying to tackle this problem while i'm learning my way around yet another new application, right? This sounds like a file permission issue but the account has all of the necessary permissions for that directory. Why does it still sound like a permissions problem then and why do i have a feeling i'm close? About 10 minutes after testing was concluded (i was hungry), i came up with a couple ideas.
During the next testing round i need to remember to check the folder permissions (right click -> properties -> sharing -> share this folder).
Testing is complete for the moment and now it's time to get my quality killing time in. Updates to follow each round so stay tuned!!!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Most Listend To Music (2007)
The list is essentially complete. There will eventually be a brief commentary on why i picked each track to symbolize this past year. These are the songs that i found myself listening to a lot in 2007 and thus they are now the soundtrack of the year for myself.
In no particular order:
Sinead O'Connor - The Foggy Dew
Blaggards - Drunken Sailor
Dropkick Murphy's - Flannigans Ball
Dropkick Murphy's - State of Massachusetts
Apoptygma Berzerk - Cambodia
Apoptygma Berzerk - In This Together
Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down
Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line Soundtrack) - Wildwood Flower
Bad Religion - Beyond Electric Dreams
Messiah - Temple of Dreams
Misfits - Mars Attacks
Misfits - Dig Up Her Bones
Alice In Chains - Would
Tears For Fears - Shout
Anthrax - Riding Shotgun
Anthrax - Burst
Chuck Berry - Brown Eyed Handsome Man
Iron Maiden - Caught Somewhere In Time
Vas - The Inward Coil
If you're interested in hearing any/all of these songs then contact me and i can make them available to you.
(more to come...)
In no particular order:
Sinead O'Connor - The Foggy Dew
Blaggards - Drunken Sailor
Dropkick Murphy's - Flannigans Ball
Dropkick Murphy's - State of Massachusetts
Apoptygma Berzerk - Cambodia
Apoptygma Berzerk - In This Together
Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down
Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line Soundtrack) - Wildwood Flower
Bad Religion - Beyond Electric Dreams
Messiah - Temple of Dreams
Misfits - Mars Attacks
Misfits - Dig Up Her Bones
Alice In Chains - Would
Tears For Fears - Shout
Anthrax - Riding Shotgun
Anthrax - Burst
Chuck Berry - Brown Eyed Handsome Man
Iron Maiden - Caught Somewhere In Time
Vas - The Inward Coil
If you're interested in hearing any/all of these songs then contact me and i can make them available to you.
(more to come...)
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Happy New Years!
It appears that 2008 has arrived and there's no turning back. May it be peaceful and safe for us all. Damn... It's an election year officially. Well it can't hurt to keep our fingers crossed just in case, right? :)
Coming soon: songs of 2007 mix from yours truly.
Coming soon: songs of 2007 mix from yours truly.
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