Blogging Outages

I’m at Lake Gaston this morning, out in the boonies with nothing but dial-up access. Even so, I’m looking around my family blogosphere and it doesn’t look good. Oh sure, my site was down yesterday afternoon – due to a power failure. No word yet whether it was related to the Northeast power outage. 🙂

At any rate, I’m a bit disappointed in my fellow bloggers. C’mon, folks! JeffTurner.Net and OldNole.com are completely down, and the Wysiblog is coughing up a SQL Server error. Props to JamieGaines.com for having an actual, working website this morning.

More and more, I get bummed when I can’t tune into my fellow bloggers and find out what’s going on. All those media links on the bottom right of the page? I hardly ever go there anymore. I’d much rather hear what my friends and family have to say on a topic than listening to the newsheads. And THAT comes from a certified news junkie.

Bad Scooter! No Biscuit!

I was perusing my weblogs yesterday when I saw the familiar sight of Scooter, the spidering engine of AltaVista (no, Scott, not you). Scooter pulled down my robots.txt file, as all good spiders should. But then it did something quite unexpected: it followed links that I had specifically prohibited it from following in my robots.txt file!

This file has been used on my site for years. Its purpose is really to cut down on spammers from grabbing my email addresses through search engines. Whenever I see a search engine not obeying the robots.txt, it has a pretty good chance of getting banned from my site.

I’ve never known Altavista to be rogue player, so I emailed their support staff demanding an explaination. They then asked me for logfiles, which I provided them. As of yet, the ball is still in their court. I demanded an answer from them as to why they would break the rules. They certainly got some ‘spaining to do.

I’ll update this story when I get a response back from Altavista. In the meantime, you might want to check your logfiles, too, to see if you’re also a victim.

Power Outage

Yesterday’s power outage in the Northeast is the topic of all news now. Fifty million people were affected. Makes you wonder if all those interconnected power grids were really such a good idea, eh?

In the office here, we were swapping stories about Hurricane Fran’s power outage. Greg and I were both impressed at the number of stars that could be seen in the night sky. All that light pollution was gone. It was amazing. I guess its good to get knocked out of our comfortable world every now and then. Puts things in perspective.

Meanwhile, I’m checking the State Surplus website for used generators, ’cause you never know. 🙂
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Bill Maher on the European heat wave

From Bill Maher’s weblog. Good stuff:

PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES

The heat wave across Europe has killed at least 100 people in Paris. Yes, they’re even surrendering to the heat. The stifling weather has driven Parisians to extreme measures, like showering. Experts say it’s so hot on the Champs Elyssee that you can fry an egg on the sidewalk – and then rudely serve it to an American tourist for $24. What are the chances this heat wave – the worst in Europe since, oh, Stonehenge was built – is the result of global warming? I’d say 100 percent, but I’m sure the Bush administration will continue to ignore the problem until somebody points out that Norway has melted.

Welcome to the web, Dad!

I just got a delightful note announcing how my dad now has his own website, OldNole.COM. Good to have a place for you to post your musings.

The only problem I see is that it’s FSU Seminoles-specific. Frankly, I don’t see much good news to talk about on the Seminoles, now that all the talent has moved to Raleigh. Maybe it will give all the Noles fans a place to commiserate. 🙂

Just kidding, of course. It’s fun to poke fun at our little family rivalry. I look forward to reading what the OldNole has to say. Why not head over there and say hello?

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RC Plane Crosses Atlantic

A remote-control model airplane crossed the Atlantic Ocean yesterday in a record-breaking flight. It was the first time a true model airplane, defined as 11 pounds or less with 10cc or less of engine, had ever made the flight. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, as controllers lost contact with it in places. But somehow it got there.

I see it as a fantastic geek hacking effort, myself. In fact, I’d love to see the electronics they packed into this little plane.

Read more about the “Spirit of Butts Farm” at the official homepage, and at National Geographic.

Shifting DNS servers

I’ve shifted DNS servers for my main sites. You shouldn’t notice any changes, but if you do for some reason, check back in a day or two and things should be settled down.

Thanks to my man Wade for his assistance on this.

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Looking California And Feeling It, Too

I offhandedly remarked to my wife tonight, for no particular reason, that I’m feeling pretty happy now. Thinking about it later, I can’t remember a time in my life when I was ever feeling any better. For the past few days, I’ve felt that I am on top of the world. And I’m finding I LIKE it!

I don’t know to what I owe this feeling. It must be a combination of things. My daughter Hallie adores me and she’s about as adorable as they come. My wife is happy. I’m exercising on a regular basis. I have a kick-ass new job where I’m finally playing the role I was meant to play. Things are just going my way.

I guess what cemented it for me was my recent business trip to Birmingham, right after I blew everyone away with my on-site demo. Man, that did wonders for my confidence! On the trip back home, I was going out of my way to make everyone around me feel better. If there was a little old lady who needed help crossing the street, I was there! I laughed the whole plane trip back and the smile hasn’t left my face since.

Contrast it to six months ago when I was slaving away at $FORMER_EMPLOYER, receiving more money but jack-shit for recognition. I was not happy at all there, and looking back I wonder how I didn’t see that all along. I suppose it was something I had to do to keep a paycheck coming in at a crucial time. For that alone, I am grateful for having that job.

From my position today, though, I can say that getting “let go” from $FORMER_EMPLOYER was one of the best things that could’ve happened. Maybe you never realize just how happy you can be until you’ve been unhappy. I hope I never lose my appreciation for the great things I have in life.

Carrboro Is Clueful About WiFi

I saw on the Triangle Internetworkers list today that the Town Of Carrboro is setting up a public wireless network. This is just too cool! As Andy Vogel, the town techie in charge says, this can really encourage techie people to move there. I want to move there already!

Props to Carrboro for leading the charge on wireless access in the Triangle! If you’re interested in helping out, you can sign up at their listserv here.

Also, check out the Triangle Wireless User Group while you’re at it.