A cluestick-beating is in order for whoever is in charge of LDAP packages over at Red Hat. I’ve spent the past few days trying to figure out why my SSH server is seeing logins as “NOUSER” rather than the supplied user id. After much googling and hand-wringing, I found a bug in Red Hat’s Bugzilla system explaining the exact problem. It was derived from this email.

It’s not that the problem is easily fixed. It’s not that it was there to begin with. It’s that no one at Red Hat knows freakin’ LDAP. No one uses it there. Really.

Hey, Red Hat! If you’re going to ship a package as part of your product, please TEST the damn thing! The reason people deploy LDAP is to use it to log into machines!.

I know. It’s a novel idea: using a directory service to authenticate users. Maybe I should patent it.

Gah.

When Richard Petty bumped that driver a few years ago, did the judge offer him driving school?

I’m off for my Virginia traffic court appearance. Not sure what to expect. I’ll fill y’all in once I get back.

I was sad to learn that Christopher Reeve has died. He battled mightily with his paralysis and became a beacon of hope for those looking for a cure. Thanks to his efforts, attention is being turned towards important research to help paralysis victims walk again. In the end, Reeve really was a hero.

We’ll miss you, Chris.

My desk is a fire hazard again. Time to do some catching up.

The News and Observer mentioned a few sites, that raise questions about what exactly is hiding under Bush’s jacket. Apparently, people have noticed a bulge between his shoulderblades which some allege to be a radio earpiece. Surf over to IsBushWired.com to see a few sample photographs.

I’ve heard said that Bush is dyslexic. If that’s true, I don’t see much harm in his having an audio version of the TelePrompter to keep him from flubbing his scheduled speeches. On the other hand, if he’s using this during press conferences, or debates, then that crosses the line into downright fraud.

Before I learned of all this controversy, I thought there something peculiar about Bush’s shoulders. As I watched him in the debate, he looked to me like he was a humpback of some sort. I finally dismissed it as bad posture, but not before I spent way too much brainpower trying to figure it out. His posture just looked unnatural, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

One explaination I tried out was that Bush may have been wearing body armor. Then I studied Kerry and noticed none on him. Looking back at Bush, I saw he lacked padding in his shirt – so it wasn’t armor, either.

Is he getting answers fed to him? Who knows? But I would like to know what that thing is on his back.

I got a contract with a small but rapidly-growing start-up company this week and have been working extremely hard to get things going. It’s a lot of work – perhaps the most challenging job I’ve had – but the reward of doing the job right makes it worthwhile.

I’m wearing many hats now, mainly dealing in IT, support, and sales engineering. I love being in this position, with every day’s decisions having an enormous impact on the company’s future.

Then I’ll take some time away to focus on my growing family, when our son arrives in less than three weeks. Then this time will look like a picnic, I’m sure.

I’ve spent the day hammering, sawing, and measuring to put the finishing touches on our attic flooring. It’s been a bigger job than I expected, but I’m 95% done now. One more floor panel needs to be measured and cut and it will be a done deal.

I spent an hour this morning repairing a neighbor’s cut cable TV line so he could watch football this weekend. I hate to see a Wolfpack fan denied their ability to watch the game, so I pitched in to help. It’s fun to help neighbors. Good way to get to know them.

The neighborhood rocks. It’s now in a political sign arms race. And it’s friendly, too. Kelly was outside with Hallie and spoke to about five separate neighbors in that time. Our next-door neighbor told us that in the three months we’ve been here, they’ve already interacted with us more than the previous owners who lived here for six years.

Tomorrow, I hope to nail the final nails in the flooring project. Then I will do some computer geek stuff before heading over to a party at my former coworker’s house. Should be nice seeing all the old crew.

Other than the crushing defeat to the Tar Heels by the Wolfpack today, it was a pretty good day.

I figured out this weekend that by nature I am a student of leadership. Doesn’t matter who the leader is or what they lead. If there is something I can learn, I naturally study it.

It explains a lot about me. Stuff even I didn’t realize about myself.