Weekend (and week) recap

Let’s see. I had a birthday this week, turning 41. Had an after-hours meeting every day except Friday, when I took Travis to his piano lesson. Monday evening it was a meeting with the head of a major local institution. Tuesday it was a city council meeting. Wednesday it was the Raleigh CAC meeting. Thursday it was a contentious Parks Board meeting.

Saturday morning I had a conference to work in Durham, but cut it short to watch the end of the kids’ basketball games. Kelly’s parents arrived around that time and we spent some time visiting with them. Travis and his grandfather built a dinosaur out of the trash can and parts found around the garage. Kelly’s parents took the kids to dinner while we headed out to Papa Mojo’s for Cajun dinner and dancing. We got back late but had fun doing it.
Continue reading →

Linux’s networking stack gets confused

I just saw this unusual response when I pinged my local server:

root@sundowner:/etc/network# ping maestro
PING maestro (192.168.3.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2091 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2094 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2077 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=2040 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2043 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=2051 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=2046 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=1065 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=63.8 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=1.39 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=1.35 ms
64 bytes from maestro (192.168.3.1): icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=1.53 ms

The odd thing about this is that the first 8 responses actually returned in less than one second, in spite of ping reporting times over 2000 ms. For the math-impaired out there, 2000 ms equals two seconds.

I don’t know why Linux was reporting a ping response returning in two seconds when it actually returned in less than one second (and most likely a fraction of a second). It’s very strange.

Looks like we’re in for nasty weather

Yesterday afternoon I had just sat down in the recliner when my weather radio began sounding. I found this quite odd as a glance out the window showed calm winds and sunny skies. As soon as I’d reset my radio and sit down again, it would sound again! It turns out it was a flash flood warning – for today. I guess the NWS wasn’t taking any chances in alerting the public.

The forecast calls for up to three inches of rain to fall tonight:

* FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH MONDAY MORNING
* WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF ONE TO TWO INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE PIEDMONT OF NORTH CAROLINA THIS EVENING THROUGH MONDAY MORNING… WITH ISOLATED HIGHER AMOUNTS UP TO 3 INCHES POSSIBLE IN ANY EMBEDDED CONVECTION.
* THESE RAINFALL AMOUNTS ARE LIKELY TO PRODUCE RAPID RISES ON AREA CREEKS AND STREAMS. IN PARTICULAR… CREEKS THAT TEND TO RISE QUICKLY WITH HEAVY RAIN… INCLUDING CRABTREE CREEK IN THE TRIANGLE… BUFFALO CREEK IN THE TRIAD… AND CROSS CREEK IN FAYETTEVILLE… MAY EXPERIENCE FLOODING. HIGH WATER IS ALSO POSSIBLE IN URBAN AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS. MAINSTEM RIVERS INCLUDING THE HAW… TAR… NEUSE… AND ROCKY RIVER ARE ALSO LIKELY TO SEE RISES OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

Continue reading →

Unwanted birthday present

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that corporations can meddle all they want in elections. This is in spite of the fact that they aren’t real persons and cannot vote. If you had any illusions that your political representative would listen to you rather than the big corporation happily polluting your neighborhood, you can forget about it. Hamilton’s vision for America was at odds with Jefferson’s and now Hamilton’s is firmly in control.

It’s nice to think that America is the land of the free. When you look at it closely, however, you begin to see that the cards are stacked mightily against the individual. As Joe Strummer of The Clash said in the song Know Your Rights:“you have the right to free speech … as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.” That is, you have the right to be counted … as long as Exxon, General Electric, and other corporations are free to count more.
Continue reading →

Good rebate policy


I bought a Samsung Bluetooth headset from Woot.Com last month with a rebate deal that made it practically free. When the headset and its rebate arrived, I saw that the rebate program ended January 15th. Thinking I had plenty of time to fill out the paperwork, I let it slide until about a week days ago.

That’s when I was surprised to read the fine print which said the rebate needed to be mailed within 30 days of purchase. It was now roughly 45 days since I bought it. I filled out the paperwork and mailed it in anyway, taking a chance that it would get honored.

Now, all my previous rebate experience told me that rebate companies use the slightest technicality to avoid honoring a rebate. That saves their clients money. I suppose that’s their right: the fine print is the fine print. Legally speaking, I was no longer entitled to a rebate check.

In spite of my gaffe, it looks like they’re sending me one, anyway! I got an email this morning with a message saying my rebate request is valid! Kudos for Samsung’s rebate fulfillment company, Parago for putting the customer first!

Soon to be spotless

Artist rendering

It’s not every birthday that I’m as excited about losing something as I am getting something, but today is one of those birthdays. I saw the dermatologist today to get the mole on my face looked at after I noticed last month that it had grown a bit. Dr. Burton took a close look at it, declared it safe, and then promptly zapped it right off my face with a hand-held freeze bottle. For fifteen years this Alaska-shaped spot has taken over my temple and a five-minute dermatologist appointment has put an end to it.

It will take about 10 days for the scab to fall off my face, but after that I should be spot-free. Woohoo!

FindToto

A neighbor lost his dog recently and found it using this service called FindToto. You can use FindToto to make thousands of automated calls to your neighborhood, alerting others to your missing pet.

It’s an interesting idea, and one that appeals to me as I’m also working on a neighborhood phone alert system.

Light blogging

Photo by Oleg Volk, www.olegvolk.net

It’s a busy week for me, with many after-hours meetings taking place. Yesterday, I met with the CEO of a local hospital. Tonight I went to an important City Council/Planning Commission meeting. Tomorrow I have my Raleigh CAC meeting. Thursday I have my Parks Board meeting. Few of these allow much blogging time afterwards, and the ones that do don’t leave me much time to rest. I actually fell asleep at 9:30 last night!

It’s all good, though. The work is its own reward, and doing good things for our city and community is something I love doing. It’s energizing to be around people who feel the same way.

Avoiding airport security gridlock

So it seems that today another person in a major airport went someplace he wasn’t allowed and shut down the whole terminal for hours. Jules Paul Bouloute, who just returned from Haiti, walked through an alarmed security door and paralyzed JFK airport. This comes less than two weeks after Chinese student Haisong Jiang walked the wrong way through security and caused the evacuation of the Newark airport.

To me, it doesn’t matter whether these individuals have bad intent, whether they’re incompetent, or whether they just made a dumb mistake. The fact that someone can in five seconds cause six hours of misery and chaos to a terminal full of passengers shows how broken our air travel system truly is.
Continue reading →