Virtualization and the death of KVM

I just got back from a client visit which lead to an interesting revelation. I went there to support the network management software that my company makes. Upon arriving at the client’s desk, I happened to notice a familiar KVM appliance sitting on his desk.
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Another Phishy Call: “Upgrade Now”

Just got another phishy call, this time from number 702-520-1214. This time the CallerID read “Upgrade Now” and a message about satellite TV service began right after I said “hello.” When I asked to be taken off the list, a gentleman transferred me to an AUDIX voicemailbox, where a female voice said “this number will be removed. Sorry for the inconvenience,” or somesuch. Interestingly enough, this gentlemen sounded like the same guy on their system’s voicemail menu. Is this a one-person operation, perhaps?

I kept waiting for AUDIX to hang up but it apparently never does. Thus, I’m going on 12 minutes now tying up this bozo’s trunk, wasting his money.

At least now I know these clowns are using Lucent equipment to run their scam and not Asterisk.

Hosting Provider Switcheroo

MT.Net may go dark briefly in the next day or so as it moves to its new home on a box at VPSFarm, a Xen hosting provider. This could normally be done with no service interruption to you, my dear readers, but a DNS change is being made simultaneously. Those tend to take a while to propagate so its possible you may not jump to the new site as quickly as you’d like.

Should you happen to lose your MT.Net goodness, please – do not panic! The new DNS changes should eventually propagate to you.

You’ll know you’re looking at the wrong site if you don’t see a post about Miss Teen South Carolina next up.

Going, Going, Gonzo!

There’s a Southern saying that applies to outgoing U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: “if his mouth’s moving, he’s lying.” Gonzales finally got the point and tendered his resignation today, ending one of the most contentious terms as attorney general in recent memory.

What gets me is Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) statement after Gonzales’s resignation:

“It is my hope that whomever President Bush selects as the next attorney general, he or she is not subjected to the same poisonous partisanship that we’ve sadly grown accustomed to over the past eight months.”

Uh, you been under a rock for the past seven years, Mitch?

MythTV addons

A few MythTV addons I’ve been contemplating:

HDHomeRun: A networked HDTV tuner with two (count ’em, two!) tuner cards: one for OTA HDTV signals and one for HDTV cable signals. MythTV can use these right out of the box to schedule recordings. Plus, the number of tuners is only limited by network bandwidth so you can easily create a MythTV-based headend. I’m thinking of pairing one of these up with MythTV running on my NSLU2 for a super-quiet, super-efficient MythTV setup. Not bad for $170.
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Global Warming

Lately I’ve been wondering what impact this situation has on global warming. I’m sure its a dramatic one, and one that’s probably often overlooked.

Rain!

We got rain this afternoon. I was practically dancing, though I’m kicking myself for not already hooking up the water tank I recently bought.

The MT.Net weather station says close to an inch of rain fell. Its a drop in the bucket, drought-wise, but every little bit helps.

More Than This

More Than This
Roxy Music

I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing
Fallen leaves in the night
Who can say where they´re blowing
As free as the wind
And hopefully learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning
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