For the first time in a year I got to sit on the receiving side of a training session, this time for my new product, that open-source network management tool with the Zen-like name. Since the bulk of training came right after lunch (the crab melt at the Ram’s Head Tavern is teh bomb), I got a bit sleepy for a moment but soon rallied when the magic of the product became apparent.
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. This tool is amazing! Continue reading
Since I’ve been on the road this week, I set up OpenVPN on my Ubuntu laptop to ease the process of connecting to home. Boy, why didn’t I do this sooner? It’s so nice to easily access all of my home machines without adding more SSH tunnels. The OpenVPN-protected connections are quicker to connect than the SSH tunnels, too.
Geeky stuff like this makes me feel like a Linux stud. Yeah, boyeeee!
The new job is going well. I got here at noon yesterday and worked until 7. Didn’t get a lot of training due to other issues being addressed yesterday but learned a lot anyway. Should get a brain-full today with training all day long.
Annapolis seems nice from the little bit I’ve been outside. I especially enjoyed the sea breeze last evening. Its nice to be so close to the ocean. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to look around while I’m here.
Boingboing linked to a story of a New York Times reporter being held hostage in a Chinese toy factory. It illustrates the dysfunctional nature of Chinese authority. Basically, the almighty dollar trumps government authority.
It also reaffirms the story I’ve heard about Chinese police always doing their best to do absolutely nothing. Seems pretty consistent with my own observations of China.
I cringed when I learned that Bellsouth would use the AT&T name. Though the new AT&T has little in common with the AT&T of old (aside from wanting to own the world), the name carries baggage for me. When I was in charge of phones at one former company, I was shocked to discover that AT&T had slammed my company – switching fourteen of our phone lines to their long distance service without our approval. I was so furious that I immediately filed a complaint with the N.C. Public Utilities Commission, after which an AT&T lawyer called to soothe my nerves. Had my employer not imploded days later (making the whole matter moot), I would have pressed the Commission to drop the hammer on AT&T. A similar case in Texas had recently cost a slamming telco $1.4 million. Seemed like a good starting point to me.
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I’m off to work tomorrow morning, starting with a short morning flight to Baltimore. It will be quite different for me to, number one – be working again, and number two – start it with travel. I expect to learn a bunch of stuff this week and hope not to get overwhelmed. Even so, its something I’ve looked forward to for weeks. Finally I’ll be back to work!
Some asshat has stolen my credit card number and gone on a spree. Whee. I’m thinking back to when I may have used it last. I haven’t made many purchases since I’ve been between jobs, so the trail should be easy to follow. Just an occasional restaurant meal or drinks. I figure lunch at Crazy Fire was the last time.
Now that I think of it, something funny happened at my last Crazy Fire visit. As I was paying for my meal, something suggested to me that the cashier might try to do something with my card. I didn’t see anything overt occur and he only held it for a minute, but I don’t usually have that kind of feeling when I pay for things. A minute is all it would take, of course.
The fraud message we got from one company used Kelly’s name, so its likely her card info was stolen, perhaps at a restaurant or other physical transaction. Anyhow, Crazy Fire is likely safe, but every Starbucks in Raleigh is now a suspect. (Just kidding, sweetie!)
A friend once interviewed for a network security position at a big-name credit card company. He said such companies write off billions of dollars to fraud every year. That was a few years ago, of course. I have to say the fraud prevention algorithms now in use are pretty good. We got our call less than 24 hours after the first fraudulent purchases were made.
I hope we can still find out where our card was used. You know, living vicariously.
Kelly’s cousin’s husband is on the road in an up-and-coming band from Minneapolis, Romantica. Jim Orvis (on the left in the photo) plays percussion for the band. Jim is a great drummer and an equally great guy.
Romantica has been generating some buzz, selling out their Minneapolis CD-debut show. They’ll be playing at Starr Hill in Charlottesville next weekend, no doubt to a large crowd.
Give their songs a listen at Purevolume.com, visit their website or their MySpace page for tour dates and other information. MT.Net says check ’em out!
Today is the northern solstice (or summer solstice in the northern hemisphere), the farthest point of the sun’s journey across the sky. We now start the slow decline of daylight hours until the winter solstice.
I think I’ll have two beers this evening, in honor of the longest day of the year!
The Beeb reports that prior to the March capture of 15 British Royal Navy sailors by the Iranian Navy, an Australian Navy boarding party repelled a similar attack:
The Australians, though, to quote one military source, “were having none of it”.
The BBC has been told the Australians re-boarded the vessel they had just searched, aimed their machine guns at the approaching Iranians and warned them to back off, using what was said to be “highly colourful language”.
Good to know that the Aussies don’t put up with that. Good on ya, mates!
