Eterm

Ok, this is really starting to get to me. I'm trying to install Eterm on my Gentoo box but to no avail. I get the same error message, everytime! I've tried what the forums suggest with no luck, and even though I told Jason that I've already done it, I've tried emerge -UD x11-terms/eterm. This is called frustrating....

127.0.0.1

We'll, it seems that our house is moving right along. The builder already has the forms up and they have begun laying down the plumbing. This Wednesday is our "pre-construction" meeting and they'll be telling us what to expect. This is also the start of the fun process of watching the builder like a hawk. While we like the builder seeing as how they are #2 on our top 5 list, you can never be too careful. If you're wondering why we didn't go with our #1 choice the answer is simple, money! Our #1 pick wanted 50k more than we were willing to fork out! Other than that, we just need to finalize the type of loan we want. We can't lock down on an interest rate until late November / early December so we've got some time. But all in all, we'll probably do a 7-10 year ARM.

Why isn't this illegal?

M$ in all of its glory and wisdom has a nice little feature Windows XP to make it auto download SP2. My question is, isn't that illegal? I'm all for updates, only when I feel that the update is worth it. But having my computer download something that I don't/might not want?! To get around the auto download, M$ has a tool kit to 'hack' the registry, but still, that's messed up.

A Little Bit Of Everything

Haven't blogged in almost a week! So here we go, a little bit of everything.

The Shi'ite Cleric Sadr and his militia are still holding up in the temple in Najaf. Smart move on his part, holding up in the 'holiest shrine'. Forcing the Americans to play it safe. Last I heard, the Iraqis are telling the Americans to let them handle it. More power to them I say.

The US Government has decided to change the OT laws for some people. CNN had the article. I haven't read the new law but it should be interesting.

M$'s SP2 is getting some bad reviews. It seems that a lot of applications, including their own, break after installing SP2. Not to mention some nice vulnerabilities.

P2P != Illegal. About time if you ask me. Software doesn't commit piracy, the people that use it do. Check it out here.

And last but not least, M$ is filing for another patent, gasp*! But the best part is that they're filing for patent on sudo! Slashdot has that article.

It Didn't Like It!

After having played around with XP SP2 some more, I've come across some interesting information. It seems that there is a long list of applications that SP2 has broken. Some of which are M$ apps?! The list of programs can be found here and the means to fix the problems can be found here. Thought interesting enough, M$ is telling you to find the problem and fix it yourself. I thought that's why we use windows, so that it could think for us...

My Little Pinky

There was a funny scenario we had at work a couple of days ago but I've been forgetting to blogging about it. It seems that Jason has less power in his hands/arms than Michele does with here fingers. Jason was trying to stable 20+ pages together using a standard stapler but could not. So Michele simply presses down on the stapler with her fingers and successfully staples the pages together. Oh the embarrassment!

XP SP2

I've recently downloaded the new Windows XP Service Pack 2 at a whopping 270Megs! Checked the MD5Sum and did a virus scan. Everything checked out ok, so after backing up my system I did an install. Oddly, after getting about 40% of the way done, I get an error saying that it couldn't find a certain dll?! I chose to cancel the install and after it backtracked to 20% the install started over again and everything was fine. M$ added a 'new' security center to manage the built in firewall, auto updates and virus scans. I must admit that I did not feel comfortable telling M$ to register that I was running Norton. Why the hell do they need to know what virus scanning software I'm running? Additionally, the new version of IE now has a built in popup blocker and an add-on manager. I haven't used the new IE and probably won't, FireFox is still great. Style XP and Nero are now pooched though I haven't tried reinstalling. Other than that, I'm still playing around with it.

Hurry Up! I Have To Stop At The Red Light!

I get to work at what some call and 'insane time', 7:00 am. I'm usually out the door by 6:30 am and hardly ever hit any heavy traffic, nor do I ever see any cops. The way I go to work allows me to see some interesting drivers out there though. My favorite type of driver is the one who goes 10-15 mph over the speed limit just to get around the car in front of him and wait in line. The car that just got passed was already doing 5 over and was 1.5-2 car lengths behind the guy in front of him who was also waiting in line! It gets better. When I get within the last few miles of work I hit 3 traffic lights. Bare in mind that the speed goes from 40 to 30 by the time you hit the first light. I myself am going 50 and slowing down as I approach the first light. However, I get passed by people going 60-70 that seem to want to get to the red stop light before I do?! Is there a point to this madness that I'm not seeing or is it just me?

What Do You Mean Sodas Are Bad For You?!

Its true! Sodas are bad for you, however I still drink them. I've been drinking sodas since I was a 'wee lad'. I would have two or more a day for the longest time. After a while I was forced to cut back to two a week if I was lucky due to the family food budget. Though every time we would go out for whatever occasion I drank my Dr. Pepper like there was no tomorrow. As life continued and I got a job, I once again found myself drinking two to three a day. College was the worst. Being a computer science major you need your caffeine, there's no way around it. And since I don't drink coffee, sodas were the next best thing. Two to three turned to three at the bare minimum. Needless to say this was not a good thing.

By the time I finished college, 3.5 years baby!, it had been four plus years since my last visit to the dentist. To any dentist reading this, no I did not floss. Not too long after starting at my present employer I received my health and dental insurance. So the first thing my wife did was schedule me an appointment with the dentist. I was a little nervous to go to the dentist seeing as how my last dentist would dig that pick in my mouth and make me bleed. Thankfully my dentist is cool and so are his assistants. My mouth was safe...sort of. While he said that my teeth are in good shape he did tell me that my bad soda drinking habits have come to bite me in the butt. It turns out that I burned through half of my enamel, the protective layer on your teeth. If I kept drinking sodas the way I was, he told me that I would have 7 cavities! He 'ordered' me to pick up some special toothpaste and use it everyday after I brush and floss. I have to keep it in my mouth for a minute, spit it out, and then I can't swallow or drink for 30 more minutes.

My first visit was three months ago and since then I've cut back on the sodas drastically. What was once an average of 40 sodas a month is now 10! Thankfully he noticed an improvement in my enamel layering and told me to keep it up and I won't need any fillings. W00T! So let this be a lesson to everyone, sodas will tear up your teeth bad. If you still drink them, as I do, remember these three little steps.
1. Drink with a straw if possible and drink it all at once, don't sip on it.
2. As soon as you’re done, rinse your mouth out really well with water.
3. Don't brush for an hour, if you do you are helping the acids break down your teeth!

Tastes Like Burning!

While I don't taste like burning, I do feel that way. Some of my family came down from the Big D this weekend and we all went to the coast. We all put sun tan lotion on but somehow we all got burnt! After looking at the bottles of sun tan lotion, we found that they expired a year ago. Nice. So no I'm a walking crispy critter!

It Rolls Down Hill First!

The company that my company works for, Company X, is under the gun right now. Seems like everyone is running aground like chickens with their heads cut off. Ever since the Enron and MCI World Com scandals every large company has to go through audits. Some have called these audits the "Accountant and Lawyer Employment Fund" seeing as how they get the most business and money. The short version is that companies have to conform the SOX audit named after too guys in congress or something like that. The audit is designed to ensure that there is always a chain of command that must be followed so some ass can’t say ‘Write me a check for $50,000,000’ without approval. It just really sucks because of all the details that a company must conform too. While I’m sure it will be nice in the end, the process of getting there is not fun. For example, Company X needs a report or data pull for this audit and they always needed it 'two days ago'. So they wait until it’s late to tell you about it and blame you for not providing it on time. Our view of the situation is, 'I need a report and I needed it two days ago. I don't know what I need or how you’re going to get it but I know that its late so where the hell is my report!'

Aside from that, we delivered an application that manages two separate systems. Company X wanted this so bad that when we gave it to them, they haven’t touched it yet! They’ve had the application for four months and have not touched. No with all the audits they want us to teach them how to use it and add more reports to it. The problem is that the reports they want added would break the way the system was designed. Company X asked for the system to follow a specific procedure and we delivered. No they want to break the procedure.... Go figure! In the words of Henchfig, “I’ll just kill myself.”

Its Blog Thirty Somewhere

Its been one of those days! One of those days where you work your but off only to find that you worked in vain. You realize that all of your work to solve a problem was useless and you find yourself right back to 'square one'. Well, that was me today. Me and my co-workers. We're working on a new App that will cut a six hour error prone job down to 30 minutes and remove 95% of all the old errors. Seems that you can never remove 'User Error'! Anyhow, we busted our chops for the entire day to realize that we had to keep starting over. Alas, to be fair we did manage to find the solution. Was it worth what we went through? No. Brain melts are not fun!

Case De Kerr and the New Beginning

Well, its official. Steph and I are moving forward with the house. We'll get the high-tension beams that we want along with other 'stuff' and what not. I still don't expect to be in our new home until mid to late January. Still, it’s exciting to say the least. While doing our house shopping, we managed to land ourselves a Thomas Kincaid painting, mounted and framed in a beautiful cherry finish for $90! If you don't know anything about Thomas Kincaid, you're missing out. He is an awesome artist and his paintings are sold for big bucks! We got away with highway robbery to get a painting the size we did in mint condition for $90 bucks.

Aside from the house, I'm moving forward with my plans to start my own side business. I'm going to start a computer consulting company here in SA. My target customers will be mainly home users for now, but we'll see what happens. I've been working with some friends of ours who started their own business and have done rather well. While I don't expect to make the 6 to 7 figure income they have made, I'm sure it will bring in more money. Only time and God will tell.