I've done a little updating of the site. I've finally managed to get the
pics of my basement flood posted in the stuff page. Also added some of my favorite Joe Thielen
Reference docs to the site (again, via the stuff
page). These reference docs can be pretty helpful, check them out. More will be updated when
I write 'em :). In the process of writing another philosophical paper regarding customer service
and the demoralization of the world. Just venting some steam :). Look for it soon... and in the
mean time, check out my Joe Thielen's Ordinance of the Future
doc I wrote way back...
Hooking up a webserver for a friend's business (
www.theelectriceye.com
) and had to go out and get a 10BaseT hub from Best Buy the other night. Now, usually this
is no big deal. Just go in, get a cheapie 4-port hub, and be done with it, right? Nope.
Again the fucking morons at Best Buy tried to let me have it. So a friend and I are in the
store looking at hubs. They've got a Linksys 4-port for $30. Cool! Only one problem,
the box is damaged and we want to make sure the item is OK before we shell out the cash. It's
the only one on the shelf, so we couldn't just take another. So we go to open the box and
this fucker from WAY down the isle says really loud "You're not going to
open that --- ARE YOU???" We said yeah, we wanna see it before we buy it. I mean,
we were going to buy the fucking thing as long as it worked. Anyway, the guy was a total dick,
and he tried to explain to us that if we open it and don't buy it that they couldn't sell it
for that price and would have to re-package it. So we tried to explain to him that we were
going to buy it if the merchandise was OK. Otherwise, it would be of value to no one. So
Big Best Buy Blue Shirt Man says we'd have to go over to Customer Service in order to
look at it. I said to the guy "Have you seen the fucking line at Customer Service lately,
pal?". He didn't like that one bit. This guy could not believe we were questioning his
authority. What a fuckup! It was like my friend put it "If I ran a business I would
NEVER treat my customers like this dick!". So we took the box up to the register
and asked the lady there if we could open it before she rang it up. She went right ahead and
opened it. We verified it was OK and purchased the item. My friend said "Was that so hard?".
No shit!
The moral of the story: Don't ever go to Best Buy and expect to be treated right.
The Best Buy I am talking about is the one on the corner of Renyolds Rd. and Airport Highway
(Ohio State Route 2) in Toledo, OH. And while you're at it, CERTAINLY don't expect any better
treatment from the Best Buy on Monroe Street in Toledo, OH. There are some fucking dicks there,
too :).
Well, after a few tries, I've got a working system to share my satellite
connection with the other computers in my home!
For the uninitiated, I'm a Linux person. However, at home, I've got one
Linux machine and two Win95 PCs. Some of the things I do requires Win95,
unfortunately. One of these things (recent, albiet) is using the DirecPC
satellite Internet receiver. This is claimed only to run on Win98/2000/NT,
and all people I've spoken to (i.e. the morons at Best Buy), and everything
I've read indicates that it won't work with Win95.
Well, it does. There was a driver problem, but I got it to work by copying
something from the DirecPC to the C: drive. In any case, I like it a lot,
but if I'm in another room (with a PC) and want to use the Internet connection
in THAT room, can I do it? Yes I can. By using two pieces of software,
Socks4 Proxy for Windows
and a port of
Bind 4.9.7 for Windows!
Socks is a Proxy Server. In my computer that's hooked up to the satellite, I've
got two network connections. The satellite Internet connection, and my home LAN connection.
By default, these two network 'adapters' don't talk to each other. This is something Linux takes
for granted, but is somewhat of a pain under Windows (especially Win95). There is a
Win9x registry hack that can do this.
I found this to be of much value at work when I needed to connect two networks together and the only
(cheap) resource I could find were some WINDOWS ONLY 10MB/Sec Homeline Phone networking cards. However,
if you want to hook up a network connection to the Internet, you're ISP will only assign you one Internet IP
address, and won't let you (depending on your contact) hook up any other computer in your house at the
same time. So the registry hack won't do much good here.
So we can only hook up one machine to the Internet. At least, this is what your ISP will think if you're using
a Proxy Server. The proxy server is a program which runs in the background of a computer and acts as an 'ambassador'
between your home computers and the Internet. The two never directly talk to each other, they only talk to the
ambassador. One of the good things about this setup is that it makes your network VERY SAFE. No one from the outside
can get in, and no one can get out, either, unless they know about the Proxy Server settings. As long as the computer which
is connected to the Internet either has file sharing disabled, or has passwords on the shares, then you should be relatively
safe.
You can configure Netscape Communicator/Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer to communicate with the Internet through
the Proxy Server. The downside to this is that the speed is somewhat degraded due to having to go through a software link
between all the hardware. But for home use, I don't find this a big problem.
So now you've got a way to 'hop the fence' between your network and the Internet. But now you need to get some DNS problems
resolved. In order for your computer to goto 'www.yahoo.com', it needs to know the IP address. How does this work? DNS.
DNS stands for Domain Name System. It's the link between relatively human readable computer names,
and machine readable IP addresses. Now unless you are using Windows NT, DNS can again be a problem. However, the software
a lot of Unix & Linux machines use, BIND, is available as a port to Win9X. I found the installation a complete breeze, as long
as I knew a little about DNS, and how my home network is set up. If you don't know anything about TCP/IP networking, then this
isn't for you!!! After the install, I didn't even have to reboot, DNS was started. So I configured my other home machines for
the DNS setting (i.e. setting their DNS server to point at my main machine), and off I went!
As I said, the speed was somewhat degraded. Somethings took quite a
while to load. However, it enables a connection to all of your home
machines to the Internet! Now, normally, I'd much rather do this on Linux!
However, my DirecPC USB Satellite modem only has Windows software, so I'm forced
to do it on Windows. But using the Socks4 Proxy Server for Windows, and the
BIND port for Windows, I got a working shared DirecPC Satellite connection!!!
Before I start on a rant here, I just want to say something: The fourth season of OZ has to have
been the best ever, in my opinion!. And while I was 'playing' with my new satellite last night,
I went to the OZ page on HBO's
website and noticed that their making 8 more episodes of OZ to be played in January! SCHWEET! If they
play OZ & the Sopranos at the same time that will be the GREATEST two hours of TV. Of course, that's just my opinion :).
WARNING: If you are offended by strong language and strong opinions then stop reading NOW... you've been warned.
The level of customer service in this country fucking sucks. Especially in
terms of anything dealing with technology.
Take Best Buy and Circuit City for example. When I was trying to locate
someplace with a DirecPC system IN STOCK, I spent 15 or so minutes ON HOLD at EACH
STORE I CALLED (2 Best Buy's and 2 Circuit City's in Toledo). Add that up and that's an hour.
The after finally getting to someone who works in the correct department, they finally tell you that either
they don't sell DirecPC (Circuit City, but they will sell you DirecTV all day long!), or they don't have a clue,
and you'll have to call back at 3 to talk to someone knowledable about that stuff (Best Buy).
It made me sick. So I called back later. After being put on hold for AT LEAST 15 minutes, I got ahold of someone
who was indeed knowledgeable, and gave me some very good answers to my technicial questions. So, after work that night
I went to the Best Buy on the other side of town (after traveling to the one closest by, which didn't have it in stock),
and told him I wanted it. I knew what plan I wanted, I knew what extra equipment I needed. Then they shove the
Best Buy service plan down your throat for ONLY $50! I said kindly, no thank you. Just from the look on his fucking
face I knew I was going to be here another hour or so.
"May I ask why, sir?"
"No". I'm so tired of these people, if they ask me twice there is no way I'm
NOT GOING TO FUCK WITH THEM.
"Is there any reason why you wouldn't want the service plan?"
"Shove it up your ass, I don't want it! Just sell me the stuff I WANT!"
"I'm sorry sir? Is there something wrong with the service plan?"
"I said I don't want it so don't shove it down my fucking throat!"
And this continued on for what seemed like hours (probably 20 minutes). He tried explaining
to me that their service plan was a good service plan, and that if something was wrong then
all I had to do was bring it back and then they'd fix it.
I said "bullshit", and explained to him that if they would actually read their service plan,
they'd see that it plainly says "NO ACTS OF GOD". That means lightning, snow, hail,
wind, earthquakes, etc...
He said "But it does cover lightning!" I said "bullshit". In any case I told him I didn't fucking want
it but he ended up going over and getting his manager. Me and him went at it and I told him that, in
my personal opinion, that their plan fucking sucked. He asked why. I told him straight out, if he
was going to fuck me out of $50 (on top of the $220 I had to spend for the satellite kit & parts)
then I want a return-on-investment. If the thing is defective, then I'm going to know either within the
30-day Best Buy return policy timeline, or within the 1-year manufacturer's warranty. If all the Best Buy
warranty was going to do is extend that, then what the fuck?
"But it covers lightning, sir!" So fucking what??? I've got trees taller than my house all around the damned thing. I'm not real worried about lightning!
He (the manager or supervisor or what-fucking-ever) finally made an excuse to leave after (finally)
figuring out that I wasn't going to buy the fucking extended warranty.
It made me so sick to my fucking stomach, this experience. I hate going to these places. They don't even want
your money anymore! They want your money PLUS SOME. It just makes me so fucking sick.
And that's not to mention that the only store I could find in a 50 mile radius was the Best Buy stores. Everyone
sells DirecTV, but no one buy Best Buy sells the DirecPC stuff.
OK. So I finally get one foot out the door with my new stuff. My girlfriend are on our way home and she wants me
to stop at McDonalds so she can get something to eat. So we pull up, and there is a big fucking McDonalds semi blocking
the second of the two windows. And, of course, there is a line. So we're waiting, and the guy in front of us pulls away
(I assume he didn't want to wait), just as the moron on the speaker says "WELCOME TO MCDONALDS WOULD YOU LIKE A VALUE MEAL TODAY?"
So I pull up and ask my girlfriend what she wants. She tells me, but before she's done, the person on the microphone says, irritably,
"HELLO? WELCOME TO MCDONALDS WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY ONE OF OUR VALUE MEALS TODAY?" The moron is looking right at me, and she can see that
I'm fucking talking to my girlfriend. So I yell right back "I'D LIKE TWO DOUBLECHEESEBURGERS PLEASE". God it pises me off. Then we pull up
and have to wait 5 minutes for two stupid cheeseburgers. Christ! And then I have to back up and pull around this goddamned semi!
I see these picketers all the time standing at Meijers, CVS, and all over with signs saying "We want a living wage!"
For what? Working at the cash register??? Fuck you! If you don't like it, go somewhere else!. I'm just so fed up with people that I can't stand it. If you aren't a people person, then you shouldn't be at the cash register all day anyway. If you aren't going to take my fucking money but instead give me a hard time then call in sick. Be a janitor or something where no one will every have to fucking bother you! Just shut the fuck up, smile, and do your job!
Someone once said that men are so easily satisfied. Well, I guess that's true :).
I just spent the entire day putting up my brand new DirecDuo
DirecTV/DirecPC satellite dish up on top the house. Buying it was a hole other story that
I'll save for another day (like tomorrow :) ). But it currently works, and I've been surfin
the net at near 400Kb! I've been on this thing since I first got it to work, and haven't been off since!
To put 400Kb in check, look at these figures:
| Internet Connection Speed | Maximum download speed | |
| 56K Modem | 5.6K (ON A REALLY REALLY GOOD DAY!) | |
| ISDN (2x64KBit channels) | 12.8K | |
| CableModem (@768Kb) | 76.K | |
| DSL (@768Kb) | 76.8K | |
| T1 (1.54MB) | 154K | |
| 10BaseT | 1000K |
You gotta wonder how people sleep at night these days...
Seen the stuff about the Russian Sub? Rumor is it shot an experimental
torpedo or something and the damn thing homed in on the sub itself!!!.
Then the Russian Admin wasted a lot of precious time trying to save face...
You have to wonder, what killed all of those people? Their own weapon or thir own
country???
I just got done with a big project which has taken up the majority of my time
for the past three weeks or so. Still working on Freemed-YiRC, though. Don't
have much time for Phantom, but I will get back to it. And my
robot??? Hmm... if only we had 30 hour days...!
I've updated a few pages on the site... I've moved around some of the links... some were
broken, others benign by now. My car page listed my age as 20, but I'm now 21 :). And some other
minor things...
My friend just got back from a long ass vacation in Europe. We were going to do an OZ marathon,
but we didn't make it through the 3rd episode before we fell asleep! Man I can't wait to see
the season finale next Wednesday!!!
THE GOOD: I've gone and done it again! I've modified my car. I've added vinyl stickers of South Park
characters to my car! If only they had TIMMY... I've also added some cool plush seat covers.
Check it out!
THE BAD: I've got some pics relating to my basement flooding. But for some reason my web hosting server is
not letting me do what I need to do to get the stuff on there... so I'll let you know when I get this up...
THE UGLY: Did you notice my new main page? I've got a phat picture of my mug on there...
Check it out! If you dare...
I'm going to bed...
After my fun time the other week, that Sunday we had a massive storm here which ended up knockingthe power out so long that our sump pump went off-line and it ended up flooding my basement with standing water!!! It took forever to clean it up, and it also costed me $159 to get it cleaned as well...
Last week had all kinds of crazy stuff going on, every day the news had something weirder & weirder...
Of course, to compound all this my boss is on vacation for two weeks and there are several big projects goingon that I'm looking after... SHEESH again... :).
I'm trying to set aside some time to get some more work done onFreemed-YiRC, I'mvery pleased with the progress and am working towards a very big release here at the endof the month.
I'm posting this in the hopes that maybe it will brighten your day if you're having a not so great day :).
First off my girlfriend had to get up early to go to work. She then set the alarm clock to get my up an hour later(which I didn't want). So the alarm clock went off twice because I couldn't figure out how to shit the stupidthing off in the dark :). Then the phone kept ringing with the damned telephone solicitors (SP?). So, I was up muchearlier than I wanted to be. Of course, before I even manage to get into the shower my girl walks in the door sayingthat her car blew a belt, and she was late for work. Luckily her car got home and she got to work (LATE, of course...).So, I took a shower and ate and then went to start my car...
CLICK CLICK CLICK...
Nada.
Shit...
So I had to take my car in and ended up replacing a BELT in my car as well as the battery...
for a new belt and a battery. Ho Lee Shit.
So anyway I got to work at noon and have to get off at 3:45 to pick my girlfriend up from work, andthen I'll probably end up coming back.
SHEESH!
It's Friday! <sarcasm>Yeah!</sarcasm>.
Been busy here! Doing lots of work onFreemed-YiRC,and toying with Embedded Linux for use with Phantom.Home.
I've been playing with PHP 4.0 here. I had some really small issues installing it, but I did get it to work. I noticed a speed increase, but it wasn't nearthe 400% or whatever I read about somewhere :). But I did get it to work so, again when I get more time,I'm going to try and explore what PHP4 has to offer... of course, I never really got around to seeing whatPHP3 had to offer (i.e. IMAP, etc...) :). In any case, it looks like fun!
Is it me, or is HBO's Oz back with a vengence??? After last season,I didn't know if the fourth season would be able to recover, and gain some ground,but HBO has a winner here! I know The Sopranos is getting all the steam it seams,but Oz was first, and in my book, the best. And it still is, especially running head oninto the fourth season.
And let's not forget South Park :).They're pumping out the episodes and I love each and every one of them...
I've been getting a TON of comments and questions about cars and stuff lately. I'm glad to see a sortof community rising up here. It's one aspect that I haven't really seen a whole lot of the web, though. I mean,there are TONS of sights dedicated to person cars (like I do), but there isn't, that I've seen, a whole lotof sights dedicated to "HOW-TOs" on customizing cars. If I find a really good sight, I'm going to add it to mylinkz page. If you guys & gals out there ever come across a REALLY good informative site withlots of good info, drop me a line and I'll throw up a link!
This is a bit off topic, but there is a lot of buzz in many places about some technological breakthroughs that cancompletely throw our world upside down... there going mad crazy over the genome project, there's talk about 'smart paper'in the VERY NEAR future, as well as molecular computing. I think 2001 is going to be the year I've been waiting forin terms of our breaking out. But one thing still remains and I'm very frustrated that we're not doing more: SPACE TRAVEL!
Well, vacation was fun :). It seems like it's almost necessary to take a goodstress releiving vacation every once and a while :).
I got lots o' good information at Comdex, including something I think willwork wonders for the Phantom project. I've got a lot to do before I can take a good in-depth look at it, but I will post some pics and stuff whenI get around to it!
I'm in Toronto at the COMDEX here. Pretty cool, lot's of neat stuff... foundsome really good embedded Linux information from Lineo here about the uClinuxsystem. Looks cool for the next generation of Phantom (HINT HINT HINT)... :)
Yep. Saturday 7/8 - Sunday 7/16 I'll be on vacation and don't know if I'll be able to accessmy e-mail or anything... Going to Cleveland (Ohio, US), Niagra Falls (Ontario, Canada), andToronto (Ontario, Canada)! I'm also going to be at the Comdex in Toronto. Cool! Bringing mydigital USB camera, so I hope I can take some really cool pics. See ya in a week or so!