Last night I managed to lie down a bit between 1:30 and 2:30, and then from about 3:45 to 9:30, and I probably slept most of both those times. The rest of the time I was pacing around, sitting on the toilet, or doubled over in pain. I just could not get comfortable. The pain was low in my guts. I don’t think I over-ate or anything, so I don’t know what the problem is. But I can feel it coming back.
Category: Rant
Is this a scam, or is Make Magazine a bunch of scumbags?
Today I got three identical notices saying that my “recent order/payment” for Make Magazine couldn’t be “completed because the credit card you supplied was not accepted by the credit card company”. Only one problem with that – I decided some time ago not to renew because I never read it. Well, if their business practice is to fraudulently charge credit cards, I’m pretty glad I didn’t renew. Fuckers.
Maybe it isn’t them. The customer support email is customerservice@espcomp.com, which is not an address that I immediately associate with the magazine. On the other hand, they did have a the credit card number of an old card, the one I probably did use for that subscription.
I wonder if the Attorney General’s Office is interested in fraudulent credit card charges?
Yeah, that makes sense
For years now, my employer has not allowed ssh out their firewall. But they do have a telnet relay where you telnet to a particular server in the DMZ, and then telnet from there outside. Yeah, believe it or not, they think ssh isn’t secure (or more likely, have never heard of it because it’s not part of a default Windows installation) but telnet is ok. Of course, imap, pop and nntp aren’t allowed either. Heck, even DNS isn’t allowed – you can’t resolve any external domain names from internal machines.
And because I don’t run a telnet server on my home server, I have to telnet to their relay, then telnet to a friend’s server, and then ssh from there. But that’s what I go through in order to access my home email, Usenet, check files on my home server, and do a million other things.
Today I got the word – no more telnet access unless you can make a business case for it. The smarmy email from corporate IT says “please try to find a more secure means of communication”. Well, sure, I’d happily switch to a more secure means of communication IF YOU HADN’T FUCKING BLOCKED THEM ALL AT THE FIREWALL.
And so it begins
I’ve been telling anybody who listens that now that Bush has managed to simultaneously over-stretch the US Military beyond the breaking point and put the US in debt up to our eyeballs to China, to expect China to start flexing their muscles towards either Taiwan or the Spratleys, or maybe both.
And so today I read that the Chinese have demonstrated that they can get a sub within torpedo range of a US carrier without being detected. Things like this don’t happen by accident – China is sending us a message. And that message is “we’re the major sea power in this area, not you”. If they were planning to try a political move in the area, this would be a good first move.
Paul & Vicki get HD – A Comedy of Errors, Vol II
So after the first day’s comedy of errors, we decided to go the CableCard+TiVoHD route. We ordered the CableCard installation, which was scheduled for a few days later. I figured I’d set up several TiVos in my day so that shouldn’t be any problem, so I left if for the night before the installer appointment. That was my first mistake.
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