October 2003

Plan draws ire of neighbors

October 14, 2003

Residents on the east side of Indian Springs, Nev. are protesting a neighbor's request to change the zoning and put in a trailer park on their property. The planning commission recommended approval of the change even after the town board unanimously recommended(PDF) denying the request. It's sad to see a community go downhill. The east side of Indian Springs consists of larger parcels of land, many of which are home to horse and other agricultural estates. The community could be a real haven for horse owners and others looking for a great refuge from the hustle and bustle of Las Vegas. The saddest part is the number of people willing to sacrifice a good quality of life for a quick green (or peach) back.

Montecore released

October 14, 2003

After serving a 10-day quarantine Montecore, the tiger who mauled entertainer Roy Horn was released Tuesday. A spokesman for the Mirage said Montecore will continue to live at the Secret Garden, an animal habitat at the Mirage.

Growing up I spent a great deal of time down the street from the white walls of Siegfried and Roy's house. The memorable roar of their famous large cats would fill the evening air.

Upgrade Path?

October 13, 2003

I've decided to upgrade the machine running this and several other sites when OS X 10.3 comes out later this month. The 400 Mhz G4 Ti Book that runs this site currently runs 10.2 server, setup with the idea of creating a netinfo hierarchy and common user data base throughout the operation. I've come to the decision that for just a few users it's easier to setup the same users on each machine, changing userid's if necessary to get things in sync.

This raises the question - what is the best way to upgrade from 10.2 Server to 10.3 (non-Server)?

I miss writing

October 13, 2003

Increasingly I've become more of a typist than a person who writes. Writing in the sense of putting pen (or rarely pencil) to paper and leaving marks is something I do less and less. Today while cleaning the garage I came across two of my pens from high school and a couple of bottles of ink. While many would argue that my oft rushed script was not the easiest thing to read, it is none the less an additional part of my expression that is lost in putting electrons to spinning platters.

Airport Roaming

October 13, 2003

Tonight brought some time to get the networking situation at the home office fixed up. The network now consists of two Airport base stations. One is an Extreme base station and one is a dual-ethernet base station that used to be at the office. The performance is good and it seems to work well. Best of all it seems to have eliminated problems with connections dropping here and there for no reason at all. The Airport Extreme station has an external antenna to help it rise above the interference in the room.

iBook Computer Car

October 12, 2003

Friday Cowicide's iBook Computer Car was mentioned on Macintouch. I've tried several times to e-mail the following comment to Ric but Macintouch's e-mail system consistently rejects the email. This is disconcerting. I know their email works but how many voices are filtered out by the breakage in their system? Anyway my comment was as follows:

Cowicide's car with iBook is great. I've thought several times about doing the same kind of thing. I got a Jotto desk that mounts to the floor for the last SUV I owned. I've always harbored two concerns.

Confessions

October 10, 2003

It seems to be a day for confessions. I have my own dark confessions. Years ago I needed to work late at night. When a daily dose of 700 Club failed to keep my blood boiling and keep me awake I turned to stronger alternatives. That's right I have listened to Rush from time to time to keep my blood boiling. The interesting thing is that his statement today contradicts the ads he's been running for Select Comfort. The ads say that his mattress has solved his back pain. The statement today says the pain never went away. So aside from being drummed out of ESPN for his inappropriate remarks and being investigated for buying illegal drugs it seems Rush and the Select Comfort company can now expect a call from the Federal Trade Commission.

Always wear a helmet

October 5, 2003

We had lunch yesterday with Ro and Anne. One topic of discussion was wearing helmets while bicycling. As we were leaving, headed to Rocky Mountain National Park to watch Elk, we encountered an accident that drove the message home so clearly. A young person had been riding down the shoulder of US 36 headed northbound. Apparently something caused the person to go off the side of the road on a downhill section and be thrown over the handlebars. The rider ended up in the center of the highway with severe trauma including an apparent closed head wound. A helmet would likely not have prevented all injury, but it may have helped prevent the most damaging of brain injuries. From witness accounts there was nobody else involved in the accident. A quick look at the bicycle and equipment being used indicates this was not a novice cyclist. Our thoughts are with the family of the young person.

ICANN requires shutdown of Verisign "service"

October 4, 2003

It took longer than some would have liked but the internet authority ICANN forced Verisign to cease their name grab highjacking by Friday at 6 pm. Friday or face leagal consequences. Verisign said they would comply and asked for more time. Although the extension was denied the hijacking continues. Verisign's statements indicate they are likely to fight the decision.

BloggerCON

October 4, 2003

BloggerCON is going on this weekend. The best feed I've found is the quicktime feed. There is a great discussion of Blogs in education going on right now. I hope it will be available later as there are good suggestions about how education can be enhanced by encouraging students at all levels to publish to an audience wider than their teachers or classrooms.

Pages