Project Insomnia

The more they change? That doesn't sound right, but does seem to apply to what's going on right now: it looks like I will be heading down to SoCal next week to interview with a network security company. The contact came through an ex-colleague from the Network ICE/ISS days.

No matter what happens, however, we will not be moving back to SoCal. The only reason I expressed interest when I was initially contacted was that the position would be work-from-home. This would be a pretty big change from the current 80-mile round trip I do every day... and with the money I wouldn't be spending on gas, I could afford to have a business-class Internet connection installed at home.

Ever wonder what working in the Hall of Justice is really like? Now you can see for yourself!
(9MB QuickTime; strong language)

HowStuffWorks writer Dave "Stuffo" Coustan recently tried finding the A-team on craigslist.

It's a B-grade show that's been off the air for almost 20 years and lasted only five seasons, but people everywhere still hum its theme song before rolling into action. What does "The A-team" mean to people today? Stuffo set out to build our own A-team from scratch, and in the process find out if Faceman, B.A., Hannibal, and Murdock still live on in the hearts and minds of dreamers everywhere.

Phase 1: Recruiting. If you were looking for a band of misfit ex-military types with welding and stunt-driving experience, where would you look? The "real" A-team lived in LA. So we placed an ad on Craigslist's LA site. There was no category for "crack commandoes" so we settled for "gigs>>crew."

The inevitable responses from those who did not get the joke are particularly amusing.

Keep this out of George's hands, to be sure: How to destroy the Earth at Sam's Archive.

This is not a guide for wusses whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity. I can in no way guarantee the complete extinction of the human race via any of these methods, real or imaginary. Humanity is wily and resourceful, and many of the methods outlined below will take many years to even become available, let alone implement, by which time mankind may well have spread to other planets; indeed, other star systems. If total human genocide is your ultimate goal, you are reading the wrong document. There are far more efficient ways of doing this, many which are available and feasible RIGHT NOW. Nor is this a guide for those wanting to annihilate everything from single-celled life upwards, render Earth uninhabitable or simply conquer it. These are trivial goals in comparison.

This is a guide for those who do not want the Earth to be there anymore.

Why do villains always add an extraneous "the" when talking about destroying "the" Earth?

New restaurant review tonight: Thaiphoon (Thai, obviously) in Palo Alto.

This unintentionally hilarious parent's primer to computer slang from Microsoft's "Child Safety" department is filled with choice tips such as:

Letters can be substituted for other letters that may sound alike. Using "Z" for a final letter S, and "X" for words ending in the letters C or K is common. For example, leetspeekers might refer to their computer "5x1llz" (skills).

Rules of grammar are rarely obeyed. Many leetspeekers will capitalize every letter except for vowels (LiKe THiS) and otherwise reject conventional English style and grammar.

Make sure to let them know the information was useful to you!

Edited to add: El Reg has their own take on the matter.

This is not me.

I've already done our taxes for this year (and received just about enough back from the Feds to cover our State and property tax obligations) but this may prove fruitful for next year.

I linked to some information on running Windows XP (2000/2003 as well) from a limited (i.e. non-Administrator) account last year. Today I've found Aaron Margosis' pages on this topic to be extremely helpful on this topic. For example:

Here’s an odd little one you might not have noticed. The Windows Calculator applet remembers whether it was last displayed in “Standard” or “Scientific” view, and whether digit grouping was selected, and restores those settings the next time you use it. Because this applet dates back to the very early days of Windows, it saves these settings in the win.ini file in the Windows folder. There are two problems with this: 1) the settings apply to all users of the computer, and 2) you need to be an administrator to write your settings into this file. Likewise, the Character Map applet remembers the last font and codepage selected, and whether “Advanced view” was checked – but only if the user is an admin.

I Park Like An Idiot stickers
Jogger Motel: Joggers jog in, but they don't jog out. (If you have this video clip, please send it to me!)

Pentagon officials breathed a sigh of relief after discrediting reports of an American soldier being held hostage in Iraq. An image that showed up on an Islamic website turned out to be that of an action figure. The Pentagon denied reports that special agents identified only as "Woody" and "Buzz" were attempting a rescue.
(Paul Wiley/Topfive.com)

This is mostly a "save this link" for me: Linux LiveCD Roundup
I've tried Knoppix with some success, though as a relative n00b to Linux I had some trouble figuring out the interface. The idea of a full-featured boot CD to repair and rescue a broken computer is very appealing, and I want to try some other distributions.

This "+5 Insightful" comment in Slashdot's "What Do You Charge for Tech Support?" discussion is helping me work out how I'm going to run my off-hours PC repair business.

The best thing you can do is enforce that the computer world is a business and a profession. I encountered a "do it for free" attitude when I moved here due to a 20-year-old hack that did so. When you give it away without any cost, you make it worthless and cause people to think what we do is not legitimate. Electricians, plumbers and other technicians all have to feed their families and pay their bills. Neglect your car and demand free repairs, and you'll suffer the consequences. Computer techs need to help the public understand their PC is no different than their car in this manner.

The whole discussion is worth reading if this is of interest to you.

Yes, I'm linking to a Christmas-related page in February. It doesn't matter. John Paczkowski of SiliconValley.com's Good Morning Silicon Valley today linked to The Twelve Days Of Christmas as performed by Twin Peaks cast members. This was originally released on the KROQ "Accoustic Christmas" album in 1990. It was basically impossible to find during its very brief time in stores, and since the dawn of the MP3 era I've periodically searched for it online, with no success. Now, I am happy; the linked page includes a 6.3MB MP3 of the song.

Gmail now offers every member 50 invites. Millions of users and the power of a single spam database have made Gmail's spam filter one of the best. Gmail also offers POP3/SMTP access to the service. Combined, these provide a perfect method to utilize Gmail's powerful spam filtering on my primary email address--without the trouble and fuss of actually changing addresses. Here's how I did it.

1. Create a new Gmail account, using an invitation from one of my existing accounts.


2. In the "Forwarding and POP" tab of the "Settings" section, set the following:
   • Disable forwarding (default)
   
   
   • Enable POP for all mail
   
   
   • When messages are accessed with POP, archive Gmail's copy


3. Redirect your primary email account to your new Gmail account. Note that this usually requires administrative access to your mail server, or a friendly mail administrator. (Want a project-insomnia.com email account with Gmail spam filtering? Just ask!)


4. Configure your email client (Here are settings for Opera's M2 mail client).
   Note that I am using my existing SMTP settings, and am only using Gmail for POP3.

Now mail coming in to your primary account is automatically bounced to your Gmail account, where the Gmail spam filters are applied. Then your mail client downloads your mail from Gmail to your local inbox, just like normal. Since you didn't change your outbound settings, replies and new mail are not affected.
I set this up an hour ago and so far Gmail has filtered every spam message I would have received. That's spam I didn't download!
Log in to the new Gmail account once a week or once a month to check the spam folder. This is just to check for false positives--"good" messages which may have been filtered as spam. It won't happen often but it's worth checking once in a while to make sure.
Let me know if this works for you or if you have any refinements.

I Ate iPod Shuffle
The snork sounds emanating from my cubicle as I read this were probably not at all polite.

Byrnes and A's agree to one-year contract

Outfielder Eric Byrnes agreed Friday to a one-year contract with the Oakland Athletics and avoided salary arbitration.
...
Eligible for arbitration for the first time, he had asked for a raise from $328,000 to $2.5 million. The A's had offered $2 million.

Great to see Eric Byrnes remain with the A's, but tell me please, in how many jobs can you ask for a 762% raise and settle for 678%? The deal that avoided arbitration was for $2.2 million with various bonuses.

I have a new restaurant review up tonight. We visited Gordon Biersch in Palo Alto.

N.Y. Ban on Same-Sex Marriage Struck Down

A judge declared Friday that a law banning same-sex marriage violates the state constitution, a first-of-its-kind ruling in New York that would clear the way for gay couples to wed if it survives on appeal.

Gay rights activists hailed the ruling as a historic victory that "delivers the state Constitution's promise of equality to all New Yorkers."

"The court recognized that unless gay people can marry, they are not being treated equally under the law," said Susan Sommer, a Lambda Legal Defense Fund lawyer who presented the case for five couples who brought the lawsuit. "Same-sex couples need the protections and security marriage provides, and this ruling says they're entitled to get them the same way straight couples do."

Good news. There hasn't been much news on this front since the Bush campaign used it (in the form of state constitutional amendments) to get their base to the polls last November.

As of this morning, Air America Radio is broadcasting to the Los Angeles area on KXTA-AM 1150. Here is a complete list of Air America Radio affiliates, and of course you can listen live over the Internet(s).

For cat-lovers only.
(Thanks, Lani!)

When reaching for the Elocon, don't accidentally grab the Capzasin-HP. And if you do, at least bother to look at the tube before applying.

Just in case you were sucked in by the obedient media hype about the "successful election!", here's something to think about from Mark Morford:

Bush does not get credit for Iraq's fleeting glimpse of democracy for the exact same reason you don't give the tsunami credit for cleansing the streets of Indonesia. His motives were never, repeat never, to bring democracy to Iraq. His motives were to oust a pipsqueak dictator who threatened our access to 10 percent of the world's oil. It was about power, and regional control, and ego, and petroleum. Period.

So which future discredited politico will be seated next to Laura tonight?

Following a link from a link from a Slashdot story (which I shouldn't have been reading at the office, bad me!) I found this story about a (get this) clueless fast-food manager.

Clerk: "Hey, you ever see a $2 bill?"
Manager: "No. A what?"
Clerk: "A $2 bill. This guy just gave it to me."
Manager: "Ask for something else, there's no such thing as a $2 bill."
Clerk: "Yeah, thought so."

I'm starting a new feature here at Project Insomnia: restaurant reviews. We eat out a lot, and I want to keep track of where we go and what we have. I've started out with last night's dinner at Paxti's Chicago Pizza.

Utilidors.com (what a great site name) has construction photos of Disneyland's new Buzz Lightyear attraction, due to open this May.