Many issues to choose from 2008

I like this post from Jinx of I am only one... so much that I'm reproducing the whole thing here:

In tackling the problems facing our world right now, there's plenty of work to go around, and the efforts are not harmed by some specialization.  If I am talking about gender issues and you are focussed on racial bias --- or if I am talking about education and you are talking about environment --- we are not enemies.  There are enough of us to work on many fronts at once; there are enough fronts to keep all of us busy.  We can cooperate; we can each work on the issue that most stirs our energy at the moment; we can still understand that we are allies in making things better.

If we begin to fight each other over which is the single most important problem, we are wasting energy that could be used to address various problems.  We are also helping those who don't want to acknowledge the problems and don't want to see them solved.

Two very common arguments that serve the purpose of not solving problems are these:

(1)  If the person trying to address the issue is a member of the community (or nation) where the problem exists, the line is "How can you be so disloyal as to attack and criticize your own people."  If the person trying to help is not from the same community/nation, the line is "You are an outsider, you don't belong here, what business is it of yours, why don't you go work on what's wrong in your own home."

(2)  Regardless of whether the problem-solvers are local or not, the line is "How can you even talk about [this problem] when you haven't said anything about [some other problem]." 

Variations of these two arguments show up repeatedly.  They are virtually always distractions from the attempt to solve the problem, though often those who use them aren't consciously aware of that intention.   A good answer may be to describe the solution we're trying to achieve and ask, "Can you agree that it would be better if we achieved this change?  if it would be better, why fight over who helps to make it better?  why say that some other unrelated problem has to be solved before we can work on this one?"

(The original is here if you want to comment).

 

Note for springtime movers 2007

Be very sure if you are moving in early April and have not gotten your act together sooner that you do not put your W-2 and other tax filing materials "in one of these boxes somewhere".

Hindsight is 20/20.

Warning: TypePad now case sensitive for login names 2006

I really hope this will revert because I think it is a bad change, but TypePad now requires you to enter your user name in a case sensitive way.

This meant that all the tabs in my browser which were set up with posts in draft form, list views, etc., today switched over to logging me in not to the account I've had since TypePad was in beta (or was it alpha?), but to some test account with none of my hard work in it; metagrrrl instead of MetaGrrrl.

It still knew that it was me - "Welcome, Dinah!" - but it said I had no weblogs. Since I have more than a wee bit of content accumulated, that was unnerving to say the least.

Unfortunately, the "Create your first weblog" page that was displaying for anything I clicked around to didn't have a logout button to allow me to get out of metagrrrl and into MetaGrrrl.

Finally by chopping off the end of URLs randomly I was able to get to a page that did have a logout. That was a relief since I need to write tomorrow's Discardian post tonight.

This change makes absolutely no sense to me and was particularly annoying because there was no warning and I don't see the value in having both a MetaGrrrl and a metagrrrl as separate users on a system. That sounds like a recipe for help desk confusion and user annoyance to me. Maybe I'm missing something, but I think that a database table got a setting switched wrong and that this didn't receive the business oversight it should have had.

Anyhow, long story short, I'm back in, but cranky. Also I either have allergies or a head cold.

There's a lot of grrr in the grrrl tonight.

Lessons Were Learned 2006

By TypePad:
- If you're asking your users to change the format of something (e.g. from A Record to CNAME addressing), make certain that you know if the continued presence of the old method will prevent the new method from working.
- If it will, be very sure to tell your users to delete the old method as well as telling them to add the new one.
- If you send out alerts requiring your users to take a technical action, users will reply to those emails. Answer those replies. Route them to new support tickets if need be.

By TextDrive:
- If you change support URLs (and systems), make sure that you disable not only the ability to open new calls but also the ability to reopen calls in the old system. (This has now been done, I see).
- Also make sure that any replies to messages in the old system are forwarded to the new system or are being watched by someone.
- Also, black text on the old system's home page with a link to the new system is probably insufficient. Large red letters are more effective. Automatic redirects are better still. (And that last has indeed now been done as well).

By me:
- Vendors make mistakes sometimes or provide incomplete information. Doublecheck the details.
- Even if you don't quite know what they are or how they work, now you know that an A Record trumps CNAME addressing.

Abstracted lesson:
- All kinds of crappy stuff can happen to not only the path to your data, but to the data itself. Do backups. Now. Today. Really. No shit. Now.

How to annoy your current customers by making them jump through a hoop 2005

If you, like me, were an early adopter of PacBell DSL and rode the bumpy ride for years, put up with service which was once atrocious and is now, under SBC, tolerable to good, and you now pay something on the order of $49.95 a month for your connection, you too might have seen advertising promoting the service for much less for new customers. Which hardly seems fair since they never offered it to an existing customer like me at a new rate.

Turns out all you have to do is call and say "Hey there SBC PacBell, I pay $49.95 and that's waaay more than you charge new customers. Please start charging me $19.95 a month since that's the going rate."

And they'll just do it. I mean, great, suddenly I'm saving $360 for the next twelve months, but jeez, why should I have to call them?

They could have said "Hey, existing customers, we're about to change our pricing. It'll be $24.95  but for you and your friends, we'll offer it at $19.95. Your bill will change next month and you can tell your friends just to mention the 'SBC is on the cluetrain' promotion and they'll get the special price too!" and I would have been really happy and said nice things about them and recommended them to friends.

Instead I'm pissed at them because who knows how long ago I could have gotten this price. I'm sitting here thinking "Gee. That's a really great sushi dinner or a pair of hightops or a bottle of single malt or the donation to the Carter Center I've been wanting to do every month or two. SBC PacBell, you've been ripping me off! Jerks!"

*sigh* Can we have open source internet and phone service soon please, universe?

Still working on that "Silicon Valley" concept 2005

I got a postcard from my graduate school alma mater, San Jose State University, asking me to call and confirm my listing in their alumni directory. I called, but when I asked to just be listed with my online information and no physical address or phone number, I was told they can't do that and my only choice would be not to be listed.

Come on, guys, it's 2005. Get a clue. If the directory is really for alumni to stay in touch, this should be an option. If, as I now strongly suspect, it's an opportunity to sell a bunch of addresses to advertisers, quit trying to pretend you're serving a community.

Good thing my former classmates know how to Google.

Wikiverse is not an accurate mirror of Wikipedia 2005

Wikiverse which claims to be "an up-to-date high speed static mirror of Wikipedia, a worldwide community of volunteers building an open-content encyclopedia", but it has clearly not been updated in the last six months. I am aware of a specific example of a quote from this site presented in an article there so out of context as to imply my opinion is the exact opposite (and failing to link to the original context so a reader could reach an appropriate conclusion). That quote was called to my attention last August and I corrected it in Wikipedia, but the change has not populated over to Wikiverse.

Frankly, a bad mirror is worse than no mirror. If they aren't going to keep it up to date, the owners of the domain should take it down and ask Google to remove it from the their index.

Please stand by, normal service will resume shortly. 2005

The domain name migration from Hurricane Electric's servers to TextDrive's seems to have worked fine for the site, but my mail is having glitches at the moment. Might just be waiting for the news to spread to other name servers.

Sorting it out. Email metagrrrl at good ol' gmail for now.

+++

Fixed (within 15 minutes). If you sent me mail in the last 15 hours you may wish to resend it.

Offline by mood 2005

Yeah, I'm not answering mail much right now, not spending much time in chat, not posting much. Partly busy at work, partly just not feeling very social, partly doing offline things. Don't take it personally.

5 Unsuitable Morning Serenades for Solo Instrument in Echoing Transit Station 2004

(In tribute to Merlin's 5ives)

1. Caribbean Steel Drum*
2. Chinese Flute*
3. Ocarina
4. Musical Saw
5. Cymbals

*regularly found in San Francisco's Civic Center BART station.

I'm back and I have some questions 2004

My mail was bouncing for 48 hours or so. It's working again. Some small amount has re-sent and reached me.

I got a courteous letter from someone at Multiply. We, I think, agree to disagree. They are apparently approaching social networking as more of an application than a community. My expectations of personal voice and moral compass (as opposed to the less emotional counterparts: terms of service and business professionalism) don't quite fit. Think more phonebook, less yenta. Still not for me.

So, I think about my concern for privacy and then I think about the stuff I do: the weblog, Orkut, Flickr, XFN, Amazon wishlist. Is it all just pollyanna-ism thinking that it's safe to share anything in a searchable environment? Can the organizational benefits of meeting other like-minded people (MoveOn.org, MeetUp) to work for political change offset the dangers of centralized information?

And if it doesn't, should people who value freedom and privacy (and all those other nice things the EFF and organizations like that fight for) give up the Web? Or just post everything with disguised authorship? What if MetaGrrrl was a shadowy figure with who "she" talks to and hangs out with couched in the vaguest terms? Never mentioning where exactly "she" lives or what "she" does. With no one ever standing up in person and saying "that's my site". Is that better? If social networking software and Googlebots (empowering the results of that mighty search engine) are inherently a blow against freedom and privacy, what kind of web are we envisioning? What's the goal here, folks? Is the bottom line "give up the tech toys"? Or is there some way to have the fun and prevent corporate and governmental abuse of privacy?

Mild Turbulence 2004

So I was feeling a little surprised & neglected by the universe yesterday when I didn't seem to be getting any mail. Not the usual waves of spam even. I wasn't paying a lot of attention so it wasn't until today that I noticed I was getting NO new mail at all, just the same last ones downloading repeatedly.

*sigh*

On the bright side, even in the evening a real human being at Hurricane Electric is available to help. Sadly, despite his best efforts, Dean (hi, Dean!) has to consult with the mail guru tomorrow over this one. In the meantime, he changed the mail rules to forward everything over to my gmail account. Hadn't planned to do that and fully expect to route the river back afterwards - just don't feel cozy yet about ALL my data flowing through the big G - but it's handy for now. Maybe after 9pm or so the change will go through and maybe that will unclog something and I'll get the day and a half of mail I think I've missed out on. Maybe not.

If you wrote to me since yesterday morning, ya might want to send it to me (as "metagrrrl") over there at gmail.com.

If you didn't write me, maybe you should, just to help offset this loss of stimulation.

Shoveling under the back of the horse 2004

Well, it just keeps on coming. 1-3 comment spams per minute since last night at 11:18pm, it appears, all promoting the sites mentioned in my prior post. These sites are all registered through this site:

REGISTRAR: GODADDY.COM

Registrant:
Go Daddy Software, Inc.
14455 N. Hayden Road
Suite 226
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

I'm giving them a call.

(602) 824-1300

No answer. Darn. I guess I'll just call their local Better Business Bureau.

Which gave me the website URL http://www.arizona.bbb.org/ where I was able to look up a report on the company, get another number, and call and leave a message for the president of Go Daddy Software.

Since they have a satisfactory rating with the BBB at present, I'm guessing that comment spam attacks are against their terms of service and once I send along copies of the hundreds of comment announcement emails I've received in the last 13 hours, that registrar will proceed to discontinue the accounts of the offending three domains. If they do not, I will, of course, file a complaint with their local Better Business Bureau.

By the way, those domains are now blocked from commenting, but prior to that being put in place I received a total of 1460 spam comments. I've taken a vacation day to deal with this and will be investigating the possibility of small claims court for recouping my costs.

***

Update as of 2pm: Go Daddy Software is eager to hear of this sort of violation of their terms of service. Just send it to abuse at their domain.

Honey Pot 2004

I had another comment spam attack this evening - might still be going on, actually - and some patterns are immediately obvious. One thing about getting so many is the patterns become clear.

The domains you want to ban are:
antydialer dot com
antydialer dot net
sexylaski dot com

These two appear with many different subdomains (e.g. erotic-stories-xxx dot antydialer dot com).

They come from many domains. I'll post a full list when I'm done banning them myself. (Yes, I know they're probably hacked servers, but I guess that's a new rule around here. If you are trying to post from a poorly secured server and get denied, better tell your ISP to get their security act together.)

More comment spam 2004

Slept in this morning and so only caught the tail end of today's assault on my comments. Same pattern as yesterday - a bunch of Alexander Morozov/3FN.net sites - only this time on the theme of incest rather than beastiality. I deleted the 350 or so comments and hope that they were gone before Google's indexing 'bots came through. Then again, though, since this pattern has been going on for a while and is such a blatant attempt to jack search engine results, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the search engine sites have or are considering blocking these sites from appearing in results at all.

The only way to cure comment spamming and fake portals and bad keywording and all those other techniques is for them not to work in driving visitors to the promoted URLs. The responsibility for that lies with the search engine makers, though the rest of us can help by deleting the stupid content when it's under our control.

Blocking by IP won't work, I'm fairly well convinced. In the attacks on this site the originating IP changes every 10 or so comments and I'd not be surprised to find they belong to insecure servers the spammers are illegally using as origins, much as they would for mailing spam. (Thus the other thing we can do to protect the Web from these abuses is to keep any servers under our control very secure).

Hammered with comment spam 2004

Oo, look how much attention I'm getting today.

You might want to block the following IP addresses from commenting on your websites:
163.17.64.123
202.28.27.2
163.17.64.123
210.3.7.150
207.28.34.234
212.21.228.26
213.88.162.236
217.218.233.74

I received many comment spams (mostly beastiality related) from each.

I'll delete the rest after we finish going over the evidence to see if we can trace the source.

If you've suffered a similar attack, please let me know. I'd like to put together some information for Google so they are aware of the probable search-result-jacking attempt.

***

Update: spam still rolling in. TypePad support working on the issue. Appears, based on the hosting of a commonly promoted domain, to be a certain much-loathed Russian spammer.

Given the rotating IP's, it's probably not worth adding them to your block lists. I'm hoping for a higher level door to slam closed against this crap.

***

Hmm, on the bright side, I'm accumulating a bit of interesting data of how these comment spammers work. I hope it will be helpful for blog software creators (most of whom are friends of mine) and the fine folks at Google and other search engines.

Joe-jobbed again 2004

My email has been a bit worse than usual this week, and "usual" had already gotten pretty bad. Because I've been using this domain name for so long now, several addresses on it have made the spammers' lists including, unfortunately, my first name. This means I now get about 30-40 pieces of junk mail for each real piece of mail. The spammer's subject lines are growing more deceptive as well, so if you aren't in my address book and you sent a message I never responded to, chances are it got lost in the noise. Try again with a more distinctive subject line than "Hi".

It's been especially bad this week, though, because junk mail was sent out as though it was from one of my addresses and so I get all the bounced email messages. Spammers really are lower than pond scum. I wonder if there are some solid legal grounds on which I could sue them? They are misrepresenting me and using my personal information without permission. They are certainly wasting my time and resources. If any of the messages are for something of dubious legality, there might even be grounds for libel.

Short of legal action, alas, all I can do is hope they acquire a mysterious debilitating disease that causes their genitalia to turn puce and fall off.

[posted at lunchtime because I got busy the moment I walked in the door at work this morning and forgot to proof the post I wrote coming across the bridge on the bus]

Dear Chickenshit... 2004

To the person who knocked over Chris' motorcycle last night and didn't leave a note or insurance info:

Regret to inform that you are not mature enough to own or operate a motor vehicle. Please turn in license and keys to any police officer.

Known Spammer IP Addresses 2003

Since I've been getting so much comment spam lately, I thought it would be useful to provide the list of IP addresses which I have banned from commenting on my site. If your software allows you to ban them as well, I encourage you to do so:

203.164.92.12 comment spam 2003.12.23
203.164.91.247 Comment spam 2003.12.23
203.164.92.141 comment spam 2003.12.23
217.117.64.2 comment spam 2003.12.23
203.164.91.94 comment spam 2003.12.22
203.164.92.195 comment spam 2003.12.20
203.164.91.57 comment spam 2003.12.19
213.25.247.29 comment spammer 2003.12.17
211.29.136.12 comment spam 2003.12.15
217.5.200.252 comment spammer 2003.12.10
61.181.5.36 comment spammer 2003.12.06
61.181.5.98 comment spammer 2003.12.05
66.217.121.25 comment spam 2003.11.30
61.181.5.5 comment spam 2003.11.16
65.124.222.39 comment spam 2003.11.13
64.72.132.17 comment spammer 2003.11.12
217.26.240.61 comment spam 2003.11.07
217.26.240.61 Suspected comment spammer. Just didn't sound real or useful. 2003.11.07
156.63.242.5 Comment spam 2003.11.06
61.181.5.49 comment spam 2003.11.01
61.181.5.84 comment spammer 2003.10.03
212.179.192.76 spam comment 2003.09.28
61.181.5.80 blogspammer 2003.08.20

And I'm pretty sure these guys were comment spammers too, I just noted the post date rather than the reason for the ban. I don't recall ever banning anyone for any other reason, so you should be safe locking the door against them as well:
209.246.74.116 2003.04.07 2003.08.09
64.91.204.171 2003.02.16 2003.08.09
213.48.162.141 2003.02.09 2003.08.09
64.122.16.3 2002.11.07 2003.08.09
80.78.137.37 2002.05.31 2003.08.09
209.178.190.188 2003.07.05 2003.08.09
200.154.18.142 2003.05.17 2003.08.09

Someone poke the eye in the sky, please 2003

We live a couple blocks from Castro & Market. Yes, we heard the DJ'd music, but it wasn't that loud inside our place especially once we put on some mellow guitar music. Yes, we can hear occasional whooping and cheering. But really, what's the most annoying and loud thing tonight? The frickin' helicopters. SFPD doesn't have any - they use the CHP when they need them - so I'm betting based on that and the number of TV news trucks I saw down the street when I was walking home that those are news copters. Give it a frickin' rest.

TV news is basically crap anyhow. The only good one is the Daily Show and, as much as I love it, it still isn't enough to make me want a television again.

Hot 2003

Too hot to move around. Too hot to answer email. Too hot.

Uh, Mail? Maybe. 2003

I just checked my personal mail by logging into the server from work and using the quaint old Pine mail program. Instead of the 300 pieces of spam I would usually see, I had only 68 messages. Odd.

Dating from May 30th to June 1st. Curiouser & curiouser.

We'll see if they've got it fixed by the time I get home, but if you write to me and I don't respond, don't assume I've gotten it.

A Dentist A Day Keeps The Weblog Away 2003

I tell ya, spending two days out of your week with half your face numb (Tuesday: right side; Thursday: left side), just doesn't leave you composing brilliant works of prose and doing wild creative things in the evening.

Another appointment in a month. Gah.

So, kids, don't forget to brush and floss and use your WaterPik (or whatever equivalent technology works best for your particular mouth condition)! Remember: put up with a little hassle every morning and evening or suffer a lot every six months!

Post Dentist 2003

Why should having half my face numb make it hard to do anything even if it doesn't involve my face?

Wig In A Box 2003

Some times it takes singing drag queens to get me through the work day.

I Hate Sports 2003

I tried to leave work at 6:15pm today. 25 minutes later I managed to get back from a few blocks away and get back to work. The traffic was so bad I could not face the prospect of the commute across the bridge.

Apparently there's some kind of football game or something and everyone had to go. In their cars. Separately.

I truly hate sporting events.

I am really looking forward to returning this car to my folks and getting back on public transit. If I had the parking permit for my neighborhood, I'd just leave it at home during the day, but I don't so I drive. Under the best circumstances driving a car takes 15 or 20 minutes less, which seems like a big deal in a 55 minute commute, but if those 55 minutes are generally calm and involving reading or playing games on my PDA and the ones in the car are incredibly stressful and irritating, which would you prefer?

Words I Hate 2003

Blogosphere

No Talent Assclown 2003

How bad have I gotten at fulfilling my social obligations? Really bad. Really really bad.

Tonight I was going to attend a party in the south bay attended by many fine folks I went to library school with and hosted by the ever-lovely Matthew & Hava. Folks I haven't seen in way too long. Yes, library school, where they teach you about maintaining information.

I went to the wrong address 3 hours late. And I rented a car to do it.

Dork.

Fortunately, we had a nice time before realizing the depth of my dorkiness doing a bit of shopping and lounging around in the park area at Santana Row, the swanky new residential/shopping area in San Jose near Winchester Mystery House. If the Redevelopment Agency had built something like this (only with businesses a little more suited to the average income level of folks in downtown SJ) instead of that lame shopping mall on First Street (which the Fairmont doesn't even list on their shopping page even though it's directly across the street), that area might have actually done well over the last decade.

Separated at birth 2003

Hamas spiritual leader Shiek Ahmed Yassin bears a startling resemblance to Saruman the White as portrayed by Christopher Lee. It may have been noted before, but the picture in yesterday's San Jose Mercury News (page 15A in the final edition) almost looks retouched the likeness is so strong.

Ikea Redeemed 2003

I should mention that after all my frustrations with Ikea regarding getting replacements for some lost instructions and nuts & bolts, when I tried again to go back and get them before giving up and throwing away a perfectly good, albeit disassembled, bookcase, they were quite helpful. I got the instructions and a complete set of the assembly parts and they waived the usual charge because I had been misinformed on my previous visit.

An Observation of Strange Human Behavior 2003

When someone has posted something inappropriate to a list and one is replying to tell them that said confidential information shouldn't be posted to the list, perhaps one should not quote the offending message.

Further, when apologizing for said post, perhaps one should not quote it again in one's message.

I hate spammers 2003

I receive an average of over 200 pieces of spam a day.

I will go through my junk folder this one last time to see if it mis-identified anything; after that, if I don't respond to your email, try again - it takes too much time not to trust my filters.

***

Odd subject line noticed during this process: "Enjoy your riser"
Sure, it's probably penis-related, but I think "Enjoy a portion of your stairs?"

***

4000+ messages later:
Nothing mis-identified. Now (after a couple months training it) anything Mail thinks is junk can be safely trashed automatically.

The Vision Thing 2003

I've worn glasses for years now, but my vision isn't so bad that I can't function without them. In fact, on a slightly groggy morning I am capable of getting part of the way to work before noticing that I am not wearing my glasses.

*blinky blinky*

Gonna be an interesting day...

*though not as groggy as it would have been if I'd had to move furniture at midnight instead of handing it off to a neighbor of the friend I was picking it up from at 5:30pm

Bite me, Sportbrain 2003

In the height of stupid dot-com wackiness, a company marketed a pedometer that could sync with a website and let you see not just how far you walked, but when and how intensely. You could graph it over time and it was a kind of cool tool, especially since you could share some of the data with a group of virtual exercise partners to keep you motivated.

However, the device could only talk to their website and thus, when they went belly-up, it became a useless lump of plastic. So I held onto it for a while and then realized a) it was unlikely it would ever be useful again and b) even if it was, I probably wouldn't use it. So I tossed it when I moved to San Francisco.

Suprisingly enough, Sportbrain appears to have risen from the grave and, in a new twist on flesh-eating zombie-dom, started sending piles of mail to all their old customers. Here's what I say to them

Guys,

Your company coughed up blood and I threw away the stupid device I should never have bought anyhow. Thanks, though, for the lesson that single
function hardware that doesn't use open standards is a BAD investment.

Please take me off your list now that you're proving your business
viability by spamming anyone who's ever given you the time of day.

Thanks.

Dinah

Increase Tentacle Length 3"!!! 2003

*sigh*
I hate that Lovecraftian spam.

New mail! From Ïîäêëþ÷åíèå re ÂÍÈÌÀÍÈÅ!!! ÎÔÈÖÈÀËÜÍÎÅ ÏÎÄÊËÞ×ÅÍÈÅ ÏÎ ÒÀÐÈÔÍÛÌ

Closer to a homelike home 2003

Step 1: internet connection finally works.

Step 2: computer can be located somewhere other than the kitchen counter.

Still workin' on #2...

Rather a surprise 2002

After a lovely dinner last week with my parents at a great little Burmese restaurant (Burma House on ?Post?), I received the following fortune cookie fortune which came as a bit of a shock:

You and your wife will be happy in your life together

[By the way, yes, still sick. Now drinking pot after pot of herbal tea. New symptom added to feebleness, aching and fatigue: runny nose. Bleah.]

Upgrade 2002

My disability insurance company, Unum Provident, used to think I lived on Gross Street.

I corrected them. I said "It's not great, but it's not that bad."

Now they say I live on Groove Street.

I'll take this as a reflection of the ways in which my whole life keeps getting better.

Damned Computers 2002

I'm really getting ticked off. All I want to do is invite lots of people to Edmond's welcome home parties. This has enough challenges of its own because I need to figure out who should get invited and find email addresses for his friends.

Problem #1: Evite doesn't seem to work very well in IE for Mac on OS X. I spent 2 hours last night pounding on it, trying unsuccessfully to get it to allow me to use a different image on the invite than the default and semi-successfully to add multiple recipients. It was completely inconsistent in its behavior and I managed to lose all the addresses it had accepted so far. So I gave up on that.

Problem #2: Evite doesn't work any better on Edmond's PC.

Problem #3: Edmond's computer has suddenly decided it won't retrieve or send mail due to some nasty new error in something called pcproxy.exe. So I need to look at his address book on his computer and then type them in on my Mac. I don't want to try to fix it - it's probably just because Microsoft operating systems are fucking dairy products and it hasn't had an engineer fussing over it for five months. [Update: it will send, it just won't receive. Some improvement anyhow...I'll take it.]

Problem #4: My damned neighbors keep treating the street like their living room and they talk louder than the loud family on that old Saturday Night Live sketch (not to be confused with the band or the publically documented real live family whose last name happened to be Loud).

Problem #5: I'm cranky.

Addition:
Problem #6 [identified by Chris]: Evite is goat-flavored.

Energy Vampire Technology 2002

Gah. I hate computers sometimes. My work computer went wonky now and I lost most of yesterday and today to trying to get my environment working again. So frustrating & draining! Argh!

I was kind of sleepy this morning because I got a wrong number at 1:30am, but during my commute I still managed to cheerlead myself into a somewhat enthusiastic frame of mind to work on leading the launch of my company's new monitoring & management service (the service is cool, it's the sales & marketing work that I find less than inspiring). Unfortunately, my energy & ideas were lost in a scummy froth of Windows error messages, fruitless searches for device drivers and soul-sapping install processes.

My boss is going to bail me out with a newly configured laptop (handy for my telecommuting) but it didn't want to talk to the network, so he had to pull it back for further tinkering. And now he's in a presentation with potential customers. Successful, I hope.

I wish I had the money for a sabbatical; I'm just wiped out.

Idiocy 2002

It's really astounding to observe the complete and total breakdown of any semblance of customer service at Verisign. I mean, I knew they were a pain in the ass to deal with, but this is ridiculous. It is, as Cory said, time to put VeriSign to death; untrustworthiness is completely unacceptable in a company in the certification business.

I've now pulled all my domains from their feeble, greasy grip and encourage you to take your business elsewhere.

The lull after the storm 2002

After doing too much, but in a good way, for the last two weeks, I'm finally slowing down a bit. In the last 24 hours or so I've slept a lot, played a computer game (Heroes of Might & Magic IV), hand-washed a bunch of clothes and tidied up around my place. The most dramatic activity was putting up a shelf over my computer desk area to hold the scanner, the printer and my to-do boxes.

Things I haven't done:
- answered email
- spent much time connected to my usual instant messaging programs
- called my grandmothers (soon, soon)
- left the house

Things I intend to do in the next 24 hours:
- catch up on entering receipts in Quicken & pay bills
- mail Edmond's resupply box #2 to Mt. Laguna
- send out more change of address cards
- send a couple art project thingies back to some nervous folks
- stop by Rainbow Grocery and see what's happening with my application to join their workers' cooperative
- swap my old phone for Edmond's which *gasp* has an answering machine in it
- call my grandmothers

Right now? I'm going to keep playing my game and sip this cup of tea. Go with your strengths, I say.

Geek Reminder: The Human OS is not, in fact, Unix or a *nix variant 2002

From News of the Weird (all hail Chuck Shepherd):

Jerome Heckenkamp, indicted for illegally hacking into computers at eBay, Lycos and other companies, challenged the charges at a court appearance in San Jose, Calif., in March by denying that he is the person named in the indictment, in that the document refers to a "HECKENKAMP" in all capital letters, whereas he capitalizes only the H.

Technology is Confusing 2002

Well, after various trials and tribulations relating to my unfamiliarity with WinZip and CuteFTP, I finally got my upgrade to Movable Type 2.0 working! Huzzah!

This is the test post that will prove that it's really working again...

...and it had an error. Take two?

An Argument Against Free? 2002

Jason once again reminds me why it's worth checking his site every day. Today's post is an interview with G. Beato containing this thought-provoking idea:

I think an important point has largely been overlooked -- and that is that an environment where the majority of content is free or sponsored by advertisers ultimately favors corporate-created content.

I highly recommend you read the entire interview.

Yahoo Opts Out Of Being Cool 2002

Thanks to Gary at the Balboa Theatre (whose little newsletter is great) for this warning:

On March 28, Yahoo! Groups set everyone's account to the "Have your advertisers send me mail" option no matter what folks had previously
elected as their preference. Because this has gone from an opt-in service to an opt-out one, if you are a member of a Yahoo! Groups-based email list (or, I
assume, if you have a Yahoo! e-mail account) and have no desire to surrender your inbox to a deluge of mail from Yahoo!'s advertisers, you have to tell them that you don't want this mail within 60 days -- if you don't say anything, they will just send it.

Here's how to do it:
- Go to Yahoo Groups (http://groups.yahoo.com) and sign in.
- Go to My Groups and click on Account Info, verify your password if it asks you to, which will bring up your Yahoo ID card.
- Click on 'Edit Your Marketing Preferences' and change all those Yes's back to No's.
- Click 'Save Changes.'

Uh-oh 2002

I think I'm getting Stalin's mail. Today's spam subject: "This pogram let you investigate Anyone-Anytime!"

oh dear. 2002

Well, I got an ethernet cable and set up my new office (in my big closet!) and it all fits just great and it's wonderful except for one small problem: I have the worst monitor flicker I've ever had. It's terrible and it wasn't like this across the room.

Anyone have any theories on what might be causing this? My speakers are not snugged up against the monitor, in fact there's nothing electronic near it. There are no cable boxes on the side of the building outside, but there is a set of wires coming from the overhead cables that comes to the building next door about 10 feet away behind my monitor on the other side of the wall. Could that be it? Any shielding suggestions? Are flat panel monitors not prone to this? Any other suggestions?

Argh.

Moving Marathon 2002

Hi. I am alive. I'm just moving and have no internet connectivity at my new place. Thursday - large stuff in van (help from Jessa, Bev & Kevin S.)
Friday - carload including bed (can't remember if I had help, I think not)
Saturday - carload (can't remember if I had help, I think so)
Sunday - too exhausted to do more than clean, unpack & shop for needed items
Monday - work 1/2 day then carload (load & unload by myself, except a little at the end from B.J. & Bev)
Today - carload (load by myself, appt in SF, unload with Bev)

eek. Mostly done, but boy am I pooped. Thanks for the supportive email, phone calls, comments & visits to the new fabu pad. I estimate 1 more load with my Mum on Friday then I can start cleaning & doing touch-up on the old place... and after that? I help B.J. & Bev move! Woo! Moving is fun! <--- WARNING: sarcasm.

DSL.net are poopyheads 2001

Um, yeah, so, why I would not recommend the services of DSL.net is that they are handling their purchase of Tycho.net very poorly. They bought Tycho, who had been providing perfectly good service to me. Then they announced that they would no longer provide DSL service in our area (Silicon Valley? Hello!). Maybe this had something to do with Northpoint going under. Anyhow, they claim to have sent out a message about all this at the beginning of August, but I didn't get any notification until August 16th that my service would go away September 20th. They recommended another company and so I thought "ok, transfer over, no start up fees, that's cool", but that other company told me "Uh, no, we're not offering DSL after all." Then DSL.net said "Uh, gee, I dunno. Good luck finding a provider." and I called around.

To my total shock & amazement, after calling AT&T, Sprint & PacBell, it was PacBell who were competent, courteous and sounded most able to provide the service I want in a timely fashion at a reasonable price. Wonderful! Except that my line is "locked" by DSL.net and they can't make the switch over to their service (which we hope won't even require a visit to my home) until it's "unlocked".

Fast forward to today when I notice "hmm, since my service with DSL.net might not shut down until Thursday night & there might be some lagtime with all this, maybe I should try to get wheels in motion earlier and maybe have some slim chance of connectivity this weekend". So I called PacBell to see if they could see the upcoming "unlock" time. No dice. So I called DSL.net to ask them a) what happens next and b) can they force an "unlock" early. On hold for 45 minutes before reaching a human, who can't do anything to help me and so transfers me to Tycho.net where no one answers the phones & I end up leaving voicemail. Called DSL.net back and they really do know nothing and I was told "Oh, we don't own Tycho anymore". Despite my bills coming under the name "DSL.net, they clearly have no interest in providing DSL service to customers in my area or in proving themselves a decent company by assuring a smooth transfer.

So phooey on them!

Crotchity 1999

Contrary to previous reports the ill-fated Palm III no longer works. Grrr.
I spent the last 3 days helping my grandparents move and now I feel like an eighty-five year old.
Oh, yeah, since I've got my finger on the pulse of e-commerce here's the next hot IPO. Invest now!

Just in case you thought I was always bright and perky, I'll have you know I'm having a lousy time. 1999

I thought maybe today things would pick up, but then I dropped the Palm Pilot which I'm buying from Edmond.
*crack*
Still works, at least, but what a shitty start to the week.
What is "nar"? This is nar.

Today's illustration of Hypocrisy: 1999

ReverseAuction.com
They sent me an email with the subject line "Metagrrrl will EXPIRE soon!". The letter begins:

We know how important your eBay(R) user ID is to you! You have spent a lot of time and effort developing a reputation in the on-line auction trading community.

That is why ReverseAuction.com has placed your eBay user ID "metagrrrl" on reserve in our system for you and only you for a short period of time...

So, these assholes troll eBay to get ID's and email addresses and then spam you. Where's the hypocrisy? On their privacy page:

Spamming
You are not authorized to add any ReverseAuction.com user to any e-mail or other mail list without their express consent after adequate disclosure.
You are not authorized to send any unsolicited bulk e-mails or other mail to any ReverseAuction.com user. Additionally, our Refer a Friend program may not be used to send spam (unsolicited bulk e-mails).

Maybe someone should send a copy of this to ReverseAuction's hosting company. I wonder what their policy is on spamming?

Lilly wrote: 1999

I was greatly amused by your goodhome.com idiot-report because if indeed they are owned by The Learning Company, that means that they are really owned by Mattel. You know, the people that make the beauteous Barbie doll and the ones that gathered up the bleeding guts of Purple Moon in a bargain basement blowout.

I really admire her way of encapsulating a situation in a few simple words. It's rather poetic, really.

And now the Idiots du Jour! 1999

I looked at Goodhome.com. I was looking for nice furniture. They break their furniture into five categories which I describe as Preppy, Sloane Ranger, Cutesy (with sand), Cutesy (with splinters) and High Style (but probably not very comfortable).

You cannot look for dressers or couchs generically on their site. You must choose a style first. I looked at the scant collection in each area. Nothing seemed quite right. (Yes, this is the point where the above snotty descriptions formed in my mind). So I wrote to them and asked: "Do you carry Mission or Craftsman or Shaker style furniture? And if so, which pigeonhole would you put it in?" And here what Goodhome.com said to me:

Thank you for shopping at goodhome.com, the best place for home decorating online. We've assembled a wide variety of furniture and accessories, and have categorized them based on lifestyle- to help you find items that suit your personal preference. All of your products are goodhome products- and are backed by our goodhome guarantee. Therefore, we do not carry any items in the Mission/Craftsman/Shaker style.

To which I replied:

I am sorry to hear that goodhome.com does not believe functionality, integrity and beauty conform to its brand identity.

[As of October 1999] goodhome.com is owned by The Learning Company, who apparently haven't learned much about either quality furniture or customer service.

Ninnies.

Status: PacBell DSL still crap 1999

(at Edmond's place)

Figured out how to set up Dreamweaver here, so this log may get a few more updates, but this is hardly an ergonomic setup for lil' ol' me, so I'll be brief.

Had a great dinner visit with Lisa. She was very impressed with Chez Meinfelder. (Bonus points for style and neatness). The cow was admired, we dined on the patio and new fridge poetry was written. A successful evening. Next time we'd like to try it with men. Edmond and Fred leap to mind.

After dinner we went to my place. It's rather overloaded with stuff. I was going to do some work there. but my fucking DSL line was acting stupid and flaking out every 10 seconds or so. I will call PacBell tomorrow. I will tell PacBell that they have not provided the service which they advertised and that I want a full refund. I want the DSL line turned off. I want them to take the hardware away. Screw them. I will go back to Kentucky Fried Unix which costs me $5/month and is run by some cool guy (Hello Nick!) on FreeBSD and Apache.

Friends don't let friends order PacBell DSL.

I really ought to get up early and get lots done which means I really ought to go to bed right now.

Yes, yes, I ought.

Um, yes, I am going to play Alpha Centauri. I'm a bad little grrrl.

Yet more DSL woes, and the coming of spring 1999

DSL line went out all day yesterday. Came up again around 9:30, but I was winding down and didn't feel like updating this page.

I'm taking antibiotics for my nose and I can already tell it's improving. Now I'll just have to restore all my good internal bugs after the antibiotics clear out my system. *sigh* Good ol' western medicine.

Whoops! Almost forgot the big news: sugar snap peas have begun sprouting and the sweet peas are opening their leaves. Yay! Springtime!

More DSL hassles 1999

6:13pm
Having a lovely day. Brunch & walking on the baylands & strange short films with Edmond. Beautiful light and clouds all day. Very relaxing. Very much the way Sundays ought to go.

And two of these pieces of email waiting for me that I love to get:
"Dear {spamfighter at [the M word] dot com} [Oh, that's why I get so much spam to that address...Word to the wise: don't put email addresses in clear text on web pages.]
Thank you for reporting the unsolicited commercial e-mail that you recently received. We have cancelled the sender's account for complaints of spam, which violate(s) our Terms & Conditions Agreement."
Aaahhh, it just gives me a rosy glow.

All this pleasantness has kept me from becoming distressed over the dawning realization that I don't have a cold or allergies, but instead have a sinus infection. *sigh* Good thing I still have good health coverage and was planning to visit a doctor for my annual checkup soon anyhow.

Also remarkably unperturbed by returning home mid-afternoon to pick up the afore-mentioned strange short films and finding two messages from PacBell, one saying "Your work order is complete" and the other from some guy named Buzz saying "Oh, we're really sorry we didn't finish your work order we'll get right on it tomorrow" and leaving no number. Somehow I wasn't really suprised when I walked back later from Edmond's place (a mere 600 or so feet away) and I had no dialtone. Ah, those talented PacBell folk. I turned around and walked right back to use E's phone and report the problem. Fortunately, the so-competent-I-have-a-hard-time-believing-she-really-works-for-PacBell Leah was working today and I have great faith that she will fix all my problems. Well, ok, probably not the sinus infection, but all my phone problems anyhow.

The strange films we watched were created by the incomparable Billy Nayer Show

6:47pm
And now it's time for a smackerel of something to nibble and to play a game. Ah, Sundays.

Allergies, DSL hassles and spam 1999

March 20, 1999

7:42pm
I woke up late today. Allergies are driving me crazy. So I took some antihistimine/decongestant stuff and it left me with medicinehead. Still have it, hours later. Bleah. My nose is clear though, so that's some consolation. Never used to have allergies this bad. Yuck.

My phone stopped ringing for about 24 hours yesterday and today. Turns out they assigned part of my line to someone else whose service was supposed to be turned on Monday. *sigh* On the bright side, my problems were all solved quickly and courteously by the most competent PacBell employee who's worked on my stuff yet. Thanks, Leah!

If you order DSL [used to link to a PacBell order page], and if you're online a lot it's worth it to do so, be prepared for the install process to take about two and a half weeks, not a day.

As promised, I've now written up my method for fighting spam [***need to decide whether to reproduce this page or not since it's so out of date and I don't want people to Google & hit it***]. Try it, you'll like it.

*whew* I'm just all wiped out. I think I'll make an early night of it.

8:15pm
Much too early to actually go to bed. If I read, I'll get sleepy. I know, I'll play a game. Hmmm, Fallout, I think. I should finish that so I can try the sequel.

12:12am (the 21st actually)
Didn't do a real good job going to bed early.

Oo, lookee! Vernal Equinox! Did ya feel it go by?!

Bloody PacBell 1999

Here's a damn good reason to have a non-dynamically generated home page and the ability to edit the HTML code in Notepad: On Friday afternoon, March 5th, at around 3pm, PacBell, while trying to setup my new DSL line (mmm, bandwidth), managed instead to completely disconnect my phone service. Nice work, guys. Makes me even happier to pay my bills with Dilbert checks.

So, I can't connect to my electronic world from home and it sucks. It is really awful. It makes me depressed. Imagine if someone tied your ankle to the bedframe and you couldn't go anywhere. That's how I feel. I spend an average of 10 hours a day on my computer, most of it using the web. Yeah, I could learn to have an unconnected life again, but my neighbors except for Fred and Lisa (Hi!) aren't within walking distance. My neighborhood is online and I miss it.

When I get reconnected, I'll update this. Until then, now you know why I'm not very easy to get a hold of...

Drive safe! 1998

Drive very very carefully. Taking a turn at about 20-25mph on the way up here, I hit a patch of frost and ice and came about a foot short of going off the road, down a 6' drop and nosefirst into a creek. Scary. Be safe, my friends. Stay inside and eat!

Feeling much better today, especially now that I'm at my parents' home, Edgewood, on the north coast of California. Thanks for the kind words, Joe & Patrick & Bev & Chris.

Pals, freaky taste and not quite getting things right. 1998

Work today was ok, though I was rather spacy and had that unpleasant treading water feeling as I realized I don't know as much about databases as I thought I did.
For example, I wish I'd known this:
"Please note that Access was not designed to be a web application database server. Since access to Access is file based, you'd expect to see the usual problems related to resource contention that you'd see with file sharing."

Went to Webgrrls where we were going to help girls from the Boys & Girls Club make their own webpages, but there were way more Grrls than girls, so I just hung back and visited with Lisa. (Hi Lisa!)

Ok. So I have unusual taste. I think the guy with orange hair on the back of the new Archie McPhee catalog is really kinda cute.

Coming soon to the Pals page (click on that funky ball down there to get to it) [old design; pals are now listed on the About MetaGrrrl page]: Lisa, David W., BJ, Lilly, Chris L., Mark

Bathtub != Lips 1998

Overslept. Got to work at 11am. Fortunately in my present position this is not a problem at all (and besides, it's only an hour later than I usually arrive). Ate lunch at my desk while working. Worked until 7:45. Came home. Realized I had made a 6:30 appointment with my chiropractor for today. *sigh*

Got some good advice today about surviving as a contractor: remember, they don't want to you to be decisive and assertive and take the lead. That's what employees are supposed to do. So do what they say and clock as many hours as they'll give you and leave the job at work when you go home.

On the whole, I'd rather be kissing.
Unfortunately none of the people I'd like to be kissing are around, so I guess I'll play Civilization II or take a bath. Somehow these just aren't really satisfying substitutes...

Down time 1998

I need a week off. My house is messy (never did get to dusting or cleaning the kitchen). I did laundry and got groceries, but I lifted the groceries wrong somehow and hurt my back yesterday. Still very sore and having trouble moving around without pain today. *sigh* I really didn't need this. And I have no sick time or vacation time, so I'll be at work tomorrow. Yuck.

A wistful afternoon. I intended to get work done on the website, to get more done on the house and only managed about a third of what I hoped to do. If I wasn't in pain from my back, I could put in a 2 or 3 hour push and accomplish a ton, but I can hardly walk. I guess relaxing is an accomplishment too considering how little of that I've gotten to do in the last month.

Old advice re: mail in Netscape Communicator 1998

If you read your mail in Netscape Communicator and you have a lot of messages, like, oh say, 6691 unread monkeyjunkies postings, and something bad happens and you can't seem to look at that folder because the browser crashes when it tries to load the summary file, go into the message center and compress the folder. It might save your little monkey butt.

Mystery Diary Entry 1984

DAMN Televents! What now?

[Maybe this was job related? Summer job I thought I had & then they changed their minds?]

Warning 1984

I must remember to tell [guy of the moment] of the inadvisability of putting his address on the back of a note reading: "[guy of the moment], is your friend's drug deal still on? - Julia".

That worries a bit, although [former boyfriend]'s more of a druggie than I thought. Oh well.

Lips that touch liquor? 1979

[boy o' the moment] is planning to make a still. I will make myself stop thinking about him.

Poor Deanna. Eric went to L.A. and it seems like he might be away for a long time. I still envy her.

G'night.

Fluctuations in my In list 1979

I dislike David M. now. (I also found a new D&D store in Concord [I think this might have been The Multiversal Trading Company, the store of David Hargrave, author of the Arduin Grimoires]).

Bianca is getting to be a real bother.

G'night.