Tiny hoodlums breaking things
News ·Wednesday April 12, 2006 @ 23:44 EDT (link)
Finally got rid of a bug that'd been hanging around for ages: I'd fixed it on my machine, but apparently it still repro'd on other machines, because of a few other idle performance issues. It's about time; requiescat in pace.
Tuesday, March 28: MOR delivered our furniture today; a sofa set, with two tables, two lamps, and a coffee table. They gave a time range of 1100-1400, arrived around 1140, and were done around 1200, which meant I didn't have to work too late. It's very comfortable.
Wednesday, March 29: Had to stay home again today, 0900-1200 this time, for MDM (cable Internet); the guy didn't arrive until 1100. Since most of the computers were still at the apartment I verified the connection with my laptop. "Silver" was the lowest level that provided the required static IP and unblocked ports for running my servers; it's more expensive than Speakeasy was (it was about $55/month) at $80/month, however we'll save some money using VoIP rather than a Verizon landline.
Friday, March 31: Ordered Vonage VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) connection, $24.95/month, first month free, but that doesn't really mean anything as they get you for a $30 activation fee.
Monday, April 3: I took my car in to Autosys today (which required us both to get up very early) for an oil change and their "spring special" tuneup; unfortunately the engine light's come on and so I had them run a diagnostic ($150, ouch) and there's quite a lot wrong with it, with the oxygen sensor only a beginning. It seems Boston is still exacting its toll from us; the snowy roads were not kind.
Thursday, April 6: Mowed 3/4 of the lawn (the battery gave out at that point; the grass was pretty long).
Friday, April 7: Went to the doctor about an allergic reaction; first time going to the doctor here, picked one in Bellevue, nice guy, prescribed Zyrtec and said it should clear up shortly. Called Waste Management, added yard waste collection (extra $9.23/month, sigh).
Vonage's package (some papers and a reconditioned Linksys router with two phone jacks) had arrived a few days ago, but I'd gotten annoyed at them since it appeared that they wanted their device to sit outside my firewall, and act as a router for my network, which I wasn't having. Turns out (from perusing their site) that it will work just fine behind the firewall, getting an address with DHCP.
Saturday, April 8: Having the phone chained to the Vonage router didn't appeal much, but Google answers provided some information about using the house telephone wiring. I picked up a multimeter, unhooked the outside wiring at the junction box, checked the line with the multimeter—all clear—and hooked the Vonage device to the nearby jack, et voilà: distributed telephony.
This is where this entry's title comes in: we had observed some broken toys on a lane next to our house; the lane is public property, the drive goes about to our back yard and then has posts, although it's paved a little further to behind our yard. I'd thrown away a few items left out because they were eyesores. A couple of our garden lamps had been broken not too long ago, quite possibly by kids cutting through our yard to go to this lane (could also have been by the MOR movers, though).
That evening I observed a kid cutting through our yard and yelled at him (and told them to clean up their mess when they were done). A couple of the kids went to talk to parents and, shockingly enough, they came back with plastic bags and started actually picking up their trash. What they'd been doing was taking (old, possibly already-broken) toys and hitting them with a baseball bat. Not the most constructive behavior in the world, but fine, their time, their stuff, as long as they kept the noise down. A little later, though, they picked up one of the broken parts of one of our lamps and started hitting it, so I had to go out and take it away from them. Fortunately, things ended well; some parents showed up and we talked with them, they agreed to have their kids tidy up their messes (and not cut through our yard), and I apologized for yelling at them.
Sunday, April 9: Went to Northgate, then met Honey at the apartment and cleaned the remainder (vacuumed and mopped kitchen and bathroom floor, cleaned bathroom and windows, did some laundry); I'll do a walkthrough with them this week and get our security deposit back.
Monday, April 10: I called MDM technical support today (800-829-2225) (I'd emailed earlier, but I think it went to a marketing address). My new Internet address shows up in the SORBS dynamic IP list, which makes me sad as I paid for a static IP, and it's not just the principle of the thing, either, as it causes mail from Microsoft to bounce. I tried to get SORBS to remove the listing, but they said my ISP had to handle it. My jaw nearly hit the floor when the (first!) person I talked to not only knew what I was talking about, but said it would be taken care of that day. (Unfortunately, as well as that boded, it's still in the list two days later. I'll give them a day or two more and then call them back to see what's going on.)
Tuesday, April 11: Waited 40 minutes on hold to cancel our old Verizon number (yay! we hate Verizon, they've stiffed us at every opportunity). I also called the Royal Bank of Canada to see why they were taking $4 out of my Canadian account every month (which would soon put it in the red). Turns out it was for 15 (unneeded and unused) transactions monthly; I had it removed (I can still use the account for $0.50/debit or $0.75/cheque).
Wednesday, April 12: We (Word development) got our new machines today (dual core, not sure how fast, but fast), and were talking about machine names (the convention is to prefix with one's alias, usually <alias><number> e.g. JDOE3, but it's not a requirement). Best (Microsoft network) machine name ever: WHACKWHACK. As in "please review \\WHACKWHACK\public\bogus.dpk" (spoken as "whack whack whack whack whack public whack bogus dot dee pee kay"). Unfortunately somebody already has it, but AT came up with a suitable alternate: QUACKQUACK.
