by srhuston

So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish

I seem to have formally ended my affiliation with the DVRA today.  This has been on the wall for some time apparently – there’s some who don’t seem to think I, or others that pay dues and help when they can, are doing enough and that we need to do more.  Of course, the problem was that when I brought in a bunch of new folks who were more than interested, eager and willing to do a lot more, they were all met with apathy and indifference, occasionally opposition.  A few times lately I’d get the snarky comments.. “Missed you at the meeting” (which I refrained from replying with, “I had a nice dinner with my family, you were not missed”) and more recently a flat-out “maybe if you showed up you’d know.”  I’m sorry, but isn’t it the dream of an organization, to which membership doesn’t cost the organization anything, to have members who send in dues and do nothing else?  What if that person sends in dues, and maintains websites, email lists, Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts and more?  Apparently, it’s still not enough as some now want to mandate that people must attend other functions, or – get this – give six months notice they’ll be unable to attend, so that other suitable tasks can be set aside for them.  You have got to be fucking kidding me, I thought.  Nope, all seriousness.  Give your money, give your time (or give more money), or you’re out.  Let me think about that.. oh yeah.  Good riddance.

A copy of my “farewell” letter is below the fold, for those morbidly interested in reading it.  I really do feel bad about this, and got a bit emotional writing it.  There’s a select few who appear to be running the organization into the ground as quickly as they can, and if not for the group there’s some very fine people I never would have met.  But some folks are just hell-bent on getting things their way at all costs… I wonder how many will be left in the group when others who have no desire – or ability – to participate in mandatory events take stock of what they really get out of the club, and what downsides there are to leaving it.  I certainly couldn’t think of one.

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by srhuston

Cleaning Gutters Can Be Fun (No, Really)

A couple weeks ago, Stephanie and I attempted to clean the gutters.  The way I’ve done this the past few years is with a long (but not quite long enough) wand with a hook on the end and a nozzle that directs water to the side in a wide fan.  The idea is that the water spray will get under the cruft and just blow it out of the gutters.  The truth is that it kinda pushes it whatever direction you want it to go, and then you scoop it out by hand from there.  While this wasn’t terrible – you only need the ladder in 1-2 places – it’s horribly time consuming (you have to do small sections at a time), tremendously water wasting, and unbelievably tiresome to hold your arms up over your head for a few hours.  Plus it requires that you go up and down the ladder a lot, or have someone stand on the ladder to do the “catching” – difficult to do when someone’s got to watch the kids too.  So Sunday night I bought a Looj, and got to play with it Wednesday and Thursday after work for the first time.  This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

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by srhuston

Sony Bones Customers Again, Customers Somehow Surprised

I got a PlayStation 3 some time ago, and one of the things I really liked about it was the ability to install Linux and emulators. Some people see that as an esoteric function that only a geek would want, but then they play Super Mario Brothers on my PS3 and forget that it’s being emulated through a program running on Linux. Or we play a game of Blue Max, an Atari 8-bit game I have setup when you start the Atari 800 emulator. Or even playing Asteroids (Atari 2600), Super Metroid (SNES), or Leisure Suit Larry (DosBOX). None of these would be possible for a home user to install on a PS3 without the ability to run Linux on it.

Which means, after Thursday, none of this will be possible again. That’s when Sony releases PS3 firmware version 3.21 which adds zero features, but removes the “Other OS” feature from the PlayStation entirely (both the ability to install it, and the ability to run it). Their reasoning for this is some vague notion of security, though many have already pieced together the timing between this and “geohot” gaining full access to the PS3 running Linux. Supposedly turning off Linux support will “help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system”; in other words, they need to fix their content jail or the providers will pull out and disallow movie downloads and such.

Hey Sony!  Here’s an idea.  Why not fix your jail instead, and allow not only the PS3 owners to continue to have access to the stuff they paid for, but allow the content creators who might (or might not) be getting their panties in a bunch to be happy?  After all, I paid for my PS3, and now you’re ensuring that I cannot have access to one of the features which I bought.  And I might know a thing or two about what “the people” are interested in seeing, what with “PS3 linux” and “emulation” being some of the top reasons people find this site, and the above linked article.  Just sayin’…

EDIT: Earlier this morning, I submitted a new “share” idea to put Other OS back in the firmware; if/when that goes live, I’ll provide a link.

by srhuston

Help Me Google, You’re My Only Hope

I’ve had a Google profile for some time now, and like that it makes a simple place where I can keep all of my “digital selves” gathered together.  If you search for my name, instead of showing up on page four after a painter and a programmer from Massachusetts I’m on the first page; follow the link to the profile, and there’s a photo of me, a little bit about me, and links to all the places online that have other information about me.  It’s a nice way to tie your digital identities together, since otherwise there’s just a mash of Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr pages which don’t necessarily have anything to do with one another.  However, there’s one thing which still eludes me in my profile: verified domains.  Some people (such as Leigh, or Leo Laporte) have that little bit in the upper right that says “Verified email at <domain>”.  If you look at Google’s help pages, they say once you’ve added email addresses to your account and verified them (which is a simple process, you edit your account and type the new address, get an email, click a link, enter your Google password, you’re done) then those domains for which you have verified email addresses will show up as check boxes near the top of the page when you edit your profile, and you can choose which ones to include.  I have no such check boxes – and I have tried removing email addresses, verifying them again, hell I’ve even tried setting up Google Apps and verifying the domain itself with Google Webmaster Tools.  Nothing seems to get them to appear.

While that’s annoying, there’s something even worse in my opinion.  There is no place where I can ask for help with this.  There is no “Contact” link where I can fill out a form and be promised that I’ll get an email back in the next month or so.  There is no place where I can even post on a forum for this, because none of the Google Help forums have anything to do with one’s account or profile.  There’s no email address I can send a message to and say, “Hey this isn’t working, can someone have a look please?”  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  All the contact pages either point to some “try these things” items, or something asking you to go to the help forums (which as I mentioned, appear to not exist for profiles or accounts).  So, here’s where I decide to use the web’s collective intelligence and bargaining power, or something.

If you are, or if you know, someone at Google, or someone who can help with this, please have them contact me.  They can use the “Send a message” link on my profile (linked above), or not too much searching would probably reveal one of my many email addresses.  Or, if you know someplace where I can ask, or someone I can contact to ask for help, that works too.  I’m not expecting instant results here – Google is a big company, I’m one person.  But some place where I can get in a queue, even if it means I wait a couple months for someone to say “Oh, I see what was wrong, it’s fixed now” would be better than the current situation, which is basically any friends I ask about this saying, “Well it works for me.”

by srhuston

Assassin’s Creed 2 – Wow. Just, wow.

One of my Christmas presents this year was a copy of Assassin’s Creed 2.  I really enjoyed the first in the series, even though many others complained that it was a bit of a “grind-fest” (you go to various towns, and complete many of the same kinds of missions to advance the story line, to the point where you can pretty much guess what’s going to happen when you get to a new area).  Yes, many of the missions were repetitive, but the overall look and feel of the game was what I enjoyed the most: the storyline itself, the action sequences, etc.  There were nits I could pick, of course, such as the somewhat jarring sensation you’d get between missions, but it helped to further the overall story line and was understandable.  Plus, it gave for a nice break to remind you to go do something else.  Anyway, those nits – and ones picked by others about the original AC – all disappeared in AC2.  Instead they were replaced with a tighter sequel than I’ve seen in a long time, and my only regret about playing straight through and beating the game in just under a week of extremely late nights and bad circulation is that I want to forget the whole thing so I can experience it for the first time again tomorrow.

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by srhuston

Overzealous Much?

To go along with my password article, here’s one showing the bad side of passwords.  This is a copy of the “password rules” for Intel’s website, which I use for getting access to their licensed compilers.  Before 1Password, the rules here were so draconian that I took to writing the password down on a piece of paper (yes, a sysadmin doing exactly what he tells people not to do!)  There was no way I could follow their rules and remember a password when I only use it maybe twice a year; especially since they require it be changed every couple months, so every time I’d use it I’d have to change it!  This proves that a password policy can be too “secure” – so much so that it drives security all the way back to the point where you might as well not ask for a password at all, since they no longer hold any meaning (or real security).

Password Rules:

  • The password must be at least eight characters long, and can contain letters, numbers, and punctuation.
  • It must not exceed fourteen (14) characters.
  • It must contain at least one alpha character [a-z; A-Z], one numeric [0-9] and one special character [`! @$%^&*()-_=+[];:'”,<.>/?].
  • It cannot contain spaces.
  • The password cannot be the same as any of your previous eight (8) passwords.
  • It cannot contain your login id.
  • It may not contain any of the following special characters: Asterisk (*) Comma (,) Backslash ( /) Forward Slash (\).

It must not:

  • Be a name (your own, family members, pets, or famous people)
  • Be your social security number, driver’s license number, passport number or some other identification number.
  • Be repeating numbers, letters or characters (111111, aaaaaa, !!!!!!)
  • Be a number or character combinations that are next to each other on the keyboard (123456, asdfgh)
  • Be a dictionary word of any language
  • Begin with an exclamation point (!) or question mark (?)
  • Contain your IDSID or WWID
  • Have the same first three characters.
by srhuston

Password Extravaganza

For some time now, I’ve been thinking that I needed to start changing passwords. Though I’m a sysadmin by trade, and therefore security is a very important aspect of everything I do, I too had fallen into a rut of using too few passwords and too little security for things. Not that I would use one password for everything, but I had about five or six passwords, with a few variations, that I would use everywhere. The passwords were ranked in order of security, so one was used for very high security things, another for less secure things, all the way down to an almost throw-away password for sites where I didn’t really care. But having the iPhone I figured I should be able to find something that would help me keep track of more than just a few passwords. A few applications came into view, but one seemed to have the best features for me: 1Password.
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by srhuston

PECO: More Suck, Less Lawfulness!

I didn’t mention it when it happened – in part because I was too pissed to write anything more coherent than a string of obscenities – but PECO turned off our power again a little while ago.  This time the overdue amount was just under $200, and again there was no contact made to Stephanie or I about turning it off.  Of course, like last time if you asked them about that, they’d say of course they contacted us, and provide dates and times when they talked to someone on the phone.  Mysteriously though, the recordings of those conversations would not be available, so there would be no proof that they actually talked to someone – just a line on a computer screen with a date and time.  Well, I did a little poking around last night, and found some interesting information.. while it’s hard to prove a negative (that they didn’t actually contact us this time, or the last time) there’s one thing that is easy to prove: This last time, they turned off the power on a Friday (October 30th 2009, I paid on my credit card so the date is easily verifiable too).  Now according to Pa. Code § 56.82, “Except in emergencies—which include unauthorized use of utility service—service shall not be terminated, for nonpayment of charges or for any other reason, during the following periods: (1)  On Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.”  So now I contacted the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to find out what can be done to make sure PECO stops breaking the law.

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by srhuston

Is Verizon Scamming People Into FiOS?

When I got home from work yesterday, Stephanie told me there was a message on the answering machine from Verizon, calling to confirm our “recent order”. She left it, because it mentioned a phone number, and she didn’t know if I had changed our phone or DSL service and just not mentioned it. I listened to the message, and while the computer’s voice sounded kinda like the Verizon voice mail tree, something seemed odd. A quick look up of the 1-800 number did show it was really them (1-800-VERIZON, or 1-800-837-4966, is their new all-in-one support phone number) so I called them back. Took a little while to get through voice mail since the system had no idea where to send me, but eventually I got someone who sent me to a CSR to answer my questions. After a little digging they figured out what the mysterious call was about. Somehow an order to upgrade us to FiOS was placed, and the call was to confirm it. Interesting since we can’t really do that; my job pays fo my DSL access so I can work from home if needed (to fix things on off-hours without having to get to the office) but I don’t think they’d want to pay for my landline and TV service too. Plus I’m quite happy with DirecTV, not to mention we’re constantly debating getting rid of the landline and either using our cells or getting VoIP. So this person sent me over to “the elite team” to cancel the order. I explained to her what happened, she offered to see if a TV and phone bundle was available, and when I said we were happy with our TV service she put in the cancellation right away, no questions asked. Everyone was very friendly and helpful.

So why does the title of this article ask if Verizon is scamming people? Because about two weeks ago, in the rain, some guy was coming door to door trying to sell FiOS service. Of course he knocked on our door too, and doing so woke up Emily – therefore Stephanie already wasn’t happy when she opened the door. When he started the pitch, she said no and started to close the door. He then tried to keep selling to her, and argued when she said we couldn’t bundle our Internet service with phone and TV (her and I had just talked about the problem a couple days before when a mailed postcard from Verizon gave her the idea). She just about had to slam the door in his face to get him to leave. Then a week or so later we’re magically signed up for FiOS? Sounds quite a bit fishy to me; wonder if anyone else in the area had similar experiences – if they even know that they are signed up for it, or will find out before a tech shows up with the equipment to start the changeover. Now I’m debating if I want to spend the probably close to an hour on the phone to find out where that order originated, and bring to the attention of someone with firing power that it didn’t come from us.

by srhuston

Even More iPhone Apps

So a combination of having had the iPhone for a while longer, and at least one friend who now has an iPod touch (and therefore asked me about which apps I have on my phone) has prompted me to revisit the list of apps I posted here before. As a side note, I started typing this up using the WordPress app on the phone, keeping it as a local draft until I was ready to add HTML elements and such – once I flip to landscape mode, my twin thumbs of fury can whip out text pretty quick :> As for the apps on my phone, I’ve finally bought some, even more than I’d anticipated I would. But most of the apps I install are still free.  Initially I planned to do this as a plain list of the new apps, but I think I’ll retouch on the ones mentioned before as well since my opinion has changed on a couple (and so I don’t have to keep looking back to see if I mentioned it before :> )
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