Seeking, seizing the Kingdom

I’m using pfSense as a firewall/router here at home.  It’s working quite well, far better than my day-and-a-half struggle trying to get m0n0wall going (clue for m0n0wall devs: make an install disk!).  pfSense isn’t perfect, but it’s got some nice features.  The one feature I wish it had was the –enable-password-save build switch for openvpn.  Anyway, I went to upload an audio file to my web host this morning, and realized that FTP was badly broken.  Fortunately, I quickly found the setting that made it all better.  Under System->Advanced, enable “FTP RFC 959 data port violation workaround” under the heading “Traffic Shaper and Firewall Advanced”.  Save and that’s it.  I’m happily uploading my file now.

Being without internet just plain sucks. I’m in TX for the week, and in a facility where internet hasn’t been provided (tsk tsk) for my event. I have a connection where I’m staying that I only get to use late in the evening for a couple hours before getting enough sleep to get up and do it again. So I’ve done it. I got my phone tethered to give my laptop a ~56k connection in a pinch. I give you the results of the couple hours spent getting this working.  Enjoy with my compliments. (more…)

Something great happened today. The notebook computer my boss sent me came via FedEx. It’s a Sharp Widenote M4000, and it’s working very nicely. I spent the day getting her set up. My old notebook is a tank (6 lbs. compared to a sleek 3.7 lbs.) and was giving me problems when using the wifi. I tend to travel a lot, so the hassle factor was quickly increasing. I pointed him to this machine which was on an Ebay auction, and he was able to snag it for just over 6 bills. It’s used, but outwardly, I couldn’t tell. Inwardly, I naturally installed Ubuntu.

For me, this draws an interesting parallel to how God sees and works on us. He’s less concerned about the hardware (our body), after all, he was the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and he did a really good job (just ask my wife or any nurse or doctor), but he’s more concerned about reloading our software which has become corrupted through sin. I think there are a lot of euphemisms I could draw from this concept. Just need some time to ponder and expand a bit.

For those who may not know, procmail is a email processing program, very fully featured, very powerful, not user-friendly in the slightest.  Why use it?  Because it processes and sorts your mail before you go to read it, which is a fantastic thing.  But why in 17 years hasn’t someone come up with a better, less cryptic syntax for such features.  Writing my procmailrc is such a pain, getting the little-known syntax just right.  Most of the guys who write about procmail “recipies” on the web are just trying to show off their sheer “geekness”, that they have somehow come to understand a mystery thought equal to that of the female psyche (but at least there is some documentation for procmail).

When I am rich (God, please not famous), I would like to write a procmail alternative, written in Ada, of course.  Don’t hold your breath for this one.

Maildir is *much, much* faster than mbox using IMAP.  Snag yourself a copy of Courier IMAP and stop waiting for your e-mail!

Today I delivered and set up my mom’s new computer. First real upgrade to the hardware in 7 (count them, seven) years, amazing. Anyway, after moving the power, telephone and data infrastructure, I started the beast up. After some fiddling with the X server settings, I was able to get the HDTV lit up. The beauty, the sheer largeness of the Ubuntu desktop on a very large screen. Mom wanted to stream christian videos to the TV. A very nice setup. Now we just need to get over the “my-goodness-everything-is-different” phase. Wish us good times!

Slashdot | Daylight Saving Change Saved No Power

I knew it… I just knew it.

Arizona is beautiful! Sunny, 90 degrees. The flight was good. My boss Sieu picked Jerrid up from PHX terminal 2, and came to pick Joy and I up at terminal 3. We went to Sieu’s house and settled in. I feel like we are the guests of honor, staying in their house during their preparations for their reception Jerrid and I have been working at the office in Tempe the last two days. Got to meet my local team member Jeffrey, interesting fellow. He’s been using Ada longer than I’ve been alive! (more…)

Carol (whose last name shall remain… well, nameless) from Shiloh requested that I remove her last name from my blogroll. Even though her picture is posted for all to see, the last name is off-limits. Here’s to Carol, our paranoid person of the week!

Today is the first Monday after DST came to rob me of that hour of sleep I needed. The company I’m with, Singo Solution, is based in Arizona. They unlike most of the rest of the world are smart enough to ignore DST altogether, which is great for them, but now they’re 2 hours behind me instead of one.
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