December 21st, 2004

Spin

(no subject)

  • So long, NTP I just disabled NetTime, the Network Time Protocol (NTP) client I used on my desktop. Seems the features that this program provided have been gobbled up by ill-documented features of Microsoft software. (Imagine!) The deciding factor was when some overzealous piece of security software decided to fight with NetTime, which led to NetTime consuming 100% of the CPU. Rather than figure out how to guarantee this won't happen again (I tried), I'm putting down my old NTP client. Sorry, fella!

  • Keep up, Amazon I was just poking at my Amazon account, seeing when certain things (gifts from me to me) would arrive, and it struck me that I have no fewer than three open orders with Amazon. One's a set of books and CDs that I ordered last night, so no surprise that they'll take a few days to ship. One is a somewhat rare CD. I suspect that Amazon is building a time machine to 1988, the last time anybody heard this particular one hit wonder. Once that time machine is built, they'll send me the CD right away. I can only imagine that their time machine only works one way, or else I'd have the CD already. The last order is a book I ordered in October of 2002. I know the author, so I was excited when his book showed up on Amazon. Seems the publication date has slipped a bit.

    I'm now curious about how many open orders I can stack up without going too crazy. Perhaps it's already too late.
Spin

(no subject)


  • Phone Woo hoo! I now have 4 new phone jacks throughout the house. The whole point of this exercise was getting my TiVo hooked up to the phone circuit on an ongoing basis. No more carrying long phone wires across the house.

  • CAT5 Woo Hoo! I now have 4 new RJ45 runs (same locations as above). I was able to move my servers from my office to the "Computer Room". AKA pantry, AKA the previous owner's office. It's nice to move them - for one thing, the bedroom end of the house is now much quieter. Also, freeing up that kind of space in the office gives me room to turther tidy things up in there. It's like spring cleaning came early.

  • Alarm system Well, I've got sensors set up. I've got a panel that tells me that the front door is open. I'm not sure how to arm it. The installation guys weren't sure how to configure it. I know a thing or two about technology, and it seems like this alarm system could be a little easier to set up. The company is sending out another guy tomorrow morning. Whee.

  • Clerks I just stumbled across this on IFC. I remember it being fun back in the day. Now it just seems like a student film. A lot of the filmmaking is fine, and I can excuse the incessant speeches. It's the dreadful acting that makes me shiver.