Can I keep it?

I'm testing out a 1.25 Ghz 15" PowerBook this weekend, in the hopes of being able to keep it. It's coming out of our on-campus Apple store, and has been used as a demo. Hopefully my dept. can come up with the money to make it mine permanently, I miss the iBook I used to have. I requested one of the new 12" PowerBooks, but our Director told me to check with the Apple Sales group first, as they'll usually give us a hefty discount on these slightly used models. This one has the SuperDrive, 80GB hard drive, and AirPort Extreme already built in. What more could you want? There are really some great apps for the Macintosh these days, and OS X is a lot more mature than it used to be. I think when my grandparents need a new computer, I'm steering them towards Macs from now on...

I'm back

Well, I'm back in Iowa, and back at work. I came back today for my first annual review since joining my new department. It was a good review, pretty accurate, both in where they complimented me, and where I was criticized. I was rated "Highly Satisfactory" overall, so I think that means they're keeping me. :)

Higher Ed. Blogger

Just so I don't forget about it when I get home, I need to add this site to my list of daily reads, it belongs to another Sysadmin in Higher Ed who also runs NetBackup.

Give us your blood... or else.

This article pretty much sums up why I never wanted to join the Greek system in college. "Punishment for not giving blood is going to be quite severe"? Encouraging people to donate blood who shouldn't, just to boost your stupid little sorority's morale? That's despicable, and hopefully the chapter boots her right out of their dumb little club. At the very least, they should teach her how to use an apostrophe. I just had no enthusiasm for a lot of the "forced fun" activities that went with the Greek system. What if I don't feel like working on your lame lawn display or parade float? Or your blood drive? And, most of the Greek houses I was in at ISU were in danger of being condemned. I was in one where you weren't allowed to walk on certain parts of the second floor, because you may fall through. I swear I am not making that up. I couldn't believe people would pay to live in that place.

XServe RAID

We've got a demo unit of an XServe RAID in at work, and it's a neat piece of hardware. I'm not in charge of it, or anything, but I've poked at it a bit, and seeing 3.5TB of storage in that little unit is pretty amazing. We're considering using it with some non-Apple systems, just as an economical method of getting a lot of storage for a small price. AlienRAID is a great resource for this sort of thing, and Apple has certified the unit for use with Windows, Linux, and Netware now. So far, the only drawback seems to be that it takes hours to initialize the disks, but I'm sure that's true of all arrays of this size.

Market forces

Ahh, you have to love the hypocrisy of the right wing. They say they're all for letting market forces regulate industries, that government shouldn't be doing it, unless it's someone having the audacity to talk about sex, then they should be regulated. If the speech was really that offensive, wouldn't Stern's ratings force him off the air? Wouldn't a boycott of his advertisers be the mature thing to do, rather than infringe upon his right to free speech? If Stern has a large audience, wouldn't it stand to reason that the "public sense of decency" has changed? I wonder if there are any universities in Canada that need a Sysadmin, I'm starting to see it as the Land of the Free, and the U.S. as the Land of the Right-Wing Religious Zealots, who simultaneously have a strange fear of, and fascination with sex and nudity of the human body, but no problem with graphic violence. I, for the record, enjoy both.

Jefferson Dobie

Another birth announcement, congrats to Mark & Susan Dobie on the birth of their first child, Jefferson Isaac.

Gmail and e-mail privacy

Wired, as well as many other outlets, is running a story about the privacy concerns with Gmail, Google's proposed service. To me, if you're not using PGP or GPG, you have lost all credibility when talking about e-mail privacy, as you're not even taking any steps to secure yourself. Sending e-mail without GPG or PGP encryption is like writing your message on a post card. Any relay your e-mail passes through can read and store a copy of your e-mail, and any shared wire that your e-mail passes over can be sniffed, and your e-mail read. You can use PGP/GPG on every platform, and there are plugins for a great many e-mail programs as well. I currently use it with Thunderbird, and here's my public key: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (MingW32)

mQGiBDhNmFURBADnmXXG1ZLdf2lyRzos6/V9it+ALk3r37wA/HCeRvMkaj3AUo3M 7cacL+BLxw7YJC2TN7AIn7qfTyua2OwBvfbwxEKR9MNTVcZokhtpZ/UY/PX8Nz85 AInCBZGqyjftH0fX56nZM6gUpbP4XDWihcK8NFSEFixJxc6fciStpY5uOQCg/43d 0lLuTQ5PZ14Oh0vbA5Byq+sD/1oTxOY8SCXQ/0EqnG0dphzb6hU2x806G/hM55w0 L0ugG9b3NB76P7DvPlAF7tK+XFDXuQ4xGWItJuFZtgMuV4G/0NhBcK3grUhWasaB y8reptaJxxzY3FuYy3fAe2YvM6msLUJHEwvOzxQfauQCZcqVhhMbs8DwxuEeHo/O ErjwBACMrdW1nAoAFmY82ELl7q97naQqOIE0SSGcHH0iJG00A6nrxRIgaA24oGdM gb87HPv9tgdq4mb8riTAEat529S2wAGQy0V2GZoAvfX9zGIcGBG5YSJDisoW1H4A VPUX7jRLd1pzmzEKDpEFzNymoN6cGEYiIlKfnJwn3Ihlu4+jbLQoU2V0aCBILiBC b2tlbG1hbiA8c2V0aC5ib2tlbG1hbkB1bmkuZWR1PohOBBARAgAOBQI4TZhVBAsD AgECGQEACgkQOiUz+Af5BIIaswCg1yM+cubJ5aHh0T0YUfbx4SHbzWYAn0rUAWnI uT07diSTuKICYYQ9fZwVuQINBDhNmFUQCAD2Qle3CH8IF3KiutapQvMF6PlTETlP tvFuuUs4INoBp1ajFOmPQFXz0AfGy0OplK33TGSGSfgMg71l6RfUodNQ+PVZX9x2 Uk89PY3bzpnhV5JZzf24rnRPxfx2vIPFRzBhznzJZv8V+bv9kV7HAarTW56NoKVy OtQa8L9GAFgr5fSI/VhOSdvNILSd5JEHNmszbDgNRR0PfIizHHxbLY7288kjwEPw pVsYjY67VYy4XTjTNP18F1dDox0YbN4zISy1Kv884bEpQBgRjXyEpwpy1obEAxnI Byl6ypUM2Zafq9AKUJsCRtMIPWakXUGfnHy9iUsiGSa6q6Jew1XpMgs7AAICCADQ hxDoHS5ojatSJ6sYBhplfRUbgpGpH23vqVdg6g1uXrSgJZMpe5aCm3wMchfBV1LT SDMrOOcy5rzRsacZhgZCVqgt5jm0V72HDD2737/Fjw17wJVfeD/MIn3bUvT4XPxK Ru98dzPmCMp4yG4bImKgpbwN9GCCslT2eO5po1fVF7Z6BhGSOaGTsZkGEILHwitf co9lcQXqnGa1f++nNvNTnP0ril0O5ugKdjXEmW8HpGhG3wXHUG+CopjGTcPvnLfZ A6fVoQjlGxyMgJZeUsSE8nXlOve9NnAtLUhE3sCJFe7RZsRXd4Y2m2R5QOeRvWpM +YkQvbGcPFEq1CGX8P6AiEYEGBECAAYFAjhNmFUACgkQOiUz+Af5BIJHnwCg5buK Y7yMZmKh+Dk6frxK0BiCnWcAnjVXQIssq4rAxhfnbds89pWmM0v8 =NV8M -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

Kerry-McCain?

The Boston Globe is running an article talking about the possibility of a Kerry-McCain ticket. To John Kerry, I say this. Just do it. I'm a Democrat, but if McCain was running against Kerry, I'd vote for McCain. Adding McCain to the ticket isn't going to dillute your base, it can only bring more voters to your side, and it'd make me a lot more enthusiastic about supporting Kerry this fall. Talking amongst my co-workers, I have this question. Who are all these people who voted for Kerry? I don't know any of them. I'm serious, I know people who were for Edwards, people for Dean, people who were for Gephardt, and even people for Kucinich, but I don't know a single Kerry supporter, and I never really understood why they thought he was the best choice for our party.

Choosing McCain would bring a lot of the Deaniacs more on-board with the Kerry campaign, for, as the article mentions, many of us are McCain fans as well. We like straight-talkers, and don't give a damn if they're "too angry" in the opinion of some pundit.

Birth Announcements

Congratulations to my old college roomie, Kahn Evans, and his wife Holly on the birth of their son, Payton Dean Evans yesterday after a long labor. 7lbs 12 oz, 21.5 inches long. Congratulations also to my old boss John VanDyk and his wife Tina on their new daughter, Bethany!