I still don’t understand the Lame Duck Challenge Free Offer, but that’s because CodeWeavers had to put up a bare-bones, reduced bandwidth version of their home page after their servers got slammed. Apparently, for some reason that may or may not have something to do with The Chimperor, they have put up fully unlocked builds and are offering free serials for CrossOver Pro and Crossover Games, today (Tuesday) only, and apparently, they seriously underestimated what would happen to their poor servers once the news hit not only Digg, but Reddit. I don’t go to Digg anymore except occasionally to the tech section, because the rest of it is just half a step short of /b/, but it’s still a very popular site. So is Reddit, where I “defected” when Digg started going downhill. I could’ve told CodeWeavers they ought to brace themselves lest their server start to smoke! Anyway, I downloaded a copy of CrossOver Linux Pro, and entered my email address to receive a serial. They have a message up that says, “Due to load, expect your serial number to be emailed to you in a few days”. Heh. I’ll probably install it–if I remember correctly, it can live in harmony with “ordinary” Wine–but whether or not I’ll buy the next version depends upon whether I use it. Wine has been pretty goddamned good, and the only Win software I use anyway is uTorrent (to dowload Linux ISOs, of course), but if CrossOver could run PS CS3 and Premiere Elements (Pro just confuses me–hee!) even reasonably stable, I’d probably just ditch my XP partition altogether. I had a paid version of CrossOver back at 5.something, but never bothered with it after that because Wine did all I needed for free. We’ll see, I guess, and I don’t mind at all supporting CodeWeavers because they give back to the Wine project.

XP made me so goddamned mad last week, and Ubuntu drove the point home this morning. Why can’t Windows just update, leave me alone and fuck off? First, it downloads updates automatically, which I want because I can’t be arsed to go and check manually. Probably should because MS updates have certainly broken stuff before, but my Win isn’t critical, so I leave it on auto. Then, it has to pop up some stupid little thing to tell me, “Updates are ready for….” whatever (I forget). Click the stupid balloon to start, and it should just do that in the background and not get in my fucking way whilst I’m working, but noooo. As I’m moving windows about, doing whatever it is that I’m doing, the system updates window keeps showing itself. When I put it down on the taskbar, it should just stay there and do whatever it needs to do. Finally, when it’s done what it needs to do, it almost always needs a reboot. Fine, okay, whatever…if it must. Under no circumstances, though, should a computer ever reboot without my express permission. If I’ve told it I don’t want to reboot at the moment, it should just fuck off. If I’m in the middle of doing something, and look at the clock to realise, “Holy shit, I should’ve been in the shower an hour ago!” I should be able to walk away from the computer and not come back to see…my Linux desktop. XP nags for a reboot every ten minutes or so, and since I hadn’t been there to tell it “Reboot later”, it took it upon itself to reboot for me, thereby losing all unsaved changes to what I’d been doing. I have grub set to boot the default (Linux) if I don’t change the selection within 8 seconds, but I configured that timing myself. Hmmm…I actually think left the default because it was fine, but I certainly could change it if I wanted. An OS should not nag me unless something horrendous is about to happen, and under no circumstances should it reboot without my express permission. Not “you didn’t say no to a reboot”; that is not express permission.

Ubuntu gets it right. Each day, it checks for updates to any software installed from the repos I have configured (I have the defaults, of course, plus some custom ones). When a package manager is working, there is a little grey “sun” on the panel. It doesn’t pop up any stupid little balloon or get in my way, but if I mouse over it, it’ll say, “A package manager is working.” Great–do your stuff, package manager. If software updates are available, the little sun will be orange. If I mouse over it, it will say, “Software updates available”, and if I click it, the Update Manager opens with a list of available updates. I can leave it and install them all, or uncheck any that I don’t want. I click whatever the button says to install updates (it bothers me so little that I don’t remember), then enter my pw, minimise the window to the Panel, and it goes about its business. When it’s done, it sits there in the panel until I notice it and close the window. Perfect–thank you, kind Update Manager. If the updates found are critical, like important security updates, or a kernel update, the little sun turns into a red arrow. Attention-getting, but still not in my face. Update Manager works the same, and if it’s done a kernel update (about the only reason you ever have to reboot a Linux system), then it does get a little more demanding for attention. The red arrow becomes a double blue arrow, and a balloon pops up.

There’s a difference, though. I can make the balloon go away by simply clicking the little close button, and if I don’t want to reboot right then, I don’t. It doesn’t nag me to reboot every ten goddamned minutes, and it certainly doesn’t reboot on its own because I didn’t happen to be there to tell it, “Now is not convenient–I’m right in the middle of something.”

Unless I am actually doing something as far as configuration, or even just making it pretty, an OS should never be at the forefront of a computing experience. I use a computer to accomplish tasks (yes, wasting time is a task), and the OS should be in the background, staying out of the way, doing what it needs to do to assist in the execution and completion of my tasks. It should never nag me, or interrupt me, or distract me unless my processor is about to explode. A little balloon to tell me that a kernel update requires a reboot is fine, but popping up an “installing updates” window in the middle of whatever I’m doing, and rebooting without my express permission is unacceptable. Linux gets it right, Windows gets a failing grade.

Oh, and I called H. last night; we talked until her battery finally died. She’s so goddamned cool. P. almost made me really mad, though, because he commented on last month’s phone bill, even though calls I made to Sweden were only $20. There goddamned well seems to be enough spare cash when he goes to the liquor store every weekend, and when he wants a new disc or two, and when he needs to pay $10 or $20 or $30 or whatever to enter some tournament, so if I want to spend a few bucks calling someone I like, that should be just fine with him. If it isn’t, we have a double standard, and that’s a problem. A big problem.

Edit: Heh. It apparently isn’t a problem. I gave him the money for the calls last night, and he took it, but this morning, it’s on the stove in the kitchen with a Post-it that says “Pwrincess money” with a heart, and he just informed me that Princess Dollars (it’s a legitimate currency) are always for luxury items. He’s pretending he didn’t know why I gave him the money, but he goddamned well does. What he also knows is that he pissed me off and could have started a pretty good fight, maybe even have lost his weekend drinking partner. Sometimes, Lars’ way is the best way. 😉

October is too long. Okay, so yeah, I should be working, and the house was hit over the weekend by a tornado who wears a wedding ring that looks just like mine, so I wouldn’t have time to do it today anyway, but I want Intrepid to be final release. If stupid October was as short as February, then release would be tomorrow (unless it was a leap year), but noooo, it has to drag on all the way to Friday. I want a shiny new OS. There’s nothing wrong with Hardy, but Intrepid is new and I want it now. Not bad enough to run a beta (icky-poo beta), but want. I had a crap weekend except for Friday night and Sunday evening, and goddammit, I deserve something nice.

I did manti-nap Onlena, though, which is cool, or at least it will be once I get her into a proper enclosure and get her to eat. I know she’s hungry because she grabbed a superworm right away, but she dropped it. Maybe it tried to bite…dunno. Bless her little manti-heart; I found her in exactly the same place–right to the very same yucca leaf–where I saw her two weeks before. Last night was cold, but tonight is supposed to go below freezing, and I’m not sure an insect that size could find sufficient insulating cover to keep her from freezing. She won’t freeze now, though, and although I don’t have a clue how long she will live because her system has already got the “season’s over, girlie” signal, at least she will die well-fed and of plain old age instead of freezing to death. I know it’s the way they’re supposed to die, but Olena is Last Mantis Standing, the last I have seen in weeks, and she came back. It’s as if I was supposed to find her and bring her home. Not much difference between feeding Valerie and feeding Valerie and Olena; it’s not like Miss Vee can consume 25 2″ superworms in the time they’ll survive, but maybe Val and Olena can. This, boys and girls, is known as rationalisation.

Okay, I’m in a better mood now. Still not going to work right away, but I will soak some Eco-Earth and go get a 5g tank from the basement for Olena. She doesn’t seem to be enjoying the 2g holding tank very much; I’m getting a whole bunch of “disapproving mantis” from her. Then again, mantises in general disapprove of pretty much everything except for actual food. How I’m going to feed superworms to Olena in an enclosure with coir bedding, I don’t know yet…she doesn’t quite get how to eat them, and they’re goddamned quick to burrow into substrate. Maybe I could just set it up without the Eco-Earth at first, until she gets the hang of taking food from tweezers and eating it right away? I know she took the katydid I gave her when she was still “wild”, but when I went back an hour later, she still hadn’t eaten it all. Great–like I need more finicky critters who don’t want to eat what’s on the menu.

Putting half-decent external speakers on the laptop made watching 4h of Arrested Development whilst lying in bed a whole lot more fun. So did chocolate ice cream and barbeque chips. Hee! 😀

I was just reading a thread in the UF about some guy, a n00b, who’s trying to get dual monitors working in Hardy; his first ever Linux setup (technically dual-boot XP and Hardy). I have dual monitors and have had since I was still using Gutsy a year ago, but I also have an Nvidia card, so configuration was as easy as running the Nvidia config utility with gksudo, enabling the second monitor, saving the changes and logging out/back in. Just as easy as XP, and I didn’t even have to reboot. This guy, however, is using the notoriously poor “fglrx” ATI driver. I used to be an ATI fan and faithfully bought their cards (and installed their cards for people who wanted upgrades) for years, but then I started investigating Linux. Their Linux support was so pitiful and so far behind their Win support (I expect a little behind, but they were ridiculous) that I thought, “Fuck this–I’ll vote with my wallet”, and switched to Nvidia. Haven’t looked back since. Anyway, what he’s trying to do is not likely to be simple with ATI’s crappy driver, but it probably do-able. Why does it qualify for a “Wow”? Well, because this man has 20+ years computer experience, stretching all the way back to DOS 3.1, but all of that experience is with MS OSes. Probably the worst “Win-switcher” is the power user; the person who has used nothing or nearly nothing but MS for many years, and knows it very, very well. I know–I was one, and it was difficult (and often frustrating) to learn new ways. Still, so what–lots of power users have switched, so what makes this particular one special?

The man is 75 years old. I can only hope that by the time I’m 75, I’m still willing to not only learn to use a whole new OS, but also not give up if it doesn’t co-operate immediately. By chronology, that man is old, but he really isn’t because he hasn’t given up learning. “I’m too old” is a cop-out; if your brain still functions, then you’re not too old to at least try to learn something new. Our brains are like anything else…use ’em or lose ’em. Props to you, old dude; you’re awesome, and although I can’t help you much with ATI, I sure wish I could because you deserve it.

Oh yeah…”liberated” these from some site:

Ten Commandments for New Linux Users

1. Thou shalt not log in as root.
Use “sudo” or “su -” for administrative tasks.
2. Thou shalt use the package manager when possible.
Sometimes installing from source code can’t be avoided, but when you use your distro’s package manager to install software, you can also use it to update and remove it. This is one of the main strengths of Linux.
3. Thou shalt be a part of the community.
Freely give what you have received for free. Offer help and advice whenever you can.
4. Thou shalt read documentation and man pages.
Always read the documentation. The people who wrote the software tried to anticipate your questions, and provided answers before you asked.
5. Thou shalt use the available support system.
Switching to Linux can be tough. It can be frustrating, but there are a lot of people out there who want to help you. Let them.
6. Thou shalt search.
In most cases, your question or problem has already been addressed. Try to find the answers that are already out there before asking someone to provide a new one.
7. Thou shalt explore.
Linux opens a whole new world of options and possibilities. Try everything you can.
8. Thou shalt use the command line.
Especially when it comes to configuration, use the GUI tools to get your system working, but get to know the command line versions as well. In many cases, the command line is the only way to use some of the more advanced features.
9. Thou shalt not try to recreate Windows.
Linux is not meant to be a clone of Windows. It’s different. Embrace and appreciate the differences.
10. Thou shalt not give up.
I tried several distributions before I found one I liked. I still try other distros from time to time. I also tried several different programs to serve one purpose before settling on what I use now (amarok, xmms, beep, exaile for music – azureus, ktorrent, deluge for bittorrents). If you don’t like the defaults, remember that you can change almost everything to suit you.

I have one to add:

11. Thou shalt not tell me what to fucking do or how to do it. The reason I chose Linux in the first place is because my computer is mine and it does what I tell it to do, when I tell it. When you pay for it, you can tell me what to do; until then, STFU. 😀

I’d been running an ancient 2.1.something version of WP, too lazy to upgrade, but since P got re-infected with that stupid script (I hadn’t…yet), I thought upgrading to the latest version would at least be harmless, and might help keep me from getting infected again. I don’t remember the last time I’d upgraded because it was so long ago, but I did remember that I had to pay attention to do it lest I overwrite customised files with the default versions, and that was one reason I hadn’t bothered in so long. Went fine, though. Okay, so I named the temporary folder into which I d/l’d copies before overwriting the ones on the server “jesus-christ”, but that’s pretty normal for me when I’m even mildly annoyed. Anyway, all done, all shiny new now and I didn’t even fuck up one single thing. Yay, me! 🙂

Hang on…Ã¥ ä ö é ø ? ç è ?. I didn’t mess up my multi-language support, did I? Hmmm…where the hell are the rest of them?

Oh, I keep forgetting to put my little friend here. The lunatics at PETA are trying to get people to love fish by changing their name to “sea kittens” (since everyone loves kittens…I shit you not), and although I already like fish more than anyone with any common sense likes PETA and don’t much give a shit what they’re called, they have a little Flash app that allows you to “design your own sea kitten”. I named mine Princess, and I think her little yellow floaties are absolutely adorable!

Okay, edited wp-config.php to remove the utf-8 charset specification that wasn’t in the old one….how about now? Ã¥ ä ö ü é è ø ß Å¡ č ç þ Å“ æ ñ ă ý. Okay, they’re all here…now publish.

Works. How the hell did Swedish end up as my default DB character set? I never told it to do that. Those Swedes are everywhere, infiltrating my DB! :þ Ooooh, now can I make hearts? ♥ ♥ ♥ Yey!

I got my Charter email address early in 2001, I think. Since cable broadband was still relatively new here back then, I had no problem getting my initials and surname as an address even though my surname is roughly as common as dirt. A few years later, I started getting mail addressed to Leonard and/or Nancy. It turned out that these people were new Charter customers who had been assigned an email address that was mine, plus the number “2”, but those FUCKING IDIOTS sent out mass-mail to every one of their stupid friends with my address, not theirs. I emailed them and politely asked them to please (please, please-Jesus) correct it, and they said they would. After that, their mail started to taper off, but once in a while, I still get theirs because some friend hasn’t updated his address book, or somebody typed in the wrong address. I got one tonight, and I just know I’m going to get the bejesus spammed out of me because it was something from some crappy “get free smilies”, “free screensavers”, “free MySpace glitter GIFs” shit-site. I wouldn’t mind so much if their goddamned idiot friends weren’t the type to FORWARD EVERY STUPID THING ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET, AND ACTUALLY USE THE FUCKING “SEND TO A FRIEND” FUNCTION ON DUBIOUS WEBSITES! I don’t use my Charter address for anything except personal communication with at least reasonably computer-literate people I actually know. I never, ever give it out to anyone who doesn’t know better than to forward a message without stripping addresses, use the Bcc function to send to multiple recipients unless recipients already know one another, not use “send to a friend” on any website, and never, ever, EVER “tell a friend about this great new service!” I have spam filters that border on draconian, but that isn’t the point; I’ve kept the address clean because as long as Charter is our ISP, I’m pretty much stuck with it, and given that my choices for broadband here are Charter or 1.5 MB DSL from craptacular SBC Yahoo!, I’m pretty much stuck with Charter. How fucking stupid do you have to be to not be able to read your own email address? I am not in the least interested in offers from Amazon for “similar products”; I wouldn’t be interested even if the products were similar to my own purchases. I’m not interested in joining a lunch group with my own friends, let alone Nancy’s friends. I’m not interested in their church’s social functions–I don’t even go to church. I don’t know these people, I don’t want to know these people, and I’m not in the least interested in their lives, their family, their friends or their social engagements. Why, why, oh why could Charter not just give them a more unique address that they could not possibly fuck up? For that matter, how fucking hard is 2? Two…2…it’s a number. Right above the “w” key. Jesus! Arrrggghhh!

Interesting. I just checked the top one hundred most common surnames in the US, and mine is even more common than I thought–it’s number five!

Actually, I’m not so sure that this is “desperate” so much as it is funny, brilliant advertising and even a little scary. Holy shit, I was surprised to see Andy Griffith still alive. Hell, he doesn’t look too much different from the way he did in Matlock. Light Richie and the Fonz a little differently, and you’d never know it wasn’t Happy Days. Anyway, of all political endorsements I’ve ever seen, this one is probably the coolest.

Damn, script kiddies are getting lazier every year! Finally finished the laundry and ironing, and had a few minutes before the starving masses needed to be fed, so I thought I’d download copies of my blog files so I’d have them to search for that stupid script. It took P. hours to do his phpBB, but my WP is simpler, so I thought I’d do it tomorrow, but I got curious and poked about a bit. Headed for the wp-admin files first because it affected me logged in, but not when I wasn’t. Turned out cleaning was as simple as removing the script from two files: admin-header and admin-footer. I’d read somewhere that theme footers were affected, but mine were fine. Goddamned lazy of the script kiddie, if you ask me–took me a few minutes to remove the script and upload new copies. Meh…some infection. Anyway, it’s all crwean an’ fwruffy now, so probably a good time to make a backup, but I gotta feed the fushins. 🙂

I’m pathetic. Backup done. Heh.

1. Where there is a thoughtful, considerate man who loves his grandma, there is a way, even if the software doesn’t co-operate. Awwww!

2. “E de ting”. Ded of teh cute. Awwww!

3. “Giant millworms?” “Mealworms?” (confusion arose from “mealworms” spoken by a woman from rural south-central IL). They’re superworms, of course, but that’s not the point. Bloodworms for a little sick Kütchen Füsh, too, and I never uttered a single word in reminder. Awwww!

Lots of awwww in my day today. Not so much laundry or ironing, but that’s not going anywhere, and awwww…you take that any time you can find it.

I d/led the Intrepid beta and burnt it to disc, but was busy playing with Plus! features and sounds (surprisingly, I don’t recall any flatules), plus I’d forgot, rebooted and cut off copying MiniMe’s /home to the external drive (less than four minutes left, dammit), and then I was using XP so I couldn’t do the install today. I thought about doing it this evening because although I don’t mind using an external keyboard, if I wanted to haul an en-fucking-tire computer around, I’d just pick up my my desktop, but decided just for the hell of it, I’d boot up and see whether any of the dicking around with settings I did this morning had had any effect. I’d enabled auto-login, but the keyring always asks for the p/w before it’ll allow a connection to the router, so I shoved that out of the way and fired up gedit. Lo and behold, I have all of my letters just as they should be. I did so many things earlier today that I don’t half remember, but one of those things worked because it’s fine now. I want the laptop tonight because I’m tired and want to go to bed early (okay, when I finish the goddamned ironing and folding), so I’m not going to log out and then reboot to test and make sure it’s going to stay fine, but I will tomorrow. I don’t know what happened, and I don’t care as long as it’s working again. Okay, openSUSE, you get a pass for now because I’m back to, “Meh, it works and it’s already installed. Can’t be arsed right now to install something else.” Piss me off like that again on a day when I don’t have distractions, though, and you really will be gone.

P. fixed his board, too, so D&D can feed their addictions. Took him forever to manually replace the files that had had the hostile code injected, but he did it. I might fix this, too, though there’s no rush because even at its worst, the code can’t affect anyone who isn’t logged in, and with comments disabled, no one except me can log in anyway. G’head IE exploit…give FF on Linux your best shot. 😉

Pretty good for a day that started out crap and rainy, plus tomorrow’s Friday, and even if it is going to be rainy, that’s okay. I have awwww, I have a happy mantis with a tummy full of “millworms”, and I have every intention of getting pleasantly sloshed tomorrow night. Now, if I can just manage to not drunk-mail L. for once, it’ll be all good. 😆

Oh, and so I don’t forget….call M.!

Score another awwww and make it four; I just got a “Please apologise me I wasnt here long time…” from MiloÅ¡. I used to try to correct him, as he’d asked, but he isn’t around often enough that he remembers between corrections, and besides, I sort of like it. They have an infant, and they’re trying to save money for a house, so he’s working a lot…I understand he’s busy. I’m not at all offended, but no matter how many times I say it, I’ll still get, “Please apologise me”…and that’s all right. He’s a good boy, and I don’t care how bad his English; as long as I can understand, it’s good enough.

Goodbye. I put up with YaST because it was a little faster this time, though still slower than Synaptic. I put up with no CLI to install software because…okay, because I’m lazy and couldn’t be arsed to install something else. Now, for no good reason, you fucked up my keyboard so badly I can’t even type my goddamned password, or at least I couldn’t until I connected an external board. Your little chameleon is cute, but…yeah, fuck you. You’re gone. I might be lazy and wait another week for the final release of Intrepid, or I might get pissed off and put the beta on tomorrow (I think it’s frozen anyway), but either way, you’re not staying. You suck big, fat, hairy donkey balls.

Okay, I feel better, but what a fuckup. Everything was fine the last time I used it, then, when I booted tonight, it just suddenly decided to randomly replace characters, two of which were kind of critical to typing my password. Yeah…sort of need that (goddamned stupid keyring…fuck you, too). Oh well; it’s not like I mind having to use an external keyboard until I boot openSUSE…I’ll survive.

Interesting day I’ve had. Started out with that dumbass “tech”, which wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind, but after that, I decided to look through some of B.’s photos. A long (long!) time ago, I’d asked him whether he would take some photos for me, just of random stuff he’d see every day. He said okay, but I knew he didn’t understand what I was asking; to him, a photograph must be “art” of some sort, so I knew what he’d want to do…roam around the city, taking photos from artistic angles, and of suitably artistic subjects. Precisely what I did not want him to do. Anyway, in his typical fashion, he either forgot, or didn’t get around to it, and since he hadn’t understood what I wanted, I didn’t bother to mention it again.

I suppose it was a couple of months ago I’d been talking to him one afternoon, and he said he wanted to ask me a question. I knew something was wrong because he always just asks whatever he wants to know; he never says, “I want to ask you a question”. I know the tone of voice that went with it; it’s the one you use when you’re slightly pissed off, but controlling it until you get the explanation, just in case it’s a good one. I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong (WTF could I have done?) so I said, “Sure–fire away!” He practically demanded to know why there were comments from me on practically every one of L.’s photos, yet I hadn’t been to look at his in quite some time. My immediate reaction was to think, “Oh, let’s see…how ’bout…it’s none of your fucking business”, but I’ve known the man long enough to have experienced his occasionally talking to me like I’m one of his daughters, plus I’m used to Dad being a bit gruff like that just because it’s his way, so I put the hackles down and simply told him the reason. I said that I enjoy visiting L.’s stream because it’s not so much “art, intended to impress viewers” as it is “a slice of my life”, and that is not only interesting to me, but I appreciate that he’s willing to share that. I know myself that putting up random photos for people to look at is easy–I do it all the time, and I’m a pretty goddamned private person–but putting up bits of your own life, things in your own home…that’s not so easy. That’s why I don’t….if I do, they’re for friends-only, and I’m fussy about my friends. Anyway, when I explained, B. seemed mostly mollified, though I did promise to go and look through his stream (and I did). Still, I’d made a point even though I hadn’t meant to do more than make him stop sulking.

H. and L. have taken some photos for me. H. took snapshots around her home, and the park where she takes her dog, and a couple of her son, and BFU, and her critters…just “stuff”. L. took a bunch for me when they went to a harvest festival, and more again for Hallowe’en when they’d gone to some sort of farm market (I think that’s what it was). I loved it, and of course, I mentioned to B. that they’d done it, and how pleased I was, and that it was great fun to see. I guess I know how to get him motivated now…tell him someone else has done something well, then just sit back and wait for the competitive nature to do its stuff. 😆 This time, he understood what I wanted, and although I can see a bit of the “photographer’s eye” in the images he’s sent, he really gets what I want…to see what I would see if I were there. Not what an artist would see, what I would see. The first bunch were shot along the path just going to the grocery store for fresh spaghetti (heh), and the second was just going for a walk. I don’t know where we’re going next, but it’s great fun, and quite interesting, because he explains the route he took, and what particular buildings are (unless it’s obvious), and since he’s done that, I can look at the aerial shots on Eniro and get an overall view. In some cases, I can even see where he was standing when he shot the photo, which is pretty goddamned cool.

Anyway, I was looking through B’s photos this morning when L. sent me a “hi there” on MSN. He usually doesn’t–I’m the one who can’t STFU long enough to give him some peace–so I kind of wondered what was up. We chatted for a short while about a bird he’d been looking after and had returned, then as a BTW, he said he’d discovered a way I could access music from Swedish iTunes. I said, “Huh?” wondering what the hell brought that up, since I didn’t think I’d ever mentioned that to him. I hadn’t, but what I had done was shown him a couple of things (one post and a photo, I think) that were here in my bitch blog. He already knew the blog existed because I’d mentioned it before, but since he’d never asked where it was or what was in it, I was surprised he’d bothered to read any of it. At first, I was a little weirded out because I write this stuff as it comes, not with any readers in mind (hi to both of you, though!), and I was a little embarrassed because I all too often curse like a sailor when I’m writing about things that piss me off (of which there are plenty…heh), which is quite rude. It wasn’t that it bothered me–I don’t think I could come up with anything bad to say about him if I tried, so there wasn’t anything here I wouldn’t want him to read–but he did catch me off guard because he’d always seemed utterly uninterested. Bless his heart; he also apologised for…dissing Linux so often. He does, or at least he did, often make fun of me, once telling me that I use Linux because I can’t afford a Mac (almost true, though), and rarely missing an opportunity to make some smartass comment. I guess it had bothered me a little (okay, yeah, it did), but I just chalked it up to his sarcastic nature, decided I was being hypersensitive, and let it go.

Always full of surprises, that one; he doesn’t miss much, doesn’t forget much, and has an absolutely remarkable capacity for empathy. If you ask most people what “empathy” means, you’re likely to get some who’ll confuse it with sympathy (it isn’t), and some who’ll just give you a blank look. The majority will probably know what it means, but knowing, “the ability to put oneself in another person’s place, thereby understanding that person’s emotions or ideas” doesn’t necessarily mean you can do it. I know–Christ knows I’ve tried over the years to teach people “Just turn it around–imagine you are in my position”. Most can’t do it, or at least not very well; they can’t get far enough beyond themselves to truly understand someone else’s point of view…but L. can. He not only can; it’s a fundamental aspect of his personality, so he doesn’t even have to really try. He just understands. Even here in my bitch blog, I’d never mentioned anything about the things he’d said, but I didn’t need to; he read some of my rants, and simply turned it around, substituting something that matters to him for my operating system. I know it’s only an OS, and it shouldn’t matter, but that’s not the point. The point is that he knew it did, and felt badly for having done it, even though I hadn’t complained, or indeed said anything much about it. People like that are rare, and I think men even more so. Maybe that sounds unfair, but I think it’s true. I guess that makes him a treasure, but I already knew that anyway. I wasn’t going to bother him tonight, but then I decided to use my laptop for MSN because I can move it to different light (B. complained about the colour when I’m at my desk, but he wasn’t pushy, so I co-operated), and asked L. to tell me whether the colour was okay. I literally meant to ask him that and nothing more, but as it often happens, he stayed up too late, and I was talking to him when I was supposed to be cooking (I know, I know–faint–but I really did, because P wanted a pasta dish that he doesn’t know how to make, since I invented it and I don’t measure ingredients).

I decided that even if he did catch me off guard, and I did feel a bit odd for a while, I’m just going to write the same way I have always. If my fans (hehe) read it, that’s okay. If L. reads it, that’s okay. Why not–I’m always telling him, “Creepy man…get out of my head” because he knows what I’m thinking anyway, so he probably already knows what I wrote. Heh. If no one reads it, that’s okay, too. The point is that in order to write something, I have to sort it out in my mind, and that’s all I really need to accomplish. Okay, that and a scathing (cursing) rant or two, but even those do help me calm down and think straight instead of letting my temper get the best of me. Yep, making the world a safer place for home electronics and furniture, one temper flare at a time! 🙂

Oh, yeah, and although it’s quite depressing to think that my little arthropod friends are nearly all gone, there is one good thing about cooler weather. Pink bear feet! 😀

I was gonna proofread this, but fuck it–I’m tired and I’m going to bed. Maybe I’ll read it in the morning…maybe not. Hee!

Save me from utterly clueless “techs” who make you sit there for twenty minutes while they “check the problem”, then return to tell you that “add-content-block.net is working fine.” WELL FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, I KNOW THAT MUCH! WHY, EXACTLY, DO YOU THINK I CONTACTED YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE?

P’s message board got hacked; he didn’t notice it until D.H. and D.C. were both blocked from accessing it, both using NAV. No other AV reports any problem. I looked, and discovered that while his domain was allowed to run scripts, NoScript was blocking another…add-content-block.net. That shouldn’t have been happening; that domain has nothing to do with us. He called IX and the tech (hah!) told him that a couple of his directories had permissions set to 777 (and I dimly recall having told him, “Are you insane?” when he was trying to get something-or-other to work). Okay…his own fault for having a “Fuck security–whatever it takes to make it work” Windows user mentality. I’d done some research, trying to help him figure out what’s going on, and why, and apparently, this is some sort of script that can be put on WordPress, phpBB, Joomla, osCommerce and maybe others; it exploits a security hole in IE (gasping in shock), and attempts to redirect the user to a phishing site. P and I both tried it, using different AV software, but couldn’t get a hit; I think now it was because we both use FF. Anyway, it’s apparently very hard to remove, and even after it is removed, it comes back. If he could get switched to IX’s new servers that run PHP as CGI, and therefore don’t need 777 permissions to give applications access, then it would stay clean. IX is (predictably) denying that it’s anything but a user problem. Anyway, I logged in here last night to bitch about something, and lo and behold, once I logged in, I noticed that NoScript was reporting a blocked script. The only domain that should be running scripts here is my own, which I whitelisted, so I checked. Sure enough, there’s good old add-content-block.net, trying to run its hostile script. Since it does not run when reading the main page, only to write, and I disabled comments, which protects my huge readership (hi to both of you!), and the script works only in a browser I don’t use, on an operating system I don’t use, it’s no big deal, but it kind of bugs me that it’s there, so I thought, “Oh, what the hell–nothing better to do this morning,” and I contacted a “tech” on IX’s Live Chat. I somehow don’t think good old Oleg (Jesus, where do they come up with these names?) was paying any attention at all. I emailed myself a transcript:

info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with ‘Oleg Kovalenko ‘
Oleg Kovalenko : Welcome, my name is Oleg, please let me know how can I help you today?
Oleg Kovalenko : We have not heard from you. Do you wish to continue the chat?
you: I use Firefox with an add-on called NoScript that blocks scripts by default unless I specifically allow them. When I log into my blog to write a post, I notice that scripts are “partially allowed”. Bettatude.com is allowed, because I whitelisted it, but another from add-content-block.net is being blocked. I have nothing to do with add-content-block.net, and there is no reason a script from that should be trying to run on my page.
Oleg Kovalenko : Could you please provide the domain name?
you: bettatude.com
Oleg Kovalenko : Please hold on, let me check
Oleg Kovalenko : I’m still checking your issue, please stay on hold.
you: I’m not going anywhere. 🙂
Oleg Kovalenko : Ok, thanks.
Oleg Kovalenko : As I see add-content-block.net works fine.
Oleg Kovalenko : Could you clarify your problem.
you: That is precisely my point. Why is that script even trying to run? I have nothing whatsoever to do with add-content-block.net. My domain is bettatude.com and no other. That script does not belong there; only bettatude.com should be running scripts on my blog.
Oleg Kovalenko : How I can reproduce you problem?
you: Well, as I said, I see the script being blocked (because I use a browser add-on) when I log into my blog at www.bettatude.com/blog to write a post.
Oleg Kovalenko : You may use other browser, there are not problems from our side.
you: Thanks, but I already use FF with scripts blocked, and I use it on Linux. From my research, this appears to be a script that exploits a security hole in IE. It does not affect me in the least–I don’t even use Windows, let alone IE–but *the script should not be there*. Never mind. Thank you for your time.

I had sat here for a good fifteen minutes, waiting for him to “check” (read: go on a break, or actually look and not immediately discover that I had a directory with write permission enabled for all, so he couldn’t blame me), just to see what would happen. I knew they wouldn’t admit it’s their old server setup that caused the problem–I’m running a bog-standard WP install with a couple of officially-sanctioned plugins, and have changed permissions on exactly nothing–but Christ, I thought they’d at least tell their techs to pretend they’re paying attention! Today is my day off, so unless I get distracted or find something more interesting to do, I’ll probably call what they laughingly refer to as “tech support”, just to see what they say. My account expires in December, and P’s (I think) in January, and I’m going to suggest to P that we switch to Hostgator. IX used to be really good, but they’ve gone to hell in a handbasket over the last couple of years, so as far as I’m concerned, they can stick their shiny new servers in Kentucky right up their collective arse. 🙂

Oh yeah…took me forever, but finally, a nice, neat 8×8!