Recently in Rants Category
Ha! I just solved a major technology hurdled while being handcuffed by corrupt and "broken" hardware. The issue: I needed to solve the static vs. dynamic IP requirements of hosting a database that will be accessed by remote clients while maintaining security within the network and I needed to give the host machine wireless access to the rest of the network. The problems: I had one of two ISPs down for the count, I had a machine on the network whose wireless connectivity was gone (faulty card?), I had another machine who had lost all connectivity and I had somehow managed to confuse the wireless router into a brick of uselessness. To add to the discomfort: I have a colleague coming into town in two days, my roof is being demolished tomorrow in preparation for the new one, I have a very important lunch meeting tomorrow, and I will be getting on a plane next week for a month away - depending upon the fact that the database is up and running.
The simple solution would have been for me to plug the wireless router into the working modem, plug the "master" machine into that and call it a day. But this would have killed the concept of a static IP, which would have killed the idea of a remotely accessed database. Next I thought of using the "master" machine as the bridge and placing the router after it in the chain (which is ultimately what I did) but it isn't as easily done as said.
The first problem I had was that I couldn't tell or diagnose if the router was working at all. I had asked it to reconfigure so many times in various setups and connections that I am sure it was suffering from an identity crisis. The second problem with testing it (as a wireless solution) was that both of the machines at my disposal that used wireless connectivity were not working - the first because its just fucked and needs to go back to the repair shop, and the second because it suffered the identity crisis measures that I put the router through earlier. I had asked it to perform various bridging functions in the pursuit of a solution - none of which worked
As any scientist will tell you, you need a control sample - something that you know to be true - something to compare and test against - something that works. I had nothing of the sort and still needed a solution. And I needed it quick as my office was starting to look like a dumping site for rejected cables, wire, and computer parts - which sucked as I had just finished having my office decorated last week.
I'll spare you the technical details - way above your brain power anyway <evil laugh>. But the solution rested in me overriding DHCP and NAT - fuckers! Anyway, I feel so jazzed about it, I had to tell someone. However, nobody is here to bow before greatness but me. So, I am tooting my own horn.
While feeling big and powerful, I played Tribal King - Façon sex - via WiFi broadcast to remote speakers and felt great about it. And since I felt like it, I added a photo that has nothing to do with this story. Its Sybille and me at Dani's birthday party - which included making my house look like a cheap bordello. Cheers!
I just treated myself to a new iPod - the fancy new video one that stores pictures, video and all sorts of digital files associated with a Mac user in addition to music. But when I went to upload the files I discovered something in iTunes that kind'a pisses me off: Once you download a music video to your machine, you're done. You can't move it or copy it. And as I have two machines that I use regularly, I now have video on my work machine that I can't play on my iPod because its married to my home machine. And iTunes won't allow me to move them, copy them, steal them or tell ITMS that I paid for them but want them on my "home" machine. That sucks.
Played: Your Blue Room from the album "The Complete U2 - Original Soundtracks 1" by Passengers.
Maybe its because I was checking my iSync calendar data - making sure all computers were in alignment; or maybe it was because I couldn't remember when things "exactly" took place; whatever the reason, I checked the last 4 years of iCal data. Upon doing so, I became appalled. At me.
I must have blocked it mentally. I don't remember. But tonight I realized that, upon learning of an affair, it took me two years and one month to extract myself from the situation. And then it required another six or seven months to become divorced. Holy crap! That's almost three years of my life! 3 years!!! What the hell was I thinking? I am ashamed, embarrassed. If it weren't in my datebook, I wouldn't believe it. I still don't. The only words that come to mind are: asshole, idiot, schmuck, and dolt.
I can't help the period it took to produce a divorce, but there's no excuse for wasting the two years of my miserable life prior to that time; but I'll try to explain. I was trying to save something that was doomed. She wanted "security" (money); and I wanted "love" (love). I knew I could always make money (but avoided it). I wanted to know that I was loved without it. Forgive me, I like old Elvis movies. (Idiot and schmuck still come to mind.) Dammit! It was the money she was always after - the thing I always resisted producing without her willingness to accept the possibility of living without (something she could never do, leaving me as a result).
In retrospect, it only took me six months after splitsville to make my first million. And then another year to quadruple that figurer. I look back now and wish I had those two years back because I'd be ten times healthier and wealthier now. She was never going to "get over" the money issue. Her "need" was too strong. I guess I'll have to live with being wiser (now).
But what really gets my goat is that it took two plus years of my life. Again, I am appalled. I am ashamed, embarrassed. There was an affair and I attempted to rationalize it into something else, wasting years of my life. And forgetting the love & money issues, the only words that still come to mind are: asshole, idiot, schmuck, and dolt.
While I wrote this, I played: Money, Money, Money from the album "Gold" by ABBA
