Diary of a Network Geek

We went shopping today.
Hilda has always been a nervous dog and she's never been as well socialized as she should or could have been. I blame myself, really. I should have been walking her and bringing her around to my in-laws and whatnot much more than I did. So, I've resolved to change that some. She's only two years old and that leaves us plenty of time to work out all the bugs, so to speak. Toward that end, we went shopping at PetSmart today.
Hilda needed a car-riding harness, since the one I bought her last week was far too small. And, based on the two or three dreadlock-like tangles she had on the side of her face, I thought we should get a brush again right away. She'll need to get used to that again, too. I'm sure it won't be long before she's primping and preening like the little doggie princess she is. And, we got her two tennis balls to chase and catch. Though, I have to admit, the returning part of fetch seems to be a challenge for her this afternoon. She still does catch amazingly well, though, which was always fun. And, finally, we got the longest tug-toy they had in the store. Hilda has always loved playing tug-of-war. For a little dog, she's really amazingly strong. She's only 45 pounds, but she can almost pull me off my feet!
The other dogs made her a little nervous, as did the two or three small children wandering around the store. The H.O.P.E. dogs all started barking at her when I went to see the ladies at the volunteer table. And, I found out that H.O.P.E. most likely won't have anything at all on Sundays anymore at my closest PetSmart. Some kind of behind-the-scenes political kerfluffle. Thankfully, I've not gotten that involved, so I have no idea what was going on. Unfortunately, that may slow down my volunteering there. But, with things the way they are in the rest of my life, that may not be such a terrible thing right now. Well, like so much in my life, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
At the moment, though, I have to go work on the laundry and play with my dog. Have a great weekend!

I have a lot I could write about.
If only I felt comfortable writing about it. Too much drama in my personal life and too many scary situations in my business life to really feel comfortable talking about here. So, why am I posting? I just can't help myself.

I got an e-mail from The Writer's Almanac this morning, as I do every morning, and it had two interesting birthdays in it. First, there was this about Hans Christian Anderson:

It's the birthday of Hans Christian Anderson, (books by this author) born in Odense, Denmark (1805). Although he was most famous for his fairy tales, he never thought of himself as a children's writer. He wrote novels, plays, poetry, and travel essays, many of which were at least as successful as the fairy tales. Although Europeans and Americans loved his work, he was scorned in his own country during his lifetime; Søren Kierkegaard once published a scathing essay about him. He never married, and when he became ill late in life, he went to live with a family on the coast near Copenhagen. He had breakfast in his room one morning, and was found in bed a little while later, dead, holding a love letter someone had written to him 45 years earlier.

That was interesting in and of itself, to me, because I never think of the writers of fairy tales as being "normal" people who might have had lives that included pain. In particular, when I think of Hans Christian Anderson, I think of the movie that starred Danny Kaye. How could you associate that with unrequited love?
But, what was really interesting was the birthday note that follow later in the e-mail:

It's the birthday of the Italian writer Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, born in Venice (1725). He spent the final years of his life as a librarian in a cold and drafty castle in Bohemia, and he set out to write his memoirs because, he said, it was "the sole remedy I believed I possessed to avoid going mad or dying of sorrow." He left 4,000 pages of manuscript behind, some of which was later published under the title The Story of My Life.

What an interesting contrast. Two lovers. Two very different lives. Two very different kinds of love. I never would have thought of these two very different men ending up the way they did. Perhaps it is my own life that makes these stories resonat so with my own life right now. I do not know.
To be honest, I feel lonely. I'm thankful that I have my dog back, because she eases some of that pain. But, it's different. So different. Am I lonely enough to write 4,000 pages about unrequited love and loneliness? No, probably not. But, it is a feeling I understand these days.

Well, your laptop at least.
I'm sure most of you have seen these by now, but, as you can tell from how much I've been posting lately, I haven't had time to find a "funky fesh" Friday Fun Link. So, I bring you the Transparent Desktops Screens Gallery, by way of Gizmodo.
They're really cool, so if you get the chance, check them out.

It is, after all, Friday and not everyone has been working as hard as I do!

My darling Hilda has returned to me.
It's a long, complicated story, but I got my dog from the airport this evening. She was a little dehydrated and scared, but otherwise okay. I could barely restrain her from jumping out of the crate long enough to get a leash on her, but I did. She sat in the passenger's seat and panted the whole way home, even though I had cool air blowing on her. As soon as we got home, I changed and got her bathed, because the trip had taken its toll on her. By the time I was drying her off, though, she was already getting back to being her playful self. As I type this, she's laying at my feet, the absolute picture of a faithful companion.
As you might have guessed, I love my dog very much and I've missed her beyond belief these past several months. I'm beside myself with relief and joy to have her again.
Many thanks to everyone who was there encouraging me, placating me, and praying for me.
Now, you'll have to excuse me while I go pet my dog.

Yo, we upgraded!
Yeah, that's right, we finally upgraded to the latest, greatest version of WordPress. You won't see much of a difference on the viewing end of things, but, trust me, the backend has got it going on. The interface is much nicer, even though I liked it before. And there are some handy new features, like themes and better comment spam management. Trust me, it's very cool. If you run WordPress and you haven't upgraded, do it.

Ever wonder what's on that magnetic stripe on your credit card?
Well, there are ways of finding out. Or, as they say in Wilwauke, "we have ways of making you talk"! (That's an old joke from Boy Scout camp in Pierson, Wisconson.) Interestingly enough, a gentleman with the prestigious name "Billy Hoffman" has developed a little project called StripeSnoop that is all about getting at the information. The link first came to my attention via an article at Slashdot, so if his site is down, give it a couple of days for the "new" to wear off and the Slashdotters to get over it, then go back. Mr. Hoffman's site has information on everything you'll need from the software to building the hardware reader. Pretty cool!
Now, some of you may be asking, "Uh, isn't this illegal or something?" Well, as far as I know, no, it's not. Reproducing what you read off these magstripes would definately be illegal, but just read ing it shouldn't be a problem. Of course, the credit card companies might not want you to know what they encode on their cards, but I doubt that it's illegal. And, what is encoded on those cards is pretty interesting. For instance, did you know that your ATM card has your PIN encoded on it? That's why you have to go get a new card and reassign it a PIN when you lose your old one. Now, that may have changed recently, but I doubt it since banks generally fear change. And, I have to admit, I've always wanted to know just what that magstripe on the back of my driver's license has on it.
In any case, it's an interesting project and I thought I'd post it. Oh, by the way, this project is not connected with either my father, William F. Hoffman, Jr., my brother, William F. Hoffman, III, or my eldest nephew, William Thomas Hoffman. Just thought I'd clear that up. Though, you can see why the name caught my attention!

After a day and a half, I managed to get my kernel updated.
I've been working on a building a Linux machine that we can use to generate our own customized ZENWorks Imaging Boot CD for the past couple of days. Today, just before lunch, I finally got the kernel updated from 2.4.x to 2.6. It was much more challenging that it sounds! I must have run through at least five different documents from various places on the Internet before I finally found one that worked. Oddly enough, it was titled "How to compile 2.6 kernel for RedHat 9 and 8.0 and get Fedora updates", by Mike Chirico. It did work, however, on the RedHat AS 3.x server that I'm running.
So, now all I have to do if figure out how to create the Novell Linux Imaging Build Script environment. Yeah, right, "all I have to do".
Well, as a Lodge Brother used to say, I'm getting along "steady, by jerks"!

Not a bad idea.
Here's something from AustralianIT that makes a lot of sense to me: vendor neutral certification. Okay, yes, I have a Novell certification that I've maintained since 1994, but I think the more open or wider certifications are better for the IT industry. Why? Because, in theory, they get us out of the pidgeon-hole thinking that our "pet" OS is the best. Ever heard the phrase, "If the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail"? Well, that applies to certifications, too. I have to admit that most of my solutions to problems are Novell-centric. I tend to focus on using one of their suite of products because that's what I know. Lately, I've added a reversable screwdriver to my IT toolbox with Linux. And, yes, I have a Linux certification, too. But, that certification is fairly open in regards to what particular version of Linux is being used. Most of what was covered was applicable to virtually any version of Linux, and most versions of Unix.
So, yes, I think this is a good idea. I hope it catches on in Australia well enough that folks here in the States take it seriously. I think it's the shot in the arm that IT certifications need.

I've been volunteering at H.O.P.E. again.
You know, everytime I go and do that I see so many dogs that need good homes. I don't think I'll ever buy a pure-bred dog again. Not that I have anything against that, but there are just so many homeless mutts here in Houston that need a happy home, I couldn't bring myself to leave one of them behind. Take Lady, for instance. She's the sweetest thing, once she gets to know you. Two weeks ago when I was there, she was trying to skruntch down into the back corner of her crate, belly up, so that I could pet her. Don't be put off by the fact that she's part Pitt Bull, because she's really a sweet dog. Or, if you want a dog that's good with cats, try Finder. He's so happy and full of life that he'll lift your spirits no matter how you feel.
And don't think that I've forgotten about all the cats, either. There's never a shortage of cats to be adopted! I haven't met this cat, but I've always been interested in polydactyl cats, because Hemmingway had them. So, Joey, who's got a couple extra toes, sounded like a cat I'd like to meet. I have met Blueberry and she's a total lover. And there are so many more. H.O.P.E. also works with North Texas Siamese Rescue, who really covers all of Texas. They have lots of beautiful cats of all ages and descriptions, not just Siamese. In fact, there's one gorgeous Russian Blue that gets so scared when she's at the adoption center that I'm afraid she'll never get adopted.
I wish I could take all the animals home, but no one person can do all that. So, if you're in the market for a family pet, come on out and take a look at what we've got. If you're not in the Houston area, I'm sure there are local shelters that would love to have you adopt one of their rescues instead.

Well, isn't that interesting.
Our un-named someone at IP 68.106.38.39 apparently had a change of heart. Some unkown person at that IP address changed one of my web account passwords back to what it had been. I wonder why? Well, whatever the reason, it was uncommonly civil of them. Thank you, it saves me a small bit of hassle.
Curiouser and curiouser.