Diary of a Network Geek

Okay, this is a little stale, but…
WOW! According to this press release on Adobe’s website, Adobe plans to acquire Macromedia via a massive stock purchase. The plan is for them to buy all the stock at the Friday 4/15 price.
If you’re not aware of these two companies, you’ve not been paying attention. And, the implications of them becoming a single entity is, well, massive. Adobe will, quite simply, become the largest graphics and design software company ever to exist. This will mean that one company will be responsible for Acrobat, Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver. Think about how many top-shelf graphics and design programs that puts under the control of one company. That’s almost frightening.

A new kind of spam.
Look, I’m a Christian. Maybe not the best Christian in the world, but I try. My soul has been saved. I have taken Jesus as my personal savior. I don’t need to hear that particular message any more. Honest. So, why do I need this?

Hello Antler,

If you die today where will you go ?
This is the most important thing in life.
Without God we have nothing.
Save yourself and the ones you love:

Say, “Oh God, save my soul. I’m so sorry that I have
sinned against you, but I have come home. I will
serve you, Lord, the rest of my life. Deliver me
from all my sinful habits. Set me free! I do believe
Jesus died on Calvary for me, and I believe in His
blood, that there is power in His blood to wash away
all my sins, all my sins!” Say, “Come into my heart,
Jesus; come on in, Jesus. Come on in!”

If you meant it, He has come. If you meant it,
Jesus is yours. Start reading your Bible, pray daily
and believe that somebody’s listening; His name is Jesus.

I guess it’s better than the usual spam I get for penile enhancement or for cheating housewives or for making thousands of dollars in minutes from home.
But, still… Will anyone really convert from spam like this? Will so impersonal a message really convince anyone to find religion? How long before other faiths try this? Will I have to setup a “Buddha blocker” e-mail rule? Why, Lord, why don’t people think this stuff through before they hit send?

I took Hilda for a ride last night.
I paid bills yesterday and ran them over to the post office right away. And, since my sweet, brown girl has become my constant companion, I got Hilda all harnessed up and took her for a ride with me. I got her a “Travelin’ Dog Car Harness” from PetSmart, which she doesn’t really like, but keeps her safe. I got the “medium” for her at first, but it was so small I couldn’t get it on her and I had to get the “Large”. Unfortunately, the “Large” is almost TOO big and I had to cinch it all the way down so that it fits and still works. I like this particular harness because it lets her set up in the seat next to me and see what’s going on, but it attaches to the seat-belt to keep her safe in case of a sudden stop. Also, it’s padded for her comfort.
She’s really funny when we ride together. She rests her little chin on the door by the window and sticks her nose into the airvent. And, she’s done this enough times to know what the word “ride” means now, too. She gets so excited that she can barely hold still long enough for me to put the harness on her! And, when we got home, she was so excited about having an adventure that she was practically vibrating. My only regret was there was no one to tell this all to when we got home. I guess that’s why I’m writing this entry; so that someone, somewhere who knows us knows that we had fun.

Oh, and in unrelated news, I’ve been invited to join the “prayer team” at my church. Well, the “church I attend” is more accurate, since I haven’t actually joined. I really ought to go ahead and join, but I have a few things I want to grill the pastors about first. I find myself diverging somewhat from standard church doctrine and I feel funny about joining this church until I know where they stand on a few issues. Oddly enough, I find myself worried about being too liberal, instead of too conservative. I guess I must be growing up. Or, at least, changing.
Anyway, if you want us to pray for you, drop me a note. Some of you regular readers will be on my prayer list anyway. And, even though there are some of you that would most likely rather not be on my list, I’m going to pray for you anyway.

There’s a new Pope!
I saw this on the news at lunch and had to look up a story about it to link to for the blog. Here’s one from MSNBC about the new German Pope. So, now this is the second time in hundreds of years that there’s been a non-Italian Pontif and this one is, apparently, much more conservative than John Paul II. Not sure what that will mean to Catholicism around the world, or that he’ll even stay conservative now that he’s Pope, but it’s an interesting turn of events. I find it especially interesting because I’m questioning my own very conservative Christian upbringing. I’m not entirely sure that I believe in absoultely everything that I was taught as a child. And, I’m afraid that it will be quite some time before I figure it all out, too.

Oh, I did finish a book that I’d been laboring over for weeks on end, too. I did a review of the book, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, at Fantasist.net, but I’m too lazy to do anything more than post a link to it. So, if you want to read it, you’ll have to give me traffic to the other site. More news later in the week.

Maybe I should have saved this for Halloween…
Nah! For those of you who know me, you know that I love Clive Barker. As an author, you pervy freaks, as an author! Anyway, when I first read his stuff in college it was a startling eye-opener. It was truly like nothing I’d ever read before. And, when I saw the Hellraiser movies, well, you can imagine the impact it made on me.
I felt similar impact when I saw this casemod: PuzzleBox. The bizarre, translucent case with the infamous “Pinhead” looking out is just way too cool for words. You have got to see it for yourself! (Here’s a link to the completed project, by the way.)

Anyway, it’s some freaky fun for a Friday, so click the link! You know that morbid curiosity will get to you sooner or later!

I have a feeling I’m wearing thin on my friends.
Especially because I want to bring Hilda with me everywhere I go! As I’ve mentioned before, I really regret not socializing her more with my in-laws dogs when I had the chance. My sister-in-law has a little lhasa (sp?) mix that could’ve used some socializing, too, so it would have been a good thing. Ah, well, no help for it now. So, I need to find friends who have dogs. What to do?
Lo and behold, while checking my Hotmail account last week, I found an article about meeting people. One of the suggestions was to go to a dog park. Perfect idea! Not only does my dog get socialized, but so do I! So, I did a quick Google and found the Houston Dog Park Association. There are several that should be an easy drive. At least, I think it’ll be an easy drive with Hilda. She’s still getting used to the whole car-harness thing. And, I recently made contact with a former head-hunter who is also recently single and a dog owner. Could it be kismet?
Probably not, but it might be fun anyway. Stay tuned for more details about our doggie adventures!

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
You don't have to be a genius to succeed. You just have to be the cleverest monkey in the cage.

I must be the only person I know who gives his therapist homework!
Yeah, okay, I know a lot of people who are in therapy, or who have been recently. And they all talk about “homework” from their therapist. Things to write or read or whatever. Well, I give my therapist homework.
I have to admit, I get a little compulsive about certain things sometimes, like writing. I write because I just can’t help myself. I keep saying that I’ll stay away from this blog even, but before I know it, I’m sitting in front of a keyboard typing away. Over the years, I’ve produced a rather prodigious amount of written work, of one kind or another. Everything from e-mails to stories to journals to, well, this blog! So, after reading some of that output last week, I decided to print a bunch of it for my therapist. I figure it’s got to give him insight into my long-term thought processes, right? Well, to be honest, I think I overwhelmed him a little tonight. I guess when he told me last week that I was a good writer, it went to my head. In fact, when I told him about Ghyll, he told me that if I were going to do that, I should write for publication and get paid for it. Just like a good writing coach! So, when I finish the last two rounds of that game, I think I will. Write for publication, that is. Maybe I’ll even publish one day.

Hey, I wonder if that tricksy therapist was really giving me homework after all!

It might not be the smallest, but it’s close!
Thanks to my recovered Bloglines feed to Gizmodo, I bring you Picotux! The site claims that it’s the smallest device actually running a Linux kernel in existance and, frankly, I can believe it. It’s not any bigger than a freaking ethernet jack! Man, that is cool.

Hey, if you’re reading this, you’re either a stalker or a geek like me, or both, so, click the link. You know you want to. Even if you’re just the stalker. After all, what else are you going to do on a Friday? Work?