The Ramblings of Ken

Sorry about the error messages before. I didn't have things configured correctly on my end. You may now post comments to entries without any error messages.

I have a lot of friends and family that have cell phones. Sometimes it feels like they are trying to pressure me into getting one. I suppose I am basically the last one to not have one. I feel like I have some good reasons for not getting one. I'll list them for you:

1. Cell phones are too expensive. From what I have seen, the lowest monthly bill is about $40, and that's if I don't go over on my minutes! That's just too much for me. I currently have a Vonage VoIP phone and I only pay $24.99 a month no matter how many minutes I use and no matter what time of the day it is. I can call anywhere in the Unites States and Canada without any additional charges on my bill. The only way I would ever pay more than $24.99 is if I made international calls to say, Brazil, or somewhere outside of the US and Canada.

2. Peak and off-peak times are just stupid. Why should I have to wait until 9:00 pm to make calls that don't count against my minutes? Why can't I have a cell phone account that is like my Vonage account where I don't have to worry about what time of the day it is to make calls? Give me an unlimited account for $40 a month where I don't have to think about overage charges and I will reconsider...

3. Text messaging... I don't get it. Why would you type a message to someone that takes you two minutes to type when you can just call them and say the same message in 20 seconds? Okay, text messaging does have its benefits. Like, when you are in class you can text message people without being disruptive. My real problem with text messaging is that I am charged for RECEIVING messages from people. Why should I pay 5 cents per message that my cousin keeps sending me, even though I tell her not to? Ridiculous. Yes, I know I can block her from sending me messages, but what if it turns out to be something that is actually important? Plus, I can't block every single number out there from sending me messages...

Those are my main reasons why I don't have a cell phone. Yes, I do have reasons for getting one too, but they don't outweigh my gripes with them. Here are some...

1. Emergencies. What if I get stranded in my car somewhere? What if I get kidnapped? Hasn't happened yet... If either of these scenarios did happen I probably wouldn't be in cell range anyway.

2. Finding people in crowds. Have you ever gone to a sporting event, concert, or amusement park and had a hard time finding the people you were supposed to meet there? I have, but I've always eventually ended up finding them without a cell phone. A cell phone would have made it a little more convenient, though.

3. People can conveniently get a hold of me wherever I am. Well, usually I go places so that people CAN'T get a hold of me. I like to get away from everyone sometimes...

Those are my reasons both for and against cell phones. Anyone else have any opinions to share to convince me to get one or to keep me strong in resisting and not getting one?

OpenOffice.org 2.0 has just been released. It was a very anticipated release, as a product that could possibly give Microsoft Office a run for its money. I tell you now... don't bother with it.

It has not been thoroughly polished and has a few bugs that I have noticed already. For example, try to open an office document from a webpage. OpenOffice.org will crash.

OpenOffice.org also feels VERY slow compared to Microsoft Office. OOo runs on top of the Java runtime environment. Java is slow, end of story. Here are some number comparisons on the actual performance of OOo compared to Microsoft Office:

	Calc 2.0 ODS	Calc 2.0 SXC	Excel 2003 XLS	Excel 2003 XML	Excel 2003 ZIP XML
Create	179 sec	184 sec	1 sec	13 sec	18 sec
Load	141 sec	161 sec	2 sec	38 sec	47 sec
RAM used	234,496 KB	232,932 KB	89,164 KB	41,980 KB	NA

OpenOffice.org takes up more system resources than Microsoft Office, by a long shot. Here are some numbers to back me up:

Application	Memory footprint	Processes measured
Write	37,660 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Calc	37,544 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Impress	44,788 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Base	36,036 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Word	9,812 KB	WinWord.exe
Excel	7,102 KB	Excel.exe
PowerPoint	6,884 KB	PowerPNT.exe
Access	7,302 KB	MSAccess.exe

Maybe someday we will have a product that can perform on par with Microsoft Office, but that time has not come.

(Numbers taken from George Ou's blog at ZDNet)

Image courtesy of mlb.com

The White Sox just won the World Series. Yay. I actually stopped caring about baseball a long time ago. It is way too boring to watch. Although, I forced myself to watch the last out of the bottom of the ninth inning just so I could tell people that I saw the White Sox win. I sometimes wish that we could associate "America's Pastime" with something else more entertaining.... no offense intended to all of you baseball fans out there.

Not too long ago it seemed like whenever I got on a computer there was always at least one person on MSN that talked to me. Today everytime I get on everyone is away. Where is everyone? I guess I need to go and find some new MSN buddies. :P

So, I have had three girlfriends in my very long life. I have tried to remain friends with two of them over time. I am currently pretty good friends with one of them.

Should you have a friendship with your ex boyfriend or girlfriend? Is it a good thing? I don't see the problems with it. Maybe I haven't seen it the way that others see it, though.

I have stopped being friends with my last girlfriend because, uh, well, things just didn't go right. We were engaged and it didn't work out. It is a little more complicated in that situation, I think.

Does anyone else out there have an opinion on this matter?

I don't know if I've ever really focused on making true friendships before things become more physical in relationships that I've had. Maybe with my first girlfriend it was that way, but that was only because I was too chicken to make things physical. Things haven't quite worked out in my past relationships, otherwise I would probably be married right now. I'm trying things differently this time...

If your relationship with a member of the opposite sex starts to become more physically involved rather than more emotially, mentally, and friendship based then I think you start to get into trouble. After that initial spark and excitement from all of the hugging, kissing, and cuddling wears off, then what?

This time around and with all future relationships I think I've finally learned to do things the right way. There is nothing wrong with putting off the first kiss in a relationship until the 100th date if that is what it takes until you really feel like you've built a true foundation of friendship and caring for one another. The things that you like to do together, the conversations that you have, and just enjoying one another's company without touching are the things that are going to keep you together.

So, if you are a woman who is reading this and are hoping to get in a physical type of relationship with me.... I'm sorry, you are going to have to be my friend first, and prove over time that you are truly my friend. I have been through too many break ups in the past. Things are different now. I am going to marry my very best friend, not the person that likes to kiss me the most.

Image courtesy of NASA

From How we'll get back to the moon (nasa.gov):

Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won't be your grandfather's moon shot.

This journey begins soon, with development of a new spaceship. Building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, NASA's creating a 21st century exploration system that will be affordable, reliable, versatile, and safe.

The centerpiece of this system is a new spacecraft designed to carry four astronauts to and from the moon, support up to six crewmembers on future missions to Mars, and deliver crew and supplies to the International Space Station.

The new crew vehicle will be shaped like an Apollo capsule, but it will be three times larger, allowing four astronauts to travel to the moon at a time.

Read the full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/cev.html

I am way excited for NASA to be getting back to the moon and beyond. This is going to be so awesome! We need to explore our universe and seek to understand it better... way to go NASA!!!

Okay, some of you just aren't going to care about this at all. Others of you out there might. I have been going crazy trying to figure out a problem at work for the last month! The problem was that the domain controller had a really flaky network connection. About 50% of all packets going out were lost. I had no clue what was going on. I thought that it was the DNS server on the domain controller going out. It turns out that that wasn't the problem. IT IS AMAZING what you can figure out if you actually put your mind to something and quit putting it off!!! I will explain...

For some reason the router gets the wrong MAC address in its ARP table for the domain controller.

On the router:

[CODE]
arp 192.168.0.2
Address HWtype HWaddress Flags Mask Iface
192.168.0.2 ether 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BB C eth0
[/CODE]

It has 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BB listed as the MAC address for 192.168.0.2, but the MAC address on the domain controller is 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BA.

On the domain controller:

[CODE]
ipconfig /all

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme 5721 Gigabit Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . : 00-0F-1F-F8-59-BA
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
[/CODE]

I have no clue how the router picks up the wrong MAC address. Every other computer on the network picks up 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BA when I run arp 192.168.0.2. What are the chances of another computer sitting on our network with a static IP of 192.168.0.2 that has the same MAC address except for the last letter??? I don't think so. This is obviously a problem with the Linux router. I still don't know why it does this, but I set a permanent ARP table entry in the router now, that has the correct MAC address.

[CODE]
arp -s 192.168.0.2 00:0f:1f:f8:59:ba
[/CODE]

Everything works like a champ now!

I watched Moulin Rouge for the first time last night. The thing was, I watched it with four girls and I didn't feel out of place. I found myself getting excited when everything was working out for Christian and Satine. I also found myself feeling devastated when things weren't working out for them. And, whoa... the ending... um, guys aren't supposed to cry during sad movies, are they?

Anyway, I suppose that women like guys who have a sensitive side to them, but shouldn't there be a good balance between "manliness," toughness, and sensitivity?

Or... do women think that the more sensitive a guy is, the better? I'm sure that a woman wants security in knowing that her man will stand up for her and be able to protect her and her children. However, does an overly sensitive guy already imply to her that he won't have that ability?

I guess I'm a little confused on the subject and whether or not I need to work on my sensitivty and "mushiness." I *think* that having a sensitive side to me is a good thing, but at what point does it start to become a bad thing?

If you are in the Information Technology field you already know what I'm going to talk about, simply based on the subject line above. If you are not, please read on.

I am having to deal with SUE and PEBKAC more and more it seems everyday. SUE and PEBKAC cause more problems for me than anything else. Maybe you've run into error code id10t lately on your computer? I hope not.

SUE stands for Stupid User Error and PEBKAC stands for Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair. Did you catch on to error code id10t? I hope you get my point.

Let me give an example. Today I was asked to send out some e-mails for someone because they couldn't get them to work. It turns out that they couldn't get it to work because they weren't typing the e-mail address correctly. They were trying to send messages to briian@domain.com instead of brian@domain.com. Things like that start to really frustrate me. Especially when they think it is a problem with a misconfiguration that I have done on the e-mail server. Something like this happens everyday.

PLEASE don't be SUE or PEBKAC.

I just don't know about this one...

I quote from http://www.aquadoc.com/magsolves.htm:

Awareness of water conditioning alternatives is essential for providing good customer service.

In many situations, hard water problems cause the need to replace piping and water heaters or to use a salt ion-exchange softener. Many times the salt ion-exchange process is impractical for homeowners with heart problems or hypertension because it increases the sodium level of the drinking water to unacceptable levels.

In 1973 U.S. Government agencies identified an alternative method that has been used for over 37 years in Europe and Asia - the magnetic water conditioner.

The system works this way. Conditioned natural water is made up of chaotic randomly positioned molecules.The magnetic water polarizes the water which causes all of the water molecules and the scale forming minerals to be attracted to each other.

As the water flows through the magnetic field, the hard water minerals are polarized and remain in liquid suspension eliminating the problem of these particles clinging to water pipes and the wall of the water heater.

Essentially, scale forming minerals end up suspended in the water and all prior existing scale is magnetically attracted to the water. This is descaling period is known as the stabilization period and lasts from two to six months.

Durring this stabilization period, the scale is removed from the water heater on the tank bottom. It's recommended that two or three quarts are drained from the lower tap on the heater once each month.Manufacturers state that while scale is being removed from the system, green stains also are removed from the fixtures. This is a sign that pipes have stopped leaching (pitting internally).

After the polarizing process, the water is still very safe to drink reports R.E. Myers, Inc. " Those scale producing minerals are exactly what people pay extra for when drinking quality mineral water, The medical community says these minerals are important to our health. Because the magnetic condition also causes de-gasification of water which naturally releases such gases as sulfur and chlorine, magnetic water conditioning often improves the taste of drinking water.

" Another effect is the shortening of the bonding between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This makes the water denser and softer. Soap works better, leaving clothes cleaner and softer."

The U.S. Buerau of Interior reports 3/8 inch deposits of scale in the hot water heater uses 48 percent more fuel to heat. When the scale is removed, a more efficient water heating system is created. [/blockquote]

Having an understanding of physics (although a fairly limited one), I can see that this could be possible. I understand that the hard water causing minerals will still be in the water, but that they will be attracted to the water and won't cause hard water deposits. What does everyone else think?

Here is a link to such a device being sold on the market:

http://solargoods.com/docs/efap_pt_mineralmanager.shtml

By the way, I only posted this because my parents got suckered into this one and bought one. It wasn't this model, but I couldn't find a link to the exact one that they bought.

UPDATE: This is the exact one that my parents bought:

Is it wrong to "Google" people?

When I meet someone, sometimes I find myself "Googling" them. I especially find myself doing it if they are a member of the opposite sex that I find attractive. Often I do it just to see if I can find a good picture of them somewhere. Other times I do it to try and find out as much as I can about the person.

There has been a rapid decline in my "googling" for facts on people because I have started to question the morality of it. Is it right to try and dig up "dirt" on people without their knowledge or consent? I'm not quite sure...

So, if anyone out there actually reads this pathetic excuse for a blog, I would like to start some discussion on the morality of the subject of "googling" people. Feel free to comment.

I've recently started to become very close to a certain young lady. For the first time in my life I've really started to analyze the process that occurs when a man and a woman become close to each other and start the process of dating and courtship.

I started to think to myself, "Why can't we just skip over all of this uncertainty of knowing whether or not we are going to end up together and just decide that we are together?"

Then, I got to thinking seriously... What would we have to look forward to if we just ended up together without going through the dating stage? What excitement and suprise would there be? The suspense and uncertainty of things is what makes up half of the fun in dating, even though it may not seem to be the ideal situation for us at the time. I'm definitely becomming a fan of the system of dating and courtship.

What will happen between me and this woman? I don't know! But... I vote that it stays that way!

I am finally A+ certified. It is about time that I went out and got certifications. This is the first step on my way to becoming a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. In May I will have my Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator certification. I'm taking it slowly, but surely. I think that's the way to get it done.

Well, I got myself a new toy. I paid $400 and bought this 1987 Suzuki Four wheeler from my brother-in-law. I was always going with him and using it anyway. Why not take advantage of the opportunity and have it with me all the time? Okay, so I gave in to his pressure...

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...

So, on my way to school from work today I ran into my biggest pet peeve! I stopped at an intersection where traffic going east or west has to stop for the traffic going north or south. I was turning left to head north. A guy stopped across from me to cross the intersection and go west. I waited for him, as I should, and he flashed his lights at me. I motioned for him to go and he wouldn't. I get so upset with this scenario! Allow me to show a section from page 21 of the 2004 Edition of the Utah Driver's Handbook:



I don't know how the laws are in other states, but in Utah you ALWAYS yield to oncoming traffic when you are turning left. Don't bring 4-Way stop rules into an intersection that does not have a 4-Way stop! Learn to drive Utahns!!!

Well, this is a day to go down in history. It is the day I finally decided to start my own blog like everyone else is doing. Everyone will remember this day for many years to come.... NOT!!! This blog is going to be like every other blog in the world. I will add a few entries for awhile and then I will slowly start to forget about it and it will become one of the many lost and forgotten places on the internet. Heh... we will see...