General Rambling

I’m in New Orleans for a weekend of Mardi Gras parades. My friends Derick and Maitri graciously invited me down, and hooked me up with the Krewe of King Arthur. As a result I’m now the proud owner of a few thousand beads that I’ll throw from a float tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it. Before yesterday I hadn’t even seen a Mardi Gras parade. I did get to catch the end of the Krewe of Cork parade, a walking parade through the French Quarter. After that we headed down to St. Charles Avenue to see the Oshun and Pygmalion parades. It was raining so hard, though, that Pygmalion rescheduled. There are a lot of rules surrounding Mardi Gras …

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Given that I’m a computer guy I get asked for computer advice from time to time. Often it is about web browsers crashing, or slow computers, but sometimes it is more serious. Most recently it was what to do about a guy who is harassing some folks on message boards and via email. I’m not a lawyer, nor am I a law enforcement officer, so my advice in these matters is worth exactly what people pay for it. Nonetheless, I’ve seen good and bad ways of dealing with situations like these, and thought some commentary might be in order. I always suggest people gather as much information as they can. Get their full name, address, place of employment, web sites, …

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“You guys sure make a difference around here,” a coworker says on his way out the door. “He didn’t say if the difference we make is good or bad.” “Sure, ruin the first compliment we’ve had in years.”

Having been a support technician I can safely say that the fastest way to a support guy’s heart is to know that he hates you. He doesn’t want to talk. He doesn’t want an audience. You are not his friend. And it isn’t personal. He just wants to get in, get the problem fixed, and get out again. The best way to defeat this is to have your act together. Help him get out as fast as possible and he’ll stay forever. My DSL modem died two days ago. I know it died because the power light would come on, then the Ethernet light despite no Ethernet connection. Then it would sit there, and the Ethernet light would occassionally blink …

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I registered to see a Cisco seminar about their Network Emergency Response Vehicle. Like seeing the Sun Blackbox, I look forward to seeing what technology they’ve crammed in a truck. The registration form had a funny field, though. Admittedly it was optional, so you didn’t have to answer, but it’s strange to see a form with only one response checkbox:

After waffling for a month about what I should get for a new laptop, I have just ordered a Dell Latitude D830 to replace my war-weary D610. It’ll be all decked out, with a 2.4 GHz T7700, 256 MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M[0], 4 GB RAM, DVD+/-RW, dual batteries, Draft-n wireless, and 120 GB hybrid hard disk. Sweet. I was thinking about waiting until Macworld happened, but the likelihood of Apple adding a second mouse button and pointing stick mouse to the Macbook Pro is pretty low. Plus I don’t like where the MagSafe power connector is. I sit cross-legged a lot and the power connector on my girlfriend’s Macbook Pro knocks loose on my knee. Dell has their power …

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