The Life of Brian

Let it Snow!

Ok, ok, so it’s not the real thing…. We rarely get any here in Texas. But at least it’s snowing here on my blog now! ;-)

(click here if you’re viewing this by email or RSS)

(code source)

SysAdmin Appreciation

Did you know there is such a thing as System Administrator’s Appreciation Day? It’s not today - but here’s a song that’s appropriate EVERY day! ;-)

Social Networking Frustration

I’m having this problem more and more often with Facebook, but it happens everywhere…

Anybody else frustrated when you get a friend request from somebody (a name you don’t recognize) and they don’t even have a picture?

At least on Facebook you can see mutual friends…  So twice this week I’ve gotten friend requests from somebody that apparently knows me from high school.  But they have no picture, and have gotten married…

Oh well, sure, I’ll confirm!  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Newest Toy

I broke the display on my cell phone recently - it was one of Sprint’s original Katanas.

As I grow into my new job, I’ll need to be able to send & receive emails, and may need to be on the phone more as I take my turn being on call.  I also may need to be able to remotely control servers from my phone, so I can handle the on call stuff without being tied to my computer at home.  So I decided it was time for me to make the leap and get a SmartPhone.

I’ve been with Sprint for years and years, and for many reasons don’t feel like messing with switching to another carrier.  So with all this in mind I started checking out my options with Sprint.  I asked my friends about their experiences with different phones, and finally made a choice.

Yesterday was payday (FINALLY!), so I went to the Sprint store and bought the phone.

It’s the Treo 800w running Windows Mobile Professional 6.1.  (review, review)  Being the guy, and the geek, that I am, you know what I’ve spent most of my time today doing!  ;-)  Playing with my new toy, of course!

So I’ve got my work and home email set up, and it’s syncing my calendar and contacts from home.  I told Keith I feel like I’ve got the whole world in the palm of my hand (pun intended)!  ;-)  I haven’t had internet access on my phone in ages…  I cut back to the essentials when we were jumping into the mortgage, and just never added it back on.  So now I’ve got unlimited data, text, all that jazz…  I’m beside myself!  lol

So anyway, that’s my newest toy.  :)

Calm before the Storm

A few years back, Keith decided to set up his first website at www.keithrmt.com (the site is now dead).  I don’t remember how it came to pass, but we started doing business with WebsiteSource.com as our web hosting company.  Slowly he added more sites, and as my time at UTD was drawing to a close (also meaning my UTD website was going to die) I decided to start one myself.

Time has proven that WebsiteSource.com was not the best choice for our hosting company.  Our needs are pretty simple - the main ones being good customer service and technical support.  After all, neither of us are experts in this field (despite Keith’s latest post), and we need somebody that can and will explain things to us so we can understand them.

Because WebsiteSource has let us down so many times, we’ve decided it’s time to switch to a new hosting company.  Keith has already initiated the process… we’re moving to HostMonster.com.

So the main reason for this post is to twofold:

1. In preparation for the move, this will be my last post for a few days.  This will make things easier for me in that I can just backup the site right now and not have to worry about missing stuff later in the process.
2. Once we initiate the domain transfer, it can take 24-72 hours for everything to be moved.  (I’m trying to keep the explanations simple here; if you’re interested in what all is involved, check this out).  This means the site may be unreachable during that time.  So if you can’t access this blog, just try again later - sorry for the disruption.

As if that wasn’t enough…  I’ve regretted a couple decisions I made recently when moving this blog here from Blogger, and have decided to correct them while these other changes are taking place.  The most obvious is the URL or address for the blog.  Right now, this blog lives at www.thelifeofbrian.info/blog.  After the switch, the address will be blog.thelifeofbrian.info.  Hopefully I can get everything set up behind the scenes so you won’t have to worry about remembering that it’s changed (it will automatically forward you there), but just in case — heads up that’s the plan.  :)

So are you thoroughly confused now?  Sorry.  Just bear with me over the next week or so as I work through this (AND start a new job!)…

Firefox 3, World Domination?

I think Firefox 3, the latest version of the browser from Mozilla, is the best browser out there.

Why?  The main reason I like the Firefox “brand” is that there are hundreds (thousands?) of add-ons (extensions) you can install, so you can tweak it to do whatever you want it to do…  And if there’s functionality you’d like to see, you can ask for it — or make it yourself.

So why Firefox 3 over Firefox 2?  Besides the fact that it’s the latest, greatest, and most secure — it’s MUCH FASTER than Firefox 2.  And there are a ton of little features here and there that make it awesome.  Like the “awesome bar“; the fact that you can resize (zoom) text AND images now by holding ctrl-mousewheel; full screen mode (not that I use it much) is truly full screen now, not cluttered with extra toolbars and such like it used to be; you can SEARCH your saved passwords (I’ve been dying for this feature for ages), and many others.

So…  With that said, I’m curious as to why you have not yet switched to Firefox 3?  (for those of you who have, please disregard)  I was just looking at my stats for the blog and it made me curious…

Internet Explorer:  48%
Firefox:  41%
Other:  11%

So Firefox hasn’t conquered the world yet, but it’s doing pretty dang well, considering IE comes preinstalled on every flavor of Windows.

But…  Of those Firefox users, 57% are using an outdated version.  Is it just because you didn’t know Firefox 3 was available?  Haven’t taken the time to upgrade?  Afraid you’ll lose some functionality, or that certain extensions won’t work?  Post a comment, I’d love to hear your reasons!

(FYI most add-ons, even those that say they only work on older versions, can be made to work with a little tweaking [look for "Make Your Extensions Work with the Firefox 3 Beta" - the same instructions work for the final version of Firefox 3])

If you’re tempted (you should be!) download Firefox 3 here:

Tech Problems - Update

I got a response back from the tech support folks with our hosting company:

We are aware of this issue and are investigating solutions. It is due to a
glitch in the latest MySql release that causes order statements to be return
incorrect results. This is developed by a third party and they are aware of
the issue but do not have any definite solutions to the problem yet. We are
working on getting things corrected as soon as possible.

Regards,
Technical Support Team

So it’s not anything I screwed up.  WHEW!  ;-)

Technical Difficulties

You may have noticed I’m having some technical difficulties with the new blog…  The “Recent Posts” section to the right, and the RSS feed, for some reason are treating old (VERY old) posts like they’re “recent”, and I don’t know why…  I’m looking into it though.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 on HP AMD PC’s

I learned the hard way tonight that there is a problem with installing Windows XP SP3 on AMD-based HP computers. That’s what Keith has. I updated his Firefox to version 3 (the best version of Firefox to date - try it out!) and then went to Windows Update to make sure he’s got all the latest patches. His PC is set to automatically install updates, but it’s still good (most of the time, though apparently not in this case) to manually check from time to time.

Turns out to be a known issue; HP released service bulletin about the problem with a workaround that got him up and running again. (I hadn’t heard of any issues related to the service pack — and I work with this kind of stuff every day!)

WikiLeaks and the Mormon Church

I am a HUGE fan of the free exchange of information, and when it comes to an underdog rebel like WikiLeaks, you know which side I’m on.

So when I hear about a story like this (from slashdot.org) I just want to share it with the world:

“The Mormon Church has instructed its lawyers to gag the Internet over WikiLeaks‘ release of the 1968 and 1999 versions of its confidential handbook for Church leaders. Apart from attacking WikiLeaks, legal demands were sent to Jimmy Wales of the WikiMedia foundation for a WikiNews article merely linking to the material, and scribd.com has also been censored. WikiLeaks has (of course) refused to remove the documents.”

Just to reiterate, the information the Mormon Church doesn’t want you to see is here:
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Mormon_Church_Handbook_of_Instructions_(1999)

And a direct link to the handbook in question is here:
http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/mormon-handbook-of-instructions-1999.pdf
or
http://www.wikileaks.org/leak/mormon-handbook-of-instructions-1999.pdf

Check it out.