I forgot to mention...
28 February 2006 - 02:17.
I'm single again. Happened late last week.
Shit.
Of course, truth be told...
But wait! There's more!
Internet as a toll road?
26 February 2006 - 16:09.
I came across
this report out of
Reuters News Agency. And I have to say, speaking as a systems admin, I have mixed feelings about this.
For those who don't have time to read the whole thing, the general gist is this: the US telcos are thinking of charging a premium to people and companies in exchange for prioritization of their network traffic. For example, advertisers would be able to pay a premium to ensure that their content, going over streaming video perhaps, would get a higher priority across the internet than your or my web surfing traffic.
Speaking as a comporate technical schill, I can see a definite benefit to this. To be able to pay my ISP a small fee to ensure that my customer's web requests will get to me in the fastest route possible strikes me as a possible boon. It's making sure that my customers enjoy the best possible experience.
On the other hand, as a private citizen (and website owner) I shudder to think that the little folks out there may suffer at the hands of corporate money-grabbers. What about the small community centres who can't afford the premium? What about the public schools? Libraries? The Internet newbie, who is just trying to learn?
This whole premise is currently before the US Senate. One telco in Brazil has already established the functionality to do this (although it's unclear if it's been implemented). Predictably, US telcos are supporting this idea, and consumer watchdogs are violently opposed to it. It strikes me that this is an attempt to turn something wonderful into a tiered medium, where there are 'Have' and 'Have-not' folks.
I don't know I can properly support this whole idea... what do you think?
Problem Solved
25 February 2006 - 23:21.
I guess I figured it out. There is a way to transfer the old files to this new site. The problem is that it'll take a fairly long time. So if I don't get all the data transferred over tonight, then I'll get it done in the next day or two.
New Beginnings
25 February 2006 - 19:52.
Well, I guess if you're reading this, then it's working, isn't it?
Welcome to the new home of Fluff On The Internet.
As I alluded to in my last post of the Non-Blog, I've completely re-designed this website, and changed it to use formal blogging software. The engine remains based on PHP, and the actual site itself is driven by a program called Pivot. The styling was created by someone named Cissi Tsang, and the style-sheet is called Blue Bayou.
I've yet to find a way to post the archives from the other site in here, but I'll keep looking. And if I can find a way to do it, I will. I expect that I'll be updating this thing a bit more regularly now, and of course comments are fully enabled... proper comments. So feel free to drop a quick note to tell me what you think of the new site. I hope you enjoy it.
And thanks again for reading.
Jeremy
Changes Coming
21 February 2006 - 22:00.
I suppose I've been deluding myself.
This page, titled the Non Blog, was started as my own form of rebellion against the ever-encroaching forces of trendy-ism. You see, blogs have become the 'in' thing. A recent report suggested that there are over 27 millions blogs worldwide. What's even worse (or better, depending on your peprspective) is that this number is currently estimated to be doubling every 5 months. Blogs are everywhere.
Now, my own resistance to call this a blog was due to the fact that I generally abhor trends. Those who know me well can tell you that I definitely dance to the beat of my own drum. I generally do what I want, when I want. Not because I'm trying to be contrary or anything, but because my upbringing gave me enough self-confidance that I don't feel I need anyone else's approval. And trends like blogs strike me as simply people doing what everyone else is doing. I mean, look at most tech support companies for example. Microsoft alone has a
blog page for each of their TechNet presenters. And they're not blogs! They're simply tech support pages with a semi-pseudo personal feel to them.
But in the past couple weeks, I've seen that there are in fact people reading these words. When I was having technical difficulties, I saw that some people actually registered to try to get to the content (at least, I'm imagining that's what they were doing). And so I figure it's about time for me to take the plunge. I've spent some time the past 2 nights investigating different blog software, and I think I've found a good candidate.
For the next few days, there won't be anything new here. And at some point in the next week or so, I'll be upgrading the server again to use proper, formal blog sotware. I hope you like it.
And thanks for reading.
Seattle Again
20 February 2006 - 16:30.
So this somewhat rainy day finds me again in the wonderful boroughs of Seattle. Ick. I'm getting sick of this place. I've spent so much time here over the past few weeks that I'm starting to think I know my way around. I want this specific project over and done with, so that I can concentrate on spending more time at home, or especially with Amy. Sooner rather than later I hope.
I spent some small time this morning looking into blog software as well. There are a number of packages that offer complete, proper blog software including full comments, trackback, and RSS feeds. I think that this is something I should look at doing sometime in the next month. Ya right. I'll do it in my copious free time. Pfft.
About Damn Time
19 February 2006 - 18:30.
Alright, I know it's been a bit. And for the 3 of you who bothered to register, to see if there was anything worth seeing, thank you. If it even worked. Either way, I appreciate it. Note that those of you who may have registered have since had their accounts erased, as part of my rebuilding efforts, so if you want to comment here, you'll need to sign up again. But yes, comments are welcomed and enabled. At some point in the future, I'll probably go and upgrade to some sort of proper blog software. Not tonight though.
But for today at leasst, the website is back up. I still get the occasional hit on referral from the guy who hacked this site, but they seem to be fewer and further between. Eventually, I imagine I'll drop off the hacker radar.
There HAS been a fair amount going on in the past couple weeks, apart from the changes to this site. I won't go into details though. Some things are too personal to expose to the whole wide world.....
Software Updates
04 February 2006 - 10:45.
This site was recently hacked due to a flaw in the PHP interpreter. So it, and the wiki software have been updated. This gives, among other things, much greater functionality. See the home page for more...
I really like to cooperation I'm receiving from British Telecom, and from the RCMP. Even though this is a small, rarely visited site, they're giving all indications that they're treating this very seriously. Investigations are underway. They already have my log files, and data dumps. Stay tuned for more. Hehehe. I'm looking forward to seeing someone go down for this.
All's not well
03 February 2006 - 17:14.
So there's a fairly major glitch in my relationship. I can't say I'm happy about it at all. Worst of all, I'm not even sure what exactly it is that's gone wrong, so I have no idea where to begin in fixing it. All I know is that I love her, and I miss her.