Server Goon

First off, wow, been a while since I posted anything!  And second, told you there would be another post about road rage (see previous post).

Just for the record, I’m not a perfect driver, sometimes I do *ahem* stupid things.  Having said that, I feel it’s fair to comment on other drives and what stupid things they do.

It all started out rather fun, my brother and I was taking a motorcycle trip to see an Aunt and then we were going to put a few more miles and states on the bike (so far I’m ahead with 11 states under my “motorcycle” belt, at some point I hope to have all 50).  The first day’s itinerary was to get to my Aunt’s and I would like to say it was without incident, but that would be a lie.  It’s also a story for another day because what I’m talking about today happened on day 2 of our 3 day trip.

We were in Illinois on Route 1 when it happened.  Route 1 for the most part is a two lane highway with sections that are four lanes.  The particular stretch at the start was a four lane highway through a town with a speed limit of 35.  My brother and I were traveling at about 50MPH and keeping up with the flow of traffic.  That’s when I noticed a guy coming up behind pretty fast in an burnt orange mustang.  The lane to the right was clear but he stayed right behind my brother and I.  I decided to be nice and moved over to the right lane at which point he sped up to right behind my brother and started honking the horn.  When my brother moved over I heard the engine rev and he took off like a speed racer only to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the car that we were following.  I immediately thought to myself “what a jackass”.

As we traveled through several smaller towns the guy was never more than two or three cars ahead.  We eventually got to a stretch of two lane road and ended up behind the same Mustang.  It seemed like it was hundreds of miles, but it was probably only 20 or 30 that we followed this guy.  The whole time he was weaving left and right, speeding up and slowing down while following the Chevy truck that was in front of him.  At one point, he even had his right hand turn signal on for probably five miles.  I told my brother at one point (probably at one of the crossroads with a stop sign) that the guy was just looking for someone to race because there were plenty of opportunities for this guy to pass, but he stayed behind the truck and continued to drive erratically.

Finally I told my brother “we have to stop and let this guy get away or pass him, I can’t stand this much longer”.  So, the next good clearing where my brother could see clearly (it was very hot day and the heat from the road was creating an hazy heat wave affect) my brother pulls and passes.  He then pulls back in between the Mustang and the truck because he sees a car coming towards us (his original intention was to pass both).  I follow my brother’s lead and pull out, as I get even with the Mustang, I hear him kick it down and speed up.  (Did I mention the word jackass before?)  Well, that just sets me off because it proved I was right about this guy just wanting to race.  He probably bought the Mustang to compensate.  At any rate, Mustang or no, my brother’s in front of him and my bike is no wimp.  As I kick it down a gear I flip the guy off passing him and my brother and pull back in line behind the truck.

I’m sure you can guess what happened next right?  Yeah, he’s revving the engine and good to go so he pulls out and guns past us.  I see him coming and flip him the bird the whole way past.  As he’s going past he’s staring at me and flipping me off as well.  So he goes past us (remember the car?) and goes past the truck diving back into the right lane almost clipping the front of the truck and I’m sure giving the folks in the oncoming car a fright.

Regardless, he’s gone and I’m happy to sit behind the truck cruising at 55 because now I don’t have to deal with an unstable erratic driver in front of me.  It made the rest of the trip seem so peaceful!

The amazing thing about this is that I usually feel guilty about doing “stupid” things, like flipping off that guy in the car.  Really, it wasn’t necessary and I’m sure it didn’t help the situation any.  However, this time I didn’t feel the least bit of guilt.  This guy was an idiot at best and how he was driving was creating a hazardous situation.

Stay safe, stay sane and keep the rubber side down.

–ServerGoon

Kids these days.  Spelling doesn’t matter, as long as the other person gets what you’re talking about.  If you don’t believe me, just ask my 17 year old son, he’ll tell you all about it.

Admittedly, I don’t think kids should be graded harshly for grammatical or spelling errors on math papers, computer program comments (I actually had a teacher that took off points for not having complete sentences in the comments for a program), physics, art, etc.  Now all bets are off when it comes to English class, because that’s what it is all about.

However, if you publish a game, write a paper about your physics experiments or create anything that is made for general population I would suggest making sure your grammar is correct in the final product.  Trust me, it’s tough for me and I’m just waiting for someone to point out a mistake on this post.

Prime examples of when it is important to use correct grammar:

1. When you are trying to make a point or trying to sound intelligent.  See
   http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=274685879861 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=260098416437
   and the list goes on I’m sure.  In fact I had great fun pointing that error out to my son when he joined the group “Parents call it talking back, we call it telling them there wrong”.
2. When you are trying to sell something.  This is what originally prompted this post and I want to make it clear I have *nothing* against these guys or their site (notice I used the correct version there).  I was reading about Blue Collar Bobbers when I ran across this quote. “and ride into the sunset with there comrades”.  Now for some reason, this just glares at me.  Maybe it because I’ve struggled with it myself so I’m hypersensitive to the use of “there, they’re and their”.  Does that mean I won’t buy from them? No, but it does give a certain impression of the type of people running the store.  I’m also going to make the assumption that, based off of the design, they didn’t do the work themselves.  Chances are someone just wasn’t fully awake and didn’t catch the typo, let’s hope so because I’d hate to be paying someone for a finished product that wasn’t correct.

So, having said all that, I would suggest a remedial course.  If you don’t want to do that, how about spending a little time to get it straight in your head in whatever manner works best for you.  There’s even web sites out there to help.  I googled “there their they’re” and the top hit was a wikihow page, how convenient!

Up next is a rant about “you’re, your and yore”… no, not really, but I’m sure there are plenty of examples of that as well.

–servergoon

This really hit me today when I noticed a wall post from someone I know (in the real world).  They stated that they’d be gone for the weekend, but not to worry if anyone saw posts from them because they had asked someone to take care of their farm.  This is s VIRTUAL farm mind you.

So what is the importance of this? Well, I’m taking classes that are based on technology and education.  Part of those classes focus on social media and how the youth of today are more “wired” than ever.  With this wiring, comes this chance for addiction.  We are so concerned about drug and alcohol use in the youth of today, but what about internet use?

The youth of today run the very real risk of being socially dysfunctional when it come to interacting with with real people in real time.  They’ve all got lots and lots o’ friends online, but when it comes to preferences some would rather use the computer as an interface to interacting with their friends than face to face.  Of course, this is just based off of casual observations of my son and his friends.  Even when friends are over their interaction tends to be around the computer or game console.

And it’s not just the kids.  About a  year ago CNN published “Five clues that you are addicted to Facebook” http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/23/ep.facebook.addict/index.html and that’s not the only danger.  I’ve seen stories of kids being left alone while parents played online games.  Kids left alone to the point of being considered child neglect or abuse.

So, does that mean we should all become unplugged?  Nah, but if you can’t be “disconnected” for a day or two without starting to twitch, you may want to take a serious look at your usage.

–servergoon

There was a plane crash in the area last night.  I found out about it on FaceBook…  Great news and media outlet this FaceBook right?  Well, yes, I guess it is, as a way to keep up with friends and family and find out what’s happening in their lives that you might not normally know.

But the way I found out about this was by the status of a FaceBook Friend, it read “OMG i think there has been a plane crash n Albany“.  That’s news enough right?  Lets you know what’s going on.  There are couple of comments and then this person says “I am gonna go check it out I will report back” (first outlined comment).

Okay, now this is where I have the problem.  See, I left my Cub Reporter badge in the drawer when I realized that in cases where there are accidents, unless you are a trained professional or asked to help, chance are you are going to be in the road and more of a hindrance than a help.  [Subtitle Road Rage Part II cause you all know those people that practically *stop* as they go by an accident so they can, what? hopefully see blood?]  At any rate, this person who was safe and secure at home decides it is their duty to go and find out what’s going on.

Which leads to “Ok just got back…if you go out Washington Rd just past Albany that is where it happened…pretty much across from the airport. I couldn’t get close enough to see anything they closed the road and you had to turn around. I will listen to the scalnner for any updates” (the second outlined comment).  Now this comment just more or less proves my point really.  They had closed the road down, probably for safety reasons, something about aviation fuel and flammable perhaps?  So what did they manage to do?  Add to the congestion, cause potential blockage for emergency vehicles AND put yourself in danger.  But they got some great news right?  Some pictures?  Got a name?  Oh no, they didn’t because they “couldn’t get close enough to see anything”.  So what did they do?  They went back home to listen to the scanner and report any updates.  Now we know why most major cities have stared scrambling/coding the emergency radio traffic so they don’t have this problem in the first place.

I can understand human curiosity, and quite frankly, if the plan had crashed next to my house I would have been outside seeing what I could do the help.  But to leave my house, drive to another location just to see a wreck… not me, no thanks, and I’m sure the emergency responders thank me too, cause that’s one less person they have to watch out for.

Ok, so I’ve occasionally gotten this and generally I ignore them…  This time I decided to respond.  Notice how the spam chat box responds so eloquently to my answers.

(2:07:38 PM) jenbabie258 has buzzed you!
(2:07:38 PM) jenbabie258: hey..r u online?
(3:26:36 PM) jenbabie258 has buzzed you!
(3:26:36 PM) jenbabie258: hey u around??
(3:26:55 PM) me: nope

Ok, at this point, I’m thinking, sarcastic comment.  If it’s someone I know they’ll respond in kind.

(3:27:09 PM) jenbabie258: hey, u r francesca’s friend right?

Nope, no sarcasm, just asking a question.  Now I don’t know a Francesca that I know of, but sometimes you meet people and you never really know their names.  Sometimes it’s because they go by their middle name instead of their first name.  I’m quite certain there are people that have no clue what my mom’s real name is.  Regardless, it *could* be someone I know or a friend of someone I know.  I’ve helped people out and I wouldn’t put it past someone to pass on my name if someone needed help, I’m just that kinda guy!

(3:27:53 PM) me: I don’t believe I know a francesca.
(3:28:07 PM) jenbabie258: what?? she gave me your chat name LOL, i’m sorry, anways im bored,what r u up to?

yep, always have people that think they know me, then find out they don’t then want to chat anyhow.  And they are *always* bored!  At this point it’s obvious that it’s a spam chat box, but they’re getting better, almost seemed like a real person there for a split second.

(3:28:29 PM) me: nice – but I’m working, thanks.
(3:28:43 PM) jenbabie258: oh yea? im just doing a cam chat right now, u wanna come chat with me on there?

Yep, definitely a spam chat box….  so, I quickly search for this comic that made me laugh and send it as a link.. last chance to prove any trace of humanity or programming skills.  Hmm, that makes me wonder, do they trace the conversations and build that into the programming?  That would be *FANTASTIC*!  The next time someone sends this link they respond with something slightly human.

(3:31:23 PM) me: nope http://xkcd.com/632/
(3:31:34 PM) jenbabie258:cool, yea its pretty fun, it can get pretty hot in there sometimes! so many wild people. lemme get the info k?

Oh, epic fail on being human.  Yet another account to block.  Not that the name itself wouldn’t be a give away.  Well that was fun, now back to work….

Also known as “how to get yourself on a hit list by not knowing how to drive”

So, I found out something interesting today. Traffic lights, or at least the one I was at, will cycle whether or not someone is over the trigger (you know that space that will activate the light, usually a weight or magnetic sensor). I also found out that if said someone is not over the trigger the light will automatically change (cycle) because the sensor senses that there are no vehicles waiting to go through said light.

And just how do I know that? No, it wasn’t me, I wasn’t screwing with the person behind me, it was the person in front of me that decided it would be a good idea to stop a *FULL* car length back from the light. Last I checked, you were supposed to pull up so that the front bumper was at the line, not stop so you could still *see* the line out of your windshield.

And, to make matters worse the *idiot* that was in the other lane must have thought there was an invisible car in front of them as well because they pulled up even with the car in front of me, not up to the line, even, bumper to bumper. I mean, come on, what were they gonna do “drag race”?

So anyhow, the light changes and as the person in front of me moves forward (at least they did know that green means *GO*) the light is already changing to yellow and then back to red.  I have to admit, I’m actually surprised they didn’t slam on the brakes to stop at the yellow light.  They would have been surprised and dumb founded as to why it took two or three tries to get through a light.  And of course, *idiot* 2 would have had to stop with them, because heaven forbid you should pull past the car in the lane next to you.  I wonder what they would do at a light where they had a green light and the lane next to them was waiting for an arrow?  Probably sit there waiting ’cause they wouldn’t want to risk going past the car in the next lane!

Ok, I’m done now, end of rant, but if you see some guy sitting behind you shaking uncontrollably as you site *ONE FULL CAR LENGTH* away from the light, just save everyone the trouble of wanting to kill you and move forward.  That or *STOP DRIVING*, return your Drivers License to the BMV and take a cab.  At least you’ll be providing someone with a means of living.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, it’s part 1 because I am quite certain there will be others out there.  In fact I know it because I’ve seen it.  Maybe next time I’ll post it with a picture so you’ll know who to keep an eye out for.

–server goon

This post started from this simple thought “at what point does being Politically Correct infringe on Free Speech”.  That thought has grown considerably and this day before Thanksgiving and I begin to wonder at what point to being Politically Correct, for fear of offending someone, begin to infringe on other rights?  Please feel free to read on and please, feel free to be offended.

So I get the usual range of emails from folk that I pretty much consider spam.  The topics vary but here’s a sampling:

1. If you love Jesus you will forward this email to everyone you know and Jesus will love you back!  – Now this one was sent by a cousin.  She happened to catch me in a particular mood and I responded to her email explaining how my personal belief system (I do believe in God BTW, just in case you want to know) has nothing to do with forwarding an email.  Wouldn’t you know it, I haven’t got another email from that cousin *ever*.  I guess Jesus still loves me, but she doesn’t.
2. Pictures of Obama at a service of some sort where the National Anthem was being played and he didn’t have his hand over his heart.  So I have mixed feelings about this, it goes against how I was raised.  However, he showed more respect by standing, hands clasp in front of him, than most people at ball games who take the time to order a beer, don’t remove their hats and chat with their follow fans.  I’m just saying, don’t throw the stone if you don’t follow the rules.  Even then, “land of the free” carries a lot of meaning…which is where this general entry is going.
3. And then there’s the one’s about gun control and how we are going to wake up one morning and the president is going to have signed some treaty that requires all US citizens to hand over their guns (based off of this article).  OK, sounds ludicrous, but I suppose it could happen, don’t see how (think Appalachia here folks — I’m from Appalachia, I can use the stereotype!) not to mention Montana and Texas, how about Louisiana and let’s not forget New York…)  I hope you see where I’m going here.  Besides, my idea of gun control is hitting what you aim for and, as my Daddy always said, “make sure you know your target, and never pull a gun on someone unless you intend to use it”.  Following those simple rules, I’ve never shot something I didn’t intend to (yeah, this is a call to those hunters that “accidentally” — not saying accidents don’t happen — shot someone, you didn’t make sure you knew your target didn’t ya?  You were excited and fired blindly at some noise) and I’ve NEVER pulled a gun on a person.

The most recent one I got, which got me on this topic (I know long winded way to get here wasn’t it?) was about Professor Wichman from Michigan University, this was from 2006 and it’s still going around the internet.  The story from Snopes is here http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp.

Basically, there was a cartoon that depicted Muhammad as a terrorist and the Muslim student center was in protest over it.  In response, Prof. Wichman sent a letter saying he was offended by the fact they were offended.  He further went on to say that if they didn’t like the values of the west (1st Amendment) that they should feel free to return to their Ancestral homelands.

I’ve got to say, I agree with him.  I remember the cartoon and I remember the outrage caused by the cartoon.  So, here’s my thing, I will defend your rights to believe how you want to believe (or not believe), but if you don’t return those rights the systems falls apart.  This is a *great* country, not without flaws mind you, but a great country.  You have a right to freedom of speech, a right to freedom of religion (and by definition, freedom *from* religion), however, as a friend pointed out you do NOT have a constitutional right to NOT be offended.

Now, the way I see it, you can stay in this country, enjoy those rights.  But, if you don’t like this country, if you don’t want to extend those same rights to your fellow country(wo)men, then I’m sure you can find another place to live.

Wow, that felt good to say.  Understand, I don’t have a problem with your religion, believe how you want, but when you start being offended because of a cartoon and justify killing based on your religion, I have a problem with that.

And, for the record, I have a problem with an individual joining the military then going on a shooting spree because they don’t want to be deployed (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33678801/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/).  Regardless of religion, if you don’t believe in the military, DON’T JOIN! Now, here’s the real kicker, and there is no way to know if this is the case or not.  But, if this individual wasn’t investigated because of Political Correctness, as many journalist have claimed (http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.smith13nov13,0,2728617.column) then being Politically Correct is overrated.  If this person wasn’t investigated further due to a fear of offending someone by racial or religious profiling, then Political Correctness is at fault in the deaths at Fort Hood.

So, I pose to you, at what point does being Politically Correct infringe on not only the rights to Free Speech, but other rights as well?  I hope someone has the answer because I know I don’t.

–ServerGoon

I have an account on most of the major IM clients.  Most of the time it sits there idle, sometimes family will use it to contact me and sometimes friends will banter back and forth.  And, on some occasions there is the appearance of some heavier material.

In this case I made a statement, sent it and after the fact I thought, “yeah, that’s really it.  Isn’t it?”.  It was a revalation that came out of a simple conversation but upon reflection I realized it held more.

The following conversation took place via text messaging.  The friends name has been changed to protect their innocence.  Well, with this friend, not innocence, but a sense of respecting his privacy.

Friend1: it’s funny.. the tech program does seem to provide a much greater sense of accomplishment than my masters program did
Friend1: it just feels like there’s a lot more substance there
ServerGoon: I was thinking of the learning process for me this quarter it was “here’s what you got to do, here’s what you need (materials) to do it. Now go do it. Oh, and if you have to learn something extra along the way, do that too!”
ServerGoon: as opposed to the class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), TEST class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), class (spoon feed), TEST
Friend1: yeah
Friend1: it’s definitely for adults hah
ServerGoon: personally, I was a little irked that he assigned aspects of web site design that involved Flash, podcast, etc.. technologies that some have not had a class in yet, but hey, that’s life. Sometime you don’t always know what you need to know when you start a project.
Friend1: well, it’s also indicative of when you have an instructor rather than a professor, i think

“Sometime you don’t always know what you need to know when you start a project.”

I look back at that statement and realize that’s where the learning comes into play for me.  It’s not sitting in a lecture covering what was supposed to be read.  It is being told here’s the end product, here is some material to help you along the way, the rest is up to you.  I feel fortunate that I was able to spend some time and pick up what I needed to know (mostly) to complete the projects and I feel for those poeple that are learning multiple technologies at the same time, that can be very rough.  But as my friend said “it’s definitely for adults hah”.  Speaking of which, I’ve got a project due and I should be working on it instead of writing about this.  But this was one of those moments that I thought I should share.

–EdTechGoon aka ServerGoon

With the looming server consolidation and subsequent reorganization I’ve decided to ramble a bit and share my thoughts and concerns.

I work in an educational environment with a distributed IT model.  Seems years ago (I wasn’t here, so I’m going on hearsay here) the university had a centralized IT model and the level of service the individual departments received was unacceptable.  So, individual departments hired their own technical staff, set up their own services and continued to serve their clients (faculty, staff and students) as best they could.  The Centralized IT structure provided infrastructure service (email, phone, internet, etc) and some departments chose to go with their own email and/or calendaring solutions.

Well, it seems as if the cycle is to continue and the mode of operation for this university is to go back to a centralized structure.  Now, I’m on the outside of that structure, so I don’t have insider knowledge as to what is going to happen (which is a concern to me and I would think everyone in my situation).  I can see the benefits of a centralized IT providing university wide services; mail, calendaring, web hosting, internet and phone.  I can even see the benefit of a central IT structure setting down rules and guidelines concerning what security standards must be met in order to “stand up” a server on campus.  I’m even fine with meeting those standards, but I’m concerned about the ability of a larger structure, concerned with university wide services, to provide the support and service for those smaller specialized applications used on a departmental basis.  Those concerns aside, I’m still willing to work with the centralized IT, I’m still willing to see what advantages can be provided by a consolidated bargaining unit when it comes to purchasing hardware and software.

When talking about server consolidation — and when talking consolidation let’s not forget the subsequent consolidation (read reduction) of work force — the buzz words seem to be “economies of scale”, and “providing better service by providing specialized expertise”.  I’ll be the first to admit I’m stretched between multiple projects most of the time and I rarely have time to become an “expert” (that may be the subject of another rant) in any one area.  However, when the centralized IT talks about expertise, they are also (once again, this is from my viewpoint from outside the structure) talking about limiting what services are provided.  The focus seems to be on Oracle DB services and MicroSoft server products.  Needless to say, this is a concern to me.  I’m more of a LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) person myself.  Now we’ve been guaranteed there would be no “reduction in service” but when you have staffing that doesn’t allow you to support what’s running “out in the field” how is that possible?

These are just a few of my concerns, and they’re not to the point of keeping me awake at night… yet.  But as I work on providing a list of servers and the services they provide these concerns come to the forefront.  I have an investment in my area and I have an investment in the services I provide.  I almost feel as if I’m providing a hit list of sorts, betraying my department by providing information that will eventually lead changes, changes that may not be fully welcome.

I see the security concerns, I see the concerns of a CIO that may not fully know what all technology is being used on campus.  But I am also keenly aware of the concerns of my fellow coworkers and department.  I’m aware of the services we provide because that service wasn’t offered centrally.  And most of all, being the selfish being that I am, I’m concerned about what my job will look like in the coming year.

Of course, after writing this, I may not have to worry about that…

Yeah, that headline caught your attention didn’t it?  I saw this article on Social networking sites can be mine fields for teachers in The Salt Lake Tribune and thought I’d make a comment or two on it.

It’s not a new story by any means. Student and teachers see each other on a daily basis. And, when the age difference between the two can be as little as four years, it only seems normal that hormones could come into play.  It’s been in the news, teachers crossing the lines with students.  Add to that the prevalence of social networking and the fact that a teacher entering the workforce now has always had Facebook and MySpace, both launched in 2004 and you have a whole new venue for potential trouble.

Does that mean as a teacher you shouldn’t be on MySpace or Facebook?  I don’t think so, but I think it is important as an educator that you think about the potential implications of being friends with students on such social networks.  Additionally, as an educator, if you were to see students engaging in illegal activities on a social networking site, would you be required, ethically, to say something?

Even now, college students are finding out that employers are looking at social networking sites before hiring an individual.  Don’t think it’s true? I can tell you that I personally check facebook when considering student hires.  The same would be true for a full time hire.  It would be the same thing as checking for published papers to see what an individual’s perspective is on a particular subject.  So, just remember, that keg stand you did in college could come back to haunt you in the end.  Social networking, while great for keeping in touch with friends, can be a double edged sword.

So what is the answer?  Where are the lines drawn?  I don’t know.  I think the area is just going to get grayer…. just like my hair.