The Time Sink

Well, I had this long convoluted post outlined about testing Belkin's latest wireless access point since I haven't tried that approach as yet. ...and adding one of their PCMCIA cards to the laptop. But they've pretty much taken away that post. ...at least at the first pass.

The access point takes a wall-wart power block and needs a chunk of Cat5 to wherever you have a spare port. ...and that's that except for config. ...and you still need access to a Windows box for that! Interesting: they still haven't come up with a web-based config package. While that's not a show-stopper here, it could be in a purely Penguin household (I'd hate to have to borrow a buddy's laptop to configure a router). Ah well. I will say the utility packaged with the product worked well: it grabbed onto my local network's IP and also picked up the gateway from the Win2k box I used to run the thing...

...and as for the NIC? I put the NT4 HDD in the laptop because it was on the top of the stack and booted things up. ...and rebooted; and rebooted. After all this is NT (I don't think I'll be trying Win2k on a P-120 any time soon <g>). ...and there was the net and there was the network. Sheesh, maybe I can see if I can get a Linux post out of it this evening.

Hmmm... Lookin' for a little of the coaster portion of things today after the roller portion of the rollercoaster of life took me for a ride yesterday <g>. Man. I started out early enough at work to get a head start on the morning DMV appointment, and that went well enough. ...but the DMV gig didn't go exactly as I wanted it to due to some timing on a couple of routine things: paperwork is crossing in the mail and that means I had to back that portion of the visit out for at least a week or two. Still, the new rigs have plates and I think I'm ready for this series of hoops as we start to cycle the fleet once again.

So, I'm on my way back and feeling okay about things when an urgent message came through on the emergency StarFleet subspace channel saying my presence was immediately required to help shore up defenses in Sector Nine. Well, not quite; but frankly it translates the same...

Yeah, yeah: mission accomplished, in part due to some rather timely record keeping reindexing last week by Yeoman Janeen and me. ...and I was ready to bask in the glory of a job well done. ...until reality came back on line and I realized it was still Monday. ...only it was several hours into Monday and the routine stuff that makes up most of my Mondays was seriously stuck at the far end of the wormhole.

Okay, that's enough metaphor mixing to likely earn me a visit from the style police. ...and I did manage to blade after work and spend some fun time on line later. But I really, really would like today to stay calm so I can catch up with the parts of Monday that got away...

So what prompted that Klez post yesterday over on the blog? A bad habit actually. Most of the time I take a look at at least the presentation and payload specs of most of the virus notes that come across my plate. That way I have more than a casual clue if someone asks me about a bit of aberrancy or the title of an email that doesn't seem correct. That's pulled a couple of chestnuts out of the fire in the past. ...but lately I've been lazy and just trusting to the layers of AV protection I have at work and the fact I run my email on Tux at home. ...and it bit me on the tail over the weekend and yesterday.

Last weekend a friend of a friend forwarded along a set of emails that seemed to have spoofed addresses. I checked them out and did some digging and came up with the theory I outlined in yesterday's post. ...and I didn't take it any farther. The virus attachments had been stripped, so I didn't really have any information as to which one it was. ...and I was guessing some l33t lamer was sending out spam and was forging the address, as she's had some problems with that also.

Then Tuesday, I get an email warning of a problem with Dave's email. ...and with an address I recognize as being old and shut down. ...and with another one appended. Wait a minute! So I go and have a look at my security sites. One doesn't even list Klez anymore because it's a done deal to them. One has upgraded it due to an increase in the spread rate. ...and another just shows it as active. ...but the two with information both mention the "From:" business! Okay, now I have the solution to the weekend's problem; and I know how Dave's old address showed up again. Now if I'd only read the basic info on this one when it came through the first time...

Just under the wire. ...and to say it's been such a week that I'm just happy that Friday is here! Yeah! I've had four days of "Drop this and deal with This"; one more should about do me in. ...and the evenings have been full enough to keep me up late. ...and I'm paying a price.

At some point you just have to start to laugh... When I got into work this morning, I was handed some rather routine paperwork from another manager. It was the type of round robin thing that has to pass through several hands before it is ready. ...and in this case they were the hands of the people most affected by the "All hands" calls this week and last. ...and it was time critical. Oh, it wasn't when it started its rounds; but by time each person had dealt with their personal piece of the action, the paperwork was smouldering when it reached me...

...and I almost blew it. I started to put it aside to 'deal with later'; but since I hadn't seen this piece for some reason, I took a closer look. ...and simultaneously wished I hadn't, and was glad I had.

I forced myself into wind down mode today. This last week has taken a toll both mentally and physically and I just couldn't allow it to continue into the weekend. So last night, even though I could have used the sleep, I let the tension level I'd been maintaining keep me up a little later than normal and handled a project that I felt needed to be dealt with immediately, even though it was a later entry into the work queue. ...and it bore fruit today. Nice...

That leaves only one major and three minors to deal with in the next few days. ...and frees me to finish a site redesign I'd promised a friend several weeks back. Yeah, that's how things go when you are dealing with people; sometimes it pays to rework your priorities...

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous... Blood sugar at a daily low, kinks still not worked out of muscles, and a mind not yet awake (for hours yet <g>) can lead to some serious problems. On the plus side, if I can focus purely on form and tune in to the flow of things, I can have a pretty nice ride. ...and come back in feeling like I've hardly done more than stroll around the block.

Yep, we actually got out and attended a social function yesterday evening! I mean, like a Surrogate Parental Unit, jg. for the kids, decent clothes for us (get real: Costco's black jeans can work with a tie <g>) and food we didn't pay for (other than with a gift and the cost of the babysitter). ...and oh, yeah, I sure was comfortable in a tie and around groups of people I don't know. On the other hand, watching the social butterfly in its natural habitat is always something that astounds me <g>.

Let's see... I have some lady readers who will crawl right through the net and choke me if I don't give details: small wedding, maybe 50 people counting the wedding party. ...couple in their forties; his first, her third (careful there before you raise that eyebrow!). Music: Harp, recorder and hammered dulcimer (in period costume), accompanied by Shelley's comments about me and the sixties... The pastor had a pony tail. ...and did First Corinthians justice!

She looked like a princess; he looked quite handsome. Rose petals from the flower girls as they walked down the aisle (and their mom joking at them to "Pick them up!" as they came back down the aisle). The ring bearer managed quite well. Dress for the guests ran from suits to jeans. The reception was at a local hall. ...and things were very low key.

...and someone was thinking: they had assigned seating. Whew! We sat with our childrens' godmother (the mother of the groom) and her other adult children. That was very nice for me. ...at least I didn't have to make much conversation since the family joke is that I'm a deaf-mute in public settings. Still, I had a nice time. ...and even got a 'curl' on my piece of the cake!