The Time Sink

So the latest thing in 'healthy food' around this place may actually lower Shelley's blood pressure too! Remember that Mango Chipotle Chicken sausage we liked so much the other evening? Well, Daniel and I grilled up another round of it last night and added in a batch of their Tequla Lime product to try. Man, that one was great too. I prefer the first one, but this did just fine in my book...

...and since the store we bought it from likely brought it in only for a test run (they seem to be East Coast based), I took to looking for it on line. I mean, the base product only has 1.5 grams of saturated fat per link (and they are generous links) so they'll fit in with the dietary plan to keep me alive a few more years. ...and since they grill up nicely and taste like "Real Sausage" (bonus points!!!) they'll work for the 'manly side' of things here <g>.

I do think we'll have to find an flavor that is more to Shelley and Brad's liking, but I'm thinking maybe their Italian Herb product could work. Hmmm... That could also work in my semi-famous "Italian Death" recipe I use for those cold Winter nights when you've been outside working in the snow all day...

Ya' know, I wish that fan on the lead Win2k box would quit acting up and making so darned much noise so late at night! I mean, it doesn't make noise during the day when I'd notice it and could pull out a spare; it only seems to start up when it's bedtime, and I don't want to go pulling even a case fan then. ...'cause well, like, you darned well know it may be the CPU fan. ...or yeah, even the power supply fan. Sheesh.

Short posts this week; there's some extra stuff on the plate that is taking up the discretionary time...

I may as well mention the weather though: 65F and cloudy today, almost a 'coastal' feel to things. ...but they're saying 91 by Sunday?

A mini-rant of sorts (feel free to straighten me out if I'm too far off base): last Friday I lost contact with a web site I provide the occasional bit of tech support for. No biggie, things happen and then resolve themselves after a reboot or whatever. ...but it wasn't until later that I realized the server involved had several sites on it, including one I contribute to and utilize an email address from for some internal things (like to the Linux box). That isn't so good...

...nor was it good when I attempted contact from another ISP and watched that fail. ...or when I realized the primary provider to several sites had her primary email there. Wonderfulness, but I was still thinking it was a pipe problem for some reason. Oh, perhaps it was because the nameservers were still working. Yeah, I could actually see Firefox do the lookup and then stall at the attempt to pull the files from any of three sites there.

I stewed over it, but waited until Saturday morning when I got an email back through secondary channels that the provider couldn't reach the server from the east coast either. ...and that she hadn't received an answer back from 'support' after a reasonable time interval. Okay, I'm spoiled by pair networks and their concept of tech support, but I'll cut most places some slack. This bunch had had enough: we were pushing twenty-four hours and they still hadn't realized their server was hosed?

One ticket submission later and I get back, "Everything is fine here; perhaps you have a local problem", or words to that effect. Wrong! We're talking four users on four machines running three OSs on four different pipes and you're telling me it's a local problem? Not. ...or maybe it's "local" to your NOC!

...and since I do believe in being helpful and supplying as much information as I can, I shot off the IP addresses from all four starting points (interestingly enough, all started off with "67.xxx") and a traceroute from here to there. ...and got back a "you can't traceroute through our firewall 'cause we block ICMP" and "we're fine, the problem is on your end". Okay, now I'm done...

I fired back with a reiteration of my listings and the comment that since I can traceroute all the way to their flippitydippity firewall I was pretty sure the problem was just the other side of that (thinking of something like the MTU problem some of us had with Dave's place {that link in the sidebar} a few years back). ...and I get back a "no, but we just noticed you're hitting us from the same Class C subnet as the server is on; we'll check on that." Oh, and "it's gotta be you because the DNS is fine". Class C subnet stuff? The bit about how not to put all your cross-linked sites on the same server so Google and Yahoo don't slap you down? I don't think so. ...and I've said the DNS stuff has been cool since the get-go. ...and the site can be hit by others because we aren't getting trouble reports from a couple of places that would let us know (immediately!).

Tempus fugits and Tier two is now involved, probably because Tier one has figured out I'm not going to let the ticket close until both the east coast and west coast can hit a server in between them. ...and Tier two has the idea to follow through a bit better on those IP addresses I'd kicked their way and says he's going to check with their upstream. Cool. I'm the patient sort...

...and I get back a note: "the upstream had blocked "67.xxx: and everything should be fine now". Excuse me? You've had how big a block of direct customers cut off from a Class A subnet for how long and no one knew?!?! ...and Tier one blew me off for over a day? ...and your customers lost how much business from their customers? ...and does anyone there have a clue what 67.xxx happens to be? Oh, not much; just several of the Baby Bells' DSL routes. ...and Comcast. Just the two minor players I happen to know about.

The end of a long week: the boys headed out this evening for a few days of camping and "quad-driving" with their uncle and one cousin. It will be their first time 'away together'...

I'm still running behind with posts and email and everything else, but hey... Today Shelley and I took the train to Sacramento and hung out there for a few hours. Yeah, for real!

It's interesting to get up on a Sunday morning without kids in the house. Sure, it's short term, but we'll take it. ...and yes, we'll be complaining about an 'empty nest' when that happens. ...but it sure is quiet and peaceful!

I do have household projects to work on; "tales of the train" will have to wait until I blade and get the pool filter cleaned out. ...and probably hang a new flag for Shelley. ...and work on making sure the sprinklers are more or less working (it'll be in the high eighties this week with no rain forecast; we may be done with rain until October once again). ...and making sure the kids are safely home and debriefed properly (like only a mom can do, usually after a date <g>).

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke, "Technology and the Future"

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