Category Archives: General Stuff

2008-11-24 · 16:59

Gift ideas for system administrators

Every year, I write an Exchange UPDATE column with gift suggestions for your Exchange administrator (here are the 2007 and 2006 editions). This year I decided to try something different; I hit up HelpAReporterOut to put my query in front of about 35,000 people. The responses started to arrive almost immediately.

First responder: the folks at PCWeenies sent me a blurb about custom-drawn comics featuring your favorite admin. Neat idea, and very timely response. This is definitely a contender: it’s unique, and it would make a nice keepsake.

Best comment: “The best gift you can give a SysAdmin is a Faraday Cage that blocks cell phones, pagers, and WiFi: it cuts off all connection to the outside world. It’s _very_ popular with their wives, too!” I bet it would be popular! Sadly this respondent didn’t give me a source to actually buy them. Time to break out the power tools!

Least likely to actually be given as a gift by anyone I’ll ever work for: plasma TVs from a very large consumer electronics company who shall remain nameless. Great idea, but probably violates whatever office-Christmas-gift price policy your company has. If your company thinks it’s OK to give its Exchange admins such expensive gifts, please contact me for a resume.

Least likely to actually be given, runner-up: a one-question “stocking stuffer” e-mail exchange with a Hollywood psychic.

Coolest suggestion I never would have expected: handmade stamped-metal keychains. Check them out.

Claim most in need of testing: “[IgnaFire chocolate] morsels are SO strong in flavor and texture, that a very small amount satisfies. No one can eat this chocolate by the handful.” We’ll just see about that; I ordered some for Arlene, whose expertise in the world of chocolate is known throughout the world.

Apart from these, I’ve gotten some very cool leads for potential gift ideas, and I’ll be going through them for the remainder of the week to come up with the best list for next week’s column.

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2008-11-21 · 10:48

Ohio State vs Michigan is cancelled

This year’s edition of the annual Ohio State-Michigan game has been cancelled. The Wolverines were on their team bus headed down to Columbus, but unfortunately they couldn’t get past Toledo. (But hey, neither could the Marines, so don’t feel bad, UM fans!) All kidding aside, the boys and I will be watching tomorrow, probably with a plate of boudin in front of us. Go Bucs! (oh yeah, then LSU plays, and then the Saints are on Monday night!)

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2008-11-13 · 19:38

A birthday rickroll

I got rickrolled for my birthday today.

I’m in Redmond for meetings with customers and our team. Our company tradition is that we bring in cake of some kind when people celebrate their birthdays; my birthday is tomorrow, and Jason Weiss (one of our QA team members) has his birthday today.

About 1:30p, everyone gathered in our break room, and Paul Flynn brought in a big ol’ chocolate cake. It was strangely rectangular, but the frosting made it look good. I was a bit skeptical when Paul said he’d baked it himself, but I took the proferred knife and tried to cut it. It was oddly crunchy when I cut it. Paul let me saw away at it for a few seconds, then removed the cardboard box that was covering the real cake… adorned with a picture of RIck Astley himself. At the same time, Tim started playing the original rickroll clip from YouTube.

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This all came about because back in the spring I managed to rickroll nearly the entire company via a well-crafted e-mail. Apparently they collectively decided to get their revenge on me via cake, so I am happy to say that the cake was, in fact, not a lie.

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2008-11-09 · 16:07

Happy 233rd birthday, USMC!

Tomorrow marks the 233rd birthday of the world’s finest fighting force: the United States Marine Corps. Semper Fidelis to all my brethren who have served or are serving our nation as Marines and corpsmen. On this day, I hope you will join me in celebrating the Marines’ traditions of honor, service, and duty. Here’s the Commandant’s annual birthday message to help get you in the mood.

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2008-10-29 · 15:56

Remembering Samuel Nicholas

Every Marine knows the name of Samuel Nicholas, the Quaker businessman and farmer who was commissioned as the first officer of the Continental Marines back in 1775. For the rest of you, here’s an interesting article on the quiet and little-known ceremony that marks the founding of the Corps each November 10th. Semper fi, Major Nicholas.

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2008-09-26 · 17:32

Still here, just quiet

It’s hard to believe it’s been two weeks since my last posting here (and, at that, it was a short rumination on vegetables.) Since my last post, a lot has happened:

  • I decided to forgo my spot in the first Microsoft Certified Master: Exchange class. This was a very difficult decision, but it turned out to be a good one because…
  • Mom sold her house in Perrysburg. It closes in late October, which means we essentially have a month to help her get packed up, moved out, and down to Louisiana. We’ve been busy with various house-related tasks, like turning the lights on for showings and so forth.
  • I got some kind of stomach flu of doom that made me sicker than I’ve been in 20 years. I’m talking full-blown, flat-out, can’t-hardly-get-out-of-bed sick. Fortunately, it only lasted a couple of days, but it was rough during that time. The kids and I have all intermittently had snuffles, too
  • We got our hardwood– all 1900+ square feet of it– refinished. This sounds easier than it is; it involved compressing several rooms worth of furniture into the living room, master bedroom, and kitchen, then living in it for two weeks. The results are beautiful but we’re all eager to get everything put back where it belongs.

Of course, it wasn’t all drudgery; I watched the LSU-Auburn game with Mom, Arlene, and the boys, played a bit of Rock Band 2, and so on. I hope to get back on a more regular posting schedule. There are certainly a lot of developments in the unified communications world to talk about!

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2008-09-15 · 11:21

Vegetables shrink your brain

From the “I knew it” department: eating vegetables makes your brain shrink.

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2008-09-02 · 19:48

Heavy snoring a risk factor for carotid athersclerosis

Wow! This puts Arlene’s complaints about my snoring in a whole new light. Apparently, heavy snoring is a risk factor for carotid atherosclerosis, as measured by an Austrian research team. Better keep an eye on that (or an ear!)

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2008-08-28 · 13:47

Resolved: food allergy warnings not stupid

It’s always fun to joust with my friend Bob Thompson, who is perhaps the most libertarian libertarian I know. Sadly, I think he’s flat-out wrong about food allergy warnings. I admit to being biased; my wife is gluten-intolerant and I have other relatives (and friends) who suffer from various kinds of nut allergy.

The problem with the current labeling standard is this: there is no standard. Quick: what’s the difference between “may contain”, “made in the same factory with”, and “produced on the same equipment with”? If I have three products with those labels, how can I tell which one(s) (if any) are OK to bring home? The existing US law, FALCPA, requires manufacturers to label products that contain certain allergens. Manufacturers have voluntarily been adding “may contain”-style warnings to reduce their liability– but there’s no standard for doing so, and this is resulting in a lot of needless hassle for the producers and consumers.

On the gluten-free front, there is an existing EU standard for deciding which products may be labeled as “gluten-free”, based solely on measured gluten content in the final product. The FDA is in the process of adopting it, which I think is great: it gives people a tangible indicator of whether something is safe to eat, or not, irrespective of where and how it was produced. Until then, I don’t see how standardizing on a labeling phrase could possibly be a bad thing. In fact, if I’m going to have the government spending money on regulations, better they should do it for food safety than on firearms or political contributions.

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2008-08-25 · 12:56

Get a Kindle for $259

This is a pretty sweet deal: Amazon will sell you a Kindle for $259 if you apply for (and qualify for, it must be said) their Amazon-branded credit card from Chase. See details here. (Bonus link: James Fallows on how to avoid becoming a Kindle nerd-bore).

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2008-08-14 · 10:14

Experimenting with Twitter

I’ve decided to give Twitter a try. So far, I’m following Chris, Ed Brill, Erica, and Al Tompkins. Follow me here.

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2008-08-01 · 11:12

Droppin’ science for real

The fine folks at CERN have made an enthralling yet educational rap video about the Large Hadron Collider. FTW!

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2008-06-05 · 14:37

Great article on investigative reporter

Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake Tribune handles the polygamy beat for the paper. Yes, that’s right; the Trib has a dedicated reporter who researches and writes stories about polygamists. Because of her topical knowledge, she’s written some very interesting stories about the Texas polygamy case. Alone among her peers, Adams challenged the legality of Texas’ raid on the FLDS compound, pretty much from the start. This Poynter article has a great Q&A with Adams– well worth reading. How I wish we had more investigative reporters like her, and fewer like the kind we see on FoCNMSNBC.

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2008-06-03 · 08:21

Amazon puts MP3 albums on sale

One of the record companies’ major beefs with Apple is that Apple won’t let them charge variable prices. One of the chief reasons that Amazon was able to get permission to sell non-DRM MP3 files is because they do in fact use variable pricing. That means, of course, that Amazon can offer things on sale from time to time. Today I picked up Weezer’s Pinkerton for $2 and Led Zeppelin’s Mothership for $5– significantly cheaper than buying the album, or the individual tracks, from iTunes. The only way I know of to get notified of these sales is to sign up for Amazon’s MP3 newsletter (or check slickdeals.net daily, which is what I do).

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2008-05-27 · 17:10

Random quote meme

So, Devin tagged me with the latest random meme circulating through the intertubes. Without further comment, here are my five quotes:

Bear Bryant’s devotional
Time is the one thing we can’t get any more of. How we choose to use our time says a lot about our self and our values.
“I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves“.
Joseph Smith, Junior, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said this when asked how he managed the rapid early growth of the church. This is exactly the strategy Arlene and I are trying to follow with the boys, but some days I think it works better than others.
“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the Corps; you’ll always be a boot to someone.”
My senior drill instructor, Staff Sergeant Taylor, told our platoon this one night at Parris Island. His point has stuck with me ever since: no matter how smart or skilled you are, there’s someone out there smarter and more skilled, so don’t get cocky.
“Don’t get stuck on stupid”.
Lt. Gen. Rusell Honoré said this during a press conference after Hurricane Katrina. Would that the national media had taken his advice. I try to take it daily. When you think you’re not stuck on stupid, that’s precisely when you need to double-check.
“What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson is the claimed originator of this quote. I have never been a big Emerson fan (even less so after reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s climate-change trilogy), but this quote neatly sums up the importance of trying to live in harmony with one’s beliefs.

In retaliation, I tag Arlene, Julie, Tim, and Ed.

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