From the makers of Death Rain potato chips comes a new terror: Blair’s 16 Million Reserve, named after its score on the Scoville scale of hotness. The new extract (the maker is careful to say it’s not a sauce or an ingredient) is pure capsacin. To put things in perspective, 16 Million Reserve is approximately three times hotter than police pepper spray and approximately 177 times hotter than Dave’s Insanity Sauce. Ordinary Tabasco? It only hits around 5000 on the Scoville scale.
RIP, Hack
US Army Colonel David H. Hackworth passed away this week. During his military career, he earned nine Silver Stars, four Legions of Merit, eight Bronze Stars, and eight Purple Hearts. He was an outspoken critic of anything that got in the way of the military’s mission: applying force as directed by the civilian leaders of the US government. Rest in peace, Hack.
Comments Off on RIP, Hack
Filed under Musings
Flag waving
This just in: the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit just struck down the FCC’s broadcast flag requirement. w00t.
Filed under HDTV and Home Theater
Neat virtual SMTP server connection restriction trick
I was floored to hear about this, but maybe that just shows I need to get out more. Turns out that you can flip a metabase flag to get some additional control over SMTP relaying. By default, if you require authentication and list one or more allowed IP addresses, both of those restrictions apply. However, you can set the SMTPIPRestrictionFlag value to use the logical-OR of those two factors, so that you can relay if you authenticate or if you’re coming from an allowed IP address. Mad props to Konstantin Ryvkin for admitting to this and to Devin for blogging it.
Comments Off on Neat virtual SMTP server connection restriction trick
Filed under General Stuff, Musings
Indexing network volumes with Spotlight
Now that I have Tiger installed, I wanted to make Spotlight index the SMB volumes on my Windows Server 2003 file servers. Nope; there’s no way in the user interface to tell Tiger what you want it to index. You can exclude certain items (and it looks like you should, at a minimum, exclude the Microsoft User Data folder to keep Spotlight from hammering your Entourage database), but you can’t add items… unless you use the command line. Google was useless, but a quick Feedster query turned up these instructions, which I’m now testing (the key is to use the mdutil command to enable the volume for indexing).
Update: these instructions turn on indexing, but no results are ever returned. Ooops.
Comments Off on Indexing network volumes with Spotlight
Filed under General Tech Stuff
Free 140-hour TiVos
TiVo is running an interesting promotion: buy a $155 12-month subscription and get a free 140-hour TiVo unit. This post at the TiVo Community has the details. Even if you’re an existing customer, this is a pretty good deal, since the $155 subscription turns into about 22 months at the $6.95/month rate. Heck, if you buy a lifetime sub you still come out about $200 ahead, since that’s normally what the 140-hr boxes cost. Want one? Email me, but do it before 4/30, when this expires.
Comments Off on Free 140-hour TiVos
Filed under HDTV and Home Theater
Chicago, on business
I had to go back to Chicago (or, more precisely, to Downers’ Grove) last week for the next stop on our collaboration and communications roadshow. This event was the first one we’ve held in a hotel instead of a Microsoft office, so I was a little leery– the Microsoft office facilities tend to be quite nice, and they’re usually already set up for our presentations. This event was booked at the Marriott Suites in Downers Grove, which turned out to be a wonderful hotel. I was predisposed to like it as soon as my cab turned the corner: just up the street, there’s a Fuddrucker’s and a Brazilian churrascaria, and directly across from the hotel there’s a Fry’s Electronics. Nancy and the rest of the hotel staff were extremely competent and helpful, and John and I got everything set up quickly. The rooms were spacious and comfortable, which is always a nice bonus. We had a team dinner at Sal e Carvão, the churrascaria, and it was excellent. Our event the next day went well, and I got to take an early flight home so I got home just before the kids went to bed (instead of at zero-midnight-thirty). All in all, a good trip.
Comments Off on Chicago, on business
Filed under Travel
Brilliant move by Singlefin
Singlefin announced today that they’re giving away their hosted spam filtering service, free, to organizations with 10 or fewer mailboxes. The press release (which isn’t on their site yet) quotes their CEO as saying “Of course, we know that small companies can become large companies and if we extend this generous offer now while they are still growing, we are confident it will translate into brand loyalty and solid customer referrals down the road”. Here’s the most interesting part:
Any organization anywhere in the world is eligible to take advantage of this protection without the need for cumbersome software or expensive hardware. Singlefin solutions are 100% managed or “hosted” meaning protection for customer networks is all enabled through network redirects. One simple change to a customer’s DNS enables 100% protection from spam, viruses and other malware via Singlefin’s Enterprise Email Filter. The Web and Instant Message Filters are enabled through similar network changes.
This is a terrific move on Singlefin’s part; the incremental cost for them to host these small organizations is low, but the brand-building value is very high. There are so many anti-spam solutions on the market that it’s hard for vendors to differentiate themselves, but this should definitely help build awareness of Singlefin.
Comments Off on Brilliant move by Singlefin
Filed under General Stuff, Musings
Paging Marvin the Martian
Want to destroy the Earth? Here’s a handy guide. (Illodium Q-36 explosive space modulator not included).
Comments Off on Paging Marvin the Martian
Filed under Musings
Anybody want a TiVo?
TiVo is running a promotion for people who have referred customers to them: I can get up to 5 140-hour TiVos for free with the purchase of a 12-month subscription ($155) or a lifetime subscription ($299). This is quite a deal, since the TiVo box itself normally goes for $199. I don’t need one, but if you’re in the market for a new or replacement TiVo, drop me a line before 4/30 and we’ll talk.
Filed under HDTV and Home Theater
Fabrikam goes live
My partners at 3sharp have been involved in a huge project over the last few months: building credible enterprise-level sample applications using Office as a development platform. Behold: Fabrikam, a Microsoft Office System Solutions Learning Platform! Hats off to Peter, John, Anup, Kevin, David, Chris, Greg, and Phil.
Comments Off on Fabrikam goes live
Filed under General Stuff, Musings
My favorite things: a rock
It doesn’t look like much, but this rock is one of my favorite things. It’s a relic of our summer 2000 trip to NAS Whidbey Island with our friend Brian (that’s Commander Albro to the rest of you). There’s a stony little beach not far from a pedestal-mounted EA-6B that we stopped to see. Brian let his dogs out to run, and Arlene and I walked on the beach with David and Thomas. I grabbed a rock to throw it in the water and was immediately struck by its texture and heft, so I brought it back home.
I keep it on my desk, just under my phone, so I can pick it up and hold it while I’m on the phone, or when I’m thinking about something. Some people doodle; I play with my rock. It has a wonderful texture, slightly grainy but smoothed by untold years of wind and wave action. It’s oval in shape, so it fits well in my hand. I don’t know why I like it so well (and I sure don’t know why I felt like blogging about it), but I do. It’s wonderful to me that of all the beautiful creations on God’s earth, I have this little nonperishable piece that I can keep nearby for days when I don’t make it out of the bunker.
Comments Off on My favorite things: a rock
Filed under Musings
Music I didn’t necessarily expect to like
- The Kaiser Chiefs, “I Predict a Riot” (and it’s free on iTunes!)
- Solomon Burke, “Make Do With What You Got“. I’ve always loved Motown and soul, and apparently Burke (whom I’ve never heard of) is an old-school Motown singer who’s, well, not mounting a comeback, because he never really left. Great stuff, with an expressive growl, a hot horn section, and more Hammond B3 than you can shake a stick at.
- Too much stuff to list from Amazon’s free MP3 downloads section (including Kid Loco and Yo La Tengo)
Comments Off on Music I didn’t necessarily expect to like
Filed under Musings
Pilot humor
The scene is sometime in the old era when cockpits had round dials plus flight engineers and navigators. The crusty old-timer captain is breaking in a brand new navigator. The captain opens his briefcase, pulls out a .38 and rests it on the glare panel. He asks the navigator, “Know what this is for?”
“No, sir,” replies the newbie.
“I use it on navigators that get us lost,” explains the captain, winking at his first officer.
The navigator then opens his briefcase, pulls out a .45 an sets it on his chart table. “What’s THAT for?” queries the surprised captain.
“Well, sir,” replies the navigator, “I’ll know we’re lost before you will.”
Comments Off on Pilot humor
Filed under Musings
Ouch: BlackBerry devices causing thumb problems
I hate it when this happens: “Orthopedists say they are seeing an increasing number of patients with similar symptoms, a condition known as ‘overuse syndrome’ or ‘BlackBerry thumb.'” I guess I’d better worry about using my Treo with SnapperMail.
