Paul's Down-Home Page

• Good thing we don’t have any combat troops in Iraq. Tom Ricks reports: “Five gunmen attacked an American military convoy south of Baghdad. The troops were not ‘combat troops,’ so they used return fire to advisethe attackers to die.”
• All week long we’ve been suffering through some kind of renovations on our building. BANG thump BANG BANG squeeeeeeeaaallllll SCREECH THUMP. It’s noisier than anything I ever had to endure while working at home… oh, listen, someone just started a Sawzall!
• Top 5 parental fears: kidnapping, snipers, terrorists, dangerous strangers, and drugs. Top 5 actual causes of death for children: car accidents, homicide by someone known to the child, abuse, suicide, and drowning.
• Sad news: you can’t even trust your pants.
• I really like these minimalist cell phones. I was all excited about buying one for Mom, but it’s not clear that they’re FCC-approved for use here.
• WHO DAT! I can’t wait for the Vikings-Saints game tonight.
• Expect some Exchange-related articles to start appearing here soon. I am finally clearing (most of) my backlog.

• I’m more than halfway done with the technical editing pass on Tony Redmond‘s new Exchange 2010 SP1 book. Those of you who want to know more about Exchange are really going to like it.
• Apropos of SP1: when I installed it, one of my servers failed to start the MS Exchange Forms-Based Authentication service. This caused all OWA logons to the server to fail, and it took me a few minutes to figure out why. Luckily I’d performed the upgrade at night and done a DAG switchover, so no harm done. Apart from that, it’s been flawless.
• When the State Department says it takes four to six weeks for passport issuance or renewal, apparently they mean it. I mailed my renewal in on July 15th and just got the new passport yesterday.
• I love having a Trader Joe’s near my house. If you’re not familiar with them, check out this article and you’ll see some of the reasons why I like them so much.
• Three firms control 89+% of the US soft drink market. Here’s a cool graph showing which firm makes which drinks.
• My co-worker Shelby is running her first 5K, a benefit for lung cancer research called "Jog for Jill." Feel free to drop by and throw a few charitable bucks her way. I know she’d appreciate it.
• Speaking of 5Ks: yeah, I need to run another one soon, but that would require me to actually prepare for it. There’s one coming in in San Jose on Halloween; maybe that’ll be next.
• Next weekend the boys and I are going salmon fishing in Alaska. How much fun is that going to be? (Plus: we all looove salmon, so it’s kind of like going grocery shopping.)

Long week! Arlene’s out of town so I have been playing single dad all week; last week I was teaching in Pensacola and didn’t have five minutes to throw an update together at all.

• David seems to have more summer English homework than I remember having. Back in the day, I had to read several books but I don’t remember getting ancillary assignments like he has.
• The boys and I went to see Rush on Monday night at Shoreline. It was a terrific show. Expect a full(er) review later.
• Our Scoutmaster and his family just came back from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, but not like these men did it. Well done.
• These sound like a lot of oil bidness people I heard about in Louisiana during the 70s and 80s. I laughed and laughed.
• I thought about subscribing to the Marine Corps Times, but for $70/year? No thanks.
• Somewhere in my garage is a set of new rotors and pads for my car. It’s about to the point where I’ll have to dig them out and get busy.
• I had a delicious biscuit at Copeland’s while watching my Uncle Ray perform with his band. They put on a great show— I don’t think I’d ever seen them perform before. Suddenly, though, seeing that movie makes me wish I had a biscuit right now. It must be getting on towards lunchtime or something.

• Devin said it on Twitter before I could post it here: if you don’t like gay marriage, then don’t have one. Otherwise, mind your own business.
• Today would have been my dad’s 65th birthday. I imagine he would have celebrated with a big steak and a long motorcycle ride. In his honor, tonight I’m going to eat a big steak.
• I love it that Nolan Ryan is going to own the Texas Rangers. I’m not a huge baseball fan but this might be enough to make me pay more than casual attention to the Rangers.
• Google Wave: the latest punchline. (I won’t even tell you how bad I’ve heard the current incarnation of GoogleTV is so far. Lots of work to do there.)
• This is enough to get me to the dealership. And I’m not the only one who loves cars, either.
• I think next year’s big summer trip for me and the boys will be to Oshkosh. Phil and Bo both seemed to like it quite a bit. (Second choice: white water rafting in Utah.)

OK, I skipped a week. Feel free to cancel your subscription for a money-back refund if you mind.

• How did I not know that Kevin Miller had a blog? Subscribed.
• If you need to build a fast wireless link across a 20-mile gap, it turns out to be easier than you might think, as well as a great way to learn about some interesting technology.
• My MacBook Pro is so old that you can’t add Bluetooth or wifi inside the case. This makes me sad, but not sad enough to buy a new one. Yet.
• Have you ever heard of "Lightning" Lee Murray? Interesting guy.
• Here’s a great photo gallery from this year’s Oshkosh EAA show. I’m going next year for sure. Who wants to come?
• Have you ever heard of wheat rust? You will.
• I still can’t believe that AT&T wants people to pay money for their MicroCell. I wrote them a strong letter; we’ll see whether they give in and give me one at no charge or whether I have to hassle them some more.
• Some day I too will be in the market for vacation properties in France. Until then, read Tony’s take and get a good laugh.

• So the NSA is going to do critical infrastructure protection (CIP). Good. Someone needs to be doing it; the agency that’s supposed to do so has been asleep at the switch.
• Krispy Kreme for breakfast and a bison burger at The Counter for lunch. At least I’ll die full.
• The rental market in Morgan Hill is hot, hot, hot. It’s a great time to be a landlord, which is good ’cause it’s still a terrible time to sell a house. (It could be worse; we could be in Santa Barbara.)
• I am loving Stuff No One Told Me, but be forewarned; it’s not really kid-friendly.
• If your company offers online signup for a service, and you can’t find my address in your mapping system, it’s not my fault, and you’d better not expect me to call you about it. I’ll just find another service provider.
• Wayne Hale is retiring from NASA. Good luck and Godspeed, sir.

Sadly, I missed last week– I just had too much going on.

• I love Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Every time I hear him speak, or read one of his addresses, I learn something from it. Today’s example: a talk from last year entitled "Remember Lot’s Wife". Money quote:
  

  So, as a new year starts and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently she thought—fatally, as it turned out—that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind.

• I now have a new project for whatever spare time I can piece together: iPad home automation.
• I don’t have an iPhone 4 yet. I know, I know… quelle surprise, right? I had one preordered for last week but I was in CPR class with Dave and Tom all day and didn’t make it over to the Apple store. I’m still considering whether I’d be better off with a Droid X or a Windows phone 7 device.
• CNN claims that almost all of the workers who cleaned up the Exxon Valdez spill are dead. Yikes.
• I’m really glad that someone has documented exactly which Exchange ActiveSync settings the iPhone actually honors.
• Even though my friend Paul was one of its key developers, I still have no urge to play FrontierVille, and you can quote me on that.
• Your motivation for the week: this and this.
• Hey, Delta’s on Twitter.
• Happy Canada Day!