http://jeffblogs.com/ Connecting the dots one prime number at a time en Copyright 2008 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:00:14 -0700 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Shuttle small form factor computer. It was a lot less equipment to pack and gave me an excuse to play with this new device to fully review how well it would work as a server. I was feeling pretty good about my decision. Trina had not yet realized that I had a new computer and really how ticked off could she get about a computer the size of a small breadbox? That theory would probably have held water if I had not made one severely large mistake; I forgot to pack a monitor.]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/new_monitor_joy.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/new_monitor_joy.html Electronics monitor Samsung; 2253BW Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:00:14 -0700 We have now lived in Arizona over 14 years. A lot of our family still lives in Idaho and Utah. As a result we find ourselves making the trek from Arizona to Idaho quite often (more often than I would like that's for sure). We have gotten to where we have a fairly well mapped out path from point A to point B and back. This path is the result of trying just about every different roadway that goes between these three states. And what I have learned from all of this is that there really is no good way to get from Arizona to Idaho without subjecting yourself to a lot of small highways or back roads. I don't so much mind driving the back country but it does have its drawbacks. For example there are large stretches of road that have absolutely nothing on them. Driving from Flagstaff Arizona northward for example takes you across Indian Reservations that barely have phone service let alone rest stops or places to get something to eat or drink. Even cellular service is spotty. Digital phone service is impossible and analog roaming is even questionable. This situation remains in effect through part of southern Utah as well at least until you can get near the Interstate when there are at least some cellular towers to give you adequate phone service. http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/a_social_network_vacation.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/a_social_network_vacation.html Family Technology Plurk social networking Twitter Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:25:43 -0700 eight days I have been fighting with my web hosting company trying to get them to restore my site connectivity after they had a hardware failure. For the first few days I had absolutely no connectivity whatsoever and was completely dead in the water. I spent nearly every waking hour working with them to try and get someone to take ownership of this problem and resolve it. Finally after several days of being down I requested that they move me to a new server so I could begin restoring things myself. They relented and moved my. Unfortunately they did not properly install the software nor load the PERL modules necessary for me to be up. It has been one of the most frustrating experiences of my life and I had come to the conclusion that I needed to find a new hosting provider. ]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/services_restored.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/services_restored.html Blog downtime hosting IX Web Hosting Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:52:43 -0700 yesterday since that is when we left Arizona but since that did not occur until after the baseball game and technically I am classifying going to the Diamondbacks as work (I love my job if that's the case), then today would truly be the first full day of vacation. And since this is my blog and my life I feel like I am empowered to define things however I want to. Wow, that sounded kind of like the time I got a new ball and decided I got to make the rules to the game or else I would take my ball and go home. That didn't work out too well as the ball went flat and we all had to go anyways so hopefully this time that attitude will work better. ]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/timpanogos_harleydavidson.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/timpanogos_harleydavidson.html Family Harley-Davidson dealership Harley vacation Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:18:51 -0700 packing and we were finally ready for our vacation. On Diary of a Diehard I discussed a little of what goes into summer vacation at our house. The planning is more representative of a large scale battle plan for a world war than it is for a family to go on vacation. I think a lot of that is as a result of having a house full of women. With just Dakota and me to represent the male population we are quickly outnumbered by the estrogen gang. Discounting the computer equipment for a moment, there is a substantial difference between how women pack for a vacation and how men pack for the same amount of time and same location. Take for example my son Dakota versus my daughter Whitney.]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/in_search_of_the_wii_cable.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/in_search_of_the_wii_cable.html Electronics Family Wii Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:58:29 -0700 computer store excursion I had to go into stealth mode. Trina had returned from out of town and I was already in trouble for the handiwork she did know about. You would think that a wife would be grateful that her husband would do things around the house but not my wife. Of course her ideas for home improvement and mine seem to be diametrically opposed. She sees things such as landscaping, house painting, and minor repairs as at the top of the list. I am more inclined to think of rewiring the house with optical cable, running Ethernet over power line, or adding home automation devices as home improvement. I mean seriously who doesn't want to control their lights from the comfort of the computer or be able to set the thermostat from the Internet? Still I guess she does have a valid point. Our house is filled with technology goodness but my backyard still has not been fully landscaped since we moved in 14 years ago. I blame the electronics industry. If they would come up with cool landscape technology I would be all over it.]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/the_shuttle_launch.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/the_shuttle_launch.html Electronics Family computer Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:38:52 -0700 Growing up the Fourth of July was the highlight of our summer. We lived in a relatively small town in eastern Idaho. We were a mere 90 minutes from Jackson Hole Wyoming or a little over 2 hours away from Yellowstone Park. Being that close to the Wyoming border is not especially impressive or noteworthy and would normally best be left unsaid. There was a brief time each year that was of importance to us. That time was around the Fourth of July. In Idaho we were allowed to have some types of fireworks but it was limited. We could have sparklers, cones, and ground blossoms. In Idaho we were not permitted to have firecrackers, bottle rockets, roman candles, or anything that went airborne. Wyoming had a much more liberal look on fireworks. I often wondered what it must be like to be in the state legislature in the cowboy state. That had to be kind of like being a sheriff in the wild west. They seemed to pass just enough laws so that the citizens didn't kill themselves but they did not seem to mind arming the people with weapons of mass maiming. As a kid, that makes you just about one of the coolest adults on the planet. http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/fireworks_and_other_memories.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/fireworks_and_other_memories.html Family fireworks Independance Day Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:23:43 -0700 Well it is July 3. It has been 4 days since my shared web host went down leaving my sites down and unavailable. It has been 2 days since a new server was configured partially restoring my web presence. As you know from previous entries the server was misconfigured when it was created and IX Web Hosting failed to load two simple PERL modules for connectivity to MySQL and to SendMail. These are not some obscure module that only I would use; these are standard modules that pretty much everyone on the planet would expect to have loaded. I have been working with the "technical support" personnel for IX Web Hosting to get these modules installed to restore my sites to full working order. There are three ways for you to contact IX Web Hosting technical support. There is phone support, live chat, and by entering a problem ticket. http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/same_blog_time_same_blog_chann.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/same_blog_time_same_blog_chann.html Blog web hosting Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:22:19 -0700 Yesterday I ranted about IX Web Hosting and how I had been down for days while they attempted to try and resolve a hardware problem they were having. Late last evening after the Diamondbacks game I arrived home to find that the sites were still unavailable. I again reached out to technical support at IX Web Hosting to get a status. I was told that my sites would be restored "very soon". Since "very soon" had encompassed 3 days so far I wasn't real confident that I would be up any time during this millennium. I expressed my frustration and asked if I could please be moved to a different server. Even if I had to recreate all of my sites myself it would be better than looking at an error screen. The technician was shocked that I would want to move servers since this one was being repaired and would be available shortly. Yeah he should come and hang out on my end and see what it is like.]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/and_the_saga_continues.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/and_the_saga_continues.html Blog web hosting Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:21:10 -0700 lamented about my struggles with IX Web Hosting who I am currently using. When I wrote in March I explained that there may be a bit of downtime to my sites due to being moved to a new server. My sites had to be migrated because the server was still using some very dated software and I needed something that was actually published this century. The server migration went fairly well or so I thought. As I started to dig into the configuration I found modules missing that made my blog unavailable. This was a simple problem but it took IX Web Hosting a week to get things straightened out. Finally I was back up and I tried to forget the problems I had had.]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/ix_web_hosting_just_say_no.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/07/ix_web_hosting_just_say_no.html Blog errors web hosting Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:19:24 -0700 The Harley-Davidson Owners Group has come up with a concept they declared Million Mile Monday. They set aside June 30, 2008 as a day to get everyone out on their bikes. The goal was to collectively try and accumulate one-million miles worldwide. The miles could be pretty much anything. Some would use their bikes to commute while others had planned a long journey that would incorporate this date into their plan. At the end of the day members were invited to log into the H.O.G. web site and enter their miles. It is a cool idea really. What better way to remind people how great it is to ride a motorcycle than to get them out on the road. Hopefully it would also increase the total number of riders on the road for at least a day. This should in turn make other drivers more aware that the motorcycle population is not a niche market but is much more mainstream than they had previously imagined. Perhaps then drivers would be more conscientious than they have been in the past. http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/the_million_mile_ride.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/the_million_mile_ride.html Harley-Davidson HOG Night Train ride Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:17:53 -0700 yesterday I was going to need some new parts in order to make the necessary repairs around the house. I am usually ok going to Home Depot or Lowe's by myself. Well ok that might be debatable especially after the whole rewiring the house and adding home automation fiasco of 1999. By the way, the switch explosion was not among those that I had previously messed with so this one was not my fault. That's my story and I am sticking with it.]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/whats_that_little_thing.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/whats_that_little_thing.html Electronics Technology computer; small form factor Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:15:09 -0700 I should learn never to open my mouth. First it would mean a lot fewer nights spent sleeping on the couch. Second I would probably find myself in a lot fewer weird and unusual situations. In this particular context I would have had a much easier day and I wouldn't be in nearly as much pain. A few days ago I noted that Trina and Whitney had left town leaving Tiffany, Dakota, and me at home to fend for ourselves. I also noted that part of the challenge that I had was to find something for Dakota to do so that he was not so bored. Yeah, that was a really bad thing to say. No sooner had I written that then the entire universe started to crumble around me. Ok, maybe not the whole universe, just that little piece that Trina left me in charge of during her absence. http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/when_it_rains_it_pours.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/when_it_rains_it_pours.html Family Miscellaneous home improvement Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:12:37 -0700 With Trina and Whitney out of town that leaves me home with Tiffany and Dakota. Tiffany is now working full time so rarely do we even see her with work and then going out with her friends. That leaves me and Dakota at home. There is nothing quite like having an eleven year-old boy around to make you realize how old you really are. That kid has nothing but energy. The depth of that energy is diametrically opposed to the shallowness of his attention span. Approximately every 5 minutes he has to tell me how bored he is and how there isn't anything to do. That wouldn't be so bad but I am really trying to get some work done and the last thing I need is to stop and try and find something for him to do. And it's not like just anything will relieve the boredom. Oh no it has to be highly entertaining. There is no way I could possibly suggest that perhaps he could clean his room or possibly empty the dishwasher. No chores are definitely not on the list of fun things to do. As a result he is practically driving me crazy. So tonight I decided we all needed a break. http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/me_myself_and_walle.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/me_myself_and_walle.html Family Disney movies Pixar Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:01:59 -0700 June 24th entry. No wonder it sounded so familiar. I thought that just meant that I was in the zone and focused. Now I realize that I am having a side effect from the medication they gave me for my bronchitis. I hate when that happens. Writing while on medications is definitely different than what normally happens when I write. Usually I can almost visualize the words on the paper and I feel as though I am just a scribe to some higher power that is guiding my words. While on meds I feel more like I am wandering around in a daze surrounded by fog. I'm definitely going to have to pay closer attention otherwise some of these posts are going to sound like Jethro Tull lyrics which I still believe he makes up as he is singing the songs.]]> http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/no_good_can_come_from_this.html http://jeffblogs.com/2008/06/no_good_can_come_from_this.html Family cabinets door handles drawer pulls Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:40:32 -0700