Buh-bye, Skippy!

Skippy's List is off of my blog list. No more will it's URL darken this site, or any I run. Why? Well, it's gone well off the deep end, and wound up in "let's talk some seriously deranged, mental s___".

End of discussion.

Monday Night Homework Blues

This will be quick. I'm reading through my textbook, "Digital Telephony", for my master's class. Came across the following quote, "It's well known that..."
Let me be crystal clear here. The following phrases should NEVER, EVER be found in a textbook:

• It's obvious...


• It's easily seen...


• It's clear that...


• It's well known that...

Out.

Rob Huddleston: Your Book ROCKS!

I've been working on some simple HTML and CSS pages. But I was working from books that were 10+ years old. Today, I went out and bought a new HTML / CSS / XHTML book, "HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Your Visual Blueprint for Designing Effective Web Pages" by Rob Huddleston. One of the first pages pointed me towards a VERY cool CSS site, called "Under the Sea" by Eric Stoltz (no, not THAT Eric Stoltz).

To start, just the link to the CSS Zen Garden was worth the price. The "Under the Sea" page alone has enough cool tricks on it that I'll be parsing it for the next week.

The book itself is very well laid out, in my opinion. The information is presented well, not overbearing, does not insult my intelligence, and is straightforward. Well worth the price. (Which was $30 at Borders. Amazon.com may have it cheaper.)

Frankly, if you're looking for a good book on XHTML and CSS, this is it.

Colts vs the Patriots

I sent my younger brother a text message asking where he was.

He sent me this.



I'm pretty certain he was adopted.

God Speed, Col. Ripley

Retired Marine Col. John Ripley, who was credited with stopping a column of North Vietnamese tanks by blowing up a pair of bridges during the 1972 Easter Offensive of the Vietnam War, died at home at age 69, friends and relatives said Sunday.

You will be missed, sir.
God speed.

Nyet, Alexey! No worm from you!

I check out I Can Haz Cheezburger fairly regularly. Like many of the larger sites nowadays, it has a boatload of small adverts all over. Just this morning, as the site was loading, Norton popped up a message:

Attempted Intrusion "HTTP Misleading Application Detection" against your machine was detected and blocked.

Bah-ROO!!??

A quick check of the Norton log shows the following:

Details: Attempted Intrusion "HTTP Misleading Application Detection" against your machine was detected and blocked.
Intruder: infoclicknow.com(http(80)).
Risk Level: High.
Protocol: TCP.
Attacked IP: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
Attacked Port: 1463.

So, who is "infoclicknow.com", I wonder?

A quick ICANN check provided the following:

Registrant:
Alexey Vasiliev +7.3834427722
Alexey Vasiliev
Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
Moskow,NSK,RUSSIAN FEDERATION 630122

Domain Name:infoclicknow.com
Record last updated at 2008-10-22 13:03:18
Record created on 2008/10/22
Record expired on 2009/10/22

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.freefastdns.com ns2.freefastdns.com

Administrator:
name: Alexey Vasiliev
mail: tel: +7.3834427722
org: Alexey Vasiliev

address: Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
city: Moskow
,province: NSK
,country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
postcode: 630122

Technical Contactor:
name: Alexey Vasiliev
mail: tel: +7.3834427722
org: Alexey Vasiliev

address: Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
city: Moskow
,province: NSK
,country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
postcode: 630122

Billing Contactor:
name: Alexey Vasiliev
mail: tel: +7.3834427722
org: Alexey Vasiliev

address: Ol. Duducha 21/2 53
city: Moskow
,province: NSK
,country: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
postcode: 630122

Registration Service Provider:
name: Regtime.net
tel: +7 8462698077
fax: +7 8462698057
web:http://www.webnames.ru

Imagine that? A Russian who is trying to pass malware? Whoda thunk it?

Jaless Alexey! Nyet!

NOTE: Very poor translation: S____ Alexey! No!

Attitude

I, er, enhanced an image that a friend sent me of his new pet.

He appreciated it.

Random Friday Night Post: The Alpo Story

Background: I was a volunteer firefighter for 8 years. I worked out of one of the busiest stations in Maryland. I mainly worked on the ambulance, which is the setting for tonight's post.

We've been dispatched for an "unknown" medical emergency. I'm the third aide, meaning I'm sitting in the back of the ambulance. We just pulled up on location. I hop out, aide bag over my shoulder. I'm standing beside the ambulance wondering when the driver and second aide are going to get out. I start to walk towards the passenger side door of the cab when I hear a low growl over my shoulder.

I slooooooowly turned my head. There, about 8 feet away, was a medium-size, mangy, dirty, ugly dog. Does Cujo ring a bell, friends? Now I realize why the other two guys are not getting out of the ambulance.

They're too busy laughing their asses off.

I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do, whether make a jump for the back of the ambulance from whence I came? The cab so that I can kill the driver and aide before I get mauled?

Just as I'm trying to decide, I hear a crunch, crunch, crunch sound behind me as if someone were walking across gravel. I again slooooooowly turn my head a little further.

I beheld a beautiful sight; a police officer was coming up behind me, with both his flashlight beam and full attention on the dog. And his non-flashlight-holding hand was on his gun. No, not just on it, but his hand around the grip. All he had to do was pull up and the gun would be unholstered.

Fortunately, the dog was as stupid as it was ugly. He did not like the idea of tangling with two people. He finally drifted off, and I and the (expletives deleted for decency) driver and second aide went on about the business of this call.

As you're probably aware, firefighters are known for harassing each other. Mercilessly. I became immortalized thereafter (or at least until I did something else even better) as "Alpo".

And now you know the REST of the story...

Technology is overrated.

Sometimes, it's better to go with the simple answer to a particularly thorny problem.

This from a friend of mine. Five screens, three games. He and his wife were watching three NFL games simultaneously, and they both have their respective fantasy football sites up on their laptops (operating wirelessly through their access point).

This is known as serious visual overload.

(sniff... sniff) I'm so proud!