I've finally signed up for an account with Steam, and bought a couple of simple puzzle/arcade type games.  This is surely a sign of the End of Days given that the last game I played on a computer was Zork III :)

NightSky is a deceptively simple physics game, use the keys to roll a ball with variable properties through a 2D maze of obstructions.  I'm about half way through it now, stuck on a screen where I have to figure out how to get the ball moving fast enough to flip into the air and escape though an opening near the ceiling.

And of course I had to buy Peggle, it's got a Unicorn! :)

It's been such a nightmare of a week, dealing with family crap, that I forgot all about Moe down in the basement.  I finally remembered to check on him this morning and found this waiting for me.

Last spring I mentioned I'd bought some dwarf fruit trees to try growing as part of the Mythical Meadow garden project.  I picked up a dwarf orange, lemon and lime tree, and named them respectively, Curly, Moe and Larry. :)

When fall came, I moved them all into my basement for the winter, since they wouldn't survive the cold here in the Pacific NorthWest.  I check on them once a week to see if they need water, make sure the lights are working, see if they're still alive.  Surprisingly, the move indoors didn't make them dormant, each week I see a little new growth, some new leaves, etc.

I hate network problems... *grumble*

The AudioTron that sits in the master bedroom and acts as alarm clock in addition to music source, was the last device in my network that used HPNA (Home Phoneline Networking). This is because there isn't a network jack anywhere close to the bedroom, and Phoneline Networking across house phases is a joke.

Now about 7 years ago this AudioTron got a bit of a shock from a nearby lightning strike, that made the HPNA interface a bit problematic. I sent it back to TurtleBeach for repair, just before the repair group for the AT shutdown because they'd been discontinued. I got it back a few weeks later with a note that they couldn't find anything wrong. Well, yeah, it still worked, but it was more prone to dropouts, but I has no way to prove that.

Today the HPNA interface finally died, or at least turned into a zombie. If I placed the ethernet bridge right next to it on a short phone cable, I'd get a link light about 50% of the time, it was basically unusable. Ok, time to finally fall back to plan B, a wireless bridge, since the AT also has an ethernet jack.

I've mentioned before how much I hate wireless. It took the better part of 5 hours to find a combination of radios and settings that would create a transparent wireless bridge, basically a cable made of RF. Some radios in my parts box had old firmware where WDS didn't work right. Some worked but used RF bands that are very noisy and the AP is at the opposite corner and two floors down from where the AT sits.

It's working, but it needs a real 5Ghz antenna, all I had with the right connector were for 2.4Ghz.

Today was supposed to be a day to relax and catch up on some sleep. *bah*

I do understand why small companies outsource their email ads to third party bulk email processors, though I don't have to like it. One reason I don't like it is because those bulk email houses seem to be inept by design, they almost universally refuse to send that email using from addresses that relates to the original sender.

Example: woot.com

There is a hell of a difference between [bounce-mc.us1_1177321.1101214-xxxxxx=xxxxxx.xxx@mail90.us2.rsgsv.net] and an address that actually refers to the woot.com company. Every one of those bulk email processors I've ever run across will sell accounts to anybody, including spammers. Because of that, they get themselves blacklisted, and the end user can only whitelist who they thought the email should have been from, not that damn obscure email address that you can't tell apart from the spam coming out of the same server.

To all you businesses out there trying to attract and retain customers, I have a question.

Why would you outsource your email through a company that won't tell the recipient that the email is from you, and not the drug spammer they also sold an account to?

Out of the blue yesterday, even though I opt-out of their mailing list over 5 years ago, the EFF decided I needed to opt-back in to their newsletter.

CAN-SPAM compliant? Nope ...

Another entry for sendmails access list ...

Reading all the various reports on the GPS tracking issue being argued in front of the Supreme Court today, I keep seeing the same argument show up.

"The expectation of privacy is a lot less these days, just look at what people reveal on facebook."

And I consider that argument to be so much bullshit, for a number of reasons, the most important being:  What somebody volunteers about themselves should in no way relate to the kinds of secret surveillance that are legal to use against them.

People might decide to let the world know they went to dinner at X and saw movie Y last night, via any number of social networks.  That is their choice, they have decided to make that information public knowledge.  That same person might not want the world to know that on the way home from the movie, they stopped at the local liquor store and picked up a bottle of rum.  That is also their choice.

Government surveillance via a GPS tracker takes the decision of what privacy they may give up and what they may retain, out of their hands and places it in the hands of somebody else.  The expectation of privacy they had because their privacy was under their control, ceases to exist.

Just because some people volunteer to give up some privacy, occasionally, does not mean that everybody else has lost their right to privacy all the time.  If the Government wants to track somebody, go to court, convince a judge, get a court order authorizing it.  If they can't convince one, then stick that tracker on their own car, but keep it the hell off of ours.

First thing to note, I'm NOT a Chase customer, I do not do business with them.

So it's even odder than normal that I get a letter from them today, where they explain that they've noticed I'm not getting advertising from them for about a dozen different services they offer, and I should mark the check boxes on the letter for the services I DON'T WANT them to begin sending me junk mail about and mail it back to them.

WTF?  I'm supposed to opt-out of junk mail from a place I'm not a customer of?

If they begin sending me shit in the mail, and they're stupid enough to include postage paid return envelopes, I intend to cost them as much money as possible by shredding everything they send me and mailing it back to them.  They pay the postage both ways, it's their landfill that fills up, it's their employee that wastes their money to open and discard the shredded remains of their junk mail.

Well, I appear to have survived another complete orbit of this rocks mad dash around its thermonuclear furnace of a parent.  Getting older isn't all bad, I celebrated with Good Scotch, A Good Steak, and a Cuddly Peggy, all things that get better with age. :)

As far as I know, it's two different names for the same fish, it's just who you ask.

I put a thin layer of garlic infused olive oil in the pan, then laid the filet in it.  On top of the filet went a sprinkling of oregano, rosemary, some chili infused olive oil, jalapeno slices and a dusting of black lava sea salt.  15 minutes in the oven at 350 and it was ready to eat.

And yes, I eat the jalapeno's also. :)