Category: Life in General

Well, I suppose that this happens all over the place so I shouldn’t be surprised that it happened to me, but server2.spiderhosts.com got hacked over the last couple of days, which means that movingparts.net was off the ‘net for the duration, which stinks. However, I had thought ahead this time (4 months back), and decided to manage my DNS apart from spiderhosts.com. So, at the very least, I was able to set up a backup MX record for myself and I was only unable to receive e-mail for a day. Not horrible. And, as a result, I took the time to learn all the magic of setting up one’s own SMTP server (qmail just plain rocks), virtual domain hosting with Read more…

Woohoo!! Not quite a year. =:) Heh. Okay, then, things are decently good, by gummy. I’ve found a wonderful little web-hosting solution, it seems. HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thanks to Nathan Clemons at windsofstorm.net for hosting my site for the last 5+ years(?). It’s been a LONG, LONG time and I really appreciate your kindness, Nathan!! Check out his latest project when you get a second… Looks good!! =:) So, back to this tremendous dealio…. I’ve been using directnic.com for the last several years, and for the last year, paid them $15 for 2 POP3 e-mail accounts. And even paying $15/year for those two e-mail accounts, I had a bunch of problems with them–to the point of having my e-mail delayed Read more…

As I said, there was nothing wrong with Linux that made me start looking for fun elsewhere. Linux is a very good operating system. BUT. It is not the only good operating system out there. And as I have a rather annoying personal trait of getting bored with things that don’t challenge me mentally, I am constantly looking for things that stretch my mind. Enter FreeBSD–a UNIX Operating System that traces its roots back to the prestigious BSD4.4 UNIX OS (as oppposed to the Linux Operating System–which has no such claims to illustrious kernel heritages–the entire kernel is written from scratch by Linus Torvalds and a world-wide team of volunteers). Anyhoo, of the BSD variants out there in the wild Read more…

Okay. I’ve just gotta say it. I am VERY impressed with vmware3. =:) For my work, there are certain things for which I simply have to use the below-discussed Micro$oft Operating (?) Systems. And I’ll be danged if I’m actually going to have to work inside the thing. That I simply can’t stand. I can’t explain it. Write it off to another one of those nutty UNIX geek things or paranoia or something. But I can’t stand being forced to work completely inside the confines of anything Microsoft dishes out. Anyway. So along comes the question… how do you do that? Especially when your job says that you have to work with Windoze. Well, you find an emulator that lets Read more…

One of the coolest things about Linux is the amazing amount of configurability it offers. One of those things that you’re allowed to choose in your Linux machine is the type of filesystem that your Linux machine will use. Linux has, for the majority of its life, been tied to the ext2 filesystem. That stands for second extended filesystem, not that that means anything to you. But it’s a decently-fast filesystem that has done very well for Linux for a long time. Well, times have changed, etc., etc., and folks are desiring more reliability, fault-tolerance, higher performance, more security, and other valuable features from their filesystems these days. And this is a good thing! I have poked around a bit Read more…

Hm. Much has happened since I’ve last updated this page. The toolbox project, that now will be pushed to its own page just for posterity’s sake, has been replaced by bbconf, the much-improved blackbox configurator. I’ve done more miscellaneous coding, some of which may actually be considered useful for people other than myself. I think I’ll list some of it here… =:)

Well alrighty then… A design overhaul. Much needed and all. I’d love to think that this space could eventually be used to communicate with anyone who cares… sort of like that new-fangled “blog” thingey. =:) But being that I actually know me–and know just how little time I have… well, we’ll see how it goes…. =:) Let’s just say I’m not optimistic that I’ll actually have the time to keep it up… So life is interesting. Mine has taken turns that I’d never thought it would take. My Dad has passed away very recently. I miss you, Dad.

So. About me. I’m a Systems Engineer by trade. At heart, I’m an artist. A Renaissance man. I’ve always strived to be the absolute best that I could be. Not for anybody else, necessarily. Just because I enjoy seeing myself doing something that I can be proud of when it’s all said and done. I still remember my first “real” job. I worked in a library. I was the “book returner” guy. But, I quickly became valued as the quickest “fix-it-all” guy, the best and most knowledgeable computer guy, and the hardest worker. Well, maybe not the hardest worker, but you get the idea. =:) I was first given the title of “A True Renaissance Man” at that job. I Read more…

Well, I used to have a section here about a patch I contributed to gkrellm to allow it to comfortably rest inside blackbox’s "slit" (think dock/wharf), but since gkrellm 0.9.7, it’s been accepted into gkrellm’s source. I guess I won’t mention it after all… Er. Wait… =;) I’ve written a shnazzy little utility (perl script) for use with the blackbox window manager. Download this little beauty and automagically create blackbox menus from a hierarchy of image-directories. That is, this script will do it all for you. It will organize your backgrounds into two main submenus (those in themes and those not), and will create submenus from the directories it finds (just tell it where to look) and menu items that Read more…

So it’s a new year, a new decade, a new century, and a new millennium. Scary times, some might say. Yeah, yeah–I know, you’ve heard it all before and I’m not saying anything different. But I cannot begin to tell you the peace that comes in knowing that no matter what, God is in control. We’re living in the midst of a knowledge explosion right now, and it is absolutely amazing what man can do these days. But what really saddens and worries me is that in the midst of all of our “brilliance”, we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re all we need in this world. We can do so much more, so much faster, so much better, and so much Read more…