Flipping the switch
Next Monday (August 2nd) we are flipping the switch from the old reliable Linux based email system (Sendmail, Washington University IMAP/POP3) to a relatively newly deployed Microsoft Exchange 2003. Needless is to say that we – TRC staff– all have been busy wrapping things up to minimize the impact. But things –bad things, unexpected things– are bound to happen. It is just a matter of t … ⌘ Read more

Parsing PHP code
I am trying to implement a little hack that will allow the use of PHP code within posts. Since I am the only “author” here, I do not think that will bring much of a security risk. This post is intended to test this hack. I will try the following, < ?php echo(“This hack has worked”); ?> to see if it does the trick. And here it goes:

This concludes this test. ⌘ Read more

Drove a lot, saw places
Today (actually, yesterday) Kim and I went over to Tampa. We drove a lot around and I am surprised of the fact that, even though it is the first time I drive around Tampa, we did not get lost, we did not drive more than normal to find the place(s) we were looking for, we did not get stuck in traffic.

I have to say that I found some of the parts of Tampa pretty abandoned. I do not mean the whole city is like that, but certain places had an almost dead (or completely dead) lawn, some … ⌘ Read more

Thanks to the Slammer, Slammed
Yes, just like a lot of people around, we got “slammed at work.” There were several hundred of machines on Campus, I presumed, but the five we got compromised are the one’s that bothered me the most.

Out of the five, two were servers, our servers, my servers. A brand new SQL server, just a week old, more or less, was missing the hot fix. Another older one, under the control of somebody else, but still within my College was missing it too. It could have been wors … ⌘ Read more

Coming back: Happy Thanksgiving!
Howdy all! Finally coming back on track now. Kid still sick but getting better, pain on my back still there, but feeling hopeful on both fronts.

It is the evening before Thanksgiving and a long weekend is ahead. My parents are coming up to visit on Friday, so I guess it is going to be quite busy. I am back, logs shall flow, as they did before. I have a lot to talk about and I certainly need to come here to upload.

For my fellow Americans, enjoy Thanksgiving, b … ⌘ Read more