I hate school
When your, almost seven years old, son tells you he hates going to school you worry. It is not the first time that KM tells me he doesn’t like going to school. He goes to a private, Christian school, and his main complain has always being that he doesn’t like to memorize the weekly versicle. I have noticed that this “disliking” normally comes after a weekend, holiday, or similar ‘time off school’ occasion.
I have talked to him, trying to find out if there are other reasons, but haven’t … ⌘ Read more
What a load of crock!
If it weren’t enough that you have to go through airport hell every time you must take an airplane, some people is trying to cash in, and they are using terrorism to their advantage. Enter Clear card.
From their CEO (read while playing patriotic music on the background, waving an American flag) :
“I started Verified Identity Pass with a simple idea: In the post 9-11 era we have to take new measures to protect ourselves yet not destroy our way of life by strangling the free f … ⌘ Read more
First day at school
Today is Kent’s first day at school, after the long –although it did not seemed that long– summer vacation. It is his first grade, on a new school and I have “the jitters.” I worry for my son, all the time. I enjoyed this summer with him more than anything in the world. You can’t stop them from growing up, you can’t be with them all the time. But it is so hard not to…
It is an adaptation that will take time. ⌘ Read more
Ebay feedback blackmail
If you do business on Ebay, whether you are power seller with your own store there or simply a John Doe such as myself, please follow the following etiquette:
- If you are selling, and the item(s) you sold get paid (right away or in a timely manner), leave your feedback right away. No need to wait till the buyer leaves his. Doing so is bad, really bad.
- If you are buying, wait till the item arrives and then leave a feedback accordingly. Consider communication with the seller, q … ⌘ Read more
We now have KDE running on
NixOS ( obligatory\
screenshot). Just kdebase for now (Martin
Bravenboer already added kdelibs a long time ago so
that we could run the wonderful KCachegrind),
but it contains all the important stuff (Konqueror, KDesktop,
Kicker, Konsole, Control Center, … ⌘ Read more
Thought of the day
If your weblog or site –in general– advertising is slowing down the load of pages to an almost complete halt, it is time to re-think and take a different marketing approach. Your writings and your advertising are been missing. You may as well cancel your hosting and print what you want to say, along with the advertisings. ⌘ Read more
More changes coming
For the first time I am working on creating a complete theme here. The last time I had a decent one was back when WordPress 1.5 was around, for which themes weren’t implemented as they are now.
No much have been happening in life. I don’t have much to tell right now, other that those minor breadcrumbs of life. Actually, I have a few things I want to write, if anything to keep record online of what happened. Those few things involve GoDaddy and Media Temple. But it will be a future top … ⌘ Read more
It’s time to say goodbye
It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2006 and welcome 2007. This will be – I think – my last entry of the year. A few has happened to the Collantes’ family in 2006, but the most important thing is that we have kept together, and that we have being blessed in many ways. Kent Martin has brought joy to our lives, so much joy we did not know existed. He is the main reason I love life. He and my wife, Kim.
To all – those who might read and those passing by (including bots and al … ⌘ Read more
Three years ago
In light of everything happening in Asia, specifically on the Korean peninsula, I remembered what I wrote three years ago, more or less. It took them three years to develop something that can be tested (a bomb), or were they working already on it for a long time and our intelligence was ‘asleep’? If it was the first, they could already have a way to deliver it overseas, and if it is the secon … ⌘ Read more
We, the forgetful
I am often intrigued, saddened, worried, by the human “natural” forgetful nature. Since the beginning of time, we haven’t kept memories of lost, gone ones. Did any of you remember –or even knew of– your great-grandparents? How many generations do you have knowledge of? When you are gone, how many years will you be remembered? Why do we forget? Why? What can we do to change that? Going through a life of accomplishments –or lack of, it doesn’t matter– and ending up in the void. Isn’ … ⌘ Read more
You can’t do that!
Technology, Technology news, Times Online
“I can’t believe that your company would allow people to make money from something that you allow people to have free access to. Is this really the case?” she asked.
“If Mozilla permit the sale of copied versions of its software, it makes it virtually impossible for us, from a practical point of view, to enforce UK anti-piracy legislation, as it is difficult for us … ⌘ Read more
Confussed
I have not written for a long time. I am in a state of confussion and change. I feel the urge to redefine life and things around me, I just don’t know how and when to start. And that urge to redefine does not relates to this weblog, even though the weblog falls into the category of “things around me.”
I am around, I am not dead (Kim and Kent need me). I am trying to find my way. ⌘ Read more
Microsoft Security Bulletins
This is the second time that I receive a Microsoft Security Bulletin and, since Microsoft uses PGP to sign their bulletins, I have decided to check their signature validity. I don’t know if this has been a flaw in the past as well, since I delete those bulletins without even reading them most of the time, but in the two occassions I have checked them, they had failed to verify, since the signature is bad.
[-- Begin GPG Output (Wed Jul 13 08:30:48 2005) --]
Sign ... ⌘ [Read more](https://collantes.us/2005/07/13/microsoft-security-bulletins/)Downing Street Memo
I have known about this since it was released to the News media, but I haven’t comment about it here. I am providing a link to the contents of the Memo (pretty small read, I assure you) as they showed on the Times Online on May 1st, 2005. Draw your conclusions. I just want to quote a few parts of it. … ⌘ Read more
Terri’s autopsy: What does it means?
The results of Terri Schiavo’s autopsy were released today. BBC News reported:
Examiner John Throgmartin said there was no evidence of trauma or strangulation prior to Schiavo’s collapse. The autopsy also could not prove that she was suffering from an eating disorder at the time – her diminished potassium levels at the time could have been affected by emer … ⌘ Read more
Chosen by God?
I have heard in several occasions, and read quite a few times, that President George W. Bush believes he was chosen (appointed) by God to be our President. God, supposedly, wants nothing but well being for us all, right? Then I would like to know what Mr. Bush is doing to end the killing, abuse and hunger (among other things) from places like Central, South America and Caribbean, Africa and great parts of Asia.
Some say God acts in mysterious ways. Boy, I am about to believe it! ⌘ Read more
I am still here
It has been a while since I came to talk. I am afraid this time I will not talk much either. Between work, family, a game (I used not to play any game at all. Now the whole family has been playing Toon Town for almost 5 months. Give it a try, it is addictive! :-) ) and a few personal projects I had had little time to come here and chatter. But I am still here, I will come back. I want to upgrade to the latest Wordpress, I want to change a few things around. Davi … ⌘ Read more
Taking a break
For the very first time I feel like taking a complete break from the weblogging world. I have gone away in the past, but it was never as permanent as I said it would be. Today, for once, I feel I can really do it. That is, break away for a longer time than the previous. Reasons? Just tired, just need more time with my growing kid and family in general.
Whatever reason is, I am taking a break. Will I be gone long? Will I come back tomorrow? Hard to tell. I am not that interesting of a read to start … ⌘ Read more
Quiet time
It has been a quiet time here. But quiet here does not means it has been so everywhere else. It has been stressful, it has been painful. It hasn’t been easy. Whoever once said –or wrote– that life isn’t easy wasn’t lying. But as uneasy as it might get, it is worth living it.
It is the Marketers fault!
While reading my daily doses of irrelevant information on Slashdot today, I saw that “ _…The UK Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints that Microsoft misled consumers by running advertisements claiming Linux is 10 times more expensive than Windows…_” While they did not lied, they forgot to mention that the … ⌘ Read more
More on Lingo
A while ago I wrote about my plans of dropping BellSouth for a VoIP provider called Lingo. At that time I also wrote that I would come back and write a review about it. Well, this is not a real review –I really do not know how to write one– but it contains my experiences with Lingo voice over IP (VoIP) service, so far.
When something works fine there is very little to tell. The … ⌘ Read more
I am a virus, open me!
The history repeats itself. No matter how many viruses get to their inboxes, no matter how many times you tell them not to open those attachments, when all logic and common sense are just yelling “delete!”, they will open it.
Virus and trojan makers/scripters will always succeed. Antivirus companies will always be behind (even for a few hours/minutes) and make tons of money. As long as my type of user exists there will be a future of revenues on that field and a headache for the r … ⌘ Read more
Small catching up
Last week was a busy week. The Exchange server went into ¾ full production and, yes, it crashed. For the first time I had to recover the PRIV and PUB databases and the server wasn’t been on production not even a week! Oh boy…
I got the Lingo gateway (VoIP gateway, that is) and the quality is excellent, while reaching their technical support is close to impossible. When I finall … ⌘ Read more
First day
I must admit, before I continue, that I did not exercise last night. At least, not as I had intended. It is my fault, I became lazy and even though Kim pushed me well, it did not worked out. But… I am proud the say that I just walked three miles this morning and, boy, it felt good. I know it is not a sensational “news”, but I wanted to mark the day of my come back. I will be fit in no time. I have to. I must. Next, I will buy a pedometer. Thanks to my friend [Martin](http://www.edulon.co.uk/ “Renaissance Ed … ⌘ Read more
It happened again
Last Friday family got together in our house and some photos were taken. Well, it happened again, just this time there was no other family around, but the three of us. We were making time to go over the airport to pick Khanh (brother-in-law) and girlfriend up, so I snapped a few photos, from which I have choosen five. It is mainly about KM, but Kim is in one of them, for the first time!
Something bad about the night … ⌘ Read more
In God we trust
It is interesting to find out, at times when some minority wants to have removed “…under God…” from the Pledge of Allegiance, about this —it refers to the Great Seal of the United States of America motto:
The federal courts have held that the motto symbolizes the historical role of religion in our society, Lynch, 465 U.S. at 676, formalizes our medium of exchange, see O’Hair v. Blumenthal, 462 F. Supp. 19, 20 (W.D. Tex.), aff’d sub nom. O’Hair v. Murray, 588 F.2d 1144 (5th Cir. … ⌘ Read more
Friday night photos
As I previously mentioned, last night some family members got together in our home to eat and drink. Oh, and to say good bye to some other family that was visiting from California. As it is normal when family gets together, everything started quite early –5:30PM– and finished around 9:30PM. That simply means that food and beer was no longer available at that time ;-) .
Normally I am the one taking the photos around, taking care of this kids and later on posting things here. Last night … ⌘ Read more
Screw SPEWS
Recently I found out that my existing server IP—the server I am moving away from—is banned on SPEWS (I am not linking them, Google it and you shall know), because it is assigned to UUnet, which is blamed of harbouring spammers. Following the recommendation of the bounced email I posted on Usenet, asking to be removed, without knowing at that time that it was something out of my h … ⌘ Read more
Short and sweet
Just a quick post, short and sweet, while my wife and kid still sleep and I patiently wait for the ServerBeach people to fix the mess on my server (the other server). Can you believe that I lost connection last night, went to sleep and this morning I found that my IP goes to a Windows 2003 server? Boy, talk about some big time screw up!
I have 15 (fifteen, that is) invitations for Gmail that I am giving out for free. If anyone wants one, go ahead and [email … ⌘ Read more
WordPress and how I did it
This might as well be my last entry completely related or dedicated to WP. I am sure I will mention it here and there in the future, but it would have to be something very important for me to talk about it exclusively in one entry.
As the few of you know, I used to run Movable Type (MT) and I was happy with it. The only thing that always bothered me was the rebuild times, which were getting bigger and bigger and the fact the every comment posted would take from 2 to 5 minute … ⌘ Read more
Just about there
I know I have been writting a lot (well, not a lot, since I am holding down on writting until everything works as I want) about WP and how great it is and how happy I am to have moved away from MT, etc. I have been testing things, getting everything around to look and feel as they did a while back, when MT was still the one in command.
Now, finally, after a few weeks of trying, using the little time I have at home to work on this, I have managed to get the site to look very close to what I want … ⌘ Read more
Brainstorming
Some of you might have noticed that I changed things around a little bit. I am still not decided what to have in here, but the actual interface will do for now, even though at time you might see the “blue” one that I had for quite a while before.
I have eliminated the categories, even though I still use them when writing entries. Tomorrow –or the day after tomorrow– I will be upgrading to 1.3-prealpha, which contains some code to allow clean URI’s across the whole site (with the exception o … ⌘ Read more
Changing servers
As if weren’t enough my move to WordPress and my internal debacle on what to do with the site design, now I am getting ready to move all domains and files –physically– to another hosting company, on a real colocated server (not VS anymore).
The virtual server I have used until now (and that I still use now, for the time being) served me well, but it is getting o … ⌘ Read more
Do you want to try it?
A demo of Office 2004 for Mac is available for Mac users to try. From Microsoft MacTopia Office 2004 page:
“…There’s time for fun and time to focus. When you’re ready to get down to business, Microsoft’s Office 2004 for Mac provi … ⌘ Read more
Drawing a blank
I am drawing a blank trying to decided the new layout of this site. I have no problems with the previous one, but as I am running a new engine here I would like the layout to be new as well. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday trying to come up with something and all went to waste.
Perhaps I am procastinating until I see Wordpress 1.2 out, and have all links to be cruft free. Right now the paging, whether on c … ⌘ Read more
Old permalinks broken
If you had links to specific entries here you are finding out they broke. Let me start by apologizing, I did not know some people had links pointing to here.
You see, I could’ve created permalinks on WordPress that matched the old ones, but I was tired on having such large URI’s. That’s the reason I have changed them when I switched. The one’s in use now will last for a very long time, I have choosen them to be around for a whi … ⌘ Read more
I am not alone
Looks like I am not the only one making the move. Judging by the length of the trackback list on “Mena’s Corner”, a whole lot of people is moving away from Movable Type. Since the news has bee Slashdotted, the WP server is overloaded by, not only switchers, but /. visitors. I am sure they will survive. Now ready for the weekend!
Note
Even [Mark Pilgrim](http://diveintomar … ⌘ Read more
Gmail invitations for sale
It was just a matter of time until this happened: Google webmail invitations are being sold like crazy on eBay. Some people are even buying one invitation knowing that eventually Google will give two (it has been happening on every new account), so they can resell more. Amazing!
This site looks like crap under Mozilla on Linux, which bothers me a lot. I think I will move things around here soon to accommodate what it might become my desktop OS. I am also tired of looking for … ⌘ Read more
Gmail is not for everyone
I have used Gmail now a little bit. Sometimes I am a lucky guy; I have experienced good luck several times: when I met Kim, when my child was born, when I first flew over the Atlantic. This time my luck came in the form of a Gmail account. Thanks to those who graciously offered me the chance to see with my own eyes what many other mortals have ambition.
I can’t say that much that is not already said, bu … ⌘ Read more
Life with an XPS
Three weeks ago I finally got motivated — read Kim gave me an ultimatum — and sold my two Rolleiflex at eBay. The main purpose of selling them was to buy a digital camera, to replace the one I don’t have. But after consideration of:
- The one I wanted was too expensive.
- The body did not come with a lens.
- I barely have time to take pictures.
- KM has monopolized our home workstation.
I decided that the b … ⌘ Read more
Futilely insisting
Human nature is quite interesting and I type so based on my own experience. I am talking about myself.
It amazes me that I keep going to check for new entries or read comments, once — and sometimes two, three, four times — a day on Ambivalent.US, when I disagree 9 out of 10 with everything the owner has to say (actually, write). Same thing happens with Hivelogic, I go there every day just to find a bo … ⌘ Read more
Expect changes
I know it has been a long time. I guess other things are using my mind and what’s left is not enough to dedicate on this. I have been back in Orlando for two weeks already, time is flying.
Wanted to get DSL, ordered and before receiving the modem cancelled. Bell South wants you to use their SMTP server and nothing else and I can not accept that. Modem is going back and I am back to my old cable modem.
Placed two cameras for auction on eBay, they are not selling that well. Let’s keep hoping … ⌘ Read more
To Tampa back and forth
In the last five days I have been in Tampa four times, twice by myself and twice with Kim and KM. One may say it is only 90 miles each way, not a biggie, but once it is done several times consecutively it does makes a difference.
Three days ago we thought we had the perfect apartment there but this morning Kim thought otherwise and, as quite often, she was right. She saw another apartment, just 2.8 miles … ⌘ 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
Slight redesign
Slight redesign is in progress. It may span several days before it is finished but, as everything else, will get there, where I wanted it to be :-) I have been meaning to add a “side bar” for quite a while and today was the day.
At home today, tired. Kent sleeps. Good. Will come back, as soon as time permits. Oh boy, this post is g … ⌘ Read more
Uneventful weekend
This weekend was a bit stressful and I felt some anxiety, but it was uneventful. We –floridians– are enjoying once again a nice fresh weather. Let’s hope it will stay for a little more longer.
I went to work today. I have planned to do the work from home, but could not VPN to work. That forced me to get up my comfortable chair at home, dressed and drive to work. Luckily everything was done on time and I was on my way home around 11:00 AM. It is 12:01 AM while I type this, so I guess I … ⌘ Read more
Happy Birthday Kent Martin!
Today is Kent Martin’s third birthday. Happy Birthday Kent! It is amazing how fast the time passes, it seems it was just yesterday when he was born. In this short three years we have managed to spoil him, but no more than the normal, when we are talking about the only child of mid-thirdties aged parents. The day before yesterday was mom birthday as well, 77 years old. Happy Birthday mama!
Our long weekend is rapidly reaching to an end and I have the feeling I have not acc … ⌘ Read more
Good bye 2003!
Twenty one days is a long time without talking to you. Yes, you, the one reading here at this very moment. Even though I had my reasons I am afraid they were way too lame to be used, so I am not bailing out. A lot has happened since the last post, let’s recount.
At work we had had the most controversial and lenghty hiring process ever. It has been going throughout the whole month, more or less, and still extends to the new year. Moods changed, feelings were hurt. In all and all, I think it will en … ⌘ Read more
Winter has come
It is snowing out there, somewhere. I hear New York got some snow recently. Other places have been under it’s white blanket for a while now. Well, it is cold here in Florida. Pretty cold for a State named “Sunshine State”. The sun shines, no doubt about it. It is shining right now, as I type this, but the temperature is 44 degrees (F). It was even colder overnight, I bet.
Christmas is rapidly approaching and we have no plans. For the first time since I have been working for [UCF](http://www … ⌘ Read more
A moment in time
Not much is happening lately. At least, not much worth of mentioning. Christmas is coming (yes, Christmas, I do not need to be “politically” correct by calling it “holidays”) and I tend to get a little bit sad just around this time. I know it might sound weird, but I can’t help it.
Time is flying by lately and I do not know whether that’s good or bad. It should be bad all the time, since time is one of the few things that never returns, it can’t be rewinded. But while at work, it … ⌘ Read more