Month: March 2004

For the last three days I’ve been troubleshooting some internet connection problems between users in Europe (England and the Netherlands, specifically) and my servers. These guys were having real troubles because they couldn’t get to web sites, e-mail, or other things they needed… and I had no idea why.

While each user had consistent problems, between their two countries the issues were slightly different. I logged into servers in Amsterdam to try to figure things out; the guy in England asked buddies in the area to see if they had the same issues. We spun our wheels for hours (and the time zone difference made it even more interesting) and simply couldn’t figure out what was happening. The worst part was there wasn’t any pattern to it, so we didn’t know where to begin fixing it.

In the end, a few helpful people on the local Linux user’s group suggested some things to try, and I figured out that the problem was in a network router somewhere near Chicago. Apparently the trans-Atlantic connection hopped from London through New York and into Chicago, where it stopped dead. But connections to other addresses on my server did go through– after being routed around Chicago.

It’s all part of the vast globe-spanning network we call the internet, and let me tell you it’s a frustrating and hair-pulling experience to troubleshoot something that turns out to not even be your fault while users across the ocean are getting equally frustrated because they can’t do what they need to do.

So about an hour ago, the company that controls that router either figured out they were horking traffic, and either just switched it off and re-routed traffic around it, or finally fixed the problem. Everything magically started to work, and my European friends are happy again.

These computer thingies are sure complicated sometimes…

Today is one of those days where it’s really hard to get motivated to work. It’s sunny, clear, and almost seventy degrees outside. I went to play ultimate for an hour or so, and despite the fact that the field had just been aerated (in other words, there were about ten billion plugs of dirt that were vicious to my bare feet) it was a great day to play. We had a seven-on-seven game– which is almost unprecendented except on nice fall days. After getting home and showering, it was time to settle in and get down to the old grind.

But then I went outside and sat in the backyard with Zack for a bit, got a snack together, and somehow managed to blow a good half-hour putzing around before coming back down to the office.

Ah, the joy (and suffering) of working at home…

Will the madness never end?

Over the past year we dumped what seemed like half a billion dollars into house projects. We began with the basement refinish and extended into the installation of a lawn, garden, and various other improvements peppered throughout the inside and outside of the house. After all was said and done, we brushed off our hands, nodded in a satisfactory way, and said, “Okay, we’re finished.”

But the reality– as any veteran homeowner will tell you– is that house projects are never truly finished.

This year we planned to put in a couple of trees and perhaps a few lilac bushes or whatever. No big deal, and something we had anticipated anyway. But then Laralee pointed out that we’ve got a weird little storage area behind our basement steps. It’s unusable space right now, and quite an interesting little construction quirk, but the addition of a simple door on the basement landing would transform it into a little 5×5′ closet.

We could always use more storage space, since the builders were so kind to give us a lame half-dug-out crawlspace. This little closet area would be ideal for some biggish items that won’t fit in the crawlspace, garage, or our tiny storage area behind the furnace. So it makes a lot of sense to put in that pesky door.

Of course we’ll drop five hundred clams on it (it’s only a door, for crying out loud!) and then we’ll realize we need something else. And on, and on…

Oh, the horror.