I am busily building a WordPress server of my own, not that their service has been anything but spot on, but I want to add plug-ins, SEO, the usual self promotion stuff.  You can watch it develop, add comments, start a blog, my site is at http://cogs.fernsehtek.com or the admin page at the root http://fernsehtek.com.

The only rough part is deserting this site, and its followers, so I am also working out a strategy to cross link, etc, and will import my posts just to bring it all full circle.  If you find my various rants of any value then I ask that you check here second, but please join me as I work to migrate over.

What exactly is it about a significant segment of the population that takes this stuff seriously, rather than seeing it for the farce that it is?  I work with a fairly educated group of individuals – engineers, economic development specialist, bankers.  Their response to this bread and circus is to shake their fists at the liberal elite Dijon lovers and proclaim that the world is going to Hell.  Any day now, Obama will sign a socialist Executive Order banning yellow mustard and mandating Dijon on all burgers.  And we’ll all go broke because of the “Dijon tax” that is the difference in price between the yellow mustard made by French’s Foods and the Grey Poupon – ummm, made by Kraft Foods.  Wait a minute, something’s not right there.

Unemployment is 8.9% – and the markets were thrilled with that unexpectedly “low” increase.  Afghanistan is heating back up.  Iraq is entering a new phase of violence.  Health care is increasingly a privilege afforded by a few, rather than a basic human right.  Piracy is on the rise, with Yemen looking like a new base of operations and the Straits of Malacca beginning to look attractive to pirates again as police patrols drop off due to collapsed economies.  Global climate change is expected to have a major impact on civil unrest and world peace in coming decades as poor nations are inundated by sea water, pounded by more intense storms, and driven to famine by drought.

But, we’re worried – nay outraged! – that the President is an elitist (which is apparently a bad thing now) because he likes spicy mustard.  Think I’ll get lunch at Subway on Monday.  My favorite sandwich?  Roast beef on Italian Herb and Cheese bread, cheddar jack, lots of veggies, salt, pepper – oh, yeah – and spicy mustard.  Oh, but I’m sure you already guessed that I’m an elitist.

I am calling up reinforcements!  With the challenges of the rest of my life doing their best to impede my writing this blog on a regular basis, and the fact that I am better in dialogue than a one person act, I am bringing up Nazaretian to help me.  I have high expectations, he is fairly liberal to my moderate hawk, where I am in technology he is in government and legal, he is invested in research to my high strung soap box rant, not sure if he as ADD (or ADHD for you more recently diagnosed) as badly as I do.

Not sure how this is going to work, looking for your feedback as we move forward.  I have established a secondary page for him, but also welcomed him to post on the main page, hopefully we will get into a turf war and entertain you all in the process.  Besides, Scott over at The Invisible Hand asked me to distract this verbose and opinionated comrade of ours and give him his own damn soap box!

So stay tuned while we await him to overcome some lame ass excuse involving a dead keyboard (I have like 12, don’t you?  Besides I have two laptops just in case), which I am attributing to writers block.  We’ll see…

Whatever floats your boat as long as it doesn’t sink mine.  I have used this as the basis of my moral standard for most of my life.  Letting two adults commit to a life together seems like a good thing, why would this not true when they are of the same sex?  Because just that, they have sex?  Stop picturing it then.  Unless the debate is about the physical intimacy, and I don’t think it is unless neocons are that focused what two people do when the mood hits them, then this is simply a debate about commitment and responsibility, two very positive things in my view.

The argument then is about the sanctity of marriage?   After witnessing sufficient divorce (not my own personally) I am convinced marriage is primarily a business arrangement.  It certainly ends as one.  Thinking back to my own wedding, the vows and oaths part, it seemed I was agreeing to essentially throw my lot in with this other person, commit to weathering any storm.  We made this decision at the time as we seemed to be a good team together and felt like spending the rest of our lives in close proximity.  She was my friend, my confidant, my critic (she seems most confident in this capacity of course), and a variety of other things having nothing to do with intimacy and as such I suppose her gender plays little role other than being pleasant to look at all these years (almost 16).   If I break down the percentages then intimacy is a very small part of the agreement between us, the other bonds are far more regularly tested.  Is that then the basis for marriage, to forge a bond between only a man and a woman, or really between two people?  If we allow same sex marriage are we then to assume different sex couples will stop marrying?  So sanctity, not at risk I think.

Kids you say, what about the kids?  Do we marry to have kids?  If that is part of the deal then all DINKs need to report to their lawyers and religious leaders for immediate divorce to find someone they will have kids with.  Wait, it has to be a father and a mother because anything else is unacceptable?  Well, the vast majority of us are going to hell then.  I am the product of a full hat trick of divorces and other than the years of therapy turned out reasonably well in my own mind.  Clearly having a mom, a dad, two step-moms, two step-dads, has been too much of a good thing.  Maybe I needed just two moms?  No way of knowing now but I have seen enough disastrous man+woman married/divorced parents to know there is no winning argument on this subject.  Some people, some couples, make good parents, others should not have even started the process.

My thought is this, commitment, for how ever long, and reinforcing it with ceremony and vows, is better than some casual free for all where we take partners as we want them, kids run amok, and…wait, let me think about this some more.  Please hold…

Meanwhile, I should think those opposed to gay marriage, some of whom are presumably also opposed to gays in general, would at least want marriage and its accompanying bureaucracy to track, manage, and other wise allow the gathering of evidence.  I know, scary, but you want to play then you get to end up on mailing lists together.

Oh sure, I am grumpy about much of what is going on from deficit to taxes, but I refuse to WANT this administration to fail.  It flies in the face of logic to want anything but progress and action for the next four years.  One thing I do want was something to connect to with this man, our leader.  I felt a connection to him in the election, or what I thought was a connection, and in the last 100 days I have felt less connected while watching the various moves and reactions sort themselves out.  Then I saw the coverage of BHO and Michelle walking hand in hand after dinner out.

At first I thought, how human!  How simple and pleasant, and important that this is something they see important.  Then I realized I am working harder to cover taxes as a small business owner meaning I don’t get walks with my wife, this made me envious, and brought back the stress of some of his current policies.  Yet I find it deeply satisfying that our leader is taking such time and deeming it worthwhile.  This speaks volumes about his mental processes and how he prioritizes things.

Strangely maybe, but I see this as a sign of deep strength.  This is a man who sees the value of connections to his support network.  Cherishes his connection to another human being.  This also tells me he is willing to defend such things, to the end.  Was this part of his decision to shoot the pirates holding a man from his family, I hope so.  Yes, the pirates had family, and should have stayed home with them.

As the Republicans work to re-brand themselves they need to look long and hard at a man who is willing to show the world his commitment to family time and human connections.  Family values?  Clearly.  I don’t agree with much of what Obama is doing, especially his search for “fair”, something I see as inherently evil and pointless as no lose soccer for our kids.  That said, I am willing to sit back and watch him work, he isn’t jumping interns, starlets, or breaking and entering so maybe the rest will sort itself out…but then maybe I am simply awash in good vibes based on a quiet walk down the drive.

I am surrounded by deer in headlights and feeling a like a large antlered rodent myself, just what the hell is cloud computing, really?  Everyone is saying this phrase, buzz word does not even cover the amount of energy being poured into it.  My current pinnacle example would be the recent meeting at Denver’s Microsoft office I attended presented by the BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite, they prefer the acronym) team.  We will get to what exactly that is in a moment, its in the cloud.  In the meeting was a mix of Microsoft Partners, Microsoft Product Managers, etc, and we all proudly made robust and meaningful statements about the cloud, being in the cloud, the clear advantages of the cloud, until I finally said, “what we have her is a lack of vocabulary and if any of us were truly and privately cornered would admit we have no idea what the cloud is or how to really explain it in no techie terms.”  Chuckles all around, a few nods, and no dissension, I assume I was right.

Let’s take a big step back.  I need to ask a few questions to establish a basis for understanding.   Are you checking your email on both a cell phone (smart phone) as well as laptop, and maybe even a couple different computers?  Do you use a virtual private network (VPN) to connect to resources elsewhere, say servers at work?  Do you use Citrix, Terminal Server, Remote Web Workplace, and/or Juniper Secure Access to get to a “desktop” hosted elsewhere?  Do you use Google Apps to avoid the cost of Microsoft Office, or if using Office are you using Office Live, Groove Server, or any of the Microsoft Live Meeting, Communicator, or similar tools?  Do you use web conferencing, WebEx, Juniper Secure Meeting, or similar?  In other words, are you using some technology that allows you to connect to data, people, whatever from anywhere using a wide variety of means?  Then you are in the cloud.

Do not start with the “I live in the back woods and this is not necessary” line, if you are reading this then you are beholden to technology, period.  You would freak out if your ISP dropped your Internet connection for even a few hours.  The truth is we have an increased sense of requirements when it comes to our various electronic connections.  We want maximum flexibility in accessing our resources so they must be unshackled from traditional placement and instead be positioned so we can access them anytime, anywhere.  This means hosting these services in places that are on the Internet all the time, but before any reaction like “I don’t trust my stuff being out there” keep in mind that POP3 mail was as out there as I am describing and is still the standard for most personal email accounts.  Your POP3 mail has always been in the cloud.

From a business perspective though this is a bit more of a commitment, it means hosting data, collaborative mail server, Intranet, and various other services in the cloud.  Obviously a significantly more involved case of trusting “your stuff out there”.  But given the questions I asked above, how is having this hosted something place other than your server room any different than the VPNs, remote access, and so forth you use to connect back to that server room?  You aren’t there, so why does it need to be there?  Plus, it changes, typically lowers, the entry cost to achieve this level of flexibility.  Instead of making a capital investment of technology that is aging immediately and requires maintenance, you pay hosting fees and the service keeps things running and updated.  Clearly this answers the remote side so how it impacts the internal desktop users is still being explored but for the most part it really changes very little.  If anything it allows an increase in functionality thanks to the lower entry point.

It will be interesting to watch this develop as we begin also decoupling the hardware from software further via virtualization.  While cloud computing as I explained above is really more marketing than anything new the idea around separating hardware and software is even more difficult to put layman terms to.  Its easy to think of your mail elsewhere, eventually it ends up your mail client installed…where?  Traditionally locally but what if that were not necessary either?  What if even the operating system such as Windows was hosted elsewhere?  Is that really any different?  Suddenly hardware is seen in a very different light, the way to spec and buy laptops and servers becomes more about flexibility and less about the maximum applications minimum requirements.  Ultimately that one word defines this:  flexibility.

Scary times, or not, depends on news coverage.  Dr Dave on Denver’s Channel 4 reminds his audience that a surgical mask is only for the sneezer, not the sneezee, as the recipient of such effluvia its best to wash hands, rinse, repeat.  I just assumed the masks were for seriously creepy people with OCD trying to mingle, no?  Are we sure this whole thing is not some effort by Dr. Evil like villains, how can we really know?

In other news, airline stocks sank with the news not to travel, while Roche (maker of Tamiflu) saw a 4% spike up in trading.  Not sure what this means to the general economy other than my tickets for a flight to Maine better get cheaper.  If not then its drive and if we hit WHO pandemic phase 5 then that means adding sheet metal to the Tahoe with gun slits and arming the kids while we make a break across the wastelands of Neb/Iowa/etc.  I would have done that anyway, just this time it will seem more normal.

Its a damn good thing pigs don’t fly, then the airline stock would really have crashed!  All I know is if one more person brings up the tenting of homes and other sci-fi movie nightmares then its off to super charge a muscle car, the leather outfit with chains and such, get the mohawk, and then form my gang.  I figure I need start now to get a ahead of the competition!

So I have a car I decided to sell, I had sold another vehicle easily and successfully on Craig’s List so back there I went.  I entered my information and then got to thinking about recent events ranging from one locally where buyers beat a seller and leaving him for dead, to the well publicized Boston med student.  So I set up a generic G-Mail (thanks Google!) email account and then re-entered more generic information and clicked publish…and maybe 15 minutes later got the following from micheal porter <michealporter.u009@gmail.com>:

Hello…..i saw your advert,i mean on craigslist and i want to know you final price.meanwhile i will like to make the payment via Check.i will handle the shipping myself don’t worry about the shipping fees okay. get back to me with your full name your home address for me to proceed with the check okay.get back to me ASAP.
Regards.

Let’s see, bad typos, odd use of caps, and an odd reference to send personal and unnecessary information while suggesting its a done deal.  So I sent a response confirming the price and stating standard safe financial exchange practices, and a while later received:

Hello thanks for your respond back to me i will like to buy your item but right now am on trip for my bussiness ok i will told my client to order you Check which you will cash out as soon the Check clear then you can send the car out to me .but remmber you did not need to stress yourself i have already told you that i will handle the ship by myself so all you need it to give me your home address with your full name and valid phone number i will mail out the check to you as soon the Check clear i will told the ship company to come and pick up the car at your home ok .. i will been wait to read from you .

Yeah, sure…ok.  If I had the time and money I would set up a safe drop box and see where this goes.  Meanwhile I received another email that appears to follow the exact same lines, this time from monica billy <monicabilly@gmail.com>:

Hey

Am interested in buying your item listed on Craiglist, Please let me know if
its still for sale and perhaps in good condition. I await your response and
i will proceed with purchase if its still for sale and in good condition.
May god be with you ok

monica billy

Well at least this person invoked religion, I feel better already.  So I responded to this person in a similar fashion but got a fairly quick response that makes me wonder if this is a scripted tool of some sort:

Thanks for getting back to me i want you to tell me the last asking price
for the (Retro Style Dinette Set) ok get back to me fast

Now I am selling a dinette set, so I responded with a “huh?” and as of this writing have no further response.  I don’t have time to pursue this like I would like, I assume they are as fake as they seem, but its frustrating and not a bit sad that this element is so quick to attack.  In my work with IT there are many examples of phishing, spoofing, and so forth and it always amazes me what people fall for.  Even if these are real (yeah, right) the casual typos and over interest in my personal info makes this worth avoiding.  I would say the same for the various tricks I see work in emails, websites, but it still manages to trip up folk who actually enter credit card info, much less just personal info.

So no real buyers as of yet but its getting interesting anyway…stay tuned.

So, to you dear reader this means a bit of hold music for the last few days while I awaited a brain freeze to let up.  Finally I decided to poke myself in the eye (computer jargon for poking the power button to force a shut down), allowed my brain to restart, and will begin looking for a better schedule to allow me to write.  I hope to get back on my rants and raves and bring you the occasional worthwhile thing to read.