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Author: NiteMayr

Before:

Kevin was born on the mossy hills of Scotland and lived for a while in West Lothian before the mores of pre-Thatcher and REALLY pre-Oasis Great Britain sent his family across the ocean to North America. They moved here and there and Kevin did the same when he was old enough. Now he lives in London with his family and a Dog.

Kevin Wardrop is an amateur writer, amateur photographer and professional pain in the ass. He has worked in the PC support business for most of his adult life and has been accustomed to simply answering technical questions as a matter of fiat, it was his career choice after all. Now he herds cats and puppies for a living as well as babysitting the web enterprises at the heart of western industry.

On Privacy

By way of a response to 007Ben, I’m posting here on Vox.

I used to run my own blog using wordpress, I had a custom layout and wrote my own plug ins and had a great time of it.  I used a paid hosting service to run it and I was in total control of the blog.  This meant that my own web space was in my control and that I could control who read my blog.  This meant that beyond the odd friend who found it, hardly anyone visited the damn thing.    I could point to Google and see that I was the number-one site for NiteMayr and usually “Kevin Wardrop” but it didn’t translate into visitors.  I wrote in my blog to share with the world; caring or not.

I don’t have a private life anymore, not really.  I share myself on Twitter and my blog, I syndicate all of this on my webspace (http://live.nitemayr.com) I have a personal web space, true;  but that is based off publicly available links from Digg, delicious and various other sources.   I leave a digital trail about 10 miles wide and do not care who knows what about me.  I have no secrets.

I share Ben’s qualms about being spread across too many places, but isn’t that what our new social lifestyle is all about?  The web lets us share ourselves in so many ways, and we control the message.

I think that sums it up, while I share myself, I control the message.

Did my reflection go crazy?

As I arrived at the office this morning, I was shocked to see a strange reflection looking back at me as I swiped into the building.  Something was wrong with my reflection!  It was the wrong color and I was taller!Uh, it wasn’t me.  There was another fat guy on the other side of the door, and for whatever reason he mirrored my movements on the other side of the door.  Strange.

Dinner and a Movie

Went out for Dinner and a Movie with Karl, 007Ben and NiteGirl. (We brought 007Ben’s SO and NiteCat along too)

WE had two boats at Sushi Domo and then went to the Regal for Shrek 3 (For NiteGirl and NiteCat) and 28 Weeks Later (Again)

Seeing 28 weeks later for the second time only compounded my belief that it was totally awesome!

Weekend of Fun

Pow Wow Dancer
Pow Wow Dancer

Due to the fact that I am leaving soon and that I have a finite bank of off time, I have taken a long weekend, which means “I have all the time in the world for doing stuff”

Some of the stuff we did this weekend

  • Hiked up Spencer’s Butte
  • Ate at PF Changs
  • Took Pictures of a Peace March
  • Watched 28 Weeks Later
  • Attended a Pow Wow at the U of O

Here is a Quick Rundown of my opinion of each:

Spencer’s Butte:  A Fun drive out there. very long hike.

PF Changs:  Sucked, too expensive no ambiance.  The outdoor eating area is next to the fricking road.

Peace March:  I was surprised by it but took tons of photos:

Peace Cowboy
Peace Cowboy

28 Weeks Later:  GREAT!  Thrilling!  A worthy sequel.  I was worried that the lack of the formers cinematographer and director would hurt it, I was very very wrong.  I’m going to see it again tomorrow!

The Pow Wow: Despite living near to a reservation for most of my life, I never actually got to see one of these up close.  You cannot begin to imagine how amazing it is to hear the signing and drumming live like that.  Don’t hesitate to attend at least one.

Oh, one more thing.  NiteGirl had her first Mojito, she loved it!

He Spins a web like a Dork

So, Spider-Man 3; what to say about it?

First the negatives:  It’s very very cheesy.  Nacho Cheese Cheesy.  From the stupid “wolf walk” scene with Tobey, to the Flag scene later in the film, it’s chock full of cheese.  Small children will enjoy the easy-to-read jokes that are splayed about in this film.  In a movie that is supposed to be about the Dark Side of Spider-Man, we are  laughing alot.

The fight scenes were great, and the big redemption scene was sufficiently emotional.  Tobey turns in a good EMO-Peter performance (if any reader was at the showing I was at, I was the guy who called out “Now I’m EMO!!!” when the big hairstyle change came down, you’re welcome).

It was predictable, and cheesy; but I won’t hesitate to buy it when it comes to DVD and I will recommend it as family viewing, as it is clearly a family film.

If I was a reviewer, I’d give it a thumbs up, if only for the popcorn movie factor.

Luxury Wish List

If money were no object, which five luxury items would you rush right out and buy?
Submitted by lorilyn.

  1. The Entire Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures Back Catalog
  2. A new Home for my family, and pay off future taxes ad infinitum.
  3. A Set of Tablet/Convertible laptops for my whole circle of friends and Family.
  4. A new car (just new, I haven’t ever owned a new car)
  5. A prepaid plane travel voucher (fly for free to anywhere forever)

Luxury Wish List

If money were no object, which five luxury items would you rush right out and buy?
Submitted by lorilyn.

  1. The Entire Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures Back Catalog
  2. A new Home for my family, and pay off future taxes ad infinitum.
  3. A Set of Tablet/Convertible laptops for my whole circle of friends and Family.
  4. A new car (just new, I haven’t ever owned a new car)
  5. A prepaid plane travel voucher (fly for free to anywhere forever)

How to test an IP address against an RBL/DNSBL list

Hey There; this post is a technical post about how to test to see if your IP address is on an RBL list.

  1. Locate an RBL provider or if you know you are on their list determine their zone name:  for example the zone names for SPAMHAUS are sbl.spamhaus.org, xbl.spamhaus.org and pbl.spamhaus.org

  2. Once you have those names, you need your IP address.  For this example we will use a fake address:

    212.122.234.565

    (For those of you not in the know, this IP address can’t exist in the IP v4 numbering system)

  3. Now reverse the IP address!

    565.234.122.212

  4. Now we need a command prompt; from windows XP, 2000 or Vista go to START -> Run and type cmd and enter.  In Linux or another *nix system open a terminal.  On Mac OSX, uh, open the terminal.
  5. At the command prompt type nslookup 565.234.122.212.sbl.spamhaus.org and hit ENTER

    You should see something like this:

    Server:  dnsserver.yourdomain.com
    Address:  xx.xx.xx.xx

    *** dnsserver.yourdomain.com can’t find 565.234.122.212.sbl.spamhaus.org: Non-
    existent domain

  6. If you DON’T See “Non-Existent domain” and instead see something like:

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name:   565.234.122.212.sbl.spamhaus.org
    Address: 127.0.0.1

    It’s a good bet you are on the RBL (in this case SBL) list.

  7. You can repeat this test for each DNSBL zone (ie nslookup 565.234.122.212.xbl.spamhaus.org)
  8. If all the tests come up as “non-existent domain” you’re clean!

Work out, Maybe to hard?

I had a good workout yesterday, 2 miles on the elliptical machine (28 minutes) a quarter mile uphill at a run on the treadmill (nearly killed me) lifted weights (20 reps 80-100 pounds) and crunches and leg lists (as many as I could do in 15 minutes).

After supper, I wanted to do some nice partial crunches, to work the upper abdominal a bit as they didn’t feel as worked out as the rest of my gut.  NiteGirl would not let me, she went so far as sitting on my chest to stop me.  I ended up doing them with her on my waist, but it was annoying that she was stopping me from getting exercise I need.

Her point was that I was working too hard (I didn’t feel too tired or sore to do it, why not) but she relented to let me get some exercise.  She got some too, and apparently fell asleep later on.  I fell dead asleep soon after she was done.

The Digg Revolt

The Digg Revolt

Over the past few days, with the release of the Decryption key for Hi-Def DVD video, Digg users have been posting the hexadecimal sequence that comprise the Keys over and over.  This whole “revolt” is equal parts pusillanimous and genius; the key is out there “information is free”; but it only serves to portray the same people as lawless to the IP holders in question.

The holders of these keys are sure to be wringing their hands over this in glee; proof that the tech community is nothing but filthy crooks.  The movie advocacy industry (MPAA) can look at this in too ways; the community won’t rest until they give up the keys to the kingdom or the community is crooked (inherently so) and the DRM push is not going far enough.

Somewhere lost in this is that the community simply loves movies.  When they don’t have entertainment, they create it.

Isn’t that what the movies are all about?