My books from NCCS came in today. If you want to check them out more thoroughly, you can click on the covers here.

Of course, they'd make great Christmas presents for either yourself or those who have questions about our government or how our country was founded.

whester and I have had a problem with work's VPN ever since we upgraded to Snow Leopard. For those of you counting, that was way back at the tail end of August. We could connect to the VPN, but once connected, we couldn't ping anything on the network either by name or by IP. Furthermore, DNS lookups did not occur despite getting assigned an IP address for the VPN adapter and being supplied with the correct DHCP servers.

We thought and thought about what it could be. Upon research, several people complained that they couldn't use the remote network's VPN. Others complained that they were losing packets or that DNS would quit working after a couple of minutes.

Many things we Googled, noting returned an answer--that is, until tonight.

Determined to crack this nut, we tried every possible permutation of preferences to no avail. Finally, we Googled the phrase, "Snow Leopard no traffic over PPTP VPN" gave us this thread, which on first glance is just more of the same. But then there's this gem buried in the mire:

My issue turned out to be Internet Connection sharing was enabled for anything plugged into the Ethernet connection to go out over my wireless.

Once disabled, traffic started routing again.

We tried this and indeed it did work. In fact, if you disable Internet Sharing, connect to the VPN and then re-enable Internet Sharing, it's worse than running a VNC session on an underpowered Dell that connects via dialup, but it does still run. However, you have Internet Sharing turned on, no go on VPN traffic. Turn it off and it works immediately.

I consulted with a co-worker why this might be. His idea was that in the transition from Leopard to Snow Leopard, Internet Sharing turned all connections to the Internet into clients, thus when Internet Sharing is turned on, it won't allow for a client to connect to the network connection and then on to a VPN. I'm not sure if this is the case or not, though it was suggested that I play with the route command if I really wanted to see what was going on. I'll leave that to greater minds than mine. The point is, whester and I have finally solved our problem.

x-posted to macintosh

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His Will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.

It's been said you can tell a lot about a man by the books he reads and the friends he keeps. I've been writing recently about the friends that I keep and those of you who keep coming back for the continuing saga have, I'm sure, updated your mental portrait of me based on those writings. Well today--on Veteran's Day no less--I want to give you an idea of where my mind has been lately when I take those rare occasions to step away from the news and pick up a book.

Also, for those of you random folks out there who are looking for a recommend, I would dare say that you could pick up anything on my list, but I have also created a recommendation section at the bottom.

For your convenience, as well as giving newbies and passer-byers an idea of the kind of person I am, I have added this list to my profile.

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but ever time I think of it, I'm at home and I can't get to this script--incompatibility with Snow Leopard and our network.

The trick that made this script useful for me (and saved me from having tor really think outside of the box) was basename

I know I need to comment this script so they know who to come sue when it doesn't work and actually explain what the hell is going on here, but I wanted to hear from my *nix versed readers.

I'm also considering x-posting to unixadmin for recommendations on how to clean up the script or what kind of things I should add. For instance, a suggestion was made to check for 0 byte files. Also, it seems like on the day, just echo didn't produce a blank line. I considered echo \n but I didn't think that would work either.

Nevertheless, here's my latest script made public for review, critique and criticism.

I know that ehowton will either chuckle, roll his eyes or both when he reads this, but I'm planning on doing a lot of blogging this week. Some of it will be writing articles for the future, some of it will be sending out a lot of stuff this weekend. There may be some of you out there that feel like I am machine gunning you out there with posts, but in reality what I''m doing is trying to make each post bite-sized and topical. Please bear with me.

Off to the weekly Support the Troops Rally. Catch you on the flip side.

Is anyone on top of the opt-out story? I just heard a short something on the way into work. Under the proposed legislation the States can opt out but they still have to pay?!?!?!?!

That's not State's rights. That's bullying States into what they and their people don't want. We should encourage States to NOT buy into this farce and reject the whole notion. We should encourage States to stand up to the Federal Government and say that if this steaming wheelbarrow is being shoved down the American people's throat, State by State it will be shoved up the Government's lower orifice.

Now is not the time to be silent. Silence is consent. We should be resilient and unwavering. The signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged to themselves their Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. If they made that kind of pledge to themselves for not just the people in the room that day, but for the rest of their fellow Colonists as well as those of us that come after them, we would disgrace and be unworthy of the work that our Founding Fathers did in 1776 if we do not speak out.

HUNTSVILLE — Huntsville Tea Party leaders on Friday issued the following statement; "The Huntsville Tea Party is dedicated to promoting conservative, constitutional principles and character-driven leadership over party affiliation. We encourage voters in Huntsville and around the country to turn to the current special Congressional election in New York State as the perfect example of what is wrong with party politics today. Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava is perhaps the most liberal of three viable candidates, with Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman quickly gaining popularity based on the kind of responsible, limited government platform people are craving. Citizens from all 50 states should be watching this race. This is a rare case where someone from outside the party establishment has quickly become a viable candidate based on uncompromising conservative principles."

"This election, just like all U.S. Congressional elections, will affect us all and will affect the direction and success of our country. Dede Scozzafava is backed by Working Families Party (subsidiary of ACORN) and the NEA. She has voted for higher taxes, as a member of the state’s Assembly, and expressed support for the stimulus bill passed earlier this year.”

“The GOP is unfortunately torn on this issue. The NRCC has donated to Scozzafava’s campaign, and Newt Gingrich, has endorsed Scozzafava, while Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Fred Thompson have endorsed Hoffman.”

"Liberals in Washington are promoting an agenda that drastically alters the face of this nation, and looks little like the moderation they were selling during the 2008 election.”

“It is time to put principles above party. We ask supporters of limited government, individual rights, fiscal responsibility, free enterprise, and our country’s Constitution to learn more about Doug Hoffman and become involved in this important race." said Christie Carden, Huntsville Tea Party Event Coordinator and Community Organizer.

Just received this in an email from my bank. I think it's nice that they are attempting to go the extra mile, and as a Mac user, I do appreciate their willingness to meet me halfway, but I feel like they could better use the lawyer's fees on something else.

Because our Online Banking services aren't limited to PCs, the name for them shouldn't be either - and we've changed the terminology in the Agreement to reflect this fact. For example, each account included within your subscription for the services now is referred to as an "Online Account" instead of a "PC Banking Account."

Gee, thanks guys!

I like music. Always have, always will.

I have a funny way of showing my appreciation for music though. In fact, I do the same thing with movies. Once I find something I like, I'll listen to or watch it over and over until I have every nuance committed to memory. At some point after this, I find a flaw with the production or just get tired of it--essentially a negative util situation.

This morning a song was brought into my consciences I hadn't heard in a while: Mary Fahl's Going Home as featured on the Gods & Generals soundtrack.

I tell you something that pisses me off with the transition to digital distribution of music. What? You haven't noticed? Try and buy a CD off of Amazon. I'm not saying you can't do it, but they're in low supply. Sadly, the physical medium is dying.

There's this trick where the seller or label will make a track or two "Album Only" meaning you have to pay for the whole album. Normally, something like this wouldn't bother me. I listen to scores. If they want to make the credit roll pop tune they're tacking on the end of the score Album Only, that's fine by me. I'm not buying the album for that song, I'm buying the album in spite of that song.

But what do you do when you're looking at a 10+ track album and every track but the first one is listed Album Only? Then what? Doesn't that only lead to more piracy? The argument has been that what's causing movie piracy is lack of availability of titles in the desire medium. Why doesn't this apply to music? I mean really, if someone only wants one song off the CD and they're willing to pay $0.99, but you want to only allow them to buy the album for $10.99, haven't you the label just created a pirate? And then you blame the good folks who file share. Oh for shame!

Such is the case with Philip Glass' Pruit Igoe & Prophecies. Regardless if you're shopping iTunes Music Store or Amazon, you can only get this track off of the Watchmen soundtrack. What a bum rap when all I want is one song. Thankfully, there's immem.com:

So in a not so pleasant way, I learned about how iPods sync to computers. See, I took miniP0d with me to DC, but I charged it the night before I left via m0bil30n3. Unfortunately, m0bil30n3 doesn't quite have the same database on it as does miniMax0r. In fact, m0bil30n3's iTunes database is really just a Samba share on miniMax0r, but since I stayed at whester's so I was 5 minutes from the bus instead of 50, I charged miniP0d on m0bil30n3. BIG MISTAKE. Though I didn't realize it until after the trip, half of the music went to /dev/null.

I tell that story to tell you two things. First, don't plug in an iPod to a computer that doesn't have your database unless you've first disabled syncing. Secondly, when I was repopulating miniP0d, I ran across some music I haven't listed to in quite some time because I had tired of it. That list is as follows:

1. Changeling


2. Cosi fan tutte, K. 588: Cosi fan tutte, K. 588: Soave sia il vento (Closer)


3. Gods & Generals

It's fun to rediscover old music.

I didn't know what I was going to blog about this morning as I "took the night off" until I started checking my news sites. Now I do.

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by Robert Romano

Today, ALG President Bill Wilson today called upon Senate Republicans to "shut down the Senate" should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid invoke reconciliation to "muscle ObamaCare through the Senate in direct defiance of the will of the people."

"Harry Reid is not going to just ram this through and eliminate the filibuster," said Wilson, "Not without dire consequences. Senate Republicans should shut down the Senate if that's the direction he wants to go in. No business addressed. No quorum. No votes. The filibuster is a time-honored tradition. And so is democratic resistance."

( Read more... )