Monday, November 20, 2006 - The cell phone voice memo buffer overfloweth, so there's some "new old" material in Overheard. I trust you will enjoy. Hopefully this will unconstipate me and there will be more later.
Monday, October 23, 2006 - After an unfortunate chain of events, the inevitable happened. All files and directories of the website got zapped and written over. The reason, you ask? Let us simply chalk it up to a lax back-up schedule and webmaster headspace. Can we leave it at that?
A reasonably current version of the website resided on my ISP's server, so I was able to resurrect the site in relatively quick order, though there may be some holes and broken links. It you find any, please report them to me so they can be repaired. Thanks in advance. Email addy: alienjeff AT charter DOT net
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - Added Visitors in the interest of sparking some interest in geography and sense of community.
It's my birthday! Yeah, I know ... BFD. Well it is, at least for me.
And that's all I have to report at this time.
Thursday, August 3, 2006 - While checking out Xchat, an IRC client software package, I signed onto the Freenet network. This new-to-me software package allows reading the network's message of the day (MOTD) in entirety. And woven into Freenode's MOTD was this:
"STERLING, BRUCE, [1954-]. Born in Texas, US, author of Islands in the Net, The Hacker Crackdown and numerous other titles, Bruce Sterling is an unofficial spokesman for the cyberpunk genre of science fiction. He writes a regular column, Catscan, for SF Eye and lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and daughter."
Curiosity got the best of me (again) and after "googling" Mr. Sterling, I found a link to the electronic version of his Hacker Crackdown, unzipped the file and started reading. And reading. And reading ...
And in the interest of sharing the wealth and in keeping with Sterling's interest in electronically propagating this non-fiction gem, I'm making the ebook/file available on A View From The Fringe. Click, download, save, unzip and enjoy!
THE HACKER CRACKDOWN - Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling
Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - More than a month has come and gone since I've updated the website. For that I apologize. The work front has slowed down to a crawl, thus freeing up a lot of time, though the spirit that moves me to write has been temporarily replaced the a spirit that moves me to tinker. Let me elaborate.
A while ago I stumbled upon a tiny but powerful OS (operating system) called Puppy Linux. Though initially put off by the cutesy name of the OS, my suspicion was overpowered by curiosity. Most Linux distributions are 600M+ in size. How could a distribution one-tenth the size of established ones be anything other than a low powered novelty? Curiosity gnawed at my brain until I submitted and downloaded Puppy Linux.
Surprise after surprise quickly formed a long daisy chain of surprises. Not only is Puppy Linux a real operating system; it's strikingly slim, fast, powerful and jam packed with all the utilities and applications necessary to provide a classic desktop operating system. The Alien was impressed.
Enter obsessive behavior. I started to tinker. I started to tweak. I started to modify. And that's where my free time has gone: playing with the Puppy.
And this website is even running under Puppy (at least the "gotdns.com" site, that is). Not bad for a 60M distro!
I believe I've got this desktop back into some form of permanency, so it's time to shift back into writing for the website and not bash scripts and configuration files. And hopefully this update is the start of website additions.
Thursday, June 22, 2006 - After much tinkering whilst being lost in the World of Geekery, the web server box for alienjeff.net is finally back up on-line full-time.
My back-up, the Charter Communications "mirror" site remained unaffected and was fully operational. Add both sites to your bookmarks/favorites in the event of another server meltdown.
So what's new with the server? My CD-ROM RW drive decided to go intermittent, so it was replaced with a CD RW/DVD R drive. Cool beans, no? Well, as luck would have it, while configuring the new drive, the much repaired power supply with too many hours on it must have thought "What more perfect time than to shit the bed." So that had to be replaced, too. Sheesh!
Rob at Personalized Computer Help graciously assumed the role of surrogate wholesale parts supply house. Thanks for letting me raid and deplete your inventory, Rob!
So now all remnants of the Microsoft Windows-98 operating system have been removed from the server and it's running 100% GNU/Linux. There are three Linux distros from which to choose with plenty of space to test others. It feels wonderful having removed the shackles of Redmond, Washington, and finally enjoy a Gates-free computing experience.
And by the way, happy summer. Enjoy swimming in your own sweat with all this humidity.
Saturday, June 3, 2006 - Having just editedthe big file of my draft text for additions to PROBLEM CHILD ON ASSEMBLY LINE ONE, I'm quite shell-shocked to see that there could be easily be as many as twenty-one possible chapters to this new addition to the website. It has the potential to take on a life of its own. Stay tuned ...
Added to Overheard. More later.
Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 11:53 P.M. UPDATE - As promised, check out PROBLEM CHILD ON ASSEMBLY LINE ONE. Yeah, it's a teaser, but Chapter 5 is very close to being completed. And there's a bunch more coming soon. I trust you will enjoy!
9:00 P.M. - No excuses. None. I'm stuck doing an "on call" shift until 6 A.M. Tuesday, so I have no legitimate reason in the world to not update the website. Besides, I've been sitting on too many essays in various stages of construction. And I'm feeling guilty ...
Stay tuned to this page and the home page. I'll have something new uploaded before midnight.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - In lieu of a more substantive addition, I've opted to update Overheard. Work on a couple of essays has ground to a halt due to a rather busy work schedule that keeps me from the keyboard. I trust today's entry will hold you over until more time frees up for work on these essays.
Monday, March 6, 2006 - What's new? Not much, at least on the surface. Most changes to the website and administration thereof have been "under the hood." After much tweaking of code, the main page finally passes XHTML-1.0 Transitional validation, which makes the site more accessible to a variety of browsers and systems.
All website files have been uploaded to the personal website area on a Charter Communications server. So should the web server box sitting next to the desk here require some off-line maintenance and you receive a "site not found" message, check out the charter-served mirror site.
Tuesday, February 13, 2006 - Added the threatened exposè on Sirius satellite radio. Check it out from the Radio Matters menu.
Added a short yet on-target shot to Overheard.
Removed Recent CD spins, On the nightstand, Shortwave catches, the Firefox and Apache logos and links from the main page. Too much info you don't need and too much clutter. If I could only be so concerned about the clutter in my apartment ...
Now back to work on a bear of an essay on factory work. Stay tuned!
Friday, February 10, 2006 - My apologies for not having any new material posted since January 30th. Work has "taken off" and I've had precious little time and energy for the website.
However, this past week I had the opportunity to listen to Sirius satellite radio for extended periods of time on three separate occasions. The Alien is impressed, though not favorably so.
Stay tuned. Snow, in the way of a nor'easter is forecast for the weekend, so there should be plenty of time to crank out not only the serious Sirius review, but also a couple of other "nearly completes."
Monday, January 30, 2006 - Updated Overheard with
one new entry
a couple of new entries
three new entries
some new entries. There should be more to follow, as I've got a day or two off from work this week and a voluminous backlog of draft material. Stay tuned!
Monday, January 23, 2006 - It's 2:21 A.M. as I type this after intently listening to the first hour of Coast to Coast AM. Program host Art Bell has returned to the airwaves after the death of his beloved wife, Ramona. It's live radio drama tonight and Bell is touching on topics and reflecting on emotions rarely heard on such public display. I'm impressed, and favorably so.
Though a frequent critic of Art Bell, his broadcast tonight has me feeling a tad guilty for my criticism.
On a lighter side of tonight's Coast to Coast AM, Bell interrupted a program guest who was talking. An alarm could be heard clearly in the background. After a pause, Bell explained that a listener from another part of the country had heard his description of the depression and thoughts of suicide in the days following the death of his wife. Apparently the listener was concerned for Bell's well being and called the Pahrump, Nevada, police department. The two responding officers set off an alarm on Bell's property, which was faithfully tranmitted live worldwide.
Damn the torpedos. Full speed ahead. The show must go on!
I've been in a bit of a funk of late, and hence the lack of updates to the site. So much for that New Year's resolution. heh. I'll try to get back on track this week.
Or better yet, I'll work on adopting Charles Bukowski's credo of "Don't try." Do. Don't try. Get it?
Saturday, January 7, 2006 - There's some sort of latino clusterfuck/festival going on a couple of buildings down from us that's getting way the fuck out of hand. The filthy bastards are singing away and carrying on, beating on bongos and other manner of percussive instruments, and I've about had it with the lunacy. A call to the Winsted P.D. is imminent.
Fuck me to tears: I thought I left this sort of bullshit when I moved back into the northwest hills from Hartford a couple of years ago. Apparently not. The English-challenged have invaded the hills.
Call to police made. Three minutes later, two squad cars pull up. The officers enter the building and it gets incredibly quiet all of a sudden.
Called Winsted P.D. back. Thanked them.
Now there's a first ...
Friday, Janaury 6, 2006 - Not once, but twice today I've noticed that I was walking around with my fly down. Not unhitched, not half-mast -- all the way down! I sure hope these were simply intermittent anomolies of forgetfulness and not a sign of the premature onslaught of dementia. Heh.
There should be an addition or two for the site later in the day. Check here for updates. Thanks.
Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - With the price of technology goodies coming down to ridiculously affordable levels, I've finally made the big move by installing a webcam in the studios of Off Frequency Productions. If your timing is right, you just might be lucky enough to catch me working at the computer.
Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - It's a good night of listening to sports on the radio when someone lifts their leg on the UCONN Huskies. Check out Overheard for the bloody scoop on tonight's game.
Sunday, January 1, 2006 - Happy new year. As promised there's a new entry to the website besides the one posted below a mere two hours ago (last year ... heh). Check out "Faulty Aiming of Fear Factor" in Overheard.