Apache Tutorial: Introduction to Server Side Includes Some stuff I need to figure out for the Archive. I'd like to have the picture and info as an include for both the photo hierarchy and the calendar pages.

Worked hard on the yard project this past week. My neighbor and I also chopped down a lot of desert broom to clear out the space along the side fence. I'm also hard at work on the Friends of Music brochure. As usual, we're late, and I'm doing all the work. It is giving me a chance to learn PageMaker so I can get a new job as a documentation specialist.

Leaking Sprinklers

Repairing Solenoid Valves. One of my new irrigation valves is already leaking. UGH!

Printing to Windows from MAC OSX 10.2 Printing to a Windows printer is not as easy as it could be on the iMac, but this web site sure did help.

Best tips:

Net View on the Windows box to check the share.
smbclient -L servername -U username on the iMac
smb://username:password@servername/printershare

Note that under Windows XP - the username "Mark Famous" is seen as "MarkFamous" under the iMac. Spaces are removed.

MIT OpenCourseWare |
OCW Home
This web site was featured in wired last month. It's a very interesting site with full coursware from MIT on-line.

Froogle Search: bar faucet We're trying to find a 1-hole faucet to replace our faucet in the bar. Froogle is doing a nice job. We'll see if we can find a reasonably priced faucet.

I worked on the Archive programming last night. There were some tricky things to deal with deletes. I had seen a bug where someone disconnected early and ended up deleting their pictures. I fixed that, but I also made the delete smarter. The delete does not delete the file on the server but just renames it to start with an underscore. The new version is smart enough to find the "deleted" photo that starts with an underscore and rename it back to normal if the person undeletes the photo.

I've also been working on Java Servlet's to support the development of the feature that allows the archive viewers to add comments. I'm thinking of a blog style comment support for archive photos.

We had some boring meetings yesterday at work. Most of the topics discussed were discussed at least 3 years ago in other conversations. My boss also has the tendency to invite people to the meetings who should not be there. These are people who need to know about the topic, but not this early in the discussion. I makes the whole thing rather boring because we're discussing things I have already thought about and already understand. The fact that I had meetings at least 3 years ago discussing the same things is also frustrating. So...

I made the best of it and read through the Apache Tomcat documentation. I had not had a clear understanding about deployment, configuration, and the integration with Apache HTTP server. I still have some confusion, but I think I have enough information to do some more exploring. Automatic Deployment

I wrote my first Java Servlet last night. Instead of "Hello World" it displayed "Mark, you're the man!"

I'm working on setting up some ways to edit the comments on the pages of the picture server.

This morning Jen found a leak in the irrigation system. It is near all of the valves in the back yard. It's going to be a mess to fix. Yuck!

Works sucks.

We had much fun in Boston and Connecticut at Tod and Holly's Wedding. See Emma's Take on the trip. We all wish them many happy years and send out love.

Big News. Google has finally figured out that my page it the first link for "Mark Famous". Yea.

Tonight I set up Janet to publish her pictures to the archive. She did her first sync. It took a while. I also set up a blog for her. Janet's Blog.

I called Linksys about my BEFSX41. They sent me a beta firmware update - 1.44.11t, Apr 16 2003 - that finally fixed my problem. The problem was interesting. The port forwarding was working, but only outside the router. http://famousfamily2.dnsalias.org worked for the technician on the phone, but when I tried that address on my network, it did not work. It appears as if the router was forwarding the port to the external network, but internal requests were not returned back to the computer on the network forwarding the port. This was no good because I could not test my forwarding. I also have some programs that are hard coded to look for http://famousfamily2.dnsalias.org and I wanted to use the same version for both internal network and external network access. The firmware update fixed this. I'm surprised it is not a more important problem.

I replaced the old router with the new BEFSX41. Next step is to set up the VPN connection with Tod, but that might take a while.

So I got another BEFSX41 from LinkSys, and I tried port forwarding. It doesn't work either. UGH! I'm not sure what to do now.

My boss asked for some feedback on how we can improve overall company quality. I wrote up 13 pages and turned it in at 4:30pm before sneaking out of the office. There should be some fallout. Some of the problem is his own doing. The pages basically said what needed to be said. We'll see...

Today we started taking advantage of the new wireless network. I moved the iMac into the living room. We bought a really hip looking small desk to put in the foyer to use with the iMac. It should arive next week.

I moved the main computer upstairs. We were concerned about the noise, but actually it is quite compared to the linux box. (I installed extra fans in the linux box because it has 3 hard drives.) I think this is going to be nice. From where I am sitting upstairs, I can see out the window from our bedroom and glance over and see most of the city of Tucson. Nice.

So today we spent some money. We bought a dining room table and chairs and a new desk for the iMac. We're going to start clearing out the second bedroom and put the computers around the house there they belong. The iMac will be our main machine and reside in the living area, probably next to the front door. The Windoze XP machine will go upstairs and be used when I need to do bills. The Linux box will go in the garage. We'll see when this happens.

The new table should be nice for the dining room. We've used an Ikea table for about 8 years. About time to buy a real dining room table. We'll post a picture when they arive on September 2.

After I shipped my router back yesterday, I got an email from Linksys. UGH!

Dear Linksys,

Too late. I already shipped the other unit back.

I'm sure you hear this all the time, but I have a large problem with you RMA policy. If the unit self implodes due to a manufacturer or quality control defect and the unit is under warranty, then you would expect the manufacturer to pay for the exchange. I find it troubling that I had to pay for a Linksys manufacturing or quality problem. I would urge you to change that policy and ship a return label with all RMA exchanges.

I have a Cannon printer. It broke after 8 months. They shipped me a new one and paid for the return shipping. Kudo's to Cannon.

I will have to start using the RMA return policy to influence my buying decisions. I also have a lot of friends and family that rely on my advice for buying decisions. Again, I would urge Linksys to change their policy or I will have to recommend buying from someone else.

As far as my issue --- We're too late. It cost me 8 bucks and I'll eat that rather than pursuing this further.

The saga of Linksys continues. I got a replacement router. My Zaurus now works fine. I updated my post on Zaurus DevNet Forums. I got the router configured last night as a second router on the nework. (I needed to turn off gateway, assign it 192.168.1.2, disable DHCP.) I also got the iMac working again through the wireless connection. I also enabled WEP. Yea!

Next LinkSys saga item is to get the VPN router working or replaced. It was not port forwarding last time I tried. I will try again this weekend, but give up and send it back if I can't get that working. I plan to use it as the gateway because it will support the VPN to Tod and also support the port forwarding.

I'm now in Windows Update heaven. I check Windows Update every day. I'm an adict.

Lately my computer at work is greeting me each morning with a message from Automatic Updates saying that Windows Updates has downloaded something for me and wants me to install it. The cool part is that it's the same patch. Morning after morning after morning. This is a good thing because it gives me my Windows update fix daily.