Brent’s Thoughts

Something that has been happening lately that I haven’t really messed with much has been the phenomenon of Podcasting. I just haven’t really invested that much time in it. So then today’s randomness happens.

/. Has a story about nerdcore hiphop. Now I have already be digging on the scene with MC Frontalot, but some of the other people that are mentioned in the article I hadn’t really listened to. So I travel to the wikipedia link for Nerdcore Hip Hop and link travel to all the artists mentioned there. is pretty sweet, and YTCracker is decent as well. I decided to get all of MC Plus+’s tracks that he had for download and accidentally got a podcast that he had been interviewed on. So while I was listening to it I traveled over to the orign of the podcast at Daily Sonic. I grabbed the newest one and listened to it last night while I was mowing the yard.

This stuff is great. Take NPR and mix it with my generation, add in some idiot humor and you have Daily Sonic. Monday’s cast, talking about the Chipmunk abuse of the late 50’s is worth the price of admission by itself. So now I have a copy of ipodder running and downloading the casts. I think I may try to markup the audio for Coach Powell’s site so that it is available as podcasts. Not that anyone would use it, but it seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

It also made me dig up an old script that I wrote back in the AFNI called AMEN. I don’t even remember how far I got in it, but I think I am going to dig it back up and monkey with it a little.

I met up with Brock and Cheyenne a couple weeks ago. It was good to talk with them about stuff, not just AFNI, but other stuff as well.

They were in the middle of rolling out a new image to the call center and it sounded like that was going really well for them. Cheyenne mentioned that the techs had gotten desks finally and that Mark had left AFNI to work for Batteriesplus as a webmanager or something. Hope that is going well for him.

Brock also mentioned that Shane had put in his two weeks notice and was moving on to somewhere else. I forget were it was that he said… seems like it was a hospital or something, but I think that was the type of job he had before so I may be imposing that information in there.

Brock said that most of the people in Bloomington (IL) were still there as far as Telephony and Helpdesk and such.

I also ran into someone else that had left AFNI and she mentioned that the call center director and assistant director had both left the BG call center.

Today I received an email from my previous boss, Shane. He stated that he would like me to remove his full name from my news posts. An interesting request, but after doing a google search I understood why. A search for his name in google returns my site as the first hit, specifically this post. Interestingly, not in that post, but in ones that are relatively close to it I talk about how he is a pretty cool guy. So any potential employers or anything that were doing a search for his name wouldn’t see any problems that I was having with either him or afni until several posts later.

Here is the crux of the matter though. Not even really pertaining to this. If your name is posted on the web are you allowed to request that it be removed? A search for my name returns all kinds of hits some of them my site some of them not. Some of them me some of them not. I have never had the idea to ask anyone to remove my name, I guess because it has never been in any kind of bad connotation (other than the random flame war, which google seems to no longer cache). What does the crew think?

Recently, there have been a group of people predicting that MS would start selling Linux versions of its software in the future. This prompted a lot of talk on slashdot and a few of my friends over at the lovely company of AFNI, started tossing around the idea. Since it seems that people are in the mood to believe guesses, I would like to take this moment and my space on the web to tell you, MS will not start selling Linux products for any kind of monetary gains. They might sell them for other reasons, try to disprove monopolist ideas, draw Linux users to Windows, or to destroy the space-time continuum, but they aren’t going to sell them for a direct profit. There is no way that MS could make a profit on selling apps for Linux. Follows are reasons why:

There are two types of apps MS could sell for Linux, desktop and server. Lets break each up for a closer look, since they have different fundamental reasons.

Desktop: It is pretty much a given that right now MS holds the desktop market in a stranglehold, that, despite the recent DOJ ruling, they have no reason to give up. They are losing some people to Linux on the desktop but a good percentage of Linux users are stuck using Windows at work and/or home, because they have to have the Office apps to work with the business. In the end it is difficult to convince a “suit” that OpenOffice or StarOffice will work flawlessly with other MS Office users. It is equally hard to convince them to give up the effects of Outlook for meetings and such, or even to purchase Ximian Connector to enable Evolution to do the deal. So they run Windows and their company (or them) pays for the license to MS. So what happens if MS makes Office for Linux? All the geeks and techs that want to can now switch to Linux and their companies can stop paying for Windows licenses. The only way MS can keep their revenues the same is to tack the cost of a Windows license into the purchase price of Office for Linux. If that is done then there is no reason for people to purchase Office for Linux from a company standpoint since it will cost the same to have their workers use Windows. Yeah they get the added stability of Linux, but most suits aren’t going to see that.

Server: Right now, according to all the surveys, this is where Windows is really starting to lose its foothold to Linux. Linux is eating up not only Windows server share but also other Unix style systems. If that is the case then why would anyone want to have MS stuff on Linux? Right now it seems that people are perfectly happy to switch out to Linux and what it has to offer, so why do they need the Windows server stuff at all? Well people like to use what they are familiar with and for a lot of server admins that is Windows. So perhaps they might take a robust server off of their Linux machine and install IIS with all of its security issues and problems, or perhaps exchange is really what they want and it will get installed on a Redhat box, but wait we forgot one important thing… MS again has no reason to make these products. Right now if you want/have to use exchange you have to not only purchase Exchange Server 2000 (or XP or .net or whatever), but you also have to purchase a Server License and Client Access Licenses for every computer that will connect to that machine. And that is the same for every Windows Server. No matter if it is filesharing, print sharing, domain controller, or proxy. If you know can just put one Windows thing on a Linux box, do you then have to buy CALs? It is obvious you don’t have to buy a server license. If you put this stuff on a Linux machine it is awfully easy for you to just turn on SAMBA sharing and not pay the CALs for another Windows box to be your fileserver. See by enabling people to pick what OS they run for these Windows servers they are enabling people to avoid paying them money that they would normally get. People run exchange for its groupware effects, therefore they pay MS for all the Windows stuff mentioned earlier. If they can run that on Linux and get all the groupware effects without paying all the MS stuff, they have little reason to pay it and MS loses money. Therefore MS has little reason to make it.

Here is the collection of thoughts and tales that have been piling up here in my head, pick the ones you want and comment about them.

Got a new cell phone from Edmonson County Schools, emails will be going out soon.

PDA is nothing less that phucking awesome. There are some things that are annoying about it, but I just chock those up to hating MS and go one with my life.

I picked up the Linksys Wireless Access Point/Router/Switch/Coffee Maker/Best Friend/Roomate the other day and it is pretty nifty. Works well with the PDA once you open your eyes and install it correctly.

Mark Hicks, a friend of mine and owner of JMH Webbing got married over the weekend. It was a nice ceremony and I caught the garter at it.

While at the wedding I learned the AFNI-BG has been having severe network issues for the last few days and has lost a bunch of money in an attempt to upgrade the network that I talked about previously using equiptment that was from another call center which they couldn’t get to work.

I also found out the management is being restructured inside AFNI and Shane will no longer be a manager of the BG Call Center. I would say that is good news for Cheyenne and others that will no longer be under his thumb, but hey is that really my place anymore?

Work continues at Edmonson County and we are starting to dig ourselves out of the hole that having only one person on the job can create. Currently the schools are on Fall Break so that gives us two weeks to gets some work done.

I have been working on “archiving” DVDs and have found some really sweet software for linux that will do it for me rather nicely. I hope to be posting more about this soon.

Since maybe I don’t do it enough, I would like to thank maxx for hooking me up with the forums and everything. I would also like to thank Zweix Internet Solutions for that as well.

I miss all the posters for this page. C’mon guys get your talk on.

People I haven’t heard from lately: Frank Miles, Jeremiah Byrd, Todd Schaefer, Seth Johnson, Mike Lamont. Where you guys at?

New Xbox Game : Outlaw Golf. Quick Review: It Rocks out, if you play games on the xbox get it.

Also since I still get mail about AFNI due to this page, I would like to also post that I got some mail from one of the before mentioned Tucson Techs that got fired and he said that he was fired for the joke email that came out and that the also told him he was fired for what he said in the reply to Jeremiah’s email. So despite what I was told they did get rid of people due to that.

Geez, I don’t know if I can tell you guys how great this new job is. Things are going great here for me. I just had an interview with WKU for a position and I found myself relaxed and un-worried about the outcome. Yeah the position pays a little more money, but I am not sure if I would enjoy it as much as this one. I really can’t seem to find a lot that depresses my about this place. I get to work on a myriad of machines, servers, desktops, networks, linux, windows. It all fits into a very ME kinda place. Perhaps a little too much desktop support mixed in, but I am not sure if that isn’t leftover “grrr” from AFNI. Lets just say the more I work here the bigger a joke AFNI becomes in my life.

Today why ordered $515 PDAs for ourselves, something that AFNI wouldn’t even ever dream of doing for me, and I have already helped out with several ideas and fixes for situations that are making things run much smoother.

The weather was nice here tonight and I found myself riding home with windows down and sunroof open, singing Pink Floyd’s “Shine on” at the top of my lungs. It was great!!! Today walking out of that interview and feeling free for the first time in a while was a great thing.

Also I need some help, there has been a song haunting me and I would like you guys to tell me what it is if you can. It has the line that is the title of this in it as the tag and it talks about looking out at the ocean and seeing a thousand blue sparkles, feeling the sand in his toes and being happy, it then says something like, “I wish you where here, miss you when you are gone” or something, he then talks about laying on the beach and looking at the stars and some other stuff, then his the refrain again, “I wish you where here, miss you when you are gone”. Sorry if I am not being helpful. It is a fairly newish song, but I have no idea who it is by and thus I cannot find it.

Sorry to those that are looking for immedate updates. It has taken a few minutes to get time to sit down and put this together.

The job is sweet. Lots of cool stuff to mess with and an office that is filled to the brim with computers, computer parts, and everything to go with them.

Honestly after my first day I didn’t have enough to talk about since I didn’t spend very much time at the place. Lamar (who as yet doesn’t have a profile in here, probably soon) was and is sick and needed to go to the doctor so I headed out a little early (read 10:00AM) with the rest of the day to myself. After today though there was more time to talk with him and to work on some stuff. It is great to be memorizing admin passwords again and to be working toward goals and agendas. All things that working at AFNI seemed to lack.

A conseqence of going back to work is that my work on Ann’s diary has slowed, though I do have some updates on gears that I will hopefully get posted soon. That reminds me and I don’t think I have posted these links. I have created pages for my machines since I so often talk about them I thought you should be able to see what they are.

Diablo
Samuel
Gears

Honestly it has been a week or three since I knocked those out so I can’t remember if I got them done or not. I’ll try to check someday. And no I didn’t pick those colors to be impossible to read I’m just lucky like that I guess.

What else….. Oh yeah big props to Pyroman for his meeting the other night about WebVCR+. The boy has done a bang up job on that shit and he deserves any traffic you can send his way. If you are too cheap to buy a TiVo then this is the shit for you. Top Notch!! Top Notch!!! (Two cool points for the movie which contains those last four words like that.)

Possible new look for the forums coming down the pipe. I am letting maxx get all his ducks in a row on his new house before I really start busting him or scott (sorry scott don’t have a URL for you off the top of my head) up with requests. It may not replace these but I might move it in on diablonetwork.net or as just an addition to these.

And finally props to Seth for his graduation from WKU!!! I hope he will continue to post to the page and keep us up to date on what is going on with him.

So this monday was a pretty good birthday if I must say so myself. Woke up in the morning and found a couple pairs of jeans and a shirt left on my bed by the birthday bunny. Headed to work, but there wasn’t much going on. Got some singing and stuff from some of my co-workers. My Grandparents also rang in with cards and phone calls, so it was nice to hear from them as well. When I got home Stacey gave me a bag full of candy with what I must say was a great card on it:

To: Dork

From: The Bestest Sister Ever

Happy Birthday.

Slightly paraphrased as I don’t have the card right in front of me. Next my family (including Pauline) and I headed to Glasgow and ate at the Tumbleweed there. The food was great and it was nice to get to spend some time with everyone. Pauline also brought the first mock-up of my custom laptop bag that she is making me. I didn’t want gears to feel left out since diablo had his own carrying bag.

While I did get called in that night to fix something, the next day continued to seem somewhat like my birthday as I had taken the morning off from AFNI and got another present while I was enjoying the time off. By the end of the day though I was pretty tired, but I went to WEMS and worked on that lab setup there some more. It is shaping up some, but I am starting to run into problems that server horsepower and clever little tricks on my part are struggling to solve. Hopefully it will all work out though when I get the second server and get it setup.

Today I picked up the other of Pauline’s gift, which is more than likely to make all my other machines quite jealous of diablo. She ordered my a Li-Lan all aluminum case from Think-Geek. It comes pre-modded with a window in the side, blow hole on top and it is a sleek black finish. With the addition of the Tux Windows etching that I purchased for it and the red light strips it is going to be a really nice looking machine. Brock mentioned some stuff to allow me to dual color the etching or even to add things to it. Now I am thinking that I might try for some horns and a tail to go on Tux …..hmmmm. The site he pointed me to is located at metku.net. Check out his stuff, it will make you want to buy a dremel and box of led lights.

Recently, I have found out that some of the higher ups in AFNI read my site. I know that at least my boss’s boss and his boss (meaning my boss’s boss’s boss) have looked at it. They told me that they had viewed it in a meeting that I had with them a few days ago. They said that is was understandable to want to “vent” and that I was entitled to my opinion about things here at AFNI. They were just wanting to try and find the best way to make me feel better about working at AFNI.

So that brought some thoughts up in my mind. Previously I knew that there were other people at AFNI that read my site, but I just assumed that it was some other people that I know. Now I know that it is them. So this poses the question that has caused me to classify this as an Ask the Crew kinda thing.

Since I have started working this site and posting what is going on, there are more and more people that have a better insight into how I feel about things. Imagine going into a meeting with the people I have mentioned before and having them know everything you dislike about the position and almost every time you have gotten pissed at the company. That is a up hill kinda situation to say the least. If you had such a forum, would you post everything that happens in your life no matter who it might piss off? I mean I can (and will) keep posting the things that I think AFNI is doing wrong, but now I know that there is a pretty good possibility that higher up people are going to read it. If I were to get pissed at maxx and posting in here that I was, chances are that he would know anyway, but if I were to decide that he was a fucknut and post that in here, chances are that I wouldn’t say that to his face. As soon as he loads up this site though it would be in here in plain text.

Do you think that you could write what you feel and to hell with the other people, or would you find yourself curbing what you write so that you might leave things out of your journal (an as such lessening its value) so that you wouldn’t make anyone mad. Is there a third possibility that you would instead curb your life such that there would be less controversial things to write about in the journal?