I moved this blog to a new system, which has a more up-to-date versions of all the software. It still basically works, but is really slow, despite running on a faster computer. All of the other services running on the new computer show a performance improvement over the old computer, rather than a [...]

I’m slowly migrating the various services running on my old server (running Fedora Core 3, 32-bit) to a new dual Opteron server (FC5, 64-bit).
In general, moving email services is causing the most hassle, because in the process I’m converting from Qmail to Postfix. However, I’m finding various little gotchas with almost everything I move [...]

The company I work for was moving into really spacious, luxurious new offices. We were getting all of one building and parts of two other buildings in a very upscale business park. There were multiple fountains, great landscaping, and all sorts of amenities. The offices were quite nice. Almost all of [...]

A friend who shall remain nameless wrote:
I’m a bit nervous about it because everytime I tried Postfix at home, I couldn’t get it to work for one reason or another. Sendmail is ugly but it has always worked for me.
I replied:
That’s bizarre. For me, Postfix has always “just worked”, while I’ve *never* been [...]

A friend introduced me to an astronaut, who offered me a ride in a jet he’d just purchased.  I was surprised to see that it was a four-seater, and he’d invited another couple to join us.
He dazzled us with loops, barrel rolls, and other maneuvers.  Then we left the US and landed in some other [...]

I was moving into a new neighborhood. The house was down in a low area, so I was worried that I wouldn’t have a line-of-sight for high-speed wireless internet service. I went scouting the area for possible locations for a repeater.
While i was doing that, a friend’s daughter disappeared and was feared to have [...]

“I believe that when we leave a place a part of it goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in these halls, when it is quiet, and just listen. After a while you will hear the echoes of all of our conversations, every thought and word we’ve exchanged. Long after we are [...]

I needed some HP number 10 ink cartridges and printheads for an HP 2500C wide-carriage inkjet printer. Google turned up a number of sites offering good pricing. CostCentral had very nearly the best prices, and their web site confirmed that they had all the part numbers I needed in stock, while some sites [...]

I just happened across the official web site of one of my favorite science fiction authors, John Varley, and found a great essay about the “War on Drugs”.

I was with a team exploring a part of the moon with strange selenography.  There was a large area covered with vaguely cylindrical vertical projections.  While most of the team was investigating something else, I discovered that one of these projections was actually some kind of technological artifact, covered by a thick layer of moondust.  [...]