I know I haven't been blogging as much now that I'm using twitter a bit more. Last week I actually took a seven day diet from social media while we were on a family vacation to Disneyland.

I have my short term fill of the Tiki-Room and It's a Small World is still playing on my mental playlist.  One of the coolest things that we were able to partake in during this last trip was to ride up front with the driver on the Mark VII Monorail.  I've wanted to do this for decades, but it never worked out until this trip.  Yes, that is a really nerdy thing to be excited about.

• Monorail Pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaron_anderer/sets/72157629892221935/

While I'm not a big wig like Guy Kawasaki, I did get a chance to see the outside of Club 33 at Disneyland...  the secret club that is members only and serves booze in Disneyland.

• Club 33 Pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaron_anderer/sets/72157629893004167/
  

The other things that I figured out on this trip.

• My oldest son loves the Monorail as much as I do.
• My youngest son is deathly afraid of non-human characters.
• The Disneyland childcare center has the best little tiny toilets for those of you trying to potty train a child.
  
• While I love churros, there are times when I do not desire to eat them.  I never thought I would write that.
• The fireworks look so much better when viewed from the carousel in Fantasyland.
  

Posted by spectrox at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For several years I was able to use a Netscreen-10 that I bought off Craigslist for the fairly simple network infrastructure at my house.  I need to be able to deal with a few static IP addresses and a few custom rules for VPN traffic.  Up until about four months ago the pre-Juniper Netscreen-10 unit chugged along like a star.  I actually computed out the MTBF for it, and it went three years beyond what it was designed for. It kept crashing twice a day when my wife's VPN traffic was really heavy, so it had to be replaced.

So, my issue was what to replace it with.  Should I go with Cisco, Linksys/Cisco, Netgear or some other flavor of the week at Fry's.   What I end up with is not what I expected.  I ended up loading Smoothwall on a mini-itx based PC using a IDE to CF converter.  So I ended up with something that didn't cost me a penny (I already had the hardware lying around) and outperformed my previous installation. 

Smoothwall fit the bill and was free.  I'm sure that IPcop or m0n0wall would work just as well on the exact same hardware.   Smothwall is pretty cool in that it provides a snort engine for intrusion detection, which is really helpful in fending off cyber attacks.

Links:

• http://www.smoothwall.org/
• http://www.ipcop.org/
• http://m0n0.ch/wall/
  

Posted by spectrox at 12:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is a very special day for my furry little girl.  Nine years ago today, a furry little Australian Cattle Dog puppy was born.  We adopted her four months later and has been a member of the family ever since.  Her birthday is special you see, as Hazel is the only pet that we know their history from birth, down to the day.  She has been incredibly patient as new member of our family have come on board, human and animal alike.  We are so lucky to have her in our lives.

Posted by spectrox at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It looks as if BART has made a leap forward in their quest to update the train cars in the system.  The original car design has been running with minor changes and refurbishments since 1972, so this will be a welcome upgrade.

(Photo Courtesy of BART)

So if all goes as planned, we might be riding these in September 2016.  BART is still taking community input in regards to the internal seat configurations and the color palette to be used, so if you actually care, let them know.

Links:

• http://www.bart.gov/about/projects/cars/index.aspx
• http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2011/news20110805.aspx
  

Posted by spectrox at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I would like to extend warm wishes to all that read this message.  Whether you come to my blog via a search engine or if you are connected to me via Facebook, Google+, LinkedIN, or Twitter, I appreciate all of you.  Whether you are one of my friends or co-workers that I see in person often, a Facebook friend that I haven't seen in person in 20 years, or a Twitter follower that I've yet to meet in person, you have all added value to my daily life.

May the year 2012 be an amazing one for all of you!

Posted by spectrox at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You might have seen QR Codes affixed to advertisements in magazines or in public spaces.

They look a little something like this:

For the last several years they have been used to quickly transfer URL information, phone numbers and other types of information to people that use smartphones or PDA devices with cameras.  It turns out now that with the success of this format, people have figured ways to subvert the system to send people to malware sites and other unsavory locations.  Dark Reading as a great article on how the system works and what it being done to use it for evil purposes.

Links:

• http://www.darkreading.com/mobile-security/167901113/security/news/232301147/qr-code-malware-picks-up-steam.html 
• http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ (I used this to generate the QR Code)
  

Posted by spectrox at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Step 1: Create an innovative product that fills a niche market.

Step 2: Grow it over half a decade.  Make your product fast and fault tolerant.

Step 3: Relaunch it as something else that doesn't resemble the original innovative product.  Have the graphics re-branded for Web 3.0 or whatever iteration we are in now.  Wait for VC money to run out.

Continue reading "How to ruin a good thing in three steps" »

Posted by spectrox at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)