Sorry About The Dearth Of Posts
Uncle Andrew
I’ve been busy for a few days now. Firstly I’ve been getting my act together for my upcoming laminotomy, which will take place next week Thursday. The science of back surgery has advanced significantly in the last ten or so years: the procedure will take place through two 1-centimeter holes instead of a four-inch-long incision, and will involve no yanking and rearranging of major nerves, unlike my last surgery. I will be under for a couple of hours and leave the facility that day, strictly an in-by-nine-out-by-five sort of thing. Hell, I may even get free Martinizing.
Secondly, I have recently gotten entirely too caught up in adult toys as of late (hmmm….probably could have phrased that a bit better). I hadn’t even finished with Bioshock when Half-Life 2: Episode Two came out. So then, while I took a break from greasing Splicers in Rapture to plug a few Zombines in HL2ep2, the frickin’ Crysis Single Player Demo comes out and I have to spend a few hours running around some anonymous, absolutely gorgeously rendered Philippine island plugging Korean commandos. That game’s graphics engine is absolutely stunning; I’m finally pushing my obnoxious new gaming rig to its limits.
On top of all this, I managed to convince my boss to pay for a full data package for my cell phone (took about five minutes to talk him into it; I love that man) so I had to go and get me a data-enabled phone. I picked the Samsung SCH-i760, a Windows Mobile 6 smart phone just released for my Verizon plan. I spent much of today (and will probably spend a decent chunk of tomorrow) getting this thing totally rigged for my contacts, email accounts and other stuff (still have to work out the VPN and get a MicroSD card for it….maybe a Bluetooth GPS as well). So far, I think the tentative verdict is that I love this phone more than Democracy (can you blame me? I’ve practically forgotten what it looked like), free markets (ditto) and apple pie (still too junked-out on leftover Halloween candy)….just about anything but my wife. I’ll post a more detailed mash note sometime in the near future.
But the real reason I’m writing this post is to ask a question: do any of you out there have problems connecting to my server? Not merely that it may be slow at times (this is the data line for the house, after all, and with three people checking their email, surfing the Web and seeding the occasional BitTorrent in here, access to the Web server may occasionally slow to a brisk crawl), or that it may occasionally not respond at all (I do shut it down for occasional maintenance, for as much as a half-hour or so at a a time).
What I’m talking about is more like this: you try to access the blog, your browser returns a timeout, you hit Refresh, and get connected immediately. Or maybe it takes two or three refreshes before you connect. Sometimes it may happen during the initial request, other times while you’re trying to post a comment.
The reason I ask is because I deal with that sort of problem with my blog on a daily basis from inside my local network. But I have all sorts of wierd shit going on with my local computers: multiple IP addresses tied to a single NIC, possible cross-contamination from having the LAN side of multiple routers plugged into a common network switch, allkindagoodshit. I’m not good enough with a packet analyzer to look at my requests and decide where they’re going wrong, and frankly, unless it’s happening to you my loyal public (hi you two!) as well, I’m probably to damn lazy to bother.
So let me know, willya? How fares your Uncle Andrew dot Net experience?
10 Responses to “Sorry About The Dearth Of Posts”
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November 4th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Be sure to get the new Live Search for Windows Mobile. It is way cool, with the new version having voice search (which works surprisingly well) and can tell you theaters and movie times for the area that’s selected in your map.
November 4th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Every once in a while I can’t connect, and then I can. I assume you just don’t like me anymore. 🙂
Speaking of adult toys, check out Portal. It’s a shooting game even I can get into.
Good luck Andrew,
Sheri
November 4th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I have had problems a few times. I can’t connect and then I go back a few hours later and I can. I hope your back doesn’t need the hammer and chisel.
November 4th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
InTerwEb Gude
November 4th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Thanks to everyone for the input and the well wishes. It sounds like the problems most of you are facing have more to do with the cockamamie way I manage my server rather than the kind of timeout errors I get around these parts. Sheri, your problems most likely stem from the fact that I gorched my ZoneAlarm settings and had to revert to an older set that included a blacklist on certain Speakeasy address blocks, yours included. Oops. 😳 I’ll let y’all know how the surgery goes, but I’ll probably be posting here before that……I can’t imagine going five whole days without finding something to bitch about.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Good luck with the procedure, Roo. I see occasional timeout issues, but I’ve always assumed it was problems on my end (and given where I check your site from, that’s still the most likely cause).
November 5th, 2007 at 9:25 am
I’ve finally taken the step of totally isolating my two routers from each other on the LAN side, which I think should help with the problem of packets getting lost along the way. At least, thing seem a bit snappier on this end….
November 5th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I’ve been looking at that. It seems pretty interesting. For no particular reason, Verizon disabled Live Search on all the the V-branded Samsung i760s. Once I get the hang of this thing, I’ll probably install it.
Andrew
November 6th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I just find you a little….slow at times. No other problems.
Good luck with your “procedure” (that sounds less intimidating than “surgery”), I hope it solves all your back pain problems.
Oh, and I second the Portal recommendation. I am a wee bit addicted to the online flash version during lunchtime.
November 8th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
andrew i called the folks today and they told you were going under the knife today and i just hung up they said that margret called
and that you were in a bit longer but were doing well i hope you recover quickly and that it really helps this time cant wait to see
you guys again at christmass i will be by myself but that is a good thing as far as im concerned we will have to go to get a plate lunch or 3 while were there take care i will call you in a few days to check up on you i get to go back to the orthopedic surgon next week as my left knee decided to lock up 2 weeks after deciding to get up off the couch and walk on the treadmill very slowly i might add
serves me right to try and get some excersize after sittin on my ass for 3 years but we will see what happens
i will talk to you soon your bro david