As usual, we opened the non-Santa presents this morning (Christmas Eve).

One of the surprises was an album that I had forgotten I had asked for:

The pictures are not too good (stupid camera phone), but I got another gift along with this: A Sony Rootkit!

I could tell that they were infected by the symbols Sony has placed on the front and back of the disk case:

In what must be Sony/BMG’s worst nightmare, I ripped this on my Mac (this disk did not contain the Sony Macintosh Rootkit) to Apple Lossless format. I then put it in MP3 (for network serving) and then burned the Lossless version to CDDA so I still have a CD to use. Works well, too.

My only regret is that Sony/BMG got some money for Christmas.

Nothing tops off the work day like having a co-worker make a comment to you that very much has a tone similar to “Don’t be so stupid, just do your job.”

Now, this was sent by e-mail so misunderstanding of tone and meaning is almost built-in to the medium. And, this would be the first time this person has ever been rude to me in any way. So… take a few deep breaths and relax. Turn off the fight-or-flight response… which, in me, is very geared towards “fight” and not so inclined to “flight”.

Still, it certainly made me say “F… it” and call it a day. I’ll finish that crap tomorrow.

Finally got around to updating the main server.

Included in the updates is a new kernel release for this machine. In days of yore I would have simply run the updater, did a “lilo -v” to update the boot code and rebooted.

Today I’ve settled for restarting all major services to make sure they are using the latest shared libraries and all of that.

But, as my server is colo’d in Santa Clara I’m hesitant to just reboot it. What if it doesn’t come up? Hmmm, I’d rather not find out.

So I’ll do the old “shutdown -r now” routine later this week once I’m familiar with the NOC tech support procedures at the hosting place. I really don’t need the headaches of extended downtime right now.

Like I said… chicken.

I’ve been meaning to write this but only now found time.

For various reasons I had to go to the midwest recently; doing so is both rewarding and frustrating in equal measures for various, non-related reasons. One of the downsides is the weather; getting caught in a snowstorm in Indy was not much fun. Avoid this if possible.

In the benefits department I did get to see some very dear friends and hang around with some very cool cats. However, the cats attempt at framing me for the knocking-over of a figurine will not be forgotten.

Nothing but rain and gloom here today, but that will change soon enough. I hope so, as it is December and thusly it is prime lawn-mowing season. If it gets too long it never dries, and this makes for a difficult mowing session. Sunny and in the 60’s by Tuesday if you can believe the weather goons.

Also, in another seasonal observation, the hills are turning green. This looks very, very odd to me. I suppose that it will change just as I get used to it.

In other news: Allison has her license now. If you drive a minivan or anything of similar size you should be safe.

So, I’m stuck in Indianapolis.

A mere 5” of snow has shut this place down.

No plows. No salt trucks. No prep. Idiots.

I do not miss this.

(Hey, I managed to blog this while my brother is driving. GEEK.)