tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:52:33 +0000http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/index.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)Blogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-8799451160183220636Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:48:00 +00002008-07-13T18:52:33.963-05:00gamesgardenBeen busy lately. The plants in the earthbox are doing well. Also, a friend recommended a pretty neat game for Neo and I called Portal. Here is the trailer for it: It's basically a puzzle game but with a neat FPS twist. We've been having a blast playing it.http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/07/been-busy-lately.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-6989583930872381957Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:44:00 +00002008-06-02T06:54:46.201-05:00houselinuxpeartWorked on trying to get a couple of my windows machines go to sleep when not being used and have the file server automatically wake them up when doing backups or virus scans. Hopefully this will save considerable power. Figured out how to get automount to work for the samba shares (mainly just setting up /etc/auto.misc). My only problem now is that my rsnapshot backup utility lets me run a http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/06/worked-on-trying-to-get-couple-of-my.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-7823468050156571685Tue, 20 May 2008 02:14:00 +00002008-05-19T21:17:30.672-05:00happyneighborscommunityGot to see Christian's old Geo Prism parked down the street with the people we sold it to a while back. Talked with the owner who said it is still running great and has been a "lifeline" for him. That felt good.http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/05/got-to-see-christians-old-geo-prism.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-4945430059696850955Wed, 07 May 2008 13:48:00 +00002008-05-19T21:16:46.151-05:00happyneighborscommunityHelped a neighbor clear a clogged septic line, and later, helped them install a new toilet flange and a toilet. I'm not thrilled about the flange installation... it was a bit hokey, but we were running out of options and they were desperate to get their toilet working again. So, we got it on, and its working. I hope it stays that way for a while. Helping your neighbor feels good. If we can'thttp://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/05/helped-neighbor-clear-clogged-septic.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-7121722378148319178Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:07:00 +00002008-04-20T12:54:39.160-05:00houseideasgovernmentpoliticsWith the economic stimulus checks due to arrive soon, I thought I would just share some of my thoughts on how people might use the money. I know many people believe that this money is there money to begin with and can do anything they want with it. I just share these points because I believe they highlight areas where people can use the money and achieve some of the things that the money is http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/04/with-economic-stimulus-checks-due-to.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-3017428047877718527Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:19:00 +00002008-04-11T21:20:36.649-05:00websiteok... it looks like slurp is obeying the robots.txt file now... but it looks like it took about 7 hours to take effect.http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/04/ok.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-4666169332651217072Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:44:00 +00002008-04-11T06:47:29.387-05:00madwebsiteMan. Yahoo's bot... slurp... is killing me. Their bots have been pounding my site for weeks, sucking down lots of bandwidth. I decided to make a robots.txt and try to disallow crawling on some of the more byte intense portions of the site. But, after just watching my log for a few minutes, I could see yahoo slurp get the new robots.txt, and completely ignore it! Dangit! That is annoying. http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/04/man.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-2821190259086685797Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:03:00 +00002008-03-18T20:09:31.069-05:00politicsWow. What a speech. I feel like Barack Obama nailed in this speech many of my feelings on race... that it is often more of a mirror image than people like to admit, and that ultimately, while big government deprives people of healthcare equally, and removes liberties from people equally, and ships people off to war equally... they are quick to point out our differences and use the infighting http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/03/wow.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-8190075249717810908Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:59:00 +00002008-03-18T20:02:17.254-05:00spaceASUS G2SsickI feel better now. Managed to recover enough to go on our vacation to see the shuttle launch. Following the mission, it is neat to see the SPDM alive and kicking. Congrats to the Canadians for another successful delivery. While I was sick, I can report that my replacement ASUS G2S worked very well. Aside from the initial laptop having problems and having to send it back to ASUS multiple http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/03/i-feel-better-now.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-1551839228080045296Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:36:00 +00002008-03-05T12:42:58.953-06:00sickSo, I've been lying in bed for the past few days in quarantine. I have the flu. Luckily, I am starting to feel better. But, I realize that I am still contagious. Since we are hoping to go on vacation soon, I don't want anyone else in the family getting sick, if I can help it. So, I am in strict quarantine! Hand washing is paramount! Stay away from the baby! This is not a drill people!http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/03/so-ive-been-lying-in-bed-for-past-few.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-2353532643823809917Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:32:00 +00002008-02-05T11:35:15.555-06:00footballWow. What a game. No matter who you wanted to win the superbowl, nobody can say the Giants didn't deserve to win. There wasn't any controversial calls, no big injuries, no huge turnovers... the Patriots just got outplayed - plain and simple. I still think the Patriots of 2007 may be the greatest football team I've ever seen play the game. But on that night, they got beat. Congratulations tohttp://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/02/wow.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-6389213597462028127Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:37:00 +00002008-01-08T20:41:24.997-06:00websiteI've been getting quite a few follow-ups to my reports of the Earthlink DNS poisoning. I got a couple of emails from technicians working the issues, both of which found the blog not from my reports to the abuse departments, but from this blog. Kudos to google for making the world's data searchable! I also got a comment from another user who is still having issues. His comment is here.http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/01/ive-been-getting-quite-few-follow-ups.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-1510905946003254020Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:57:00 +00002008-01-02T12:58:33.457-06:00websiteLooks like Earthlink has it fixed now. I wonder if they will let people know they were hacked and should scan their computers. That would be the responsible thing to do.http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/01/looks-like-earthlink-has-it-fixed-now.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-596138312748481619Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:50:00 +00002008-01-02T08:55:57.990-06:00websiteOk, since I haven't gotten any responses from the Earthlink security folks, I decided to call the phone number listed via the WHOIS lookup on earthlink's DNS IP. I get the operator who tells me that "The Abuse Department is a voicemail line only, and it is broken right now." Wow. She passes me to tech support. An Indian lady answers the phone and starts telling me what websites I can go to. http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/01/ok-since-i-havent-gotten-any-responses.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-8269851374128018111Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:33:00 +00002008-01-02T00:43:06.409-06:00websiteLooks like the Earthlink DNS servers I am on got hacked. I noticed any site I went to, including mine, that uses Google Analytics was giving me a message to install some bogus Active-X control that claimed to be from Microsoft. Looking into it further, it looks like the DNS for "www.google-analytics.com" is resolving to some bogus Chinese domain, which is serving up a severely hacked version ofhttp://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/01/looks-like-earthlink-dns-servers-i-am.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-7859728076501173862Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:54:00 +00002008-01-01T16:04:17.925-06:00After whining about bad and horrible business, like Comcast, or Frys, I thought I might write about some of the great businesses that get it right. A phone call to ING Direct was so refreshing. The person on the phone was very nice and a great help. I love giving them my business. Why can't all customer service be like this??? All of my phone calls to Ameritrade have been good experiences. http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2008/01/after-whining-about-bad-and-horrible.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-4862359323305308773Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:08:00 +00002007-12-22T08:17:14.189-06:00governmentEarlier this year, I heard a story on NPR's "This I Believe" series, where individuals write short stories about beliefs and values that guide their lives. This story was from a Chinese man named Yinong Young-Xu, and it has stuck with me. I think about it often. Here is his essay: I believe in our innate potential for brutality. When I was 6, in the streets of Shanghai, near the end of the http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/12/earlier-this-year-i-heard-story-on-nprs.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-5178448661061084850Sun, 25 Nov 2007 04:48:00 +00002007-11-24T22:52:13.128-06:00moviesJust saw The Mist with Christian on a little date we went on. I believe it is the best Stephen King movie I've ever seen. Also it was finally one where I wasn't disappointed with the ending. The movie isn't so much scary as it is disturbing and shocking. The entire audience was reacting to the movie. They even applauded at an event in the movie at one point!! Very very good. Actually worthhttp://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/11/just-saw-mist-with-christian-on-little.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-4521788492444038120Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:27:00 +00002007-11-17T12:32:50.362-06:00governmentpoliticsI've been doing a lot of searching, reading, and investigating into the 2008 presidential candidates. Many of you know that I feel like American values are slipping away as we lean more and more towards a society where liberties and power are freely given up, in the name of fear, security, and politics. What scares me is how many people aren't willing to stand up and demand more from our http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/11/ive-been-doing-lot-of-searching-reading.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-7954319825030976698Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:38:00 +00002007-10-19T19:40:18.791-05:00happycomcasthorrible businessThis lady is my hero.http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/10/this-lady-is-my-hero.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-5320590982218010310Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:51:00 +00002007-10-05T03:55:45.653-05:00comcastmadhorrible businessFor those of you who thought I was joking about Comcast broadband running at dial-up speeds, these speeds are what I have been dealing with _all_night_!!! 9.0 KB/sec... isn't that nice? Comcast offers dial-up speeds for only $50 per month!http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/10/for-those-of-you-who-thought-i-was.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-7305146381130242697Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:03:00 +00002007-10-02T09:07:02.917-05:00fryscomcasthorrible businessfrys.com customer service just called about the complaint I filed with the Better Business Bureau. They apologized, refunded my shipping amount, and told me they are trying to roll out "ship to store" capabilities which let you get the internet price but pick up at the store. Not too bad. I guess I'll take Frys out of first place for who I hate the most and bump Comcast up to the top.http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/10/frys.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-5094405479432290319Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:07:00 +00002007-10-11T17:26:40.780-05:00happyfamilyI had a new baby today!!!http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/09/i-had-new-baby-today.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-3680236438903262227Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:23:00 +00002007-09-23T09:40:44.212-05:00comcastnet neutralitygovernmentHere is some interesting viewing for those who don't believe there is any risk by having huge corporations control your internet, and your tv. Comcast Censors the news This is why it is so important to be in favor of net-neutrality. If you are unfamiliar with net-neutrality, it basically means that people providing internet service cannot give favor to some sites over others. For example, if http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/09/here-is-some-interesting-viewing-for.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8954369448352655919.post-8255870366958299051Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:41:00 +00002007-10-31T14:15:33.117-05:00fryscomcastmadhorrible businessI don't know who I hate more... Comcast, or Fry's. Ever since my earthlink cable internet got converted over to Comcast, my internet service has went down the crapper. Web pages used to be fast. Downloads were really fast. Ping times were great. And I hardly ever had outages. But, now things are Comcastic. Comcastic apparently means slow webpages, constant dropouts, high prices, and a http://www.graffagnino.net/frankie/blog/2007/09/i-dont-know-who-i-hate-more.phpnoreply@blogger.com (Frankie)