"Well, I must say having an OS choice other than Micro$loth seems really cool, like I'm not trapped by the system! I'm glad I've installed RedHat on this old box I had layin around. This should be fun!  I'll come back in five minutes and continue my foray into Linux..."

<5 minutes pass>

"Ahh, ready to go again...just wiggle the mouse to get the screensaver off..."

<mouse pointer wiggles like a dying bug>

"oh, I must have to click the keyboard."

<click, click...CLICK!CLICK!CLICK!>

"What the #%^@? OK, I'll just reboot by pressing the ever handy Reset button."

<Reboot starts. Spiels of text flow past until...>

"Hey, what does this mean "Corrupt XF86Config; Initialization Failure"? Oh, I'll just go in to the command prompt and fix this there."

<click click,click>

"Uh, nothings wrong with this config...it hasn't changed a bit! I'll just call a old friend. He'll help."

<beep, beep, beep,beep,beep,beep,beep....ring,ring>

"Uh, hullo?"

"Hey Lloyd, it's Scott. Remember me?"

"Uh, no."

"OK, well I have this problem with my Linux XF86Config. I think the system just hosed up for no apparent reason."

<chuckle, chuckle>

"Hey what're ya chucklin at Lloyd? Find something funny on the web?"

<silence>

"So, Scott have you tried to edit the config file?"

"Yeah, it seems fine."

"OK. Have you reinstalled the drivers through the config util?"

"Uh, what?!?! I have to reinstall the friggin drivers??!?!?!"

<sigh>

"Have you tried editing the timings for the Horiz. and Sync modes?"

"Uh, I have no idea how to read that stuff, it's like in PigLatin binary or something!"

<oy, vey!>

"OK, Scott what you need to do is go to Borders and buy a book."

"Oh, is there some book that's good for troubleshooting this kinda problem?

"Yeah, it's called Computers For Dummies."

<Click....brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr>

"Uh Lloyd, I think we got disconnected...."

Needless to say I have not ventured back into the RedHat zone even though I have decent Unix skills. And I'm still trapped by the system. Oh, Neo when will you come rescue us?

"I can't seem to get into my place."

OK, first- what type of place do you have? Is it a apartment? A House? A tent in the woods?

"I don't know, it's got windows....."

OoooooooK. <preparing to become frustrated> Well do you have a key to get in?

"I have a bunch, but none of them work. The one marked Ford fit but it wouldn't open the door."

Nah, nah, nah, that one DEFINITELY won't work. Did you get one from a person who helped you buy the place there?

"Yeah, I think..."

OK, let's try that one. Now before I start [BEEP,BEEP,BEEP....]...What's that noise?

"Uh, nothing. [BEEP,BEEP,BEEP....]"

No, WHAT IS THAT NOISE? I NEED to know. [BEEP,BEEP,BEEP....]

"I think I have some kind of security alarm." [BEEP,BEEP,BEEP....]

[SLAP!!!!] <Techie slaps his forehead hard>

OK, STOP what your doing! Listen to me, try putting the key you got, from the person we mentioned, in the keyhole and turn it clockwise. [BEEP,BEEP,BEEP....]

[BEEP,BEEP, bee...] "Hey the noise stopped! Wow thanks!"

Alright, have you pushed the door open now?

"Left handed or right handed?"

It doesn't matter.

<techie makes the "duh" face>

[chhk] "Hey thanks for getting me in. Hey while I've got you, could you tell me what that box out front is for?"

The mailbox?!?!?

"Is that what it's for? How do I get my mail?"

Ummm.<dreading a longer conversation> I'm not sure. Could I get in touch with you----<click....RRRRRRRR> (phone dialtone appears)

 

Had some good riding with some friends.  Probably the last ride of the season.

Ride with Rob stats:

Ride with Rob Vert Profile:

Google Maps track of the ride with Rob.  Google Earth track of the same.

---

Riding with everyone

Ride with everyone stats:

Ride with everyone vert profile:

Google Maps track of the ride with everyone.  And the Google Earth track of the same.

Here are the details:

The track is here.  And here is the Google earth view.

Here is the track from 9-24-2006.  Some great challenges for the beginner I was with.

The Google Maps GPS track (without track splits)

A view from Google Earth.

The elevation profile:

Went out both days this weekend and had a lot of fun riding. 

The overall stats:

 Heres a set of tracks.

Here is the Google Earth view. (save to disk first)

Here is the elevation profile:

 

I have fixed a couple of annoying bugs with this version.  Now it works cleanly.  Download here.

Nice ride with a co-worker.  (its Google Map, so you can zoom in on the track via the control)

Dryer_Road_8-26-2006.htm (106.36 KB)

    The new netsh in Vista is simly updated with a new section for outbound filtering.  I took some time and made a few example rules for those struggling with the syntax.  The rules below are linked here (Vista-Outbound-Firewall-Rules.bat.txt (1.23 KB)).

Pretty nice.  Finding some processes trying to access the internet such as Windows Error Reporting.  More a pain to translate the event log entries generated then anything.


netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="IE (TCP)" dir=out program="c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe" protocol=TCP localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=80,443 action=allow
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="IE (UDP)" dir=out program="c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe" protocol=UDP localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=80,443 action=allow


netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Firefox (TCP)" dir=out program="C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" protocol=TCP localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=80,443 action=allow
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Firefox (UDP)" dir=out program="C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" protocol=UDP localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=80,443 action=allow


netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Windows Messenger (TCP)" dir=out program="c:\program files\msn messenger\msnmsgr.exe" protocol=TCP localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=80,443,1863 action=allow
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Windows Messenger (UDP)" dir=out program="c:\program files\msn messenger\msnmsgr.exe" protocol=UDP localip=any localport=any remoteip=any remoteport=80,443,1863 action=allow