Lord Andrei's Blog

So, on an egoistical trip thru Google to see if there was anything new on my last name I made a discovery. To be honest… I actually check my last name on google out of curiosity to see if there is anything on anyone else in my family. Tapolow is a very rare name limited only to about 20 relatives of mine. Most of my family is not on the net.

That noted…

There is a new mini-cocoa-app on the net.
httpquery is described as: a simple utility for querying the version string of an HTTP server. You can use it to find out which software (e.g. Apache, Microsoft IIS, etc.) a web server is running.

The thing that blew my mind was:
Credits go to G. Andrei Tapolow of Apolo Productions for writing the base network code (“IJSimpleSocket”), which I used with some modifications.

IJSimpleSocket was actually a mini project that I was doing to see if I could make my build process automatically send emails to me if there were build problems. It didn’t conflict with work interests so I was given permission to submit the class to the open-source IJournal project I was working on. I eventually bailed from iJournal to offer support to another iJournal developers spin off project XJournal.

So, it’s kind of nice to see your work being adapted by someone else. It’s a sense of professional validation.

The film “A Mighty Wind” is a send up of the Folk Music genre by the people that brought you “Best in Show” and “Spinal Tap”

The amusing thing is that I knew I’d heard the phrase “A Mighty Wind” before. The only literary reference I could find with the phrase however was such:

And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, and she is shaken of a mighty wind.
–Revelations 6:13

Go fig. The reunion of Folk Musicians can only be described in terms of the Apocalypse.

Well, Covad came out and fixed the phone line. So we are back up to dialup from no phone. This is good because my cell doesn’t get reliable coverage at the house.

So, tomorrow I call and once again try to get SBC out to check the line from the CO to the House.

BTW: What is a CO anyway?

So, we have been trying to get DSL service. I’ve had it for quite some time now. A couple of years I think. The new house is on a twisty mountain road. It’s really lovely. However, the wiring… well the wiring is older. The DSL was ‘switched on’ last week. However… no DSL in the house.

So “Covad” came over yesterday. The guy from Covad was nice and intelligent and actually found our phone switch box. Since the house is on a hill, the switch box is in a small crawl space under the house at an angle. Once the wires came in the house there was a general… um.. plethora of phone electronics.

I saw connection boxes that were 10 years old, 20 years old, and a few that were about 40 years old. The Covad guy decided that the DSL problem might be related to a noise filter that he helpfully removed.

Unfortunately, no one opted to check the phone line after he did this. In the afternoon, the phone line sounded like it had a radio on it. By the time I got home to check it, the line was alive but silent. No dial tone.

So, Covad has been called to come back in and fix the line. Hopefully, by the time I get home today, that will be fixed. None the less, the issue that there is a problem on the line between the CO box (where the signal gets split up for the houses) and the house will have to now wait until after we get back from Maine.

More as this unfolds :-/

A gentleman has decided to put his apartment (flat) up on ebay. The interesting part is not that he is asking two (M) million dollars.

No, the interesting thing is that the “Trekkies 2” featured flat has been redesigned in complete 24th century ST:TNG design.

The author has a load of pictures at webshots.com.

There is more information on the film that is the sequel to the travesty “Trekkies.”

I guess one could hope that the sequel won’t make me even more ashamed to admit having liked the classic series, TNG, and DS9.