Apropos of nothing, I rolled over 3000 points on ServerFault yesterday.Also, I failed to mention that the promised stickers did in fact show up in the mail a few weeks ago. Cool!
(Previously.)
2009-11-10
3K on ServerFault
Apropos of nothing, I rolled over 3000 points on ServerFault yesterday.Also, I failed to mention that the promised stickers did in fact show up in the mail a few weeks ago. Cool!
(Previously.)
Customer Feedback
So before I went away on my trip, I received an email from WebEx that looked like this:
In other words, an email appears in my inbox that is from some guy I've never heard of, and has a subject of "Please Advise". And it is a sales pitch.
This, I think, is boarderline spammy behavior.
So just for giggles, I sent him an email back:
From: Joe Schwartz[sales pitch excluded]
Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 3:04 PM
To: Dave Mackintosh
Subject: Please Advise
David
Collaborate with colleagues, customers, and prospects—any time, anywhere. Count on WebEx online collaboration to streamline communication throughout your organization.
In other words, an email appears in my inbox that is from some guy I've never heard of, and has a subject of "Please Advise". And it is a sales pitch.
This, I think, is boarderline spammy behavior.
So just for giggles, I sent him an email back:
From: Dave MackintoshI'll probably never hear anything further on this, but I figured leaving a blog post which associates the company name "WebEx" with "email spam" where Google can find it is the least I can do.
Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 8:51 AM
To: Joe Schwartz
Subject: RE: Please Advise
Hi Joe
I have a couple of pieces of feedback for you.
First, you can remove my email from your lists as my intent on sign up was merely to test a web browser configuration for use with your product for a customer I was working with. The customer is quite happy with your service and continues to use it regularly. However, at present I personally have no direct need for this service.
Second, I find the subject line of your email to be misleading – it has absolutely no relation to the content of the email. I would categorize this as a boarder-line “spammy” message based on that. I realize that you personally have no direct control over what your auto-mailer sends, but if you could send this back upstream you might get a better response to your campaigns.
Thank you for your time.
2009-10-23
I'm Home Sick Today
...so I have the time, and inclination, to stare dimly and uncomprehendingly at things for long periods of time. And eventually, I learn something.
See, I have a VM running Linux which handles the storage of Cloud Camera pictures. And once a day it generates the time-lapse movie of the day's pictures. And because I'm a sysadmin who believes if you don't measure it it didn't happen, I'm running software on that VM which records how busy the VM is and what it is doing.
Which led me to stare dimly at this graph for a while:
...which records the ethernet activity on the VM over the last day or so.
So what you need to know to make sense of this graph is that the camera is an IP camera, looking outside at the clouds going by, which FTP's an image every six or ten seconds (I can never remember which and can't be bothered to check right now) to the VM. This happens from around 5AM until around 9PM every day.
(The end result of which occasionally winds up here.)
But why is there more traffic in the early morning and the late afternoon? Look, it repeats every day:
And then it hit me: it is dark in the early morning and from late-afternoon on.
This IP camera has a night-vision mode which isn't entirely useless. It can see in the dark pretty well -- but the images it produces in the dark are bigger, because the noise in the CCD sensor can't be as efficiently compressed by the JPEG algorithm when the picture is predominantly dark.
And I'm rather pleased by that deduction.
Of course, I'm home sick, so my standards of "what is interesting" are probably somewhat looser than they usually are.
See, I have a VM running Linux which handles the storage of Cloud Camera pictures. And once a day it generates the time-lapse movie of the day's pictures. And because I'm a sysadmin who believes if you don't measure it it didn't happen, I'm running software on that VM which records how busy the VM is and what it is doing.
Which led me to stare dimly at this graph for a while:
...which records the ethernet activity on the VM over the last day or so.
So what you need to know to make sense of this graph is that the camera is an IP camera, looking outside at the clouds going by, which FTP's an image every six or ten seconds (I can never remember which and can't be bothered to check right now) to the VM. This happens from around 5AM until around 9PM every day.
(The end result of which occasionally winds up here.)
But why is there more traffic in the early morning and the late afternoon? Look, it repeats every day:
And then it hit me: it is dark in the early morning and from late-afternoon on.
This IP camera has a night-vision mode which isn't entirely useless. It can see in the dark pretty well -- but the images it produces in the dark are bigger, because the noise in the CCD sensor can't be as efficiently compressed by the JPEG algorithm when the picture is predominantly dark.
And I'm rather pleased by that deduction.
Of course, I'm home sick, so my standards of "what is interesting" are probably somewhat looser than they usually are.
2009-10-19
The Hat: Replacement Quest Part V
Today I checked the mailbox... and:
Yes, a box from Tilley. I wonder what is in it?
Yep, Tilley made good on their guarantee. They even returned the old one, although they've writen "VOID" on the label in the old one, to ensure nobody tries to "redeem" it again.
I must also note that their turn-around time may be better than illustrated here, because I didn't check the mailbox on Friday -- so the hat might have been waiting for me there all weekend.
Now my only problem is -- I have two hats!
Thank you Tilley!
(Previously.)
Yes, a box from Tilley. I wonder what is in it?
Yep, Tilley made good on their guarantee. They even returned the old one, although they've writen "VOID" on the label in the old one, to ensure nobody tries to "redeem" it again.
I must also note that their turn-around time may be better than illustrated here, because I didn't check the mailbox on Friday -- so the hat might have been waiting for me there all weekend.
Now my only problem is -- I have two hats!
Thank you Tilley!
(Previously.)
2009-10-16
COPYRIGHT VIOLATION PREVENTED.
So I'm reading Wil Wheaton's RSS feed, right?
[crickets]
...and um yeah he's been talking about this guest spot he's doing for The Big Bang Theory, right? And I watch TBBT*, right? And he's posted this link to the YouTube site with the promo for us to watch, right?
Well yeah, except:
So... since I'm in Canada, I can't watch it. Even though I watch TBBT every week, without any concern for "copyright issues".
YouTube: Fail.
CBS: Fail.
Well done, chaps, I'm going to have to wait until Tuesday to see this thing.
*(Note: It has just occurred to me that if you write it as ThBBT, it sounds like Bill the Cat's raspberry.)
[crickets]
...and um yeah he's been talking about this guest spot he's doing for The Big Bang Theory, right? And I watch TBBT*, right? And he's posted this link to the YouTube site with the promo for us to watch, right?
Well yeah, except:
So... since I'm in Canada, I can't watch it. Even though I watch TBBT every week, without any concern for "copyright issues".
YouTube: Fail.
CBS: Fail.
Well done, chaps, I'm going to have to wait until Tuesday to see this thing.
*(Note: It has just occurred to me that if you write it as ThBBT, it sounds like Bill the Cat's raspberry.)
2009-10-13
The Hat: Replacement Quest part IV
Two small items of note:
First, I finally sent off the dead hat to Tilley on the weekend. We'll see how long it takes for a replacement to get sent to me.
Secondly, I caved and purchased a replacement, because I need something for the trip in November, and walking around in the rain without a hat is bugging me.
Funny thing is, Nathan now teases me about the hat: "Cowboy hat! Cowboy hat! Yippie Ki Yi Yay!" I guess the two months I have been without it are such a long time in his world that he doesn't remember me wearing one all the time.
(Previously.)
First, I finally sent off the dead hat to Tilley on the weekend. We'll see how long it takes for a replacement to get sent to me.
Secondly, I caved and purchased a replacement, because I need something for the trip in November, and walking around in the rain without a hat is bugging me.
Funny thing is, Nathan now teases me about the hat: "Cowboy hat! Cowboy hat! Yippie Ki Yi Yay!" I guess the two months I have been without it are such a long time in his world that he doesn't remember me wearing one all the time.
(Previously.)
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