And that’s only in the last 10 days.  Okay, so I’m sure it’s not a lot compared to some (I bet Mooney has seen worse), but it seems like a lot to me.  Of course it is for my votebleess.com email, which is open to crawling on the site and has a catch all.  I just checked my bleaus.net mail.  It appears that I have 2158 spam messages in there, in just 30 days.  That seems to be a lot.

Is this October colder than most?  I’ve been thinking that it’s cold this October.  I heard a report last night that we’ve been 14 degrees colder this month compared to average.  I wasn’t sure if it was just me or not, but I guess it’s not.  I thought that since I was out jogging in DC last October and it was still in the upper 60′s/low 70′s I just got used to that warmer weather.  Which I must say, it was pretty easy to get used to!

Two completely unrelated subjects, but here goes…

I’m working on getting a new file server set up here at work.  It’s being a pain.  We’re trying to move databases over, and that’s not very easy as it turns out.  The programs on the client computers seem to be hard coded to look for the databases on the old server, and I cannot seem to find where that is at.  I’ve tried looking in the registry, the config files, everything I can think of.  None of them would work.

So I think on Monday I’ll start on Monday I’ll keep plugging at it some more, and move some other stuff over.  It might be easier to do a lot of this stuff on the weekend when no one is here.  Once we get to user files, etc. then we’ll have to do it on the weekend.  That’ll be a good time I am sure.

So on to the Governor.  I heard that he will be at Bethel tomorrow shaking hands and talking with people outside of the football field gates.  I’m a little jealous I can’t be there.  If I could I would definitely go talk to him, and shake his hand.  Granted I have shook his hand before, and I even have pictures to prove it.

So if anyone wants to go meet the Governor tomorrow would be your chance to do it!

So I was looking at the Firefox website today and noticed that a lot of places will be having a party for the FireFox 2.0 release.  (Yes, I find that a little strange).  However, there are only 3 parties taking place in Minnesota, and none of them are at Bethel.  I thought for sure the CS Dept or ITS would host some type of sweet party. You even get a free T-Shirt if you have a large attendance.  So I encourage someone in the Bethel world to host a FireFox Party.

On a less geeky note, I have decided to never again take my car to mechanics to get my oil changed.  I don’t usually do it, but I won a free oil change a while back, and my car needed it, so I did it.  However, last night (which just happened to be 3,100 miles later) I decided to change my oil.  I had everything I needed.  I got my car up on the ramps, go the wrench I needed, the oil pan, and I was ready to go.  Except the plug wasn’t.  I tried for a good 20 minutes to try and get the bolt (oil plug, whatever you want to call it) to loosen up.  No dice.  So I tried a few things to get more torque on it, which I’ve done before when changing oil with my dad.  Well, I finally got the bolt loose… but I stripped it.  It would just sit and spin, it wouldn’t come out.

So I put a new filter on and talked with dad about it.  He was gracious enough to take a look at it this morning cuz he’s on 2nd shift.  He took it into the shop today (a different one that did the original oil change).  They have to drop the oil pan, and get a new plug and everything.  That’ll set me back probably $70.

Lesson learned (again): Nothing is ever free.

I noticed today that Facebook opened it’s doors to everyone. Well, not quite everyone. You have to have an invite from a person already using Facebook. I’m not sure how I feel about the changes. Part of me thinks it is cool, part of me thinks it’s taking something away.

Of course I don’t think people really take facebook for what it was meant to be. It was a cool thing to keep up with your friends. But when people you don’t even know start adding you as friends, it’s not what it’s supposed to be. As Mooney noted a recent post on the facebook blog they talk about not letting everyone be your friend. It’s true. I have gotten many requests from people I don’t know. I think that’s a little strange, and not what facebook is for.

I read an article talking about Windows XP and the 5 years it’s been around. I thought this quote was humorous:

You can think of Windows XP as a house with a second floor built of spackle, wood filler and duct tape.

Has anyone ever heard of Second Life?  I just heard of it yesterday (once again thanks to /.).  It sounds a little sad, but like a lot of other video games.  If anyone has used it, I’d love to hear what you think about it.

Now away from Techie Stuff: The Twins are going to the playoffs!  Granted I knew for a while they’d be going, so it’s not a huge surprise or anything, but it’s still exciting.  I was looking at playoff tickets last week when they went on sale.  A little bit out of my price range this year.  Maybe next time.  I’d love to get to a playoff game sometime.  I think the atmosphere of it would be really sweet.  Go Twins!

One thing that I really don’t like when I’m surfing the internet are flash ad’s.  It is very annoying to have those ad’s block the text of a news article you are trying to read.  Yahoo! does it, the Pioneer Press does it, and many others.  It’s just simply annoying.

I guess it’s all in the name of “profit”, but what about giving the readers a break.  Keep the ad’s on the side, but don’t have them float around the screen, and make you wait 30 seconds before you can actually begin to read the article.

Is there any way to block these, or do you think there is any hope to get these blocked using a “pop-up” type blocker?

So, as to not be like some people (I thought about taking the time to make links out of all those words, but decided I didn’t have enough time or words, but you know who you are) here I am posting again.

It’s been an interesting day.  I must saying that working the corporate world is interesting.  It’s different from the public sector, and working at Bethel.  Things happen here which get people talking.  If you want some knowledge as to what I’m talking about do a Google New Search for Banta.  Needless to say that’s been the major talk of the day around here.

Apple released a new iTunes the other day.  I have only gotten the chance to play with it a little bit.  It’s different, but I like it.  I think the iTunes Movies are interesting.  From what I read (correct me if I’m wrong) they are pretty good quality.

One thing I’m excited to see more about is the project code named iTV. It seems like it will be an Airport Express for your TV type of thing.  That might be overly simplified, but that’s what I’m getting from it.  You can stream video, music, pictures, etc. from your computer to your TV Screen.  It seems kind of cool, especially if you can use your computer as a TiVO.

The new iPods I think are cool, but nothing special.  A bigger HD is always nice.  The new iPod Shuffle is pretty small.  I’d think that’d be easy to loose.  I can see the handiness of it, but I dunno.  It reminds me of th SNL skit from a while back.

I’ve been using the latest beta version of Firefox for a few days now.  I figured I’d through my thoughts out there for everyone.  Just FYI, I’ve used the new version mostly on Windows, as that’s what I use at work.  I haven’t had time to use it on the Mac as much, so I don’t really have an opinion on it yet.
Features I like:

• The new tabs.  It’s nice to have the tabs you aren’t using set back (I can’t think of a better word for it) from the others.  It’s also nice to have the close button on each tab.
• The Search Bar.  I like the different set up of it.  It’s something much easier, and better than the 2.0b1 version.
• The default skin (On Windows anyway, the Mac one doesn’t seem quite as nice).  The default skin is very clean.  It’s small, easy to use, and isn’t to bulky.
• The spell check is something that’s very nice.  That’s a feature I’ve thought has been needed for a long time.  I’m very glad to see it incorporated in Firefox 2.0
• How it handles RSS Feeds.  It gives you the option of adding the feed to what ever RSS Reader you use.  Pretty nice.

Things I’m not so fond of:

• The Find Feature. Before you could start typing and it would try to find matches on the page.  It would allow you to scroll through all those matches.  Now it will only find the first match.  In order to scroll through the matches you have to press ctrl+F.  Not a huge deal, but not quite as nice.

I don’t have to many complaints about the new Firefox.   I like it, and I think it’s going to be a good browser when it’s out of beta.

I would be kind of interested in trying IE 7, but I don’t have an XP machine to try it on.  Oh well, if it follows tradition it probably won’t be that great anyway.

There seems to be a lot of commotion surrounding the new revisions to the widely used facebook. I find the whole debate rather interesting. It made the news on /. last night. It also got student portals requesting a return to the old style.

I, for one, like the new face lift, or at least most of it. Being able to see who posted what to my wall is nice. I don’t care to see who posted something on some one elses wall though.

Seeing who joined what groups is kind of interesting. You can see what groups are new, and what they’re all about. Otherwise you don’t really know about the new groups (or at least people like myself who don’t use facebook much at all).

Seeing who changed their profile picture is pretty sweet. It gives you the chance to see the “new” them. I like that.

Seeing who has new pictures of themselves up could be useful. However, I don’t like it. It says has added new photo’s. Well, if you look at the photos they are of a bunch of people I don’t know. So I don’t think that’s necessary.

Seeing who wrote new “notes” is fun. It allows you to see the updates, which is a good thing. I like it.

Putting the info of who broke up with who, or who is attending what, is a little overly stalkerish. However, I think that facebook in general allows people to be stalkerish. It just allows for easier reading of that information. If you are that worried that people will see it, then don’t put that information on the internet. It seems simple to me.

I like the mini-feed on the person’s profile page. You can see what they’ve added, removed, changed, etc. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it’s convenient.

I think people don’t really realize that any information you put on the internet is public knowledge. As Bethel states in their recent announcement (FYI, only Bethel people can get there):

Online communities can help students connect with each other in many positive ways. We acknowledge how important these connections can be for you during your college years. We advise you, however, to use discretion when posting personal information on the Internet. Be aware that your information is not private and that your personal safety can be compromised by posting information about your whereabouts and activities.

In addition, any information posted by you or approved by you on the Internet, including in online communities, may be used by the university, future employers, or law enforcement personnel in the ordinary discharge of their duties. Any negative information may be used to your detriment, ranging from minor embarrassment to serious disciplinary proceedings that may lead to sanctions, up to and including separation from the Bethel community.

People who don’t like the new facebook setup because it makes your information more visible have little grounds to stand on (in my opinion).  You put the information out there and you say “Okay, do whatever you want with it.”

People who don’t like the new facebook setup for cosmetic reasons have a decent opinion, but change isn’t all bad.

I’d like to see a few options out there to edit what you see on your “home page”.  I don’t really care who added photos of who, so give me the option to not see it.

Overall I like the new face lift, but I’d like to have the option of customizing it a little bit.

Now that this is on my facebook (thank you facebook notes), feel free to comment!

So I was in facebook today for a while.  I noticed a new feature called Facebook Notes.  It seems interesting enough.  Basically, if you don’t know what it is, it’s like an RSS Reader.  You put your RSS Feed URL there and it displays your latest post on your profile.  Kind of interesting.  I can see the usefulness of it.  I would like to do something similar to that with my main page.  Have it put the latest blog entry on the main page.  I thought it was kind of cool.

Keeping with the technical side of things: Today has felt like the days of ITS gone past.  It was a lot of helping users with some problems.  It wasn’t to bad, but there are always those issues….

Also I got to play around with VBScript a little more today.  I couldn’t figure out everything that I wanted to, but I got most of the job done.  It’s a powerful tool, which I must say I enjoy.  Mix that with some DameWare and it’s a good day.

A check of the weather shows a lot of rain coming this way.  I wonder who long it will hold off?  Hopefully it’s a nice day for the State Fair tomorrow!