Digital Choke Daynotes

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What I Did On My Summer Vacation (July 2003)

A lot of family stuff this weekend, but it's now over. I'm sitting here in the family room catching up on the 'net, while Pam watches "The Client" (one of her favorites). The grandkids left a bit ago, so the house is back to it's normal quietness.

Saturday was the big 50th anniversary party for Pam's parents. Lots of people there, lots of their old friends, and lots of her cousins and aunts and uncles and others. It was a real nice party for her parents, they were able to visit with a lot of people that they hadn't seen for many years. We got home late in the evening, and I was too tired to write anything for Saturday.

This morning we went to a brunch at Pam's parent's house, just for the family that had come from out of town. A nice spread: pancakes, scrambled eggs and ham, hash browns, little smoke sausages, fruit salad, muffins, orange juice. Then we sat around and visited for a while, and the morning went fast. People started leaving for the airport and home around 2pm, so we took off also.

We relaxed around the house, staying inside because it's was rather hot outside today; I think that it got up to around 105 today. A good day to stay inside.

I've been doing a bit of upgrading on my laptop computer. I use ZoneAlarm (the free version) as my firewall, even though I only have a dial-up line. It interferes a bit with my connection to the network; I have to disable it to log into the network. It's probably a setting in there somewhere, but I decided it would be easier to uninstall and then reinstall the latest version. I also installed the VPN client software on the laptop, so wanted to get ZoneAlarm to get along with that program.

So, I downloaded the latest version of the free ZoneAlarm, then made sure that the VPN client software was working OK. I then installed ZoneAlarm, and that went OK until I tried to get back into the work network using the VPN connection. That didn't work quite as smoothly as it needed to, so I suspect that I need to tweak ZoneAlarm a bit more. I'll probably work on it a bit more tonight.

And since I installed the VPN software, Outlook is not talking to the mail system properly. Not really a bit deal on the laptop, since I only use it to read the mail to the "Digital Choke" mail account. I don't get much mail there, although the fine folks in South Africa, who generously want to share some of their wealth with me still send me daily greetings. Outlook sometimes get in the way of the GroupWise client (or vice versa), but it is a minor annoyance that needs to be fixed.

It's back to work tomorrow. Got a couple of meetings as usual, including the weekly security team meeting. I get to explain the web filtering software to one division at work, and there is the new mail system to put together. I also need to build an Intranet server. I'm thinking that might be interesting to try out Windows Server 2003, so we'll put that server in the lab (which has the same basic configuration as our production network) for that test. And the family reunion for my side of the family is this weekend, so I am planning to take Friday off for that. So it will be a busy week.

One of the joys of getting a bit older is that your eye muscles get weaker, requiring the use of reading glasses. This condition is called presbyopia, and is very common. And I've had it for a couple of years.

I write these musings on a Compaq laptop, with the resolution set at 1400 x 1050. It has Windows XP, and I have enabled ClearType. But the text has always been a bit small even when wearing my glasses.

So I decided to change the font size to the "large size" (120 dpi) setting. That made a big difference. I still have to wear my glasses, especially later in the day. (My eyes tend to be a bit weaker at the end of the day.) But the text is much clearer, and it is much easier to see.

I was reading an entry on Jerry Pournelle's site, in which one of his readers recommended the use of the Windows XP Firewall. (It was in his mail section today.) One of the ways that I test a firewall is to go to Steve Gibson's site at www.grc.com and run the ShieldsUp and LeakTest programs. These are programs that try to politely probe you system using common hacker techniques. Although they are probably not comprehensive tests, they do give you some good basic information about your firewall protection.

Anyhow, Jerry's correspond ant says that the Windows XP Firewall might be "good enough" for the public. The advanced "techie" might want to use something different, but he said that WinXP Firewall might be a good start for protection of your computer. Jerry has a lot of very technical readers, so I suspect that there might be some interesting comments on that subject.

The laptop has ZoneAlarm running, but also has Windows XP Firewall enabled. I may spend some time trying both of them, then also doing a bit of research on WinXP's Firewall. I do recommend that you run some sort of firewall on your systems, at home and at work, especially if you have a broadband connection. Of course, the work system should have a more robust protection system.

Some more project planning today, along with an inventory of about severn servers that need to be installed. Some are for the new external mail system configuration. There is an Intranet server, a DNS/DHCP server, and servers for our VPN. I wanted to get started on the Intranet server yesterday, but a few other things came up. I plan to move the server into the lab tomorrow, since I'll be putting Windows Server 2003 on it. Since this will be our first install of that OS, we need to test it in the lab before putting into the production environment.

I had to start some investigative work into an email problem today. No details allowed, but it will be an interesting little project.

After work, I dropped off Pam at the hairdresser's, and I went over to the gym. I haven't been there for quite a while, but really need to get back into the habit. I need to get in better shape (yeah, I know, "round is a shape"), and strengthen the heart muscle. I think that if I can lose some weight and reduce body fat, that will be helpful to my overall health. The last visit to my doctor resulted in some concern about those issues, along with cholesterol approaching levels for concern. I have been trying to eat a bit healthier, reducing my intake of the bad fats, salt, and snacks. I've been reading more labels the past several months, and try to eat foods that have less than 1/3 fat content. So, it was off to the gym while Pam got her haircut.

I got through at the gym before Pam was through, so did some project planning homework. Worked on it a bit more tonight. I'll need to organize it into MS-Project and see how the whole schedule works out. That will be one of the things to do tomorrow, along with starting on the Intranet server.

Tomorrow after work we are heading up to the mountains for the start of the family reunion (my side). We won't spend the night, but I am planning on taking all of Friday off to be there. We have these every two-three years. The family is spread out all over the US. Not everyone can make it, but it's fun to see those that can.

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