Noticing that the Internet is still working after the big ‘Conficker attack on 4/1/09. But there are lots of computers with the Conficker malware, as shown by this map http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/wiki/pmwiki.php/ANY/InfectionDistribution from the Conficker Working Group.

That group also has a quick test for checking if you are infected is this Conficker “Eye Chart” http://www.confickerworkinggroup.org/infection_test/cfeyechart.html , which uses graphic images from web sites that are blocked by Conficker. A good quick test to see if you are infected with Conficker.

Conficker is still a threat, since there is no limit to what a bot-controlled computer could be told to do. The map shows that it is still widespread. But the attention of the anti-malware community will minimize it’s impact, I think. Or at least the details of the next attack will be known.

Stacy left for Utah today. She’ll be staying with her sister for a few weeks until she finds an apartment near her new job at the Children’s Hospital in SLC. Sorry to see her go; it has been nice to have her around the house. Even if she did complain about my tickling. So it’s two down, and two to go.

Had an ‘open house’ on Saturday, but just a couple of people stopped by. It was sort of rainy, and there’s a lot of kid sports going on now, so perhaps that diminished the activity (along with the general economy). We aren’t in a big hurry to get it sold, although a closing date of June or July would work well. In the meantime, we get to keep the house clean and neat, ready for a visit by a Realtor and potential buyers.

At the office, more server building. Working on three web servers, and four new mail servers. That will keep me busy

Working today on building two new internal web servers, one public-facing web server, and four mail filtering servers. All are on virtual machine platforms. They are Windows Server 2008-based. The web servers will have IIS7 installed, with ColdFusion 8, along with the usual TrendMicro OfficeScan anti-virus program.

Quite easy to set up, though, but a bit time-consuming. The mail filtering servers will take a bit more time to get all the filtering rules and configuration in place. The existing mail servers (four of those on individual physical boxes) handle about 700,000 messages a day, blocking above 91% of that mail as spam before it gets to our internal mail servers.

On the home-sale front, our Realtor had an open house on Saturday, with about 15 visiting groups stopping by. Although no offers yet, that’s not bad in this market. In the meantime, the house has to stay clean (which is easier without children) in case of other Realtors bring a drop-in. There’s more boxing and de-cluttering needed, mostly in closets and drawers.

Had a nice visit with my sister Cyndee and her daughter Galia and others on Sunday at my mother’s house. Galia is an professional belly dancer; she and her husband run an international talent agency for others in that industry.

And my brother Steve showed off his older Lexus. It is currently without wheels, seats and air bags. Apparently, a common technique for thieves is to use a drill to drain the car battery, thereby disabling the car alarm and allowing a quiet removal of those items while the car is parked in front of the house.

Things are starting to change at our place.

Budget problem ($50 million deficit) at the office is requiring some massive cutbacks. The IT department has to cut back 35%, which means that there will be less bodies around here. One of those ‘less bodies’ appears to be mine, at the moment.

There is a possibility that some labor contract changes might help a bit, but that it not certain. Although things haven’t finalized yet, it looks like next fiscal year (starts in July) will be the start of a job change for me.

I’ve got 23 years here, and there is a buyout if I leave voluntarily. So, after much consideration, it looks like retirement is upcoming. Financially, we’ll be OK (even though I am ‘only’ 57), especially if we make some other changes.

So, the house is on the market, even though not the best time to sell. Our realtor (family friend) is optimistic, though, since there is some buying action in our area. It may be that we can find a buyer in about two months, and time the closing to be near the end of June.

Our plan is to move to Utah. Both of our daughters will be there by then. Christine has been there with her family for a couple of years, and Stacy is taking a job at the Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. I’ve got a sister in SLC and one in Denver area, so that is also an advantage.

With our house sold, we can downsize our monthly house payment and still have a nice place to live with an acceptable income. And we will be closer to our children (and grandchildren). It looks to be an exciting change possibility.

Even though I will retire from this position, I am looking for a position in the network administration and web page development / site management area in SLC. (I’ve set up a virtual resume at http://www.rickhellewell.com .) Don’t think I am ready to stay at home all day. Although Pam is looking forward to full-time scrapbooking and grandchildren-spoiling.

So, changes are in the wind.

Just an alert … March 14th is “Pi Day” (no, that’s spelled correctly). Take your favorite physicist to lunch. More info about it is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_day .

And did you know that Albert Einstein was born on a Pi Day? Which may not have an relevance, but it is another fascinating factoid you can cite on that day.

I’m just giving you a head start on your celebration plans. And to note that my favorite is Boysenberry Pi. Although I do like Pizza Pi (we had that for dinner last night, and I had some slices for lunch today).

Now, aren’t you glad you stopped by?

Spent most of this week staying at home helping Pam with her two broken “wings”. She ended up with a half-cast on her right hand (for the broken bone in her hand) and a sling for her broken left elbow. That pretty much limits her ability to move easily, so it was my job (as the dutiful and caring husband) to help her out as needed.

The involves food and drink and drugs and laundry and dishes, although there hasn’t been extensive cooking involved (we’re surrounded by fast food choices). And I was able to work from home during the week (when not wandering to the doctor’s). Actually was quite productive from home, if I say so myself.

In the middle of all that, Stacy got back from her visit to her sister in Utah on Tuesday night. She picked up a flu bug on the airplane (even though she had a flu shot) along with a cold, so made trips to her house on Wed and Thurs to help out with doctor visits and food/drug runs. She got some really good news today, but I will let her blog about it (when she gets better).

Pam was feeling good enough this morning to let me go to work today. Got quite a bit done in preparation for a three-day weekend. No big plans for this weekend that I know of. We’ll see how much trouble I can stay out of.

Pam went off to Texas to visit her sister and mother yesterday. While there, she misjudged a step on their front porch and took a header. That resulted in a trip to the ER, where they found a broken left elbow and a broken right hand.

The result is wraps on both arms, since they didn’t want to do a cast yet. She’s coming home early to get to the orthopedic doctor on Monday. Since both arms are essentially unusable, not to mention the Vicodin fuzzing up things, looks like I’ll be on nurse duty for a while when she gets back. Luckily, I can work from home when needed, although not sure how long she will be unable to work.

The “FileHurl” place (www.filehurl.com , free unlimited file transfers) is slowly getting some traction. There are now over 300 people that have ‘hurled’ a file, with over 600GB of files hurled so far. And I got a nice treat last weekend – my first donation to help cover the expenses of running the place.

A few changes in store there: I’ve started a blog page (courtesy of Blogger). Noticed that the site ‘favicon’ was changed, though. I need to work on the paid advertising links to automate them a bit … the links are hard coded, and are just mine. The plan is for affiliate-type links, but I want to ensure that the links are to products I have used or can recommend.

And the dishwasher at home has decided to take a vacation. Some troubleshooting of that is on the weekend agenda.