So, I’m attempting to actually get caught up on some work today, after literally sleeping all day yesterday (see a few paragraphs down) and I’m noticing that my internet is just insanely slow. Laggy. Slow. Choppy. Stunted. Intermittent. All of the above. So, here’s what I see after doing some tests:

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>tracert 64.192.86.1

Tracing route to 64-192-86-1.wcg.net [64.192.86.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 5 ms 5 ms 6 ms 10.229.64.1
3 6 ms 7 ms 6 ms 66-214-102-13.static.reno.nv.charter.com [66.214.102.13]
4 210 ms 204 ms 209 ms 66-214-102-34.static.reno.nv.charter.com [66.214.102.34]
5 210 ms 212 ms 213 ms so-9-1.car1.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [4.78.240.33]
6 359 ms 210 ms 210 ms ae-4-4.ebr1.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.69.133.150]
7 213 ms 231 ms 210 ms ae-0-11.bar2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [4.69.140.146]
8 212 ms 215 ms 214 ms ae-6-6.ebr2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.140.154]
9 218 ms 216 ms 214 ms ae-92-92.csw4.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.134.222]
10 212 ms * 211 ms ae-44-99.car4.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.198]
11 213 ms 214 ms 215 ms te-4-4-70.sntcca1wch010.wcg.Level3.net [4.68.110.26]
12 219 ms 217 ms 210 ms GigE-15-0.sntcca1wcx1.wcg.Level3.net [64.200.249.141]
13 223 ms 219 ms 221 ms pos-9-0-oc48.anhmca1wcx3.wcg.level3.net [64.200.249.121]
14 227 ms 229 ms 229 ms lsvgnv2wcx1-pos6-0-oc48.wcg.net [64.200.210.254]
15 246 ms 244 ms 246 ms 64-192-86-1.wcg.net [64.192.86.1]

Trace complete.

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools

Yeah, that’s killer. 3 hops down, and it spikes up to 200+ milliseconds. If it were me or a roommate, I’d probably see lag on the first hop or two (at the top). And here’s my speedtest:

That’s pretty brutal too, considering I should be seeing 16,000 kb/s and 2000 kb/s respectively. And ping of 434 - WTF?

I guess it’s not so bad - I’m not even paying for internet anymore. I canceled my internet service 2 weeks ago, and the lady told me it would probably still be active for a while. I guess I don’t have much room to complain.

So Friday was a load of fun. I was out of the office all day. We went to Rawe Peak to finally put up the radio equipment to complete the backhaul from Reno to Yerington. It took 2 hours from the pavement, but we made it up the hill. Unfortunately we got to the top and noticed a foul odor, and a line of leakage following us about a hundred yards or so. Then we noticed the red liquid gushing from the transmission. We said screw it, and went to work.

Got our massive 24-foot pole mounted, and all of the radio equipment installed. Ate. And finished programming some things. A few hangups, but overall, we were successful. Still gotta head back up to mount one more 3-foot antenna and troubleshoot a router that wasn’t booting. Not bad though.

Around 8PM we packed up and crossed our fingers in hopes of a successful trip down. Truck starts. Sweet. Put it in Drive. Push the gas. No goes. Transmission fluid is… empty.

Luckily Austin Moseley came to our rescue with his B.A. Toyota Tacoma and 15 quarts of transmission fluid (Yeah… 15 quarts for that ginormous Ford). I hate to say it, but American cars kinda suck, ey? He was on his was to the lake and was already in Silver Springs. Lucky for us, the guy riding with him already knew how to get up to us - lots of dirt roads and trees makes for a confusing passage even for myself. He makes it up to us around 10:30, if memory serves me right. We strap the trailer to his truck, have him pull us around, and we coast downhill, following him, relying solely on gravity. We hit several hills and flats, forcing them to drop the trailer and pull us a few hundred more yards to get momentum. Finally we hit the bottom and it’s all flat.

They go ahead and drop the trailer at the bottom of the hill, and we wait… and wait… and wait. After about 45 minutes, we hop out and just start pushing. After about a mile of stop and go, we finally reach enough of an incline that we’re… “Hauling Ass” down the mountain. We go flying by them just a few hundred yards from the pavement and make it just about to the school. Game over. Kevin and I hop in with Austin, while Bob decides to wait for a tow in a few hours (it’s 3AM by this point). Austin drops me at my car (which I had previously left parked at the Smith’s in Dayton)… and I we all head for Sleepy Town.

All in all, a good trip. We had fun despite the truck problems. Shit happens, you learn to adapt, or you die. That’s how I see it. No sense in getting upset, worrying, or complaining…

Good news is that Bob’s truck is fine. He ended up doing some research on his phone while he was waiting for a tow. He put 6 quarts in and was able to drive it back to Yerington. Something overheated/expanded on the way up due to lack of airflow and decided to start gushing transmission fluid.

Well, internet looks better now. Back to work…

I.T. - we’re overpaid and underused… that is until something breaks. Truly, we are ghosts… no one knows what we do… until the Internet stops working.

I don’t miss spending nights on the office floor waiting for mail recovery, database recovery, etc…

It’s nice to have a stable system that fails-over…

That is, until I inadvertently break it and am stuck fixing it for 3 hours, while I continuously run through the list of 4-5 other projects I should be working on. And then there is the fact that I promised my mom I’d come over for dinner. Oh yes, and I had hoped to go to church for the first time in… months…

Sorry to the 6 people who called/texted me tonight while I was stressing my ass off… I didn’t mean to be a dick… or a flake… or a bad friend/brother/son. I don’t mean to be that, it’s simply what I am.

I hate being able to physically feel the stress warming my head and running down my back.

And now, once again, I’m up until 3 AM making up for lost time…. cheers.

Know what’s disgusting? People who are still under the assumption that the 9/11 attacks were somehow linked to Saddam Hussein and the war in Iraq (if you really want to call it a “war”). The current administration has admitted dozens of times that it was misinformed (or gave misinformation) and that a direct link was never established between the 9/11 attacks and Saddam Hussein.

I’m a strict constitutionalist and an economic conservative, which in many ways makes me a Republican, but I really can’t call myself that right now. Don’t worry, the Democratic party is just as corrupt and has been infiltrated by just as many neo-conservatives.

While I agree that Saddam Hussein was a tyrant in many different definitions of the word and an overall “bad guy,” I believe plenty of other similar or worse injustices exist in the world, which we turn our heads to: Darfur, Cuba, North Korea, various African nations… that gives us no right to go in and take over a nation, funding it with magical money that our FED seems to think we can just “print more of,” all the while allowing our economy and nation’s overall well-being to sink to new lows. Disgusting, wouldn’t anyone else agree?

Why haven’t we marched through D.C., guns, pitchforks, and Molotovs in hand? Oh that’s right… we don’t have that right anymore… and besides, we’re all too busy voting for the next American Idol.

Good review over at God Hates Reno of a new book: Historic Photos of Reno. Check it out. Makes me wish I were 100 years old. Speaking of 100 years old… shouldn’t we be seeing a 7.0 earthquake sometime soon? I felt a small quick one tonight. I’m guessing it was in the mid 3’s? It’s the third one I’ve felt… ever. Man these things are exciting.

Mike stopped by for a bit tonight and we chatted about earthquakes and structural engineering. I think that he thinks he bores people with his nerdy engineering talk, but I have to admit I find that stuff extremely interesting. Mike is interesting. He’s passionate about anything he does. A truly amazing fellow. I wish I were passionate like that, I know I used to be.

Spent some time hanging out with my little brother today. He went home sick from school today, so my mom called me to check on him. We got Taco Bell - which apparently cures sickness - and played Call of Duty 4 and Madden ‘07 for an hour or so. I’m a good big brother, eh?

Ok… back to work. I get to go play with OLSR & OSPF, while drinking DP, and trying not to have ADD. Enough acronyms?

I hate these late nights.

In Soviet Russia, blog writes you!

My LCD and dual-LCD mount arrived at the Sparks FedEx warehouse today. I was half-tempted to drive over this afternoon with my tracking number and pick them up. But I suppose patience is a virtue, so I decided to wait until they are delivered tomorrow morning. FedEx seems to deliver in my neighborhood much earlier than UPS…

Speaking of deliveries… I noticed that my mail has been coming about 2 hours later than normal. It’s almost always here between noon and 1PM. This whole week it’s been here after 2 it seems. Odd.

Amazon gave me a $50 credit since I bought an HD-DVD player before Christmas. For those who aren’t following trends, HD-DVD has lost out to Blu-Ray due to Sony’s bribery of Warner to go to exclusively Blu-Ray. Not exactly news, but I was stoked about the $50. I was going to buy 4 HD-DVDs with it. But then I decided to pick up Season 1 & 2 of Venture Brothers and Wedding Crashers Uncut DVD. I’ll wait a year or two for Blu-Ray to come down. Besides, in the last 2 months, Blu-Ray players have shot up $100~$150 in price. RAPE!

Quick update on Alexa rankings today:

1. BarackObama.com - 1,228
2. RonPaul2008.com - 5,028
3. HillaryClinton.com - 4,611
4. JohnMcCain.com - 11,974

Again, McCain is dead last. Seriously, no one likes him! Obama should be pleading for him to quit, not Clinton. Meh. All three of them should quit.

In other political news, I just found this sweet survey that shows the candidate that most closely resembles your opinions: click here.

My top 5 were: Paul, Dodd, Kucinich, Biden, Gravel. Which is funny, because 4 of those are democrats. I tend to think of myself as economically conservative and socially on the fence.

Out of morbid curiosity, I decided to do a quick look at where each of the candidates sat in terms of the Alexa Ranking system. In case you don’t know what Alexa is, it is a very poor attempt at measuring & ranking websites based on popularity. It has been around for a long time now, and most SEOptimists know it is easy to manipulate. But still, it gives a rough idea.

Here are the rankings:

1. BarackObama.com - 2,577
2. RonPaul2008.com - 9,645
3. HillaryClinton.com - 9,936
4. JohnMcCain.com - 24,399

I think that the maintainers of Ron Paul and Barack Obama’s sites seem to be the most technically intuitive. For example, going to “ronpaul2008.com” redirects to the “www.” site and the same for “barackobama.com” - this seems like a no-brainer for an IT person such as myself. Hillary and McCain’s sites don’t do that. Yes, I understand that this is a poor argument, but it’s something I always take into consideration when developing a website. I’m a perfectionist.

Anyone notice McCain is very far in the back. What a dense & insanely odd little leprechaun. Not to mention that he’s a war-mongering neocon.

In other news… I’ve run out of Dr. Pepper, and must go to the store now…

I just ordered a 26″ LCD, and a dual-LCD arm so that I can mount both my monitors and tilt/swivel/adjust them.

Got the LCD for $400 from mwave - had good reviews on NewEgg, but shipping was $10 more. Got the stand from OutletPC in Vegas. It’s just a cheapie stand, but it supports the weight and height/width.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Here’s a research paper that talks about efficiency with multi-monitor setups: Click here.

It’s 12:45AM, and I have resorted to drinking an ice-cold glass of water INSTEAD of a New Castle Ale. Why? Simple… my roommate threw away my cheap non-working can opener. But you’re thinking “It didn’t work… so what?” And my response is… it did work. Partially. The bottle opener on the bottom worked perfectly. Unfortunately the cheap WORKING can-opener that my roommate has left in the silverware drawer works flawlessly for opening canned foods, but fails at opening bottles of beer. “Why?” you ask. Because the metal bottom of it is bent. FAIL!

But it’s 12:45AM… why do I need a New Castle?

Easy… I finally finished what I consider to be a significant part of the “timeshare site” that Ben & I have been working on. I finally got all of the sessions, login/logout, shopping cart areas, etc integrated, tested, and working. Most of you have no idea what that means, but considering it has been a headache for the last week, and we’re already behind schedule, it is a big w00t for me. THAT’s why I need that New Castle. And that’s why I’m going to the store first thing in the morning to buy a new fucking can/bottle opener. Dammit!

And while I’m ranting, why the hell does Firefox recognize “donut” as the correct spelling, but suggests “doughnut” is incorrect? WTF! Get your English straight, bitches! I’m submitting a bug report.

Bleh… tomorrow (Erm… today?) is going to be a long day, I can already see it.

IRSuck holds two meanings in this case:

1)I Are Suck because I didn’t pay my quarterly taxes, so I got an $84 fee added to my taxes.

2)The IRS sucks. I just wrote my check for $3063 to the glorious, and, in my opinion, unconstitutional Internal Revenue Service.

Good luck guys! Don’t spend it all in one place… like Iraq. Fuckers.