Two Cents and a Thousand Words Maine, photography, technology, politics, and other selected ramblings

Why I’ll never be in tech support

September 16, 2002 at 9:34 pm · Comments (1)

Jamie like Macs.

Jamie see ad for Gateway with Profile 4 jumping over iMac. Jamie get very angry. Jamie call up Gateway at 1-800-GATEWAY and tell Gateway about computer that blew up. Jamie ask whether he should get Profile or iMac. Jamie provide evidence on why iMac is better. Jamie tell tech support people that ad is lie. Jamie want address of Gateway founder. Jamie get told that he should write letter next time.

It was a fun half an hour. :D

More about me

September 15, 2002 at 8:38 pm · Comments (0)
  • I like being in control of things.
  • I like things to be organized.
  • I like working by myself, but I like being with other people.
  • I write better than I speak.
  • I don’t mind being alone or on the computer for long periods of time.
  • I like to voice my opinions on things.
  • I like reasoning things out and seeing the advantages and disadvantages of them.
  • I like tolerance.

Sometime these things will come together and I’ll find what I want to do. Sometime. I’m still finding more things.

The FINAL BR address

September 14, 2002 at 8:42 pm · Comments (0)

Ignore that justin.mainesites.net thing.

The new Blogrolling address to my blog is http://www.justinrussell.com . Please update your Blogrolls. Thank you.

If you haven’t e-mailed me in the next couple of weeks, you might be getting an e-mail from me. ;)

Sorry about the confusion about the URL changes. This should be the last time for a while (justin.lighthouse.rackhost.net doesn’t work anymore, if you haven’t noticed).

Ideas! I need ideas!

September 14, 2002 at 8:39 pm · Comments (0)

Ever have anything you’ve wanted to see on the Web? I’m expanding my list of projects I want to do in the future now that the mainesites.net domain is actually working. Leave me a comment if you have an idea!

Battledriving

September 14, 2002 at 8:24 pm · Comments (0)

I wouldn’t call it ‘wardriving’, but I did do a little exploration today driving back to UMaine from home.

I had 7% left on my laptop battery and I popped my wireless card in. I drove through downtown Bangor and out to the mall, thinking there wouldn’t be any open networks. I actually found one without even stopping at the side of the road. Sometime I’ll have to walk through downtown and see if I can pick up any more – but that’s after I read more info about the whole hobby.

(I didn’t surf on the network, by the way, and I don’t know where exactly it was coming from – I just found that there was one on my site search.)

This could be fun.

By gum, I can’t believe it works

September 14, 2002 at 2:51 pm · Comments (0)

The blogroll address for my blog is now http://justin.mainesites.net. Please update your rolls from the previous http://justin.lighthouse.rackhost.net (I get tired just saying that) links. Of course, if you want to get here, justinrussell.com is still the easiest way.

Look for more MaineSites in the future!

An extension of my last entry

September 13, 2002 at 11:07 am · Comments (0)

Right now, I’m sitting in the middle of the Union listening to TGIF jazz music (remember how much I like TGIF jazz?) and I’m writing a blog entry. I’m writing a blog entry. I’m surfing Leoville, checking my e-mail, and writing a blog entry. No Ethernet cord, no power cord; just my laptop and my newly-activated Ethernet access thanks to IT. The whole Marketplace is wireless, I guess. Isn’t that just incredibly cool?

Today’s tech announcement

September 13, 2002 at 10:33 am · Comments (0)

WIRELESS ROCKS!

September 11

September 11, 2002 at 9:36 pm · Comments (0)

I woke up this morning as I usually do, got on my computer as I usually do, checked my e-mail as I usually do, and got on the Internet.

Well, at least I tried. The network was down. Turned out a piece of UNET equipment had failed, but it sure scared the heck out of me. Made me wonder for a minute what would happen if the Internet went away.

I saw a lot of people’s reactions today; some thought that it was overpublicized, some thought we should drop it, others hailed the celebrations. I dunno. I did mostly normal stuff. I thought some about what had happened a year ago, and I watched Dr. Mark Heath’s video from CNN. The high-pitched squeals of either the respirators or the police sirens filled with soot is the one sound I’ll remember most from a year ago.

I still remember the moments coming back from NMD 295 and hearing about what had happened. I still have the six hours of MSNBC footage on tape that I caught twelve months ago. I still remember the feelings I felt that day.

Three days after one year ago, I wrote the following.

The events of the past few days have made me reconsider myself and America in general. My views will change after this tragedy. I’m no longer worried as much about Big Brother; now FBI’s Carnivore e-mail monitoring program seems reasonable. Of course, this event will inevitably bring back the stereotype discrimination that we as a country have seen and dismissed in the past. I truly hope that our country’s leaders pursue a reasonable resolution to this problem through various kinds of intelligence. I will say, however, that I do not favor war in order to combat this kind of attack. We are currently mourning the loss of thousands of lives within the course of an hour or two. We should stand tall and not cause thousands of other (mostly civilian) lives to be killed on the other side of the world. We are all people. We have different beliefs, we have different values, but we are all people. Whether you’re religious or not, it’s simply wrong to kill other humans, no matter what the reason. As we’ve seen over the last couple of days, not all results of this attack are negative. If possible, I would like to go down to New York and Washington and personally thank each firefighter, policeman, EMS worker, and other volunteer that has worked on the tragedies. They are the true American heroes. I also hope this makes our politicians realize how trivial many of the partisan arguments they debate really are. And please, think of those in need. Donate your time, money, service, or blood to the Red Cross or other organization. Hundreds of sites have set up collections, including Amazon.com. Let’s learn from our mistakes and make our country stronger than ever.

My beliefs haven’t changed, even after a year. United we stand.

364 days later…

September 10, 2002 at 4:02 pm · Comments (1)

Let me say right now that I will be blogging tomorrow. I’ll be watching digitized videos I’ve saved from a year ago and I’ll be writing what I remember in my blog. It’s basically a journal, after all.

The hype everyone seems to be expressing lately is asking whether tomorrow will be a normal day. I can honestly say that I hope it will. What do you classify as normal? I consider it living our lives as we usually do. Sure, something tragic happened a year ago tomorrow. The sheer intensity of that day and those that followed will stay with me forever. However, I take a bit of issue when people automatically say that 9-11 was the worst event ever in US history. As my Technology & Society professor says, that’s often said without a historical background to support it. However you would like to remember tomorrow is fine by me, but just remember that there are plenty of other days worth remembering. Many of these figures come from The Heritage Foundation.

  • January 28, 1986 – Challenger explosion
  • April 20, 1999 – Columbine High massacre
  • April 23, 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing
  • November 22, 1963 – JFK assassinated
  • April 4, 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
  • June 6, 1944 – D-Day (4,900 dead)
  • September 17, 1862 – Antietam (5,425 dead in one day on American soil)
  • August 6 and 9, 1945 – Atomic bombs dropped on Japan (tens of thousands instantly dead, tens of thousands more die later)
  • December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor (2,388 dead in a few hours on American soil)

Is any day really ‘normal’ anymore?

If you agree or disagree with me, please leave a comment. There’s bound to be some difference in opinions among readers, and remember, the freedom to voice our opinions is just one of the many things that makes this country great.