Blog
Proxy Possibilities
Those who know my computing habits know that I'm an absolutely HUGE fan of using SSH port forwarding for nearly EVERYTHING. Because my company uses two VPNs (one for our general office network and another, more restrictive one for our servers), I usually use SSH forwarding for the general office since Windows has difficulty figuring out what to route to what on the two networks. I only access a few intranet sites and a VM via Remote Desktop, so port forwarding works rather well. The only pain was setting my browser to only use the tunnel when it is needed, else all of my internet browsing goes through the network at work. Suffice to say, I do not want that to happen. Last night, I discovered the magic that is a PAC file or Proxy AutoConfig file.
Saturday, December 06, 2008 - 0 Comments
Travel Luck
I'm getting better than I want to be at arriving at the airport at the very last minute. Tuesday's travels were a bit of an adventure up until my first flight departed for Philadelphia this morning. (My final flight destination was St. Louis, but it's nearly impossible to go directly to any non-hub city from Pittsburgh anymore.)
I don't know what I was thinking on Monday night. My flight was scheduled to depart at 7:15 Tuesday morning. Somehow, I decided that I'd have plenty of time if I left home at 6:15. I really should have left at 5:45 or even earlier. Thankfully there were no major traffic hurdles on PA-28 or the Parkway West. However, there was one guy who had a stop sign at one of the on-ramps who pulled out in front of me and really should not have. I rarely think to use my horn in traffic, but he got the horn and the sound of my locked brakes. I'm honestly surprised I didn't give him the finger as well. No collision, thankfully. I didn't even have to come to a complete stop, either. This was lucky moment #1 of the day. Read more
Saturday, October 25, 2008 - 0 Comments
Big ol\' Jet Airliner
I've been a business traveler as part of my current job since March. I should hesitate to admit how neurotically I track my flights. I have been on eight distinct models of aircraft, which of course, isn't the entire sum of all aircraft out there, but I think it's a good sampling. Anyway, I have a favorite set of jets. They are the Embraer ERJ-170/175 and ERJ 190/195.
These jets seem to have more shoulder room, especially in the window seat, than the other planes on which I've been a passenger. I was reading on their website that they have a "double bubble" fuselage that makes that happen. I also like that they are small jets that seat between 80 and 120 rather than being a large jet seating 150 or more. Deplaning from these jets is easier from the back third of the plane because there are fewer people trying to get out at the same time. There's also more storage room under the seats because there's no center support. It's also a "newer" plane than the others as well. The first prototype flew in October, 2001. Most of them that I fly don't appear to be worn out and "clunky", but oddly enough, I have been on a few rather beat up ones.
Now, I'm not a nut who goes out of his way to fly these jets, but I do tend to have a better trip when one of these planes is involved. Wow, this post almost sounds like a commercial, but it's just because I'm kinda obsessed with this plane!
Thursday, August 28, 2008 - 0 Comments
Newphew is fine...
My new nephew is doing very well. The "air bubble" was actually called a pneumothorax. Basically it was an accumulation of air in the cavity around the lungs. It could have caused a lung collapse, which is why he was rushed to Morgantown.
Anyway, it dissipated as of yesterday afternoon. They're feeding the little guy today and if that and an x-ray turn out well, he'll be going home tomorrow.
Speaking of the little guy, he isn't so little. I didn't get to hold him, but in my brother's arms, he certainly looked like an armful. I'll have to go visit them again over the next week or two. I can't wait!
Sunday, August 17, 2008 - 0 Comments
I\'m an uncle!!
My sister-in-law had her baby on Thursday night by cesarean section at about 8:30. It's a boy. He's 8 lbs 12.5 oz and 22 inches. His name is Ryan Scott.
However, the baby has an air bubble in front of his left lung. The doctors originally said it's normal and that it should diminish and go away. They put him on oxygen because they said that usually helps to get it to diminish, but it hasn't changed in size. The doctors are a little concerned and are sending him by helicopter to a hospital in Morgantown as a precaution. They still think he's fine, but they want the docs at Morgantown to monitor him because if it doesn't go away they will need to put a tube in there to alleviate the pressure otherwise it might collapse his lung. (This is done more in Morgantown than Wheeling, so the doctors want him there just in case.)
Since my sister-in-law delivered him by cesarean, she can't go until she's released from the hospital in Wheeling, which will probably be tomorrow evening. My dad is driving my brother to Morgantown tonight with my mom following them. He's a little shaken up, so mom didn't want him to drive himself. Anyway, everything should be fine, but I'm heading to Morgantown after my laundry is finished.
Thoughts and prayers to ensure that the doctors' optimism is correct are, of course, welcomed.
Saturday, August 16, 2008 - 0 Comments
MySQL
I'm not formally MySQL-trained. I took a database management class in college, but didn't really catch on to the more advanced queries. The class was rather poorly taught, and when given the choice between using MySQL, MS-SQL or Oracle database environments, I made the mistake of choosing Oracle. The reason I say that this was a mistake is because there was not as much freely available Oracle documentation and the class was not taught from a textbook. In spite of earning a B in the class, I didn't feel that I'd gained much of a mastering of the databases other than the simplest of SELECT statements.
I began taking a real interest in working with databases at the tail end of my tenure as Clinical Software Administrator at the Case School of Dental Medicine. After working with real data, the complicated queries and joins made more sense. My freelance work really got my interest going. I learned both PHP and MySQL when I undertook my first freelance project, my boyfriend's website. Now, my work at medSage has me completely immersed in SQL. I'm constantly learning new functions and better ways to write my queries. I have some new favorite MySQL functions to share. Read more
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 0 Comments
Ubuntu Server 8.04 + Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
I use a Linux virtual machine for my freelance work. I recently set up a new Ubuntu VM on Virtual PC 2007 and had some difficulty doing so. I kept getting the following error from Microsoft Virtual PC:
An unrecoverable processor error has been encountered.It took me a bit of searching to discover a solution in this post.
The virtual machine will reset now.
Reset
The important step that prevents the VM from crashing is adding the "norplace-paravirt" option to the command line both when installing the VM and and in the GRUB configuration file.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 0 Comments