The Life of Coe

hmmm yeah...

2011-04-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who do not know...

I'm in Haiti! No seriously I'm in Haiti! Out here with King's Harbor Church visiting Bill and Susette Manassero who run http://www.childhope.org/

Check it out!

Shake-Rattle-Roll

2009-05-18T08:23:00.001-07:00

So this nice little 4.7 earthquake hit last night only 6 miles from the homestead. Of course fires located hundreds of miles away elicit phone calls from family members asking about my safety, but a quake within a 10K run.... nothing. It's the first quake to shake stuff up a little. I was actually at the beach walking, but I arrived home to find my dresser toppled over in the closet. I'm pretty sure that might have been a two fold thing. My guess Cleo freak'ed when the house started shaking and made a run for her "safe" place in the top of the closet, jumped so hard off the dresser that it went flying.

That is the only scenario that makes sense to me. Cleo, by the way, while physically ok is totally freaked. She has not made a single sound all night. She stays under the bed and her little heart races if I carry her anywhere in the house. Time to call the cat coach. No seriously I think she can help.

What does a trillion look like????

2009-03-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well here ya go!
Still amazes me that I could basically walk around with 1 million in a backpack.

To my family in the North

2009-03-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

Poor Kirsten.

happy cow audition or American Idol contestant?

2009-03-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

too fun!

Missed it by that much

2009-02-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

I received an interesting call for papers announcement this morning.

[begin snip]
Only 8% members of the Scientific Research Society agreed that "peer review works well as it is." (Chubin and Hackett, 1990; p.192).

"A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision and an analysis of the peer review system substantiate complaints about this fundamental aspect of scientific research." (Horrobin, 2001).

Horrobin concludes that peer review "is a non-validated charade whose processes generate results little better than does chance." (Horrobin, 2001). This has been statistically proven and reported by an increasing number of journal editors.

Since a growing number of studies conclude that peer review is flawed and ineffective as it is being implemented, why not apply scientific and engineering research and methods to the peer review process?

This is the purpose of the International Symposium on Peer Reviewing: ISPR (http://www.ICTconfer.org/ispr) being organized in the context of The 3rd International Conference on Knowledge Generation, Communication and Management: KGCM 2009 (http://www.ICTconfer.org/kgcm), which will be held on July 10-13, 2009, in Orlando, Florida, USA.

-------------------------------------------------------
Deadlines for ISPR 2009 and KGCM 2009

March 18th, 2009, for papers/abstracts submissions and Invited Sessions Proposals
April 13th, 2009: Authors Notification
May 27th, 2009: Camera ready, final version
-------------------------------------------------------

[end snip]

of course acceptance is based on.... you guessed it!

All Submitted papers will be reviewed using a double-blind (at least three reviewers), non-blind, and participative peer review.

So what's the lesson kids. Do as we talk about doing, not as we actually do. Especially when it applies to talking about what we should be doing.[Yeah it hurt my head writing it, I expect it to hurt yours reading it]

Thoughts on the Bailout

2008-10-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Had a friend send my this link this morning. I like it.

looky here

Halloween

2007-10-28T23:56:00.000-07:00

Well I've finally dusted off the ole' keyboard and decided to start blogging again.
This picture just needed to be posted to web, so here it is. This is a picture of
my grandmother dressed up as an M&M. According to sources close to the action, Grandma lost the costume competition to a scantly-clad 92 year-young woman in fishnets and a red wig. This of course has Grandma planning next years outfit. Can you say fishnets? Grandma can!

The world is flattening!

2007-01-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

I'm almost through Friedman's The World is Flat and can conclude that the man is right on the mark. Read the newspapers from the last two weeks. China shoots down aging satellite, and now India brings a satellite back to earth from a polar orbit. This is not mundane computer/call center stuff guys... this IS rocket science. Article

They shoot they score!

2007-01-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

Oh how quickly our little Chinese friends are developing their defense systems. "W" it's time to wake up and look skyward or to the far east... your call.

Article
Picosats: Because you can't shoot them all!

Google broken?

2007-01-17T17:10:00.000-08:00

So I'm reading my gmail account today and glance up at the advertiser/sponsor section to find this little gem.

"Moon Beam Sorority - www.MoonBeamSorority.com - Buy A Gift To Celebrate A Girl's First Period."

Now I'm not sure what algorithm they are running on my email that determined they should display such an ad to me but now I understand how my friends feel when their Tivo starts recording "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". Seriously google the roommates are young but not that young... heck the only one left its pregnant!

Comics: The word Evil

2007-01-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Their are few people in this world who can truly use the word evil in it's correct form. My friend Aaron is one of those people. Today's Over the Hedge reminded me of Aaron, and actually I think the last panel is a quote from a conversation we have had before.
link to comic

Web x.0 here we come

2007-01-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

Today was a difficult day at work... you know the first day back from vacation and all. So I'm sitting at lunch with my co-worker James when out of nowhere he says "You know I really don't wanna work today". Well we discuss that topic for a bit and everyone agrees it's a bad day to work.

Once we return from lunch James instant messages me some little question about an application and I respond that it is totally Web 2.0 compliant. James then forwards me this article . I read it and laugh typing:

Eric:Oh yeah just another 1 billion people... where the heck are we going to pull those from?

James: 100$ laptops!

Eric: Dude that billion with a "B"
If google was Web 2.0 I could use it to search for myspace accounts. :)

James: dude link

Eric: stop it!

James: Dude Web 6.0! Peru is eating our lunch!

Eric: OMG... lmao.
You really are bored aren't you

James: yeah sorry.

Eric: it's cool... let's go to the apple store, I think they have Web 8.0 beta inhouse.

WEB 2.0: When will the insanity stop. (Rated-R)

2006-10-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

So for those not in the know, there is this great movement afoot in the ol'e Internet. It's called Web 2.0. It's like the second version of the Internet, at least that is what the name implies. Really though it's the same engine under the hood. The only true fitting analogy I could come up with is that it's like placing the spoiler on the Honda Civic or Accord. You know what I'm talking about. When those little cars pass you rev'in at like 5000 RPMs you can't help but laugh. Well my friends start laughing because VC's around the world are starting to fund this crazy "new phase" of the Internet. Here is a website dedicated to making fun of the business models/phrases that will be ever prevalent in new IPO offerings and business plans/market strategies. Follow all the links at the bottom to truly experience Web 2.0. I think I'll start an online university and offer an MBA.... classes will only use this page to generate ideas and whoever gets one funded wins the degree.

This will change everything. Web 2.0 Generator!

Engaged... Coe... Can it be?

2006-10-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well my Internet followers I've gotten myself into another one of those situations where you'll be thinking....only Coe could do that! The evening started very innocent, as they all do, with dinner and some coffee. At some point in the evening Pasadena girl had ears plug in and claimed she could not hear anything I was saying. Being the smarty that I am, I turn my back to her and said "Will you marry me"? No response. I turned back around and we exchange two more sentences and then in a moment of silence she says "Yes, I would love to"! Now does that mean I'm engaged? How do I get myself into these messes? Seriously cast your votes in the comments below. Her comment was followed up by "I always thought it would be more romantic than that".

Is this thing on?

2006-10-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

Ok I've been down the rabbit hole for a while looking for life, liberty, ok maybe even a girlfriend. So here is the problem that has arisen as of late. I've met two awesome girls and have had a great time with both of them. Been totally honest about living with two other women and they were fine with that... until they met the other women. The first one was just uncomfortable with the situation, but only after meeting Lindsay. The second totally flipped and basically asked me to kick out the two roommates by the end of October. I've been on three dates with this girl! Who are these people. I mean they have some habits that could use some work too but you do not see me telling them to change overnight or I'm outta here. What happened to working through the problems... what happened to the we. Yes it is totally upside down when the "We" becomes "Me". Can't we all just get along?

Three Birds One Shot

2006-05-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

This was posted to another blog on mypsace by a friend of a friend name Casey. It definitely warrants a posting here so that the masses that read my blog can be educated quickly.

"A win win situation. Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border, take the dirt and raise the levees in New Orleans, and then put the Florida alligators into the border moat. Any other US problems you would like me to solve Mr. President?"

This is the same person who suggested that during the "Day Without Immigrants" demonstrations the government should come in and "Swipe them all up in one swoop."

Video: Symbolism renewed

2006-05-24T15:36:00.000-07:00

I have not watched music videos very much over the last 4-8 years, but I've found one worthy of a post. It's the Dixie Chicks new one for the song "Not Ready to Make Nice". Although I do not agree with what they said years ago I think they produced an awesome video with enough symbolism to choke an alligator.(yeah that one is an original)

Stop Plagiarism....just quote the source.

TRI me

2006-05-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

I finally broke down and joined LA Tri-Club. I went on my first club ride this morning and it felt much like the Fraternity in college. The calendar listed the ride as a nice 22 miles around PV, but no we get there and the group decided to head out and do 50 miler. Woot that was fun... I hung in despite no GU or powerbars. I even took the sprint victory from Peter(a 6'6" giant cut from marble). At the top he just said where the hell did you come from man, I had pulled a nice slingshot move around him and basically powered up the hill alone. All in all this is better than being peer pressured to drink those last five shots just because some idiot poured them.

The PRO in procrastination:

2006-05-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

I love doing TAXES, seriously that's why I've decided to do three years worth in '06.

Come on people.

2006-04-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

I actually started this as a comment to the post below....but really this deserves it's own space.

So I posted the rant below this morning and then for some odd reason, mainly my masochistic tendencies, I chose to read cnn.com. Oh look at how much closer to a socialist society we are becoming... stupid people. Provide those services..... people need them.... they will not take advantage of them. Hi folks the service exists it's called AAA. It does require a little planning on your part though which involves another little word we like so much in America, responsibility. Oh I'm on a roll this morning.. guess I should grab a cup of coffee before I point my browser elsewhere.

Happy days. Save some cyber bits and the vein in my forehead from bulging and bike to work today.

Gas Prices: Ha ha ha...suckers!

2006-04-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

Just had a forty-something women stop-by my office asking if I know of anyone on the floor (I'm at ISI this morning) who comes in from Santa Clarita. I'm like I don't even know where that its...(HA!). She's looking for car pool partners. HMMM I wonder what she was doing when gas prices was not $3.20/gal.... oh that's right she was just footing the bill driving by herself....well isn't that special. Seriously people you had no trouble paying for it when it was $2.95/gal. I mean even in a 20 gal tank it's only another $5.00. Here's an idea stop drinking that crud you call coffee from *bucks everyday and you'll be able to afford to live 40 miles away from work and drive that commute that takes two hours...one way. I mean if I drove through four cities large enough to cause traffic trouble on the freeways I frequent some little voice might go off in my head that says... I wonder if there are any jobs in those cities. Maybe working closer to home would be good. Here's another crazy idea it's called a Bus. It hauls many people, like having lots of car pool partners oh oh oh and it's like having you own chauffeur and comes with your own entourage so that even you can feel like a hollywood star.

True friends: Trip for you = car for me

2006-04-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember I've been hoofing it since about October. Some girls might say I've been pawing it! Think D-O-G. Anyway, twice now I've sent out the email titled "Favor" with a plea for a car for the weekend. And twice now I've had four cars for the weekend. That's right folks four cars. Not to shabby aye. The only problem, not that I'm complaining, is that I only have a two car garage. ba-dum--bump.

Women: My little fire starter.

2006-04-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

God bless Lindsay! Seriously. I got home last Wednesday night, from my hour commute in freezing temps, to the smell of something "off". I went to shower and then started cooking dinner. Lindsay came down stairs with that child like guilty look on her face ( Oh my! Mom and Dad how did you survive me?) She said something had "happened". I looked around and said well Cleo is ok and you look ok so it can't be that bad. What happened? She said I caught your grill on fire....there was this big fireball and I thought..I thought I was going to burn down your house. There is of course more but the high pitched tone and exaggerated tale is more than can be repeated here. After examining the grill and hearing the story again I came to the following conclusion. She started the grill correctly (I had taught her this before), she then grilled her turkey burger. No troubles thus far. She takes the burger inside and finds out it's not quite done yet. She is in a hurry.... so she blasts the grill heat and puts burger back on grill. Ring Ring...cell phone time.....yap....yap.... Oh smoke outside....lots of smoke coming out of grill....open the top...big cloud of smoke.... turkey burger in flame....SCREAM.....
Neighbors hearing scream, seeing smoke... FIRE... come to the rescue...
The Neighbors then proceed to douse my grill with the garden hose.

In the end no one was hurt, thank goodness! The house was never in danger.. it's made of stucco. My neighbors are happy they got to meet #26 from Deal No Deal. (I've never seen that dress on Deal or No Deal)

After figuring all this out I went out cured the grill with Olive Oil then fired it up and cooked....oh yes Turkey burger. Just another day in the Life of Coe.

Travel sites that are AWESOME!!!

2006-04-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

My officemate has introduced me to some new travel search sites that rock. The first is called Side Step and the second is called Kayak. I like side steps interface. On the side they have a nice little slider bar to reduce your price point and it automatically reduces the search results. I mean this is the way things really should have always been but for some reason they are just now coming to be. It makes me smile. :)

Micro$oft once again behind the times....

2006-04-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

I woke up the other day to this little
link waiting for me in an IM chat session from the night before. It was friday evening which of course was officially Aprils Fool day, driven by UTC time. I'll let you guys figure out what's going on but just think Micro$oft's Vista is not yet released. Yet we see the features fully functional....what could this mean.

OMG: They are coming

2006-03-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

Ready to get creeped out. We (the humans) are getting closer to creating those sci-fi stories we have so loved to read. Check this out then feel free to call me with money to develop an EMP gun!

Comics: Dead links and the $$ that motivates

2006-02-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

Here's an idea let's provide content for free but only for a limited time. The motivation behind my current rant is that a link to a Calvin and Hobbes strip posted below is no longer available for free. If I sign up to be a "Member of My Comics Page" then I can access the strip. Well a lot of good that does me adding it to my blog. I'm wondering if this means I should do a websuck of all content needed to make my blog a pleasant reading experience...or if it means I should not be linking to other sites. I figured driving traffic to other places would be a "good" even maybe "noble" thing. But with disk space being so, well you know, "expensive" and bandwidth also being, you know , "expensive" I guess I'll just use my 2 Terabytes of diskspace from my home and my 750kbps upstream bandwidth to host my own blog data. My bank also uses this practice when I want to access my records of checks written. For some reason three-six months seemed like a good number to them for how far I should be able to search online. I mean really what tax year are you people using... don't even get me started on taxes... off to get another cup of .....maybe that will calm me down.

Coffee, Google and the ultimate sin.

2006-02-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

As Beccaboo pointed out the other day for some reason google ads has decided they should advertize *bucks on my blog. Most of know how that might make me feel. Google no longer can make the claim that they "do no evil". Hey "Google ads" ever heard of parsing "content" when sucking down a site. What are your machine learning programmers doing over there. Sheeesh makes me want to study ML just to right this wrong in the universe. Oh well that just adds another 2-3 years to the PhD program.

Surreal Life: Christmas with Marcus

2006-02-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

So this is really a backblog but I'm too lazy to re-date it. Lindsay and I had a Christmas party last December that was tons of fun. We cooked up a storm and lots of Lindsay's friends came over. At 10:20 the party suddenly went A-List. Lindsay handed me the phone and said "Tell Marcus how to get here, I think I got him lost." So, I find out where this guy is and re-direct him to actually head toward the house instead of the opposite direction. Seriously, L-girl needs to learn where we live. Anyway, about ten minutes later in walks Marcus Allen, yeah that Marcus Allen. Well he's a lot bigger than he looks on TV. So Marcus hung out showing us some pictures of his "friends" and tried to find a date for the Rose Bowl. If you watched to Rose Bowl you'll notice he was alone on the sidelines, meaning his two tickets went to someone other than me. Thanks Marcus! Can I pour you another drink? Anyway Kelly summed up the evening well with a Christmas kiss for all. Why don't all Santas look like this?

Comics: Had to pull myself off the floor

2006-02-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

This morning started out as usual. Breakfast, read a little bit, sipping some coffee, then comic time. This mornings muse involves Wally from Dilbert. Here is the strip from this morning. Literally I spewed coffee all over the monitor screen and wall laughing so hard. It's ones like this that sneak up on you, where you find yourself sent from zero to OMG that freak'n funny stuff in 1.8 seconds, or shorter depending on how fast you move your eyes.

Comics: Tell me I'm the only one whose done this

2006-01-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

Today is one of those proud days for the parental units. Yet again another of my lifes experiences has made it's appearance into the hallowed domain of Calvin and Hobbes (link dead everybody wants $$ nowadays). Cleo basically took her back paws and firmly attached them to the underside of my jaw and drew a nice line from my jaw bone out to the end of my chin. Seriously, temptation like this should not present itself to those of us who are weak.

Coffee: Another reason to avoid *bucks

2006-01-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

*bucks has never been at the top of my coffee list, but news today adds/proves why everyone should avoid the place. This article pretty much sums it up. "Goto *bucks = get blown up". Glad to read that no one got hurt, but come on is bad coffee worth your life...I think not.

Resolutions

2005-12-31T07:41:00.000-08:00

Oh yes my little internet audience it is that time of year....resolution time. So while drinking my coffee this morning I started thinking about the New Year and what it brings. I decided that today I will spend some time outlining goals. I have not really looked into my five or ten year plans...in well a long time. This might be why I am always two years away from finishing the PhD. I do not know if I read it or thought it up on my own but it has been said, or a least thought of by me, that every day your goals move one step away from you. If you do not do something everyday towards those goals you might look up one morning and your goal may be a speck in the distance, or worse you can not see it at all. This could lead to not even being able to remember what it was to begin with, how sad. It is a simple concept really. Things that we do not actively persue we can never truly attain. Sure somethings fall into our laps from time to time but these are the exceptions not the rule. So my question today to myself and to you my readers is this. What are your goals for 2006? And even more important how will you seek them, because once the clock strikes 12:00 my friends your goals will be on the move. Lift your glass tonight and resolve to being the pursuit... I have.

Family: Airport fun for Christmas

2005-12-27T21:11:00.000-08:00

Well the holiday's are upon us and I of course get to travel. This Christmas I flew into Kansas City International Airport on Thursday the 22nd. My aunt was picking me up and taking me to my grandparents house. I slept form LA to Phoenix where I switched planes to MCI. I walked off to plane and outside to see if my ride had arrived. There was my aunt sitting in her car. Wow a family member at the correct terminal and on time to pick me up....mark it down as a first! I wait for my checked bag, empty to be filled with Christmas loot and watch as a policeman harasses my aunt to move the car along. The bag comes and off we go. Still a little dis-oriented from the flight I looked up to see a road sign that said HWY 152. A little nervous I asked if we were taking the special "backway" path to grandma's. My aunt said oh no she thought we could stop by a winery on the way home. So off to Holy Field Winery we went. We opened the winery door to see Corky. Now this is one big dog. I get harassed for having shorts on with flip-flops being that it is like 53 degrees outside. We sample some wines, all on the sweet side, and purchase some for the family dinners. All and all this was on of the best airport arrivals I've had that involved family. Don't get me wrong mom and dad the cold sandwiches and drinks that you bring are good, but being in the right terminal at the right time is priceless! :)

Rant: But I ordered a Breakfast Burrito

2005-12-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

Now I'm not one to get snippy over the little things (yeah right...poke the bear) but this morning I went to work with the desire to have a breakfast burrito. The work ones are not that different than the ones I can make at home but they do have hashbrowns which give me the carbs I need. Anyway I walk up to Francisco(awesome short-order cook) and order a Breakfast Burrito with sausage. He starts cooking stuff but I notice there is no tortilla warming on the grill like there always is for my burrito. I dazed off and Francisco hands me my goods...suspiciously in a smaller box that can no way hold a burrito. I peek inside and to the horror of my eyes spot a breakfast sandwich. ARHARH. Ok not a big deal plus I'm really hungry. Upstairs I go to consume and read my morning comics, drink my morning coffee. Soon I discovered another reason to love the burrito and hate the sandwich(oh yeah I used the h-word....read on to understand why). Francisco had put butter on the bread before toasting it on the grill ( a practice that can hardly be called toasting). Well my cyber-reader let me tell you something, that makes for one messy eating vessel. With the burrito that floury shell protects your hands from all the wet hot stuff on the inside, but with the sandwich my right hand was soon covered in a buttery slim. Now there is no way to pagedown while I read my comics. I need to do the dreaded lefthand cross-over-body to the pagedown button on the keyboard. This technique is difficult and I'm sure could led to more shoulder surgery for me. So please save the planet some soap-n-water and me some more surgery and just fix breakfast burritos.

BackBloggging: Travel back in time with me.

2005-11-29T17:50:00.000-08:00

Ok so I've missed blogging for like the whole month of November. The next few weeks I'm going to backblog. Backblog you say (as you scratch your head). Well follow the link to become informed.

Now page down every so often and catchup on all that you've missed in "The Life of Coe".

Work: Google here I come

2005-11-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

So I flew to San Jose today to visit with great friends Aaron and Jayita. Aaron is a long time buddy from USC who now works at Google. He married this sweetheart of a lady Jayita, who will be appearing later in the blog. Aaron picked me up from the airport and took me over to Google's campus for lunch. Wow all I can say is that Google does not suck. This place was made for people like me. Whiteboards everywhere, in the halls, in the offices and even in the lobby. They have sand volleyball courts in the middle of campus and even have...get this... an endless pool for swimming laps. They serve three meals a day all free of charge and have wireless access throughout the campus. The employees are young, fresh and spirited. To top it off there is an endless supply if coffee and my new favorite energy drink RockStar. This trip provides the most incentive I've had for finishing my PhD.

Work: Symbolic links,nsf mounting and enough rope to touch the ground

2005-11-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

Today I was suppose to give a presentation on XCP on the IXP. I was hoping to actually have XCP packets flowing through the IXP processor but I was having this little problem with the drivers for the gigabit controllers. Montavista's 3.1 release shipped the drivers for the development board compiled for a different platform. bad bad bad. Professor Papadopoulos has a friend at CMU that had the previous 3.0 release with the drivers compiled correctly. So I had already booted the development board and nfs mounted the file system to the IXP2400 with the incorrect drivers in the path before I remembered that the correct drivers were over on this other path. Now for you non-computer people out there I'm going to take five minutes to explain symbolic links. Symbolic links are a lot like worm-holes. They connect some point A with some point B in another universe. The difference ends there though and actually it is at the end of the path that really matters, let me give an example.
I tell you on Wednesday to travel down a path(link) called "/erics/short-cut/to/get/there/fast". Now in the morning that "link" will connect you to "/this/has/the/old/drivers". Once I redirect the symbolic link in the afternoon that same link "/erics/short-cut/to/get/there/fast" drops you off over here "/these/are/the/drivers/that/work".
Herein lies the problem and solution. In the morning I told the computer process "nsfd" that "/erics/short-cut/to/get/there/fast" goes over to here "/this/has/the/old/drivers". So when I told the IXP that it should follow the "/erics/short-cut/to/get/there/fast" it checked with nsfd(worm-hole traffic cop) and happily went to "/this/has/the/old/drivers". Now in the afternoon I needed the IXP to goto over to the new drivers. So I changed the symbolic link to point over to "/these/are/the/drivers/that/work". When the IXP2400 rebooted it went to load it's file system and followed the symbolic link "/erics/short-cut/to/get/there/fast" to "/these/are/the/drivers/that/work" when the IXP2400 checked with the nfsd(worm-hole traffic cop) the nfsd process said 'NEIN' 'No link for you'........do you see the problem? nsfd thinks that "/erics/short-cut/to/get/there/fast" resolves to "/this/has/the/old/drivers" but the IXP2400 tells nsfd that it wants to go to "/these/are/the/drivers/that/work" and nfsd says NO link for you. I rebooted nsfd and life was happy, more importantly the IXP2400 forwarded packets from port 0 to port 1.

Work: Happy Halloween *warning post contains rant

2005-11-01T02:28:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I'm reading my email from work and notice a large delay in my filtering rules moving a message to a folder. Off to the folder I go to see what's happening. Well it seems the little network hackers started trick-or-treating a little early this year, at least this little bast##rd (210.230.200.199) was lighting up my machines with ssh attempts. By this I mean that he generated around 111 MB of log files in failed messages. So in my infinite wisdom (cue angelic music) I thought I would add his little address to our blacklisted sites. After attempting to log into our firewall unsuccessfully I remember that we do not allow access to our firewall unless you are sitting in front of it. I called a co-worker and here is what transpired.
Me: Dude need a favor. I need you to add a firewall rule to the block this address.
Him: Ok tell me what to do.
Me: log on to the KVM and add this rule.
Him: dude the machine is not responding to key-strokes.
Me: Hold on. ( I quickly confirm that the firewall is still up performing it's task as gatekeeper.) Ummm ok just reboot it.
Him: reboot it? Are you sure.
Me: Yeah just reboot it. It'll be back up in a second and it will see the keyboard and be happy
Him: ok. click.
Meanwhile I start pinging the firewall looking for signs of live. Then the phone rings.

Him: Dude umm... it can't find the disk.
Me: what.... what do you mean.
Him: um it's trying to PXE boot off the network.
Me: SOB! ok just power it all the way down and wait a little while. Then power it back up. (I'm starting to remember when we reboot it last.... oh yeah about 1.5 YEARS AGO)
Him: Dude you know we're offline right now.
Me: No sh*t sherlock. Just power it down and wait a while.

Now I'm asking around the other office that I'm at if anyone wants to give me a ride to work so I can fix the mess I've made. I'm about 30 mintues away with traffic and the airport. Plus quickly compose an email message to our userbase letting them know we're offline and everything is under control..Ring

Me: Hell-o
New Him: Um dude I just lost all my sessions to your lab.
Me: Yeah I know... we're having a little issue with our firewall.
New Him: I can't even ping the firewall.
Me: That's one of the issues.
New Him: When are you going to fix it?
Me: Read your email... I just sent a message. click

Ring.
Him: Dude it's not finding the disk and it's PXE booting again.
Me: Go into the BIOS and disable PXE boot.
Him: Did that.
Me: DAAAMMMNNIIIITTTTTT!!!!!! ( a mild earthquake was felt in Marina del Rey at this time) I'm on my way.
Him: Good I've got a meeting at 2:00. click.

I spent the next 8 hours trying to fix the current firewall before giving up and re-building a new firewall. I the mist of rebuilding the new firewall I realized we have no backups of the firewall configuration. Of course we have the rules saved off but the addressing, the static routes which move traffic heither and therether, not so much. I was helped by my partner in crime from USC who was online IM-ing with me until we re-installed everything . He even provided a little humor by trying to hack in with usernames like "never-reboot-domass", "what-were-you-thinking" which of course show up in the logs I've got scrolling across my window during our...um... exposed time.

Lesson Learned: If it's not a Microsoft Windows machine rebooting it might not fix it and could very well kill it. I've also proposed to block all of the APNIC assigned ip segments.... that region attempts breakins more than any other.

Comics:The Theory of Bucky

2005-10-30T07:33:00.000-08:00

Today's Get Fuzzy is another classic comic in the realm of theorectical rants. This comic provides more proof of the similarity between the Buckster with my own life. For just the other day I was drafting an equation for chicken velocity on my white board, while drinking a Sauvignon Blanc.

Oktober Fest

2005-10-29T16:42:00.000-07:00

Oktober Fest almost past by me this year with little celebration, fortunately I was able to drag three awesome friends to this years event. John, Regina and Sharon J. headed over to Torrance Friday night to sample the German Beers, eat some awesome German Sausages and of course chicken dance til our tails feathers fell out. The evening started a little rocky as we got there about an hour early and were directed over to the market to kill time. There we bought sausages, cheese, french bread and some beer. Sitting just outside the market we ate our makeshift dinner and made friends with the eventual ballon blowing up contest winner. During the evening we tried to convince another friend to come join us but he claimed a 7 hour drive to San Francisco the next day prevented him from attending. All in all it was a great night of Oom Pa Pa listening, people watching and beer drinking.

Family: Airports are our life

2005-10-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

My family travels a lot. By a lot I mean everyone has their own frequent flyer numbers on various airlines and we all have our personal favorite ways to get in, out and through various airports. I though possess an ability to defy knowing exactly where I am once I arrive. You see as the Coe family one of us(name withheld to protect the guilty) likes to plan out all combinations of possibilities. Another of us, namely me the instigator , likes to mess with that process as much as possible. So Saturday morning I'm flying in for a great family friends wedding reception. Of course you must know there exists a free shuttle to the hotel where I will be staying with said family. Off the plane I come bag in tow headed towards baggage claim to meet my beloved family who has driven to the airport to pick me up personally. I walk by baggage claim looking for the clan.....left.....right.....left......right. No sign. Ok time to call the cell. Thinking they are late, not uncommon for this group, I call and reach mom. The conversation goes something like this:
Son: "So I'm here. Where are you guys?"
Mom:" We're waiting outside the main terminal.....where are you?"
Son: Gazes around now....looking for a clue. "I'm standing next to the ET14 exit door." I start walking towards the information booth knowing how the rest of this conversation will go. I find out I'm in the East terminal while my beloved family is in the main terminal.
Mom:"Your in the wrong terminal. You need to get on the airport shuttle and come over to this terminal. We'll stay put you come find us."
Son: Well most of you know what I'm thinking. Sure I'm in the wrong terminal. I mean I obviously pulled the stop rope on the plane to soon to signal the driver to pull over to the East Terminal...yeah that's what I did. My Bad! "Sure let me find that shuttle and come right over"
Click.
Son: Thinks..this is crazy you guys need to come find me. Dials moms cellphone....of course no one answers. Why would they I mean we just talked less than a minute ago, what more could one in my situation possible have to say! Dials brothers cellphone.
Son: "Dude you guys need to come find me, or maybe I'll just get on the shuttle to the hotel. I'm in the East terminal by door ET14"
Brother:"You bought a GT?" - Thanks sprint for that awesome signal!
Son:"I'M BY EXIT ET14.....ET14 like Extra - Terrestrial" - people now staring at this crazy ponytail having, shorts wearing man yelling into his cellphone. Of course over the speaker phone.
Brother:" Ok yeah GT14.... on our way."
Son:"Dude ET14!"
Brother: "yeah man ET14, as in Echo"
Son: "Correct Echo" click.
Another 10-15 minutes pass and family pulls up to ET14.

Now the thing that make this soooo funny ( for some definition of that word) is that fact that this happens a lot to me and my family. There was the Minneapolis airport scene with my brother much the same just substitute ET14 with Blue4 and main terminal with Green4. Then there was again the Minneapolis scene with father and great fishing friend Pappy. Pappy goes into the airport to find me. We do not cross paths. I come outside to the truck where Dad is...." Where is Pappy", Dad "Inside looking for you", Son "Ok I'll go back in", Pappy comes out to the truck "Where is Skeeter", Dad "Inside looking for you".....repeat..... you get the picture.

Family: God puts them in your life because their the only ones who can handle your stupidity and laugh with you at it later. I guess I could also define friends that way too. I mean most of my close ones anyway.

Coffee: Last of the Australian

2005-10-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

It had been such a good week too! Well this morning I awoke to find that I was down to my last brew of Australian coffee Lindsay had brought back from a shoot. Maloberti's North Queensland Gold Coffee-light roast is another fine coffee from Australian. The plantation opted for a ecological production. They have not used pesticides as natural predators took care of any pests. They sun-dry the beans after carefully fermenting and washing them. But alas this mornings will be the final cup. To all those in Internetland I say it is better to have sipped and tasting life then never to have drank at all. Or maybe something like, having drank the last drop from my love I watched as the last bit of steam dissipates into the cool morning air.

USC Game: Trojans win Trojans win!!!!

2005-10-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

I have three little words for you: Second half team. That's right baby! That's been my mantra to all the naysayers who call or comment during a USC game about the fact that USC is behind at that very instant. I sit calmly drinking my Guinness with no worries knowing my Trojans will deliver. And boy did they deliver today! Today I saw quite possibly the best college football game ever! I mean I was at the Missouri-Colorado infamous fifth down game but today I was on the other side, the winning side of a classic battle on the grid-iron. There will be many write-ups I'm sure but for now I'll link over to SI for their take on the final action. In the words of Pete Carroll "Damn it's good to be a Trojan!" Fight on!!

Day 7 without a car in LA

2005-10-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

If you've been following "The Life of Coe", which I'm sure has you on the edge of your seat, you know that today is the 7th day after the death of my beloved Mercury Topaz. The Brown Taxi, as some friends called her, might actually be recovering. See folks my theory is that the Topaz just came down with a little cold and needed some time off. I've given her a nice seven day rest and I'm pretty sure she has let loose of all fluids she is going to... gosh I hope so my garage floor is a toxic waste dump (but the colors are pretty... ah pretty colors... reminds me of fall back in Missouri). Focus man, ok, so I've been cycling back and forth to work. While this picture (from a triathlon) is not exactly how I look on my morning commute it does capture the facial expression of me approaching a stoplight that has just turned yellow. Fun Fact, cars accelerate faster than my legs can pedal. In a car the yellow light means step on it, on a bike it means pedal like hell. Currently my record remains tied at zero for intersection collisions on the bike or in the car.. though that lady this morning tried her best, better luck next time Soccer mom-talking on your cell phone-not looking out for cyclist-SUV driving commie. Ok maybe I went to far with the commie thing I understand they have pretty strict requirements for joining. Happy Friday!

Comics: Keep me smiling

2005-10-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

I love comics. I read them everyday. For those that love comics but hate the hassle of clicking through websites to find them someone created dailystrips. This nifty little program will fetch your favorite comics and place them all on one webpage.

So this morning I'm reading my comics page and sipping a nice cup of espresso forte when I come across "Get Fuzzy" .... always a hit with me. Some people at work have associated me with Bucky and I think they are completely correct. Especially after reading today's strip.

Family: This explains it all.....well, ok some of it!

2005-10-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

For those that know me you may have realized by now that I can be a bit sarcastic. One friend had for my description on his homepage that my "sarcasm knows no end".... which is true. Some have wondered where this might come from, enter in my mother and father. Now dad has always been, as my friend Sharon J says, a TWM (tricky white man). There are stories about my father which I will share at another time, but this mornings post will reveal mom's playful side. I've been using this great little quote from the comic strip Zits that was published on Oct 6th. I liked it so much I added it to my out-going signature on my emails. The quote simply states:

"I'm trying to think of a word that's no-er than no."

So the story begins like this..... I awoke this morning, sat down to a nice peaceful breakfast, sipped on a great cup of Costa Rican Coffee and was reading my daily regimen of web pages. I decided to check some email and saw that my mother had replied to an email that really needed no response. Opening the email thinking to myself what could she possibly have to add to this topic. I've taken the liberty to cut and paste her email below for your reading pleasure (I mean I looked and found no copyright symbol or wording so I think I'm legal).

On Tue, 11 Oct 2005, Gwendolyn Coe wrote:
>
> Words that are no-er than no:
>
> Possibly (in Chinese this means Absolutely Not)
>
> and
>
> No-est
>
> Looks like it might be a slow day---I'll be thinking of some more.
> Love,
> Mom

Isn't she precious! Always trying to help out her little man. Needless to say I was shaking my head smiling from ear to ear. Chalk one up for mother.

Yoga: Damn that hurt

2005-10-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

So since I started doing triathlons my hamstrings have become very....well let's just say tight. The gym I belong to has a Yoga class that I talked Lindsay into taking with me. Ok guys listen closely...you must take a yoga class at least once in your life. It's almost a rite of passage or something. Slim, young, and very flexible girls doing things that usually you only see in books. I mean my goodness. Anyway, I caught quite a few of them checking out the Coeman, sure usually they were laughing at my "downward dog" but hey they were looking and smiling so at least were entertained. Make sure and look for future yoga posts, because I'll be at the next class.

A word to yoga going women....wearing a thong that is visible in the downward dog pose is just plain mean and cruel...Shame on you!

RIP Topaz

2005-10-07T22:55:00.000-07:00

Well so it finally happened. Many knew this day would come, in fact most everyone asked when I would put-her-down. I mean everything dies right? But why now, she was so, well, not young... and why when there was so much gas left in her tank. My car (the Brown Taxi) has passed on. She served me well. It was an ugly end though. She leaked body fluids everywhere. I mean the constant care was a lot of work. Putting in 3-4 quarts of oil every few weeks.....sniff sniff..... there is still fresh oil dripping out of her onto the garage floor as I type... I'm sorry I don't think I can post anymore on this tonight... it just hurts too much.

Coffee: Australian

2005-10-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Man this is becoming a rough week. First my cell phone is dying (ok technically it's already been dead for a year but I keep giving it CPR(cellular phone resuscitation) and somehow it survives for another week. Then this morning I finished off a package of Australian coffee Lindsay brought back from her latest shoot. Contented Koala is a blend of Australian and Papua New Guinea beans that has been ground to a texture resembling talc. It has a pleasant taste, nothing exciting , very smooth with a clean finish. I'm sure Lindsay picked this brand because the label has the cutest picture of a "contented" koala in a tree. Much like wine sometimes you just get lucky doing this and this was one of those times. It still saddens me to know that I've finished off two packages of fine coffee this week. Oh well, I guess it is time to travel somewhere and find more coffee!

Coffee: Last of the Cuban

2005-10-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

So for this mornings coffee pleasure I reached for some cuban coffee my mother had brought back from her latest trip. It was disturbing how light the bag felt in my hand and even more so when I looked inside the red foil wrapper. There was just enough left for a single carafe. I fired up the stove and waited for that strong bold taste. Umm, I sit here sipping a fine cup of brew deciding if I will go into work this morning or just wait and have breakfast with Lindsay. If anyone out there is headed to an exotic land or even just around the corner to a nice local shop, feel free to pick up a pound for me (whole bean please).

Happy Hour with the Bio and Geo folks

2005-09-30T23:25:00.000-07:00

My friend John told me about these emails he gets since he works for the geology department. The emails describe a happy hour event that takes place on campus every friday evening around 6:00pm. The beers are only $1.00 and they only drink non-domestic. It was truly my kind of place. I met a very nice girl named Chris who is working on her PhD in biology. She is studying storm plumes in coastal waters. She even offered some very nice advice: "NEVER NEVER NEVER go swimming in the ocean after a storm." It is as toxic as swimming in the sewer. I'll be back next week for more beer and hopefully more conversations with Chris.

Dodger Game

2005-09-29T23:49:00.000-07:00

So my roommate Lindsay has a good friend named Larry who has season tickets to the Dodger games. His seats are awesome and he has been kind enough to take us to a couple of games this season. Thursday we went to the last home game of the season. Dodgers were playing ok but were losing going into the 7th. We left the game early to avoid the traffic. Thanks Larry for another great night at the ball park and for covering my parking at the field.

USC GAME- Go Trojans

2005-09-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I drove over to my friend Carl's house to watch USC once again tromp their opponents. This was a close game with USC down 10-13 at halftime. They made an excellent come-back, or maybe they just started playing, and finished the game 45-13. After the game Carl grilled steaks and his wife Barb cooked potatoes. It was a nice evening with friends and we consumed some good wine....always a must with Carl.

Saturday Ride

2005-09-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

So every Saturday my trainer Christopher and I ride around Santa Monica. This morning another friend Lisa joined us for the ride. We did two laps on San Vicente between Ocean and Bundy. We only rode for about an hour but it's always good to get out and on the bike. There was some 5k or 10k run going on that according to police is an annual event in it's fifth year. I drove up to Santa Monica for the ride and the pisser about this is when I load my bike into the Topaz I always screw up my speed sensor and candance sensor. So the first part of the ride is spent stopping every 100m to adjust the alignment on both trying to once again get them "dialed in". Anyhow after the ride we went to the Lazy Daisy for breakfast and enjoyed the "atomosphere".

Coffee: Costa Rica

2005-09-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Those that know me even in passing will come to realize that I have a strong affection for good coffee. Recently my friend Christopher went to Costa Rica to surf for five days. He was kind enough to bring me back some Costa Rican coffee. Now Christopher has moved up the friend chain and is close to overtaking Carl who brings me both coffee and wine (that was a joke people). Anyway, I brewed a carafe and sat back to enough a nice cup. This coffee was amazing. It has been a week since I've been excited about coffee, but this cup was tasty. I believe their website which as part of the description states "This coffee lingers on the palate and stays on the mind." How true!

Mozart

2005-09-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

So tonight I went to a little concert in Bouvard Aud. on campus. It was a veyr nice evening and best of all it was free. The USC Thornton Chamber Orchestra played the following works:

L’Italiana in Algeri Overture Rossini
Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat, No. 10, K. 365 Mozart
Symphony No. 9 Shostakovich

I spent some of the evening flirting with a violin player named Loren, she is a Kappa I think. Anyway she's very attractive and seemed to be responsive to my actions...maybe I'll goto the next performance Oct 20.

Bloggin' again

2005-09-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

I have resurrected my blog. Actually I recently read through a friends blog and felt guilty I had not kept a better one of my life. I've had other friends tell me that my life story could fetch millions on the big screen. Think comedy staring a masochist who can find more stress in life than most.

Anyway here's to my life captured as I see fit.

Life or something like it.

2004-05-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome

2004-05-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

The space will serve as a place for me to rant about life and living in LA. I plan on updating it weekly to allow you, my peps the ability to understand what it means to live "The Life of Coe".