Along the lines of freshnews, I have launched an rss aggregator/launch service at datente.com.

There are several categories of feeds (imperfectly broken-up, but it’s what makes sense to me) that display in quasi random order. And on the front page is a smattering selected randomly from the master list.

I would love suggestions of feeds to add, and maybe even new categories, too.

Being terminated over charging a movie to your room? Seems harsh (getting the $9.95 back from the employee would seem to be easier) – but breaking the rule is breaking the rule.

Being terminated over buying gum? Ok, so I WOULD terminate somebody over that … but I hate the stuff

But it’s repulsive, revolting, and wrong
chewing and chewing all day long
The way that a cow does*

There are a host of ways listed in the article – that I find truly shocking – to cheat on expense reports: blank receipts? buying gifts and then selling them on eBay? double-billing? Wow. The sheer effort taken by some people to cheat is astonishing!

Where I work now has a corporate credit card issued to every traveling employee. The only time we submit non-AmEx charges is if a place doesn’t accept AmEx: it’s just way easier to use the corporate card than it is to try to give all the supporting documentation of a personal card. Plus, there’s the benefit that it’s not my personal limit that is being affected if a customer delays in paying a bill.

Everyone that works where I do now also follows the expense guidelines we have – don’t exceed the IRS per diem rate for your region (on average). If you want to eat someplace nice for dinner – that’s fine. Just eat someplace less expensive the next day. Sticking within the rules isn’t that hard … so why would you want to try to evade them and end up with employment history issues like termination on your record?

The N&O called me this week for a brief interview, and some of what I had to say is in an article published today by Aliana Ramos, along with the following preliminary information about the crash:

The private-plane crash that killed an Apex man this week probably was not caused by mechanical failure, according to early findings by an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

…

Aragon’s plane went down about 12:45 p.m. Sunday, minutes after radioing to air traffic control that he was departing. A pilot who was in the air at the time told investigators that Aragon’s plane appeared to be lower than usual and losing altitude before crashing.

“The entire airplane was consumed by fire,” Rayner said. “The engine was significantly damaged; the gears are melted together; the instruments have been destroyed.”

…

Aragon was alive immediately after the crash and managed to separate himself about 10 feet from the plane, said Deep River Fire Chief Larry Kelly. A trio of area residents managed to reach Aragon before the fire department arrived and helped to remove some of his clothing.

“They helped to keep him calm until we could get there,” Kelly said. “He was conscious. I was able to talk with him to find out if anyone else was in the plane. He was in a lot of pain. He did not give any indication of what happened.”

My prayers are with his family especially today.

Apple as $70 billion in cash on hand.

Google is buying Motorola.

I think Apple should buy Sprint. And they should stop distributing the iPhone via Verizon and AT&T in the US.

• guarantee a distribution channel for media which Apple proffers
• boost Sprint’s value
• accelerate the deployment of 4g (and better) network technologies (a la LightSquared)

It would also give, in my opinion, a strong leg-up for Sprint on their suit against AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile.

My current web server is running 32-bit CentOS 4.9. Eek! That is old.

Since upgrading to a new release of CentOS is now becoming more urgent, and upgrading is really reinstalling a new OS, I’ve started to look at new hosts. I’ve considered Chunk Host, but while their entry-level service are Okay, they’re not really in line with what I need at this time. Likewise, I have review iWeb‘s offerings, but unless I go for a colo, they’re not going to suit my personal needs well, either.

My requirements for a new host are the following:

• CentOS 6 x64 (for a variety of reasons – this is not a religious thing: I have evaluated other distros/platforms, and this is the best option for me)
• at least 250GB of storage (>500G preferable)
• several CPU cores (a minimum of 2, 4 or 8 would be better)
• at least 4GB RAM
• decent amount of available traffic (though I don’t anticipate major traffic patterns for some time)
• at

What I am planning to run:

• Apache (ports 80 and 443) hosting several domains
• MySQL
• Plone (on 8080)
• PostgreSQL
• sendmail for several domains
• SVN
• Trac
• WordPress with some plugins (one of which is a little CPU intensive)
• a backup store for myself (hence the storage requirements)
  • OS media
  • personal files
• continued mirroring of m0n0wall
• oh – and it’d be nice if it was in the same rough price range as what I’m spending now on far less (2GB 2CPU 60GB on one host, and 512M 4CPU 20GB on my other host – total ~$45/month)

So far, I have found a couple viable options – but have not 100% settled on them yet.

I am curious as to what alternatives may exist in this area that I have not yet seen, and would appreciate any suggestions

A New Jersey man has filed a federal lawsuit in New York over the Port Authority’s toll increase.

Yoel Weisshaus of New Milford claims the increase is an abuse of power and discriminates against him because he is poor.

Cash tolls on the George Washington Bridge, Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, Goethals Bridge, Bayonne Bridge and Outerbridge Crossing went up from $8 to $12 on Sunday.

Weisshaus claims the tolls are targeted to restrict minimum-wage earners and will be used to complete the World Trade Center project instead of improving bridges and tunnels.

Sounds like a USA Today story from 3 years ago.

The library can be found at

3628 Walden Drive
Lexington, KY 40517

We’ll be meeting at Collexion’s facilities in Lexington at 2:30p.

I will be presenting on data center automation, specifically on HP’s Server Automation platform (the tool I use on my day job).

Some [limited] history of HPSA is available on the Opsware wikipedia page.

We’ll also briefly touch on some of the OSS alternatives to a full-blown environment like HPSA, such as:

• Puppet
• CFEngine
• Chef
• Cobbler
• xCAT

I realize there are some small typos in the current text, but I will be addressing that in a upcoming revision

I’d love to get feedback from anyone on how it could be improved/expanded.

LightSquared is at loggerheads with makers and users of GPS (Global Positioning System) over interference between the navigation system and its planned cellular LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network. That network would transmit on frequencies close to those used for GPS. The company has long argued that makers of GPS equipment are to blame for the interference because they don’t use strong enough filters to keep their receivers from searching for signals in LightSquared’s bands. But this is the first time LightSquared has accused the vendors of flouting a specific rule.

The DoD’s GPS Standard Positioning Service Performance Standard called for GPS receivers to filter out transmissions on frequencies adjacent to the GPS band, LightSquared told the FCC in a filing related to the agency’s ongoing consideration of the company’s network proposal. The standard, issued in September 2008, recommends that receivers reject all transmissions on frequencies that are more than 4MHz outside the GPS band, said Jeffrey Carlisle, LightSquared’s executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy. That 4MHz buffer is essentially a “guard band” to protect operations on either side, he said.

LightSquared plans eventually to use frequencies adjacent to the GPS band for its LTE network, but after mandatory tests earlier this year showed strong interference in that area, the company said it would start out in a slightly lower-frequency block.

Here’s something that’s a little disturbing, though:

There is no mandatory standard for filtering in GPS receivers, and the FCC does not certify the devices for this

And here:

In addition to the DoD recommendation, the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, has also warned since 2000 that stronger filtering might be necessary to protect GPS from nearby transmissions

The ‘Coalition to Save Our GPS’ had the following to say:

“GPS receivers incorporate filters that reject transmissions in adjacent bands that are hundreds of millions of times more powerful than those of GPS. What LightSquared is proposing, however, is to transmit signals that are at least one billion times more powerful,” the group said in a statement. “There has never been, nor will there ever be, a filter that can block out signals in an immediately adjacent frequency band that are so much more powerful, nor has LightSquared put forward any credible, independent expert opinion or other evidence that this is possible.”

I’m no expert, but “hundreds of millions” is distinctly not far-off from “one billion” (since one billion is equal to ten hundred million). I also acknowledge not having much domain expertise in radio signals, transmission, etc – but what LightSquared is looking to do seems a lot more useful than worrying about some poorly-built GPS receivers.

The FCC said earlier this week that it would not allow the LTE service to launch unless the interference issue was resolved.

LightSquared has said it is confident the plan will be approved next month.