Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Server Issues
December 10, 2006

Sorry, gang. Some doofuses are sending spam comments into my server (and a few other things, it seems) at a rate that’s too fast for Apache to keep up. As a result, Apache just seems to hang and become unresponsive.

Unable to detect when an incoming request is a valid commenter before passing the request on to WordPress’ comment processing system, leaving this unchecked takes down the whole server within a minute or two. There’s nothing to do about it but research the incoming requests and, in the meantime, disable the comment form. Rather, the thing that processes the comments for WordPress.

Sounds on the New Frontier
December 09, 2006

Spending more time around the house these days (working from home) certainly offers a different life experience than what I was familiar with driving to an office every day. One thing that I’ve noticed since our move into the new house is that this house makes completely different sounds than the old house did. While being home for many full days now, I’ve had more time to experience these sounds fully.

The most pronounced sound comes more with winter than with staying home every day. Our heater, a heat pump, runs very often these days. The sound is strangely loud. It’s louder than my computer, which you’ll realize is saying something had you ever been near my computer to hear it. It vibrates everything, and I think that perhaps it is in need of service. It’s even loud outside where the radiator is. It’s weird, but it’s not the strangest sound in the cacophony.

Shopping It Up
December 05, 2006

That time of year is upon us. Walking into Stadium Grille today, I had to convince myself that the white flakes that were falling from the sky were late season milkweed and not that other white stuff of which we won’t speak.

I keep asking Abby what she wants for Christmas periodically to see kf she’ll give me an answer other than the perpetual and impossible to obtain Baby Alive, a doll with giant eyes that eats, drinks, and performs other, um, interesting functions. If only Abby wanted some thing we’d already managed to obtain, or even something that wasn’t selling for twice its retail price on eBay.

Chrismas Lights
December 03, 2006

Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to hang them? What a fiasco.

At first we didn’t know how our new neighborhood would decorate. Would they decorate conservatively or would they trow lights on top of everything? Well, after the last couple weeks of warmer weather, everyone had plenty of time to put up whatever lights they wanted, and we’ve been left with a display that is not conservative, but also doesn’t consist of multiple lighted, moving, and sound-producing lawn creatures.