net proximity
In true IT fashion, last night’s bug wasn’t a bug, but a feature. Or, to put it another way, we were exceeding the designed behaviour of the storage system in question, and getting it into an unpredictable state where weird things happen. Both the customer and I have been put straight.
I’m using the Proxomitron on my work PC now, and I recommend it highly. Unlike other pop-up killers, which kick in once the pop-ups, banners and other junk have been downloaded to your system, this program acts as a filtering proxy server that runs on your own system, filtering out the HTML that calls up the junk in the first place. The result is that the junk isn’t downloaded at all, which speeds up browsing in addition to keeping banners etc. away off your screen. I have seen people complaining that it’s technical to set up, but it isn’t really. You basically insert it into the communications chain: tell your web browser to use Proxomitron as a proxy, then tell Proxomitron to use your existing proxy, if you were using one already. The rest is optional. Highly recommended.
I recorded Arlington Road on Wednesday – a frightening movie when I first saw it, but even more relevant now that terrorism is a daily fact of life in the USA. Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack make for a very tall couple, who come across as far too eerily normal for comfort. The facade of barbecues and ballgames is nearly airtight, except for the beginning and the end. I’ll watch it later, perhaps tonight.
Another weekend of engineering coursework ahead. It’s a short segment, but the course organizers know this, and thus give us less time to complete it. Blargh.
