manxome.org is still in limbo. I made another update to the NS records via gandi.net, to eliminate any need for the old ns names to resolve, thinking that maybe this was causing some weird problem. Nope! Hours later and I still get old NS records from tld?.ultradns.net. I know it can take a day or so, but this is nuts. Why are DNS updates still so slow? I find it hard to believe that there are really good reasons for this nonsense to persist. I just want to be able to get mail again!

My new DSL modem was waiting for me when I got home. I plugged it in, but the loop wasn’t active yet. We sat around for a while and watched some TV, but I kept looking over to see whether the DSL light came on. It didn’t, though, and after a while we went out and got some pie. On returning home, the light was on and a little investigation showed about 4Mbps down and 600Kbps up. Nice!

I abandoned Verizon when MCI introduced The Neighborhood. I’d long wanted unlimited long distance. “Verizon,” I said, “will you do that for me?” They said, “No.”

Workrave has done a good job at helping me avoid hand pains, and the fact that one instance of it can communicate with others is just keen. Unfortunately, I don’t split my time between two Win32 machines so much, but rather between my Win32 box and my Mac. AntiRSI is great, but it doesn’t talk to Workrave. I almost feel motivated enough to try my hand at C again to fix this problem… but not quite enough, yet. Maybe after a few more shooting pains.

It was misty, this morning, but I decided to bike to work anyway. I wasn’t going to get very wet, and I don’t mind getting wet coming home. When it was time to head home, it was raining like crazy. My only regret was not having my rear fender with me, because it meant that my ass was going to get soaked.

I work from home on Mondays. I find it’s a good way to avoid having people barge in on me while I’m trying to get in the zone. At work, my office is, I think, one of the nicest in the building, as far as atmosphere goes. I have a nice lamp, a good arrangement of furniture, and good music. People stop in to ask me questions and give me information I need, and I really do enjoy the fact that my office seems to make them feel at ease.

Wow. The city is under water. If you’re really interested, you can find some good before and after shots. It is really, really, crazy. I live in a river valley, but I’ve never seen flooding anywhere near this severe – and all from one night’s rain!

When we had our state inspection on the car, it was determined that our front struts were shot and needed to be replaced. This was an unwelcome expense, but there wasn’t anything to do but pay it. So we did! They mechanics said we ought to have the alignment checked, so today Gloria and I stopped in to the Sears Auto Center where we’d had an alignment about a month ago. They advised us that it would be about two and a half hours, so we walked well up MacArthur Road to look at a sporting goods store. When we got back, we did a good bit of sitting around, and finally about three hours after our arrival, we were told that they wanted to replace both front tires. All this was going to cost no money, but it took plenty of time. We walked over to Boston Market and had a very tasty little dinner before heading back to Sears. It was difficult to get our salesperson’s attention, so I finally looked at the stack of tickets, saw that ours was done, and told pointed one of the on-duty clerks at it. Everyone there was polite, but they don’t understand how to provide good service, I think.

I have spoken with people who seem really smart about how to hire, and also the opposite. Names have been changed…

…but first: an updated on my Apple Care.