The Land of Ozz

BellSouth has been experiencing network problems for well over 24 hours now. An online chat session last night answered my questions pretty quickly, but did not get anything fixed. I speculate that BellSouth might have some IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) management problems from the information I have gathered. I do not have the specific text from the chat session last night, but I can say that they (BellSouth Support) quickly acknowledged that my problems with sending email over my BellSouth FastAccess DSL connection was caused by their network problems. The specific problem that I was having was that I could not send email using SMTP from an email client like Microsoft Outlook or Opera Mail. I knew the problem was with my DSL provider because I was not able to send email using five different domains (4 different .coms and 1 .mil) and I tried sending from two different PCs running different operating systems. The canned explanation of the problem during the caht session was that something was blocking SMTP ports on their network due to an excess of spam.

Today the BellSouth Network Status page says, “There are no General System Alerts at this time.” If you select a state and city you get the response shown in the photograph. BellSouth did say during the online chat session that their WebMail client was working fine and available for use. It’s that great! My contacts, groups, and emails that I need to respond to are on my computer. Not to mention the even bigger problem was that the emails I really needed to respond to last night were not received on a BellSouth.net account in the first place.

I was one fo the first five DSL customers int he Charleston, SC area many years ago. That was according to the technician who said there were only two installers at that time even trained to complete the installation. I was his second install and he said the other technician had done three installs already. For the most part, BellSouth has been great as a DSL provider. They have gone through their share of growing pains with the DSL thing, but they have come out smelling like a rose for the most part, until this week.

A case of an eleven year old girl named Haleigh and her fight to survive has taken a turn after making it to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The high court of the state ruled that she should be allowed to die. “Haleigh wants to live,” is how Michelle Malkin put it and I think God agrees with Haleigh.

I believe that people view the life of those on a feeding tube with sort of an “oh you poor thing” type of mentality. It is amazing to watch people’s reactions when you pull out a bag half the size of your one year old child and hook him up to eat while in a public place. They are even more amazed to see how normal he is no matter how he gets his nutrition. Caden will eat without a feeding pump soon as will Haleigh. Caden spends about forty minutes four times a day hooked to his feeding pump. This is his only source of nutrition at this time. It is a method of eating, not a death sentence. Actually, Caden can eat while he does just about anything else including playing.

I would love to see the faces of the judges on the Massachusetts Supreme Court after watching Caden play for over three straight hours and then watch as we lift his shirt to attach the feeding pump to his tube. You can not tell that Caden even uses a feeding tube until it is time to eat. People’s view of this method of eating is way distorted until they have to deal with it first hand. Every judge who thinks that a feeding tube is a death sentence should spend a day with Caden to learn that they are VERY wrong.

The following is a edited version of what Googlism returns when you type in “Hank”. The information in the [brackets] was added to spice it up a little. I am known as TheOzz on my blog, but better known as Hank around the house.

hank is either …the younger brother of sam [or] hank is her father
hank is a large albino male giant green iguana
hank is sure that hank is the best name in the entire world and would like to solve the problem with natural disasters
hank is author of two books and numerous papers on computer systems
hank is the alter ego of steve [whoever that is]
hank is a man of few words shaped profoundly by his father buck[le from the belt]
hank is not merely a result of a multiple personality disorder; hank is also subject to fits of “involuntary narcissistic rage
hank is a graduate of the university of florida with a degree in history and was on football scholarship [when he woke up]
hank is a writer [It's my story and I will tell it how I want]
hank is a sincere pleasure [to buy lunch for]
hank is also an expert at internet based education and is currently earning an ms in [blogging]
hank is an anthropologist who has taught in colleges [until being thrown out for claiming to live on Noah's Ark]
hank is pulled from the pool [becuase] hank is drunk however [on OTA trackbacks]
hank is much good looking [as ling as Mrs. Ozz agrees then I don't care what anyone else says]

hank is an entertaining genealogical lecturer hank is not
hank is a founding member and past president of the delaware otsego critical incident stress debriefing team serving emergency responders in central new york hank is not
hank is an old guy sitting in a chair
[when]
hank is a billionaire philanthropist
hank is no clone [but he should be]
hank is a bona fide star today [at least in his own mind]
hank is the way he is [boy ain't that the truth]
hank is the best [at something he has not yet discovered]
hank is joined by his colorful 7 [cents after buying gas for a week]
hank is in an alfalfa field [agent for hair replacement therapy]
hank is kidnapped short time later by the criminal gang in order to make mckenna maintain silence on [area 51]
hank is a true match at all levels listed above
hank is accused of murder
hank is living with the olson family [osborne actually]
hank is a second [only to the great Instapundit when it comes to blogging]
hank is also involved with producing internet advertising conferences and seminars [aimed at dethroning Michele Malkin and others like her form the top of the blogshere]
hank is the most beautiful person in the world according to people [who want him to link to them]
hank is that way [nOOO, not that way]
hank is playing in 1999 as opposed [partying like it's 1999]
hank is a great storyteller
hank is beatting michael up [for touching those little boys]
hank is determined to pass his views onto his son sonny [ideas for the name of his next child?]
hank is a multi [national spy using his blog to spread spy software to every computer on the planet]
hank is a regular on the shock jock’s radio show; they assumed he was a mythical creation designed to poke fun at the way people defines and hank is swarmed by autograph seekers and lamar’s plaid fans [do what?]

hank is now an abusive [member of the free world of blogging]
hank is the centre of the comedy [at this moment in time]
hank is a fine jazz vocalist and a brilliant pianist [only on Thursdays when the moon is full and is snows 153 inches in Miami]
hank is charged with supervising the execution of death [row inmates in the comment spammer's jail]
hank is connected to the following things [sites that link here]
hank is a tough even though hank is afraid to sleep alone
hank is tackling sports on local 8 news weeknights at 11pm and is also doing color commentary for the san diego chargers on 760 kfmb hank is not

hank is

hank is da man

Hat tip: Danny Kaye over at www. nothing important to .us who got it from Adjust.

The Mayor of New Orleans said in a statement yesterday, “As we think about rebuilding New Orleans, surely God is mad at America.” Nagin went on to say, “He’s sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane.” I don’t know whether God is mad or not, but I would have to say that if he is mad, then it looks like the mayor’s scope is a little wide in this particular case. Maybe God is only mad at New Orleans, or what it represents in America.

There are instances in Bible where God destroyed cities and even nations. Is this the case here? Maybe. Maybe not. I do hope that the mayor is coming around and truly feeling a little conviction about how business gets done in New Orleans, but I think the more likely scenario is that “Tomorrow, Nagin will probably contradict himself and say something completely different.” That is the closing statement from the story at News Talk 810 WGY. The quotes inthe first paragraph also came from the New Talk 810 story.

LaShawn Barber has issued a challenge for those “non-Bible-reading Christians” and others who normally bash Robertson. She wants to see if any come out against Nagin. I have to say that I don’t know if Mayor Nagin is right or not. He said it. Something had to put that notion on his mind. The Holy Spirit may just be working on this man. I think he is stretching it by trying to drag in international political matters, and how black men treat their women, but he may be on to something with this wrath of God thing in general. Who knows other than God himself? Nobody really knows exactly what God is thinking and that is the way God intended it.

As for Pat Robertson., many of the things Robertson says I agree with, but in the recent Robertson comments about Ariel Sharon’s stroke, well… Let me just say that the Jews are God’s chosen people. I think that Robertson was treading on thin ice with this one.

Those who know me well know that I beleive in the power of prayer. Mad Mikey was hospitalized and had surgery due to a stroke. He needs your prayer. Please pray for the restoration of his body.

HT: Michelle Malkin

Yahoo! News covered a story about Search Engines Going Far Beyond Maps today. The whole Internet mapping thing is interesting to me. My history has allowed me to see detailed images taken from satellites before most people could even conceive that it was possible.

I find it a little bit funny when I read statements like this one. “I think there are going to be privacy issues, no doubt about it — somebody’s going to feel uncomfortable with it,” said Charlene Li of Forrester Research. Yes, I am sure that there will be plenty of folks screaming because big bother and the rest of the planet will be able to see what really goes on back there on the South 40 of the ranch. What is funny is that big brother has had the technology for a long time and no one even know realized it.

The truth is that most of the publicly available data is not of much use for doing anything other than what the article talks about like . I am just pleased to see that the data is not real time and does not show the degree of detail that a terrorist might be able to use. Most of the potential terrorist hot spots that I came up with off of the top of my head had very little or no graphics available in any degree of detail. This was talked about in the article, but it is much easier understood if I show you.

This first picture is a look at my house using Google Maps.

Now here is a look at the same location (My house) using Google Earth.

How current is the database of pictures on Google Earth? The following picture is of the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, SC. The new bridge is represented int he picture as the two pylons in the water just below the tow old bridges. The new bridge actually opened for public use in July 2005. The demolition of the old bridges has been underway for quite a while now so the bridges shown in the picture below are not even in use any more.

Today we feature a case of making a mountain out of a mole hill. The Washington Post released a story about how a Windows Wireless Flaw a Danger to Laptops. I have a news flash for you WaPo. This is a functionality of hard wired Windows based laptops and computers anywhere. Yes, you can gain access in more unsuspecting places like on airplanes via wireless, but this is not a new idea. The types of additional tools required to hack a laptop via a wireless connection as described in this article can also be used to hack a hard wired computer over a dial-up, cable modem, LAN, or DSL. Simply having an IP address on the same IP segment does not constitute hacking a computer as this article suggests. The meat of the story was skipped to satisfy the fear of the general population. In order to gain access to the target Windows computer remotely you must also gain user rights on that computer which requires using software that is not included on Windows computers. Computers plugged in via a standard network cable to a hotel, office, or home network are susceptible to the same kinds of attacks if they are not taking measures to “try” to stop hackers.

This news story is not really that big of a story after all. The most interesting portion of the article found below was where they are talking about hacking a laptop while on a plane over international waters.

Loveless said he believes that since the attacks were mostly carried while the plane was over international waters that U.S. law enforcement might have a hard time making the case that he was violating any laws. The real answer to that very interesting question, he said, would probably not be evident until someone gets sued in court for it.

Law enforcement authorities don’t seem to have a problem prosecuting a person for other offences over international waters. What makes computer crime over international waters any different than computer crimes committed on the ground?

The bottom line is that your data is only safe when it is on a computer that is turned off, unplugged from power and network, locked in a safe, and guarded by the US Marines.

Well it looks like I am almost 80% Fundamentalist according to the folks that put this fun little quiz together. I am not completely sure what some of the categories in this result even mean. I am also curious as to how you can be 79% of one thing and then 71% of another, and then 64% of a couple of others. That is fuzzy math.

I am certainy glad that I am not considered to be a modern liberal. I probably got 14% due to my choosing a score of 3 out of 5 on some questions that I thought were a little poorly worded and I was forced to answer just to get the result.

What's your theological worldview?
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Please note that I have categoriezed this post as faith and humor. Well, that’s enough fun for one night.

Hat tip to The Rogue Angel for leading me to this quiz.