Geek Squad

Stefan and I (mostly "I") have been working on some "special projects" on my - I mean Stefan's - new Linux box. We've got the photo galleries working, I've learned about the exciting world of virtual domains with Apache, and I recently approved Stefan's shopping list of items that he's going to purchase for his other computers. I like how this relationship works: Stefan tells me what geeky tools he wants, I approve, he buys it. I tell Stefan what I geeky tools I want, I approve, and Stefan buys it. Last night, I approved his purchases of several new massive hard drives for several computers, enough to run a small company with. On my part, I plan on putting this equipment to use. Some special projects, most of which are for research and learning reasons only, that I have on my Todoist to-do-list:

• Lock down the Linux box
  
• Configure remote access to his Ubuntu GUI for my special project use.
• Configure a secure email server with encrypted logons and attempt to setup Horde IMP email on it.
• Configure a MUX (is that the right term? "Backup") e-mail server.
• Create a PHP and MySQL-powered DVD/Movie library web application for Stefano
• Setup remote backup/rsyncs between about four computers in three locations.

That should keep me busy while Erika is gone. By the way, Erika is going to Peru for three weeks to attend to Ryan and Lili's reception dinner and wedding (!!!) and attend to her mom after her surgery. I will be going down for a week and a half to attend the aforementioned wedding parties as well getting major dental work done (one crown and one inlay) in a third-world country by a "renowned" (I hope) dentist for 1/4 of the price that it would cost me in the States. My boss is great because he's going to let me "telecommute from home" on my non-medical, non-party days, which is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

In other news, I spent an hour and a half over the past 24 hours listening to a conversation on Oprah ("Harpo" backwards) with a guy named Eckhart Tolle about his book (actually, the first chapter of his book; it's a 9-part series). I also spent at least one hour at work discussing his ideas with a co-worker at work today. I haven't been much of a spirtual thinker the last few years, and I continuously rejected my co-worker's suggestion to listen to these podcasts for several months because usually this kind of stuff makes me fall asleep - FAST. Those of you who know me know that I think these New Age type people are total wack-jobs, but this Tolle guy is bring up some damn interesting things to think about. If anybody is interested, download the report on his first chapter and spend an hour and a half listening to it and thinking about it. It's a lot easier than I thought. The other chapters (which I haven't got to yet, but I'm fascinated with) can be found at the bottom of this page.

J. Riley, The fingers in my hand have been tingling a lot today. I should probably be concerned about this, considering my myotonic dystrophy :o/