WriteBack SPAM

I turned off WriteBacks to this blog over a year ago due to the amount of SPAM coming through. Among the 200 or so WriteBacks that I received, I'd say 2% were legitimate comments, the others were hawking something or just doing whatever they could to get someone to click their link.

So, I had a few things to write tonight and took a moment to turn on the WriteBack feature for the first time since May, 2005. I was stunned to get the first SPAM attempt within 10 minutes. So, WriteBacks are off again. Sorry, I just don't have the time to wade through that much garbage looking for a legitimate comment. I also have a couple other Weblog systems installed on the server for clients, but I haven't looked into them for myself. Maybe they are a little better at filtering the stream.

Winding Down

Tomorrow is the last day of a project for a client. This was a 3 month project combining a variety of technologies (Perl, XML, Oracle, JavaScript, mod_perl and HTML::Macro). I have an 1,100 mile road trip ahead of me to get back home to my wife and fur-child (aka cat). It's always interesting to start a new project, lots of anticipation about everything from the people to the environment in general.

This was a very friendly environment, no complaints about anything within the group worth mentioning. Everyone was more than willing to help out with my questions about everything from technical issues (passwords to systems) to local issues (what do you do around here for entertainment?), and they all seemed to have some form of a life outside the company.

On the downside, there was a two week lead-in to the project start, meaning they knew I'd be there two weeks before I arrived, and it still took the IT department over a week to put a computer on my desk after I arrived. I basically had two days of reading and training to get started, so I had a full week of pondering my navel before I could do anything productive. Another contractor was hired the same day I was and turned in a resignation after the first week since a project he was trying to get hired for came through and he felt he wasn't going to be doing anything productive on the current project.

Along the same lines, after three months at my desk, there has never been a phone installed. There were only a couple occasions I needed a phone within the company, so I just walked to the next cubicle, which is disruptive to my co-workers.

Good Tech Support

The last couple tech support issues I've called in on have been a little entertaining. Someone just mentioned that they don't ever hear good tech support calls. These weren't perfect, but they got resolved quickly with a couple missteps along the way.

Today I added a new domain for a client to the server and emailed the colocation support crew to pass along the info. They were kind enough to tell me all the URL's I could use to access the new domain on their servers, not mine. Implying they added the new domain to their hosted service instead of my colocated server. A quick email and a follow-up phone call and we had it resolved in a couple minutes.

Earlier this week, I upgraded a software package on the server for plotting graphs since we have a new service going into BETA test in a week or two. I realized I was using a two year old version of the package (4.x) instead of the upgrade (5.1) I had purchased earlier this year. However, I couldn't locate the 5.1 package on the server. The vendor's website wasn't clear to me how to get an updated version of the software, so I called support.

As it turns out, the company had released version 5.2 the day before I called, which I was eligible to receive. So, support clued me into the intricacies of their download page (demo and regular software were the same, the license made them behave differently) and I was on my way. However, the download link was broken. A couple more tries and we were back on track.

So, while it wasn't perfect support, it was pretty quick and knowledgeable. I just chalk it up to the number of things that we're all involved in from moment to moment. I'm always embarrassed when I make silly mistakes (such as losing software) and can certainly allow others to do the same.

Rube Goldberg

I'm building a service to handle gathering and presenting data for Capacity Planning. So far, I've built the data gathering scripts, the database loaders and the database schema. I was working on the installer programs for client machines when I needed a little help solving a problem and reached out to a mailing list and a shareware author.

The problem is generating a MacOS X installer Disk Image (DMG) file using customized files for each client that signs up for the service. I built a command line script for doing this and got it working fine from my own user account. The problem started when I tried to make the signup program running on the web server call my DMG creation script. Basically, the installer script needs to be called from a user that is logged in to the system, which isn't the case for the user running as the web server. A couple of the commands in the script need to access the Mac desktop.

I looked into a couple 3rd party applications, namely DropDMG, which includes CLI and GUI versions and is shareware at $15 with 30 days fully functional trial. Unfortunately, it had similar problems, it ran just fine from the command line, but not from the webserver or cron. I emailed the author and he suggested trying setuid with the CLI or trying it via cron, but said I will likely need to have a user logged in to use it. I went down both those paths and didn't have any luck.

So, what I ended up doing was building a simple shell script of the commands I needed within the CGI program, then writing out a file with those commands into a specific folder. I then attached a Folder Action to the folder and lifted most of what I needed from an Apple-supplied AppleScript. The Folder Action monitors the folder, sees a new file added to it, launches the AppleScript, which includes a "do shell script" command in it. That do shell script reads the file[s] in the Folder Actions directory and processes the commands in them. One of those commands is the DropDMG command necessary to build the .dmg file and put it in the appropriate place.

Executive Summary: CGI -> shell script -> Folder Action -> AppleScript -> shell script -> DropDMG -> .dmg file

I'm going to contact Rube Goldberg to document the process a little more cleanly.

From Here to There

As you can tell from our Website, we support our troops. As part of my routine check around the web for military news, I ran across the book, From Here to There (PDF download or paperback) from Holly Aho and purchased it. Holly is a Soldier's Angel. The description from the site says, "A book of inspirational true short stories of support for our troops. Filled with letters from troops in Iraq to stories of supporting our troops from the states, you'll laugh out loud and shed a few tears as you share in the joys and sorrows of supporting our brave heroes."

I've thoroughly enjoyed the first couple stories and just wanted to make a hearty recommendation after wiping away some tears this morning. Very touching and motivating, to say the least.

Thanks to Holly for making these stories available. And even more thanks to our men and women serving in our military for making these stories available.

Mike Schienle

Alaska Trip

I'm heading to Alaska this week to discuss a new service we're working on with some folks in the pipeline industry. As noted on our Automation page, we're developing services for the Energy industry, with pipelines being the first one out of the chute. This is primarily aimed at Energy traders, but the information being gathered can also be provided for those in environmental and transportation fields related to pipelines.

I was last in Alaska nearly two years ago developing a satellite data processing project for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). That was developed and delivered in 2004. I'm looking forward to working with the folks in Alaska again.

Arriving in Chicago

My wife, Rhonda, and I are now in our new apartment in Chicago, about 1/2 mile from Sears Tower. Rhonda is especially thrilled to be living in a large city and is really enjoying all the things to do out here. I suspect Chicago will eventually return to normal once Rhonda settles in :-)

What's left of our furniture arrives from Colorado tomorrow, so this is the last night of staring at the walls. We decided to sell off a lot of the furniture prior to the move and purchase new stuff on this end. The main reason was that we had a much bigger place in Colorado and will need smaller/fewer items in an apartment. The large dresser, armoire, desks, couches, chaise, etc., are being replaced with their condensed equivalents. No doubt this will be an interesting change for us.

Spearfish, SD

My wife and I recently drove from Loveland, CO to Chicago, IL as part of our relocation for a new job with Citadel Investment Group in Chicago. The shortest route appeared to be taking Interstate 80 through Nebraska and Iowa for the West to East portion of the trip. Instead, we took Interstate 90 through South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

We lived in South Dakota from late 1996 to mid 1998 and wanted to drop by the little town we lived in to see how it had changed. We also wanted to go through the Deadwood area of South Dakota again, where we visited a very nice B&B in 1997, and thoroughly enjoyed the area. As soon as we hit Spearfish, we knew we would be living in South Dakota again some how, some way.

While traveling through Spearfish we knew why we loved the area so much. From the moment we were in South Dakota, there were several herds of deer along the highway, the scenery is second to none and the overall peacefulness just makes you want to stay in the area.

We're in the beginning stages of selling our house to some close friends of our neighbor and it is essentially a property swap. They are buying our house and we're buying their mobile home. The plan is to purchase their mobile home with proceeds from the sell of our house and move the mobile home to South Dakota. We'll keep the mobile home in its current location until we find a piece of property we can purchase in South Dakota, then move the mobile home. This would basically be our retirement location. We'll probably keep the mobile home on the lot for several years, then build a house. Even if we never get to the house portion, we know we'll have a mobile home that we can always enjoy. We're just learning about moving a mobile home, so we're sure there will be some gotchas along the way.

Going permanent

Last Monday I became a permanent employee for Citadel Investment Group in Chicago, IL. A year ago, going permanent for a company was one of the last things I expected to do. I was firmly committed to keeping my status as a contractor and consultant. I took a Perl and Sybase development contract for Citadel in June, 2004 with Citadel, expecting to work for six months. Much to my surprise I enjoyed the work enough to accept an extension, then a permanent position.

Citadel went out of their way to treat me much better as a contractor than I expected. I was given all the resources I needed from the start to do my job. I was given increasing responsibility for tasks very quickly. Their contractor offer was excellent in both pay and extras such as a corporate apartment and regular flights back to my wife and home in Colorado. When the time came to choose to go permanent, they had proven themselves to be a great company to work for and I was anxious to join them on a long-term basis.

My wife and I are very excited about this opportunity. We put a deposit on an apartment in downtown Chicago last weekend and the house in Colorado goes up for sale in a couple weeks.

Military Donations

As everyone is certainly aware, our military is very busy in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a variety of other places throughout the world. As you can see on the NewsTicker on the main page of our site, we respect and admire our military and the men and women who serve our country. Both my wife and I have relatives throughout our family who have served in our armed forces.

In an effort to show our support beyond talk and words, we've made the majority of our business and personal donations to military charities this year. We've received some very nice correspondence from these organizations, particularly from Gerard M. Kelly of the Wounded Warrior Project and from General Paul Vallely (Retired) of the Scott Vallely Soldiers Memorial Fund. We'd like to encourage everyone to visit these sites and others and consider donating.

We want all of our military to stay safe and to know they are loved, respected and honored. Our prayers and blessings are always with you. Hurry home to your friends and family and thanks once more for your service to your country.

We'd like to thank our customers and clients for giving Custom Visuals, LLC the opportunity to donate to our military personnel and veterans this year. 2004 was a great year for us and we feel truly blessed that we are able to show our appreciation this way.