Train for Trains

So, I'm sitting in traffic at a red light and see this huge three car track-testing tunnel-drilling monstronsity right outside my car window. I grab the camera out of my glovebox, roll down the window and snap this quick video of a train that hardly anyone ever sees. It is on the track on first street that is going to part of the new extension to the gold line from downtown LA to East LA. Once they finish, I may start taking this railway line.
Okay, back to work...

Police Help

I've become the old man next door yelling 'you kids get off my lawn'. Saturday morning, at seven twenty in the morning, new neighbor outside my open bedroom window decides to use an air powered nail gun in fixing up his new home. Which was nice an quiet when the 103 year old lady use to live there. Thing was built in the forties and does need a lot of work, but come on. A nail gun this early? So since he did not response to my gentle taunts, but kept on working, I phoned the non-emergency number and asked a question, at what hour of the morning may one use an air powered nail gun? She mentioned eight or nine AM but it was different on the weekends and would be glad to send someone out to talk to him. Twenty minutes later I hear a car pull up, a knock on their door, and it stops. For hours. Now for days. Guess he was done, or they talked him out of using it ever again. I would have been happy with just after nine AM that Saturday. Construction still goes on. Today he's mixing cement in a wheelbarrow for a new walkway. That's nice.

Having to Work

Days ago, where I work instituted a policy against personal and dating websites. This included my blog site. So I haven't been posting during lunch anymore. Instead I've been discussing it locally and boring my work buddies. Between going to sleep after a tournament and being summoned by the alarm clock at five AM, I haven't made time to post. A timely e-mail this morning reminded me that it was here. I will make the time to post again...

Moist

Wow, there is water falling from the sky! Can't even see the bottom layer of concrete of the LA River this morning. Well, the sun is not due for another hour, maybe it will shine bright enough to see, then.

Memo of the Day

At this time of year, companies and individuals doing business with blanked may send holiday gifts to individual employees or to the agency. This note is a reminder to all employees to be conscious of the limitations that apply to gifts given to blanked employees as well as the requirements of the Political Reform Act and Fair Political Practices Commission rules.

As a general rule it is usually simplest to decline or return gifts. However it is often impractical or unreasonable to return some gifts. Holiday goodies and similar gifts may be accepted if they are given to celebrate the holidays and not as compensation or reward for services provided or work performed. blanked's Administrative Code does prohibit compensation or rewards to employees from outside sources for performing their duties.

If gifts are not returned or declined, they may be reportable under the Political Reform Act and Fair Political Practices Commission rules. Employees required to file annual disclosures of their economic interests on FPPC Form 700 are required to report any gifts from a party within their disclosure category that are collectively valued at $50 or more per year on their annual disclosure statements. Acceptance of gifts valued at more than $390 per year from any single source is prohibited. However, gifts that are given to the agency and not to an individual do not have to be reported. Gifts such as food baskets or candy boxes can be shared by a group or department and then are not subject to this reporting requirement.

Gifts are considered not to have been received if they are returned to the donor within thirty days. If return is not possible, the gift can be turned over to a public or charitable institution without being claimed as a charitable deduction. In the case of return or donation to a charity, the gift does not have to be reported. A record of the donation should be kept, along with an explanation why return of the gift was not feasible. When possible, the donor also should be informed of this action.

On a separate issue, some employees have commented that too many personal packages are being delivered through blanked. Please be considerate of our hardworking mailroom staff and keep those deliveries to a minimum.

Please enjoy the Holidays and if you have any questions on these guidelines, feel free to contact either the Ethics Officer or the Legal Department.

Do I have to report that CD case now? No, it was done during a break onto a personal machine.

Smile, it's the holidays

Just a couple of shots of the artificial tree in the lobby of the building I work in. And a short video clip too. I've seen it for years, but this year they seem to have added a lot more.

Wi-Fi Piggybacking Widespread: Study

By Michael Santo Executive Editor, RealTechNews
According to security firm Sophos, wi-fi piggybacking, which is jumping onto someone else’s wi-fi network and using their bandwidth, is a lot more popular than thought. A survey of 560 respondents, run from October 13 - November 6, 2007, showed that 54% had freeloaded off someone’s unprotected wi-fi.
As we know, people can be arrested for wi-fi theft. But is it really theft? Most people think it’s a victimless crime. But it’s not for the ISP, who loses revenue.
Additionally, if people leave their wi-fi routers unprotected, allowing others to piggyback onto them, the worst problem is that people can get into your network, and if you don’t have your hard drives locked down, infect your systems with malware or grab sensitive files, with perhaps enough data for ID theft to occur.
It’s been said before, but it’s good to say it again: when you get a new wi-fi router, before using it, first change your router password. This should be the first thing you do. Default passwords for specific brands of routers are well-known disable SSID broadcast. There’s no reason to broadcast it, really encrypt with WPA or WPA2 You can take further steps, like restricting access to specific MAC addresses, but personally, I thnk that’s not necessary. The above three steps should be plenty.

Thanks Mike.

Home, Home, Home

Woke up in Las Cruses last Tuesday morning, and realized I had tickets for that night's Dodger game. Eleven hours later I was there. Thirty two hundred miles of fun during those days, L.A. to the gulf coast of Texas, to Houston, and back. Some poor critter at night ran under my right front tire in west texas. A week later as we were packing up the beach house, my host noticied a bubble in my tire. Looked in my mini-guide for the nearest mini-dealer. Sugarland, Texas. Wouldn't make it by closing that weekend, so instead of heading for L.A. first thing last Monday morning, headed for the dealership, in and out within four hours after describing the issue to the tire insurance company. Then went to my brothers, packed up the rest of my stuff, said bye to my niece and nephew and headed west. Made Las Cruses by midnight, spent the night for free [well, used some rewards points] and then headed west again to make the game. Had the rest of the week off from work, so just kept going to Dodgers games the rest of week and last weekend. It seems when I was gone, they slipped from first to fourth place, by losing seven straight series of games. I'm glad they are starting to win again, but it is a long row to hoe to even get to a wild card spot, let alone back into the western divisions first place. More stories later, back to work I go...

Sneaky Prius

There is a hybrid car in the subterranean parking garage here that scares me half to death. It is as quiet as a mouse, and when I'm walking through the garage to the elevators, I don't ever hear it coming. It should beep or whine, or something. Too quiet.

Connecting with Customers

One of my favorite customer support tools has been the one that lets me see the other user's display as they see it. Whether it was Timbuktu or Funk Proxy. PC Anywhere, not so much. During the current PC Replacement project we are installing Windows Vista and Office 2007, so we're going to need a tool like this more than ever. Unfortunately there is not a third party system that is certified to work with Vista yet, so it looks like we are going to go with the built in remote assistant. Great. To accept a connection the user has to have admin rights, which we do not grant users. Maybe with Beyond Trust we will be able to have this specific application launch with the correct user rights, but it is still going to be a lot of extra steps that we did not have to do before. sigh. I would hate to have to go back to the way we did it nearly twenty years ago by getting the user to completely describe what is happening on their screen. Very time consuming, even if entertaining. Instructing how to use a new function in Office 2007 is going to be easier when I can see their display. And if the customer is hundreds of miles away, as some of our employees are, it helps us on both sides to get the problem solved immediately.

Facility Alert

Witnessed; as a CC; the following e-mail exchange, after this announcement went out to us multi-rise employees:

Description
Expect Headquarters bulding elevator delays. We have taken three high-rise elevators and one low-rise elevator temporary out of service for repairs.
Action
The elevator contractor has been called to make appropriate repairs.
Impact
Wait period for an elvevator to each floor willl take longer than normal.


Subject: FW: Facility Alert
Whats a Bulding?

Subject: RE: Facility Alert
It's the thing with the elvevator in it.

Subject: RE: Facility Alert
Just wanted to make sure.