Doctor Who Series One North American DVD release delayed…

D'Arque Bishop

http://www.gallifreyone.com/news.php#newsitemEEFyAykluuMxQkTACl

For reasons that have yet to be made clear, the release of the Series One Boxed Set in the US and Canada, originally scheduled for February 14 as announced by both the official Doctor Who website and Doctor Who Magazine, has been postponed. No explanation has been given, but Warner Home Video, the distributors of the discs, had not released any information on their distributors’ site, and inquiries to BBC Video have gone unanswered. The TV Shows on DVD website reports that they were informed by a BBC PR rep that there were “complications” with the set. We hope to have more information about a rescheduled date on this soon.

Well, this explains why Amazon hasn’t started listing it yet. Damnit… nothing to do now but wait.

Apple introduces the first of the Intel Macs…

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

You’ve dreamed about it long enough. Now it has a name: MacBook Pro. Powered by a dual-core Intel engine. Up to four times the speed of the PowerBook G4. Eight times the graphics bandwidth. With built-in iSight for instant video conferencing on the move. And Front Row with Apple Remote to dazzle everyone in the room. Wait no more. MacBook Pro starts at just $1999.

…

This is the first Mac notebook built upon the revolutionary new Intel Core Duo — which is actually two processors (up to 1.83GHz) engineered onto a single chip. It provides 2MB of Smart Cache, L2 cache that can be shared between both cores as needed. It delivers higher performance in 2D and 3D graphics, video editing, and music encoding. And the new engine is only part of the story. MacBook Pro has a frontside bus and memory that, at 667MHz, runs faster than any previous Mac notebook. It’s the first Mac notebook with PCI Express, a Serial ATA hard drive and the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 for superfast graphics performance.

Oh damn… now I want one. :-) I might wait a bit, though, as my current Powerbook G4 is working fine for me. Still… this looks DAMN nice. If I can dual-boot Windows XP and Mac OS X on it, though, then I’ll definitely be sold on this as a work laptop. :-) Now I just gotta show this to Louie… heh.

Way to throw away your career, Marcus.

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

Louie and I were discussing Marcus Vick on Saturday night (where I was referring to him as “Rick Mexico”), so reading this amused me somewhat…

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=97878&ran=93331&tref=po

SUFFOLK –– Marcus Vick, the former Virginia Tech quarterback who was dismissed from the team last week after various troubles on the field and with the law, was arrested and charged Monday with three counts of brandishing a firearm, a misdemeanor.

The 21-year-old turned himself in at the Suffolk magistrate’s office Monday afternoon, where he was later released on a $10,000 bond. Sunday night, shortly after 9 p.m., police were called to the parking lot of the McDonalds at 6201 College Dr.

The mother of a 17-year-old boy reported that Vick “had pointed a weapon at her son and two others during an altercation,” said police spokeswoman Lt. D.J. George.

Larry Woodward, Vick’s lawyer, acknowledged the arrest Monday, but declined further comment until later in the day.

How to tell this is NOT the home for you…

D'Arque Bishop

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_ID_House_Explodes.html

SANDPOINT, Idaho — A family of three and a real estate agent are recovering from burns to the hands and face after a propane leak caused the house they were touring to explode.

The blast occurred Saturday when a real-estate agent was showing the log home near Sandpoint to a couple and their son.

“They went to the house with the agent. She unlocked the door, they went in, they smelled gas, she turned the light on and at that point the house exploded,” said family member Sue Peterson. “It actually blew them off the porch and into the snow.”

…

The victims suffered second- and third-degree burns, said Capt. John Valdez of the Bonner County Sheriff’s department. The burns, mostly to the hands and face, are not considered life-threatening.

The house was not leveled by the explosion and fire, but walls were damaged and all the windows were shattered.

“We’re making our way through the home room by room, trying to determine what happened,” Northside Fire Chief Brad Mitton told the Bonner County Daily Bee.

And hot on the heels of the previous post…

D'Arque Bishop

You all can thank Dementia for this one. :-)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20060106/co_po/pastoraccusedofpropositioningacop

The Rev. Lonnie Latham, an outspoken opponent of homosexuality and a national figure in the Southern Baptist Convention, was arrested Tuesday in Oklahoma City and charged with propositioning a male undercover police officer.

“I was set up,” he protested while leaving jail. “I was in the area pastoring to police.”

Latham was in the parking lot of the Habana Inn, an area not known for police officers but rather for male prostitutes who flag down cars, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker told the Associated Press.

Becker said Latham asked an undercover officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex.

Police arrested the pastor and impounded his 2005 Mercedes. He was charged with a misdemeanor count of offering to engage in an act of lewdness and was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.

Latham could be sentenced to a year in jail. He also faces a $2,500 fine.

Latham will also face a puzzled congregation at South Tulsa Baptist Church, where he is the senior pastor.

Latham, a member of the Southern Baptists’ executive committee, has spoken out against same-sex marriage and has supported a Southern Baptist convention directive aimed at converting gays into heterosexuals. Southern Baptists are urged to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual “if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their ‘sinful, destructive lifestyle.’ ”

…

The Rev. Robyn Murphy, a spokeswoman for Soulforce, an organization devoted to changing the hearts and minds of religious leaders who engage in anti-gay campaigns, was sympathetic to Latham.

“The anti-gay bias has now claimed another victim,” Murphy said. “Now he will be ridiculed for being gay.”

“What he needs some is some sanity and grace, and that’s the message he should have been spreading all along,” she said. “We wish him well, and we wish he didn’t have to be outed in this fashion.”

Stolen from PvP…

D'Arque Bishop

Okay, I normally don’t comment on these subjects too much publicly, as I’m not quite the best debater and whatnot. However, I saw Scott Kurtz of PvP post this (from an email his wife got), and I just had to share it.

10 reasons Gay Marriage is wrong:

1. Being gay is not natural. And as you know Americans have always rejected unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because, as you know, a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed. The sanctity of Britany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

:-)

The end of the week…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, it’s Friday, which obviously means the end of the work week and a couple of days hard-earned rest. Right now I’m sitting at my office desk waiting on a call from our usual cabling people to find out when they’ll be coming out here to look at some work we need quoting. I’m also having some coffee and keeping an eye on a few situations that have developed. Otherwise, life is quiet over here.

One thing I’m looking forward to tonight is the second half of the seasons for Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica. Those are among the few shows I try to catch on a regular basis; it should be interesting to see how the cliffhangers are resolved. Fanboyism aside, at least I’ll be keeping myself occupied tonight. :-)

Another project/release that I had been waiting on came out yesterday, too: Chrono Symphonic, which is an Overclocked Remix site project based on the soundtrack to the SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. I’ll have to admit, I never played Chrono Trigger when it came out on SNES, nor did I pick up the PS1 reissue when I got my PS2. I might give it a try when I get a Nintendo Revolution, though, provided it’s one of the games available via the backwards compatibility service. I downloaded it mainly because I’ve found Squaresoft games to have some of the best soundtracks of any games out there. I’m also doing my little bit to help as well; I left the main PC at home logged in with Azureus running, seeding the BitTorrent download of the project.

In any event, that’s about it for things on this end… time for me to go and refill the coffee mug. Heh…

A midweek post…

D'Arque Bishop

*sneeze* *cough*

Today is not one of my better days. My throat is slightly sore, but more to the point I’ve been sneezing and coughing up phelgm for the past day or two. I would have loved to stayed in bed sick this morning, but unfortunately stuff at work has made it where I desperately need to get tapes switched out at the datacenter this morning. *sigh* At the very least, I suppose I can hide in my office until lunch and pray no one comes and bothers me needing something.

Right now I’m just sitting at my desk taking care of miscellaneous support issues and drinking coffee. I still need to label some tapes and speak to our electrician about the cost of putting in some data cables elsewhere. I’m hoping when I get done at the datacenter this afternoon, I can vanish before the traffic gets too bad and head home. Not sure what I’m doing about dinner, though… might pick up some Chinese or something, seeing as I’m probably going to pick up some coffee and filters for my new coffeemaker on the way home.

On a slightly different note, I’ve been playing Louie’s copy of Namco Museum recently, and have really gotten into the included “update” of Galaga called Galaga Arrangement. It’s much more complex than the original game, and even has a boss fight at the end. In fact, I’d consider Galaga Arrangement to be much closer to Galaga ’88 than the original Galaga. The main advantage is that Galaga Arrangement allows for continues. :-) Next I’ll be trying Dig Dug Arrangement… that should be fun. :-)

Anyway, I need to get working on checking some stuff here… fun fun.

Elmo seems to have developed a death fetish…

D'Arque Bishop

http://www.local6.com/news/5784303/detail.html

A mother in Dallas is one of several parents complaining about a new interactive book for toddlers in which Sesame Street character Elmo asks “who wants to die?” according to a Local 6 News report.

Family members said 16-month-old Miranda Boll’s new book, “Potty Time With Elmo,” was supposed to teach an interactive lesson using voice commands.

However, when the book’s buttons are pressed, it reportedly says something it is not supposed to — “who wants to die?”

“It’s a sick joke,” mother Angela Bolls said. “If it’s a joke then it’s a bad one, you know? And it’s not necessary. It’s inappropriate.”

Bolls said she checked another copy of the same book and found that it says something completely different; “Who wants to try to go potty?”

The company that makes the book said it has had several complaints concerning the book, according to the report.

I must admit, this is kind of a new one… heh.

Er… oops?

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

Okay, kids, this is going to be a rather technical post. If you’re not into such things, go ahead and skip this one. :-)

Anyway… I’m probably jumping the gun on an announcement Sean MC probably wanted to make, but it’s kinda integral to this story. A week and a half ago, he asked me if I could host his and Jinny’s sites on my web server. I said sure, and once I got back from Las Vegas, we worked to get his and Jinny’s sites up and running on my main server. We got it all up and running, with one minor problem: the domain names refused to resolve. I had the entries set up correctly on both my DNS server and the MK Online DNS server (which was going to be the slave server), so I was reasonably confident that the problem was with Sean’s domain name registrar. It turned out that the problem WAS on my end… but in the process it not only revealed something I didn’t know about DNS, it exposed a rather glaring error on my part that had been around for over a year. :-/

Apparently, in order for a DNS server to be set up as an authoritative server for a domain, it needs to be “registered” with the registrar. In other words, the hostname and corresponding IP address need to be entered in. I had told Sean to set up his domains with the servers ns.darquecathedral.org and ns.mortalkombatonline.com as authoritative. I had thought that as long as it was a working domain name, it should work. It didn’t. ns.darquecathedral.org wasn’t registered, so it didn’t work. What was frightening, though, was what was happening with ns.mortalkombatonline.com. According to Sean it was coming back as the IP address for MY DNS server. I did some checking, and came to a rather disturbing revelation.

As near as I can tell, when a hostname is “registered” through a registrar, it actually overrides whatever the DNS server for that domain says. Back when I bought the domain name mortalkombatonline.com, MK Online was actually known by the name MK5.ORG. I had originally registered mortalkombatonline.com for something else, and had registered ns.mortalkombatonline.com to my DNS server’s IP address. A couple of months later, though, I transferred the domain ownership to CCShadow, as we had decided then that it would be in our best interests to switch the site’s name to something a little bit more universal. However, I had completely forgotten that ns.mortalkombatonline.com was registered to my DNS server’s IP address… and even if I HAD remembered I wouldn’t have considered it important. So, for the past year and three quarters, every DNS server except the MK Online ones were resolving ns.mortalkombatonline.com to MY DNS server instead of MK Online’s; seeing as ns.mortalkombatonline.com was set as the main authoritative DNS server, everyone was thinking MY DNS server was authoritative for MK Online instead of MK Online’s server. Only the fact that we had secondary DNS servers configured kept us from learning about this screw-up MUCH sooner.

… on the other hand, this does explain why I kept getting so many “cache query denied” errors in my DNS server’s logs. DNS servers all throughout the net would keep hitting my DNS server thinking it was authoritative, but my DNS server wasn’t configured as such, so it kept denying the queries.

So, what have I done to fix this? First of all, I’ve since set my DNS server up as a slave DNS server for mortalkombatonline.com (it’ll accept queries for it, and get the domain information from the MK Online DNS server) in the meantime. Therefore, my DNS server will answer queries concerning mortalkombatonline.com. (I’ve already seen a remarkable lack of cache query denied errors in the logs since doing so.) When CCShadow comes back from his trip, I’ll have him change the registration of ns.mortalkombatonline.com to the correct server. As for Sean and Jinny… I’ve worked with Sean to get it reconfigured where the registered name for my DNS server and Sinc’s DNS server are authoritative, and three of the four domains are already up and running. The fourth one should be back up and running anytime now.

That’s one thing I’ll say about this experience… I can never say I know everything there is to know about a subject, because right when you least expect it something will jump up and bite you in the ass. :-)