serinde

I MADE IT MYSEEEELF and you ought to recognize it, or what are you doing on my flist? oh fine it's the scene from Real Genius where they're studying for finals, just as the one kid freaks out and runs away screaming

So, contingent on eSIMS being up and stuff next week when I go to register, it looks like I'll be taking Elementary Italian on M & Th, 8:10 - 9:25AM. (This necessitates me making up an hour of work a week, but considering most days I'm in by 8:40 and don't leave til 5:15, I think it works out to a push.)

It was clear that if I schluffed off exercise today (female doom or no female doom), insanity was going to ensue. Yoga won't start again until the semester does, but the gym is open, so thence I went. I intended to use the elliptical like a good sensible creature, but when I got down there the place was packed and every machine taken (of course! the New Years resolutions haven't worn off yet) but there was a treadmill open, so...

I didn't have a set project in mind, I just tried to pay attention to what my body was saying. Result:
- 5 min. walk to warm up
- 3 min. running
- 3 min. walk
- 8 min. running <---- !!!! !!!! !!!
- 3 min. walk
- 4 min. running
- 5 min. cool-down walk

Mind you, I haven't run in some eight months. And I aten't dead, which I expected to be. Certainly yoga is terrific exercise, but I wouldn't have pegged it for the same kind of aerobic stamina help, you know? But also, I wasn't striving and arghing and fighting against myself to do it; the best I can describe how I was feeling during that 8 minute stretch was "light-hearted joy".

OTOH, my increasing sense of body awareness has really brought home how exceedingly differently I move on my left vs. my right side. Some is from the injury, I know--yoga poses on the left side have been harder and less steady since last spring--but I assume that some is before that, and was the cause of the injury. I also couldn't find a correction that seemed to have both sides doing the same thing. (Of course they'll feel different simply because they have way different muscle memory & strength by now; this is not that.) I'm not sure who you consult on a matter like this. Doctor? Phys therapist? Trainer?

Feel good, but want nap now.

I know a bunch of youins have been known to use OKCupid; if you use Windows, please be advised of certain cooties some ads on the site carry.

Herewith a picture of Mr. Mage, from Christmas '04. Note his natty necktie, which he actually seemed to like; not usual for most adornments we attempted to impose on him.

elibalin's envy in 3...2...1...

( Warning: Womb fluid content ahoy, and not the porn-y kind. )
[*] or other nationalities' representatives, don't step on my jokes

No, really. I'm posting from a bus. (I'm also fighting off a little bit of carsickness, which I was afraid might happen as reading a screen is not much different from reading a book.) I have to say, for $17 the BoltBus is a pretty solid win: the seats are comfortable, the wireless is reliable, there's power, the bathroom isn't frightening.... I'm not convinced we'll reach Boston at the stroke of 5:45pm (we're only now going through Hartford) but I don't think we'll be much later than that.

(The "cranky", "you're stupid", and "my job sucks" icons were fighting it out for the honor of placement here. You see who won.)

First, let us define the problem:
A student with a MacBook (10.5.x). He can use the school wireless network just fine on the uptown campus. When he tries from his dorm room downtown, he can connect, but can only get Hunter web sites. No CUNY and no outer Internet whatsoever.

Stage 1 and 2 troubleshooting:
I took a look at his config when he brought the computer to the help desk, just in case there was some other-location insanity, which there was not. Then I had him call me from his room so I could walk him through some stuff. I ascertained the following:
- He had gotten an IP address on our network
- He could ping the wireless gateway and servers on the uptown campus
- He could not get to exterior websites by IP address (hence, not a DNS issue)
- Traceroutes died before getting into CUNYland (we connect to them for our intarwubs, don't ask me why)

So: clearly a routing issue. Something is not letting his traffic route outside the college network. Therefore I package all this information together, with specifics, with date stamps, with all the hops in the traceroute, and open a trouble ticket assigned to what we are pleased to call our network group. Three days later, I learn they don't actually use the trouble ticketing system; the help desk crew has to print out the ticket and hand it to them. FINE. I do that thing. Ensues the following conversation:

Notwork Stooges: It's his computer.
Your humble correspondent: No it's not, it works fine from uptown.
NS: It's nothing to do with us.
YHC: I don't understand why you would say that. He gets an IP address, he can authenticate to the AP.
NS: You have to find out when Hacker-Boy[1] is going downtown and have him take his laptop and test from the student's room and call us for troubleshooting.
YHC: Why? I've already been on the phone personally with this student, gathering this troubleshooting data. What else do you expect Hacker-Boy to find?
NS: Well if it's his computer--
YHC: IT IS NOT HIS COMPUTER, WHICH WORKS FINE FROM HERE.
NS: It's nothing to do with us.
YHC: *turns around and walks out without another word*

Apparently this (rightly) gave them the notion that I was gearing up to complain to their boss, because Stooge #2 followed me out a few minutes later to "sit down and talk about it". After gloriously insulting my intelligence and experience by "explaining" how CUNY sends us notification of IP addresses engaged in botnet activity, and how they nobly protect our network by blocking all those addresses, the following conversation ensued:

NS: ...so the student's computer must be infected with a botnet virus.
YHC: No, it can't be; it's a Mac.[2]
NS: Well then there must be something funny on it, because CUNY detected it and sent us a notice. So he needs to have it checked out first, but that is why it's blocked. When they are blocked they can only get Hunter & CUNY sites.
YHC: So IP addresses we block for this can get to Hunter and CUNY but nowhere else?
NS: Yes
YHC: Well that can't be it, then, 'cause he can only get to Hunter sites.
NS: ...Oh well then, when blocked you can only get to Hunter sites.
YHC: . o O ( YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE BLOCKING?!? )
YHC: OK. Well, could it be that the previous student using that IP address was the botnetted one, and when that DHCP lease expired this student got the address?
NS: That is possible I guess. We will remove the block. But he should still bring in his computer so it can be checked out.
YHC: Sure. Fine. I'll take care of that. kthxbye.

You will note, therefore, that this has magically transformed from "not our problem" to "oh except the part where we have a block against that IP address". You will also note that even if we had sent down Hacker-Boy, it would not have done a goddamn thing, since his laptop would have gotten a different address entirely. You will thirdly note the utter absurdity of trying to block out a particular machine by blocking DHCP-assigned IP addresses. Which leases, according to Network Stooge #1, last a whole! complete! twenty minutes!.

I am so utterly, bitterly fed up with their shit.

[1] Who they then started describing name, appearance, and function to me, apparently oblivious to the fact that I am his manager.

[2] Yes, I do realize the kid might have Windows on a Parallels or VMWare or Boot Camp setup. Bets?

Bud's brakes have suddenly started to make awful grinding noises when I apply them. Having been through the teenage adventure of ignoring loud brake complaints unto the point where the disc cracks and you have to drive home in your land yacht with no brakes at all, I see no need to get extra credit in that particular subject, and will call the brilliant competent glorious mechanics of Jersey City tomorrow.

I can borrow back Womble or probably use nedlnthred's car at need, so I'm not screwed even if they can't take delivery of the patient for some days. But what a damned nuisance.

I am on the world's most dire conference call, which is for all CUNY Help Desk managers (and the woman at the Mothership who fills that role). We are a half-hour in and so far it's been all about the incoming Oracle PeopleSoft bleargh. Not a word about how students couldn't register for six hours on Monday. But I don't care, because I am wearing new clothes and have borrowed nedlnthred's awesome teal shoes. I feel like I can throw down with anything.

OH WE JUST GOT TO THE PORTAL ISSUE. "It's not down! People could still get to Blackboard! It was only LDAP!" (WHICH YOU NEED TO REGISTER WITH.) Oy veh es mir. "We see usage spikes and that is what causes the problem, we don't know what's causing that and are looking into it." Gosh, d'you think that maybe, possibly, they could be coincident with registration sessions?