Month: August 2005

Hard Work…no water in the basement?

Samantha started excavating by the front porch while I was in Minneapolis. We were hoping to find the cause of the basement flooding we get whenever it rains.
We were expecting to dig an 8 foot long by 6 foot deep trench to find the problem.
When I hit the 2.5 foot mark this morning, I hit a really big rock. When I pried it up, this is what I found.

It looks like an animal burrow. It’s not. It’s 85 years of erosion that created a tunnel throgh the foundation and into the weak spot in the basement where the water streams out.
Hole patched with mortar and stones and hydraulic cement to patch the inside.
Fingers crossed.

MSIE: It is hosed

Ok, I will admit to using MSIE for one thing: Outlook Web Access.
I am at a hotel in Minneapolis where

  1. I have to pay $9.95/day for wireless access
  2. They block my VPN access to the Exchange server

So, I fire up MSIE and start getting weird errors. And other things go wrong when new windows get opened.
Looks like I have to re-build my system. I hate that.

Why I Will Not Recommend Gutter Helmet


Follow the entire saga – The Gutter Helmet Category!


Yet Another UPDATE: Another unpleasant encounter with the “technicians” detailed here.


UPDATE (October 19, 2005): New update on my experience here.


UPDATE (October 6, 2005): More on this topic here.



The Canadian Consulate here in Marlborough, MA needed some new gutters. We decided that since the gutters are at least 30 feet off the ground, we would Install some that needed far less maintenance.
The Gutter Helmet system seemed to suit our needs. So we arranged to meet with the sales guy.

After that meeting, I should have gone with my gut feeling. Think high-pressure car salesman, and you will get the picture. We assume he was an aberration, and about a month ago we set the date for the installation.

We were having the Gutter Helmet team install both new gutters and the helmet system. Second mistake. According to what Samantha described, this team was definitely on the F-List (found out today that this installation team is “no longer with the company”). And they were far from professional in the way that they removed the old gutters and installed the new ones. I am still finding sharp metal pieces, screw, and old gutter hangers around the yard, including 7 or 8 gutter hangers conveniently disposed of in what is very obviously our leaf compost.

As well, we discovered that not all of the straps were installed correctly, the downspouts were not attached to the higher gutter sections. We called, and out came the inspector. This gentleman told Samantha that they have had issues with this installation team…and set up a ticket for them to come and repair their mistakes.

Next problem is that we have an in-ground drainage system to carry water away from the downspouts on the north side of the house and out to somewhere where it will not fill the swimming pool in the basement. It took a third trip for the installation team to put the downspouts into the special end caps we purchase to prevent other crap from getting in the system.

And then, yesterday, during a thunderstorm cloudburst, we notice that there is water dripping down between the gutter and the house. This is definitely sub-optimal. Another call in to the customer service centre, where Samantha is curtly told by the woman on the other end of the line (who, I learned in a later call, is actually the call centre manager!) that some house require flashing and that they don’t install it in order to try and reduce the cost of the project.

This cost us over $3,000. Flashing is $2/foot. Put the flashing on; damn the cost.
Oh, and since I mention the cost, did I mention that we received no rebate or credit for this. Likely Gutter Helmet’s response would be that they repaired their work at no charge to us. My response is that I know a lot of houses in my neighbourhood that need gutters

I know a great roofing company, a great electrician, an amazing mason, and a lousy gutter company.

These companies always give a rebate if you advertise their service with a lawn sign. Maybe I should put an anti-endorsement sign on my lawn. No slander…just clearly stating that I would share my experience with Gutter Helmet with anyone who is considering their service.

GrabIP: This week’s IP Registrar Stats

Here are the IP Block and Address allocation by registrar, as well as the number of officially allocated IP Addresses in each country (with 65536 Hosts or more) as of August 17, 2005 00:30 UTC.

This data has been extracted from the GrabIP database


IP REGISTRAR BREAKDOWN

registry   NUM_HOSTS  NUM_BLOCK
--------  ----------  ---------
arin      1481414400      36355
ripencc    361039644      18864
apnic      285163264      11402
lacnic      38433536       1534
afrinic     10534912        473

NUMBER OF ALLOCATED IP ADDRESSES BY COUNTRY (65536 Hosts or more)**

COUNTRY                                     COUNTRY_CODE   NUM_HOSTS  NUM_BLOCKS
------------------------------------------  ------------  ----------  ----------
UNITED STATES                               US            1313949696       31216
JAPAN                                       JP             140817920        1502
EUROPEAN UNION                              EU             113810588        4595
CHINA                                       CN              69473536         871
CANADA                                      CA              65890048        4921
GERMANY                                     DE              50366576        1651
FRANCE                                      FR              41834624        1188
UNITED KINGDOM                              UK              39048024        1630
KOREA, REPUBLIC OF                          KR              37513472         350
UNITED KINGDOM                              GB              33562368          25
AUSTRALIA                                   AU              26410240        4743
NETHERLANDS                                 NL              16426144         995
SPAIN                                       ES              16301856         417
ITALY                                       IT              16213856         728
TAIWAN, PROVINCE OF CHINA                   TW              15157248         322
BRAZIL                                      BR              15075072         261
SWEDEN                                      SE              12033664         526
MEXICO                                      MX              11030528         154
RUSSIAN FEDERATION                          RU              10389536        1150
SOUTH AFRICA                                ZA               8184064         251
POLAND                                      PL               7318686         704
FINLAND                                     FI               7100800         260
SWITZERLAND                                 CH               6875584         754
DENMARK                                     DK               6839072         274
HONG KONG                                   HK               6124800         534
INDIA                                       IN               5891072         352
AUSTRIA                                     AT               5667232         383
NORWAY                                      NO               5054240         242
BELGIUM                                     BE               4309760         290
NEW ZEALAND                                 NZ               4274944        1126
TURKEY                                      TR               3664064         167
CHILE                                       CL               3002112         314
ARGENTINA                                   AR               2923520         237
IRELAND                                     IE               2903200         114
THAILAND                                    TH               2853376         295
CZECH REPUBLIC                              CZ               2804480         186
ROMANIA                                     RO               2764160         274
ISRAEL                                      IL               2726272         118
SINGAPORE                                   SG               2677760         304
PORTUGAL                                    PT               2604864          96
MALAYSIA                                    MY               2569472         191
HUNGARY                                     HU               2220288         131
GREECE                                      GR               1766400         161
VENEZUELA                                   VE               1753088          79
UKRAINE                                     UA               1354458         618
BULGARIA                                    BG               1352192         191
EGYPT                                       EG               1280768          55
INDONESIA                                   ID               1267200         224
COSTA RICA                                  CR               1254144          12
PHILIPPINES                                 PH               1136384         186
SLOVAKIA                                    SK                975872          88
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES                        AE                964608          14
SAUDI ARABIA                                SA                902400          79
COLOMBIA                                    CO                864768         102
LATVIA                                      LV                798528         101
LITHUANIA                                   LT                788352          66
IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF                   IR                778752          52
SLOVENIA                                    SI                667392         100
PERU                                        PE                646656          58
ESTONIA                                     EE                645376          44
VIET NAM                                    VN                625664          38
ICELAND                                     IS                507904          28
PANAMA                                      PA                467712          30
YUGOSLAVIA                                  YU                347392          35
PAKISTAN                                    PK                345600          77
CROATIA                                     HR                338240          32
LUXEMBOURG                                  LU                307968          50
KUWAIT                                      KW                297728          24
CYPRUS                                      CY                274720          58
BOLIVIA                                     BO                263424          20
KAZAKHSTAN                                  KZ                242688          27
ECUADOR                                     EC                242432         125
MALTA                                       MT                240384          31
MOROCCO                                     MA                233728           9
PUERTO RICO                                 PR                218880          29
URUGUAY                                     UY                206592          25
JORDAN                                      JO                191744          29
BANGLADESH                                  BD                178688          52
QATAR                                       QA                176128           6
PALESTINIAN TERRITORY, OCCUPIED             PS                173824          17
BRUNEI DARUSSALAM                           BN                172544          11
SRI LANKA                                   LK                167936          30
OMAN                                        OM                163840           5
NIGERIA                                     NG                159744          24
EL SALVADOR                                 SV                156416          12
GUATEMALA                                   GT                145152          19
MACEDONIA, THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF  MK                143360          11
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC                          DO                128768          21
MACAO                                       MO                127232          15
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA                      BA                124928          23
BELARUS                                     BY                119552          16
GEORGIA                                     GE                118784          18
LEBANON                                     LB                112640          16
KENYA                                       KE                108800          23
TUNISIA                                     TN                106752           4
CUBA                                        CU                 95232          12
AZERBAIJAN                                  AZ                 92160          11
ALGERIA                                     DZ                 90880          16
FIJI                                        FJ                 88832          10
ARMENIA                                     AM                 86016          10
NICARAGUA                                   NI                 81152           9
UZBEKISTAN                                  UZ                 77824           9
GHANA                                       GH                 74496          13
BERMUDA                                     BM                 66048          18
KYRGYZSTAN                                  KG                 65536           9

I will try and post these weekly.

**Please note that the total number of IP Addresses for the United Kingdom is the sum of totals for the two unique country codes used when registering IP Blocks — UK and GB.

A little close to home…

In Lisa Haneberg’s article, I fall into the first category.

Lisa, this is not weird, but it is becoming increasingly common as the knowledge worker generation collides with the industrial management culture we still hold.

I want to do more. See more clients. Solve more problems.

When I am bored, my productivity decreases exponentially. When I am challenged and pushed, my productivity increases exponentially.

We want challenges, not obstacles.

That said, my resume is drifting around like a message in a bottle.

blunderphone delayed

Seems there was a “glitch” with the blunderphone order with TMobile.
Because I asked for, and got, a discount for being a customer for one year, the order had to be approved by a supervisor. Guess the request was stuck between the order desk and the supervisor, where it languished for 3 days.
Glad I called to check on the status.

GrabPERF: Reduced Raw Data Storage Time

In the GrabPERF system, all of the detail charts are built off of the raw data table. Now, for some insane reason, I was storing 50 days of raw data. The furthest back that any of the configured raw data graphs goes is 7 days.
I reset the data purge script to drop data older than 10 days. This should speed up queries and graph displays.
If certain users would like to keep data for longer, I could modify the drop procedure for custom data storage lengths. Just let me know if you require raw data from longer periods and I will begin development on this.


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