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Wednesday, September 26, 2001
The Fairfax County web site is nearly back up. At least we can work on the intranet and on local servers. Interestingly enough, Netscape was removed from systems as a security risk. Here's an article about the shutdown in one of the local papers. (0) comments
Cool, clear Fall days; yes, it is Fall, the first day of the season having passed unnoticed on Saturday, the day we heard further attacks were possible and it felt like a patriotic act attending a festival, surrounded by police. (0) comments Monday, September 24, 2001
The Gartner Group suggests switching from IIS due to all of the security problem. Trouble is, most organizations are now so dependant on MS applications that it will be very difficult to switch. The Fairfax County public web site is still down due to NIMDA. There's lots of filing and rearranging of supply cabinets going on. (0) comments Sunday, September 23, 2001
The Fairfax County web site is still down. I hope the County has learned a lesson about the need for computer security (and the necessity of upgrading IIS servers) when many services on which citizens rely are based on the site. As a web developer for one of the sections, I'm basically out of work for now. (0) comments
Everything we do these days is tempered by the fact that over 6,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. There is an air of guilt and sadness all around. It's difficult trying to function in a semi-normal way knowing the fates of those victims. Our community held a multi-cultural festival this weekend. The organizers were urged by some not to hold it, but it was one of the best things that we could have done during this time, to celebrate our diversity and to get to know each other a little better. One of the co-organizers was on Flight 77 from Dulles. (0) comments Friday, September 21, 2001
The Fairfax County web site is down, as are most Internet and email services, due to the nimda virus. Why didn't I back up my files locally? Did I really think that backups on three different IIS servers was sufficient? (0) comments Thursday, September 20, 2001
Discovered another cross country journal from a couple doing the Southern Tier route, the same one I did two years ago and documented in my bare-bones journal. They will be leaving on the 28th of this month. I've thought about going back and cleaning up my journal, and making it easier to use, but haven't gotten around to it. My most popular page is the Banff tour journal, and it needs work but there are other, more important tasks still undone. (0) comments
Maybe now that our servers at work have been invaded by the nimda worm our SAs will upgrade their IIS machines. I've never been very comfortable with their complete reliance there on MS products. Maybe they'll get wise and get up to speed on linux. (0) comments
After a brief search, found this report (in pdf) on Russia's war in Afghanistan. It's a military report, and wonder, with the Courier font, if it is intended to look like an old-fashioned hand-typed report. (0) comments
Levi Leipheimer had another good day in today's mountain time trail, retaining his 4th place lead in La Vuelta Espana. (0) comments Monday, September 17, 2001
Rode west about 40 miles on the W&OD trail yesterday and it was probably the busiest I've ever seen it. It was a beautiful, cool day, and I think a lot of people just wanted to get outside in the fresh air and take a break from all of the depressing news. On Saturday I rode just over 40 miles round trip in the other direction, toward DC. I haven't been there since the Pentagon attack, so I rode by the building to see the damage for myself. Felt like maybe I shouldn't have gone to gawk at the scene, but then thought that it would be odd not to be curious about it. Now I hear that it will take up to 2 years to rebuild. Rode about 45 miles round trip to attend a trails conference near DC today, one of the few people who cycled. The conference was accessible to the Mt. Vernon trail, so my route was 99% on asphalt trail. I really am lucky to have so many good trails nearby. (0) comments Saturday, September 15, 2001
We had a very moving candlelight service here in Reston. Many of the faith-based leaders were there, and there were some very moving comments from leaders of the Muslim community. There was such a diverse crowd; it's times like that when I appreciate living in Reston. The tone of the evening was very much one of a desire for justice, but not for an excessive show of force for the sake of revenge. (0) comments
Where did Levi Leipheimer come from? I haven't heard much about him until this year's Vuelta a Espana, and he's the highest places US Postal Service rider, in 6th overall, nearly a minute ahead of his teammate and last year's winner, Roberto Heras. In today's stage, while Heras faded, after a brief break attempt, Levi kept right on climbing, eventually passing Laiseka, the excellent Basque climber, to finish 4th. (0) comments
Today's NY Times has a good article entitled The Coalition: U.S. Demands Arab Countries 'Choose Sides'. Rep. Barbara J. Lee, Democrat of California, was the lone opposition vote in the House to give President Bush the power to use "all necessary and appropriate force" to respond to the terror attacks on the United States this week. She said the nation risked entering an open-ended war without a clear target. She said in a statement, "I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States." I agree with the Egyptian ambassador who stated that the administration must focus on finding and punishing those responsible for this week's attacks, and not broaden the effort to include other geopolitical goals. (0) comments Friday, September 14, 2001
Amidst the turmoil, I barely noticed the Washington Post article on bike facilities in which I was quoted. It's a good article on a new study to implement better bike facilities, but it's going to take much more than a study to get the job done because there is so much to do with very little money and political will. (0) comments
There were many people in our community directly affected by the terrorist attacks in NY and the Pentagon. Several candlelight ceremonies are planned, and our local BBS is one of the best ways of getting the word out. Now is the time for us all to be pulling together and supporting each other. (0) comments Thursday, September 13, 2001
From this Salon article, it appears that the administration could have done more to try to prevent the terrorist attacks. It's easy to second guess at this point, but the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century made it clear that this kind of attack was likely, and the administration basically ignored the report. Here is the executive summary of the report. (0) comments Wednesday, September 12, 2001
Thank God one of my close friends, a pilot with American, doesn't appear to have been on either of the American Airlines flights. The list of people on those flights is in a Fox News article titled Terrorist Attack Victims. NPR is saying that lines for donating blood are long here in the DC area and people are being asked to make appointments. I think we will wait until later, when the blood supplies may dwindle but perhaps not as many people will be donating. At work, trying to figure out what events should be cancelled, especially the press conference that will obviously not be appropriate now. (0) comments Tuesday, September 11, 2001
The skies are eerily quite here in Northern Virginia, except for the occasional air force helicopter overhead. It was a sobering experience to see a policeman in front of our county office building with an automatic weapon, interrogating everyone entering the building. (0) comments Monday, September 10, 2001
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Cycled to a meeting of the Virginia DOT Bikeway work group, and the site, VDOT's N. VA headquarters, is nearly inaccessible to cyclists, much less pedestrians. I was the only one who cycled to the meeting, and there were no bike racks. Need I say more? (0) comments Saturday, September 08, 2001
The Vuelta a Espana is on OLN, just as the US Open comes to an end. Whew... Unfortunately Lance won't be competing, but the USPS team just signed Chann McRae from Mercury. (0) comments Friday, September 07, 2001
Cycled to a meeting at the County building yesterday, about an 18 mile round trip. It was a beautiful, cool, clear day, such an anomaly for this time of year. A lot of people work at the county building, probably a couple of thousand, and I saw ONE other bicycle besides mine. I don't understand why more people haven't discovered the benefits of cycling to work. It's going to be a challenge to try to hold a successful Bike to Work day there next year. About once a day I feel like writing to Ralph Nader to thank him for screwing up the country. (0) comments Tuesday, September 04, 2001
Gradually replacing my vinyl collection with CDs. Discovered an excellent used CD store/book store nearby where I picked up Weld, a two CD collection of live Neil Young and Crazy Horse work, and The Cream of Clapton. Neil Young is probably one of the only artists of the 60's whose work retains the spirit of that time. (0) comments
The Sept. 13, 2001 Rolling Stone magazine contains some good articles: Ralph Nader is not sorry; Nirvana's Nevermind Ten Years After; National Affairs on alternative energy; and a review of Bjork's latest. I usually read RS in the library, but broke down and bought this issue. The Nader article is revealing in that I can now see why he is not sorry. According to him, having Dubya in the White House is "a boon to the country. He says that a right-wing reactionary govenment is the best way to fire up progressives, who've grown appathetic, fatalistic and indifferent." I agree with the comments by Chris Lehane: "You do have to wonder when the guy sees the possible exploration, if not exploitation of ANWR; when he sees allowing more lead into drinking water; when he sees a prescription-drug benefit not passing that would really have an impact; when he sees less money going to inner cities. This is not some academic discussion. This is real life, and the person who occupies the Oval Office has an immense impact on a lot of people's lives who do not have a voice. It's as inexplicable as it is indefensible." (0) comments |