Our reverse lookups failed suddenly two weeks ago and a dig showed that they were stopping because no one had SOA. So I called my provider who opened a trouble ticket and then told me that the problem was with a swip that didn't go through and it would be fixed later that day.

A week later it was still broken and I began a series of emails with the network engineer for this outfit who insisted, over and over, that it was our DNS that was broken. While I tried to convince him that it was their fault because we could not get SOA (Start of Authority) for the block and they had to point their DNS to ours and secondary it.. Finally after a couple days of this nonsense I called ARIN which told me that it was the uplink provider's fault and, just as I suspected, they needed to secondary my DNS onto their DNS.

To get this more formally I sent an email to ARIN (with a copy to my uplink morons) asking them to clarify what to do and who should do it. Two hours later I got an email from a network engineer upstream of the uplink provider (but still controlled by them) saying "I don't see a problem". Because they had implemented a secondary DNS off mine and it finally worked.

Every time I contact these guys with a problem I have to teach someone their job. And it takes time. Maybe I should send them a bill for that time. Sigh. Apparently it's not possible to hire competent people and equally impossible to get rid of them when they show they are incompetent.

Ok, I know bragging about fans is lame. So sue me.

Of the three fans, two of them give every appearance of being female. This, for some reason, is somewhat troubling. It must be my age which, frankly, means I'm not much of a threat to any young women. Therefore I'm safe to flirt with and be fans of.

To top it off, LadyGuardian's writings make me think of my daughter (who also has two huskies but was an education major).

My daughter married a chem. engr. last summer after swearing never to consider pairing up with anyone remotely like me. He is exactly like me. LOL Oh god, revenge is soooo sweet. When he's here we spend hours talking geek talk and annoying her with references to calculus, physics, etc. He does a lot of processes and that ties in well with computers and electronics so we are exploring new ways of blending the two without MS intervening.

Christmas here is over and it was pretty nice. The tree went up at Thanksgiving (it's fake so there's no fire hazard). I don't much like decorating trees but I sure like to have them up. And all the other nice stuff: the Christmas mugs, the little village with the lights and the train going around it, the music boxes, the lights on the house at night when I get close (we can see houses here a LONG ways away).

Daughter and her hubby were here and he and I celebrated by touring the local sewage treatment plant at the request of the public works director. He had a few problems and between us all we figured out a few cheap work-arounds. That was fun.

No days off of course, except for Christmas Day I've worked every day for two weeks on at least something. Those of you who ponder starting up your own consulting shop should think hard and long. If you don't actually like what you do and would do it even if no one paid you, then find a job.

That's it for now. Thanks to my three fans. I'd add you but I haven't figured out how it works. LOL

How appropriate that just a couple days before Thanksgiving I notice that I have *TWO* fans listed. Finally the number of fans has outgrown the number of freaks. I was getting worried there. Too bad the second fan isn't also a girl; as a lifelong nerd I always feel proud when a member of the opposite gender takes any interest in me. Unfortunately my female fan hasn't posted since July of 2002, thereby proving that any interest in me by the opposite gender is short-lived. I'd try being gay but, frankly, haven't a clue how to begin. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that if I were gay, no cool gay guys would show any interest in me either. Anyway, thanks to the new fan. :)

Sitting here before work checking /. and listening to NPR I noodled into my info section (always disappointing since Karma points disappeared) and noticed some areas I had never looked at before. Friends, fans, foes, freaks... etc. It turns out I have a fan. Golly! :) I wonder if she would like to buy some cats. :P