I'm looking for a simple piece of software to do some ICMP SLA monitoring; give it a list of devices, and it will ping, record availability, packet loss, delay variance/jitter, RTT, and so on. Values should be stored, not summarized.

Scheduled downtime should be definable, including after the fact; power outtages, for example, can't be recorded until they're over.

Reporting and SLA rules would be nice, but as long as the data can be gotten to one way or the other...

Anybody have a favourite tool they can recommend?

A while back, quite a while as I recall, I saw a commercial online for a Wii game, and I cannot remember what the title was. I'm hoping somebody here can help me.

The commercial involved a woman playing Wii; I seem to recall she was in a tank top or sports bra or something similar, exercise style gear, with a pony tail.

The game itself seemed to involve a traditional Japanese woman doing some exploring. Specific things I remember are the character using a torch (mapped to the Wiimote movements), brushing aside cobwebs, possibly waving away a flock of bats, and slitting a throat from behind.

Is there such a thing as policy routing across a dynamic routed network, in this case OSPF? The more research I do, the more I'm thinking 'no.' Or, at least, 'No, you can policy route at your network's gateway.'

Say you have a mesh of routers, each router talks to one or more other routers. So, any given router is going to have multiple paths to router X, which is the gateway to another network. Great. So any router can probably talk to router X, and if a given link goes down, OSPF will find a way around it.

Now, lets say you have router Y, which is a gateway to a different network. Based on the IP address (each router is set up to listen to multiple subnets) you may want the packets to go out router X, you may want them to go out router Y.

As near as I can tell, the only way to do this would be to plug router Y into router X, and do policy routing on router X.

Or, possibly, use BGP.

Any hints or advice?

Seem to have found a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne, 1970, while cleaning out an attic. This worth anything to anybody? I assume it's no longer drinkable, but the bottle and label are in good enough shape, and it's unopened.

I found one Ebay auction from a few years back for a 1970 Dom, seems to have gone for about $450 CDN. But there may very well be better places than Ebay to inquire about such things. Anybody know anything about such things?

The time has come to face facts. I'm never going to play these games again. I won't even want to, until, of course, I get rid of them.

So, here's a huge whack of games, most of them first run, most of them with original manuals. Some of them should go easily (Planescape: Torment, Full Throttle, Interplay Ultimate RPG Archive, for Wasteland if nothing else) and some probably won't (Heretic 2, Dark Reign.)

These are all going on Ebay over the next few months, but I figured I'd see if anybody here wants dibs first. If you'd like further information, or dibs on a game, email me per my profile. Things will be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.

These games are as is, but they should all work fine. Note that some are DOS; make sure you can actually run them somehow. DosBox is probably your friend here. Note that one is a C64 game and one is a Mac game (bought off Ebay for the adventurer's journals, actually.)

There are a few that I'm holding back, such as Wing Commander 3, 4 and 5, the Fallout series, the X-Com series, Quest for Glory series, the later Impressions Games citybuilders,the Forgotten Realms Archives (all the original Gold Box stuff, mainly. Pools of Radiance for the win!) but might just change my mind.

Oh, and if anybody wants a Sidewinder Force Feedback joystick (not USB) or a Saitek X-36 flight stick and throttle (again, not USB) let me know.

Name - notes (manuals, charts/posters, stuff like that)
Afterlife --
Aliens vs Predator -- manual in CD case
Baldur's Gate -- ref card, manual
Battle Chess Collection --
Bioforge --
Black and White -- manual
Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday -- box, manual, adventurer's log, poster, various cards
Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed -- box, manual, adventurer's log, poster, various cards
Caesar 3 -- manual, ref card
Civilization 2 -- Manual
Civilization 3 -- Manual
Civilization: Call To Power -- Manual, tech tree poster
Conquest: Frontier Wars --
Curse of Monkey Island -- manual
Dark Reign -- manual, ref card
Descent: Freespace - The Great War -- Flight Manual, reference card
Deus Ex --
Diablo 2 -- Manual, soundtrack CD, cinematics DVD, some random cards from the D&D version
Diablo, Hellfire expansion -- Diablo manual, Hellfire manual
Die By The Sword -- manual
Discworld -- manual
Dragonlance: Champions of Krynn (c64) -- box, manual, adventurer's log, poster, various cards
Dragonlance: Dark Queen of Krynn (macintosh) -- box, manual, adventurer's log, poster, various cards
Dragonlance: Death Knights of Krynn -- box, manual, adventurer's log, poster, various cards
Drakan: Order of the Flame -- manual, ref card
Dungeon Keeper -- manual, ref card, 'The Dreadful Demise of Derek the Dauntless' book
Dungeon Keeper 2 -- manual, ref card, addendum page
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind -- manual, official strategy guide
Empire Earth -- manual, ref card
Escape from Monkey Island --
Fallout: Tactics -- ref card
Freedom Force -- Manual, install guide
Freelancer -- manual
Full Throttle --
Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned -- Manual, Prologue comic
Galactic Civilizations 2 -- manual
Grand Theft Auto 3/Grand Theft Auto 2 -- GTA3 manual, GTA3 map poster, GTA2 manual, GTA2 map poster 1, GTA2 map poster 2
Grim Fandango --
Half-life -- manual
Heavy Gear -- Manual, ref card
Heavy Gear 2 -- manual, ref card
Heretic 2 -- manual
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 -- manual
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin -- manual
Homeworld -- manual, reference card
Imperium Galactica 2 -- Manual
Independence War -- manual, keyboard chart
Interplay Ultimate RPG Archive -- manual
Interstate '76 -- manual, ref card
Jane's 688(I) Hunter/Killer -- Manual, Ref Card
Jane's F15 --
Jane's Fleet Command -- manual
Jane's Longbow 2 -- Manual, ref card, install guide
Kings Quest: Mask of Eternity -- manual, quick start card
Majesty and Northern Expansion add-on -- manual, northern expansion manual
Master of Orion --
Mech Commander -- manual, ref card
MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries -- Manual
MechWarrior 3 -- manual, ref card, technical primer
Messiah -- manual
Myth 2: Soulblighter --
Myth: The Fallen Lords -- manual, ref card
ONI --
Planescape: Torment -- manual
Political Machine -- manual
Populous 3: The Beginning -- manual, ref card, install guide
Privateer 2 -- manual, install guide, ref card
Quake --
Quake 2 -- Quake 2 Manual
Railroad Tycoon 2 and Railroad Tycoon 2 Platinum -- RRT2 manual, RRT2 ref card
Republic: The Revolution -- Manual
Rollercoaster Tycoon, Loopy Landscapes, Corkscrew Follies -- RCT Manual
Sam and Max Hit The Road --
Sanity: Aiken's Artifact -- manual, ref poster
Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator --
Shogun: Total War -- manual, ref card
SimCity 3000 -- manual
Sims, Living Large, Hot Date, House Party -- sims manual and ref card, house party manual, hot date manual
Soldier of Fortune -- manual
Star Trek Armada -- manual
Star Trek: Birth of the Federation -- manual, official strategy guide
Star Wars: Dark Forces -- manual
Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 -- manual
Star Wars: Rebellion -- Manual, poster/ref chart
StarCraft and Brood War -- StarCraft manual, SC ref card, BW manual, BW ref card
Starfleet Academy -- manual, ref card
StarFleet Command -- manual, ref card, statistics poster
StarSiege -- manual, StarSiege Compendium, ref card
Syndicate Wars -- manual, ref card, install guide
Terra Nova: Strike Force Cenauri -- manual
Three Worlds of AD&D: Dark Sun Shattered Lands, Ravenloft Strahd's Possession, Al-Qadim The Genie's Curse --
Tribes/Tribes 2 -- Tribes 2 Manual, Tribes 2 Quick Ref Card
Tropico -- manual, bonus CD
Ultima IX: Ascension -- fixed install disc,tarot cards, install guide, manual, cloth map
Unreal -- Manual
Unreal Tournament -- Manual
Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption -- Manual, The Book of Nod (softcover)
Warlords: Battlecry 2 -- manual
Wing Commander Armada -- manual
Yoot Tower -- manual

So the wife and I want to install a cieling fan.

The fan we have has the following wires: blue (light), black (fan,) white and ground.

The light fixture we're replacing has black, white, ground.

The black and white are controlled by three-way switches, there being three switches that will turn the light on or off.

We also have a fan control switch, which has black in, black out, and ground.

The light part, no problem. Blue to black, white to white, ground to ground, and the switch controls the light.

The original idea for the switch was some 14/2 cable wired as: ceiling black to 14/2 white (recoded for hot) to the black in on the switch, and black out on the switch to 14/2 black to ceiling fan black.

We then realized that thanks to the three way wiring, this would, of course, kill power to the fan whenever the light was turned off.

So, my current thinking is to jump a constant hot black from the light switch beside the ceiling fan switch to the black in on the ceiling fan, and black out on the ceiling fan switch to 14/2 black, to ceiling fan black. The 14/2 white would be capped with a marette and electrical tape on both ends.

My understanding, therefore, is that all of the three-way switches would properly control the light, that constant power would go to the fan switch, which then steps the current from off (0) to full (4) through to the ceiling fan, and out the common white.

Am I right thinking on this?

The time has come to dip my proverbial toe in the job pool and see what the water is like.

If anybody happens to be looking for a sysadmin in the Southern Ontario area, drop me a line at slebrun@gmail.com and we'll see if we're what each other is looking for.

Trailer three for the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie is up on apple.com, if you haven't seen it yet. It gives me great hope that the movie will be good.

The trailer consists of The Book dictating an entry about what a movie trailer is, in Guide style.

Large.

On the off chance that anybody doesn't already have that Gmail account that they've always wanted, it appears I have 50 invites available.

So, if you want one, sound off.

Speaking as a Canadian, I'm curious. According to the polls, Americans are pretty much evenly split between Kerry and Bush.

As a Canadian, with easy access to American television, let alone Internet access to all sorts of goodies, I've formed my own opinions about the Presidential race.

My questions for other non-Americans are: Bush or Kerry? Why?

Edit: Oh,and I also find it interesting that when asked about importing American drugs from Canada, Bush tried to compare them to third world products, in the second debate, but when asked last night about flu vaccine, he said they were getting some from Canada.

BTW, my prediction for the winner is Kerry; he's taller, and has better hair, than Bush. This fufills both of Scott Adam's requirements for winning the presidency.

But, what the hell.

Female: Woman..blah blah...mysterious creatures...blah blah...more sensitive and caring...blah blah...sacred Feminine..blah blah..women's intuition..blah blah...understand what it's like to create life, so less warlike than men...blah blah.

Male: Yeah, due to apparent differences in brain structure and hormones, it would seem that men and women think differently.

Female: SEXIST PIG! How typically male.

Male: But isn't that a stereotypical...

The wife and I have decided to get a microscope for our daughter, for her birthday. I can't seem, however, to find a decent resource telling me what to look for in a microscope.

From what I've found, the high end for home hobby use seems to be 900x magnification; I'll be damned, however, if Google can tell me what that means in objective terms. Of course, having said that, somebody will post the magic Google words to find just that.

When you get right down to it, though, what I want to know is: with 900x magnification, can you see neat things like blood cells?

Anybody have any suggestions?

Cuz I got some invites.

The time has come to start selling off the massive old RPG collection. Lots of this stuff isn't going to be used by me any time soon, and, well, I've moved on to obsessively collecting, well, different things.

This is all going to wind up on Ebay eventually, but I'll give anybody here who wants it first crack. See anything you like, any questions, post or email me.

Bear in mind that I'm in Canada, so you'll only be paying actual shipping costs, they might be hefty. Some of these books be heavy. Standard disclaimers about border/customs hangups also apply.

Conditions of the books ranges from 'read once and stuck on a shelf' to 'heavily used; the pages are all there, and in order, but the book looks used.'

It's a terribly formatted list, but it gets the point across. I've included the book numbers where available.

dtf Demon: The Fallen core WW8200

t8 Tribe 8 Core DP9-801
t8 Horrors of the Z'bri DP9-806

sf Palladium: Systems Failure
l5r Legend of the Five Rings 3001
st Star Trek: RPG (Last Unicorn Press) 45000
stng Star Trek: TNG RPG (Last Unicorn Press)

vtm Vampire: The Masquerade core book 2nd ed ww2002
vtm Vampire: The Masquerade core book 3rd ed ww2300
vtm The Inquisition ww2020
vtm Kindred of the East ww2900
vtm Guide to the Camarilla ww2302
vtm Guide to the Sabbat ww2303
vtm Sins of the Blood ww2421
vtm The Guilded Cage ww2420
vtm Vampire Player's Guide 2nd ed ww2206
vtm Succubus Club ww2104
vtm Players Guide to the Sabbat ww2055
vtm Storyteller's Guide to the Sabbat ww2255
vtm Ghouls: Fatal Attraction ww2021
vtm Elysium ww2233
vtm Clanbook: Brujah ww?
vtm Clanbook: Assamite ww2059
vtm Clanbook: Setites ww2060
vtm Clanbook: toreador ww2056
vtm Clanbook: Tremere ww2057
vtm Clanbook: Malkavian ww2053
vtm Clanbook: Tzimisce ww2601
vtm Vampire: The Dark Ages ww2800
ww Werewolf: The Apocolypse core book 2nd ed ww3600
ww Werewolf: The Apocolypse core book 3rd ed ww3801
ww Players Guide 3rd ed ww3202
ww Player's Guide 2nd ed ww3108
ww Guardians of the Caerns ww3212
ww Rage Across the Heavens ww3110
ww Shadow Lords Tribebook ww3508
ww Black Furies Tribebook ww3051
ww Silient Striders Tribebook ww3059
ww Silver Fangs Tribebook ww3060
ww Glasswalkers Tribebook ww3056
ww Freak Legion: Player's Guide to Fomori ww3066
ww Book of the Wyrm: 2nd Ed ww3109
mage Mage: The Ascention core book 2nd ed ww4300
mage Mage: The Ascention core book 3rd ed ww4600
mage Progenitors 4201
mage Digital Web 4004
mage Book of Shadows: Player's Guide 4050
mage Technocracy: Iteration X 4202
mage Book of Madness 4251
mage void engineers 4204
mage Book of Mirrors: Storyteller's Guide ww4302
mage syndicate 4206
mage New World Order 4203
mage Bitter Road ww4004
mage Digital Web 2.0 4016
mage Guide to the Technocracy ww4014
mage Celestial Chorus Tradition Book ww4008
mage Akashic Brotherhood Tradition Book ww4410
mage Sons of Ether Tradition Book ww4058
mage Virtual Adapts Tradition book ww4000
mage Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade ww4800
mage Masters of the Art ww4017
ctd Changeling: The Dreaming core1st ed ww7000
ctd Player's Guide ww7100
wto Wraith: The Oblivion core book 1st ed ww6000
wto Wraith: The Oblivion core book 2nd ed ww6600
wto player's guide ww6007
wto Wraith: The Great War ww6800
Htr Hunter core 1st ed ww8100
mtr Mummy: The Ressurection ww2380

exalted Exalted Core ww8800

sr Shadowrun core book 3rd ed 7001
sr Shadowrun core book 2nd ed 7901
sr Lone Star 7115
sr Corporate Download 7125
sr Corporate Security Handbook 7118
sr Fields of Fire 7114
sr Bug City 7117
sr Grimoire 2nd ed 7903
sr Beyond the Shadows 7905
sr Sprawl Sites 7103
sr Street Samurai Catalog 7104
sr Shadowtech 7110
sr Shadowbeat 7109
sr Prime Runners 7116
sr Cybertechnology 7119
sr Corporate Shadowfiles 7113
sr Awakenings 7120
sr Udnerworld Sourcebook 7123
sr Man and Machine: Cyberware 7126
sr Seattle Sourcebook 7201
sr The Neo-Anarchists Guide to Real Life 7208
sr London Sourcebook 7203
sr DNA/DOA 7301
sr Dreamchipper 7303
sr Harlequin 7306
sr Dragon Hunt 7307
sr Imago 7309
sr Harlequin's Back 7320

cp Cyberpunk 2020 cp3002

heavy gear Duelist's Handbook
heavy gear Core book
heavy gear Terra Nova Technology

bl Battlelords of the 23rd Century
bl Lock-N-Load
bl Galactic Underground II
cham Champions: New Millenium HG10001
cham Champions: Alliances HG10011

Trinity Core book hardcover WW9100
Trinity Technology Manual ww9200
Trinity America Offline ww9003

ed Earthdawn 6000

b5 The Babylon Project 051-000
b5 Earthforce Sourcebook 051-001

bt Mechwarrior: 2nd Ed 1641
bt Mechwarrior: 3rd Ed 1715
bt Battletech: The Fourth Succession War 1635
bt Shattered Sphere 1712
bt Field Manual: Comstar 1714
bt Intelligence Operations Handbook 1673

wh Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

rifts Core Collector's Ed
rifts 20: Canada
rifts 2: Atlantis
rifts 1: Vampire Kingdoms
rifts 12: Psycape
rifts 17: Warlords of Russia
rifts 13: Lone Star
rifts 10: Juicer Uprising
rifts Sourcebook Number One
rifts 8: Japan

heroes Plaladium Heroes Unlimited

Various D&D 2nd ed stuff; handbooks, SpellJammer, Dark Sun