Poor implementation of a web terminal

This weekend, I received a page that one of my servers was down.  I was on the way to the wedding, so I thought that I would deal with it after getting back to the condo from the wedding.

When we got to high camp at Squaw Valley, I noticed that there was a web terminal in the building where the cable car drops you off.  Even though the directions on the terminal said you had it enter money, I decided to see what happened if I didn't.

When I entered the url, the web page for the site fully loaded, and then after it finished, it went to their home page.  It appears that the web proxy might be modifying the http response headers to include a redirect to their web page.

It seems like this would be better if the proxy redirected the dns traffic. Or it could have just redirected traffic on certain ports.

Condo in Squaw Valley

This weekend we went to Squaw Valley for a wedding.  We decided to stay in a condo a couple of miles away, instead of in the complex itself.  The condo was very nice.  It was in a building that appeared to be 20 years old, but the unit itself was newly renovated.

If you are interested in a place to stay in Squaw Valley, I would recommend this place.  You can find rental information here.

The only problem that we had with this place was that it wasn't "child-proofed".  I think that next time we go, we would bring outlet covers, and a child lock for the front door.

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Culligan installed

A few weeks ago, we noticed that our clothes weren't getting clean.  We thought that this could be cause because of hard water. So we called Culligan.

When they came out they stated the the water quality varies in Santa Clara County, depending on how much water they get from ground water vs. surface water.  He also tested our water and said it was a 13.5, while normal is 8.  (He could be making up these number, and we would have no way to verify these numbers)

Upgraded to Tiger

I finally upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.  I bought the box from Other World Computing, which had it for $99.  Here are the steps that I following for the installation:

1. I booted my laptop with the 10.4 DVD


2. Plugged in an external firewire drive


3. From the Utilities menu, selected Disk Utitiles


4. Restored the internal drive to the external firewire drive


5. Erased the internal drive


6. Installed the software on the internal drive


7. When it finished, and rebooted, restored the data from the external drive

shower head

It seems like a lot of the new house construction or remodeling includes bathroom upgrades.  One that contractors are advertising a lot is showers that have multiple shower-heads mounted on the wall.

I Want That! showcased a shower head that has some of the same functionality, but it seems that it can be installed in an existing shower.  The Grohe Freehander shower-head, has to shower heads that rotate 360°.  Also the whole arm rotates so that the shower heads can be positioned above or in front of you.

This shower-head starts at $395.

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Harmony 880 Remote

Today, the Harmony 880 remote that we ordered arrived.  I haven't had a chance to set it up, but it is an amazing looking remote.  Even the base looks great.  When it is plugged in, there is a blue led in the center of the base to let you know where to put the remote, even when it it dark.  Also, the bottom of the base has a couple grooves that let you direct the power cord.

Tomorrow, I will configure it, and will write more about it then.

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dead bolt

We like watching I Want That! on HGTV.  Tonight they showed a pretty cool deadbolt.  The Tuner deadbolt makes it easy to lock the door from the outside.  When you leave the door, all you need to do is turn the ring around the deadbolt to lock the door.  You will need a key to unlock the door.

My wife mentioned that she would like to get one.  I know that this would make it easier to lock the house, when chasing after the kids on the way out the door.  The lock is available on line for $45.

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