HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

(photo from KGW.com)

Rescue Chopper Crash on Mt. Hood

I have never seen a group of self congratulatory, masturbatory group than the folks at KGW. Actually... Newschannel 8. They're the ones who captured the best angle on the crash and provided the footage you may or may not have seen on national television. I mean Jesus Christ - the producer at KGW must have told its reporters/anchor people to preface every sentence with "the footage you saw live on Newschannel 8." Three people died and KGW spent more time talking about themselves, interviewing their own staff, and showing the crash video over and goddamned over again. I couldn't tell if I was watching the news or "America's Funniest Crash Videos."

Of course, I watched every minute of it, like a hypnotized idiot. I even put a picture of the crash on my site. It's not even my own picture... I ripped it off from the same people I spent the first paragraph insulting the people I took it from. Shit... I'm shallow.

It's funny to watch how the priority of this news story by the three local networks is dictated by how much footage they have of the crash. Portland's ABC affiliate (KATU chann... I mean The Power of Two) wasn't doing too much on the story but this morning started broadcasting "exclusive" footage of some digital photos a guy took. the CBS affiliate barely cut into their soap operas (according to an article in the Oregonian, their helicopter's transmitter broke that day). I've always been critical of the news helicopters that are really more promotional tools than news helicopters. One pilot told me that the news stations don't kick in enough money to launch a chopper whenever it's really needed. You may not see Portland's news helicopters at the scene of tragedies or even above a police chase, but you'll always see them at local air shows.

***

Happy Birthday, Dad.

FORE

Drama in Real Fucking Life II

So my friend Lee, who took me to the driving range last weekend (see 5/27/02's log) went golfing with his friend Alex two days ago. Alex was teeing off on the seventh hole of what should have been a pleasant, uneventful, nine holes of golf.

Alex swung at the ball and only "topped" it, hitting the top of the ball so as instead of flying through the air for 150 yards (or so), it merely hits the ground in front of the tee with enough top spin to roll about 50 yards.

And roll the ball did. Pretty quickly, too, as Alex is a big guy, a weightlifter.

As Lee and Alex watched the ball roll across the green at high speed, a gopher poked his head up out of the ground. The two golfers heard the faint, yet unmistakable, sound of gopher skull cracking.

Holy shit.

Lee and Alex hopped in their golf cart and arrived at the scene long enough to see the gopher in the last throes of a death shake.

No word as to whether Alex received a free round of golf, or what they did with the deceased gopher. I so wish I was there to see it happen.

< Hey, Alex, how 'bout some target practice?

***

I love local music. Even without a musical background, talent, etc... I still go to a lot shows. Even though I don't write for Jam Magazine anymore, I still try to do CD reviews (of which I'm painfully backlogged in doing). Bands I plan on seeing in the future (that I've never seen):
Kaddisfly
Netochka

Dear I.T. Guy:

System security is a crucial element in systems administration. When you arrive at the office, what’s the first machine you go to in order to assess the safety of a network? - C.S. - Sacramento, CA

I typically go to the soda pop machine. Possibly the coffee machine, if it’s made. There’s no sense in trying to fight the forces of hacker evil when you’re groggy.

What can you tell me about firewalls? - G.M - Pittsburgh, PA

Not much, really. I used one at my office for a while, but it started interfering with my filesharing endeavors. As soon as Kazaa quit working, I immediately bypassed the firewall and paid a consultant to change the default gateway on the office PCs. Sure it cost $200 for the consultant to come out, but I’ve already burned $400 in CDs. That’s smart economics.

I’ve heard of proxy servers which sometimes fall into the firewall category. I’m not sure what proxy servers do. I do know that Ebay uses proxy bidding, so maybe proxy servers are for people really in to Ebay.

Have a tech question? Send it to itg@goochonline.com

I golfed for the first time yesterday. My friend, Lee, took me out at a golf course while I was in Idaho. Actually, we weren't golfing, but hitting balls at the driving range... the manliest aspect of the sport (aside from drinking copious amounts of domestic beer). I did pretty good for my first try at the sport, but if you need a fence-post hole dug, put a golf ball where you want the hole and I'll come over with my seven-wood.