LJ Problems update

From lisa (site admin) in lj_maintenance:

LiveJournal Outage Update
The Distributed Denial of Service attack that began on Thursday has not subsided. We were able to make some large improvements in our load balancing system today that allowed us to remove the filters placed for groups of IP addresses at our upstream providers. This means most of the internet should be allowed to at least reach our site, and any that can not we are still working with our provider to allow.

As we recover from the attack, the site will continue to be slow. We are working as hard as possible to speed things up, and thank you for your continued patience.

So, instead of being asleep by 12 or 1..

I chatted in #lj_support for a while, concurrently and later IMed idoru, sebatical, Mary Wilhelm, and sylvie, emailed four versions of Hallelujah (John Cale, Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and Bono; she already has the Shrek-soundtrack Rufus Wainwright version) to Sylvie, and now it's time for bed, since I have to get up in about two hours. Bah!

For those of you (jazzfish) who might've have wondered what's up with the movie and soundtrack versions of Hallelujah differing, here's the [unofficial] scoop (and more!):

( Hallelujah details )

Rebooting, DeadAIM, and drains flooding

Last reboot: 27Jan, 7:30pm.
Just rebooted: 21Feb, 4pm.
Uptime: 24d20.5h

Didn't need to reboot for stability issues, just to complete several installations--most recently, AIM 5.2.3139, as well as several past security updates and the like.. and DeadAIM 3.1--which, unfortunately, succeeds in blocking the ads at top and bottom of the AIM window but not reclaiming the space. Bah! I may revert to 5.1.3009 (for which I still have the installer) to get that functionality back.

*boggles* New functionality in DeadAIM 3.1:

Abilty to "Clone AIM", or run multiple sessions simultaneously

Ability to make Buddy List window partially transparent when moved to background

Ability to use tabbed IM windows

Yes, I know that functionality is available in other apps/OSes--but this is in my good old AIM!

Work was.. interesting. While running some water for.. whatever I was doing, the floor drain backed up a bit. No big deal, this happens occasionally. Indicative of a clog somewhere.

Except this time, it was a big deal, as it kept trickling water out onto the floor, out of the pump room, onto the sales floor.. and meanwhile, the drain in the grooming back room was also regurgitating, slowly flooding that area. Called in a technician, who snaked the pipe, then snaked more, then proceeded down the drain line to each access point, and eventually concluded that there was a serious blockage under the pump room--most likely dog hair from grooming--and there was a possibility of having to rip up the floor in the pump room. Meanwhile, I couldn't use the sink, so I couldn't finish cleaning the tanks I started. Ahhh well.

Stopped by the mall on the way home, got a haircut, got my contacts (finally! Only took, oh, four-plus weeks to arrive from backorder), and came home to find that my bird had finally torn apart the rope/wood swing, so I tied it back up in a different configuration--there's still a lot of chewing and play in that $12 toy. :)

Tonight, movie night at Misty's! (Currently, voting is strongly in favor of "Star Wars Movie Night" (6) over James Cameron (3), Animated (2), and John Waters (1)).

Assorted links, various topics

From various journals: Why Nerds Are Unpopular
Why? To someone in school now, that may seem an odd question to ask. The mere fact is so overwhelming that it may seem strange to imagine that it could be any other way.

An excellent article.. insightful and probing. It may just open your eyes, or validate what you already knew.

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Update from bradfitz in news on the DDoS wrap-up.
This isn't a "hack". If a hack were breaking into somebody's car, this is analogous to releasing a herd of sheep onto a highway to bring it down from 70 mph to 1 mph.

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From sylvie: Make-a-Flake. Make your own personal snowflake without all that troublesome folding and cutting, and save it to the snowfall on the site. Mildly nifty. :) (My save didn't work, though.. bah.)

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From ezme9: Why Athletes Can't Have Real Jobs. Oh, the gaffes. :)

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And finally, a bit of humor, no link.

From Chris D:
A F-111 was flying escort with a B-52 and generally making a nuisance of himself by flying rolls around the lumbering bomber. The message for the B-52 crew was, "Anything you can do, I can do better." Not to be outdone, the bomber pilot announced that he would rise to the challenge. The B-52 continued its flight, straight and level, however. Perplexed, the fighter pilot asked, "So? What did you do?" The B-52 pilot responded, "We just shut down two engines."