No, I haven't stopped...

Just catching up on stuff at work. Fun! In the meantime, I thought I'd refer you to something that got me to laugh out loud: this. A good title for that page: Things you learn that you didn't really want to know (when you have sons...)

Enjoy!

PS. I trying to get somewhere around 30 or 40 pictures processed and then uploaded. As always, I'll post here when that is done.

PPS. Dean posted a second part to his second post (make that three total posts!) As a response, I'm afraid that my son (all of three years old) thinks my motto is "Don't make me go get the spatula to spank you."

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Christy's Wishlist Updated

Christy's Wishlist has now been updated with a few items that she specifically requested.

As far as some other news/posting, I have some things in mind but am behind the eight ball in terms of time... Stay tuned to this channel for further (in the future) updates!

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Look! A Pastor Dean Post!

Check it out! Pastor Dean has posted. I have to admit that is a pretty good first post (and only one grammatical messup [the double "the"]).

Stop by there and give him a holler (link on the right side as well).

News over here - another photo album has been loaded up. Just in time for the annual Auburn vs. Alabama football bash too! At work, I'm still cleaning up the mess from Monday afternoon - though I do feel somewhat satisfied that I am getting more organized than I was previously.

As a wrap-up to this post, I want to tell why I have started blogging again. There's no single reason. In fact, I feel as if the more I blog, the more reasons I can come up with for blogging. I use this to "blow off steam", to get stuff off of my mind, to share my digital pictures, and maybe, in case the Lord tarries, to let the next generation of Todds have a little insight into this generation of Todds. Are any of those good, valid reasons to blog? I don't know. Maybe I'm just wasting time.

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Update Post

Yes, I haven't posted since Sunday - that's partially due to the unplanned-for visit of Christian to work on Monday. Christy got a nasty migraine and I had to pick up Christian from school - which meant that work effectively ended when I left to pick Christian up. Why do I say that? Well, I took Christian to work from school and tried to keep him out of trouble. I did keep him out of trouble but I didn't keep him out of everything else.

He helped me re-arrange my office. That put me out of business until late today. It took me that long to get my computer working (in the new location). Of course my office is still a virtual tornadic mess.

Hopefully, I shall be back to normal work tomorrow (and clean up the mess that is still left.)

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Another Photo Album

I just uploaded another set of pictures from the past. This time I found pictures from Christian's Easter Party at First Methodist Early Learning Center. What's really interesting is how well he sat *still* for snacks, lunch, and craft time.

I'm still not sure that Christy or I can get him to do that now. Enjoy!

PS. Christy is giving me some stuff to put on her wishlist. I'll post a blurb here when I've got that done.

PPS. I've made some progress on that book - finishing the battle of Marathon (Athenians defeat Persians) and now getting into the battle for Syracuse (Sicilians defeat [correction] Athenians).

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Licensing Changes - Followed Up

Wow. Not only did I receive a response from Mark of Sysinternals, I received a secondary clarification email. Although I will have to disagree with Mark on one point, I do have to admit I was wrong about the previous license.

Sometime, around February of this year, Sysinternals changed their license from a "free to use, anytime, anywhere" to a "free to use for personal use and personally owned machines only" - which is pretty restrictive. Although Mark stated that the Microsoft license is less restrictive, I'll have to respectfully disagree: the Microsoft license FAQ states clearly that you can only use the utilities on computers you personally own. (Still a no-use policy inside any organization. Mark stated that this was permissible, but as the Microsoft license stands, I don't think it is.)

I guess I can only recommend use of those utilities - but not actually use them on someone else's machine. Phooey.

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Licensing Changes

Some background...

A few months ago, Microsoft purchased the company Sysinternals. A company responsible for some great programs - most of them useful for troubleshooting Windows problems, such as Process Explorer, File Monitor, Registry Monitor among others.

The other day (in the Quixotic quest) I needed to get another copy of File Monitor, so I headed over to http://www.sysinternals.com and watched as it re-directed to a Microsoft site. Well, now that's a change. I started wondering what other changes might have been made, and then I stumble on this Licensing FAQ page. Now that's really new. Just for fun I pulled an older version of File Monitor off of my home server and I checked it's licensing:

This software is provided "as is", without any guarantee made as to its suitability or fitness for any particular use. It may contain bugs, so use of this tool is at your own risk. We take no responsilbity for any damage that may unintentionally be caused through its use.

You may not distribute Filemon in any form without express written permission of Mark Russinovich or Bryce Cogswell.

If you are interested in redistributing Filemon, either in original or modified form, or wish to use Filemon source code in a product, please send e-mail to licensing@sysinternals.com with details.

Simple. Clean. Nice for anyone who needs to use their software to fix problems.

Now back to the biggie I noticed on that Microsoft page:

Q: May I freely load or use Sysinternals utilities on computers that I support but do not own?

A: No. You will need to contact Microsoft Sysinternals Licensing (syslic@microsoft.com) and inquire about fee based licensing options.

What? This is a joke, right? Some of the best utilities ever written for troubleshooting problems on WINDOWS computers and Microsoft has now restricted their use. This isn't a small change, this is a HUGE change. Why even keep it free for download?

Update: I've written an email to both Mark and Bruce of Sysinternals using the email addresses found in that old license. I doubt I'll get a response, but it would be interesting to know if they know about this change.

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