Only the best can be a network manager

The University employs many people that are called network managers. Pretty much every department has at least one (depending on the size of their scope of network services). Unfortunately, not the brightest bulbs in the drawer are gainfully employed as network managers. One of the requirements needs to be in how they handle their mail programs in vacation notifications.

Most somewhat capable people know that their mail program needs to notify a sender only once. Apparently, one such network manager configured her program to autoreply to every email that she's out of town until tomorrow. So, each time an email gets sent to network managers, we get one autoreply.

Problem #1: On top of Meeting Manager not working today, a whole new discussion opened up on what to do with these autoreplys that are being sent to all on the listserv. So, the number of emails on this listserv doubled today with those damn autoreplys.

Problem #2: When a net manager opened up a discussion about the damn autoreplys, a listserv manager claimed that her address was blocked. So when my inbox chimed, three emails from the same sender on the listserv with the same damn autoreply message.

I don't feel any sympathy for her when she checks her email tomorrow. I refrained from taking this email address and signing it up for lots of junk mails, but if anyone else wants to, I'll gladly provide it.

How cool is this?

Interested in finding out what you can buy in a vending machine? Interested in what other countries sell in vending machines? Here's a great series of photos of Japanese vending machines Hopefully the Parking hasn't caught on in this country (yet).

Denial and the loss of an innocent child

To the morons who believe that HIV doesn't cause AIDS were given a setback. A woman claiming that her children were healthy even though she was HIV positive during pregnancy (and breast-fed her children) just lost their seven year old child to AIDS related pneumonia.

It's a good article that detailed her history from accepting her condition and working with AIDS patients to believing that HIV doesn't cause AIDS. To quote the article:

Intrigued, Maggiore began scouring the literature about the underlying science of HIV. She does not know how she became HIV-positive, but she came to believe that flu shots, pregnancy and common viral infections could lead to a positive test result. She later detailed those claims in her book, "What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?"

So it's a government conspiracy to get us all infected with HIV by making us give flu shots. This lady gives plenty of ammo for the argument that stupid people shouldn't be allowed to breed.

Some stories should never die (until the truth comes out anyway)

This story really hit hard for me since it had been brought up in discussion. I forget the context, but the name of Pat Tillman had been brought up. Living in Arizona, the Arizona Republic has some great articles about the continuing investigation of what happened to Tillman. It's a long article, but it provides great insight to the person who was Tillman, and the quiet fight his parents are continuing to fight for the truth. Here's some great insights to Tillman the person:

Yet other Tillman family members are less reluctant to show Tillman's unique character, which was more complex than the public image of a gung-ho patriotic warrior. He started keeping a journal at 16 and continued the practice on the battlefield, writing in it regularly. (His journal was lost immediately after his death.) Mary Tillman said a friend of Pat's even arranged a private meeting with Chomsky, the anti-war author, to take place after his return from Afghanistan -- a meeting prevented by his death. She said that although he supported the Afghan war, believing it justified by the Sept. 11 attacks, "Pat was very critical of the whole Iraq war."

Another soldier in the platoon, who asked not to be identified, said Pat urged him to vote for Bush's Democratic opponent in the 2004 election, Sen. John Kerry.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White -- a Navy SEAL who served with Pat and Kevin for four months in Iraq and was the only military member to speak at Tillman's memorial -- said Pat "wasn't very fired up about being in Iraq" and instead wanted to go fight al Qaeda in Afghanistan. He said both Pat and Kevin (who has a degree in philosophy) "were amazingly well-read individuals ... very firm in some of their beliefs, their political and religious or not so religious beliefs."

And while I am glad that Ms. Sheehan was significant in organizing anti-war protests, I feel that she did enjoy the media limelight that she lived in during her protest. On the opposite end, here's a good summary of Tillman's sentiments as well as his immediate family:

Throughout the controversy, the Tillman family has been reluctant to cause a media stir. Mary noted that Pat shunned publicity, refusing all public comment when he enlisted and asking the Army to reject all media requests for interviews while he was in service. Pat's widow, Marie, and his brother Kevin have not become publicly involved in the case, and they declined to comment for this article.

It's been over a year since such a noble warrior left the battlefield forever, the investigations continue. Here's the latest information on the on-going investigation:

For the moment, all that is left are the memories and the thick binders spread across Mary Tillman's dining room table in San Jose. As she waits for the Pentagon investigators to finish their new probe, she wonders whether they will ask the hard questions.

Like other family members, "I just want accountability," she said. "I want answers."

Please don't let this be forgotten.