My name is Alexander and welcome to
alx.com!
2019.05.02WOW! What a week.
Not that I think anyone noticed, but alx.com has
been totally down since 23 MAY, web and email
service.
A2Hosting evidently was attacked and
ALL of their Windows hosting servers worldwide were
compromised and put out of service.
While
they have my heartfelt sympathy, their customer
service was piss poor. After 8 days of requesting
ANY form of direct contact, I switched alx.com to
HostGator
where it now resides.
I understand that shit
happens and was willing to be patient and ride it
out, but after A2 failed to respond to Tickets,
Chat, Email and Voicemail requests to contact me to
discuss what was going on and my options for over a
week, I had to move on.
Alx.com has been up
and running since 1997 and, with the exception of
Hurricane Sandy where this section of New Jersey had
NO power, telephone, data, anything for a week, this
was the longest outage I have ever experienced.
Anyhow, now that we are back up and running on
HostGator,
I have to pick up where I left off in checking out
the site and re-establishing email for all the users
that were impacted.
Thank God for HOTMAIL!
I've had a Hotmail account since long before
there was an alx.com. I've paid to maintain it all
these years even as Hotmail changed ownership a few
times and now is under Microsoft as Outlook.com.
I sure am glad I held on to it! It was a life
saver for the last week allowing me to mainain
connection when I needed it. It also comes in handy
when I need to give an email address to someone
where I know it won't be lost in SPAM. Trust me,
alx@alx.com IS a spam magnet. The trick with the
hotmail address is not to give it out or publish it
beyond a chosen few.
If you have critical
emails that you COUNT ON in life (like your bank),
take my advice and sign up for an alernate email
that you can rely on in times of trouble and trust
me, the internet will become more flaky, not less.
2019.04.18aReviewing the site, there is a
lot of catching
up that needs to be done.
Some of the old
links, off the site, have changed and will need to
be revised.
Many more are actually DEAD and
will need removal or commenting. Some are sad losses
(at least for me).
Note references below to
DREAMWORKS and my blog. Unfortunately the blog never
developed as it should have, and that is my fault.
It began at the dark dawn of the Age of Trump, and I
could not bring myself to write on the avalanche of
disgust and misery that has followed. While the blog
still is there, it has languished.
In a
sense, that is my bad. It suggests that I accept his
new norm as somehow acceptable or tolerable in a
civilized society. It is not, and we should all
speak out.
More on that to come as,
hopefully, this page takes on more the role of a
blog.
2019.04.18OK - MAJOR CHANGES!
ALX.COM is
now hosted on A2 Hosting.
This necessitates
moving all files on the site to their server and
verifying that everything works as designed.
As a result, please understand anything that is
temporarily broken and we will be working to get it
fixed.
This all is tied to some other major
life changes, but more on that at a later date.
Hell, I understand that this site has languished
behind the times, so I doubt if anyone is following
or gives a damn.
If you are actually out
there - use the link at the left and e-Mail alx.
2017.01.28Please check out my new blog at
Dreamwidth.
Hopefully with easier direct access to what is
actually a blog system and format, entries will be
more frequent and have meaning!
I can say
that already I have begun and am opening up on the
tragedy that is the Trump Administration.
We
need to take America back! We were great long before
the Donald.
Let's just hope there is
something left of us after this trial passes.
Please, follow me at
Dreamwidth!
While I'm at it in here,
if you have Hawaiian longings like I do, check out
Hawaii.com and enjoy. I was finally back there
in November after too long an absence and it felt
good to be home. A lot had changed, but I felt at
peace for the first time in years. At least until I
returned to reality in New Jersey. :(
2016.07.19
Night number two of the Republican
National Convention.
I can't say that I am
surprised by the rise of Trump - I had a feeling a
year ago that it could, it would, happen. But that
doesn't make it any more palatable.
With
everything else that has been going down of late
though, it does make it more frightening.
The
hardest part of all... We should be better than
this.
Obviously we are not.
2015.09.12
Geeze, it's been so long.
2012.09.01
OK... Once again, it has been a
long time since an update.
It has been a
lousy week. TWO complete server reinstalls don't
make for fun.
This all started the week
before when the mail server freaked out. I could
receive everything, but any time I tried to send,
the emails just hung in the outbound queues -
wouldn't connect. Oddly they would send during a
reboot, but that is one hell of a way to send email!
The first re-install was actually a good thing.
A few things were running better and faster than
before, and a few abilities that had died over the
years were restored. After having problems
connecting my Samsung Galaxy Tab's email for a while-
that was back up and running as fast and easy as I
could type in the info and push the buttons.
Painless! Fantastic!
As soon as I settled
back into the joy of having my world back to normal,
that's when the real shit hit the fan...
I
decided to install WordPress to put in a blog.
Sounds good... sounds like a step up... an
improvement. WRONG!
Perhaps it would be a
different story on a different server. This is an
old Server 2003 setup. But there were a number of
sites, blogs, and guides for "retrofitting" WP that
seemed clear, precise, and a piece of cake.
Step by step, one after another, things not only
didn't work, they tended to trash things that had
been working.
By the time they totally blew
out the web based email, AND my ability to connect
to the Exchange Server, I was backed into a corner
and forced to reinstall everything all over again.
Then it dawned on me that I had attempted WordPress
once before - and THAT was what caused me to loose
the afore mentioned "dead" features - like
connecting to my Samsung Droid.
Perhaps one
day I will attempt WordPress again, but it will have
to be on a completely separate throw away machine
that can't bring down anything else. (Of course, if
I do that, odds are that it will go fine and leave
me wondering what went wrong the first 2 times.)
But for now - let me just say that I HATE
WORDPRESS. Glowing reviews aside, WP and I don't get
along well together. It feels like a HATE/HATE
relationship.
Rather than leave this as a
total gripe session, let me put forth something on
the positive side...
If you run a setup with
multiple Windows machines in reasonable proximity to
each other, you owe it to yourself to download Mouse
Without Borders.
It allows you to use your
mouse and keyboard across up to 4 computers making
for a very convenient and natural working
environment.
I use it both at home and work
and it is a fabulously intuitive tool that has risen
from convenient to essential for me.
MouseWithoutBorders spans well between Windows 7,
XP, and even Windows 8 computers with either single
or multiple monitor configurations AND also allows
for limited file dragging between desktops. I've
used similar programs in the past, but MWB is the
clear winner.
Don't hesitate! You can
download MouseWithoutBorders at
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35460.
To give you an example of the convenience and
functionality, I am editing this on my living room
desktop computer, leaning back in my chair using my
laptop's keyboard and trackpad for input. I also am
using the laptop to view the changes as I update to
see how they look in the browser at several sizes
and widths, all the while controlling the media
computer from the same laptop.
This is one of those tools you will wonder how you
lived without.
2012.01.12
Some days it just doesn't pay to get
up. Question: Why does that describe most days?
Every time that I swear I am going to keep this
more current, the world chooses to descend upon that
intention with a vengeance. Time rushes and my
patience wears thin.
So....
Something
that I have been meaning to say for a while now -
2012.01.12a
SPRINT: Why would anyone
limit the i-Phone?
BECAUSE A 3 YEAR OLD
DOESN'T NEED A CELL PHONE.
There. I said it.
2011.11.19
A piece of dog philosophy...
All movement should be contemplated carefully.
Movement should be avoided wherever possible.
2011.10.22
It's been a few weeks longer than
planned, but it has been 2 weeks from hell.
Just a thought - I hope
Barenaked
Ladies is getting royalties now that there IS
pre-wrapped bacon!
2011.10.11
Sometimes I think the world
conspires against me updating this site on a
frequent basis.
Take tonight...
FIRST
the computer (Alice) didn't want to wake up. I can
relate - I hate waking up myself.
SECOND the
wireless failed to connect. In fact, the wireless
couldn't even know it was there.
Everything
got straightened out in the end, hence this update.
Anyhow...
tonight is one of those rare occasions where I am
cooking. Stuffed pork chop.
I made the
mistake of cooking on SUN (2 days ago).
Again, stuffed pork chop.
In a wild moment of
stupidity I had gone out and bought two of the
things, a matching pair.
Then I brought them
home and realized I didn't have the appetite for
two.
Cooking one, I was rudely reminded of
all of the reasons that I hate to cook. Preparation,
Patience, and the inevitable, evil CLEANUP.
Having totally ruined my Sunday evening, now I face
the second PORK CHOP.
It is cooking even as I
write this.
The Jades are waiting for water
and I am sitting here waiting on a pork chop.
I think my tolerance for culinary activity would
have left me happier with a 7-Eleven sandwich.
POSTSCRIPT: This was much better than Sunday. So
good, this time wish I had a second. I'm
writing this now, before the cleanup. Better close
on a happy thought. :)
2011.10.06
Well, just updated the
NETMARES section. So
many dead links to clean out. At least now
everything should be live and updated.
Also,
been trying to get a "real" blog going on this site,
but WordPress doesn't want to
be happy on a Windows SBS 2003 server.
So
far, no luck.
On the bright side, looking to
put in a new server, so MAYBE that will open things
up.
In the meantime, working on consolidating
the pics, so hopefully we'll get some up here soon.
2011.10.03
SURPRISE! An update for all you loyal followers.
OK... I know... Been so damned long, THERE ARE NO
FOLLOWERS, much less loyal.
Anyhow - hope we can change that.
Woke up early this morning and spent a lot of
time thinking. I decided it is about time for this
old dog to see if he can make a living in the 21st
Century being ME.
Spent most of the weekend organizing my digital
photographs. About time to get them up here on the
web. More importantly, I need to get to digitizing
my OLD FILM pictures from back when I used to really
be a photographer. Those deserve to be seen. I
bought the scanner (a real film scanner, not a
wannabe flatbed - so it's about time to put it to
use.) With the coming of winter *shudder* that would
be a good project.
Anything you see on this site will be available
as prints. Time to start using my PayPal account (alx@alx.com)
for making money instead of just spending!
I tend to be a bit of a recluse (make that a card
carrying HERMIT), so social media hasn't been my
style. Guess that has to change to if I hope to make
a living being me.
Look for Facebook and Twitter soon. In the
meantime, you can always follow my little jade
friend Alice on Twitter.
www.twitter.com/AliceTJade She will pass along
your thoughts. :)
And there are all those pet peeves of mine. Time
to start POSTING instead of just muttering to
myself. (Muttering in silence.)
2007.12.07
We are in the process of migrating to a new
server.
If you experience any difficulties, please email me
webmaster@alx.com
2006.08.18
Well, I am embarrassed.
It seems that all the "improvements" look pretty
- and resulted in knocking me off the search
engines! So much for progress.
I discovered this when I went looking for links
to the poetry... links that used to be there, and
now are GONE!
You would think that search engines would grow
smarter over time. Well, they didn't and I guess I
got dumb.
Anyhow, hopefully a few changes will correct
this, and I'll be back in searchable mode before too
long.
Meanwhile, I'd like to welcome my little buddy,
Deenamite to the
web. Check her out and say hello at
http://www.alx.com/deenamite.
2005.08.21
New
look and feel to the whole site here, so please forgive
the fact that everything isn't totally where I want it
to be.
The hope is to greatly expand the photo section. Once
upon a time, I used to do photography for a living.
(Seems like several lifetimes ago.) Thousands of slides
will take quite a bit of time to analyze and convert to
make this reflect my vision.
As you may have guessed, I am addicted to Hawaii.
Years of trips and tons of film, all lying about,
sleeping as it were. I think it is time to share.
Other passions of years gone by have been airshows
and the beauty of flight. Ah, thousands more pictures...
If every picture tells a story, I think they have
been too quiet for too long.
alx
