The Hotbrick 401W with the new firmware (June 2005) does not save passwords properly with passwords ending in a number. (i.e. glen123) I am a good QA engineer!

Review of the firewall: (Besides the bug)

• The thing gets HOT. Almost to the point of burning me. They don’t call it Hotbrick for nothing.
• The interface is ugly as sin. Why can’t they get a graphic artists to just give them a decent layout, this is embarrassing.
• The actual functionality in the device is very nice. Auto-detect of client machines. It creates a nice database of servers or workstations and you can create rules using their normal names. This is really a high end feature that the Cisco Pix 501 (sux) tries also has. Although the Pix (sux) trips all over themselves in PDM setting it up.
• WPA support. This is a must in any wireless device. They have more options on this than other comparables I have seen. AES, TKIP and more.
• The logs are unreadable. This is an area the Tele3 from Sonicwall had wrapped up. Logs were great on that thing. The 401w could improve on this alot.
• The price is fantastic. $129 for a great router/firewall with wireless built in. I took a chance on this device specifically because the price was worth it. Free firmware upgrades and they don’t make you sign into a super secure site to get them. Sonicwall was awful on that score. If you don’t have official ownership of a device, you need to jump through hoops just to get a firmware upgrade. Its a mess.
• Overall, I give this device a B+ which is the best grade I have given any firewall out there.

Other firewalls I have used:

Sonicwall Soho3: B-. Mediocre UI, great logging. Can’t stand mysonicwall.com to get firmware. Too expensive, and too limited in functionality. This was my first firewall. I believe they have scrapped this product line.

Sonicwall Tele3: C+. Couldn’t tell the difference between this and the SOHO3. I guess I wasn’t using the VPN features so it didn’t matter. However, this device only allowed 10 internal IP addresses. What the hell is that all about? Would cost hundreds of dollars for an upgrade? Made me pack it up.

Cisco Pix 501: F-. Piece of crap. PDM (GUI) doesn’t work at all. Command line is the ONLY way to manage this thing. Expensive as hell. The technical support people were worthless. I literally couldn’t get the simplest of networks setup. If I could advise you to avoid only firewall, this is the one. Booo!

Hotbrick 401W: B+. See above.

Microsoft MN-500: C. Nice interface, but very limited functionality. Had wireless built in, but only 802.11b. No upgrade through firmware. Nice UPnP support. Microsoft has since dropped the product line completely. The MN-100 was this exact model without the wireless support. (C- for that one)

Microsoft MN-700: C+. Just like the 100 but with some improvements in functionality, most notably WPA support. Still, it just didn’t have enough functionality. The logs were awful.

Soekris Net45xx running M0n0wall: C. I had never heard of this thing before. A consultant talked us into buying one. It is an interesting project. An open source firewall. The UI was decent, although I found it a bit confusing. Also the sysadmin using it apparently had installed a beta version of the firmware and the thing required way too many reboots. If you are an enthusiast and want to play around with something that will change often, this is a good choice. Otherwise, I wouldn’t suggest it.

Watchguard Firebox Soho6: B-. I didn’t use these that much but I remember an excellent UI. The main drawback to firebox is that it costs a fortune. Too expensive to use. More expensive than Sonicwall. Also, they don’t just “sell” the device, you have to jump through hoops just to get one.

Juniper Netscreen 5GT: B-. Same as the Watchguard. Decent interface, but way too expensive and you can’t just purchase one of these.

Ok, that’s my review. I don’t know how many people read through this blog. Or how many of them know what the hell I am talking about. But if you did and you do, then please give your own thoughts on the best firewall.

Last night, God spoke to me.

God said, “Glen?”
I said, “Yeah?.”
God said, “You know, the Jets are going to win the superbowl this year. I know I mentioned that last year, but I forgot about Pennington’s rotator cuff. I had a sticky note on my fridge to remind me to injure him, but I forgot about that when I told you they were going to win. This year I have no plans for him. Check out this article. Looks like Pennington is fine. 89%. So just to let you know. Jets will win the superbowl this year.”
“Yeah?”, I said.
“Yeah.” God confirmed.

Well, there you have it. Anyone who disagrees with me is obviously not on God’s side. God bless the Jets.

I was thinking about the ‘Life is a’…question today. How is this one? It is for people with kids 2-3 years old.

Life is a contradiction. No it’s not.

I imagine Jared would agree.

I pinned up pictures in my new cubicle today of the kids. I think I need a plant or something. This is a little stark. I am working in a cubicle. Hmm, I am not sure how I feel about this. It isn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Actually kind of cozy.

Today is the first day at the new office. I am currently waiting for Steve from work to pick me up. I am typing on my laptop outside of the Ashby Bart station. Can you see me in the satellite photo?

How cool is technology? I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Orwellian world of Big Brother from 1984 showed how a dictatorship or oligarchy would use technology to enslave and manipulate the citizens of a nation. I see it the opposite. Despite the attempts to enslave, technology will set us free. Free at last, free at last. Technology will allow us to shake this mortal coil and be truly alive. Of course, I am referring to when we scan our minds into a nanobot collective which will serve as our new bodies. We will be able to shapeshift, go without food or water or oxygen. We will have instant recall of all known facts. We will be able to fly. No fear. No death. A world full of gods living in any manner we choose. We will create reality.

Or we might be blown up in a nuclear holocaust. Either way, it is going to be a blast!

Matthew said some words. Mama, Dada, Hi and Shirt. I am very proud.

Today is the last day I am going to work in San Francisco. The company is moving to San Mateo. It is exciting. We are moving houses next week too. The future smells like a bakery at 7am. Sweet and full of promise.

The deli across the street gave me my breakfast sandwich for free this morning as a thank you. Good people over there. I will miss the City. Lots of good places to eat.

It is times like this that I wish I could sum up life in a clever analogy. Here are some from others, feel free to add your own.

• Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get. - Forest Gump.
• Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. — Gandhi
• It is not length of life, but depth of life. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
• There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. — Albert Einstein
• Life… is like a grapefruit. It’s orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast. –Douglas Adams

And of course:

Jack Palance: “Do you know what the secret of life is? One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean shit.”
Billy Crystal: “Yeah, but what’s that one thing?”
Jack Palance: “That’s what you’ve got to figure out.”
~From the movie City Slickers

Sometimes, I just sit and listen to Ethan and Jared talk to each other. I wish I had a recorder at those moments. Here is a sampling:

Jared: Eeftan! Here is your gun!
Ethan: I can’t reach it!
Jared: (stretching, with feeling) Heeeerrre!
Ethan: Got it! Thanks Jared!
Jared: You’re welcome Eeftan.
Ethan: We are on Level 10 now.
Jared: I want go back to Level 1.
Ethan: But we are on Level 10.
Jared: But I want to go back to Level 1.
Ethan: You still have alot of powers left.
Jared: I do?
Ethan: Yes. You have all kinds of powers.
Jared: OK. Look out! (shooting) choo! choo!
Ethan: Oh no! My gun doesn’t work. (climbs under blanket)
Jared: Eeftan! Get yourself out! I’ll help! Choo! Choo!

On and on this goes. Lava carpets. Deadly aliens. Guns and Superheros. Adventure on a galactic level. Ethan’s gun was a plastic ruler and Jared’s gun was a Bob the Builder drill. Everything they saw was a prop. They are so polite to each other too. Like British double-oh agents. Thank you Eeftan. You are welcome, Jared. Now let’s get the bad guy!

A little secret: Sometimes when Mommy is not looking, I jump into their world for a few minutes to join the adventure.

We picked a place! Check it out. Katie did an awesome job of negotiating and being decisive and making it happen. Three cheers for Katie! Hip Hip…HooRay! Hip Hip…HooRay! Hip Hip…HooRay! It is a beautiful home on Hickory Lane. Cul-De-Sac street (French for ‘Cut the scrotum’). At the end of the street is a short path to a lovely park with a tennis court. That big thing north of the house is a mall, but you hardly notice it. And we are close to the race track (DAD!).

We move in early July. Exciting!

Regarding Joe Biden…He CAN beat Frist and Jeb. He has more charisma.

Glen’s First Law of Politics: W = C/T

The Winner equals the candidate with the most Charisma dived by the Television exposure of the election. In other words, the more the candidates are on TV, the more Charisma will trump all other factors. Biden has got it, and Frist does not. Jeb has “some” but not as much as Joey. Also, the MBNA comment. He is a Senator from Delaware. It is impossible for him to oppose the credit card industry. I don’t like it, but I will give him a pass this one time.

Joe Biden took one more step towards running for president. (See article) I really like Biden as a candidate. He has gravitas. His resume is good. He commands a solid presence. I just hope he runs a better campaign than Gore/Kerry. I like Hillary Clinton, but I think she may not be able to win. I’d like to see her stay in the Senate or possibly run for Governor.

Kid note: Ethan got upset the other night and threw a fit on the couch. Sarah and Sean Clegg told Jared to go over to Ethan and make him feel better. He said OK and walked over to Ethan. After a few seconds he said, “Excuse me, Eeeftan.” (long pause) “Wanna fight?” Ethan said no. Jared came back and said, “I tried.”

Oh, to be young again, when sword fighting was the most wonderful thing in the world.

Feeling the squeeze. Need to find a good house. I’d like it to be in Menlo Park / Palo Alto, but we can’t live in the car either. The last 10 years have been a roller coaster. We have moved 6 times in 10 years. Katie has had enough I think.

Check out this poem from Ethan on Katie’s blog.

Almost done with the Phi book. He does a good job. 62% of the time, he is debunking claims of using the Golden Section. Pyramids, Parthenon, Picasso. He is debunking all the P’s. It still is cool. What is most striking to me is how nature uses patterns so effectively. Reality can be expressed in physical laws and physics is expressed in mathematics. Our reality can be expressed mathematically. Math is cool. Why didn’t someone explain that to me in Algebra? Mrs. Brown, where are you?

We applied for two houses in Palo Alto/Menlo Park this weekend. Hopefully, we will get one of them. We have been experimenting with a setup for navigation and finding the houses. Here is the setup:
1. Latitude D610 Dell Laptop.
2. Pharos USB GPS Receiver
3. Microsoft Streets and Trips 2005
4. 60-Watt DC-to-AC Power Inverter

So we plug the laptop into the adapter. We plug in the USB GPS puck and then launch Streets and Trips. Magically, it centers on where you are. It can rotate the map so you always point forward. It can leave a trail of all the places you have gone. It can give you updated directions if you miss a turn. It is pretty amazing. Now, I know what you might be thinking…You can do all that for cheaper with an all in one GPS device. However, the benefits of our setup are that we have power of the laptop to do other things. Write notes, tabulate details in excel or even write email.

Speaking of email. It has been my experience on these trips that if you park your car anywhere in a residential area, you have a 33% chance of being able to get internet access from someone’s unprotected WiFi network. It is somewhat mind-boggling. A malicious person could attach to any of these networks, easily crack the password of the computer in the house and then format the drive.

I appreciate the free access, but it is not a good idea.