Got root?

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately working with my Australian Shepherd Callie.

Well, her registered name is RisingStar Diamond in the Ruff, but her call name is Callie. She’s pretty awesome, and I’m getting her ready for showing. I also think she’d be pretty good at agility down the line.

Here she is: Click here for her picture.

Our latest endeavor has been Basic Obedience. This is kind of interesting because you don’t want her sitting in the show ring, so I’ve been trying hard to decide if I should avoid “sit” altogether for now, or else get her to the point where she only sits when I tell her to. I’m leaning toward the latter.

The training facility, Connecticut K-9 is great. They having a training method that involves some minimal correction, and lots and lots of praise (with a food reward from time to time). Seems to work very well for Callie and me.

I’ve come to believe in what the author Jon Katz calls co-existence. For example, there are things that Callie, by the very nature of her breed, are compelled to do. Yes, training helps, but in a way, it’s also like having a 3 year old running around the house. You child-proof your home for those times when accidents happen. You dog-proof your kitchen (especially if the dog tends to want to check out what’s on the counter) for the same reason. Co-existing is a lot less stress on both of you.

By the way, you might want to check out Katz On Dogs, which is an exellent book. He’s got Border Collies, which are a lot more high energy than Aussies, and his books have been most helpful to me.

More on Callie and our show efforts in the future…..

Sigh.

This is probably the toughest time of year for a sports fan.

Baseball has just started spring training. Yes, I follow the Red Sox (and have for a very long time), but they’re not even playing split squad practice games against themselves yet, let alone Grapefruit League games. True, there’s always the Manny drama, but that’s gotten old too.

Football is done. Being a NY Giants fan, the Super Bowl was a bore. But it was still pig, and there won’t be pig until August at the earliest.

Forget the NBA. The days of Bird, Magic and Jordan are long gone, and what the NBA touts as basketball isn’t what I’d call basketbal, so it is boring. And I don’t like hoops that much anyway. College is going strong, and we’re poised on the brink of March madness, so hopefully that will hold my interest for a nanosecond or two.

Hockey? Well, the US Olympic Hockey team (read that American NHLers) was a bust. And fitting. How do you take guys two days away from the NHL and expect them to play like a team. Not going to happen. And the NHL (Go Bruins! Get out of last place!!!) is boring this year too.

So, we can wait. I did happen to catch some fascinating stuff on ESPN last night, while waiting for dinner at the Outback. The Viking Obstacle Course Challenge. Check it out. It is sponsored by Viking (the kitchen appliance people) and was pretty wild.

Until life renews with Opening Day, I’ll just have to get by…..

From time to time I need to create a self-signed certificate for Apache and SSL. This is mostly for development and playing around and I don’t want to spend money purchasing a certificate for that.

The following is an excellent HOWTO on setting up a secure site with Apache, OpenSSL and a self-signed certificate……

Apache, SSL and Self Signed Certificates

It deals with Apache 1.3, but if you’re knowledgeable enough to know what an SSL certificate is and why you would want/need one, then you can probably figure out the little bit extra that you need to know to set it up for Apache 2.0. I did (wink, wink)

Have been visiting digg.com a lot lately.

It’s a kind of news site where the stories that appear on the front page, closest to the top, are the ones with the best “digg” rating. They get their digg ratings from you, the reader. If you “digg” a story, you click on the “digg” icon. It registers your “digg” and turns the icon to “dugg” so you can’t “digg” it more than once.

The best part is that there are a lot of unusual and informative stories out there that end up on digg that you might not often see in your surfing travels. Folks see them, submit then, and then enough people “digg” them to get them noticed.

Granted, some of the stories I pick up on slashdot or Wired News first, but not all that many.

Today, I read about the discovery of a new cave in Venezuala that is so large, two helicopters can enter and land. The same article also mentioned the discovery of a new species of poisonous dart frog in the same area.

I also read about enough techno-geek stuff to feed the geek for the day too.

Check it out — registration is free and you’ll enjoy it.

It certainly was a different time than today, that’s for sure…..

I’m reading 1776 by David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Adams and Truman.

This book covers the monumental events of the first year of the American Revolution, and covers it well from both points of view. From Washington taking over the Army at the siege of Boston, to the surprise victory at Trenton (remember Washington crossing the Delaware) this book details the events of that pivotal year in American history.

Easily readable, it brings events that are 230 years old to life. Moments of sheer bravery are mixed with political intrigue. Quotes from diaries and histories of the era remind that reader that what we take for a fact today (American independence) was in doubt almost every day of that first year — and for several more years beyond that.

If you like history, or even if you just want to learn a bit more about our beginnings, pick up this book and read it.

Haven’t had much time lately to think about blogging or anything else. Been busy working.

Here’s a few random thoughts I feel like putting out into space.

1. If you’re a C/C++ programmer and want to get better, check out www.cprogramming.com, especially their message boards. If you think you’re pretty good, participate by helping explain things to the newbs. If you’re a newb yourself, most folks in there are pretty cool to you if you don’t seem like you want them to do your homework for you.

2. Hamas got elected the majority in the Palestinian elections. Do you think anyone is more suprised about that than Hamas?

3. The Super Bowl is coming up. I don’t really care who wins. This year, for me, the game will be about the commercials, and the food at the party…..and not necessarily in that order.

4. Only 16 days until pitchers and catchers report.

5. Saw a BMW 645i this morning. Took me a while before I could catch my breath. YOWZA.

Okay, that’s it for now….more when I have more time.