Don't get me wrong.. It's florida, and it's supposed to rain every day at 3:30 during the summer.. but man, sure does seem like its been constant lately, no?

10 day forecast on weather.com has rain every day.

Brevard county now has its own FloridaCreatives.com group, thanks to the initiative taken by Lawrence. We even have a logo that doesn't look like the second life logo (hah, couldn't resist Ryan.)

The group is up to 16 members right now on the wiki, and discussion is getting started on the when's and where's of getting a happy hour going. It's looking like a healthy group coming together over here on the coast.

So who is it for? What's it about? The Florida Creative meet ups have really been about bringing together people from various sides of the creative field under one roof. Get together for a drink or three and meet some interesting folks. If you're in marketing, design, theater, music, web design, programming, whatever. It's a great way to meet fun/like minded people in the area.

Check it out.

Ugh.

Googling around, it looks like ISP's started blindly blocking incoming/outgoing port 25 connections. I've been blessed with kick ass connections over the years from ISP's that are pretty legit, so I had no idea this was going down. When Kat's system admin suggested that as the reason for her not being able to send e-mail, I was doubtful. Turns out though, he was right and Bellsouth/AT&T FastAccess DSL is right in the mix of it.

Their thought is that it prevents spammers from using their network.

Uhh -- Because a spammer isn't going to be smart enough to configure smtp on a different port or start port scanning to find open smtp servers from people who have configured smtp to run on a different port?

Right.

What blocking port 25 really does is make it a complete pain in the ass for users with work email to send anything, and forces adminstrators of work email systems to start setting up smtp on random port numbers instead. Is this really what its come to? So much for standards, I guess.

On the face of it, it's not that big of a deal, especially for most people. So you have to use bellsouth's mail server only, big whoop right? The rub is that you not only have to deal with the headache of reconfiguring your mail client every time you are on your home dsl connection, but you are now also willingly giving bellsouth a copy of every email that you send. In the days of such privacy concerns, I'm not sure why I should have to give them access to confidential work emails. Yes, they can monitor my traffic in real time (they're my isp, afterall), but it seems a bit redicolous to simply hand them over copies of everything. What if we were competing against them in something? What if the gub'ment came knocking without probable cause? They haven't earned that kind of trust yet.

I called tech support last night to see if they could offer any reasonable rational and/or possibly provide a decent alternative. I asked, repeatedly, for them to answer in a yes or no way whether or not they were blocking port 25. It took about 15 minutes before the rep. would confirm what we were suspecting (that the port was blocked). After staying on hold for another 30 minutes (I was in the car anyhow.. ;), I spoke with a supervisor named Alex Gonzales. He informed me that they don't block port 25, they "restrict it". Clever. I can, of course, use port 25 all I'd like so long as the connection is to bellsouth's smtp server. But, if I do use their smtp server, I'm only allowed to send 100 emails at any given time or else I get blocked. If I want to have unrestricted smtp access, it's available, but only amongst business class accounts -- something that's $400+ a month for the slowest DSL connection (note: a full t1 costs less here, and I'm paying $40/month for their fastest dsl currently). Evidently business's are the only ones who respond to emails on planes ;) I'll make sure to stop at 99, I guess.

What killed me even more was that the supervisor told me that the port blocking isn't disclosed anywhere. Not on sign up and no where on their site. I asked if they could provide me with a list of all services blocked, all quotas, all restrictions that they impose on their users and he told me that they could not. Is it fair for a company to sell internet access with undisclosed restrictions? Seems like thats a little bit misleading.

So here's the question -- Bellsouth's realibility, speed and cost are all pretty good (in fact, I might go as far as to say that they are excellent. At least, so far).The only negative I have so far is this stupid port 25 issue and what appears to be a craptastic tech support group. I have enough "outside" servers where I could probably come up with a proxy solution or something to bypass it all, but I'm tempted to instead give my money to a more deserving ISP (viva la consumer!). I used Cyberonic up in DC, and from what I gather, they service this area as well. Same down speed, double the up (which would probably be nice for video conferencing), no blocked ports or any other nonsense. They also have great support (or did back then, at least). It'll cost me about $20 more a month though, which over the course of a year, is quite a bit to spend over a blocked port issue. That's like, 1.7 gazillion dollars compounded over the rest of my life, I think...

Any thoughts? Any other experiences or solutions/suggestions to offer? I'm not a big cable modem fan as the speeds can be inconssistent and the realibility of brighthouse down here is pretty low. FIOS, in all its glory, isn't yet an option.

If anyone is interested, downtown Orlando will be visited by Mayor Giuliani Monday morning.

Doors open at 9:45am and it's a free event.

225 South Garland Ave.
Orlando, FL

I won't bother commenting on the relationship situation that USF's Ben Moffitt finds himself in, that's his business. What's more interesting, especially in light of the suspensions our friends up at FSU just handed out, is this:

"He is living a lie," she said. "He's lying to everyone. He's not helping (us) with anything." Their marriage of five years has deteriorated to the point that Shauna, 26, made public Thursday a larger allegation, saying that she had taken multiple online courses for her husband and written papers for his college classes to keep him eligible to play football.

"I have written every single paper he has ever written in five years at USF," said Shauna, who works as a data specialist in the Sumter County Appraiser's Office.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, USF officials had not responded to questions seeking comment on the academic allegations.

Yikes. This is fodder of course for everyone outside of USF who has questioned Coach Leavitt's discipline (or lack thereof) of his team over in Tampa. I'm sure this type of thing takes place not just on football teams but on college campuses at large, but man.. talk about continually fueling the fire that was kicked off by Nick Saban bashing USF's lowered acceptance requirements. This comes after ESPN ran a "behind the lines" on the school showing that close to half of the USF players were admitted under 'special circumstances' with the NCAA.

This kind of thing plays out one of two ways -- either they get past it unscathed and start recruiting legit kids, or they keep going until they implode from on and off the field issues. The big question that comes up when discussing the "timing" of a possible shakedown, is whether or not Leavitt will stick it out to be around when it happens. Personally, I think if he were looking to "upgrade" coaching positions, he would have already done it. Especially with all the openings this post season.

Kiel was able to score a couple of VIP passes to the Republican Debates held here in Orlando on Sunday night. Massive, massive thank you to him for bringing me along.

It was a pretty crazy event. We went early enough to walk around, take it all in and talk to some folks. The whole political process, when viewed up close, is extremely surreal and probably the best people watching you can possibly ask for. Some of you know what Kathryn does for a living, but for those of you that don't... well, I've been around it in some shape or form for a little while now. Seeing it all take place in our hometown, and being right up close to all the candidates at once though, was a really cool experience. Kiel and I had 5th or 6th row seats with our names on them, which meant that we were just to the side of the moderators (crazy close) and were probably the only "commoners" in the immediate area.

I won't go into how I feel about various candidates or anything like that (if you like politics, feel free to ask me in person.. I've grown immune to discussing it and keep a pretty open/even mind), but afterwards we walked up to the stage where a couple of the "2nd tier" candidates were hanging around conversing with folks. Gov. Huckabee, who has been gaining momentum lately, was one of them.

I previously mentioned that he's a member of the same college fraternity I was active in back in the day (TKE). I think his son is an active member and he was brought in as an honorary, but I'm not sure the details. I was having trouble getting his attention (he had a really big crowd around him) and his handlers were trying to walk him off the stage. I finally shouted, "Good luck, Frater!" and he turned around with "Are you a teke?! God bless you, frater." and reached back to shake my hand. Yeah, I slipped him the secret cool guy handshake. That's how we roll. I'm not sure he caught it though ;)

I have always heard stories of how President Reagan would go out of his way to shake hands with tekes, and I'm sure every frat has their own similar story. With Reagan, the line is that he's the only president to have visited a fraternity house while in office (Fundraiser at Purdue, I believe), and he mentions TKE occasionally in his diaries. He remained active in the fraternity as an alumni pretty much until he was completely unable. I've seen his signature on a letter to TKE as late as 1999.

It probably seems extremely silly to the vast majority of folks, heck, it seems silly to me simply writing about it, but it makes for fun conversation. I've served as a Chapter Advisor (up at Maryland) and occasionally try to help mentor/advise some of the guys down here at UCF (just for good karma, not in any official capacity). Alumni stories help inspire kids to over achieve (one less game of beer-pong, one more hour of studying.. or, you know.. not.. whatever). "Look what this guy, who you have something in common with, has been able to do." I now have my own first hand account to share and can quit making it all up as I go along. Rad ;)

Anyway, the day was a lot of fun. If I understand correctly, Democrats are refusing to campaign in Florida over some political beef with the state party (translation: if you're a dem in florida, your primary vote no longer counts for anything). Seems a bit short sighted to completely boycott such a battle ground state. If this election comes down to Florida again, and Dem's lose, they officially have no one to blame but themselves. It also would have been hella' interesting to compare/contrast similar events from different sides of the aisle. Maybe next time around...

We had a fantastic fourth of July this year. Our apartment is right on Lake Eola in Downtown Orlando, so we had an uninterrupted eye level view of the fireworks from our balcony. We probably had 20-30 people stop by throughout the day, and it was great getting to see a lot of our friends. We tend to both get so busy that time just flies by without realizing it.

Today, Chris and I got together for lunch at Too Jays off of Colonial (over by fashion square mall). It's probably this first time I haven't eaten absolute garbage this week (been trying to finish off the last of the BBQ food from the fourth). Not only did we get a great sandwich, Rudy Giuliani (and his wife, Judith) stopped in on his way to the Pepsi 400! Pretty neat experience, and he definitely has that captivating charisma you often hear about in regards to presidential candidates.

An interesting article on Orlando appeared in the National Geographic recently (hat tip to Celly). It reads somewhat scathingly, pointing out all the negatives of Orlando. Most of it reflects areas of town outside of Orlando proper -- St. Cloud, Kissimmee and the growing Orlampa areas (that stretch of land between Tampa and Orlando). While tooling on the overly franchised, fake culture, stamped out McMansion life style, the author then goes on to praise the area for our diversity.

He ends the article by stating that by leaving Disney, he was able to find "America's real Epcot." The thing is, I'm not sure he ever left what most of us still refer to as Disney. It's not about being on property or off, it's about being in South-South Orlando. I find myself recognizing what he describes, but seeing something close to the exact opposite.

Most folks who live here love it. Some of us are even passionate about it. But If I had to come up with a list of words to describe Central Florida, diversity wouldn't be on it. That lack of diversity might be one of my biggest complaints, yet it is what the article praises us for.

I guess I might define diversity not as the presence of different cultures, but the melting between them. To give you an idea, there's still a street named "Division Avenue" just west of downtown, and it is, as you might suspect, fairly divisive. The author describes a few high schools of highly intermixed populations -- hopefully that represents a large shift coming in Orlandos demographics. We're a young city, and with time we can hope that mix brings about something culturally unique to the area.

I look out the window of my apartment downtown though, and while its not very diverse, I can't see any franchises or mcmansions. I see an amplitheater that does Shakespeare every year, a park that has some sort of festival once a month and an amazing neighborhood known for its night life. Down the road is an antiques district. Not to far away is a collection of museums ranging from folk art to a science center. There's a top notch history center right in the midst of downtown as well. We have an NBA team, the 7th largest university in the country, and regularly play host to a number of college bowl games. Orlando itself is a thriving region with great food and fun things to do. There is much life outside of Disney and Orlampa just as there is much life outside of the Strip in Vegas.

The article does point out the loss of anything remotely "old florida." It's a travesty in and of itself that its not unique to Orlando. Much of the state's charm is disappearing to areas to exactly what the author describes. There's a decent amount of that world left, but the fear is that it's only a matter of time.

If your interested in that sort of thing, I highly recommend reading A Land Remembered.

We've created a google group for the Orlando coworking initiative. This isn't intended to replace the general Coworking group of course, just more of a place to get noisy about finding spaces and hooking up various folks looking to get going.

We have a couple groups that are ready asap, and a number of people who are ready one-day-in-the-future. All are welcome. If nothing else, it's more community building for our town ;)

Check it out here.

This time, over at Crooked Bayou. Monday, Jan. 15th, 2007.

Here is the Upcoming.org link/rsvp.

This past Saturday night, at California Grill, I asked my girlfriend Kathryn to marry me.

California Grill was the right place to do it for few reasons. One, she just moved from California to Orlando, so there's that. It also looks out directly on the castle at Magic Kingdom and is the best place to watch fireworks anywhere in town. Because of that, it's where we went to watch the fireworks when I first brought her to Orlando two years ago. It seemed like the perfect place to conclude the last couple weeks of traveling and moving.

They brought out the ring on a desert plate with "Will you Marry Me?" written in chocolate. She said yes to a thundering applause from the entire restaurant, perfectly timed with the start of the 9 o'clock firework display.

I can't say enough about how perfect the entire evening was, about the wonderful staff at California Grill who I seriously need to thank via a written letter (gotta get those raises!), Gavin and his parents without whom I would have never been able to pull it off (his Mom was able to call some folks to get me the last second reservation, Gavin ran errands and delivered the ring to the restaurant for me), and our wonderful families for blessing/accepting us both as we start this new chapter.

I haven't gotten the chance to call/e-mail many people yet, so I figured I'd write a blog post and get the word out quickly and efficiently. Please don't take offense if I haven't actually spoken with you yet. Funny enough, someone already edited my wikipedia page with the date. Gotta love the Internet.

Both Kathryn and I are in Orlando now. We arrived this past weekend after one hell of a cross country drive back.

We met up in Portland, Oregon, drove north of Seattle, flew to Orange County, and drove to the east coast. There's just too many things to talk about in one blog post, and we haven't gotten the disposable camera pictures developed yet (our elph broke), but, included are my camera phone pictures.

Click "continue reading" for the photo-journal of sorts ;)

So I'm all packed in. I'll be using Gavin's futon for a bit while I search out apartments. Primarily looking in College Park, Thorton Park, Winter Park, or Downtown (the parks + downtown). So far, it still hasn't really phased me that I moved -- probably because I've been on the go for the last 6 months or so anyway I guess. Thanks for all the people who have offered to help. I still have some phone calls to return, but I'll get there in time.

Links:

• Forbes - Is sex necessary? - Might be a good time to mention that Orlando has a 1 in 20 HIV rate.
• Rubik's Cube Solver - I want to be one of those kids that can do that thing in under 30 seconds. Amazing.
• Startup Library - Paul Graham is the man.
  
• Fantasy Congress - If there is anything worse than politics, it's pretend politics. Let's recreate all the headaches of congress, without actually solving anything! Yea!
• Women's guide to dating a Geek Guy - I'll vouch for 3, 4, and 5.
• Scott beats Spasmodic Dysphonia - Behold, the power of optimism.
• outside.in - intriguing local web project.

We finished up the apartment last night around 9pm or so. I think we're using every inch of space in the uHaul. My car is being trucked down seperately, and it's filled to the brim with books (I seem to be starting my own library...). It's strange, cause, my place was only 500 sq/ft. I just built upwards I guess and was able to fit a heck of a lot more in there than I had known. For some reason, I thought it'd only take a few hours to get out of there... 3 days later.

I'm in Savannah now, catching up on some work in a highway hotel lobby. The morning's drive is cake though, about 6 hours to Melbourne. I'll hang out there for a day and bust ass on various coding projects, then drive to Orlando the following morning. ETA Thursday.