Keeping an Eye on Congress

First of all, I’d like to implore everyone to visit GovTrack, where you can keep a close eye on Congress’s (lack of) activity. When representatives come up for re-election, take the time to look at voting records before voting yourself. The more fun part, of course, is signing up for e-mail updates when bills relevant to you come up. You can track all actions by particular congressmen, or that touch on key issues, and you can have it all sent to you via a pretty e-mail every day. It’s a great way to numb yourself to the politics of Washington DC.

Imagine my surprise, however, when my own Representative Maria Cantwell (D-WA) not only sponsored SR 649, but got it passed by unanimous consent. As a non-binding simple resolution, it doesn’t need to go to the House, and it’s not technically a law, but still September 18, 2008 will be “National Attention Deficit Disorder Awareness Day.”

Can I be the first to guess how this vote went?

“All those in favor, say Aye.” (chorus of ayes)
“All those against, say Nay. Oh, look, a chicken!” (sound of senators rushing out of the chamber)

Secure Linux Fileserver on the Cheap

I put together a new fileserver so my family could easily access our gigabytes of photographs and other shared files, without filling our individual hard drives and running into synchronization issues. Total cost, not including the out-of-date CPU sitting in the corner? Under $100. Below you’ll find step by step instructions on how I did it, in case you want to do the same.