Is it still a parody if you approve?

I just had the strangest sensation. I was reading through an illustrative bit of fiction in a blog I generally read, and sometimes comment on, when I noticed that one of the characters had a name eerily similar to mine. Coincidence? I don't know, but my first name isn't exactly common.

I certainly have no objection to my name being appropriated in such a fashion, but I do wonder if I'm seeing something that isn't there, or not.

Guessing Right.

When I wake up with a headache (a not unusual occurance for me) I have a very short time in which to decide if its a migraine or a sinus headache. In summer, when the pollen starts to blow, both are common. In either case (since I just woke up) I'll want coffee but if its a migraine it should be an espresso (or three) and I'll have to down a bunch of AC&C right away. While that will 'work' to alleviate the symptoms of a sinus headache its massive overkill, and I'm reluctant to take painkillers if just a bit of Dristan and a hot shower will do.

On the other hand, if its a migraine coming on, the earlier I take the pills and coffee, the better my chances of completely averting it, or greatly lessening its impact.  I just took that gamble ten minutes ago, and took the pills and am drinking espresso. I was right. The headache has already grown so big that its obviously a migraine. Hopefully, I've headed it off at the pass. And now, I shall go and guzzle another espresso.

NNSquad's Network Measurement Agent (NNMA)

Here is a piece of beta open source software that I really like. NNMA is unusual (in my experience) in that it has a user interface that I really like, while lacking some functionality that I would dearly love to see. Normally with open source software, the functionality is all there, but the UI sucks.

Don't get me wrong, I strongly approve. It easy to find folks who want to add functionality. Its hard to find anyone who gives a damn about usability. I strongly suspect that this will soon gain all sorts of useful functionality, and so long as they don't break the UI in the process, it will be a great product.

So, what is it?

Its a network monitoring tool. The only one I've yet found that I could use out of the box with little or no effort. I got it because it can detect if you're being throttled by noticing when forged Reset packets come in. (Now if it would only filter them out...).

So, yes, I am finally being throttled. I had strongly suspected as much. When a torrent with 1000+ seeders downloads at less than 30 Kps (instead of the 300 I'm used to) its fairly obvious whats going on. At the moment, the throttling seems to come and go. Late at night I can sometimes still get the 300 kps.

Oh, one caveat: when they say this program is Beta they mean it (unlike Google and so many others). I find that the program crashes every 15 minutes or so on my system. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. (Yes, I have filed bug reports, complete with log dumps).