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Orb Designs Grafitti -- February 03 thru February 09, 2003
Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. EMAIL - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.. |
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February 03, 2003 - Updates at 0700 EST
Good morning. We left for the District shortly after the news broke about Columbia. We'd had this plan to play tourist for the day or two, come hell, high water or just snow and rain. As it was, we wandered about for a few hours on Saturday only, and watched as the flags here and there were lowered to half-staff to honor our dead. Here are some snaps from our wanderings...
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I was going to intersperse the pictures with commentary, but our little walk had better stand on it's own, I think. There are meaningful alt tags attached to each image. We left the Hotel Lombardy (our sanctuary for the night) and headed back along Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House. We circled that and crossed the top of the Ellipse on our way to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Then we continued over to the Lincoln Memorial, up and down those stairs, then back up to the hotel. We didn't cover a lot of ground, mostly due to Marcia's knee. But we were duly impressed by much of the architecture and statuary. Some of it is very moving indeed. Now on with my day. Take care.
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February 04, 2003 - Updates at 0700
Good morning. I'm off to Rockville today, and top of my stack today is finding a way to get eight serial signals 17 miles. However, I just thought of an interesting question or two, which might affect the answer to problem. Is it the signal that needs to travel, or just the console view of the signal? That is, can I put a multi-port serial board in a Linux or Windows box (depending on customer requirements), and then access that machine either locally or remotely depending on the circumstances. That might work, but first I needs must ask.
I got an email from Reed Reiner the other day. Contact 2003 is coming up soon. You may recall that I went to this conference last year, and it was a blast. There's lots to learn and plenty of interesting people to meet. If you're out California way towards the end of March, or you live there like I used to, then register now, and go to the conference.
Svenson looked at our pictures from yesterday and writes...
Hmm, Brian, I know your looking to buy a new house but, ahum, do you think that's what you really want?
You know, it's a mighty big lawn to mow ...
Now I must fly. Have a lovely day.
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February 05, 2003 - Updates at 0720
Interesting. I have a good bite on the line for a new book (thanks to the persistence of Laura Lewin at Studio B, who keeps pitching me to publishers.) This isn't a mega-book gig, like the Linux Book that Tom and I wrote a while back. I'll be keeping the day job and writing on what I hope is a fairly relaxed schedule, provided the publisher-agent-author dance works out well. I have these visions of Hindmost dancing with a holographic host, off in another room in Hot Needle of Inquiry. This should come out fine. More details here as appropriate, but I'm excited. Tired in advance, but excited.
Good morning. Yesterday was a good day, and not just for Klingons to die. We have 16 serial console lines in one facility in Rockville, and we need access to them both locally and elsewhere. The downside is twofold. First, it's a Data General, and the termcap definition is hinky. Secondly, there are some questionable voltages on the hardware handshake lines that puzzled both the customer and myself. However, we read and logged the values and started looking at how best to get access in the desired ways.
To shorten a day-long story, we applied an old Digiboard 16 port console server to the problem, just to see what would happen. This had been tested before, but didn't work for some reason. Due to my persistence (some might call it stubbornness, or being just plain pig-headed), I wanted to try it anyway, rather than just buying a new piece of equipment blind. After all, if the concept didn't work with the existing parts, I wouldn't have any confidence in its working with something new. Wonder of wonders, it worked. We only had to put Signal Ground, RxD and TxD across (in a Null Modem configuration, reversing the latter two), and no loopbacks at all. It just worked. Now if only I could find a decent termcap entry for a dg410 terminal (or find out how to set the Data General to talk to another terminal type, like a VT100, say).
Now I'm off to Gaithersburg for the day. I hope mine goes well, and your's as well. Take it easy.
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February 06, 2003 - Updates at 0650
Sorry, folks. I have no time this morning early. I've got an early meeting an hour's drive from here, so I'd best be going. After talking it over with Marcia, I've green-lighted the project for Laura to come to a contract with the publisher on the book idea. We'll see what happens. More details as I am allowed to give them. You have a good day, and I'll do the same.
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February 07, 2003 - Updates at 0900
Good morning. I'm home, and not just because the predicted 3 to 6 inches of snow overnight became the "we told you 6 to 8 inches" out of the mouths of the weather liars. And there's about 8 to 10 inches in our back and front yards. But that's not why I'm home. They're plowing the streets, and I suppose I could shovel the driveway. But it's not that, either.
Yesterday morning, I was fine. In the mid-morning I started feeling a fair bit of pressure deep inside my right ear. By shortly after lunch (brought on faster by all the chewing action, perhaps), I had spears of pain radiating all through my head and down my neck into my chest and shoulder. At that point I said, "Sorry, I thought I would hold out and go get this problem checked out this evening, but it's coming on too fast and I've got a lot of pain. I have to go to the doctor." And I went.
I went to the Bowie Health Center, down the street a piece from here. They're nice people, and for a walk-in, we-don't-know-you-from-adam urgent care place, they do pretty good, both in service and speed. I was in and out in just under two hours. They gave me some Ibuprofen for the inflamation and pain, having confirmed that it appeared I did indeed have an ear infection.
Then I went with Marcia to meet with the orthopedic surgeon and confirm the MRI results. They'll be scheduling her right knee for surgery soon.
The Ibuprofen knocked down some of the pain. Marcia got home from another errand, having also picked up my antibiotics, by around 2015 last night. I slept, badly, but I slept. I have enough pain and pressure still that I'm not going to risk things by exerting myself or getting out in this cold. The bummer is that I had to cancel a home-visit customer who has a new machine that needs installing - I don't like having to do that. I'll be going out to do that for them next week.
Anyway, I'll be here, resting. I hope your day goes better than my last 24 hours. Take it easy!
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February 08, 2003 - Updates at 0930
Good morning. There's little change to report, unfortunately. I've got less pain but more congestion, both in a head-cold sense, and in a pressurized, plugged ear in a fishbowl sense. I'll just keep slogging along, trying to make sense of things as I go. Yesterday was an utter waste. On purpose, admittedly, but an utter waste. I cheated my way through the last half hour of gameplay in Doug Adams' Starship Titanic. I had to cheat (using the guide that came with the game) because my concentration was so pathetic. And still it took me 4 hours.
A friend wrote last night about monitors, and how fate plays a role - she finally disposed of the box that the monitor came in two years ago. The next morning she had a new and excitingly non-realistic color palatte to work with. Not only that, but she got some interesting diagnostics from the people who sold her the last one (a Compaq). So which new models to select from, that was the question. There's no better book than PC Hardware in a Nutshell, and I sent her also to the Hardwareguys website, directly to the monitor section:
I've never heard of the computer next to the monitor causing the monitor problems (although I have heard of the reverse - there's big magnets in the back of a monitor pushing the electron beam around to make pictures - big magnets and computers don't always play well in close proximity).
I would follow Bob and Barbara Thompson's recommendation about monitors. There are two brands that they consider top-tier - NEC and Hitachi.
We have two NEC monitors: Marcia's is an AccuSync 70 (17" tube), and I have a MultiSync FE950+ (19" tube). Our next monitors (whenever THAT happens) are going to be flatpanels.
Here's the page with the Thompson's recommendations. It's definitely true with monitors that you generally get what you pay for, but pay for what you want in performance from a top tier manufacturer and you'll generally be happier for a lot longer. I'll acknowledge that there are lemons in EVERY crate of papayas, though.
http://www.hardwareguys.com/picks/displays.html
Hope this helps.
.brian
So, even under the weather I was good for something, for a five minute span, at least. I may blow all of my available energy digging the rest of the snow out of the driveway, however. So you know that when I go, It'll be Christmas in Heaven (every day, eh, with Graham Chapman singing, along with his chorus). Now I'd best be about it.
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February 09, 2003 - Updates at 0900
Good morning. I did finally get the driveway and sidewalks shovelled yesterday, but that was the limit and extent of my energy for the day. A good thing too, as we're expecting another 2-4 inches overnight tonight, sigh. A server transition for ETS appears to be going well, and I've finally got an updated set of web pages from someone else at the LaurelLinux LUG.
I have a few more chores today, a consulting call to take at some point, and even a nap in my future, perhaps. The ear continues to improve, but more slowly than I expected. I still have pressure and pain, and I rather thought that catching it early with antibiotics would knock it down as fast as it came up. Ah, well, live and learn. I'll be back later if anything interesting (to me) happens.
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Last Week
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Next Week
Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.
All Content Copyright © 1999-2003 Brian P. Bilbrey.
