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GRAFFITI -- April 28 thru May 04, 2003 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.   About 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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MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
April 28, 2003 -    Updates at 0635 EST

Good morning. Those of you who noticed that there was no new guest head yesterday: 14 squintillion brownie points. Of course the exchange rate is 1 squintillion brownie points per French franc, and it takes 45 French francs to clean the pants of a Frenchman after he's declared a yellow alert. The good news is that there's an entirely different brownie point exchange system under development, due to the declining value of the franc. The bad news is that those of you who did notice didn't bother to write in and claim the brownie points, so it's game over.

I'll make up for my failing next Sunday with ... a double header! In the meantime, how was your weekend? Our was reasonably fine, thanks. Sally's continuing to stumble around like a drunk on a really good bender, but she's a trooper, and is working hard to improve. She won't be playing the piano again anytime soon, I fear. As you can see in the snapshot, her head has acquired a marked quizzical angle, which leads to the tongue headed out that way, too. Additionally, the shaving for assorted IV lines and blood tests have poodlized her front legs, which she would hate if she ever figured it out. The worst thing, really, is that we've had to put up the baby gate at the bottom of the steps. She's not stable enough to do them on her own but she really, really likes hanging out with us. We have two choices - keep her downstairs most of the time (with the one gate), keep a very, very close eye on her (virtually impossible), or get another baby gate for the top of the stairs so that we can bring her up and she can wander around up here at least. Okay, so that was three choices, but who's counting? I'll likely do the last, since we don't know when (or if) she'll ever be up to the stairs on her own again. I had to carry her down this morning...

One of Marcia's surprises for my birthday last week was a collection of chocolate yummies in assorted shapes and sizes from Creations by Patricia. The bits that survived to make the trip home (I ate the rest, sadly... not!) are shown in the image linked at left. There's a little computer with an unfortunate blue screen on it. There's a chocolate edition of a version 10 Red Hat (jumping the gun a bit, eh?) to install on the blue screen'd machine, and some bittersweet chocolate coated mint Oreos. I'd eaten the first stack of those on the spot. Patricia also did a little "On the day of your birth..." scroll thingy, and bound it all up nicely in a gift bag. Unlike my Revolution OS present from Marcia, which wasn't a surprise (because I told her about it), the chocolate was, and they're innovative and delicious. Disclaimer: Yes, I work with Mike, and went to Mike and Patty's wedding ceremony, but that doesn't make what I said less true, neh?

The tulips are finally starting to bloom in their urns out front, flanking the entryway to our covered porch. Because they don't get full sun, just late afternoon, they're coming up much later than most of the other tulips in the area. There are some really spectacular displays around town. If I can remember to tote my camera around with me from time to time, then I'll get a snap or two for you.

I did virtually no computer work this weekend. I spend the vast majority of my time doing assorted house chores. I put some of the finishing touches on Marcia's footlocker, including a few more trim pieces to clean things up quite a bit, and I've stained everything with a light English Oak from Minwax. I've still got two light sandings and two coats of polyurethane to go, then I can remount the hardware and give you another glimpse. Also yesterday, I continued with the yardwork: some weeding and another mowing, mostly.

This week just getting started (Oh, happy Monday to you, too, thanks) Looks to be another three on, two off week at the moment. That works okay for me, I guess, since I want to finish up Marcia's box, and get some beans planted. I do need to talk to Marcia about how she's going to want those beans supported? Do I need poles? String? An arbor? Also, I've spent enough time with Red Hat 9 that I might be able to write coherently about it. So many things to do, so little time. You have a great day! Oh, and by the way, yay USA!!!

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April 29, 2003 -    Updates at 0728 and 0753

Good morning. Sally's made great strides, in several sense. A fair amount of more "normal" behaviour resurfaced in her yesterday evening. And I was able to gingerly walk her down the stairs this morning. I am much pleased.

I am also more than slightly amused...

A number of you have written in to point out that Linux founder Linus Torvalds has publicly stated that "DRM is perfectly ok with Linux!" For a long time now, whenever DRM topics would come up in the news, some Linux fans would cheer on their favorite OS, assuming that DRM would never survive in the Linux world because of its obviously capitalistic underpinnings.

That quote appeared in an OSDN email update. The first part that cracks me up is how some elements of the "Free Software" community seem to forget that it isn't meant to be free as in beer (although much of it is), but to be free as in being eviscerated while your face is painted blue: Freedom! Linus has never, ever expressed any sentiment about having the kernel be a cop to regulate certain kinds of allowable actions with a Linux system. What is required is that anything that ships with the kernel be GPL. That's the start and the end. Every once in a while, he has to say, "Yes, I mean that in this context as well." Then all the hounds start yapping as though they've never paid attention before. Well, perhaps they haven't.

The second part of this blipvert that cracked me up is as follows: I clicked on the link to take me to the OSDN website. This "story" was in the newsvac section, with a link to Ars Technica. I clicked on the link to get to the story, and had to reject cookies that were requested to be set by three different advertising firms. Three! I'm surprised that people are willing to come read articles at the site because of it's obviously capitalistic underpinnings.

I mean, heaven forbid people should want to eat or pay rent or anything of the sort. Do the people that write this sort of stupid article survive on the kindness of others? If so, do they think that the money that supports them in the style to which they would like to be accustomed grows on trees? or are they all just 14? Perhaps it's the latter... Yeah, that seems so, since this sentence fragment appears a bit further down: "...but it does put the issue in an interesting synopsis with Palladium,..." Huh? Whatever. Dude, when you want to use words that you've never seen before, use the dictionary to see if the definition makes sense in place of the word, when you use it in a sentence: Synopsis: Noun; 1: A condensed statement or outline (as of a narrative or treatise) See Merriam-Webster for the help you need. Come back in a few years.

Now I'd best get my day rolling. I have some polyurethane to apply to Marcia's new box, and some writing I want to do here. But first, Ibuprofin... my back hurts from the yardwork I've been doing. No, not dramatically, thanks. It's just an ache, not a strain or anything. But a 400 milligrams of anti-inflamatory in concert with a little light stretching will go a long way towards alleviating the ailment.

0753 - Wow. Someone, I don't know who, has linked LinuxMuse in with a fair amount of traffic. Look at this:

In total there are 16 users online :: 1 Registered, 0 Hidden and 15 Guests   [ Administrator ]   [ Moderator ]
Most users ever online was 25 on Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:06 am
Registered Users: bilbrey

Wooo. Of course, there isn't as much new content up there as I might like, but any attention is a good thing. Thanks to whoever linked in. Waitaminnit... let me check the logs. OK, there's more data there than I can parse visually at the moment. Some of it may be search bot action. More later...

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April 30, 2003 -    Updates at 0709

Progress yesterday was sufficient. First, Sally's getting generally a lot better. Every time she shakes her head, she staggers and nearly falls. But other than that, she's doing TONS better. Oh, well, except for that depth perception thingy. I threw some food her way and instead of catching it like an all-pro outfielder, she let it smack her in the face and drop to the floor, where she proceded to search for it, with remarkable lack of efficiency. I'm wondering if she's lost most of the sight in one eye? At right, you can almost tell that she can't discern whether it's the camera or food in my hand as she heads my way.

Oh, and good morning. I also got some more planting done yesterday, just in time for the rain to pour down for a short while, just as I locked up the shed. That was after I started applying the polyurethane to Marcia's box. At left is the top of the box, immediately following the second application of polyurethane. I'm really, really pleased at how this is turning out. You can see at right how well the miter joints are fitted. Yes, that's the best one, but they're all fine, really. Since this is the first finish-grade project I've done since approximately 1978, I'm feeling rather full of myself at the moment. Of course, sometime today I'll drop the freakin' box and dent or break it or something. Then I'll just rub some shoeblack into the worst bits, re-sand it and shellac over the whole thing and call it distressed. Better it than me, I say. I gave the top a fondle this morning, and it needs more sanding and one more coat of poly. Oh, well.

Since the first pictures of the project last week, I also added more trim to dress up the corners - another quarter-round to finish up each end of the front and back pieces, which also hides the dado slot. Yes, I could have done a blind dado and chiseled out the rest, but that would have been far too much like real work. Heh. As it is, the corner detail gives the box a bit more of an architectural feel, rather than something like bits of shelving that have been bunged together. So that's a good thing, then.

In between rounds of sanding and applying polyurethane, I worked on a Red Hat 9 article for LinuxMuse. I did about 2500 words, which is about half-done, methinks. I might even finish that up today. If not, then it'll be weekend before I get around to it, as tomorrow and Friday are booked up tight.

Apropos of nothing (meaning that I couldn't come up with a suitable seque), I want to send a backlink to Pete, a gent who's local to us here in the DC Metro area. His site is Stockschlaeder.com, therein you'll find a blog and assorted other interesting bits. Not only that, but he claims to exceed Bob's protection. Yes, Bob has his own weapons, up to and including Malcom, Duncan, and the anti-Santa ZSU-28. But apparently Pete has a platoon of Marines equiped with a mess of .50 caliber gear. So don't mess with Pete, okay? Why Pete, you ask? I was ego-surfing last night on Google and found that Pete is the first non-Daynotes, non-search engine link to my site on the Google list. So, thanks, Pete!

Speaking of Bob, yesterday Mr. Thompson delineated a marvelous set of appropriate punishments for those Wall Street traders who bilked the public while courting lucrative investment banking accounts. Of course you've seen that their total liability under the bargain is 1.4 billion dollars, split among 10 firms. That means that each of the CEO's of those firms could chip in 140 million out of the office coffee fund and they'll be scott-free to um, monitor their own behaviour from here forward and promise not to ever, ever do that again. Now, the downside of Bob's plan is that when all is said and done, the malefactors are still here. Poor, sure. Traffic hazards, probably (but just a speed bump for a Thompson in a Trooper or a Bilbrey in a Santa Fe).

I was thinking, though. The other day Svenson wrote to me and asked why I was always so down on the French. Hadn't Belgium also vetoed our resolutions in the UN, and possibly prohibited overflights, etc? What was wrong with Belguim that they hadn't drawn my ire. Finally I have my response. When we're done with the formal punishment phase for the investment community, we'll deport the bastards to ... Belgium. My first idea was France, I'll admit, before Svenson's plea sprang to mind. I'll plead the early hour as my only excuse.

Now to get cracking. I have lots of sanding and "painting" to do today, as well as a couple of errands that I left off yesterday. That and the rest of the Red Hat 9 article to polish off. Y'all have a great day, too!

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May 01, 2003 -    Updates at 1710

Good afternoon. It's been a busy day, I'm glad to say. As it is, yesterday ran from about 0700 until 2130 when I finally laid aside my oars and called a day fighting upstream to be long enough. Yesterday I cleaned the bathroom, did more weeding in the yard, spent a little over an hour doing remote work with a client, built a decent workbench for the garage, sanded and poly-coated Marcia's box again, wrote bills and did my expense report for April.

Today started with a rush out the door, not late, but not dawdling, if you catch my drift. I dropped into the office to do a couple of short chores - about 30-45 minutes worth, I thought. No joy. At 1030 I bailed out and headed over to a client site where I'm fighting with getting offsite backups working properly, and lots of software updates. I'm slightly more than half done there with everything but the backups - they're not working right, unfortunately.

I just got in the door, and thought you deserved a word or two before I whip up some dinner and prep for a little talk I'm going to give at the LUG meeting tonight on Rsync and SSH. So now you know everything important, and I can get on with my day, guilt free. See ya around!

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May 02, 2003 -    Updates at 0659

Good morning. I have just enough time to say Hi! The meeting went well last night, I talked on and on in a droning sort of way about rsync and ssh and variations on that theme for, oh, 45 minutes or so. Then everyone helped everyone else with little problems, or chattered about stuff. A good time was had by all ... eleven of us. A much smaller LUG this is, than SVLUG. But then most LUGS are small compared to SVLUG.

Okay, I'm off to Rockville for a bit, you have a lovely day. Tomorrow I'll finish up writing the RH9 review that I didn't get to on Wednesday, and it'll be up Sunday or so at LinuxMuse. See ya!

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May 03, 2003 -    Updates at 0918

Good morning. I was awake at 0540 briefly, and again sometime before 0700, but thought better of getting up both times. Now the remaining day is shorter, and that's not entirely a bad thing. I picked up the Red Hat 9 writeup last night and laid out the structure for the rest of the article - that'll get finished today. It might have done last night, except that Marcia was laughing so hard at the AFV show that I had to go down and watch too - there went two hours and by then I was pretty whacked from the whole week, so we retired.

Yesterday's work was reasonably productive, for a day broken up by 4 or 5 hours of meetings about the new facility that we'll be helping the client move to in a month or two. The finishing touches are going into the building, the wiring contractor's about to lay in all of the fiber and Cat6 that we've designed for the mission, and then we'll have a frantic couple of weeks moving systems and bringing the functionality online in the new joint. Should be fun.

Here's some more woodworking from the week's production. At left is the new workbench that I built on Wednesday. It's 8 feet long, 28 inches deep, and just a shade over 35 inches tall. That's a good standing height. Marcia's new box is finished, too, and in place under her sewing table. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I have yet to do something about the top skew, but it's something less than a 32nd of an inch alignment at the back that's driving less than 1/8th of an inch at the front. I don't like it, but I'm not sure how I'll fix it yet. Other than that, I don't have anything I want to change - it meets Marcia's needs and my aesthetic.

Okay. In order to get anything done today, I need to wrap this up. In a short while we're going to take Sally in for a checkup with the vet. Then Greg and I have some security work to do on Rocket. And there's that Red Hat writeup to work on, yardwork, and another small woodworking project I've in mind. I guess I'd better get to it, no rest for the wicked. Have a lovely weekend.

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May 04, 2003 -    Updates at 1025

Good morning. As promised on Monday, to make up for the lack of a new guest head on Sunday last, here's a double header for your amusement and education. To the right you find Michael Faraday, chemist and physicist from England. Following early work in chemistry and electrolysis, he made use of the principle of conservation of energy to show that since the flow of electricity created a magnetic field, a moving magnetic field should create a flow of electricity (induction). This made generators possible. Additionally, Faraday developed the concept of electro-magnetic lines of force, against then current theory. He showed these lines of force experimentally, strongly influencing the mathematical formalization of field theory. Learn more about Faraday.

This formalization was accomplished by James Clerk Maxwell, pictured at left. A Scot by birth, trained at Trinity College, Cambridge. Following his matriculation, he received a fellowship to continue his work. In those two years that followed he developed and read On Faraday's Lines of Force in 1855 and 1856. Shortly thereafter he returned to Scotland, and took up a position at Aberdeen. After several other changes of venue, he spent 6 years working at King's College in London, where he did more important work, including the calculations that led him to surmise that light was an electromagnetic phenomenon. He wrote 4 key partial differential equations on electricity and magnetism, took up the first stint as Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge and designed the still famous Cavendish laboratory. Learn more about Maxwell.

The Saturday set of tasks and errands went quite well. Our vet is impressed with the quality of Sally's recovery, as am I. She has more meds now than she did a week ago, but she takes them like a trooper. Updates went fine on rocket, I built my underdesk footrest, and did a small spot of yard work. I also finished and posted the new Red Hat 9 article up on LinuxMuse. Whew. Today we've got shopping to do, and I've the lawn to mow. More than that, I'll not plan. So you have a lovely Sunday and I'll do my best to do the same.

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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.

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