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GRAFFITI -- October 13 thru October 19, 2003>> Link to the Current Week <<Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Week 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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October 13, 2003 - Updates at 0800 EST
Good morning. This is the week that takes Marcia and I right up to setllement day on the new house. In three weeks, we'll be in the new house along with all of our stuff. The funny part was Rick saying via email the other day just how much work moving was, with appropriate application of the 90/10 rule - where 90% of the work happens in 90% of the time, and the other 90% of the work happens in the final 10% of the time. But that got me thinking about how many times I've moved - here's the excerpt from my reply to him:
Yeah. Since 1979, I've moved, (not counting home for summer) lessee.... Orinda to Santa Cruz to elsewhere Santa Cruz to Orinda to Hayward to San Leandro to Oakland to Hayward to San Jose to elsewhere in San Jose to Hollister to San Jose to Newark to Sunnyvale to another apartment in the same complex in Sunnyvale to a house in Sunnvale to Maryland, and now across town to the first house we own. That's 17 moves in 24 years. Can you say YOWZA ????
Sometimes I scare myself. On the other hand, during that span of time, I had just 5 employers of note (and a few small gigs in between). So I'm not unstable (at least in any externally measurable way ... anymore). Heh.
Looking back to September, here's a few of the better search terms I came across in the stats for this site...
There's lots more, but they're mostly re-runs about the Cavalier, screenshots of various distro installs, etc. I'm also amazed and honored to find over 82 countries represented in my readership here, including the Com, the Net and the mighty Mil. Heh. One thing that tends to draw a crowd are the pictures. Sometimes, like last week when I posted a set on the Praying Mantis, I got a fair amount of email, too. This time, I've just got a couple of shots from the front yard on Saturday evening - We have had a couple of light frosts in the last week, and it's kicked the leaf clock on the trees pretty hard. Some have just turned brown and jumped to their deaths, others are going all gorgeous. And those clouds in the sky shot lead to about an hour of light rain later that evening, then cleared out leaving a lovely starry sky with a full moon for us.
The house is clean, and I'm whacked out sore and tired. But since it's a holiday, I'll pack some boxes and relax just a little bit. Have a great day!
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October 14, 2003 - Updates at 0715
Good morning. Well, I was able to complete another batch of items from my To-Do list yesterday, from getting both vehicles serviced, to windows and yardwork. The good news is that I'm done with housework until we do some pre-move-in cleaning in the new house between the 20th and the 1st. So now I can get back to work, and to packing... sigh. I have things on the computers that I'd love to work on and tell you about, from FreeBSD to another go-round with object prelinking. But I simply haven't the time, at least for the next few days, and likely longer than that.
Today I'm off to a client's place in Gaithersburg to install a couple of new Dell systems, as well as do a full restore on a machine whose disk died last week. Tonight I've got bills to pay, then I'm off to the sadist's torture chamber dentist's chair for a cleaning tomorrow morning. More as time and energy allow... see ya!
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October 15, 2003 - Updates at oh-dark-thirty
Did I just say oh-dark-thirty? Why, yes. Yes, I did. And it's this early, so that I can go sit in the dentist's chair without impinging on my work day. Is this sick, or what? I'm not even awake enough to tell you that I'm not awake enough, yet. But the advantage of coma-based dentistry is not caring, before, during or after. By the time the work is done and I'm back into traffic, I'll be hating the traffic worse than the woman bearing the stainless steel assortment set from the Home Shopping Channel. Sigh, I'd best be going. Otherwise I'd miss my appointment with destiny. Dentistry. Damn.
And double damn. I forgot to actually upload this mini-post. Sigh. Here it is, now, at 2100.
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October 16, 2003 - Updates at 0701
Good morning. The dentist went fine yesterday, as did work, more or less. The high winds in the area knocked out power for a couple of hours at the one client site, so I did what I could, then boogied on over to another site for a while to be of use there, instead. It wasn't until late last night that I realized that my very early post for yesterday was in fact very late, as I forgot to run the update script upon completion of my typing.
Now to hit the road again. Always so much to do these days, but don't give up hope, with the organization that follows the move, thing will stabilize and grow around here again. Later...
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October 17, 2003 - Updates at 0636
Heh. Bob caught this one yesterday, and Microsoft still isn't doing the Reality Tango very well. As noted on several other sites, there were 5 announced vulnerabilities from Microsoft on Wednesday, MS03-041 through MS03-045. But -046 and -047 were also issued on the 15th. They don't show on the list, but they're there. Sheesh. Now an apologist might try the excuse that the latter two are for Exchange, rather than Windows in general. So explain why two vulnerabilites in software that's likely Internet facing, both allowing remote code execution, both providing services to (generally) LOTS of client workstations, should be less important than direct windows vulnerabilities.
This is even funnier in the context of the Bill Gates interview in The Register, where in it is alleged that he said, "We've gone from little over 40 hours on average to 24 hours. With Linux, that would be a couple of weeks on average." Thanks go to a Slashdot post for bringing that up, along with this little tidbit - the vulnerability addressed by MS03-045 on October 15 was brought to their attention on July 14. Seems to me like three months is somewhat longer than both 24 hours and two weeks (and where did the two weeks figure come from, anyway?). Ah, perhaps Darth McBride and the Iraqi Minister of Information are helping Bill cope with the real world in their own special way.
I've got a long day ahead, with a couple of conference calls and other fun stuff on Linux and Solaris boxen. Then there's an airport run this evening to pick up our guests. So I'll be on the road now. Take it easy...
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October 18, 2003 - Updates at 0730
Good morning. Work yesterday went well. In the evening, after picking up the folks at the airport, we went over to Timbuktu for supper. They've got a large menu, and keep a large, boisterous crowd inside - it was hard holding a conversation, unfortunately. But we had a nice shout, great food of large portion and a good time. We got home in time to retire for the night. Today we're off to the District for a variety of touristy-type activities. Oh, and Sally's feeling better again, too. Now I'd best go get some coffee. Have fun...
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October 19, 2003 - Updates at 0830
Good morning. We had a good time yesterday, relaxing if a bit tiring from all the walking about. We headed down into the District shortly after 9. After a bit of a hassle finding parking - the Lance Armstrong Tour of Hope was in town - we started out wandering up the Mall and into the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The big exhibit there right now is J. Seward Johnson, Jr.'s Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited. These are cast metal sculptures in full scenes, fleshing out the whole of the area both in and out of the pictures that they are based upon:
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The displays were marvelous, and fully interactive, in the sense that you can get in, on and around the art, placing yourself in the picture, as Marcia and I did in the bottom right frame, above. 
We had an early lunch there at the Corcoran, then went over to top (bottom?) of the mall, visiting the Vietnam War, Lincoln and Korean War Memorials. 
After some time there, we headed up to the Smithsonian for a short visit to a few pieces in the Castle, then over to the National Gallery for an hour or two. Whew. Tiringly large amount of art for a single day - I'm still overwhelmed. We finished the day with supper at The Sly Horse Tavern over in Crofton, near home here.
Today we'll brunch over at Jaspers, then head back to the airport for a rental car for the folks. They'll head off to Pennsylvania, and we'll come back home to continue packing and mentally preparing ourselves for settlement day tomorrow. Wow, it's almost time. Have a great day, yourselves!
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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.
All Content Copyright © 1999-2003 Brian P. Bilbrey.
