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GRAFFITI -- November 24 thru November 30, 2003>> Latest: Sunday, 0930 EST <<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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November 24, 2003 - Updates at 0645
Good morning. I slept too late, again. Not terribly so, but.... There's some pictures of Marcia's hair amputation and a couple of house shots I put up yesterday. Today I've got to go get started building a Debian box or three. I might even try to relax over TurkeyDay. We'll see. Happy Monday, eh?
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November 25, 2003 - Updates at 0700
Hullo. Am I glad I left California? Lessee ... a governor who was an actor ... again (Remember some B-movie actor named Reagan?). An now this: Los Angeles has decided that the "Master/Slave" designation is no longer acceptable terminology for vendors to use in equipment sold to the County. Hmmmmm. OK, Maxtor, relabel every drive you sell.... now! Thanks to Slashdot for bringing me that belly-laugh last night.
Sally's lost her appetite again. She was great while my folks were here, and quite tolerant of the whole moving houses thing. We've even taken all the pillows that she's preempted and built her a corner throne in the family room, for her to nap on and survey part of her domain from. She seems to like it (see the picture). But she's an old dog, and partial over the last few months to periodically getting just a little sick. The doc at one point wanted to do chest X-rays and ECG testing. We thought about it, and between the monetary cost and the cost in Sally's discontent over the anesthesia, we decided that was a no-go. We just take care of her and make sure she knows we love her very much. And the picture was from the other day, when she was feeling fine, just caught at nap time.
Every few years I take an IQ test. I took another one last night at Emode. Note that there's a strong pitch to spend money at the end of the process. However, the test did yield a number that's consistent with other tests I've taken over the years, and included the following text:
During the test, you answered four different types of questions -- mathematical, visual-spatial, linguistic and logical. We analyzed how you did on each of those questions which reveals how your brain uniquely works. We also compared your answers with others who have taken the test, and according to the sorts of questions you got correct, we can tell your Intellectual Type is Visual Mathematician. This means you are gifted at spotting patterns -- both in pictures and in numbers. These talents combined with your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture, which is why people trust your instincts and turn to you for direction -- especially in the workplace. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results. |
Visual Mathematician. That characterization seems about right to me. A bit odd, because I'd expect that I did fairly well at the linguistic side of test as well. But then, I'm not going to spend 15 bucks to read their computerized analysis of my 40 answers. One of the points of such tests is that they reflect (generally) the truth of the matter and done properly yield consistent age-corrected results in adults. That's certainly been the case for me. If I took one of these that gave back a number that differed dramatically from my previous tests, I'd question the test before my own abilities. Of course, later in life, that might simply be dementia speaking... but I'm not too concerned about that just now.
Now to get into the day. Yesterday was fairly successful - I got a Java Applet environment setup and working properly, including solving with an educated guess the problem that was preventing the client from connecting to the proper server through a firewall. Just remember that DNS has it's fingers in many places - if the IP and/or machine name don't resolve forward or back, then put the appropriate entry in /etc/hosts. It fixed my problem. Today I might get around to mucking with the Debian boxes that I keep threatening to work on, but somehow I doubt it. Have a great day, and remember that you should start thawing the turkey, if you haven't already.
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November 26, 2003 - Updates at 0930
Good morning. As Marcia noted last Friday, she's on Vacation. Now I get to join her - I've got a day or two accumulated, and I have actual holidays to use for Thursday and Friday, so it's time to relax for a little bit. That's a good thing, as the commute yesterday was just terrible. I'd have expected to have less than usual traffic, given the day and the week in question. But no, not one but four accidents kept me from arriving at the annointed time. One involved a narrowed chunk of road and a traffic stop to clear the cars, bodies and debris, so I travelled (if that's the right word) just over a mile in one hour. Lucky us (I count all the cars around, too).
I have no plan, and no chores on tap for today. Marcia's out shopping at the moment, and I think I might take a nap, or read, or ...? Anyway, have a good day.
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November 27, 2003 - Updates at 12:40
Happy Thanksgiving!
Good afternoon. I've been a lazy bum all day so far. I was up twice during the night caring for the mutt... Sally, making up for her lost day, over-ate yesterday and wasn't too happy - she had to go out in the wee hours and chomp on some grass. I stayed out with her for quite a while, giving her the opportunity to be ill if she needed that. I brought her back in finally, but slept lightly thereafter, keeping an ear on her in case she needed attention. That's not too conducive to a restful night. She didn't get sick, however, and everything that should be passing through her is... I'll leave it at that.
As is the case for me, there's lots to be thankful for. My lovely and loving Marcia, my family and friends, even Sally the perennially sick canine. We have a roof and food, and this year, the roof is ours (well, the bank's, but you know what I mean). I have love and life to enjoy, work to do that provides value to people - I can't ask for much more. And I have you all as my companions and friends in this venue. I've met a few of you, corresponded with quite a number, and appreciate each and every one. Thanks for dropping by, I hope you enjoy your family and friends this holiday, and through the season.
Now it's nap time again. I'd best be about it. Have a great day.
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November 28, 2003 - Updates at 1024
Good morning. A thoroughly successful Thanksgiving day, replete with caloric overconsumption, parades, dog shows (on TV as well), naps and reading. I also pulled down and burnt a copy of the new Mandrake 9.2 ISO images, just in case I decide to lose my mind anytime soon... Today is likely to be more of the same - I may install either Mandrake or Debian on spare hardware here for fun, but that's about it. Happy Friday!
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November 29, 2003 - Updates at 1723
More bad traffic today... lots of it between North Carolina and here. Yeah, we went south for Thanksgiving. Tuesday's sucky driving was really sucky, but driving down there, not to work. Today's driving was a two hour backup behind an accident on I-95N, then holiday shopping traffic on MD301 from there. Sheesh. More details tomorrow, and pictures, when I'm in a better mood. Right now I have leg cramps, a headache, and my bladder is all bent out of shape. We did have a good, relaxing time, though.
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November 30, 2003 - Updates at 0930
Good morning. I'm still tired from all that relaxing (and driving). All we did (Bob and I, that is) was read, talk, watch a few episodes of Buffy, eat, agree that gun control meant using both hands to steady the weapon, take naps, eat and sleep. During the daylight hours, the professional shoppers (Marcia and Barbara) were out practicing their craft. In the evenings, we played Cranium a few times. It took their friends Paul and Mary to come over and give me a win, when I played with Bob and Mary. I'm slow, on my own, you see... When Bob and Marcia played together on previous nights, they kicked our butts. Meantime, the dogs were predictable. Duncan tried to relax, Sally napped lots, and Malcolm attempted to protect everything and everyone from everything and everyone else ... simultaneously. I'll get some fang-y pictures of Malcolm from Bob later. Meantime, here's a few shots from the first day or two:
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Today is chores, shopping and a bit of work. In addition, I'm replacing Red Hat on the laptop. I'm not going to be supported by them going forward without paying fees appropriate to a corporate environment, so there's no purpose in me supporting them with my hardware. I'll recommend their products where appropriate, and other distributions (or operating systems, for that matter) where those are suited. Okay, I've got to get going. Later...
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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.