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GRAFFITI -- December 29, 2003 thru January 04, 2004>> Link to the Current Week <<Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Year 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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December 29, 2003 - Updates at 0700
Good morning. Yesterday was a nice day. I got to spend more time with my brother than I have in probably 15 years. He's a good guy, and we had fun wandering around the new National Air and Space Museum facility out at Dulles. That's where they've got the Enola Gay on display, and a Concorde, and the shuttle Enterprise. Plus there's Gemini and Mercury capsules and many, many planes of all shapes and descriptions. Good fun, no pictures (this trip). We handed him back to his girlfriend at the end of the day, and told her to take good care of him.
Most everybody's still out on vacation, so I have another busy, busy day ahead. I'd best get to it, as there's at least two customer sites in my near future. Take it easy...
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December 30, 2003 - Updates at 0650
Bah. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed. Yesterday, for example. First off, it was Monday, which never bodes well. The actual working day went pretty well, but the phone rang shortly after 3 in the afternoon - the house alarm had fired off again - the front door sensor. Just like Sunday, same time, too. I told them to cancel the police callout, as I strongly suspect that even the most moronic of thieves isn't going to kick in the FRONT door on a bright sunny afternoon in full view of the neighbors and the gods. Then I bailed out homewards, to check on things for myself - all was fine and we've got an appointment for service in the next day or so to check out the sensor - I suspect temperature fluctuation is whacking it. It's unseasonably warm just now, and that's about the time the afternoon sun hits the door. This won't do, so we'll get if fixed. That's why we've got the service contract on the system, in addition to the monitoring service.
Then I got a good chuckle from fortune:
bilbrey@goldfinger bilbrey $ fortune
Police: Good evening, are you the host?
Host: No.
Police: We've been getting complaints about this party.
Host: About the drugs?
Police: No.
Host: About the guns, then? Is somebody complaining about the guns?
Police: No, the noise.
Host: Oh, the noise. Well that makes sense because there are no guns
or drugs here. (An enormous explosion is heard in the
background.) Or fireworks. Who's complaining about the noise?
The neighbors?
Police: No, the neighbors fled inland hours ago. Most of the recent
complaints have come from Pittsburgh. Do you think you could
ask the host to quiet things down?
Host: No Problem. (At this point, a Volkswagon bug with primitive
religious symbols drawn on the doors emerges from the living
room and roars down the hall, past the police and onto the
lawn, where it smashes into a tree. Eight guests tumble out
onto the grass, moaning.) See? Things are starting to wind
down.
And one more which expresses the great truth the continuity of my chosen profession:
bilbrey@goldfinger bilbrey $ fortune Time sharing: The use of many people by the computer.
The Gentoo-ization of Gryphon the Sony Laptop has gone like a charm. Everything's working, I've got good ACPI running, so that there's battery notification and bunches of other information available. And the 2.6 kernel contains significant improvements to both responsiveness and stability. A nice combo. I'll keep exercising it and let you know what I find.
It's raining here, and 51 degrees out. We've been pretty warm with daytime highs over the last week - well above seasonal averages. It made for nice walking and driving around weather when playing tourist the other day, but darn it, where's the snow. I've got a snow blower... I want snow. Ah, well. I'd best be off to work. Have a great day!
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December 31, 2003 - Updates at 0715
Good morning. Yesterday I helped debug a java applet, attended a interdepartmental technology integration meeting, and installed Helix Producer and Helix Server on a Debian Testing box. Helix is the new name for the Real Networks streaming products. I got the server portion working before the day was up, at least with the sample media. To understand what to do next, I'm going to have to actually read a not-insignificant portion of the 430 page manual that applies to the product. Bah! In the evening I did not much except lay about on the floor playing with the dogs, eat a light supper, and chat with Tom on the phone about the merits of various features of Gentoo installations and package management. Exciting stuff, no?
Well, it's the last day of another year. I steadfastly refuse to engage in the insidious Thompson practice of modified weeks. It matters not to me when a week ends - a week lives in the year that it's most horrible day (Monday) sits in. And besides, for the purposes of this place, the basic unit is a week, and the functional demarcation starts for me with the work week. Years are just something that fly by virtually unheeded. It's the weeks and days that count, and the hours and minutes that drag by like something wounded in six lanes of traffic. Years of time are like light years of distance - a handy measure of big incomprehensible things, but otherwise useless.
That said, it has been a good year for us. We finally got our house, and we have now two little dogs to destroy our composure and keep us grounded. Marcia came through a couple of surgeries with flying colors. We both have jobs, a reasonably amount of health, a goodly portion of wonderful friends and family, and of course, each other. I'd have to win the lottery for things to get better than this.
Speaking of winning the Lottery, I'd better gather myself for work. Have a good day!
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January 01, 2004 -
Good morning, in a faint way. We were a-bed, lights out, before midnight rolled around. But first off, there were kids with instruments of terror ... ahem, I mean fireworks. Their celebrations carried them through from 2330 until about 0100. By that time, I was tossing and turning, fighting off this same flu-ish bug that's bitten Marcia. I don't know how long that went on, but I finally awoke at about 0630 to a terrible dream. Sally had been hit by a car or something and was found by some boys at the side of the road. I rushed to her, and she whimpered a bit, tried to raise her head and lick my face. She couldn't - too many things were broken in her face for her mouth to open. It was a very bad dream. Of course I woke up and she wasn't in the room. So I hopped up and threw on some sweats and went hunting for her - She's actually not feeling too chipper herself at the moment, so I found her laying out on the floor downstairs. We had a nice little cuddle down there, then I brought her back upstairs and put her on the bed for a bit of a treat (dogs aren't normally allowed on the bed). I'm a bit done in this morning, I'm afraid.
Yesterday at work was productive. Then in the evening I started what was to be a minor project - just a small bit of PHP to be able to include the copyright and modify across all pages, going forward. I ended up restructuring my whole Graffiti page around PHP includes. Here's the top-level code that will generate my whole page next year:
<?php /* Change this each posting day/event ... Days 0 - 6 for Mon thru Sun*/ $PostDay=0; $PostHour=7; $PostMin=0; /* Change this every week */ $StDay=5; $StMonth=1; $StYear=2004; /* Configure as needed , image paths, etc. */ $HeadShot="images/bpb_hs02.jpg"; /* a bit of preparatory maths */ include('grafmath.inc'); /* Now we start including the bits that build the page */ include('grafhead.inc'); include('weeklink.inc'); include('grafintro.inc'); $ThisDay=0; /* Monday */ include('dayhead.inc'); print <<<EOF <p><strong>Good morning.</strong> ... </p> EOF; include('dayfoot.inc'); $ThisDay=1; /* Tuesday */ include('dayhead.inc'); print <<<EOF <p>..</p> EOF; include('dayfoot.inc'); $ThisDay=2; /* Wednesday */ include('dayhead.inc'); print <<<EOF <p>...</p> EOF; include('dayfoot.inc'); $ThisDay=3; /* Thursday */ include('dayhead.inc'); print <<<EOF <....</p> EOF; include('dayfoot.inc'); $ThisDay=4; /* Friday */ include('dayhead.inc'); print <<<EOF <p>.....</p> EOF; include('dayfoot.inc'); $ThisDay=5; /* Saturday */ include('dayhead.inc'); print <<<EOF <p>......</p> EOF; include('dayfoot.inc'); $ThisDay=6; /* Sunday */ include('dayhead.inc'); print <<<EOF <p>.......</p> EOF; include('dayfoot.inc'); include('weeklink.inc'); include ('footer.inc'); ?>
That's down to 82 lines in basic form, before I start adding the content, and not counting the include files that perform some of the magic. But that's really a good thing, as those are out of my way, hard to screw up, and actually do a lot for me. Like this file, grafmath.inc:
<?php $StartDate=date("F d, Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, $StMonth, $StDay, $StYear)); $EndDate=date("F d, Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, $StMonth, $StDay + 6, $StYear)); $PostString=date("l \\a\\t Hi, T", mktime($PostHour, $PostMin, 0, $StMonth, $StDay + $PostDay, $StYear)); $PostDayStr=date("l", mktime(0, 0, 0, $StMonth, $StDay + $PostDay, $StYear)); $LastWeekStr=date("\\zYmd\\.\\p\\h\\p", mktime(0, 0, 0, $StMonth, $StDay - 7, $StYear)); $NextWeekStr=date("\\zYmd.\\p\\h\\p", mktime(0, 0, 0, $StMonth, $StDay + 7, $StYear)); ?>
That little module, in combination with some more date math that happens inline in the output modules, actually works to create the parts of my page that change each week, and each day, so that I don't have to fret about building links to the previous page, the next page, the right day, etc. I just change the three variables at the top of the weekly page, then put in my post. When the week's over, the Next Week link goes live, and the link to Current goes to the redirector instead of the posting day in the page. All automatically. So when a week's done, I'm done with that page and starting another one. I'll still have to manually update the redirector and site map, but the weekly pages are self-updating, to the best of my ability. I'll count on your help to spot problems.
Now, feeling ratty or not, I have projects I want to get started on. So it's off to the home improvement store with me shortly. Have a great day!
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January 02, 2004 -
0945 - Good morning. A long productive day yesterday. I built another desk surface for my office out of a 30"x80" door plus some spindle legs and a couple of wall attachments. I also made shelf liners for the pantry and upstairs linen closet out of 1/8" masonite. These are KitchenMaid wire-rack shelving systems that came with the house - they're fine, but small stuff falls through the cracks, or tips over. With a thin board on top, everythings's much more stable.
Today is dog grooming day. We've got appointments for both mutts at Petsco for a shampoo, nail trimming and haircut. For ease of care and to cut down on the hair-everywhere shedding problem around this homestead, we're getting them cut short. Then back here, I'll put up some shelves in the area where we're going to have Marcia's non-sewing crafts, and I'll start planning my woodshop in the basement. That'll be a bit more of a project, as the basement came to us completely finished, and I'm going to un-finish some of it. It's time to get started... see you later.
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January 03, 2004 - Updates at 1035
Good morning.I've yet to have some breakfast, so this is likely to be brief, but one never knows. Yesterday was more eventful for the dogs than for us. We made an appointment for both of them at Petsco earlier in the week, and Friday was the day - a full spa treatment: shampoo, cut, condition, nails, teeth, ribbons in the hair, the works! 
When I looked at the cost of doing it there vs. what I charge for my time, it clearly made a little sense. Part two of that decision is that while doing one dog takes me about 2.5 hours, both would take me 5 and leave me utterly exhausted and the dogs hating me. I'd much rather that they hate a perfect stranger, neh? Anyway, don't our girls look pretty? As you can see from the snap at left, Lucy's definitely happy to be home, and both manage to relax by me for a short bit, thereafter.
After dinner, Marcia and I went out to do a little organizational shopping. We picked up a few plastic bins for her crafts area, and a chair mat for the same. Once back, Sally went downstairs with Marcia, and promptly peed on the carpet. Argh. Much shouting of "Bad Sally!" and rubbing of the nose into the offending area. Then Marcia started cleaning that up. Moments later, I found a wet spot on the family room carpet! That one was Lucy! Double argh! I grabbed our new little mutt by the head and dragged her over to the spot of the deed and held her face in it while giving her a good shouting to. Then I started cleaning up that one. Sigh. When I was done, I found Sally moping by the back door, and it took a bit more searching to find that Lucy had gone to her room (that is, to her blanket by our bed), where she lay, head down, bottom not waggling at all. Do you think that I made an impression?
On the home improvement front, first, at left, there's the desk I did day before yesterday. It's hung on two walls with angle-cut 2x4, and supported elsewhere with legs. There's a cave area under and right for Sally to sleep in, and plenty of room for my laptop, and other things to spread out. The second laptop you see in that picture (at right, running Windows update)is Marcia's new sewing computer. We had been using my old Acer Travelmate for that purpose, but it would die on a frequent but irregular basis, and bits were starting to make a little too much noise. I'd tried to clean it but, but didn't get much in the way of results. So we picked up this Compaq Presario at Best Buy for just $650. 
Yeah, that's right: $650 (admittedly after mail-in rebates, but still... That price can't be beat with a stick. I almost can't build a desktop for that price. 1024x768 screen, 2.4G Celeron, 256M Ram, 40G HD, DVD/CD-RW ... quite a lot of computer for the price. We'd talked about that before, but there hadn't been enough bang for a small enough buck before.
Meanwhile, I worked on Marcia's crafts space yesterday, getting the shelving attached to the walls. With this, the last major round of unboxing can happen. I'll put up something tomorrow showing how Marcia unpacked into that space. And now there's a big hunk of empty basement that's calling out to be turned into a workshop for me. I might even start thinking about that today...
Have a great day, whatever you're going to be doing!
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January 04, 2004 - Updates at 1100
Good morning. A lazy quiet morning around this household. Dogs are napping out again and I'm tempted to follow suit. We slept in past nine, an unusual occurance between our normal weekday rising time and the dog's need to get out and pee. But everyone seemed to be in full-bore Sunday mode. Not too shabby, neh?
The holiday decor is dismantled and boxed, thanks to Marcia's hard work yesterday. I ... I did stuff, but I can't really point to anything accomplished. Sigh. Yet I stayed busy. Anyway, today the boxes are going back into the garage attic, a bit of post-cleanup vacuum running about is on the menu, and then I'm going to start laying out the basement workshop, perhaps. Marcia's going to install her sewing and embroidery software on the new laptop, now named Sew_What. If everything works as advertised, then I can get the mail-in rebate process going.
Now to get ready for the Sunday shopping. Tomorrow it's back to the week-a-day grind. Have a great day!
Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Year
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.