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GRAFFITI -- July 12, 2004 thru July 18, 2004>> 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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July 12, 2004
0954 - Good morning. By the time I'd taken care of the dog and myself, it was time and past time for me to be on the road. So here I am, briefly saying Hullo before getting deeply into the day's work. Lucy was a good girl, while we visited with Jim and Ebony last night. But she's missing Marcia something fierce. Me, I know she's coming back, so I'm not as fretted about it as the poor little mutt. Now I must keep moving here, there's lots of things to do including replacing a dead disk from the E450. Have a great day!
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July 13, 2004
0658 - Good morning. Let's start the day off with a question from an important reader:
Since you communicate with a lot more people out there in Cyberspace than I do would you post a question for me on your website?
I am looking for a new Search Engine Submission service. I'd like to know:
- What Search Engine Submission service have others used?
- Who did a good job and who didn't?
- Who was easy to work with (or not)?
Any suggestions and referrals would be appreciated and can be email to [email protected].
So she's looking for any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks for helping out...
I put up a nicely rude post up on Orblog last night. Of course, the wrong words can warp a child forever, so people who are children, and/or children at heart ought not attend my words. By "child at heart", I mean someone who has virtually no control over their actions or emotions, cannot think critically, and often is found coloring outside the lines. Yes, Michael Powell, I think we're going to have to hold you back another year. This year, we'll focus on the Constitution of the United States, and try to teach you something about Freedom of Speech. And are we distracted by your new tech blog? I think not.
And the high point of the reading was stumbling across the video of Leonard Nimoy singing The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. What was I reading? Why, the Monty Python version of two of the three books of The Fellowship of the Ring: Fellowship, Two Towers. Return of the King is coming soon, they say. Envision a combination of Holy Grail, Life of Brian, assorted Python sketches, and the beloved stories of Tolkien. Some bits at the beginning go like this:
Including the majestik c�w
My sist�r once st�pped in c�w p��p...
No realli! She was Karving her initials �n the c�w with the sharpened end of an interspace t��thbrush given her by KtujHegh (her brother-in-law) - an Osgili�th d�ntist and star of many G�ndori�n m�vies: "The H�t H�nds of an Ithili�n D�ntist, Fillings of Passi�n, The Huge M�lars of B�romir..."
We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.
A little while later, right after the bit about the Nazgul who say Ni!...
Narrator: Rivendell. Imladris. The house of Elrond. Frodo finds himself wandering alone within the long halls and vast rooms of this the "last homely house east of the sea."
Hearing voices, he creeps quietly up to a doorway and carefully peers in. Inside the strangely dimly lit room is a man sitting in a chair. He is oddly clothed, even for a southron or man of the Haradrim. Standing around him are three tall imposing elves. Frodo strains to hear as one of the elves leans in close to the seated man...
Elrond: Welcome to Rivendell... MISTER Anderson.
Frodo: {GASP!}
Elrond: You know the thing I HATE about humans? It's the smell.
I ran across these sometime last week, then it fell out of my mind until Mike happened across them today. I went back for more in the evening yesterday, and quoted those bits above to entice you. James Haines has done a marvelous job, but clearly has too much time on his hands. I dread his activities when ROTK is done.
Finally, last night as I got ready for bed, Lucy signalled in unmistakable body language that it was time for a belly scratch. This time she held to pose long enough for a snapshot followed by the desired activity. Earlier in the evening, she'd been pawing at the floor near Marcia's favorite chair in the living room. When I asked her what she was doing, she just jumped up on the chair, lay down in a mopey pose, and looked at me. Yeah, I miss her, too, Lucy.
Time for me to go to work. Have a great day!
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July 14, 2004
1402 - Good afternoon. Been hard at work all day. Busy, busy, busy. Interviewing for a new NERD, updating Windows boxen, etc. Gotta roll. Have a great day!
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July 15, 2004
- Good morning. A brief post to match a late start. By the time I finished modifying the proposal and getting that off to my agent, along with patching up a number of client windows servers remotely, it was well into the 0 hour of this morning. It's better to be late and fresh than early and stupidly groggy, in my book.... Hmm, book. Yeah, you read right. Laura, my agent at Studio B, floated a couple of ideas past me late yesterday evening, one of which is yet another book that Nick Wells walked away from. But it's a great concept, and if it comes together (contractually, etc), I'll tell you all about it.
Today is patching day. I'll be hitting all the same sites I visited last week to get the ADODB configuration "patch" installed. Larry will take care of some other locations, as will Mike. Together, everything will be done by mid afternoon. But I must fly. Have a great day!
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July 16, 2004
0705 - Good morning. I pushed up onto Orblog a picture of the first bloom on Marcia's Tiger Lilies. There's now a second one in bloom, too. Stunning.
Another from the So-What's-A-Bloke-To-Do department: There's a lot of ripening tomatoes. They're not stunning, overall I'm underwhelmed by the production from this garden. I'll be converting to raised beds for next year, with more topsoil, less clay and better drainage. I imagine that'll help a lot of these plants. But still, there's bunches of tomatoes, too many for salsa, and there's still some of that left anyway...
So of course it's time for red sauce. I took all of those tomatoes, cut back the unripe and unpleasantly over-organic bits, and rough-cut the batch into one heaping large steel bowl's worth. About a gallon or a bit more, I'd guess. Now if I started with a huge batch of perfect tomatoes, I'd use the boiling water method to get them peeled, then seed them prior to starting the cooking/reduction. But I figure it's time for Red Sauce Robusticus (that means skin and seeds in, neh?). So in seven batches, I ran all of the fruit through the Cuisinart, and got it into my 10 quart pot. With a little heat underneath, it's time for first seasonings.
Out to the herb pots I go, nicking a couple of stalks each of Purple Basil and Oregano. Gently washed, I stripped all the leaves into a pile, and chopped away for a bit, not going for consistency, but fine enough to get some distribution through the sauce. Then in goes one and a half medium-sized yellow onion, and that smidgen of garlic (pathetic, really, but all I have in the house right now). Then I'll grind in some fresh mixed pepper, perhaps a quarter teaspoon for now, a half pinch of dried hot pepper, and that's it. Simmer for hours, then cool overnight in the fridge.
Saturday morning I'll pull it out again, and start simmering early in the morning. I'll add a couple of bay leaves for about 4 hours. After 8 hours of simmering, the sauce should be reduced by about 1/3 from it's original volume. Then I'll add a small can of tomato paste and a couple of fresh rough-chopped tomatoes for a bit more texture, and perhaps some more seasoning to taste, probably a quarter-teaspoon of fresh-ground sea salt, and then boil some pasta up. Plate the pasta, then sauce over, garnish with more basil, and lots of parmesan cheese. Oops, I should have told you Atkins-types to not read these last few paragraphs,eh?
Today is half day each at two sites, the first in Gaithersburg. Yesterday was Windows Patch day, as we got all of our on-retainer clients patched up to the set released by Microsoft on Tuesday, just as another four IE vulnerabilities were revealed. Are you sure you don't want to try Linux? Anyway, I've got to get rolling. No new news on the possible book front. If they're interested, then they'll float a number past me. If I don't throw up or laugh myself to death, then it's possible that we can put together a deal that lets me write this one all the way to the bookshelves. That'd be fun, if a bit tiring. But now it's time to go a-driving. Have a great day!
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July 17, 2004
0845 - Good morning. Made it through another week, whew! After some adventures (details here), Marcia made it home last night. I am happy. Lucy is happy. Everybody's happy. Now she's at the hair place, and I'm going to make some coffee, then get into the chores. I want to get everything done today, as tomorrow my brother's daughter arrives for a week's visit. I'll take a day, perhaps two, off to tourist around with them. But that depends on workload, etc.
Before I go, look at what the Senate is trying to foist off on us now. Contact your Senators, let them know you think it's a bad idea (if indeed you so think). Then have a great day...
Sample Text for a Blog:
The Senate Commerce Committee may decide on Tuesday, July 20, whether to extend to VOIP and the Internet the FBI design mandates contained in a law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). That law required traditional phone companies to meet certain design standards to allow phone calls to be wiretapped easily, but when it was passed in 1994 Congress recognized the unique architecture of the Internet and explicitly excluded the Internet from the scope of its surveillance design mandates. Congress should not extend CALEA to VOIP and the Internet -- it would be bad for innovation, cost, privacy and security. Everyone should tell their Senator that CALEA is a straightjacket, ill-suited to the Internet. While there may be legitimate law enforcement concerns with regard to wiretapping the Internet, they must be addressed in a way appropriate to the Internet. See www.cdt.org/action/voip/ for more information.
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July 18, 2004
1406 - Good afternoon. The rains started late yesterday afternoon and have been varied in density but solid in overall continuity (ranging more towards the drizzle side than the downpour side). It's not been warm enough to power any decent thunderstorms, though. I did get the lawns mowed yesterday, and I've got to push the vacuum around in a moment here, in prep for my niece arriving for a few days worth of visiting.
We got the shopping done, and I've been (along with all the other NERDS) working away on the launch of the new WETA (PBS for Washington DC) website that Craig has implemented for them. They rolled the DNS at midnight, and there's only a one-hour TTL on the record right now, so you'd think everyone would have picked up the new data yet, but Comcast's nameservers haven't yet. But when you can, check out the WETA website and see what a dedicated bunch of NERDS can do...
See ya around, have a great day!
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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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