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GRAFFITI -- January 30, 2006 thru February 05, 2006 >> 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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January 30, 2006

2100 - Good evening. Really, there's nothing else to say: AAAAAAAAaaa rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh, HHHurrRRRRRRRRnhhhh. UUUHHHGGG-rrrr! UUUHHHGGG-rrrrRRR! UUUHHHGGG-rrrrRRR! HHHurrRRRRRRRRnhhhh. AAAAAAAAaaa rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh!

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January 31, 2006

0848 - Good morning. Precious little going down at the moment. It's raining again (yeah, not snow, it's been a warm winter since the bitter cold of mid-December) and as a result traffic this morning sucked. I'd not expected much else, since I had a sub-40 minute drive home last night. I knew there'd be payback, sooner than later. See you back here later if anything interesting changes.

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February 1, 2006

0701 - Good morning. Ironic, isn't it?

Yeah, a Mac Mini. I was thinking about not replacing Vimes (the dual Athlon MP box, my main workstation) with another tower, but instead one of these new Apples with the Intel Core Duo processor. Dodge (a cow-orker) suggested that I'd be better served by getting one of the low-end Apple boxen just to screw around with. If, after a few months, I could still tolerate OS-X and Aqua, then it'd be worth the investment. Otherwise I would only be out a few hundred, and probably able to offload it on Craigslist for some reasonable sum. So there it is on the side-desk, dwarfed by the old monitor, and interfaced with an MS keyboard and mouse. Pretty cool, actually. So far, so fun. More when there's more to report.

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February 2, 2006

0917 - Good morning. What a wuss! Across the street from us, there was a paralysed little shopping plaza for a few hours yesterday afternoon as a bunch of cops, firefolk, and assorted technical specialties spent a few hours investigating and defusing ... a VCR. Some dip for brains decided that the right choice wasn't picking up this bag that someone either dropped or left in the parking lot between Best Buy and Home Depot, looking inside, and leaving it with one of the stores in case someone comes back for their property. Nope. The FLAC decided to call the cops, because they was afraid. Maroons. The cops probably wouldn't have let the tv crews film me walking up to it, looking inside, and shouting, "It's just a fucking VCR! Get a life, folks!", would they?

Bob says that I'm flirting with the dark side, by mucking around with a Mac. The way I look at it, I've just metaphorically added a combo socket set to my toolbox. I still have a "shop" full of power tools (Linux and BSD), where all of my data is stored and (mostly) manipulated. What did I get working last night? X11 is installed now, so I can run X apps on my other machines, with the display running on the Mac. I can ssh to anywhere and do work. I've got my CD collection NFS mounted under /Users/bilbrey/Music, and iTunes plays the Ogg files just fine (once I installed the Vorbis plugin for QuickTime and iTunes). There's plenty of shiny different sockets I can play with, while the underpinnings of my home network and workstations remain safely free of Evil [tm]. Besides, this is a common geek failing: Look, a shiny thing!

Now back to work with me. The dogs are anesthetised, having their teeth cleaned. I'm going to pick up my new glasses later. Marcia's preparing for our weekend house guest. So all is well. Have a great day.

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February 3, 2006

0952 - Good morning. Last night's groggy post-anesthetic dogs were pretty perky and hungry this morning, no big surprise. Also last night I picked up and started reading Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game for the first time since initial novel-length publication in 1985. It's been a long time, and over the years I've read all of the assorted sequels, but it's time to start at the beginning. Fun stuff. Final news of the moment is that Bacon Girl (as we affectionately refer to our friend Jennifer) is going to be up for a couple of days this weekend. So now you know! Happy Friday.

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February 4, 2006

No Post. Day eaten by Daleks.

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February 5, 2006

1229 - Good morning. Well, yesterday wasn't actually eaten by Daleks [1], instead I spent the whole day doing a high-tech deep cleaning. All non-optical mice consigned to the dustbin of history. ISA bus audio cards, toast. Small adapters for original IBM PC Keyboard to PS2 - sayonara! A printer that doesn't? Gone. A scanner that can't? Ditto. I filled two large trashbags to about half full (so that the trash blokes don't balk at picking them up because of weight). It's quite a bit cleaner in here today ... here's a couple of intermediate shots:

There's still paperwork to be done, but I made lots of progress. Meanwhile, there's a football game on today, I hear. I hope that our troops at home and abroad who aren't standing duty enjoy it. Take a minute to honor their fallen comrades...

• Lance Cpl. Billy D. Brixey Jr., 21, of Ferriday, La., died Jan. 27 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, from wounds received as a result of an improvised explosive device while traveling in a convoy in Afghanistan on Jan. 25.
• Sgt. David L. Herrera, 26, of Oceanside, Calif., died in Baghdad, Iraq on Jan. 28, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Spc. Brian J. Schoff, 22, of Manchester, Tenn., died in Baghdad, Iraq on Jan. 28, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.
• Lance Cpl. Hugo R. Lopez, 20, of La Habra, Calif., died Jan. 27 at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, from wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Rawah, Iraq on Nov. 20, 2005.
• Cpl. Felipe C. Barbosa, 21, of High Point, N.C., died Jan. 28 from a non-hostile vehicle accident in Fallujah, Iraq.
• Pfc. Scott A. Messer, 26, of Ashland, Ky., died in Ashraf, Iraq, on Feb. 2, when his HMMWV accidentally rolled over during convoy operations.
• Spc. Anthony C. Owens, 21, of Conway, S.C., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on Feb. 1, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces using grenades and small arms fire.
• Pfc. Sean T. Cardelli, 20, of Downers Grove, Ill., died Feb. 1 from enemy small arms fire while conducting combat operations near Fallujah, Iraq.
• Spc. Walter B. Howard, II, 35, of Rochester, Mich., died in Balad, Iraq, on Feb. 2, of injuries sustained earlier that day in Ashraf, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M1 Abrams tank.
• 1st Lt. Garrison C. Avery, 23, of Lincoln, Neb. died in Baghdad, Iraq, on Feb. 1, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.
• Spc. Marlon A. Bustamante, 25, of Corona, N.Y. died in Baghdad, Iraq, on Feb. 1, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.
• Pfc. Caesar S. Viglienzone, 21, of Santa Rosa, Calif. died in Baghdad, Iraq, on Feb. 1, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.

[1] Daleks,created by Terry Nation for the BBC television series Doctor Who. Terry Nation rocks, and his estate is a tad protective.

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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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