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GRAFFITI -- April 03, 2006 thru April 09, 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.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
April 3, 2006

0929 - Good morning. Lack of content over the weekend doesn't equate with lack of interest, just lack of time. Simple moving of shelving turned into the start of some remodeling downstairs, and some electrical work upstairs. Yesterday, after Daylight Stealing Time went into effect, we got the shopping done, then I went out to do just a little yardwork. That lead to cleaning up all the dog gifts, trimming all the back hedges (and cleaning that crap up), then doing the first mowing of the season in the back yard. After that, I was whacked (and still trying to get a gaming-OS Spindle up on Vimes, which means that plenty of my opportunity time for posting was spent not booted into Linux, so lost that opportunity. Anyway, it's Monday now, DST sucks, and eventually my eyes will uncross. Have a great day!

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
April 4, 2006

0725 - Hullo. My friend and ex-jefe Jack Andresen is gone. He died last Friday, following an incident of some kind (stroke | heart attack) on Thursday. Trudy, his wife, business partner and best buddy, called me last night to give me the sad news. Between the two of them they beat so many odds to have a nice long run together that there's really only happy memories to carry forward. Jack was one of the brightest inquisitive minds in my life, well-balanced and full of good humor. Always, for Jack, my greatest concern was that he would have a disabling stroke that would leave him incapacitated but knowing what he was missing. I'm glad it didn't come to that. Good bye, Jack. I'm going to miss you.

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April 5, 2006

No post.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
April 6, 2006

0823 - Good morning. Thanks for the kind words that many of you sent in. I'm still a bit sad, but I've spent a fair amount of discretionary time with the memories of my times with Jack, and they all make me smile, so that's a good thing.

Reading and driving, though ... That's a bad thing. So here's a message from me to the bloke puttering along on the beltway in his tan Volvo sedan, Maryland tag ACW235, while reading his bible. Your book may be good. Your car may be good. But you're not that good, don't read and drive! I've got your picture in my camera, dude, so knock it off.

VMware Server Beta 2 is out now. VMware Server is the new free virtualization product from my buddies over at VMware. I've been using VMware Workstation for several years now, as a paying customer. Once or twice I've gotten a comp copy for writing projects, but mostly I pay my own way, because the products are so bloody useful for testing, configuration and documentation. There's lots more use than that, but I'm not really a dev at this point in time. Now this VMware Server product allows many things: Starting the virtual machines at system boot, multiple client connections from multiple remote hosts, and my favorite use: transporting virtual machines from system to system and having them run like a champ, independent of the underlying hardware. The free product is entry level, of course, and doesn't have the enterprise features of the ESX series, nor the teams and snapshots features of workstation. But you can run more than one virtual machine simultaneously, which is not possible with VMware Player. I spent much of yesterday mucking about with VMware Server, and I'm impressed. Give it a shot if you haven't spent any time with virtualization before. You'll learn a lot, and that's always a good thing.

Time to get to work. Have a great day.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
April 7, 2006

1051 - Good morning. Happy Friday! I've got a working OpenVPN tunnel finally, from home to work, and did some fun experiments with a remote VMware Server Console. Bottom line is, over a T1, it works fine. A bit of lag, but less so than the equivalent VNC connection, it seems. Certainly it is useful and a good tool to have in the arsenal.

Rain earlier this week. Then rain today and tomorrow. Sunday I'll have to mow, I'm quite sure. Okay, back to work with me. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
April 8, 2006

1259 - Good afternoon. I looked, but I don't really have much in the way of new pictures (out of the latest group of 25) that are worth sharing here. I just needed a bit of a sit-down in between projects here. Oh, of the most interest, perhaps is that I'm now running stock x86 Debian Etch. There were a couple of tools that flat didn't work as advertised under the x86_64 (AMD64) stuff, I tried Kubuntu and FC5 (AMD64) - the latter wouldn't install. I already can't recall why I didn't want Kubuntu. I'll do more experiments with AMD64 on a spare partition and return to it when all the needed bits are working properly.

Now to head downstairs to start fabricating the TV stand. Later...

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
April 9, 2006

1445 - Good afternoon. The shopping is done, the front lawn is mowed and edged, I've taken a few snapshots of the tulips (later on), and had a nice chat with one of our neighbors. In a few minutes, it'll be time to help Marcia pack for another whirlwind trip to California - fly out tomorrow, two days of meetings, fly back on Thursday.

The news out of Iraq continues to be non-promising, but I really can't tell what's true: the Administration and our left-leaning Big Media both have such an agenda that if either told the Truth, someone would have them committed to an asylum. I do know that our troops are doing a hell of a job under hard circumstances and continuing mission creep. Still, we're losing good young men and women in that effort. Let's finish the job and get them home, Mr. President. Here's two weeks (since I missed last Sunday) worth of lives spent in the cause of Democracy in the Middle East:

• Staff Sgt. Christopher L. Robinson, 36, Brandon, Miss., died in Sangain District, Afghanistan on March 25, when his HMMWV came under enemy small arms fire during combat operations.
• Spc. Frederick A. Carlson, 25, Bethlehem, Pa., died in Taqqadum, Iraq on March 25, from a non-combat related cause.
• Sgt. Michael D. Rowe, 23, New Port Richey, Fla., died in Rutbah, Iraq on March 28, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Sgt. 1st Class John T. Stone, 52, of Norwich, Vt., died March 28 in Lashkagar, Afghanistan as a result of enemy mortar and small arms attacks during combat operations.
• Tech. Sgt. Walter M. Moss Jr., 37, of Houston, Texas, was killed in the explosion of an improvised explosive device while conducting safing operations in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq on March 29.
• Pfc. Sean D. Tharp, 21, of Orlando, Fla., died in Baghdad, Iraq on March 28, when his element came under enemy small arms fire while conducting dismounted patrol operations.
• Staff Sgt. Robert Hernandez, 47, of Silver Spring, Md., died in Al Taquaddum, Iraq on March 28, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Pfc. Joseph J. Duenas, 23, of Mesa, Ariz., died in Kirkuk Province, Iraq on March 30 from non-combat related injuries while returning from combat operations.
• Pfc. Jeremy W. Ehle, 19, of Richmond, Va., died on April 2 in Hit, Iraq from wounds sustained when his dismounted patrol came under enemy small arms fire during combat operations.
• Hospitalman Geovani Padilla Aleman, 20, of South Gate, Calif., died Apr. 2 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Lance Cpl. Jacob W. Beisel, 21, of Lackawaxen, Pa., died March 31 from wounds received while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Lance Cpl. Kun Y. Kim, 20, of Atlanta, Ga., died April 2 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Staff Sgt. Eric A. McIntosh, 29, of Trafford, Pa., died April 2 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Cpl. Scott J. Procopio, 20, of Saugus, Mass., died April 2 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Cpl. Andres Aguilar Jr., 21, of Victoria, Texas, died April 2, when the seven-ton truck he were riding in rolled over in a flash flood near Al Asad, Iraq.
• Cpl. David A. Bass, 20, of Nashville, Tenn., died April 2, when the seven-ton truck he were riding in rolled over in a flash flood near Al Asad, Iraq.
• Lance Cpl. Patrick J. Gallagher, 27, of Jacksonville, Fla., died April 2, when the seven-ton truck he were riding in rolled over in a flash flood near Al Asad, Iraq.
• Lance Cpl. Felipe D. Sandoval-Flores, 20, of Los Angeles, Calif., died April 2, when the seven-ton truck he were riding in rolled over in a flash flood near Al Asad, Iraq.
• Cpl. Brian R. St. Germain, 22, of Warwick, R.I., died April 2, when the seven-ton truck he were riding in rolled over in a flash flood near Al Asad, Iraq.
• Staff Sgt. Abraham G. Twitchell, 28, of Yelm, Wash., died April 2, when the seven-ton truck he were riding in rolled over in a flash flood near Al Asad, Iraq.
• Capt. Timothy J. Moshier, 25, of Albany, N.Y., died in Baghdad Iraq on April 1, when his Apache helicopter crashed while conducting a combat air patrol.
• Chief Warrant Officer Michael L. Hartwick, 37, of Orrick, Mo., died in Baghdad Iraq on April 1, when his Apache helicopter crashed while conducting a combat air patrol.
• Staff Sgt. Darrell P. Clay, 34, of Fayetteville, N.C., died in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 1, when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was conducting a dismounted patrol.
• Sgt. Israel Devora Garcia, 23, of Clint, Texas, died in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 1, when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was conducting a dismounted patrol.
• Spc. Ty J. Johnson, 28, of Elk Grove, Calif., died in Kirkuk, Iraq, on April 4, when an improvised device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.
• Pfc. Chase A. Edwards, 19, of Lake Charles, La., died April 6 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Spc. Dustin J. Harris, 21, of Bangor, Maine, died in Bayji, Iraq on April 6, when an improvised device detonated while he was conducting dismounted patrol operations.
• Spc. Daniel L. Sesker, 22, of Ogden, Iowa, died in Bayji, Iraq on April 6, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during combat operations.

My condolences to the families, and to the troops in the field, who go on fighting, that their fallen comrades shall not have died in vain.

Back in tulip-land, here's a few shots from today's bonanza...

Some of the woodworking prep for the project I started yesterday is done, but I'm taking it easy for the rest of the day. Next weekend I'll pick up that ball and finish the prep, and start assembly. Have a great rest of your Sunday, and I'll do my best, too.

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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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