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GRAFFITI -- February 05, 2007 thru February 11, 2007 >> 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   
February 5, 2007

1947 - Good evening. Not an altogether bad day. Stuff that didn't work after all the network changes I enacted on Saturday now are mostly working. I've a few more items on my punch list, then I can decommission a set of boxen that are no longer destined to be in the land of the living. Given that some of them are 5-7 years old, that's pretty rockin.

The bills are paid, using Quicken Mac. I finished migrating the rest of my settings from the old setup under Linux (which is still there in case reversion becomes necessary). But I made much progress in understanding how the UI differs from the Windows version (which was running under Crossover Linux, if you cared to know). I hate it less now, and figure I'll get used to it. I compiled and installed the latest 1.4.6 version of Mac Gnu Privacy Guard so now I can do decent encryption here. They don't have OS X binary installers yet, and I'm just not up for installing a known-exploitable version just because compiling is more work. A little more progress every day.

The Mail App, on the other hand, is deeply annoying. The way it chooses to organize the folders on the left column pane is ... well, pain. I can always go to Thunderbird, or use Mutt from the command line. Decisions, decisions. Then there's the desire to find an Aqua-native HTML/PHP editor that is deeply customizable but stays out of my way most of the time. I do like Bluefish, but I'm trying to get out of using X-based applications if I can help it.

Okay, the off-site backups are running, and it's time to collect and put out the trash. Then we'll see what trouble I can get into besides readying Jerry's column for tomorrow morning. Ciao!

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February 6, 2007

No Post..

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February 7, 2007

1858 - Good evening. Last night it snowed. I woke to a winter wonderland ... thin around the edges, and in the middle, and most of the other bits, too. Maybe an inch and a half in total. So every county in Maryland, and most in Virginia, cancelled school today. I think it must be the critical mass of lawyers just across the district line that makes such inane decisions seem sensible. How can Darwin do his work of improving the race? Think of the Children!

Last night I was busy formatting a couple of new things for Jerry's site. I managed to figure a good way of automating most of it, which meant that doing the second file this evening went much faster. If you like Jerry's fiction, keep an eye on both of his sites for an impending announcment.

Tonight? More Buffy - we're in Season 7 now, and coming down to the wire - only 4 discs left in the series... Gotta go. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
February 8, 2007

2153 - Hmmmm. Another day that started without running water at the building. This time a burst main up the street from the office not only turned the main road into an ice rink, but the ensuing WSSC trucks quickly blocked two of the three lanes leading to the freeway, a common commuter route. But not today. But by 0830, the water was on, and I was driving into the office. An hour of concall, and setting up to do some QA ate my day alive.

This evening, we had Empire Today in to give us a quote on replacing the carpet in our bedroom, along the upstairs hall, and down the stairs. Not sure yet what we're going to do in the assorted other bedrooms. I'm thinking laminate or bamboo across the baord. But that's a project for a different day. Soon, I'll need to prep the bedroom for painting, as that should come before carpet. By soon, I may mean as soon as this weekend. One more ceiling fan to hang, a switch to change out in the family room, then I can prep and start priming. I'm thinking 5 gallon bucket, as there's a lot of wall, and cathedral ceilings.

On the computing front, I'm having a go with two editors: TextMate, SubEthaEdit, and Smultron. I'm working with SubEthaEdit ... err, three editors, yeah. SubEthaEdit is the current audition. Not much more for me so far than Vim (or stuff that I could do with Vim macros). But I need to read the docs and whatnot. So I'll do a bit of that for a while. Have a nice evening.

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February 9, 2007

2108 - Good evening. Following an email from Dave Markowitz, I'm now skipping ahead and trying TextWrangler, a light-weight (and free-as-in-beer) cousin of one of the top-rated OS X editors, BBEdit. Between that and Dave's recommendation, it's worth a shot. I note that it has none of the HTML-handling tools of it's (rather pricy at $125) fully featured relative. That's *really* what I'm looking for, and this doesn't have it. What I'd LOVE is Bluefish as a MAC application instead of a GTK one. Bluefish does what I need. But I don't like flipping back and forth between the X Window and OS X interface keymaps. So I guess this is TextWrangler's first and last hurrah for me. I can do this stuff in Vim running in the Terminal app.

We picked a carpet and installer today - American Carpet. The quality of their carpet is better than offered by Empire Today - and correspondingly more expensive. But worthwhile, we think. And they were the ones who did the work for Linda Rose - recent work done referral counts for a lot! So now it's time to prime and paint. So I picked up 5 gallons of Killz-2 today, tomorrow I'll start the prep and tape routine and see how far it takes me. G'night!

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February 10, 2007

No Post......

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February 11, 2007

1155 - Good morning. Sigh. The day's half done and I'm not even started on painting yet. But the shopping is done. Yesterday I did some clearing in the downstairs guest suite - Linda is going to be staying with us for a couple of months while her sister and spawn are hanging out at her place. I also finished plenishing the absolute emergency stock of water - a bit over 50 gallons worth. I also prepared the walls in the master suite - patching and such. I've got to sand and wipe the walls down, then I can start priming. I'd best get to that, just as soon as I've taken care of this...

• Spc. Eric R. Sieger, 18, of Layton, Utah, died Feb. 1 at Buritz, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled over.
• Sgt. Corey J. Aultz, 31, of Port Orchard, Wash., died Jan. 30 at Ramadi, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations.
• Sgt. Milton A. Gist Jr., 27, of St Louis, Mo., died Jan. 30 at Ramadi, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations.
• Pfc. David C. Armstrong, 21, of Zanesville, Ohio, died Feb. 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a vehicular accident.
• Pfc. Kenneth T. Butler, 21, of East Liverpool, Ohio, died Feb. 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a vehicular accident.
• Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., died Feb. 2 in Ramadi, Iraq, of injuries sustained when he came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire.
• Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont., died Feb. 2 in Ramadi, Iraq, of injuries sustained when he came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire.
• Staff Sgt. Ronnie L. Sanders, 26, of Thibodaux, La., died Feb. 3 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Cpl. Richard O. Quill III, 22, of Roswell, Ga., died Feb. 1 from a non-hostile cause in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. Randy J. Matheny, 20, of McCook, Neb., died Feb. 4 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Chief Warrant Officer Keith Yoakum, 41, of Hemet, Calif., died Feb. 2 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his Apache helicopter was forced to land during combat operations.
• Chief Warrant Officer Jason G. Defrenn, 34, of Barnwell, S.C., died Feb. 2 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his Apache helicopter was forced to land during combat operations.
• Capt. Kevin C. Landeck, 26, of Wheaton, Ill., died Feb. 2 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Staff Sgt. Terrence D. Dunn, 38, of Houston, Tx., died Feb. 2 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Lance Cpl. Brandon J. Van Parys, 20, of New Tripoli, Pa., died Feb. 5 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. Joshua J. Frazier, 24, of Spotsylvania, Va., died Feb. 6 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Cpl. Jennifer M. Parcell, 20, of Bel Air, Md., died Feb. 7 while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Petty Officer 1st Class Gilbert Minjares Jr., 31, of El Paso, Texas, died Feb. 7 in a helicopter crash in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Petty Officer 3rd Class Manuel A. Ruiz, 21, of Federalsburg, Md., died Feb. 7 in a helicopter crash in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
• Sgt. Maj. Joseph J. Ellis, 40, of Ashland, Ohio, died Feb. 7 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.

My heart goes out to the families of the fallen, and to their units, who soldier on in their absence. I'm so proud of our armed services.

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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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