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GRAFFITI -- July 02, 2007 thru July 08, 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   
July 2, 2007

2125 - Good evening. Not much new to report. I'm waiting for something for a column from Jerry, but all is quiet on that Western front, so I'll assume that that task drops onto my Tuesday evening instead. Oh, right. Running the rsync to backup from the local drives to the encrypted offsite USB-attached disk went fine this evening, taking 6 minutes for the AMD 64 X2 4400+ to accomplish the task that the slower, lesser Celeron, with much smaller cache, and 25% of the system RAM, took 20 minutes to do. Was the transition worth doing on that account? Of course not. But now, instead of two tower systems powered up most of the time, I'm down to one. That'll save a few bucks in direct electrical usage, and another few bucks in cooling costs. Nothing really, in the big scheme, but mostly it'll make my office more comfortable. That has HUGE benefits. I suppose that I could even move this tower downstairs. Hmmm.

Nothing but one tiny cherry tomato out of the garden tonight. Marcia said it was yummy. There's pink on a few more tomatoes, though. And once they start ripening, the floodgates tend to open. Perhaps a week to 10 days. Grin. Okay, Happy Monday.

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 3, 2007

RIP Beverly Sills This CNN obit isn't bad. I don't care for Opera as much as I might, but as I was growing up, Beverly Sills helped me to like it as much as I could at the time. And of course that she worked doing stuff with Carol Burnett didn't hurt at all... That was one fun combination.

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Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 4, 2007

0953 - Good morning. Yesterday, on her way to an appointment in Annapolis, Marcia was run off the road by troopers or police of some kind. Well, not "run off" in the strictest sense, but they were coming up fast behind her - she pulled far off the road. Too far, actually, although that may have been the safest thing to do. She dropped a wheel off the road surface entirely, and it took the tire and rim, damaging both beyond repair. Sigh. So Marcia's pretty red car is in the shop, waiting for a new alloy rim to be delivered on Thursday, and a new tire to join it there. The folks at Toyota of Bowie were pleasant, kind, and generous with their time at the end of the business day and an uncalled-for free loaner car.

Happy Independence Day. My thanks and thoughts are with our soldiers in the field, working to bring something like greater independence to far-off places. I salute you!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 5, 2007

0706 - Good morning. Last night I read the Editorial column, "Booting Up", by Martin Streicher (Editor-in-Chief), in Linux Magazine. The come-on was bits of news about Adobe's Flex, Sun's JavaFX, and Microsoft's Silverlight. Then it became clear that some mental crack was being smoked, when I read this paragraph:

    However, there is a trend: the browser continues to usurp the desktop. More emphatically, the desktop is becoming irrelevant. Yes, you will always need some sort of silicon horsepower, but shorly, a thin client will suffice, perhaps as thin as the cell phone in your pocket. A copy of shrinkwrapped software installed on your PC hard drive will be as extinct as "whiskered" jeans.

Bullshit. The only way I could see that being true is if I stopped caring about who saw or stored my data. Oh, right, like that's going to happen. Now, commercial companies would LOVE to be able to store your data for you, preferably in their <cough>Microsoft</cough> proprietary format. Online storage is cheap, right? Bandwidth is cheap, too (relatively speaking). But where's my data if I stop paying my bill during a dispute? What happens if my credit is destroyed by an identity theft event, and payments stop? My data is held hostage until I resubscribe? Or "erased" because I let it go for too long?

My data is mine, it belongs on systems and hard drives that I control. I don't use a web browser to access my data. I use my browser to get to the web. But I don't intend to use a browser-based tool to work on my data! Security is important to me. I don't see online applications and storage as a panacea, nor as a lock-in for the future. We "fought" to get control over our computing environments ... why give it back to the people who want to be the gatekeepers in precisely the same way that the gurus of the mainframes were, in another era?

Oh, and WTF are "whiskered" jeans? I think I'm afraid to google that term, on the off chance that it'll lead down an ugly path that ends up with vomit porn.

Several houses in our subdivision have had roofs done recently. And in the last day or so, I've spotted evidence of leakage. This is the original roof, coming up fast on 20 years old. While it looks good from a distance, unlike some of our neighbors, it's clear on close examination that the sands of time are running short. I'd hoped to stretch another year out, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. The good news is that several neighbors whom I trust have recently gone through the dance of multiple quotes, and all of them settled on American Eagle Remodeling. I'll have to have them in for a quote in a day or two, and get the ball rolling. Between the car and the roof, July looks like an expensive month this year.

Okay, time to roll. The second Monday of the week is about to commence.

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
July 6, 2007

A good day's harvest of squash, cucumbers, and assorted peppers.

0714 - Good morning. Yay! It's really Friday this time. Last night I spent a boatload of time on Jerry's column, as it was filled to the gills with pictures. His format on CMR really isn't setup for that, so I whinged about it two nights ago, and asked some questions about how to apply prose that applies to viewing the column in Word, on the web. I think it came out okay, though.

I'm also pretty pleased by how the squash and peppers are doing this year, especially the bell peppers. Every year I've done bell peppers, and had them fail and die. Unlike corn, I *did* expect the bell peppers to be productive. This year, they are. And the squash, too. How pleasant! Have a great day!

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July 7, 2007

No Post......

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
July 8, 2007

1654 - Yesterday was a busy day. Here, let me show you...

The front porch - the before shot.

The front porch - the after shot.

Front porch - repaired post detail.

Following the storm door project, I wanted to get started on the second part of the HOA-approved activity before they changed their minds. So yesterday I ripped out the railings (that was the work of perhaps 15 minutes, with a circular saw. The rest of the time invested so far has gone into cleaning up and patching the damaged bits left behind: the result of railing-to-post intersections. There were large areas of rot at the bases of most of the posts. On most of them, a one or two side fir piece slotted in just fine, anchored with screws and polyurethane glue. But one was too far gone - I just cut the bottom four inches of the post entirely, and put in a new base. Today I was applying patch to the holes and small gaps, getting things reasonably water tight before walking away from the project for a few days. I have to a bit of sanding yet left, but I do manage to stay busy, don't I?

Meantime, the War of the Middle East continues... My condolences to the families and units of our fallen service members:

• Sgt. William W. Crow Jr., 28, of Grandview Plaza, Kan., died June 28 in Baghdad, of wounds sustained when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device.
• Sgt. Shin W. Kim, 23, of Fullerton, Calif., died June 28 of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked in Baghdad by insurgents using improvised explosive devices.
• Sgt. Michael J. Martinez, 24, of Chula Vista, Calif., died June 28 of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked in Baghdad by insurgents using improvised explosive devices.
• Sgt. Giann C. Joya Mendoza, 27, of North Hollywood, Calif., died June 28 of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked in Baghdad by insurgents using improvised explosive devices.
• Spc. Dustin L. Workman II, 19, of Greenwood, Neb., died June 28 of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked in Baghdad by insurgents using improvised explosive devices.
• Pfc. Cory F. Hiltz, 20, of La Verne, Calif., died June 28 of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked in Baghdad by insurgents using improvised explosive devices.
• Staff Sgt. Robb L. Rolfing, 29, of Milton, Mass., died June 30 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire.
• Pfc. Jonathan M. Rossi, 20, of Safety Harbor, Fla., died July 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Spc. Victor A. Garcia, 22, of Rialto, Calif., died July 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from enemy small arms fire.
• Sgt. 1st Class Raymond R. Buchan, 33, of Johnstown, Pa., died July 1 in Ta�meem, Iraq, of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire.
• Staff Sgt. Michael L. Ruoff Jr., 31, of Yosemite, Calif., died July 1 in Ta�meem, Iraq, of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire.
• Lance Cpl. Juan M. Garcia Schill, 20, of Grants Pass, Ore., died July 2 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Spc. James L. Adair, 26, of Carthage, Texas, died June 29 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.
• Lance Cpl. William C. Chambers, 20, of Ringgold, Ga., died July 1 from a non-hostile boat accident in the Euphrates River just off the shore of Al Anbar province.
• Lance Cpl. Jeremy L. Tinnel, 20, of Mechanicsville, Va., died July 1 from a non-hostile boat accident in the Euphrates River just off the shore of Al Anbar province.
• 1st Lt. Christopher N. Rutherford, 25, of Newport, Ohio, died July 2 near Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Pfc. Steven A. Davis, 23, of Woodbridge, Va., died July 4 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with grenades.
• Pfc. Andrew T. Engstrom, 22, of Slaton, Texas, died July 4 in Taji, Iraq, from injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident.
• Chief Warrant Officer Scott A.M. Oswell, 33, of Washington, died July 4 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his helicopter struck a power line.
• Petty Officer First Class Jason Dale Lewis, 30, of Brookfield, Conn., died July 6 as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq.
• Petty Officer First Class Robert Richard McRill, 42, of Lake Placid, Fla., died July 6 as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq.
• Petty Officer First Class Steven Phillip Daugherty, 28, of Barstow, Calif., died July 6 as a result of enemy action while conducting combat operations in the vicinity of Baghdad, Iraq.
• Sgt. Thomas P. McGee, 23, of Hawthorne, Calif., died July 6 of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Wazi Khwa, Afghanistan.
• Pfc. Joseph A. Miracle, 22, of Ortonville, Mich., died July 5 of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire and indirect fire in the Watapor Valley of Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
• Spc. Christopher S. Honaker, 23, of Cleveland, N.C., died July 5 of wounds sustained from enemy small arms fire and indirect fire in the Watapor Valley of Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
• Maj. James M. Ahearn, 43, of North Carolina, died July 5 when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, Iraq.
• Sgt. Keith A. Kline, 24, of Oak Harbor, Ohio., died July 5 when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, Iraq
• Spc. Michelle R. Ring, 24, of Martin, Tenn., died July 5 of wounds sustained from enemy mortar fire in Baghdad, Iraq.

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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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