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GRAFFITI -- December 17, 2007 thru December 23, 2007>> 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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December 17, 2007
No Post.
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December 18, 2007
1747 - Good evening. Argh! Road. Intentions. Hell. I've got a column to format for Jerry ... I didn't wait up until 0200 for it. Back later unless the muse distracts me.
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December 19, 2007
2213 - Good morning. Here: Have a laugh at the poor admin. I'm going to work now.
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December 20, 2007
0700 - Good morning again. And good morning for real, instead of writing a oneliner post and then forgetting it until late yesterday evening. Last night I finished up reading The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Two weeks ago I read Hyperion, loaned to me by someone at work. It didn't deeply impress me then. It's fundamentally a pilgrim's progress, which is no bad thing, but it has been done to death. It is a good way to introduce a lot of information and context, contrived but effective. At the end, there were excerpts from Fall, and I started to see, maybe, where he could go with the groundwork laid in 500 pages. Howie lent me the second book, too. What with the holidays coming up, shopping and all, I'd not gotten far into the book, perhaps halfway in the last few days. Last night I finished it. The loose ends were tied up, my guesses about specific events and motivations mostly confirmed, and I enjoyed it rather a lot. There are two more books set in that Universe: Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. They'll be on my list shortly. But there's so much to do.
Solaris should consume the next day or two - I've got a revised backup scheme to emplace, and a whole new box to build into something fresh and wonderful. Okay, put a bunch of pieces in and hope for the best. But I think I've got a better understanding now. Best be on my way... Ciao!
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December 21, 2007
0653 - Good morning. It's going to be a meaty Christmas around here. I've got Neuske's Applewood Smoked Bacon in the fridge, and some Omaha Steaks on the way. Gifts! Yummy Christmas, or as Dodge puts it: Happy Bacon! As I said to Linda a while back,
People are beginning to notice vegetarians like me! Yes, vegetarian! I just prefer to have my vegetables mediated by herbivores.
Every time I touch something computerish, two things happen. I learn something new, and I find there are a minimum of seven more things on my to-do list. Since it's work I'm talking about at the moment, I'll be prudently quiet. but boy, howdy. When every task shows me two tasks that need to be done before I can do the first task... let's just say I'm hoping it isn't turtles all the way down! I spent some time on the VMware-based Solaris test rig, trying out some format commands and mirroring. I'd like to get two items off my list before the four-day holiday weekend. I better get started. Later.
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December 22, 2007
1054 - Good morning. I'd be worried ... if my shopping weren't already done. Yesterday, as I visited weather.com to find out that there's no hope of a white Christmas here, I wondered something. I was easily able to find a link for a "Printable Forecast". But there was no sign of an unprintable forecast. Given how I (and others) often feel about the weather (and the forecasters), just why hasn't this lack in the Intertube ecosystem been met? Sure, you used to be able to pipe the output through the schizzolator, but that doesn't exist anymore.
My niece is in town, and by "in town", I mean "within a 50 mile radius". If things go as planned, we'll hear from her sometime today, and make plans to meet her and her beau someplace for supper. That'll be nice.
One downside to finding me a gift at any time of year is that I'm (a) picky, and (b) find plenty of ways to keep busy with freely downloadable stuff. Most of last night went to an exploration of ZFS running on Solaris Developer Express under VMware Server 1.0.4. Who needs a new 700 dollar console gaming system when there are filesystems like that around?!?!! Yeah, weird, I know.
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December 23, 2007
2221 - Good evening. A surprisingly busy day. Working backwards from the moment, we finished watching my work-gift-exchange present, Clapton's Crossroads 2007 show. Awesome! The we that finished watching were Marcia, Linda and me. Linda's got other plans for the next few days, so we did our Christmas tonight, and it was fun. Most of the afternoon was spent finishing up that which I started last night - trying to get enough Ubuntu 7.10 working on Harmony the Macbook Pro to make it useful as an untethered box. No joy. Wireless unreliable, so pointless. Like a Martha Stewart without a $64,000 Question. So I blew the OS X backup back onto the main drive, finally.
It's the holiday season, and we've got over 150,000 troops in Iraq alone. If I got the numbers right, there's another 26,000 in Afghanistan. Plus there are thousands more deployed elsewhere around the world, all far from home, all serving our country — serving us — by being out there, in danger, away from their families. Take the time to think of their sacrifices, none greater than giving their lives in service to the country.
I'd asked Santa: no casualties for Christmas. He got close. My condolences to the families of our fallen service members. I also want to remember and thank all of the troops who have been wounded - casualties not generally listed on the DoD site, outnumbering the deaths by nearly a factor of 10, by some reports. Y'all's in my heart.
Have a Merry Christmas, if you so celebrate. Or enjoy whatever it is that you do this time of year. I'm thinking spaghetti, eh?
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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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