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GRAFFITI -- June 23, 2008 thru June 29, 2008 >> 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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June 23, 2008

No Post.

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June 24, 2008

2035 - Good evening Life is. 7AM at the office every day this week. I can play a morning person for an indefinite period of time, but I can't promise to enjoy it. It's early evening, still light outside and I'm groggy-tired. Of course, it could always be Ebola. Grin. Tonight was grilled chicken, sliced and mixed with penne pasta, fresh from the garden green beans, and the end of last year's frozen pesto. That needed to go, because I've got buckets of basil coming in. Now, I have a call to make.

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June 25, 2008

2052 - Good evening. I'm doing schoolwork, and not very interesting at that. I keep on steaming up over our "vendor neutral" "textbook" from Microsoft Press. Meanwhile, in a different arena altogether, Anthony Watts(over at WattsUpWithThat), posted a "What do we do about James Hansen" poll. Interesting choices. If you care about how science isn't being done these days, you might want to jump into that ring, too.

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June 26, 2008

0930 - Good morning. Later yesterday evening, Marcia pointed out that I wasn't posting ... only to learn that I had not done the current.html redirector page update. Sigh. Then I forgot again, until Jon Barrett pointed it out this morning. Here we are. Only one item of interest this morning. In a fit of enlightenment, Dell now has yum- and up2date-capable repositories for their assorted server administration software, so that the RHEL package tools can handle installing those, *and* their dependencies. Yay!

Back later, as time and events warrant.

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June 27, 2008

2149 - Good evening. Harmony is powerful again. The MacBook Pro, in the last few weeks, had started exhibiting some odd behaviour. When running on battery, it would shut down, instead of going to sleep (or so I thought). I must have broken a configuration while tweaking the power settings, no? No. It kept happening, and oddly, too. 84% battery charge remaining ... 92% ... running for less than 5 minutes, and bang - shut down. Wouldn't restart thereafter, except under wall power. Finally I broke down and did a proper web search on the problem, and found that it was not uncommon. After trying all the recommended fixes to no avail, I called Apple Support yesterday afternoon. I talked to two nice people, and the second one took all of the pertinent information down and said he'd have a battery unit shipped out to me pronto. It arrived this morning at 0930, less than 24 hours later. I swapped it out, and deep cycled it to calibrate system to battery and battery to system. Now it's happy. In its first deep cycle, I got through 1.8 showings of Toy Story (that's how I stressed the box during the cycle, and kept it from going to sleep (a useful feature of the movie player). Apple service scores a win on this one. I put the old battery in the same packaging, removed the outer label to expose the paid-return shipping stuff, and called DHL for pickup. Very efficient.

Not much else to report - a busy, busy day with several cow-orkers out of the office. Schoolwork tonight. Other fun, too. I'm thinking about refurbing this box to 64 bit. But I'm indecisive about that. Ciao!

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June 28, 2008

New server, art glass

1655 - Good afternoon. We did a lot of shopping with very little to show for it. Well, we got two pieces - a nice older server, one drawer, lightly turned legs. To adorn it, we found a piece of Art Deco inspired art glass - it could certainly hold a candle, or possibly some flowers, but it's very pretty as is. We're still on the hunt for a dining table and six to eight chairs. We found what may be the right table, or at least the right table maker. Chairs are still well up in the air.

Project papers, both group and individual, for my network security class, are high on the priority list for tomorrow, right after the shopping, mowing, and laundry. Um, what? Oh, nothing... I thought I heard myself mumbling. Some of the laundry is running today. I'd better go check that, as everyone else in the house is napping. Ciao!

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June 29, 2008

1753 - Good evening. A busy day, hot and humid. But the yards are done, and I transplanted the eggplant to the space where the spinach had been - they were being molested by the cucumbers. No, don't visualize that, just accept it. Oh, and we're *still* looking for a dining table.

A bad week in the Middle East. This is the longest list of casualties I've had to post in a long time. Each loss touches me, no doubt. But trends do, too. And for a long while, the trend was improving. Setbacks suck. Our condolences to the families and units of the fallen.

• Sgt. Matthew E. Mendoza, 24, of San Antonio, Texas, died June 20 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
• Staff Sgt. Du Hai Tran, 30, of Reseda, Calif.,died Jun. 20 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on patrol during combat operations.
• Lt. Col. James J. Walton, 41, of Rockville, Md., died June 21 in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Spc. Anthony L. Mangano, 36, of Greenlawn, N.Y., died June 21 in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Sgt. Nelson D. Rodriguez Ramirez, 22, of Revere, Mass., died June 21 in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Sgt. Andrew Seabrooks, 36, of Queens, N.Y., died June 21 in Kandahar City, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Sgt. Alejandro A. Dominguez, 24, of San Diego, Calif., died June 25 in Mosul, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device on June 24.
• Spc. Joel A. Taylor, 20, of Pinetown, N.C., died June 25 in Mosul, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device on June 24.
• Pfc. James M. Yohn, 25, of Highspire, Pa., died June 25 in Mosul, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device on June 24.
• Chief Warrant Officer Robert C. Hammett, 39, of Tucson, Ariz., died June 24 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from a bomb blast.
• Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley, 48, of Willingboro, N.J., died June 24 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from a bomb blast.
• Lt. Col. Max A. Galeai, 42, of Pago Pago, American Samoa, died June 26 while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Capt. Philip J. Dykeman, 38, of Brockport, N.Y., died June 26 while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Cpl. Marcus W. Preudhomme, 23, of North Miami Beach, Fla., died June 26 while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
• Sgt. 1st Class Matthew L. Hilton, 37, of Livonia, Mich., died from wounds suffered June 26 near Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, when his convoy encountered improvised explosive devices, small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
• Sgt. 1st Class Joseph A. McKay, 51, of Brooklyn, N.Y., died from wounds suffered June 26 near Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, when his convoy encountered improvised explosive devices, small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
• Spc. Mark C. Palmateer, 38, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., died from wounds suffered June 26 near Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan, when his convoy encountered improvised explosive devices, small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

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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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