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GRAFFITI -- December 01, 2008 thru December 07, 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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December 1, 2008

No Post.

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December 2, 2008

2240 - I've got all the bones and some of the flesh for my Technical Paper all aligned and safe. Well, safe-ish ... one moment, please. There, that's backed up, too. While I'm often tempted to start writing a medium paper that doesn't demand bunches of research just a day or two before the due date, that isn't the case here. That's because my final for the course is on Saturday, and the paper is due on Sunday. Combine those two events with the abnormal weekend chaos (think Christmas tree), and I'd be cutting it a bit fine. So I've got the abstract written, all of the sections laid out, and a bit of content/thinking under each to guide the prose that will follow.

"Stephen Fry (stephenfry) is now following your updates on Twitter." Boggle! Yes, that Stephen Fry. Just because I started following him? Um, okay, it's possible that there is an automation of some kind, or perhaps just a reflexive follow click: after all, the bloke's got 24K followers, and follows some 23K. Oh, wait. There's no way he's keeping up with what 23,000+ folks are saying. So much for my special feeling of the day. OTOH, marypopehandy (yes, that Mary Pope-Handy) somehow found me and started following as well. I should have known that she'd be all over Twitter - she's abfab at that social networking promotional aspect of the world. On the gripping hand, while Stephen and I are not related so far as I know, Mary's a cousin on my mother's side, in the Buckley clan and much closer on the family tree to that famous Brady. How's that for a linky paragraph, eh?

Leiberts and Dells, Dells and Leiberts. Both are getting special technical attention from outsiders tomorrow. I had a server motherboard fail the other day, and after dancing through all the Dell diagnostic hoops (with the admittedly pleasant Gerald Mack at the other end of the line), I managed to get a tech dispatched for tomorrow early. It's not a production box, or I'd be doing that tonight or tomorrow night instead. Also on tap, preventative maintenance on the cooling systems, hopefully simultaneous with the Dell guy, so that I can get it all out of the way and back into the groove.

I still have some holiday shopping to do, too. And I'd best not wait until Men's Shopping Day (Dec. 24) to do so, either. So few people truly appreciate gifts from the hallowed halls of Seven-Eleven. In other news, Marcia's recovery from last week's bout of whatever continues, the dogs are clearly v.happy to be home, and I'm back in the groove of daily ops, both here and at work. Ciao!

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December 3, 2008

2012 - Argh! Our friend Pat Hendrix pointed me at Wordle. I plugged Jerry's Atom feed into it, resulting in this. Hours of fun wasted time are sure to result. W00t! The Dell guy came and went, in the span of 10 minutes unracking the box, replacing the motherboard, resetting some BIOS parameters, and saving the day. Yay. No Leibert guy, though. But I had success in other areas, so that's a good thing. I need to get back to the paper, though, so I'll leave you to Wordle's tender mercies. Ciao!

2022 - Almost forgot. Here's last month's rainfall entered into the table:

Row 1 - Normal rainfall Glenn Dale Bell Station, 1921-1987

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December 4, 2008

1938 - Raining now, and cold-ish. Maybe a little snow by Sunday, bht that's still to come. The Leibert guy showed up this morning, and finished up his task quickly. I had a busy day filled mostly with non-critical system updates (to pilot those for production systems soon), and a meeting to determine next path for progress on a new project phase. That went well, too, except for the part where I was the only one with deliverables at the end. Sigh.

I need to knock out the second third of my technical paper tonight, before doing some remote work between 2100 and 2230. I'd best be about it. Ciao!

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December 5, 2008

2138 - Brown makes me blue. So I ordered a new hard drive (and a cakebox of DVD+R, but that's inconsequential) for Harmony, the MacBook Pro (well, the DVD media aren't for Harmony, but that matters little, too). This order was placed last Sunday. Since I'm in no rush, and usually NewEgg gets stuff here in two days, I figured on seeing it Wednesday or Thursday, shipping UPS Three Day Select. But it doesn't get shipped until Tuesday. From California. Okay, so Friday it is. I track the progress, and it's in Philly by late Wednesday. Ho! I might yet get it on Thursday.

Philly is where packages stop off to soak in some ambience, I guess. Or they wanted to make sure that my three day shipping was really three days. So in Philly the shipment stayed for 26 hours, not moving, not scanned. Then, overnight it's brought down here, muddled about a bit, and put, this morning at 0530, on a truck for delivery. It had a nice scenic day of touring about in chilly, clear weather. It was scanned back into the depot at 1830 this evening. Argh. Oh, and they're not going to try to "re-deliver" until Monday. Argh! Bastards. How about trying for "deliver" before scheduling "re-deliver". After all, Marcia's here all day — they can't claim no one was here to sign for the package. Argh! So that's how Brown makes me blue.

The final's tomorrow. That should be okay. Then I have to finish up that paper - I've got 6 pages written, and a shade over two more planned; that shouldn't be an issue. Then I can work on the Final Project last of all, and get that turned in by the 14th. Whew. Ciao!

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December 6, 2008

No Post.......

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December 7, 2008

1618 - Pearl Harbor Day. It seems easy in these days of political correctness and sensitivity training to forget that our fathers and our grandfathers (mostly, though women were involved), unburdened by the moral minefield we navigate in these decadent days, knew what to do, knew how to fight, knew how to tell wrong from right ... all without Dr. Phil to tell them what to think. On this day in 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack and sank eleven of the US Pacific Fleet, they killed 2,402 people. We were at war, too, finally getting off our butts. Today is a good day to remember such things, and to remember how we reacted to 9/11, when we quickly mobilized to counter the threat of Muslim extremism around the world ... oh, wait. We didn't do that, did we? WTF are we waiting for? The next several thousand dead to wake us up? Crap.

The tree emplaced.

The final went fine. There were 25 multiple choice questions, 25 short answer questions, and 4 short essay questions. In all, it took me about an hour to finish. When I got home, we brought all of the seasonal decorations down from the garage attic, and set up the Christmas tree. Pretty soon it'll be time to sing "Happy Birthday, Jesus" and show each other how much we spent on cheap crap from Walmart. Oh, wait. We didn't do that, did we? Well, there are a few pressies to share around, mostly we're spending flash on gift cards for the nieces and nephews (yeah, including the ones whose birthdays I can't remember even if you hold a gun to my head. Sorry, Robbie!). Then I worked on my paper some more. I just now finished that, and start tomorrow on the Final Project for the class (which is 20% of the final grade).

Regardless of my opinion on our reaction to 9/11, there's no one I'm prouder of than our men and women in uniform. You folks out there at the sharp end of the stick, you rock! This week, we were so close I could taste the smell of a small victory. In sorrow, our condolences to the family of Captain Yllescas, and to his mates in the 6th Squadron.

• Capt. Robert J. Yllescas, 31, of Lincoln, Neb., died Dec. 1 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., of wounds suffered Oct. 28 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit at Combat Outpost Keating, Afghanistan.

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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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