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GRAFFITI -- January 19, 2009 thru January 25, 2009>> 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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January 19, 2009
0830 - Howdy. An early start today. Well, no earlier than usual for a Monday, but given that I'm not at work today, an early start. There's plenty to do, though. I just finished formatting and posting Jerry's latest mailbag over at Chaos Manor Reviews. Next, I've got a shedload of paperwork to put together for our refinancing. That's a good chore to have, as it'll save us a fair chunk of change. Finally, there's some preliminary work to do on the remodelling work I've got in mind for Marcia's sewing spaces. There may be a way to preserve her cutting table by just adding a new top to it. The sewing room gets new cabinets, and a new sewing table setup. More here later, as time permits and events warrant.
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January 20, 2009
2115 - Events did not warrant, more's the pity. Today: Work, Inauguration, and a refettling of the hardware around Slartibartfast's drive array. I had been lusting for a Quad Nehalem processor, as close to the bleeding edge as I could reasonably afford. But I'd chosen not to do so, since it makes sense to be a bit conservative in uncertain times. But the box that housed Slartibartfast died in mid-stream for the third time in two months. Video, network gone, but not shut down. Nothing in the logs to indicate the problem. So I compromised. Instead of spending around $1500 for bleeding-edge hardware, I picked up an inexpensive Intel DG45ID motherboard, a Q8200 Quad Core Intel processor, 8 GB of DDR2-800 RAM, and an Antec Sonata Designer case. It's quiet, it's fast, and when I plunked the PCIe RAID card and the two drives in the brand new hardware, Linux booted up lickity-split. I had to blow away the old Xorg configuration (think "rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf") and everything came up just fine. It's 3 times quieter, a lot more energy efficient, and faster, to boot. Only time will tell on the reliability, but then, the hardware's overspec'd, so everything should be cool...
Nice inauguration. Pretty speechifying, full of non-specific platitudes. The interesting bits all happen in the next few months, as those goals are converted into executive orders and legislation. Frankly, given the sucky state of so many things, Obama's going to be lucky to get things moving the way he wants. So really, nothing to see here, move along. Oh, I missed the poet. (I wouldn't exactly say 'miss', Bob.) People I trust compared her to Vogons. But when I did focus my eyes on one of the sets we had running at work, I didn't see any poetry appreciation chairs available, so maybe they were exaggerating. Oh, hey, and Cheney looked like death warmed over, while Bush had the sourest look on his face during Obama's Inaugural Address. So there's an upside.
In other news, I pulled down Qcad yesterday, after several other freely available tools failed to do what I needed. Then I did the layouts and new cutting table design for Marcia's fabric room. Progress is. Ciao!
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January 21, 2009
2109 - Being confused, I though my on-call week started this week. Nope, next Wednesday, instead. In other news, since I cheaped out on the processor I purchased for the remodeled Slartibartfast, it doesn't have Intel-VT capabilities. Sigh. The CPU can't be returned except in case of defect, and in this case, I'm the defect(ive). Still, I can use Sun's VirtualBox technology (recently added to their lineup when they bought Innotek) to do 32-bit guests. And this system is lovely quiet, too. I keep turning about, because I can't hear it (the AMD 64 X2 setup ran pretty hot by comparison). Ciao!
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January 22, 2009
No Post....
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January 23, 2009
0752 - A busy day yesterday, and another today. Last night, cleaned the fridge, prepared a roast for tonight, did an extensive firewall update and several Linux box updates, with all the associated testing afterwards. Today, supporting remote work at our DR site. So, not much time to do anything beside say "Hi!". If you want a good cringe-worthy chuckle, go read Q&A: Microsoft defends return to DRM, brought to my attention by Stephen Fleming. Back later, maybe. Ciao!
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January 24, 2009
1937 - A productive day. I was up at about 0620, did the coffee thing, and settled myself in for a few hours of remote work, coordinating with other folks on some production software upgrades. In the afternoon, I finished up the first-pass drawings on the room layouts and cabinetry configuration for Marcia's revised sewing and fabric rooms. This evening, we finally watched Thursday night's Burn Notice off the DVR. At the moment, it's about the only broadcast show I'm even vaguely interested in. Now I feel like puttering a bit. Ciao!
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January 25, 2009
1947 - A blast from the slightly past... I woke to find a message in my inbox from Bob Walder. After a seemingly interminable hiatus, he's returned to blogging, and returning to programming, it seems. Oh, and sadly, he and Lynne had to let Benson go to his rest last year. Bummer. But welcome back to the blogoverse, Bob!
Otherwise, it was a normal, chore-filled Sunday. A bit of this, a bit of that, some mucking about with Python, watched Seeing in the Dark (a Tim Ferris film), and now trying to get this post up before it's time to treat the dogs at 2000 hours.
Six more souls on to Valhalla courtesy of our Iraq and Afghanistan engagements. The goal for a 16 month windup of our involvement in Iraq is laudable, but some of those forces are going to have to shift to Afghanistan, where the resurgent Taliban are causing problems. That, some say, is thanks to Pakistan's lack of commitment to the "War on Terror." I'd have to note that a War on Terror is likely to be as successful as the War on Drugs was. For one thing, you can fight terrorists, but not terror. Second, mainstream media and government bureaucracies make more hay from terror than anyone else. News is always bad (selling more papers, more ads), and government bureaucracies always grow, never shrink. On the gripping hand, as I've said before, terrorists are fundamentally stateless. They only have to be lucky. We have to be right every time. Guess how well that's gonna work? I guess we better stop being terrified by our media and government, and figure out how to live in this new world, eh? In the meantime, I fully support and am awed by our wonderful folks in service. Y'all rock! Our condolences to the familes and units of the fallen:
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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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