|
|
HomeGraffitiFavToolsShortListAboutSitemapVisualDevWork
Email BrianGPG Key |
GRAFFITI -- January 26, 2009 thru February 01, 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. |
|
MONDAY
Tues
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
January 26, 2009
1956 - Happy Monday. Sorry, is that wrong? Anyway, here we all are. I find that after spending a few hours away from the personal side of computing, there are plenty of interesting links to follow. Earlier (last week), my inner child's sense of toilet humor was greatly tickled by "Assmann's Gasbags" (scroll down a little bit). One really must wonder about those crazy guys over at SciAm.
On the Twitter front, there's a new (to me, anyway) Twitterholics list, based on followers. Yeah, I am following a few of those: @stephenfry because he amuses me and I'd like to know him personally. @dsearls and @timoreilly because they inform me, and I'd like to know them (Doc better, we've met a few times; and Tim, because smart folks are fun to know). Doc has a serious side, but then there's "Imagine if Barack had Tourette's". Haw-haw!
The bills are paid, the trash is out, and I've got to check the backups, then get myself some supper. Ciao!
Mon
TUESDAY
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
January 27, 2009
1917 - Last night, went to sleep feeling fine. This morning, three sneezes in a row and I have a raging headcold. Sigh. Buy stock in facial tissue manufacturers, I'm feeling prodigious.
While reading A Pattern Language last night, in the eleventh pattern: Local Transport Areas, I came across their arguments for how cars are destructive to the local social fabric of communities. Then in the middle of that section...
... at 30 miles an hour, when cars are 3 car lengths apart, it occupies about 1000 square feet. As we know, most of the time cars have a single occupant. This means that when people use cars, each person occupies almost 100 times as much space as he does when he is a pedestrian.
If each person driving occupies an area 100 times as large as he does when he is on his feet, this means that people are 10 times as far apart. In other words, the use of cars has the overall effect of spreading people out, and keeping them apart.
Emphasis is original to the book.
These folks, writing back in 1977, had no concept of today's DC Beltway. People strive to be closer together. 70 miles an hour? 0.7 car lengths. Really. And that's just the state troopers, civilians push the limits a little further. And of course, as traffic ebbs and flows, occasionally car spacing asymptotically approaches 1.0, due to inattention (such as eating, doing hair, and texting, simultaneously), well, that's enough room for not one, but two more cars, right? In another scenario, As I was headed north on the parkway the other morning, there was a half-car length gap between me in lane one, and the car slightly ahead in lane two. So by the laws (and I don't mean legislation here, but the equivalent of manned vehicular physics), someone had to charge up on the right, and try to jam a whole car through the gap that wouldn't have been possible to squeeze a Smart car through. I could either jump on the brakes or watch while our cars performed a mating assault. So no, I must say, here cars are used to try to bring people together. Angry, hurried people who (for the most part) aren't capable of one task, much less multitasking, too.
That's all I have. Be well (or at least, be weller than me). Ciao!
Mon
Tues
WEDNESDAY
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
January 28, 2009
No Post...
Mon
Tues
Wed
THURSDAY
Fri
Sat
Sun
January 29, 2009
1842 - Well, that was fun. Last night, I was ... um, working on stuff of some sort or another. I must have been, though I can't remember what, and no, I wasn't playing World of Warcraft. But clearly it kept me from dropping by this joint. I was biding my time and waiting to go pick up Marcia on her flight back from 3 days of business meetings in Dallas. She was supposed to be wheels down at BWI at 1205. But the flight origination at Wichita was pushed back by an hour, so another hour tacked on. Heh, no, that's not the end. They finally boarded, but after many attempts and whatnot, the right engine still wouldn't start. The dreaded words came over the intercom: "We're going to be doing an equipment change, prepare to deplane." Or something like that. So, after a while, and wandering over to another gate, they finally boarded plane number two.
Ooops. The copilot didn't have enough hours left to complete the flight to BWI. So they had to call for another copilot ... there goes another hour. We'd exchanged several phone calls during this span of time. I finally went to bed, and dozed off and on for a couple of hours, until Marcia called, wheels down at BWI, at 0345 this morning. By the time we got back home, it was 0515. So I wrote in to say that I'd be a bit later than expected, and slept until 0915. The rest of the day was productive, but done on autopilot. That's all the news there is, oh, other than when Marcia flew to Dallas, they had to do a field flyby to ensure that the nose gear was down, since the cockpit indicators weren't saying.
Tomorrow, I'm moving cubes. Rather, I'm moving my stuff from one cube to another. The big win for me is getting away from the glare of the windows adjoining my desk. And getting away from the temperature variations that accompany the location. Plus, I find it's often useful to shift places from time to time, organizationally speaking. Same gig, same folks, same overall room. Just two cubes over. Now, pizza's about to be delivered, so excuse me while I go drool at the front door, waiting. Ciao!
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thu
FRIDAY
Sat
Sun
January 30, 2009
2121 - The future is going to happen. Will it belong to us? Or to governments and lawyers. I know which way I want that board to tilt. Happy Friday.
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thu
Fri
SATURDAY
Sun
January 31, 2009
1526 - I've been an Associate of the IEEE for several years, and last year upgraded to Member status. One of the benefits of full membership is an O'Reilly Media Safari subset subscription. Not the whole Safari collection, but 600 or so titles, many interesting and useful. What I used to spend on Safari (before I let it go a couple of years to save a few bucks) is more than my annual IEEE dues. I find that it's an excellent benefit. Right now I'm blasting through the Big Book of Apple Hacks (really: Tips & Tricks. But don't tell anyone I noticed). I also have the latest edition of UNIX Power Tools and Xcode Unleashed on my bookshelf. I generally try to leave a slot open in case something comes up that I want quick access to (since books stay on the shelf a minimum of 30 days under this plan). Go, IEEE.
Tomorrow, some house cleaning, I think. That'll be after a few more remote work system updates, and the weekly shopping. Next weekend, I want to get started building carcasses for the cabinets and new tables that Marcia is going to be getting in her sewing and fabric rooms. Ciao!
Mon
Tues
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
SUNDAY
February 1, 2009
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "normal" | 3.2 | 2.8 | 3.5 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 4.2 | 4.6 | 3.7 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 43.3 |
| 2008 | - - | - - | - - | 4.60 | 9.22 | 5.02 | 3.72 | 1.86 | 4.28 | 1.07 | 2.77 | 2.90 | 35.44* |
| 2009 | 2.72 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - - |
Row 1 - Normal rainfall Glenn Dale Bell Station, 1921-1987
* Only nine months measured in 2008
1539 - Everything going according to plan. I didn't get all the cleaning done, but much of it is, and virtually all of the "hard" stuff. What's left is some dusting and vacuuming, that'll be for another day. Remote work went fine, shopping was nominal. And to my detriment, my head is filled with the clinging stench of pine-scented cleaner. Now...
Nine more warriors died on our behalf, DoD announced in the last week. Our condolences to the families and units of the fallen.
Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Week
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.
All Content Copyright © 1999-2011 Brian P. Bilbrey.
Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed under the
Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States
License.