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GRAFFITI -- March 09, 2009 thru March 15, 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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March 9, 2009
2100 - I grilled last night, turkey burgers, with me wearing shorts and tanktop. Not precisely warm, but warm enough, yay. Downside: the grilling grids are shot. Over time the surface breaks down and rust sets in. I should treat them better, but I only seem to get about three years out of a set. Next downside - this model of Kenmore grill is obsolete, and the parts aren't on the Sears site anymore. Enough downers. I found Appliance Factory Parts, a Colorado-based firm. The prices are reasonable (compared to other vendors), and they're BBB A+ rated. I'll let you know how the transaction turns out, but it's good to find someone with no complaints on file from the last three years.
Another productive day in the can. (Think film, not commode, hey.) The Monday evening stuff is done, and I think I'll get to some schoolwork now. Ciao!
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March 10, 2009
1928 - Whew. I was on the road at 0640, and up in Gaithersburg by 0730 on a loaner gig for a morning meeting. That wrapped up at around 1245, and I hared back down to Silver Spring to get some (regular) work done. Special request items trumped the usual pile of stuff, so I'm pretty behind, right now. I'll try to get into the office early (earlier, that is; before 7 if I can manage that) tomorrow, and start tilting at windmills early, before the distraction zone goes into effect.
I've been having sporadic trouble with my keyboard and mouse on Slartibartfast. The gear was a Microsoft combo wireless mouse and keyboard. In recent weeks, I've had to move the receive within a very few inches of the units, and still found behavioural issues with both. So today, since I was in the same vicinity as The Computer Place, I dropped in and picked up a Logitech Cordless Desktop set. The keyboard is an ergonomic design, but not as lumpy as the MS Natural keyboard. What really impressed me is that when I plugged it in, the running Ubuntu Gnome desktop did sane things with most of the special keys on both keyboard and mouse. I'm very impressed with that.
On the school side of the ledger, I got through most of the required reading for the week, and got Dev-C++ installed on my Windows instance running in Parallels. Yeah, I could do everything I need to do with g++ on the Mac, but the Prof. really wants everyone working on the same page. So be it, no skin off my nose. Now, the dogs are asking to go out, then I want to get finished up with that reading, then get into some nice relaxing physics lectures. Ciao!
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March 11, 2009
2108 - Only about 9.5 hours at the office today. Jerry's column is formatted and out, too. And there's a censorific lawmaker in California who wants to blur the Earth. Why not just cross your eyes a little bit, Mr. Anderson. Or should I say, Neo? Not much else going on. At work I have some systems to get rolling on shortly, but I'm also shoulder-to-the-wheel on our new RT-based ticketing system. Tonight, I'd better check in on the school conferences ... but, err, maybe dinner before that. Yikes!
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March 12, 2009
2212 - Hey! Where'd the day go? Grrr. /me hates DST. Home from work, take dog to vet for quick check of gums, get tummy meds instead, back home to yummy pork throw-together supper, followed by falling asleep in my office chair while Walter Lewin discusses equipotential surfaces in electric fields. Fun things you can do with Van de Graff generators. I think I need one of those. Time to sleep (again), ciao!
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March 13, 2009
2131 - Had the annual privacy notices in the mail from our auto loan provider. You know what that means? I sure do. They've reset the "preferences" to mean that we want to share our personal, private information with anyone the provider can get to pay them for the dubious privilege. Because, after all, any change must mean that the policy has been made "better", and of course we want to share with Darryl and his other brother. Fuckers. But fair's fair, they all do it, you just have to know the signs and spend a minute to opt out. They automate that process as much as possible because, honestly, who wants to be asked 1500 times a day if their employer is out of its collective fucking mind?
Lord Christopher Monckton at the ICCC (as quoted on Watts Up With That): There was no climate crisis, there is no climate crisis and there will be no climate crisis. The correct solution to global warming is to have the courage to do nothing.
As predicted, it was actually snowing this morning. But since it was about 40°F out, they were whirling about and dying without settling or sticking. Still no telling if that's the end of winter weather - the 10-day outlook shows us in the thirties for about 5 of those days, but not dropping below freezing.
Torn from today's headlines: There's a couple of new features on the site: Short List, and Favorite Tools. The former is a place for me to keep lists of things I want or need, but not badly enough to do something about it. Fundamentally, it's a tool for me to keep track of what to do with funds that come up spare - better to have a list than to go on a whim, sometimes. Favorite Tools is going to be a landing zone for short-subject posts on tools that I use, links or emails about them, etc. It may end up being re-imagined as a blog-like facility at some point, in which case the page here becomes a linking book instead.
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March 14, 2009
1653 - I bought the lumber needed to fabricate Marcia's new sewing table. It's in the basement, acclimating to the house. So in the meantime I watch a bit of DIY network, and read Clay Shirky's must-read article: Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable.
Some thoughts as I read ...
"Even ferocious litigation would be inadequate to constrain massive, sustained law-breaking. (Prohibition redux.) Hardware and software vendors would not regard copyright holders as allies, nor would they regard customers as enemies."
Yeah, excepting maybe Microsoft, whose anti-piracy product activation (and deactivation via "Windows Genuine Advantage", HAHAHAHAHA) and chaotic software versioning seems to me palpably clue-free. Further down, I had to chuckle at this segment of the section on the chaos at the time when Gutenberg's printing press was introduced:
"Copies of Aristotle and Galen circulated widely, but direct encounter with the relevant texts revealed that the two sources clashed, tarnishing faith in the Ancients. As novelty spread, old institutions seemed exhausted while new ones seemed untrustworthy; as a result, people almost literally didn�t know what to think. If you can�t trust Aristotle, who can you trust?"
Which sounds to me precisely like James Burke from one of the Connections shows that he did in the 70's and 80's. And no, I don't think it's a bad thing, but all of a sudden the text was being read by a former BBC reporter. Startling, that. But here's a core bit of what Clay is talking about:
"And so it is today. When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won�t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren�t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to."
"There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie."
Now, go read what Clay has written, for yourself. Then ask yourself (as I am doing), "What are the opportunities here?" The end of a business model is not the end of the world. I may not be able to see what's next, but maybe something I do could be part of what's next, if I'm lucky and smart.
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March 15, 2009
2019 - Shiny. A clean launch by Discovery. It's the first I've watched on the NASA HD feed, very nice indeed. Still listening to the Houston-to-Orbiter radio traffic as I write this, always fills me with wonder. Rock on! Our space program is awesome (not as awesome as I would like, but then, Pournelle's Iron Law always prevails).
Our men and women in the Armed Services are also awesome, in fact, as awesome as it gets. We have four more losses reported this week by DoD. I'm saddened, still proud. Our condolences to the families 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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