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GRAFFITI -- September 07, 2009 thru September 13, 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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September 7, 2009
2010 - Happy Labor Day, for those that observe this holiday. Me, I did all the "hard" work the last two days so that I could sit on my ass most of the day today. And that's what I did. I got some red kidney beans from the store, and simmered those into the chili. I paid the bills, did the backups, and put out the trash for tomorrow's pickup. Linda was over and we all ate chili. There's about 7 more meals left in that pot, and that for about 10 bucks in actual $ at the store. So, a buck a meal? Sounds like a big win to me. And yummy, too!
So, now that we're properly in September (that is, in a week that starts in September, and not one that just inherits the first six days of the week by happenstance), it's time to take note of a special event. I've been posting pretty continuously here for about 10 years. Much, I am force to admit, seems from time to time like petty drivel to my eyes. But I've had a lot of fun, and met some very interesting folks along the way. Yes, that includes you, and you, and especially you!
What interests me is that I did it the hard way. I got a Linux distro running on an old Gateway box, the year after Marcia and I were married. I contracted with Speakeasy for a DSL line, got BIND and Apache running, "bought" a domain name (err, rented), and was online. I pushed the first stuff into the Intertubes in July of 1999. But the first weekly page went up for the week ending on September 12, 1999. Pournelle's book Starswarm got an early mention, I see. I also note that I first read The Diamond Age ten years ago. I'm re-reading it as my relaxation book at the moment. Still good, too. In the intervening years, I've done some pretty interesting stuff, and managed not to stifle all the life out of the events with my turgid prose. I've had fun, and I'm going to keep having fun. Some of it I'll continue to document here. Thank's for joining me on the ride, folks. Now, Molly wants a treat, so I've got to go ... Ciao!
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September 8, 2009
2116 - Hmmm. A busy work day, reasonably productive. A busy evening, ditto. Pournelle's column is formatted and online. I've got a "private beta" of some software that I've been waiting for, and I'm using it and giving the company feedback (and it makes me happy to do that). There's also some more school reading to do, and an assignment to follow (but that's for later in the week). Time to read. Ciao!
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September 9, 2009
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September 10, 2009
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September 11, 2009
1047 - 2,975 people. 4 planes. 8 years ago. Never forget.
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September 12, 2009
No Post......
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September 13, 2009
1917 - I'm a teensy bit sorry about all the missing posts this week. I've been busy... but then, you knew that. Here's the drill. Trying to get well ahead of the game in my CMIS course, evening remote work for $FIRM, and small issues with updates of virtual systems at the same time as the virtualization software wants to update. But I learned a couple of new things and I'd like to share them with you.
First, I run Parallels for virtualization on the Mac. At the time I made that commitment, Parallels was the clear leader, and I really haven't seen anything that's calling me to change. If I were to start from scratch today, I'd probably go down the Fusion path, simply because Unity mode looks less kludgy than Coherence. That said, I see no reason to change horses. Last week, Parallels wanted to install a new version of itself - the build number was just bumped a couple of digits: a few Snow Leopard fixes. Windows XP, running in Parallels, wanted to update itself. The latter kept failing, and the former kept attempting itself and closing Parallels in the process. Argh! I had work I wanted to do, and I wasn't experiencing reliability! Oh, hey, why is this a big deal? Because SECUREMOTE SOFTWARE FROM CHECK POINT FAILS under Snow Leopard. Now, sure, "new" (okay, revised) OS, thing that runs as a service with hooks into the networking stack, I'd have expected a new version of SecuRemote. Did you hear me, Check Point? New version of SecuRemote! So, to login to work, I've got to use Windows in a VM, run the Windows SecuRemote client, and connect that way. Fine, as long as the Windows client stays relatively stable. Whew. I gave up late Thursday evening, finally, and made it work on Friday.
Friday evening, I was able to get the off-hours remote work done, and setup to do something else as well. I downloaded the VMware vCenter Converter, Standalone version. I ran it on the Windows XP instance running under Parallels, with a target on a SMB share over on my Ubuntu workstation. That finished in about half an hour. Yesterday, after I finished the yardwork, I moved that data into the place where VMware Server is configured for its Standard Datastore. Brought the machine online - it plunked for about 10 minutes and a couple of reboots (and one activation): Boom: Windows XP running happy under VMware Server on a Linux host, having been running under Parallels on OS X the night before. I'm actually pretty impressed by all the magic that has to work right to get those moons all lined up right. Smart people working on those products all around.
Why did I do that? I have stuff I want to do in Windows, financial stuff, that I'd really rather not tote around the world with my laptop. Better to keep it running at home. I can always access it from the road by ssh'ing into the home box and tunnelling the RDC port (3389) back to Darla. Should be a breeze, I'll try that for the sake of testing it on Monday.
Yesterday. Yard work. Shocking, I know. Both front and back yards needed haircuts, each got a double cut, first a chop-down then a mulching pass. Edged everything with the string trimmer, and got in some garden work. The upper tomato bed was finally succumbing to late blight, and two other beds (the watermelon/beans and the cucumber) were toast, too. So I cleared those beds, and weeded out the other three. I've still got tomatoes and peppers going strong.
Fifteen more doughty warriors sent on to Valhalla by enemy forces, as reported by DoD in the last week. The Marine commander says things are progressing slowly but well in the battles to take southern Afghanistan back from the Taliban. OOH-RAH! 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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