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GRAFFITI -- January 18, 2010 thru January 24, 2010>> 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 18, 2010
1644 - Monday it is. And the day when the US celebrates the birth and life of Martin Luther King Jr. I can say this: in my opinion, the world is a far better place because MLK spent time on it. I may be an elitist meritocrat, but color, sex, etc. have no place in the conversation about capability. Either you can do the work, or you can't. There is nothing that a human can't set his mind to do. There are plenty of things an individual may not be able to do if he or she isn't smart enough, or isn't wired the right way for the task at hand. For example, there are plenty of smart (and not so smart) folks around who just can't visualize objects in 3D space - how they exist and how they move. For them, many engineering degrees and trades will forever remain beyond reach, simply because their brain can't create the right type of mental model to do the work. Does that have anything to do with sex, or color, or religion? Nope. There are tendencies among groups of humans, true enough. But groups are not individuals, and one must never judge the individual without knowing the individual's capabilities. Period. That's my take-away, anyway. And since I'm fortunate in my parents and my early education, I can't remember ever caring about the color of someone's skin. Lucky me, compared to those who keep that distinction close to their heart (on ALL sides of the line). Now, moving right along...
Also it's a Monday holiday for some, including me. So I only worked for about an hour or so this morning, and kept an occasional eye on email. I got my first week's reading done for the writing class, and some of the assignment done already. I'll do more before the day's out. Sometime around midday I wandered downstairs and was stunned to note that the outside temperature in the shade was over 50° F. Wow! So I broke away from the computer for a while and got both cars washed. That's a good thing.
Finally for the moment, if you've been looking for me on Facebook, you'll now be successful. I'm so last decade, eh? Ciao!
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January 19, 2010
2236 - Holy crap! Brown took the Massachusetts Senate seat that had been Kennedy and Democratic for nearly 60 years. Talk about a referendum on what Mass. voters think of the Dems agenda, eh? In other news, Offline Book "Lending" Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion. That should wake up publishers who pretend to be worried about a 3-billion online "piracy" trade in their (err, their author's) content. Sigh. Information doesn't really want to be free, but it certainly doesn't want to be so freaking expensive. And I definitely resent having to pay twice - once to pay a researcher to do the work (tax dollars for science grants) and again to read the results of the study in a journal (freaking expensive)^2. Now, having just blown the last 90 minutes updating systems at work, I think I'll call it a night. Ciao!
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January 20, 2010
2022 - I just love that more updates show up the day after I patch. @#%#$##(*)*. Meantime, things YOU should do. Doesn't matter what OS you're running - update ALL of your Adobe products: Acrobat, Reader, Flash Player (& plugin), etc. Seriously, there have been some really vile vulnerabilities in these products, and Adobe finally patched them last week. So go to the Adobe website and get your Flash and Shockwave updates. Then open any Adobe products you have in the Start -> Programs menu, and under the Help menu in each, check for and apply all the available updates. It will take time, and you may have to reboot (for some godforsaken reason). Just do it. Now. It's okay, I'll wait here until you get back.
My first "writing" assignment is to come up with a toy research project, look up some references for it, and just describe the project, perhaps making use of the references. It's an ill-defined task, which I can do, but would rather have clear-cut assignments for school. No, I know, that means that I don't want school to match life. Precisely. I'm paying for school explicitly, on purpose. Life, on the other hand, takes it out of my hide one lash stroke at a time. The assignment won't, as far as I know, turn into a real writing assignment further down the line, but one can never tell with these things, so I have to pick a topic that I can actually write about, rather than one that I would have to just toy with, like Global Warming In The Workplace: Getting Hot Under The Collar When The PHB Wanders In At 11:45.
Finally, in my book queue at the moment is Cheri Priest's Boneshaker, and two by Charles Stross: Glasshouse and Halting State. I'm also going to give Sarah Hoyt a try Real Soon Now, following this interview at the lensman's children. That also reminds me that I *still* haven't read enough Cordwainer Smith, still, after all these years. Ciao!
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January 21, 2010
No Post....
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January 22, 2010
2112 - Whoops. I forgot about this place, yesterday. And the studying didn't do nearly enough for me. Yeah, I scored on the RHCT portion of the test, so I've got that certificate. Frankly, that's where I thought I'd stumbled, but I managed to squeak by. However, the RHCE portion of the exam, which I thought I'd nailed ... I tanked. I must have made a late mistake in the iptables configuration that broke several different things dramatically. Crap! So go read this Hunter Thompson piece instead, and leave me be. Ciao!
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January 23, 2010
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January 24, 2010
1458 - On the other hand, I didn't forget a durned thing yesterday. I was just busy, cleaning house, the whole day. I finished up in time to take a shower and do some remote system work that needed to be well outside normal business hours. I woke to more of the same, as I've got a couple of systems with maintenance windows Sunday mornings before 0800. Now the shopping's done, the last couple of cleaning chores that I held until I had daylight streaming into the house are done, and I can unwind for 15 minutes or so until Marcia calls. Then I can go pick her up from the drop-off point for her church group thing that ran from Friday to today. When we get back, it'll be time for Linda to arrive, and I need to figure out what we're all doing for supper.
Reading: I finished my copy of Cherie Priest's fine novel, Boneshaker. A while ago, I had the cover artwork waved in my face by Wil Wheaton, who recently guested on an episode of Big Bang Theory (which I know from nothing, as I watch negative hours of television a month). Now, while I only know Mr. Wheaton from his work on a minor SF television series in the 80's, I've found that he knows a fair bit about the sorts of entertainment that I like. He introduced me to Jonathan Coulton, whose work as a geek folk singer I enjoy immensely. So fair's fair, I gave Cherie's seventh novel, Boneshaker, a try, too. Um, yummy. Steampunk Science Historical Fiction, now with more Zombies Rotters and Airships. Don't let any of that frighten you. It's a cracking good yarn that hangs together in the details and flows across the whole of the walled city. It's got a good hook, and then just keeps rolling. It's nearly impossible to put down. My rating: Forty two mutant penguins, the best possible score. I'll be buying and reading and re-reading more of Ms. Priest's work in the future.
And the fighting and dying continues in Afghanistan and Iraq. Seven more lost to the conflicts in those far lands. 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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