| Date: | 2005-06-28 09:21 |
| Subject: | Closing down here |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  working | | Music: | Too Much to Ask-Avril Lavigne-Let Go |
I've decided to abandon my LiveJournal and set up a blog running off of OS X Server's built-in blog server. I'll now be blogging at http://blog.taomechworks.net/
post a comment
| Date: | 2005-05-18 15:27 |
| Subject: | Brain. Blown. Need. Caffeine. |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | working | | Music: | Girl Like You (bonus song) -Pete Yorn-Musicforthemorningafter |
I remember the days of yore, when being a Mac technician meant that Unix was something for the other guy, and XWindows was something you had to buy extra software for. Compiling Unix software was something you never expected to have to do, and were never expected to do.
Of course, back in those halcyon days of yore, I'd be lucky if I didn't wind up restarting my workstation at least once a week. Sometimes more often, if I'd managed to break something in the course of my experimenting. Force-quit certainly wasn't the near-painless thing it is in OS X. But sometimes.....sometimes.....I miss the fact that I didn't deal with Unix, or if I did, it was through the safe remove of a remote terminal session and somebody else had to worry about the widgets and geegaws on the other end. Nobody asked me then to figure out how to make the command line software on the server work right, I was an end user who just wanted it to work.
On the other hand, I just figured out how to compile a heavy-duty genetic sequencing package, configure it (I hope) correctly, set up XWindows to allow remote terminal sessions, and do it all from scratch, with only the combined knowledge of Google and MacOSXHints to help out. It's not the kind of thing that you put on a resume (tempting as it is to shout this particular triumph from the rooftops) but it is something to be proud of if you've never done it before. Man, does my brain feel tired.
post a comment
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jords gave me a call today, to let me know that an Unnamed Goverment Agency had left her a message, asking questions about me. She naturally found this a little alarming, so she gave me a call to ask if I had known that the UGA was checking up on me. Yup, I did. Poor investigator must be bored silly investigating me. I don't do drugs, haven't had any jail time, haven't had suspicious foreign nationals in my entourage or really done anything that an investigator would find in the least interesting.
1 comment | post a comment
| Date: | 2005-05-05 16:18 |
| Subject: | Pretty good day. |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | busy | | Music: | Blue Eyes-Cary Brothers-Garden State |
Tuesday, nothing had been really right with the world. Stuff that was supposed to work had broken, and I wasn't getting any good answers from anybody. Yesterday, I was out sick. Today, it's a lot better because, while I was out sick, I was able to get the world to hold still just long enough to figure out fixes for what broke on Tuesday. Funny how that can happen, isn't it?
I'm heading out this evening to finish up the mortgage refinance on the home that poppy_girl and I share. When we bought the place, we did it with fancy 100% interest-only no-money-actually-down financing. Now, I want to be able to keep it without worrying four years down the line that rising interest rates are going to send my monthly payment through the roof so I'm refinancing tonight with a traditional 30 year payments-and-interest mortgage. It's raising my monthly payment a couple of hundred dollars a month, but this way, La and I will know what our mortgage payment is going to be ten and twenty years down the line. With the Fed promising that they're going to continue to raise interest rates (to put a cap on inflation and crank the economy back a smidge), refinancing to lock yourself in at a good rate is a smart thing to do right now.
post a comment
Yeah, it's been one of those days today. It's work though, and I don't talk about work much here. I think I'm going to really enjoy going home tonight, though, because it means I'm out of here for the day.
post a comment
| Date: | 2005-04-29 15:27 |
| Subject: | Whoo hoo! Silly movie time! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  excited | | Music: | Nevermind Me-The Mighty Mighty Bosstones-Let's Face It |
What's on for poppy_girl and der_flounder tonight? This!
post a comment
| Date: | 2005-04-27 15:55 |
| Subject: | Eh. I need a day off. |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  blah | | Music: | Nevermind Me-The Mighty Mighty Bosstones-Let's Face It |
It's a bad sign when you wake up thinking "I should play hooky today." That's been my week so far. I can't though, just can't. Too much to do, too many fires to put out. On the plus side, it's now all downhill for the weekend.
post a comment
I ran across a blog entry today that mentioned that our cell phone numbers are soon to be in the hands of telemarketers and urged people to put their cell numbers into the National Do Not Call Registry. Since we pay by the minute for cell phone usage, something didn't sound right about this, especially since I hadn't heard about this before, and this is normally the kind of thing that has consumer rights proponents grabbing all the TV time they can to talk about why this is a Bad Thing. (To be clear, I also regard telemarketers calling me on my cell to be a Bad Thing.) So I did some googling.
In short, my results found that this is an urban legend, based on an announcement that the major wireless companies (with the exception of Verizon) are planning to establish a 411 directory of customers' cell numbers beginning in late 2005. They do not plan to "publish" said directory for any and all to read. Participating companies say the numbers will be made available only with customer consent and only via telephone to users who dial directory assistance and pay a fee. The companies also swear the numbers will never be available to telemarketers.
Not everybody's buying that. Hence, our urban legend *and* a privacy protection bill that's been introduced in Congress which would modify the plan to allow 411 callers to be directly connected to requested parties without the latter's phone numbers being given out. At this point, though FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from calling cell phone numbers using automated dialers, which is the standard way that telemarketers use to call people. (That's why occasionally you'll get a call and nobody's there. The automated dialer calls a number of people at once, and the first person that picks up gets connected to the telemarketer.)
In any case, the Federal Trade Commission does allow cell phone users to add their numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry — the same one already in force for landlines — either on the Web or by calling 1-888-382-1222. So, I'm adding mine and poppy_girl's today.
3 comments | post a comment
| Date: | 2005-04-12 21:58 |
| Subject: | Getting dissed for not blogging. |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | busy | | Music: | A Solis Ortus Cardine-Choeur Gregoren de Paris-A Gregorian Christmas |
Man, when I get dissed for blogging, I really get dissed. Intercontinental dissing, as a matter of fact. Madchen is extremely sad about my lack of blog, and both she and poppy_girl are giving me a hard time about it. Protests that there's been a lot going on at work, and that I try not to talk about work on my blog, have fallen on deaf ears. Whining that my inspiration runs in spurts got me nowhere. Proclaiming that I had figured out how to blog from my Treo 650 got me no plaudits.
Fine, fine! You want blog, here's blog!
I've made some changes around the house, with regards to our sound system. Part of the plan for the wedding is that we will be running our own music setup, with a set of six strategically placed wireless speakers, a wireless transmitter and a laptop running iTunes providing the tunes. poppy_girl's putting together the music list and my job is to figure out how to make it all work together. I've acquired the speakers now, since Geeks.com had a great deal on refurbished RCA 900MHz wireless speakers, and I've managed to get all six speakers talking to one transmitter. So that's now done. If only everything was that easy....
I'm also working on refinancing the house, since rates are starting to edge back up again. Fortunately, poppy_girl's uncle is a mortgage broker, so we're locked in with a good rate. I'm meeting with the appraiser on Friday so that he can say that the house is worth a lot more than we paid for it (yay!) and I'm meeting with Uncle Broker on Monday evening. Hopefully, everything goes well so that we don't have to worry about rising mortgage rates after this.
post a comment
| Date: | 2005-04-12 20:55 |
| Subject: | Treo blogging |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  geeky |
I'm testing how well blogging from my Treo works. I'm near this thing a lot more often than I am to my laptop, which is saying something since I'm never really that far from my PowerBook either.
post a comment
| Date: | 2005-04-07 13:23 |
| Subject: | Water everywhere. |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  awake | | Music: | Another Drinkin' Song-The Mighty Mighty Bosstones-Let's Face It |
That's what the situation was this morning, when my darling poppy_girl started pounding on my bathroom door this morning and saying I had to get out of the shower RIGHT NOW. I did, being the ever obedient person I am, and went out to discover from her that one of the pipes in the laundry room had developed a leak. Actually, that understates it. It had developed a crack in the pressure valve that steps down the water pressure from the street water connection to a pressure that you can take a shower in and not have to worry about having your skin flayed off. So, there was a small hole in the pipe but the thin stream of water coming out was shooting extremely far across the room and soaking everything in its path. Not good.
Thinking quickly, I tried to ameliorate the problem somewhat by turning off the water to the rest of the house. The only problem with that plan was that the pressure valve was "before" that shutoff and the water kept spurting. I tried the other shutoff valve, but that one would not move.
At that point, I decided trying to fix the problem in an underdressed condition helped nothing, so I took a couple of minutes to a) get dressed, b) let work know I was going to be a little late and c) figure out what the heck I was going to do.
I wound up Rube Goldbergering a way to at least keep the water spraying contained. I hung a plastic Target bag's handle over the shutoff valve above the leak, then manuvered the bag so that all the spray went into the bag. Next, I fastened the other side of the bag to the drywall with a small nail. Then, after figuring some heights and angles, I put the laundry room trash can below the leak, put a board on top of it to act as a shelf, placed our large capacity mop bucket on the shelf and poked a hole in the bottom of the Target bag. Success! All the water was now going into the Target bag, and all the water in the Target bag was now draining into the bucket. I needed to empty the bucket every hour or so, but that was an hour I could now use to call the plumber. I struck out with the first plumber, as nobody was available, but they gave me a couple of other numbers to try instead, and the second plumber was out by 9:30. They had the problem resolved in about an hour and I now have a much stronger pressure valve installed.
5 comments | post a comment
You may wind up getting it. That was the case this morning, where myself and poppy_girl stopped at Burger Thing for breakfast after picking up the X-Ray films that her doctor needed. We'd been mercilessly mocking BK's new Enormous Omelet Sandwich ever since it came out, and we were determined not to ever order it. So this morning, when we pulled away from BK, we rooted around in our bag and discovered that instead of the Western Omelet Croissan'wich and French Toast sticks that we'd ordered, we were the proud possessor of French Toast sticks and the object of our mockery, the massive Enormous Omelet Sandwich. Poor La was quite astonished that this, of all things, had snuck into our bag. Since I'm a gallant Flounder, I offered to trade her my breakfast for hers. When I took it from her, I nearly dropped it as its substantial weight caught me off guard. (It's a half pound sandwhich, I learned.) I ate about half of it, due to its completely whack nutritional value. Frankly, I was underwhelmed as the taste was nothing to write home about. For 730 calories and 47 grams of fat, I wanted heaven on my tongue. I didn't get it, and I'm not going to get it anymore.
post a comment
| Date: | 2005-03-19 09:54 |
| Subject: | MiG Tipping. |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  amused | | Music: | A Solis Ortus Cardine-Choeur Gregoren de Paris-A Gregorian Christmas |
How boring can an overseas posting be? This boring:
MiG Tipping, Not Tension, at U.S. Base Near Iran
Iran and the United States may be in the midst of a war of words over Tehran's nuclear plans, but there is little evidence of the tension at a former Soviet base in Afghanistan, now home to U.S. troops.
The sprawling air base lies close to the border with Iran and life there is so slow that U.S. troops at times resort to "MiG tipping" -- a game that involves standing on the tail of one of the many wrecked Soviet-era planes and tipping its nose up.
"It's a pretty pointless and silly thing to do," said one serviceman. "But there really isn't that much to do around here."
American troops established themselves at the windswept base in August after fighting there between rival Afghan factions.
Some of the post-tipping MiGs
Moment of Zen
-------------
Woman's Scooter Blown Up in Security Scare
post a comment
| Date: | 2005-03-01 20:58 |
| Subject: | Ack! Criminals! Help! |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | geeky | | Music: | A Solis Ortus Cardine-Choeur Gregoren de Paris-A Gregorian Christmas |
Two British students were interviewed by the Guardian this past Saturday about their planned transatlantic crime spree this summer:
Underwater bike ride to launch students' eight-week crime spree
Gerard Seenan
Saturday February 26, 2005
The Guardian
As US coast-to-coast crimewaves go, it is not in the league of Bonnie and Clyde. It lacks both violence and avarice and is further hindered by an overabundance of pre-publicity.
Undeterred, a couple of students from Cornwall are intent on making American criminal history by spending their summer breaking as many US laws as possible.
Starting in the liberal state of California, they hope to evade the attention of local police officers when they ride a bike in a swimming pool and curse on a crazy-golf course.
In the far more conservative - and landlocked - state of Utah, they will risk the penitentiary when they hire a boat and attempt to go whale-hunting.
If they manage to outwit state troopers in Utah, and perhaps federal agents on their trail, they will be able to take a deserved, but nevertheless illegal, rest when they have a nap in a cheese factory in South Dakota.
"There are thousands of stupid laws in the United States, but we are limiting ourselves to breaking about 45 of them," said Richard Smith, from Portreath, Cornwall.
The journey, which appropriately enough begins in Alcatraz, will cover around 18,000 miles and take eight weeks - provided, of course, that Mr Smith and his accomplice, Luke Bateman, are not apprehended along the way.
Mr Smith got the idea for his transatlantic crime wave while playing a board game called Balderdash with his 12-year-old neighbour. One of the game's questions asks players to complete the phrase: "It is illegal in Florida for a widow to ... "
The answer is to parachute on a Sunday. However, as he is not female and has not lost a husband, Mr Smith will be un able to pay homage to his inspiration. Still, there are many more laws to choose from.
"I looked on various websites, one in particular called dumblaws.com, and found loads of stupid laws. Some of them there are outmoded reasons for, others just seem to be ridiculous, like banning whale-hunting in a landlocked state," he said.
Mr Smith has made some preparations for his criminality - although he thinks the cheese factory owner in South Dakota wasn't taking him entirely seriously - but in other states he admits there will be difficulties in transgressing the law.
"Driving round the town square 100 times in Oxford, Mississippi, is going to take for ever because there are no roundabouts," he said. "And I'm rubbish at walking on my hands so crossing the street in Hartford, Connecticut, while walking on them is going to be very difficult."
He is attempting to negotiate a book deal, which could help pay any fines he incurs.
post a comment
Growing up in Pennsylvania, one thing you learn about is the coal industry. The enormous deposits of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, especially western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia make the U.S. into the Saudi Arabia of coal. From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, coal mining was one of the chief industries of the state along with steel. With the mining came an enormous amount of waste coal (referred to as "boney" coal) that was dumped in huge multi-million ton piles. Boney is a mixture of coal, rock and clay that is unsuitable for burning in a traditional coal furnace, so it was abandoned as worthless. Over time, rain has leached acidic waste from the piles into the nearby creeks and streams, killing the fish and turning the streams orange. It's an environmental problem that nobody has had a really good answer on how to deal with it.
Not anymore, though. Houston-based Reliant Energy has built a new power plant in New Florence, PA that is specifically designed to burn this worst-of-the-worst fuel in a safe manner. Because it's a new plant, it had to comply with a host of regulations enacted over the past couple of decades to make coal-burning plants cleaner and it has managed to comply with the regs while still burning this waste. One of the reasons that the plant was built was because of a new state law requiring that by 2020, 18 percent of electricity sold in the state must come from "alternative" sources. The plant qualifies because it helps get rid of an environmental problem. Reliant estimates that, over the next thirty years, the plant will burn and eliminate 100 million tons of boney, which should help the streams and groundwater that have been affected by these piles recover.
All I have to say is, "More like this, please."
post a comment
I just got off the phone with the Storybook Mom and everything is now set for next weekend. I've taken Friday off and am heading up on Thursday night to be there when Mom's released from the hospital, Saturday's taken care of, and myself and poppy_girl are heading up on Sunday to help take care of Mom. We'll be meeting Mom for lunch tomorrow as well, at the Shamrock Diner halfway between us. She loves that place, and it's convenient for both La and I and Mom and Dad.
Yes, I started at the end of the story. It saves worry.
The story began yesterday, when jords called and left a message with me to find out what the deal was with taking care of Mom after her surgery. I called her back and left a message letting her know that poppy_girl and myself would be heading up to the Storybook Mansion on Saturday. When she called me back, she said that, among other things, Mom's surgery had been postponed until an unspecified date in the next couple of weeks and she (Mom) was hopping mad about it.
Rescheduled? What? When? Why? What? What? (Loop that a few more times, and that's what was going on in my head.)
So poppy_girl and I tried to call Mom back while we were driving home. Busy. Tried again. Busy. Arrgh. My parents and their dislike of modern telephone technology like Call Waiting and Voice Mail. (I'm not overly fond of call waiting either, but at least voice mail lets you leave a message when the phone's busy.) Once we got home, we called again and got through this time. Essentially, what had happened was that her regular doctor had left to go on maternity leave, and the doctors who had inherited Mom's surgery were having a fit of the vapors about just going ahead with it. Have to run more tests, you know. I sympathize, because of malpractice, but not when it leads you to postpone the surgery the day beforehand.
So, abruptly, all of our plans have been tossed to the winds. Even worse, the next weekend just happens to contain poppy_girl's 29th birthday gift to me: going to Annapolis for dinner and to see The Reduced Shakespeare Company performing "All The Great Books". Obviously, push come to shove, if I'm the only person able to take care of Mom on Saturday then I'm going to be right there. If not, I'd really like to see this show, especially since it's the gift from my beloved La and I love seeing those guys act. Aargh.
"Calm down" was the general message from poppy_girl. "You don't know yet when they've rescheduled for."
Fast-forward now to this morning, when Mom called my cell phone to let me know that they had in fact rescheduled the surgery now for next Thursday, exactly one week later. This resurrected my problem, as well as meaning that it was going to be a bit of a scramble. Hastily, I evolved a plan. What if I took off Friday, was then able to go up Thursday night, came back to Maryland Saturday afternoon, then took both myself and La back up to the Storybook Mansion on Sunday for the day? Sounds good, but two small issues popped up. One, I didn't know if I could take Friday off. Fairly short notice, after all. Second, who was going to care for Mom on Saturday?
I figured that I should tackle that one at a time. After all, the most important part was making sure that I was going to be able to go up on Friday, and worry about Saturday afterwards. So I emailed my boss, who is one of the best bosses I've ever had. Sure enough, she replied back "No problem at all. Family comes first." Did I mention that she's one of the best bosses I've ever had? With that good news in hand, I called the Storybook Mom back to let her know, and she told me that the Storybook Grandma was going to be over on Saturday to help out, and that Grandma was really eager to help. Dad would also be there before he went to work. That put my mind at ease about Saturday, especially since Mom told me to go.
So now, we're back to the ending. I've taken Friday off and am heading up on Thursday night to be there when Mom's released from the hospital, Saturday's taken care of, and myself and poppy_girl are heading up on Sunday to help take care of Mom. We'll also be meeting Mom for lunch tomorrow as well, at the Shamrock Diner that's halfway between us. As part of her recent travels, she'd asked us to get a new travel mirror for a friend of hers and we'll also be delivering that.
1 comment | post a comment
poppy_girl had a hellish night last night, the details of which can be found over on her LJ. Nothing scares you more than hearing the woman you love yell for you out of a sound sleep at 1:30AM in that tone that says "HELP!" It's even worse when you can't pull anything useful out of your head to help with. I was able to follow directions like "Get me a cup" when she'd vomited and wanted to wash the taste out of her mouth. I also fed her Gas-X, on the theory that it could be gas. Next, I checked the web. Google is really good at searching for what you want, but it's less useful if you have no idea what the heck it is you really want. I typed in "Acute pain" and was rewarded with lots of info about back pain. I double-checked with poppy_girl, and no, that wasn't the problem. I then surfed over to WebMD and checked for "acute pain" there. Appendicitis? Hell. A lot of the symptoms matched.
Next, we called the hospital and were told that they couldn't give us medical advice over the phone, and to please call her primary physician. We then called our doctor's service, who paged the Doc. The Doc said it didn't sound like it was necessary to go into the hospital yet, and to see if the pain subsided. La's mother had her gall bladder out fairly young, so it could also be caused by that. Right about the time that the Gas-X box said it should kick in, the pain started to subside. Not appendicitis then, it would have laughed at Gas-X. Didn't rule out the gall bladder though.
She woke up this morning (later this morning?) and the pain had dissapated. She's made an appointment for the doctor for tomorrow. I don't think I've ever prayed for my darling to have severe gas so hard in all my life.
On another and happier topic, today's my birthday. I'm 29 years old. My sister, jords, is a wonderful person who recognized that I almost never really ask for things. (My top request for Christmas in recent years? Socks and underwear. I predict that the kids, once we have them, will get me many ties.) While I was talking to her about a week ago, she asked me what I wanted for my birthday. "Money for the wedding," I replied. That's what I've been telling most people, when they ask. I also mentioned to her that I was thinking about getting the new Treo 650, as that had just come out for Cingular. I already have the Treo 270, but techno-lust is techno-lust. Ironically, as I was dismissing getting the 650 as being too expensive (that's money better spent on the wedding, after all), jords was conspiring with poppy_girl to get me my heart's desire. Long story short, Fed-Ex is supposed to be delivering my new Treo to my office today, just in time for my birthday.
post a comment
In my continuing coverage of Enormous Sandwiches and The People Who Eat Them, I have late-breaking news about this particular burger:
Namely, a 100-pound someone managed to eat the whole thing within the three hour time limit to get it for free. (Scroll down to "Update:")
Moment of Zen
-------------
The Porn Tape on the Bus Goes Round and Round...
post a comment
Both poppy_girl and myself are off today because of Inaguration Day, so we're taking it easy this morning. Well, not entirely easy because the plumber could be showing up in a couple of hours. We've had a couple of leaks that have been bothering us since we bought the house, so yesterday I put in a bid through ServiceMagic to see if we could get someone in today. I had a couple of calls, checked the online reviews and booked a plumber. Much better this way, I think, than the old way of picking someone blind from the phonebook.
In other news, I've started being a permanent contributor to The Apple Blog, a blog covering Apple and all things relating to the Macintosh. I started writing for them on a guest contributor basis for MacWorld, and they liked my stuff enough to offer me a permanent slot. Fortunately, it's a group blog so there are others to pick up the slack in the event that, like so often on this blog, I've got nothin'. One of the next articles I have planned for The Apple Blog is about MacJournal, so watch that space for that review if you're interested in blogging software for Mac OS X.
2 comments | post a comment
| Date: | 2005-01-13 11:59 |
| Subject: | Wil Wheaton. |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | awake | | Music: | Dominus Dixit Ad Me-Choeur Gregoren de Paris-A Gregorian Christmas |
While I was looking into MacWorld this year, I noticed that Wil Wheaton was on the program this year, so I thought I'd check out his featured presentation this year. I'd read his blog over at WilWheaton.net on and off since about 2003. He hasn't been in my blog bookmarks in Safari, but I'm adding him now. He's a genuinely nice guy, who took time while he was signing my book to talk to me about if any of his books will be coming out in PDA format anytime soon. The short answer is "no, probably not," because of piracy and the small market share. He mentioned considering maybe putting out a collection of his blog entries in PDA format, but he writes his books to put food on the table and I respect that. What really impressed me was the fact that he obviously knew what he was talking about and took the time to explain why he chose not to go that way which, considering the subject matter, was pretty cool.
I also had my picture taken with him:
I'm not terribly photogenic, so apologies to those who think they need one.
Moment of Zen
-------------
Earn Easy Cash in Your Spare Time...
post a comment
|
|
|
|
|
aggravated
sleepy
accomplished
cold