One of the women with whom I work is retiring next week. She and her husband have built a retirement home in New Hampshire. She's the second person to leave the group, both voluntarily, in the time that I've been there. The other person transferred to another group with an office closer to her home. I picked up one of the retiree's assignments, that of managing the software upgrades for the servers that we use for our testing. She's very energetic and out-going. So, retiring she is and retiring she isn't.
Through a professional society, I am able to obtain a discount on long-term disability insurance. The cost is surprisingly modest for the quality of coverage.
If you're using the Firefox browser, there's a nifty new extension that lets you send a text message to any cell phone directly from the browser. Give it a try if you're using Firefox and you have my cell phone number. BTW, Firefox 1.0.5 is available. This is a bug-fix release. Version 1.1 is nearing beta.
I'm in the process of moving my QueenLake domains (.com, .net, and .org) to a new hosting company. There are many safeguards that are designed to prevent domain hijacking. They also make it difficult for a legitimate owner to make a change. If the next step goes well, I should be on my new server by early next week. I don't expect that there will be any changes visible to the readers of these notes.
Not long ago, a former co-worker had hear bypass surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. One of his biggest complaints was that the hospital didn't have Internet access for the patients. Which is interesting, because Children's Hospital, across town, is among the 100 most wired hospitals in the country. For more reasons that one, sometimes it doesn't pay to grow up.
As I've mentioned before, because I am not a programmer by trade, I am easily confused when I move between programming languages . 'Hello, World' is usually the first, small program that a person would write when learning a new language. This page shows how various languages would handle this simple task.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Huck's stories - the well
From time to time, I'll record some of Huck's stories. My father is one of the best story-tellers around. His stories are good and he tells them well.
The camp sits on top of a small hill that's mostly ledge. In order to dig a well, my father and his friends had to use dynamite, much more easily obtained in the 1940s. There were several guys hanging around helping with the construction of the camp after WW II, members of the 52-20 club. The government was paying returning veterans $20 for 52 weeks. They dug as far as they could by hand and then drilled holes in the side of the well wall. They packed the holes with dynamite and attached blasting caps and wires. They put old cotton mattresses on top of the hole and laid heavy chains on top of the mattresses to hold the broken rock in after the explosion. Using a car battery, they set off the charge. Seconds later, the trees were filled with cotton stuffing.
My father went into the well with a sledgehammer to continue breaking up the rubble. After hammering for a while, he discovered (insert sound of blood draining from face) that one of the sticks of dynamite hadn't exploded. It was still in the well wall, blasting cap intact.
Thereafter, when they had to blast, they would only put one stick of dynamite in at a time so that they knew if it had exploded or not.
The camp sits on top of a small hill that's mostly ledge. In order to dig a well, my father and his friends had to use dynamite, much more easily obtained in the 1940s. There were several guys hanging around helping with the construction of the camp after WW II, members of the 52-20 club. The government was paying returning veterans $20 for 52 weeks. They dug as far as they could by hand and then drilled holes in the side of the well wall. They packed the holes with dynamite and attached blasting caps and wires. They put old cotton mattresses on top of the hole and laid heavy chains on top of the mattresses to hold the broken rock in after the explosion. Using a car battery, they set off the charge. Seconds later, the trees were filled with cotton stuffing.
My father went into the well with a sledgehammer to continue breaking up the rubble. After hammering for a while, he discovered (insert sound of blood draining from face) that one of the sticks of dynamite hadn't exploded. It was still in the well wall, blasting cap intact.
Thereafter, when they had to blast, they would only put one stick of dynamite in at a time so that they knew if it had exploded or not.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Stop reading this and get back to work
Some of the systems at work don't have solitaire installed at all or, if they do, it's installed in an obscure place. How do I know this, you ask? A study on salary.com reports that people goof off at work, that they goof off more than management and HR think that they goof off. I'm pretty respectful about separating work and personal business, taking and making personal phone calls on my cell phone, for example. I do read and write some personal email during the day and follow some news web sites. No, my time-wasting doesn't come from solitaire or www.nationalenquirer.com. My time-wasting results from spending a half day to write a script that automates a 10-minute, one-time task.
I watched the first few innings of the All-Star game last night. Manny didn't have a good night, but Johnny and David showed why baseball is fun in Boston.
Only Fox would have a new series called "The War at Home" start on September 11th.
My sleep has been particularly bad for the past couple of weeks, waking at 2 or 3, and sometimes earlier. I'm keeping a journal to record what changes in medication, diet, exercise, or stress affect my sleep or mood. So far I've been doing better than I should. I have a couple of project tasks due by the end of the day today, so I'll see how I do under a bit of pressure.
We gave this chain-saw sculpture,
made by friend John K., to my father for his birthday several years ago. We keep the cat at the camp. The mice, as we've seen, are not intimidated at all.
I watched the first few innings of the All-Star game last night. Manny didn't have a good night, but Johnny and David showed why baseball is fun in Boston.
Only Fox would have a new series called "The War at Home" start on September 11th.
My sleep has been particularly bad for the past couple of weeks, waking at 2 or 3, and sometimes earlier. I'm keeping a journal to record what changes in medication, diet, exercise, or stress affect my sleep or mood. So far I've been doing better than I should. I have a couple of project tasks due by the end of the day today, so I'll see how I do under a bit of pressure.
We gave this chain-saw sculpture,
made by friend John K., to my father for his birthday several years ago. We keep the cat at the camp. The mice, as we've seen, are not intimidated at all.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Working for wages for a year
Today marks a year in my current contract job. It's been the right job for me at this time. The work can be very interesting and the people are nice. For those who care about such things, yesterday I prepared a set of use cases in UML for a project meeting. That was something I'd learned in my previous job, but hadn't applied much. Here it's something new and exotic. I am, however, quite detached from most the politics and strategy of the business. I've done that and done that pretty well in previous jobs, but that's not what's needed now. Although my job title is technical writer, my work is mostly that of an engineer or technical analyst.
In the past year, I've come to think differently about work. At IBM, I thought quite a bit about career paths. At companies before that, companies that were growing, I was excited at the prospect of building something. Now, largely because my contract limits me to 40 hours per week, I just want to make sure that I'm giving good value for what I'm receiving. Long-range thinking is setting a project deadline for some time in a month or more.
Language grows, evolves, sheds dead skin. What was once radical is now sweet. But never underestimate the power of the business world to hijack language and make it do a nasty dance. This site, weaselwords, has one of my favorites: capacity release, meaning, get rid of people.
This would be a great name for a rock band, Deathwish Piano Movers, if they weren't already a company that, um, moves pianos. They've been in business for a long time and I've long liked their name.
Holden's population is a bit more than 15,000, a town large enough to have its share of drama. From a recent police log:
In the past year, I've come to think differently about work. At IBM, I thought quite a bit about career paths. At companies before that, companies that were growing, I was excited at the prospect of building something. Now, largely because my contract limits me to 40 hours per week, I just want to make sure that I'm giving good value for what I'm receiving. Long-range thinking is setting a project deadline for some time in a month or more.
Language grows, evolves, sheds dead skin. What was once radical is now sweet. But never underestimate the power of the business world to hijack language and make it do a nasty dance. This site, weaselwords, has one of my favorites: capacity release, meaning, get rid of people.
This would be a great name for a rock band, Deathwish Piano Movers, if they weren't already a company that, um, moves pianos. They've been in business for a long time and I've long liked their name.
Holden's population is a bit more than 15,000, a town large enough to have its share of drama. From a recent police log:
- Caller received copy of Telegram and Gazette in his drive without his permission; advised to call news paper to stop complimentary copies; caller says he will seek criminal complaint against paper.
- Female came into station with snake she found; assisted and discarded snake for her.
- Port-a-potty stolen from Eagle Lake.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Coffee for Buddha
Sandra occasionally has her nails done at a salon nearby. The salon is run by a Vietnamese woman with other Vietnamese women in her employ. They always greet Sandra warmly and are especially reverent to Sandra's mother. Each morning the owner brings a cup of coffee and places it before the status of Buddha that sits on a small shrine in the shop. Buddha likes coffee with milk.
And when we don't go to Buddha, we go to Google. You can use Google as a quick currency converter. For example, recently, we learned that a Canadian prescription cost about $C74. That translates to about $USD56 or so. More here on how to use it.
The first time you try it, you and your partner are apt to be clumsy, uncoordinated, and unexpectedly wet. Doubles kayaking isn't for everyone. We rented a twin kayak over the weekend and learned that, for a variety of reasons, that's not what we want.
My father may have a buyer for his sail boat. He was sad. As he was looking it over to prepare for the potential buyer, he inspected each of the pulleys, stays, and spreaders. He knew he could have spent all day tinkering with it, but finally just had to walk away. Even if Sandra and I agreed to take the boat and readied it for the water, it wouldn't change the fact that his sailing days are drawing to a close.
We attended the annual lake association meeting on Saturday morning. Sandra is assistant treasurer and I'm on the board of directors. Her job requires much more work than mine. Most of the discussion revolved around inappropriate and, in some cases, illegal, boating practices on the lake. (The ne'er-do-wells, of course, don't attend the meetings or don't speak in their defense.) The beavers keep plugging the dam. The police chief said a couple of times that, "the complexion of the town is changing."
There are lots of reasons that bring people to vegetarianism - religion, politics, health, preference, the after-effects of a trip to a meat or poultry processing facility, or any or all. Well, for those who don't eat meat because of the way that the meat industry treats its animals, here's something to thing about - lab-grown meat.
We have friends who don't particularly enjoy dairy products. They have their morning cereal with orange juice. I may try it, but will do so with a skeptic's palate.
Other than Karl who took over Mike's landscaping business, I can sometimes go for years without bumping into another Karl with a K. Here's the science: the relative popularity of baby names over the last 120 years.
Last week I mentioned that Google had invested in a company that was planning to deliver high-speed Internet access over power lines. News reports this morning indicate that IBM is moving into this area as well. In the meantime, we now have a POTS (plain old telephone service) line to the outside wall of the camp. We might be connected this week. Or not.
And when we don't go to Buddha, we go to Google. You can use Google as a quick currency converter. For example, recently, we learned that a Canadian prescription cost about $C74. That translates to about $USD56 or so. More here on how to use it.
The first time you try it, you and your partner are apt to be clumsy, uncoordinated, and unexpectedly wet. Doubles kayaking isn't for everyone. We rented a twin kayak over the weekend and learned that, for a variety of reasons, that's not what we want.
My father may have a buyer for his sail boat. He was sad. As he was looking it over to prepare for the potential buyer, he inspected each of the pulleys, stays, and spreaders. He knew he could have spent all day tinkering with it, but finally just had to walk away. Even if Sandra and I agreed to take the boat and readied it for the water, it wouldn't change the fact that his sailing days are drawing to a close.
We attended the annual lake association meeting on Saturday morning. Sandra is assistant treasurer and I'm on the board of directors. Her job requires much more work than mine. Most of the discussion revolved around inappropriate and, in some cases, illegal, boating practices on the lake. (The ne'er-do-wells, of course, don't attend the meetings or don't speak in their defense.) The beavers keep plugging the dam. The police chief said a couple of times that, "the complexion of the town is changing."
There are lots of reasons that bring people to vegetarianism - religion, politics, health, preference, the after-effects of a trip to a meat or poultry processing facility, or any or all. Well, for those who don't eat meat because of the way that the meat industry treats its animals, here's something to thing about - lab-grown meat.
We have friends who don't particularly enjoy dairy products. They have their morning cereal with orange juice. I may try it, but will do so with a skeptic's palate.
Other than Karl who took over Mike's landscaping business, I can sometimes go for years without bumping into another Karl with a K. Here's the science: the relative popularity of baby names over the last 120 years.
Last week I mentioned that Google had invested in a company that was planning to deliver high-speed Internet access over power lines. News reports this morning indicate that IBM is moving into this area as well. In the meantime, we now have a POTS (plain old telephone service) line to the outside wall of the camp. We might be connected this week. Or not.
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