General Rambling

About three years ago my group grew by five or six people. We didn’t have office space near us for the newbies, so they were in empty offices all around the building. Not having your newbies near the rest of the team is a bad idea, so we went looking for a fix. What we found was an old, big room in the basement, and our managers willing to let us renovate it. Part of the renovation meant a conference table in the middle of the room, and there was a natural spot for a fish tank. Fish tanks have been shown to reduce stress and decrease hypertension. Plus, they’re fun to watch, and I love playing with water. So …

Read More

My friend Mark bought an Apple II Plus the other day for $30. I cannot think of a better reason to watch the Apple “1984” commercial. Long live GOTO, 80 column cards, and Oregon Trail. YOU HAVE DIED OF DYSENTERY!

I just read a post from the folks over at Starry Night Lights, talking about compact fluorescent lamps: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. WOW!! Assuming that is true wouldn’t the tax rebate I’m getting be better spent as part of a bulk purchase of these things, with a few mailed to every home? Or am I missing something here?

Many of you have figured out I’m in Madison, WI. We’ve been in the news a lot lately because we keep getting snow, somewhere in the mid 80 inches now, with idiots on both sides using it to prove or disprove global warming. Snow is old news now, so the weather gods decided on a bonus round for today: rain. While the support cables for the power lines might hold the line itself they don’t stand a chance against a tree limb, heavy with ice, sagging and ripping the cable out. Today I had two power outages, the first in quite some time, and my first winter outages as a homeowner. Power outages in February in Wisconsin present certain challenges. …

Read More

Inevitably you’ve seen Google’s commentary on the Microsoft bid for Yahoo!. Beyond Google trying to preserve the status quo (where they are #1), I am amused by the sniping going on. A monopoly on the desktop? What about a monopoly on search and online advertising? Hello kettle? This is pot. Nobody should construe this post from Google as being helpful to Yahoo!. I don’t have an opinion about a Microsoft/Yahoo! merger, but if anything it seems like Google might actually think this whole deal might threaten some of their business. Should be interesting.

Just as an aside, I think the Declaration of Independence reading in the Super Bowl pre-game show was a nice touch. While I’m sure lots of people out there were using it as an excuse to get another beer I hope that a few watched and were reminded of where we came from, and what sort of government we were declaring independence from.

Thanks to Scott and Greg for pointing out revisions I could make to my last how-to post on serial consoles. When I write a post like that it is usually as much for myself as for others[0]. I do some of these things so infrequently that I consult notes from projects 10 years ago, and I want to consolidate my notes into a procedure. Problem is, my notes usually don’t have why I used mgetty over agetty[1], reflect a way of thinking that is obsolete now, or just show ignorance for an easier way to do something (like using screen to connect to a serial port). So thanks, guys, for speaking up and pointing out better ways to do stuff. …

Read More

My first Mardi Gras experience was a blast. I owe a huge debt to Maitri and Derick for hosting me, and prodding me to head down and be a part of everything (parades, hanging with their friends, parties with their coworkers, etc.). I also owe the Krewe of King Arthur thanks. It’s an amazing group, and diverse, which not all Krewes can claim. If there’s a spot available next year I could probably be convinced to ride again with almost no effort. Back in November Derick told me that I’d spend a bunch of money to buy a ton of cheap plastic stuff to throw to people I don’t even know, and I’d love it. He was right. Turning the …

Read More

I try to keep politics out of this blog (minus some comments/snarky remarks here and there) but FISA is a big privacy issue. Think Progress has a good post about the merits of the bill, so I won’t duplicate that. In short, the House is trying to restore some oversight to the process. Here’s my senator, Russ Feingold, talking very frankly about FISA and the issue of privacy (it’s short): I love that guy.